Three Beautiful Things 12/23/06: Travels with Ed, Real Weather, Clarification

1. Ed and I went to the Silver Lake Mall so he could buy a gift for his wife and then we drove down to Worley for some slot playing and we discussed raising kids, how kids are doing now, how to read roads in the winter, the successes and failures of eating establishments, the perils of log truck driving, falling timber, selling timber, how to raise children, how not to, our slot machine failures; the best part of going to Worley is the shit shooting that gets us there and the bullshit that gets us home.

2. Real weather. Light snow, slightly heavier snow, heavy snow, melting snow, slushy snow, hard packed snow, snow slush mix roads, wet roads, low sky, slate light, wind, and now 25 degree freezing fog.

3. Christy, Mom, and I tried to figure out if the time Dad got pulled over by a state cop with Mom and Jerry Turnbow and infant sister Carol in the front seat, and Dad and Jerry hiding their beers under Carol's baby blanket, and Christy and I in the back seat, was the same day in 1964 as next door neighbor Frankie Rinaldi's funeral and how old Frankie was when he died and how one time in the summer of 1964 when Dad got the idea that Vodka would be a better summer drink than beer, Frankie filled a tall tumbler with Vodka and drank it straight down and how Frankie brought us homemade vino and goat's cheese and loved to hold Carol when he got off work while Mom fixed dinner and he watched James Garner in Maverick and I wondered who was playing that day at Joe Albi stadium the day Dad got pulled over and he'd just been to Frankie Rinaldi's funeral.