Three Beautiful Things 12/05/13: On Needing Richard Hugo, Bus to U of O, Whippersnapper Oregon Spirit Whiskey

1.   I've expanded the lecture I wrote back in 2002 to memorialize the 1982 death of Richard Hugo to a nearly twenty-five page paper.   It's a project I return to from time to time.  I like reading it to any interested students.  I happily release any students from the classroom who can't imagine why they'd want to hear me, a nearly sixty year old mostly retired teacher, read about a part of my experience growing up in Kellogg, Idaho, the part involving danger and death and gravity, and how Richard Hugo's poetry and essays helped me make a kind of sense out of it.  I needed Richard Hugo.  I still do. I'm happy to say that for the handful of students in each section who stick around, it's a good experience and I thoroughly enjoyed talking with them about the paper, answering questions, and discussing what my paper says.

2.  Several buses go from LCC to the downtown station in the afternoon and they are usually packed.  I was going to ride the 1:59, but some self-aggrandizing, non-stop talking, pontificating guy was waiting for the same bus and I wanted to get away from him, so I took the bus to the Univ. of Oregon instead.  It's always a quiet ride and I like trying out places to eat lunch near campus.  I enjoyed a plate of yakisoba noodles at Carpe Diem and caught the Emx (for the first time!) to the downtown station and enjoyed the frigid walk home.  I don't want it cold all the time, but I like feeling like I'm back in Kellogg in the winter on one of those subfreezing clear blue days.  All that was missing was crunchy snow.

3.  I went back to LCC to help out with a dry tech rehearsal for the Shakespeare Showcase and it turned out I wasn't needed.  No problem.  I stopped off at the liquor store to replenish our brandy supply and a bottle of Whippersnapper Oregon Spirit Whiskey, distilled by Ransom Wines and Spirits in Sheridan, Oregon jumped off the shelf and I had to buy it.  Terry had packed a jug of this handcrafted booze to Pendleton, but we never got around to testing it, so I decided to try it myself.  It's an easy drinking whiskey and tastes nothing like any whiskey I've ever sipped before.  Maybe when I've tasted more I can describe that better.  Whatever that unique taste was, I liked it and was happy that I could only drink a little bit of it, so this jug should last a while.