Halloween, v.2007

Mema staged her annual Halloween gala this past Saturday. Ghosts and goblins of all descriptions showed up for hot dogs, face painting, balloon clowns and lots of fun.



That's our exceptionally pretty Selma on the left.


Rylan finds a pumpkin she can lift with one hand.







Tanner thinks Mema's face picture is really funny.


We had a special guest this year, Aunt Janet from Redmond, WA, who is staying with us for a few weeks. She really enjoyed watching the kids have a good time outdoors in perfect weather.

Seattle Air Traffic Security

Mema and I visited the Seattle area this week with the purpose of looking in on our dear friend, Janet. We wound up bringing her back to Virginia with us but that's another story.

Seattle has one of the most disorganized, chaotic, mind-bendingly inept airport security systems in the country. At each end of their woefully undersized terminal building, passengers are literally herded through cattle-like lines (think Disney World on a busy day) where the requisite ticket and ID checks are made. Then they are spewed into the X-ray lines after being asked to remove shoes, coats, scarves, computers, etc.

The process took over 25 minutes and it wasn't one of the busy hours. Mema went through with Janet while I parked the rental car. The TSA folks there have adopted a "random" method of selecting which passengers need frisking and wanding. We were selected as possible terrorists - lovable ole me, Judy who needs a knee replacement and Janet who is almost blind, can't hear, and went through security in a wheel chair. I'm sure, with the current atmosphere of political correctness coupled with the fact that Seattle is a hotbed of social liberalism means that absolutely no olive-skinned, bearded, turban-wearing, Arab-speaking, Middle-Easterner, will ever be "randomly selected." God forbid we offend anyone trying to board a plane with explosive shoes. But grandmothers and infirm little old ladies are fair game to TSA.

The postscript to this is that, unbenownst to the average passenger (and I travel maybe 20 time a year) the "random" passenger has encoded on the boarding pass a code to alert the not-too bright TSA folks that "hey, pat this one down, Bruce!" Mine had such a code but it wasn't detected by the US Government employees at TSA. I didn't get frisked first time through. NOOO! I had to wait until my flight was called and the plane was boarding before an alert Delta gate person noticed and directed me back to TSA a distance of about 1/2 mile. Upon presenting my boarding pass it was somehow MY fault that I had escaped the frisker. I did make the flight -- barely.

This is our federal government at work. Now we find out that in major airports TSA can't find a fake bomb over 60% of the time. Remember when airport security was done by private firms? It was bad then but it WAS better by several percentage points. And this same government wants to run our health care industry. Try to imagine a doctor's office looking like the Seattle security area. Vote Republican.

The Pumpkin Patch

Our county has a berry farm that features so-it-yourself strawberry picking in the spring and pumpkin picking in the fall. We hadn't been out there since Clay was just 3 so away we went one sunny Saturday. Boy, has it grown! There were more rides, more food, more everything!

We loaded the kids on a tractor-towed trailer and went off on a hay ride to the pumpkins. The kids had a ball running through the patch trying to select just the right pumpkin for their very own.










After getting more pumpkins than we really needed and loading them into the car, the kids tried out the attractions. They especially liked playing in a big tank filled with shelled corn.

Clay's Homecoming Parade

They start them young these days. Elementary schools have parades, homecoming games, pep rallies and homecoming queens. Clay is a cheerleader at her school and for her football team so off we went to the school where, sure enough, there was a fire truck, some police, and floats with cheerleaders and football players (all in mineature) throwing candy to the crowd. It was a pleasant way to spend and evening. And the kids had fun.

Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My!

We made a short trip to the zoo today with Tanner, Cammie and Rylan. What a pleasure to see them experience exotic animals for the first time. They enjoyed all the animals but got the biggest kick out of three small monkeys who were showing-out with a lot of swinging, screeching, and jumping around.

Our State Fair - 2007

We went to the Virginia State Fair which was a lot like the movie but without the romance, music, and Pat Boone. But it was a great state fair and the best one in our state! Neener.



We went to our state fair which, of couse is the best state fair in the state! No aruguments about that. We took Eddie and Melissa and their kids. Ginny went along to photograph the whole affair.

We did face painting, animal petting, junk food eating, ride riding, fishing for really cheaply-made stuffed toys, and lots of walking.

Judy's 45th Reunion

Mema went to Center, Texas for her 45th high school reunion. She had a little trouble finding Texas after landing in Shreveport, LA. and took a little longer than expected to find it. But she arrived OK and stayed with her friend, Kay.

Mema also stayed one night with Annie but only stayed up until 4:00AM catching up on gossip. While there, she managed to hit Annie's fence and put a little dent in the rental car. Somehow this was Papa's fault even though he was 1,300 miles away in Virginia.

The reunion was held in the historic Shelby County Courthouse. Mema was the MC so she decided to preside as judge over the class of '62 trying them for various fraudulent offenses. I think the alums enjoyed the whole affair.

After Mema dented the car, her friend, Kay put another dent in it. Seems this was Papa's fault too. Poor Avis got a pitiful wreck back.