1. To give himself more time to work on our closet and not be on the road, Shawn asked me to drive his big honkin' GMC something or other white pickup to Wallace to Building Maintenance/Ace Hardware and bring back some supplies he needed. I almost needed a step ladder or a stool to get in the driver's seat. Every second I drove this truck I feared that I would misgauge its width and scrape something or take up more than my lane on the freeway. I also prayed that when I got to the lumber yard that I wouldn't have to drive in reverse. Over the last fourteen years with the Sube, every injury I've inflicted upon our car has been when I was driving backward.
It all worked out, though. Yes, the guy at the lumber yard didn't load up two of the pieces of trim Shawn needed so I got to go back to Wallace and feel the power of driving his behemoth one more time, but I enjoyed going to Ace/Building Maintenance in Wallace. The people who helped me were friendly, helpful with a capital H, and fun to shoot the breeze with. I admit, I was a tiny bit rattled when I walked to the contractors' sale counter at the back of Ace and one of the employees was holding a rifle. As he strolled down the main aisle with it, customers joked about who he was going to shoot out back. But, I knew I was in the Silver Valley where gun safety and responsibility is a chief value and I immediately relaxed -- and, later, I noticed at the front of the Ace Hardware store that there was a display case of various firearms and that an employee carrying a rifle down the store's main aisle was perfectly legitimate, no doubt normal -- it was just an experience I had never had at the various Ace Hardware (or True Value) stores I've visited across the nation.
2. This afternoon, the Deke and I felt a sudden surge of cleaning motivation and swept into the kitchen where the Deke cleaned out the refrigerator, I cleaned out and reorganized the lazy Susan, we made decisions about relocating bowls and cookware, and I reorganized our spice shelves. Much of our house is in disarray right now, and will be for several more days, so it felt especially good to bring our kitchen into some kind of order.
3. When Ed got off work this afternoon he called me and wondered if I might like to go up to the Lounge around six or so and have a couple drinks and yak it up. The Deke and I enjoyed a pork chop dinner together and then Ed and I met up at the Lounge where Jake, Carol Lee, DJ, Eileen, and Eddie Joe were all seated at the north end of the bar and so Ed and I joined in. We got caught up on how Jake and Carol Lee's work landscaping their lake place is going and Ed, DJ, and Jake got into a great discussion about cafes and bars in the Silver Valley and Rose Lake and Canyon that no longer exist: the Beacon, the Cedars, the Boat, the Miner's Hat, the Barrel, Three Toots, the Lumberjack, Duff's, and more and soon the reminiscing extended to Coeur d'Alene and the Topper and the Topper Two and the Paul Bunyan and the Rathskeller and other places. I hadn't been to the old places in Kingston or out in the Canyon, but I'd been to both the Lumberjack and Mr. Duff's (did I get that name right?). When our family went out, it was always to the Sunshine Inn and sometimes some food to go from the S & R, but on occasion we would journey out to Jim and Jane Cantrell's superb eatery in Rose Lake, the Lumberjack.
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