ouzel

Kaiser emailed me my blood test results from my physical exam the other day. Since both my father and Paternal Grandfather had heart attacks in their fifties I was glad to see my bodies cholesterol level is down from my last test (was 155). My HTL cholesterol is down too which is probably just because my main Cholesterol reading is low.

Age 49 Male
CHOLESTEROL 134
TRIGLYCERIDE 108
HDL 38
LDL CALCULATED 74

30 years Vegan helped!!

Vegan 100 ( A list circulating on many vegan blogs)

1) Copy this list into your own blog, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Post a comment here once you’ve finished and link your post back to this one.
5) Pass it on!

1. Natto Yummy :-{- love the strings!
2. Green Smoothie Ogwalla
3. Tofu Scramble Jeff's is the best
4. Haggis In London
5. Mangosteen
6. Creme brulee
7. Fondue The chocolate kind with strawberries and fruit
8. Marmite/Vegemite
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Nachos W/ Avocado and Salsa
12. Authentic soba noodles Buckwheat
13. PB&J sandwich Been a few years- how about 'ants on a log'?
14. Aloo gobi Cauliflower right?
15. Taco from a street cart Avocado Taco,Manteca CA
16. Boba Tea Albany CA
17. Black truffle Fresh Truffles in France
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes Cranberry, Plum, elderberry
19. Gyoza I've made these at home
20. Vanilla ice cream I've made berry icecream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries I make tarts
23. Ceviche
24. Rice and beans
25. Knish
26. Raw scotch bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Caviar
29. Baklava
30. Pate
31. Wasabi peas
32. Chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Mango lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Mulled cider
37. Scones with buttery spread and jam
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Fast food french fries
41. Raw Brownies
42. Fresh Garbanzo Beans
43. Dahl Is this Dal?
44. Homemade Soymilk and almond milk
45. Wine from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more ($30 is my limit)
46. Stroopwafle
47. Samosas Yum
48. Vegetable Sushi
49. Glazed doughnut Someone brought to potluck
50. Seaweed
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi 1979, good in salad dressing
53. Tofurkey I've had homemade Tofu skin Turkey too
54. Sheese Not this brand but other fake cheeses
55. Cotton candyAt the state fair
56. Gnocchi
57. Piña colada
58. Birch beer
59. Scrapple Isn't this sheep brains?
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Soy curls
63. Chickpea cutlets
64. Curry
65. Durian Thanksgiving 2003
66. Homemade Sausages1981 (From Okara
67. Churros, elephant ears, or funnel cake Disneyland 2000
68. Smoked tofu At least once a year
69. Fried plantain Rebeca's
70. Mochi I used to work for Grainaissance
71. Gazpacho
72. Warm chocolate chip cookies
73. Absinthe
74. Corn on the cob
75. Whipped cream, straight from the can
76. Pomegranate
77. Fauxstess Cupcake
78. Mashed potatoes with gravy
79. Jerky
80. Croissants
81. French onion soup
82. Savory crepes
83. Tings
84. A meal at Candle 79 ( Is this in Florida?)
85. Moussaka
86. Sprouted grains or seeds</b>
87. Macaroni and “cheese” McDougall recipe
88. Flowers
89. Matzoh ball soup
90. White chocolate
91. Seitan
92. Kimchi
93. Butterscotch chips
94. Yellow watermelon
95. Chili with chocolate
96. Bagel and Tofutti
97. Potato milk
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Raw cookie dough

I would add to this list:
Cornish Pasty
Raw Key Lime Pie
Chinese Steamed Bao
Fresh Tofu
Pizza
Cucumber dipped in Chili
Guava
Brazil nuts
french toast
Rice porridge
bread pudding
raw crackers
fresh bagel
Amazake
Wild Mushrooms
Bluegreen algae
Radish Ravioli

Just as I'm discovering the sudden oak death syndrome sweeping into my neighborhood woodland I'm reading about a catastrophic decline in the native amphibians of the Earth from introduced species that eat them and an aggressive infectious fungus. And it's a sweeping event that seems to be a foreshadowing of things to come. What happens to the snakes and birds that prey upon frogs? And up the food chain further? All the way up to what the writers call the ultimate weedy alien species-homo sapiens- if we can see changes and declines like this with amphibians in just a decade what will our even faster paced future hold? They call it the sixth wave of Earth life extinction. I think I'm sensing the proverbial water coming to a boil as I'm sitting in it. I feel immobilized because I can see the rivets popping out of the wings of my aircraft and I'm a trapped passenger inside. I feel the need to feel a deeper sense of empathy and spiritual connection and bond and yet I've been pulled into the lifestyle of excess that speeds these problems along. Sitting at the keyboard typing this and reading this news I seem disconnected. What's it going to take for me to get it? Or do I just watch and try to put it into context and photograph the last frog and get angry and sentimental and blog or complain on a forum?

At least the wolverines are moving and doing something. But they thrive on carrion.

Any good new books on the subject of personal choice and the changes 6 billion people are making?
Paul and Anne Erlich's 'Extinction' was prophetic

[url]http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/08/08/0801921105.full.pdf+html[/url

Found a long lost friend today. http://www.wayblonde.com/ Haven't spoken to her in over thirty years since my first year in college. Turns out were just up the road from one another now. How fun to see her photo again. She was the number one photo on an image search. It's amazing how easy that was once I typed her name. I really enjoy finding lost relatives and lost friends to reestablish contact with. I'm an avid HS reunion attendee and always want to help organize them and find people. If you have a few clues it really helps- hobbies, cities,siblings,etc. Makes me wonder how many of my current friends will be the object of my internet searches 30 years from now? Perhaps the internet will be such a good social connection tool that we will never find the need to search for old friends Friends will always stay friends or there will be a string to everyone you ever knew. I have a good network of cousins now. But usually it's difficult to stay in touch without a common meeting ground.

So what do I learn or experience from finding old friends? I guess it's a kind of stage where the audience knows the actors and viseaversa. I just love the feeling of being reunited and look into the eyes of friends. It's a fleeting experience but I crave it. I think that's why I got so hooked on figuring out my genealogy. Links to cousins sometimes leads to good email exchanges and creating friendship around the common genetics. I think this is something most everyone enjoys doing. It's a renewing exchange. People love connection. I sure do.

Facebook is where this is all going. Social networks. Tribes. Clubs. Groups. The internet and email and newsletters and blogs. The pace is quickening. I lucky to live in the digital age.

Sunny Morning
I used the fine pentel waterbrush for this one. Vultures swallows and a flicker came by to look.

I've always smiled when I've heard this song "T BONE" of Neil's cause i know what inspired it. This may spoil your love of it or enhance your understanding. It's one of my treasured bit's of Neil trivia.

I was 13 yrs old. It was the year 1973. I worked at the Bella Vista Restaurant and at Alex's Restaurant both along Skyline Blvd. on Kings Mtn. I was the dishwasher most nights of the week at the Bella Vista Restaurant. Occasionally I worked at Alex's down the road as a backup for a friend. Kings Mountain is the community I grew up in. I walked a trail through the redwood forest to my job at the Bella Vista.
The Bella Vista of course was known for it's great mountain top view. In former times it was a speak easy. Kenneth Washburn'spaintings hung on the walls- He lived just across Skyline Blvd.

Pegi was one of the waitresses there. Skinny Pegi with the straight blonde hair and huge smile. This is how I think Neil heard this kitchen rant of the old Portuguese chef named Art Morris. Art was a gruff chef. He was never very friendly or happy. He was a chef on Navy Ships in his younger years and I think he worried too much. He lived across the street from the restaurant but because of his weight and style he would drive the 1000 ft to go to work. Sometimes he was nice to me and drove me home when it rained. He wore a clean white apron and a thin blue shirt and black polyester work slacks and big black work shoes. He had a good head of hair. He sweat a lot and he often had lots of burn marks on his arms. He was probably at 55 years old. He shuffled when he walked and mumbled words as he walked away like he was chewing fat. This gruff personality gave him real character and you either loved him or hated him. As the chef he prepared the entrees beginning in the afternoon and ordered all the meat and provisions for the restaurant and went to G. Berta vegetable sellers in half Moon Bay to get the tomatoes for the salads. He was a co-owner along with Betty Hogan and Bob Hogan so there really was no way he'd ever be replaced and he was a penny pincher. He was a bit hard to work with but he maintained the 'Boss' personality. He wanted to see you working at all times so you learned to stay on your toes. I was his slave. He fed us all before work on the spoils of the kitchen. I cleaned and cut a case of green onions every Tuesday. I got along with him pretty well and hustled. But he would get really upset at some of the waitresses to no end if he wasn't having a good day. I don't think he cared for Pegi much and I think that's why Pegi liked working at Alex's better. Art treated the the older waitresses better. Art and Pegi would get into spats and short yelling matches in the kitchen. Pegi was fiesty and alive and took no shit from Art and knew where he crossed the line. Pegi worked Tuesdays and Wednesdays and sometimes would work the overflow front room on weekends. She drove an old Red '62 Valiant. Whenever I saw her car I felt good coming to work. She was pretty and cute and fun to be around. I liked her. She was maybe 22 or 23 then. Neil eventually took a liking to her after meeting her at Alex's (where she also waited dinner.) Neil would also come to the Bella vista on Tuesdays and order and have the main dining room and Pegi the waitress pretty much to himself (Tuesdays were really slow) (..."Used to order just to watch her float across the floor"....?)

back to the T-bone story and I bet you know where I'm going with this..

On weekends we would serve about 200-250 dinners. And sometimes, especially on Sunday, we would run out of certain cuts or products. We served Chicken and several cuts of beef Steaks (Fillet Mignon, T-bone steak , and a small steak, frog legs and abalone and halibut were the odd things we served. Most people bought the chicken or Fillet. I know the T-bone was perhaps the most expensive cut of beef Art would buy each week and he hated to waste money and only ordered a couple dozen. He hated it when the steaks sat unsold. He was really frugal. Along with the meat every plate served got a signature foil-wrapped baked potato and a scoop of boiled peas or peas with carrots. That was dinner along with the shrimp/green salad I would make on the side table when not washing dishes.

On those hectic weekends when we'd serve so much food and have a packed house we'd sometimes run out of the good expensive stuff. And Art would get really pissed if the waitresses brought him orders for something after he ran out of it. He wasn't the best communicator so he'd inevitably run out things mid stream before fully informing the waitresses. Sometimes the waitresses all ordered the last T-bone at the same time and they'd have to return to the customers to tell em we ran out. No one liked doing that. It meant less of a tip I think.

Art would bellow so loud the whole restaurant could hear him in the back kitchen! He had these rants to the waitresses almost every Weekend and it was kind of predictable he'd get angry about running out of something and take it out on us and especially the waitress he didn't care for.

Amidst the din of the pots and pans and the oven door opening a closing to get the potatoes you would suddenly hear Art wail..."Ain't Got No T-Bone"!!!!! [God damn it!]

and when the baked potatoes ran out

....he'd mix up a batch from the dry flakes and yell out

[We]..."Got Mashed Potatoes"..

Mashed Potaoes were the backup to the the standard foil-wrapped baked potatoes and it was embarrassing to run out.

Oh. I remember some huge spats between Art and Pegi at the pick-up counter. I saw it all being the lowly dishwasher. I'm a witness to Art's food poetry and how Neil could have heard these phrases or Pegi brought back the stories. I think they would tease Art about the T-bone outages and how he was so predictable... why didn't he just buy more steaks??

I earned $1.25 an hour when I started there. Eventually I'd earn $2.50. When I left in 77 I was earning 8.00 as the janitor. (The Hogans and Art sold the Bella Vista in 1979)

Pegi eventually never came back to the Bella Vista Restaurant to work. We missed her. Even Art missed her.

And one day in college I heard this new song of Neil's. On his Reactor album. 1981. I was living along Wildcat Creek and when I was feeling like it I would play it loud. That album had some anger in it.

The song is a rant just like Art Morris' kitchen rant. It only has about 3 different lines repeated over and over for 11 minutes or so. You get the point.

Pegi's 'Fresh Air' Interview with Terry Gross


Interesting how Pegi does not name the Bella Vista in her interview but only Alex's. (Do you remember Alex with his red beard?)


Listen here:



Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
No T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone

Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone

Ain't got no T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone
Ain't got no T-Bone


Re.act.or album 1981 Neil Young

odd to have this entry right below the image of the red steak

You know... I'm 30 yrs Vegetarian and 28 years Vegan this year, my 49th big year. The telomeres on my chromosomes are getting a bit frayed and I'm starting to see some hair's loose color on my side burn and my weight seems to be shifting towards the mid-section and muscles aren't quiet as strong as they once were. But so far my eyes are still focusing and my teeth staying put. I'd say I done pretty well taking care of my body. I could raise my heart rate more often. and I need to stretch way more than I do. I tend to sit a lot. My main cholesterol is 140, up from 130 five years ago. I have a bit too many red blood cells they say so if I appear pink instead of green you'll know why. But I really am Green in the brain.

That reminds me I need to get an annual check-up

It was a foggy day on the ridge. My dogs cooperatively sat while I sketched and the colors of the landscape were so rich. Ripe red poison oak after being misted with fog is the most delicious red-apple color. Against all the lime greens and greys it was like one of Egidia's glass works!

A Kite hung out above me. I had my 10 x25 binoculars. As I watched I got to see the most wonderful aerobatics and body movements to keep its eyes motionless in the sky. Kites must have PH.d's in physics- they understand how the universe works- we could learn a lot from them - perhaps we should send kites into outerspace to conduct experiments and to relay their observations. They could fly the galaxy. If we cooperated with animals more perhaps they'd be willing to help us like that. I think a Florida snail kite deserves the first space mission for having put up with the pollution of Cape Canaveral all these years. Imagine if our planet if we got the fact that all these animals are sentient emotional thinking beings like us with capacities far outstripping humans. We would be humbled. Did you read Spain gave great apes "human rights" last month!

With the three dogs in tow I headed up the ridge with my paints. This time I remembered to bring paints and not just the paper. The poison oak is at it's absolute best red color right now. Scarlet and orange everywhere. I see the most dominant parts of the ecosystem and wonder what's in there that I can draw in the hour of time I have? Perhaps just the odds and ends that I get an immediate interest in... no thinking or planning...just sit and draw what's in front of me. Coyote Bush is a plant everyone sees but it's pretty drab. Not so! It has a wonderful strength to withstand the wind and rain and relentless heat of noon. It has a small leaf and the leaves create a fullness when added all together. A perfect place for me to gaze into. What will I find?



At the top of the ridge I thought... time for a quick landscape. Boy it was hot. The dogs had retreated to the shade and were panting. Off towards the hills I could see way distant lands.. a magical scene of overlapping planes and less and less contrast until you finally get to the top summits of Mount Diablo. The faint green mountain is Mt Diabo. The foreground is actually a subdivision called "Carnage Hills". I chose to not put the houses in and instead drew what I imagined the slope looked like pre-development. This painting looks like it was draw on a european vacation... no it was just here in my backyard.