The principal reason for our trip was to meet our yougest nephew, Nathaniel, who was born in December of last year. The little guy is resting comfortably in his Aunt Rachelle’s arms.

But we also came to see his older brother Caleb. As you can see, Caleb was very happy to see us.

The two boys are huddled under the baby blanket Rachelle made for Nathaniel.

In addition to seeing our family, another highlight of the weekend was being around for a record snowfall.

Authorities have reported a one-eyed snow bandit was in the area. Caleb was excited to have so much snow in which to play. I must confess, so were his aunt and uncle!

My car was buried by the blizzard. Fortunately, we had a couple of days to spend digging it out.

Rachelle also made a snow angel.

The day after the blizzard, Caleb sledded down a makeshift hill of snow which had been piled up by a snowplow. Rachelle required very little encouragement to join him.

At some point Caleb asked me to go for a ride with him. How could I refuse?

You can view more of the photos Rachelle and I took over the weekend in my photoset on Flickr or in my gallery.

The next morning, we awoke to discover a blanket of 2 inches of snow covering the ground and our car. We packed up and headed on, determined to get into Connecticut as early as possible to avoid driving in any more snow than necessary. The interstate was fairly clear of snow and ice–well, the right lane, at least; the passing lane had a slushy mix that made passing other vehicles a risky proposition. After about an hour, we crossed the state line into West Virginia, and must have crossed an invisible boundary, as the sky cleared, the sun appeared and the snow completely disappeared, except for what we brought with us on our vehicle.

We managed to arrive at my brother-in-law’s house well in advance of the storm. So, we hunkered down and waited for the snow to come. And it did come–about sixteen inches of the white stuff fell on my brother-in-law’s neighborhood.

I have posted some photos from our trip to Flickr. You can view them in my photoset on Flickr.

View this photo on Flickr

This photo is my favorite from the drive. It was taken from Newfound Gap. Ordinarily, you would see Fontana Lake, but on that day the surface of the lake was completely covered by fog.

The next week, my wife and I spent a weekend with some friends in a cabin up in the mountains near Pigeon Forge.

View this photo on Flickr

This photo is one that I took of the view from the deck of the cabin. Unfortunately, it was rainy the entire weekend, so I wasn’t able to get out and photograph much else. But even with the inclement weather the view was still awesome.

Lastly, the week after that, I brought the camera to work and took some photos around campus. The following photo is of the Torchbearer statue in Circle Park on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville campus.

View this photo on Flickr

You can view all of these photos in my Flickr Archive for January.

My contribution to InstaPunk’s Rewrite the Cartoon Contest. Does this cartoon have impact, Mr. Toles?

Inspired by Doug Petch.

Here’s a teaser from the photoset:

View this photo on Flickr

This is a photo of my grandfather’s gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery, taken during Memorial Day weekend 2002. He served our country through World War II, Korea, and Vietnam until his death in 1962.

I also want to note my brothers’ service in the United States Marine Corps, which celebrated its 230th birthday yesterday. And that of my father-in-law, who served in the United States Navy and Naval Reserves. I also want to include my friend Johnny, who just returned a couple of weeks ago from a year long tour-of-duty in Iraq. Thanks for your service.

Please remember to take time today and thank any veterans you know for their service. It is by such service and sacrifice that we and the freedoms we hold dear are protected. To those who have served, both past and present, I want to say thank you for your time and commitment in protecting our nation and on behalf of the cause of freedom and liberty.

• History of Veterans Day

• Veterans Day FAQ

• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Day page

LaShawn Barber also has lots of links to other bloggers observing Veterans Day.

This is a repost with some additions from Veterans Day last year.

Congratulations to all Marines, past and present, and thank you for your service.

Semper Fi

I still have a few loose ends to tie up, but for the most part the redesign is done. I have worked out all the quirks I could find. If you notice anything amiss, please let me know.

And a special greeting from my fellow CSS Rebooters who are visiting. I can’t wait to browse and look at some of the other designs.

A few notes about the redesign. I really started with the goal of transforming my old site’s fixed-width layout into an elastic one, which once I heard about the CSS Reboot turned into a full scale redesign. I took all of the header photographs during my various travels. One of my loose ends is to build some kind of AJAX-y widget to let visitors surf through the photos and to display some information about them, like the date of the photo and the location or identity of the subject.

Plus, while I was redoing things, I also rebooted my linkblog, Excursions, which was one of the more significant changes. I was using a second install of WordPress to run it, but I discovered a nifty plugin called wp-recent-links. A bit of hacking later, and I had a nice solution to eliminate one extra interface for posting.

To follow-up on the idea of looking forward, I decided a while back to spruce up the design of my blog. So, I joined the legion of people participating in the CSS Reboot Fall 2005 planning to unveil a new standards-based design on November 1st. So, come back then and see my new look.

I have also posted a new entry, Return to Cataloochee, in my Photos blog. My wife and I spent spent an afternoon in Great Smoky Mountains National Park a few weekends ago with the hope of spotting some elk during the rut. We were not disappointed.

Thanks again for stopping by and celebrating my blog birthday with me.

The name Cataloochee is a corruption of the Cherokee name for the area, “Gadalutsi,” which means “standing up in a row,” and could refer either to the mountains which surround the valley, or the abundant trees which cover them. Cataloochee was comprised of two separate communities, Big Cataloochee and Little Cataloochee.

After our previous trip, I wanted to head back in the fall during the rut (mating season) in the hopes of hearing the elk bugle. So, my wife and I planned an October trip to the mountains. Like our previous visit, we spent our time in Big Cataloochee. We picked a spot on the side of the road, unpacked our stuff and waited for the show to begin.

As the sun began to fade, our vigilance was rewarded. We spotted a group of five elk come out of the protection of the trees into the field near us. The group was composed of three bulls (male) and two cows (female). The male elk in the photograph above was very agressive and chased the other two bulls away from his harem.

This is the same elk grazing in peace after he had runoff the interlopers.

These are the two cows he was “protecting”.

The other two male elk were chased off in the direction of the road, and remained close to it – I suppose out of fear of angering their rival. I walked down the road so I could get a closer look at them.

Quite a few people were taking photos of this pair. And while everybody kept a respectful distance, the two elk didn’t seem to mind the attention.

At least they weren’t lonely!

I wonder if he was checking to see if his rival was still around.

He and his pair of females were still nearby.

We had also hoped to hear the elk bugle, and we weren’t disappointed in that department. We heard several elk bugle in the distance.

Since dusk was quickly approaching we decided it was time to leave. As we were heading down the road toward the park entrance, we saw a large bull in the woods to the right of the road. I got out of the car and on foot followed his progress through the woods. Eventually, I was rewarded with an amazing view of this magnificent creature.

This male popped out of the woods and then wandered back in to them – he was probably spooked by all then people attempting to take his photograph.

Suddenly, he walked calmly out of the trees again, right in front of me.

Then, he paused under a tree to graze for a moment.

By this time I had gotten back in our car. As we were passing him, he decided to go for a stroll, so we followed him for a bit, and stopped on the side of the road when he stopped.

While we were watching him he let loose with a loud bugle. What a treat!

Several other males were also in the area. We watched them for a while, and then resumed our plans to leave the park.

On our way out of the park we made one last stop to watch the sunset.

Daylight fades from the valley.

Clouds hang over Cataloochee.

Rays of sunshine poke through the clouds.

The sun sets over Cataloochee Valley.

But the work he started by reporting “Good News” from Iraq and Afghanistan will continue.

I will always remember the Twin Towers like this:

I took this photo a couple of months before the attacks.

My heart is broken for them, not just because of the horrible conditions in Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf. The devastation December’s tsunami left behind was tragic, but I didn’t feel this way. And hurricanes hit Southern Florida, where my family still lives, and the Gulf Coast last year–but I didn’t feel this way. No, I am so troubled by this tragedy because I have lived through similar circumstances. In the past few days I have been reminded all too often of the horrible days, weeks and months after Hurricane Andrew ripped through my parent’s home and turned our lives upside-down and everything just seemed wrong. All I wanted then was for life to return to something close to normal.

Today, there a multitude of Americans who find themselves in that terrible situation. Their lives have been turned upside-down and inside-out. And life won’t be normal for them for weeks and months, if not years.

I wish I had the words to describe how much the generosity of strangers helped my family and I cope with our ordeal. Days after Andrew one of my parent’s co-workers gave us a propane stove so we could cook. Many, many others donated the supplies that they had put away before the storm. My father’s employer gave us a jug of water from their water cooler, so that we would have drinking water. Our local Coca-Cola bottler gave away bottles of water to all comers. Many others gave generously and it made life better. My cousin’s house was destroyed; a friend of his gave he and his family the use of a condo. I heard all kinds of stories of people opening their homes and their lives to help. I wish I had the words to say how much that meant.

But I don’t, so what I will say is this: Give! Give now, give later, and keep giving. Give until it hurts. If you did without eating lunch out next week and took peanut butter sandwiches to work, how much money would that be? Then give it away. If you go out for pizza once a week, then skip it for a while and give that money away. Even if you ate only rice and beans or tuna fish sandwiches next week, you would still be eating better than many of people along the coast next week. Give away the difference. Turn you air conditioning up, or turn it off altogether and open your windows. You’ll still be better off than many of people in Louisiana and Mississippi. Give away what you save. Carpool and give away the extra. Yes, it is inconvenient and yes gas prices are rising, but it’s still a lot less inconvenient than having your car and home swept away, and at least you still have a gas station to buy gas from.

If you are an employer looking to hire, consider hiring someone who has been forced to leave their home–even if only for a short term–to help them press pause on the chaos and uncertainty of their lives. Consider opening your home to people who have been displaced. If you are looking to take someone in Bill Hennessy’s Homes for Katrina Victims, Katrina Home Sharing Registry or Operation: Share Your Home are great places to start looking. Even if you can’t take people in long term, even a warm meal, air conditioning and a hot shower will make a difference. After Andrew a friend of my father’s invited us over for a meal and a hot shower. That afternoon was blissful, even though I knew it would end all too soon. Somehow that shower seemed to transform me; here was something normal–the way life was supposed to be–I felt human again.

Looking for other ways to help? Try the KatrinaHelp Wiki, where you can offer your help and find information on ways to help and immediate needs.

Lastly, I would suggest giving to Samaritan’s Purse, The Salvation Army or the American Red Cross. The Red Cross website seems to be slow as I post this, so if you live in the Knoxville Area, you can also give donations to the Knoxville Area Chapter, specifying your donation to be used for the National Disaster Response Fund. Glenn Reynolds also has a list of other relief organizations. N.Z. Bear also has a list up of relief agencies. I have joined the list of bloggers participating in Hurricane Katrina: Blog for Relief Day. You can find more bloggers and the charities they are supporting at N.Z. Bear’s special relief page. Please pick one, and donate now.

I hope this hasn’t been too maudlin, but I find that I can’t help it. I have been on the verge of tears for days now. Everytime I hear news about New Orleans or the Gulf Coast, I find myself fighting back tears. Katrina blew through my parent’s neighborhood thirteen years and one day after Andrew. And I can’t adequately express how grateful I was Friday morning when my mother called to tell me that they were fine. Our conversation turned to Andrew and that dreadful time afterwards, and I was happy that they were spared this time. But the Gulf Coast wasn’t spared and their lives will never be the same. Katrina will stay with them for years just as Andrew stayed with us.

The University of Tennessee Student Government Association will be at the following locations from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1 and Friday, Sept. 2:

• Joe Johnson Pedestrian Mall (near the Library)

• Presidential Courtyard

• University Center (back plaza)

Before and after the football game Saturday, Sept. 3, fans will be able to donate to the Red Cross:

• Prior to the game from 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. at Circle Park

• From the forth quarter onward, Red Cross Volunteers will be located at several gates outside Neyland Stadium

Finally, Monday, Sept. 5, the football team will hold the second annual “OrangeAid.” Players will be giving autographs in return for a donation to the American Red Cross at both West Town Mall and Knoxville Center Mall from 6-7 p.m. T-shirts with the inscription “One Heartbeat” will also be available for $15 with the proceeds will go to the Red Cross’ relief efforts.

Hats off to my colleagues in the University’s Public Relations Department for promoting these opportunities.

UPDATE: I should mention that these opportunities will be for cash donations only. Do not bring items such as bottled water, food or clothing. The collection volunteers will not be prepared to handle those items. As this FEMA press release (via Glenn Reynolds) indicates, right now cash will be the biggest help to those who are affected. Donate to a relief agency and let the agency disperse the funds. I am recommending Samaritan’s Purse, The Salvation Army or the American Red Cross. If the Red Cross website is slow then make a donation to your local chapter. Donations to the Knoxville Area Chapter can be made online. Glenn Reynolds and N.Z. Bear both have posted lists of other relief organizations.

The Knoxville campus has committed to accept all graduate students, up to 500 undergraduate students, and a total of 50 law students – 20 first-year law students and 30 students from other years. Because of the recent record freshman class size, there is a housing shortage, but university officials will seek accommodations.

In Chattanooga, the university will accept up to 100 undergraduates.

In Martin, the university will accept 50 students, and has available housing for 25 students.

“We fully support the governor’s efforts, and our campuses are enthusiastically responding in various ways to assist in this time of national need,” President John Petersen said.

Josh Britton also lists some other schools taking in students: Georgia Tech, U of Tennessee, Rice, Arizona State, U of Arkansas, ULL, Centenary, McNeese St., Louisiana College, UL Monroe, LA Tech, Spring Hill, Arkansas State, Ole Miss, Mississippi College, Texas Christian, Baylor. Vanderbilt, UC Berkeley, U of Georgia are working out details to admit students.

Wow! Way to go! I am proud to be a Volunteer.

UPDATE: The other UT–Texas, that is–will also be admitting students.

UPDATE II: The University of Wisconsin-Madison will also be accepting displaced students. (Via Ann Althouse)