1. Stu warned us that the family property out at their ranch would be buggy, so I pulled on my hiking pants and a light, long-sleeved shirt, and my new hiking shoes (which fit perfectly and are like limousines for my feet) and I sprang into the Sube and high-tailed it out to the Cataldo Trail Head on the Trail of the CdAs where Ed, Stu, and I met up and each drove our vehicles to the ranch Stu's family owns up Skeel Gulch.
It was my first outing in nature with others since last fall. We were all protective of one another's health by maintaining space between each other as we headed up the mild incline leading out of the area where Stu's sister, Carrie, lives with her husband, into the woods. Ed and Stu inspected different white pine, cedars, and other species of trees, speculating which ones might be suitable for logging before long and Stu is always keeping an eye out for December's Christmas tree.
Since I don't know anything about logging, I hung back, let my mind wander, inspired by the occasional sounds of gurgling water and the great variety of wild daisies, evergreen trees, and other foliage as we walked about a mile through the woods.
I hadn't seen Ed in person since the last time I joined the other guys for breakfast at Sam's back on March 13th and hadn't seen Scott since one day in -- I'm going to say April -- when he delivered a bottle of DuCard Rose wine to our house.
We've all talked on the phone or exchanged written messages, but it was really good to see one another in person and get caught up on family news and what's happening around the Silver Valley and elsewhere.
For the record, I'll just say that as the morning warmed up, I struggled a bit on this walk, even though many stretches were in the shade. By the end, after two miles, back at our cars, I was very happy to sit on the back fender of the Sube, in the shade, and was very happy that Stu, Ed, and I talked more while sitting still and I cooled off. Throughout the walk, I stayed hydrated, but these days I'm not doing very well with sunshine and even moderate heat. When it came time to jump in our rigs and head back home, I was very grateful for the Sube's air conditioning.
Oh! Stu commemorated our walk today in a limerick. Scroll down if you'd like to read it at the end of this post.
2. Back home, I cooled down more. After a short trip to Yoke's and the liquor store, I thought about the coolness of Billy Collins, his love of cool jazz standards, his cool, understated manner, his cool, wry wit, and his cool, jazzy, accessible poetry. I'm not sure if Billy Collins broadcasts live at the same time every day, but, when I can, I'm going to start looking around 4 p.m. PST to see if possibly he usually gets started around 7 o'clock EST. (If I miss him live, his broadcasts are archived on his Facebook page.)
Today, an online copyright enforcer blocked Billy Collins' Facebook Live feed. Billy Collins likes to play a jazz standard as a lead in to his broadcast reading poetry and musing about things. Today, he put on Billie Holiday's "Good Morning Heartache" and got shut down. No long afterward, he returned, explained with his own style of dead pan befuddlement what had happened, and then chatted and read poems for about twenty minutes, focusing on poems from his 1988 collection, The Apple that Astonished Paris.
I think each poem he read today was new to me and not only did I delight in the poems, I also enjoyed Billy Collins' comments about how his writing of poetry has evolved over the years -- he told us his poems written later in life are not as tight and are more discursive and wandering than those he wrote as a younger man.
3. Today was a day jam-packed with pleasures, more than I can fit into writing only about three beautiful things. So, I'm going to go expand this third beautiful thing and preserve my experience of this evening's many delights.
At around five, Diane Trecker arrived with her two dogs in tow: Chloe is Gibbs' mother and Olivia is Diane's Maltese puppy.
Debbie made a perfect snack spread: shrimp and cocktail sauce, chips and guacamole, and she lathered a chunk of cream cheese with pepper jelly Diane had given us and served it with Ritz crackers.
We also invited Christy over and she joined our party and brought cherries.
I mixed us gin and tonics -- well, I mixed gin and tonics for the others: I sipped on a couple of dirty martinis.
So, before our very eyes a mother and child reunion unfolded.
Over the last three or four weeks, Gibbs has been a happy and contented dog.
This evening, we witnessed him experience ecstasy.
His first response to Chloe was to jump on top of Chloe and wrap his front legs around her torso, as if he were hugging her. He "hugged" her several times. Then, he rounded up Chloe and Olivia and led them into our house, as if to assure his mom and his good friend, Olivia, that he'd scored a good home when he left them.
After a while, it seemed Chloe had had enough of being hugged and shown around.
No problem.
Gibbs and Olivia became playmates, figuring out ways to goof off and wrestle around. After a bit, they ventured deep into the back yard where Gibbs showed Olivia the wild weeds and raspberry plants and small bushes he enjoys exploring. Olivia enjoyed our unkempt garden areas, too, as if the ungroomed nature of these areas is exactly what these dogs love.
Christy, Diane, Debbie, and I yakked about a bunch of stuff including dog breeding, books written by women about life in the Silver Valley, and some of Diane's latest news about her family and some prospects for the future.
All of the playing and excitement wore out Gibbs. He fell into a coma of contentment, even before Diane, Chloe, and Olivia left. We are hoping that Gibbs can have more get togethers with Olivia and Chloe.
Debbie and I retired back into the house and watched some news programming and then our evening shifted into a higher gear of enjoyment.
First we watched, The Boys of '36, an hour long American Experience documentary telling a condensed version of the same story told in The Boys in the Boat. I particularly enjoyed the film footage of these guys training and racing and seeing the footage of the Berlin Olympics made what I'd read in the book even more memorable.
Earlier in the day, I bought a Jameson family pack at the liquor store, three 50 ml (a little over 1.5 oz) bottles of Jameson Irish Whiskey, Jameson Caskmate -- IPA Edition, and Jameson Caskmate -- Stout Edition. The Caskmate batches of whiskey are ones where in the last stage of production, the whiskey is finished in beer barrels. Debbie and I shared each of these little bottles and enjoyed them thoroughly. I was particularly intrigued by the IPA Edition. At first, to me, it tasted like regular Irish Whiskey and then after a second or two, the taste of hops and the floral delight of an IPA asserted themselves and my eyes widened a bit in wonder. The Stout Edition was very good, but didn't pack, for me, the element of surprise I experienced in the IPA Edition.
So, I wondered, how might I bring to a close a day of so many delights, of being with three friends I've known forever, of poems read live by Billy Collins, of having Christy over, of drinking martinis and eating superb snacks, of fun conversation on the deck, of seeing Gibbs express the most joy of his young life, of revisiting the boys and their boat, and of sampling three styles of Jameson whiskey?
I tried out a couple of Pandora stations before deciding that I wanted Stan Rogers to serenade me out of this wonderful day. I listened more than once to "The Mary Ellen Carter", "Barrett's Privateers", and "The Flowers of Bermuda" and in a mood mellowed by the joy of the day and those samples of whiskey, I marveled, almost as if I hadn't been listening to him for over 30 years, at Stan Rogers' artistry, his guitar playing, songwriting, commanding singing voice, and invigorating love for joining forces with his fellow musicians to create some of the most rousing and touching songs I've ever heard.
Stu wrote this limerick to commemorate the walk that he, Ed, and I enjoyed today:
It’s easy to follow current trends.
And complain as restriction extends.
But, unlike many places,
Where there’s not open spaces.
You can at least be out of doors with your friends.
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