We had some great weather here in the northeast this weekend. Low humidity and mild temperatures. Cloudless skies.

You know that scary car you see on the highway sometimes? The one that you want to pass as quickly as possible because you are afraid something might fall off? That was my car this weekend. A deer cracked my windshield, broke the left turn signal, and tore off the left rear view mirror about 10 months ago. I have a bare bulb for a left turn signal and haven't gotten any of the rest of fixed. The body is rusted all to hell too. Now that I have the timing belt and the brakes fixed it runs fine though. But it looks scary.

It was about 300 miles to my sister's house. Her wedding was reasonably fun. Only three of my siblings missed it. Even 11 of 12(the social worker) made it in from Oregon. It was kind of interesting seeing the vows. I thought she was the only atheist but I guess he is too. They just talked about what it had been like being together for the last five years, and explained to each other in public why they had decided to make a permanent commitment to each other.

Every society has some form of commitment ceremony. Marriage is more than a religious ritual. It is the public recognition of an element of human nature. The open commitment of a husband and wife, and the government acknowledgement of that commitment is as important as the government acknowledgement of my professional license.

I tried to get my brother 12 of 12 to help me with 'When I'm 64' but he didn't know the music. You'd think having been in a Beatles cover band he'd have them all down. I guess the fact that the musical accompaniment is woodwinds might make it a bit hard to do with a low budget band. I think you have to have some musical accompanyment for some of the transitions. At least that's my exuse and I'm sticking with it. 6 of 12, 11 of 12, and 12 of 12 all sang their own tunes.

My daughter didn't go with me because she wanted to participate in a hippology (that's horse knowledge) contest at the state fair. It started on Sunday at 7:30 a.m. and we would have needed to leave at 2:30 to get her there on time. I stopped at the fair on the way home and we ate lunch together.

The main road that runs near my house is also the main road that takes the kids to the small city that houses the largest university in the state. About half way along the stretch of that road is a farm that has been converted to a motocross raceway. For some reason they hold their big raceway the same weekend the kids go back to the university. So traffic on the road gets pretty backed up. I'm not on it long enough for it to be a hassle, but it is funny to watch the mixture of dirt biking woodchucks and preppies from the big cities all stuck in traffic together: Rusty woodchuck truck, preppy SUV, sweaty readneck listening to country music with the windows down, preppy parents with A/C on, woodchuck truck, preppy car, woodchuck truck, preppy car. And then I start driving my piece of junk and the woodchucks and the preppies look at each other and say, "Loser."

Over all it was a very pleasant weekend and my batteries feel at least a bit recharged.