Where did she go?

I have written about people who have touched my life in significant ways here on old Chez What, and today I am gonna tell about Jill.

Jill and I were in Peace Corps together, in Western Russia. Well, aside from my parents getting a divorce when I was 13, Russia had to rank right up there with one of the most strange and stressful things I ever did. I think the same could be said for just about every person in my group, but of every person in that group, I had the most respect for Jill.

Aside from obvious assets that Jill had, like being fluent in Russian, having already lived in Ukraine, having an eternally cool head and having a great sense of humor, Jill seemed to manage 99% of the time to float above all the crummy things that were happening in this time in Russia. Example?

Jill's first placement was with a woman who took her basically as her own little personal American slave. She loaded Jill up with classes to teach, and while the rest of our group had apartments, Jill was living in this freezing cold dorm sleeping in the same room with 2 other girls (students) and sharing a kitchen that was nothing more than a hotplate on top of a fridge and a seat next to a window.

Almost miraculously, she got PC to change her assignment (for some reason this was utterly unheard of) and she went to a different school in Moscow.

This new job was less problematic, except that the living situation wasn't much improved and where she was living was so dangerous she told me of being held at knifepoint outside of her dorm at night.

Now Jill was savvy and able to make connections with the teachers she was working with. She arranged for herself through her own connections to do a teacher training way out in Izhevsk (VERY far from Moscow). She charmed and wooed them (an easy task for her she was capable in Russian and had a charming personality) and they invited her to teach there with them. She had essentially done for herself the job that PC does for volunteers.

When she asked PC if she could go and her reasons why (safety, better circumstances) they said that she was not allowed to change sites again. And with the most amazing testicular fortitude, she ditched PC and crossed Russia on her own to teach in Izhevsk (a small remote burg), trusting them to pay her, help her out and give her a place to live. They did all that and she stayed there for the remainder of the time she was scheduled to be in Russia, after which, I believe PC flew her home.

Now it might not sound like a biggie, but to be in a foreign country without a sort of organization behind you to back you up or pull you out of a jam, well, that to me sealed the deal as Jill having real courage, and confidence. I don't think she ever though twice.

Jill and I kept in touch after PC. This was during my salsa dancing phase. I went to Monterrey to visit her as she got her Masters in teaching Russian at the Monterrey Institute of International Studies. She came up to Portland and I took her around and to my family. She made fun of where my parents lived, in Gig Harbor, called it Geek Harbor and then laughed really hard and slapped her knee, she only ever referred to it as Geek Harbor. I thought it was funny too.

I admired Jill because she was so determined, so focused on what she wanted. She was all about Russia. And while my language abilities in Russian faded (I learn fast and forget equally as quickly) she had started publishing and got a job in Washington D.C. with ACTR (American Council of Teachers of Russian). With them she would bring Russian teachers of English to the U.S. to train and she would go to Russia to stay for trips.

She did things professionally that I thought were beyond cool, she presented at TESOL. She interpreted in important meetings. She was travelling, publishing. During this time of my life, I was basically trying to figure out what to do with myself after PC, hoping to avoid the Masters Programs so I didn't accumulate any more student debt).

Jill now is an occasional intermediary between my host family in Russia and myself. I have sent her several letters, and not heard a word from her. She sent me a gift when my daughter was born, but the last letter I received had the wrong phone number for her in it. I think I called it about 5 times, leaving messages. The email too, dead. How wierd!

Jill told me once about how she had a friend in Russia who she had basically ditched. She told me how awful she felt about never writing her back, never calling her after having been as thick as thieves for years. If memory serves, she said she loved her dearly, but that the friend had become very reliant on Jill.

It is true, Jill and I were very different people, especially at that time after Peace Corps when I was trying to figure out which direction to take. She would tell me her professional travails, and all I could think was how lucky she was. I encouraged her, told her that I admired her, especially as this 2 year period saw my life sullied with ridiculous jobs, choices made out of boredom and a lack of real focus.

Jill and I were really different, she never seemed to be the remotest bit interested in marraige or family. I hadn't been until I hit about 29, then it dawned on me: I wasn't sure if being single was what I really wanted. She seemed to float above that. Marraige wasn't at all interesting to her, her work completed her it seemed like.

Well so I have no issue if Jill dropped me off along the way, I am glad to have known her. She still kind of inspires me with her focus. I am not her, I do wish I could speak with her, if only to hear tales of her meteoric rise. I don't doubt for a second that she would achieve among the highest goals. I hope she is well, and perhaps we will cross paths again.

Monday wasn't as bad as I feared.

My last post detailed my fear about this new trimester.

I found some consolation in the fact that there are only 2 weeks until break, so I can come up with something to last 2 weeks, and then I can plan out for the last 2 months. Are you bored yet?

I was fearing today my stuff would be all limp, my kids would be all irritable, my stomach would be doing its thing where it hurts, and I would be exhausted by 9 AM. Instead, everything worked, the kids loved it, we even got color copy enlargements (yes this is a BIG DEAL) of the maps of Mexico. They are totally into it. Hooray, Monday went by without incident. I came home all ready to make dinner, and yes, even our breakfast burritos rocked.



So while we were making dinner A was watching her new DVD of Fat Albert. I thought it would be fun to get this. I am not that crazy about it, but it did bring back memories. And I realized that Bill Cosby seemed to make a career out of creating positive media images of family for kids. Good for him! And then I randomly remembered the a statement he made about blacks not so long ago that was a little less than positive. It was wierd to hear him saying that. I wondered what happened between Fat Albert and when he said these things. He got old?

"Ladies and gentlemen, the lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal," he said, according to The Washington Post. "These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids -- $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200 for 'Hooked on Phonics.'"

And honestly, I am more used to hearing Bill Cosby say things like this.

Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope.

“Women don't want to hear what you think. Women want to hear what they think -- in a deeper voice.”

In researching this, I have good memories of listening to his records when I was little because my brother played them, and the doubled-over laughing until we were crying giggle fits that he brought us. He is 71!

My parents let me watch all the TV I wanted and then some. J's parents had limit (Good for them). I was largely raised by Love Boat, Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, Fantasy Island, CHiPs, Eight is Enough and the list goes on. That's Incredible, Wild Kingdom, Marine Boy...I could go on. Seeing that Fat Albert reminded me of all I learned from the TV, and not necessarily good stuff.

And Fat Albert, while funny sort of, I wonder if show as loaded with non politically correct ways would fly today. Again, I wonder about PC-ness, and whether it is actually a good thing.

teacher honesty minute

Our last trimester starts tomorrow. Since this is my first year at this school, and because there is no curriculum, it means that I get to create everything that will happen in all 5 of my classes from scratch. I've done it all year, so, no biggie right? Well, first semester I used the books, figuring that at the outset that would be fine and I could see how I liked it. Well, all the "themes" in the book were so random I genuinely had a hard time trying to fit this book to my kids needs and my normal teaching. Had a hard time generating interest, and I was bored too. So second trimester we scrap it all and do stuff that we want to do. We studied Cesar Chavez. This worked out really well.

So now, third trimester. I asked the kids what they wanted to study. Part of the struggle is that I teach all levels of language learners, from the newcomers to the advanced kids. So I cannot recycle much, and my advanced kids are my last classes of the day when my energy level is lowest. So far this year, I have done much better with my less english skills kids, who I knew I was going to teach all summer, anticipated them. My higher level kids, well, now is the time to meet the challenge with these kids. They are on permanent "We are interested and excited about nothing" mode, which is strange for middle schoolers.

To make matters more interesting, the news arrived awhile back that I am to bear a child. Pregnancy is effective for me anyway, at distracting me from school significantly.

I have 3 months left before summer (we get out early June). While normally as a teacher most of my energy goes into what cool stuff we can do in the classroom, I have to admit to some serious distraction, and not even a comfy established curriculum to lean on. I mean there is nothing.

(cue world's smallest violin)

Wish me luck!

My 5 minutes

I was published in the Oregonian today.

And when I came home there was a message on my answering machine to appear on Lars Larson.

Tomorrow.

I guess this is it, my 5 minutes.

edit: He interviewed me today at 2:30. I didn't really know who this guy was really (I think I had heard his name thrown about, but that's the extent of it) but now I see he is basically a repackaged Rush Limbaugh. Whatever... he was nice.

New rollers

I visit Dooce monthly, usually just to admire her banners. But I just took her off my roll because her ads have gotten crazy. You cant even see her content, just her ads.

I added Area Woman Falls Prey to Narcissistic E-trend (my sentiments exactly about blogging) and Hobo Teacher. They are both teacher, E trend in a Catholic school.

Meanwhile I am still perplexed because all my referrals are coming to a slight off hand reference to a travel channel thing I saw 2 years ago about the Mek Tribe. I am getting ridiculous amounts of people coming to Chez What for that.

And in other news, here is a sneak preview of new home.

chezwhat.net

its about time.

and just because one blog really isn't enough, here's my work blog where I just posted some podcasts my kids did this week about Cesar Chavez.

Phew, and to think I was going to have to exercise my democratic right...

Sure am glad to hear that once the Texas primary is over in early March, the party nominations will be set.

Seeing how we don't get to vote until MAY here in Oregon, it's nice to know that my vote will really make a difference. I am relieved that everything with the party nominations will be decided once I go to cast my vote, because what we really value here in America is that everyone's vote COUNTS, right? So, it's like a little vacation from my democratic duties to choose my candidate, I can let the rest of America do it for me. Phew!

Fidel: your friend and mine

Today while I was driving home from dentist I got stuck listening to "World Have Your Say" which is an annoying enough call in show where people all over the world, honestly, anyone with a radio and a cell phone can call in and begin shouting in heavily accented english whatever their opinion is about that days subject.

The host makes jabs at all the callers to get them to take a side or demonize them and then usually cuts them off before they can finish their longwinded retorts. This also bothers me, I hate interruptions.

Its like a carnival on the radio. I hate it, but I still listen usually til I can't take it anymore. I think my main addiction is the accents. Linguistics nerd, I especially like the intonations of Indian speakers.

Today's subject was whether Fidel Castro was a monster dictator or a hero, since he announced stepping down. There was nothing new really, but there were some voices of reason with a couple "experts" acknowledgiing his "legend" status, and it did bring to light a very little known person. But when the man from Tamil Nadu and the woman from Chile start yelling at each other and talking over each other I have to turn off the radio, though no such upset occurred today.

I guess consider it an upside of moving, I get lost everywhere I go and take ten times longer to get back, home, also ironic because the reason we moved was to drive less.

And the dentist? Well she told me I need to floss. I thought once every 6 months was enough, guess not.

And for my fellow linguistics nerds:

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again
asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by
adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new
definition. Here are this year's winners

1. **Intaxication**: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts
until you realize it was your money to start with.

2. **Reintarnation**: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

3. **Bozone** (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops
bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows
little sign of breaking down in the near future.

4. **Cashtration** (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the
subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

5. **Giraffiti**: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

6. **Sarchasm**: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the
person who doesn't get it.

7. **Inoculatte**: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

8. **Hipatitis**: Terminal coolness.

9 **Osteopornosis**: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

10. **Karmageddon**: It's like, when everybody is sending off all
these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and
it's, like, a serious bummer.

11. **Decafalon** (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day
consuming only things that are good for you.

12. **Glibido**: All talk and no action.

13. **Dopeler effect**: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter
when they come at you rapidly.

14. **Arachnoleptic fit** (n.): The frantic dance performed just after
you've accidentally walked through a spider web.


15. **Beelzebug** (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets
into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

16. **Caterpallor** (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

teacher sick day

Teachers don't really get vacation, primarily because we get so many days off, spring break, winter break and of course the three reasons why we are teachers to begin with: June July and August. However, in complete honesty I know I am not the only teacher who has taken a mental health day.

Today I was sick. It wasn't a mental health day, I am really sick. I would much rather be at school than sick.

But I have taken a mental health day, and despite the fact that we have to spend 2 hours writing up 5 pages worth of sub plans (which they will probably never read), I still have taken these days.

The question at large is: what do teachers do on their mental health days?

Do they clean the house *shudder*? Do they correct papers (again, *shudder*) Do they go shopping? Do they hang out at the library with a bottle of wine in a paper bag? Do they make science experiments? Do they catch up on their sleep? Do they recycle? Do they sweep the garage? Do they hide under their beds? Do they write letters to their grandma's? Do they go shopping for some new clothes?

What do teachers do on their mental health day? Hey help me, I want to know?!

for posterity's sake

Knowing full well that no one care, but just for my own sanity I have to talk about the good time He and I had this weekend. Friday night we went to lil pub that's our favorite, then to Home Depot to look at stuff to make our house better.

Sat. we had to go look at some rocks (don't ask, we are going to build a wall) but the rock place decided it was closed even though it said it was open on the website, but to redeem the day we did some other fun stuff, like getting donuts (one knows one is old when getting donuts seems so rebellious-in fact He even suggested we take a walk around the library "for fun" haha!) then went to a shop we had wanted to go in, came home and I went to a gym and nearly passed out because I haven't actually gymmed out since August. Sat. night we got all duded up and went to a wine bar, which was a little more foofy than we wanted so we ended up at a Bistro a little further south that had really yummy food, and was a perfect place for us, I got to sit next to the fireplace.

This AM we got up and went to a bookstore and got coffee, traded in books and bought some for him and I and for the girl. Then we went to the store that is the definition of a baffling ordeal (Ikea) and bought a small dining table and some other stuff. J likened the place to huge trash heap of instant garbage. I had to point out that pretty much everything we have ever bought there is still serving us quite well...

And then we went to pick up the girl, who was very sick and sniffly and looked very tired. We took her home and snuggled her, fed her and put her to bed with some medicine.

This was out Valentines Day, and I am relishing it because more than likely we won't be having time like this again until summerish.

freeeeeeee

For the first weekend since November, A is with granny and we are just a couple. And I might add that in November, we had to move into a new home so it wasn't like much fun was goin on.

Time before that? Errrr...August of last year? I don't know actually. So it is a long time coming. J and I are having a sweet time of it,we always make our future plans in times like these, and I fall in love with him again.... despite missing her like mad.

Inspired... or something

Inspired by Chucheria talking about her class that almost does her in, I am inspired to tell of my first Spanish 1 class which will live on in my hippocampus in infamy.

The year I had them, I was in my third year teaching and was juggling teaching classes from 3 different departments. ESL, Health and Spanish. I was also pregnant in the smallest classroom on campus. The class list as the year started was 53 students. I asked for more desks, but was told that the students might winnow down as the first day arrived. Three of our five principals started running around finding me desks as kids filed in, when I called the office because they were sitting on window sills and floors.

I was nervous as I watched this huge quantity of kids file in. Thankfully there was a very set curriculum for Spanish which is helpful when one is starting out, unfortunately, the Spanish department staff were a 20 minute walk away and think only 2 of the 4 on staff knew who I was, and that I was teaching Spanish.

Eventually the size of the class went down to about 22 after the first 3 or so months wherein they had to move me to another classroom to accommodate the size of the group. I will never forget them.

As I describe them, keep in mind they are way out of the league of what is normal in a classroom for me.

Skinny E: one of a very small number black kids in our school, he would never look at me as he spoke, and never intended to ever do any work. When I asked him if he would turn around when I spoke to him (he put his back to me) he told me he "only faced his mama". I was always gently perplexed and never got to know him before they moved him out of my class.

future Shaq: who threatened other kids with expletives as he entered the room late. His administrator who I sent the referrals to was on her year before retirement and told me to my face she didn't have time to deal with him. I was glad to see him go, though felt bad for him as I saw him trying very hard to be the partying player basketball star, before he was kicked off the team for his stunts.

Shaneeka: also a study in early pregnancy. also gave me intimate details of her female issues.

molester if I care: parents divorced, dad was trying to straighten up wayward son. made sexual harrassing statements to one particular girl in the class consistently, and felt that I was completely out of line to step in.

devoutly religious homeschooler girl: she was just so happy to be in school, and though she mangled the spanish, because of her sheer effort and enthusiasm, I knew she could do it. As she graduated, she won the class award for being inspirational and positive.

abercrombie blond: confused with home issues, the unspoken leader of the class. Initially tried to be the class pet, which made me uncomfortable probably because of the amount of power she wielded among this group of very immature 9th graders (they would name their teams after her when they competed, she chose a name from Lion King as her spanish name --at the time I hadn't seen Lion King)

"I'm dumb" boy: Got C's until he decided he couldn't do Spanish, then tried to get out of the class. I protested, knowing he was smart enough, but he just never tried again. I guess now with experience I would let him go. He always just gave up before ever attempting anything.

"but I am a missionary!" goth girl: I will always remember her. Mid year she went goth. She was a year younger than her classmates. When she didn't understand a very simple concept (she was pretty smart) I told her to skip it because I could tell she was getting really frustrated, and I figured we could come back to it. As she left the classroom that day she sobbed "I'm going to be a missionary, you know!" in such a strange way as to suggest that I was somehow impeding her from this noble goal.

Her brother was in the class, and while we were learning colors he was incensed that I wasn't aware that he was colorblind, and so how dare I introduce colors. How strange. Once I learned he was colorblind I told him to not sweat it, but still I had dared, which sealed the deal that I was so unfair.

I have never experienced a class like this one, the kids did projects and tons of communicative stuff, I learned alot of fun activities this year from a really excellent Spanish department, but still I somehow got branded as the wicked witch of the west. Was it because I wouldn't let that one boy draw dirty pictures on the whiteboard? Maybe it was the girl I sent out for her thong underpants and cleavage? Maybe it was because they had to do homework?

Guess I'll never know, but I was okay with it when they all graduated.

American Pragmatism and Economic Responsibility, part 2

Coming on the heels of being astonished at the size of my electricity bill in my new home, pragmatism I suppose has been my approach to money.

Now, I haven't taken economics. But I have a dad who managed to emerge in retirement as a millionaire from a career as an engineer, and he freely shares money advice by talking to his children like they are blithering idiots. I still have his voice in my head, saying "*&*%^$# Heather!" as he expresses amazement at our decisions. We have learned how our dad is, we take his "quirks" with a grain of salt. And along the way, he has impressed upon us some good economic advices.

So for me, when I hear of this economically stimulating package that intends to pay out a total of over 150 billion to us and other families in the nation to "save" the economy, I am wondering how is this responsible? We have a war and 9 trillion in debt. I am flummoxed.

Is this normal? Have I somehow lived my whole life not knowing that it was normal for the gov to send benjamins back to taxpayers... so thatultimately they would go to WalMart to stimulate the Chinese economy? Have they done this before? Isn't the interest we are paying on this money costing America a ton? Isn't interest sort of like a hole in the bucket?

Why do I feel like George W is a cracksmoker? Why does he always give money back to taxpayers... no one else ever did that, did they? Aren't they just going to ask for more later? How does this economics work?

Am I alone in feeling like these are wierd martian economics? Sort of like when he told us to go shopping after 911. That an adrenaline shot to the heart isn't really going to solve a long term downward tilt of our economy...

Either that, or I am the only one without an economics course, and clearly handing out money to citizens is a very fiscally responsible thing to do. It's a new world. And I am Emily LaTella (from SNL).

Am I the only one thinking that this "stimulus package" seems like bizarre election year economics that smell like a republican bid to garner positive feelings to a languishing political party? Not mention that this was the same guy who vetoed health insurance for kids?

Weigh in y'all! (all 2 of you)

edit: Irony.

So I know that George W. did this once before back in the days that I was in college, when I needed a kickback the most. Unfortunately, as a student, even with 2 jobs, I didn't make enough to qualify to get a check back. Subsequently, it does seem like this never happened before. Though I know that our state just sent our family back 700 some odd dollars, I can handle this come from a state economy (for some reason) better than the federal economy. All I know is that they better not say that anything is going unfunded if they are going to take all that money to send me back a check.

Logistics

America is full of pragmatists, and well, I guess along with other things, I am pragmatic too. So, in the spirit of American pragmatism, this writing is going to be about BILLS.

Why? Because since I moved into my new house, my electricity bill has doubled. We are running around like dervishes turning off lights, closing fireplace dampers, closing doors, turning off fans, reducing the amount of appliance use, closing drapes, trying to find ways to get this electricity bill down. I do not understand how our bill has doubled.

My PGE bill is coming in at 120 a month. What is up with that? It used to be 40 to 70. You'd think that we had a Las Vegas Style sign in the front. We are a little curious. Same company, different town, smaller house even. One story instead of 3. Huh.

Our heating bill is scraping 200 a month. With those kinds of benjamins, we should be walking around in our underpants with the heat cranked to 80. We aren't. I wear sweaters and we never even hit 70 degrees. In fact, the heat stays off most of the day.

It's enough to make an environmentalist out of me. What can we do though? Short of dropping 20 K for a high efficiency heater and new vinyl windows (which we are discussing).

Is what we pay for utilities a big secret? Can we talk about this? Or is it boring to everyone except for me?

Are you paying this much?

She Blinded me with Science

Thank goodness we have scientists to let us know that water is wet.

Lately I hear all this stuff about if you don't sleep enough it increases your chances to be overweight. Well this is just grand news for someone like me who thinks there are few better ways to spend 15 to 20 minutes than to lay down for a nap. Stolen time, most delicious! And to feel that it might actually make up for the fact that I haven't been exercising since moving to a new home! Yippee!

But then it starts to get a little out of control. In Morning Edition the commentator starts saying things like lack of sleep can be one of the biggest problems next to obesity and smoking in terms of causing accidents. They talk about how lack of sleep affects our bodies and minds.

And it took a team of scientists to figure this out.

I remember in some science class in some book I read, the book said that scientists view common sense information as being fallacy and the scientific method reinforced a necessary reliance on tested fact. I thought that was interesting. So, by that logic, common sense was useless and only things proven through the scientific method had/have any validity.

I mean, I can see where they are going with this, but does anyone see how this puts our collective learning for the past thousands of years back to square one, because if it hasn't been scientifically proven, it's not reliable. Like the fact that it is important to get enough sleep, like say, 8 hours a night. Did I really need a team of researchers to tell me this? Apparently I did. What about if I approach a rabid dog with some steak in my hand, should we conduct some experiments to see if this might be hazardous to my health?

When I was young, I eschewed much conventional wisdom. I had this fabulous delusion that just because it happened to them, it didn't mean it would happen to me, because I was different. You know, there is actually brain research to show that teenagers are missing the neural connections to understand that they are fallible, mortal and how to cope with all this. Ack! More science!

Now that I am a little older, I think the whole world has gone crazy when I hear that we have to hear on the radio that sleep is good for us. It takes a team of researchers to tell us this. And, it is good for our bodies and metabolism! Friends, it is because we are sleeping instead of eating.

I have to admit, when I was living in Russia, some of the conventional wisdom there made me snicker. Like if you tape peppercorns to your ears it will help with a sore throat. However, if health insurance and health costs continue in this country as they are where people are going madly into debt to get medical treatment, some folks might just try rubbing vodka on their areas of malaise instead of paying a 3000 dollar hospital bill. Heck, then they can drink the vodka and be okay at least until the morning and still have the 3000 in their pocket.

Not that I am recommending that.

Anyway, every time I hear these teams of researchers discovering things like "stress makes people unhealthy" or "eating is linked to obesity" or "scientists find that exercising can help weight loss" or other things that I thought were just logical, it makes me glad that someone is paying these scientists to come up with these things and test them out for us. Because heaven forbid we should just rely on accepted, time tested collective wisdom. So I am happy that these scientists can carve out a little niche for themselves in the world to test the things that most sensible humans already know. They truly must be smart, because they have created a market for themselves to tell us the things that we already know.

As an aside, they did mention some interesting research about sleep patterns historically, basically that our sleep declined immensely with the advent of the electric light. Which I should probably now turn off and go to sleep so I can lose some weight.

All the lonely people...

This statue is "Eleanor Rigby" per the Beatles song of the same name. It is in Liverpool, England.

I promise to post about a happy topic soon. But for now, lately the radio has been talking alot about people who die and there is no one] to bury them.

The link to this story here. It was on This American Life, called Home Alone.

They did this special about a woman in Los Angeles who worked for the county government. It is her job to go into the houses of people who have died and figure out who the relatives are. This way the deceased can get a proper burial.

She described the house of one woman in a sort of "on the scene" interview. The woman had died. She was in the morgue. Because she needed to be buried, and the family needed to be notified, they sent this county employee to the home to find out if the deceased had any relatives to bury her.

Going into the house, there are little paths. The bed is in the living room, a path sort of cleared to the TV set. There are tons of boxes, some unopened and some opened from the Home Shopping Network. She goes through the deceased womans bills, her papers, her files, her check stubs, her Christmas cards, trying to locate a personal contact that she can communicate with. She wants a personal address book. No luck. She really hopes to find a will that indicates what should happen after she dies. No luck there either...

After several days of going through this woman's stuff, she is able to place a couple calls to connect her to someone. The someone doesn't know her, but thinks his wife might. The wife says that she thinks the deceased woman might be something like the stepmother of an aunt that married into the family or some such distant relation on the guy's side. They never really seem to clear it up, but the guy says on radio that he wants to do his duty for the woman.

Someone else apparently pops up in the investigation who claims the woman. All of a sudden there are now two people.

And for the county employee it is on to the next case.

But what if they don't find anyone to communicate with? This happens too. Every year there are at least several hundreds who die and no one claims them to bury them. Every year they have a mass burial of these people at a cemetery. They have mass lots, each with a different year, they bury all the people together.

Then another story about a woman who died after five years in convalescent care, during which time not one single person ever came to see her. Olive Riggs.

This story takes place in England, and so the investigator in this case puts an ad in the paper. Olive Riggs. Some people respond, but mostly to offer condolences, and no they never actually knew her.

People don't like to think of other people dying alone. They don't want it to happen to them...

Weeks later, someone who might have known her calls.

I keep getting these inputs. I think about the elderly I have known, and know now. I don't really understand how it can happen that a person ends this way. But then I know families with a distinct live and let die mentality towards their brothers and fathers and grandmothers.

I don't know how to end this elegantly. This whole story is distressing. It makes me ask what is going on? How can this be? And it brings me back to ideas of losing community, what we got in exchange and whether it was worth it.

When I looking into the Amish a year or so ago, their life seemed to exemplify starkly the trade-off for community. They have amazing strong communities. Their close knit-ness from bloodlines, same churches, living arrangements, marraige celebrations, same schools, common traditions bring them together tightly as a community. There is never a problem of finding a babysitter in an Amish community. In Rumspringa, kids are released from the standards of the Amish community. Most all of them come back. The trade off of 221 channels of direct TV, cars, jeans, beer, video games, movies, books, stylish sneakers and buttons (yes, buttons, because women in some areas can only use pins) isn't worth the relationships & community that carry them through life.

"Abandonment is the greatest of all poverties"

-Mother Teresa

the forecast. for too long

• Tonight: Overcast with rain showers at times. Low near 35F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
• Tomorrow: Rain. Snow may mix in early. High 39F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
• Tomorrow night: Considerable cloudiness with occasional rain showers. Snow may mix in late. Low 34F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
• Monday: Rain showers in the morning becoming more intermittent in the afternoon. Snow may mix in early. High 41F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
• Tuesday: Mainly cloudy and rainy. Highs in the mid 40s and lows in the upper 30s.
• Wednesday: Showers. Highs in the low 40s and lows in the upper 30s.

Flickr & Yahoo stink

Flickr seemed all that and more for quite a long time. I loaded many, many photos there.

When A was born I originally loaded pics on Yahoo, because that was who I used alot, Yahoo. Plus I could print to Target, go pic up images when it was convenient for me.

In about August or so of this year, Flickr said they were moving all my Yahoo pics to Flickr and wahoo wasn't this excellent, I was going to get a free Pro Account! For 2 months. Wow, how generous.

Then, they told me that if I didn't pay 24.95 all my pictures would become unavailable. And they did. Now, I am only allowed to have 200 pictures on Flickr, andI cannot view them in the large size format. Convenient, just as I have recently purchased a nice dSLR and now Flickr is basically offering me nothing anymore. Unless of course I want to pay 24.95 for a pro account. I cannot see the large image size, I cannot print to Target, I cannot upload new pics each month without having other deleted.

I was given the old bait and switch. It seems like when Yahoo came along all Flickr offered went away. I voiced how this was a kick in the head, I got a canned email in response, ostensibly saying "this is how it is".

Bye Flickr and Yahoo. I am laughing because I have gone from having Yahoo do most all my web services to none. Google offers more. I'll keep pics on Picasa.

Photo Essay: Holidays 2007

This is S post Christmas, a shot taken by her brother. Here we are in Redding, CA at J's parent house.

On the drive home from CA, normally made during the day, J took this shot of at all places, a rest stop.

On New Years Eve, heading home, we stopped to see the A's who are parents to a A3, who likes my A, even though seh jacked his Curious George slippers (My A has a slipper fetish)

This is taken after all festivities have come to a close and life is approaching a normal pace. Here we are checking out the park nearby and A is pleased to have climbed up this structure.

I didn't realize her swing had run out of steam, and she was just sitting there, because I was er, too absorbed in the moss.

Our holidays beginning. Another lovely noble. Thankyou twee.
A enjoying her gifts, making a call to her agent?
A proving me wrong: that musical boxes are in fact, very interesting.

Only in California do these flowers grow in subzero temps.

Always something to take a picture of....

Rain rain rain rain

It begins to bear down on one when every day sun is looked for but yahoo weather predicts rain every day for nearly 2 months.

Bust out the Billie Holiday and renew the gym membership because I can feel the christmas goodies collecting in all their favorite spots.

Year by year I care less, but the exercise feels really good, and I guess that is why I bother.

So I am bracing myself because happy new year y'all, it is the time of the year for naps, good books, soup Billie Holiday and samba (oh I forgot, that is all year round) and making photo albums.

All I need is to remember that all is not lost on clouds, but life shifts its focus from hiking and biking to making soup.

Best get to that, now.