L'aventure américaine

I listened to a podcast about the outrage that pings back and forth between political parties right now and it made me tired.  It also made me think of how little outrage accomplishes. It’s so hard to know the best way to make the world a better place! So, we continue in our little corner trying to spread love. I wrote postcards for a month and have moved to Christmas cards now. And today, we pulled down the Biden signposts down from our little corner of property in Greene county (randal and I bought 8 acres this year). (The Biden sign itself came down after the election.) In its place, we planted a Christmas tree - white pine transplanted from mom and dad’s crop. The kids and I picked up litter along the road and then we decorated our new tree.  I don’t think that the neighbors have forgotten that we’re Biden supporters; there weren’t a lot of friendly looks (zero to be precise). But, the tree looks beautiful and festive and after we put up lights, hopefully they’ll be happy ...

 I was at Mom and Dad's when Joe Biden was declared President-Elect.  After a week of universal fatigue and restless sleep, it was such a relief to get the news. But, I haven't felt much better since then and I have been trying to pinpoint why. I think it's for many reasons...  One, the good news was tempered with coverage of Donald Trump on his golf course, refusing to concede the election.  Instead of focusing on a Biden celebration, the conversation was focused on the negative.  What do you do with a President who is making false claims and refuses to follow the civil, good precedent of his predecessors?  I continue to get depressed when I see Republicans backing up his claims and giving them credence.  Is winning more important than dignity?  Is retaining power more important than integrity?  It seems that it is. It's also because 71 million Americans still support Trump.  When I ask people (in a calmer frame of mind) why they suppor...

I am headed to bed soon after a riveting night of paying bills and closing my Chase accounts.  (Chase bank is one of the largest contributors to fossil fuels, so I felt that it was important to divest.  It is a pain to divest.  And not even very satisfying when they don't ask why you're closing your account.  I told them anyway of course.) Moving on from my soap box, here are photos from our visit to IU's campus.  Beautiful flowers, beautiful sunshine.  And so many graduates (who were not practicing social distancing) who wanted to take their picture at the Sample Gates.  I am lucky to be in a time in my life when my momentous moments are small and with the people with whom I am quarantined.  I am not missing a graduation or a prom or a birth or a death.  I am celebrating Marian's new words and Milo's ability to write and (maybe?) start to read.  They're big moments, for sure, but cozy ones that one can enjoy in the safety of one's...

It sure is beautiful. We are lucky for our space and our place    Happy Earth Day!

For a community who has been strongly affected by drought, wildfires, and warm winters, there were not many in attendance at the Climate Change rally downtown today. Protesting Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, around fifty people came together outside of the courthouse today. It was quiet, but the solidarity was comforting. Jeanette and I headed down on our lunch break to join them and I’m glad we did.  In this political climate, it is too easy to feel hopeless. I don’t know what to do, but standing downtown in Klamath today somehow helped. 

I thought that I would get the subject line out of the way first because I know that there will be collective groan from my parents and anyone who makes dinner for us.  Randal and I did decide one caveat though and that is we will eat whatever is served us - we will just no longer buy meat.  I attended a conference last week in Florida and one after another inspiring lectures about lifestyle medicine helped us reach this conclusion.  Learning stuff can be kind of annoying. You know what else is annoying?  Donald Trump.   Milo is definitely a Hillary supporter and so we got dressed up for the final debate and cheered for our woman.  Go Hillary, go!   And then to Naples!  Our hotel was near the beach, so we enjoyed some daily treks to the waves.  We let Milo explore the sand and insert sand in every crevice he could. When we were tired of the beach, we hung out at the pool. It was a terrible week, obviously. I met t...

Do you know in "She's Coming 'Round the Mountain," when you sing: "She'll driving six white horses when she comes...   Whoa back!"   That's a bit how I feel right now.  I'm driving a few horses and I need to rein them in a little bit. But, man, they are good horses.  The Sky Lakes Wellness Center has gotten off to a roaring start.  We have had unbelievable enthusiasm for our program and the first cohort of 30 people starts Tuesday with their group classes.  We are booked until July with individual appointments and are already making some appointments in September.  (I have an appointment booked on my due date, so I'll let you know how that one goes!)  We have had several cranky people come in for informational sessions (in which we explain the details of the program and they decide if they want to move forward or not) and leave with smiles on their faces.  (One woman said, "I thought that this was going to be like overeaters anonym...

The fun never ends with the Jochim/Pope clan.   How many times have I posted this in the past few years:  In lieu of packing, I'll write a blogpost! Yep.  It is that time again when I load up all of my junk and think, Why do I have so much stuff?? before schlepping it across the country.  Except that in previous instances when I have stated that I am moving across the country, I really meant that I was crossing only about five states.  This time, it's a literal statement as I go from the East Coast to the West Coast.  But, before I start to panic about that, let's recap our last few weeks. Stephanie and my pitch to the VP of Medical Affairs in Klamath Falls went so well that nerve-wracking Tuesday.  A few changes need to be made, but we have an excited crew waiting for us in Klamath Falls.  They will bring us out sometime in June to pitch to the senior administrative team, the entire board of trustees of the hospital, and to th...