The Doctor is in.

June 2024

May/June Birthdays

We briefly celebrated Thomas's 36th birthday on the 3rd. But the joint party with Jonny and Susan was held on Saturday the 9th.

Jonny is reading above the 1st grade level. I gave him two hardcover comic book anthologies I bought back in the 1990s when I was buying comic books for Nathanael to read. All Star Comics Archives 1 & 2 now sell for $134 together. Passing along my treasures will only increase.

Cynthia Sings in the Rainier Chorale

On Sunday the 2nd, Nancy drove me down to Green River College for a performance of the Rainier Chorale. Like most such events, I wasn't keen on going but found myself tapping my toe to many of the pop hits with which I was very familiar. I especially enjoyed their renditions of MacArthur Park made popular by the actor Richard Harris, an interesting yet confusing song, and In My Life, a Beatles song with great meaning to me.

Nathanael brought Jonny to hear the choir that included mom Cynthia as one of its newest members.

West Seattle High School All-School Reunion

The annual All-School Reunion (ASR) was held, as usual, on the first Saturday in June. West Seattle High School has one of the most active high school alumni associations in the nation. Attendance might have been higher if the printer for our annual Alumni Chinook newspaper had not run out of paper. I advertised the event via email and the six other classmates that attended was a better turnout than all but our 50th gathering of 21 folks last year. I also prepared a display of 8"x10" framed photos introducing folks to the Monogram Club. I also took the official photo of the class of 1974 since 2024 was the year for their 50th reunion.

The Future of the
Monogram Club?

The future of the Monogram Club might have been telegraphed by the turnout at our June 6th luncheon. The thirteen scholarship recipients, senior athletes from West Seattle High School, outnumbered the club members present at the West Seattle Golf Course clubhouse.

The event went long by 90 minutes, but our student guests seemed to enjoy it.

June Edition of the EmeriTimes Emailed Out

Issue number 32 is my second edition of the SPU EmeriTimes newsletter. It was emailed out on June 10th.

Its fourteen pages can only include information that has been sent to me or that I have researched or reported on myself. I'm hoping that more of the 140+ individuals who are on the emailing list will send in their own updates for future editions.

In praise of this edition, former SPU President Phil Eaton wrote, "Fantastic issue of EmeriTimes Newsletter, the best ever. The whole thing was thoughtful, thorough, lively, colorful, just beautifully done." And former SPU President David McKenna wrote, "Yes, thanks for an outstanding edition. As an old journalism teacher, you get an A+."

Jean Cast in The Comedy of Errors

Jean will play Adriana, "a rich woman, married to Antipholus of Ephesus. At the start of the play, she suspects her husband sees other women and is sad that their marriage is no longer as happy as it once was. We never see her without her sister, Luciana, to whom she seems very close."

The Emerald Theatre performs its summer play on weekends, August 3 to August 17. All six performances are within just a few minutes of Jean's home. Her significantly pregnant visage should only add to the comedy of errors.

In the June Garden

On the afternoon of the 12th, Valerie helped me harvest 31 garlic scapes (left). Irene joined us as a spectator. On Father's Day I spotted a lot of Sweet William (right) in the north yard. We had long ago opted for wild flowers under our apple and pear trees instead of a lawn. I transplanted green onions to large trays on the 18th.

On the 20th, I divided a large pot of Asters and planted them in a sunny spot near the library window. I planted the other pot of Asters at Jean's in a similar way. Parsley and Cilantro (easily confused with one another) were transplanted into larger pots. And the Dwarf Lupine seedlings were transplanted into a newly prepared spot south of the cucumber trellis along with Red Yarrow. I also started more cucumber plants from my own 2023 seeds. Sunflowers and corn are coming up. Lots of Delphinium seedlings will need to go into the ground in a few weeks. Both catnip and catmint are coming up.

The eleven pepper plants still look meager. The tomatoes in the ground are slow to thrive, but those in pots are doing fine as are the potatoes and garlic. Marigolds and lilies should flower soon.

The first Yukon Gold potatoes were harvested (by Charis and Irene) on Sunday the 23rd.
I've already enjoyed Yukon Gold potatoes for dinner and breakfast. There aren't many raspberries and strawberries, but they are ripening. I planted more Zinnia seeds. Charis, Irene, and I also harvested a jar of Bluebell pods full of seeds.

Late in the month I moved nine little corn plants from pots to the ground.

Grandkids Corner

Nailani had a play date with us while mom Tramoya had a job interview with Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. at their downtown Bellevue office.

Irene had a rare tearful moment.

The Summer Projects

For over thirty years, the term "roller rink" has described our dream for the west half of the basement, a single 32' square space. Alas, instead it became the repository for generations of random stuff. Deciding what of that stuff was junk and what was treasure seemed to always be put off for more important things. This is intended to be a "before" picture (left). It looks down the middle of three parallel canyons of assorted boxes toward the basement

door at the west end of the basement. That door is the front door from our old house. (Our old kitchen door is on the shed.)

One truck load arrived from Spokane in late spring 1993 before we even had permits to move into our new house. Another large load came from West Seattle in 2011 when my parents passed. Nancy kept financial records and boxes from IBM, many of which later migrated to the top of the garage. One corner holds my electrical/stereo gear and my large art table salvaged from the basement of the SPU Center House. Many of Thomas' and Annie's things are stored here including many of their wedding presents.

The projects never end. At the right, Nancy is working on the workshop wall. She's insulating the pipes, putting up the sheet rock, and adding shelves. This will go far toward putting all of the tools and construction materials in order, making the workshop in the northeast corner of the basement more functional.

The living room is also getting reorganized. My 43" LG TV has moved from the basement to the living room west wall so the kids can enjoy their movies there.

I Saw Him Play: Willie Mays (May 6, 1931 - June 18, 2024)

Willie Mays, the "Say Hey Kid," died this month at the age of 93. Ken Griffey, Jr. called him the Godfather of Baseball. I saw him play Center Field for the San Francisco Giants on August 20, 1971 against the Montreal Expos at Jarry Park in Montreal. The Expos won that game 4-1. Willie did not get a hit but did get three walks against a single strike out. He did make some great plays in the outfield. Bill Stoneman, with a lifetime ERA of 4.08, was the winning pitcher while Juan Marichal took the loss, although his career ERA was a great 2.89. One other player, First Baseman Ron Fairly (1938-2019), homered in the 7th for the Expos. I would later enjoy listening to Ron as he was often paired with Seattle Mariners radio

broadcasters Dave Niehaus and Rick Rizzs between 1993 and 2010.

And why was I in Montreal, Canada, in August 1971? I had travelled across Canada from Vancouver by train with the Order of the Arrow contingent from Seattle's T'Kope Kwiskwis Lodge (The Great Silver Marmot) attending the 1971 National Order of the Arrow Conference at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. At age 16, and a newly minted Eagle Scout earlier that spring, I was a member of our Longhouse team. That was an amazing trip. The long transcontinental train ride began the trip and my first airplane ride, a 747 from Chicago back to SeaTac, ended it. The conference theme "Aim High Serve All" inspired me (like Matthew 23:11). This was also my first time staying in a college dorm. I made friends with Scouts from my lodge as well as some from Austin, Texas. I even picked up their Texas accent for a while. After 53 years, I finally enjoyed some of the Shiner beer (Texas's oldest independent brewery, established in 1909) that they raved about.

I recall I did order a carafe of red wine with the Filet Mignon I enjoyed for dinner at a hotel restaurant. I shared the wine with a fellow Scout my age. (We were not in uniform.) Then we headed for the subway that took us to the busses for the ballpark.

Bits and Pieces

I thanked Nancy for the Father's Day gift she didn't know she bought me. The Black+Decker String Trimmer (BESTE 620 model) will help me clean up the weeds in my garden. I need to make room for the many flowers and herbs that are coming up in small pots.

On Flag Day, Laurie sent us a scan of a very familiar photo of Jean Moody Sleight (born Velma Jean Moody on June 14, 1920). Our mom would have been 104 this month. Click on the picture to see it as we knew it, with Jean posing we assume somewhere in the Canadian Rockies. (Banff, Alberta, was a favorite vacation destination for the Sleight family.) Jean was born in tiny La Crosse, Washington, and was laid to rest in the La Crosse cemetery among many from the Moody and Pickard clan. (See the upper left green patch.) Her graveside service on July 11, 2011 is recorded in this journal. Also, these web pages recorded our tributes to Jean and husband Dick.
I see where Laurie got her looks.

I had my third colonoscopy early on the 12th. I didn't bother to go to sleep the night before since I was taking the 2nd dose of prep drink from midnight to 1:00 AM. The results: two small polyps, diverticulitis, and hemorrhoids both inside and outside. None of this was a surprise and I'm expected to return in five years.

Many new words from Irene this month include Thomas, bag, chair, flower and "strawber" (strawberry), and thanks to Valerie's oft repeated request, marshmallow.

Masahiro Hara invented the QR (Quick Response) code in 1994 in Japan to replace bar codes in the Japanese auto industry. Until I upgraded my phone, I didn't use QR codes. But that has changed and I even created this one for SL8.com.

I got a smile when I first learned that the nickname for this common kitchen tool was a "church key."

Valerie was the third of three granddaughters to be slowed by a virus in late June. Apparently, they passed it on to Galen. Jean, and especially Joel, caught something too. How Randy got sick on the weekend of the 23rd is unknown.