Weekly Journal 8.17.26
Reading
I finished The Wonder Trail, a disjointed but funny travelogue by Steve Hely. It follows his journey from L.A. to the tip of South America, during which he followed his bliss, drank a lot, and met some interesting people. I plan to return to the appendix where he recommends several travel books by women; I realized that, like Hely, I have mainly read travel books written by men—Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson, and John Steinbeck come to mind. But I've also read and enjoyed America the Beautiful? by Blythe Roberson and, of course, Wild by Cheryl Strayed.
Oh, I will be reading the latest issue of Heart on Our Sleeves Press literary magazine as soon as it gets delivered to my house. Issue #5 happens to include an essay by me!
Watching
Our kiddo is about the age where he'll probably enjoy The Simpsons; I started watching it when I was six or seven. I used to have the first eight seasons on DVD, and watched them over and over again, cycling through then with and without the commentary tracks (i.e., nerding out). Rather than scour the attic for whichever boxes those DVDs now reside in, and trying to connect our cheap little DVD player to the television set, I bought a couple of the early seasons on my Google TV account. They have been a joy to watch so far. My son is intrigued, but a little puzzled by the layers of satire and cultural reference embedded in The Simpsons. It's not always easy for me to explain the jokes. This show has shaped my sense of humor so strongly that it's strange to look at it from a newcomer's perspective.
Cooking
My pride and joy of the week is a pie made entirely with apples grown on our backyard tree. They are honeycrisp, which don't hold up in cooking as well as firmer apple varieties, but I don't mind and think they taste amazing. I struggled less with rolling out the crust this time, probably because I chilled it for less than an hour beforehand. Normally I follow the advice to chill it for a minimum of one hour, then let it rest on the counter for at least half that time before rolling it out. I always have problems with it falling apart. I listened to my instincts this time and found it much more pliable. I still had some melting issues because my kitchen was warm, so next time I might handle the dough directly on the quartz countertop.
More bad food photography because I don't have the time:
Doing
I've been struggling with some personal and familial issues. In my experience, an acceptable response to emotional strife is getting a new tattoo. I already happened to make an appointment for one before I became depressed this week. A local tattoo artist is doing a flash sale to raise money for wildfire relief. The proceeds from last tattoo, which I got about four years ago, raised money for the PDX Diaper Bank, so that means that soon, half my body ink will have been done charitably!
Listening
I heard an old Everclear song on my local radio station and realized that band is missing from my streaming library. At the moment I'm listening to Sparkle and Fade, which includes "Santa Monica," the song that most people know. Enjoy the bleached hair and superlong wallet chain that appear in the music video: