Dog Days of Summer 2013

Water pump failures. Tons of freight moving. Two weddings in two days. Camping. Its been hectic and I am burned out psychologically.

Camping-
My mom behaved for the most part, but a few things slipped out. She was very … standoffish?… Sunday morning.

We had fun though, though it is remote enough to where there is no cell phone service. I was afraid that we’d just sit around camp and awkwardly talk while playing games and that didn’t happen. We climbed up the 620 stairs of Windy Ridge near Mount St. Helens and that was cool. We made a trip into town for wood and itch cream.

Water pump-
I was driving to work a few Thursdays ago when there was a loud “CLUNK” followed by the battery light coming on and loss of power steering. I pulled over, checked the engine compartment, and saw that the water pump pulley had come off. I managed to drive back home without overheating the car. I would get up to speed, shut the car off on a flat or downhill portion of road, then turn it back on when I lost too much speed.

I spent the next week trying to get the car fixed. My first installation of the water pump leaked. I figured I didn’t use enough gasket maker and that ended up being the problem. I haven’t done anything with gaskets in a LONG time.

Wedding 1-
This was for one of Twin’s friends in HS. It was rustic in theme. There wasn’t much to say about that one except:
1. It was cool that their wedding gift was a mix CD. I thought that was neat and wish we had thought of something like that.
2. They had a live band for music, they played classic crowd favorites/typical cover songs dating back to the 60’s. That stuff is hard to dance to.

Wedding 2 (LMP and GAries)-
First off, I missed the Rehearsal because the time had changed from 2PM to 1PM. Luckily, the bridesmaid I was walking with was willing to play along and LMP guided us. There was a weird grab hand and turn thing and shake the groom’s hand on the way over to your spot. I was the last in line groomsman (no surprise).

I also bailed on dinner due to wedding #1. We went to the Redhook Brewery for about 45 minutes. The nice thing about a group of guys from the Midwest is they are friendly and open to talking with strangers.

I thought the day of the ceremony was a disaster. If there was a plan for how set up and pictures were going to go – it wasn’t communicated to the wedding party. The bridesmaids were lost and so Twin took charge which made the moms happy. The men (except myself and the other NW/Seattle guy) didn’t really try to help out at all and groaned about the heat, hunger, and were anxious to start drinking. LMP and GAries took pictures together before the ceremony so they were not available to coordinate.

The ceremony was a bit long, and they both goofed up some lines.

The food and some other things seemed to be fairly inspired by our wedding.

There were only 4 speeches. I’m not sure if that was due to time or what… but it was just the parents, and then the witnesses to the signing (which they didn’t do until an hour after the ceremony)

I’m not much of a dancer, but the DJ played music that was easy for people like me to be out on the floor. We spent most of the reception dancing and working up a sweat. At one point my walking partner grabbed me and put me ahead of the dance train. I’m not a leader so I was yelling, “WHAT ARE WE DOING ?!?” I also was trying to get one little kid try to dance. He wanted to dance and be in front, but he was looking back and trying to figure out what to do (who to mimic I would guess?)

GAries has nice parents… despite how shallow or vain GAries can be her parents are very gracious and accepting. Twin and I figured out that GAries and LMP talk about us by the short conversation we had with her parents, so its a wonder why they don’t put forth more effort in our friendship.

All in all… Twin and I felt that both ceremonies were a bit long, and the participants didn’t seem to take it seriously enough. I was a little emotional during the vows in our wedding, but I was more concerned with enunciating and speaking loud and with conviction. I was saying – and Twin agreed – that after you have your own wedding, no one else has one that you think is quite as good. Twin and I wanted something traditional and that’s what we achieved. I’m glad that all of that is over.

The next few weekends will be home renovations.