OMG! This prompt, “Dish”, is so unfair! We’re locked up in self-isolation, hundreds of miles from home, unable to visit our local eateries (which may be closed anyway) and “Discover Prompts” on WordPress suggests we write about food. Argh!!

We have been able to get some takeout that I like (Chipotle Salad) and Zac (my son), Kasey (his wife) and Carly (my daughter) have all made absolutely wonderful dishes over the past few weeks. If you didn’t already know, we are all sort of quarantined at my Son’s house. We came here over a month ago because he and Kasey were blessed with a new baby!

Below is a photo of a dish Carly made a few days ago – Salmon and couscous with lots of really nice and spicy stuff all over the top of it, along with a little spinach.

I DO like spicy! One of my favorite dishes is from a restaurant that was relatively new in our neighborhood just prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, PT Pho. They have a Crispy Calamari dish with some really spicy dipping sauce (Sweet Chili) that is out of this world.

Then there is a really fantastic, small, out of the way restaurant in Boulder, UT, called Hell’s Backbone Grill. It’ll take you ages to get there, but totally worthwhile. One of the dishes I really liked was their Garlic Trio – a small platter with farm garlic purée, grilled spicy garlic & garlic pesto with gruyere crackers, farm radishes and zucchini.

This is really starting to get to me, but I’ll tell you about one more. Earlier this year, just as the Coronavirus was beginning to be more of a thing, I attended a conference in Ajo, Arizona. I lucked out and was able to stay at a little private bed and breakfast which brought me a tray each morning with fresh food – some hot off the skillet or right out of the oven. This example was a green chili burrito. Yummm!

So, today’s blog cheated a little. Rather than describe all the fantastic tastes with words that created the picture in your mind and made your salivary glands ooze with anticipation, I used some photos that I took – those times that I remembered to pull out the cell phone and take them.

Hope you enjoyed it!

A narrow three story brick apartment building standing by itself. Trees arching over a bumpy concrete sidewalk. At four years old the first street I remember living on was in west Denver. Douglas Place? I had a tiny trike to ride on the sidewalk. It was mostly cold and I wore a big snow suit coat when we were outside walking. I remember a big street about half a block to the south – probably W Colfax. We lived there for short period on the upstairs level. Shared a bathroom with two other apartments on the same floor.

The second street I remember was the street that went by the end of our barracks on Lowry AFB in Denver. That was where the trucks came by selling vegetables and ice. I was five. The kids in our neighborhood used to chase the ice truck and hope for a piece to hold and lick and chew on during the hot summer days before air conditioning. We lived on the second story and you could see the hospital where my Dad worked across another street to the north.

There was an MP guard shack at the gate a few buildings to the west of our barracks and the hospital. That was where we went to get on a bus and go to kindergarten. They had a coal burning stove in the shack and on really cold days it was a place to get warm. I still have periodic dreams where I am pulled closer and closer to that stove and can’t keep my hands from reaching out and being burned on the red hot metal.

Then my Dad got new orders and we moved to Mesa, AZ. He was stationed at Williams AFB. We lived on the side of a small dirt street which dead-ended at an irrigation ditch. Alfalfa fields lined the other, south side of the ditch. Some play friends lived a few houses to the north on the opposite side of the street where there was a large palm tree with lots of dead palm fronds infected with large nests of wasps. Fun to throw rocks at when you are six. Not fun when you get bit by a wasp.

When we finally got base housing we were in a small home along with many others stretched alongside the street. When you went out the front door and turned left, the neighbors a few houses down from us had a TV. Round screen with a funny pattern on it. It was only on for a couple of hours each day. We could stand outside and look thru the screen door at the TV when there was something on it. I learned to ride a bike on that street.

Arizona was really hot. All we had for cooling was a swamp cooler in one of the windows. I had two smaller brothers – the third wouldn’t arrive for a few years. The two brothers ended up getting heat-related health problems and we ended up getting moved back to Colorado. We lived in Englewood on three different streets: Acoma, Pearl and Pennsylvania in that order. The first two were in rentals. The latter was where my parents bought their first home.

It was on a block that had all new homes. There was a K-3 elementary school across the street with an older home and barn with really big (Oak?) trees just to the south of it. All the families on our side of the street would play in the front yards, ride our bikes up and down the street and periodically get into the biggest water fights I’ve ever experienced. The school yard was used many times for impromptu baseball games. Much fun.

Today that elementary school is gone, replaced for awhile with a city center for adults. My Mom volunteered there for many years. We had planted a small Blue Spruce in front of our house when we moved in. I could easily jump over it without touching. When my Mom moved out over 50 years later, that Spruce was so big it hid the front of the house. I lived on that street until I graduated from high school and left for college.

There are many other streets, boulevards, highways and more that have crossed paths with me over the years: Broadway, Champs de Elysee, Canal Street, Highway 66, Pacific Coast Highway, Ocean Drive… All created memories. But, none of them had the same feeling of neighborhood families living and growing together, experiencing all the youthful memories that color one’s understanding of self.

The word for the third day of Discover Prompts is “Song”. I’m supposed to write using that word as a starting block. Now, that creates a problem for me. I’m without a doubt, the most unmusical person I know.

When I was six years old, living in Mesa (my Dad was stationed at Williams AFB), my Mom tried to get me interested in the piano. She got me some lessons from a local piano teacher. I HATED practicing. Ultimately she gave up trying to make me practice.

When I was in elementary school I got signed up for band and was assigned a clarinet. I can still taste that clarinet reed. And practice was just about the same. I hated it. But, being a little older, I did stay with it a little longer. But, ultimately, I quit band.

In high school I got personal reward out of volunteering for projects through student council and physical development out of participating in Track and Field – mainly long distance running. I mention the latter because as I and other members of the cross country team would run our races, we used to whistle or sing a musical ditty, “Cool aid, cool aid, tastes great!” When as a team we came up on another team running, the sight and sound of us singing that musical piece (probably from an advertisement for cool aid) would unnerve the other team. They were struggling to continue due to muscle exhaustion and lung problems; we were obviously doing just “great!” – because we were singing!

My Dad used to listen to records. Stuff like Johann Sebastian Bach. I DID like listening to the music my Dad played, but there was another problem. I have problems remembering titles, authors, words, etc. Been that way all my life. Could I tell you if a piece was someone’s 5th concerto or 18th or whatever? Not on your life. So, lots of music is familiar, but I can never tell you by who or what it is called.

My Dad was also a very accomplished whistler. He could do trills, warbles, high notes, low notes, the whole works. He would sit in his chair out on the front lawn and whistle until you’d think all the birds within earshot had stopped to listen to him. I’ve tried to duplicate his whistling at times in the past and never even come close.

As for musical genres? Pop, country, rap, rock n roll, R&B, hip hop, classical, jazz – when I’m listening to music or songs I would have a hard time telling you which genre they are. In fact, I had to ask my family to tell me some types so I could write this paragraph. I can tell when something is country because someone’s dog always dies or their girl friend dumps them. But, when I was asking my family about the genres, I was trying to remember what you called it and was think, “Western?” “Southern?” I couldn’t remember the right word, but if it had been a multiple choice question, I could have picked the correct answer.

Anyway, that’s it for the word “Song”. Dinner is ready and I’m going to stop now.

So. Song? I don’t think so.

Okay, so it is day two of the Discover Prompt blogging recommendations. This time the suggestion is the word “Open”.

I had two thoughts as I was reading their blog recommendation. First, I really wish that we were released from all the quarantine requirements and able to go out again without restrictions. I would love to walk down the grocery store isles, impulsively picking off the shelves whatever I wanted and physically placing it into my shopping cart. That totally feels different from clicking on something to add it to an Internet “Cart”.

Secondly, how about getting to experience those wide open spaces in the great outdoors again? I really miss walking, hiking and exploring in my own personal favorite “Happy Place”: Agua Fria National Monument (AFNM). Over the past month I have been able to get out once to walk some paths in a local park and, yesterday, to visit the Falls of the Ohio State Park.

The photo above, taken at Falls of the Ohio, shows some of the numerous scatters of drift wood. Previous visitors piled some of it up to form shelters, artistic representations, pathways and more.

I’ve been able to explore AFNM for more than 15 years, experiencing fresh air, beautiful wildflowers, exhilarating climbs, fantastic scenery and stumbling upon prehistoric features everywhere. There is the initial feeling of relaxation, then wonder at the beauty of it all, and afterwards the understanding that the experience has removed all the stress and daily grind of city life.

This AFNM photo shows a rock formation in the Long Gulch area with view off to the west in the back ground.

Anyway, toward the end of two months of isolation, I’m really getting stir crazy. Can’t wait to get back out there!