Brad's Blog

Helen

It’s that time of year again when we all start thinking about Helen’s Orange Rolls. These are a holiday favorite in the family and are becoming a tradition passed down now two generations and counting. I expect that generations from now, these will still be a family favorite, and it gives me great satisfaction to think that my Mom will be remembered for a long time to come.

Although the recipe was not original, Helen made these for so many years that we all think of this as her recipe, and certainly she added her own touches over the years, which is one of the reasons they are so special. Mom clipped the recipe from The Seattle Times newspaper around Thanksgiving, 1954 if memory serves. Regardless of how hard I try, mine (on a good day) come close, but they wouldn’t stack up to the real things in a head-to-head challenge.

I remember our last Thanksgiving with Helen. Her eyesight was failing, so I was the designated baker for the holiday rolls, while she could have let me wing it, she was right there in the kitchen giving me tips on how to mix the dough and roll it out. It was a fun time learning her techniques for making this favorite recipe. If you want to know all the tricks, you’ll just need to spend a Thanksgiving at my house making these holiday favorites with me.

So below is the recipe, be sure and remember Helen when you make these, and if you can find a way to save a couple for me, I sure wouldn’t mind sharing one or two with you over a nice cup of coffee, or perhaps a glass of milk.

Pastry

2 packages dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup sugar
1-1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs beaten
5+ cups flour
1 tsp salt

Filling

1/4 lb. butter softened (or a little more)
3/4 cup sugar (or a little more)
Grated peel of two oranges (orange part only)

Directions

Dissolve yeast in warm water (105 to 115 degrees). Add 1/2 cup sugar. Scald milk, add butter and stir to melt. Pour into large mixing bowl and cool to lukewarm. Stir in eggs and yeast mixture. Combine flour and salt and slowly add to egg-milk-yeast mixture, stirring to mix as you go until it becomes too stiff to stir. Turn out onto a board and knead any remaining flour in by hand. Put back in greased bowl, cover and let rise at room temperature for one hour. Punch down and refrigerate for about another hour, until doubled in bulk. Place on floured board, roll into rectangle, very thing, Spread filling mixture evenly over dough. Roll up, cut roll crosswise in about 3/4″ slices, place in muffin pans. Let rise until double, bake in 375-425 oven for 10-15 minutes.

Sisters

“Things haven’t been the same since that house fell on my sister”. You have to admit, if you have two sisters, a Christmas card with this on it is just perfect for both of them,  especially if both of them are going to be in the same room, opening their cards at the same time.

Here’s another greeting card message that I like, and have given. “I’m smiling because you’re my sister… I’m laughing because there’s nothing you can do about it”.

And here are some quotes that I think sum up the relationship nicely…

“Big sisters are the crab grass in the lawn of life.”  ~Charles M. Schulz

“Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet.”  ~Vietnamese Proverb

“To the outside world we all grow old.  But not to brothers and sisters.  We know each other as we always were.  We know each other’s hearts.  We share private family jokes.  We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys.  We live outside the touch of time.”  ~Clara Ortega

Catching salmon for the hatchery

You can see this rig set up along the lower Cedar River from September until early December. It consists of a weir and some cages to capture salmon as they migrate up stream. Today I happened to go by when the Fisheries folks were taking salmon out of the trap and putting them into a truck for transport up to the Landsburg hatchery.

It was quite fun to watch. They pull the fish out of the trap and put them in a big rubber boot, then the person holding the boot carries it over to a truck and the contents of the boot get dumped into a holding tank on the truck.

The fish I was writing about in my two previous stories are the lucky ones that made it past the weir and traps here on the lower Cedar.

There are three types of salmon that migrate up the Cedar River. Sockeye, Coho, and Chinook. The project will be harvesting Sockeye. This is the smallest return of Sockeye of any year since 1972 when counting began, so there is a real sense of urgency. Right now we have had some pretty good weather, so the fish are congregating at this spot and waiting for some rain before they begin their journey up stream. Higher water levels means they will have a better chance of making it into their spawning grounds in tributary streams like Rock Creek. Here’s a great article about the project. See below for my stories about what is going on in Rock Creek.

Riddin buddie

My buddie ain’t no ridder, he’s the real deal.

This is my riddin buddie. He’s got one artificial hip and he’s going in later this month to get a matching one on the other side. He’s still the best skier I have had the privilege to ski with (okay Steve, your the best) but number two is high praise for sure, especially if you know Steve.

I’ve often told Wade that he could have been President of the United States, or CEO of a major corporation, if he just wouldn’t have spent quite so much time hanging out with me. People look at Wade and see a charming, funny, very likable guy, then they look at me and their perspective changes almost instantly.

We used to play a lot of softball together, until he got so old he couldn’t bend over any more. He was an awesome infielder. But when he started flipping grounders behind his back instead of picking them up cleanly, I decided it was time to hang up my softball cleats before I started doing that too.

I think riding a bike is something we should be able to do for a long time to come. Hopefully another thirty or thirty-five years. Unless of course he pulls up to a stop sign and forgets to remove his feet from the toe clips, falling over on one of those bionic hips of his. I should probably get him an inflatable donut to wear around his ass when he goes riding with me, just in case.

Buddha Beach

I’m a little over two months into this journey and still enjoying the experience of blogging. So it’s probably time I touched on the question of why I am doing this.

It really started years ago, that’s when I first thought I should publish some sort of web presence. Being a high-tech worker, this seemed like a natural thing to do. Early in the game I secured this domain, but never did anything constructive with it.

My first attempt to develop a web presence was to publish some pages using raw html. It didn’t take long to realize that this approach simply required too much effort. I next looked into content management software. I installed a popular CMS and started configuring it, but lost interest. My biggest problem at that time was that I lacked motivation to write.

Shortly after that I got excited about the subject of content management systems and started playing around with Blossom. Since my language of choice for software development is Perl, and Blossom is written in Perl, I studied it quite closely and installed it on my local computer. I even had a copy running on my domain, but again I lacked the motivation to actually sit down and write. My interest in content management systems continued, and I decided to try my hand at writing my own. I wanted a CMS similar to Blossom but providing features that I thought would make it a good tool for use on a local computer. The system that I now call “Lowbrow” was born. I’m still using Lowbrow on my local machine, but I don’t have any plans to release it into the wild anytime soon.

My intent was to use Lowbrow to publish my presence on the web, but never took it to the final stages of completion, again, I found myself lacking in the basic desire to just sit down and write.

With age comes perspective. About three months ago I was reading a post on Facebook and the author was talking about how he was going to renew his efforts to write on Facebook, and how excited he was to start sharing with all his friends. This made me realize that it’s not about how you write, it’s about the process of writing.

Shortly after this, I made the decision to start writing. That was the key. It was no longer about how to write, or what to write with, it was just about writing. I went to WordPress.com and opened a blogging account. It didn’t take long before I realized that I was having fun with the whole thing. My hosting service offers WordPress, so I clicked the button to install it, and here I am on badkins.org, running WordPress, and writing.

One of the things I enjoy is taking pictures. I carry my iPhone with me everywhere, so naturally when I see something interesting, I take a photo and these become my inspiration for a lot of the content I have developed to date. My style for this site is to present a small photo with every entry. Sometimes I have to reach into my archives for a photo, like with this entry. But hopefully there will be some link from the photo to the content of the posting. The photo that accompanies this entry I took in Sedona, AZ. This is the bank of a dry river known as “Buddha Beach”. It is named that because of it’s Zen-like nature. People just happen by, see that stacks of rocks, and leave one of their own. I’m not going to stretch this metaphor too far, but I think there is a similarity between that, and what writing contributes to the world. Picture my writing as a very small stack on this beach, indeed microscopic, but it is my attempt to make the beach more beautiful, as best I can.

If you enjoy this blog in some small way, and I hope you will, I am well pleased. If you don’t enjoy this, then please accept my apologies, and forgive me if I continue. It is only with practice that we improve ourselves.

Phone booth

What has happened to the phone booth? This picture was taken outside one of the best Mexican restaurants in Renton. I’m not kidding, this is where all the landscapers go for a good lunch. There’s also a Radio Shack next door, and a Lover’s Package. What does all this mean? I couldn’t tell you, but I know that when you do see a phone booth these days, they usually look a lot like this one.

I read that there are only four phone booths left in all of Manhattan. But on an optimistic note, if you  are ever passing through Kelley Iowa, keep your eyes open, right downtown there is a fully functioning, enclosed, stand-up phone booth in mint condition. If you hang around and take pictures long enough, someone from city hall will ring the phone, if you pick up, they will welcome you to their town with a personal greeting. Also, do check the coin return, they regularly stock it with a quarter,  just as an extra little treat for you.

I’ll have to make Kelley a stop on my cross-country bicycle expedition.

Scissor doors

These are called scissor doors. I’ve never seen them before in the wild. I spotted this car on my way to work. I don’t imagine this was ever an option offered on the El Camino.

I suppose they have their advantage, they would be awesome if you were in a tight parking space. They certainly give you lots of room to get in and out, but I think I know what the biggest attraction would be. If you have scissor doors you can drive safely with your doors open. Think about it, that would make quite a statement wouldn’t it. Without a doubt, this is a chick magnet.

Okay, so I’ve led a sheltered life. I went to YouTube and searched for “Chevy Boi” and I get it now. The song on the video mention the  “Diablo” which is a reference to the Lamborghini Diablo, possible the coolest Italian production car ever made.

So Lamborghini Diablo, or “Chevy Boi” El Camino. Actually, that’s pretty funny really. When I was 17, the car I wanted more than any other was an El Camino.

When I was a kid, I would paint houses during the summer. I thought how cool would it be to show up on the job with all my paint buckets and equipment in the back of an El Camino. There was no way I could have afforded one at the time, but it was my dream back then. I’ve changed. Now I own a pick-up truck besides my bicycle. What is a pick-up truck really? Just an El Camino with a bit more hauling capacity, sans nice wheels and doors. Maybe I haven’t changed that much…

I do think all cars should have these doors. Can you imagine how much safer the streets would be. If your a cyclist, no more worries about getting “doored”. I think if all cars came with scissor doors, it could be a game changer for urban cyclists. :-)

Today we returned to Rock Creek to see what the salmon run looks like. It has been two weeks since we last checked it out. We returned to the same spot, but we saw nothing but dead salmon. We wondered if perhaps there were some living fish further up stream, so we decided to hike up about 5o yards and have a look.

Dead salmon

Sure enough we did find two pair of fish still spawning. It was fascinating to watch. These two appear to be actively spawning. So perhaps as the fish move upstream, when they see dead fish, they continue up further until  they find open water. It’s an interesting conclusion based on the evidence (one observation anyway).

Live salmon

Rock Creek runs through a draw and the banks are fairly steep on both sides. This provides a good bit of shade throughout the day, as evidenced by the moss in this shot. This creek is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, especially considering how close it it to my home, literally almost in our back yard.

Prehistoric moss

Ms. Ankie explained to us the story behind this plant, the Devil’s Club. In the spring, the blossom of this plant forms a tight ball. Native Americans used this as a pounding implement. She also showed us how the Native Americans peeled the inner bark from the Cedar Tree. This was used to make cloth and rope, after pounding, possibly with the Devil’s Club  or a stone.

Devil's Club

There was no need to shoot a video this time out. There isn’t enough movement coming from the remaining fish that are spawning to make for an interesting shot. I just love the light at this time of year. In the afternoon, it is still fairly bright, but the sun is much lower in the sky. Combine that with the fact that this creek has high banks on both sides and you have the perfect conditions for shooting very dramatic photos. Even shots made with an iPhone.

“When I see an adult on a bicycle I do not despair for the future of the human race.” – H.G.Wells

My focus recently has been discovering new web sites that are all about cycling. There is truly no shortage, but it is another matter to find one that you want to return to again and again. One such site (time will tell) is RocBike. This site appears to be a site about cycling, by cyclists. It is a kind of cycling community blog, and some very interesting things can be found here. I was immediately captivated by the Haiku below, by a cyclist named Ethan.

riding along and
A DOOR FLIES OPEN OH NO!
no door prize for me

This elegantly states, in poetic fashion no less, one of the riding situations that I am always looking out for. It’s good, but I would have written it thus:

riding along and
A DOOR FLIES OPEN OH NO!
I win the door prize

I also noticed on the first page I looked at, a story about my hero, Joe Kurmaskie. I’ve heard Joe speak, and even met him briefly, but never had the chance to share a beer with him. The author of this post is a lucky devil indeed.

If you take a look at this article “Top 50 of the most influential cycling blogs“, it is interesting to note that RocBike is number 33 on the list.

Editor’s Note: It may be something of an exaggeration to say that Joe Kurmaskie is my hero, it is probably more accurate to say that he is my “cycling hero”. Hero status is usually reserved for people who are better known and more widely recognized as such by the public, someone like Richard Feynman perhaps. He would be a good candidate for hero classification. Anyone that is recognized as one of the greatest physicists of the 20th Century is probably a better candidate for that status. Besides, personally speaking, anyone that can teach at CalTech by day, and play bongos in a local strip-joint by night certainly deserves consideration in my mind.