Last night Daddy made a brief appearance in my dreams (he was young, and wearing a striped sweater - uncharacteristic) and the night before I dreamed of Uncle Buddy, who had two unknown ~10-year-old kids with him, a boy and a girl.

This weekend we got a real snow storm! As Bob said, "it's good to see the Earth is still working."

Friday was Bob's 64th birthday. He wanted to go to Red Lobster. It's kind of a hard place to go for a vegetarian, but they have wonderful Brussels sprouts, and I got a salad. He got an unlimited feast.

This is chilling. It's obvious from current times, but I noticed hints and was disturbed by it among young people 15 years ago in toleration class.

We went to the Chatham House for Thanksgiving yesterday. They had a buffet with three seatings. It was packed! I checked the COVID numbers and was relieved to see all of New York and surrounding states are low. It was nice - although kind of hard for a vegetarian on what Bob and I call "amateur night." This is holidays and events at restaurants, when people who rarely eat out are the crowd. There was little for me to eat, besides salad, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls and dessert. The salad was fine, but there were no goodies like croutons or sundried tomatoes or pumpkin seeds. Rolls and mashed potatoes are OK, but not something I'd base a meal on. But, they made me a special entree (pasta primavera). Usually take-out from an all-you-can-eat buffet is a no-no, but I was permitted to take my leftovers home. Bob overheard someone snarl as we were leaving with the tin, "they got to have a take-out." Definitely amateur night.

 Last night I dreamed of my father again. This time I was with my mother, and we were sitting a couple of desks apart in a classroom circle of desks. Except that it wasn't a classroom, even though that's how it looked. It was some kind of restaurant, and we had plates of food on our desks. Sitting across from us in the circle was my father, and he too had a plate of food on his desk. No one else was there; all the other desks were empty. It wasn't a long dream.

 A few nights ago I again saw my father in a dream. He was sitting in a booth at a restaurant, talking with great animation, telling stories. He looked great. There were others I knew around, even sitting with him, but I cannot specifically identify them. It seemed to be some sort of event -- maybe an after-funeral gathering? Perhaps his own! IDK. We, I mean me, the others I cannot now ID and he, seemed to be aware he had died, but were all thrilled he was there.

Last night we ate at the Point in Albany, outside of course. We get GrubHub regularly and it has preserved our sanity during the pandemic. We have dined at a restaurant many times a week for 40+ years. That came crashing to a halt when COVID arrived. Since then we have eaten outside in good weather, but not routinely, mostly because places with outside dining aren't numerous enough (better than pre-2020 though), and since restrictions were lifted, many servers and patrons don't wear masks. I never much liked sitting outside, but that had to change. It was a nice evening. After dinner we got soft ice cream. Bob was talking about the hard shell dipped chocolate for cones and asked me if I knew what he meant. I said, "did you forget I was born in a soft ice cream stand?" (Not really, but besides dolls singing "It's a small world" at the World's Fair, it is the setting for my earliest memories, both the construction when I got my first bee sting so my father plunged my hand in the wheel barrow of cement mix, and the business itself; looking up at the ice cream machine lever which was above my head, catching a teenager stealing chips, watching my father make ice cream sandwiches with the day's leftovers.) The place we went to last night has a building just like Dino's Kwik Stop, except that Lickity Split has no indoor area for customers. These are happy memories, but sitting in the car eating my cone, thinking about my father, I felt sad. He's been gone six months this week. How can that be true? I wonder when getting soft ice cream will make me feel happy instead of sad? Something tells me "never" and truthfully, I'm OK with that.

We went out to eat on Monday for the first time since last year. We sat outside at the Hillsdale House. It was a little chilly, but not bad. The food was amazing!

The story of the week, at least as of today, if you ignore the latest celebrity gossip, is another school shooting, this time in Texas again. I'm not numb to it and I do care, but the regular media and social media hand-wringing that this has to stop, we need to do something and snarky remark that thoughts & prayers aren't enough irritate me. What exactly am I able to do? I asked a Facebook friend when she posted the usual meme on the subject: "what makes an 18-year-old so angry?" It was just a rhetorical question, but after a couple responses were about it being a complex issue involving guns and mental health and bullying and COVID and aliens with yellow shirts (being sarcastic) I was sorry I commented. I usually resist. I didn't write "duh," which is what I thought. But I really do wonder why 18-year olds are so angry.

I am really happy our numbers in New York are better. I'm sure the vaccine has something to do with it, but I think the season is more influential. We're outside more. When the Fall hits and we return inside, with no masks and less distancing, what will happen? I doubt lots more people will get vaccinated. In fact, if I was a young person, I probably wouldn't take the risk of a vaccine only approved under emergency authorization. 

We went out for our anniversary on Monday. We sat outside. I wasn't expecting it to be busy, but it was insane. There was only one waitress on, and service was terrible. The food was okay, but I felt a little under the weather afterwards from drinking two glasses of wine combined with a greasy appetizer. Pre-pandemic, that much drinking was nothing, but now I rarely have alcohol. We used to love eating out; a little sad to see it be a casualty of COVID, but I think it might be. (That doesn't translate to cooking, though. Take-Out rules.)

There is a narrative that people have been drinking more during the pandemic. Is it true, I wonder? I have hardly been drinking at all. I thought about why, and I guess because I would have a glass or wine or two in restaurants while having dinner. It was totally social, and now I am ordering GrubHub and not doing any socializing. I ordered a bottle of wine with dinner on New Year's Eve and didn't even open it!

March 1 passed with no post, but it was my 17th blogversay. I'm not inclined to do a review of this blog, as I did in some past years, but I wanted to note the milestone.

I have been seriously contemplating becoming vegan. I finally made the change to vegetarianism 40 months ago, and it has been easier and more rewarding than I imagined. I didn't want to be a "carb vegetarian" (surviving on pasta, sweets, bread) and I haven't. The challenge is eating out (which I love, but choices on most menus are limited). So I know veganism would be even more difficult in that regard.

November 1 will become a momentous occasion: The one-year anniversary of becoming a vegetarian! It is something I've wanted to do since I was a teenager, and in recent years, I kept thinking it was on my bucket list (a concept I hate, BTW). It had been years since I'd eaten any meat, besides poultry and fish. But for some reason I could not give those up -- even though I felt guilty eating them. Finally, last year, I suddenly went "cold turkey," and it was easier than I'd imagined! I do not miss it at all, and did not, even in the first days. I feel much happier and more aligned with my principles. I was reminded of this today, when I got an email from a local farm about ordering my Thanksgiving turkey. When explaining that they will not know exact weights until the turkeys are "processed," I felt a pang at the euphemism. Not that I think agro-business slaughtering thousands of hormone-injected birds after they lived under inhumane conditions is better, because I certainly don't. But I still was disturbed by the email.

The new lifestyle has some health benefits for me, that I won't go into here in detail (suffice to say that a lifelong problem I had is just about gone). It is probably easier than I'd thought it would be because I am not a vegan. I understand the health benefits and support the philosophical reasons for veganism, but I can't figure out what I would eat. I go to restaurants often, that isn't changing any time soon, and vegetarianism is challenging enough. I might attempt it someday (and may find it easy, who knows) but for now I am pleased and proud to be a vegetarian.

Yesterday I made a vegetable pot pie. I've always loved pot pie and used to occasionally make chicken pot pie, and it occurred to me that it would be a wonderful vegetarian dish for fall. I made up to recipe. First, I made a double crust (2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 2/3 cup butter, 5 tablespoons cold water). Then, I made the filling (saute 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 clove garlic, 1 can mushrooms, a handful of carrots, 1 can small white beans, 1 bag frozen corn, 1 bag frozen peas -- I would have used potatoes too, but didn't have any). Then I made white sauce (2 tablespoons butter, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons flour, 1 cup milk, 2 cups stock made from boiling vegetable peels). I poured 2/3 of the white sauce over the vegetable mixture, put it all in the pie crust, baked it for 50 minutes at 400 degrees, and served it with the remaining white sauce. It was awesome.

We are in week 4 of the semester (hard to believe). It's going well -- my reduced schedule is much better. Toleration is majority freshman for the first time in years (and that's great). Two days ago was my birthday, and I turned 55. State retirement age! But of course I'm not retiring. I did something kind of radical and anti-social -- took my birth date off social media, and so did not get 200 Happy Birthday posts this year. I decided to do it not because of anyone on Facebook, but because I was in a crummy mood over village-related issues and I just didn't feel up to clicking all those "Likes" (LOL). It was a good day though. Ate dinner here, which was fabulous, and that's an understatement.

L-R: Martin Eckert, Marty Giuliano, Elwyn Davis

 

The Diary of Elwyn Davis is finished! (*Pretty much.) I just ordered 1974-1975, the last volume. This is the cover, from an April 28, 1960 Onteora Record story, "Census Taker On the Job!"

Some more ephemera, from the 1990s. Had many good times here, when Main Street was admittedly blighted, but nothing like 2015.

^I do have some future tasks planned, but the big lift is over

I am finally getting over my two colds in a row (!) [what a way to spend winter break] and so with a box of tissues nearby, I've made progress on winter session, next semester, advisement, and even the village comprehensive plan.

It is cold -- zero etc.

Bob turned a milestone age (55) on January 5 & we celebrated Elwyn style -- Ommegang & Oneonta (stolled Main Street & felt sad once again over Bresee's, stopped at campus and the Autumn Cafe, went to Brooks) on Friday, Yono on Monday. So not a month. but a long weekend.

I felt pretty bad about the French cartoonists being murdered by terrorists. I don't mean "as usual" over these type of sick events. In this case I have always loved drawing satire cartoons, and for a brief period (until a more mature sensibility set in at about age 16) I flirted with the idea of being a cartoonist "when I grew up." I know satire, whether as an illustration or in writing, often pushes people's buttons, and they may react with hostility. But to think they'd machine gun down a whole office. The world can be a scary place, but that's all the more reason to be vigilant about free speech.

I let more time than usual go by from my last post (13 days). I had a draft saved for a week or so, but did not have the inclination to finalize it until today. "Inclination" because really -- lamenting "no time" gets old. I've been wondering lately why I allow myself very little time off from the to-do list? I've been working away on my fall syllabi, even though my second summer class ended on Friday and the grades are not due until tomorrow. So today (and tomorrow) had to be devoted to evaluating. Then back to the fall preparation. I'm hoping to be all ready for classes so that the Beagle proof fence can be finished 8/23-24. Only the gate (and staining about 2/3 of it) to go. I also want to enjoy the trip to Syracuse. I guess it's not completely true, the "no time off" thing. I don't work most weekends. But a weekday off...rare.

I haven't been writing much about my garden because it hasn't been a banner year. Not hot enough and it has rained to much. The stuff is growing, but it's late and I doubt there will be the quantity I'd hoped and that I had some years. I like 80 and comfortable better than 90+ and humid, but tomato plants don't! Some flowers have done well, and herbs of course, but that's it. As a result, a few weeks ago we went to Shaul's Farm in Fultonham and stocked up on bushels and pecks. I made some refrigerator pickles.

Afterwards, we drove out to Oneonta, drove through campus and the city, went to Autumn Cafe and Brooks. We decided that our old dream of retiring there someday (abandoned long ago) is back on the table.

On Thursday, we went to see Jackson Browne at the Palace, and ate dinner at Yono'shttp://www.yonos.com/.  The concert was all acoustic and fabulous. His voice sounds the same as it did 30 years ago. And he had about 25 guitars lined up, switched for almost every song. We had awesome eighth seats. Bob joked that the mean age was 57 -- not a person under 40 was to be seen, aside from a few teens with their parents'.  The highlight of the evening (not) -- the drunken woman who spilled an entire glass of red wine on Bob's sleeve (a brand new LL Bean dress shirt)!

The weather has been so beautiful! I planted a bunch more things this weekend. I thought I was finished, but I bought a few things in every garden or farm stand I visited. I'm not much of a shopper, but Harry and Rosie have escaped the fence (twice!) so that means the procrastination has to end, and we need to face up to the project. We've tried hiring someone to no avail. The job is just to small...and difficult.

But we can't risk the Beagles, so we bought all the materials this weekend (and unloaded the truck, carried 153 pickets, 30 2X4s, and 7 posts (10' long) down the hill, and stacked them.

Anyway...this means I was in a few stores. I can't resist the plants! So I planted more flowers (zinnias and begonias) and tomorrow I will plant more spices, and move around some of the other plants. Pictures will come eventually.

Got my strawberries :-). Five quarts. That will do for now.

My 6W2 summer session class starts tomorrow. Only 8 students!

Tired tonight, in a good way. I am so much more often mentally tired, than I am physically tired, that it's a novelty.

Another novelty will be barbecuing at home tomorrow! Haven't eaten dinner at home since Wednesday: Thursday, Friday (and saw live music afterwards), Saturday, Sunday.

As part of our focus on St. Francis of Assisi and animals, we are having a guest with a service dog visit class in two weeks. So last night we prepared, by reading the book "My Buddy, watching a couple short videos about service dogs, and making posters of "hero" dogs. This was our sample, crafted from photos of dogs we actually know:

Yesterday was my father's last day of radiation (for a slight re-growth of his brain tumor; this was not unexpected). Still, schlepping to Albany every weekday since September 23 takes a toll. We went to lunch at Sam's

when he had his first consultation at St. Peter's back in August. Sam's is closed Mondays, so yesterday we went to Lombardo's. You don't need three guesses to figure out what I had: Eggplant Parmesan. Both times. (Not that I have not had it many, many times in-between as well).

PS new shoes are AWESOME

Recently we went to the City Beer Hall. It's located in a building I've always loved. It once housed the telephone company and the interior wood panelling is gorgeous. Years ago it was a favorite fancy restaurant of ours. Since then it has been a few different bar/restaurants, none of them very good. In between it has been sadly vacant. Well, I'm delighted to report it is a good place again. Not fancy, but the food is delicious and different (and several choices are vegan or vegetarian), and for those into beer, the selection is wide. The wine list is short, but it has one of my NYS favorites (Salmon Run Chardonnay).

Happy Birthday to me! But...52! How can that be? We're going to go on a dinner cruise on the Dutch Apple.

We saw Ain't Them Bodies Saints on Saturday night. It was an interesting movie, thoughtful and well-acted. Don't see it when you are seeking an "upper," however. Before the movie, we went to New World and sampled their excellent eggplant "meatballs." They are in a competition for U.S. Food Next Top Product.

"When it rains it pours" has been this summer's mantra, although in literal terms we've gone from nonstop rain to nonstop heat & humidity. The cliche works for my life right now, though. Sam...my lifelong "best" friend's mother passed away on Sunday...my mother had surgery on Monday. (She's doing well.) I resumed my routine yesterday, after sleeping in (til 10) for the first time in weeks. I have some teaching-related tasks that I need to accomplish but it's all very do-able.

We had Sam cremated on Sunday at Breezy Nook Pet Crematory (highly recommended), I created a tribute album on FB, performed the sad task of putting away his "things." He lived life to the fullest, even though he only had eight years. But he is no longer suffering. It is hard to believe that two months ago he was his powerhouse self. He remained vital until about three weeks before he died. His death was peaceful, more so than any of my other pets, but the last couple days were tough. He passed away in the yard, with Bob and I sitting with him. I was petting him.

Bob has been encouraging me to look for the next dog. It doesn't take much pushing of course, as I know I won't wait long, but so far I have not made a major effort. I know it will be a male dog, and about 25 pounds. It is too difficult physically for either of us to get another large dog. I don't think it can be another senior, even though Rosie is a treasure. But Edna died in 1999, Ande in 2010, Sophie in 2012, and now Sam in 2013. Four pets in 3.5 years has tested both of our endurance, and Rosie is 9. So while we don't want a puppy, this dog must be "young enough."

We went to the Troy Pig Out on Saturday (it was HOT), took Rosie with us (she was a big hit), and General Joe's BBQ took second place in ribs and 11th place overall!

This weekend we will head to Samsonville. Seems like forever since we've been there. Tuesday: Barenaked Ladies at Tanglewood!! Can't wait.