Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Three Beautiful Things 12-13-2021: I Enjoy Driving in CdA, Oh Tannenbaum, Family Dinner Heroism

 1. Debbie and I made a quick trip to Coeur d'Alene. While she got a haircut, I enjoyed driving around Coeur d'Alene. I filled the Sube with gas at Costco, bought a Christmas tree stand at Lowe's, and ordered a buttery cinnamon cookie and a latte at Bear Paw Cookies at Riverstone, near the salon. Debbie joined me. I shared my cookie. Debbie asked me to drive her out to Michael's and I gladly agreed. 

At the intersection of Hanley and Government Way, the traffic light was busted. The intersection was busting at its seams with traffic.

I loved that every single driver knew what to do. Calmly we all switched our thinking and treated the intersection as a four-way stop. No honking. No impatience. Nothing crazy. I had to make a left hand turn and when it was my turn to go, I waved a thank you to all the other cars, grateful that we were all cooperating, not allowing the potential chaos that could have broken out to happen. 

2. Back home, Debbie and I worked together and put up our Christmas tree. We tried to remember when we last put a tree up together and Debbie thinks it was eleven or twelve years ago in Eugene. I couldn't remember one way or another, but that sounded about right.

3. Tonight our family gathered at Carol and Paul's for dinner together. We started the evening with crackers and a bleu cheese spread that Carol made accompanied by Paul's mulled wine. For dinner, Carol cooked up an awesome beef stroganoff over egg noodles, I brought green beans with lemon butter and slivered almonds, and Debbie contributed a marinated cauliflower salad. Christy baked a superb (meatless) mince meat pie featuring pears and apples and a superb crust. 

I had fun pretend bragging like I had done a heroic thing by enjoying driving in CdA because it's common in the Silver Valley for people to complain about how crazy it is driving there. I also pretended like my left hand turn with the traffic lights not working was heroic as well as was the fact that I went to Lowe's and overcame the least helpful customer service person in the entire Lowe's corporation  and found a Christmas tree stand! 

I hope no one thought I was being serious as I repeated this joke about the "heroic" things I did today. 

I mean, I did enjoy driving around CdA, but it was hardly a heroic deed! 

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