Category: Philosophy

February 18, 2022 – American Dream Series: Rights

February 18, 2022 /

This one could go a little technical or wordy if I am not careful so I will try to keep it approachable. At first glance, we hear all of these words frequently. And in context, they kind of, sort of make sense like we get it. But, I would ask to look a little deeper and what is the definition of a right?

A right is an entitlement that our culture has historically and by majority recognized as something that precedes the existence of government and is used in the creation and execution thereof. That is not to say that opinions or clarifications may not change. Going back to previous civilizations like Rome for example, citizens were male landowners. That carried through into this countries founding as well.

The idea of Human Rights differs slightly and transcends status of citizenship. I may have a right as a citizen to perform some activity that I don’t as a non-citizen (i.e. voting). However, human rights are recognized regardless of legal status.

I think the problem we have today is a misunderstanding of a legal right, a human right and what I want. It is further confused between “the movement” and “the demands” and what filter we are applying. In a larger issue, we have to break it down to smaller components, do the analysis and reassemble all of the results to have a clearer picture of what the analysis means.

I will skip all of the other hot button issues and focus on my current favorite Vaccine mandates. What does this mean? It means than an employer is requiring proof of vaccination to remain employed. OK, then let us break this down using American constructs. Here are some of the subtopics

  1. Is the vaccine harmful?
  2. Is the vaccine helpful?
  3. Is there scientific evidence supporting population health and virus transmission of 100% vaccination rates versus less than 100% versus no vaccination?
  4. Is there legal precedent to force me to consume anything against my will?
  5. Do employers have the right to require vaccinations?
  6. Do businesses have the right to require proof of vaccinations?

In one through three, the data I have seen is definitely inconclusive at best. Number four is generally no and five and six, the answer is yes with caveats. With that, I will skip the first three and talk about the second half.

As citizens, we have the right to our bodies. That is generally what we consume (or not) how much and it is regulated as to where. So, take smoking. When alone at home we can smoke all day if we so choose, In places where smoke can effect others it is accepted to regulate or restrict. It is also the case with children or indigents (who are not considered citizens because they are in the care of someone else legally) that they can be forced to do things against their will.

That brings us to five and six. There is some ‘depends’ in here. Do private business owners have the right to require things beyond the law for employment? The answer is yes, as long as it is universally enforced and agreed in the employment contract. Do businesses have the right to restrict customers? Again, if it is privately owned and universally applied the answer is yes. In my opinion, I do not think the same privilege is allowed to government. Meaning, I do not think it is a right for government to restrict the citizens access, that is a violation of our rights.

Where does my analysis come down to on rights? A “Vaccine Mandate” violates our legal rights when it comes to interaction with government. A “Vaccine Mandate” also violates our rights when it comes to private interactions because I should be able to decide that I don’t want to enforce proof of vaccination. A “Vaccine Mandate” is something that I want, not because there is scientific proof or legal precedent to support a change in the definition of entitlement.

I think that it is also worthy mentioning that rights are considered as things government are prohibited from infringing or principally altering. As with all civil rights debates, it comes down to defining the classes. To Whom does it apply? Would we as Americans agree on the same set of rights as those who live in Dubai? I would doubt that we could agree on a lot of anything. This is why rights are considered changeable, because they are somewhat subjective.

I was going to carry on using examples of gender fluidity and try to make a scientific argument to the contrary, but I think this is enough today. This is the reason that there are whole categories of law dedicated to civil rights. I am not going to do it justice in a blog post nor am I an expert or a lawyer

End Your Programming Routine: Where does this leave us on rights? It seems like we have some. It also seems like the accepted definition is not rigid. I suppose that certain groups may be gaining rights while others are losing them. This is a complicated subject to just do a summary and use some concrete examples. As it pertains to the American Dream, I would assert that our rights still exist for the most part but I would say that we are trending toward new rights for inclusion but losing rights that were traditionally held and it depends on where you sit as to the direction you think it is going.

February 11, 2022 – American Dream Series: Democracy

February 11, 2022 /

Using the five ideals of Wikipedia’s definition of the American dream, today I want to go deeper into the first one: Democracy. I think most people have somewhere in the past studied this, but just in case I will hit the highlights again. The concept originated with the Greeks in the 5th century BC. A random group of 500 citizens were enlisted to perform one year of civic duty.

The American form of democracy is a modification of that practice. We don’t randomly select all of our government. We elect a select few to represent us amongst a a group of others that have been elected. This is a ’representative’ form of democracy. In addition, we don’t have one government but a cartel of member states at the federal level.

I am not an expert in this, but I do believe that states have some flexibility in terms of how they are comprised with respect to democracy. In fact, the more local the government the more diverse the composition of size and function and reach. My state essentially mirrors the federal makeup in the three bodies of executive, legislative and judicial branches.

If you go a level down to the county you start to see some differences. For instance, there is no executive position. The legislative and executive functions are combined into on body, the county commission. Yes There are judges but there is also a sheriff. This is a new wrinkle in the power dynamic. Because they are directly elected by the citizens of the county they have assumed more power than perceived higher authority, like state police for example.

Alright, you all can study up on your specific governments. I am going to move on. In order to have the American Dream we need democracy. What does that mean? Well, to me it means that the people have ultimate control of the government. It also means that we can change representatives if we think that they are not performing a job in a way that we approve.

Let us think about this for a minute. A lot of people talk a good game about having the power but I really want to put it into perspective. Unless you are a sociopath, firing people is difficult. It makes a person evaluate themselves and consider the consequences for the other person. I choose to think about what is best for the organization and the individual forcing them to go somewhere where they can thrive rather than underperforming at the current post.

To be honest, most people have never really done the job. They want to talk tough about what they believe and think should happen, but they haven’t actually done the hardest part. That is looking in the eyes and actually doing the work. Electing politicians is a small microcosm of that. They don’t actually have the heart to do the job. Hence, we very rarely elect a new politician over an incumbent. We are highly swayed by party propaganda convincing us that the evil we know is better than the evil we don’t.

To carry this to the extreme, who really believes that politicians are representing our point of view as average citizens? They literally can do things that are illegal for citizens like insider trading and prosecution immunity. Let us assume that my representatives were 100% in lock step with my beliefs, they are still two out of 100 or one out of 435 at the federal level. Even at the state level it is one out of 60 or one out of 30 depending one which side of the congress they are on.

The reality of making meaningful change by me electing a new government is statistically impossible. In the best possible scenario given above, my representative equals slightly over three percent of the total vote. Maybe the American Dream is more about the illusion of control via democracy? Maybe people act differently or more free when they believe that they have more control than they actually have?

I am not going to go into whether there is corruption, I simply don’t have any facts. I will simply say that the money to fund campaigns has got to be tremendous and it doesn’t come without strings attached. Political parties and other donors expect something as a result of their support. At the very least, they can be gatekeepers for who gets to run.

End Your Programming Routine: So where does this leave us? The demented adaptation of democracy from the original vision of the founders still exists. I have always contended that the best environment to perform is a benevolent dictatorship. That leaves a person to operate without interference in conditions where someone else is dealing with the politics. I think that I might argue that democracy is a bit idealistic as a cornerstone of the American Dream. I think I have made the case today that we don’t have much control anyway.

January 24, 2022 – Don’t Be Crabby, It’s a Beautiful Day

January 24, 2022 /

I have said before, my favorite kind of fishing is the one that I am doing. My boys were headed out to a campout and we had a free day. My wife wanted to go to the coast and do some crabbing.

There are some people in my family that are pretty ‘coasty’ (including my wife). Both my grandfather and uncle had houses at the beach and looked for any excuse to go, including I remember checking the mail. Me on the other hand, I want a compelling reason but crabbing seems like a good one.

People not familiar with the pacific northwest coastline may be jealous that in less than an hour we can see the ocean. Don’t get me wrong, it can be beautiful. I think where most of the disconnect between perception and reality with me is that it is a hard formula to figure out whether it is going to be nice or miserable at the coast.

One thing I know, if it is hot here where I live, it is often can be cloudy or even rainy at the coast. In the summer time, even when it is sunny the wind blows pretty stiffly to the point that it is 70 degrees and cold (or sand in your face) because of wind chill. I think many of the best days are in the off season. That happened to be Saturday.

The conventional wisdom is that crabbing is best done in months that don’t contain an ‘R’. That means May, June, July and August are out. It is not that you cannot crab, it is more that it is molting season and the meat doesn’t fit the shell and tends to be soft rather than firm.

There is also a best time of day to do it. The best time is slack tide or the time in between incoming and outgoing tide. The incoming tide pushes crabs closer to the shore and the outgoing pulls them out. I will also say, the tides can also move your gear around as well. One time, my family lost all of their pots to a strong tide and could never find them again.

The technique is pretty simple. You attach some bait to the ring, throw the ring in the water and wait. After 15-30 minutes, pull up the ring keeping tension on the rope so the crabs don’t slip out as you are pulling them up. Once the ring is on the dock, you have to check for sex and size. Males, wider than 5 3/4″ are keepers. Crabs should be kept alive until boiled. They should be immediately cooled and cleaned and they should also be kept as close to freezing as possible until eaten. And, they should be eaten within a couple of days if not frozen.

We dilly-dallied our way to the place that we were going to crab. Consequently, we got there at 2pm and they closed the dock at 3pm. It was such a nice day that we did it anyway and we got two keepers in our 45mins of fishing. I would say that this is not always the case. I have been on days where all day yielded two crabs. So, we got lucky but that is fishing.

One last thing about inexperienced crabbing. Sea lions have figured out that the crab traps contain food. They will tear your traps apart and eat your bait and crabs. Traditionally, bait is the remains of filleted rock-fish. Some people use chicken and claim that has less problems. I have even heard of people using road kill as bait as well. But, what I am trying to say is that if you see sea lions, crabbing can be pretty poor. Fortunately, we didn’t have that problem.

End Your Programming Routine: Oregon requires a separate shellfish license to crab. It is good for the calendar year and with that we can also harvest clams as well. This is also something that I have never tried. I see more trips to the beach this year to harvest the bounty of what we have available.

January 11, 2022 – The First 47 Years

January 11, 2022 /

Yesterday was my birthday. Another thing that I think makes me different than most people is that it seems like just another day. This is another huge difference between my feelings and my wife’s. For instance, through the years my celebrations are getting smaller and more subdued. Whereas my wife’s are getting bigger, grander and take a week’s worth of work to prep and several days to clean-up. I think that it is difficult for her to accept that I really don’t want much fuss to be made.

Last year, my birthday was on Sunday. It also happens to be the week of the month that we are committed to leading Children’s church. The pastor seemed genuinely surprised that I would do such a thing on my birthday. In fact, he has mentioned it several times over the year. I saw it as my commitment, regardless of what day it was and how crappy and selfish it would be to bow out at the last minute and cause extra work just because it was my birthday.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely don’t want to work on my birthday. But that’s not different than the next day or any day for that matter. I suppose when you are born during the school year, it seems normal that it is a day of schedule and commitment from as far as I can remember. Transition that to work, it is the same as school and we just had a bunch of holidays.

Sunday, we had a nice dinner with my brother’s family and my parents. We drove about an hour to meet in the middle for everyone. Since we skipped our traditional Christmas Eve gathering this last year because of our caretaking responsibilities, it was nice to get together for a short period of time. I suppose that is my idea of an ideal party; people that want to get together, have a nice time and share some laughter.

I was thinking Sunday night as I was trying to fall asleep that I am 47. That is only three years to fifty and I will be on the back side of middle age, if I am not already. The strange part of it seems like this decade has been more enjoyable than the twenties or the thirties. Those two seem like a blur and were here and gone, but not the forties. This decade seems like it really has been six years since I was 40.

If I were to speculate, I would guess that there is a reason. In the early part of the twenties, I was focused on getting my degree. Then it was getting married, searching to find the ideal living situation and positioning in the career space. In my thirties, I had family born and solidifying career and sort of setting roots. Now, in my forties those roots have taken hold and the fruit is starting to come on.

With a fair degree of comfort and stability, I can fill up my gas tank if I want to, I don’t have anxiety over picking one holiday celebration or the other and I can find my way down the hallway in the dark. I think those are the things that make this decade more enjoyable than the previous ones.

End Your Programming Routine: I have had birthdays where it snowed (although that has been a while), I have had birthdays with flooding, I have had birthdays where I have been lucky to be on ‘Christmas break’ still but usually, it is a work day. I did have a good day. I enjoyed my time with the family and we had dinner and played a game. It’s not that it didn’t have some conflict and struggle, we did. But everyone made an effort to be more polite and accommodating. That was a great gift.

January 4, 2022 – New Year, New Plans

January 4, 2022 /

I won’t deny that I kind of checked out around Christmas time. Yes, I did some obligatory retrospectives and I think that there was a lot of value doing that, I also didn’t spend a lot of time looking ahead. I didn’t really want to, I wanted to make a fresh break.

Both last year and this year, I didn’t take any extra time off around the holidays.  Last year, I needed to work as much as possible.  This year, I didn’t have the time off to take.  I also happened to catch a sickness New Year’s Eve.  It was really mild, but I took the opportunity to just rest as much as I could (that is a story for another day).  

Now that I am feeling pretty much normal, rested (restless?) and the work week is starting, it is time to start getting serious about 2022.  What do I want to accomplish?  I am going to save most of that for myself this year.  But, I am going to talk about how I am going to go about things.

It is no secret that I dream of spending time on the range.  At the beginning of the year, I try to outline what I want to accomplish each month.  My going in proposition (or goal) is to try to get to the range once a month.  I have a running list of new things to work on so I have a supply of things that I attribute to each month.  It usually takes a little thought as well to orient hunting preparation before hunting season for instance.   

I do the same thing with my other projects.  In fact, they go on the same list.  I am not so neurotic that I schedule everything, but this is the basic technique that I use to push what I want to do for the year.  Often times,  things get moved around or one thing gets priority over other things, like building my office for instance got priority of most every other project.

The process is more dynamic than once a year.  As things get shuffled around, the items that get displaced get shifted.  In other words, the process is ongoing throughout the year.  Occasionally, I also change my mind an remove things, but that is pretty rare.  When that happens, it is something that perennially gets pushed and I ultimately decide that the project I really don’t want to do, hence the reason it gets pushed in the first place.

For example, I have had something on my list since 2005.  Under the kitchen crawlspace, there is a beam that supports the floor joists.  That beam has a post that rests on a foundation of a couple of bricks in the dirt (I am not sure if there is an actual footer or not).  The post itself is not treated and I highly suspect the post is taking water every year in the wet season.  The floor also has some sag to it.  It was one of my goals to jack the floor and raise or replace the post so that it does not eventually rot.  It is my belief that it is only a matter of time before this is a bigger problem.  but it is not enough of a problem that I have been motivated to do it.

There are other problems, like the foundation has failed around the kitchen.  We also have penciled around the idea of a kitchen remodel.  For those reasons plus it is not going to be fun or easy that project has been reprioritized.  Even though it is a matter of time before there is problem in that specific scenario, ultimately there is a larger project somewhere on the horizon.  After pushing this project forward over ten years, I removed it from my list a couple of years ago.

End Your Programming Routine:  There are no hard an fast rules, in fact I don’t schedule all year long because I know that things are going to change.  I have eight to ten months penciled out depending on what task I am looking at.  This is a way that I sort of guide how I want things to go as the year moves on.  Anytime is a good time to start something like this, I choose this time because it is a natural transition.

 

January 3, 2022- Welcome to the Future

January 3, 2022 /

I really like Brad Paisley’s work. His sense of humor appeals to me and most of his songs are pretty lighthearted. This one did get radio play, but it is not one of his best known. Sometimes, you just hear something that resonates with you and this is one of them.

Back when I lead a team, I would put together a Friday playlist that would describe the week.  Then, I would open it up for the rest of the team to add to after I started it.  Usually, it was silly, sometimes angry and sometimes I would just let them make their own connections to the songs on the list.  We would then release it Friday at lunch time.  

I used to play this song a lot on Friday mornings while I was early in the office and no one was around.  I suppose what it said to me was at the time was that things can get better.  That was a message that I wanted to hear and believe.  

I am not going to do a deep analysis of the lyrics today.  According to what I read, Paisley wrote the song in relation to Obama’s nomination to run for President.  As someone that is mid-life, the amount attitude changes around race has changed dramatically in the last forty years.   To go a little abstract, this song is about observing the impossible to possible through technology or attitude.  It appears that Brad and I are not going to agree on politics, but it doesn’t mean the message or the intent is wrong.  

End Your Programming Routine: To boil it all down, what we do today does matter for the outcomes of tomorrow.  My hope is that some day, we will look back with the benefit of time past and be able to have a clearer understanding of how we got there.  As Brad eludes, today is always the future from a different perspective.  Here’s to 2022.

December 30, 2021 – Bon Voyage 2021

December 30, 2021 /

Tomorrow is a holiday for me so this is the last post in 2021 and then we will be on to the new year.  As always, there are many things planned for the holiday and the weekend.  I mean this when I say that I am looking forward to getting into the new year and then things start settling down quite a bit.

I have already written about the year in review and my Festivus airing of grievances so I am not going to rehash all of that again.  But, I think it is always good to spend some time reflecting.  In many ways, I think 2021 was more difficult that 2020.  Yes, 2020 was crazy but it was also a new kind of crazy whereas 2021 was the same shit, different year.

I think one of the differences for me was my work situation.  Since I was very driven in 2020 to remodel the apartment, I was hyper focused on that project sun up to sundown.  Driving for Amazon, I had to concentrate on my surroundings, my driving and planning my next steps as well.  For example, I couldn’t really listen to my podcasts while I was delivering because I wasn’t paying any attention to what they were saying.  I tried, but it just didn’t work.

This last year, I have spent most of the working days behind a desk, where my mind wanders at times.  I think about what I want to make for dinner, what my project plans should be next, what do I want to write about for the week, how many chapters do I have to read in a week to keep up with my reviews, etc.  Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate that kind of luxury, but I think it is kind of like being an addict.  You are kind of anticipating your next hit (I mean until work is over so I start on that project).  That mental mindset is different than you are not punching out until all of you packages are delivered.

People that know me, know that I am not emotional.  My wife on the other hand is.  We are yin and yang.  This has been a very difficult year for her, and by proxy myself as well.  There have been times of spontaneous tears, shouting matches as primary caretaker and patient, extended trips away from home.  I have had to play the role of peacemaker and lighthouse as well as Mr. Mom.  I suppose that is assuming the consequences of assuming the role of Patriarch for that half of the family.

Speaking of Mr. Mom, having teenagers has some benefits and a lot of drawbacks.  With all the time that they spent at home last year, they lost a lot of discipline.  Everywhere they are is a mess, meal time is literally almost anytime of the day and their personalities are driving me crazy sometimes.  One child is vegan every other month and the other picks and eats all the meat out of leftovers.  One child leaves for school at 7AM and returns at 8PM, the other selectively turns in assignments.  Neither feed and care for the animals or perform chores adequately or without prompting.  This causes friction with my wife and me as well as the kids.

I am not saying the calendar changing does anything about any of this.  It does allow me to reflect on what I want to change.  I want to be careful, this is a path that can lead back to where I was a few years ago, marching through time not with passion but because you don’t know how to get off the wheel.  It has the sights of deja vu, only I have been down this road before.  

The next logical step is to decide and make those changes.  This is where I get stuck a bit.  I am pretty good a laying out options, but moving forward is more difficult.  I suppose that it is more like you already know that you don’t like the choices so doing nothing is the easiest.  At least you know the downsides already. 

I think about some of the most radical changes that have occurred in my life, many of them were done without a lot of thought.  For instance, when I moved to South Carolina.  The truth is, I really didn’t want to do it.  I was happy with what I was doing and had only been in our house less than two years.  But, when the opportunity came up, I didn’t say no and everything just happened.  In retrospect, that was one of the best opportunities that I could have ever accepted.  There was so much learning and growing that came from it that if I would have stuck to my instincts would have never happened.

If ever there was a personality trait that I wish I had, I wish that I had to ability to know what I wanted and be decisive.  In contrast, I suppose I have the same type of discipline that makes a good scientist.  I want to collect all of the data, then analyze it and finally make a conclusion that the data supports.  What do you do when the data is inconclusive?  You perform more experiments until a clear analysis is possible.  Life definitely isn’t a well defined experiment with finite outcomes, so I am still collecting data.

Looking back to my first post of this year and my goalsetting, I accomplished none of these things.  The truth is, those are the logical steps to move this endeavor from a hobby to a business.  But, the real question is why didn’t I do any of those things?  I can make up excuses like I was working but the real truth is I didn’t want to.  To be brutally honest, I was lazy and didn’t want to put in the extra work that was required to do all of the small things to accomplish the larger goal.  I wanted to spend my extra time building my office, reading 1984 and writing my daily posts rather than I did working on a business plan.

I would liken it to my process oriented brain.  It is very easy for me to see the endpoint and make up all of the logical steps in between.  What is not as easy is to impart the intangible discipline to do it, primarily driven by desire.  Does that make me a loser who wants to live in misery?  A little bit because there is only so much whining people will tolerate from someone that appears chronically unhappy and it seems to be their own doing, especially when they don’t follow their own plan. 

To stave that off, it is up to me to figure out the motivations and do something different with my situation.  For instance, maybe I should spend my time writing a book rather than this blog?  Or maybe I should stop writing for a while and really figure out if podcasting is what I would rather do?  Or maybe I should narrow the focus of this and stick to one subject to build a targeted audience rather than my daily whatever is top of mind? Or maybe I should keep this as it is because I enjoy it and stop trying to wish I was an entrepreneur type of personality?

End Your Programming Routine: I think it is OK to not know what the future looks like as long as you are aware that is the case.  The lucky few know what they want and are doing it.  The rest of us know that something isn’t quite right. I want to be in the subset that keeps looking rather than accepting this is all there is.  That being said, I am going to make some changes in 2022, just not sure what that is going to be yet.  I am checking off 2021 and wish you a happy new year.

December 22, 2021 – We Are On the Upswing

December 22, 2021 /

Yesterday was one of the days I anticipate starting about the first of November.  Since it was the Winter Solstice, all the days from here to mid June start to get longer.  I say this because this is a mental as well as physical transition point.  It is the wrapping up of the previous year and looking forward to starting the new one. 

At the 45th parallel, sunrise is 7:48a and sunset is 4:34p . That means we have a little over eight hours of daylight.  I noticed it acutely last year when I was delivering packages for Amazon when daylight was precious and made a huge difference in productivity.  Of course, I notice it now because I am alive and observant.  I will say that I start work around 5AM most days so I still get a couple hours of daylight most days that seem to make a big difference on feeling like it is dark all the time.

I thought I would take a look at the year that was and look ahead to the year that is coming today.  There were probably two themes within my control that dominated the year, those were restarting my career and basement cleanup.  Those two things seemed to go hand in hand as I built my office in the mess of the basement.  As I end the year, the cleanup job is finally done.

Ironically, I think the death of my father-in-law and the estate clean-up as much as it interfered with what I wanted to do, it also helped.  The cold, binary function of keep/toss was just a task.  Loads to be donated and to the dump were combined and executed.  

As the rains come each winter, I often haphazardly move items around to get them off of the floor.  That behavior often leaves things more disorganized than they were before I started, protecting my junk.  This year, I had one small area that I finished last week to make room on my bench so I could wrap presents.  Now, the basement is as organized as it will be and protected from the flooding that is possible each year.

I talked a lot about my office build throughout the year.  I still have things that I want to do but for all intents and purposes, that is done.  So, that was two major things that I accomplished this year. 

I did have other plans before my new employment, like I was going to build a wine cellar space in the basement.  I wanted to build a front yard garden, that never got started.  I wanted to spend more time developing this platform and a business plan, that never happened.  I only got a fraction of the range time, hunting, fishing and outdoors time that I wanted.  Those were some of the things that I thought I was going to do, but didn’t like build a new table for the kitchen area which is now a TV lounging area.

Looking forward to next year, there are things that will carry forward.  I think the wine cellar and front yard garden of some sort are some of them.   For sure, I am going to spend time exploring podcasting.  Part of my audio insert yesterday was getting started with that. 

New and easier things… I want to build the sofa table for my office so that I can move the stereo back into the office.  I want to brew some beer and optimize the keezer for fun.  I have a chainsaw that I want to get running and then get rid of.  I have more antenna designs and testing that I want to explore.  

End Your Programming Routine:  I heard a very insightful comment last week.  That was, the danger with a roadmap is that people take it as a promise with a due date.  I do believe that publicly stating is a form of accountability.  I did a great job of stating goals last year, but a poor job of following through.  Goals and purpose change, at least my life did last year.  It doesn’t mean that I don’t want this to be a growing concern, but I need to find my own way through it.  

December 7, 2021 – In Contrast to Yesterday…

December 7, 2021 /

I have an experiment going on. I got this bicycle light for Christmas in 1994. I got the batteries for this light at the same time. Guess what, they still work. That is 27 years later, functioning alkaline batteries.  I like to check the light every couple of years to see if it is still working.  

December 3, 2021 – Turkey Soup for the Soul

December 3, 2021 /

Still have Thanksgiving leftovers? Believe it or not, we do still. A large part of it was that things were packed for days in the coolers while we travelled and the other was that we ate last Friday with other family members. Finally, we still have a travel hangover.

Today I am making turkey soup.  I have yet to figure out exactly what the end form will be noodle or rice, leaning toward rice.  If I was thinking better last week, I would have done something about leftovers last Friday but it really didn’t occur to me until yesterday as I was planning dinners and thinking about how to use leftovers.

Going even deeper with this… this isn’t simply about using leftovers to make soup.    Yesterday, my mother-in-law had her first chemo here in Oregon.  My wife was the designated caretaker for this round and I was thinking it would be helpful for me to make some dinner to share.  

After a five days on the road on the road last week, I had my fair share of ‘snacks’  and fast food as well as eating out.  My general feeling about all of that is that it is not satisfying and leaves you only temporarily satiated. When you are a caregiver, it can be very tempting to give up on cooking and settle for temporary relief. 

Only having the perspective as a a caregiver, I think that is a much more difficult job than being the patient.  Sometimes you are walking on eggshells and sometimes you are wondering if there is an end in sight.  We still have all of the other aspects of life to manage, particularly the future.  The patients only focus is the current, it is the caregiver that is managing the future for the patient.

To get started, I am going to debone all of the turkey. It doesn’t have to be stripped but I want the bones to make the stock.  I also don’t want a lot of fat because that just sets on the top.  I have covered stock making before but as a refresher, I am going to add aromatics and set it on just under boiling if possible.  I want to try and convert all of the collagen and connective tissues from the bones into the broth. 

Ideally, that is when it is done but that also takes days of preparation before hand and if you don’t have days, it can be done the day of.   So, don’t let the planning stop you, remember Samin Nosrat said use water if you cant make your own stock, so this is the most important step for best results.

I used carrots, celery and onion along with salt and set it on the stove.  I gave it about six hours.  If I have the time, I am also going to cool and filter.  In this step, I can skim off hardened fat and remove all of the bones and vegetables.  It is not really a quality step but mostly for appearance.

I am going to dice turkey, and more carrots and celery.  I am going add rice and some parsley.  From there I will add salt and pepper to taste and that should be it.  I will probably serve with buttermilk biscuits and a side salad.  How does that sound compared to a Big Mac meal?

End Your Programming Routine:  I keep telling myself that I need to do more with food here.  Particularly the aspects that I like such as transforming leftovers.  We need to feed the souls of patients and the caregivers, as it is a difficult and many times thankless job.