Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Three Beautiful Things 06/03/14: Gone, Good-bye Steve, Tavern Talk

1.  That worn out living room rug is gone.  So is the drain pipe that once ran along the length of our front porch and that was supposed to keep water from coming in the basement twenty-one years ago, but didn't.  (Years later, we took care of the water in a real way.)  Gone is the old wood, the metal garden posts, the useless leftover glass.  Some of this stuff has been around our house or in the garage since we moved here, left behind by the previous owner -- and for all I know the previous owner inherited it from the owner before them.  It's gone now.  I made a satisfying trip to the dump this morning. 

2.  Steve McQuiddy, who teaches in Academic Learning Services, has been sending students my way for years.  For years, I have been grateful for his confidence in me as a teacher of writing.  Today, Steve came by the office to say good-bye and we had a great conversation, probably the last of many great conversations we've had over the years.  I have long and good memories of Steve, extending all the way back to when he was an undergraduate at the U of O in the early 80s, when he didn't know I knew who he was.  He was a part of a group of students who did what I'd call performance art around the Honors College and I watched them perform one evening back in 1982, a memorable night.  We've both done a lot since then and have a lot left to do.

3.  The Deke and I have used the tavern as the place to dream and discuss and make plans for our life together.  We don't do this as much at home.  We go out, nearly every day, to dream and talk and plan.  Often it's been at Cornucopia and at Billy Mac's.  Mostly it's been at Sixteen Tons.  And there we were again today, the Deke with a calendar sketched on the back of a tap list, making plans for our move.  We are nailing it down and it's only right that we are making our final plans for leaving at the same place where we first dared to speak about the possibility of one day leaving Eugene.

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