The Journal of Dr. Richard L. Sleight

JULY 2007 EDITION 

Weight change in July, 200 to 197.5    

The following week, Andrew and Steve went to Camp Parsons on Hood Canal where I was on the summer camp staff from 1973 to 1975. Andrew, now 15, is a Life Scout and just five merit badges away from Eagle.  I often thought that it would have been good if Nathanael had gone into Scouting, but there are so many things he wouldn't have had time for, like athletics, Shakespeare, homework, etc.  And apparently God wanted me to have Saturday mornings free for Bible study all these years instead of hiking and camping.

The good news is that I got some great shots (I'll probably have no future use for.)  The bad news is that indulging in my hobby took a real edge off enjoying what was a great fireworks display.  I won't need the Nikon next year.  Fireworks are best experienced, not recorded.
 

A new house is to be built later this summer on our west side and another just northwest of our NW property corner. Catholic neighbors Bob and Sarah Conroy and their three kids moved out this month after selling their old one-story 1400 square foot house for $1,050,000!!! Just imagine what that will do to our property taxes!  Land in our neighborhood is in very high demand. And we can only imagine what kind of new house will be built on our quiet little cul-de-sac by folks who can afford to pay that much for a tear-down. I guess it's all our fault for starting the rebuilding craze in west Bellevue in 1992.

Vacationing in Place
 
We waited for Jeannie Beth to return from "Shasta Blasta" (the week-long UPC camp for incoming 9th graders that all the kids have now enjoyed) before we assembled the Weber charcoal grill that Grandma Ginger bought for us last Christmas. 

Nancy was happy with the old grill, but as the main cookout chef in the family, I certainly appreciate this new grill.  We inaugurated it on July 8th with turkey burgers and Polish sausages.  This Sunday was an actual Sabbath of rest.  We were all too tired to keep up the torrid pace of yard work we were on.

Jeannie was shocked to see how much of the forested yard had already been cleared along the fence lines.
 

Taproot Theatre Company
Summer Musical Annie_Jr
August will find Nate and Jean acting in Shakespeare's The Tempest.  But July was all about the musical Annie.  Actually, it was Jeannie Beth's second time through Annie_jr. The kids had major roles in Taproot Theatre's "Musical Theatre Supercamp" production.  Jean played an orphan, a servant, and Lily St. Regis.  Her dancing in the Easy Street number and her "New Joy-zee" accent were big hits.  Nathanael played most of the male parts other than Oliver Warbucks and Roster Hannigan.  He was Mr. Bundles the laundry man (and easily picked Annie up like a sack  of potatoes).  He played a servant, a New York cop, and sang You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile as radio personality Burt Healy.

Nancy recorded the play and I made DVDs from the tape.  In mid-July I took my annual trip to Boeing Surplus in Kent.   I managed to pick up a Proxima data projector.  Since then we've enjoyed watching DVD movies projected onto the living room wall. With an image about 6' x 4', we don't feel the need to buy a big screen TV.  This is huge.  

Too bad Boeing is closing that store later this year.

1228 99th Yard takes on a New Look
 
I met Tony the builder who is preparing to demolish the southerly of the two houses which border our house on its west side.  When his crew removed the old fence between our lots, and took out all the plants as well, it gave us a chance to see our place from the west.  Our lot is so wooded that our big house was still nearly completely hidden.  The building to the left of Nancy in the picture above is the garage.  The house is right of that and hidden by the trees.

The last week of July found me taking a second week off from work to trim and chop and shred.  I was surprised to discover that Nathanael had been slowly taking down a huge leaning Hemlock tree in the yard's NE corner.  I had insisted we hire a professional tree service for this job.  So Nancy had Nathanael do it without telling me.  Since he's succeeded with the top half, I guess I must let him proceed.  He will anyway.

I had hoped that Nancy and Nate would make some progress on installing more of  the still missing hardwood floor in the living room near the front door.  Fourteen years is just too long to wait for this.  But this month our old Maytag dryer broke down.  Nancy and Annie took it apart and diagnosed a failed motor.  I ordered  the new parts online that Nancy asked for and she and Nathanael installed them.  It's working fine again. 

Last December we lost half of our ridge vent off the top of the house in the big storm.  Finally this month Nancy called a roofer to effect a repair.  Nancy's dream (not mine) was for something akin to a "widow's walk"  atop the house.  The roofer talked her into something different (and which would not violate building codes.)  We'll see what comes of this visit.  Until then we still have a blue tarp on our roof.
 

My June Quote was one of my own -- as is July's.

Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever. Psalm 37:27

Psalm 37 contrasts the righteous and the wicked.  The repeated promise to the wicked is that they will be "cut off."  The repeated promise to the righteous is that they will "inherit the land" and "dwell in the land forever."  But amid the stark contrasts, this hymn "of David" sings a word of grace.  Read it fast and you'll miss it.  Savor the song and the promise of verse 27 leaps out.  "Turn from evil and do good; then you (yes, even you!) will dwell in the land forever." 

One may choose to change sides.  It must be possible if we are commanded to do it.

And for July -- "War is not hell.  But you can see it from there." (Something I've learned from my Naval reading.)

Bits and Pieces...

• Peggy Swanstrom, long time SBE receptionist and Undergraduate Coordinator became a grandma this year and she and Sig will be moving to Texas soon.  I was able to say a brief goodbye, brief enough so that I didn't choke up.  I can name the co-workers I've been this close to at SPU on the fingers of one hand (a sad commentary on me perhaps.)  Her replacement, 20-something SPU graduate Elizabeth Gordon, has big shoes to fill.
• "Daddy, there's something walking on my roof!"  And coming from Annie in her attic bedroom, that's saying something.  Our convenient woods are a regular haunt to multiple raccoons.
• On the last day of July I finished reading Richard Woodman's The Shadow of the Eagle — book 13 of 14 of the Nathaniel Drinkwater novels. I'll save the final book (which covers the last 30 years of Drinkwater's life) for some future date.  This particular book ended well and tied up loose ends.  I intend now to return to my own duty station as a Bible teacher and dive into Ephesians.  I don't plan to take ship with the British navy of the Napoleonic era again until November when my pre-ordered copy of Julian Stockwin's The Admiral's Daughter will arrive from Amazon.com.  I had a $25 gift certificate.  I found it very hard to find $25 worth of merchandise that I actually wanted.
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• Nate has been running nearly daily in preparation for Cross Country this fall.  Jean has run too but she'll need to step up the miles to be ready for practice that starts August 20th.

• I'd often wondered what my telephoto lens would give me if I shot the moon with my Nikon.  It was a good test, but it's no telescope.