Yesterday, I started a retail experiment. I just rented a cabinet at The Willow Glen Collective in San Jose, California, to sell vintage and antique hats, jewelry, toys and games, silver and china, glassware, travel souvenirs, and decorative items. Come by Monday-Saturday, 12-4 pm at 1349 Lincoln Avenue, San Jose, and check out Vendor #8!
This comes from recently spending a weekend with my brother Pete, son Paul, and husband John clearing out yet another storage area for my mother (Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson), and realizing that no one in the family wanted the remaining collectibles. Time for them to bring joy to someone else!
This does not mean that all of our family treasures are going on sale. I kept my grandfather’s black bowler hat and added it as an adornment to my mother’s bronze bust of Lilian. I think she looks fine!
Images Copyright 2026 by Katy Dickinson, If you want to receive Katysblog posted by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! field (upper right on Katysbloghome page).
2024, Katy Debbie Debra Odd Fellows Parade, 11 Nov 2024
This year, I am serving as the Noble Grand of the Mountain ViewOdd FellowsLodge #244 in our 150th year as a lodge. It’s like being the Chair or President of a community group but one that makes a lifetime commitment to support each other and the principles of Friendship, Truth, and Love. My daughter Jessica was Noble Grand of our lodge in 2019 and my son Paul has been a member almost as long. I only joined in 2024.
This week will be our big 150th anniversary celebration and I am super-busy coordinating a multitude of minutia. As a lodge fellowship, we have so-far produced an event logo, banner, 3 window panels honoring Friendship, Truth, and Love, and a selection of merchandise featuring anniversary images. (Special thanks to Sinead Toolis and Tatiana Kuvaldina for their inspired designs, and to Michael Greenzeiger for the merch!) John and I put together a 12-minute video of lodge history from 1876 to 2026 to be shown at the celebration. The video features portraits and candid photos, and pictures of architecture and artifacts from disparate sources – many of which were discovered or suggested by other lodge members.
“I am very new to Odd Fellowship, having only applied in 2023, and am honored to have been elected to be incoming Noble Grand of Mountain View, Lodge #244. Both of my adult children have been Odd Fellows for many years and I supported them at their lodge events long before joining. What inspired me to join was the great heartedness of this group and their generous, selfless, long-term dedication not only to each other but to the larger community. Since serving as Vice Grand, Trustee, and head of the Fellowship Committee last year, I have many times needed to ask people to support me with tasks that are not only time consuming but potentially tedious. Many lodge members have made time and given me good advice on how to make things work better in Odd Fellows.”
“In this, Mountain View’s 150th year as a lodge, I think our incoming leaders represent Odd Fellows very well. My Vice Grand, Conductor, and Outside Guardian are even younger to Odd Fellowship than I am. We range in age from late teens to late eighties and cherish a range that includes new members through those who have been Odd Fellows for over 50 years. We welcome folks who are LGBTPIA+ and straight, physically-challenged and currently-wellbodied, neurodiverse and cognitive normals. We are artists, teachers, students, technical professionals, historians, retired folks, and even a jail chaplain (me!). I think our lodge’s superpowers are our diversity and big hearts. This year will be fun, inspiring, and an opportunity to learn about and do more for my community.”
Images Copyright 2026 by Katy Dickinson, If you want to receive Katysblog posted by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! field (upper right on Katysbloghome page).
Jessica Dickinson Goodman MSFS Georgetown graduation with family, May 2026
I have not been keeping up on events on KatysBlog so this post will cover some ground. John and Paul and I recently returned from a week in Virginia for Jessica‘s first graduation from Georgetown University, with a Master of Science – Foreign Service (MSFS graduate degree). She finishes her second Master’s in December. Jessica is also newly a Mom our granddaughter Joanne who is thriving with her big brother 3-year-old Alex and Dad, Matthew. We are all very proud of Jessica (and having fun with our beloved grandbabies)!
Jessica, John, Katy, & Paul at Georgetown MSFS graduation
My father, Wade Dickinson, and his brother Wayne were business and innovation partners for fifty years, during which time they were granted more than fifty U.S. patents and taught entrepreneurship for 16 years at U.C. Berkeley Engineering. My father passed in 2011 and my Uncle Wayne passed late last year. Wayne’s memorial service was last weekend in San Rafael, California. It was a touching opportunity to tell stories and reconnect with my brother Mark and cousins Eric and Leslie Dickinson.
Mark, Katy, Leslie, Eric Dickinson, Wayne Dickinson Memorial Service, 23 May 2026Wayne Dickinson Memorial Service, 1935-2025
Clinton Global Initiative, Faith Leaders certificate, 5 May 2026Clinton Global Initiative, Faith Leaders cohort, 5 May 2026Islamic Studies Books, May 2026
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I was graduated with my Doctor of Ministry degree from the Graduate Theological Union‘s Berkeley School of Theology on 17 May 2025 – Hooray! I was surprised and honored at the graduation to be awarded BST’s Keith A. Russell Award for Prophetic Leadership in Community Ministry. My husband John, brothers Mark and Peter my Sister-in-Law Julie, daughter Jessica, Son-in-Law Matthew, grandson Alex, Son Paul, and friends Laura and Barbara were able to join the celebrations. It was a delight to have a cheering team. We graduates enjoyed taking pictures with our advisors and each other (especially the BST Student Council for which I have been the Vice Moderator for the last two years). I am continuing to take classes with GTU’s Center for Islamic Studies.
Images (c) Copyright 2025 by Katy Dickinson. If you want to receive Katysblog posted by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! field (upper right on Katysblog home page).
For the last month, my son Paul and I have been working through the complex and extensive paperwork associated with his father’s estate. Whether dealing with banks and investment firms, telephone and internet companies, government agencies, or anyone else, a key phrase is “I am sorry for your loss.” Sometimes this condolence is said with sincerity and compassion immediately after we inform them of a death in our family, but often any expression of sympathy seems to be an afterthought, arriving as long as half an hour into the discussion. I get the impression that public-facing managers are professionally trained to express condolences but some seem unclear on the concept.
I have been surprised at which companies were the most compassionate in their approach. My favorite response was from the Xfinity telecommunications company. The local Xfinity manager was remarkably supportive and kind. She said she too had recently experienced a death in her family, was sorry for what we were going through, and she was super-helpful in getting the account closed quickly. In contrast, the manager at the decedent’s primary bank was uninformed of bank procedures, tried to delay at every opportunity, and only said “I am sorry for your loss” at the end of an extensive and frustrating conversation. This was despite Paul being clearly listed as the “POD” (payable at death) account beneficiary. When we arrived back at the bank four days later for the first available appointment when he could help us, this bank manager’s boss came by and was much more supportive.
We have found that each organization seems to have different terms for dealing with death. Names for the death department so far include, “Estate Department,” “Estate Care Department,” “Life Events,” “Probate,” and “Wealth Transfer.” Such a strange reflection of how our culture reluctantly engages with a life event we will all experience in time.
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There have been many articles and videos recently about Swedish Death Cleaning, a process intended to remove clutter and save difficulties for your relations after your death. It was clear after my ex-husband Ben Goodman passed away about two weeks ago here in San Jose, California, that he was not a believer in this. I divorced Ben about thirty years ago but once you have children with someone, you will always be related. My son Paul and I have been taking care of Ben’s stuff since the early morning call came that he had died.
So far, Paul and I have notified the family, worked with the hospital and Neptune Society to manage Ben’s remains, set up his internment and memorial, cleaned out and closed out his apartment and one of his storage units, as well as notifying banks, medical, and governmental organizations to freeze his accounts. Going through Ben’s stuff has included finding bags of prescription medicines and sharps to be properly disposed of, food, clothes, and household items to be donated, as well as returning his hospital bed and wheelchair to Medicare. I have done two runs already to the CVS medication disposal site (where the boxes are now full), plus dropping off towels and blankets at San Jose animal shelter, and several trips to the Good Will donation site. Yesterday, the junk service picked up two full truckloads of well-used furniture, antique cables, monitors, phones, worn bedding, broken and dirty kitchen supplies, and other stuff we could not think of any other way to eliminate. Of course, Paul has separated out family keepsakes, photos, and financial records (since some actions have to wait for the Death Certificate to be prepared). We probably have another week of work ahead of us sorting out the paperwork now that it has (mostly) been disentangled from the junk.
We still need to sell Ben’s guns (fortunately all trigger locked), dispose of bottles of motor oil, and donate his old glasses to the Lions Club. We are grateful to have been supported by my husband John and several Task Rabbit freelance laborers who have helped us bag and move stuff. All of these required duties are entirely aside from dealing with our complex feelings about Ben’s death. Your prayers are welcome during this stressful time.
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Temporary Kitchenette in John Plocher’s Office, 8 September 2023
After 26 years in our home, we are updating our kitchen. Our Spanish Mission style house was built around 1931 in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood (Silicon Valley, California). We think the kitchen was last remodeled after the big Loma Prieta 1989 earthquake. The kitchen is large but the layout is fixed by four doors (to John’s office, the laundry room, the basement, and the dining room).
We are keeping the original cabinets because they are solid oak and, while after so many years the finish is trashed, they are good quality, fit well, and are in the right places. We are replacing the pulls, hinges, and drawer slides, so that means rebuilding the drawer boxes. We are also changing two under-cabinet doors to be drawers. The update is limited to those cabinet changes, granite counters to replace the nasty cheap tile, a new sink and faucet, cabinet and wall paint, electrical plug upgrades, and three new appliances: induction range / stove, microwave, and sink disposal. The induction stove meant we also had to buy all new pans. There has been much discussion over microwave placement. John (the fancy cook) says he prefers it over the stove, so we bought a new microwave unit with a built-in hood.
It feels like camping out in our own home. John is patient with the temporary kitchenette we created in his office. (This is overseen by the Moltres Pokemon mural my mother Eleanor Dickinson and son Paul painted when that was his bedroom.) We are doing dishes in the bathroom. My birds are confused by their extended field trip to the dining room, where their cage is surrounded by boxes of china and kitchen stuff. The contractor came by this morning to say that the countertops will be installed tomorrow, and the cabinets and paint will be finished next week. Here’s hoping for that to happen as scheduled!
Nov 2022 John Plocher in old kitchennew kitchen stove, 31 July 2023kitchen backsplash granite slab, 17 Aug 2023kitchen granite shopping, 17 Aug 2023old kitchen 20 August 2023kitchen demolition 21 Aug 2023kitchen after counter removal, 21 Aug 2023kitchen electrical work, 22 Aug 2023kitchen with new backer boards, 24 Aug 2023John Plocher and curious dogs in kitchen 29 Aug 2023bathroom dishes 8 Sep 2023
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