For the last two weeks our house and garden have been in the annual dancing seed storm from the female Cottonwood poplar trees along San Jose’s Guadalupe River. Thankfully, we are now almost done with blowing fuzz for the year. All of my cactus have fluff caught in their spines. I will be watering down the garden all weekend. At least the white seeds make it very obvious where the spider webs are – giving me a target for the hose.
Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
It is taking longer to get to work lately in the Silicon Valley – one of the signs that business is good! This is a global trend – not just my personal observation: you can see all of the measured patterns in the report “INRIX Traffic Scorecard Reports U.S. Congestion on the Rise in 2013 Following Two Years of Double-Digit Declines” (24 April 2013).
In the first three months of this year, traffic congestion is up 4 percent compared to 2012. This suggests that after a tumultuous economic year in 2012, the economy is back on the mend bringing increased traffic congestion.
Two of the “Top 10 Worst Cities for Traffic in America in 2012” in that report are in the Bay Area: San Francisco and San Jose. These are the only two cities on the list within 50 miles of each other.
Of course, being the Silicon Valley, we have to get our technology involved. You can see live Traffic Pattern Analysis – complete with color coding and webcams. Only a few of the backed up cars so far are Google Self-Driving vehicles but that will come in time.
Image Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under News & Reviews
Yesterday, the TechWomen mentors gathered at my house in San Jose to cook a dinner for eleven guests from the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the Institute of International Education (IIE West Coast). Our guests arrived from Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Here is more about the IVLP program:
IVLP at IIESF works to promote citizen diplomacy in the San Francisco Bay Area. Community supporters and IIE members are called “Citizen Diplomats” and promote international understanding through person-to-person interaction with emerging foreign leaders from around the globe. Through direct contact with these visitors, members have an opportunity to share unique aspects of the Bay Area and/or their professional field, while increasing the visitors’ understanding of local and national culture and institutions. In the past 53 years Citizen Diplomats have had direct dialogues with tens of thousands of emerging international leaders from more than 145 countries.
These particular ladies are part of WISE (Women’s Innovations in Science and Engineering), invited to the United States under the auspices of the Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program. Their program was arranged by World Learning.
The TechWomen prepared a delicious potluck dinner, I showed them WP 668, our backyard caboose where I have my office, John and Paul helped and served as local guides to the house and kitchen, and everyone had a delightful time talking and learning. As always, I feel blessed in the community of my TechWomen sisters and look forward to our continued work together!
Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson
In my 2008 blog entry Obsessed Towhee, I reported on a little brown bird attacking our car windows here in Willow Glen. What is probably that bird’s grandson has started attacking the house windows and those of WP668, our backyard caboose. The stupid California Towhee apparently sees his reflection in the glass and feels called to defend his territory against the other bird by knocking with his beak, flinging himself at the window, and smearing it with bird dirt. Sigh.
The Towhee moves from window to window knocking. I feel like I am in a performance of Macbeth:
Whence is that knocking?
How is’t with me, when every noise appals me?
The only good side is that regular knocking lead me to read the Thomas De Quincey 1823 essay “On the Knocking at the Gate, in Macbeth”, which in turn lead me to De Quincey’s black humor essays “On Murder, as Considered One of the Fine Arts” and “Second Paper on Murder”, the source of the famous quote:
If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begin upon this downward path, you never know where you are to stop. Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the time.
Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family
A Prayer for Peace
May we see the day when war and bloodshed cease, when a great peace will embrace the whole world.
Then nation will not threaten nation, and mankind will not again know war.
For all who live on earth shall realize we have not come into being to hate or to destroy.
We have come into being to praise, to labor, and to love.
Compassionate God, bless the leaders of all nations with the power of compassion.
Fulfill the promise conveyed in Scripture:
I will bring peace to the land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall terrify you.
I will rid the Land of vicious beasts and it shall not be ravaged by war.
Let love and justice flow like a mighty stream.
Let peace fill the earth as the waters fill the sea.
And let us say: Amen.
This is the prayer I said yesterday standing at the bema of Congregation Kol Emeth in Palo Alto, California, celebrating the Bar Mitzva of my young friend Max. The prayer for peace text is part of the regular service. Even though I am an Episcopalian, I was deeply honored to be part of his big ceremony. I was very impressed not only with Max’s first public leadership of the large congregation but also with his wise interpretation of the Torah verses he had read in Hebrew – on leading a decent life.
All of Max’s family and friends were there and the whole weekend has been devoted to joyous gatherings and celebrations of his coming of age – including a big Chinese dinner with a video game truck for the younger guests. I have known Max since he was born – I am so proud!
Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Church, Home & Family, News & Reviews
John and I just took Amtrak home to San Jose from Portland, Oregon. One of the disadvantages of air travel is that everywhere in between looks the same: airports connected by clouds. The train takes longer but the view and experience are well worth it. Passing through snowy mountain forests and beside alpine lakes, through rural back yards and city industry zones, watching seagulls and cormorants along the shore of San Francisco Bay, seeing the Drawbridge ghost town shacks sinking into the bay mud and reeds: all are a sweet experience of how America is put together.
Images copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains
John and I came into San Jose, California, this morning on Amtrak after a quick trip north to Portland, Oregon. John was at the OpenStack open source conference and I was working for MentorCloud remotely from the comfortable and friendly Kimpton Hotel Monaco.
Walking to meals in downtown Portland, I followed up on my hobby of collecting manhole cover designs. I have been posting pictures on my Pinterest board Civic Ironwork – Manhole Covers. Searching other photo collection boards in Pinterest, it turns out I am not alone in noticing the variation and design of these humble urban elements. The pictures of manhole covers in Japan are certainly the most colorful.
So far, I myself have posted manhole cover images from Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and the USA. In downtown Portland alone, I saw 26 unique designs and inscriptions – the most variety I have seen in one place.
Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
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