My very nice sister-in-law, Terrie, took a bunch of wonderful photos at our wedding. I have finally gotten them posted on pages- if you are interested click on our photo above and it will take you to the first page...
The house, the stars, the desert- what gives them their beauty is something
that is invisible.- Antoine de Saint Exupery
We got back from our little trip in time for Kira's birthday- April 5th. Kira is 20 today, Hooray!
Kira was born when we were living in the little town of Clarkston in the southeast corner of Washington. I elected to go to the big hospital across the river so she was born in Lewiston Idaho- a month early, on Good Friday. I had stopped working a month before Kira was due, to get a break, but such was not going to be the case with Kira... I woke with a start just a couple of days into my "break" when my water broke. My friend Rhetta was going to watch Carrie when I went into labor, but she was out of town and Carrie's daycare was closed for the holiday. We had to scramble but another friend stepped in and we were off to the hospital. Kira was born about two hours after we arrived, and she has been a little hyper ever since.
Kira is very busy these days, working and going to school at the same time. She is going to complete her high school diploma and go on to the nursing program. Kira has been taking the pre-GED tests and acing them all. She not only is beautiful and smart, but has gained wisdom beyond her years. I am so very, very proud of her.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIRA!!
Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.- Peter Ustinov (1921 - 2004)
Okay, I think this is about it. I have linked all wedding-related pages off one "Wedding Index" page- click the wedding couple if your want to see it.
Thank you everyone for your well wishes. Peace.
"I am still learning."- Michelangelo's motto
A lovely woman in her 90s graciously shared with me her time. I asked her questions and she told me that she did not know the answers, did not know how long she had lived where she now lived, where her son lived, what she had for breakfast. "I have trouble with my memory", she told me in a perky sort of way, over and over as if she had not just said it moments before. She was bright, her apartment was neat and interesting, looking as if she had lots of interests. I asked about the puzzle spread out on the dining table- "yes I love puzzles!" The pieces were all there- not one had been connected to another. She was lovely, kind in her responses to me, and acted as if she wished she could come up with the answers to my questions, as if she knew they were not complicated questions, despite her inability to answer them. "I wish I could get back to where my memory worked!" She startled me with this exclamation.
I started working with geriatric clients in 1995 and began learning about dementias. I found that some people with mid-stage dementia had their families in a tizzy (is that a word? Yes, my dictionary says it is English slang for a sixpence...) because they were not happy where they were, wanted to move, wanted often to move back to somewhere- maybe the town they had grown up in, or the town they had raised their kids in, or the town they had lived in before coming to live near their adult children. These lovely, confused people could formulate no plans for how to accomplish this or even give a coherent explanation for their motivation, but nonetheless many families were trying so hard to figure out how to make them happy, how to get them somewhere they wanted to be. Over the years I have explained to more than one person that their family member did not really want to be where they said they wanted to be, they wanted to be in a place where their mind worked, they wanted to get back to themselves. At least this was what I understood, what I thought their loved one was talking about. Until I met the woman I mentioned above I had never heard anyone with dementia say that, explain where they really wanted to be. I found it all very interesting, again.
Where is the yesterday that worried us so?- Joan Walsh Anglund
Jay is a curious man who likes to figure things out, find out more and keep track of what's new. Recently he noticed a big tractor working on the field we can see out our kitchen window. He found it to be unusually large, so he had to go out and take a picture or two of it. It is nice to be with someone who is interested in so many things.
"It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry..."- Albert Einstein
Jay and I just took a little trip over the mountains to the desert side of the state for a break. We went to Kennewick and visited the Badger Winery, which makes organic wines free of sulfites, and then took a scenic drive back along the Columbia River. We had a good time.
Click on the Badger keg at left to see pictures.
We can never go back again, that much is certain.- Daphne DuMaurier
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"Just trying to grow up before I die." |
CRAIG DOUGLAS BERNARD JOHN BAKER
April 14, 1952 - April 15, 2004
It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one's life and to find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than 'Try to be a little kinder'.- Aldous Huxley's World
CONGRATULATIONS CAROL!!
Carol has been promoted to the position of supervisor for her unit in the Seattle office.
Her work ethic, quality work, good communication, kindness and positive attitude have been recognized and rewarded.
Sometimes good things happen to good people. Congratulations.
"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become."- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Today Jay and I went to see the classic 1928 Buster Keaton silent film Steamboat Bill Jr. It was a good print, shown at the Lincoln Theatre, a restored 1926 historic vaudeville & silent movie house in downtown Mount Vernon. A big treat was its accompaniment on the original house organ by top-notch musician, Andy Crow.
A pleasant outing in the midst of the annual Tulip Festival.
"In the early days of the Indian Territory, there were no such things as birth certificates. You being there was certificate enough."- Will Rogers
This is a picture from a couple of months ago, when it was still cold outside. Downtown Mount Vernon has embedded in its streets remnants of a small rail line that used to go from Bellingham to Mount Vernon. The line fell into disuse as highways took over everything... remnant rails run downtown to the old Carnation plant. So now, as western Washington grapples with putting in a "light rail line" to ease highway congestion, the city of Mount Vernon just bought out the owner of this line so it could tear up the rails and modernize things. Jay pays attention to these things and so we went there to take photographs of history- thus me, straddling the line.
The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be either good or evil.- Hannah Arendt
I like the Fresh Air interviews on NPR.
Recently Terry Gross interviewed Lewis Black from The Daily Show. In the interview he talked briefly about being Catholic and mentioned understanding that the Church is against abortion because it believes life begins at conception. He went on to say he was therefore confused about its stance on birth control and figured that the Church also must think that life begins when one thinks about having sex, and that men must then be creating life about once every six seconds...
Anyway, I thought it was amusing in an interesting way.
"Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures."- Samuel Johnson
There has been a lot of controversy about the new movement to test students. Sometimes the advocates of such testing seem to think that students don't actually need an education, they just need to learn to pass tests. Washington has its own high school graduation test (WASL) that is heading into high gear. Some of the controversy centers on the simple question of what the questions should be...
My friends know that I have lots of thoughts and feelings about the public school system, and really none of them are complimentary for the schools or its teachers. As they know, I can go on and on with examples related to my experiences with my own children in school, but the reality is that the letters sent to my home from the schools were embarrassing to read- poorly written, poorly presented and obviously not prepared by anyone who had worked professionally outside of the school world. It is a sad state of affairs that really cannot benefit from me ranting on and on.
I have not been fond of the idea of teaching to a test, but recently it has become obvious that one side effect of this testing insanity is that the poor outcome that schools are producing is now being measured and publicized. I really don't care about parents not being involved enough, or students being bad, or not enough money, or large class size. What is the deal with kids in high school not knowing how to read, write and do arithmetic? Classes are no larger than mine were in grade school, as schools built like crazy to meet the demands of the baby boom. There were bad parents, bad kids and all of that before too. Blaming all of these things does not address how we are going to have educated people move into adulthood. Period. If a child is "bad", or has "uninvolved" parents, what then? What happens when this is identified? How is this addressed? How does the strategy change- what does the school system do to attempt to make this child successful? It is simply not acceptable that a child with a normal IQ does not learn basic skills in thirteen years of schooling. Other professions have to answer to what they produce... and change accordingly.
Anyhow, this is all prelude to comments I have made again and again about my observations regarding the literacy of our elders. I have met so very many elders who did not complete school, who have told me with embarrassment how they only made it through 8th grade, or 3rd grade, because they had to work to support the family during the Depression, or The War. Those and other elders are also embarrassed about their penmanship, as they sign documents with their arthritis-gnarled hands. But the reality is that I have marveled over and over at the actual beauty of their penmanship, the level of their word skills. If you do a therapy group with them, sooner or later they will correct your spelling or grammar. All this and they can balance a checkbook too. How is it that these elders with so little education are so skilled?
Where is it that we lost our way? Remember all the "new math"? The abandonment of phonics? Is there a baby out there that indeed did get thrown out with the bath water?
Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own.- Georg C. Lichtenberg
During a recent lunch break I went by to document more of history in the making- and my work buddy Mary patiently indulged me...
The bridge over Skagit River in the Riverside area of Mount Vernon was replaced by a new bridge, which took a while to complete. Now that the new bridge is opened they have taken the old bridge apart, bit by bit. They put the huge sections on ground next to the river and now seem to be in the process of demolishing them, most likely for scrap... Another bit of history bites the dust, and makes for interesting observing.
To see photos, click on the picture at left of me refelected in the car window as I take a picture of patient Mary waiting in my car.
Quote supplied by Miss Kate:
"This is the earliest I've ever been late."- Posted on a cash register at a Friday Harbor ice cream store
Moscow News 3-28-2005:
A group of Russian scientists has suggested caning as a treatment for those who suffer from drug and alcohol addiction as well as depression and suicidal tendencies, the Izvestia daily reports.
The recommended treatment course is 30 sessions of 60 cane strokes, delivered on the buttocks by a person of average build. The method has been tested on volunteers and the results are said to be positive.
The picture of human buttocks is an old one I had in my archives from an email, likely sent by a female friend, that said something about a favorite kind of man- one naked and doing housework or some such thing... Anyhow, it was a picture of buttocks to go along with this story. For the full article about Russian revival of ideas from the good old days, click on the picture.
"Everything has been figured out, except how to live."- Jean-Paul Sartre
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Pictures link to somewhere in the cyberworld, go ahead...click.
