Tamara Unleashed

It is hard for me to really comprehend how happy I am in this partnership with Craig. We laugh a lot and work well together. We are trying to figure out how to weave all the threads together in our pursuit of healthy active aging. We have cycled twice. The second time we blew 2 tires on one of the bikes we borrowed for Craig to try. Fortunately, it was James bike which is just like mine. I have the original set of tires from my bike that we can put on his to continue our trial of figuring out which style of bike will work best for Craig. My tire pump was not reading accurately.

We went to our first songwriter round for research to identify the spot that Craig will feel comfortable participating in an open mic night. He really needs to share his music with more people. We did two venues our first night. The Commodore Grill was first and is a real possibility. The second pictured on the left is the Listening Room which is very touristy and less likely to be a good venue for Craig. When I asked James if he wanted to join us, he said he avoided writer’s rounds like the plague. My only previous experience with writer’s rounds over the years has been ones Natalie has participated in and I realized they were carefully selected individuals. The first round at the Commodore Grill were individuals that could not sing or play the guitar well and I immediately understood his comment. After the first round, the rounds were enjoyable. Each round was 3 artists playing 3 songs. I am going to try to get tickets to the Bluebird on April 30th – the iconic venue. Craig played there in the 90’s once when he was visiting from AZ and would like to perform there again.

Craig takes good care of me. Last week Craig observed some unsafe chainsaw technique on branches that were too big for the loppers and a bit flimsy for the chainsaw. So I found myself the proud owner of a 6 inch mini chainsaw and after watching a couple of videos on safe use of chainsaws I had a pair of what I now call my “chain chaps”. A couple of days ago we had a load of gravel delivered for our driveway maintenance, Craig called me to see the real life purple dump truck.

This week our big project is building a set of steps out of railroad ties into the slope leading from the south end of the shop where I park my car and have my work bench. Craig did not want me to have to walk around the slope. Actually, he had been planning on putting the steps in for the past 5 years so they not just for me. As we continue with his list of projects that have accumulated over the past 5-7 years, I get to stay active and learn a lot. Craig said if he had a blog, he would have to title it “Getting shit done with Tamara”.

I did some of the shoveling, spading and dirt management. We have one more step to add today..

Life is good. I am well cared for. We are having a GREAT time.

For the past couple of months James has really gotten in to pickle ball. After watching him play last week, I decided to try it but was a bit concerned as to how my knee would tolerate it. Today James and Natalie met me at the local community center an hour before the open time for pickle ball started and we played for an hour. It was a perfect way to give it a go. It felt like good cardio and my knee tolerated it fine with the brace on. The White House community center has senior pickle ball on Monday and Wednesday mornings so Craig and I will check it out.

I told Craig Sunday that I wanted to cycle on Monday as it was the only day this week that did not have a chance of rain. Upon arising Monday, I was not feeling it. We had a busy weekend and I was ready to just have a “down” day.

Fortunately my man said that he thought we were riding today and was prepared to do so – my choice.

So we stretched, got dressed and went out to clear the sawdust from the bikes, oil the chains and fill the tires.

Off we went. It was not a long ride – 7 miles but it was a ride. Craig dropped off after a bit – still getting used to the bike but I kept going to the end of the road the we live on. I had some good hills and I made them all. I practiced going slowly at the top without feeling fear that I might fall over if I didn’t stop.

There were a few cars and trucks that slowed down and passed. I felt very safe. I won’t have a chance to get out again until Thursday afternoon if it is not raining, I am looking forward to discovering some longer rides through the beautiful countryside.

Everett came to visit Sunday after a day of kayaking. Everett LOVES tractors and was thrilled to b able to steer Katie and move the bucket up and down. Craig enjoyed having such a inquisitive boy around that already knew a lot about tractors.

We had a fun evening with Everett and his siblings Eli and Emma and parents Danny and Brent, The swing got a lot of use and Emma started making friends with the cows,

We can’t wait for the next visit.

Craig and I were out inspecting various buiding materials he has for building some steps down the slope to the shop. While inspecting these stone blocks left over from building a bridge (that Craig designed and build himself) we noticed number 14 approaching the fence.

I slowly walked up to the fence using my best cow friendly voice and she kept coming forward. Before long we were both at the fence. Shr put her head through and I scratched her nose. She withdrew her head and stayed at the fence. It was at this point that I handed Craig my phone for some pics.

I think we really had a moment there. I am curious to see if she approaches me again. If so I will name her, I was thinking Elsie but Craig does not thing that is original enough,

Our first day in DC was rainy and windy so we did not venture out. Our second day was sunny, cool and breezy. We walked 3/4 mile to the Metro Station in Cleveland Park and rode to Metro Center where we got off and walked along the east and south side of the White House to the Vietnam Memorial. I have been there several times before but never with someone who had been Infantry in Vietnam – “boots on the ground – in the line of fire”. We walked along the Memorial and then found the books that listed the location on the wall of every person killed in Vietnam.

Craig found the names of men in his company who were killed and we located each name on the wall.

Because the names are listed by the dates of death, the names were clustered on 3 panels. While Craig spent time reflecting, people were respectful and gave him space. A lovely docent approached to offer support. After listening to Craig’s recounting of what it was ike to be “out on in the bush” for 6 weeks at a time wearing the same uniform with all of the field gear they carried to try to stay alive, the statues of the infantry moved me. Craig inspected them carefully and found they were pretty accurate in each detail. Many of the “niceties” like air mattresses or heavy flak jackets available to infantry were simply not carried/used in most circumstances to keep packs as light as possible.

We recently watched the Ken Burns 10 part series on the Vietnam War and I now have a much better understanding of how the US got involved and the lies that kept us there for way too long. I graduated from high school the year the US pulled out of Vietnam so aside from being against the war (whatever that meant is small town Iowa) I was uninformed.

I took a photo of each of the names. Later after Craig had a chance to review them he did not like the way they looked with all of the reflections on the walls from the sun. So we went back on our last day in DC which was cloudy. While rain was predicted for the afternoon, it started several hours early and the new photos had a different type of reflection from the rain drops.

This was Craig’s second visit to the wall. The first time, he and his friends waiting until after midnight so he could play and sing a song about the way. We did not try to repeat that this time although I kind of wish we had. If it had been warmer we might have.

We were ready with our Hawkeye shirts, chips and guacamole to cheer the Hawkeyes on. They came out on fire and then lost the flame while SC got ignited. It was fun to watch the NCAA tournament. Clearly SC was the better team today and they showed why they are undefeated.

It appears that Craig got the best of the mice. No mice or licking of peanut butter for several days. He was confident enough to put the silverware drawer back in place. It is a lot of work to clean it out so we did not give them a chance to explore the drawer and leave deposits.

Tonight Craig went to check the gas grill and found the tank empty. Upon further investigation, he found the hose between the tank and the grill had been eaten through by one or more squirrels. Fortunately, Craig had an extra tank and two extra hoses. Problem solved in short order.

James played a show on Friday night that overlapped with the Iowa semifinal against UConn. He supported them from the stage. He played with a duo, Karli and James, who remind me bit of Natalie and the Drive. It is always fun to see them perform. We watched the second half from the bar he performed at. We were the only ones interested in the game.

I mowed the lawn for the first time yesterday after getting the big sticks and branches picked up. It felt really good to be outside and active. I also had my first personal training session in over 3 months. I could tell I had lost some ground but not a great deal.

James has started playing pickle ball and I went to check it out. It seems to be good exercise and a very social environment. A great way to meet people of all ages. I will get Craig and I some paddles and we can check it out.

A wild iris bloomed this week. The ongoing beauty of spring.

My goal for this week is to get out on the bike. I can tell my knee needs it. Wish me luck.

I have not had a chance to see the the Hawkeye women play that many times this season and until the NCAA started, they had lost the games I watched so I was feeling like a bad luck charm and decided it was better not to watch. It is not that easy to follow the team using streaming only. I pay for plenty of streaming services but none that include ESPN. Games broadcast on ABC are easy – otherwise we have watched “unauthorized” posts of the game on YouTube. You can see them on YouTube TV but not officially on YouTube. After 15-20 minutes, the center screen would get grayed out with a warning. Craig was very good at finding another YouTube link that would work for 15-20 minutes. We made it to the end of the game. Interestingly, we had no trouble watching the UConn vs USC game on YouTube so there must have been so much traffic for the Iowa vs LSU game that it drew attention.

We are having so much fun watching these game. My high school was a consolidated school district that did not have a women’s basketball team. At that time the smaller districts had girls team that play 3 on 3 half court which was an entirely different game. I distinctly remember commercials on TV in the 70’s against ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment stating that it would end Iowa women’s basketball. No one thought that women could play full-court basketball. For Iowans, who highly valued their women’s basketball, that was one of the more powerful commercials against ratification and Iowa did not ratify the ERA.

Within a decade high school girls were playing full court 5 on 5 basketball. Over the past 5 decades I have not really paid much attention to women’s basketball. I watched the championship game in Honolulu last year. A tough loss. From one game I was not able to really appreciate what was so great about Caitlin Clark. The Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games gave me the chance to fully appreciate what a skilled, passionate player she is – unapologetically competitive. Good for her and good for everyone on the Hawkeye team and all women in sports really.

As an aside, Craig and I often have conversations about how terminology has changed with respect to genders. Some women do not want to be called actresses preferring female actors. During one of the recent games, Craig turned down the sound to share with me that he was upset about the cultural misappropriation of women playing “man on man defense”. I burst out laughing.

No question it is confusing as to which words or phrases are commonly understood to be nongendered and those that are traps waiting for men to set off.

Craig caught one mouse this morning and found a couple of traps licked. Unclear if we have caught them all. To increase the odds of catching any future mice, Craig decided to do some research and found a way to modify the standard trap for a “hair trigger” response. Hopefully this will allow us to catch any remaining mice that are choosing to stay or come indoors in spite of the nice weather. Fingers crossed. Growing up in older homes, mice were not uncommon and aside from having one die in the wall, they didn’t really bother me that much. Any fear I had was from observing my mom’s fear. Craig does not like having them in the house and insists on managing their capture and the clean up of any mess they leave. I feel fortunate.

Last night we had the opportunity to see Natalie perform with her 2 best friends at the Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival. We drove through HEAVY rain to get there as Natalie does not perform in Nashville very often. I think the rain kept the room from being full. It was a pretty intimate setting with acoustic guitars so you could hear the their voices. They each took a turn singing a song they had wrote or had co-wrote and sometimes performed together on songs they had written together. They were all very accomplished songwriters and performers. The audience was very appreciative of their songs, voices and performance skills. This festival has 96 ninety minute performances in 10 venues over 5 days. This Festival seems like a better deal appreciating music than the CMA Fest in early June. Way less crowded, acoustic sets and not nearly as hot outdoors.

We will be seeking out and attending songwriter rounds on a regular basis. It’s time to really enjoy all that Nashville has to offer.