Not As....

In regards to the situation that has me and my family in an emotional state of gloom, there has been one very small "brighter" spot that occurred yesterday that has made the situation just a small shade less horrible.  I am still spending virtually all of my time trying to help change/fix the situation, but also have to work to not become further hurt in the process.

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Bulleted list of varied thoughts:

• I ran a shorter distance this morning, only 10 miles (~16km).  I ended up waking up a later than intended, and did not start running until about 6:20am.  This later awakening has made all day feel rushed and chaotic.
  

  

• I have created a new channel in my Pandora that focuses on music from the Catholic Church.  It has been pleasant and helpful to me,  and I listen to it most days while running and praying the rosary. 

 

• I miss swimming.

 

• I am very thankful that I NOW FINALLY have a wireless microphone (that I purchased) and have received permission (and instructions on how) to use it in the big lecture halls for the two largest of my classes.  This microphone has helped save my voice.  The long, laborious instructions are NEEDED to successfully bypass the myriad of firewalls, and other electronic security features that the lecture hall computer system has to prevent any "tampering" with it.... including adding other devices.  Every lecture when I am done for the day, and shut down the computer in the lecture hall, the computer goes into a "reset" so that the next day when I am in there, I need to take another 10 minutes going through the instructions to get the microphone to work again.  But it is worth it.  Getting the permission and instructions took far longer than really needed, but I am glad to have this option now instead of having to shout with all my might to be heard across the entirety of the big lecture hall while wearing a mask.

 

• I miss playing in my community band.  When practice and the concerts moved inside a few weeks ago, I had to make the carefully thought-through decision to refrain from participating... due to Covid-19 issues.  Because of my wife's risk factors, I cannot take the chance of practicing in a large group indoors and/or performing inside because I would be mask-less and being among a large number of other unmasked wind instrument players all huffing and puffing.  It simply feels like doing so would be tempting fate.  My wife and I are both vaccinated and both just recently also received our booster vaccine, but the risk to my wife in terms of coming down with Covid-19, and the risk to our family and our livelihood if *I* were to become incapacitated by Covid-19... force my hand in this situation. 

• I made a giant tub of my favorite chard and chickpea side dish yesterday.  It is a relatively easy dish for me, that I actually made up because it sounded like it would be tasty.  I was inspired to make SOMETHING a couple of years ago when I had Swiss chard lying around and no idea how to make use of it.  For this recipe I use canned chickpeas, and I heat 3-5 cans in the microwave for about 15 minutes so they are soft and tender.  Then in a large skillet, I saute (without oil) 1-2 cups of chopped onions and caramelize them so they are deeply brown.  Then I add about 1 cup of bell pepper and saute further until the peppers are tender and slightly caramelized. I then add 2-3 cloves of minced garlic, a teaspoon or so of coarse black pepper and some salt.  At that point, I drain the microwaved chickpeas and add them to the skillet.  Finally, I add around 4-5 cups of finely chopped Swiss chard to the skillet, cover, and simmer until the chard has wilted a bit.  That is it.... and it is great right out of the skillet, warm.  But, it is even better when it is ice cold from the refrigerator.  So, I store it in a large, tight-lidded container in the refrigerator and have some each day as a side-dish to supplement whatever else is planned for dinner.... all week long.   It is healthy, fat-free, delicious, and rather lightly seasoned so I can eat it with nearly any other rigorously spiced food of my choosing and it complements it well. 
  

• Last week, I found a pipe of mine that had gone missing a few years ago.  Somehow I had placed it in a little cubby-hole area deep in the back of a back room area of my research lab.  This small back room serves a dual purpose.  Part of this space is filled with file cabinets of a variety of journal articles amassed through the years.  But the other part of the room is also somewhat of a workroom of sorts for building gizmos I sometimes try to construct as a result of various different "eureka" moments of "insight" I have on how to measure or conduct some sort of rodent test that seems new or novel.  I suspect by the location of the cubby-hole where I found my errant pipe, it was placed there while I was probably drilling or sanding some contraption I had made, and I absent-mindedly left it there.  I had long wondered where this pipe was, because it is a wonderful smoker with a nice, sturdy, larger-chambered bowl and a comfortably wide stem.  It is not "beautiful" by most folk's standards... for the bowl is beat up a bit from rather heavy, but casual use.   And, the stem has a fair amount of teeth marks from being clenched between my choppers for a lot of years.  But....  it is a beautiful "work-horse" pipe to me.  I am glad I found it.  When I first found it, I gently sniffed the bowl, which had a partially smoked loading of pipe tobacco in it... and I immediately recognized it was filled with simple, non-aromatic Sir Walter Raleigh pipe tobacco... a classic favorite.  I am glad I found this old friend.  
  

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