Pie, Yard Sales and Sunshine Made Me Happy Today

Today the roastedness of the day made me feel ecstatic about my central air. I did something in pure ancestral fashion, thought much of my grandmother today and made a rhubarb pie. She had a rhubarb patch in her back yard and made rhubarb pie every year. It was one of the few items she made that I could appreciate in a way that made my taste buds happy (other times we would look back and appreciate her food in a different way --- for the bizarre, humorous, her-back-is-turned-so-I-can-feed-it-to-the-dog moments). Most of the time, she made concoctions loosely based on recipes, but with every ingredient substituted for something so far away from the original ingredient that the result was something that forced us children to learn to be polite when something tastes horribly, horribly wrong. (Acquiring poker-face skill, another reason I could appreciate her food.) I probably liked the rhubarb pie because it was one of the few things she made with sugar in it. Anyway, she died and I never got the recipe. Today I tried to find a recipe that involved not making a top crust for the pie and I couldn't find it. I don't know how she made it, and I don't have any specific memories, but I remembered that she said the stalks can't be too thick and that she used corn starch to thicken the filling. I remember the first time I tasted the pie, and I remember that the resemblance of the rhubarb to celery made the rhubarb pie just about as unappetizing as anything else she made. After the first pie, I got over the celery consistency and started to really be happy about rhubarb.
Today we went to four yard sales, at which we came away with cooling racks for cookies ($1 for two racks, still in original package), iron wine rack ($2, like one I used to have), binders (free), Spanish-English dictionary (free), MP-3 player ($5), metal rake ($1), round bird cage ($5), vtech cordless phone with answering machine, still containing amusing message from prior owner ($15 but available at nearby store for $45), Corningware glass cooking pot with lid (50 cents), and a pile of clothes ($5).