Life in Portland Area

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On July 23, 2005, I again headed to Portland, OR airport, this time headed to Bloomington, Indiana for a Turner family reunion. The is the American Airlines MD-80 that I tok to Chicago. I was surprised when I attempted electronic check in with my credit card that I was directed to a ticket agent. I was told that it was because my name was similar to someone on their restricted flying list (or, implicitly, that I was on the list). The ticket agent then checked my license and asked me about my date of birth. Oh my! They must have gotten a record of the restraining order against me and concluded that a violent brute such as myself is a potential terrorist.
My birthday was listed wrong on the original order (October versus November) which might be indicative of the care and thoroughness of the process in issuing such orders. I personally don't think of myself as a terrorist or even as a violent brute. I have appealed the order, of course. You can see a copy of my Brief to the Court of Appeals along with transcripts of the hearings and such. Anyway, from Chicago I took another Brazilian plane (shown here) to Indianapolis (American Eagle)
My brother, Mike, and cousin, Vinson, met me at the airport. Vinson had picked up my mom (shown here) and Mike earlier and dropped mom off at the motel where was staying and she rested up after the trip. Mike and I stayed at Vinson's in one of the many rooms they have. Here is Vinson's house. It looks a lot different from when I last visited in 2001.
The next morning Mike and I went to pick mom up and we all visited at Vinson's. This is a Bertie, my mom, sitting in the sun room (on the left side of the picture above) and visiting.
Here are Vinson and Anne visiting with my mom in the sun room.
Behind them was Verna, Anne's mom, sitting on the sofa in the sun room.
Later mom moved to one of the comfortable reclining chairs facing the windows in the sun room. Everybody really likes those chairs.
The sun room used to be a porch (it appears) and has a window behind my mom into the kitchen.
Meanwhile my brother snuck in and accessed the internet using Vinson's laptop. They have DSL (broadband) which was appreciated as there were several internet addicts amongst the family.
This is the view of Vinson's house from further along the driveway. The little porch you see is the entrance to Verna's sitting room. Mike and I stayed there. Verna room (with kitchen and bath) is just to the right of that. Vinson has two new garages in the left of this picture. The garage in the center was added on and is two story. It is the computer room upstairs and was where I stayed when I last visited.
Bloomington, IN has a large Tibetan Buddhust presence with the Dali Lama's brother living there. Sunday afternoon we went to visit the Tiebtan Cultural Center which had a restaurant and meditation room.
Here is the main hall for meditation and teachings.
They also had a mandala, or sand painting. Usually sand paintings are destroyed shortly after they are made (teaching a lesson about the transient nature of everything in the world, perhaps), but in this case is being kept under gkass (though it will certainly join the other mandalas sooner or later).