Photoessay #922 - Twenty years

Whoa, I was all busy writing a post entitled "Collective Psychosis" with an accompanying picture when I stopped dead in my tracks. What? What? I should NOT write that post today, my faithful readers will get that one tomorrow, I'm sure you can hardly wait, especially with that title!

Wny did I stop? Because it's Naomi's birthday today! Or rather Naomi entered our family twenty years ago today. Or I gave birth to Naomi in Dec 1989. My baby, 20 years old, that's CRAZY. My children entered my family by birth and by adoption and it's all good. However, giving birth to a child is certainly a special event for the mother. And so it was.

Leaving out the gory details (and there were many in this crazy pregnancy, I just shake my head and say 'don't try it this way')....Naomi Ruth Barnes was born Dec 16 1989 at around 7am at Virgina Mason Hospital. 3 weeks early. Tiny, less than 5 pounds. This picture was a polaroid taken Christmas Day of me and Naomi. 8 days old. I'm sure she had not hit 5 lbs yet.

I spent about 5 days in the hospital. Myself, I thought they should give you an extra day in the hospital for every kid you had at home. But they don't. I remember some carolers came by. Every bed in the ward was full. "Wow, what's going on here with all of these babies", exclaimed one caroler. Then he shrugged "Oh well, tis the season".

I may have told this story before. Dennis and his dad decided to partition our big rec room downstairs and separate the space into an office and an extra bedroom. My mother had visited a few months before the birth. She became alarmed at the lack of progress in the construction project. I had already been married 13 years.."Don't worry", I said "this might not be getting done on the previous style schedule that you would like. But I have no doubt that, when I come home from the hospital, that room will be ready". Besides, it does no good at all to go nuts about it.

Sure enough, when I came home, everything was ready. Except I couldn't find my baby stuff which was still packed away. Dennis' folks Jim and Lanaya were here and I do believe they pulled an all nighter on this one. Remember this baby was 3 weeks early. Everything was painted and set up however all of the adults were exhausted. Not so great as I came home with this tiny baby. AND I ALREADY HAD 3 KIDS AGES 3-7.

Again, don't try this yourself.

No wonder I can't remember a single thing about the 1980s. I know that parents are overwhelmed with their first new baby. A ton of work, they take over your life. But, my thoughts were, at the time, taking care of this baby is a snap, it's everybody else that I can't handle.

But it all worked out. Naomi mourns that, being the 4th child, nobody remembers a thing. When she walked, her first word, etc etc. Who could pick it out in the din. Not so many pictures. You're the afterthought. I spent years, whenever we went anywhere counting "1,2,3,FOUR" I would say over and over making sure we hadn't left anybody behind.

Even know, 20 years later, whenever I hear about kindergarten signup, I imme=diatley stop myself "waida minute, think, think, are you supposed to be signing up anybody for kindergarten". And Naomi's now a freshman at Washington State University. I sent her a card from the cats by postal mail. She'll be home on Friday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAOMI!

Naomi last June at her high school graduation.....

Photoessay #921 - Making Challah

Ilana and her friend T (for confidentiality but I also don't know how to spell her name) are spending this rainy afternoon making challah. Not sure why. Ilana had spent most of the weekend at parties honoring T (and her sister)'s college graduation.

T's going into the Peace Corps in a few months and may do an internship in Portland first. Ilana's been working for the girl scouts (job ended) and a local library system as a page. She's been working hard on her application for graduate studies at the Information School at UW. Hope she gets in. She's worked a lot on her personal statement.

Whether her page job will continue is up in the air. Maybe or maybe not. They're cutting positions even though their levy passed. So when your a temporary sub with less than six months seniority, well, you are on the bottom of the food chain.

My picture showed the loaves rising in the oven, I hope that I can get some shots of the finished product.

But they won't let Teddy into the kitchen and he's very sad.

Photoessay #920 - Summer in the mountains

Some bright colors on a dark gray day. Last summer, Ilana went with some of her friends to Mt. Rainier and took along seven month old Teddy. Who always has a WONDERFUL time wherever he goes. Great picture of Mount Rainier, Ilana can't quite remember where they were. Dogs are not allowed on the trails, Ilana reports. Why not? asks puppy Teddy, don't they know I'm NOT a pit bull?

I noticed that I had bragged that people still came to the dog park when the temp was in the low forties. Ha! Wimps! I was there for several days when the temp was in the low 20s. And I was not alone. Currently 42 degrees, a heat wave considering the cold cold (but clear) weather we have been having.

Teddy's rounded a corner in his intellectual development. He has now decided that chasing the ball and bringing it back is the most important matter at hand. No time for any frivolous activities, he's over wrestling and running. It's all business now. Fetch the ball, again and again.

That sun and light sure look good though!

Photoessay #919 - Hanukah

We lit the Hanukah candles tonight, day 3. This lovely photo is taken from my friend Joline's facebook site. Very pretty and caught my eye with it's light and beauty. Kind of like Joline!

We don't make a big deal of Haunukah at our house. But we do light the candles, usually there's some hanukah gelt and maybe some of those chocolate coins (thought I don't have any this year). We light the candles and then mumble Rock of Ages, which I don't really know the words and my humming's off. But that's how my kids have learned, you light the candles, you say the blessing then you mumble the song that you really don't know the words to. You know, tradition.

My mother attended a hanukah party at her temple on Friday. She brought her menorah. Of course, I asked which one? She laughed and said that the had told everybody the story.

My mother owns two menorahs, one a very pretty light blue ceramic one from Israel, the 'good one'. Then she had a bashed up stained stamped tin giveaway one that she got from religious school in the thirties. UGGGGGGGLY. Of course, that's the one we used to light the candles. The other one was 'for good'. So, when I was some kind of teen, we went to a Hanukah party at our temple. I through a fit, no way, NO WAY, were we going to bring that stamped tin thing, I insisted we must take the 'good one'. My mother relented and we took the Israeli menorah and lit our candles.

Here's the punch line. Guess what kind of menorah the rabbi's family used? You guessed it, an old stamped tin one just like my mother's.

I still haven't lived that one down!

Photoessay #918 - Expert Panel

At a team meeting, I suggested a 'Classic Changes' approach. The family's adult daughter was continually badgering them for money. The parents agonized because they knew of their daughter (and grandchildren's) problems. But the requests had become demands and they suspected some substance abuse issues.

When to say yes? When to say no? What if something horrible happened because they didn't immediately send money?

I suggested the team could handle the requests. The parents could insist that, if the daughter wished to request money, that they talk to the panel not to the parents. The panel being the team members. They will send the daughter a short letter by postal mail including our first names and phone numbers. Should she call one of us, we would collect the information about the request as completely as possible and confer with the other panel members. The panel will present the request to the parents as appropriate.

The panel members are not emotionally involved. The parents will refuse to talk about money with their daughter, instead respectfully refer her to the panel. I made up that term on the spot. Sounds official, doesn't it?

The parents have to really trust their team to do this.... We'll see!

Picture of ANOTHER panel used without permission from the Center for American Progress.

Photoessay #917 - Conference call

Just about every day, I participate in one or more conference calls regarding systems development for my company (I was in sales for many years, it's ok). I now use Skype, used a Costco calling card for a long time.

I take it all for granted but today I marveled on how routine this all is. The participants are from

Seattle
New Hampshire
Rochester
St. Louis
Argentina

And it's a free service!

Ho hum, who cares. Pretty amazing if you ask me! But these calls can still can be pretty dull. I'm not too active particularly.

Illustration used without permission from Intelenet

Also, I attended a hearing in support of a family today. Their son will be able to stay in juvenile court and not declined to adult court. Whew, much relief on all sides.

Also Ilana and I lit the hanukah candles before she left.

Photoessay #916 - Dismissed!

I successfully got my $124 ticket dismissed today. Unexpectedly. I was all ready with my sick puppy defense. Even had a picture for support. But I didn't need it as I got let off on a technicality.

The city of Lake Forest Park has contracted with some outfit in Arzona to set up speed zones near schools 'photo enforced'. Which means that for a certain part of the road, the speed limit drops to 20 mph with a little sign and if you drive down the road at a faster speed, flash! and the cameras mounted on the pole have taken your picture and you're screwed. This particular zone is 2 blocks away from the school on a different street. Really really annoying, it's hard to see that it's anything other than a revenue stream for the city.

So, when I was taking the dog to the vet, flash! Dang! Sure enough I received a ticket for $124. You could request a mitigation hearing, which I did. When I got there this morning, at least 20 other people were there all having got the same ticket in the same place. And were mad as heck about it.

But, these tickets are not moving violations because the camera cannot tell who was driving. More like a parking ticket which belongs to the vehicle. A parking ticket for $124?

The judge asked if anybody present had not been driving the car during the violation. If so, the judge would dismiss the ticket. I did not consider the inverse which would have given me a hint.

The first person gave his usual excuses, not seeing the sign, how would you know, etc. The judge adjusted it by half but he still owed $65. He wasn't very happy mumbling about the cash gtab by the city.

Because of the 'Barnes' name, I was called second. But the judge called Dennis Barnes, not me. I went up looking confused. I said who I was. Then I remembered that I had been driving the Prius which probably was registered in my husband's name. We had not been real careful about this, whoever was there when the car got licensed owned the car. A small fleet of used cars have been registered in my name. But Dennis bought that car at the dealer so, yeah, probably in his name.

The judge asked "was I driving". Yes, I was. Did I own the car? Apparently not. She asked me to raise my right hand and testify that I had been the driver. She then dismissed the ticket.

Suwwwweeeeat! Lucky me!

I look at the letter and, sure enough, the summons was addressed to Dennis.

So, to all those readers in photo-enforced land. If you are driving a car registered to somebody else, you do NOT have to pay!

Picture of Lake Forest Park, Washington city hall.

Photoessay #915 - Too dang cold

Freezing! We've had an extended cold snap here in the Puget Sound area. Basically been below freezing for 5 days. And I'm tired of it. Mostly in the 20s; real cold for this region.

But I've gone to the dog park every day. And I have not been alone. Sometimes it's hard to go when you know it's about 25 degrees out. But the pups need to run; it doesn't hurt me. Though I've broken out the softball gear, the long undersear and my famous thick socks. I'm always the envy with my socks; one day after watching a softball game in the sleet, I went to REI and said 'sell me your warmest socks'.

Cracked me up to hear Susanna's roommate Emily's dad from Arizona talk about softball. "I was so glad when she stopped playing softball because it was so hot" Hot? Sorry, softball is a frigid sport. Spectators with many many layers.

But today I feature the new water faucet, the pride of the Mountlake Terrace Dog Park. They fundraised for months to raise the 4K it took to put it in. But right now, it doesn't work. The president assured the membership that it's been disconnected because it's so cold. But nothing's broken and we'll again have water again when it warms up.

But it's been mighty cold day and night.

Photoessay #914 - Heavy and Light

Let's start with the light. Some examples from the wedding pictures (see yesterday about making the album.

The first picture is the groom and his family. What is wrong with this picture?
...think...
...think...
...think...
Give up? Where's the BRIDE in this picture? These are wedding pictures.

Same with the next picture. The picture of the bride with her family. Where's the groom?

Just a little oversight by our volunteer photographer, didn't get the spouse with their new family. One of those details....

And the picture at the end? One of our personal favorites. Dennis had this friend John, who always had a lot to say about everything. Totally full of himself and full of malarkey. Probably can't believe a thing he says. So here he's engaged my grandfather Harold Ginsburgh in conversation. You can tell that my grandpa (very well educated) isn't buying a word of it. Love it!


The heavy...the memorial for the four policemen shot in Lakewood took place today. Huge event. 20,000 people many of them police, firefighters and military people. Filled the Tacoma Dome and it was broadcast by the local tv channels. Tons of ritual, went on for HOURS. They decided to go for a 21 bell salute rather than a 21 gun salute. Pretty heavy going