[Regia-NA] Martin & Clare's wedding

[rmhowe]

Hazel Uzzell wrote:
>>Magnus, getting close to twenty.
>>
> 
> Hi Magnus,
> You're new to the game....Ian and I met 40 years ago and will be celebrating
> our 37th anniversary on Thursday. (At least, I will be, Ian will be
> away......no change there then! :-))

We got married when I was 32 and she was, well, older.
Should have met many years before. That is our only regret.
My relatives knew her. But we met at an SCA demo in a park.
By then I was already gradually disabling with something
obviously hereditary and she was at the age her mother
gave birth to her Downes Syndrome sister. So children
was not a good idea. Better it stops with me really. On the other
hand my half-sisters inherited the multiple myelomas gene
from their grandmother/father. Not quite fair to the children really.

But we get on marvellously well as long as we don't pay attention
to the other one's driving. I've had to accompany her touring many
miles of parking lots. Drives me nuts.
Apart from that and her worry box I keep looking for to squash she
has a most excellent personality.

I was at her parents' 50th wedding anniversary. They didn't make 60
but her mom is still alive at near 93.
Shrinking considerably from 4'10". [Shortness herself is only 5'.]
Refer to her mom as the Old Chipmunk but she grabs me by the neck
like an orangutan to kiss. Never one word of criticism from anyone
in that family in over 20 years.

> As for kissing someone with a beard, I have heard it described as having a
> badger reverse into you...

My God!, You English really do have stiff upper lips.
You guys have a good basis for comparison huh?
Sure you didn't mean hedgehogs?

Outside of politics and the intelligence agencies I really don't think
you have an american equivalent of skunks. Believe me when I
tell you they are quite noticable. They are the cutest thing
with equivalent coloration to badgers we have here. One dead
can be smelt for a half a mile easily.

We don't have much in the way of badgers here in the south.
Up north they have wolverines.
They are much more aggresive and not nearly as pretty as your
English badgers. A wolverine might well have you for lunch.
Wolverines I really don't want to consider.

I've run into a bear before on a very steep mountain ridge while
coming out of a cave we had up there. The area had just been logged
and there was no rapid method of retreat. All I had was a
knife and a very slow and careful retreat.
The bear got shot by someone up there about two weeks later but
one I'd told.

Before Raleigh has grown to four times the size it was when I
came here they caught a couple bears on campus.
Be a long urban walk for them now. Where we used to see red
foxes going down the middle of the beltline in the grass during
rush hours we now have only expanded 8 and 10 lanes from 4.
But we still have beavers in the city limits. This place is beginning
to remind me of Atlanta or Los Angeles without the ghettos.
Lots of wide beltlines and overpasses.

Speaking of big bears -
One of our best friends is in the 400 pound range now.
Of course all the children are running up and calling him Haggred.

Magnus

> Cheers
> Hazel