SUN, 21JUN15 - The Daily Poop

Final Edition

This is the last installment of The Poop. Beginning tomorrow, this space will be given over to NMA Live-blog 2015, warts-and-all coverage of the Navy Musicians Association. Okay, the reunion doesn't start until Wednesday the 24th, but the excitement starts as the early birds arrive.

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I arrived in Virginia Beach yesterday. My airline experience was highlighted by a long and arduous trip through security at the Moline, IL airport. I was wanded, patted down, poked and prodded in public and private all because, it turned out, I had a piece of toilet paper in my shirt pocket.

In the old days, this would simply have been met by the question, "Hey, buddy, why do you have a piece of toilet paper in your shirt pocket?" Actually, nobody would have asked me a damn thing because, in those old days, no body cared if you had a piece of toilet paper in your pocket. They didn't care about a damn thing. They just let you get on the airplane like a human being instead of treating you like a criminal. ("Toilet Paper Smuggling Ring Strikes Again".)

Anyway, on the off chance that I was actually Franqh Mullahn, the Toilet Paper Terrorist of Tehran, I was detained while my baggage was examined and my papers inspected.

And because you and your dirty mind are probably still dwelling on it: Look, I don't know why I had a piece of toilet paper in my shirt pocket. Sometimes we just have to accept the fact that what is, is.

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I had dinner with Terry Chesson, followed by evening's hour sitting by the pool at the hotel, shooting the breeze. As I'd suspected, this will be a jumbo-sized reunion. We've given out all the rooms we originally blocked, and more. It was good to hear this--it's our 20th anniversary and we'd been expecting a big turnout--but more important, it was good to have time to sit with an old friend and catch up on the news and remember the olds.

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I've got a quiet day planned. I have NMA work to catch up on, as well as some other creative tasks that have been waiting for my attention. Another reason I come early to reunions is for this calm before the storm, quiet time to take care of loose ends, some of it NMA business, some of it not. Good to get things done before the crazy begins.