Three Beautiful Things 11/11/16: Road Trip, Back on the Mom Squad, My Hilarious I. D.

1. Starting back in 2001,with a few years off, a bunch of us guys from Kellogg have met up in November for a weekend of having fun. For several years we met in Lake Oswego. One year we met in Lincoln City. The we did Cd'A for a couple years and now we meet in Pendleton at the Wildhorse Casino.  This morning, Ed dropped by Mom's to pick me up and we drove to Jake's place in Liberty Lake and met up with Mike a few hours later in Pendleton. We drove a back way to Pendleton, through bright green farm and pine country and a bunch of small towns such as Tekoa, Palouse, Oaksdale, Colfax, Dayton, Dusty, Dixie, Milton-Freewater, and a not so small town, Walla Walla.  We drove through fog and mist at times and other times the day was clear and blue.  It was a great drive.

2. Before Ed picked me up, I continued my back-to-Kellogg-Team-Mom training, making sure I cut Mom's grapefruit right, gave her a serated spoon, and performed the small tasks she needs done in her bedroom in the morning. I'd only been back to Mom's for about sixteen hours and, already, I was feeling a part of the team again.

3.  So, I ordered a burger in one of the casino's cafes, and I paid with my debit card and the woman who took my order needed to see my i. d.  When I had my picture taken for my Maryland license back in 2014, my white hair was voluminous (not voluptuous) and looked like I had just stuck my finger in an electric socket. When the cashier saw my picture, she laughed uncontrollably and wanted the woman at the register next to her to look and laugh at my picture. I took my i.d. back and she couldn't stop laughing.  Delighted, I asked her if she wanted to see it again and she gasped between convulsions of laughter, "No. No. But, gawwwd, I've never seen anything like that picture before!"

Rumi or Buddha or Lao Tzu or one of those sublime mystical thinkers must have said something about just as a small stream has many tiny currents, there are many tiny ways to make one another happy and laugh. I got to be one of those tiny currents this evening.