Rice, the Chinese Bat Disease, and the Garden

Last night I made three different rice dishes for Kathleen and her kids.  Her kids are constantly complaining about the lack of meat in the dinners since the start of Lent and they sat down to the table saying they weren't going to like it.  Oh, they were so wrong!  They loved it.  Dish one was a very spicy dish flavored with onions, cayenne pepper, garlic, casltlevetrano olives, shallots, basil, fresno chiles, and tomatoes.  The second dish was a Persian dish flavored with almonds, ginger, cumin, and anise.  And for desert I made rice pudding topped with my homemade caramel.  That last made me especially happy for Kathleen was amazed that I know how to make caramel.  I keep thinking I've shown her all my tricks but then I do something that surprises her.  I hope I can keep it up.  The kids ate everything I cooked and asked for more.

The National Guard converted the Santa Clara Convention Center into a hospital for CBD patients.  A woman just three blocks from where my sons lived died.

Squirrels ate all the rubdeckia bulbs and all but one of the echinecea bulbs Basil planted.  I do not like squirrels.

Now the boys and I are going to visit my parents' grave to pray for them.

Annunciation Sing-A-Long

An Editorial for Annunciation:What I love about this Annunciation Sing-Along (Link to video posted below):

1. Every word is pronounced clearly so that the ideas are understandable. Clarity of the words is the the most important thing in the singing of Christian music; even more important than the music. If every member of the choir is tone deaf and just reads the lyrics in a spoken voice that is preferable to singing perfect music but not pronouncing every vowel and consonant clearly. Thankfully, these are good singers and the music is beautiful, but it is their diction that is most beautiful.

2. WOW! Giant chunks of theology. CONTENT! CONTENT! CONTENT! This is my favorite thing about Orthodox Christian hymnody. (Actually, I like this about most pre-1900 hymnody. Even if written by heterodox there is enough to content in pre-1900 hymns to grapple with, and to see if it is true or false.)

3. Please, small choirs, your use of reverb or whatever that electronic effect you are using that you think makes you sound as though you are singing in Hagia Sophia in Constantinople or Christ the Savior in Moscow doesn’t. At best it makes you sound like you are being recorded by a an engineer who doesn’t know what he is doing. At worst it makes you seem deceptive. Recordings of liturgy should be true because the liturgy is in service of the Truth.

4. The speed is perfect. It’s not so slow as to be somnolent. It isn’t so fast that it is like the report of an M-60 machine gun. The words are distinct, not blended together. The ear has time to hear every word before it has to hear the next word. The brain has time to understand every word before it has to understand the next word. This is an important help in learning the theology of the lyrics. This choir nails it!

5. The words are right there in front of me. Something I know and utilize as a teacher is this: “Every time I read something, say something, hear something, or write something I make another copy of it in my brain.” Having an idea in my brain is the first step toward knowing it. From a pedagogical standpoint, having the lyrics before my eyes while hearing and singing along makes perfect sense. I love it!

6. The icons. They are like the perfect cream cheese frosting on a perfect carrot cake. What I can not comprehend with words and music is presented in images. Oh, the joy of seeing Mary put down her spindle for there will be no need to make vestments for the temple in Jerusalem, for God is coming to dwell among us and and not it temples made of stone.

Anselm is 18, a shopping list, other stuff

Today is Anselm Samuel's eighteenth birthday.  He has turned out okay; a better son than I deserve. He seems to be ready for adulthood.  He's better prepared than I was. We can't have a party for him since we are not allowed to do anything in groups per the Health Department's order.

It is the case, as I discovered a couple of days ago, that Anselm did not miss the deadline for Eagle Scout.  He has all the requirements met, and all the forms signed.  Only one thing is lacking: The final Eagle Project in which he leads a bunch of Scouts in a big public service project.  It was supposed to be finished yesterday but because of the Health Department's order he couldn't assemble the Scouts to do the work.  The BSA is giving him an extension on the time.

I wasn't too worried about the Covid-19, or the Chinese Bat Disease  as I am calling it just to annoy Chairman XI and the Chicoms, but since yesterday I've been trying to file and claim for unemployment insurance and have been able to get through to their office.  (The census bureau has delayed my start time until late April.)  Their website is down and they don't answer their phones.  They seem to be overwhelmed.  Also, I read that the Javits Center, a VERY BIG convention center in Manhattan is being turned into a hospital, and the Navy is sending its hospital ships to New York and Seattle.

The California Health Department is planning on 50% of the people in the state getting CBD by the end of April.  But they are not all going to die from CBD.  Depending on age group the death rate from known cases ranges from 0% (19 and younger) to 27% (85 and older), so lets just go with a 2% death rate to keep things simple.  The population of California is about 40 million people.  That means, if the California Health Department is right and the CDC is right, that 20 million Californians will catch CBD, and 400,000 Californians will die from CBD before the start of summer.

So, because the chances of getting the CBD seems to be about 50/50, I'm going out today to buy the stuff needed to take care of Kathleen and I.  This is made more difficult for me because yesterday something happened to my left foot. 

My foot has been hurting for a few weeks but the pain was tolerable, but yesterday, while I was walking there was a loud, audible pop right in the middle of my foot and now I can barely walk.  The various websites I went to say I probably have arthritis in my foot.  I don't know.  I sent an email to my doctor yesterday but haven't heard back from her.  She's probably busy treating people for CBD.

So, what will I have on hand to deal with CBD?  I think a couple of gallons of Gatorade, about 20 cans of Ensure, beef bullion, lots of kleenex tissues, aspirin, Tylenol, a thermometer, laundry soap, a big bottle of chlorine bleach.

St. Patrick's Day

Yesterday was the first day of the state ordered "Shelter-in-Place" and "Social Distancing".  I spent the day working in the garden with Kathleen and Basil.  Then I cooked corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes in the pressure cooker/canner Kathleen gave me a couple of years ago.  Anselm Samuel made Irish soda bread.  I made two pies.  I gave everyone little icons of St. Patrick with his "Lorica" printed on the reverse.   I told the story of St. Patrick doing spiritual combat with the wizards at Tara. We prayed the "Lorica", ate dinner and desert, then watched a movie set in Ireland, "Waking Ned Devine."  All in all, it wasn't a bad first day of the pestilence restrictions, and it was a very good St. Patrick's Day.

The Pestilence: Covid-19

We've been watching as the disease spreads.  Three days ago the school district I work for sent everyone home and said not to come back until April 13.  The last three days at my other job were nuts.  We sold out of 9mm, .40, .38, and ..44 snd .45 pistol  ammo.  We ran out of buck shot.  We ran out of 5.56mm and 7.62mm rifle ammo.  A co-worker in the camping department said they ran out of freeze-dried food and generators.  A friend who works at the county hospital's ER said they are already overwhelmed. A friend who works for Cal-Fire was told last night to prepare for riots in case of quarantine.  The Governor is expected to make an announcement in eleven hours.

Kathleen and I have stocked up on beans and rice.  We have water.  We have chlorine.  We have cash.  We have gasoline.  I took a rifle and ammo over to my sons' house.  They have a fall back plan.

In other news, I was offered and accepted a job with the U.S. Census Bureau.  I won't start for a couple of weeks.  It will exempt me from the quarantine and give me an opportunity to earn money while I can't work at my other jobs.

This is the prayer the bishops have told us to pray:

"O God Almighty, Lord of heaven and earth, and of all creation visible and invisible, in thine ineffable goodness, look down upon us, thy people gathered in thy Holy Name. Be our helper and defender in this day of affliction. Thou knowest our weakness. Thou hearest our cry in repentance and contrition of heart. O Lord who lovest mankind, deliver us from the impending threat of the Corona Virus. Send thine angel to watch over us and protect us. Preserve the healthy in good health. Grant healing and a quick recovery to those suffering from this pernicious disease. Guide the hands of physicians, nurses, and all health care workers who are laboring on behalf of all of our people, and protect them from infection. Enable us to continue to serve our suffering brothers and sisters in peace that together we may glorify thy most honorable and majestic name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages."

Dinner Last Night, the Garden this Morning, and a Recipe

Preserving Lemons and Oranges

Last night Son #3 came over and we made dinner together.  When Kathleen and her kids got home we served hummus, homemade pita chips, halved pita for stuffing, thin sliced red cabbage, three kinds of olives, greek peppers, my homemade hot sauce, minced radishes, Morrocan rice (flavored with some of the lemons Son #4 and I preserved in salt a back in January 2019.  We also preserved some seville oranges that day.), sardines, and sliced onions, and Son #3's banana bread.  It was a good meal.

I didn't have a sub assignment today so I worked in the garden this morning.  The good news:  Everything seems to be growing, even some of the bulbs are coming up.  We bought some little coconut fiber pots to start more plants in.  Mostly cucumber and tomato; both doing well.  None of the marigolds have sprouted yet but I have hope. 
The bad news: Squirrels.  They keep eating leaves and shoots and digging things up.  Maybe it was a mistake to trap and kill cats.  I don't know.


My Hummus Recipe

Three cans garbanzo beans
One van tahini.
6 clovers garlic finely minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

In a large bowel use a potato masher to mash and mix together the beans and tahini.

Add the salt, garlic, and pepper. Mix well.

The Garden, my knee, and Lent

Red snap dragons growing near tomato plants.

The garden is looking okay for March.  My Indian neighbor, the one who taught me how to grow garlic, planted marigold seeds with me today along the eastern edge of the eastern most planter box.  We got the seeds from the marigold flowers we planted last year.  Two little boys came out and watched, they are the ones who gave us the little lemon tree we planted out by the garden.  I gave them each a snap dragon and taught them how to open it's saws.  Mammy, my Dad's mom taught me how to do it when I was about these boys' age.  A squirrel ate all the the squash plants that we started from seed.  Oh well.  What are you going to do?

It seems that I am getting old.  I thought I broke or, at least, sprained my knee but it turns out that I have arthritis.  It hurts pretty bad.  Walking is very difficult. The doctor said they don't want to give me shots at this age, 51 because if they do there won't be any tendons left when I am 60. So, I just have to take large amounts of tylenol and ibuprofen and use some some kind of gel on my knee twice a day.  Oh, and she said I have to lose another 50 pounds; like I haven't already lost 80.  I guess Lent is a good time to lose more weight.

This is Kathleen's first attempt at Orthodox Lent.  I am easing her into it.  So far, we are just going meatless.  It is a big change for her.  She has never been a vegetarian before and she is kind of aghast at the idea of no meat at all for 47 days.  Tonight I made indian food: Garbanzos cooked in ginger, garlic, turmeric, and coconut milk together with a roasted savory squash and sweet potato dusted with salt and allspice.

Anselm and I were able to to to Great Compline at St. Nicholas Church last night.  I think, given my work schedule that I should be able to go every Monday and Tuesday night during Lent.  I can't do prostrations because of my knee but, at least, I can be there.