Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Three Beautiful Things 10/03/17: Clear House and Clear Mind, Maggie's Great Escape 2, CdA and Guests

1. I wrote much of the first draft of the eulogy I will give at Friday's Celebration of Life for Mom. My head finally cleared enough to get going on it thanks to clearing so much out of the house over the last several days. After I came to a stopping place in composing the eulogy, I took one more car load of donations to St. Vincent de Paul. That's it until next week. I know Christy, Carol, and I have other items to sort through upstairs in the storage closets and I'm sure some other things will pop up that need to be moved on, but I am now past the point where clearing out Mom's house is occupying most of my attention and can turn my mind to other very important tasks.

2. It turns out that wiring the gate shut on the west side of the house wasn't enough. There was also a small gap between the gatepost and the house that we hadn't noticed, but, today, Maggie did.  She left the yard to take a morning walk. The Deke looked out the back yard and noticed Charly sitting alone and forlorn on the deck and suddenly realized Maggie was gone. We thought she'd found a gap in the back fence or the fence on the west side of the yard, but when Maggie wasn't in either neighbor's yard, the Deke leapt into the Sube and went searching.

Two blocks behind us, against the hill, a local construction company has created a staging area for work they are doing on water lines and street paving in our neighborhood. Maggie had sauntered over to that area and was bark-talking to a dog who was on the other side of a fence. The Deke heard the conversation, screeched the Sube to a stop, called Maggie, and, thank God, Maggie bounded right to the Deke, climbed in the car, and our just a little too exciting morning saga came to a happy end.

Now we need to mind the gap.

3.  The Deke and I had a blast piling into the Sube and rocketing over the 4th of July Pass and landing in Coeur d'Alene. Many times, while living in Maryland, we sighed and told each other how much we missed having a nearby Fred Meyer store. Today we went to the Fred Meyer on Kathleen Avenue in CdA. I bought a jacket appropriate for fall weather in North Idaho and the Deke picked up a few items of clothing and I had fun browsing at the Murray's cheese counter and inspecting the beer offerings and discovering that this Fred Meyer has a growler filling station and the offerings are very solid. I got a haircut. Then we went to Costco and bought wine for Friday's reception along with some lasagne to serve family members who come to Kellogg on Thursday.  Things seem to be falling into place.

Back in the Silver Valley, we met our guests Laura and David at the City Limits Brewery and Pub in Wallace and had a fun dinner together. Back home, the musicians, that is, everyone but me(!), played their guitars and sang songs they knew and messed around with ones they didn't all know. It was a great evening of Tom Petty, Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, Graham Parsons, CSNY, Neil Diamond, Joni Mitchell, and many others. I sat in the kitchen at my Chromebook, taking it all in, and poured the Deke and Laura and me little flight glasses of George Dickel Rye Whiskey on the rocks with a drop of water.

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