Three Beautiful Things 11-07-2025: Uncertainty About Flights, Food Pantry Coming to the Elks, I Once Loved Making Music

1. The reality of government shutdown prompted flight cancellations is upon us and I'm relieved that Misty flew out of Newark, heading to Fairbanks, on Thursday and arrived back home safely after a terrific time getting to know her newfound family better in Illinois and New York. 

Things are uncertain about Debbie's return to Kellogg. 

I don't have much more to say about that. 

2. Ed and I met at The Lounge at 3 o'clock this afternoon. I was especially happy to hear that he had a great time with Stu today. They toured the Stuart property near Cataldo, looked over the logging project the family had done a few months ago, and enjoyed some jolly yakkin'. 

Harley and Candy came in and after some joking around, Harley shared some really good news that by the end of this coming week, the Kellogg Elks with have a pantry set up outside their building where people can put food on its shelves and those in need of food can come by and take food for themselves. 

I'll include in a future blog post when the pantry is set up. 

3. I heard reliable news that Tim O'Reilly was back in town. He'd gone back to Virginia about a month ago, but returned to Kellogg a few days ago to work on cleaning up the Blue Lagoon building near Medimont that he owns again, preparing to put it on the market. 

Time strolled into The Lounge and we talked some about real estate and then we had an uplifiting session of yakking about our days at North Idaho College and the many mutual friends we had, especially through our involvement in choir. 

Much like when I was in high school, participating in choir and band at NIC was my most enjoyable activity, outside of studying and learning. I was a mediocre singer and baritone horn/valve trombone player, but that didn't matter. My mediocrity added to the collective effort of the choirs and bands I played in and we, as a whole, made joyful music. The whole was much better than the individual parts. 

In addition, I made both friends and acquaintances I thoroughly enjoyed and, to this day, when I see some of the people I once made music with, I am uplifted by remembering what we once did together and, in some cases, build on what we loved in the past with sharing in the things going on our lives these fifty plus years later.