Kevin's Watch

congrats you two. i wish you all the happiness in the world.

Love Sonnet IX
Pablo Neruda

There where the waves shatter on the restless rocks
the clear light bursts and enacts its rose,
and the sea-circle shrinks to a cluster of buds,
to one drop of blue salt, falling.

O bright magnolia bursting in the foam,
magnetic transient whose death blooms
and vanishes--being, nothingness--forever:
broken salt, dazzling lurch of the sea.

You & I, Love, together we ratify the silence,
while the sea destroys its perpetual statues,
collapses its towers of wild speed and whiteness:

because in the weavings of those invisible fabrics,
galloping water, incessant sand,
we make the only permanent tenderness.

Well, I'll upload some pix of us and other people when I get them. Heh. But here's some of the Mohonk Mountain House, where we spend last night and much of today, that I got with my cell phone. This is the hotel, from three different points along the path, the last one at the top of the old stone tower on top of the mountain.







This last one is from the top of the same tower, but looking along the mountain range:

So the deed is done. You're Mr Christy now. Congrats.

--A

The wedding day could not possibly have been better in any way. It was a gorgeous day! Best April day ever, I'll bet. Christy and I started it by taking a bike ride along a route we often take. About 7 miles, down a few back roads, to the Borden Dairy farm, down their long, dirt driveway to the railtrail, then back home.

Then we did the wedding thing. 85-ish temperature, not a cloud in the sky. Gorgeous location, at a local county park's arboretum. (www.orangecountyarboretum.org/ But there's not much to look at on the site.) It was all very laid back. None of the traditional stuff like throwing the bouquet, father/daughter dance, etc. (Hey, we're in our 40s now. Heh.) My brother is a pastor, and performed the ceremony. He even read what Chris said when he married Adam and Eve on Northern Exposure.

Marriage. It's a hard term to define. Especially for me--I've ducked it like root canal. Still there's no denying the fact that marriage ranks right up there with birth and death as one of the three biggies in the human safari. It's the only one though that we'll celebrate with a conscious awareness. Very few of you remember your arrival and even fewer of you will attend your own funeral. You pick a society, any society, Zuni, Nudembo, Pennsylvania Dutch. What's the one thing they all have in common? Marriage. It's like a cultural hand-rail. It links folks to the past and guides them to the future. That's not all though. Marriage is the union of disparate elements. Male and female. Yin and yang. Proton and electron. What are we talking about here? Nothing less than the very tension that binds the universe. You see, when we look at marriage, people, we're looking at creation itself. "I am the sky," says the Hindu bridegroom to the bride. "You are the earth. We are sky and earth united…. You are my husband. You are my wife. My feet shall run because of you. My feet shall dance because of you. My heart shall beat because of you. My eyes see because of you. My mind think because of you, and I shall love because of you." Now are you guys cool with that?

We didn't have any wedding party at all, so there was no best man to give a toast. Christy asked a guy who I was best friends for part of highschool and a couple years after. He had just met Christy an hour before she asked him, but he said sure. He went outside to think about it for a few minutes. I went out and talked to him until he heard what he wanted to say. It was very cool.

And yadda yadda, some cleaning up, then off to the place in the pictures above.


So thanks for all the good wishes from all you folks!!

The secret of a happy marriage remains a secret ... still all the best to you.

Been there, done it, bought the shirt. Mrs Vader and me had our 4th wedding anniversary on April, 23. We got married 2005 after being together for like 10 years. If it hadn't been for the Vadress being born July 05 we might have never officially tied the knot.

ooo
the hotel is gorgeous.
so glad it was wonderful!

Mazel Tov to you and Raen!!!

I uploaded some pictures from the rehearsal dinner and ceremony and reception to this album:

and explained them over at the Hangar at the Highdrake (Fist's name oevr there) wedding thread.

Fist and Faith wrote:The wedding day could not possibly have been better in any way. It was a gorgeous day! Best April day ever, I'll bet.

Yes it was. If they had planned it for thirty years they could not have gotten a more beautiful day.

They got married in a lovely arboretum with thousands of brightly colored tulips in full bloom, with all sorts of blooming trees, and all sorts of other spring flowers. It was absolutely gorgeous - a sunny bright beautiful day!

The wedding and reception were very nice. The food was great (quite possibly the best wedding food I have ever encountered). The guy who made the toast did a great job - he talked about how marriage completes you, and how being with Christy makes Fist's life complete.

Christy is a sweet, nice, kind lady. I adore her. I think that she and Fist will be very happy together.

Didn't realize I was feeling up Christy's ass in those pix! Good for me!

So there's a wedding thread for me over there? Guess I should go say Hi. heh

Fist and Faith wrote: Didn't realize I was feeling up Christy's ass in those pix! Good for me!

So there's a wedding thread for me over there? Guess I should go say Hi. heh

Absolutely good for you! (and you don't see her objecting, now do you? )

I'm not finished over there yet - I have pretty much run out of steam, but should be done in the next day or two. (Long drive home today).

Fist and Faith wrote:So there's a wedding thread for me over there? Guess I should go say Hi. heh

ayeup.

Highdrakes Wedding thread ~with pictures!!

Thanks Duchess!
awsome photos, as always!

Fist...
those aren't the same girls I met three years ago
(I think it was three years ago...)
...are they?

Wow, they've grown...
but then, so has Beorn.

Yep, Lisa's 10 and Shaina's 6.

They are growing into beautiful young ladies.

My congratulations Fist. Just remember that love is more what you do than what you feel, and that feelings come and go - but it's your word (promise/oath) that holds you through the rough times, that leads you to what love really is.

PS: Didja read that article on vows I linked to?

If I had to guess, Rus, I'd guess that Fist had other things on his plate than reading the thing you linked to. But I could be wrong.

Thanks for the pics, Duchess. What a beautiful day you all had.

aliantha wrote: If I had to guess, Rus, I'd guess that Fist had other things on his plate than reading the thing you linked to. But I could be wrong.

Thanks for the pics, Duchess. What a beautiful day you all had.

The aim of the thing I linked to is to maintain marriage for a lifetime, so hardly a minor thing when one is preparing to make vows regarding exactly that. As an "old hand" I would make it required reading for anyone preparing for such vows - it serves the purposes I see as good to see marriages hold together even if people do not see the necessity of my particular faith. Every marriage that defies divorce when the going gets rough is one more victory for love and 'the forces of good'.

I hope you make an awesome lifetime out of it Fist! Or as Father Victor (Sokolov) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Sokolov said to me not long before his death, "Have a wonderful life!"

Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Christy!

Duchess, I'm sorry that I missed your call on Sunday. One of my palliative care patients had just passed and I was with the family.

I'm sure it was a great day and I hate that I didn't get to be there.

rusmeister wrote:

aliantha wrote: If I had to guess, Rus, I'd guess that Fist had other things on his plate than reading the thing you linked to. But I could be wrong.

Thanks for the pics, Duchess. What a beautiful day you all had.

The aim of the thing I linked to is to maintain marriage for a lifetime, so hardly a minor thing when one is preparing to make vows regarding exactly that. As an "old hand" I would make it required reading for anyone preparing for such vows - it serves the purposes I see as good to see marriages hold together even if people do not see the necessity of my particular faith. Every marriage that defies divorce when the going gets rough is one more victory for love and 'the forces of good'.

I hope you make an awesome lifetime out of it Fist! Or as Father Victor (Sokolov) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Sokolov said to me not long before his death, "Have a wonderful life!"

Rus, I apologize. I meant it as a joke. Sorry.

rusmeister wrote:

aliantha wrote: If I had to guess, Rus, I'd guess that Fist had other things on his plate than reading the thing you linked to. But I could be wrong.

Thanks for the pics, Duchess. What a beautiful day you all had.

The aim of the thing I linked to is to maintain marriage for a lifetime, so hardly a minor thing when one is preparing to make vows regarding exactly that. As an "old hand" I would make it required reading for anyone preparing for such vows - it serves the purposes I see as good to see marriages hold together even if people do not see the necessity of my particular faith. Every marriage that defies divorce when the going gets rough is one more victory for love and 'the forces of good'.

I hope you make an awesome lifetime out of it Fist! Or as Father Victor (Sokolov) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Sokolov said to me not long before his death, "Have a wonderful life!"

[OFFTOPIC]
I just googled Father Victor Sokolov out of interest. Apparently he was a man with a great sense of humor. www.flickr.com/photos/wwabbit/2373971798/ - if that's the same man we're talking about.
[OFFTOPIC]

dlbpharmd wrote: I'm sure it was a great day and I hate that I didn't get to be there.

We wish you could have been there, too - but it sounds like what you were doing was of ludicrous importance.