Three Beautiful Things 06/29/10: Relaxing at the Dentist, Finished Weston's Book, Kellogg Ponderings at Appleby's with Amber Ale

1. I made my last visit to the spa dentist’s office today. In the comfort of Dr. Stephenson's chair, I laid back while he replaced a couple of small fillings and put a new crown on a molar. Overhead, the television broadcast, without sound, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and so I played along inside my head while the drill screeched and Anna sprayed water and vacuumed it out of my mouth. Near the end of the procedure, All My Children came on and I was treated to daytime drama as silent movie. It looked like Erica was in a crisis.

2. I finished Julie Whitesel Weston's book The Good Times Are All Gone Now. Its impact on me increased as Julie's story examined the 1960 strike, her relationship with Doc Whitesel, and her days working for Bob Robson. I'll be working on a series of blog entries inspired by her book. It'll live with me for quite a while and I'll read it repeatedly.

3. After I finished The Good Times Are All Gone Now, I wanted to go to Sam's or the Silverspoon or the Mission Inn or the Hilltop Cafe or the Sprag Pole Inn, somewhere in Kellogg or Kingston or Cataldo or up the river for a Silver Valley hamburger and a cold beer. Nowhere in Eugene even begins to approximate one of these favorite places of mine to eat. So, I went to Appleby's because when Mom and I go to Coeur d'Alene for one thing or another, we often go to Appleby's. I don't drink much at all these days. Shouldn't really. But after spending most of the day in Julie Whitesel Weston's Kellogg, I needed a couple of beers to relax my mind and to go into a state of reverie beer takes me to. So I had a burger and fries and a couple of beers and I stared and pondered and shed a tear or two (when my too helpful waiter wasn't checking on me) and thought about home.

Three Beautiful Things 06/28/10: Krakauer and War, Julie Whitesel Weston and Kellogg, Weeding

1. I finished Jon Krakauer's Where Men Win Glory. No matter how much firepower, how many schemes, how sophisticated the planning, how just the cause, or how superior the training, military enterprises are carried out by complicated human beings: flawed, heroic, limited human beings who are in over their heads. I don't know if Jon Krakauer had it in mind as he wrote this book, but the lasting impression it made on me was that no matter who he discussed, whether it was Bush, Clinton, Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, generals at the top of the military chain, platoon leaders on site in battles, or Pat Tillman racing up a hill to provide cover for his fellow soldiers, they were all in over their heads, no matter the political party, policy, strategy, religious belief, personal philosophy, or anything else. And, yet, men and women say and write things as if they understand what's happening and as if solutions exist.

2. This evening I started reading The Good Times Are All Gone Now, a combination memoir, oral history, and documentary history of Kellogg written by Julie Whitesel Weston. Her father was the emergency room physician who treated me when I was gassed and blinded in a flash roaster at the Bunker Hill Zinc Plant in July, 1973. I'm learning more about Doc Whitesel, about the immigrants who came to Kellogg, and about how Julie Whitesel Weston experienced (and experiences) Kellogg. She's about ten years older than I am, and this relatively small difference in our ages is significant in accounting for the differences in our experiences growing up in Kellogg. Inevitably, our experiences were different, too, because of the work of our fathers -- as well as my work, following my father's footsteps, at the Zinc Plant. I'm eager to finish Weston's book and reflect on it more. I'm enjoying seeing Kellogg through her eyes and her memory.

3. I got another section of our gardens weeded. I'm doing my best to focus on one section a day. So far, so good.