Missed opportunities I was less than five hours driving time away from LeTourneau last Tuesday and Wednesday. The only reason I can come up with for not heading down there is that I'm FREAKIN' RETARDED. It didn't occur to me that I had been that close until Thursday morning after several hours of driving in the other direction.
Other than that little bit of stupidity, I had a great vacation. Mom, Dad and I flew to Denver on Thursday two weeks ago, where my mom's parents picked us up for the drive down to C-Springs. We arrived at my uncle's (mom's older brother) house in time for a little bit of catching up with my aunt and one of my cousins before turning in for the night. Friday morning we got up early to head out to the Air Force Academy. Labor Day weekend is parents' weekend at the Academy, and on Friday families are allowed to attend classes with their cadet (my brother Jon is a 4th Class Cadet--that's what civilians would call a freshman, except that it implies having a lot less rights and doing a lot more push-ups). Because of the terrorist attacks a couple of years ago, the cadet area of the Academy has been fenced off, and civilians are only allowed in the area with a cadet escort, even on parents' weekend, so all of the cadets were waiting to meet their parents out in front of the chapel. It was an amazing sight when we found my brother. My dad, a '74 graduate of the Academy and retired Lt. Col., wore his uniform for our day at the Blue Zoo. Naturally, cadets are required to salute officers in uniform, so as we approached Jon snapped to attention and fired off a sharp salute. My dad returned the saluted and then they embraced. I'm pretty sure my mom started crying. It was almost time for Jon to be in class, so we hurried across the terrazzo toward Fairchild Hall as we started to catch up. In addition to normal college classes, cadets are drilled in military knowledge. Upper classmen ask the doolies things like, "Who was the first graduate of the Air Force Academy," and "What is the mission of the Air Force." It was interesting hearing my dad pass on some of the smart-alek answers he remembered from his time as a cadet. For instance, "Sir, the mission of the Air Force is to convert JP-4 into smoke and noise." Another good one is the altitude check. The correct response is, Sir, my altitude is 7,258 feet, far, far above that of West Point and Annapolis, but the better answer is, Sir, my altitude if 7,258 feet, far, far above Hudson High and Canoe U. In addition to classes, dad and I got to join Jon for lunch in Mitchell Hall. For all of you who think SAGA is poorly managed, you have no idea how bad it really is. Mitchell Hall is a model of dining efficiency. In the time it takes you to get to the door of SAGA in that line that starts somewhere back by MSC, 4000 Cadets march into Mitchell hall and are served. And the food is actually good. After Jon finished with his classes Friday, he was dismissed for only the second time since reporting in the last week of June. Basic cadets get one sunday afternoon off in the middle of the summer, on which they are picked up in small groups by local families who take them home for lunch. However, we had to have him back Saturday because all cadets are required to attend the football games.
Mom and I took Jon back to Academy on Saturday and stayed to watch the game. This was a lot of fun because every time the Air Force scores, all of the 4th Class Cadets run out of the stands and into the end zones to do push-ups; one push-up for every Air Force point on the scoreboard. For parents' weekend, the Academy always schedules a push-over opponent, which means lots of push-ups. The final score was 49-0, which means Jon and his classmates each pumped out 196 by the end of the game. After the game the cadets were allowed to leave the Academy until academic call to quarters (that's kind of like curfew) Monday night. We spent the rest of the weekend just relaxing at my uncle's house, watching movies, shooting pool, etc. Oh and don't let me forget sleeping. Jon did a lot of that. It didn't bother him a bit that there weren't enough beds and he had to sleep on the floor. He's actually pretty used to sleeping on the floor, since he does every Friday night anyway. He says it's a lot easier to make the bed the night before and sleep on the floor than it is to wake up and get it made up before Saturday morning inspections.
On Tuesday dad and I started driving down to see his mom and a couple of his brothers in Kansas and Oklahoma. He figured that since he lives on the other side of the world, there was really no excuse to not see his mother since he was less than a 12 hour drive away. This is the part where I should have had the same thought on a smaller scale, dropped him off at grandma's, and kept driving. I could have been on 1B by midnight and spent a good chunk of Wednesday down there before turning around to pick him up head back to Colorado. *kicks self again*
We got back up to my uncle's house in Colorado in time for the big family dinner Friday night. Four out of the five siblings in my mom's family, and a various assortment of their children (me and my cousins) plus the other side of that family (my aunt's relatives) had gathered for the big celebration of the night before my cousin's wedding. The meal was a little disappointing (not that it didn't taste good, just that someone had decided they could pass several different kinds of salad off as an entire meal...where's the meat?), but the desserts were amazing. And of course Saturday was my cousin's wedding. It was nice and all but it felt kind of wierd to be dressed up at a wedding. The Iota Beta shirt was starting to feel like standard wedding apparel. It was also a little wierd because being there as a relative rather than as a friend, I really didn't know anyone there outside of the family.
That's about it for my big vacation. Now it's just work until Thanksgiving. Speaking of Thanksgiving, if any of you will be in the Seattle area for the holidays, give me a call.
posted by Tom 6:31 PM
It starts with the shoe. Maybe the next day it's a t-shirt or a sock. You don't know if the washing machine ate it, or your roommate borrowed it a month ago and forgot that it was yours. All you know is that by the end of the week, you're walking to class naked because you don't have any clothes left.
