MOTHER OF ALL WEEKENDS

MOTHER OF ALL WEEKENDS

This was a special weekend. The first full weekend of September was supposed to be a National Guard weekend spent in Spokane. I didn’t go because I had finally made the agonizing decision to retire from the guard after 21 and a half years of military service. It was the events of this weekend that pushed me over the edge to make the decision to retire and all I can say is WOW! What a weekend!

It was probably back in February that this weekend started to unfold. I purchased tickets to the WSU gridiron classic in Seahawk stadium. Any time I’m in country during the start of college football season, Rob and Shendy Kuchcinski and I like to go to the game in Seattle together. It has become our own tradition. The pastor and his wife invited me along with the rest of the church congregation to help celebrate her 50^th birthday by going to Walla Walla, Washington for a stay at the historic Marcus Whitman Hotel along with traveling together on the wine tasting tour.

Reservations were made, tickets purchased and then I the schedule for drill National Guard weekends for the following fiscal year came out…Guess what, it was on this very weekend that I was supposed to be going to the Yakima firing range for some field training…. Guess what… I retired. I had been tormented with the decision of what to do about the military career for over a year by that time and had been sitting on the fence long enough. I pulled the trigger on the decision and announced my retirement.

This weekend needed to be a great weekend to celebrate the first time in the last 21 plus years that I was unencumbered by military service with nothing on the horizon. I was able to do all of this because of the decision to retire. Since that day that I finally made the decision I have encouraged over and over that it was the right decision. Now, in hind-sight it was really a no-briainer. Why did I struggle so much with it?

Thursday I started out of Walla Walla and had a rather enjoyable clear crisp fall day to drive through the heart of the Palouse down to the historic hotel which is still being restored, floor by floor. A great dinner at a restaurant called the White House at Crawford, locals say it has nothing to do with the president’s home town, then later linking up with Pastor Evan Wilson for some enjoyable cigars and fellowship. That first night there were only the pastor, his wife and I enjoying the ambiance of the beautifully restored Hotel lobby and restaurant.

The next morning I was clued in on the big surprise present for the Amazing Mrs. Wilson as she is called. Davis, her first born child and oldest of three sons had flown in from New York city to Portland, Oregon where his sister Michael drove him to Wall Walla that morning. Davis had told his mother a week before that he was sending his gift to Michael and she would drive it up for him. Michael and Davis stopped a block away from the hotel and he climbed into the trunk of the car. Michael arrived and insisted that Leslie, the Amazing Mrs. Wilson, come help get her gift out of the car. I had prepositioned myself with camera to capture the event. It went off well and I got some pictures of the big surprise, but they did not turn out as well as I wanted. That’s it! Time to get a new camera.

The rest of the group arrived and we were off to taste wines. We spent the entire day going from one quaint and trendy wine tasting gallery to another. We went to seven winery tasting houses out of approximately 120 inside the Walla Walla town limits. That’s right, 120 wine gallery/tasting houses in a town that’s probably 30,000 people. There was a wine house on every corner. This town was unbelievable. I cannot explain how beautiful this old town is with all its restored brick buildings and wine culture. The nice thing about this town was that there is all this culture in a small town with no hint of the edgy counter culture run-away-liberalism.

One of the ladies that came brought us boxed lunches that she had made. We all knew that she was going to out do and show out and oh did she not disappoint us. We went to the city pioneer park with very old and very large sycamore trees that were about eight feet in diameter. It was a great picnic.

One thing we all learned is that after three or four wine houses your taste buds can still tell the difference between white and red wine and that’s about it. I really couldn’t tell what I was tasting and it was impossible to get any kind of a buzz off of the little amounts we all had. So what was I was there for. The fellowship among godly Christians all suffering from sugar crashes and the yawns was the reason I was still there. It was really a lot of fun as everybody that went had a ball.

We headed back to the hotel where a classic car club was rallying for the weekend. I positioned myself with my small pocket camera and to my great luck, the people all loaded up in their cars and began convoying out of the parking lot on their way to dinner. I was able to get a good picture in the evening sun of each car with the old hotel tower in the background. I love the providential timing of events leading up to a really good picture.

There was just enough time to clean up and get dressed up for the birthday banquet held in one of the rooms. I was taking pictures, what a surprise, and was staging some of this and some of that. I came up with the idea of having the head couple seated at the head of the table with everyone else standing dutifully at the position of attention like the humble serfs we really are. The pictures turned out ok, but I still want a new shiny camera.

There were late night cigars and a visit to the lounge and a grand time was had by all.

Next morning I was woken up by an old friend’s call on my cell phone wondering where I was. I was supposed to be meeting with him in the tri cities on my way to the WSU game in Seahawk Quest Stadium. Oh that wonderful rush of adrenalin when you come to the realization that you overslept. I rushed and rushed, hurried and hurried and ran and puffed but I just couldn’t get out that door and out of town fast enough.

Eventually I did make it to tri cities and had a great visit with Bill Watts. There are no pictures from this meeting, but ironically I got to play with his professional level canon camera. He taught me a lot about the matching the tools of the trade with what you want to do, and what you need to be able to do. I still want that shiny new camera I’ve been eyeing. I could have spent all day with Bill, but I only had an hour and it was on to the game.

What was supposed to be pregame party at Rob and Shendy Kuchcinski’s house followed by a trip on the Sounder train from Edmonds to the game was now changed by the cell phone on the fly from the middle of the desert. I was going to be hard pressed to get to the game on time. We arranged to meet at our favorite restaurant, FX McCrory’s near Union Station.

I made great time the whole way and then… the last 15 miles of the trip turned in to pure torment. There were two accidents that slowed traffic up to a stand still as lanes had to merge on the east side of lake Washington on the Mercer Island Bridge. I was gnashing my teeth and shaking my fist at the heavens as I inched closer and closer to the football stadium and FX McCrory’s that were A Bridge too Far.

Another change of plans by cell phone to my now waiting friends and I ordered a bacon cheese burger and a beer without even being in the city limits.

I finally past the wreck and after driving around for a few minutes in downtown Seattle I found a cheap place to park and ran to the restaurant where my friends, burger and beer were waiting, and all was right with the world.

The burger was great, from what I remember. I was trying to enjoy it, but the minutes were ticking by. I was trying to drink my beer and enjoy it, but the game was about to start. We hurried and hurried, rushed and rushed, huffed and puffed and it just took for ever for us to get across that parking lot and up those never ending stairs to the top of the cheap seats, because I bought the tickets this year. And then… the WSU kicker kicked the ball off… The game started late. Providence man. That’s providence.

We had a great time. To the greatest joy, one of the great Christian friends that I have ever had had just flown in from Africa and by cell phone we linked up inside the stadium. I love my cell phone. Isn’t modern technology great? She flew in from Africa the night before where she had been working with the African’s Children’s Choir organization. There we were changing plans on the fly with these little black plastic things that we stick in our ears. It’s just amazing. Tina Sipp, the encourager of thousands of Christians from around the world was tapping me on the shoulder. Oh how good it is to see an old friend.

The cougs did great and a grand time was had by all. Rob Shendy and I went out for a late night snack downtown and then I drove us back up to their place.

The next day I went to church with Rob and Shendy at the Shoreline branch of Mars Hill in downtown Seattle. I enjoyed it and their band was unbelievable. I went up to highway 20 to see the chaplain I spent a year in Afghanistan with and visited him and his son for a good part of the day. The next day I spent scoping out places to take pictures of the Puget Sound area from in the future. I had a great time. Rob had been given free tickets to the Mariners game against the As so four of us met down at the Pyramid Brewery House across the street from Safeco Field. The food was so good and we did the beer tasting sampler tray thing.

Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a small parade of Scottish kilt clad pipers marching towards us. They marched right past us into the brew house and performed there. The Seattle Fire Fighters Pipe and Drum Corps was performing for the 9-11 memorial day. The hair on the back of my neck was standing straight up and I had goose pimples the whole time they performed. They were about as good a pipe and drum corps as you will ever see in the states. I was impressed and even got emotional. They performed a handful of different times before they marched out and were gone.

The tickets to the game were in really good seats and we enjoyed the full service bar and restaurant. It was really fun until the mariners fell behind in the later innings.

The next day I again took the scenic route through the Puget Sound on my way up to Burlington where I was able to interview a doctor in between his patience. He had traveled to Afghanistan in 1969 and shared with me his experiences.

I then drove as fast as I could back to the Palouse. I was feeling home sick for the two tots and the family I live with. It may seem strange, but I know I got something going right when I look forward to an outrageously fun week-long weekend of traveling, friends and events, and then look forward to coming home because it’s great there too.

Thus concluded my Mother of All Weekends. That was one heck-of-a retirement party. I am grateful to God for what turned out completely serendipitously to be such a wonderful party. My gratitude goes out to all the participants who didn’t even know that they were participating in my retirement party.

And a grand time was had by all.

Tim Tate

CPT WAARNG Retired

How Much Living Can You Cram Into One Month?

How much living can be crammed into one month? The title was almost going to be “A month jumped up and bit me.”

After my last email “Getting in touch with my feminine side” one of my military friends emailed me back and commented that he never ceased being amazed at how much living I cram into life. That comment struck me in a strange, yet encouraging manner. To be honest with you this single ‘fly-by-th-seat-o’ my pants’ lifestyle is by no means the life that I would chose for myself, but is what I believe to be the path that was meant to be for me.

That said I took a look at all the crazy unusual things that I have been doing and living and I too am amazed at how much I seem to get out of life, or should I say, how much I am able to put into life. I thought to myself that this would be one of the things that I miss when I leave the National Guard lifestyle behind in retirement. I prayed my prayers for continued adventure and such along with all my other prayers and guess what. A month jumped up and bit me out of the blue without any forewarning, pre-planning or preparation.

I knew about my nephews wedding coming up for some time. I had also suggested another back camping trip to Tommy my college buddy from years back for sometime this spring. I knew that the Guard was going to have a language refresher course for summer camp again this year. I know that there is that ‘4^th of July’ thing that Americans like to do ever year and it usually comes in the summer time. I knew these things, but I did not know that the stars would align themselves and I would be off on another journey of mine.

The events all lined themselves up so that I would need to be on the west side four weekends in a row with the National Guard summer camp making for two of those weekends before I would be released from indenture. I decided to just camp and wonder about in between the weekends to keep from driving back and fourth. Without any prior planning and much forethought, I loaded the jeep down with as much stuff as I could so I could stay on the west side for what was looking to be just under a month long journey without having to come back, if I so decided to stay. I had just purchase a year old mountain bike on the back of my jeep and was feeling pretty cool for a forty year old dude.

Nothing went according to plan, which I now believe was the plan. I left for Rob and Shendy’s house on Friday the 23^rd going through Leavenworth and picking up some chocolate for the woman of the house. I know how to keep the welcome mat on the front porch. I had a really good visit with Rob and Shendy that night as they always provide great hospitality in the form of gourmet cooking and fellowship.

I found out that the wedding was for Sunday night and not Saturday night so now I was a day early. Saturday was now spent walking around downtown Seattle where I discovered the old wooden boat heritage museum down on the south end of Lake Union. The photos were great. I had a wonderful time. I got lost wondering around the Fremont area looking at boats and dry-docks. It was wonderful. The next day was Sunday and I went to church with Rob and Shendy at one of the Mars Hill satellite churches. It was very interesting. This was a very progressive church that had long ago outgrown itself and now they were branching out. The music was great and then there on the big screen was the preacher from down town Ballard preaching via voice streaming over the internet. That was a bit weird at first, to come to the realization that the sermon was via telecommunications. I do believe that there was some good fellowship there.

Eventually I made my way up to Bellingham later that afternoon and found the old church. The wedding went really well. It was one of the more beautiful weddings I have ever seen. The best part of all was the red wine at the reception. I couldn’t believe that they had alcohol at a protestant wedding reception. Everyone had a really great time. I assure you that weddings and family reunions can actually be enjoyable if wine and beer is provided. That is something that hanging out with Catholics has taught me.

I stayed in a hotel that night and took off for BC Canada the next morning eh. I took the sunshine coast this time hopping along the coast via the ferry system. It was breath taking scenery almost the whole way. I am so glad I did it. I caught the last ferry of the night over to the Island at Comox and found a hotel late that night.

The next day I found a mountain bike shop for some advice and was off mountain biking around lake Comox. Eventually I found a steep logging road that provided some good elevation climbing for exercise. After 90 minutes and roughly 900 feet elevation later I had stunning views of the eastern coast of Vancouver Island and a small black mama bear with two cubs. I saw her about forty yards up the road from me. Her cubs were cute as could be and they didn’t make a noise. They were slowly moving away from me and looking back every step to see what I would do. I didn’t panic at all. I didn’t get excited, I just turned my mountain bike around and de-elevated very quickly.

I spent the rest of the day hiking and driving around the gravel roads to another lake, the name of which escapes me. I was looking for the perfect camping spot. I was really tired and it was nearing midnight and for some reason I got really stubborn about finding the perfect spot to camp along the lake so that I could just roll over and wake up to a breathtaking view. I also needed to find that spot in such a location that I would feel comfortable by myself enough to get a good night sleep. About midnight I found a spot by a big glacial cut lake where the road widened and I parked my jeep in such away that I had about four feet between the jeep and the drop off into the lake. I felt comfortable and I slept like a baby until that 4:30 am when the sunrise woke me up. I rolled over and put my glasses on and there was that perfect breathtaking view that I had so ardently demanded the night before. I laid there for about an hour on my side just looking at the scenery of steep mountains jutting up out of the far side of the lake with snow still in the upper elevations.

Eventually I made my way to Torfino and Uckulet (sp?) where I got some wonderful pictures. I made my way to Port Albirni where I again found another bike shop who gave me some advice on where to ride and he told me that I should stay at the Fat Salmon Backpackers Hostel. I had a great time there. It was really a lot of fun. There were many Germans there so I got to practice my German a little bit.

The next day I raced down to Victoria and checked into the most reasonable hotel in downtown Vic, (Strathcona lodge) got my stuff settled in and put my mountain bike in their storage room and sat down to prepare for the first interview on conservative talk radio. The phone rang and the interview began. It went so well that the woman, Sharon Hughes demanded to make two interviews for two consecutive weeks out of it.

Now there is one thing I need to tell you all. After two deployments into theater working in a plethora of positions, I have information in my head that could land me in jail for a long time if I were to discuss publicly. I also am a naturally born, how shall I put this, talkative, opinionated, antagonistic blather mouth. I was practicing for this interview with the help of Rob Kuchcinski who did a marvelous job by the way of helping me prepare. I was practicing and praying that I wouldn’t say the wrong things, that I wouldn’t accidentally be offensive or say something that I would later regret, you know, I was praying and practicing not to be Tim for an hour. I had many anxieties over the past several days over things that could happen during this interview. The words of my older sister kept coming back to haunt me in the form of intrusive thoughts. I could hear her 12 year old winy nasaly voice coming back to haunt me over and over, “Timmy, if you ever know anything you’ll be dangerous.” Oh my god. My older sister is a prophetess.

The interview went off great and I went pubbing after that. I had a really great time too. The next morning was Friday the 29^th when the camping buddies were supposed to meet in Steven’s Lake to launch off on a long weekend of backpacking and such. The borders were horrible and I spent an hour and a half at the ferry dock, two hours in line to get through customs and the traffic was pretty bad coming down into Everett. I got to Tommy’s house late, but that was ok because so did everyone else. We went out to a small town restaurant in an old house and it was all about meat and bar b’ queue. I was in heaven and we hadn’t eve reached the trail head.

We drove to Leavenworth before heading up into the mountains and got to the trail head at Midnight. We set up camp real quick and bed down. There were six of us all together. We took off the next morning for an eight mile two thousand vertical accumulative climb to Lake Anne above Leavenworth and Plain. It was stupendous. We took all day and had to cross many snowfields above the 5500 foot mark. The snow was everywhere at 5800 feet and dripping into the lake. This was one of the most beautiful alpine lakes I have ever seen. I was so hot and tired that I went swimming and yes it was INVIGERATING!

Now Tommy has made himself a bit of a chef and he prides himself in doing very well at a campfire. So there I was relaxing my paws and salivating over the marinated filet steaks that Tommy packed up the trail. Another guy from the group had packed in some various forms of alcoholic beverages and that first night I watched the sun go down over the peaks behind the lake while smoking on one of my cigars whilst sipping a dram of single malt scotch whisky after a good medium rare beef filet steak that was about an inch and a half thick. Camping with Tommy is good. The next night was marinated chicken.

We camped for three days and I left by myself on Monday the 2^nd making the hike down to the jeep in two and a half hours. I drove from there back to Pullman because I didn’t want all my camping gear locked up in my jeep and a nice bike on the back while I would be studding Japanese at Ft. Lewis during the summer training camp. I arrived home at the Kevin Johnston Farm where I live to find that I had gained weight during this odyssey thanks to Tommy’s cooking. I cleaned up my mountain bikes and stored them, I washed all my gear and stored it all away and prepared for the next phase of my trip. The 4^th of July. I have missed out on many of these celebrations along with just about everything else in life over the last five years, so I wanted to do it up right.

Wednesday morning on the 4^th: The fist thing was to get to the Blooms house for a communal breakfast. We then all went together to the Johnson parade. The Johnson parade is the world’s largest unincorporated parade. There is no organization to it at all. If you want to be in the parade you show up and get in line and march down the town’s main street which is paved now. The town has about 25 people in population. 30 plus years ago, two boys decided that there should be a 4^th of July parade and so they got some kids together and rode there bicycles up and down the road. Today it’s about 5k people watching another 500 people involved in the actual parade. It was truly an all American parade. I loved it. This was my first time attending the Johnson parade after being on the Palouse for 12 years now.

I went to another party later that evening hosted by people from the church. It was a ball. We had a really great time and the food was awesome. Some thirteen year old boys set the tree in the front yard on fire with their illegal fireworks, but that’s what thirteen years old boys do. It’s their job.

I left the party and went home. The big fireworks display was still going on in Pullman as I was driving through so I decided to attend what was left of it. I pulled in behind the lengthy line of cars parked by the wheat fields and was able to see the grand finale. I loved it. I wore that day out and it was time to head home.

The next morning I woke up late I’m happy to say. I packed the jeep and was off to Spokane to see Tina Sipp before she left for Africa to teach vacation bible school in Uganda and Rowanda. Then it was off to the west side again. I stayed in the very nice officers bachelors’ quarters in a very nicely restored old building. I love old hotels. I reported to my classroom the next day and found out that this was a 16 day stint instead of a 10 day course that I had two years ago. The course went very well. There had been several teachers cancel out and so our class was reduced from an immersion course to a refresher course. We don’t have to put in nearly as many hours and get paid the same as the other soldiers in the much more demanding classes. Isn’t government employment great?

The class was authorized a field trip so we decided to go to Seattle to the Japanese supermarket Uwajimae. The Uwajimae supermarket is a mainstay in Seattle for over 70 years. Evidently the family was able to maintain ownership through the concentration camps in California. There is a great book store there and it really is a great tourist stop for anyone but we were able to use our Japanese. We later went to Fuji Sushi and talked in Japanese. We then went to a Mariners game. It was my first professional baseball game. We had a great time and the Japanese catcher hit a grand slam homerun to win the game. We got back at midnight. That was the best field trip ever.

I finished up my time of studying and in between the listening test on Thursday and the reading test on Friday, I helped Rob Kuchcinski dig a drainage ditch in his back yard. There is a great allegory for men working in the backyard and on home improvements as a modern feminized way of “going forth and conquering the land” sort of way. Men can live out their failed natural born ambitions to conquer new territories by building a deck. I have often noticed this during my short stint in sub-burbia in Boise Idhao where men tried to out compete the other men in the cul-de-sac by building a bigger and better deck. I can’t make fun of your real grownups out there too much because I am a homeless jobless bachelor and therefore by default I am a deck-less man. Now Kevin my house mate and landlord has out done all-yall. You should see the deck he built. You could drive a Mac truck on it. Of course he lives on a farm and so that doesn’t count. It has to be in the suburbs for it to count at all. That's the rule.