Californians And Snow

We had blizzard like conditions with high winds and whiteout visibility. There wasn't that much snow but unfortunately our house was directly in the wind flow and we ended up with it drifting right against us. So while there was only a couple of inches, there was over a foot and a half against our garage door, front door and area where our trash bins are. We would have been oblivious to the whole thing if Wife had not decided to go out and check the mail. Good thing too because if we'd ignored it and had gotten up early in the morning to get the #1's to the airport, we would have been up Shit's Creek.

So Wife and I went out and started to slog at the snow (I DIDN'T COME TO NEW MEXICO TO SHOVEL SNOW DAMN IT!). But then 1A and #1 came out and relieved their poor aged parents.

We ended up with a lovely handmade fettucine cacio e pepe to close our last day with the #1's.

All was not negative with the snow...for the California kids certainly got their enjoyment.

And I might add that today is Wife and my 45th wedding anniversary. Reflecting on the journey, there is the realization of just how much work it takes to maintain a marriage over a long time. People change. You aren't ever the same people you were when you met. You have to keep working and adjusting. But both Wife and I would say it is worth all the effort.

To celebrate, the #1's left daughter 1.1 behind for her alone time with grandparents. And that is a lovely way to celebrate our day.

Xmas 2018

We have had a pretty lovely holiday period.

This was the time in the circadian rhythm for the #1 clan and we to assemble. We discussed going to California or them coming here and opted for the latter. As neither of the #1, The Next Generation, had had alone time with us during the summer, we decided to bookend the full family visit with individual visits from 1.2 and 1.1.

So on December 21, 1.2 who is 9-years old, arrived on his first ever solo flight. He took it with complete aplomb. We bought some pizza on the way home for our first dinner. And as I mentioned two posts ago,  in the morning I took him out shopping for snack food. I played the grandparent card to the hilt. He loves...I mean LOVES...I mean LOVES gaming...euphemistically known has screen time. So I set him up with his device and his snack food and let him indulge for a number of hours.

But we did other things as well. We went to the River of Lights which I mentioned in the previous post. And then we went out for a hike. Taking the grandchildren for hikes I've found can either be much less than you expect or much more. In the case of 1.2, he was much more capable than I would have thought. We ended up going on a fairly strenuous hike with a climb that I have always found challenging. I was quite impressed with is balance and his judgment. This was particularly true when he climbed up boulders where he showed great patience and control in descending which is where most young people seem to have issues.

We also went to Albuquerque's internationally famous Rattlesnake Museum (okay a bit of hyperbole there). It actually was quite interesting. 1.2 adopted his alternative ego persona, Kyle the Diamondback Rattler. Then it was time for the rest of the #1 clan to arrive on Christmas Even afternoon. However we got a phone call from daughter #1 telling us the forgot the kids Christmas stockings and could we pick some up. Well three stores of looking on this, Christmas Eve, and nothing was to be found. So Wife, being the Grandmother extraordinaire that she is, created some out paper bags!

We had a chill Christmas Day. 1.2 got a bunch of gaming related gear and exhibited the most unrestrained joy and gratitude of just about any child I can remember. We did our traditional breakfast of bacon, biscuits and oranges and for our main meal we made pizza. Wife's crust has become so dependable and such a thing of beauty. We have the size, temperature, relative amount of toppings to put on now down to a science. Each one of us made a pizza making use of the wide variety of toppings we had available. I have to say each was good. By the time we got through with lunches a couple of days later, not a slice had been uneaten.

The rest of the clan connected with us via Skype. Daughter #2 sent her husband out to get this great picture of Kiev Ukraine 

Son-in-law 2B showing his love of the Ukrainian cold in getting this shot.

"You had better appreciate this old man!

#@!@*&"

From our Amsterdam correspondent, Daughter #3, we got news that she had bought this posh new car.

"Yes I know I said I would never own a car but damn it I am now a hotshot salesperson and need to look the part!"

Actually this was a free upgrade of a rental car that husband, 3A on their regular Christmas visit back to the UK.

The day after Christmas we had snow! There wasn't much here in town but it looked like the got a fair amount in the mountains. The next day #1 wanted to go for a hike and needed the work out as well. It was sunny and around 39 degrees. We were both broiling and stripping off layers within moments of starting. But OMG there was at least 4 to 6 inches of snow right from the parking lot. I took her on the trail I normally go on which is a pretty good challenge under normal circumstances. But with all that snow we were really slogging. We'd agreed to go for about an hour. Normally to go the full 2.5 miles out that is my regular hike takes an hour and 15 minutes. After about 50 minutes under these circumstances, we were both ready to turn around. We'd gone the amount that normally takes me about 20 minutes. It was pretty beautiful though and we definitely got our work out in. 

Once we turned around clouds started coming in. The temperature started to drop and we put on all the layers we had stripped off earlier. 

Last night a really blizzard like storm came in with winds of 40-50 mph, whiteout conditions. The airline recommended they change their flight from today to tomorrow. We made lasagna with the leftover stuff from the pizza. Today it is so cold and windy that we are all just chilling.

River Of Lights

High on 1.2's list of things to do was going back to the River of Lights, a massive Christmas light art presented at Albuquerque's Botanical Garden each Christmas Season. The last time the #1 family came we were surprised by how crowded it was and ended up going to a satellite parking and having to take a bus in. This time I left very early. It was still a good hour from the time we left home until we got parked. The lines waiting to get in were incredible. Fortunately we through ignorance ended up toward the beginning of the line to enter. It was totally packed but by getting in at the beginning we were able to get a bit of time where we could take pictures. About 50% of the way through our two hours there it was so crowded with people that you could barely moved. Nonetheless, 1.2 really enjoyed himself.

Finding A Common Bond

We have our 9 year-old grandson, 1.2, over. He flew by himself for the first time. The rest of the family comes on Christmas Eve.

1.2 is his own person. He has an incredible imagination and a sense of logic that is hard for we mortals to follow yet which inevitably can explain in detail leaving you to think, "Well yes I guess that does make sense" even if you would never have come about the result that way in a 1000 years.

So I have been looking for ways to build bridges, to find a common bond. Like this.

This is how a spend all my evenings. Writing on my computer and listening to music. If 1.2 wants screen time, why not do it together

Then this morning we went shopping. Rather than guess what he's like to snack on I basically said, get whatever you'd like

His haul

He actually sort of nibbles at things.

It isn't like he is devouring it all with both hands

We are heading of to the River of Lights tonight with all of us planning to take pictures

Chicago Night Lights

I was in Chicago for a quick two days of meetings last week as I noted in my last post. I went to the Christmas party of one of my clients which was dinner at a restaurant. Coming back in the evening, I found the lights of the city enticing.

Hotel Ups And Downs

I've had a flurry of business travel over the last two weeks. Last week I went to the Bay Area to do some work with Daughter #1 and this week I am in Chicago for our two long-term clients there that I needed to get to before all my personal travel in the first part of next year. In order to squeeze the most our of the least days, for both these trips I took very early flights (6:00 AM and 6:35 AM respectively) which is definitely hard on this old road warrior's constitution.

However, as is usually the case there were interesting things which transpired.

Hotel Downers:

I don't know what it is but trying to find a hotel that has a decent heating/cooling system escapes  me. In both trips, I had rooms where I could not for the life of me get any discernible heat flowing. Both had issues with the fan controls that basically did nothing...the same volume of air came out whether you had low, high or auto. Oops change that information. I just set the temperature for freaking 80 degrees and finally it has popped into high gear. Maybe what there thermostat says and what my body feels is way different than what I have at home.

Hotel Ups:

The hotel I stay at in Chicago has started this year to connect with text messages. Typically after you check in, you will get a cheerful, "Hi my name is Lucretia Borgia. How has your stay been so far? Do you need anyone poisoned while you are here? I am very good at that. I will also have sex with you but then I would have to kill you. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help."

Actually that is nothing like what the messages are...that is just a message I WOULD LOVE to get just for the uniqueness. It is more along the lines of just, "Is there anything that you need."

Getting into the spirit of this my usual reply is:

"Yes, a complimentary bottle of Louis XIII Cognac sent to my room would certainly show the proper level of appreciation."

All Louis XIII de Rémy Martin is a blend of 1,200 eaux de vie between 40 and 100 years old, aged in oak barrels that are several hundred years old; it costs about $2,400 a bottle at BevMo and a lot more at other locations.

The first person I proposed this to said if he could pull this off he would be at my room in person to share it. Today's employee, Stella, assured me that she could do this. When I got back from my meetings low and behold, this was in my room.

In that cone is a bottle of water. I laughed my ass off. What a great sense of humor. I shot her back this picture and said, if we could sell these for the same price as the original, we could make a fortune. We would just need to relocate to a country with no extradition treaty. I will have to see if she is working tomorrow morning and say hi. 

Don't Just Look At What. Look At Why. More On Transitioning

One of the interesting things about having transitioned into a life where work is still a component but not the major component is the difficulty others have in conceptualizing what you are and what you are doing.

The issue comes because when you work (or at least when I work), I am fully engaged in that work. It really is not any different than when I worked full-time. So the people who are still working full-time conceptualize you in that way. But then one (me) goes off for weeks at a time traveling. How do these same work acquaintances conceptualize that? Well they do it by fitting it into a box that is recognizable. They say, "You went on vacation."

Except I don't conceptualize myself as "going on vacation". For one thing 'vacation' implies, 'escape', 'getting away', not working, recharging, etc. None of those things really apply to my travel life. I am not 'escaping work'. I work because I like to when I am not traveling and it funds my travel. I am not 'getting away' from work. I frequently work when I travel via phone calls and emails and I find that totally fine even stimulating. Travel the way we do it is very demanding in its own right, so I can't say I'm 'recharging' to go back to work. Though I will admit that I come back from our trips feeling very sharp and acute.

In my own mind, there really isn't a whole lot of difference between when I'm at home and mostly working and partially traveling (planning), or when I am gone and am mostly traveling and doing some work. It is just my life.

So I got to thinking, why is that? Why do I feel like these really aren't all that different when others see them as so very different. I started to look at the reasons why I like these two components of my transitioned life so much.

What do I like about the way we travel?

• We explore and constantly get exposed to new things
• I get to do all kinds of planning
• We meet all kinds of interesting people
• I am put in a position where we need to problem solve and get positive feedback from successfully doing that
• I am constantly learning
• I feel that I am continuing to grow

So what is it that I like about the work I continue to do?

• I constantly get exposed to new things
• I get to do all kinds of planning
• I meet all kinds of interesting people
• I am put in a position where I need to problem solve and get positive feedback from successfully doing that
• I am constantly learning
• I feel that I am continuing to grow

When I looked at it that way, it was this AHA moment. Or maybe I should say DUH moment lol. No wonder I don't feel there is a great difference. From the standpoint of why I like to do these, they are the same. It's just that one creates money and the other uses money.

So as you consider how you might be transitioning, keep in mind it's not what you what you think you want to do, it is why you want to do it.

Thanksgiving Week Postmortem

For some reason this year I was filled with motivation to try a number of new things with traditional Thanksgiving meal. We didn't think we'd have anyone visiting but it turned out that our friends B and M who mostly reside in San Miguel Allende Mexico were going to be back in town and had no plans so we invited them. I actually asked them if they minded if I experimented with the turkey and they said they were happy just to have the companionship. I took that as complete permission to go crazy (not really). So here is a run down of the week in not any particular sense of order

Imitation Liquor?

I was stocking up with alcohol for the proceedings and was checking out of our local booze superstore and I saw this at the checkout counter. The first thing that hit me was that they made an alcohol flavored like Stroopwafel. Long time readers and family members who live in Amsterdam of course recognize this cookie like treat. But as an alcohol flavor? Then I noticed the worlds 'Imitation Liquor'.  Is that like faux alcohol? Or that the flavoring is imitation? I chose not to buy it and find out.

Successful Experiments

My biggest experiment involved the turkey. As I am sure you are well aware of, cooking whole turkey is a bitch because the white and dark meat cook to different temperatures to be at their best. So if you cook the white meat to perfection, the dark is not cooked enough and if you cook the dark to perfection, the white is dry and overcooked. 

A classic way of resolving this is to cook them separate. For the small group we had, it would have made sense to by a whole turkey breast and a couple of leg quarters. HOWEVER, I have found over decades of experimenting that stuffing (cooked in the bird) is far superior to dressing (cooked in a pan). So that meant buying a whole bird and taking the legs off. I was a bit worried that by doing that my remaining carcass would have lost structural integrity. 

Fortunately that was not the case. Since it was a small bird to begin with, I was able to brine the leg/thigh pieces in only a few hours and the remaining carcass for 8 hours. This meant getting this whole process done the day before. I just wrapped the carcass in foil and refrigerated it until the morning.  I then on Wed, braised the turkey leg pieces in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes, with the intent of finishing them in the oven.

Pieces ready to be brined

My now standard brine mixture (I use this for all my smoking)

Salt, brown sugar, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, cayenne pepper, sweet paprika, smoked paprika, cumin powder and coriander powder

I've found mixing these with an immersion blender keeps the flavorings dissolved in the water better

Turkey legs after braising

Love my pressure cooker!

The turkey carcass was totally able to hold the stuffing. I used half a package which was just enough for the small bird and did not leave many leftovers. I was about to take on the unpleasant task of sewing up (trussing) the bird when I had an idea so brilliant it even amazed me (and de-I is so accustomed to his own brilliance that that is not easy!). Why not just use wooden kebab skewers to hold the the whole thing in place. Presto chango in just minutes I had the whole thing done.

 

Post cooking, amputated bird tightly held by skewers giving it a nice 21st century punk look to it (or maybe a Christian Martyr look?)

 

The white meat was perfect and the legs finished off with the skin crisping nicely

Since I was on a roll with successful experimentation, I decided to do something else. I had everything cooked ahead of time. I had the turkey done hours before meal time so I had lots of time to carve it all up. Then in another stroke of brilliance I put turkey stock over all the sliced meat to ensure it stayed moist. Then the entire dinner went into a warming oven. Once our friends arrived, we were able to just socialize with them. When we were ready, we pulled all the food out and ate.

One last successful experiment involved the sweet potatoes. I have never liked the candied sweet potato dishes. I have always enjoyed a plain baked sweet potato. So I baked mine and took the meat out and mashed it. They came out naturally very sweet.

Failed Experiment

Alas not everything went as hoped. Inspired by our recent trip to New Orleans, I wanted to make my gravy with a real Louisiana style dark roux. I'd gotten instructions there (cook the time it takes to finish two beers) and looked on line for more advice. I stood there for around 40 minutes stirring away working on the concoction. 

It really had the look of that authentic dark chocolate roux

Sadly when I made my gravy on Thursday with it, it turned out I had burnt it!!!!!!

SOOOO SAD.

Fortunately, I had plenty of stock, whipped up a more traditional short cooked roux and had acceptable gravy. 

However, I will be back to try getting this right again.

Finale

My Mother always used to make Turkey Tetrazzini which is basically pasta with a stock/cream sauce and the left over turkey. I hadn't done it in as long as I could remember. But after breaking the turkey down, making stock and freezing stuff, I had lots of small pieces left over so I made that for our Sunday dinner

Turned out great and brought back all kinds of memories

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

 

Transition Update - Reconciling To The Physical

2018 is drawing to a close. We have finished our experiment in the unplanned driving trip. We have a very busy first half of 2019 with many different kinds of travel experiences in store. As is always the case after one of our trips, I have the hardest time getting back into a blogging rhythm.

During the road trip as we dealt with a variety of challenges, I took stock as I often do of where I was in this transition process. There was a time not too long ago where I felt that I had finally reached an equilibrium, that the process of evolving from the state known as 'full-time working' to the 'not sure what I call it, post full-time working, semi-retired, transitioned' space was complete. This was in large part because of the beautiful balance in terms of enjoyment and time developed between what is left of work and travel.

But this year has brought on a new player that has cried out to be fully included in the transition process calculation - physical deterioration. It is not that this is really a new player. In fact I think physical deterioration issues were much more a problem in my 50's and 60's than they are now. I've managed to reduce the ill effects of a number of them. But this last trip really screamed out to Wife and I that it is going to be harder and harder for us to travel the way we want or for that matter do things at home the way we want.

However, I will also say that from a mental standpoint this realization is much less traumatic than were the issues of my 50's and 60's. Why is that? I think it is that I have accepted deterioration as a fact of life (which I did not when I was younger) and that both physically and mentally I just deal with it. This takes form in a couple of ways.

One is an acceptance of pain as a fact of life. I used to use all kinds of pain-killers to try and deal with the pain of my various ailments. I have substituted a number of homeopathic remedies that have certainly brought some relief. But in large part, I just accept that the pain is there. It is the same with my tinnitus - ringing in my ears - it's just there. No need to get upset. It just is. Same with reflux and a number of other issues.

The second is a realization that accommodation has now become habitual. When I get in our out of a car, I do it in a way that does not aggravate various joint and muscle issues. I don't even think about it. I just do it. And there are examples of this all through my daily life.

Now one might say, "This is really depressing." I look at if different. I say it is a means of accepting reality in a manner that allows me to continue to do as much of what I love to do. And I look forward to continuing to adjust and adapt to the reality of aging in the same way.

The Last Of Color

Our weather finally is dipping into freezing

As the days run pell mell to their shortest length

The trees are giving up the ghost and their leaves fall 

To leave the empty bones of their branches 

That can only echo the glory of their green exuberance

To come when the seasons turn again

The last pictures of our Autumn color