Category Archives: News & Reviews

Visiting family in Wisconsin last week, we several times drove though the Village of Bonduel. Bonduel is between Slab City and Cecil in the dairy farmland near Lake Shawano. I noticed the old brick Fire Station, now used as the Bonduel Village Hall, Library, Police, and Department of Public Works. The more I looked, the odder it seemed.

In addition to the three nuclear Fallout Shelter signs on its walls and the huge siren and silver bell on its roof, this peculiar building is as good an example of remuddling as I have seen. “Remuddling” is a term used by Old House Journal for “misguided remodeling-that is, an alteration that is insensitive to the architecture or character of the house.” Someone decided that colored patchwork fiberglas panels and a huge zigzag steel fascia were just the thing to fill in the old truck bay of what was once a handsome red brick firehouse. Based on the style, the “update” happened in the early 1960s.

Almost as interesting is the building close by with the simple sign HECK. (Heck is where people go who don’t believe in Gosh.)

Fallout Shelter

Bonduel Village Hall

Heck

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

This is Sun’s 3rd year as a Silicon Valley Heart Walk sponsor. The American Heart Association is the largest voluntary health organization working to prevent, treat and defeat heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. The Heart Walk is a volunteer activity to promote health and raise funds
to support heart research and education.

We kicked off our 2009 Heart Walk preparation today with a lunchtime talk at Sun Labs called “Secrets to a Long and Healthy Life” by the remarkable Neal Scott, MD, PhD. (Dr. Scott’s presentation is linked here with his permission. Note that it is 123 pages long, in PDF format.) About Dr. Scott:

Dr. Neal Scott received his Bachelor of Science from Stanford University, his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his Ph.D. degree from MIT. He completed an Internal Medicine residency and a research fellowship at the University of California, San Diego. Following a Cardiology fellowship at Stanford University and an advanced fellowship in Coronary Intervention at Emory University, he joined the academic faculty at Emory University. There, Dr. Scott taught and worked in the cardiac catheterization laboratory, developed various therapeutic catheters and performed basic and clinical research. In addition, he started a medical device company that was acquired by Medtronic, Inc. Dr. Scott has over 100 publications and over 20 patents issued or pending.

CTO Greg Papadopoulos is again Sun’s executive sponsor the Silicon Valley Heart Walk. About the Heart Walk:

Date: Sunday, Sept 13th, 2009
Where: De Anza College, Cupertino, California Registration: 7:30 am – 8:30 am
Walk: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Parking: FREE for the Heart Walk – in the Flint Center Parking structure

You can see photos from last year’s Heart Walk on my 21 September 2008 blog entry. Sheri Kaneshiro is working with me managing Sun’s 2009 Heart Walk participation.

Bill Penrod introducing Dr. Scott

Dr. Neal Scott’s Talk

Dr. Scott and Heart Walkers

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

On our nightly walks in the winter of the year, John and I noticed many small business quietly closing where we live in Willow Glen. Sadly, we have lost restaurants, a wine shop, a hair cutter, a sports clothes shop, and a furniture store.

However, recently that downward trend has thankfully reversed and we are seeing new and transformed retail and service startups repopulating the area.
For example:

• • Willow Glen Books said they were closing but then new life was announced by the new owner
  • Conte’s Aaron Doors was transformed from a garage door shop to a consignment shop which also sells garage doors. I was told that
    people who buy garage doors are often looking for a place to sell the stuff in their garage. Makes sense.
  • I have seen a sign on the street for Get Fit which now offers personal training and fitness mornings and evenings in a local park and in the basement of St. Francis Episcopal Church.

It is good to see local business looking up after so many dreary months.

Interesting photos I have taken recently that do not fit well into any other blog post:

Butterfly Iris

Ravens Kissing

T Rex and Flamingo at Google

Strawberry Tree bark

Alstromeira and Prickly Pear

Wood Shavings

Matilija Poppy

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

One of my quiet joys on weekends is going to garage and
estate sales.
I am not methodical about finding garage sales: I go to the ones
I happen to see driving around rather than reading listings. However,
I am on the mailing lists of two estate sale companies called
“To Each His Own” or TEHO, and
“Unexpected Treasures”.
I usually find stuff of interest at their sales. If I have time and
the home being cleared is local, I try to attend the preview sale
before they open to the public.

Some estate sales are sad: I feel uncomfortable seeing wedding albums,
baby pictures, and hundred-year-old family Bibles available for a few
dollars. Others offer only stuff which is worthless to me, like Hummel
figurines, or cowboy, movie star, and military memorabilia. Last
weekend, however, John and I attended a very interesting sale. We got
there late but in about half an hour, we bought a laser level, ladder,
storage cabinets, antique keys and doorknobs. We had planned to buy
most of these things anyway and were happy to have them at about a tenth
the price of retail.

1910 original brass doorknobs

Antique keys

Laser leveling tool

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson