Three x Three Beautiful Things 3/28,29,30/07: Ed, Driving Idaho, Vandaltown, Lecture, Textiles, All Night, Doma, Lula's House,Blogger Paparazzi

1. Ed's career as a log truck driver has possibly come to an end. His boss, Buff, decided to call her quits in the logging business and Ed started a new job near Kellogg on Thursday.

2. Driving from Kellogg to Moscow, in and out of fog, from being in a blanket to breaking out into morning light, softly illuminating the mixture of farmland and timber, making it seem I had never seen it before.

3. Arriving at the University of Idaho, where I was never a student, but where I competed in music festivals, played high school basketball, visited my Aunt May, attended Vandal football games, enjoyed the early days of the jazz festival, stayed with my mother while she completed her Bachelor's degree in the mid-sixties; I have many, many wonderful memories and loved seeing the campus' physical beauty and feeling the affection I have for it again.

4. Professor Kenton Bird and I have been friends for forty-eight years and I was deeply honored that he invited me to speak to his American Studies students about my sense of place in Kellogg and the Silver Valley. I enjoyed Kenton's students and could barely believe as I walked around campus and admired the Administration building and the music building and Memorial Gymnasium, et. al., that I was actually lecturing or teaching for one day at the University of Idaho. I never dreamed I'd ever have the chance to do this!

I also met Tara Roberts, editor of the Argonaut, the U of I newspaper. She emailed me about her work on the Gault Hall fire; we've corresponded. It was wonderful to meet her.

5. I loved Gerri Sayler's textile art pieces at the Ridenbaugh Gallery. Gerri is Kenton's wife. I saw her four pieces before Kenton told me they were Gerri's and was immediately entranced and enchanted by her work.

6. When was the last time I was awake until after three in the morning talking with InlandEmpireGirl? Sober, no less. I got back to Kellogg from Moscow and the Cd'A Casino about 2 a.m., InlandEmpireGirl was awake with Snug in Mom's basement and we talked for the next hour or more. . . and then we were up at 8:30 ready to start our day of laughter and driving around with Silver Valley Girl.

7. My first coffee at Cafe Doma in Coeur d'Alene, a comfortable, modest shop owned and operated by Terry Patano and his wife, Rebecca. Terry and I knew each other as kids in Kellogg. He graduated two years after I did. He comes from a great family of good businessmen.




8. It wasn't pretty, but somehow heartwarming to go up to East Bridgeport and see Grandma Woolum's house, where she lived for a little over forty years until she died in 1991. A Jeep Wagoneer was parked in the yard where we used to eat outside; a big boat was in back; a new fence made it impossible to see the back of the house from the alley; the porch was rotting. Nonetheless, I loved seeing Grandma's house.

9. I got hassled twice by a manager at Huckleberries Gourmet Grocery in Spokane for taking pictures in the store. I told her I was taking them for my blog. I told her I teach English at Lane Community College. I told her I spoke yesterday at the University of Idaho. She looked at me blankly. I was trying to explain that I wasn't a gourmet grocery competitor. She seemed assured.