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Rocket Girl

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Earlier this year I was working in the kitchen and my toddler daughter, Aria, was sitting on the living room couch when suddenly this conversation broke out:

Her: Daddy, I want to go to space.
Me: Umm. Okay. You might be able to someday.
Her: I want to go now.
Me: Mmm. That’s not really possible tonight.
Her: Why?
Me: Well, we don’t have the right equipment.
Her: Why?
Me: We need spacesuits and rockets, and we don’t really live in a place where launching rockets happens. It’s kind of dangerous.
Her: Why?
Me: Because the rockets have lots of fuel in them that can explode. But, someday, you can go into space if it’s something you really want to do. I’ll come watch.
Her: But, I want you to come with me.
Me: Well, honey, that’s probably not going to work.
Her: Why?
Me: Because by the time you’re old enough to go into space I’ll be a little too old for the trip. But I know you can go someday, and I will come watch you.
(pause)
Her: Can I watch Doc (McStuffins)?

I shared this conversation with my sister, Heather, and while we had a good laugh, she ran with it as a birthday gift theme. This actually happened a few days ago on Aria’s fourth birthday:

I was a bit envious. Aria said that maybe Auntie Heather could get me a suit. I told her that I would need to be a real astronaut to get a grown-up version. (For the record Auntie Heather said, nope, I don’t!)

I have no idea where this thought of going into space came from. Maybe she saw something on a Daniel Tiger or Doc McStuffins episode. Maybe she talked about it in preschool. Perhaps she gave thought to those glowing stars stuck on her bedroom ceiling. Regardless the reason, as her father, I want her to know that she can do anything she puts her mind to. If the day comes that she heads to Mars, the moon or a space station, I will be there to watch her liftoff. I’ll wish I could be on the ship with her, but maybe she will give me a mission patch when she returns. You go, Rocket Girl. Dream big.

The Apple Hobbyhorse

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At the very end of summer we took a trip to Beilke Family Farm to pick apples. It was a lot of fun, and I made applesauce for the first time. Then, I made my first pie. I don’t enjoy cooking, so it has been surprising how much I’ve enjoyed running the impromptu Hylton bakery. There have now been multiple trips to the orchard, so many jars of applesauce made that I’m storing them in my mother-in-law’s freezer, and several pies and an apple crisp baked. Whew!

If I’ve learned anything from this newfound hobby, it’s that apples straight from the tree are better than apples from the store. Every single time. I didn’t know Red Delicious apples are supposed to be tasty and crisp and not mealy!

I’ve gotten to know and use many different varieties or cultivars: Jonagold, Ruby Jon, Melrose and Cripps Pink. I’ve also used the more familiar Gala, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious and Fuji apples. I haven’t been disappointed with any of them, which is fantastic.

As October ends I’ve got a couple boxes of Cripps Pink and Granny Smith apples in the pantry. They’re great for storing. I’m eyeing one more trip out to the farm, as the owners expect to have apples until Thanksgiving.

In order to avoid becoming diabetic by then, I’ve been giving away a lot of the pie. I have a self-appointed focus group at the office that lets me know how I’m doing. Seems by my third pie I had dialed everything in from good to perfect in regard to the filling, which is also about the time I started ad libbing with the ingredients. I don’t use a lot of sugar, but I am a little more liberal with cinnamon and nutmeg. I also add a touch of cloves.

The house smells great these days. It’s real apple pie, not a Yankee Candle! I’m going to be sorry when apple season ends, but I’m already scouting out cherries and blueberries for baking next summer. That will tide us over until the apples are back in the late summer and early fall. In the meantime, it’s back to the kitchen. The oven is getting a workout!

Thoughts I’m Thinking

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A few random thoughts that are on my mind today:

1. After a terrific start to the season, the Portland Timbers have hit the skids. The team hasn’t won a game since April 22. They’ve dropped from first place in the Western Conference to fifth and are no longer in serious contention for the Supporters’ Shield, falling from first place to 12th. Setting up residence yet again as a midtable team in Major League Soccer is disappointing. The vaunted attack is sputtering and the defense simply isn’t good enough. The wheels haven’t fallen off the metaphorical car yet, but a couple hubcaps have been spotted in the middle of Morrison Street. Tonight San Jose comes to town, a squad that embarrassed Portland with a 3-0 rout at the beginning of May. Here’s hoping for a reversal of fortune for the Timbers beginning this evening. June is an important month that sets the stage for the rest of the season.

2. My wife and I started watching the fifth season of House of Cards. I don’t know when shooting for this season started, but there are overtones that give a nod to our current political climate. I remarked that the real life White House could resemble the fictional version if there was competence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. After yesterday’s curious vacuity on display in the Rose Garden, announcing the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, that’s not likely to be the case anytime soon.

3. What happened to the Portland Rose Festival? When I was growing up, the celebration was a really big deal and lasted a full month. The coronation of the queen took place the Friday night before the Starlight Parade. It was held at the Keller Auditorium, then called the Civic Auditorium, and televised. The Grand Floral Parade and Fleet Week came next. (There were always jokes about a small baby boom nine months after the U.S. Navy arrived in town.) The second half of the festival included the Indy CART GI Joe’s 200 at Portland International Raceway and the Rose Festival Air Show in Hillsboro. Many of these events, and others, still happen but lack the buzz they used to generate. The queen’s coronation, for example, takes place a few minutes before the Grand Floral Parade — almost an afterthought. The air show is no longer sanctioned by the Rose Festival. CART went bankrupt, as did GI Joe’s. While there are sanctioned races at the Woodburn Drag Strip, nothing has replaced the GI Joe’s 200 in magnitude. I moved away from Portland for 14 years, and when I came back it was noticeable that the festival no longer has the same cachet in the community. A friend of mine, a former Rose Festival princess, also notices the difference. I wonder if changes to Portland over the last couple of decades have caused the festival to no longer resonate as it once did. Newcomers may not view it the same way, or maybe I’m just being nostalgic. All that said, the weather is great right now, which isn’t always the case for the Rose Festival. Enjoy some of the offerings over the next couple of weeks if you’re in town.