Friday, October 13, 2017

Three Beautiful Things 10/12/17: Shred Prep, Donation in Wallace, From the Outer Limits to Cheese and Wine

1.  Mom kept three or four boxes of receipts, tax returns, contracts, and other papers in the basement stretching back to the 1950s. I went through these papers today and now I have a sharper understanding of what Mom and Dad earned in their jobs through the years, what kind of a mortgage they took out in 1962, when the kitchen remodel happened, when the basement remodel happened, and a host of other things. Those papers are all ready for shredding now and my next move will be to go through Mom's papers in her desk and closet.

2. The Deke and I loaded up the Sube with medical supplies Mom left behind. Some of the supplies were left over from her hospital stay a year ago, others from her stay in the nursing home, and others were things that helped Mom live more easily in her house. We donated these supplies to the Shoshone County Women's Resource Center in Wallace, an agency administered by Kellie (Turnbow) Lavigne. I've known Kellie since the day she was born as our family and the Turnbows were close friends, so it was a great visit, not only in the charitable sense, but also because the Deke and I spent some time talking with Kellie and getting a tour of the facility she oversees.

3.  The Deke and I have been accomplishing a lot these last few days.  Yes, there is much left to do, but we keep chipping away and our list of things to do continues to shrink. After we dropped off the supplies at the Women's Resource Center, we dropped in at the City Limits Brew Pub for some beer, some sweet potato fries, and some first-rate conversation, ending with a fun chat with Mark Burmeister, the original brewer, an owner, and the day to day boss at City Limits.  I used to occasionally drink coffee in the morning at Johnny's Bar in Smelterville with his dad and a group of other men. Mark told me both his mom and dad were doing pretty well for being in their mid-nineties -- in fact, they'd just been in the joint earlier in the day.  Mark also got a kick out of the fact that Mary Idell West Woolum, in all innocence and without joking, used to call his business The Outer Limits. Now, the Deke and I always, with each other, refer to The City Limits as The Outer Limits.

We moved our party to Radio Brewing where I thoroughly enjoyed their Brown Ale. We returned home and I broke out the small blocks of Stilton and Hunstman cheese I'd bought at Pilgrim's Market and we ate off of a plate of cheese, pepper crackers, saltine crackers, sweet pickle chips, cherry tomatoes, and Kalamata olives. I had read that these cheeses paired well with port wine, so I bought a short bottle on Wednesday and we both agreed that the blue sharpness of the Stilton and the creamy nuttiness of the Double Gloucester (the Huntsman combines the two cheeses) was greatly enhanced by the sweetness of the port wine. What a blast!  

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