It was a dim and stormy day and we sat in our cave...

Here we are at April 28th. It is a dull gray rainy day out, a perfect day for doing blood tests and catching up on blogs. I can now confirm that I am a red-blooded American lad and I'm sure Interpath Lab will agree.

I've been looking for work, either full or part time, but without success. Linda started getting her teeth removed on her birthday (some present, that) and is now reduced to gumming what ever soft food I can find to give her. Hopefully she will be able to get her teeth installed by Memorial Day when we are having a family get-together.

The funniest thing was about a week ago when I got a gob of pine resin on my shoe while cleaning up the mess left by the fallen pine tree. I had to leave my shoes by the back door when I cam in the house to take a phone call. Later that evening Linda was asking me about getting the fish off my shoes. Upon clarification and careful enunciation, I learned she was asking if I had gotten the pitch off my shoes. That would be spelled "phich" I suppose.

There have been a few new developments of interest.

• Band practice for Once Upon a Mattress has started. The musical opens at BMCC in about three weeks. I'm playing trombone as usual. This is probably my favorite type of performance music to play so I'm really looking forward to coming month of practices and performances. There is a little more information at the BMCC Theater website.
  
• last Saturday I attended a seminar at Blue Mountain Wildlife and learned about how to use anesthesia with raptors. I got to see a demonstration when an injured bald eagle was esamined. BMW is a wildlife and raptor rehab facility just south of Pendleton run by Lynn Tompkins. Be sure you check out the BMW website, it's a hoot! This little hawk was photographed last year at the BMW openhouse. I believe it is a kestral falcon. Sure is cute, and a lot more colorful that I expected a raptor to be.
  

• I am trying to get more walking, a form of self torture known also as exercise, into my life. I try to walk every day with a dear friend, Bill C. whom I've known for years, starting at EOCI where he was a counselor and I was a computer geek.
• The Gray Pony is ready for sale, after the weather dries out and I run it through the car wash. If you are interested, it is a mineral-gray 2002 Mustang GT convertible with barely over 55K miles. It has leather interior, automatic transmission, air, cruise, traction control, premium sound system with a 6-CD/6-speaker changer, and almost new performance tires. I have never abused it so aside from one paint chip (dang that truck!) it is in excellent condition. I got it with every option Ford offered except for a special $1200 extra super stereo system. Just $12000 cash and it it is yours.
• I'm still trying to get some writing done, especially on a day like today. I would be neat to be a published author, but the competition to be published and make money from it is fierce. But you never know until you try. I have several ideas that I am developing; the next thing is to see if any of they can go anywhere.
• Linda and I did the MS Walkathon a week ago, she on her electric scooter and me afoot. We went our friends Dwight and Marilyn J. and we all had a great time until Linda's scooter battery died and Marilyn had to push her. I made it over half way and felt blisters forming so I bagged it. But we did manage to raise some money for MS research and that is what is important.

That's enough for now; thanks for reading this.

Never underestimate the dedication and accomplishment of determined girls!

Just a quick post tonight. Linda is recovering nicely from her first round of dental extractions and gets the rest done this coming Wednesday.

Now for the reason for this post: the incredible Kings Firecrackers. Take a look at this link which goes to YouTube. My understanding is that these young ladies range from 4th to 8th grade age. Their performance is a shining testament to what motivated youth are capable of accomplishing.



Now for my soapbox:

I wonder about this and the implications for our so-called educational system. I believe that we are not adequately challenging our youth to excel in a variety of ways. Reading and math are fine - as far as they go. But I maintain that there is a lot more to a good life than just these two subjects. Thanks more than ever to the joke that is No Child Left Behind and its dependence on one size fits all approach to learning and testing, we are consumed with test scores to the exclusion of almost everything else. Teachers are not ignorant; if you mandate that their students must pass some meaningless test, especially if their pay and work environment are at stake, then they are forced to teach to the content of that test to the near exclusion of any other subject matter. And this is what masquerades as American education and/or teacher accountability?

What about parental accountability - for making sure that children arrive at school rested, adequately fed and clothed, coming from an environment that demonstrates the values of reading, the arts, and physical activity?

What about community accountability - to assure that there are safe, clean, well maintained school facilities, with adequate financial support to allow for small classroom sizes and (gasp!) multiple smaller schools instead of mammoth education factories.

What about governmental accountability to... No, wait, our government is the best that we can buy and government wants to keep it that way. I don't think there is real interest in making substantive and meaningful improvements. That would mean bucking the special interests who give you big bucks to get re-elected. So the Legislature for the most part just keeps talking and talking about the problems and hoping that eventually they will possibly go away. Especially true if it requires reallocation of resources or even raising the tax on beer. Gosh, we must NEVER raise the tax on beer. Or gas, for that matter, to try to assure that our community will still be here in 100 years and not just an Historical Marker along I-84.

Teachers and schools can't educate America without the active support of everyone. What have you done for you community this week? What will you do next week?

I applaud all who work with groups like Kings Firecrackers, or the Pendleton High School Dance Team where success is measured by other means than standardized tests.

Easter 2009

Praise the Lord, He is risen!

Linda and I enjoyed a very nice Easter weekend. Saturday night we enjoyed dinner with marilyn and Dwight Johnson and their oldest son Matt and his girlfriend Tanna. Dwight and I were celebrating the successful conclusion of the Radio Auction. I was experimenting on them with a heart-of-palm salad that incorporated apples and avocado. I had never tried heart-of-palm and found it somewhat like artichoke heart in taste and texture. Everyone enjoyed it; here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1 pinch ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
• 3 cups mixed salad greens
• 1 avocado - pitted, peeled, and cubed
• 2 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced thin
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
• 1 cup sliced hearts of palm

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, ketchup, sugar, lemon juice, paprika, and pepper together. Stir in the chives and set aside.
2. Arrange the watercress on individual serving plates. Place apple, avocado, hearts of palm on top. Sprinkle with walnuts and drizzle with dressing.
3. Evenly sprinkle dressing over salad and serve.

Sunday morning we reported to the Methodist Church for a short choir practice. Linda was leading but who watches a conductor anyway? Conductors are for wimps! (Don't tell her I said that.) We did a couple of Easter-type songs which the congregation appreciated.

The really big surprise of the day was a former student who, in 4th grade, I was ready to consign to the Oregon Prison System. Seriously! He introduced himself and his wife and told me a little about his last 12 years. He joined the National Guard and became a good cook. Then in a big switch, he went to school in this coming week graduates as an RN from Blue Mountain Community College. What a wonderful change! I've thought about and worried about that guy for years and it is a relief to se that despite the odds and early evidence to the contrary, he is making something of himself. He has a very pleasant wife to whom he gives most of the credit for his turn around.

John

April? Already? What happened to March?

Actually, given the Pendleton weather lately it was somewhat difficult to tell the months apart. Thank goodness for calendars! The first and last weeks of March proved to be very busy ones, as my Lion friend Dwight Johnson and I were fully i9nvolved getting ready for the 28th Annual Lions Radio Auction on 1290 KUMA (AM) on April 7th. Of the 120+ donations we received, Dwight and I did over 90 of them! But I don't regret this at all. Dwight is a really neat guy and anytime you get to do something worthwhile with a good friend, it makes the time very enjoyable.

We had a wide range of donations, from mustard to toilets, fast foods to car washes, even bowling balls, truck mud flaps and gift baskets. What really surprised and pleased me was that despite the current economic problems, local merchants nonetheless gave generously to the Auction. I think part of this is that the Lions enjoy a very good reputation in Pendleton as we were getting donations where other groups were not. Retail value was well over $7,000!

The night of the Auction Lion volunteers gathered at the studios of Capps Broadcasting Group. Dwight was running a laptop with our donation information and pictures, June Mohrland was my co-auctioneer, and then there was me, trying to keep up with the active auction action. (Try saying that one fast!) We were on the air from 7 PM to 11 PM; after 4 hectic hours we went home. The next day the successful bidders claimed their items at a local bank. Very much to our surprise, the auction brought in over $2400, an alltime record for the Lions Radio Auction, and that covers 48 years!!!

Linda helped out by buying me a 50 pound sack of flour from Pendleton Flour Mills. Just think how much baking it will take to use that amount of flour! I see a bunch of pecan-carmal rolls in the future! Mmmm

I have also started to experiment with Facebook. I've never tried one of the so-called social networking things so this might be interesting.

Linda and I have dec ided not to sell our 2008 Ford Fusion; we really like that car! Instead the 2002 Mustang GT convertible will be up for sale as soon as I finish detailing it. If you are interested let me know. It has a little over 55k miles and is in excellent condition and has never abused in any way.

Travis Stills, Kathy's husband, has just left for another deployment with the US Army in Afghanistan. He expects to be gone for a year! Linda and I are very proud of him and his service to his country.

There are other things worth writing about so I'll try to get back with them soon.