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The Journal of Dr. Richard L.
Sleight |
JUNE
2007 EDITION |
Weight change in
June, 200 to 201.5
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Nathanael Brings Home
More Academic Honors
At BCS Honors
Night, Nathanael was listed throughout the honors program.
He was listed with a score of 90 on the American Math Contest,
placing 2nd on the 12th grade test (though he is an 11th
grader). He received a department award in Art. He
was listed in the National Honor Society and on the "High Honor
Roll" (above 3.75)
― and
as one of only five junior multi-sport athletes with grade point
averages above 3.50.
And I was very
pleased (and honestly quite surprised) when his SAT scores
arrived for the test he'd taken earlier this month. Nate equaled Annie's composite score of 1480! (Annie did not have a writing
portion, which is new.) Nathanael's outstanding combined Reading
and Math scores (740 + 740 = 1480) will make his college
admission a slam dunk. [Note: Nate's one A- in
History was the only grade that was not an A earned by Annie,
Jeannie, or Nathanael this spring term.] |
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◄ Mom Turns 87
Mom is pleasant and
seems content. She rarely initiates conversation and most
of her responses are brief exclamations of mild surprise
or of agreement. But perhaps the fault lies with those of use
who do not ask deeper questions.
Her birthday party
was again held at Ivar's Salmon House. Dad and Mitsuko and
her three sons celebrated with her. Don and Dad sat in the
middle since both their hearing is awful. Someday it'll be
be my turn.
It's a Job, Well Sort of
Annie is
working 10 hours per week this summer as an intern on the SPU
campus with Image, a journal of the arts and
religion. It is not a paid internship but both she and
Nathanael received stipends from UPC as "Summer Student Leaders"
at UPC Day Camp the last week of June. |
 
Jean
Acts in "I Don't Have a
Clue"
Jean played
Mite-E-Clean Vacuum Cleaner Co. saleswoman Miss Louella Draper
(soon to be Mrs. Winkle) in the BCS Junior High Spring Play "I
Don't Have a Clue."
Arriving at a
mansion where a murder mystery dinner party was in progress
(with dinner guests dressed as gangsters), Miss Draper and her
salesman trainee Mr. Winkle, got caught up is the chaos of
dinner guests, dueling daughters, international smugglers, the
local donut-eating police, and $75,000 in found money.
Nobody got killed, but the dead guy did make off with the cash
in the end.
Jeannie had two
guys to act opposite. She got kissed (and returned
the favor with style) by Kevin Sharp on Thursday and Saturday
nights and by John Miller on Friday night. |
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The
play was
put on by the Junior High drama class and was directed Rachel
Fenske, a graduating senior. Rachel also played the lead
in the Senior High play this spring.
With a front row
seat, my telephoto lens, and my camera set on "shutter priority"
at 1/80 sec. and 800 ISO, I was able to catch the action quite
well. No flash photography was allowed of course.
Either all that
summer Shakespeare acting or her drama class has made Jean a
more polished actress or maybe she's just growing into her
gifts. She's so much like a beautiful rose bud just
beginning to blossom. |
  Jean
Reaches
"Half Way"
Mr. Mike Olson, BCS
teacher and 8th grade graduation speaker, said the 8th grade
graduates were now "half way" in their education. I liked
his comment that although God could reveal his presence in
pillars of cloud or fire, recently He'd gone into "stealth
mode."
Graduation, Tuesday, June 19th
marked the last event in Jeannie Beth's junior high life.
In fact, the following night marked her first event in the UPC
senior high group. |
 A Week of Vacation?
For
Father's Day, Annie got me a great book (discovered at the
Seattle Public Library Book Sale) -- A Sea of Words: A
Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O'Brian's Seafaring Tales.
Who knew such a wonderful reference book existed? My other present was a new larger electric
chainsaw. The Remington 16" chainsaw
was only $59 at Home
Depot. But the Patriot
CSV-2515 wood chipper-shredder that I bought online from the manufacturer
was $799. We have a big yard by Bellevue standards (.42
acres) and it's gotten very overgrown. Next summer we'll
paint the house again. But this
summer, while Nancy
works on the inside, I'll be working outside.
 The last week of
June found me at home dog sitting Sadie and Shasta again -- and
trying to stay ahead of Nate the Lumberjack. He'd chop something down, and the next day I had to
chop it up into firewood and piles to be shredded before the
rest of the family got home from UPC day camp.
 Nancy had wanted
to let a Cottonwood
tree grow close to the house, where it had begun
as a volunteer from the big Cottonwoods that dominated our
southern view until 1992. Since then it had grown much taller
than our tall house. I was fearful when Nate propped the
ladder
against the tree from ground level. At first I
insisted he use our even bigger ladder. Then (after some
prayer) I proposed he start from the second floor deck!Taking
the 50' tree down in three pieces instead of two was the right
solution. And Nathanael dropped the tree nearly due south, which
worked just fine -- even if he'd been aiming his cuts to fell it
southwest across the yard. These three shots below caught
Nate on the ladder taking the top third of the tree down.
I got to bring down the bottom third -- and it fell exactly
southwest. Alas, we probably have a dozen trees to bring
down ourselves and a few that will require a professional tree
service. It will take all summer to get this done.
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Bible Study Concludes for the Summer with Psalm
37
 Phil
Voigt announced on June 23rd that he expected to live only
months, not years. It was the first time he'd made so
stark a statement about his continuing physical demise. On
parting, and shaking his hand after the last study of our
2006-07 year, he was quite calm and I was the one who couldn't
find words. [I've discovered that I get sort of an
'emotional laryngitis' when I have to say possible last goodbyes
to people I love.] Phil is using a walker now and his wife
must drive him.
 Earlier
this month one of our long time members, and a mentor of mine,
Bill Picketts, suddenly decided it was time to move to
Wenatchee. It was a loss to us. He was much loved by
all. Although he was many years my senior, we were
contemporaries in Christ. He became a Christian around
1980. Except, in Bill's case, he was already a
Presbyterian Elder when it happened!
Interestingly,
both these men are strongly "Dispensational" in their theology.
Such is the case with many Americans, who absorb their beliefs
more from radio personalities than from the creeds and
confessions of their own churches. Their understanding of
the person and work of Jesus is quite sound. But their
eschatology is anything but Reformed.
This year I led
the men through Exodus and Psalms 22 through 37. We plan
to begin in Ephesians (my favorite book) on September
8th. I have the keys to the church in my Bible because
I've got to remember to open up the building at 6:30AM on that
day. I've got to make the coffee too. Fortunately,
it's only for that one day. Different people have
different gifts. Mine might be in teaching -- but
certainly not coffee making.
BCS
Track & Field Banquet and My Photography
  $125
from the coaches to pay for the
www.Bellevue1.net
domain, and $100 from parent Barry Rowan (BCS and SPU Board of
Trustees) plus a few $20 donations from other parents made sure
that my spring sports photography hobby at least only cost me my time.
The coaches also bought me a 500GB "My Book" external hard drive
with which to backup all of my photos. They had wanted to
pay for high-speed Internet for my home but I balked at that.
Bruce Fremd, father of Kyle who ran the first lap on Nathanael's
4x400m relay team, took some pictures of me and had them
autographed by the team and framed. He also gave Nancy and
I $50 in Cheesecake Factory gift cards. We were
thoroughly thanked at the banquet.
  At
the end-of-season banquet, about three dozen of my photos graced
the tables as 5"x7" center pieces -- an idea of senor Pete
Stearn's mom. I also prepared a PowerPoint show of the
athletes and the season in review. It played repeatedly
throughout the banquet. (It
was over half an hour long. Next year I should make it
twice as long.) The coaches, all seven of them, each
received two framed 11"x14" collages of my shots of the
girls and boys teams that competed at State. And to top off my
photographic contributions to the season, the individual awards were all
created by me. Coach Sarah Fox provided the prose and it
took me nearly an hour to create each one -- but the ten
athletes who received Coaches Awards and "Crash" Awards got
8.5"x11" photos like these. They were presented in plastic
frames and they turned out great. I was able to print two
at a time on 12"x18" COSTCO prints. |
Saturday, June
30th
It's been
a long day. Let the dogs out and feed them, have
breakfast, then get to work shredding and chipping the piles of
branches and leaves I'd created all week long. After two
hours of shredding, it was time to leave on a planned excursion
to Vashon Island.
  We
went to visit our shirt-tail relatives
Jeff and Laura Beth Webster. Jeff and Laura
Beth are raising their three boys in Nepal as Jeff leads the
translation of the Bible into the minority Branchu language.
Jeff graduated from SPU in '85 and Laura Beth in '86. They
were back home visiting Laura Beth's family. They expect
to have the New Testament finished in 2009 -- a 10 year process
for Jeff.
 The
day was beautiful as we took the ferry to Vashon. ($34 seemed
like a lot to take our family of five in the van from Fauntleroy
to Vashon Island.) The Seafair Pirates joined us on the
ferry -- they cut in line!
On our return, we
stopped off at my parents house. Grandpa gave Annie two
Latin books because I told him she had studied Latin this year.
(She took it from Dr. Owen Ewald who was my Greek teacher.
Dr. Ewald reads Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, German, Italian, French
and English. He can speak Latin, Greek and, of course, English
fluently.) Grandpa also gave her Bleak House by
Charles Dickens, a book
 Annie
was hoping to read soon anyway.
He gave Nathanael
a nice pair of aviator style sunglasses. My dad's eyes are
so dim that he can't see with sunglasses on. (He also had
Mitsuko drive his car home from Bellevue where it had been
serviced because the tunnels on Interstate 90 are too dark.)
The kids know
Lincoln Park (behind them in the photo) as the place they run
Cross Country in the "Loopy Lincoln Run" each season. It
will be on Tuesday, 9/11 this year.
Lincoln Park holds
so many memories for me. I played in its wading pool as a
young child, swam in Coleman Pool for fun and on their swim
team, and even swam in Puget Sound when I needed to help a scout
pass his Lifesaving Merit Badge. I walked Mr. Spock or sat
with him on the beach, raced Chief Sealth on their home course,
visited with girlfriends or girls I wished would become
girlfriends, ate Hostess Cup Cakes and drank Simba pop bought at
the "Little Store" on the way home from Gatewood School,
listened to The Shadow or The Green Hornet on my
red AM radio sitting in the top of a certain cedar tree while
Randy played football or baseball, sailed my little plastic
boats down its one very little stream, failed at making the Pee
Wee baseball team, and sat on the bench (mostly) on the Midget
football team, watched goldfish in the pond at the north end,
learned to ride a bike there, got muddy in the fall playing
touch football with the Sleight-Martin-King gang, played any
number of war games in the woods, completed a college
photography project there with a white rocking chair for ART 109
Design -- and so much more. I should get out more.
My May Quote
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