For a few days this week we were bathed in the February sun. As long as you were inside and looking through a window near a heater vent, it was easy to imagine basking in the warmth of the sun. Once you were outside, however, it became a different story.
Clear skies mean lower temperatures. High temperatures have been in the 30s, lows in the 20s, wind chill knocking off about 15 degrees.
Humans are warm-blooded animals, also 
known as homeotherms. We regulate our body temperature, to the extent we can, balancing heat production from our metabolic sources and heat loss from evaporative cooling (better known as perspiration). In a cold environment, our body heat is conserved by constriction of blood vessels near the body surface and by waves of muscle contractions, or shivering, which serve to increase metabolism. Another heat-conserving mechanism, goose bumps, raises the body hairs; not especially effective in humans, this works well in animals as it increases the thickness of the insulating fur or feather layer.
Cold, of course, is relative. It is much colder in other areas, not so cold in others. What is cold to Cindy isn't that cold to me. Cold is relative to age as well; what wasn't that cold to me in the past is now cold. The natural slowing of metabolism as we age means the body becomes less efficient at generating heat and maintaining our normal body temperature.
Staying warm is a priority. The cats still enjoy sunning themselves in the window, with or without a heater vent. I find socks and a long sleeve shirt are necessary, even with the heater vent.
Photographs. Images created by light on a light-sensitive surface, like photographic film or, more likely today, an electronic imager. The word "photograph" is based on the Greek words for "light" and "drawing", together meaning "drawing with light".
There is nothing quite like a photograph. It captures a moment in time, there to enjoy and relive at your leisure. Distances are shortened, memories are rekindled, common threads and found. Family photos span decades and generations, providing history lessons with personal meaning. We see our own images in the faces of relatives. When photos are passe
d from generation to generation, so are the stories behind the pictures, creating a link from present to past.
This week brought a gift to my family in the form of a picture of my paternal grandmother, her siblings and her parents. They arrived in Santa Barbara in December 1929, so the photograph was taken some time after that. My grandmother is the third from the left. Viewing this photograph is like traveling in time, looking at clothing, furniture and especially their faces and expressions, peering in from the view of the photographer.
Family faces are very much like magic mirrors: we see the past, present and future through people who belong to us. The images that represent the past speak to us in the present. They are the past recorded and, for as long as we wish, the past relived.
America is a true melting pot made up of people from all different parts of the world. We are all Americans but we identify each other by our backgrounds. Although we are proud to be Irish-American or whatever else we may be, we are most proud to be Americans first and foremost.
From 1876 to 1924, over four and a half million Italians arrived in the United States, established hundreds of mutual
aid societies and publish Italian-language newspapers that provided an news source for new immigrants who could not understand English. The Sons of Italy was founded in New York around 1905; through this and many other organizations, Italian-Americans acknowledged the cultural traditions of their homeland while celebrating their achievements in America.
All four of my grandparents immigrated from Italy to the Unites States. My blood, my heart, and my history was spawned by those who came here from faraway shores. I give thanks to America for giving me freedom and quality of life, but my foundation comes from the lands of my forefathers.
Super Bowl Sunday: the biggest game of the year, the culmination of another great season and played this year by two of the most legendary teams in the league, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. Parties will be held, countless people will venture out of their homes and head to their local water holes to enjoy the big game.
More than a billion people worldwide will watch the game; much of the United States wi
ll grind to a halt to witness history in the making, the bragging rights for another year.
This year, as with many past years, I will be trimming the roses.
Don't get me wrong. I like sports. The games entertain us, distract us from our day-to-day lives. Add in speed, a splash of rivalry and a dash of danger and you've got the makings of excitement. I've seen horse racing, roller derby, Formula 1 racing, ice hockey and many others up close and personal. I bleed Dodger blue. I know all the words to "Hail to the Redskins".
That last one is the reason I have not watched a Super Bowl since 1992. If the Redskins aren't playing, I'm not watching. I watched occasionally just for the commercials, but the Internet made that unnecessary.
Whenever I watch my favorite sports teams my adrenaline shoots and I am into the game. When they are not playing, I'm not interested. I have trouble moving my enthuiasm to the game as opposed to the teams involved.
Super Bowl Sunday is a great day to shop. One year we were the only people in an office supply store and had great service when we shopped for a laptop. Movie theaters tend to be sparsely populated, as does any location without a television.
Best of luck to the Steel Curtain and the Green and Gold. May your team play the game of the century. I'll be pruning the roses, wistfully thinking about next year.
Another closely-guarded secret has been unearthed, this time without the help of Julian Assange. Internet Today has published the list of Colonel Sanders’ 11 secret herbs and spices, the recipe to KFC’s stranglehold on America’s fried chicken addiction.
What makes us wa
nt to know someone's deepest thoughts? Is it trust? It is the desire to make a connection with a person or a thing? Evolutionary monkey curiosity?
When someone asks if you want to know a secret (or vice versa), the question denotes two qualities: the deep sense of trust conveyed by sharing one and the august responsibility associated with knowing the secret.
Is it better to tell secrets? There are consequences and benefits of secret-keeping. Scientific studies have shown that divulging secrets does improves your health, but concealing them does not necessarily cause physical problems.
The fact that it is a secret makes us more curious. Do we want to know the secret because we think it may benefit us in some way, or do we want to know why it is a secret? We all have a skeleton or two in our closet, sometimes small and mostly inconsequential, sometimes large, perhaps criminal.
Where would humans be without a thirst for knowledge? The world around us holds countless secrets waiting to be unearthed.
For many years he was the only other male in the household. Creamsicle, a marmalade tabby with a square dog face and I were the men of the house. The two of us shared a special bond, guys sticking together in a home filled with females.
It is hard for me to remember a time when cats weren't part of my life. Midnight, Snowball, Bif and Stewart were among the cats at my parent's house. There was Seymour, the orange and white tabby who started off as a neighbor's cat and eventually came to live at our house instead. As an apartment dweller in college, my roommates and I named the local cats after cheese (Jack, Monterrey, Colby, Brie).
Creamsicle lived with us for nearly 15 years, arriving as a tiny scrap of fur and leaving us as a senior citizen. In between he was Laura's constant companion, through school years, friends that came and went, various houses and two cities. He was her first alarm clock, licking her face when it was time to get up in the morning. When she read a book, he was in her lap. When she sat at the computer, he shared the desk with her.
Creamsicle welcomed each additional cat and dog into our home with open paws. A gentleman to the very end, he lost his eyesight but managed to get around fairly well with hardly a complaint. As with all God's children, he is now free of pain and happy once again, never wanting for laps, open doors, catnip toys or full dishes of food.
St. Thomas Aquinas wrote about animals possessing a soul that is different than what humans have; St. Francis of Assisi saw animals as God's creatures to be honored and respected. God created heaven to be a place of perfect bliss, and I no doubt God will complete my happiness by having Creamsicle and other pets that have owned me over the years by my side.
Time has been a recent strong focus for me. Good times, bad times, productive times, wasted times. Time in front of me, time behind me. Time heals all wounds. Or as Nick Lowe put it, "Time Wounds All Heels".
Time is the measuring syst
em used to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them. We use it to quantify rates of change such as motion, growth, appearance, etc.
Dinner time. Work time. Free time. Play time. Class time. Bed time. Time is a valuable commodity, even if we don't always value it. Who wouldn't want more time to sleep? Or less time sitting in traffic? More time to chat with co-workers instead of just a quick hello, I’m fine. More time for projects, for priorities, for whatever makes us happy. Less time taken up with drama, more time for being productive.
Time is a valuable resources, one we do not have the luxury to waste. Money, gold, any material thing, can be recovered. The time we spend can never be recovered.
Time is fleeting. Make good use of your time.
For much of human history people didn’t locate their thoughts and emotions within the brain. The ancient Egyptians considered the heart to be the organ associated with an individual's intelligence and life force and was preserved for the afterlife, while the brain was removed and discarded. In numerous places the Bible uses the word "heart" as a place of intellect, thought, emotions, character, love, compassion and faithfulness.
Recently I read a study that suggests gut instincts don't come from your gut, but rather your heart. The findings did not indicate your heart is terribly good at providing insight into what to d
o, nor did the research indicate any particular way to improve decision making.
Then, you may ask, why bother talking about it? The study did find evidence there is more to the idea of trusting your heart than we may realize. People who were more aware of their heartbeat, meaning those who could estimate how fast their hearts were beating without directly measuring their pulse with their fingers, were better at tests that relied on intuition rather that logic or strategy.
The heart is the central link between itself, our brains, and our hormonal system. The heart is in a constant two-way dialogue with the brain; emotions change the signals the brain sends to the heart and the heart responds in complex ways.
Following the path of the heart can be a messy business. There might be bumps, bruises, cuts, and scratches as you move along the road. The mind may be the content of who you are, but the heart contains the distillate of your very being, the essence of what makes you who you are. Listen to your heart.
New Year's Day is a clean slate, a chance to begin anew, a time of hope and renewal for us all.
In truth, today is just 
another day; nothing has changed except the date on the calendar. Still, as the new year begins, most of us think about the positive changes we would like to make, for the good things we would like to see the coming months bring to our families, friends, co-workers, the nation and the world.
Resolutions will be made; some will be kept, some will be broken and we'll look forward to the next New Year's Day for another opportunity at starting anew.
Why wait until the next January 1st? The Chinese New Year is in February, April brings the Hindi New Year, Buddhist's celebrate in May, Summer Solstice in June, Rosh Hashanah in September...you get the general idea.
Unlike Christmas, new year celebrations happen many times during the course of the year. Every day is a new year. Each and every day we find ourselves standing at a crossroads. Keep smiling in your heart, no matter what that day brings you. And vow to make the next day a new year.
With love overflowing
With joy in our hearts
For the blessed new year
Christmas is the season for spreading good cheer; for sharing, caring and giving; for spending time with your family. Any opportunity for compassion and family bonding is a good one, and Christmas provides just that.
The long trip from southern California to the outer reaches of the Puget Sound that my sister and brother-in-law made over the summer has been repeated by my father and his wife. For that we are truly thankful.
Despite our individuality and uniqueness, we come together as a group easier than a ten piece puzzle. Being together as one shapes our individual characters, values and beliefs. Family stands at the foundation of the entire social and political order.
Human beings are designed to be united. Dogs have packs, chickens have flocks, we have family.
The Noble Experiment. The Volstead Act. The Eighteenth Amendment. Call it what you will, the amendment that would become the National Prohibition Act was passed by the House of Representatives on December 18, 1917. On December 5, 1933, the Twenty-first Amendment was ratified and repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, the first and only time in U.S. history that an Amendment has been repealed.
What happened in between? Innocent people suffered, organized crime grew into an empire; police and politicians became increasingly corrupt and disrespect for the law grew; and the per capita consumption of alcohol increased dramatically, year by year, while Prohibition was in place.
Prohibition ba
nned only the manufacturing, sale, and transport of alcohol - but not possession or consumption. If you bought or made liquor prior to the passage of the 18th Amendment you were able to continue to serve it throughout the prohibition period legally. Alcoholic drinks were still widely available at "speakeasies" and other underground drinking establishments. Large quantities of alcohol were smuggled in from Canada. Ships outside the three mile limit were exempt. Limited amounts of wine and hard cider were permitted to be made at home. Some commercial wine was still produced in the U.S., but was only available through government warehouses for use in "religious" ceremonies. "Malt and hop" stores popped up across the country and some former breweries turned to selling malt extract syrup, ostensibly for baking and "beverage" purposes. Whiskey could be obtained by prescription from medical doctors.
The Noble Experiment was deemed a failure by many. Experiments are the way to test the scientific method. An observation is made, a question is asked or a problem arises, a hypothesis formed, experimentation used to test that hypothesis. Results are analyzed, a conclusion is drawn, perhaps a theory is formed, and results are communicated. Prohibition may not have worked, but without trying the answer would still be unknown.
Experiments follow the laws of logic; truth is sought for its own sake. Experiments find out what works and what doesn't, stretch mankind's knowledge, allow all of us learn from the past so we are not doomed to repeat it. Try something new today; experiment and find truth for it's own sake.
Mortality is, as best, tenuous; our visit on this earth is brief. Each of us is reminded of this in different ways. Whether it is a well-known person or a loved one, the anniversary of their death is a personal aide memoire. It takes us down paths less traveled, navigating memories of time and place, happy times and moments that are bittersweet because their absence is underscored.
In Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom describes the living funeral for Professor Morrie Schwartz, dying of Lou Gehrig's Disease. "Some cried. Some laughed...Morrie cried and laughed with them. And all the heartfelt things we never get to say to those we love, Morrie said that day."
Age has taught me many things. One is not to wait; having a one-sided conversation with a memory is not all it's cracked up to be. There is no give and take, no exchange of ideas, no response, only your words.
Seize the day. Never save something for a special occasion. Take the time to smell the roses, stare at the night sky, listen to the sound of your breathing. Say what you need to say.
Decorating the house with Christmas lights was my idea. It started with a string of lights on the patio of our first home together, the only area of the condominium that could easily be decorated. Next was our first house, which meant roof lines and window frames. Eventually the trees we planted would grow enough to support decorating, carrying lights farther up into the night. Dedicated circuit breakers were installed in the electrical panel, outlets were installed in various locations around the property and the number of lights continued to grow, covering rose bushes, shrubs, a travel trailer and my grandfather's truck.
Each house brought new designs, different patterns, more outlets to install. For the better part of 20 years I had lit up the darkness with Christmas lights. It became a tradition to Laura, our daughter. It was expected we would light the house and practically anything else that didn't move. She held the ladder while I reached to the top of the tree or the peak of the roof above the garage.
This time of year is associated with light; the lack of it as well as the way we respond to it with candles, sparklers and strings of bulbs. Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, uses a menorah to illuminate to night. Christians use an advent wreath; the lighted candles originally designed to signify the persistence of life in the midst of winter, the accumulation of light is now an expression of the growing anticipation of the birth of Jesus Christ, who we Christians see as the light of the world. The all-night bonfire for the burning of the Yule log is a tradition with roots in Northern European pre-Christian times.
Last year was not the best of years. Losing my job, being forced to sell our house in a market not kind to sellers, moving to another state and starting over again was not in the plan. By the time December rolled around I had decided it was time to give up decorating the house and let the darkness win another round.
Laura had other ideas. She and her boyfriend Bryan searched a jam-packed garage, found the lights and decorated the house. This home came with a dedicated plug for outdoor lights, so they were able to complete the task without any assistance from me. The lights looked great, especially accompanied by the other houses on our street.
Lights in winter are reminders of the inner light, hope for the return of sunnier and warmer days. Thank you, Laura and Bryan, for that reminder. I am a better person for it.
Ohh Christmas Lights
Light up the streets
Light up the fireworks in me
May all your troubles soon be gone
Those Christmas Lights keep shining on
The snow, fresh and clean, the exhalation of the Arctic gods, has come and gone.
After the snow, clear skies prevailed and a deep, icy chill set in. Snow has the capacity to reflect a large amount of the sun’s light that falls on it. Newly formed snow reflects about 90% of the sunlight that falls upon it. The nuclear furnace that warms our planet and provides the three basic necessities of life on earth (food, water, and oxygen), is nearly powerless when it comes to melting clean snow.
After a few days the snow turned to ice, that slippery, mysterious solid. Scientists continue to debate why ice is slippery. For those of us attempting to traverse it, the important thing to know is that it is slippery, not necessarily why.
Just as the ice begins to clear, another round of snow arrives, painting the ground white, frosting the leafless trees in the yard. Three more inches, but they wouldn't last a day. That night brought warmer weather and rain instead of snow; by morning only the drifts against the fences remained.
The chickens have returned to being early birds, the heat lamp no longer provides a constant yellow-orange glow in the coop and the cats are venturing out again. Cabin fever has been abated. Life is good.
It snowed last night. Not the wimpy almost an inch that would blanket the valley floor in Medford OR, but honest to goodness show. Large, dry snowflakes fell in silence, deep and white, for several hours while we slept.
Morning brought sc
attered light and the realization there was over three inches of the powdery white stuff blanketing our yard. The cat was unsure of what to make of it, but went outside anyway; she returned in short order, shaking one wet paw at a time. The chickens have decided there are no worms today, so they don't feel obligated to be early birds, but instead remain homebodies in the coop, warmed by the heat lamp.
The skiers and boarders will be happy, as the Mt. Baker Ski Area will open today, with 8 inches of snow in the last 24 hours. Here in the lower lands, there are no large drifts, no snow plows, no need to shovel the walk. It's enough for making snow angels, snowmen (and women) and snowballs, which is enough for me.
Snow, fresh and clean, the exhalation of the Arctic gods.
Each of us, at some point in our lives, realize kindness is not something to be overlooked. Someone or something left a bad taste in our mouths; the class bully, an offensive joke, name calling. Those memories stay with us; at that moment in our lives, the way we thought and felt about other people changed.
Kindness can bring happiness into our lives. It can change the way other people look at us, and, more importantly, the way we feel about other people. I have met many people I may not have liked, but that never caused me to be unki
nd to them. Being kind to someone I did not appreciate allowed me to learn to see them from a different perspective.
November 13 is World Kindness Day, intended to build a kinder and more compassionate world. It is not a day created by the greeting card industry, but rather, an opportunity to look beyond ourselves, beyond the boundaries of our country, beyond our culture, our race, our religion; and realize we are citizens of the world.
It is not a day celebrated or even generally recognized in the United States. That, in and of itself, is a shame. When did it become so unusual that people have quizzical looks on their faces when the door is held open for them? I recently held the door open for my family as we left a restaurant and I kept holding it, knowing there was a woman behind me with a large take-out bag. She and a few other people in my line of sight just stared, perhaps waiting for me to hold out my hand and expect a tip.
I read about a survey which showed nearly 80 percent of Americans agree that "a lack of respect and courtesy is a serious national problem." When is the last time you heard eight out of ten Americans agree on anything?
We all have feelings, yet we don't always recognize that other people have then as well. We have trouble taking people at face value, waiting for skeletons to jump out of that person's closet. It is any wonder, what with hours of backstabbing and treachery on network television "reality" shows each and every week, that we may smile but wait for the worst to happen?
Kindness pays most when you don't do it for pay. Choose to make a difference. When a retail clerk or a restaurant server ask how you are, ask then how they are. Say "please" and "thank you" on a regular basis. Make goofy faces at babies. Do not let kindness become passe.
Autumn tells a beautiful story. Harvest time, stocking up for the long winter season ahead; firewood, fruit preserves, the last vegetables from the garden. A time of festivity and reunion. Colorful leaves, the smell of candles from glowing carved jack-o-lanterns in the twilight.
Earth and sky are in transition during the autumn months. Trees become painted in shades of red, orange, and yellow, leaves clinging to their branches in the November wind, eventually 
surrendering them to the cycle of rebirth by providing nourishment to the ground below from which the tree itself grew. The night sky changes from summer's dazzling display to a less intense area of celestial sights, dominated by Cassiopeia, the Queen of the night sky and Pegasus the flying horse.
A time of satisfaction, a time of tranquility. Much like the last bowl of porridge, it's not too hot nor too cold., it's just right.
Nights are longer, air is colder, the apples have all been picked, the shadows lengthen. Lawns shed the gold of summer and become green again as a result of the cool nights and more frequent moisture. The summer furniture and umbrellas have been put away, replaced by pumpkins and mums. It is Nature's way; things wind down and return to the earth.
This is the story Autumn tells.
The single worst part of being a department manager is when you have to let someone go. I did everything in my power to prevent it, find other options, make things work. The idea of taking away someone's livelihood is repulsive to me. For better or worse, you change a person's life.
Yesterday was one of those days where I changed a life.
If there is any upside to this story, it was a service I had to let go, not an individual. They have other customers; the impact will be small, not catastrophic. Like most situations, it was not about a specific incident, but rather a series of incidents which indicated it was time to part ways. And as painful as it was for the person who represented the service (who happened to be the owner), I hope it turns out to make them (and their company) better in the long run.
It had to happen, but that doesn't make it easier for anyone. I am one of those individuals who have raised guilt to an art form, so this will burden me for a while. Still, I would rather feel something than be without accountability and consequently guilt.
Emotions are what connect us with other people; they show how we react to the world. There are no "ups" to enjoy without having "downs". There is no growth without discomfort or pain. Growing pains of the emotional sort may be a natural course of events, but it doesn't make them any easier to accept.
I drove Bryan, our daughter's boyfriend, to SEA-TAC yesterday. He was on the way to WI to visit his mom. We were about five minutes outside of Bellingham when I realized he was asleep. Immediately I was transported back in time to family vacations, driving across the western US to various destinations, and eyeball TV.
That's right. Western America was speeding by and I was sleeping.
Much like a
baby, I was lulled to sleep by the car's movement. The roadway motions, inactivity and what I'm sure to me was an unchanging landscape would lull me a trance-like state and eventually sleep. When Laura was a baby and was especially hard to get to sleep, we would bundle her up, put her in the car seat and take a ride. A short ride around the neighborhood and she was out like a light.
It's not like I grew out if it, either. When I was commuting back and forth between Medford, OR and Santa Rosa, CA with a group, my turn as a passenger meant never seeing Mount Shasta, as even with a full night's sleep I was nodding off like a baby before long.
In one of my favorite Peanuts cartoons, Linus asked Charlie Brown what security was. Charlie Brown said it was falling asleep in the backseat of the car, being carried inside by your parents and waking up the next morning in your bed without remembering how you got there.
For some it is the rhythms of the sea, the subtle movement of the ship as it rides the waves that will hasten a trip to the Land of Nod. Others like the rocking movement of the train and the constant clacking of the rails. For me, tires rumbling over empty lanes and the slight sway of a car on the highway invokes the memories of years past and countless trips to dreamland.
I was fortunate enough to be at a taping of "West Coast Live" several years ago when they visited Ashland, OR. My hand shot up like a kid in class who finally knew an answer when host Sedge Thomson asked for audience volunteers to come onstage and play the Biospherical Digital-Optical Aquaphone, a special effect that opens each and every show. My task was to operate a secret device that evokes the sound of water. I was sworn to secrecy, so all I can say is it took both hands to work this instrument.
It has been said radio shows like WCL, A Prairie Home Companion and The Vinyl Cafe are, in some ways, relics of better times, invoking images of front porches, warm evenings,
kids on bicycles, parades, flags flying, visiting with relatives after church, hanging out at the drugstore.
If that is truly the case, then tonight we get a front row seat for a look at the past. The Vinyl Cafe is on tour and is stopping in Bellingham at the Western Washington University Performing Arts Centre tonight (Saturday, October 16th, 2010). Canada's answer to Garrison Keillor, Stuart McLean is a beloved storyteller. I am one of the 1 million listeners who tune in weekly for whatever awaits us: eclectic music, The Story Exchange, the trials and tribulations of Dave (the owner of the world’s smallest record store…where the motto is “We May Not be Big But We are Small”), his wife Morley and his children Stephanie and Sam.
The familiar voice of the narrator flows effortlessly as the story is told, with pauses and inflections we have come to expect and love. As the audience, we sit by, thoroughly involved in the telling. In the best radio tradition, a listener's imagination fills in all the blanks. Prose and masterful narration help us develop those spaces in between. And I get to see it happen live. I am one lucky person.
In the film Julie and Julia, both heroines reach for pieces of cooking equipment again and again. Like them, everyone who cooks has a favorite piece of cooking equipment that is a joy to use and is indispensable for making nearly every meal. It is their go-to item: their gem of a Henckle knife, the timeless KitchenAid mixer, a Le Creuset dutch oven. They are the pieces you really can't do without, that stand the test of time and never find themselves in the back of the cabinet with madeleine pans, the chocolate fountain and the Magic Bullet.
For me, the answer is simple: a black 
speckled covered oval roasting pan.
Yes, this is one of those sold in every grocery and big box store across the land. It is generic and nondescript. Mine is too small for a turkey or a large ham but great for a chicken, various cuts of beef, vegetables or what have you. Granite Wear has been making these black porcelain-on-steel roasters, specked with white flecks, since 1871.
What makes it special? It was a bridal shower gift from my mother. Not to Cindy, but to me. I'm not proud of it, but I remember feeling left out of the pre-wedding festivities and said something off-handedly to my mother about it. The next time I saw her she handed me a wrapped box and explained it was my bridal shower present. I opened the box and inside was the roaster. She had one in her kitchen, as did both my grandmothers and most of America. Now I had one, connecting me to my past and future.
Over time, many things have come and gone in our various kitchens. Twenty-five years later the roaster remains, housing my memories where they take up little or no space and speak to me in tastes and smells.
Unwelcome and controversial are among the many descriptors for standardized tests. For those in school, these tests can be very high stakes, linking important consequences to the results - promotion, graduation, scholarship money, etc.
Tests are used to help make decisions. Results can help individuals choose a good 
school, decide whether or not to move a child to the next grade, determine if a school is helping students learn all they can. For these and other reasons, testing and its results remain major education issues, despite their prevalence to spark more questions and controversy than any other topic in education.
Can tests really tell us about what students actually know? There are limits to what we can derive from test scores. Are they a fair, straight-forward measure of education, or do we overestimate what tests can tell us?
By the modern miracle of technology, this is posting just as I am being handed a test of my academic aptitude and understanding on various aspects of Quality Management. Will it be a reliable measure of my overall intelligence? Hard to know for sure, at least until the test results come back in three weeks.
It has been quite some time since I have felt that dread caused by my awareness that my future is not determined but must be freely chosen. The big question is: will I choose correctly?
Unlike the Midwest and East Coast where the ragweed pollen season is just starting, by September the main pollen seasons for Whatcom County are over. Pockets of moderate weed pollen counts exist, but for the most part it's all over but the shouting for allergy suffers in the Pacific Northwest.
Someone needs to explain that to my allergies.
Most cases of hay fever, or allergic rhinitis, are caused by an allergy to fall pollen from plants belonging to the genus Ambrosia, more commonly known as ragweed. Ragweed is a flowering plant from the sunflower family, also known as bitterweeds or bloodweeds. The scientific name of this genus is sometimes claimed to be derived from 
the Ancient Greek term for the perfumed nourishment of the Greek gods, often depicted as conferring ageless immortality upon whoever consumes it. How ironic that would be, since the genus is best known for severe and widespread allergies. They share the common etymological origin name, both being derived from ambrotos, which means "immortal". In the case of the plants, they are tenacious and hard to get rid of when they occur.
My body’s immune system mounted a vigorous response to the tiny grains of pollen released by maturing ragweed flowers, reacting to them as if they were a threat, a cascade of biochemical reactions flooding the bloodstream with histamine which causes the all-too-familiar allergy symptoms. The result: red, puffy eyes, watery and itchy, red and bloodshot. Not a pretty sight.
Autumn is a time for reflection about the great warm season that has passed. As with the seasons, and like all things, the ragweed allergy too shall pass.
The end of the trilogy. Each week you've had that annoying "wanting more" feeling at the conclusion of the post. Your hero was tested again and again times with new challenges; the narratives and themes were enduring, or at least I thought so.
Trilogies are the sign of a serious reader. Now it draws to a close, and I promise a happy ending.
Twelve hours after the last post, there I sat, watching and waiting. The hard drive light barely flickering, hopeful yet resigned to the fact 
that is was a lost cause. In this case, recovering the drive would not be an exercise in convenience; nothing, and I mean nothing, was duplicated elsewhere. MP3s ripped from CDs, iTunes downloads, pictures...it was all there locked in the non-responsive drive.
I did what any hard working family IT support person that was lacking sleep would do: I took it to Best Buy.
They poked and prodded, looking for signs of life. The first guy disappeared, replaced by a second, and then a third. The decision was hard drive failure. A new hard drive, data recovery and their magic to make it happen was pretty darn close to $400. Holy moley. The laptop was in plain view the entire time and there wasn't one bit of real diagnosis that went on.
Now armed with a dislike for geeks in ties, the laptop and I went home. Little did they know who they were dealing with. They even provided a clue as to what may have caused the problem: perhaps Windows choked on the last update it never completed running. A sense of renewal came over me, and I was ready to tackle it again. Out came the hard drive; when I slaved it to my desktop it ran fine. I copied the necessary files from it, and popped it back in the laptop. Time for recovery mode. Follow the instructions, click this, tab that and don't forget that ALL DATA WILL BE ERASED ON YOUR HARD DRIVE IF YOU PROCEED.
Jeez...was all caps really necessary?
A scant thirty minutes later the laptop was running like it was 2009 and fresh out of the box. It took another four hours to download every Windows update necessary to bring everything up to date.
It's been said that binary logic will always be inferior to human intuitive ability. I reaffirmed this, triumphant over the machine that tormented, troubled and distressed me. The story has been told to the end; the trilogy is finished.
It's been seven days since the last time I tried to repair my daughter's laptop. The new screen assembly arrived Friday in the mail, so after dinner we tempted fate once again and waded into the uncharted waters of gutting a laptop.
Two hours later, we had assembled, dis-assembled, re-assembled, dis-assembled and finally re-assembled one lats time. By the final assembly we were pretty darn good at it, but I have no intention of trading in my day job for laptop work.
The screen? It works great. Brilliant colors, crisp features, everything you could ask for in a display.
The computer? It vexes me. After starting up normally and working for a full ten minutes, it decided the mouse wasn't needed and turned it off. Thirty minutes of fooling around later and the shutdown option was available and selected.
Hmmm...now what? Waiting for it to turn off on it's own burned through another 30 minutes. The all-powerful and all-kn
owing Internet suggested many options. "Boot to BIOS Diagnostics (F10) and run memory and hard drive diagnostic tests", it said. Fun times, but no progress. "Run Last Known Good Configuration (Advanced)". Oh yeah, that was helpful. "Boot to Windows Advanced boot options (F8) and Run Repair Your Computer". It started after that, but most applications wouldn't run.
So many choices. All take time to run through and try. Start up, make a choice, wait untold minutes, try to shut down, wait untold minutes, pull the plug and throw the blasted machine into the street, running it over repeatedly with my car. Sorry, musta dozed off there for a minute. It was a nice dream.
Start up, wait. Shut down, wait. Start up, wait. Shut down, wait. Watching the screen and waiting for a sign of life.
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) do not produce light themselves (unlike, for example Cathode ray tube displays). They need illumination to produce a visible image, and a backlight can illuminate the LCD from the side or back of the display panel. Many LCDs use a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) as a backlight.
When the backlight on your LCD screen goes out, you're left in the dark. It's not impossible to read your screen, but it ain't fun, that's for 
sure. Laura's laptop checked its internal clock, and, realizing the warranty had just run out, decided it was time for the backlight to go out.
I had two options. I could send it off for repairs, but I'm, um, frugal, and always worried about getting the short end of the, um, deal, on something like this. That left fixing it myself. Hmmm...pay someone to correctly repair it, or pry it apart and carefully remove who knows how many parts just to get to the display, then remove the LCD screen, detaching it from the body itself, removing brackets and cables and whatever else is in there.
The choice was obvious. I ordered a bulb and waited patiently for it to show up in the mail.
When the bulb arrived, Laura and I sat down, armed with various tools and several web-sites of how to accomplish our task. Two hours later we had it completely apart, wires everywhere, parts strewn across the dining room table. We managed to get past clips that did not want to open, metal tape never designed to be removed and at least one sticker that said DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE. Finally the moment of truth: we peeled the LCD panel apart and removed the bulb. Technically, it is a bulb; physically, it's more like white spaghetti. Try soldering power wires on vermicelli and see how much fun you have.
The wires went on, but the ends stuck out, so naturally I tried to trim them to fit the frame for the bulb. Just a hair shorter and it would work. One more clip and...
Later that evening, Laura summed it up succinctly: the surgery was not successful. I broke the spaghetti bulb. Crap.
Fortunately the patient is in a kind of stasis and can wait for other parts to arrive. Hey, I can't take it to a repair shop now.. they'll charge me double! This time we'll go what should be the easier route and get the complete screen to place in the display panel, which comes with the bulb already in them. Wish us luck.
Tall shadows on the grass from the rising sun. The quiet of the house. A cat sleeping on the rug near the back door. The chickens pecking and scratching in their run. Apples on the tree, nearly ripe and ready to eat. A few wispy clouds passing by, teasing at a big blue sky. Coffee. Waffles. Podcasts.
The sun high in the sky. The sights and sounds of the Farmer's Market. Treasures found at garage sales. Quiet time with a good book. Various errands to run. Pesky weeds to pull.
Tall shadows in the grass from the setting sun. The blue sky fading to purple. The quiet of the house. The chickens on their roost. Family time. A good movie and popcorn. Warm laundry to fold.
I wanna live where it's always Saturday.
Cleaning the garage. We procrastinate about it, as sorting through boxes which may contain painful experiences from our past can be an unpleasant experience. It can also be cathartic, as we need to clear out some of the past to hold what we need for the future.
We're still opening boxes from our most recent moves, looking for things we think are there and find things we didn't think were. A recent foray into that minefield of containers led us to a box of books, a few of which were from my childhood that I had passed on to my daughter. One of then was "Charlotte's Web".
This particular copy once belonged to my aunt. It was given to her by a family friend for Christmas when she was 10 years old. I found it in my grandparent's garage one summer. I was immediately hooked when Wilbur's life is threatened in the first line and read it cover to cover in short order. Wilbur survived a number of precarious situations. Charlotte, his savior, did not.
I was unprepared when Charlotte died near the end of the book. It is the first time I remember reading something that brought me to tears. I read and re-read the end of chapter 21 over and over again. How could this happen? What had I missed? How could the author allow such a thing to occur?
I finished the book and put it away. I would read it countless time over the next decade, and every time I did, Charlotte still died, but I cried a little less. Eventually I started to see the story as a great lesson about the cycle of life for both children and adults. Despite the life lesson it brings, I still cry at the end, knowing the hurt and pain that goes with losing someone who cared for you that much.
There were other items that made it into the donate box that day, but the books did not. They will stay with us as a reminder that while it is necessary to make room for the future, sometimes we need to hold on tight to the past.
Chronos and Kairos were the ancient Greek gods of time.
Chronos was the personification of time and order. The chronology of days, governed by the carefully calculated sweep of the Earth around the sun. Seconds lead to minutes to hours to days to weeks to years to decades to centuries. Everything we do is marked by the steady march of time.
Kairos was the god of the fleeting moment, a moment that must be grasped otherwise the moment is gone and can not be re-captured. It is the "right time" or the "appointed season" and is not marked by the past, the present, or the future. Kairos time is more of a feeling. In contrary to how a clock measures 
time, it has a variable duration; ten minutes in traffic is longer than ten minutes reading a good book.
Chronos is quantitative; Kairos is qualitative. The scar from surgery to remove my appendix is a reminder of Chronos; the scars on my heart from lost loved ones are a reminder of Kairos. Kronos time is what we live with on a daily basis, what we schedule and make appointments in. Kairos time flows gently, allowing us to be in the moments that nurture our souls.
The clock is always running forward and we simply can not stop its crawl toward the next tick. We spend most of our lives gazing into the future, getting ready for things, making plans. We lose moments to the past, out of our reach, elusive and far away. When we are fortunate, we get to touch yesterdays.
The past can be elusive and far away, but on rare occasions we find it dead-center in front of us, Kairos overruling this finite world of Chronos, reminding us we are not alone, allowing us to feel the human connection with those who were here before us.
The long days of summer provide the hours of sunshine that fruit-bearing plant need to complete their cycle. This time of year, farmers markets burst forth with fruit of virtually every kind. For some some, it is rich red raspberries or deep dark blackberries cane-berries that get their attention. Others prefer the sweetness of strawberries or the crisp taste of a melon.
For me, summer means stone fruit, the nectar of the gods. It starts with the luscious m
ahogany red cherries, progresses through the bright yellow-orange of apricots, the purple-violet of plums, the yellow-red of nectarine, and, of course, the pink-orange-red of peaches.
The color peach represents immortality in Chinese civilization. A key concept in the mythology of the Taoist religion, the peach tree of immortality is thought to be on a mountainside somewhere in western China. Peach trees are believed to have originated in China, brought to India and Western Asia in ancient times, introduced into Europe after Alexander the Great conquered the Persians, brought to America by Spanish explorers in the 16th century and eventually to England and France in the 17th century, where it was a prized, albeit rare, treat.
The urge to do a swan-dive at the sight of juicy, summer peaches is a powerful one. They are here and gone in all too short a period of time. Fortunately they freeze well and our chest freezer is usually home to several bags of sliced peaches, waiting to instantly transport me to a warm summer's day.
Santa Barbara, California. The American Riviera.
A narrow strip of land perched along the coast with island views, backed by beautiful mountains, populated by eucalyptus and oak and flowers of virtually every form. The cream color of the Spanish-style buildings contrast with the red of their tile roofs. A jewel amongst cities, streets are windy and picturesque, neighborhoods meander into the foothills.
Old Spanish Days Fiesta, Summer Solstice Parade, County Bowl, Waterfront Arts and Crafts Show under the palms along Cabrillo Boulevard, Downtown Santa Barbara Farmers Market, the Old Mission, Museum of Natural History, the Botanic Gardens, Sambo's, State Street, Andree Clark Bird Refuge, the Child's Estate, Stearn's Wharf, Cold Spring Tavern, El Paseo, El Presidio, Hendry's Beach, East Beach, West Beach, Leadbetter Beach, Butterfly Beach, the Courthouse, the library (and the best parking garage in town, "The Flush"). Museum of Art, Arlington Theater, Moreton Bay Fig Tree, Painted Cave.
Feeling comfortable walking down the street, familiar sights and landscapes, where I grew up, where so many of my memories are from, emotions swelling; I want to take it all in slowly, never wanting to forget this place, wanting to always have it right there in my memory, not letting them fade away. Driving through certain parts of town bring back vivid memories of when I was young. Learning to ride a bike with no training wheels, learning to drive a car, my first kiss, first love, first heartbreak. It is my own personal scrapbook; anytime I want to relive a part of my life, all I have to do is go home.
Santa Barbara, California. The American Riviera. My hometown.
At the height of the Cold War, Nikita Khrushchev, the head of the Soviet Union, and Richard Nixon, the vice president of the United States, exchanged words at the American National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in Moscow. Known as the "Kitchen Debate", it took place in the kitchen of a suburban model house, cut in half so it could be easily viewed. An unlikely place to make history, to say the least, but on July 24th 1959 Dick and Nik did just that. The impromptu debate (through interpreters) was the first high-level meeting between Soviet and American leaders in four years. The two political heavy-weights of the century argued for their respective ideologies.
My kitchen experiences never included world leaders, but they were just as historical to me. I have written about gnocchi before. My grandmother's kitchen was the place to be, relatives milling around, eagerly waiting until it was time to sit at the table. Forget restaurants; after all, what restaurant experience can compare with eating something good made by someone you can hug? Cooking delivers its most enduring gifts when it is savored in an intimate, ancient and familiar setting, prepared by a cook and with love.
The kitchens of my grandmothers and my mother were the social center of the house, long before people transformed kitchens into showpieces gleaming with shiny granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances.
The family recipes. Whether they are yellowed with age, stained, marked and remarked, hand-written or typed, newspaper clippings, on cards, in books or on-line, they are a bountiful plethora of memories. I recently made one of my mother's recipes; despite the years and the miles, she was with us while we ate and, just for a moment, I was a child in her kitchen, sitting at the speckled white table under the window, watching her cook up another memory.
When our daughter Laura was young, it was difficult for her to understand just how far away my sister Julie lived. Then, California was a long, way away. We would visit the Golden State when we could, and Julie (and later her husband Joseph) would visit us in Oregon.
It was a long trip
, but length is relative. Our ancestors emigrated from Italy and saw their siblings a scant few times over the course of decades. Technology has helped to fill that gap, with cell phones and computers. Now Laura can see her Zia's pictures in almost real time as my sister uploads them to her Facebook account.
Julie and Joseph have traveled 1200 miles of highways and byways to visit us this summer. We'll share memories, poke fun at our relatives, and have a great few days recharging and reconnecting.
I know my parents wondered how both Julie and I survived each other. It wasn’t for lack of trying; somehow we managed to co-exist throughout school without much damage and when I went away to college we actually missed one another. I think it was then that I realized she was not only my sister but one of my friends as well.
Saturday mornings, as I have previously said, are for writing. Many days I can write with ease, finding that glorious pace where the words seem to come directly from the fingers, completely bypassing the mind. Other days the trance does not come and the reality of day jobs that must be worked, due bills that must be paid and dinner that must be made interfere.
Today is one the non-trance days.
The words refuse to move from that vast warehouse of memory to the half-formed sentences in my brain. It is like trying to recall a dream; they are vivid and make perfect sense at the time, but in retrospect they are cloudy, riddled with inconsistencies and no longer seem logical.
Stephen King, a highly prolific author, refers to the toolbox in his book On Writing, linking writing to physical work. Writers are craftsmen, putting down words one beside another, creating stories with words and grammar instead of bricks and mortar. Without the supplies, without the bricks and mortar, without the words and grammar, walls and stories are not written.
I show up to write, waiting for something to appear, wanting something to appear. My body showed up to the page, but my mind has yet to arrive.
I was born on the edge of the space age. The year of the first men in space and President Kennedy's historic speech, challenging the nation to land "a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth" before the end of the decade.
Space exploration defined my boyhood. Small scale models of various spacecraft filled the shelves in my bedroom, nestled among book titles such as Tom Swift and His Outpost in Space and a double sided Little Golden Book titled "Planet" and "Space Flight". While in grade school, I somehow convinced my parents to allow me to take our television to school on days when Saturn rockets would launch carrying men into space or when capsules carrying those men would plunge through the atmosphere and splash down on the blue waters of the Pacific.
July is a banner month for space enthusiasts. On July 14, 1965, Mariner 4 arrived at Mars and gave scientists their first views of the planet at close range. Apollo 11 made the first successful soft landing on the Moon and Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. become the first human beings to set foot on another world on July 20, 1969. July 17, 1975 was the date
an American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz dock in what was the first international spacecraft rendezvous. July 20, 1976 brought us the first pictures of the surface of Mars, sent back to Earth by Viking 1, the first U.S. spacecraft to successfully land a on another planet. On July 9, 1979, Voyager 2 arrived at Jupiter and Voyager 1 arrived at Saturn, both spacecraft sending back extraordinary images of the planets and their moons. The Mars Pathfinder landed on Mars on July 4, 1997. Twenty five years after Voyager, the Cassini Probe arrived at Saturn on July 1, 2004, beginning four years of photographing the ringed planet and its many moons. On July 4, 2005, the Deep Impact space probe fulfills its mission by slamming into a comet known as Tempel 1.
We celebrate Independence Day with good food, friends and fireworks, looking to a sky filled with colorful lights, reminding us of the rocket's red glare that marked the beginning of this great nation. For those of us born to yearn for the stars, we follow the streaks of light into the sky and, as Ptolemy said during the second century AD, our feet no longer touch the earth.
known as homeotherms. We regulate our body temperature, to the extent we can, balancing heat production from our metabolic sources and heat loss from evaporative cooling (better known as perspiration). In a cold environment, our body heat is conserved by constriction of blood vessels near the body surface and by waves of muscle contractions, or shivering, which serve to increase metabolism. Another heat-conserving mechanism, goose bumps, raises the body hairs; not especially effective in humans, this works well in animals as it increases the thickness of the insulating fur or feather layer.
