it used to be Pacific-August

this summer, the length of it, has been very rainy, cooler and rainier than normal.

In my youth there was some magic to "August" the month, the place, on the coast of California...less fog, warmth at night, a sensual feeling to the climate. Now, here, older, in Illinois, it--August--means a tilt of the seasons, as summer becomes autumn and autumn then becomes winter with all that that entails, ice, cold, bare trees, discontent. Coasting into eight years here! Amazing.

My friend Robert Joseph has been diagnosed with cancer of the colon; surgery, he has opted, as least for the present, to avoid chemotherapy and radiation and yesterday flew from Nevada, where he lives, to Tijuana, California Sur, Mexico, for some vegan sort of treatment at a clinic there.

email to the kids

this is an email I sent to Matt, Saniata, Lauren a few minutes ago...a testament to good eating maybe, as much as a gesture to be included...such a drift from the kids, mostly Lauren. I'm left with a sense of having to guess what I might have done to be in such disdain? Fairly clueless. So here's the email which is mostly joyous with the sense of food, always a good binder with me and my kids...I like that in them.
the email:


So I was really hungry this afternoon, I'm not sure why. I made dinner. Thick Iowa pork chops, 1.5 inches thick, very slowly browned in the electric skillet in olive oil and canola oil; added chopped onion, chopped garlic, large chopped bell pepper, large chopped celery, a very little hot chile, salt, pepper, fresh oregano, fresh basil and let it meld...lid on, lid off



Meanwhile I made my own sort of egg noodles alfredo, parmesan~pecorino...



Noodles rich, soft, creamy, pork chop on top of that, fresh home grown tomato slices over that, (from friends) sprinkled with fresh basil



Fork tender, I though I'd died and gone to hog heaven, really the best pork chops I've ever made.



The fresh (not cooked) tomato slices really added zing, sweet, bitter, a nice blend with the onion, garlic, pepper concoction...I'm sure you do something like this, but wonderful...Jim, picky roomie, scraped all the veggies off and ate it, too, and liked it, he said. Well, he said, "not bad" which is midwestern-speak for "very good!"



So how are you? How's Matt feeling? Where is Lauren? Alameda, Cleveland, Alaska, Bahamas? Did you have a party for Kaliya? Lauren there, the Rosebaum tribe there?



Let me know...Love you all and Happy Birthday Sweetheart Kaliya! Grandpa David, Papa

The picture above, high summer, everything blooming, fecund, making seeds and fragrance and withering with the season. Oh...I'm still not smoking! Amazing! I think it's six month on August 13th