Chili Verde at My Sister's House and Other Stuff

Today was difficult day. I suffered from insomnia Friday night and only got 4 hours of sleep. And the arthritis in my feet was bad today. And the lock on the front door broke and we can't get the door open. But I went to Home Depot and bought a higher quality door lock set, a Schlage to replace what is on the door now. I'll install it tomorrow after church. Right now we are going in and out of the house through the garage door.

I made chile verde today. (It was fun taking Kathleen to my little Mexican market to buy tomatillos and chilis. She had never been there and thought it looked dangerous from the outside.) I used, mostly, my mom's recipe.... Remove the fat cap from a pork shoulder roast and cut it into cubes of 2" to 3" in size. Salt them with not more than a table spoon of salt. Brown them in a big pan or dutch oven, 6 to 8 quarts will work. You can melt a little pork fat in the bottom of the pan or use a couple of teaspoons of oil. While the pork is browning wash and cut in half 2 poblanos and 3 jalapenos. (If you don't like the burning sensation remove the seeds from the jalapenos.) Put the chilis on a cookie sheet and put them under a broiler until the skin blisters and starts to burn black. Then turn them over and broil a few more minutes. When the pork is brown turn off the fire under the pan and let it sit there while you finish the sauce. Next remove the husks from a couple of quarts of tomatillos, wash them and halve them. Peel and halve 2 white onions. Then put the onions, chilis, and tomatillos in a blender. Add two tablespoons of granulated garlic. Then blend until it is smooth. Pour it over the the pork in the pan. (At this point I modifed my mother's recipe by adding 1/2 a quart of chopped cactus leaves to the pan.) Bring to a boil, cover, turn the heat down low, and simmer for 3-4 hours. Serve with lime wedges and chopped cilatro as condiments.

My sister made a really good and easy to make Mexican rice dish to go with the chili. I think she said all she does is cook Minute Rice in chicken broth (If you aren't making your own chicken broth, you should use Swanson. I think it is the best store-bought chicken broth there is.)and add a bottle of any salsa and stir it in before serving.

It was good talking with my sister and her husband for three hours, and hearing updates on all their children, grandchildren and great-grandgrandchildren. I'm not sure but I think it was the first time since my brother's funeral.

Oh, I almost died a couple of weeks ago. My blood pressure was so high that I had to go to the emergency room . They gave me an IV of some drug that brought it down to non-deadly levels, and my regular physician adjusted my prescription. No serious heart or brain damage.

This is the last semester of Kathleen's masters degree in counseling. After two years, it is nice to see the light at the endo of the tunnel.

The Navy moved my son Anselm Samuel and his family back to San Diego. I don't know exactly what he is doing (everything related to submarines is an official secret) but I know it has something to do with electronic warfare. The plan is for him to be there for four years. Also, the Navy is sending him to ILDC so they can promote him to Petty Officer 1st Class.

This is Basil's last semester at Cal Maritime. Like Kathleen, he'll have his degree just before Christmas. After that he will go to China where he will work in logistics for Panda Games.

In sad news, my friend of 24 years Reader John Simmons died about two weeks ago. He was the choir director at our little parish. His departure is very much felt by us all. Please, pray for him and St. Nicholas Orthodox Church.

Movie review

While the berry pie is in the oven I think I'll share with you my opinion of Christopher Nolan's new movie, The Odyssey.

But first, a joke. Two goats were in the back lot of MGM one day, eating old cans of film. One goat says to the other, "Oh, wow! Billy, you have to try this Gone With the Wind! It's amazing!" So, Billy took an bite, chewed, swallowed, then said, "Yeah, It's okay. But the book was better."

There are a lot of interesting things about Nolan's movie. I liked how the bard reciting Homer's poem introduced the story and reappeared near the end. I didn't like Penelope's angry speech at Telemachus; totally out of character with the woman we know from the poem. And the armor the Greek soldiers were wearing was not like the armor Agamemnon's solders wore. (But if you like the Gladiator movie that won't bother you.)

The actress who played the part of a man who wasn't in Homer's poem was an interesting thing. She pretends to be a man, plays a man's role from Virgil's version of the story, and the character was duped into into tricking the Trojans. Which is, I think, a pretty good way of expositing Odysseus's cunning and trickster nature. Lies upon lies upon lies.

There were a couple very jarring references to the Bronze Age Collapse. While it is historically true that the Greeks (and they didn't call themselves Greeks, that's what the Romans would call them centuries after the events portrayed in the movie.) would forget how to read and that the Bronze Age was coming to an end, there was no way for anyone alive then to know that was going to happen. But the most bizarre thing in the movie was how the ending was changed. I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen it, but the most beautiful part of Homer's poem, when Odysseus and Penelope were reunited in the bed/tree and all was right in Ithaca was changed to Odysseus dealing with is regret for all the killing. In the poem Odysseus did not regret killing anyone.

I will say this good thing about the movie: It dealt with the gods in a way that was better that that Troy movie from a few years ago. Now, I had better go check on that pie.

War in Iran

This war has been simmering since 1979. And I do not think President Trump is the right man to lead us in this war. He wants too much to make a deal and end the war. We need someone who will call up the reserves, expel all Iranian nationals (they are suicide bomber threats), crush the IRGC, kill all the mullahs and ayatollahs, and let the non-crazy Iranians take control of their country. We de-Nazified Germany, we can de-Shiite-ize Persia. Who knows, maybe a peaceable alliance of Zoroastrians, Christians, Sunnis(?!?!?), Jews, and Bahais can establish a stable Republic. Or even a constitutional monarchy under the Phalavi Dynasty. (The heir of that dynasty has lived in America since 1979 and has named his daughter, who is a U.S. citizen, his heir.) But whatever happens, the people who for almost 50 years have been chanting "Death to America" must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

Maybe, I am not "just" a gunslinger for the county.

Today was my first day on my first post-training assignment. The assignment is managing the VTA's "lost and found" and protecting the people who work in the downtown center. I am astounded by the hundreds of wallets and purses and iPhones our passengers find and turn in. A note on the wallets and purses: almost all of them are full of cash. Many of them contain hundreds of dollars. Today I had the pleasure of returning several purses and wallets and more than $300 dollars to the people who left them on our trains and busses. I almost wept for joy at the goodness of my fellow citizens. But I was also told which windows I could shoot through and which windows are impervious to bullets because not all of my fellow citizens are good people.

After work Kathleen and I went and voted. I feel sad for the people I voted for in the primary because not since 1988 has a person I voted for in the primary election gone on to win the general election in November.

Then we went to see this movie about the American Revolution. And, yes, I wept. And am resolved to go meet with my state senator next week to talk to him about that repugnant tax on homeowners.

I'm a Gunslinger for the County

My job is so strange. 8 to 12 hours a day I drive around to various places on the County's light rail system and make sure everything is okay. I visit a lot of stations each day, make sure the un-armed protective officers are doing their jobs, document any deficiencies I see, take pictures of any damage to the rail system, interview witnesses to criminal conduct, and deal with mentally ill/emotionally disturbed/substance addicted people at the stations or on the vehicles.

I carry a bunch of different weapons but have ABSOLUTELY NO INTENTION OF USING THEM. Why? Because, so far, all of the people I have to deal with are not criminal as much as they are sick, like the man I had to deal with tonight. He took off all his cothes on a train, and I had rush from one side of the county to the other to meet the train and convince him to put his clothes back on. Was he committing a crime? Absolutely, he was. Being naked in public is a violation of the California penal code. But he is crazy. Totally crazy. I could have arrested him. And he is a drug addict, and an alcoholic, and diabetic and, it smells like, he has gangrene in his leg. Oh, and the open wound on his abdomen and the swollen testes! I am sure he will be dead soon. So, I did not arrest him. I asked him if he wanted medical help. He said he did not want mediacal help. I asked him if he could get dressed. He swore at me for a couple of minutes but put his pants and shirt back on.

I asked him, "Are you going to behave?" He spewed some more profanity at me but said he would behave. The other passengers seemed relieved. I walked up to the front of the train and told the operator that the subject was dressed now but I would meet the train at the next two stations, and he should to call me on the radio if there was a problem. So that is my job. I never thought I would be doing a job like this. All I can think is life is weird.

In other news: My son, Anselm Samuel told me that his wife is pregnant with their second child and my youngest son, Basil Wenceslas told me he is in the running for a summer internship with the a company named Quarter Master Logistics in Florida. I hope he gets the internship.

Oh, should metntion that my wife, Kathleen is still working on her masters degree in counseling and will be finished with it in December of this year. It looks like she will immediately transition from being a teacher into being a counselor. Also, I am still taking classes in water resources management. I have been on a few job interviews in that field and all the other people are in their mid-20s to early-30s and I have had no call backs. Therefore, I do not suppose I will ever work in that field. I think I have enough resources for to buy a few acres and raise cattle and chickens. I hope I can do that for a few years before I die.

So Much Is New

Well, in December 2024 I resigned my job as a teacher. I thought I could make more money as a home improvement salesman for a really good company. I got my license went to work for them, and for a few months I did pretty well. Until March. That is when the layoffs started. It was brutal here in Silicon Valley. Apple, Intel, AMD and many others started letting people go. About 24,000 people lost their jobs, and that scared everyone else. No one was spending money on home improvements, at least not the ones I was selling (e.g. HVAC, windows, roofs, doors, and solar systems.) To survive I went back to working part-time at Bass Pro Shops. I liked it and was good at it but they do not pay commissions. So now motter how much I sold, and I sold a lot of very expensive guns, my income from that job was meager. About the only good thing other than my hourly wage, was that they paid for me to become a California-licensed firearms safety instructor. That got me to thinking: Maybe there is a gun-related career I could make money at for the last 10 years of my working life. I started looking for something else. I looked at a lot of things: bounty hunter, private investigator, repo agent, etc. But I settled on armed security guard.

I took the required state training, did the psych exam, qualified on a bunch of diferent guns, and got a job doing armed patrols for the Valley Transportation Authority. So far, I like it. Mainly, I drive around (Almost no standing and walking, which my knees and feet can not take.)and help distressed and mentaly ill people stay out of trouble.

Not often do I have do deal with the truely criminal, but almost every day I have to deescalate situations that could result in the county's sheriff's deputies hauling someone off to jail or the psych hospital. So far, I've been able to talk several mentally disturbed or intoxicated paeople into following my instructions (I always start by saying, "Hey, I'm going to be in a lot of trouble if you don't leave this train (or platform, or bus)and I know you don't want me to get into trouble...") and avoiding serious repercussions. Tonight, I did have to take out my handcuffs (A poor crazy woman had caused all kinds of problems on a train platform. As I was approaching the subject she lifted her denim skirt, squated, and urinated on the train platrform.) but just as I was about to cuff the subject (I need to remember to buy some latex gloves.) the sheriff's deputies arrived and took her. I've never had to touch my gun. I hope I never have to.

Well, that is what I do for a living now. I am 57 so I suppose this will be the last job I have before I retire, if I can retire.

I barely ever talk with my son Anselm. He knows I diapprove of his decision to raise his son Oliver as a Roman Catholic but I still love them both, and Tiffany my son's wife. I started something I call Granfather's Book of the Month Club. Each month I send Oliver a book. I expect that Anselm or Tiffany will read the book to him. Back a couple of months ago I sent Oliver all the Christmas books I read to Anselm when he was little, but there are very many more books besides the Christmas books. Just before she divorced me Athanasia gave away all our kid's books to the Lucille Packard Childrens Hospital Thrift Store but I am buying all those books new to send to Oliver. (Thankfully, she did not give away Anselm's first prayer book so in a couple of years, when Oliver is reading on his own, I will be able to send him his Dad's prayer book.)

Basil (AKA son # 4) is still doing well at the California Maritime Academy. He secured an internship at Panda Game Manufacturing, and travels around northern California promoting their services to game inventors. A couple of days ago he told me that after he gets his B.A. in December of 2026 he wants to do something to grow in the Orthodox Faith. I recommended that he go to a monastery for a year or to St. Tikhon Seminary. But tonight I remembered St. Herman Seminary in Kodiak, Alaska. They have a one year reader program. Also, they might be able to use my son's accounting skills. I'll talk to Basil about it when I see him on Holy Saturday. (I have to work most of that day so I can't go to church, but Basil is coming by to pick up his Pascha basket to ttake to church.)

Speaking of Holy Saturday.... This hear I was able to go to the first two nights of Bridegroom Matins. OH MY GOSH!!! It was so beautiful!!!! Because of the work I do the next service I will be able to go to is Agape Vespers, but, wow, I am so happy I was able to go to the first two nights of Bridegroom Matins. It is so funny to me that some people think that all Orthodox services are the same; Even the the Sunday Divine Liturgy, the most unchanging service in our Church, has parts that change every week. I am always floored and amazed by the words I hear at every service.


I saw my sister and her husband a couple of days ago. It made me so happy. I do not know why I do not see them more often. I do not know how long you have been reading this blog but if you were reading 10 or 13 years ago you know they gave me a place to live when my wife, Athanasia divorced me and had me evicted from our our house. (I hate California's laws. I do mean HATE.) My sister and her husband have a moderately-sized house but have always made their guest-bedroom available to the needy. In the last 30 years, I don't think,that guest bedroom has been vacant more than 3 weeks. I pray God blesses my sister and her husband.