2010-05-26

Charity Baseball, Bombing Sites, and the Grassy Knoll, Part the Second

A couple more pictures from the memorial:
The Survivor Tree had been in a backyard before the residence was torn down to build the Murrah building. Arborists struggled to save it after the blast.
The Survivors Wall: one of the last remaining walls of the Murrah building, with the names in granite salvaged from the building (the walkway here is also salvaged from the building).
The building ID, from the side opposite the blast. The plaza here, including a less-than-relaxing water feature, remains essentially the same as it had been before the blast.
Okay, I admit it: I simply forgot to include those in the previous post.

Shopping done, we headed over to a Sonic for a restorative bite (we’d had nothing since breakfast), then caught the bus and the hotel’s airport shuttle (it was very kind of them to provide us with transportation to and from the bus stop!!!) back to the hotel where we freshened up a bit while waiting for J and MC to arrive through the torrential downpours and the road construction from Dallas (although we still haven’t had more than ugly skies and a bit of drizzle here in OKC since the downpours during the night Thursday). Got to the bowling alley in Edmond and a prime parking space, and fortified our kids’ menu Sonic selections with the free offerings from various local restaurants. Possibly the worst “Indian tacos” I’ve ever had, but the pineapple from the fruit trays was at the height of perfection—not too tangy, not too sweet.
I have some better pictures of Harmon from the game. The guitar and the lounge chair are auction items; the guitar was from JAG cast members.

Got through the crowd to Mark Harmon to have him sign my “Chimera” tee-shirt. This is one of the official cast-and-crew commemorative tee-shirts celebrating NCIS’ 100th episode, which I won in a raffle at FanFest a couple of years ago. I’ve slowly but surely been collecting cast (including guest cast, even though they mayn’t have been in that episode and in one case the character's been dead since the third season) and crew and staff and consultant autographs ever since. He commented to me that it was an official tee-shirt and asked where I got it (and if you didn’t catch that part, go back to the second sentence of this paragraph!). Harmon’s is the only Main Cast autograph I have so far. The others are Doug Reilly (who designed the tee-shirt, among other things including Abby’s Caf-Pow cups), Chas F Johnson (producer), Avery Drewe (producer, and a truly outstanding and entertaining production facility tourguide), Muse Watson (Gibbs’ mentor Mike Franks), Rudolf Martin (Ziva’s half-brother and Mossad double agent Ari), and consultant Craig Harvey of the LA County Coroner’s Office. Here's the part where Harmon signed, just above Rudolf Martin's signature (he also renamed the ship "Ari," as you can see on the bow).
And the outside of the card I made to thank Harmon for signing the shirt. It went into the mail Monday.

No comments:

Post a Comment