Friday, August 21, 2020

Three Beautiful Things 08/20/20: Kenton and Gerri in Kellogg, Vigorous Conversation, Ed's Porch BONUS A Limerick by Stu

1. Kenton Bird and Gerri Sayler took a day trip up to Kenton's old Kellogg stomping grounds today. As part of their visit, they visited chez Christy for a tour of her gardens and a peek at her she shed and then hopped over to chez Carol and Paul for more garden touring. Before long, Christy, Carol, Paul, Debbie, Kenton, Gerri, and I joined in Carol and Paul's patio area for a delicious cold lunch: green salad, pasta salad, ciabatta bread, and slices of watermelon -- my favorite summer foods.

2. We launched into some wide-ranging conversation. I especially enjoyed having a chance to talk with Gerri about the expansion of my world of poetry lately, especially via the Billy Collins Poetry Broadcast and the New Yorker poetry podcast. Gerri also had questions about teaching and I can't remember what I used to do as a teacher, so I remained quiet during this discussion and enjoyed all that Debbie and Christy had to say -- and enjoyed how much Gerri appreciated their ideas and advice. Kenton and I talked a bit about Episcopalian matters in Moscow. Kenton is St. Mark's Senior Warden. He also is part of a group called Theology on Tap and I enjoyed hearing about how they've been meeting virtually and have been discussing Jim Wallis' book, America's Original Sin. After lunch, Kenton and Gerri headed to the Trail of the CdA's and rode their bicycles on a stretch of the trail from Cataldo to Dudley.

3. I'd have thought that after that invigorating lunch discussion, I'd be ready to hunker down in the Vizio room and be done with conversation for the day.

But, no!

Ed called me. He invited me out to Kingston for some Brown Sugar Bourbon and to shoot the breeze for a while. I arrived around six o'clock. We talked about all sorts of things for a couple of hours. I cut myself off of the bourbon after a couple of drinks and was in good shape to drive back to Kellogg. For no particular reason, I drove back to Kellogg on the "old road"; I saw a little bit of Pinehurst, drove through Smelterville, and came into Kellogg on McKinley Ave and cruised the gut, checking out how things looked uptown.

I ended my outing by doing something I only do about twice a year: I went to McDonald's and ordered a quarter pounder with no cheese and a large order of fries. Accompanied by one of those mini Coca Colas we keep on hand at home, the burger and those salty fries put a nice exclamation point on the day's activities before Debbie and I joined forces in the living room and watched some news programming before I hit the sack.


Here's a limerick by Stu:



Think of how hot it has been.
Then go back to your travels with kin.
In a wagon that’s packed,
No belts or air were a fact.
If you could, would you do THAT again?

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