1. I popped out of bed around five a.m. to pack my bag and prepare for a weekend trip to Pendleton, OR. I'd had a blissful night's sleep thanks to the comfort of our brand new firm queen bed and the fresh sheets and blankets the Deke made it with. I strolled down Cameron Avenue to Sam's and enjoyed a cup of coffee with Ed, Jerry, Buff, Scott, and Aaron and soon Ed and I piled into his pickup, swung by our house to pick up my bags, and we headed to his house in Kingston where Jake picked us up and we began our drive to Pendleton.
2. Back in November of 2001, right after Thanksgiving, a bunch of us guys from the Kellogg High School Class of 1972 traveled to Portland for a weekend together of just plain playing. In 2005, we gave it a try in Lincoln City, OR and for a couple or three years we got together in Coeur d'Alene. For the last five years or so, we've congregated at the Wildhorse Casino in Pendleton and today Jake, Ed, Terry, Mike, and I all arrived soon after noon and our weekend got underway. We started at the lobby bar and enjoyed a couple of beers, fanned out, and each did our thing.
3. Around 3:30 or so, Mike, Ed, and I got together in Ed's room for a drink and some serious yakkin' and, after I went to my room and watched some basketball, I joined Jake and Terry back at the bar to watch the Zags play. It turned out I didn't pay much attention to the game because we got into more serious yakkin' with a couple of truck drivers, one seated down by Jake and another seated by me. The guy next to me was in his mid-thirties, lived in rural Eastern Oregon, and was waiting for his dad to come to the Wild Horse. He and Jake and I yakked about the world today, the Sunshine Mine Fire, all the jobs this guy has done over the years, and, before long, Jake returned to the card table and Josh's dad showed up and I met him, yakked a bit, and decided it was time to go to bed.
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