Today, we are visiting the Lakeway City Hall Art exhibit. There is an exhibition by photographer Debbi Varela of Lakeway. We are catered by Rough Creek Lodge Restaurant of Glen Rose, Texas. Our entertainment is Survivor.Menu
California White Bass – Santa Barbara Mussels, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Grape Tomatoes, Chef’s Salami, Garlic Toast & Shaved Burgundy Black Truffle Salad
The coffee machine sits quietly waiting for its first command of the day. A touch of the two coffee images on the touchscreen brings the sweet sound of beans grinding. In 14 seconds, the magic elixir that quells the evil caffeine withdrawal pain pours into the cup. The first sip quiets the sound of a falling Mosler safe crashing into a five-story greenhouse that is in my head. The second sip is accompanied by the predictable cacophony of the Westminster chimes, the doorbell, and the baying of the hounds of Baskerville, portrayed by Twiggy and Tempeste. A quick toss of a new bone into the soundproof room, followed by a door slam, brings the peace train back home.
A glance at the monitor shows that Clarabelle the Clown is on the front porch. Knowing it is silly to ask it to leave the envelope, the security shutdown process is begun with a sigh.
The B-2 bomber squadron and the F-35 escort must be called off. One call does it. The tank corps and gunboats are told to stand by. The Apache helicopters are rerouted. The electric shock fence is turned off. The drawbridge over the quicksand is lowered. The robot attack dogs returned to their charging station. The laser-guided machine guns on the roof are set to caution. The nest filled with rattlesnakes was put away. The bucket filled with 1000 marbles is locked down. The tear gas canisters shut off. The electrified welcome mat set to off. The fall-away sidewalk into the pit filled with spikes is locked. The hornet’s nest closed. The water cannons are set to safety. Bear traps are set to go off. The Peregrine Falcons perched on the roof above the front door fed. The front door is open.
Clarabelle gives me a honk and passes the envelope and clipboard. After the signature, we trade the envelope for the clipboard. Clarabelloe has a hand out in the classic request for a tip. “A positive mind is stronger than a negative thought.” Is the tip left with Clarabelle as the front door closes. The envelope is from Linda Hill. Inside is a message. It reads: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “sweet.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
When Mr. Carl Craft nearly died from a brain hemorrhage, he and his wife Dawn reviewed their bucket list. Carl wanted to travel, and Dawn said she wanted to go to medical school.
“He thought I was crazy,” she said.
Now, though, Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft proudly holds a doctorate in medicine after graduating as the school’s oldest-ever graduate at 72.
The doctoral dream took root from the earliest periods of Zuidgeest-Craft’s life and would blossom into a career as a nurse practitioner and pediatric educator. It was a career she enjoyed even while marrying and giving birth to two children.
For their sake, Zuidgeest-Craft put her medical school ambition on hold—at least until her 40s, she thought. Then she got divorced and remarried before she and her new husband, Carl, decided to start their own family. Zuidgeest-Craft spent the decade raising two more children.
The dream of medical school gradually faded until Carl suffered his brain hemorrhage, at which point Dawn realized it had to happen now, or, as the phrase goes, never.
Digging into her retirement savings, Zuidgeest-Craft paid the tuition for St. James School of Medicine in Anguilla, the Caribbean, where the institution waives the requirement for a Medical College Admission Test.
It wasn’t a straightforward process, and the senior scholar wouldn’t have hoped or imagined failing the biochemistry exam during year 1, but with the support of her husband Carl and the classmates who all remember her fondly from their dorm living, movie nights, and yoga sessions on the beach, Zuidgeest-Craft kept going.
It took clinical rotations in Chicago and West Virginia, and a stint in South Texas, where a medical professional encouraged her—based on her aptitude—to seek a residency program, for Zuidgeest-Craft to graduate with her doctorate this month, not long before her 73rd Birthday.
“When you have to do it for work… you feel like, ‘I got to do this so that I can pay my rent,’” Zuidgeest-Craft, who has three grandchildren, told the Washington Post. “I want to do this because I really enjoy this.”
“I feel alive when I work in the medical field.”
She will begin her residency at Trinity Health Medical Center in Muskegon, Michigan, this year.
The good news in this story is that a long-held dream has finally been realized. Today’s JohnKu talks about dreams. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Today I randomly opened Detour on the Eternal Road to page 151. With eyes closed, I pointed to the page, and the word closest to my finger was “first.” That is our prompt today.
This list continues with the historical backdrop for my brand of lunacy. It first ran on September 17, 2018. I hope you enjoy it.
Top Ten Things Not to Do Crossing the Delaware with General Washington
10 If you are crossing the Delaware with General Washington, do not dangle your feet in the water off the back of the boat. If you do, at best, they will be numb. At worst, the General will think you have lost touch with reality. (Looks like you may be sidelined for the big event, Frasco. Although you may want to avoid the battle, your pay envelope will be much thinner.)
9 If you are crossing the Delaware with General Washington, don’t try to sit in Tiny the WWF champ’s seat next to the General. If you do, at best, you might be swimming across the Delaware. At worst, Tiny, who has formed a bond with General Washington, may take your move as a sign of affection for the General. (Since Tiny failed the “Unrequited Love and How to Cope” seminar, he now thinks a knuckle sandwich is an answer. Just jump out, Fredek. It will be easier in the long run.)
8 If you are crossing the Delaware with General Washington, do not think wearing boat shoes from Top Siders will impress your fellow soldiers. If you do, at best, you’ll get a new nickname. At worst, a Master Sergeant will put you on report for being out of uniform. (Of course, one more on-report isn’t going to break you, Freyr. You have come to like peeling potatoes.)
7 If you are crossing the Delaware with General Washington, do not start singing “row row row your boat.” If you do, at best, a few might join in. At worst, the General will single you out and threaten you with the stockade if you don’t quit making noise. (Looks like Georgie thinks you might be a British spy, Fridolf. I think quiet is the better part of this equation.)
6 If you are crossing the Delaware with General Washington, do not bring your fishing equipment. If you do, at best, you might catch dinner. At worst, the General will ask you to keep fishing until you have caught enough to feed the Continental Army. (Holy cow, Frygies. That is a lot of fish. We’ll come back for you.)
5 If you are crossing the Delaware with General Washington, do not ask if dinner at the captain’s table is a formal affair. If you do, at best, no one will understand your question. At worst, you’ll be reminded that you are on a rowboat and there is no captain’s table, and someone will hand you the flag. (You know that the flag goes in the front of the charge, don’t you, Fryderyk. Yeah, that’s right, up front where all those bullets and flying cannon balls are.)
4 If you are crossing the Delaware with General Washington, do not let anyone know you get seasick. If you do, at best, some will be sympathetic. At worst, the old salt will continually describe in minute detail the roast pork dinner he had last night. ( If you can just hang on a little longer, Francis, the shore is not too far away.)
3 If you are crossing the Delaware with General Washington, do not begin humming an old German tune. If you do, at best you’ll keep the volume down. At worst, since you are on your way to attacking the Hessians in Trenton, the General might think you are mocking the mission. (Washington is not sure this whole thing will work, Finn, so I would lay low if I were you. That water is certainly cold.)
2 If you are crossing the Delaware with General Washington, do not mention that your enlistment in the army expires at midnight. If you do, at best, you’ll get a so what? At worst, someone will take your musket and shot, and you’ll be defenseless when you reach the shore. (Better offer to reenlist, Fabian. Otherwise, you are going to be pretty uncomfortable dodging shot from both sides.)
1 If you are crossing the Delaware with General Washington, do not stand up in the boat and start singing “Old Man River.” If you do, at best you’ll be ordered to sit and be quiet. At worst, you will finish your song while trying to keep your head above water. (Looks like the General has just about had enough of the stand-up comedy, Floyd. Hopefully another boat will scoop you up.)
To contrast a standard coffee maker to this one is like comparing a steam locomotive to a bullet train. The locomotive gets the job done over time, but the bullet train delivers results immediately. So with that praise of the coffee machine, the two-button press delivers a double coffee in seconds. The first sip stops the air-hammer-on-concrete sound of caffeine withdrawal in my brain. The second brings the predictable crescendo of a load of cymbals hitting the ground after being shoved off a cliff sound of the Westminster Chime of the doorbell, coupled with the baying of Igor’s hounds. A quick toss of two Benny Bones and a slam of the door to the soundproof room traps Tempeste and Twiggy and produces the silence is golden moment prior to the incursion.
A check of the monitor shows the image of someone who looks like Porkey Pig with a clipboard and an envelope. A quick check verifies the need for a signature so with a sign the security system shout down process is begun.
The B-2 bomber squadron and the F-35 escort must be called off. One call does it. The tank corps and gunboats are told to stand by. The Apache helicopters are rerouted. The electric shock fence is turned off. The drawbridge over the quicksand is lowered. The robot attack dogs returned to their charging station. The laser-guided machine guns on the roof are set to caution. The nest filled with rattlesnakes put away. The bucket filled with 1000 marbles is locked down. The tear gas canisters shut off. The electrified welcome mat set to off. The fall-away sidewalk into the pit filled with spikes is locked. The hornet’s nest closed. The water cannons are set to safety. Bear traps are set to off. The front door is open.
The pig hands me the clipboard and envelope. The clipboard is returned after signature. The pig has a cloven hoof extended in the classic ‘tip request’ pose. I gave him an excellent tip. “A good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan next week.” Not waiting for his reply, the front door now separates us.
I open the envelope and see a message from Linda Hill. It reads: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “contrast.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
Australia now boasts one of the world’s largest acreages of private land set aside for conservation, and the Guardian recently reported that generous and wealthy citizens are to thank for it.
Leaving land to conservation purposes in wills and making bequests of estates have played a big role in amassing 24 million acres of privately conserved land.
Bush Heritage Australia manages some 3 million acres of these, and its CEO, Rachel Lowry, told the Guardian that such contributions play an outsized role in their work.
Last year, for example, the organization reported 4,600 such bequests, almost double the 2022 total. They believe it stems from people truly attempting, as we’re often taught, to leave the world in a better place than when they found it.
“Some of Australia’s most threatened and fragile ecosystems and wildlife sit outside of the national reserve system,” said Lowry. “They’re found on private land or pastoral country, and they may have deep cultural and ecological values, but they’re not protected from threats such as land clearing, mining, or invasive species.”
Several organizations in the country, such as the North East Tasmania Land Trust, are carrying out similar work, and the governments of the Australian states are taking notice. One of Bush Heritage’s protected areas, the Pilungah Reserve, was granted protection under Queensland state law equivalent to a federal National Park, demonstrating how valuable the work is seen by the public sector.
In the United States, one of the largest protected areas is a private-public partnership called American Prairie.
American Prairie has spent over 2 decades buying and leasing land between the Charles M. Russel Natural Wildlife Refuge and the Upper Missouri Breaks Natural Monument in Montana to create America’s largest assemblage of wild prairie for the purposes of conservation and recreation. It’s also received donations of land on the way to reaching its current size.
GNN has reported on several major milestones of this massive and constantly growing mosaic of grasslands, hills, woods, and wetlands, including a substantial 22,000-acre land purchase that had blocked public access to the Missouri Breaks, and the clearance of over 100 miles of derelict fencing across their land.
The organization has accumulated 603,657 acres, which comprises 167,070 deeded acres and 436,587 leased public acres. Their goal is ultimately to protect, and in some cases, rewild 2.3 million acres.
American Prairie Reserve
In 2024, American Prairie set a new visitation record for the seventh year in a row with more than 6,600 overnight visitors to its huts and campgrounds, and over 5,000 visitors at its National Discovery Center in Lewistown, Montana.
An American organization that helps connect and advocate for private conservation land in the US reports that 61 million acres—more than all the US national parks—are privately held for conservation. This amounts to about 3% of the 60% of American lands that are privately owned.
Called the Land Trust Alliance, it aims to double this number by the end of the decade.
The Good news in today’s story is that private land donations are helping preserve natural resources. Today’s JohnKu talks about private methods. of conservation. I hope you have a super weekend.
Growing Through Conflict.
Balance.
The coffee machine sits quietly waiting for its first command of the day. A touch of the two coffee images on the touchscreen brings the sweet sound of beans grinding. In 14 seconds, the magic elixir that quells the evil caffeine withdrawal pain pours into the cup. The first sip quiets the sound of a falling Mosler safe crashing into a five-story greenhouse that is in my head. The second sip is accompanied by the predictable cacophony of the Westminster chimes, the doorbell, and the baying of the hounds of Baskerville, portrayed by Twiggy and Tempeste. A quick toss of a new bone into the soundproof room, followed by a door slam, brings the peace train back home.
