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Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Leesburg VA


On vacation.  A sorely needed time away.  I was willing to drive about six hours.  My wife preferred half that, so we opted for a bedroom town of DC Metro, Leesburg.  The nearest public destination seems to be Dulles Airport, where the Metro seems to end.  Leesburg, as we pursue Day 2, has shown its multiple faces.  It seems a bit far for people to commute to the core of DC, though people probably do.  Many large and small employers ring the district. No doubt, the airport employs thousands. We found some history, a central old downtown which offers formal and self-guided historical tours.  There are Civil War sites, including a minor battle nearby.  I was surprised that the Potomac, which separates Virginia from Maryland, was the resource for the defeated Union soldiers to escape.  Since this battle, known mostly to locals and some Civil War buffs, was too small to appear in textbooks, it did spur the creation of the now very large military cemetery system.

Surprisingly close, we find some agricultural land, much of it quite large.  There are vineyards, open mostly on weekends to those seeking their periodic respites from DC.  Some microbreweries have emerged.  There is a large Factory Outlet Complex.  But mostly, Leesburg has become a bedroom city.  Small malls with places to eat, bank, get prescriptions filled, and serve as tasting room outlets for wineries, one that I visited today quite distant.  There are chain motels like the one we chose.  Supermarkets.  Medical care.  

I suspect the population has some economic diversity.  Loudon County is one of the highest income counties in America.  We drove past a few real mansions, a fair number of McMansions, prosperous housing developments where the engineers of aerospace not too far away probably live.  And a lot of more dense housing, townhouses and apartment complexes of a few stories.  No skyscrapers.  But no slums either.

And as something of a bottom line, vacation for me.  No appointment obligations other than those I self-impose.  The hotel's breakfast buffet shifts its times a little earlier than I would have chosen, the pool and hot tub opening's a little later.  There is an exercise room with a treadmill that I've not successfully operated and a recumbent cycle which I used as a surrogate, as exercise is more reliable when scheduled as an appointment with myself.  Same with pills.  I have two Torah portions to learn, one reasonably secure though not yet fluent, the other first beginning.  Those are performed irrespective of where I am or whether OLLI is in session.  Since food preparation is my daily task, one that I like doing, I still appreciate a few days of paying somebody else to do it.

And new experiences.  While not much for Shopping Outlet Complexes, the one here far outstrips what we have at home.  I suspect this place also employs hundreds.  We have vineyards, though not on the scale that distributes through Loudon County.  And our microbreweries and boutique independent coffee shops don't approach what we have sampled here.  

Leesburg, whether as resident or visitor from DC, seems a good place to hang out, especially as a young, prosperous professional.  As newlyweds, we lived in a place with abundant places to eat and visit.  To some extent we did.  Now we do what we usually do pretty much daily, but for a couple of breaks a year, it's good to seek out a place like this, a place where people of imagination create unique blends of things to eat and drink, while recognizing which parts of their historical heritage needs preservation and display. 

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Old Friends

My FB notifications left unread now reach past 100 as I get to the midpoint of my third week off the social media platforms.  The company really wants me to sign on, keeping their site as exclusive as they can.  To do this, they entice me with emails of who else has posted.  None of those emails notify me of a product they think I ought to know about, a home team to which I am loyal, or a political position that I share.  No.  Those hundred messages are all from Old Friends.  People from high school to whom FB has enabled me to reconnect.  I like the people.  I appreciate the platform despite the many valid reasons to let it lay fallow for a few weeks.  It is where I find Old Friends.

That leaves me with other places to connect with Old Friends.  Live places mostly, but some personal email too.  Live is better.  The limitation of live is the relative paucity of people and places to meet them.  OLLI has tapered off since the semester began.  Fewer people hang out in the central gathering area.  I no longer have a day that keeps me there beyond my one scheduled class.  People have been arriving closer to the announced starting time.  It would be interesting to ask the staff whether they use fewer K-cups at their complimentary Keurig machines.  I do not see a lot of people there.  Those at tables keep to themselves.  And the first half session has concluded, so people in those classes, two for me, are on site less.  

My other gathering place is shabbos morning.  There I always have old friends to approach or approach me at the conclusion of services.  The experience of the worship, sometimes engaging, sometimes not, poses something of a barrier if the purpose of attendance is camaraderie.  There are handshakes and greetings during services.  While sincere, they are also formalities, pretty much devoid of any language interchange that connects people.

I have no recreational buddies, one old friend who I can expect to man the deli counter at Shop-Rite if I go there early enough, something not often compatible with my OLLI obligations.  I don't belong to any clubs.  The senior physicians' program disappeared when its champion withdrew.  

But my wife remains steadfastly my dearest, most dependable friend.  As she should be.


Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Try Not to Respond

 





Now off FB, X, and Reddit more than two weeks.  FB notices have passed 100.  Only one moment of FOMO when FB emailed me that a very good friend received a comment from one of the HS popular kids who usually does not comment.  Did I miss a condolence?  That would end my hiatus.  My wife shares that good friend.  She reports that he was engaged in significant travel.  That does not need a response from me.

While the economic business model of social media depends highly on emotional provocation, as does televised media, podcasts, and now political figures, often it is better to stay on the sidelines.  

עֵ֥ת לַֽחֲשׁ֖וֹת וְעֵ֥ת לְדַבֵּֽר  as Kohelet observed.

Sometimes not commenting means don't care, as in the many lures to sell me things that come in my email feed. Sometimes I do care.  Respond and React are not the same.  The political messages intend to provoke my reaction.  Responses need to be more reflective.  And as Conflict Entrepreneurs get more sophisticated, responses also need some rationing.

One making rounds this week from a number of sources is an accusation that if I vote my way instead of their way I don't care about Israel and I am a defective Jew.  Very easy to get into that playground mode of Am Not:Are Too.  But merit as a Jew, unlike merit as an Evangelical Christian Nationalist, is not about how you vote.  It is about a vision for how you would like things to turn out with respectable ways of bringing the vision about.  It is about not having victims. It is about either not making enemies, or at least being very selective about which ones.  The essence of Judaism is about how you treat people.  The Conflict Entrepreneurs really missed the boat.

I vote for the candidates they publicly demean, though unsuccessful taking me with them.  I also eat kosher, observe shabbat, share my treasure in ways that make Israel stronger and make Jewish institutions secure.  I don't steal, either property or the genevas da-as of ideas.

While internal conflict is part of Jewish history, so much so that our Talmud was the first enduring document to include minority positions with their reasoning, disconnecting people usually turns out badly.  

Always respond thoughtfully, but also selectively.







Monday, March 18, 2024

Preparing a Class




It's been a while since I conducted a class for anything.  At one time I did this professionally, some semi-formal like topic reviews for residents, other times highly structured like Medical Grand Rounds.  For a few years I ran weekly sessions on Jewish topics for teens.  But once retired, these largely evaporated, except for two sessions over a few years for my congregation's dedicated adult learning day. And I've given two sessions for a group of senior physicians.  A small cluster returns.

My congregation has a movie series where people watch a designated film, then a few days later people discuss what they saw.  My turn to lead the discussion, which I see more as what I might do on resident work rounds.  Question and response format, with me generating the questions and maybe prodding responses.  A few short PowerPoint items, perhaps.  Maybe half a dozen slides to give some background to the film.  All done the day before.  Goal:  interactive, perhaps even Socratic.   And on Zoom.

Later I anticipate a more formal presentation to the congregation, a return to the day of adult learning.  Based on my professional background, the committee that arranges this asked me to pursue a topic.  This one will be powerpoint.  This one live.  The topic itself did not strike me as particularly exciting.  A list of diseases that people of my ethnicity might inherit.  Monogenic, a small straightforward list with a little science.  I've seen some, but most never will.  But it is the offshoots that generate interest.  What about common polygenic disorders and how prejudices among the medical community distort what we really encounter?  What about our sister community, geographically and genetically a little different but from a medical genetic outcome more diverse?  And how we address the problem.  In America a few advocacy groups handle a limited number of conditions.  In the other place, a concerted and systematic approach by a national health service.

Then many months from now, I move past the synagogue to conduct a session at OLLI.  My synagogue has largely excluded me from its creative process.  OLLI values this much more.  A Zoom course I have taken prepared its approach to the coming semester.  I thought a different set of lectures would be better so I sent a proposal.  Everyone else in the class will discuss a famous person who happens to be from and shaped by NYC.  My presentation will be the outlier.  No famous people.  Just the unique people who have historic legacies.  The Bowery Bums, the city workers, the chefs, the nobodies who thought they could make it there, pushcarts and newsstands now found nowhere else, the Chefs, the diplomats. Few famous, all recognizable.  But importantly, unique.

While I prefer to be reflective rather than having the limelight shine on me, I do tend to think in an analytical way that should be offered to others.  I kinda look forward to each of the upcoming efforts.


Friday, March 15, 2024

Ready for Vacation


When working, I usually had a clear idea of when a vacation might be due.  In fact, I often did not schedule one, let alone plan one until my daily performance had already begun to suffer.  I've done many different things.  Days at the regional beaches when my children were little.  Days at major cities, sometimes by car, sometimes by plane, sometimes linked to my professional travel.  A resort or two.  Three cruises.  Some National Parks.  Israel tour.  Drives through states in my home region.  Visiting relatives.  Linking to weddings of friends and children of friends.  I've been to a lot of places over the years.

In retirement, the need to find new scenery remains, but the internal prod that tells me this has become overdue is no longer there.  I was on a once in a lifetime guided tour of Paris within the last year.  My activity schedule has a spring break for which I afford myself a short trip.  And in the winter I often head off by myself for a few hours drive to a place with a major attraction as centerpiece but also some time enjoying hotel amenities and local brewpubs or wineries.  One of those spring break escapes not very far off, this one without a centerpiece attraction.

But I'm really starting to anticipate a desire for something more elaborate.  Not quite the splurge of that Paris tour, but a week to a new place or new experience.  My wife knows that I am ready to plan something about four months hence and asked for her preferences.

I'm open to largely anything that takes place someplace else.  The internet should serve as a resource for filtering options, but it just seems too vast, too unselected.  I started accessing state tourism office sites.  Every state has one.  And there are national parks.  And resorts.  And cruises.  While I do not want to travel overseas, America has neighbors to the north and to the south.  Really a blank canvas in a way.

And there are activities as well as places.  Fishing, golf, camping. Or a sports camp or a writing gathering or a cooking school Never actually went on a vacation with an activity in mind, other than a tour of wine country in a few places, with wine the destination in one.  Maybe a few days at a cooking school.

And people.  Maybe fish in the most racist municipality in all of George Wallace country.  Been to Amish country and Hasidic towns many times, all on day trips.  Not visited Hutterites.  Really not visited rural people or ranchers.  Passed through many places where people vote much differently than me, but never engaged them.  

Vacation not only lures with places, but what I might like to experience.  Surf the state and provincial tourism options a bit more.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Making Lasagna


My kitchen.  A place I like to be. Few things bring me more personal satisfaction than making supper each night for my wife and me.  Or periodically an elegant dinner for the relatively limited number of friends that we have acquired.  It's food.  It's not all kitchen.  I have to think about what to make.  For guests or special occasions.  It starts at my desk where I search recipes in cyberspace and fill out a menu grid, then sample what might be possible in the living room where my Kosher cookbook collection fills more than one shelf.  It entails a survey of the weekly Shop-Rite ad which hints at what I can make economically.  There is usually a two-hour expedition to the store itself, aisle by aisle.  America has food abundance.  I have the good fortune of ample funds to purchase pretty much anything that I can imagine as useful for a satisfying meal.  Often too much, as the contents of my limited freezer need some juggling.

Most meals are simple.  Something from the freezer.  Pierogies, crunchy fish, faux meat packaged as a heat-up entree, fish fillets thawed a day in advance.  Meat for shabbos, more often than not poultry, thawed two days in advance.  And a vegetable.  Sometimes perishable like a sliced tomato or cucumber.  Often frozen like corn or green beans where I can extract as much as I need, then boil.  Sometimes the vegetable Shop-Rite puts on sale that week.  Simple, but with a modicum of which of the many options should I take.

Along the way, I have a few signatures, or at least go-tos.  For shabbos cholent.  For guests, a roasted turkey half-breast or chicken cacciatore, one needing little effort, the other requiring many steps.  Desserts, a nut cake or a honey cake, one basic recipe with variants.

For suppers at home, I have two that require preparation, Macaroni and Cheese in the style of Horn and Hardart, which was my Automat staple, and Lasagna taken from the first cookbook judged worthy of the Artscroll Jewish publishers.  Each needs some targeted purchases.  Lasagna offers me more room for experimentation.   Each lasts four meals, one out of the oven, one the following night's supper, and two rectangles cut cold, wrapped in foil, and frozen for a supper each of the next two weeks.

Lasagna has a spinach base, so I need to get frozen spinach when on sale and keep it in the freezer until the day before.  I usually get the cut variety, but have gotten the leaf form.  They thaw waterlogged, so I take a fistful at a time, give a good squeeze, placing a handful at a time into the mixing bowl until all has been drained.  For a while I tried using a colander.  My hands extract more water.  Then a tub of cottage cheese.  Most come as one pint but the Shop-Rite house brand comes as 24 ounces, which seems to leave me more filling to work with on assembly.  Cottage cheese comes in a number of different forms.  Large or small curd, reduced fat or full fat.  After baking, the curd size doesn't matter.  Small mixes more easily.  And always full fat.  The purpose of cheese of any type is its sensory pleasure, which comes from its lipid elements.  And brand on sale when I go shopping.  An egg is needed for binding.  Dump into the bowl after the spinach, blend with a fork.  Then seasonings.  The Artscroll recipe calls for oregano and black pepper.  I vary this.  Oregano seems to work best.  The half teaspoon given in the recipe comes out unnoticed.  I use more, but since I never measure it, I don't really know how much more.  Black pepper is not noticed at all when served.  I look at my spice collection and pick one.  The Middle Eastern spices don't do especially well, despite Lasagna being a Mediterranean preparation.  Season salts and Asian spices are better.  But the options and my selection make each preparation a little different.  

The real variation from batch to batch comes from the cheese that is added to the cottage cheese filling.  The Artscroll recipe calls for mozzarella.  It is easy to find kosher-certified mozzarella.  And it is a staple of Italian pasta recipes because of its melting qualities and texture.  As a semi-soft cheese in its kosher formats, I find it difficult to shred with a processor's shredding disc.  More liquified mozzarella, really more of a paste, mixes easily with the cottage cheese in the prep bowl.  I have found cheddar a better option.  Table-K cheddar is easy to find and reasonably economical.  It shreds easily, which makes it better for the upper topping.  I will most often use some form of sharp cheddar, either by itself or in combination with mozzarella.  For flavor, I have used acceptable additions of blue cheese and Monterrey jack, but cheddar and mozzarella seem to offer the preferred texture and taste.

The lasagna is layered and topped with jarred spaghetti sauce.  There are several brands that are kosher-certified and go on sale.  The jars have become subject to shrinkflation, now containing 24 ounces when they used to contain 26, which is what the recipe calls for.  I find the 24 oz usually adequate but sometimes pull a partially used jar from the fridge to supplement.  The vegetarian jarred spaghetti sauces have their own variants.  Marina, basil, garden tomato.  The varieties without texture perform better.

So with just a few variable ingredients, the sauce, cottage cheese style, topic cheese, and spices, I can get a lot of different minor combinations from the same recipe.  Not having any reason to standardize what I do, and indeed a lot of reasons not to, each batch comes out unique but never dramatically so.  While I vary these brands, I do not do formal experimentation with the combinations or write them down.  Instead, I will purchase the cheese in a half-pound brick without earmarking it for lasagna.  Spaghetti sauce is purchased without lasagna or variety in mind, so I choose what is in the pantry.  Oregano is a constant, a small handful crushed.  Other herbs and spices vary from none to a shake or a few grinds of black pepper, to something in my spice collection that catches my attention when I see what I have available.

However I make it, the end result is usually good.  Sometimes a little overbaked.  More often just right. The underlying purpose, basically the enjoyment of my kitchen and the challenge of preparation is always fulfilled.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Up on Time


Eventually, I prefer the late sunsets of Daylight Savings Time.  This third morning of the new clock settings I resolved to depart my bed at the specified time that I plan to keep permanent until either the next clock adjustment or time zone travel.  It was a struggle, but I am up, dental routine completed, newspaper moved from driveway to the front door, first k-cup of coffee brewed, and morning pills swallowed.  I need that coffee to serve its intended purpose, though that typically happens after the second cup.

I have two sleep trackers, one a smartphone app, the other a feature of my smartwatch.  They agree with cumulative sleep times, differing only by 8 minutes.  The phone breaks down the components.  About half it called REM or deep sleep, the other half light sleep or awake.  I know I was awake far in excess of the 49 minutes its highly fallible method calculated, as I could check the red numerals on the clock radio with some regularity for about 2 hours at about the mid-point of my nightly sleep session.

However, the first step of sleep regulation, with few exceptions, is a commitment to Up on Time.  For the first morning of DST, I did that.