Changing the oil on a ZZR1200

The Blue Beast - Oiled Up and Ready to Go...

My first thought was “how much trouble is this going to be?”  Biker’s Bay only charges about $90 for a synthetic oil change and they check other stuff too – and the oil alone for a change cost me over $50.  Sorry, but it does not pay to use cheap oil in (what was) a $14,000 motorcycle.  Not when that oil serves several purposes.

My first question was “does the fairing have to come off to accomplish an oil change?”  The answer is no – it doesn’t.  I did a complete (and fairly easy) job tonight without even loosening a fairing screw.  No problem.

Free advert for Lucas...

So step one – and the hardest part – finding suitable oil.  I won't use automotive oil in my bikes -- there really is a difference in oils made specifically for motorcycle use. Blue normally takes 10w-40 and that’s available all over town.  But 10w-40 is limited to use up to about 104 F (40 C) and the desert around here exceeds that almost every day between June and October.  So the alternative is 15w-50 or 20w-50 and those grades are a little harder to find.  I finally got some Lucas 20w-50 at an O’Reilly’s near here – but it took looking through 4 or 5 different stores including Wal-Marto’s to find it.  I already had the requisite filter on the shelf – I bought several as it is the same one I used on Old Yaller, the ZR7S I used to have.  I changed the oil in that one about every 1000 to 1500 miles, so I bought them in bulk.  I got my oil drain pan out, a socket set (you'll need a 17 mm socket), a rag or two, some degreaser, a funnel, and a fender cover or something to lay on the concrete.  I grabbed a CH-6012 filter off the shelf and got down with it…

I am embarrassed to say that the oil I just drained has been in the engine for about two years.  I guess it looked really good for two-year-old oil but jeesh…  It didn't have that many miles on it but we won't be letting things go that long next time, now will we...

Side View

Rear drain plug and the filter assy

I removed the rear drain plug and the filter assembly and I let the oil drain for a while during which time I had a cold one.  Those who know me well understand this means a Diet Coke… 

Then, there is a second drain plug (third if you count the filter assembly) further forward, up underneath the cowl (starboard side as you sit on the bike). There is a lower side port in the fairing through which you can see this bolt/drain-plug and you can reach up from underneath with your ratchet to get on it.  I had to use a longer extension for that one.  Take a look at this one and mark its position well – it is very hard to see its location under there when it comes time to put it back in place if you haven't been careful about that.


Forward drain plug

So while this one drains for a while, I take the filter assembly over to the work bench and pull it apart. I used some spray solvent on it to clean it up and replaced the o-rings on the shaft and the mounting plate. Then you re-assemble it by sliding the mounting plate over the center shaft, dropping the spring and the washer over the center shaft, push the new element down onto those, and set the metal top flange over the element.  Smear some oil on the o-rings – and it is ready to go back on the bike; piece of cake.  

Forward drain plug

Replace the two drain bolts and you’re ready to fill it with oil again.  I try to take care not to over-tighten anything.  I go about hand–tight plus one little bit extra and that’s it.  A torque wrench and a little knowledge about the specs would be a good thing here…  don’t overdo it.

I added four quarts to start, then started the engine for a few moments to move the oil back into the places it needed to go.  Once that happened, I shut him down and added the last little bit of oil needed to bring the level up to the proper point on the sight-glass (make sure the bike is level).  Take care – add only a little at a time until it is about ½ to ¾ between the low line and high line on the sight gauge.  Do not overfill it or the Earth will tilt off its axis and careen into the Sun.  Old Blue took a little over 4 quarts total today - not even close to 5 quarts. 

That’s it.  Clean up the oil you spilled all over the floor, throw away your trash and wipe off your tools and put them back where they belong.  Go wash your hands with some Goop or Lava and feel like you accomplished something worthwhile.  Or better yet, take the brute for a spin up the road and see how great it feels to have new, slippery oily-oil in your scoot! 

It's spring, you know?  It's time to go for a ride.
Just keep it between the fence posts!  

Updated April 14, 2013
  

About Amelia...

Earhart at about the time of her disappearance

I’ve been reading a lot about Amelia Earhart.  She probably wouldn’t have been much more than a footnote to history if she hadn’t disappeared… but because of that mystery end she just can’t fade away.

Some say she wasn't all that good a pilot.  I'm not sure that made any difference and I'm not sure what point they are trying to make by saying that.  "Oh, she just wasn't very good, you know?"  I think if I had been a contemporary of hers, I'd have surely been a fan.

Here's the thing.  She was largely self-taught after primary flight school. She was a pioneer of sorts - chosen to "test" fly a gyro-plane, in which she set an early altitude record. She flew the Atlantic once as "baggage," then flew it twice more before she died. She was the FIRST to fly the Pacific from Hawaii to California and did it solo. She was the first to fly non-stop from California to Mexico City.  She was first to fly from Mexico City, across the Gulf to New York.  She flew aircraft with complex control systems and intimately understood proper engine management for those engines (mechanics were said to have respected her knowledge). She "SOLOED" an aircraft that was and is more mechanically complicated than today's modern jetliners 3/4 of the way around the world before her disappearance.  In all I've ever read about her, I know of only three or four crashes.  For comparison, Charles Lindbergh also crashed three times.  Airplanes were not as reliable then as they are now.  After all of that, I'd suggest that she was an excellent pilot - and all the arm-chair commentators who say otherwise don't know their asses from fat meat.

She was constant and consistent at working to improve her flying skills.. I have known pilots like that.  I mean, she had some wrecks. But so did a lot of other pilots of that era. What she had I think, was a keen, natural intelligence and certainly a desire to fly and a desire to stretch the limits, both her own, and limits in general. When she applied herself she could be successful and often was and she was remarkably persistent when it came to flying. There are more than a few competent pilots like that.  You have to respect her for that.

Even the best, most well-prepared pilots sometimes disappeared on long pioneering over-water flights back in those early times... Nungesser and Coli for example, the great Jacques Mermoz, even Pan Am's trailblazer, the meticulous Capt. Edwin Musick. Miss Earhart had with her one of the best, most-experienced long-distance over-water navigators of the time.  She should have been successful at finding Howland Island because that’s exactly what Fred Noonan was skilled at - finding islands.  He was one of Pan Am's top navigators - in fact was the navigator with Captain Musick on the very first trans-Pacific "China Clipper."  He was comfortable flying with Earhart, I might add. So those of her own time who denigrated her flying abilities maybe just had problems with women in aviation.

Probably the most telling criticism I have heard about Amelia Earhart is that she was haphazard in her preparations - and that particular flaw very easily could have made a fatal difference. I’ve thought a lot about the different theories about how she might have met her end – but I really doubt we’ll ever know for sure.  The odds are against that after all the intervening 75 years.  I do know that she was not as prepared as I would have wanted to be, had I been the one attempting that flight.  I would not have headed across that beach had I not had a firm grasp on every radio and direction finder in that aircraft as well as transoceanic navigation, whether I had an accompanying Pan Am expert navigator or not.  I simply would have been too uneasy about that. And she didn’t (not completely) and went anyway apparently thinking to herself all the while, “I’ve always made it before.”  But there is nothing forgiving about the vast expanses of the Pacific. 

It has occurred to me that the fatal mistake, upon which every outcome depended, was actually the crash on take-off in Hawaii at the beginning of the first attempt at this flight - which caused delay and a reversal of the direction of the flight.  Had she been successful on that first start, the trip would have had a totally different path of events, Howland might have been found and she might have died an old lady.  It has also occurred to me that there was one critical moment on that last flight upon which all depended.  She was requested to hold her mic open so that the Itasca could get a radio fix on her position. She didn't hold the mic open long enough for them to get it.  Had she done so, they might have been able to give her a course to the island.

But none of that matters now.  Even a meticulous, careful, expert airman... or airwoman... can make a simple fatal error.  Even Lindbergh himself almost got rubbed out once or twice... We can't change what she did or didn't do but in any event that has nothing to do with our care for her or the hopes that we had (as a nation) for her success, or our pain when she was lost. We loved her for who she was and what she represented. You see, she was our "national sweetheart" at the time. You know... [she had] a quirky personality with strong opinions, smart, a sly sense of humor and a certain sweetness? For a woman of her time, she was even a bit unusually outspoken... for her time. There really was a lot going on behind that shy smile. Then you add in her wild abandonment to her sense of adventure, and airplanes, and then well, there you have it.  A sure-fire love affair!  And by example she was partly responsible for helping some women get themselves out of the kitchen and out in the world alongside the men.

There are different ideas about what might have happened to her.  Some posit she was captured by the Japanese while spying for the US and Roosevelt. Japanese records from that time show no involvement in the search for the missing flight or its crew.  Japanese researchers have apparently looked back for any information related to those theories and have come up with no connection.  

Another theory about her disappearance, perhaps one with a high degree of possibility, is the one being investigated by TIGHAR (a group headed by Ric Gillespie). TIGHAR thinks it is possible that Amelia and Noonan flew down a “line of position” and may have come across Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro Island) where they are thought to have crash-landed on the reef and then, overlooked by those who were searching for them, died of exposure on the island as castaways.  As I understand it, a "line of position" is a somewhat perpendicular line drawn across the end of your planned route.  If, for example, you know that Howland Island is 2,559 miles from your origin airport, then once you have flown that distance, all you need to do to find your destination (assuming that it is not looming in your windscreen at that point) is fly along the line of position and you should encounter your destination in one direction or the other.  All of the possible points where it could be should fall on that line (assuming you calculated things correctly in the first place.)


TIGHAR will search the most likely waters off that reef this summer of 2012 in hopes of finding her airplane's wreckage.  While there has been a considerable amount of circumstantial evidence discovered (on Nikumaroro by TIGHAR), to date there has been nothing scientifically definitive – but when taken in total, the evidence they've found, if not a smoking gun, may still overwhelmingly indicate that TIGHAR's theory is the strongest one of several.  Perhaps Earhart and Noonan ended on Nikumaroro -- just based on what TIGHAR has discovered so far.  When more than one bit of evidence points to that conclusion and there is no other known, or logical, explanation for the presence of the evidence, then that's a fairly strong case.  

This is what Amelia Earhart’s last radio message said she was doing -- flying that "line of position" at what she thought was the correct distance from her starting point at Lae (New Guinea).  We know she never sighted Howland.  But Gardner Island (Nikumaroro) should have been about 350 miles down the line to the south.  This all assumes, as she thought and radioed, that she was "on [top of Howland] but [couldn't see it]." (I paraphrased her quote for clarity.) Some say she didn't have enough gas to get that far (to Nikumaroro).  I am not so sure.  I haven’t done anything more than rough calculations of my own – but I have read the book Ms Earhart was writing as she made that last flight. That’s what it was named; Last Flight.  She sent chapters home from points along the way including from that last stop at Lae.  Her husband published the book after her disappearance. 

Quite a number of times along the way she said she had throttled her engines back and flown slower (and at the optimum altitudes) to conserve as much fuel as possible.  She did this repeatedly and I cannot believe she wouldn't have continued the practice on that last, longest, most dangerous leg.  Maybe she had more range than we might think. Maybe.  No less an expert than Clarence Kelly Johnson had calculated her fuel-consumption tables and power settings. Kelly Johnson was Lockheed's ace of aircraft designers.  He was an airplane-designing god. We know she departed Lae with 1000 gallons of fuel - which at her most economical rate of consumption would have gotten her to Howland and several hundred miles beyond - given the right conditions.

But no matter.  Not now. If you think about it – in the end there are only a few possibilities for the end of the story. First, the Gardner Island theory is a possibility (or even some other deserted island).  However, I’m not so sure this one is the possibility we'd prefer...  Slow and miserable desiccation on a mercilessly hot desert island is not my idea of a pleasant or even tolerable death.  Perhaps she did make it to the Marshall Islands as some think, and disappeared into Japanese custody.

Earhart's Electra

Of course, the other possibilities are not pleasant either. She might have exhausted her fuel at sea and ditched the Electra in the trackless expanses of the Pacific. She might have crashed while trying to ditch and died immediately in the attempt; ditching at sea is a tricky proposition (though wind and sea conditions that particular day were reportedly not too bad).

Perhaps, after ditching successfully, she and Fred made it into a raft and then drifted at sea undiscovered until they ran out of water and/or food and died.  It had to be one or another combination of these possibilities. Any way you look at it though, they died. We know this because they were neither one ever seen again by any credible person during their finitely measurable lifetimes, and while we do not know the exact specifics of their crash and demise, any person with a functioning brain knows what happened to them in that general sense.  They likely died immediately in the crash, or soon thereafter of injuries sustained in the impact, or they died of dehydration either on land or at sea.  Finally, if they were captured by the Japanese, they didn't survive that captivity either.

So I ask you... what is the point of spending millions of dollars looking for the answers to the how and what of those two sad deaths that probably happened seventy-five years ago in 1937?  I don’t deny that what happened to Earhart and Noonan is of great personal interest to me, but in the grand scheme of things today, what is the point really?

Anyway, this summer, TIGHAR will spend some number of days searching the waters off Nikumaroro, looking for Lockheed "Electra" pieces, using all the most modern underwater search equipment.  If they find it where they think they will, then the mystery is mostly solved.  On the other hand, if they do not find the Electra off Nikumaroro's reef, why don’t we let Amelia, Fred and their story, rest.  After this final, intriguing possibility is checked out completely, what else is there to do? If anyone wants to spend a few millions of dollars for Amelia, here’s a better idea… 

Don’t spend it going to look for her, she’s been dead for years and years. Use it for something that would have really mattered to her – just add that money to the memorial college scholarship fund in her name at Purdue University and use it to help more deserving women who might not be able to afford a good college education otherwise. Purdue hired her and bought her the plane, after all.  I think that would be something Amelia the feminist and ardent supporter of women's rights and advocate for women's opportunities could totally get behind.  Just my two cents worth.

Postscript... 2014:  TIGHAR did in fact discover some things in their 2012 explorations that could be pieces of the Electra, that while not clear, are remarkably consistent with certain parts of the aircraft's structure.  They are now planning further expeditions to the area to check these out further.  Additionally, a piece of metal that is almost positively from Earhart's aircraft and specific to it and no other Model 10 (a patch) was recently identified.  It was found on Nikumaroro quite a few years ago. While it doesn't PROVE that's where the aircraft ended up - we know at least one piece of that plane did. 

2017: TIGHAR is back on Nikumaroro this year using "bone-sniffing dogs" to hunt for skeletal pieces of the castaways.  There are no "smoking-gun" discoveries as yet - but definitely some intriguing possibilities they are now investigating.

Last edited on August 10, 2017.

The Grand Canyon Express 2012

On the Trail, 2004

The only kind of “exercise” I have ever liked is hiking.  Well, hiking and running off at the mouth, jumping to conclusions and flying off the handle…  I’ve done a lot of those other exercises, but I haven’t done any hiking for several years – the last “destination” hike I did was to Phantom Ranch a few years back with my cousin Nelson.  On that one, I didn’t train seriously enough and it hurt me on the hiking days – I struggled, to put it mildly and persevered on will power alone; my body sure was not up to it. Nelson suffered too because he had to wait for me along the trail – it is really hard (both mentally and physically) to hang back with a slower hiker when you are ready to plunge on ahead; I know, because I’ve had to do it myself.

I’ve also been struggling with diabetes for about 20 years.  At times I controlled it, mostly though, I didn’t.  I always had it under control when I was hiking though.  I have been repeatedly informed that as the disease progresses, it becomes harder to control in the normal ways – i.e. diet and exercise.  So over the last few years and months I figured my days of controlling it that way might have been over.  The medical people have been trying to get me to go back on insulin for a couple of years. I’ve resisted.

A few weeks ago, my friend Chad came to visit for his Spring Break – and during his time here we got together and spent the better part of a day.  We had lunch at a Sizzler and dinner at a Mongolian BBQ – and in between we went for a hike (Chad, his Mom Linda and me). We hiked in Cave Creek Regional Park and we were on the trail for about two or two and a half hours – with what I figure was about one hour of actual hiking – about three miles plus a little extra.  I did OK – it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be given my extremely poor condition.  When we stopped by the house afterward to check on things here, I did a quick check on my glucose level – and it was near normal.  Normal!  Since I am absolutely sure it was running about twice or three times the normal level beforehand, I found that to be absolutely amazing.  And it made me think that, once again, I might just be able to get normal and healthier (no diabetes) simply by exercising and being a bit more careful about my diet.  Like this...

My glucose reading after hiking today...

So...

I have begun once again to eat more simply.  I use a diet that counts portions rather than calories, with a mix that gets me about 1500 calories a day.  I find it easier to eat by categories – I start the day with fruits (fresh and canned), three portions, and usually a carb at the same time or close to it.  Maybe hot or cold cereal.  Then I work into the vegetables – four portions.  I eat raw carrots frequently – and right now for example I have a three-bean salad I made, and I’ll likely have tomato juice, or even a serving of diced tomatoes right out of the can.  Then I work in the proteins and the carbs and dairy – usually later in the day as I go along.  I am also eating Zone Perfect energy bars – although I am only eating half of one at a time because they cause my sugars to rocket up if I eat a whole one at once.  I’m also eating mixed nuts, celery with peanut butter and things like that.  My biggest problem is when I get the urge for a burger… or some El Pollo Loco… I did that twice this past weekend… plus at the ballpark I had hotdogs and popcorn.  So I didn’t even check my fasting sugars the next morning; it would have been demoralizing! I did check them after my hike on Monday and I was OK at about 112.

Walking south on the Christensen Trail No. 100

I started the hiking by going every day I can close to home here, but on easier trails.  I go over off of 24^th Street and Cholla and hike along the Christenson Trail – No. 100 in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve.  It is only about ¾ mile away – and I could even ride my bike over there if I wanted to (I DID today...)  There are quite a number of side trails you can take to see something new – and I simply walk basically south for x number of minutes, and then return.  I started with 20 minutes each way – and Monday I walked for 1:10 total – to get the maximum aerobic benefit you don’t need to walk that far, I think all it takes is about 12 or 15 minutes.  But at the same time there are other benefits from walking farther (more calories and muscle building).  

Canyon Training par excellence on Shaw Butte!

In about a month or so, I will graduate back to my “old” favorite training trail – Shaw Butte.  But I like the 100 trail well enough that I think I will continue to use it as well.  It winds in and around the foothills of the mountains west of the house and the views are really great.  It’s up and it’s down, so it is also a good trail for “training.”  I also ride my bicycle whenever I can, usually down to the Basha’s store about a mile away. Between the hike and a bicycle trip, it is a safe bet I’ll have burned off 400 calories.  I will probably lose weight after a little bit of time doing this!

River at the bottom of time - Colorado
River near Phantom Ranch

Training for what, you might ask?  I am already thinking and planning for another Grand Canyon hike – maybe even this year.  I was thinking by mid-summer I might be up to doing an easy “shake-down” jaunt to Supai – and then by later in the year or winter I could start seriously planning a Grand Canyon rim to rim and think about trying for the permits required.  That would be a “crowning glory” as far as I am concerned – a rim-to-rim is about 26 miles and I would plan it for three days – one night at Phantom Ranch in the dorms, one night at Roaring Springs (camping) and finishing the climb to the North Rim on the third day -- with a shuttle bus ride back to Grand Canyon Village that afternoon.  I can do this.  I’m GONNA do this.  I owe it to myself.

Uncle Bob's Pretty Good Sourdough Bread

Today's Bread

Starter-

111 grams flour

½ cup warm water (100-110f)

¼ cup sourdough

Then-

302 grams (+) bread flour

1½ TB sugar or honey

1¼ tsp kosher or sea salt (or regular works fine)

1⅛ tsp active dry yeast

½ cup milk or water

1 or 2 TB softened butter

In the morning, mix the starter ingredients together, cover and set in a warm place. Once the starter is active (4 or 5 hours in a warm place) and bubbly, you can make the bread.  All ingredients should be brought to room temperature before use, so I set them out a couple of hours ahead.

Once the starter is ready, pour the ½ cup lukewarm water or milk (no more than about 110 degrees, or you will kill the yeast) into a mixing bowl.  Mix in the sugar or honey, and sprinkle the yeast over the top. Let this rest until the yeast proofs (you should see it foam and maybe bubble a little in about 5 to 10 minutes, if the yeast is good).

Once you know the yeast is good (if it is not, start over with fresher yeast), mix about one cup of the 302 grams of flour plus the salt and butter into the yeast liquid, along with the sourdough starter. Mix this with a Big Wooden Spoon as well as you can and then continue adding flour until you get a dough that clings and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  Dump this onto a large cookie sheet.  Wash and dry your hands, set the remaining flour near the cookie sheet along with the sack of flour you took it all from.  You will probably need more flour as you knead the dough. Put the mixing bowl into the sink and fill it with hot soapy water.

Start a stop watch or set a timer for about 8 minutes.  Start kneading the remaining flour into the dough, dusting the dough with a little more flour each time it gets sticky in spots.  You will probably need a bit more than the originally measured amount, but don’t overdo it.  Only add a little at a time.  The dough will get smoother as you knead it and eventually will have a smooth satiny feel.  The whole process takes about 8 minutes or so, sometimes a little less.

Let the dough ball rest while you finish washing and drying the mixing bowl.  Pour about 1 TB of good quality oil into the mixing bowl, put the dough ball in the bowl and roll it over once to coat the dough with the oil. Cover and place it in a warm place for at least an hour, or maybe 1:20.  Or so.  In a cold kitchen, you might turn on your oven and set the bowl nearby for the warmth.  Don’t get it too near the heat, or you’ll kill it and it won’t rise.  Drink a glass of root beer (or some good red wine) while you wait. Wash and dry the cookie sheet.

After the dough has about doubled in size, turn it back out onto the cookie sheet.  Knead it briefly and form it into a loaf.  Place it into a large loaf pan which has been greased (or buttered) well.  I usually brush an egg wash (one egg or egg white, whisked with a tsp or so of water) over the top at this point, and slash the top once or twice. (Some recipes suggest the wash after the 2^nd rise – but you have to be real careful about that as you can cause your risen loaf to collapse.) Cover it loosely with a piece of saran wrap and let it rise again for about 50 minutes.  If not already on, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the loaf pan on a cookie sheet and bake him for about 30 minutes. If you have an instant read thermometer, check the loaf at about 25 or 27 minutes and if the center reads 190 F or above, your bread is done.  Turn it out onto a cooling rack and let it cool completely.  Then store it in a nice plastic sack until dinner time. 

Of all the breads I make, this one is my favorite.

If you don't have a sourdough mix, they are very easy to make.  It takes a week or two, but it is simply a process of mixing flour and water and letting it rest.  If you want a recipe and instructions, send me a note at trafficschoolbobfortythree@yahoo.com (only use the numerals for the forty-three) - but instructions are easy to find and follow all over the internet.  Once you have it, then you keep it in the fridge most of the time and feed it twice a month (more water and flour).  I made my "Chuck" about a year ago and he is very delicious!

It is also easy to substitute a small amount of the flour with whole wheat flour -- I wouldn't do more than 1/8 or 1/4 cup though.

You could also let the dough rise the last time in an oven-proof med bowl, or free form on the cookie sheet.  Some folks make it as a round loaf with the slash done in the form of an "X" across the top.  I usually just make a standard-shaped loaf.   Another possible addition is 1 TB of wheat gluten when you are mixing the dough.  I don't always do this but the texture is a bit more store-like when I do.


Happy Trails!  boB's your unclE...

How it worked out… (Christmas)

I got some Christmas lights hung; I stretched blue ones around the eaves and put strings of clear lamps on four shrubs.  The overall effect is very pleasing – to me anyway.  I have been leaving them on all night or at least until two or three am.

Christmas dinner wasn’t a total success.  Mom couldn’t eat anything so it was just Mandy and me – and my Cornish hens weren’t quite done.  There was a little bloo-oood around the bones where the ribs attach to the spines.  The corn pudding turned out very nice – it is sweet and very light like egg-custard (which of course, is what it is).  The pumpkin pie(s) took me all day to bake – it was a “high-maintenance” recipe…  Very good though, in the end. The recipe was for one, but the leftover filling caused me to prepare and fill another smaller pie (in a tart pan).  The vegetables were overdone (easy to do with zucchini).  I know how to "fix" all of this -- and have ideas on how I would do the same meal again and improve the results. So maybe again another time.

I have de-boned the left-over hens, and one I made Chicken a la King with (see recipe on blog) and the other, today, I simply sauteed for a few minutes and prepared a batch of barbecue sauce for it.  This all was designed to finish the cooking process as no one really likes underdone poultry, do they.

I didn’t go anywhere in the end – I did a tiny bit of visiting with Dave and his family last night but that was it.  My other friends I will try to catch up with later.  It was just too difficult to get away when Mom is so dependent on us right now.  She is virtually house-bound, and while she is moving around a little bit now, she hasn’t been outside since she came home from the hospital.  If you know my Mom, you know how uncharacteristic that is.  She has been unable to eat much – and she has no strength.

Mandy and I went to a Presbyterian candlelight service on Christmas Eve – my first choice (Christ the King Ev. Lutheran) had an earlier version this year – early evening.  So we went to Emmanuel Presbyterian on Shea Blvd at 11 pm.  Mandy enjoyed the service – but I don’t think that is a congregation I would attend habitually.  They do have a nice pipe organ though…  If I ever decide to attend a church, I might try some of the others around here – maybe Orangewood Presbyterian.  Or I always thought CTK Lutheran would be OK – although I prefer the colder austerity of the Presbyterians!  Any of them would likely throw me out on the curb when they found out what I believe – and what I don’t. 

New Year’s is a non-holiday for me, so that’s it for the holidays 2011.  I can’t say they were “bad,” but they weren’t “glowing.”  But we take them as they come and appreciate what we have.  No regrets. 

Recipe - Chicken a la King

Uncle Bob’s Chicken a la King

This ain’t a bad way to use up some left-over roast chicken (or turkey)…

1# diced chicken (about)

3 or 4 lg mushrooms, sliced

1/8 cup or so diced red pepper

2 or 3 green onions (make a slice lengthwise then chop)

Splash of sherry

Butter/flour  4 TB each

Salt/pepper or chicken seasoning, garlic, 1 TB minced dried onion.  You might try others like thyme, etc.

1 can chicken broth or equivalent

¼ cup green peas (fresh if ya got ‘em).

Toast points

Put a splash of olive oil in a non-stick skillet.  Heat over med.  Add the mushrooms and cook for 1 minute.  Add the diced pepper.  Cook another minute.  Add the green onion, cook another minute.  Add the chicken and a splash of sherry.  Saute all for 2 or 3 minutes.

Add the seasonings and the butter and flour (I used chicken seasoning and garlic, along with pepper and a chicken bouillon cube for the flavor and the salt, and the minced onion).  Continue cooking for a few seconds and then add the broth all at once (along with the peas – I just tossed them in frozen).  Heat on med until the mixture is thickened and bubbly.  Simmer for an additional 3 to 5 minutes.

Serve over hot biscuits or toast points.  I think it would serve about 4 normal people from the looks of it...

My Simple, Opinionated Christmas

Not doing too much for Christmas this year.  I usually attend a performance of Messiah done by Phoenix Symphony, but I chose not to this year.  I didn’t go to the electric parade like I sometimes do.  I haven’t even played any Christmas music yet. 

I will eventually find my Christmas music collection and I’ll listen to my own favorite songs – “The Gift” (written by Stephanie Davis and also performed by Garth Brooks), and “Little Toy Trains” sung by Roger Miller.  There are others I love as well, but I get weary of some of the ones that are played over and over ad nauseum. Like “Jingle Bell Rock.” In that I guess I am like everyone else I know – we have our favorites and we have those we’d like to forget.  I could listen to Suzy Boggus sing “O Holy Night” over and over to the end of eternity. She has the voice of an angel.  Yep, her and Andra Suchy.

I have no travel plans at all.  Not that I might not go – I just have not planned anything.  I always think I should go north to find a good “snow” picture to put on next year’s Christmas card.

*They weren't cheap, but here they are...

I haven’t even hung Christmas lights yet.  I guess I will work on that today, but I shall keep them very simple – which is my usual choice anyway.  I think simple in Christmas lights is often the most beautiful.  My aim will be to use the lights to elicit and represent some of the hope and mystery of Christmas, a kind of quiet glory, rather than the all-out “glitz and dazzle” that some go for.  Each to his own, I don’t resent that option but it’s not me.  I might use all blue lights if I can find some and they are cheap enough.*

I might go drive around at some point and gawk at all the glitzier lights others have done though…

I don’t begin to celebrate the approach of Christmas until December 15^th – I resent the cheapening of Christmas as enacted earlier and earlier each year by Corporate America as they seek to increase their profits at the expense of everything that is holy.  It’s calculated and crass – and I will resist it and resent it as long as I live.  Standing in line to get into a retail establishment to get a “bargain” on Thanksgiving Day (or night) is asinine – and we ought not to do it if only so that more of our neighbors can eventually stay home with their families at those times.  I can sometimes agree with our nation's critics that we seem, some of us, to have lost our souls.

My Christmas shopping is done, virtually all of it right from my desk here and on the internet.  I designed some little gifts for my closest family and a few friends will get something I’ve made in the kitchen as a token of our friendship. 

On Christmas Eve, which for me is the most mysterious and magical time of Christmas, I plan to attend a midnight service at a Lutheran Church nearby which I have found friendly in the past.  While I am not a Christian,  I think that Christmas can also represent that act of our God reaching down to us, and showing us or reminding us that the love we give to each other, in whatever way we can do that, is the best and truest part of our well-lived lives. At Christmas, some of the everyday hatreds can recede into the darkness for just a few moments – in our part of the world anyway.

Here in Paradise Valley, it will be a good Christmas if all goes as planned. I wish the same for you.