Unavoidable Gap…..

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In the way things can happen cascading events have kept me from posting. Even I do reach a point where things have to give a bit and in this case it has been the blog. I hope to get life back onto the hectic, yet normal hectic track this week. I have also sent word that a series I have been doing for our weekly paper will be on hold for a few weeks although I should be able to do one regular article per week. As much as I enjoy sitting down with multi-generation families to capture their stories (going back into the 1920s for some), it is a time-consuming effort.

Right before things unraveled on April 17th, I had a long day Wed, April 15th, but it included a delightful night at the History of Diving Museum in Islamorada. I was the speaker for their monthly program with my presentation about my experience in co-authoring Mystery of the Last Olympian: Titanic’s Tragic Sister Britannic with Richie Kohler. Richie’s presentations about diving the ship are of course the authentic adventure and I explained in the first minute, “This is not that.” Here is the link to the YouTube archive. The presentation is right at an hour long, so I recommend settling in with a favorite beverage if you decide to watch. It was a hybrid in-person (full house) and Zoom event. https://www.youtube.com/@TheDivingmuseum/videos

We’ll see what the week brings in the sense of I should have priorities appropriately realigned. This is truly one of those weeks when I don’t need any more unexpected tasks thrown in. Keeping fingers crossed.

Rest in Peace BG Foote….

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I read an older notice yesterday and had not realized Brigadier General Evelyn “Pat” Foote passed away in August at the age of 95. While I refer to myself as an “inadvertent pioneer”, it is possible when she first entered the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), she may or may not have thought of herself in the same way. Here is a short piece. “Pat was a career Army officer, serving on active duty from 1959 to 1989, and rising to the rank of Brigadier General. Her key assignments included public affairs officer in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968 and command at battalion, brigade and post levels. She was a graduate of Wake Forest University (BA) and Shippensburg University (MS) and holds an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Wake Forest University. Pat is best remembered in the Army for holding many firsts and for being a fierce advocate for military women.

In 1994, Pat was appointed to the American Battle Monuments Commission and subsequently to the Site and Design Committee of the WWII memorial. From 2006 -2016 she met the Ely senior class at the WWII Memorial, briefing them on the history, design and construction of the memorial.”

After the transition into regular Army when women selected specific branches to serve in, she chose Military Police, which was definitely not the path most women selected at the time.

I never met her personally, but we all knew of her. At the time she was selected to be Brigadier General (one-star), that was the highest rank a woman could expect to achieve. That has to do with the limited positions women could hold; another thing that has changed considerably. A quick word about the American Battle Monuments Committee. That is one of those highly prestigious positions cherished by anyone interested in American history. Once appointed to the Committe it is usually permanent. The long time many individuals serve on it is one reason why so few positions ever open.

 

 

And Yet Another Gap…

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Yes, it is Easter and yes, another gap in posting, and yes, Hubby had to work until mid-afternoon. Holidays are popular times for diving; that’s just the way it goes.

I made lunch for a couple of friends who were alone. It was actually a brunch menu with raspberry brie tarts while finished up the bacon, potato/ham casserole, corn muffins, and some fruit. Friend brought cheesecake topped with lemon curd.

We have boneless leg of lamb Hubby  will roast tonight and we’ll have potatoes and green beans to go with it. Although we usually do lamb chops, they didn’t look good at the store and the other did. Obviously, we’ll have leftover cheesecake for dessert. Hubby did eat the ears off the chocolate bunny this morning and that will get consumed over the next few days.

Not sure what the kids did; they will call later tonight and get us caught up. I did book our flight for the short trip in June to see the season’s end show. This is where all the classes from kinder-ballet through the upper levels, plus tap, jazz, and modern perform. It will be the first time we’ve seen granddaughter dance in person.

Lots to do in the week ahead of course and now I’m headed downstairs to see what happens with the lamb. Hubby searched through about half-dozen recipes. This one is pretty basic with olive oil, rosemary, garlic, and maybe one or two other ingredients.

Paying the Shark Tax…..

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This will make sense in a moment. First, people do ask at times about sharks and diving. Reef and nurse sharks are the two main varieties here that hang around the reefs. The simple fact is sharks are scavengers as much as predators. They want to expend as little energy as necessary when “hunting” and in the way of nature will go after the less mobile fish which are often those in their waning days. Once a shark has eaten, it has no further interest in attacking anything. People, especially divers in scuba gear, do not look like anything in their food chain. The flapping hands or feet of individuals swimming/playing in murky water though might seem so. Same with the situation of individuals on surfboards and floats. Sharks do love to eat seals and turtles. In looking up, guess what people on surfboards and floats look like? I will admit, it did take me a bit to accept this. While I’m fine with the regular encounters on the reefs, I certainly have no intention of getting into some cage for a great white shark encounter. Here, the bigger sharks such as bulls are mostly on the deep wrecks that are in the technical diving category. I haven’t heard of an attack on a diver in those cases because again, divers are not in their food chain.

Spear and other fishing is different; going back to sharks expending as little energy as needed. If someone has already caught or wounded a fish, then swooping in to snatch the fish requires very little energy for the shark. An angler battling to bring a fish in may suddenly realize most of the fish has bee yanked off the line. This is “paying the shark tax”. Our local Keys radio station has a fishing report three times a day; morning, noon, late afternoon and “Captain Matt” is matter-of-fact about this reality. The one thing that can happen is drawing multiple sharks in to create a feeding frenzy. As Captain Matt says, in that case, just move on to a new location.

“Little Chickens”…..

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I’ve posted several times about growing up with basic Southern cooking and learning about new foods mostly through travel since that began for me before such things as being a “foodie” and so many cooking shows existed. A discussion yesterday about Cornish game hens reminded me that was one of the items I had never heard of in my youth. I think I must have had one the first time at some sort of dinner event because they became popular for that in the 1980s. I remember the sitcom of “Dharma and Greg” when the wealthy mother told the cook to get game hens for dinner and not to just buy “little chickens” because she knew the difference. My nephew also referred to them as “little chickens” and were one of his favorite “special meal” dishes.

They really are a bit of a bother to eat, but we have them about once a month. Hubby splits and grills them and we each have a half. The second meal with them will usually be cacciatore style or hunter which is the onion, celery, carrot, and brown gravy mixture. Both of those versions are even messier to manage – the two-napkin kind of meal.

I suspect my parents never had them because it’s not the kind of thing they would have noticed. Chicken of course in many ways and I’ve mentioned before, it was always the whole chicken to be cut up. That is the most economical and it really doesn’t take long to cut one up. We don’t do it because I’m not a fan of dark meat except I will buy a package of bone-in chicken thighs when I am going to do coq au vin. In fact, I have a few in the freezer and should probably use them soon.

 

On the Road…..

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Emotional content alert. The long gap since my last post is due to several factors. We tragically lost my nephew early last month and I have been back and forth to Houston to help with my sister and brother-in-law.The memorial service last week was lovely and his college student daughter and son did well. My grand-niece was concerned she would be crying too much, yet she held together as well as could possibly be expected.

Cousins from our side of the family came from different points and it was good to see them. My sister especially appreciated it as my nephew’s children had never met any of them. As an aside about the church – it is huge with two buildings and it looked to be 3-4 acres for the complex (maybe more). The story is way back, wealthy members had traveled to Europe and been impressed with the churches they saw there. This one went through a major renovation whenever and they have this famous organ that cost like $2 million. It was not played during the service, although apparently organists routinely come to be guest players because it is so well known.

Anyway, it has been a whirl of other commitments since my return and my first day of somewhat calm is likely to be Friday.

More on Jazz Festival….

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Okay, now for the details about our Montreaux Jazz Festival in Miami experience. This is for sure a “splurge event” and that’s okay. Staying within walking distance is well worth it and the Courtyard Marriott was fine.

The food vendor set-up at the venue was interesting although sitting down to dine in the adjoining Bayshore Grill is a better way to go if leisurely dining is what you want. Not sure how we might go if we attend next year. The point is we understand timing better now. The experience was well worth it and the music was not what we were expecting. Part of that is because we weren’t familiar with the two performers so we had no way of knowing what they were like. Production-wise – as in light and imagery – the second show was impressive. As I think I mentioned in the previous post, the Latin Jazz was the least of my choices and all that was available when I booked. Since we are on the list, there is a chance we will get advance notice for next year. The timing may or may not work, so we’ll see how that goes.

I head back to Houston to help my sister next Thursday and my days are jammed until then and almost the entire week of my return. That has to do with known commitments and a couple of others thrown in. It really can’t be helped and maybe, just maybe, the last week will have some semblance of normal for me.

New Adventure….

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We are at the Courtyard Marriott Bayshore in Coconut Grove and  an hour will walk to the Montreaux Jazz Festival. We really don’t know what to expect as details are definitely lacking. Makes it a bit confusing for first-timers. This is the third year I think. Apparently the Montreaux group decided to expand out from Switzerland. I’m not sure how many places other than Miami or maybe they simply decided having a winter festival in a warm place was a good idea. There are supposed to be a variety of award-winning Miami chefs as food vendors or we can choose the Bayshore Club which is not on the premises of the actual venue of the Hangar. We’ve decided to go for the vendors as a might-as-well have the whole experience.

In choosing to stay within walking distance, let me just say the room price is not as much as we have occasionally paid. We are on the 8th floor and there is a pleasant balcony. Should be nice for coffee tomorrow. The rain has stopped so we should be safe from that.There is a hotel car that can take us, but we do enjoy walking.

The festival is three days and I had wanted the line-up from either Friday or Saturday, but those tickets sold out before I tried to book. It will be Latin Jazz tonight and we do enjoy others we’ve heard. We will not be staying for the 11:30 p.m. jam session. I can absolutely see true night owls loving something like that.

Might Be A Repeat….

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Actually, I think I started this post, then deleted the draft. I was reminded again this morning of the phrase, “Perfect as the enemy of good.” (If I did this already, my apologies for repetition.)

Anyway, this phrase can be used in most applications, although I originally learned it in the Army. When planning operations, this and the phrase, “Good idea cut-off time”, were important. Anyone who has ever organized an event of any size knows the frustration of getting a plan set and having people start making changes, especially as the date comes closer. The “good idea cut-off time” is what it sounds like. Set a date where the plan is locked unless responding to an external emergency. Granted, if there is a boss involved, the boss gets exemption from the date. However, this is where the other phrase comes in.

This can be a bit tricky because it depends on how one defines “perfect” and “good”. Continuing with the event planning as an example. It’s a dinner for 100 people. You (and the committee) decided on simple floral arrangements for the tables and that’s all set. A bud vase and 1 pink and 1 blue carnation plus 1 sprig of baby’s breath. The colors were selected to go with the other decor. You go to pick up the flowers and somehow the order is mixed up and there are no blue carnations; only white along with pink. That particular florist can’t get enough blue in time. There is no other convenient florist so to split the order and try to get blue will require calling the two florists in a town 30 minutes away, and you would have to go pick them up. Guess what? White with pink may not be “perfect”, but it is “good”. And yes, no doubt someone will complain. (There is always someone)

Capricious Mother Nature…..

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We came through the extended cold snap with minimal damage to crops and wildlife (other than the iguanas I mentioned in an earlier post). In “getting back to normal” with our morning temperature in the 60s and afternoons high 70s/low 80s, the water has also warmed back up to 75 degrees. This protects the coral. Apparently Mother Nature isn’t quite done with us. And yes, I know three days of us dipping into the high 60s is the cause of smirks for those who still have weeks of snow and ice ahead. In reality, this is likely our last “winter” dip. Then we’ll have a bit of time before our rainy season starts.

I had a luncheon meeting set up today with two of our Homestead Center for the Arts volunteers to discuss a couple of projects and with the weather we went to the White Lion, a place I love to introduce people to. The husband grew up in Homestead and remembered going to it when he was a teenager; the wife had never been. She fell in love from the moment she stepped inside and sitting outside was even more alluring. They are cat lovers (and rescuers) and so the presence of all the cats was really special. The food of course was great and while they passed on the incredible desserts, they may save room next time.

Prior to their arrival, one of the longtime waitresses asked about HCA because her daughter is a dancer and an artist. Or it may be she is interested in becoming an artist. Anyway, I gave her my card and she will contact me so I can send her all the information. We’ll see how that goes. Have also mapped out a plan for me to have YouTube video done of my books. More to follow.