Category Archives: Home & Family

April 18, 2009 · 10:00 pm

New Walks of Old Brick

The prior owner of our 1930 home in Willow Glen (San Jose, CA) passed on to us a large number of bricks and garden stones which I have been using for the last ten years in my landscaping. Most of the bricks are very old and worn, some are half-melted clinkers, others are still new-looking with crisp corners. Several years ago, when we replaced the old leaky swimming pool with WP668, our 1916 backyard caboose, we had to take up several long brick walkways. Since then, we have been re-using the bricks in new walks. Some of the original walkways are in the Jack-on-Jack (or Stacked Bond) pattern, others are in a Basket Weave classic brick pattern.

To get ready for our annual Easter egg hunt and garden party, we installed several new walkways using old bricks. The new walks went in places where the walking surface was uneven or hard to roll a cart or wheelbarrow over. In the new walks, we used both Jack-on-Jack and Basket Weave patterns to match what was already there. Most are set in sand on top of weed cloth with wood borders. On one high-traffic section, we used concrete borders and mortar. Even though it took a week of work and what we have now is very different from what was there before, none of our thirty party guests noticed the change. The advantage of using old bricks in new walks is that if you are careful, they look like they have always been there.

2006 – Removing Pool and Bricks
2006 - Removing Pool and Bricks, San Jose California, photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

April 2009 – installation
April 2009 - new brick walk installation, San Jose California, photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

April 2009 – new walk finished
April 2009 - new brick walk finished, San Jose California, photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

another new walk
April 2009 - new brick walk finished, San Jose California, photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Daniel at work
Daniel at work, San Jose California, photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Daniel and WP668
Daniel and WP668 caboose, San Jose California, photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

WP668 Caboose, April 2009
WP668 Caboose, April 2009, San Jose California, photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

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Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Home & Family

Tagged as garden, House Work, San Jose, Willow Glen, WP668

April 17, 2009 · 6:30 pm

$163,613

If you have read my blog since January, you may know that my 16-year-old son Paul has recently developed chronic and debilitating headaches and dizziness. Despite the capable and dedicated care of Pediatricians, Neurologists, Neurosurgeons, Pain Specialists, Psychologists and Psychiatrists, Occupational and Physical Therapists, and Nurse practitioners, Paul’s situation is stable but not improving. We continue to work with the Pain Management Clinic at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH). Paul is still attending the Hospital School at LPCH, so he will not have to repeat his Junior Year in High School. Thanks for your prayers and good wishes – they have been been a great support and blessing to our family.

This blog entry is about the financial side of this experience. I am not pointing my Finger of Blame at one organization or another as being Bad. I think that in general America’s medical care is excellent. But I am presenting a specific example of how very broken the financial side of America’s health system is.

When Paul first went into the hospital, we did not consider the financial side. We approved the recommended treatments and stayed focused on supporting Paul and each other. Over the months, this situation has evolved from a crisis into a new schedule: six sets of pills a day, drop off and pick up at doctors’ offices – hospital – school, walks and stretches and massage, time in the sun, and of course regular homework and chores. Almost every day, we receive medical bills or insurance Explanations of Benefits.

Explanations of Benefits are cryptic and offer a very narrow view of a small set of medical charges. The first bill which gave us any overview of what our medical adventure cost was the hospital bill for Paul’s brain surgery, for $163,613.70.

Statement Date:	03/02/2009
Service Date(s):	02/05/2009 – 02/09/2009
Total Charges	$163,613.70
Patient Payments	$0.00
Insurance Payments	-$25,921.32
Insurance Adjustments	-$136,324.50
Other Adjustments	$0.00
Balance Due Upon Receipt	$1,367.88

When I reviewed the statement, I was equally amazed at the total price and the 83% insurance adjustment. I know if I did not have a good job which includes health insurance, I would not be eligible for either the $25,921.32 insurance payment or the $136,324.50 discount. I would have to pay $163,613.70. Please understand, with my husband still looking for work, I am quite happy to pay only $1,367.88 for Paul’s brain surgery. However, I know there are growing numbers of people who have no job and little or no health insurance such as mine. It feels very wrong that the privileged pay the least.

Paul at LCPH Hospital School, Palo Alto CA<br /> photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

LPCH Topiary Elephant, Palo Alto CA<br /> photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

LPCH Topiary Giraffe, Palo Alto CA<br /> photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

LPCH Daffodils and Pansies, Palo Alto CA<br /> photo: copyright 2009 John Plocher

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Tagged as Paul

April 14, 2009 · 5:14 pm

Holy Week, Passover, Egg Hunt

Last week was Holy Week for the Episcopal Church, ending the Christian season Lent with the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday. 2009 was one of those rare calendar years when the Jewish Passover celebration coincided with Holy Week. So, St. Andrew’s celebration of the
Last Supper or seder on Maundy Thursday actually took place on Passover.

Our family was in church on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and on Saturday night for the Easter Vigil. John and I both read Genesis passages during the mostly-candlelit Easter Vigil. He read the story of
Noah’s ark and I read about the Sacrifice of Isaac. There were five baptisms, wonderful music, and lovely flowers.

However, Easter morning itself was dedicated to a private celebration of Spring’s renewal of life: our family Easter Egg Hunt. We worked on the garden for weeks in preparation. We hosted ten happy children, plus twenty adults for our annual egg hunt and
garden party.

The Easter Bunny hid over 150 eggs, including the gold and silver
eggs for adults. The Bunny leaves two poems as the only clues:

Gold Egg Poem

You can’t see me even a bit,

But I can see little birds fly.

On the uppermost tier I sit

Hard earth protects me ‘though I’m high.

Silver Egg Poem

Dark and dirty, I’m down low,

Between the sleepers to be found.

Don’t hit your head or hit your toe,

Be careful looking for my mound!

The silver egg was under WP668, our backyard caboose (in the ballast). It was found quickly. However, the gold egg took hours to locate: it was under a flowerpot sitting on the retaining wall. I traded big chocolate bunnies for the gold and silver eggs to the two children who found them. They were delighted with the prizes (and to have found the eggs intended for the grownups!).

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday Procession

Palm Sunday Altar

Joyous Haggadah

Parts of our seder

Maundy Thursday

Easter Vigil Baptisms

Cross over altar

Easter flowers

Floral Golgotha

Gold and Siver Easter Eggs

Easter Bunny with Eggs in a Basket

Flowering Jasmine

WP668 Caboose

California Poppy

Flying Pigs

You may have read my
Finch Fest blog entry on 7 September 2008 about our new bird feeder.
It has been such a popular item that our San Jose yard is even more full
of birds than usual. We now call our tiny visitors “flying pigs” since
they can go through an entire tube of black thistle seed in three days.
In the Winter, their colors are mostly brown to green. John took
some photos today of our piggies in their brighter Spring colors.
Most today seem to be

American Goldfinches but we get other finch varieties as well.

In addition to the finches, we have many much larger birds:
two noisy pairs of
Canada Geese,
two pairs of
Mallard ducks, two pairs of

Mourning doves, and others enjoying our location on the

Guadalupe River.

American Goldfinches San Jose California
photo: copyright 2009 John Plocher

Images Copyright 2009 by
John Plocher

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April 9, 2009 · 12:48 pm

Birthday Flowers

My husband
John Plocher hates to shop but he does have three favorite stores:

Micro Center
computer and electronics store chain
The Train Shop (1829 Pruneridge Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95050,
(408) 296-1050) model train shop
Williams-Sonoma
cooking store chain

For his recent birthday, I took John to Williams-Sonoma at the
Stanford Shopping Center to pick out
his present. The Stanford outdoor mall has a lovely and innovative flower display
year-round but the Spring flowers are particularly gorgeous. Some of the
colors glow so brilliantly, they do not look real.

John held still for pictures because he was on the phone with our daughter Jessica,
sorting out Poetry and Prose Performances Project (“P4”) computer questions. Jessica is recording
literary classics for P4 on YouTube.

John and Paul

John Plocher and Paul Dickinson Goodman at Stanford Shopping Center California
photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Flowers at Stanford

flowers Stanford Shopping Center California
photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

John and Katy

Katy Dickinson and John Plocher at Stanford Shopping Center California
photo: copyright 2009 Paul Dickinson Goodman

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March 30, 2009 · 10:53 pm

What Happens After College? (Geeks and the Silicon Valley)

15 March 2010: More on this topic is in the blog entry “Transitions for Young Adults with Neurocognitive Deficits”

On Saturday, 4 April 2009, I am giving a talk in Lafayette, California, called “What Happens After College? – Kids with Neurocognitive Disability Working in
Engineering and Computing” at the Orion Academy 3rd Annual Seminar on Post-Secondary Transition Planning for Young Adults with Aspergers, NLD and other Neurocognitive Deficits.

I put together this presentation based on information and advice from many sources as well as from my own experience as the parent of a 16-year-old son with social-cognitive disability. I had particular fun creating the “Geeks and the Silicon Valley” section of the talk. I included my favorite quote from
Larry Wall (creator of Perl): “Most of you are familiar with the virtues of a programmer. There are three, of course: laziness, impatience, and hubris” plus an xkcd cartoon, pictures of tshirts (“You read my t-shirt. That’s enough social interaction for one day.”) from Think Geek and the xkcd store, and other geeky stuff.

The second part of the talk covers what counts in finding a job in the Silicon Valley (Recommendations, Academics, Experience, Being Fast), how to get experience before getting a job (Open Source, Internships, Volunteer Projects, College Jobs), and other essential knowledge. I make several references to The Unwritten Laws of Engineering (Revised and Updated, 2001) by James Skakoon and W.J. King, available from the ASME product catalog. My last quote is
from Ivan Sutherland in his 1996 Technology and Courage (Sun Labs Perspectives-96-1):

“I, for one, am and will always be a practicing technologist.
When denied my minimum daily adult dose of technology, I
get grouchy. I believe that technology is fun, especially when
computers are involved, a sort of grand game or puzzle with
ever so neat parts to fit together… If the technology you do
isn’t fun for you, you may wish to seek other employment.
Without the fun, none of us would go on.”

You can review my presentation online, or you can attend the event to hear it in person!

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Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as Disabilities, Geeks, Paul, Silicon Valley

March 29, 2009 · 11:31 pm

Headache Update

Two weeks ago, my 16-year-old son Paul started attending regular school at
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
That is, he was in class for a week then last week was Spring Break.
He starts up again tomorrow. The Hospital School offers two two-hour
sessions a day, morning and afternoon. They have one room for grade school
and another for Junior High and High School. Kids who are not able to go to
the classrooms get hospital room visits by the teachers. Tuesday afternoons, Paul
goes to OT (Occupational Therapy) and PT (Physical Therapy). Paul likes the
Hospital School but misses his friends and regular High School classes.

Paul still has bad headaches and falls down from dizziness several times a day.
He feels dizzy if he walks very far.
The pain is also effecting his memory. Pain is very subjective but I can tell
Paul is in pain when he stops interacting and starts to hunch over. About an
hour after he takes Tylenol (acetaminophen), he opens up, moves more
freely – laughs and talks comfortably. Friday, we start work with the
Pain Management Clinic at LCPH. I hope they will be able to offer
some help or at least a new perspective on the problem. I hope that this is
not one of those problems that Paul just has to grow out of.

The quote on the Hospital School hallway sign offers an image of hope for the
future: “A gymnast in the air, the graceful gull swoops and glides along the
coastal waters.”

LPCH school sign

Lucile Packard Children's Hospital school sign
photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

LPCH hallway art

Garth Williams watercolor painting Charlotte's Web Lucile Packard Children's Hospital
photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

LPCH garden

Lucile Packard Children's Hospital garden
photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

LPCH garden iris

Lucile Packard Children's Hospital garden iris
photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Category Archives: Home & Family

New Walks of Old Brick

$163,613

Holy Week, Passover, Egg Hunt

Flying Pigs

Birthday Flowers

What Happens After College? (Geeks and the Silicon Valley)

Headache Update

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