Pluarilty Vote Spells Trouble for WV streams

I am fearful of the impact yesterday's 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court on the Rapanos vs. US case. The dissenting opinion seeks to change the previous definition of water: not to include intermittent streams. Therefore one would not have to apply to fill these streams with waste. A change in definition of the Clean Water Act would greatly aid the furtherment of mountain top removal and the continued burial of streams in the WV mountains.

I wish someone from the Senate would have had the nerve to question the nominees on these types of questions before voting to approve them.

This is the first of many posts on coal mining, environment and other WV related material. After my trip back to WV last week I felt moved to do something.

Hop on Pop

Dad is at home now and after an initial rough evening is doing as well as can be expected. He is eating, resting and enjoying being home.

While I stayed with dad in the hospital room I realized how important quality pastoral care really is. I also realized how important it is to respect people's space and time while visiting. I am a pretty quick visitor when it comes to visits but I may even speed it up a bit more.

Treatments for Pop start in the middle of this week. I know they will knock him for a loop and tire him out, but I hope they are able to shrink the tumors and perhaps even knock them out.

Livestrong Pop.

The Garden of Weeden

Take equal parts fertile soil, ample rain, vacationing and emergency traveling gardener, and splash in some sun and you have you a weed paradise. The existence of weeds in the garden this year is almost too much to handle. This morning I just started plugging along, hilling up potatoes. It is late to hill, I know, one should do it when they are six inches tall - not when they are blooming. That's right potatoes actually bloom, it quite a lovely little flower:

Eventually I will be able to weed, hill, hoe and cultivate the garden, it is just so daunting right now.

But in the middle of the weeds there are some graceful blooms.

Sage


Thyme

Although this is not a bloom I still love it. Know what it is? A garlic seed shoot. You cut these off, just like you do on onions, to ensure that most of the growing energy goes towards the bulb and not the seed shoot. If you love raw garlic like me, cut these shoots then suck the moisture from them. It is a delightful smooth garlic essence. But dont even think about trying to get all lovey dovey with your special someone, it just doesnt work. I also like the way they curl up. This one I will leave and let go to seed so i can experiment next year attempting to grow garlic from seed.

Travel Tip

For the trip back to WV I arranged via Southwest a car rental from Pittsburg to Charleston. I chose the economy model, for the price and for the gas mileage. But you know something happened when I went to pick up the car: they didnt have any economy models there. So what did they do? They gave me a PT Crusier instead for the same price. I mention this because I have yet to ever receive an economy car when I go to rent a car.

Give it a whirl rent an economy and see if you dont get a better model for the economy price?

370

This morning my father was released from room 370 to go home. The past week was horrible. On Monday Pop went in for a biopsy, a "T" incision at the base of his throat, however, enlarged blood vessels were found. So the doctor had to do the same procedure for open heart surgery to perform the biopsy. It was a drastic operation for a biopsy but a correct diagnosis was necessary.

Pop came through the surgery great. There was no esophegal or lymphoma found: it was lung cancer growing in my father!

Lung cancer, that wasnt even on the radar.

So my dad sat in the room contemplating the future and the news of diagnosis.

On Wednesday we met with the Oncologist. He told us dad has non-small cell lung cancer, the typical cancer you think about when think about lung cancer. The typical treatments of chemotherapy and radiation can extend life for an average of 1 and 1/2 years. (if no treatments are offered they gave dad six weeks.)

On Thursday he had a stent put in his esophagus to enable him to swallow and eat soft foods.

On Friday he met with the radiologists.

Treatments will begin next week.

I am back in Lil Rhody now. I will go back to the Mountain State after the baby is born, dad's first round of treatments should be finished by then.

They say 25% of patients at the cancer center "make it." There is good reason to think my dad may be one of the 25%. He has been struck by lightinging. He feel three stories through scaffolding and survived. Because he is left-handed a truck once totaled his car while he was about to get in the trunk (a righty would have been obliterated.) A week after he served his time in Germany his unit was deployed to Vietnam. (His HAWK unit had a 15 minute survival time in the field of battle).

Livestrong Pop.

High Tea at Our House

On Tuesday afternoon we decided to have high tea. It was a way to avoid thinking about my dad who was meeting with the doctor and a way for the kids to be active without driving the wife crazy since it is the June monsoon season in New England. We made iced tea with simply syrup, garnished with mint leaves from the garden. I picked up some Apricot Scones at Maxie's Bread. Lori also arranged a cheese, grape and cracker tray. It was a great meal and a great time. Easy to do and well worth it.

We first experienced a "real tea" while staying in Savannah a few years ago at the Savannah Tea Room. We were hooked on the Peach/Mango Iced Tea. Our waitress gave us the simply syrup recipe: one part sugar to one part hot water; it is a great way to sweeten tea.

The Best Muffin in the World, Period.

On our way back from WV last week we stopped in Harrisburg, PA for a nights rest before heading out the next day. Harrisburg is about the halfway point and the home of two good friends, Chad and Kelly (here is an action picture of them)


They are great purveyors of beer and great places to eat in the Capital area. They have never let us down from coffee, tea to dinner. We arrived at the hotel too late for a nightcap so we resolved to meet for breakfast. They suggested that we meet in Hershey and eat at an unnamed destination. They chose The Hershey Pantry, located on 801 East Chocolate Avenue in Hershey, PA.

The place had a great feel right from the beginning. I ordered eggs over easy, bacon and homefries. The eggs yolks were runny, perfect; the bacon was chewy, even better; and the homefries were crunchy and wet (wet from their own moisture not from butter. mmmmmm. Lori, the wife, ordered the #4 Pantry Special: two eggs, two pancakes, home fries, bacon and toast. I suggested that they call it the Pregnant Lady Special, the waitress agreed. What made this special so special was the size of the pancakes, look at these things:


But the highlight for me, mealwise, was the muffin. Along the counter laid about 50 muffins of 6 or 7 different stripes. I immediately migrated to the chocolate chip cream muffin. Chad and Kelly ordered one, it came on a plate all mashed up:
I couldnt for the life of me figure out why they served it on the plate all mashed up. Naturally I ordered one of those chuncks of heaven to go. It came in a nice white pastry box. After we filled up the van with gas I started to work on the muffin. I quickly realized why it was served on a plate, mashed up, and ate with a fork. The muffin is so moist, so sweet and so messy with the whipped cream and cream cheese filling, but oh so delicious.

Thank you Chad and Kelly. We are already planning our next stopover in the 'burg so we can try one of the six choices of stuffed french bread.

Either/Or

This afternoon I learned that dad either has lymphomia, which is treatable with chemotherapy and radiation, or an advanced stage of esophegal cancer, which isnt treatable. Another biopsy is scheduled asap to determine what is in my father.

Where is the Justice?

First Ben and Jerry's was bought.
Then Bert's Bees.
Then Tom's of Maine by Colgate.

And now Rolling Rock has been bought out by Anheuser-Busch. They will continue producing RR but it will no longer come from the glass lined tanks of Latrobe. I have always like RR, for now I will try out some other brands - more than likely i will take up Brooklyn Brewery I was fortunate on our trip home from WV to pick up another Pennsylvania blue collar beer: Yuengling

Great Dessert

Upon arrival back to Rhode Island after vacation we cut some of our Rhubarb, the wife made a crisp while I made buttermilk ice cream.

The Rhurbarb Crisp Recipe we got from Sara Moulton


1 pound fresh rhubarb, cut into 3/4-inch pieces, about 4 cups
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup old-fashion rolled oats
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), melted but not hot
Vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large bowl combine rhubarb with sugar, 1/4 cup flour, and cinnamon and transfer into four 4-inch individual baking dishes. In a bowl combine remaining 1 cup of flour, brown sugar, rolled oats, and butter, mixing well. Sprinkle over the rhubarb mixture and bake for 35 minutes until topping is golden brown and rhubarb is tender. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

The ice cream we got from the June 2002 Bon Appetit installment. The recipe came from Asher Restaurant in Rosewell, GA. (which doesnt appear to be in business anymore.)

1 cup whipping cream
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup cold buttermilk

Bring whipping cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Whisk egg yolks and sugar in medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk hot cream into egg yolk mixture. Return mixture to saucepan and stir over medium heat until custard thickens slightly, about 6 minutes (do not boil). Strain into bowl. Stir in 1 cup cold buttermilk. Refrigerate custard until cold, about 2 hours. Process in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. (Can be prepared up to 5 days ahead. Freeze in covered container.)