Three Beautiful Things 09/04/18: Good News and Appreciation, CdA Shopping Spree, Radio and Rafael Nadal

1. I thought my retiree medical insurance coverage ended at the end of this month, but today I learned that it lasts until November 30th. Starting December 1st, I'll be enrolled in Medicare. That I am not facing an insurance gap in October and November is a great relief.  I'm very grateful, as I have been for the last six years, that our union, the LCC Education Association, negotiated such an excellent early retirement arrangement and that, thanks to the Deke wanting to continue to work, I could take an early retirement.  I've never taken any of this good fortune for granted, not for a second.

2. The Deke and I strolled into one of CdA's fine diners, Jimmy's Down the Street, after we soared in the Sube over the hill into Breakfast Town. I enjoyed a pancake with a couple of eggs and a single sausage link and the Deke gave me her sourdough toast. Afterward, we headed straight to Fred Meyer and bought some types of produce not usually available in Kellogg these days (like eggplant!) and then went to Pilgrim's where I bought some meat and we returned to Kellogg, happy with our outing.

3. Paul and Carol help us out immensely by taking in the Corgis when we travel and we treated them to a dinner at Radio Brewing tonight and talked about our comings and goings over the next couple of months.

I joked that everyone at the table was lucky I was there because, even as we dined, Rafael Nadal was playing Dominic Thiem in the US Open's quarter-final round. When we returned home, I blasted back into the tv room and flipped on the match and watched as much of the fireworks of these two mighty players slugging and slogging it out in the New York heat and humidity as I could. But, early in the fifth set, even though neither Nadal nor Thiem hit the wall, I did. I went to bed after about five games -- I'm getting old -- and woke up a few hours later to find out by checking my phone that, in fact, Nadal won the fifth set in a 7-5 tiebreaker, thus winning the match. I would have loved to have seen it to the finish, but, alas, I ran out of steam and if I'd stayed in front of the tv, probably would have fallen asleep in the chair!