Email from 8/14/2015

Good morning everyone!

Funny, I don’t remember taking these pictures of Maureen and Liam?  Tuesday this week we dropped Liam off at Western Carolina University.  It was very much like our visit to Brazil when Liam was seven.  On that trip we met some friends of our friends that had a son Liam’s age, and when it was time to drive down off the mountain and he had an opportunity to stay and play, Liam couldn’t wait to get rid of us.  Liam didn’t know the language (Portuguese) and had just met the family, but he had been traveling with only adults for two weeks and he was ready to have a little unsupervised fun with someone his own age.  Dropping him off at WCU Tuesday was just like that!  Liam was very insistent that we allow him to do some things on his own, check out his books, find his way around campus, etc...  It’ll be interesting to see what he actually gets done before his classes start.  Liam is already getting some emailed assignments from his professors.  I guess sometimes sink or swim is the best teacher but after eighteen years of acting as his lifeguard it was tough to just watch as he jumped in.  Because of his sports team involvement, Liam was able to move in early, a couple of days before the official move in day, Friday (today).  And boy are we glad.  Even with only a few groups like the sports teams and band moving in early, parking was a challenge to find.  Liam’s residence hall has about 9 floors with roughly 20 rooms per floor, two students per room, and just two elevators.  Last count I saw 12 residence halls and “The Village” where all of the Greek life takes place.  I can’t image what it’s going to be like Friday with six to eight thousand students on campus vying for the same parking, elevators, and hallway space trying to bring in all of their belongings.  But thankfully Liam is moved in now and working things out, I hope?  I’d like to be able to say “Liam is on his own now and just has to figure it out”, but it’s tough to give up my lifeguard chair!

Anyone interested in keeping up with Liam’s college career, this is the WCU Cross Country page:   http://www.catamountsports.com/sports/c-xc/wcar-c-xc-body.html

Cross Country Article announcing the WCU 2015 Track and Field Recruiting Class (Liam’s name is buried in there somewhere):  http://www.catamountsports.com/sports/c-xc/spec-rel/081315aaa.html

My sister-in-law (she knows who I’m talking about) who graduated from Ohio State, for years sent me all of that Ohio State paraphernalia that colleges are always peddling by encouraging you to “show your School Spirit”, which was fine.  Western Carolina’s teams play to a chorus of “Show Your Purple!” So on my last visit I threatened to return the favor with everything “WCU.”  Disappointingly she was fine with that and even agreed to  wear whatever I sent as long as it wasn’t “too Purple.”  You know, something gray with the WCU logo, like a t-shirt or a sweatshirt.  As it turns out, I can’t find anything that is “Purple” enough to send her!  I guess that is how rivalries are born!!!

You know I titled the album “Not everyone was happy about “Move In Day!” because of that first picture.  I know Buddy is going to miss Liam but in that photo he might have just been pissed that I made him wear that ridiculous WCU doggy rain slicker?

Last Sunday, as advertised, we went kayaking down the French Broad River, finally!  It was another “Chamber of Commerce” day.  We are having a lot of those kind of days.  As I described in one of my earlier emails, the French Broad River is wide, shallow and slow moving.  It was fairly common while threading our kayaks through the rocks to get stuck.  But it was nice to have the paddles for some locomotion through the slowest areas, unlike our tubing trip.  We were able to cover twice the distance on the river in a little less time than our tubing trip took.  This trip took us through the Biltmore Estate as well, although being down low on the river you don’t really get to see much of the estate.  We were about 3 1/2 to 4 hours on the river and Liam started complaining about being tired about half way through the trip, because that’s what teenagers do, they complain!  So with roughly 250 yards to go, an inside position, and a modest head start, I challenged Liam to race me to the take out point on the riverbank.  The little shit beat me!  I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, he is a NCAA Division 1 athlete.  In retrospect, I’m sure the difference was not any lack of prowess on my part, because I didn’t really tire that much.  It was the fact that I was pushing about 45 lbs more weight through the water for 250 yards.  I’m sure John O’ could do the math but over 250 yards that’s a lot of extra drag to have to overcome.  I’m going to have to work on that.

Maureen and I are a little closer to closing on our new home.  There always seems to be one more piece of paper to sign, one more statement to produce, one more bureaucrat that has to justify his job.  But I’m assured that the underwriters are reviewing our application today and we will have a final decision soon.  Maureen has finished picking out the furniture but I’m still not clear on where we are with paint and carpet.  Oh, did I mention, I get a pool table!  Actually Maureen is buying the pool table to entice Liam to come home some weekends with his new friends from WCU.  But I don’t have to ask his permission to invite my friends over to play pool so I don’t care about her motivation.  It was one of the floor models at the furniture store where we are spending way too much money and they are practically throwing it in to get it off the floor.  They are even including new felt that matches some fabric for accent pillows that Maureen picked out.  Again, I don’t care.  I get a pool table!  I have most of the contractors/vendors lined up to go as soon as we have possession of the house.  And our stuff sitting in that warehouse in Los Angeles is due to be delivered in a month.  And with my luck it will all come together  in such a timely fashion that I’ll be juggling it all at once!  I’m sure it will be fine, as long as they deliver the pool table.

I have our balcony door open(Thursday evening) watching God water the lawns again.  One downside to our variety in weather is that on occasion our sprinkler system includes a lighting (read lightning) element.  I lost power while typing my update.  Thank goodness I’m neurotic about saving my work as I go so there was no retyping necessary.  I guess you take the bad with the good.  Although I’m finding it difficult to find anything bad other than I miss my friends.  I spoke with Keith Thursday night and he asked; “When am I going to come to my senses and move back to California?”  The answer of course is; “Right after Liam gets accepted to Cal Baptist University.”  I apologize to the rest of you but Keith will get the joke.

That’s all for this week.  Take care,

Rick, Maureen & Liam

PS  It’s hard for us not to picture Liam like this:  First Day of School @ WCU!

 He even has his “Purple” school spirit WCU lunch bag!