Westmoreland Asays

My younger brother Jamin, a 10-year Senior at the University of North Carolina (at Chapel Hill) married his long-time girlfriend Emily on a farm outside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina . I flew out to support him and enjoy the celebration. My parents and most of my siblings also made the trip, so it served as a family reunion-lite. Obie (aka Jon) wasn't able to make it; Mistress Meg speculated that he was simply protesting Jamin choosing not to wed in a Mormon temple. I was a bit nervous before I left, as I had never been east of Texas before (and I was only in Austin for a few days--otherwise I hadn't been east of the Rockies). The red-eye flight from PDX to Newark, New Jersey, was probably the most turbulent flight I've ever been on--trumping even a flight to Salt Lake City years ago that  Meg and I thought we were going to crash and burn and die together (what a way to go!). Further complicating my plans to catch a few hours of sleep, I was sandwiched between a fat man ...

Meg gave us all haircuts the day before school started. She's always cut the boys' hair, but I've declined for several years, as it usually took a painfully-long hour to manage my mane. But after investing in a much better pair of clippers, she was able to make quick work of my mop-top. This also marked Ian's first haircut.

Every year the Oregon Symphony performs a free concert at Waterfront Park the Thursday before Labor Day. We attended this concert when we lived in Beaverton, but after moving to Capital City we opted instead to run at the Bush Park fun runs that usually happened at the same time. I walked to the park from the office, while Meg and crew came later (while parking at OMSI and walked over the Hawthorne bridge). Ian did okay for part of the time, but he grew restless and I spent much of the evening walking around with him in the backpack. The symphony always concludes their concert with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, and the National Guard fires rounds from numerous artillery guns stationed in a different part of the park, which Ian and I passed on our walkabout. Just before they were to fire their guns, the sprinkler system turned on and doused all of the officers and their guns. The men found some heavy buckets from who-knows-where, but I can't believe the city forgot to tur...