1. After the Deke and I said farewell to Laura and David, I sat down and finished writing the eulogy and the prayers for Mom's Celebration of Life on October 6th at 11:00 at Mountain View Congregational Church across the street. I got a lot of help writing this from things Christy and Carol have said and written to me and from reading what many people wrote on the many cards we've received over the past several weeks and the comments people post online at the funeral home website. If you'd like to read Mom's obituary just go here and you can read the condolences people have posted, here.
2. The Deke and I sauntered over to the Furniture Exchange here in Kellogg to start looking at beds and furniture we might one day buy to furnish our new house. Pat Elfsten owns the Furniture Exchange, as did his father, Don, and I've known Pat since we were at Sunnyside Elementary School -- he's two years older than me -- and Mom had done business with the Furniture Exchange as far back as I can remember, all the way back to when the store was on Mullan Avenue near Division Street. Mom bought paint, couches, chairs, dining sets, desks, big appliances, and all kinds of other things from the Furniture Exchange, but my favorite purchase of hers was when she bought me my first new bicycle, a red Rollfast whose brand name I took literally as I sped on that bike all over Sunnyside, over to the swimming pool, and, with Bruce Walker, on the yet to be paved lanes of the new freeway that was being constructed. Bruce and I rode our bikes up the Hill Street ramp down to the Bunker Avenue ramp and not once did anyone working on that new freeway intercept us or tell us to get off the site. It was exhilarating.
3. After I picked up my dry cleaning, the Deke and I headed up to Radio Brewing with the idea we would talk about our visit to the Furniture Exchange. We immediately got sidetracked, however, by a woman in her late fifties who lives on a hilltop outside of Cataldo and who told us all about her life in the various places she's lived and how she and her husband landed in North Idaho.
A little later, Becky, who usually only works on Tuesday, came on shift because Trivia Night would be starting around 6:30 and a full house was expected. Becky had a little bit of time on her hands and she explained her work as an epidemiologist and how her work takes her on the road and how she does a lot of it remotely, by computer, from Kellogg. Her research and work doesn't involve talking with people around Kellogg. She moved here because she loves it -- and she has a part-time gig at Radio Brewing.
The Deke and I decided to move the party down to the Hill St. Depot Pub for some smoked meats and ordered street tacos and chicken Caesar salad. When we walked in, Harley Birchmeier was at the bar, celebrating his last day of work, and man was he happy! We got settled in and Brian Moore introduced himself and his wife Crystal to us. I've known Brian's mom and dad forever and went to school with his older brother, Butch. I hardly knew Brian so I appreciated that he introduced himself to us and I enjoyed getting caught up on what's happening with his parents and in his life.
We capped off our evening at Christy and Everett's and admired the flowers Christy bought for Friday's Celebration of Life and shot the breeze for a while.
We came back home excited about how much fun we had, again, meeting and talking with people in Kellogg and enjoying good food and good beer.
So far, retirement seems to be working out okay for the Deke.
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