Up Before Light for Tofu and Bananas

This morning at 5:30 AM our alarm went off. This is quite unusual, even on a weekday. It is even more unusual that I will roll over and let it go until Sarah turns it off. She hit snooze... twice. The advantage to living in a house over an apartment is that I can turn a CD all the way to top volume to help get us rolling, and the neighbors don't complain, even if the sun isn't up yet.

By 6:20 we were out the door. After a few bites of breakfast, a lot of mad scrambling, and cramming three layers of clothing onto Abigail, we pinned racing numbers on Sarah and Abigail and headed downtown to participate in the "Race for the Cure" fundraiser against breast cancer. After a bumpy ride on a schoolbus shuttle, we found ourselves in Waterfront park, next to the river; the first wave of what would be 46,000 runners and probably another 20,000 supporters. Booths were set up along the length of the park which housed corporate sponsors including radio stations, Yoplait yogurt, a jeweler, and an Irish dairy! The sponsors were bent on being sure no one went hungry or without a hat or keychain! As the pink-clad crowds thickened, we battled our way through to stand in lines for handbags, yogurt, bananas, pink underwear (from Macy's), energy bars, hats, bottles of water, cubes of tofu, boxes of soy milk, and cubes of (delicious!) cheese! We were handed stickers, keychains, and coupons for innumerable items. Had we wanted, we could have even had a free massage or manicure!

I should mention the pink. Probably one in every two-hundred people there was male. The place was literally swimming in estrogen! Pink is the official color of support for the fight against breast cancer, and almost everyone was wearing some pink, not leaving out the grandmas with hot-pink dyed hair. If you didn't come wearing pink, you could get pink stickers with which to decorate your face or pink foam bunny-ears from the Energizer bunny.

At 7:30 the first wave of runners, the 5k race, departed. The news helicopter hovering overhead filmed the sea of pink surging through the barricaded streets of downtown Portland. At 8:00 we rushed to the starting area, quickly loaded Abigail into her "backpack," and Sarah and Abigail started on their 1-mile walk. I had the heavier burden of cameras and the amazing pile of pink objects and food we had acquired.

It didn't take long for them to finish, although with the crowds, it was more of a "stroll for the Cure" than a race. Fortunately we had agreed where to meet afterwards, although since I was waiting there, I wasn't able to be at the finish line. After another half-hour waiting in line for a hat, during which another group of (running) runners departed, we elbowed our way through the still-thickening crowd back to our schoolbus. Sarah and Abigail accomplished something neither of them had ever done before, and we still made it to church (a little late).

The Flat Mailbox Morning

Sun 8/26/07

I got up only slightly later than my normal time and came downstrairs to take a shower, let the cat out, and start breakfast. It was just after eight and I was sitting down to check my e-mail when I heard a sound which can only be made in one way, a crunching bang, from the direction of our driveway. I've never heard an accident before, but I knew immediately what it was, and jumped from my chair to look out the window. A cloud of dust was beginning to settle, and I could see the front of a green Ford Explorer where formerly the corner of our driveway, a chainlink fence, and a wall of twenty-foot tall arborvitae had stood.

I leapt up the stairs two at a time and jumped from my bathrobe into clothing, telling Sarah to dial the police and call our landlord as well. By the time I had run out to the wreck another car had stopped. The cabin of the vehicle was only slightly damaged, although the driver's window was completely gone. The driver, a middle aged man, was conscious, and appeared unhurt but for a few scratches from glass. He was shaking, though, and gripping the steering wheel and shifter spasmodically while repeating that he was, "just going to work." I asked him if he was hurt, or had hit his head, and finally discovered that he had diabetes. In shocking circumstances it can take several minutes to sort things out, but he got out a candy bar to eat, raising his blood sugar level, just about when the police arrived, and was feeling back to normal soon. In the meantime a tow-truck company pickup had stopped, and soon a firetruck and ambulance arrived.

His name was Owen, and he'd been westbound on his way to work when he must have temporarily blacked out, waking up to see an oncoming car. He swerved and somehow overcorrected into the opposite ditch, where he sideswiped a power pole, which totalled the front left end of his truck, and started it spinning counterclockwise until it completed a quarter turn and came to rest, nose in, about where our mailbox used to be. The Sunday newspaper was spread for twenty feet in either direction. Fortunately, nothing was damaged which money can not fix. Only a few scratches on Owen, and our power was out for half and hour until the power company sent a truck to reset the cutout and repair the minor damage to the pole. I am thankful that he woke up in time to avoid a head-on collision, that he slid passenger-side first, and that I hadn't decided to go out and pick up the paper just then. I'm also just a little thankful he wasn't fifty feet further down the street, where our garden is... The corn is just getting ripe...

As of today: our flattened mailbox has now been replaced with a new one, and the chainlink fence is up again, but we can now see when our mailman comes through a gap in the arborvitae...

She's Standing!

The day after her birthday, Abby decided to stand. I was sitting on the couch and all of a sudden, she was standing right in front of me! Ever since then she has been pulling herself up on everything. A few days later she started cruising, going down the couch and around the coffee table. Now, in the mornings when Dustin brings her in the bedroom, she crawls over to the side of the bed, pulls herself to standing, and says "Hi!" Her newest words are hi, froggy, and puppy.

Oregon International Airshow

Last weekend was the Oregon International Airshow. The Blue Angels were scheduled to be there, and Dustin had gotten free tickets through work. We had planned to go on Sunday afternoon because Abby's birthday party was Saturday. However, Abby and I got a cold partway through the week, and Dustin woke up not feeling well by the end of the week. Sunday afternoon we were sitting around trying to decide if we were up to going or not. We finally realized that a little cold wasn't worth missing an opportunity like this, so we got all the baby stuff packed and put on sunblock. Halfway there it started to rain... not the forecasted weather.

By the time we got parked it was raining steadily, but we decided to stick around for a while. It's a good thing we got there when we did because the Blue Angels performed within half an hour and then the show was over! We didn't even have time to walk around and look at anything. Nevertheless, I have to say that the show was awesome. The first highlight was seeing a Sherpa (if you don't know what it is, you won't care), and then several fly-bys of the F-117A "Stealth Fighter," the delta-shaped black mystery-plane which (we just learned) is being retired soon and will be replaced by the vectored-thrust F22 "Raptor." If you've never seen the Blue Angels perform, make a point of it, although not while trying to hold an umbrella and put your hands over a baby's ears at the same time. The first part of the show features "Fat Albert," the C-130 "Hercules" that the Blue Angels use as a transport. It has four turboprop engines, and can carry a load approximately the size of a boxcar at speeds up to 350 Knots (according to the announcer). The nickname is apt, as "fat" and "chubby" are words which come to mind when looking at one. With "JATO" rockets (Jet Assisted Take-Off) the C-130 can lift off the ground almost as soon as it starts moving, and nearly vertically. Once airborne, it has time to accelerate to normal flying speed at thirty feet above the ground before the rockets burn out. The short-field landing was incredible too. Approaching extremely slowly for such a large airplane, the pilot made a precise touchdown and brought the plane to a stop within about 350 feet!

The Blue Angels themselves, six F-A18 fighters, are amazing. They demonstrated the abilities of the aircraft with very short takeoffs followed by near-vertical climbs. They also demonstrated precision slow-flight side-by-side, standing almost on their tails... held up almost solely by engine thrust. One made a pass at over 1000 miles-per-hour (according to the announcer), battering our eardrums. There was almost not enough time to see it! I can't imagine what it would be like to be an enemy against a plane you don't hear coming until it is past, and one that moves so fast you couldn't lift a weapon in time, let alone aim or fire. Their precision maneuvers at high speed were great. They fly within feet of eachother, rolling all together, or splitting up in what was our favorite, the Blue Angel's "Fleur de Lis." They also come rushing head-on at what must be a combined speed of over 1000 mph if not more, then roll their wings vertical at the last moment to pass belly-to-belly. Abby enjoyed it, too, but didn't like all the noise.

It took a very long time to get out of the parking lot. To avoid traffic we took a break at the first Burgerville, our favorite fast food joint. The rain didn't stop until we were most of the way home.


We were too tired to wash off the sunblock.