The Monogram Club Meets

Ted Foss had a goal of having at least 20 members attend our December 5th Monogram Club meeting. 
The eleven pictured is only one more than last year.

Randy managed to connect with 91-year-old Dr. Jim Monahan and picked him up from his retirement home in Woodinville on his way south from Lake Stevens. 
Jim was a medical doctor, a general practitioner, in West Seattle for 43 years.  He loved tennis and was the oldest one in attendance.

Randy Wagers was there from our class of '73.  He lettered his senior year in wrestling.  He also beat me in the one wrestling tournament we had at Madison Junior High.  I really didn't have close friends at West Seattle High School except Kathy Finney. Guys I knew through the Boy Scouts like my locker partner Pat Carney and Order of the Arrow members Gary Coy and Andy Wessler (both on the 1972 Cross Country team), and Mark Smith who succeeded me as the Kis Kis Chapter Chief were friends but not especially close ones. 

Although we arrived twenty minutes late, Nancy jumped in to handle the selling of raffle tickets and the collection of cash for the buffet lunch.  WSHS Athletic Director Corey Sorenson gave another glowing report about the great success of, and large numbers involved on, the various West Seattle athletic teams.

Charis, First to Turn Seven

After dinner on the 6th, we began to celebrate Charis' special day.  It was the first time she was able to read her whole birthday card.  I'd included these verses in it.

     ²⁵ I was young and now I am old,
    yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken
    or their children begging bread.
    ²⁶ They are always generous and lend freely;
    their children will be blessed.
                                       Psalm 37:25-26 NIV

Charis was delighted with the 80-piece puzzle of the USA that I got her.  It is 2' high and 3' wide with huge pieces.  I intended it to be both fun and educational.

Later, Thomas and Annie took Charis to Taproot Theatre to see Happy Christmas, Jeeves.

While they were out, Valerie and I baked dairy-free chocolate chip cookies to share with Charis.

"Best birthday ever!" says Valerie as She Turns Four

On the 19th, we had Valerie's favorite lunch, "Cheesy Noodles" aka mac & cheese.  Then she and I baked a heart shaped strawberry flavored cake (because pink is her favorite color), and frosted the middle with butter cream and the top with chocolate.  She exclaimed, "Best birthday ever!" while licking the last chocolate from the empty frosting can. 

I accidentally used the trick candles that re-light themselves!  After the post-dinner party, Charis, Valerie and I baked yet another triple batch of my chocolate chip cookies.

The next day, the Dishers were off to Dallas, Oregon, for a pre-Christmas visit with Grammy and Grampy. 

Hope Presbyterian Church
Saturday Morning Men's Breakfast/Study Group

On December 7th, I attended my second monthly breakfast men's group at Hope Presbyterian Church at 10936 NE 24th Street, Bellevue, WA.  After a protean-rich breakfast we studied prayer (chapter 3) from Ralph Robinson’s book, Christ, the Perfect Pattern for a Christian.

I previously met Martin Hedman (the pastor), Jim Sherwin (an Elder), and Dennis (a medical doctor).  This month I became acquainted with Weston Stoler (an administrator and Bible teacher at Covenant Christian School in Issaquah), and Don (a Deacon, and builder from Monroe).  Later, Nancy and I attended their 10:30 AM Sunday service on the 22nd where I learned Bryan's name.

Celebration of Life Event for Don and Judy

On Sunday, December 8th, family and friends assembled at the Burien Community Center for a time to remember Don and Judy.

Many of Judy's art prints and jewelry creations were set out on tables for those attending to take home.  Another table displayed many of Don's skiing trophies and professional awards and credentials.  Ample desserts covered tables along the back wall.  Chris projected a PowerPoint showing many photos on the west wall.

All of Don and Judy's siblings (Randy, Dick, Laurie, and Ed) and all of their children (Jon, Chris, and Debbie) spoke, as did a few cousins, neighbors, and friends.  I kept my remembrances brief, sharing about Don's success as three-year captain of the West Seattle High School ski team and the time he saved the life of a swimmer at Coleman Pool when he worked there.

High School Highlights!

Nephew (by marriage) Adam Kidwell has a home-based business converting older audio, video, and photographs to digital formats.  I finally handed him some old 35mm slides to convert.  What treasures these are to me.

Cross Country and Track & Field:  In Autumn 1970,
I ran on the junior varsity Cross Country team.  Because I'd run 500 miles that summer, I was in reasonable shape and won the first race on our Hiawatha two-mile home course with a time of 11:01.  I just beat out teammate Greg Smith with my closing sprint, something that would become a trademark for the next three years.  But Greg beat me in the next two races and then moved up to the varsity.  That first season, I finished 3rd on the JV team in the Metro League Southern Division championship race, where West Seattle took the top five places.  My first year, with Randy as team captain, our varsity won our school's first Southern Division crown by a single point over Franklin.

In May 1971 (left), I earned my first varsity letter (barely) in Track & Field as a sophomore.  It took a lot of third place finishes in the two-mile run, my only event, to earn that much-coveted letter.  That season, I would also run the mile in junior varsity races.  Those were satisfying and easy wins at Queen Anne and Cleveland high schools.  My locker partner and fellow Scout troop and Order of the Arrow ceremonial team member Pat Carney also earned his letter in the Long Jump and Triple Jump.  We were two proud sophomores as we hung two letterman's jackets in our locker.

By the next running season, Cross Country Autumn 1971, I'd put another 500 miles on my legs over the summer and updated my look from black plastic glasses to wire-rimmed ones.  As a junior, I finished 5th on the West Seattle varsity team that convincingly won the Metro League Southern Division championship for a second time.  In that seven school race, I finished 11th out of 49 runners.  As I've written elsewhere in this journal, in my senior season I finished 2nd in that race as our team took second place behind arch-rival Chief Sealth, but edging out Franklin who had beaten us in the first race of the season.  Kevin Adams was one second behind me in third place. 

At 123 pounds, I didn't look like much of an athlete.  But each season I continued to gain both speed and endurance.  As a senior, I won the meets at Lower Woodland Park against Ballard and Lincoln and at Seward Park against Rainier Beach with a course record over that long (by 1972 standards) 2.85 mile course.  I was voted Team Captain and Most Inspirational and shared the Most Valuable Runner award with Kevin Adams.  Fortunately for me, Kevin was a junior.  When he was a senior and I was off to the University of Washington, Kevin was the Metro League champion in Cross Country and set the still-standing West Seattle school record with a 4:12 mile time in Track & Field.

In my senior season, I won many races in Track & Field.  I was again chosen as team captain.  My two events were the 440-yard dash and the two-mile run.  I won the 440-dash in the first meet of the season against Shoreline up north on their nice track.  That win was the only one by West Seattle that day as Shoreline beat us 101-25.  That season, Shoreline turned out to be the 3A State Champions!  My 4th place finish in the two-mile run at the 1973 Metro League Championships at Husky Stadium, with a personal best time of 9:52, earned me "All-Metro" honors and was the best finish by anyone from our school.  The only other scorer for West Seattle was Kevin Adams in the mile with a 5th place finish.

Up Mount Rainier in August 1972:  I took a small 35mm Olympus range finder camera with me up Mount Rainier.  Someday, I'll come across the other amazing photos I took.  As a high school senior, I gave slide presentations describing that week-long climb to my 12th grade English class and to the Sports Writing class.  Let's hear it for extra credit!

The three Sleight brothers joined with 33 other Boy Scouts and adult leaders and guides at Camp Shepherd where I had often served as Winter Camp staff with the Order of the Arrow.   We started our hike near where the turn-off is to the White River campground.  But we didn't take the route via Camp Schurman.  Instead we followed the Fryingpan Creek trail up to Summer Land and made camp near Meany Crest.  From there we traversed the Ohanapecosh and Whitman glaciers.  On these snow fields, we had our steep slope arrest training.  (See the Mt. Rainier map.)

Arriving at the southeast spine of Little Tahoma, we had to belay down onto the perilous Ingraham Glacier.  Surrounded by dangerous crevasses, it was time to rope up. 

I'd been belting out German beer drinking songs at 9,000 feet as we traversed the snow fields.  Once down onto the Ingraham Glacier, our head guide Denny asked, "Who was that singing?"  I fessed up, and he made me the #2 climber on the 1st rope team that he led.  Randy was assigned to the #4 spot on our rope.  The entire party was divided up into nine four-man teams.  It was the task of the #1 rope team to find a route up the Ingraham Glacier to our high camp on Ingraham Flats nestled between Little Tahoma and Mt. Rainier proper. 

On Monday, halfway up the Ingraham Glacier we made camp and that day we were each lowered by rope deep into a convenient crevasse.  We had to learn how to use the Prusik ropes that we carried in our pockets that attached to the rope that bound our team together.  I thought they'd forgotten me down in that cold blue canyon of ice.  I was only a few feet from the surface by the time they got around to pulling me out.  On Tuesday, we continued our climb up the glacier to Ingraham Flats.

On Wednesday, we got up before dawn and watched the sunrise looking east past Little Tahoma.  All nine teams started out, but we quickly came across a treacherous ice fall that took well-over an hour to navigate.  Rope team #1 led the way and found a path through the jumble of ice and up a tall "flake" of ice.  I especially remember clinging to the top of that very narrow wedge of glacial ice as I served as an anchor for our #3 man John Hissey and #4 Randy.

The leader of rope team #3 directed other teams through the ice fall.  But, as our progress had been slowed by the obstruction, only three of the nine teams made it through on that first attempt.  Team #3 allowed Team #4 ahead of it and thus only Teams #1, #2, and #4 climbed on.  Providentially, brother Don, age 30 and an experienced climber, had earlier been made the leader of the 4th rope team. 
All three Sleight brothers would attempt the final assent together.

The next hazard we faced was Disappointment Cleaver.  Below it, our improvised route intersected with the much-traveled trail that led up from 10,188 ft. Camp Muir south of us beyond the Cathedral Rocks.  "Interstate Muir," as we called it, at this point was like a well-worn trough, shaped by many climbers boots and the summer sun.

Disappointment Cleaver is a long, steep rock with a narrow snow field up its spine.  About half-way up the Cleaver, we met a party of Japanese climbers who had turned back due to bad weather.  Despite their warnings, we pressed on.  What bad weather?  Yes, there was some wind, but most of us were still dressed to protect us from the glaring sun.  The picture above shows nine of our twelve climbers sitting atop Disappointment Cleaver on the last flat spot we'd find until we reached the mountain's crater.  We'd climbed 1,100 feet up from Ingraham Flats, reaching the 12,300 foot level, but we still had a climb of over 2,100 feet ahead of us to reach the top at Columbia Crest.  Don, with his red cap, is seated with his back to the camera.  Randy is just below him to his right.  Our guide Denny is pointing out some feature ahead and reporting our location on his radio to our base back at Camp Shepherd.

The trek up to the east rim of the crater was like climbing steep stairs.  Indeed, I found it much easier going slowly yet steadily upward.  Especially since there was no looking down.  As we climbed, things got chilly despite the bright sun.  Without our special snow goggles, we would quickly have become snow blind.  We wore long sleeves, long pants, and gloves.  Our faces were covered with zinc oxide which we called "Clown White."  (But clown white is mostly titanium dioxide these days.)

Reaching the rim of the crater, I was surprised to see the quarter-mile flat snow field that we still needed to cross to reach Register Rock where we would sign-in to attest to our successful summiting of Mt. Rainier.  There were steam vents here and there around the edges of the crater.

After adding our names to the register in its metal box, we trudged the final easy steps up to the actual summit at 14, 411 foot Columbia Crest.  While Randy and I felt the queasiness of altitude sickness, we were excited to plant our Troop 288 neckerchief as a flag on my ice axe.  Brother Don, on the other hand, just felt awful.  The clown white on his face did little to mask his condition.  There was no need to stay roped up while on top.

Since we were higher than any mountains around us, it was surprising to see the Olympic mountain range below us appear like a white line on the horizon instead of the majestic peaks we saw from sea level in Seattle.

The trip back down was much faster than I would have liked.  At one point, my crampons caught on my wind-pants.  I stumbled once but did not fall. 

On Thursday, our twelve rested in camp and explored Ingraham Flats while the other teams made their assent.  On Friday morning we headed down and on Saturday we reached our original trailhead where the road to the White River campground leaves the one that leads on up to the Sunrise Visitor Center.  All in all, a most memorable (and early in life) bucket list item accomplished.

Highest kudos to Nancy as well.  She also summited Mount Rainier seven years later in 1979.  Her base camp was Buck Creek and she followed the Camp Schurman route.

	BROTHER RANDOLPH,                                                                                      CHRISTMAS 2024 THIS MOUNT RAINIER SUMMITEER MEDALLION COMES TO YOU FROM OUR BELOVED BROTHER DON.  IT IS ONE OUNCE OF .999 FINE SILVER. ITS VALUE THIS MONTH AS BULLION IS $32. BUT AS A TREASURED KEEPSAKE FOR THE CONQUERORS OF WASHINGTON’S GRAND PEAK, ITS PRICE ON EBAY IS CURRENTLY $280. IN THE EVENT OF YOUR UNTIMELY DEMISE, AS YOUR EXECUTOR, I WILL ENSURE THAT THIS TREASURE PASSES TO ANOTHER WHO STOOD ATOP THE GREAT TAHOMA, MYSELF BESIDE YOU IN 1972 OR MY BRIDE IN 1979. CHERISH IT AS YOU REMEMBER THE LEADER OF ROPE TEAM NUMBER 4, THE FORERUNNER WHO ENCOURAGED US BOTH TO STRIVE FOR THE TOP.                                                                                                        BROTHER RICHARD
Randy at WESI Nearing age 72 in Valentine's Day, Randy continues to work as a Land Surveyor and Civil Engineer.  WESI, his current employer, gave him a nice Christmas bonus check this year.  Here is what WESI has to say about him on their site. Randy Sleight, Corporate Surveyor, is dual licensed as Professional Land Surveyor and Civil Engineer, additionally accredited F.ASCE. Also born and raised in the Puget Sound area, he graduated from UW and started his land survey career surveying around campus, in some areas today, can still find the markers set long ago. His engineering experience is unparalleled having been a key person in creating local drainage standards for the area and still being used by the jurisdictions. After years of operating his own land use company, he spent more than a decade with Snohomish County PDS, and for most of that tenure, ran the engineering department. His knowledge and insight is extensive which provides our projects a strong base in design elements. He is extremely active, hiking regularly, an avid baseball fan attending AquaSox games as often as possible, working with counsel historians to preserve survey data for our country, serving his church and community each week. Loves a good cup of coffee to start his day and great steak to end it. No idea when he has time to sleep!

Board Game Afternoon

On Sunday the 29th, the kids and grandkids came by.  The kids planned an afternoon of games while the grandkids played in the great room.

Julie Adams joined us to help entertain the little ones.  For the most part, they were quite able to entertain themselves.

I was able to distribute the presents that arrived the day before to Nathanael, Isaac, Reuben, Jonny, Jean, and Joel.  Charis and Valerie got theirs the day before.

Grandkids Corner

      ZZZZZZZZZ

Bits and Pieces

By the 18th of the month, I'd completed the first 26 of 42 chapters for my five one-hour lessons on the Book of Job, comprising lessons 1, 2, and 3.  On Friday the 27th, I was so tired, I could not complete more than the introduction to lesson four.  But a 15 hour marathon on Saturday the 28th got me through number four, with only five chapters to go for the last lecture.

I teach lesson one at Emerald Heights on Thursday, January 2nd, at 10:00 AM. 

As the clan grows and we also attract church friends that seem to become surrogate aunts and uncles, the need for more of my chocolate chip cookies grows.  I baked 2X, 3X, 6X, and another 3X batch this season.  The 6X batch (a new record) took twelve eggs.

In preparation for my lessons in the Book of Job in January, I had Nancy give me a haircut and take an up-to-date portrait photo.  Emerald Heights uses images I send them to promote my annual lectures.  This is the first time I've really noticed the increasing gray hair above my beard and mustache.

I caught Valerie correctly using one of my favorite words in a sentence . . . indeed!  Indeed I did!  Wonder where she learned that?!

On the 30th, Charis helped me try something new.   We planted jalapeño seeds in Rockwool cubes and placed them under my grow lights where it's warm under the basement stairs. 

For most of my life I have wanted a dog.  But a want is not a need.  My rational self realizes I could not give a dog the love he or she would give me.  So I love on Luna whenever I visit her. 

This photo is from Christmas 1974.  Laurie was still at the University of Washington before transferring to Maryland.  Mr. Spock, our much loved loyal pet, was still in good health.  We had gotten him on Christmas Eve years earlier, meeting him for the first time as a little puppy in this same living room.  He lived another seven or eight years.  Laurie was his effective trainer.  "Spocky" knew perhaps a dozen wonderful tricks. 

I am not surprised that I'm wearing a sport jacket and vest.  This has been my "look" ever since those days.  The white pants were a '70s thing.  Christmas 1974, I would have still been a General Engineering student and would already have worked one quarter as a grader/proctor for the ENGR 123 course.  I would be hired three years later to teach that course as a Lecturer. 

Look how slim I still was.  I had won the Air Force ROTC 1.5 mile run seven months earlier on the indoor track in Hec Edmundson Pavilion.  Again in January 2025, my new year's resolution is to lose weight and get in better shape.  My weight has climbed from 170 to 177 in the past two months.