Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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Somewhat sadly, but with a little smile on my face, Daniel is in Portugal. He has been temporarily hired as a personal chef to work for a family currently in Portugal. This job came together very fast. He is the substitute chef, while their current chef is taking six weeks off. Within two days, we had to arrange his flight and accomplish as much of the heavy lifting house and garden work as possible, mostly because I am still hindered by a cast on my right hand. Timing wasn’t great, we had a cat...
The last three months have seen a great deal of musical activity with Walla Walla Music Organization, the music training youth advocacy program I joined mid-pandemic, teaming up with founder Rodney Outlaw and serving as a program coordinator. We continue to function as an independent organization, licensed with the State of Washington, and partner with other agencies to connect our musical passions with the growth and development of students. We were hired by the 21st Century Learning Centers pr...
It is a well-known fact that I am a klutz. Added to my determination to exercise, it’s become a dangerous lifestyle. Recently, I took Mugsy (all thirteen pounds of him) for a late-night walk along with two friends and their dogs. It was dark; Mugsy pulled, I didn’t see the curb, tripped, fell onto the sidewalk, and hit another curb with full force onto my right wrist. With a high pain tolerance and hope it was just a sprain, I filled zip lock bags with ice, took Advil, and tried to sleep. It...
Now that the pandemic is somewhat under control and travel has opened, the travel bug has bitten Daniel. Travel with Daniel can be challenging. Even before the pandemic, canceled flights, staffing shortages, delays, and missing luggage could result in a Daniel meltdown. He is not a “roll with punches” kind of traveler. This weekend we made a travel trial run. We drove to Portland for a weekend of food and wine. He drove my car, but since he has the patience of a flea, my rules were: we don...
With my car freshly washed, lubed and oiled, and gassed, my playlist relatively perfected, I put the top down and hit the road for my four-hour drive to Seattle last Friday. I was heading to the last of my cousins’ children’s Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. My music and I headed west to Seattle’s relatively cool 95-degree weather. My family is well known among my friends as one that comes together to attend family events no matter where they are held. And as usual, we all showed up in Seattle. Broth...
Cole Porter’s song is on point this week, “It’s too darn hot.” It’s too hot when even the dandelions popping up in the garden are dying from the heat. I thought those weeds were invincible; evidently, even they have a heat tolerance level. The weeds we planned to blast with Roundup are slowly turning brown and withering away. It saves breathing in some poison for the moment. Mugsy is not adapting well to the heat. Usually, he is anxious to join me on a walk or go outside to run around and chase...
Many years ago, I worked for an insurance brokerage firm that spent frequent time and much money on self-improvement, time management, and general management classes and books. In Pursuit of Excellence was a "must have" book for all businesses and their employees. The book's premise was that the focus should not be on perfection but on excellence. It presented the concept of perfection as unachievable and subjective; one person's "perfect" may not be another's. I am pragmatic, so perfection has...
Last month, we headed back to Los Angeles for Daniel’s surgery. Friday before our Sunday 5:30 a.m. flight, Daniel had a runny nose and scratchy throat. So, to be confident we would not infect the entire plane, we tested for COVID-19 at home and were both negative. We forged ahead with our plans after arriving in L.A., starting with dinner at a beautiful Japanese restaurant downtown. We stopped at our friends to unload luggage and say “hi” before dinner. We were off to a good start with good...
Depending on the day, the weather has somewhat improved, being more conducive to outside activities, like gardening. However, I still have an open wound because I was impatient (as usual) and had the stitches on my finger taken out too soon. With an open injury and a splint, I am trying to garden left-handed while keeping my injured finger clean. Not an easy task when you’re as clumsy as I am. However, my impaired gardening has not stopped me from bragging to my Los Angeles friends about e...
Good riddance meltdown May 2022. For some reason, this year May has been a month filled with meltdowns, including one of my own, (a rarity for me). Although they minimized in severity as the month proceeded, it was slightly disheartening. It started with a friend, who shall remain nameless unless she chooses to reveal herself. As she described her day, it started with receiving threatening hate mail while trying to meet a writing deadline with a computer that went rogue. To add to the madness,...
It was great fun to see the Celebration Days Parade this year. It brought back so many parade memories, from attending and marching in parades. I marched in New York with my 4-H troop. Later, as a High School band member in Tucson, I marched in a heavy wool uniform in 100-degree heat. In Flagstaff, where I went to college, I continued in the band and marched in ten below zero weather. In Los Angeles, I was just an avid spectator past my marching days. A Los Angeles parade would include...
WAITSBURG-I was fortunate to move to the Waitsburg area in 2016 and my move was entirely because of a barn. That barn will be getting some much-needed restoration work, thanks in part to grant funding from the Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation's (DAHP) historic barn grant program. In 2016, a friend and I were vacationing here from Seattle and drove down Lower Waitsburg Road at dusk. As I crested a hill, I saw my dream property-a white 1920's farmhouse standing...
While playing tennis and chasing tennis balls at Waitsburg High School, a song from “My Fair Lady” played through my head. “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?” became “Why can’t a tennis court be more like a bowling alley?” Or even a pool table. Bowling alleys and pool tables have bumpers, gutters, and pockets that return the balls to you. Tennis courts were not designed for easy ball retrieval. I was constantly chasing tennis balls as they landed on the other court, under the fence, in t...
I recently read an article in the New York Times about a woman who inherited her mother’s germaphobia. The pandemic amplified her phobia, and she became obsessed with the variety of disinfectants available and how to use and not use them. Bleach shouldn’t be mixed with anything except water. This lesson I learned the hard way when I tried to clean an ancient and yellowed bathtub years ago. I wanted it clean, so I mixed bleach, ammonia, and a little TSP in a bucket. I nearly asphyxiated mys...
I have been told that the “rule of thumb” is not to plant flowers and summer vegetables until Mother’s Day, or at the earliest, May 1. First, what exactly does “rule of thumb” mean? Do thumbs have rules? Are there rules about thumbs and what they can or cannot do? In general, I am a decent citizen and rule-follower; I wear seat belts, wear masks when mandated or when I travel, pick up after my dog, don’t litter, and stop for pedestrians. Some rules I have learned to follow the hard way. The sp...
Last weekend, a quick 700-mile trip into Oregon's Union and Baker Counties began rolling decades ago when Waitsburg photographer Bill Rodgers studied botany and geology and then worked professionally throughout the western states. His familiarity with the timeless forces shaping the Earth's subsurface informed his love for the mystery and beauty of the landscapes above. This outing was to seek photographs for Volume VI of "The Blues," to be published later this year by the Blue Mountain Land...
The day has come, and this is the test; am I ready to travel maskless? I had an early morning flight scheduled for my next sojourn to Los Angeles this last Monday. It’s a dreadful time to wake up and make it to the airport, but it’s nice to get into Los Angeles around noon. More time to hang with friends and eat sushi. But, as luck would have it, I received a text from the airline around midnight advising me that the flight was canceled. They rebooked me to a flight leaving on Tuesday aft...
Schizophrenia doesn't even begin to describe the weather this "spring." Daniel declared, "this year, I'm not planting anything until May, even before the snow predictions." I rolled my eyes and figured he would suffer his decision to be a laggard. His envy was palpable as my veggies thrived, and he would just be starting his. I didn't figure on a snowy April. I'm not sure which is worse, admitting he was right to wait, or being frustrated at the seeds I planted early, now probably wasted. I...
Is it the water? Relaxed and friendly Lifestyle? Homegrown veggies? The fact that our area has 9 (plus) people over 90 years old is impressive and has given me a push to rethink my procrastination and make a life plan. As I’ve said before, planning is not my strong suit, so here goes: First: Shop less, save more! I may need to make those social security checks stretch more than I anticipated. Saving, like planning, is also not one of my strong suits. Second: Eat better and healthier. I hope r...
Happily and reluctantly, I have shed my mask, knowing that this is most likely a temporary reprieve. The virus is thriving in Europe and Asia, so I assume we will eventually be inundated and back to masking. It may be a brief interlude, but it's nice to show my face and dig out the old dried-up lipsticks again. I need to remember to watch my facial expressions; my smirks can now be seen by all. This week I will be back in L.A. and will plan to maintain a selective social distancing policy. I...
I am still grief-stricken about the war Putin has declared on the people of Ukraine. I did go to the World Central Kitchen website to see if there was anything I could do. Even though I am not a trained chef, I am not a bad cook. I have a passport, suitcases, and am happy to help and work to feed refugees or soldiers on the front lines. Unfortunately, I don’t have proficiency in the Polish language, which is one of their requirements. My few words of Yiddish just won’t meet the proficiency sta...
These past few weeks have been heart-wrenching. The feelings of grief, sadness, anger, and hopelessness are all swirling within me as I watch this dreadful war unfold in Ukraine. My paternal grandfather moved to the United States as a child from a small town in Austria in the late 1800s. That town is now part of Ukraine. I feel connected to this war in a way that I hadn’t imagined. Hindsight being 20/20, I am now embarrassed by my last column. While the people in Ukraine hear the constant b...
I love music. My parents and many relatives had both musical talents, a great appreciation for music, and there was almost always music playing in our house. My father loved classical music and grew to love opera, influenced by my grandfather, who lived with us who loved both of those genres. My mother owned every Broadway musical album ever recorded and was a big fan of Frankie Lane. We were the first on our block to have a HiFi which was constantly played. The first “big” gifts I received as a...
The day before we left for Los Angeles, we enjoyed lunch with our friend Eric on our backyard deck. Eric declared, "I'm calling it, Spring is here." Right! Heard that before. While in LA, I received a text from one of my Waitsburg friends with a picture of crocus springing up in her yard. She also wanted me to know that Spring had arrived. I texted back, "Yeah, I remember last year when we had two feet of snow the last two weeks of February." I have a picture of a vase of my daffodils sitting...
The hazy sky, parking meter-lined streets, and a baby pink Tesla in front of me, blinded by the sun reflecting off impeccably clean, shiny cars, with not a pick-up truck in sight. Yep, we're back in Los Angeles for our Doctors and Dentist tour. Daniel had hernia surgery, and for me, it was mammogram time (or smash & dash, as my friends call it). We landed in Los Angeles and sat on the tarmac for forty minutes, waiting for a gate to open, then another forty-five minutes in line to pick up our...
