Westmoreland Asays

My company sponsored a film festival for its employees. They sent us a Flip video camera, established a basic set of rules, and provided some nice prizes for the winners. I enlisted the entire family to create my entry. While we didn't win (or even make the final round of 12, out of I think 177 entries), we'll always have this video to remember the experience. Update : I received a package from Corporate (early April 2011) that contained four of these chocolates. There was a letter accompanying the treats, but it did not explain anything.

We had planned to go camping to Florence with some friends, but they had to back out at the last minute, so we took the money and got a cheap hotel room in Tillamook (a small town on the Northern Oregon coast) for a couple of nights. The simple act of staying at a hotel is pure excitement for the older boys: we all sleep in the same room--a room with multiple beds!--we can go swimming or eat at the restaurant or work-out in the exercise room. We had decent weather one morning so we were able to visit a light house, the octopus tree, the beach, and the cheese factory without getting wet. But I think we most enjoyed the relatively new Tillamook Forest center. It's been months since we made this trip, so that is all.

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...

I'm officially car-free. The towing company hooked up the G20 and hauled him away to greener pastures this afternoon; at least he got to ride with a fellow Infiniti (an i30) that was being taken at the same time. This was of course part of my big bike-for-car trade . I'm still surprised at how informal the whole process was. I didn't sign a single form (save signing the title of the car over to the charity), never had to show my ID, and there were definitely no lawyers present for any of it.  Both parties just did what we agreed to do--how old-fashioned. I'm writing this a few weeks after the fact, so I can report that I haven't had any problems living without a car--haven't even dreamed about owning another one or worried about having to walk, bike, hitchhike, or ride the bus somewhere.

I shot Hood-to-Coast racers again in 2010. Since I've already written about the experience here and here , I won't bore you with the details of the job; instead I'll talk about some of the competitors I met and post the pictures I took of them (when available). I don't have pictures to accompany these guys, but I saw two one-armed runners, one one-legged runner, and one blind runner. I probably scared the crap out of the blind guy when I hopped out of my chair to photograph him, as I was stationed at a pretty remote spot, on a private logging road, but he seemed to figure out who I was and what I was doing. What I found funny was that about three minutes later his hunchbacked escort ran by. Shouldn't they have been running together, or maybe even the guide out in front to keep the path clear? This woman cradled her boobs and shouted "Team handful!" for me as I took her picture. My first reaction was that she was boasting of her bounteous endowment, may...