An Oom-Pah Evening

A short time after my grandma’s funeral, Mom flew back to Florida to spend more time with her father. While taking care of Grandpa, she rented an accordion (which she’d been wanting to learn) from a nearby shop to give her something to do while looking after him.

She had to fly back to Texas before the rental period ended, so the accordion has stayed here in the house since, and on a few of those days when watching TV and doing laundry isn’t enough to pass the time, I’d pick it up and try to figure it out.

I played “Mary Had A Little Lamb” and “Jingle Bells” and even took a semi-successful crack at “San Antonio Rose” following an afternoon of having Patsy Cline stuck in my head. But, since it has to go back tomorrow, while waiting for Grandpa’s med-time to roll around this evening, I picked it up for one last round and worked out the melody – and some of the bass line chords – of “Oom-Pah-Pah” from Oliver! (with help from this guy).

Thankfully, Grandpa is nearly deaf, so me pumping out notes dug up from memory isn’t as painful for him as it would be for a healthy set of ears. Although I have no idea how or even if you can play the accordion quietly, Grandpa slept right through the whole practice session.

But I didn’t go completely without audience. Batman was there to help iron out the melody.

Interlude: Death and Ice Cream

It’s been a little over a month since my last post. A little over a month since my grandma’s 98th birthday.  I’ve had a few little things to blog about here and there, but what really needs writing won’t come.

Grandma passed away almost a week after her 98th birthday. We all thought she’d live to be a hundred. But accidents happen and sometime they change everything.

After the doctors decided there was little they could do, she was discharged to my parents’ home to live out her last days. Thankfully all of her children were able to fly in to be with her, and for the last week of her life she was surrounded by her children and grandchildren. Few people are that lucky.

Since I returned from the funeral, I’ve been taking care of my grandpa and filling my mind and my spare time with a hodgepodge of hobbies: gardening and raising seedlings, trying to learn a song on an accordion, writing and mailing lots of letters. And when Woot offered up a $100 ice cream maker for $30, I took up ice cream making.

Prior to this, my one memory of making ice cream is me squatting in the breezeway of my grandma’s house, surrounded by the flow of extended family, squared off with an ice cream maker, staring in wonderment at the spin and the salts.

With Grandma gone, it’s important to keep those memories alive.

But I wish she were here to taste these homemade creations. I know she’d enjoy them.

So far my favorite is mint chocolate chip (Ingredients: heavy cream, whole milk, sugar, chopped dark chocolate, peppermint extract and green food coloring):

The runner up was last night’s creation. No name for it yet, but it’s a mix of cream, milk, soy milk , vanilla yogurt, lemon extract, honey and ginger:

Not nearly as creamy as the mint chocolate chip, but powerfully tasty and refreshing.

The other flavors tried turned out wonderfully, too: homemade vanilla, fresh strawberry, and sweet cinnamon (which tasted almost exactly like a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and milk, without the crunch).

But honestly, I bought the ice cream maker with I one flavor in mind: Thai red curry.

Curries are made with coconut milk and many of them are slightly sweetened, so why not make one into an ice cream? But googling the idea brought up this website: 101 Frightening Ice Cream Flavors From Around the World.

Undeterred by curry ice cream’s association with the likes of raw horseflesh ice cream, pit viper ice cream and deep sea water ice cream, I made my simple batch with three components: coconut milk, sugar and red curry paste.

It came out a pretty, pastel orangish/red hue, and surprisingly, tasted just like red curry (minus the chunks of meat and veggies). But the chill is unsettling. Curry is served hot and spicy, and this tongue-toasting, brain-freezing treat messes with the mind. All I wanted to do was nuke it and slurp the resulting soup along with a mound of rice.

I haven’t made any curry ice cream since, but now the challenge is to find something to balance this gustatory experience. Curry ice cream can’t stand alone, but it’s still disturbingly delicious. Maybe if I add some shrimp, some spring onions…bamboo shoots…red and green bell peppers…

End Days and Aftermath

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to ride the streets of Manhattan. The bike needed some adjustments, plus we had other plans involving Coney Island (and the impromptu purchase of a silver lamé bikini), but I did get to do a little sprint over and back on the Williamsburg bridge (which elicited several funny stares and a couple conversations) then pedaled around the streets of Williamsburg before meeting my friend and a mass of locals to watch a hazy sunset over a lazy river.

On the way home, we passed an interesting sculpture chained to the sidewalk:

which reminds me of a fixture of the Lower East Side, The Knit Bike:

(photo courtesy of S. Rice)

Someone recently asked me what I like so much about NYC, and though the answer largely has something to do with car-less living and wide social acceptance from anonymous crowds, the proliferation of art and culture also tends to bend my affections. Especially when a large part of it is accessible curbside.

Oh, and there’s the food.  In one day of my stay I had gluten-free mac ‘n’ cheese (and I’m not talking the normal stuff; this was rice macaroni with rosemary, melted brie, roasted figs & roasted shitake mushrooms), gluten-free cupcakes (vanilla with strawberry topping & carrot cake with cream cheese frosting), and delicious gluten-free pizza. It was a whirl-wind of food my brain said I really really really shouldn’t be eating and though it took me practically until the end of the day to relax and enjoy the meals, I am nonetheless amazed at what is available! We topped off my stay with tacos from a Korean BBQ restaurant (fish and shitake tacos may sound bad but are actually excellent) and episodes from Cowboy Bebop, which I hadn’t seen in ages (not food-relevant, I know, but worth mentioning).

Although I didn’t get to ride Central Park, missed my pilgrimage to the Met, and never actually got to be in the city with Batman (we kept missing each other – he really needs to get a cell phone) I still enjoyed every moment.

Upon returning to Long Island, I intended to go for a ride on the less-traveled roads east of where we stayed, but after my week of what I hope is the closest I will ever come to a rock and roll life style (my sleep schedule upended, my skin inexplicably bruised, my feet scabbed from dancing shoes, my liver exhausted from booze and my lungs gasping from exposure to a city’s worth of second-hand smoke) I felt more than a little under the weather and decided to skip the ride. Plus, since I was staying with family out on Long Island, we had more pressing obligations to consume our time:

(As a family, we have learned that it is essential to find Joy wherever one can. Even occasionally at the expense of small, dignified – and hopefully declawed – animals.)

Before I had time to recover and consider another ride, it was time for me to fly home.  Bye bye New York.  With any luck, I’ll be back soon. Next time, hopefully with Batman.

Big Apple Ride & Birthday Soup

I’m staying with a friend in Brooklyn and since I have my Corsa with me, I took it for a spin today. The west side has a fantastic bike trail, so I rode the full length of Manhattan twice then headed around the south end, across the Williamsburg Bridge and back to my friend’s place. My bike computer is back in Florida, so I get to guess about my distance and speed, but it turned out to be a nice ride. I stayed off the roads, wanting a chance to scout out routes and local behavior toward bikers and I gotta say I’m impressed with the work the city has put toward incorporating bikes. Usually I hate bike trails, but the ones I rode worked pretty well (minus pedestrians who don’t hear “passing left” for one reason or another).  Tomorrow or Friday, I’ll take to the streets. If you’re so inclined, say a prayer for me.

And in the meanwhile, be sure to wish Bruce Campbell a happy belated birthday the Sci Fi Wire way:

Check out the website for more info, the above images and a link to PDFs you can print up and apply to nearby, unsuspecting soup cans: http://scifiwire.com/2010/06/four-labels-from-the-bruc.php

For Bruce’s more recent fans, commenter “brucefan” pointed out on the Sci Fi Wire page that the can labels should remind consumers to be careful when eating scalding-hot soup. Some kind of warning or perhaps a notice about the danger of getting burned…  (If you look closely, the Gumbo Ho-Tep label does include a health warning, but it bares no relation to a burn notice.)

Belated RAAM Results

So the Bent Up Cycles team rolled into Annapolis some time around 3 or 3:30 am Saturday morning. My sister and I were a little delirious from lack of sleep by then so the exact timing I’ve long since forgotten, but the official finishing time was 6 days 9 hours and 50 minutes for a little over 3000 miles. Woohoo!

While crossing the country he needed to maintain a relatively constant power output, but since Dad got to ride the last leg of the race, they told him to give it all he had. As Crew Member Bill liked to say, “We put a quarter in him and let him go.” As I understand, he went around and above 30 mph for much of the last leg, and this after six days of riding cross-country with his teammates, climbing mountains, through high altitudes, across huge plains, along interstates, at night, downhill, on bad roads and amidst bad weather. These guys amaze me. Dad, Dana, JV and Willie: you rock. You can read Dad’s ride report here.

Considering they had just biked across the country, they looked pretty good when they rolled across the finish.  Of course, the official finish line was at a Shell station about 3 1/2 miles away. Upon arrival there, they were given a few minutes to clean up and don new jerseys, which we at the family-and-friends finish line greatly appreciated.

After congratulations and hugs (that were, happily, neither as sweaty nor as smelly as they would have been without the complimentary freshening-up stop), the team members got up on stage for a quick interview about their experience and a photo op, then opened a bottle of champagne with the crew to toast the accomplishment. (We got a picture of Dad holding the glass, but couldn’t catch a clear one of him drinking it. You’ll have to take my word for it.)

Subsequently, bikes and riders were packed into minivans with, of course, the exception of my Corsa – Dad’s borrowed backup bike for the race. In the commotion, I retrieved the beauty (oh baby, have I missed you) and spirited it away to our minivan waiting across the parking lot, then caravaned with the rest to the motel.

We slept a bit then spent Saturday’s remaining daylit hours wandering around Annapolis with two of his amazing crew members, Lonnie and Bill, feeding Dad multiple meals from various eating establishments. The afternoon culminated in a banquet hosted by RAAM where Dad was able to really really refuel himself with all the good, tasty, fresh, solid food he was unable to either get or digest during the race. They also received their plaques at that time.

Back at the motel, Dad, my sister and I sat on the back steps, enjoying the evening and talking with Dana and several crew members, one of whom is an author, researching his next book. His first one – Dead Hand Control – looks pretty awesome (and is currently on it’s way to my house), so I’ll be among those first in line for his next. One of these days I hope to publish something longer than a post, but in the meanwhile it’s neat to have the chance to talk to someone who has already been there.

For now, I want to applaud the riders and crew of the Bent Up Cycles team. You guys and gals did a fantastic job of kicking butt on the road and taking care of my dad. I can’t thank you enough. And to those of you who I got to know, I hope to see you again (and maybe ride with you!) sometime soon.

Oh, and though we didn’t get to spend much of Father’s Day with Dad since they had to get back on the road early Sunday morning to head home, we did give him his Father’s Day gift. Can you guess which one we finally settled on?