The Journal of Dr. Richard L. Sleight

JANUARY 2008 EDITION 

Weight change in January, 186 to 191


The January Mom Report
 
As the photo shows, Jean is happy in Bellevue.  Life has more "community" and activity.  (And the fact that her blood sugar shot up after eating a piece of Nathanael's birthday cake didn't dampen her mood at all!)  Stuff happens here.

She complains (not so very often) of aches and pains (foot, knee, and right  pinkie).  But these are normal pains of a body in decline on the far side of 87. Her blood sugar is monitored before breakfast and dinner and she is a trooper when we need to stick a finger. Her numbers have been very much better than when she was at Park West and getting Insulin shots and struggling with proper meals.

Doctor and Dentist visits constitute her outings.  The Occupational Therapist and Physical Therapist have concluded their visits, and everyone is adjusting to a new lifestyle in our home. We have remarked along with the Visiting Nurse Jesse that mom's edema is nearly completely gone, at least at the end of January.

I have adjusted my work schedule to work only mornings on Thursdays so that Nancy can go to her Moms in Touch meetings.  I am most in need of sleep as I get up at midnight, 3:00 AM and my usual 6:00 AM to take her for a pit stop.  At the 3:00 AM spot I also feed her a snack.  Since Nancy takes on so much during the daytime, I feel it's my duty to cover the nights.  And Mom repays my efforts with sincere affection.  Such a deal!



 



  
Nathanael is Ready to Wrestle
 
Nathanael's record was 12-3 at the start of January.  After an initial loss this month, (his one pin), he has strung together ten consecutive wins to end January with a record of 22-4.  Eighteen of those 22 wins were by pins.  Nathanael is two pins away from tying his own modern team record from 2005-06.

At Castle Rock on the 5th (the site of Regionals next month) he lost his first match but came back to win his next three to take 4th in their big tournament.

I did a novel thing that weekend.  I sent Nancy with parents Jude and Becky Fouquier to video tape the matches at Castle Rock.  I joined the JV team and Assistant Coach (and my former student) Brandon Prior at a separate JV Tournament at Arlington High School.  Next year, when there is no son to follow, I'll likely still travel to the near events and be an ongoing fan and team photographer.

The following weekend Nate had pins against Roosevelt and Highline and a 12-5 decision over rival Cascade Christian from Puyallup.  With that dual, BCS ended their school on school duals with a strong 9-3 team record.

Finishing out the month, Nathanael led his team to a 4th place finish (out of 15 teams) at the Great Northern Invitational at Meridian High School in Bellingham.  Nate was seeded 3rd in a full 16 man bracket at 145 pounds.  He pinned his first opponent from Ferndale in the second period and then pinned Nick Matheson from host Meridian in 0:33.  Nate had pinned Matheson in 0:28 back on December 22nd.  These two wins put him into the semi-finals.  Here he faced Joe Dolf (top left), the 2nd seed, who Nate had pinned for 3rd place at the As Iron Sharpens Iron tournament in December. It was close but Nate won 10-4 to advance to the championship match to be held after the dinner break. (It was a long day.) Dolf is the "Darrington Hercules" I wrote about last month.
 
I was the anxious one when Nathanael began the championship match, but not for long.  When the wrestlers were introduced, the announcer told of Nathanael being a "two time State qualifier" and of his outstanding win-loss record this season.  His opponent Davis Jones of nearby Bellevue High School did not have a similarly impressive record.  But Jones had defeated Stormee Newcombe (formerly Stormee Brown) the #1 seed who had moved to Highland Christian from Darrington this year.  Stormee and Nate knew each other well and had split matches in 2005-06.  At Regionals in 2006 Nathanael had knocked Stormee out of a trip to State after Stormee had beaten him in December 2005.  I was happy not to see them wrestle again.  Stormee was a legitimate #1 seed.  In 2006-07 they were just enough different in weight not to have to face each other.

The picture (middle left above) show just one of the moves Nate applied to Jones.  At the end of the first two minute period, Nate led 4-2.  But by the end of the second period it was almost over with Nate up 15-2.  Nate dominated this fellow alum from Chinook Junior High.  The match ended with a 19-4 "tech fall". A lead of 15 points ends the contest.

One interesting moment for me was my first stint as a coach.  Coach Prior needed to move to the mat where BCS heavyweight Chris Bowser was about to wrestle.  I had my coach credentials around my neck (a courtesy for just such an occasion)  and slipped into the coaches corner chair as BCS senior Andrew Perkins was handily winning his semi-final round match.  I received his opponents obligatory handshake after the match.  So now I have a perfect winning percentage as a wrestling coach!  But I was out of my element and hope to stay behind the lens in the future.

The Tri-District Championships are February 1-2 at home at BCS, followed by Regionals at Castle Rock and State at the Tacoma Dome.  I'm already working on details of the awards banquet on the 26th.  There's a lot more wrestling to come.
 

How "father god-like" it is to be the parent of a wrestler ― to sit silently mat side and to watch your son triumph ― though it often seems he's being 'crucified' in the midst of the contest.  After his hand is raised, we want to remind everyone, from our seat in the stands, "This is my beloved son..."
1228 99th Finally Goes High Speed with DSL
 
After using three or four different dial-up services over the years, I finally stepped up to broadband. 
I settled on the Qwest DSL "Silver" (1.5Mbps) service with a two year commitment to lock in the "lifetime" price guarantee.   My motivation stemmed not only for my desire to do my online photography work more efficiently, but also so that I could telecommute and thus relieve Nancy from time to time of her daily care for Grandma Jean.  I also added voice mail ant three-way calling to the call waiting service we had enjoyed.		 Scholarships Roll In
for Nathanael
 
On January 24th, Nathanael received offers of three SPU scholarships.  The $1500 Alumni Scholarship was expected.  The $3000 Philip W. Eaton Scholarship (the same one received by Annie) was a surprise. It is given for leadership and service. The $10,500 Trustees' Scholar Award (for his 3.89 GPA and 1480 SAT score) was an even bigger surprise.  That last one is the second highest scholarship awarded by SPU.  As we learned with Annie, these will not help with room and board, but his college tuition will now be completely covered.
Our Neighbor Gets Its Gables

When I walk home from work and turn north on Ken and Lori Smith's driveway, I see the new house looming over their house.  Fortunately, our friends are south of this big house. Verlin and Pat Frickle, also on our west side, were not so fortunate.  The new house west of ours got its second floor framing and its roof trusses this month.  It casts a year-round shadow on 1234 99th Ave. NE.  Our own west side yard (what we call the swale) and the line of trees (True Fir and Sequoia) separate us from this new house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

◄ looking northwest          ▲looking southwest


Fall Semester Ends with BCS Epiphany Concert
 
 Jean and the BCS "Singers" were on of four BCS choir groups that performed January 27th.  Don Sleight came to take care of Jean so we could all enjoy the show.
Another Critter Heard From

Nathanael spotted this wild bunny in our yard and Jeannie Beth and I, following Nate's instructions, herded him/her through the open gate into "bunny land."  Bunny Land is a  fenced inner-yard in our north yard for rabbits which has been vacant for a few years. This fellow was not too happy but I managed to get this cameo taken in the falling dusk light. 

During dinner, he managed to escape, probably by jumping off of the top of the wood pile inside that fenced area.  But it was fun to consider returning that piece of yard back to its intended use of housing little furry fertilizer makers.  (Our tomatoes have been best when we've had bunnies.)
The Website that Opened My Eyes to CSS
 
I've not been focused on my needed professional technology training, mostly due to lack of time, but also due to lack of interest.  Nothing had excited me ― until this month.  I've needed to get some training on Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 since SPU tightened its web security and I could no longer use FrontPage or WS_FTP with departmental web pages.  I've purchased the Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Essentials training DVD from Total Training, Inc. I hope it will help me get up to speed in February. 
But what has grabbed my attention is CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

And it was the Zen Garden web site that proved to me the value and potential of CSS.  See their demonstration of what CSS can do. http://www.csszengarden.com/  I've ordered their book and look forward to reinvigorating my web design skills.

 Nate turns 19

I guess getting high speed DSL for Nathanael made an adequate birthday present.  He likes it.

I made legal sized color posters of pictures of Nathanael and Nancy and I put them up around BCS announcing his 19th birthday.  (I contend that his "red shirt" status, by starting 8th grade at Chinook when we'd wanted him to start 9th grade at BCS, has led to his top athletic success. He's a year older than his senior peers.)

Jeannie Beth baked him a cake (and chocolate cake waffles for breakfast.)  His Christmas SPU shirt is his most worn. Thanks Don and Judy.

Riverdance at the Paramount

Nancy and I enjoyed an unexpected date on the 30th. 

Dr. Doug Downing and his wife Lori had tickets to Riverdance but the death of Lori's mother took her out of town and Doug (Associate Professor of Economics) offered them at 3:30PM to anyone in SBE who could make it to that night's 7:30PM performance at the Paramount.

I knew both Nancy and I would love this show, having greatly enjoyed seeing it on PBS.

I called Nancy and she was eager to "have a date" ― our first in recent memory.  She picked me up at SPU and we parked on 5th Avenue at 6:00PM and thereby got free parking.  We enjoyed a quick Chinese dinner at Westlake Center and made it to the beautiful Paramount Theatre in plenty of time.  My conclusion?  I would have paid the $60 per seat if I had thought we could fit it into our schedule.  Providence made our date a possibility.
In the last moments of January...
 
I want to believe that this was not an impulse buying decision.  I had researched the new Nikon D300 camera and had decided it was the best product for my future needs.  Its $1799 price tag was a show stopper though.  But in early January my Nikon D70 began to have serious problems.  (I'll need to send it in for service.)  I began considering lesser models.  I even bid (low) on a D80 on eBay.  But as the Tri-District 1A wrestling championships loomed, I knew I could not depend on the D70.  Its shutter release only worked occasionally.  A sports photographer only has an instant to catch THE SHOT.  A talk with the salesman (Jeff Sinnock) at Talls Camera (and a talk with Nancy) helped me make the purchase decision.  I drove back to Bellevue Square and walked in at 8:53PM on January 31st and asked Jeff, "Can you sell me a D300 in seven minutes?" He was happy to. He also gave me some pointers -- especially about the valuable image editing software that comes with this camera.  $1799 (with tax $1960) may seem like craziness to some (like my dad and brother Randy) but this is a professional's tool.  (It is a very powerful tool.  That price only covered the camera body.  But it uses all of the lenses and memory cards from my D70.)  I hope and expect it to pay for itself over time.  The February 1-2 wrestling tournament will be the first test.

Bits and Pieces
  • Nancy let me buy my first 1T (Terabyte) external hard drive. Processing video made it necessary.
  • I have returned to the facilitators role on Saturday morning.  Phil had led through much of Ephesians and a few Psalms. On January 26th we studied Psalm 40.  FPCB Elder Steve Knapp joined us on sort of an inspection visit.  Steve and Nancy and I had been in the a big downtown businessman's Bible study in the 1980's and we have many mutual friends. He was very impressed with our group and study.
  • This month the business school returned responsibility for the annual Time Schedule to me.  I took over the work well begun by Dr. Gary Karns and got the first draft submitted on time to Student Academic Services.

My December Quote

An SPU !Facnet Email (December 6th)

Friends,

 

Contrary to what your older children may have told you, Santa Claus exists!

 

Blessed Feast Day of St. Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra.  As an ascetic, I doubt that he had a belly that jiggled like a bowlful of jelly.  He was well-loved by everyone, especially the poor.  His eyes might have twinkled but he did strike Arius on the face during the Council of Nicaea.   Life is so much more interesting than fiction.

 

Best wishes for a good end to the quarter.

 

Stamatis

 

Dr. Stamatis Vokos

Professor of Physics

Seattle Pacific University

 

(Dr. Vokos will be one of Nathanael's professors.)

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