Joe’s Chicken Soup

Posted July 2, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Recipes
Tags: , ,

What does one do with the leftover carcass of a chicken? Last Tuesday we did a roasted chicken for our weekly family dinner. So we had a leftover chicken carcass. So I decided to do a chicken soup for dinner tonight.

Here’s how you do it. Put the carcus into a stew pot and cover with water. Boil/simmer for 3-3.5 hours. After the three hours take all of the chicken out of the pot and put into a sieve. Usually the carcass falls apart pretty much. Take all of the meat out of the pot and put into a sieve. Remove any of the chicken bones that you can find. Warning, the bones and cartilage pieces will be small. In our case we also had some leftover chicken in the refrigerator. That got thrown in as well. The concept is to clean out our refrigerator of leftovers before our family dinner next Tuesday.

This also works quite well for turkey. And if you are not ready to make the soup right away then freeze the carcas. It’ll keep. I first learned about this idea from an article about Michael Dukakis (former governor of Mass.)


Return the chicken to the pot. Add 1c of carrots and 1 c of celery to the pot. I like to add noodles to the mix. I cook 8 oz. of noodles for about 10 minutes. Drain and add to the pot. Add whatever vegetables you like. Perhaps, peas, maybe corn. Some folks prefer rice to noodles.  In that case add about 1 cup of uncooked rice to the pot. 

Also, this time I used a packet of chicken gravy mix. Cook according to the directions on the package, then add to the pot. It makes the soup a little bit thicker.

Cook over very low heat for another two hours. Serve with fresh bread. Very tasty.

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Mary

Posted June 23, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Aging, Mary
Tags:

Just a quick update. We have been trying to get Mary to drink more water. We kept telling her that it was good for her. It keeps all you plumbing working, I tell her. How do you know, you’re not a doctor? She would have none of it.

But we finally solved it. It seems that she had been watching the news about the water troubles in Flint, Michigan. And she thought that there was a problem with our tap water as well. We tried to convince her that our water here in LA was safe, but she wasn’t convinced.

So we ask her if she would drink bottled spring water. Why yes, she says. So we bring up a couple of bottles from the trunk of our Jeep. And she started drinking it. Success. She’s not up to the recommended 8 glasses a day yet, but getting better.

Of course, she doesn’t see me fill up the bottles from the water dispenser in our refrigerator. Need to know, and all that.

Now for a second story. We finally broke down and got a land-line. We did it for a couple of reasons. First, we got a note from AT&T that Mary’s phone would no longer be supported. She’s had it for a long time. Mary doesn’t use it much if at all. And AT&T has been charging her $50/month.

The phone is small and gets easily lost. A land-line allows us to get in touch with care givers while we are away, which we had trouble doing with Mary’s cell phone.

Time Warner is charging us $10 / month for a year. So I went to one of the local TW stores to pick up the modem and then to Costco to pick up a phone. I requested the phone # be unlisted. The phone number is available on a need to know basis. I don’t want to start getting telemarketing calls. Paula and my cell phones are still our primary method of contact.

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FB Rant

Posted June 21, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Face Book
Tags:

Okay, here are a couple of things that bug me about Facebook (or maybe FB users). If you don’t do FB then go read something else or go arrange your sock drawer or something.

At this moment in time, I have 336 FB friends that are spread around this country. These friends are from a wide range of organizations including Eastern Star, Masons, Church(es), Relatives and ex-coworkers. I have been doing FB now for about 8 years. My lovely wife Paula does it too but not for quite as long.

So every now and then I get some new friend requests or FB suggests people that I should be FB friends with. So I ask myself, who is this person? And where do I know them from? Are they from the east coast or west? Did you once work for DEC or Compaq or HP? Did you work with Paula? You get the picture.

So I get a friend request. I start by looking at person’s profile picture. Oh dear, the person a picture of their dog or cat for their profile pic. How am I supposed to figure out who you are if I can’t see your face. When you get to my age, you have met many people.

I know that people like to put up pictures of something they feel strongly about. But for God’s, sake get the picture back to what you look like, preferably a picture that was taken in the last 10 years. There are other places on FB for pictures of your pets or your boat or whatever.

If you don’t have a picture up on your FB profile and you don’t know how to do it. Stop and figure it out or ask someone for help. It’s not rocket science.

There, I feel better.

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Orlando

Posted June 20, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Religion
Tags: ,

It’s been over a week now and these ideas have been kicking around in my head. It’s time to start writing. First off, I am not gay, bisexual or transgender. I am an ally, plain and simple.

One of the things that has been particularly bothering to me has been some of the responses from alleged Christians. First was from one Pastor Steven Anderson from the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Arizona. He said,

“The good news is that there’s 50 less pedophiles in this world, because, you know, these homosexuals are a bunch of disgusting perverts and pedophiles. That’s who was a victim here, are a bunch of, just, disgusting homosexuals at a gay bar, okay?”

I would like to call the pastor’s attention to the Bible, in Matthew 22:36-39 and also in the Old Testament, something about “Thou shall not kill”

Matthew 22:36-39 ESV
[36] “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” [37] And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. [38] This is the great and first commandment. [39] And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.


Okay, the Bible doesn’t add to the above, “Unless you’re LGBT”. Perhaps, they are using a different translation? But, I doubt it.

My favorite translation of the above that applies to all religions is:

Don’t be an a$$hole.

Oh and as if it might matter, the Old Testament has something called the Ten Commandments, among them is the following:

Deuteronomy 5:17 ESV 

[17] “‘You shall not murder.”

Okay, maybe the Bible isn’t your thing. Then, there’s the quote from the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness;

Once again, it doesn’t say “unless you’re LGBT and/or Muslim”

I could go on and on. There seems to be more “alleged” Christian pastors saying similar statements.  Of course there is the infamous Pat Robertson who has been using his bully pulpit to denigrate the people who were murdered in Orlando. They seem to ignore the inconvenient parts of the Bible. They make me feel embarrassed to say that I am a Christian.

Shame! Shame! Shame!

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Father’s Day

Posted June 19, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Family
Tags: , ,

stan bowkerMy father died about 50 years ago when I was about 19. I don’t exactly remember all the exact dates. My memory has gotten just a bit foggy over the years. So here’s my story.

My mom and dad got married after WW2. They got married on March 3, 1946. My father was not in the military due to his epilepsy. Plus he might have been a bit old for the military. They probably didn’t feel right starting a family while the war was going on. Another reason that they might have delayed getting married was that my mother was a school teacher and at that time school teachers were forbidden to be married. Get married, lose your job.

So marry they did. They had three children, born in 1947, 1948 and 1950. So they were well into their 40’s by the time all of my brothers and I arrived.

Okay, fast forward to the late fifties. My dad suffered a heart attack. I think it was 1958 or 1959. What I remember most about the incident was how little the hospital could do for him at the time. No open heart surgery. No stents. All they could do was have him rest. Eventually they sent home from St. Elizabeth’s. He asked the doctor how he was going to manage the stairs to our home on Etna Street in Brighton.

Doctor’s instruction was take a step and then say one Hail Mary, then repeat. Anyway, life went on. That’s it for post-hospital instructions. I suppose there might have been some medicines, but they didn’t tell this 10 year old.

So in November (or maybe December) 1966, my dad had gall bladder problems. Surgery scheduled. Back in the day, they didn’t have laparoscopic surgery. They did it the old fashioned way, they cut you open. In those days, there was no MRI so when they didn’t quite know what was wrong, they cut you open. The term they used was “exploratory surgery”. Yikes.

At any rate, Dad came out of surgery okay, but was suffering some bleeding (showing up in his urine, I guess). Mind you this was a man that only 8 years prior had had a heart attack. So they scheduled another surgery (exploratory this time). I learned this when I went to visit him at St E’s after school one day. At any rate, he coded during the surgery. The surgeons did managed to get his heart restarted, but the damage was done. He never woke from the surgery. He was in a coma for about 6-8 weeks before he died.

So here are my take-aways.

Medicine has come a long, long way since the 1950’s and 1960’s. Looking back on that time it seems like it was dark ages of medicine. If the heart attack had occurred even 20 years later, he might still be alive.

My Dad never got to see us get married and have children of our own. I can truthfully tell you that grandchildren are such a fantastic blessing. Nothing makes me happier than to have our grand-kids run up to me and say “Hi, Grandpa” along with a hug.

Happy Father’s Day everyone!

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Mary

Posted June 6, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Dying, Family, Mary, Massachusetts
Tags:

01a838c7416f7af69fac2c1d92078b7296d5cb9dafSo it’s been a while since I last wrote. I found out that an old friend of Paula (Chuck) is a faithful reader. Paula was talking to him this evening looking for info on judges running for election in Los Angeles.

So here we go. Saturday, we planned on going to the Summer Fiesta at the OES Senior Living Center in Yorba Linda. We asked Mary if she would like to come. She said yes. We described it to her as a bunch of booths with stuff for sale, food trucks, tours or the SLC. Parking was a challenge and Mary had to walk a bit. Weather was beautiful. We got her inside the center where she sat for about an hour in a comfortable chair.

Meanwhile, Paula and I wander around checking out the many booths and greeting friends. We came back and got Mary up and got her outside. She again sat down in a folding chair in the shade. Still no interest in seeing everything. We got her a coke and that was about it. We tried to interest her in food. Nope, not going to happen.

So Paula and I shared a grilled cheese with bacon, then vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries. Once we finished, we gave in and started taking her to the car to head home. We know when we are licked. We got her into the car and gave her a bottle of water. Well she only finished about three sips of water during the one hour ride home. It’s unbelievable what it takes to get her to drink water. I told her if she liked peace and quiet, the way to get it was to drink water. ie. I was going to nag her all the way home until she drank more water.

So on Sunday, we asked her early whether she would be coming to church. Initially she said yes, but changed her mind after a while. So she spent the rest of the day in bed. So we went to church and did lunch at the Pacific Diner with Theresa and the grand-kids. Little Sarah was none too happy when I gave her some home fries that happened to have some hot sauce on it. Oops, my bad.

Her memory is failing badly. She barely can remember anyone other than Paula and me. When we show her pictures of Harold (even a fairly recent ones), she doesn’t remember him. They were married for over 60 years and she remembers none of it.

Nevertheless, her general health is not too bad. A little bit weak at times. Her walk is pretty slow but she can get around. She tires easily though.

We found some pictures of a trip they took to Alaska. Remember any of it? Not a bit. We continue to dig through old pictures and letters found in her storage locker. I am sure they will help provoke more writings by me.

On occasion, Paula has brought up the subject of funeral planning. Nothing, she doesn’t want to talk about it. I guess we are on our own. Sigh.

By the way, we had a great trip back to Mass. in May. It was so nice to see many of our friends back there. We had caregivers taking care of Mary 24/7 while we were gone. There’s just no way now that we can leave her alone.

TTFN,

Joe

 

 

 

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Trip Report

Posted May 23, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Billerica, Massachusetts, Travel
Tags: ,

Whenever I travelled on business, I had to write a trip report. I’m sitting in the departure lounge for Delta Airlines. Had lunch at Legal Sea Food. We both had a cup of clam chowder. So good. Had Sam Adams Summer Ale. Also, good. 

We visited our old friend Candee up the street from where we used to live. Drove by our old house  to see what they had done. Added a fence. Lawn needs mowing and weeding. Dogwood and Japanese maple in full bloom. 


We filled the tank on the rental car and headed for Logan. Turned in the car and got to terminal. Through security. Now time to wait. I’ll get one last DD coffee. 

Later,

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Anzio

Posted May 16, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: History
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Time for another dive into the records and archives of the Stanley family. Paula discovered an envelope in one of the albums that several artifacts including newspaper clippings, photos and letters. This post is about one of Harold’s cousins, Orin Taylor.

Orin was a couple of years younger than Harold and both of them grew up in Lawrence Kansas. The first item that I have scanned was a high school graduation announcement in 1938. So our estimate, is that Orin was probably born around 1920. Here’s the graduation announcement and picture.

Oren Taylor Grad Invite 1938-page-001

EPSON MFP image

 

So Harold received a letter from Orin in November 1942 while Orin was in the US Army. At the time he wrote the letter, Orin was stationed in South Carolina for training. We don’t actually know when Orin joined the army. Perhaps, he joined after Pearl Harbor. Perhaps he went to college for some of that time seeing as he was an officer. Here is the scan of the letter to Harold.

Letter to Harold 1942-page-001

Harold never served in the Army during WW2. He had hearing problems dating back to his childhood. He had many ear infections some of which grew into mastoiditis (infection of the mastoid bone behind the ear.)Lt Oren Taylor Death Notice-page-001 In those days, there were no antibiotics to knock out the infection. He did his part in the war effort working for Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach where of course we know that’s where he met Mary.

So the next point that this story picks up is the Battle of Anzio in Italy. Orin died in the Battle of Anzio in January 1944. Here’s the death notice and action report. Unfortunately, there weren’t any dates on the clippings.

We didn’t find any other clippings on Orin’s life and death in the US Army. From his letter, life in So Carolina was pretty good. Once they shipped out for Italy, my guess that things got serious fast.

Newpaper Article part 1 - 1942-page-001Newspaper Article part 2 - 1942-page-001

That’s all for now.   

 

 

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More Pictures

Posted May 8, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Family
Tags: , ,

I have scanned another batch of old pictures that came from the storage locker. These are mostly of Harold and his family. Harold was born in August of 1919. Harold could be described as a blizzard baby or blackout baby. A blizzard baby is a baby born 9 months after a blizzard or other natural event when the parents of said baby were predisposed to have sex.

When Paula was working in the pediatric practice, occasionally the nurses and doctors would see a sharp increase in the number of newborn patients. They would try to figure what happened nine months prior to affect the increase.

In Harold’s case, we think the event was Armistice Day in November 1918, the end of WWI. We don’t know if that actually happened, but it is amusing to consider the possibility.

So we have pictures of Paul Stanley, Harold’s father and namesake of Paula. Most of the pictures have notes on the back but not much in the line of dates. Best we can do is make a good guess. Paul was 20 or 21 when Harold was born. Paul didn’t serve in the military during WWI. He had a job driving a fuel truck for Union Oil.

(Note: Mouse over the pictures to see the captions.)

First are pictures where Harold was born and house built by Paul in Iowa.

House build by Paul Stanley in Iowa
House in Laurence KS where Harold was born in 1919

Next are some baby pics of Paul (Harold’s father).

Paul Stanley
Paul Stanley (perhaps Christening?)

Here are pictures of Paul & Mabel, Paul’s mother & sisters (not clear from the notes on the back as to who’s who.) and Paul’s brother Albert.

Albert Stanley (brother of Paul)
Alza Stanley & sisters (mother of Paul)
Paul & Mabel Stanley

Here is a scan of Paul’s Union card. Paul died in the summer of 1954 of a massive heart attack while visiting Yosemite National Park. Not much could be done in those days and the closest hospital about 50 miles away. Born in 1898. Paula called him Paw-Paw.

EPSON MFP image

That’s enough for now. I will have lots more when I get around to doing the scanning.

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Mother’s Day

Posted May 8, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Family
Tags: ,

In honor of Mother’s Day, I dug through my photo archives and pulled out a few pictures of my mother (Grace), Paula, Mary and others. Grace passed away in 1996.

First is a picture of Grace and nephew James’ christening. Christmas 1990.

scan0016 (2)

Mary C, Rich, James, Grace

Santa was done by one of Harold’s Lodge friends (Gus Olguin). He arrived in the middle of the boys nap. The boys were in a fog. Christmas was very confusing for them that year. How will Santa know that we are not in Billerica? Santa knows all, we said.

scan0016

Harold, Mary and Santa 1989

scan0033

Grace, Mike and James – 1990

Grace and Anne Wood (friend of Grace from West Roxbury). This was our new pop-up trailer. This trip was to Prince Edward Island summer of 1987. PEI had some beautiful camp grounds. When we told Grace and Anne that we were going to PEI, they said we’ll come too. We’ll stay in a hotel, thank you very much. It was a fun trip. We went on a hay ride and Mike got to drive the tractor.

scan0106

If I recall, this was taken at my brother Rich’s house in Quincy, c 1987. I think it was Thanksgiving, but it could have been Christmas. Mary looks like she’s already on her third glass of champagne :<).

scan0008

(l-r) Mike, Mary S, Neil, Grace, Mary C, Rich, Paula

 

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