A rock, carried up by the roots of this tree as the tree was blown over when the 1996 rockfall occurred at Yosemite.
Wind lifts granite.
It's really tempting to draw comparisons in Washington! I'll spare you.

Well, maybe a little:

... When next we need their like [honorable men], we will find some of them among those who have recoiled from the indecent example of today's commander in chief. That recoil will be his positive legacy. All of it.
Fortunately, America has enjoyed a holiday from history, internationally, while enduring this dangerously frivolous president. But in Iraq and elsewhere, cold-eyed men have taken the measure of his littleness, and of America's deepening dilemma of his vanished authority."

-- George F. Will, in NEWSWEEK,
writing about "Saving Private Ryan."

I was remembering ten years ago, which was a fairly bad year for almost everyone. My sister and her ex started divorce proceedings, our eldest son had his serious accident, a friend's marriage was under great stress. In August, Rich as Scoutmaster took the troop, and Nick's parents, to Nick's favorite spot in Nevada, Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park. This was the camping trip from hell. Every night we would sit around and tell each other, "It's a YOUNG troop." Vince was the second-oldest one there, at 13. They spent most of the time fighting with each other. They weren't interested in rocks, they didn't care about history, petroglyphs were dull, the Indian cave was moderately amusing, but mostly they liked to fight among themselves. This is where I decided there should be a quota for redheads. Rich fell over a stump and nearly broke his leg, I ran into a trailer hitch and did myself in for awhile. I did find petrified wood and caught a lizard, and I liked the ichthyosaur fossils, but what a week that was. We finished off at the Nevada State Museum, and I chased down a couple of the trouble-making scouts and sat them down and scared them. I'm still embarrassed that I used a four-letter word for them, "brat", but as the years passed, the biggest brat and I became good friends, so I guess I didn't traumatize them forever.

In 1968, Rich returned from VietNam on August 10. My Mom and I had driven from Laramie with the two babies, Mom stayed in Seattle with the girls at my sister's while I drove to meet him. I was afraid I wouldn't pick him out of the uniformed mob, but it was easy. There was another man from Laramie there, as well. (9 months later, we had Steve, they had a new baby boy.) We took him to one motel and went to another ourselves. Then the next morning we went back for the family. Rich finally realized he'd been gone a year when he saw Roni and thought it was my year-older niece. He'd missed a lot of her growing up. We took Mom and the girls to Centralia to stay with my biological mother, while he and I had a second honeymoon at Paradise in Mt. Rainier. From there we drove to Seattle and stayed with my sister. Then we took the ferry to Victoria, and then back to the Olympic Peninsula and the Hoh Rain Forest, and back to Centralia to pick up the family. On down to visit relatives in Angel's Camp, go to Yosemite, get the car smashed up, and back to Laramie with my mother. We then went on to Shreveport, Louisiana, where Rich had three months of school before we went to England.

My niece, that same one, visited us in August 20 years ago. Roni was quite jealous, and there were tears on occasion. When we took Susannah back, we all went, but Rich hadn't planned to stay any time. I was really frustrated over this. The Bernadette-as-a-mess picture was at Shasta Dam during the trip home.

And 40 years ago, I had just met my brother and my bio-mother and stepfather, and while we were planning to have sis visit, I didn't know her yet. She's become quite important to me in the years since, though, you might notice.

Back to this year, Bernadette says that singing in the choir was helpful, as it helped her to sightread the guitar music. It's killing her not to be able to go to the State Fair this year. Meanwhile, my barbequed thighs are still very red and painful. That was really dumb. Rich is really antsy to pack the car, but Bernadette isn't ready yet. I took the big bag-of-plastic-bags with us when we went to the movie (The Negotiator, great!) and completely forgot to take it into the store with me.