Computer Wizardry

I remember my first awareness of computers.  It was 1967.  I was 18 years old, and at school at the University of Iowa.  The computer took up the space of a whole two story building. 

Now, 46 years later, everywhere there are smart phones. And today, I read a prediction that tablets will be the computer of choice.  And even my humble cell phone is a kind of computer able to send messages and browse the web.

I also remember the first time I saw a car phone in 1980.  A friend was a doctor and needed to be available even when driving.  His phone was huge compared to my cell that fits in my relatively small hands.  The doctor's wife had a Macintosh, but I didn't have the money to buy one. 

It turned out that my first computer was a MAC, and I loved it.  I had it for quite a long time - about 15 years. 

I searched for a place to take it, and found a group who would take computers for people who really needed them but had no money to buy one.  I remember that they had posted what they would or wouldn't take and I figured they wouldn't take mine.  But no . . . they were excited to get it even though it needed a lot of attention to spiff it up. 

In 2000 I went to work in Olympia, the Capitol of Washington State.  We had much faster computers, and people who could fix them.

Most recently I bought an HP all in one -- there is no tower.  I'd love to have a MAC, but I don't have that budget.  I'd also like to have a tablet.  Maybe soon.

I wonder what will come next!

 

The Way Home

 

          My Cousin Darlene and my Mom took me to Milwaukee to catch my flight home.  We all got on the plane.  But ...  there were some problems.  The plane needed some help - a LOT of help.  The plane was also going right through Houston shortly after the tornados went ripping through near enough to be another caution for me. They made all of us get off the plane.  I had noticed the woman seated across the isle from me was crying. 

          We waited, and waited, and waited.  The woman who had been crying told us that her father was dying and she wanted to see him before he died.  Still crying she asked to find the fastest way to get to Southern California.   That took a while.  There was a woman next to me that said we needed to pray.  There was another woman on the other side of me.  We all prayed softly.  My sense of it was that we were enveloped with angels.  We stayed with her while the airline people searched for the fastest and best way for this woman.  She did get a plane to Southern California.

          Then the plane was finally ready.  I had to make a choice.  I really didn't want to go to Houston.  Beside the tornados, my Dad would have to meet me at SeaTac at midnight, and probably longer because of the two hours of repairs.  So I decided to get a different plane.  I found a man from the airline, and asked him if I could go straight across the country.

           This wonderful man gave me a first class seat going from O'Hare directly to SeaTac.  And since I would have stay overnight, he gave me vouchers for free for a place to stay, and for dinner and breakfast, and the Coach to take me to O'Hare.  My Dad didn't have to travel late at night. 

           The very best was that I had my first time in first class: wonderful food and wine, and it was really comfortable.  The man sitting next to me told me how to open up the table when our food was served.

           When I got to SeaTac, I found my luggage very easily.  And my Dad's car was just outside the door. 

           The last miracle was that we drove home the before the bridge on I-5 collapsed! 

  

Cousins, Aunts and Uncles

My Mother lives in Wisconsin, while I live in Washington State with my Dad. So I go to Wisconsin most years.  Both Mom and Dad came from large families.  Eighty some years ago there was no birth control and children worked on the farms.  Thus, although I am an only child, I have lots of aunts, uncles and many cousins.

My most recent visit was in May of this year.  I went with a purpose -- to visit as many family members as I could.  I got my wish.  Of course I spent a lot of time with my Mom, but spent time with family I hadn't seen for a long time. 

My Mother's eldest sister Lorraine is still alive at 94 and clear as a bell.  She uses a walker, but otherwise she seems more like 84.  While I was talking with her she said "I have only six years to get to 100"!

Lorraine has a daughter, Darlene, and four sons.  The boys used to tease me and my cousin Margaret.  For example, they told her she had to pump the cows tail to get milk.  She almost got kicked.  One of the boys died in a car crash a few years back.  While I was visiting with Lorraine, her youngest son, Gene arrived.  I hadn't known that I would get to see him.  It had been decades since I had any contact.  Later that day we had dinner with two of Darlene's brothers and their wives.

We spent most of a day with another of her brothers, Lyle, the eldest, and slept at their house.  That was interesting because as a child, I rarely even saw him because he was was so much older.  His wife, Ella Mae is a really wonderful woman.  She has hearing problems, and yet she communicates very well.

One thing I really liked as we travelled around, was the beauty of green rolling hills and valleys.  Ina way it reminded me of Whatcom County, in Washington State, where I live.  Both are green, and both have hills and valleys.  Yet Wisconsin doesn't have actual mountains as we have in Washington. 

Another of the places we went to was Madison Wisconsin.  My Aunt Yvonne lives there.  When we arrived at her door, she scolded me for not having visited for too long.  She said, "I haven't seen you since 1986!"  Then she smiled.

Then there was church, and another cousin from a different family.  He was leading a session on money issues for the church.  He was as surprised as I was!  A couple of days later he came to Mom's apartment and spent some time with Mom, another aunt, and me. 

Every thing comes to an end, and Darlene and my Mom took me to the airport in Milwaukee.  I checked my bag and then the fun and challenges began. 

See you in the next chapter!

The Beauty of Whatcom County

          I have lived in a variety of places: born in Anchorage, grew up in Chicago and Iowa, law school in St. Louis, and then to Seattle.  More recently I moved to Whatcom County.  It is my favorite place to love.
         
           Eastern Whatcom County has wonderful mountains around three sides: South, East, and North.  One of those mountains is Mount Baker.  It is majestic and beautiful.  The native people of this area, the Lummis, call it Komo Kulshan.  There is a wonderful story about Komo Kulshan, of love and envy:  http://home.online.no/~arnfin/native/lore/leg268.htm

            A long journey south of them stands their mother, Clear Sky.
You know her as Mount Rainier, (seen in the 'Paramount' pictures at the end of movies, in the cinema!)

            There was a woman named Fair Maiden, who planted seeds and roots.  The seeds she planted there grew and spread, and that's why the lower slopes bloom with flowers of every color. Often on a clear day or night, the mountain dresses in sparkling white and looks with longing at Komo Kulshan and the mountain children near him.

             What I love most about Whatcom County is the abundance of green: trees, farms, blooming flowers and tall cedar.  It always stirs my heart.

Whatcom County and Komo Kulshan

              I love the place where I live:  in Whatcom County.  The mountains divide
the western county from the east.  And in the west is the bay.  There is lush green almost everywhere in Whatcom County.  When I drive through the county, I cannot help soaking up the beauty of the trees on the rolling hills. 

              One of the most prominent part of the scenery is Mount Baker.  It is the tallest of the mountains in our area.  There is always some snow on Mount Baker, although in the summer there isn't much. The volume of snow and ice on Mount Baker is greater than that of all the other Cascades volcanoes (except Rainier) combined. 

              Mount Baker, along with Shuksan, have a special place in the lore of the native people of this area.  also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is an active volcano.

              Komo Kulshan, a very tall and handsome young man, had two wives, as was the custom of his tribe. One was named Clear Sky; the other, Fair Maiden.  As you might guess, there was quarreling.  Eventually Clear Sky packed her bags and left.

               Fair Maiden became an island, and Kulshan, left with his children in the mountains of the Northwest coastal range, kept stretching upward, trying to see his wives. So did his children.

                The Three of them grew taller and taller and became high mountains. One is Shuksan, a little east of Kulshan and almost as tall. Some people say the others are Twin Sisters, a little west and south of Kulshan.

                 A long journey south of them stands their mother, Clear Sky.
You know her as Mount Rainier, (seen in the 'Paramount' pictures at the end of movies, in the cinema! )

                 The seeds and roots she planted there grew and spread, and that's why the lower slopes bloom with flowers of every color. Often on a clear day or night, the mountain dresses in sparkling white and looks with longing at Komo Kulshan and the mountain children near him.

Go to the Birds!

Why Birds?  I have had extraordinary experiences with birds. 

For example, a few years back I was feeding the birds around and in a large bush in front of my living room window.  I had been in the kitchen, and when I went to the living room, I saw a bird with a very long tail. It was sidewise to me, and then it turned directly towards me.  I caught the feeling of this bird, wanting food but unable to get at it because of it's long tail. 

I watched, and waited, and finally it did find a way to get out of the bush. 

In the aftermath, it felt important to see what kind of bird this was.  With help from an ornithologist (a bird specialist) I discovered this was a juvenile cormorant.  Now a cormorant is almost always found on the edge of the sea.  It eats fish.  So the food I had for the usual bird wouldn't have worked anyway.  I wonder still whether that juvenile bird found his way to the bay off the Pacific Ocean some few miles away.

More recently, I saw a juvenile Northern Harrier Hawk.  It was on the roof in a place that it was visible from where I was standing.  At first I didn't see much of it, and the back feathers were mostly grey, so I didn't think of it as unusual.  And then it flew.  The underbelly was mostly gold and some grey, and as the bird flew, I saw a round patch of white just at the base of the body.  I had never seen anything like it.  So I got out my Audubon book.  Nothing like it there.  But I wouldn't give up -- I went to Sibley, and quite quickly identified this beauty.  Sibley says the juvenile's gold/orange fades to whitish by spring.  Sibley also said the white rump is always obvious.  I also found that it is a rare occurrence, even though the Northern Harrier is widespread.

Finally, a hawk has been taking refuge in the trees, near to the suet.  I am not sure what kind of hawk, though I suspect it is a Swainson's Hawk.  My guess is that there is actually a pair, nesting in the Rhododendron.  Last year there was a pair of Starlings nesting in a large, 10 foot stump.  There was a hole just enough for the birds to get into it. 

There are lots of usual birds: right at this moment there is a flicker feeding at the suet cage.  There are Finches, Juncos, Chickadees, Sparrows and a Stellar Jay.  I love them all!

The Day After

I had an interesting phone call yesterday evening - a young woman wanted to convince me to vote for same sex marriage.  It was late in the evening, but she was determined.  I told her I had voted a week before, and that I did vote yes on same sex marriage.  I told her I think it is essential.  It is really way past time.

I have friends who are devoted to their partners.  Two women friends have been together for more than twenty years.  They created their own wedding in a park.  I was in the wedding party. The brides were ecstatic.  Some years later they went to Canada:  July 20, 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world and the first country in the Americas to legalize same-sex marriage.

My friends had moved to California, and then the same sex marriage became law there.  The period of granting such licenses began on June 16, 2008, due to a ruling by the Supreme Court of California based on an equal protection argument and ended November 5, 2008, due to the passage of Proposition 8, an amendment to the California Constitution that limited marriages to those between one man and one woman.

Before the passage of Proposition 8, California was only the second state to allow same-sex marriage. Marriages granted by any civil entity, foreign or otherwise, anytime before the passage of Proposition 8 remained legally recognized and retained full state-level marriage rights. Subsequent state legislation established that any same-sex marriages granted by other jurisdictions after the passage of Proposition 8 retain the state rights that come with marriage, except for the legal term "marriage" itself.

Perry v. Brown (formerly Perry v. Schwarzenegger), 671 F.3d 1052, is a case decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on February 7, 2012. A three judge appellate panel of the Ninth Circuit held that California's Proposition 8, a 2008 ballot initiative  that amended the state constitution state constitution to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples, was declared unconstitutional. 

This was an historic decision, which opened the way for states to allow same sex marriages.  For me it was important because of my friends, male and female, who are in a same sex union.  The two women I have mentioned went through everything they could in order to be legally married.  There are many challenges for same sex partners who do not have a legal right as married partners.  One of the most basic is part of the usual marriage verbiage: in sickness and in health.  I know some same sex partners who were not even allowed in the hospital room when their beloved were sick or even dying.  Think about it -- it is heartbreaking.

So YES, it is essential!