Fox Soup

My paternal grandmother Gramma Edie was a good cook, not that it would have taken much to top MY mom's culinary efforts. She didn't own a refrigerator til the 50's, shopped daily, and it all had to be eaten. I grew up eating her bread puddings, knishes, blintzes, cabbage rolls, brisket, oxtail stews, and soups. The greatest of these was her corned beef and cabbage. The aroma through the house!

I learned SOME of her recipes, but my own culinary efforts are quite pitiful in general. Minnesota food is bland and white. Enter my son.

My son was a picky eater from birth. Apparently allergic to formula, he drank soy formula his first year, along with rice cereal mixed in as he was voraciously hungry. He adamantly refused any vegetable except corn, and grew up primarily on hot dogs, Kraft Mac 'n Cheese, and cereal. Don't know if he's short due to this or because he didn't inherit any height genes.

I continued making Edie's corned beef and cabbage, often substituting ham for corned beef. Same general idea. Quit offering it to Jon early, he had hot dogs. One day at about 5 years old, he came in the door from playing in the yard, and sniffed. "What's that smell?"  The entire house smelled of corned beef and cabbage.

• Segue: Books. Jon was read to daily and at length, and partly due to this plus Sesame Street and Electric Company, was reading alone at 3. He loved Dr. Seuss in particular, always rooting for the underdog, the oppressed, the victim. He intensely disliked the fox in Fox in Socks. Thought he was a bully and a braggart. Cheered at the ending.

A lightbulb moment for me on this day after yet another bedtime reading of Fox in Socks.

"Fox soup", I replied.

His face lit up. He wanted some immediately. He ate two bowlsful.

"Foxes taste good" he said as he ran back out to play.

He slowly developed a palate for good food, thanks to lots of Mexican cuisine in the San Diego area, plus a Cambodian babysitter. He taught himself to cook, and now is quite accomplished. One of his kids is picky, the other one not. We still call it Fox Soup, and there's a huge pot on the stove right now. House smells great.

Winter is coming!

Had to go to Walmart today. I effing hate Walmart, but the list was too long. On the way there, sad to see that the sumac is already turning red. Winter is coming... (Game of Thrones Super-fan here)
It's been a cool, wet summer here, really sucked. But it's still too hot and buggy to go home. What to do, what to do!

Starting to make the lists: what to pack, what to buy in Tucson (aware that the last 5 hours we'll have provisions stacked under our feet and all around us.)

Am bittersweet at what I'm leaving and what awaits me in Kino Bay.

What awaits me? Ah, SO much!

Sunrises, sunsets. Have neither here, kind of in a forest.

The Halloween party, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners en masse. Good produce.
The smell (sea, desert). My dog not having to be leashed...

My roof.

My ATV and the beach.

Seafood

Steamed clams I gathered from the sandbars at low tide.

Fridays at Panchos.

My workshop! (Didn't have room in the car to bring any supplies to Minnesota.)

Jan in my workshop

These faces:

Karen and Bette

Jill and Joan

Danielle and Suzanne

Maggy

Pancho

Tom, Helen, and Harold

Eileen

Allie

Patricia

Cathie

I don't mean to diss the men in Kino, but so many have died, it's quite sad now. I DO look forward to seeing these faces!

Jim

Norm Tunke

Ron Derrick

John Parker

And what am I leaving in Minnesota? Unlimited bandwidth and Netflix. Pizza and Chinese food delivery. Good ice cream. Delis. And THESE faces!

Jon, Dylan, Nora

Brian, Joy

Leben and Julie

Ruby

Eli

We do have tons of other family here, but didn't get to see much of them. Busy people, nobody's fault. Caprice and Don, no good photos. Oliver and Elliot.

Oliver

Elliot

Will miss them all SO much! MIGHT fly back for Christmas...

The Long Good-Bye

"The Long Good-Bye" refers to dementia. Alzheimer's. Used to be called senility. There are so many different forms of it, and the path is arduous. It's said that we (every one of us), knows someone close to them that has, will have, or has died from dementia. 

My mom went that way. As with most of them, the actual end comes about through starvation and/or dehydration, as they lose the ability to eat or drink. 

Just heard a commercial on TV this morning that said there's someone right now with dementia that won't die from it, i.e. a cure is in the offing.

The last two weeks here in Minnesota, this hit the news: a husband with early dementia and his disabled wife, who HE cared for, went for a drive and died. Click link to read the story.

Ron and Mary Tarnowski

 A U.S. Border Patrol helicopter found the couple’s Chevy Tahoe on an overgrown, abandoned driveway in a swampy area off the road just two miles away from the family’s hunting property. They were near Brookston, a town about 30 miles from their Duluth home.

Mary’s Tarnowski’s body was discovered inside the Tahoe, and her husband’s body was found outside of the vehicle, about 50 feet from the road.

Authorities believe Ron Tarnowski may have driven onto the trail accidentally before getting his car stuck in the mud, said Lt. Mike Ceynowa, public information officer for the Duluth Police Department. He said police think Tarnowski left the vehicle in order to seek help.

Autopsy results are still pending, but Karl Tarnowski said there are signs that his mother died of a combination of dehydration and heat while sitting in the car on a day with temperatures in the upper 80s. There is also evidence that Ron Tarnowski had fallen down while trudging through the mud, his son said.

So tragic for this family. They had YEARS left with those two, dementia takes a long time. And I'm told most of that time can be good, although it wasn't with my mom. She had the worst kind, with anger, hallucinations, personality degradation.

And my mom could easily have gotten into trouble this way had we not been successful in taking away her car. We were warned to be careful here, as the phrase "senior abuse" is a possible accusation. My mom had passed the point in her disease path where she could cooperate with getting diagnosed and a care plan put in pace. It's got a name, Anosognosia, here's a link that describes it: Link. We eventually convinced her that her beloved grandson's car was terminal and she let him "borrow" hers. Within a few weeks, she forgot about it.

It's a tough call in the early stage of dementia. I do not fault the Tarnowski family one iota, and hope they don't read this as I know I'd feel worse than I already did. If I hadn't gotten support from the Alzheimer's Association, I wouldn't have been able to do it either. The person seems fine, capable most of the time. And it's so heartbreaking to contemplate loss of independence and mobility. Easy to put off.

Do it anyway. For their sake alone. Here's a link that says how to go about it: Dementia and Driving

And join this site: Caregiver's Forum

Those people saved me. They've seen it all, been through it, learned by trial and error, and helped immeasurably. They are angels.

Worst Year Ever

(Apologizing up front for the trumpisms. Can't help myself)

We came to Mexico 10 years ago for a six week stay. Still here, but the bloom is off the rose this year. It's still warm and beautiful, the food and drink are still fabulous, and we love our little house near the ocean.

But this year sucked bigly. We lost 4 of our friends.

Kim Edwards

Al Warthan

Jack Moon

Phil Hahn

Ron and I were the youngest of an aging, retired population of gringos out here in Dos Palmas, and now we're among the oldest. These friends are sorely missed, and we're all shell-shocked over our losses.

Some more friends left us. Pat moved to France, Richard went back to prison, and Tony's not coming back here.

Pat

Richard

Tony

These three, BTY, are not equally missed by everyone, but still provided that "never a dull moment" quality to the hood.

But we did get some new ones! Cathie's down the hill, Diana's up here, and Alan's next door. YUUUUGELY fun people! Believe me! Gonna make Dos Palmas great again!

Cathie

Diana

Alan

Besides losing friends, other woeful events of 2016/2017 include the election (OMFG), Ron smashing his face, and our lemon of a Nissan. Plus I gained nearly 20 pounds...

There have been a few good things: the new Mazda CX-9, our new/old summer home in Minnesota, and our under-construction guest house atop the garage.

Mazda CX-9

Mobile Home

Guest House

Floor plan

So generally it's feeling all a bit less here, and we'll be spending longer summers in Minnesota, shorter winters here. Not that they HAVE longer summers in Minnesota, but since we no longer need to deal with cold/snow/ice/propane in an RV, we can go by the end of March and come back when it becomes intolerably Minnesota. Say Thanksgiving-ish. As long as we remain able to drive 2500 miles, we want warm winters. Plus, there are still good friends here.

Karen, Bette, Gary, Jill, Maggy

Harold, Maurice, John, Jim, Danielle, Norm, Joan

Sal, Tom, Helen, Suzanne, Les, Allie

Eileen, Ron, Luis, Marisela

Jaap, Anneke, and Ed