What's In a Name?

Haiku My Heart
February 17, 2012

Beautiful Lake Superior near Ashland, Wiscosnin

 See more Haiku My Heart entries at Rebecca's recuerda mi corazon.

Towns in Wisconsin

Luck Strum Knapp Thorp El Paso

Cornucopia


I'll be up at the Great Lake Superior this weekend. I'll drive right through Cornucopia and pass near Luck. Yes, there is an El Paso, WI and it's not too far from Spadoville. We visit Thorp every year for the Pumpkin Festival in October, and I pass through Strum on my way to Chicago. Knapp? Well, I've been there, but not lately. It's not too far from where I live, between River Falls and Menomonie on US Highway 12.


I like the way the names fit in Haiku, and it does my heart good to be back on the road a little.

Peace to all

What's For Dinner?

Monday Mystery Tour

February 13, 2012

Chile Rellenos with Beans, Rice and Chile Verde

Will there be any guests for dinner? I’m making Chile Rellenos. There were some fresh New Mexican Green Chiles at the El Burrito Mercado in West St. Paul the other day. I picked up a few and went to work at home in the Spadoville cocina.

When the time of Los Dias de Los Muertos comes around, I buy many of the items I need from El Burrito. The Pan Muerto, or Dead Bread, and the sugar skulls come from this wonderful market.

Pan de Muerto

West St. Paul, Minnesota is a city in its own right, but the Westside of St. Paul proper is called West St. Paul and is really part of St. Paul, MN. It’s a neighborhood directly South of Downtown, across the Mississippi River. The unusual “West” name for a place directly South comes from the fact it is on the West bank of the great river.

Back in the late 1970’s, I drove a furniture moving truck for a small local St. Paul company called Hirte Transfer. One of the accounts Hirte took care of was doing delivery for a Westside business called Henly’s Furniture. I remember going to that building just about every day to pick up a few pieces and make deliveries in the morning, then be dispatched to someone’s home to do a move job in the afternoon.

El Burrito Mercado took over the Henly building in the 1980’s and enlarged their market from the small store where they started their business in 1979. The original store was also located in the Westside neighborhood. This  informative Historical Narrative done by the Minnesota Historical Society will explain how this area of St. Paul became a Mexican neighborhood. 

When I am in the mood for Mexican food, I visit the Mercado and resupply. This usually happens when I have exhausted my cupboards and freezer of all the ethnic foodstuffs I brought home from my last trip to New Mexico, which in this years case, was way back in September of 2011.

Incidentally, the green chile sauce, or Chile Verde, is good on enchiladas or smothered burritos and can stand alone served with some fresh warm tortillas. These green chiles come in different degrees of hotness. I use the Sandia variety. They have a good heat level to them, but there are mild varieties as well.  

I’ll let the pictures tell you the story of how I prepare the Rellenos from fresh green chile peppers. If you would like the recipe, let me know via e-mail or in the comments section and I will assemble and send the recipe for both the rellenos and the green chile sauce, or Chile Verde.

Fresh New Mexican Green Chiles

Roasted on an open flame to blacken the skin for removal

I use the edge of a fillet knife to remove the blackened skin

The Chiles, skin removed, ready to stuff

A steaming crock pot of Chile Verde using some of the peppers chopped up for this delectable sauce

The rest of the peppers, slit down the side, seed pod removed, then stuffed with cheese

Dipped in a light batter, then fried in good quality oil

A naked chile relleno as it comes out of the frying pan

The rellenos are smothered with the chile verde sauce and served with beans, rice , sour cream, lettuce, tomato and cheese

The end result of such a dinner

It's great fun to cook, especially when you feel like cooking, and better fun to eat and enjoy with family and friends.

Much Peace

Four Wheelin'

Haiku My Heart

February 10, 2012

Haiku My Heart is a weekly project started by my friend Rebecca. She has guided many of us through this exercise now, and draws us together in a special fellowship grounded in Peace and Love. Join us at her blog, recuerda mi corazon.

Yours truly traversing a steep hillside in the Gila National Forest, New Mexico

Jeep ride jalopy

Windy sunshine fills my dreams

Drives my heart insane

The theme here is not unlike Rebecca’s Haiku My Heart offering today with the idea that she awaits the sounds of Spring in the morning darkness. My dreams are of Spring and the thought of enjoying what I love to do. I’m adding a few more activities to the mix this season as well.

To be honest, this ten year old photo from New Mexico, when I had the army Jeep and ran it up and down the mountains and hillsides on cow paths, makes me swoon with delight. I remember the day Mrs. Spadoman took the picture and where we were on Burro Mountain between Lordsburg and Silver City, and the fun we had.

We enjoyed the Jeep rides. The ones to town. The ones into the wilderness crossing the Black Range. The ones where we just went to the river and hiked around. Today, my heart is crazy with the thought of the weather being warm and the wind on my face and in my hair. More than a thought, but an actual dream, played out while sleeping and remembered well into the day I am living. Not just on the motorcycle, but sharing it with my soul mate, maybe in another Jeep.

The insurance company of the guy who hit me made our well-loved Goldie a total loss, (see the post below this one for those details). Replacement might mean another Jeep or similar vehicle that is capable of traversing the gravelly roads, as a return to New Mexico is eventually inevitable. That thought made my dreams of Summer exciting.

I’ll be on cloud nine today. If you need me, leave a message.

Peace

Everything is Okay

Goldie, our 2009 Ford Focus got rear ended while I was waiting for someone to cross the street at a Main Street River Falls crosswalk yesterday afternoon.

The vehicle that hit me was a huge Ford F-250 pickup truck driven by a young man. He had full coverage insurance. State Farm I think. You know, the Good Neighbor?

My daughter, the one that works in the auto body business, tells me it will no doubt be a total loss.

That's kinda good since I owed money on it and now it will be paid for.

I also sold my Ford Pickup truck and now that is also paid for.

My 2007 F-150. SOLD!

Now, I need to get another car. Just so happens that I made an agreement to purchase one yesterday just before the accident.

Our new Mazda CX-9

No one was hurt in the making of this post except the insurance companies pocketbooks. But they'll rip off the young man on his premiums and recoup their losses eventually. Too bad how that works. I have been on the other side of this equation a time or two in my past, I know.

Besides all the above mentioned excitement, I went to the VA and had an Echocardiogram of my heart. The functioning level has risen from a paltry 30% to 40% since I had the procedures done in late January. Before the heart episodes that started in late October 2011, my functioning level was 47%. (The normal healthy male is 58%). There is the possibility of even more improvement as time marches on. Here's hoping!

Monday, February 6, 2012. A good day for some, not so good for others.

Peace

Healing Touch

Haiku My Heart
February 3, 2012

This post is dedicated to my friend Rebecca, my good pal Mel's sister and everyone that suffers sickness and health issues. The general health and happiness of the people. See more Haiku MY Heart at recuerda mi corazon.

The Cabinette after a stormy wintry night in 2007

Weather patterns change

Ev’ry thing moved up a notch

Winter seems like Spring

These photos are from 2007. They are of our cabin on the Great Lake Superior during Winter. The night before these were taken, the snow was literally being driven into the siding by strong winds, the kind of winds that wrecked ships on the Great Lake. Like nails driven with a hammer each snowflake hit with impact and was embedded into the shingled siding.

Not this year, not so far, and the likelihood of a ferocious storm diminishes as time goes on. Sure, we can get snow storms well into April and even sometimes in May up here in the Northland, but  the longer they hold off, the shorter in duration they are and melting happens more quickly.

We’re in  the middle of another warmer than usual unseasonable spell. Temperatures have been above freezing all day since Monday, and the past two nights, they haven’t fallen low enough to allow water to freeze.

The NOAA, my source for weather forecasts, says this trend will continue for another week with no snow or rain in the forecast. This can change, in fact, there is a storm moving West to East now, but predictions are for this to pass to our South.

What’s my point? Simple. I just mentioned the four cardinal directions while talking about the weather. Some may believe that the healing spirit guides and helpers come from all directions. I do. It may not be about me, but I feel good the weather isn’t real harsh this season as I recover from heart related matters.

So, I wrote yet another Haiku:

My heart is fragile

Gifts from God and the Spirits

Kind touch of healing

Yesterday, I went to a spiritual healer. She was very intuitive. She incorporated a couple of methods of healing touch on me. Reiki and Ji Shin Jyutsu. I went to her upon the recommendation of a mutual friend as we discussed how out of balance things seemed as I was taking all these Western medicine drugs and trying to stay spiritual at the same time.

I lacked balance. I felt this and my body and mind were confused. Depression set in more advanced than it has been in the past, I was snapping at people, intolerant and aggressive at times.

This Sunrise Healing Arts of River Falls, WI practitioner sat with me as I explained what had happened to me. Tidbits of my past with more emphasis on more recent physical health events were discussed. Her intuition and these facts guided her mission and an hour long healing touch session ensued.

As she worked on me with light touch at different focal points all over my body, I had the sensation that her hands were still in one place as I felt her in another. I would have sworn that this woman had four hands, and at times, six!

The treatment seems like acupuncture by touch rather than needles. I came away feeling really good. In fact, she told me the feelings will last a few days before wearing off and that it was the spirit guides and helpers that came along on this journey to help me that would stay with me for a while.

The Buffalo, Bear and Eagle spirits were present at this healing session

I had a marvelous rest of the day yesterday. Having attended a Sweat Lodge ceremony Wednesday evening, then this healing session on Thursday morning, set me right. I booked another session to be held in two weeks.

Now, before you think I am rich. Connie has a very simple formula to help people. She doesn’t charge much. She knows she has expenses to recoup, but is interested in healing people, plying her gift to humanity, the money is to keep things up and running to pay the light bill, not for the guidance to healing.

I had a great nights sleep and I am ready for another day. If the spirits have left me, I sure don’t feel like it. I’ll hang onto them a while longer and savor the peace in my own heart, but I will share these spirits with friends in need like Mel’s sister who was newly diagnosed with cancer and our own Rebecca who is in constant recovery living with Pompes disease. These people were mentioned in the Sweat Lodge and prayers from the people were sent to the Creator.

I guess this weather and not having to have the goose down winter parka and Sorels out of the closet so far at all this year is a bonus.

Mitakwe Oyasin

Much Peace to All

First Road Trip of 2012

This is part of a weekly thread of Joy called Postcards From Paradise that eminates from Rebecca's recuerda mi corazon. Please feel free to go there and have a look and catch the feelings of other kinderd souls.

October 26th. That’s when all this heart stuff started. It was right about this time, early in the morning, that my heartbeat went racing out of control. It was at 167 when I put the blood pressure cuff on and saw it. Before that, I remember a trip up North earlier in October. That’s the last time I was on the road for anyplace farther than the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis, which is 38 miles from my home.

That changed on January 25th when I headed to Chicago, driving my car. So, over three months of being what I consider to be homebound, I finally got into the car and drove away. Hardly a cross country excursion, but I was doing what I love, seeing the world through the windshield. This view is my therapy, my yoga, my meditation.

I listened to the radio. I have SiriusXM installed in Goldie. Channel 26 plays the classic rock and for my benefit played the Allman Brothers “Ramblin’ Man”. I was born a ramblin’ man, there is no doubt about it!

Lord, I was born a ramblin' man

Trying to make a living and doing the best I can

When it's time for leaving, I hope you'll understand

That I was born a rambling man

I cried at the screaming guitar of Carlos Santana. I sang out loud at the top of my lungs with “Hey Jude” and just soaked it all in, dreaming of days gone by, when they played Mott the Hooples’ “All the Young Dudes”.

I left around 7:00 AM and this time of year, even though the daylight hours are on the increase, there’s still a darkness to the sky, especially when it’s damp and foggy, and that’s how it was last Wednesday. No camera, so no photos of this very familiar route to the city where I was born and raised.

As I drove East on US 10, the sun was brightening the sky from behind the foggy heavens. Then, I was able to look right at the sun. There was no glare as the outline of the perfect orb shone through the lifting haze. In a short while, the day had become a sunny one.

I stopped at Pammy K’s diner in Eleva, WI. Had the chopped beefsteak and eggs, then got underway and drove the Interstate for a hundred miles or so. I took two-lane highways to Mt. Horeb after that and paid a visit to the Duluth Trading Company’s retail store.

On from there into Illinois with dinner and a motel room in Harvard. I tell you, it felt so good to be on the road. I wish I could remember what I was writing in my head that day. The words flowed out of my brain as I wanted to tell the world I felt free once again.

The crows were evident everywhere along the road. I saw one eagle, two deer and two sheriffs patrol cars along with the show Ole Sol was putting on as it broke through the cloud cover to reveal itself on a very unseasonable Winter day in the Midwest. Temps shot as high as 46 degrees. When I got to Illinois, there was no snow to be seen.

The next morning, I headed into Chicago with a stop at a restaurant along US Highway 14 in Crystal Lake, IL. I did a little zigging and zagging to find the highway after I checked out what was happening on WBBM radio out of Chicago. They have traffic and weather on the 8’s. I pulled into the driveway at the funeral home and immediately spotted the familiar faces of my brother and brother-in-law in the parking lot.

The trip home was equally as enjoyable for the first half. The second half it was dark and all I could see were the images in my head while listening to more old but great music. The Reggae channel had me bobbin’ and weavin’. I was Irie mon.

I don’t know what many of you think about road trips. As you can see, it is important to my life. For a while, I felt like I’d never be able to take off, at least not take off alone, from home. I’ve broken the ice and plan a full schedule of travel starting in mid March when I can saddle up and get to Albuquerque to get my motorcycle out of Winter storage.

In the meantime, I refreshed my soul by simply being on the move. Practicing what I preach, I realize there is nothing I can do about what has happened, and I sure don’t know what the future will bring, so living one day at a time means be prepared, but perish the thought of sitting in a living room chair, watching TV and waiting to die for the rest of my life. I want to live, not just be alive, as long as The Creator allows. And I continue to be thankful for friends and family. I pray for the Veterans, the Elders, the Sick, the Addicted and the Children.

Mitakwe Oyasin

Peace

Rest In Peace

Haiku My Heart
January 27, 2012

For more Haiku My Heart, visit Rebecca's recuerda mi corazon. Also, remember rebecca in your prayers as she needs them.

Strong sister, good Mom

Took care of Grandma, Grandpa

Left good memories

L to R, Grandma Spada, my Mom and Auntie Angie with my sister and brother around 1945

The funeral was a plain simple affair. Meet at the funeral home, listen to the priest say a few words and read a couple of scriptures, drive in funeral procession to the chapel at the cemetery where all the relatives are buried, proceed to the nearby restaurant to share a meal together and leave to head for home. I drove 400 miles down to Chicago to spend three hours with my family and honor the life of my Auntie Ange.


I wonder why these things are done in the same way and have been in our family as long as I can remember. Not sure what I’d do differently, but there seems to be an element gone astray at what I call, a funeral home funeral.

When my daughter was lost to this world in a terrible automobile accident, we knew we had some responsibility to take care of the body. We chose to have her remains cremated. The people at the funeral home wanted to sell us a brass urn to hold the ashes. We were fine with a cardboard box. In fact, we didn’t want the ashes. They were reverted back to the ground to become part of the soil.

What we wanted to save was her spirit. We wanted to hold this with us in our hearts forever and we have done so. Yet there are people that need these funeral home funerals to say goodbye and to close the book, so to speak, on the life of a human being they knew when that person walked among them.

With this in mind, and it is in my mind every time I feel the need to attend a funeral, I was present when they laid my Aunt to rest yesterday. I honored her life and the part in my life she played. When I was a youngster growing up, we’d visit her home often because Grandma and Grandpa Spada lived with her and her family and it was the custom in my father’s household to visit his parents every Sunday afternoon.

As we cousins grew up and moved away to raise our own families, I didn’t see my Aunt very often, but when I did, she was the same steady voice and demeanor. She always told me how much I looked like my father, who was her brother, and told me she loved me. She grabbed me by the cheeks and held on to me like I was her own. I guess I was of her own.

There was sadness and tears, but there was a lightheartedness to seeing family and reuniting around her. Everyone knew she was in a hurry to join her husband, my Uncle Willis, who passed last April. Auntie Ange was having health problems of her own and they were getting progressively worse. When they told her she had some kind of cancer on top of the rest of the age related ailments, she let herself return to her maker.

It was a whirlwind of a trip as I haven’t driven anywhere in almost three months and I was chompin’ at the bit to get on the road. More about that soon. For now, I acknowledge the loss of my Aunt from this world and will miss her very much.

Peace