Lake Merritt walk

I think this is a Snowy Egret. (Egretta thula) I snapped this pic with my phone while walking around Lake Merritt with Anna last week. There were several other birds that I need to learn to identify, too. Here in Moline the birds look a lot different. We have cardinals, which are especially pretty against the snow. And we had several varieties of woodpeckers living in the oaks in our back yard. My friend Bob was able to attract orioles, bluebirds, and purple martins. During a couple of times of the year there were white pelicans on the river. And in the winter there is a pretty big population of bald eagles nesting in the woods near the lock and dam.

Speaking of snow, we had some flurries here in Moline today. It’s a bit colder here than it was in Oakland last week. When I walked out of the grocery store at about 3PM it was coming down pretty fast and the wind was tossing the flakes every which way. I love those big fluffy flakes, especially the first few times each winter. The weather service is saying we could get a light dusting sometime tonight — but no promises.

I mentioned earlier that there are many differences between life in Moline and life in Oakland. One major difference is water. California is in the arid half of the US and Illinois is in the wet half. There may be shortages of things like fantastic bread or great ethnic restaurants in the midwest, but there is no shortage of water. It rains (or snows) here in Moline all year long. Generally the climate in Oakland is dry in the summer and wet in the winter. Unless there’s a drought, in which case, Oakland (and most of the West) is dry all year.

The Associated Press recently reported that the California Department of Water Resources is planning to deliver only 5% of the water requested by its various contractors. The state is facing a fourth year of drought, and there just isn’t enough water. We had low-flow shower heads on our showers in Moline—having grown up in California, I just couldn’t stand to pour so much clean water down the drain, even if we had plenty. The shower head in our apartment is not a low flow device, so I’m planning to replace it as soon as I get back.

Much has been said nationally about California’s economic woes. I’m not as sure about a national awareness about the water situation. Continued drought could slow the economic recovery out west. California industry and agriculture is heavily dependent on water. Without sufficient natural resources to satisfy industrial demand, the state’s economy may continue to falter. On the domestic level, Americans are accustomed to believing that turning on the tap in the kitchen guarantees a steady stream of clean, refreshing water. I wonder if our water needs and expectations can be met with the 5% that the Department of Water Resources is planning to deliver.

I’m on my way back to Moline for three more weeks. Right now I’m in the Denver Airport and missing my sweet Anna already. (It’s only been about 5 hours, and I have about 500 hours to go until I see her again. Yikes!)

I had a great week in Oakland. (Except for the part where the moving truck came and left about 10,000 pounds of stuff in the middle of our apartment.) It was fun to see a few old friends and family. And it really made this whole “pick up and move 2000 miles to the west” thing feel real.

Taking stock of the past seven years, I’d say that they were among the most interesting of our life together (meaning Anna, the boys, and me). The midwestern adventure we set out on in 2002 has paid huge dividends. We learned so much about human nature and about a different way of living. We experienced seasons (with a vengeance). I remember writing back in the spring of 2002 that the variation between Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall in Palo Alto was subtle. In the midwest, subtle change is not something we use to describe the seasons. I’ll probably have more to say about the differences in our life on the west coast and our life on the banks of the Mississippi over the next few weeks.

All in all, if I had the chance to relive this adventure—knowing what I know now—I’d do it in a heartbeat.

T-shirt

Justin, Zina, Anna and I had dinner at Kerry House/Raj Indian Restaurant last night. Actually, the Kerry House (Irish Pub) was closed for renovation, so we just ate at Raj. Normally you can order your food at the restaurant and then grab a beer in the pub using the door in the middle of the room that joins the two. Sadly, no beer. But the food was delicious. We ate Lamb Vindaloo, Paneer Chilli (with cauliflower), Chick Pea Masala, and a chicken dish with curry (I can’t remember it’s name). Of course we nibbled a few slices of naan, too. I had last eaten at Raj when I was in Oakland visiting Nate a couple of months ago. He and Ashley took me there on my last night in town. Tasty!

After dinner last night we strolled on Piedmont Avenue for a few blocks. We passed an old landmark – J’s Hamburgers and Such (I’ll get pictures on a future visit—it’s a classic). A couple of blocks down we passed Nathan & Co. design with this cute t-shirt in the window. Despite a reputation as a dangerous city, Oakland displays a deep river of pride.

Living Room, Day 3

By Sunday afternoon we had cleared enough of the pile in the living room to create a little seating area. It’s not possible to sit at the dining table yet, but we’re making progress.

We took a long break on Sunday afternoon to share a couple bottles of wine and some homemade lasagna with Chris, Kemp, Brita, Ingrid, Len, Linda, and Larry. Since we couldn’t eat here, we went over to Kathleen and Dave’s and used their kitchen/dining room. They’re in Australia for the Parliament of World Religions, so they couldn’t join us for Chris’ delicious lasagna, Linda’s tasty salad, Ingrid’s fantastic garlic bread or the great wine that Kemp found to pull all the tastes together, but we definitely enjoyed their place.

Anna has her work cut out for her — there are still many boxes for her to unpack after I leave on Tuesday. But she seems to have a gift for making this kind of thing work.

8:00 am

This is how our apartment looked at 8:00 AM on Friday. The sofa and television have been here for Nate for the past couple of months. We slid them over in front of the fireplace to make room for the stuff from Moline.

By 2:00 PM the truck had been unloaded and the room looked a bit more crowded. We’ve managed to clear enough room so that we can actually sit on the couch. We’ve set up a full wall of bookshelves in the Hallway. Slowly the place is beginning to feel less like a warehouse.

2:00 pm

We had some family visitors late in the afternoon today, so we took a break from unpacking and had pizza at Zachary’s and topped off our dinner with a scoop of ice cream at Fentons.

Lake Merritt walk

Anna and I strolled around Lake Merritt this morning. It’s a great walk and it was a perfect morning. It’s going to take a little time to recall the names of all the different species of birds that live around here. We saw some gray pelicans, white egrets (I think) a little black duck-like bird with a short pointed beak, seagulls, and geese. There were others which i don’t recognize well enough to name.

We also encountered lots of people. As we walked we talked about giving up our big, park-like yard. The big public space that is close to our new home will serve as our place to interact with nature. One benefit of the large public park (versus our large backyard) is that it comes with a full cast of human characters who add color and vitality to our outdoor life.

Mama’s Royal Cafe

I’m in Oakland for Thanksgiving and to help Anna unpack our stuff when the Mayflower van drops it off on Friday. We took Nate to the airport early this morning and decided to grab coffee and a bite to eat after dropping him off.

Mama’s Royal Cafe has been doing business on Broadway in Oakland since 1974. Before it became “Mama’s” it appears that it was a Chinese restaurant, and they have preserved a lot of the old decorative features of the interior. Back in the day, this was one of THE places to go for Sunday brunch. Perhaps it still is. This is the kind of quirky Bay Area place that we really missed while living in the midwest. The decor is kind of gritty, (messages and names carved in the wood paneling surrounding our table) a little funky, (old melmac teacups strung on twine decorate one wall, old lady aprons decorate another) and certainly well worn. The staff is an eclectic bunch — our waitress reminded both Anna and I of Janice and the guy who came around to fill our coffee cups was a dead ringer for Wesley Snipes.

The food was tasty — and true to what we recalled about breakfast at Mama’s. I had pear and cardamom pancakes. I was served in two courses because the waitress felt that two of the three cakes that the cook had initially prepared were too well done, so she had them remade. She brought me the first cake so that I would have something to eat while Anna was munching on home fries and a turmeric and Spike laced plate of scrambled tofu. A few minutes later she delivered the second batch of pancakes. (Which were incredibly tasty, and perfectly prepared.) The coffee was rich and bold, not the kind of wimpy institutional coffee that many restaurants serve. And on the table was a cold cream pitcher with real half-and-half. No little plastic pre-portioned creamer packs.

Over breakfast Anna and I tried to articulate what it is about places like this that feel so vital to our daily life. As we were talking a woman walked past our table wearing tie-dyed thermal underwear. (Not under her clothes — just the thermal underwear.) A few minutes later a couple of kids came into the restaurant and one of the little boys was wearing a Superman halloween costume. He reminded us of Justin. All it took was a wink and a smile to know that we were back in our old stomping grounds. Life here isn’t better than life anywhere else. It’s just a little more quirky and slightly more colorful.

Wonder San Francisco Style Sourdough

This is the only sourdough bread I could find in the large supermarket near our house in Moline. I wonder if this bread bears any resemblance at all to “San Francisco Style” sourdough bread. It certainly looks nothing like it. The “soft” label on the package assures us that the bread doesn’t have a thick, chewy crust like SF Sourdough.

One of the most striking differences we found between the Bay Area and the upper midwest was the absence of really good artisan baked breads. We did find a restaurant in Iowa City (an hour west of Moline) that served decent bread with their meals. But the closest we came to really good bread was the frozen dough that one of the local grocery stores baked off on a daily basis. It would do in a pinch, but didn’t exhibit the rich flavor of a true sourdough.

We developed a little community of friends who started baking the bread recipe that Mark Bittman featured in his blog on the New York Times. That was a big step forward in bread flavor. And I started cultivating my own sourdough starter from which I drew a few tasty loaves over the past year. But now — hallelujah — we’ll be close to some real bakeries and good sourdough bread.

Ribco burger baskets

Not a brewing company, actually, but a bar. There used to be a brewery called Rock Island Brewing Company, but this bar is not really the same business. Anyway, on Tuesday nights Anna and I might find ourselves ordering burger baskets and a pitcher of Long Island Iced Tea. (A pitcher full of ice with some long island iced tea in it.) Last Tuesday we stopped in for one last time for Anna’s benefit. The waitress knows what we order and takes really good care of us. We always run into a bunch of students and former students from Augustana. When Nate is in town he likes to go. Sometimes bands from Daytrotter will do a show at RIBCO while they’re in town. Generally it captures the aesthetic of the Quad Cities pretty well. After the moving truck left today, I talked Jon, Sonja and Jens into keeping me company over a pitcher and basket.

Moving day

The Mayflower guys came today to pick up our stuff. It rained a steady drizzle through the day so it took them a little longer to load than it might on a sunny day. There’s something melancholy about an empty house. And ours is pretty empty right now. There are a few of Justin’s bigger art pieces (which will be moved over to Augustana) and a few plants (which will find a home in Janice’s house), but there is a distinct echo when you walk from room to room.

(We haven’t sold our place yet, so keep telling your friends about our great home in a great neighborhood with fantastic neighbors.)

This day is a bookend day. A little over seven years ago we packed up a truck in Palo Alto to head east. It feels significant, even if it’s only stuff. Last night as I was sealing up the last boxes I spent a couple of hours going through the memory box of papers my mom saved for me from the time I was born. There were letters from my grandparents and aunts and uncles. There were school projects and report cards. Birthday cards and awards for good sportsmanship and expert spelling. A lot of it was just dusty old paper, but there were a few bits that triggered significant memories. There was a Haiku by Sally Borden in my third grade class. (The first girl I ever kissed.) There was a typed and signed confession that I had punched my brother Jon in the stomach, along with a pledge never to do it again. (I think I honored that pledge.) Reading those bits of memorabilia reminded me that there are precious things in one’s home, things that transcend the value of the tangible item. Memories are carried on those bits of paper, and we hang on to them to endow the places that we live with a sense of history.

We’ll miss this house. For a time it was home. Now the flotsam and jetsam of our lives is rolling across country in a 54 foot moving van, heading for a new house. Hopefully, in short order, that house (or in our case, apartment) will become home.

Nate texted me on Sunday to say he was standing on the sideline at the Raiders game with his buddy Zach. While we sojourned in the Midwest, we never actually gave up our allegiance to our hometown sports franchises. While we’ve been gone, though, things have not gone well for pro sports in the Bay Area. Now that we’re coming back, we hope to see things turn around. Nate’s presence on the sidelines was not enough to help the Raiders get a win on Sunday, but we are optimistic about next year.

Anna left today. Threw a few fragile things in the Volvo, said goodbye to the house, to Jon and Sonja, to Janice, to me, and then took off. Today is the beginning of her new story. There are still four long days of driving ahead, but her first stop is in Lawrence, KS, to pick up my little sister. They’re doing a kind of Thelma and Louise trip — minus the killing and the cliffs. I think they plan to sing and laugh their way along I-70 to the western side of Colorado, north on I-25 to I-80 and then west to Elko and finally to the Grand Avenue exit from I-580 in Oakland.

Watching her drive away was pretty tough. I’ll be here in Moline for another month (minus a trip to Oakland for Thanksgiving) so we’ll be apart for most of the next 5 weeks. We haven’t been in different states that long since we were married. I suspect we’ll iChat or Skype on a pretty regular basis, but it’s not the same as snuggling in bed or just sharing a quiet moment together drinking coffee and reading the paper.

Despite the ache of separation, I am happy that Anna is on her way home. Her time here in the midwest was eye-opening and wonderful in many ways. But being here also meant postponing her real vocational exploration. She is a woman who loves to serve women who are bearing children. She just couldn’t find a way to do that here in Moline in as meaningful a way as she found herself doing it in the Bay Area. So today marks the beginning of Anna finding her way back to the place where she can fulfill that vocational calling. She’s going home in more ways than one.

She’ll be in Oakland next week and I suspect she’ll want to hit the ground running, looking for ways to re-engage in the birth community. I’m looking forward to seeing her engaged again and doing the work she loves. And it won’t hurt that we’ll be home.

Mischief maker

This was a pretty easy drinking cabernet. We drank it on Friday night at dinner with Katie and Dave, Peter and Susan, and Jon and Sonja. I bought it because Anna is a middle sister and the picture on the front made me think of her standing between her two sisters. Curly-headed Pam on the left and straight-haired Carrie on the right.

The blend is called “Mischief Maker” and it made Anna weep a little when I first gave it to her. I think she’s still feeling a little anxious about whether I’m up for this move to Oakland or not. As I’ve said to her, I’m ready to go. It’s not that I’m eager to leave Moline — I like our house, our friends are great, we live in a really nice neighborhood, and it’s a blast to see my brother and his family just across Richard and Janice’s yard — there are lots of reasons to stay. My main reason for wanting to go is that I want to be with her. I want to see her happy. She’s ready to get back to her work, to her vocation, and I want to be part of that change and opportunity. Perhaps I shouldn’t tease her, but there was something kind of fun about the name “mischief maker” that made me smile. In time, I think she’ll realize it was a compliment.