Three Beautiful Things 09-13-2025: Carol Inspires My Yearning for Maryland, Ed Inspires My Longing for Wolf Moon, Deborah Deepens My Eagerness to Reunite in Spokane

1. Today could have been a draggy day. I am having difficulty falling asleep at night and once I do fall asleep, I'm having difficulty sustaining my sleep. I prefer starting my days around 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning, but today I slept right up until the alarm that tells me it's medicine time for me and Copper woke me up at 8:00. 

I experienced good fortune as the day proceeded that perked me up, delivering me from dragginess. 

For starters, Carol keeps sending uplifting pictures of hers and Paul's week-long visit to Baltimore. I especially enjoyed the photographs of the Saturday Dragon Boat Races they watched in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Not only did her pictures capture the vitality of colors of the boats and the participants' costumes, they also showed anyone looking at them one of Baltimore's many beautiful features, especially on this perfect looking clear, blue, comfortable day. 

The aching I felt to be back in Maryland was good, reminding me of how much I loved living in the Old Line State! 

2. Another source of happiness also came to me through my cell phone. In much the same way I'm happy for Carol and Paul's explorations of Baltimore, I'm also happy that Ed and Nancy and the Derbyshires left the Silver Valley today on a trip to Kalispell, Glacier National Park, Helena, and a hot springs whose name I can't remember. 

In addition, yesterday Ed went into an establishment he didn't name and sent me a picture of the slot machine game he was about to play. It's my favorite game. It seems to be available locally only in Montana. 

It's the legendary (for me it's legendary!) Wolf Moon! 

Just seeing a photograph of this machine and knowing Ed was about to play it made me recreate the sound of the game's wolves howling, one of the fun features of Wolf Moon! 

3. I spent much of the day working puzzles. On Saturdays, the NYTimes Sunday crossword is available at 3:00 in afternoon. 

I knocked it out. 

But the greatest joy of the evening was not puzzle success. 

It was the text message Deborah sent me a little after 8 p.m. 

At a reception following the memorial service for Marianne Frase, she'd procured a recommendation for where she, Scott, and I should meet for coffee in Spokane at 9:30 Sunday morning. 

It was a perfect recommendation. 

Atticus Coffee. 

(Until 2009, it was 4 Seasons Coffee and Roasters.)

Until he and his wife sold this business and the nearby novelties store called Boo Radley's, these businesses were owned, along with his wife, by a member of the Intro to Literature course I taught at Whitworth in the spring semester of 1984. His name is Andy Dinnison. His wife is Kris (I'm not sure I ever knew her.)

I am eagerly anticipating a reunion with Deborah and Scott and am thrilled that we'll be meeting in such a handsome coffee shop that has, for me, a meaningful connection to my days teaching at Whitworth.