Paul and Jessica
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Eleanor and Wade
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John and Katy
Birdie
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Valentino
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Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson, John Plocher,
Jessica Dickinson Goodman
Filed under Home & Family
Last weekend, we enjoyed many of our family’s traditional Christmas events, including: going to The Great Dickens Christmas Fair and singing carols on a cable car in San Francisco. We picked up my daughter Jessica and her boyfriend Matt at SFO airport on Wednesday. (They were due home from college Tuesday night but their second flight was cancelled and they had to stay over in Dallas, Texas, courtesy of American Airlines.)
On Saturday, Jessi and her friends dressed up to go to the Dickens Fair at the San Francisco Cow Palace. My mother and friend Laura went too. Sunday, we went to the Lessons and Carols service at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Saratoga, then picked up Matt and drove to the city to sing carols with my parents. (Jessica revised our carols book this year.) We rode from Van Ness and California up and over Nob Hill to the Embarcadero. We walked around there to see the decorations before taking the cable car back. Today, my mother is coming to San Jose to assemble and bake fruitcakes. Tonight, we go to Christmas Eve service at St. Andrew’s. Christmas is at our house tomorrow; we are expecting 12 for dinner.
| SFO: Jessica and Matt
home from college
|
Dickens Fair – Mad Sal’s Ladies’
Oratorical and Recreational Society
|
Dickens Fair – Gilbert & Sullivan’s
Pirates of Penzance
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| Dickens Fair –
Pirates of Penzance
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Dickens Fair –
Jessica and Friends
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Dickens Fair –
Dark Garden tableau
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Dickens Fair –
Dark Garden tableau
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| San Francisco
cable car sign
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Family Christmas
carol song book
|
Eleanor and Paul
with cable car
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| San Francisco
cable car view
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John and Paul
singing
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John and Eleanor
singing
|
| John and Jessica
singing
|
Family with
cable cars
|
Paul and Eleanor
on cable car
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Cable car on
California
|
| Giant red ornament
plaza decorations
|
Paul inside
red balls
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Jessica inside
red balls
|
Matt inside
red balls
|
| Family with
red ornaments
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Hyatt Regency
sculpture and lights
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Jessica and Matt
pool reflections
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Hyatt lights
and tree
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| Hyatt tree
and hanging lights
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Paul and Jessica
and Matt at Hyatt
|
Wade at
Hyatt
|
Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher
Filed under Home & Family
We are about a week away from Christmas and great preparations are being made. Last weekend, John and Paul put up our house
lights. I worked on my living room Christmas train line (G-scale, eventually to be moved outside as pieces of my to-be-constructed garden railway), put together a candy cane flower arrangement shown in the December 2007 Sunset magazine, and wrapped presents. Jessica flies home from CMU tomorrow at midnight. We are in negotiations with friends and family as to who is coming with us to the The Great Dickens Christmas Fair at the San Francisco Cow Palace this Saturday. Christmas dinner menu offerings and logistics are being discussed…
Last night, John and I drove around Willow Glen (San Jose, CA) to see the Christmas lights. The new LED lights are very popular this year, as are the big lighted blowup figures, icicles, and musical light sets. Nothing shows off the taste of the neighborhood (or lack thereof) as what they do with their holiday lights. Here are some snapshots of our Christmas so far:
| Our Bethlehem Olive Wood Nativity
(with extra camels and angels)
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Candy Canes
and Roses
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Tino posing for
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| My ladybug G-scale
train engine
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Living room
train line
|
Living room
train line
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Our house lights
| Victorian house
Willow Glen Christmas lights
|
Willow Glen
Christmas lights
|
Willow Glen
Christmas lights
|
| Willow Glen – turkey in
Christmas lights
|
Willow Glen
Christmas lights
|
Sponge Bob, Snowmen, Nativity,
Deer, Santa, and just lights
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| Willow Glen
Christmas lights
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Willow Glen
blow up Santa
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Willow Glen
snowman in lights
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| Willow Glen
blow up Snowman
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Willow Glen
simple icicle lights
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Willow Glen front yard
home made Nativity
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Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher
Filed under Home & Family
My daughter Jessica is almost done with her first Freshman semester at university. She is very happy and seems to be thriving. Over Thanksgiving, she and five school friends celebrated together by cooking meals for each other at a hotel in Washington, D.C. and playing cards when not cooking or touring the nation’s capital. All of them were California kids who now attend Eastern colleges. Washington D.C. was a convenient meeting place for those who did not go west for the break.
It interested me that four of those who gathered were Jessica’s friends from Peninsula School (Menlo Park, CA), and only one was a High School friend. Jessica attended Peninsula School from age three through 8th grade. Her group called itself the Uns (since they were in neither the Boys’ group nor the Girls’). The bonds of comradery, communication, and trust formed by the Uns from the time they were barefoot little kids making mud pies together in Nursery Blue seem to be holding firm despite the High School and college diaspora. The Uns are still cooking together, using the skills they developed through many class camping trips with Peninsula School. From reading their blogs, these are capable and interesting young adults whose progress I admire.
Peninsula School is a “progressive” or “alternative” school, meaning their focus is on development rather than grades. (Jessica calls Peninsula her “hippie school”.) In fact, Jessica did not get formal grades or take tests until she was in 8th grade and applying to High School. Nonetheless, she was regularly awarded high honors at Harker High School (she was entered into the Cum Laude Society) and is flourishing at Carnegie Mellon University where she is in the Humanities Scholars program and several CMU concert choruses.
With so many schools now teaching to the test and being obsessed with grades from the earliest grammar school years, Peninsula School is a good example of a better way. It is not a perfect choice but no school is. For example, Peninsula was as much the wrong choice for our son (who has serious learning disabilities) as it was a great choice for our daughter. Even though Peninsula was an excellent school for Jessica, it took several years for her Math knowledge to catch up to Harker’s standards. (She is taking Calculus II at CMU next semester.)
Perhaps one of the hardest parts of being a Peninsula parent for 11 years was my quiet fear that Peninsula might be too much of an academic risk. That is, I shared a concern with some other parents that our children would not do well in more conventional schools. However, if my daughter’s Peninsula School class is a representative (if small) example, Peninsula kids can compete very successfully in both standard and world-class rigorous academic environments.
Peninsula School is not the only successful alternative school. There were at least two kids in Jessica’s Harker class who came to the prep school with a very different point of view. Jessica came from Peninsula and her best friend at Harker came from Ananda Living Wisdom school. It was interesting to see how both girls succeeded in the grade-conscious pressure cooker environment of Harker School. Despite their alternative school origins, both girls did well academically and were accepted into good colleges (Carnegie Mellon and U.C. Berkeley). Better still, neither has lost her creative flair, curiosity, or independence.
I was not sure if it was just these two girls who had blossomed from non-standard seed beds until I put together a list of where Jessica’s Peninsula School classmates ended up after High School. From what I can tell, the whole class is now in college:
Pretty good for graduates of a “hippie school”!
Update: Jessica was graduated in 2012 from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh PA, with college and university honors, Phi Beta Kappa.
More on her class: Peninsula School – Grads Doing Well (9 May 2013).
Pictured are Jessica’s 8th grade school play: The Mouse that Roared, and Jessica selling the jewelry she designed.
Images Copyright 2002 by John Plocher
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
John was at San Jose City Hall again today talking with the building department. There was an “express plan check” to determine whether we could get permits to build a short set of stairs and also hook up the electrical power to WP668, our backyard caboose. Normally, an “express plan check” is to get permission to build a whole house but because last year we got a variance from the City Council, we had to do this too. It cost $1,132 for today’s plan check and the following three permits:
Also included in the $1,132 is a city fee for San Jose to operate and maintain storm sewers – this was about 1/3 of the total charge. $1,132 is about 3 times the permit cost for simple stairs and electrical hook up on a regular structure. The caboose is unusual so the city keeps adding special reviews and requirements, which we have to pay for.
At least we are done with the permitting process and our contractor can finally start work!
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Updated 5 April 2020
Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, News & Reviews
John and I just got home from watching the American Independence holiday fireworks at our local train station. I can still hear our neighbors setting off their own 4th of July firecrackers and small rockets. The elevated Caltrain station is just a few blocks from our home. Sitting on the platform, we can see three big fireworks shows and many small ones in the San Jose area. Many of our neighbors also bring their kids, grandparents, dogs, lawn chairs, and blankets to the platform see the free shows. 4th of July is John’s and my
wedding anniversary; every year, we get to celebrate with our whole neighborhood.
Fireworks start at full dark, about 9:30 p.m.. The show lasts for about 20 minutes. Every year there are new shapes and colors. This year, it was square boxes of light, plus red hearts inside of expanding blue balls. The yellow smiley faces and the saturn shapes were back from prior years as well.
I worry about the dogs in the audience since animals often find fireworks terrifying. Our veterinarian gives our two dogs sedatives for this difficult week. Juliet in particular gets hysterical and cries pitiably when she hears fireworks. Romeo, who normally howls whenever he hears a firetruck siren, is much calmer about fireworks.
In addition to the sounds of local fireworks outside, I can now hear two or three fire engines going by. Our neighbors across the tracks must have set their grass field on fire again. I am glad our dogs are asleep.
Filed under Home & Family
Since we moved WP668 into our backyard on 12 May, we have been working on her between other family and job obligations. It will take at least the next year to get the biggest projects done. Our first efforts have been:
A prior owner of WP668 cut through inside and outside walls to install a big window. He just made the hole – the window was never added. We have removed the cut 1″x6″ tongue and groove interior planks above and below the hole and are installing new 2″x6″ fir tongue and groove exterior boards to fill the hole. We will eventually replace the interior boards also.The caboose originally had 6 small sash windows that rose between the interior and exterior walls plus a 2 piece sliding window in each bay plus 2 sidelights in each bay. There are also glass windows in the doors at each end. We are retaining and restoring (or replacing) all of the windows except the one sash cut out by the prior owner since that wall will eventually feature floor-to-ceiling glass fronted bookcases. We are still working on filling the exterior wall hole. John and Paul primed the new fir tongue and grove boards last weekend with white paint. John is filling the irregular cavity spaces between the interior and exterior walls with cut-to-fit rigid foam insulation.
It was my job to remove the interior boards around the hole. I found that getting 91-year-old fitted and nailed boards out without splitting them is tricky. We saved the pieces in case we need original wood for repairs elsewhere. We are leaving all interior work until it starts to rain again next Autumn.
Someone asked why we have named WP668 “Kate Hall”. The name comes from Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew (Act II, Scene i), a play from about 1590 much-quoted to those of us named Katherine:
Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Home & Family
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