Three Beautiful Things 12/26/17: Cuss Box at Ace, Cleaning, Greco-Cuban Dinner

1. After I wrote in my blog this morning, I jumped right on getting some house business done. I put bills in the mail and I went on a string of errands: pharmacy, monthly blood draw at Shoshone Medical Center, bank, and some shopping at Ace Hardware. While at Ace, looking at stainless steel cleaner, hardwood floor mops, and other cleaning supplies, I heard a string of good-natured, fake demanding and fake complaining profanities ring out from the front of the store. It was Donnie Rinaldi, asking where he might find glue.

When we were kids, someone bought Dad a cuss box. It was a coin bank, oval in shape with an inscription on the front about paying the bank for cussing.  Hey! Look! Online, I found a picture of a cuss box just like the one we had:

Well, back in the cuss box days, Christy and I hatched a sure fire get rich scheme. We imagined getting out the cuss box when Donnie Rinaldi came to visit. We'd charge him for every cuss word and soon the cuss box would be full of nickels, dimes, and quarters.

We never carried out this scheme, but today at Ace, when I heard Donnie cussing loud enough that I could hear him toward the back of the store, my first thought was, "Donnie's here. Get out the cuss box!"

Ha! By the way, Donnie and I reached the cashier at the same time and exchanged hopes that we'd each had a Merry Christmas and wished each other a Happy New Year. It was genuinely heartfelt moment with someone I've known my entire life and who was, along with Rosie, a great friend with Mom and Dad.

2. Back home, I put the cleaning supplies to good use. I had burned a lot of Cuban mojo on a Pyrex pan and spent 20-25 minutes scrubbing it. I almost attained a level of Mary Idell West Woolum cleanliness, but upon a review of the pan a little later in the day, I saw a missed a spot or two. Darn! I cleaned other surfaces in the kitchen, thinking it would be nice if we could keep our new kitchen looking pretty good for a while, at least.

3. I got out the broiled vegetables I made for Christmas Eve dinner, heated up a batch, combined them with white rice and feta cheese and declared to myself that I had just made a Greco-Cuban dish for dinner. It was mighty tasty. Speaking of tasty, later the Deke and I hiked through the snow next door to Christy and Everett's and had a couple of hot drinks using Christy's unbelievably good batter.  The Deke drank hot buttered brandy and I had hot buttered rum. The only reason I would want it to be cold and snowy all year long? Then I could drink hot drinks all year long! They hit the spot.