Three Beautiful Things 11-11-2026: Breakfast at Billie's Diner, Spinning Reels, Reflecting on Northwest Passages

 1. Finally, the big day arrived today when our schedules opened up and Ed and I could go to the Spokane Tribe Casino so Ed could cash in his ticket and collect his winnings on his World Series wager. 

When we glided into Airway Heights, in a duvet of heavy fog, we pulled into Billie's Diner for breakfast.

Billie's Diner is a traditional looking diner with booths, a few tables, a counter to eat at, and traditional diner decor. It was awesome to enter this place.  

The diner's not all that traditional, though, in its approach to food.

Billie's Diner is committed to working with local farms to serve as much locally sourced food as they can. Their website says they source about 75% of their ingredients from local farmers. 

I liked that. 

Billie's Diner was packed today, it being Veteran's Day. 

Ed and I plopped down on stools at the counter and watched the diner's staff working hard to keep up with all the orders. We admired their industry and teamwork. 

I ordered a dish I'd never eaten before: it is called Hog Belly Scramble and combined pork belly, onions, and smoked Gouda cheese with three eggs. I loved it along with an order of hash browns and a mammoth homemade biscuit. 

Ed also was very happy with his breakfast sandwich combining a sausage patty with Swiss and Gouda cheese, greens, garlic mayo, and a scrambled egg served on a bun with a side of hash browns. 

As busy as they were, the servers both took some time for friendly chatting with us. We admired how friendly they were in the midst of being slammed by so many customers and phone orders. 

2. We then relaxed for a few hours at the casino. I had a good day and left the casino well ahead of what I started spinning reels with. 

Debbie subbed today at Pinehurst. I had dropped her off on my way to pick up Ed and we ledt the casino in plenty of time for me to arrive back at the school and give Debbie a ride home. 

3. Debbie and I had great talk about Tuesday night's Northwest Passages program. We agreed that the young reporters found it challenging to articulate very clearly what their experience had been reporting on the enormous fires in and around Northwest Spokane. 

I thought their struggles to be able to smoothly articulate themselves was the strongest part of the program. It gave us, the audience, an immediate sense of how the enormity of the fires and the people affected was so overwhelming, so fresh, that talking clearly about it was very difficult. 

We also talked about young people working in demanding jobs, whether as journalists, soldiers, elected office holders, plumbers, electricians, classroom teachers, auto mechanics, and other trades and professions and shared our admiration for the work they do and for those who hire and mentor them. 

Three Beautiful Things 11-10-2026: Staying Relaxed While Driving, Ebullient Server, Northwest Passages: The August Spokane Fires

 1. When we lived in Greenbelt, Maryland, I was determined to stop white-knuckle driving in heavy traffic, learn to use Washington, DC roundabouts, and trust that if I made a mistake following a route, that I could eventually correct it. 

In other words, I was determined to relax while driving.

Driving to Spokane from Kellogg on a dark and rainy November 10th late afternoon and driving back around 8:30 or so put my determination to relax to the test. 

I passed. 

Visibility was difficult. But two things were working very well. First, our windshield wipers worked beautifully. Secondly, the mass of people with whom I shared I-90, especially between CdA and downtown Spokane drove sanely. The traffic moved at a stable and moderate speed. No one did anything crazy. I was relieved that in both Idaho and Washington, I shared the freeway with drivers who accepted the challenging conditions and drove according to them. 

2. We arrived in downtown Spokane about an hour and fifteen minutes ahead of the Northwest Passages program we'd be attending and, as planned, we had a light dinner at the Griffin Tavern. 

I enjoyed my smoked pork street tacos, but even more I enjoyed our ebullient server who cheerfully bantered with us as she took our orders, even going so far as to tell us how she'd "tripped on nothing" on the sidewalk earlier that day and regained her balance and didn't fall. I can't tell it with the self-effacing good humor and theatrical gestures she did, but it was one of many moments that made the dinner fun. 

3. We then walked half a block west on 1st Avenue and attended the launching of the book, Smoke, Ash and Fire, a collection of the Spokesman Review's written and photographic accounts of the fires that struck Northwest Spokane and surrounding areas this past August. 

The evening featured a brief talk by Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown that highlighted the H.O.M.E. Starts Here fund which has been activated to accept donations for people impacted by the fires. She reported that the fund has raised over a million dollars. She also noted that relief would be greatly enhanced if the federal government would declare the 2026 Eastern Washington and Spokane fires a major disaster. 

For the remainder of the evening we heard reporters Alexander Duggan, Eleana Perry, Nick Gibson, and Matthew Callaghan talk about what they experienced and the truth they worked hard to report on the days of the fires and in the aftermath. Tyler Tjomsland, a Spokesman Review photojournalist, spoke about the challenges of capturing pictures of what happened during the fires and focused on one particular image of a woman and her dog being dramatically reunited as the woman's property and structures burned. 

The evening took me back to 1977-78 when I was married to a writer for the Spokane Daily Chronicle. My then wife was a feature writer and religion reporter -- among many other articles, she wrote an in-depth piece on Anita Bryant after interviewing her in Spokane and I remember her going to Mt. St. Michael to prepare and write a feature on the Tridentine Latin Rite Church which had recently taken over the site. 

I bring up my former wife because of how young she was (and so was I in my jobs at Whitworth) and the amount of responsibility she carried in her job at the Chronicle. 

The men and women who spoke today were not all the same age, but at least three of them were recent college graduates, leading me to marvel at how much trust the paper had invested in them to report on this intense story of destruction, despair, courage, and neighborly outreach by those within the fires' boundaries and by countless people outside the where the fire burned. 

Three Beautiful Things 11-09-2026: Protection from the Sun, New Kind of Book, Family Dinner

 1. I popped over to North Idaho Dermatology this morning for a skin examination. It's an every six months appointment. 

Why? 

The immunosuppressant drugs I take to keep my system from rejecting my transplanted kidney leave me far more at risk for skin cancer than the general public is. 

I am fortunate. I do not enjoy being in the sun. When I am in the sun I wear long sleeves on my arms and no longer wear any kind of cutoffs. I wear a wide brimmed hat and when I drive in the sun, I wear sun blocking gloves. 

All of that has paid off. 

The dermatologist, DNP Nicole Rock, told me repeatedly how good my skin looked and praised me for the way I've kept out of the sun and protected myself. 

It's a good thing, I guess, that so many of things I most enjoy doing keep me indoors! 

2. Back when Twitter was Twitter, I followed writer Laura Lippman. Almost daily she posted a picture from her morning walks in Baltimore of the iconic Domino Sugar sign and I enjoyed stuff she wrote on Twitter. She also used to post selfies of outfits she wanted her followers to see her wearing. I wasn't very interested in those pictures, but today I went to The Well~Read Moose looking for a Laura Lippman book and purchased the first of her new Mrs. Blossom series. It includes several pages of Mrs. Blossom being fitted in Paris for new clothes, reminding me Laura Lippman's selfies. 

I wanted a short break from reading books about volcanoes, birds, bacteria, mosquitoes, and other science/nature related subjects, and getting started on Murder Takes a Vacation is fulfilling my desire for variety. 

3. Christy, Carol, Paul, Debbie, and I met at the Roberts' house this evening for family dinner. 

Carol prepared a hearty and delicious beef stew accompanied by gluten-free rolls. Christy brought a flavorful and fresh autumn salad. Debbie prepared an appetizer of crackers and hummus along with pesto. For dessert, Carol baked a superb pear mincemeat pie served with vanilla ice cream. 

As Christy's recovery progresses, she's giving attention to household matters she needs professional help with, like plumbing and windows, and she gave us an update on how that's going (very well). She also updated us on her physical therapy progress and it was great to hear that now her sessions will include work on strengthening her arms and shoulders along with her legs and core. 

Her dedication to physical therapy is paying off beautifully. 

Three Beautiful Things 11-08-2026: Pre-Concert N/A Beers, Spokane Symphony Concert, Soloist Yvette Kraft

1. After a couple of ho hum days, it felt good to get back in the ball game today and enjoy myself! 

Debbie and I piled into the Camry and rocketed to Spokane in anticipation of today's Spokane Symphony concert, the third in this season's Masterworks series.

Not realizing that the exit ramp at Northwest Blvd on I-90 was now open, we experienced no delays soaring to Spokane and arrived downtown plenty early. 

Therefore, we dropped into Whistle Punk Brewing and each enjoyed a non-alcoholic beer and talked about books together which spilled over into some great conversation with the guy working the bar. I've got to ask him his name. He's a great guy who enjoys the Silver Valley and fly fishing, among other virtues.  

He told us about the dog he opened his home to a few years back. The dog was a Huskie and had been hanging around the property out of town of friends of his. Their efforts to find an owner failed and it became pretty clear the dog had been abandoned. 

Our beer server took in the dog. When he took the dog to the vet, the vet found evidence that the dog had been treated terribly -- and, yet, the dog, in his behavior, showed no signs of trauma and often came to the Whistle Punk and lay calmly in a spot near the bar, but out of the way, while our beer server worked. 

It's a very similar story to that of Harriet Potter whom I've written about. Harriet Potter was an abused street dog in India. A woman Debbie taught with in Eugene took in Harriet Potter.  Harriet Potter came to the USA as her person was returning from India and lived with us in Greenbelt for a handful of days before we could transport her to her person near Portland. She was a sweet, loving dog -- and by all reports from Debbie's friend, she continues to be.

2. I wouldn't call this afternoon's concert a rollercoaster. I'm not quite sure how to capture the way the three pieces by Tchaikovsky, Sebelius, and Beethoven glided through an array of emotions and different levels of intensity. It was, however, a concert that brought a thrilling range of human experience alive. There were sober reflective passages. Triumphant ones. What I'd call passages of being love struck. We experienced a thunderstorm in the woods. We also experienced the power of retreating into the woods as a way to clear one's mind and nourish one's soul. 

3. The Sebelius violin concerto featured twenty-three year old violin soloist Yvette Kraft. She grew up in Spokane and first soloed with the Spokane Symphony at age 11. For ten years, starting as a child, her violin teacher was the Spokane Symphony's Concertmaster, Mateusz Wolski.  Kraft made it very clear in her pre-concert answers to guest conductor Sameer Patel's questions and in her grateful comments to the audience at the completion of the Sebelius concerto that she was ecstatic to be back in Spokane, performing again at the Fox. 

She played beautifully and because I am always looking for the best in young people, I found it moving to see such a young violinist perform so superbly this afternoon. 

Three Beautiful Things 11-07-2026: Slow Day, This and That, Superb Soup

1. My internal motor ran very slowly today. This hasn't happened for a long time. I'm not ill or anything, but I just didn't feel motivated to do much.

2. I put my freshly laundered clothes and bedding away. I did some house cleaning. I checked in with the Wildhorse Resort and Casino to see if they were taking reservations yet for April 2027. (Not yet.) Normally, on a day like today, I would have started a new book or listened to a podcast -- something along those lines -- but not on this day of inertia. 

3. Debbie made a terrific soup combining Italian sausage, kale, onion, and other ingredients and Christy brought us a loaf of sourdough bread from the craft fair in Osburn. Together, the soup and bread were a superb dinner. 

Three Beautiful Things 11-06-2026: Christy to the Cardiologist, Peppery Omelet at the Garnet, Bluegrass Fun

 1. I drove Christy to her cardiologist appointment this morning. It was an encouraging visit free of red flags. Nonetheless, in service to thoroughness, the doctor had Christy schedule an appointment at the Afib clinic at Kootenai Health and she scheduled a stress test, both happening later this month. 

2. Feeling pretty good after this appointment, Christy suggested we blast up Government Way and have breakfast at the Garnet Cafe. We had eaten at the Garnet at its former location and, even though we were a bit late to the party, it was fun eating where the cafe relocated. 

Whenever I go to a cafe for breakfast, I secretly hope that a chili omelet will be on the menu. 

While the Garnet didn't have a chili omelet, they did have the Payette and it satisfied my desire for an omelet with some heat. Within the fold of the eggs, the Payette included chorizo, shaved steak, onion, red peppers, jalapenos, and cream cheese. It was delicious and I further satisfied my desire for heat by covering my home fried potatoes with hot sauce. 

3. After a fun time yakkin' with Ed and Debbie at The Lounge and then having some more fun yakkin' with Ryan (former bicycle mechanic), I returned home and later in the evening a group of family bluegrass musicians, The Haywoods, popped up in my Facebook reels and I listened to them cover song after song -- "Paradise City", "Up Around the Bend", "Don't Stop Believin''" and others, all in bluegrass style and, for me, all fun and exciting. 

Three Beautiful Things 11-05-2026: Ordinary, Warm Up, Influencers

1. Pay an estimated tax amount to Idaho. Buy Patrick and Meagan a gift certificate for their wedding. Listen to Symphony Hall on SiriusXM. Confirm meeting Ed at The Lounge on Friday. Read news coverage online. 

That's about how exciting much of my day was.  

2. We had one more pan's worth of our Wednesday chicken dinner. 

Debbie called me. "Please heat up the chicken dinner in the fridge."

I did. 

3. I try to keep at least barely in touch with what's happening in the USA. Tonight, thanks to Tim Miller, Sam Stein, and Will Sommer, I learned a bit more about Tim Pool, Nick Fuentes, King Trout, Branson Herrara, and Asmongold, among others. They are influencers, streamers. I learned more about what people who see the world differently from me have to say and what others different from me listen to. 

It's wild. 

Three Beautiful Things 11-04-2026: Buckling Down, Chicken Dinner, The Great Bill King

1. I buckled down and got things done today: paid bills, wrote a feedback letter of gratitude to Northwest Passages, took care of proof of insurance cards, and so on. When I buckle down like this, I'm always nagged by the possibility that I'm forgetting something. If I did, I'll take care of it on Thursday! 

2. Debbie tried out a baked chicken recipe this evening that featured the flavors of lemon and mustard. It was delicious and so were the accompanying pieces of red potato and broccoli. 

3. I quit watching football games several years ago, but I enjoy having the feelings of excitement come back to me from when I enjoyed the game. Lately on my Facebook reels, I've been getting a whole bunch of clips from football games that took place forty, fifty, sixty, and more years ago.

Today was Raiders day and while it was fun to remember Lyle Alzado, the Mad Stork, Willie Brown, and other past players in action, the real pleasure for me was hearing the play-by-play voice of the great Bill King.  

Three Beautiful Things 11-03-2026: Election Day, Yarn and The Onion, Convivial Book Club Meeting

1.  It's unofficial at this point, but it looks like Shoshone County had about a 64% turnout at the polls today. Debbie and I were among this strong turnout. We went to the Elks Club where nearly all the chairs for voters to sit at were full. Things flowed beautifully. As new voters arrived, voters themselves were finishing up and we got our ballots right away and immediately seats opened up for us to do our civic duty. 

I enjoyed being a part of this larger than usual turnout -- I find it inspiring when people get out and vote. Always have. And, while I support voting by mail 100%, I do enjoy making the trek to the Elks and voting in person. 

2. Debbie and I piled into the Camry and bolted to Spokane for a very enjoyable late afternoon and evening. 

First, we made a stop at Paradise Fibers. Debbie shopped for some yarn and found some she was pleased with. 

Next, we parked near Auntie's Bookstore and walked to The Onion which, I think, is going to be our place to have a bite to eat either before or after our once a month book club meetings. The Onion is an easy place to patronize: the food is, in a positive way, middle of the road and delicious. The service is prompt and friendly. Debbie and I find it easy to converse with each other there. 

It's comfortable. 

I tried baked spaghetti tonight with a side garden salad and enjoyed it, but even more I enjoyed talking about a variety of subjects with Debbie. 

3. We strolled back to Auntie's for an enjoyable discussion of the book, Super Volcanoes. No one at the table was an expert in either volcanology or geology (which was fine), so we helped each other out by offering our questions, stories about volcano visits, insights, and opinions. 

Somehow tonight the social aspect of our club meeting seemed even more convivial than usual. I left feeling great about having discussed the book, but even more so I felt great about the spirit of our time together, happy that we all seemed to enjoy one another's company so much. 

Three Beautiful Things 11-02-2026: Coeur d'Alene Trip, Time Travel, Spicy Chicken Sandwich

 1. I drove Christy to CdA today and after she met with one of her medical professionals, where the news was encouraging, we went shopping. Christy went to buy cards at Hallmark and I sauntered into Safeway and purchased Debbie a six pack of Fremont's Imperial Oatmeal Stout, Dark Star. 

Then we went to Trader Joe's where I decided let it rip a bit and splurged on a bunch of dried fruit, nuts, crackers, ice cream, potstickers/gyozas and other fun food and bought some staples like soy sauce, Green Dragon sauce, crunchy peanut butter, celery, apples, and more. 

It was fun and I think we are set with Trader Joe's products for a few more weeks. Ha! 

2. In preparation for our November 3rd book club meeting at Auntie's Bookstore, I finished this month's book, Super Volcanoes. In the book's epilogue, the author, Robin George Andrews, tells his readers that the book they just read wasn't really about volcanoes, but about time travel. 

Indeed. 

Andrews' chapters on volcanoes in Hawaii, Yellowstone, Tanzania, beneath our oceans, on the moon, Mars, Venus, and other moons in our solar system take his readers back to the origins of our solar system itself and to a better, albeit incomplete, understanding of how Earth came to be and how its formation is far from complete. 

3. Debbie made a trip to the Post Office combined with a stop at Radio. 

She brought home a spicy mango teriyaki chicken sandwich on ciabatta bread with fries and I didn't know that this was just the sandwich I needed today. I loved the flavors, textures, and, most of all, the heat.