A quiet Sunday in Orono

Sunday morning found us sleeping in -- again. A cool morning wrapped in quiet greeted me as I climbed out of bed and walked into the kitchen in search of coffee and morning treats -- a ritual equally exercised at home and on the road. We lounged about until late, enjoying the act of doing nothing and just being.

About 10ish I persuaded Susie to join me for a stroll in Bangor's preeminent garden cemetery, Mt. Hope, just up the road from Orono and at the edge of the big city itself. By the time we arrived the day was fast moving toward sun and heat -- but there was plenty of shade where we were. . . (Get it? shade as in ghost?) It's always a pleasure to find myself at that spot where so many diverse threads that have made up the tapestry of a community come together in one place, at one time, for all time.\

After spending an hour or so wandering around the stones and collecting a handful of memories we returned to the car and headed back to Orono, passing through the notorious speed-trap of Veazie (but nary a cop to be seen).

The rest of the day was spent with the Bergmans, just relaxing at home.

Later in the afternoon, Jonathan Bergman and his wife-to-be Naomi stopped by -- for good reason since that evening was to be a sit-down between the two families to inaugurate the official wedding planning strategy.  (It would become clear to me before the evening was over, that if Joyce and Linda -- mother of the groom and bride respectively -- if they had directed the Normandy Landings on June 6, 1944, everything would have gone off without a hitch and the Germans probably would have given up on the spot.)

Naomi and Jonathan are to be married this Thanksgiving Weekend

Linda, the mother of the bride

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner prepared by Joyce with Susie's scrumptious dessert for the piece de resistance.

The dishes were soon cleared away, and the women headed off to the living room for their first caucus session where they started the planning in earnest. Having arranged six weddings between the two of them,  Linda and Joyce were no strangers to what needed to be done -- they worked together smoothly, divvied up the necessary tasks, and quickly began identifying who needed to do what when. They were working so quickly and effortlessly I could barely follow what was going on (lacking a critical gene I could only surmise)

I said to myself this must be what it's like in corporate boardrooms around the world -- but then I realized, "No this is what is should be like in corporate boardrooms around the world."

All in all it was a grand evening -- Linda and Barry, parents of the bride, amazed me at how calm and collected they were through the whole thing, and Linda's infectious smile was matched by Barry's dry wit, and both helped to make a wonderful evening that much more enjoyable. We see now where their daughter comes by her winning smile, easy laugh and self-assurance.

This is going to be an most interesting year indeed.