My son Paul is finishing his second year at Foothill College. His major art project has been a very large ceramic dragon, complete with orb and egg. The mythic winged beast is not yet done (he is still working on glazes) but I was able to take pictures of parts of it that came home for safety during the summer quarter.
Images Copyright 2012 Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
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The Silicon Valley is more famous for computers and high technology than for cactus. Nonetheless, the high dry summer heat makes where I live to the south of San Francisco wonderful for dessert gardening. My cactus are far too generous in sharing their spines (particularly the soft looking Bunny Ears – Opuntia microdasys – that sheds hundreds of tiny spines at the lightest touch) but their elegant shapes and lovely summer flowers make up for puncture wounds all year. The short-lived feathery flowers are as delicate as the surrounding spines are nasty. Today, my garden on the Guadalupe River features cactus blooms measuring 1/2 inch (on Bunny Ears) to 4 inches (on the giant Prickly Pear). This is a good year because my Electrode Cactus (Ferocactus histrix) is blooming for the first time since I planted it in 1998.
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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
We live in the Willow Glen neighborhood of San Jose, California. Willow Glen has a very strong Neighhorhood Association which works on “matters such as land use, planning, traffic, safety, open space, parks, and recreation.” Last week, the WGNA put on an event called “Historic Trains: How They Transformed San Jose”. As the proud owners of WP668, the 1916 railroad caboose in our backyard, of course John and I went to Willow Glen High School Library to learn about local history, economics, and railroads. The best part for me was when the speakers from the California Trolley and Railroad Corporation showed historic photos, followed by pictures of what those locations looked like today.
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
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I met J.R. Biche when he was about six, the son of my dear friend Laura. Last week, J.R. was graduated by The Art Institute of California – San Francisco with a Bachelor of Science college degree in Digital Film and Video Production. I am very proud of this talented young man! At J.R.’s graduation party, he showed two of this short films – all of which can be seen on the Lord Enigmus Youtube site. I particularly enjoyed watching J.R.’s senior project: “The Challenge”. I look forward to watching J.R. grow into his interesting new career.
Images copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
The myth is: California teens want to get their driver’s license as soon as they turn 16. It’s not that simple. I got my license when I was 22 (living in San Francisco and Berkeley, public transport is good and it is impossible to park, so why bother?). My son-in-law has a license but neither my 23-year-old daughter nor 19-year-old son have progressed past the permit stage. Like me, my daughter graduated from college without a driver’s license. In contrast, my husband got his license at age 14-1/2, growing up in Kansas farm country.
Driver’s licenses have been more a passionate subject for discussion with my parents than with my kids. Before he passed away last year at age 85, my father lost his license after medical tests indicated that he could no longer driver safely. He was bitterly resentful of this, and we in his family were grateful that the consulting doctor took some of the heat of my father’s anger and frustration. My father saw the license suspension as an assault on his independence.
It is surprisingly difficult to revoke a driver’s license. The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has many web pages about senior driving safety and complex formal rules about how to evaluate driving competence. Clearly, there are many (unlike my kids) for whom a driver’s license is an essential indication of maturity and freedom.
If you are concerned about someone’s driving and want to request a formal evaluation, what Not To Do:
What finally worked: a doctor submitting a signed “Request for Driver Reexamination” form to the DMV.
In considering this blog entry, I found a listing of over 100 songs about cars and driving. For fun, listen to Joan Joffe Hall reading her poem Driver’s License, one of many creative tributes to this complex public document.
Nowadays, I am the happy driver of a tiny Smart Car with a wrap that looks like party streamers. Recently, the kids at SMUM decorated around my car with sidewalk chalk, as if my car design was dripping onto the asphalt – the best kind of graffiti!
Image Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
My mother is delighted with the koi pond outside the dining room in the senior community where she now lives. The big brightly colored fish, and a visiting mallard duck family, are getting fed frequently (the lobby desk has cups of fish food available for the asking), as well as being featured in her ever-present sketch book.
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
My son Paul has been enjoying his Astronomy classes by Dr. Fraknoi at Foothill College, near the south end of San Francisco Bay. He and I stood in line to see the 5 June 2012 Transit of Venus on the big telescope in the college observatory. It was open to the public all afternoon, thanks to the Peninsula Astronomical Society. Everyone was invited back for their regular Friday night and Saturday morning programs.
The trees were between us and the Sun by the time we climbed the spiral stairs but we looked anyway. We had already seen the image on several of the smaller telescopes available outside. The curious crowd of kids, parents, seniors, and folks coming off work were patient despite the long wait. The tiny dot of planetary shadow moving across the bright Sun looked unimportant, even when you knew that Venus is just a little smaller than our own Earth.
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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
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