Anticipating an experimental Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is this week here in the US, and so we're all busy planning menus, pre-cooking parts of the feast, and inviting family, friends, and people we think may not have anyone to celebrate the holiday with us.

I'm not going to be with family (that's next week), and I'm turning down all well-meaning invitations for Thursday. Nor am I inviting anyone to my place, as I have sometimes done in the past. Why? Because I have a new toy to play with. I took delivery this past week on an induction stove. 

The new stove shows more of my fun backsplash tiles!
Lynne Cantwell 2025

When I bought this apartment, I didn't even think about the ages of the appliances that came with. At least, not until the 35-year-old dishwasher started coughing up things I'd never put into it. It was about that time that I decided to start replacing everything, even the stuff that still worked. I got a new microwave in 2024; somebody had stuck a finger or something through the plastic panel over the clock/timer display on the old one, and it bugged me that I couldn't easily read it. The new fridge I bought last year to replace a 2011 model. I got a new washer and dryer to replace the pair that were manufactured in 1997 when I redid the laundry closet last year.

That left the stove. I liked the old one. It had a 2011 manufacturing date, and it still worked fine, but I've been jonesing for an induction stove -- primarily because it's safer for older folks not to reach across hot burners for the knobs on the back of the stove. Also, induction burners won't get hot, even if the knob is on, unless there's an induction-ready pan on it.

"Induction-ready pan" needs an explanation. Induction works by creating electromagnetic energy. There's a coil of copper wire under the glass stovetop; electricity is sent through it, and when a pan that conducts magnetic energy is set atop the glass over the copper coil, the copper generates a current within the pan itself. Basically (if I've got this right), the pan itself is    ` the heat source. The burner on the stove gets warm, but the pan heats up a lot. So you can't use aluminum pots and pans on this stove -- you have to use something that a magnet will stick to. In other words, your pans need to be stainless steel, carbon steel, cast iron, or certain hybrid pans. Try sticking a magnet to the bottom of your pan -- if it sticks, it'll work on induction.

Induction cooking is fast. The installer had me put a little bit of water inside a pan and put in on the burner; the water inside started boiling within 30 seconds. Granted, it was only a little bit of water, but it seemed whiz-bang fast to me.

It's going to take some adjustment for me to get used to that speed. I've been cooking on an electric stove since the middle of 2018, and I've adapted my cooking style to the slow warmup of regular electric burners. The first time I made an omelet on this new stove, I waited too long to pour in the egg mixture. It didn't quite burn, but it came out extra brown. And induction heats up even faster than gas. 

This stove also has both a regular and convection oven. My microwave has a convection feature, which I've used a couple of times, partly for the novelty of putting an actual metal pan in the microwave -- although the microwave doesn't have a cleaning cycle in case you get grease spatters all over the inside, so it's not as useful as I first thought it would be. The new oven does have a steam-cleaning cycle. And purportedly it will do the regular-to-convection temperature conversion for you; given that I also have to recalculate for altitude, I'm not sure how useful that feature will be. But I'm willing to give it a whirl.

All of which is to explain why I'm not inviting anyone over this Thanksgiving. If I manage to ruin my Thanksgiving dinner, it will only be ruined for me. You're welcome.

***

Oh, my pots and pans? Yeah, I did have to replace them. I had quit using the carbon steel frying pan I first bought because it annoyed me. Instead, I've gone with a couple of hybrid pieces and two nitrided carbon steel frying pans, all made by Anolon. (My favorite aluminum pots were all Anolon.) I am in love with these carbon steel frying pans. Still looking for a saucepan or two.

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In looking for links for this post, I ran across the saga of my washer and dryer: Best Buy had sold me a vaporware clothes dryer, and I ended up buying the unit from a regional appliance-store chain instead. 

I can laugh about it now. And you can bet I went to the regional chain first for my induction stove. Ordered on Saturday, delivered on Wednesday. Boom.

***

These moments of cooking-with-induction blogginess have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell. 

Working toward a world in balance.

So here's the topic I skipped over last week. Might be a little stream-of-consciousness, since I've run across a couple of other points this week that are still gelling in my brain, but I think it hangs together pretty well. Here we go. 

yuliaglam | Deposit Photos

(I know it looks like a scales-of-justice, but it's not in this instance; it's just a plain old set of scales.)

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I'm studying up on that time the Inquisition came to New Mexico and left, after blaming a Franciscan friar for all the commotion. I'm reading a book on the topic called The Witches of Abiquiu by Malcolm Ebright and Rick Hendricks. I'm still working through the first few chapters, which describe the setting and the cast of characters. But in the introduction, on page 7, there's an initial discussion about fray Juan José Toledo, the Franciscan father who was eventually blamed for the trouble. Fray Toledo was conversant with the Malleus Maleficarum, which I've heard of but never read; it's described here as a witch-hunting handbook. But this is the part that struck me (emphasis mine):

Missionaries in Central Mexico and beyond learned to depict the Devil and his realm of Hell in vivid detail to convince the Indians to repent their sins. The Indians, however, held a different worldview in which creative and destructive forces existed side by side in their gods. They had no deity like the Devil and no word for evil. The Nahuas of Central Mexico and the Incas of the Andes believed in concepts of order and disorder rather than good and evil. In the Andes, for instance, the serpent did not embody evil as it did for Christians, but rather a destructive force attempting to re-create balance when relations of equilibrium had not been maintained." (page 7)

In other words, the missionaries had to teach the Indians what (in the church's view) Good and Evil were. Pre-contact, these Indians were interested in living in balance. I believe this is similar to the Navajo philosophy of hózhó, which you may have heard referred to as the Beauty Way; the idea is to live in balance and harmony.

Then there's the relationship between the Slavic gods Perun and Veles, which I know I've talked about here before. Perun is the thunder god; Veles is the god of the underworld and also of the forest. They have an epic battle every spring. But they're not enemies; they are not the embodiment of Good and Evil. Their battle is aimed at bringing the world into balance.

I dunno, man. Does it sound like Good and Evil are absolute concepts to you? Because it doesn't sound like it to me. Too many cultures around the world operated under a different philosophy for centuries -- probably millennia -- before Christianity became dominant. But there's danger in giving all your power to a single deity: the message of that deity can be misinterpreted at best and abused at worst. So we get things like the fear of the devil. And the patriarchy. And the concepts of Good and Evil, which are then used to categorize and stereotype people (men Good, women Evil; white folks Good, folks of every other color Evil or at best misguided and must be "civilized"; our political side Good, their side Evil; and so on).

Yesterday I shared a Facebook post about Rebecca Solnit, a feminist author and activist who identified the phenomenon of mansplaining (although someone else named it). The post calls this her most devastating line: "Men invented standards they could meet and called them universal." In other words, in our culture, the patriarchy assigned Good to men and Evil to women. Rationality is a male quality, emotion a female one (and guess which one is prized and which is dismissed?). There's no continuum in this worldview, no shades of gray -- everything is either one or the other.

That prompted me to comment: "I begin to think that men in ancient times invented every dichotomy that permeates Western thought because they were uncomfortable with ambiguity."

Men can be emotional and women can be rational. Other cultures' philosophical systems can also be legitimate.

As for politics in this country? I hope that someday we can have conversations with the other side again, to find areas of agreement and work toward a better nation. But we have a lot of work ahead of us. I hope we're not doomed to fail.

***

Oh, here's an update on my whiny post of a couple of weeks ago: 

• Session proofer training ended on Friday, and we all survived; we're having a meeting this week amongst the trainers to talk about how it went. 
• As for the condo board, it looks like nobody else wants to be secretary, so I may keep the job for another few years. I'll know more after the annual meeting next Saturday. 
• And as for the Pagan group, I decided that I don't need to make a decision right now. Kicking that can down the road, baby!

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These moments of bloggy balance have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell. Stay safe!

Mail delays in the hinterlands.

I have two topics to choose from for today's post. I'm in the mood for the less serious one. You're welcome. Might do the other one next week -- we'll see.

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I never thought Santa Fe was the back of beyond until I moved here and tried to get timely mail service to and from the East Coast. 

I wonder if these guys are still around.
ronleishman | Deposit Photos

The most recent debacle happened just this week. Well, actually, it started in mid September, when I was notified that my former employer was switching 401(k) managers (again; they seem to do this every few years). I had meant to stop taking distributions after I went back to work full-time, but I never got around to it because the process of changing anything is a pain in the ass and almost always requires contacting somebody in the Boston office of my old employer. (She's very nice, but I figure at some point she'll retire, and then who would I call?) So this seemed like an opportune time to roll over my 401(k) to an IRA. 

Setting up the IRA account was a snap; I did it all online. Next step was to call the firm's 401(k) manager and get the money moved over. The nice man on the phone was happy to help me, but then we hit a snag; the firm was requiring that I fill out some kind of paperwork about my spouse. Spouse? The divorce was final years before I started that job. Anyway, I had them send me the paperwork -- which they did, electronically. It was the same form I had filled out before to initiate and change my distribution. 

"Well, okay," I thought, "I'll play your game." I filled it out and sent it back to the 401(k) manager, asking that they electronically transfer the funds to my new IRA account. I was looking at a couple of deadlines: I mistakenly believed I was required to re-home my money within 60 days of the 401(k) manager cutting the check (it's actually 60 days from when you receive the money, and it doesn't apply to direct rollovers anyway), plus there was going to be a blackout period of several weeks where nobody could do anything with their 401(k)s while the paperwork was transferred to the new manager. To make sure I didn't run afoul of the blackout period, I sent the form via FedEx, and received a notice the next day that they'd received it. 

The electronic transfer never happened. Several phone calls to the 401(k) manager's customer service folks, plus a call and some emails to my old firm, revealed the reason: this particular management firm does not do direct rollovers electronically. It doesn't matter whether you have $1,000 or $1,000,000 in your account; they always issue paper checks. Mine was cut September 23rd and sent a few days later via regular mail.

You were wondering when the post office would come into it, weren't you?

Waited a couple of weeks; the check never showed. More back-and-forth with customer service and the old firm. We all finally agreed that the initial check was probably lost in the mail and that the management firm would void the original check, issue a new one, and send the new one Priority Mail so we could track it. (At this point, we were in the blackout period, so my contact at my old firm couldn't get into the system to see whether the first check had been cashed. Or issued, even.)

The second check was issued October 24th or so. The day before Halloween, I called them for the tracking number, which they provided. It seemed almost impossible when I got mail from them on Saturday, November 1st -- and it was; the check they'd issued September 22nd had finally shown up, almost six weeks after it was mailed.

I relentlessly tracked that replacement check across the country. It was supposed to be delivered this past Wednesday, November 8th. It got to Albuquerque that day and went out to be delivered here -- whereupon it dropped off the radar. I was mildly panicked, but I held firm; past experience told me it would be delivered here the next day. Which it was. Finally.

***

Why did the first check take six weeks to get here from Boston?

In April of last year, the USPS began easing delivery standards for first class mail. For example, mail that used be guaranteed for delivery in three days wouldn't be counted late if it was delivered in five. At the same time, mail collection times were changed, so that mail that used to be picked up from collection boxes in the morning would now be picked up in the afternoon; in practice, that added a day's delay. More mail is being shipped by truck instead of air to save on transportation costs; of course it takes longer to drive than to fly. And another factor could be a shortage of staff. (It's not because of the government shutdown; the USPS is an independent agency funded by sales of postage and such.)

The whole roster of changes is supposed to be phased in over a ten-year period. Another phase went into effect in April of this year, and yet another just a couple of months ago in July.

I'd noticed the degradation in service earlier. It used to be that I could get birthday cards to my kids if I mailed them a week ahead; now it's taking more like two weeks. Might have to start mailing them a month early, huh?

***

I'd love to blame Trump, but the postmaster general he appointed in his first term, Richard DeJoy, lasted through the Biden administration; his term was up in March of this year. The new guy is David Steiner, a lawyer who used to be head of Waste Management (yes, the dumpster company, and yes, I'm refraining from making the obvious joke) and also sat on the board of FedEx. The ten-year cost-cutting plan was created under DeJoy, though, so we can still blame Trump.

***

Anyway, I deposited the good check the same evening I received it via the IRA provider's app. The deposit was credited to my account the next day. That I could have wrapped all this up a month and a half ago, if only the 401(k) manager would have done an electronic transfer of my money, I refuse to dwell on. This process has been maddening enough.

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These moments of frustrated blogginess have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell. Hang in there!

Plot twist? At my age?

 

Meme stolen from Facebook

One of the things they don't tell you about life after retirement is that stuff keeps changing. And if you didn't develop skills for coping with these new situations in your previous, working life, you have to develop them now. 

I have always believed that the meaning of life -- for me, anyway; your mileage may vary -- is to learn and grow. I just kind of figured that at this stage of my life, the learning-and-growing would be fun stuff, things I picked -- like, say, attempting to learn another language. Not situations that other people have set up, expecting me to react the way someone twenty or thirty years younger would react.

Which is to say that I feel like I'm at a turning point. Again. And in some cases, I don't know what to do -- or else I do know what to do, but I'm reluctant to do it. 

• My time on the condo board is coming to a close. In the past, these positions have been sinecures, more or less; most owners don't volunteer, so the folks who do keep serving 'til they've had enough and quit outright. But our new management company seems intent on making sure there's actual turnover on the board. So once we have the annual meeting in a couple of weeks (a month earlier I expected, because this management company also wants us to follow the bylaws and hold the meeting in November instead of December), it's very possible that I'll be done. 
• At work, our department manager seems intent on promoting someone (maybe more than one someone) to the next level up the pay scale. That next level involves extra duties and responsibilities. It kind of seems expected that I'd want to move up, and twenty years ago, I would have wanted to. But now? I went full-time figuring I'd coast for five years (or however long it took for the ginormous special assessment to run its course) and then re-retire. Fighting to reach the next level at work doesn't feel like coasting. 
• Re the promotion: One of those extra responsibilities involves training session proofers. I've taught before (Intro to Video Production for one semester at American University), and it didn't feel like a good fit. Oh, I'm happy to explain stuff -- to readers of my books, to listeners when I was a reporter, to visitors at El Rancho de las Golondrinas -- but it's not like any of those folks would be tested on the material. Nobody's future job prospects hinge on remembering the difference between warp and weft. Now, I acknowledge that I could just have a mental block. But I also remember that one of the suggestions on those listicles for Things to Do Post-Retirement is always to teach, and I consciously said, "nope!"
• I've been attending meetings of a Pagan group hereabouts for most of this year. I haven't gotten a ton out of the meetings (and some of the info the organizers have provided is a couple of decades out of date), but it's been a way to connect with other Pagans/Wiccans in the area. The group was originally slated to keep going for another few months in its current form, but the organizers told us at the last meeting that they're pulling back on their involvement now. This sounds like a great opportunity to reform this group and/or start a new one, right? But I'm hesitant to step up and do it.

I never envisioned myself running a Pagan group in my old age -- certainly not while I'm still working full-time. Although I never envisioned myself working full-time after I retired, either, let alone climbing the corporate ladder.

And if I reject all of these possible-disasters-cloaked-as-opportunities, what do I do instead? (I hear you out there: "Go back to writing!" It's in the back of my mind, sure, but it probably won't happen while I'm working this particular job. I already spend too much time in front of a computer every day.)

Anyway. I'm not looking for advice or "you can do this!" encouragement. I'm just musing on how even when you think you're settled into a routine, things can change on a dime. Even after you've retired.

***

I'm also aware that November 1st is the start of the new year for many Pagans, including me. So it's apt that these doors are opening and closing now. I just need to spend some time meditating on which doors to step through and which to gently close.

I'll keep y'all posted.

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These moments of plot-twisty blogginess have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell. Onward!