Soundsations

The Christmas season started yesterday for me with a trip to the old folks home :o) Not to play and not to take up residence,  but to listen to my friend, Arlene, sing. She belongs to a women's choir from our community who love to sing as much as my band buddies like to play, so Len and I went to listen. We sat waaaaay in the back, that way Len wouldn't have to walk too far, and I did manage to give you a good shot of how the woman in front of me  braids and scrunchies her hair, but I also got a fairly good recording of this song too....one of my favorites :o)

Black Friday

Black Friday is appropriately named as far as I am concerned. Not because the stores hope to see their balance sheets  go from red to black, but because it's a real downer for those who, after spending a special day with family and friends,  have to go to work at midnight and take on crazed mobs. I'm not the only one that feels this way.
And  something completely different that most of us would probably love to do...or would have in our youth :o)

Thanksgiving past

Not sure what year this was taken, possibly 1959, but again, I love the way mom always set a nice table.

Happy Thanksgiving

Whether your family is the one on the left or the one on the right, may you all have as much fun as they are having. Happy Thanksgiving.
And, just for fun :o)

Rosedale School

Mrs. Cheney was the combined first and second grade teacher at the two room school house in Rosedale and those of us in her class were very lucky as she was so very kind and patient. I went to school in Gig Harbor in the first grade, but because of crowding, those of us who lived in Purdy were switched to Rosedale the next year. Because I didn't attend the year this picture was taken, you wont see my smiling face. but, you will see someone who has built a business at which you might have enjoyed a dinner with friends. The Crab Pot restaurant in Bellevue is his and when I heard he was in the restaurant business, I wasn't surprised because when we were in high school he was the one selling hotdogs at the football games and he was the one figuring out all kinds of ways to sell things. In the picture, he is the tall boy, on the top level, far right, Harold Griffith, super salesman.

Floor of flour

If you're in need of a good laugh today, give this video a watch. As I sat and watched little Jack try to explain with his limited vocabulary, my mind was trying to figure out how one would go about cleaning up the mess. I think the first thing one would do is pop the kids in the tub..and make sure there is no shampoo anywhere near.

Tuna

No wonder people get upset with government........Here is an article from The Anchoress' blog....

I understand why the rule exists, but really, this story just feels wrong:

This fish story may lack the epic qualities of Ernest Hemingway’s 1952 classic“The Old Man and the Sea,” but for New Bedford’s Carlos Rafael, the outcome was about the same. In both cases, despite capturing and bringing home a huge fish, powerful circum­stances conspired to deprive the luckless fishermen of a potentially huge reward.
Boat owner Rafael, a big player in the local fishing industry, was elated when the crew of his 76-foot steel dragger Apollo told him they had unwittingly captured a giant bluefin tuna in their trawl gear while fishing offshore.
“They didn’t catch that fish on the bottom,” he said. “They probably got it in the mid­water when they were setting out and it just got corralled in the net. That only happens once in a blue moon.”
Rafael, who in the last four years purchased 15 tuna permits for his groundfish boats to cover just such an eventuality, imme­diately called a bluefin tuna hot line maintained by fishery regu­lators to report the catch.
When the weather offshore deteriorated, the Apollo decided to seek shelter in Provincetown Harbor on Nov. 12. Rafael imme­diately set off in a truck to meet the boat.
“I wanted to sell the fish while it was fresh instead of letting it age on the boat,”he said.“It was a beautiful fish.”
It was also a lucrative one. Highly prized in Japan, a 754­pound specimen fetched a record price at a Tokyo auction in January this year, selling for nearly $396,000. These fish can grow to enormous size. The world record for a bluefin, which has stood since 1979, was set when a 1,496-pound specimen was caught off Nova Scotia.
However, when Rafael rolled down the dock in Provincetown there was an unexpected and unwelcome development. The authorities were waiting. Agents from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement informed him they were confis­cating his fish — all 881 pounds of it.
Even though the catch had been declared and the boat had a tuna permit, the rules do not allow fishermen to catch bluefin tuna in a net.
“They said it had to be caught with rod and reel,” a frustrated Rafael said.“We didn’t try to hide anything. We did everything by the book. Nobody ever told me we couldn’t catch it with a net.”

So, one way or another, the fish is dead. Apparently whatever the fed sells it for will be held in suspense until the situation is resolved. One assumes that someone buying numerous licenses to fish Tuna would be responsible to understand what the license covers, so I have no doubt it will resolve in the fed’s favor.
Still, it just seems like the feel-good stories are few and far between.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/theanchoress/

Snowy Paradise

Boy of boy...are the skiers ever happy :o)  Let's hope we continue to get snow cause my granddaughter found a nice pair of used skis at the ski swap and so did her mama.

Pillow case dress

You never know what you're gong to find on youtube when looking for something completely different. I can't even remember what I was looking for, but what I found was this video of two Gig Harbor  women discussing the pillow case dresses they make for children in Haiti. Course the next thing I had to do was find out how to make them and the gal in this video gave a good demonstration.
She also showed how to make a pair of long pants for baby out of an old t-shirt. Another great way to use something that still has a bit of life left.
Each time I look for something on youtube, I marvel at the endless supply of good teaching aids, from hooking up the router on my computer, to the music I practice with almost daily.
Maybe if I keep looking, I will find a video that will show me how to heal my very sick friend :o(

Skin deep

How cute they are and how brave they are to pose in their birthday suits.  Now I know why people invented clothing...not so much to keep warm but... so others wont have to see what we're seein :o)
Here is the link to the article and after seeing the individual couple pictures..I came to the conclusion they they all posed separately and then photoshopped this pic so that it looks like it was taken of all eight at the same time.  NOT !!!!!

Something different...and a huge reason the "committee" is having a tough time coming up with a plan to balance the budget !!!!

Dock Project

The Tides Tavern has been closed all week so that their parking lot can be repaved along with the parking area at the new maritime dock next door, all in one clean sweep. This is how things looked yesterday. If all goes according to plan, they will be finished by Friday and  folks will see a much larger parking area with an easier way in and out thanks to a new sidewalk minus the drop offs. Soon there will be a new dock, large enough for heavy vehicles to drive out on so the many boaters will finally be able to load and unload their boats without worrying about ending up in the water. It can't be soon enough :o)

And, something altogether different.

Gig Harbor Light House

I don't remember the exact month or day  the light house was built and lowered into place on the spit at the entrance of Gig Harbor, but I was there that day in 1988....to stand in the rain for what seemed like hours,  until she/he/it was firmly planted in the sand.  Just for fun, I wasted a few more hours today, this time in the warmth of my home, and put together bits and pieces of the video I took. When I filmed it originally, I  used my son's  video camera, one of the "new"  models that used video tape. VCR  comes to mind.  And, no I wasn't suffering from Parkinsons at the time.
You can imagine the process of getting it from there to here, but I did it..in my own way and here it is for all to enjoy :o)

Hiding Hannah

Maybe you're an expert on apps, but I'm not, so when I see my 8 years old granddaughter today, I will have her help me download Hiding Hannah.  Hannah has been in the works for quite some time thanks to my friend Len's son, Mike,  who lives in Studio City and works in the movie industry. He mainly does the trailers for TV shows and at one time his dream was to write and SELL a movie script. I don't know if that will ever happen, but in the meantime, he is raising two small children and working on Hiding Hannah, hoping that enough people will be willing to pay the $1.99 to download it, making him independantly wealthy and then he'll be able to work on writing and SELLING a script without any kind of a guilt trip :O)
In the app, Hannah loves to hide from her mommy and daddy in each room of the house, and in a different place each time. You'll  hear daddy/Mike's voice  and mommy/Lia's voice and the giggle belongs to Cadence/their daughter, who is almost 3, thanks to all the wonderful digital toys we have now days. Mike had to hire a programmer to do the code and an artist did the wonderful graphics whom he paid , but...but...Mike wrote the script and recorded their voices.  Now...is the test...will enough people buy it so they can do another...and another...and another...and retire and go back to Chicago and work from there so they can be closer to family.....only time will tell :o)

Here's the link to Hiding Hannah.  Please go buy it if you have an iPad or an iPhone and little ones around the house...they'll love it.....and.....tell all your friends :O)
And...here's the trailer that tells you all about it :o)

Daffodil Parade

 My sis recently sent some old slides that mom took years ago and this 1958 picture of the Peninsula High School band was among them.  Mr Cozart was our teacher/director and he thought it would be great  fun if some of the band members played the glockenspiel in the annual Daffodil Parade. I was one of those chosen, along with at least 3 others, who strapped those heavy contraptions to shoulders and practiced our hearts out.  I don't remember the song, but have mentioned many times through the years what  fun we had marching along Pacific  Avenue, streets lined with admiring smiles, always on the watch for horse poop and loving every plinking minute of it.
Today, as I watch my fellow musicians haul their heavy instruments in and out of practice, I really am thankful, especially as I get older, that I play the flute :o)

Brothers

Alright already, I know I probably bore you all with boats, but I managed to get two of my sons in the same picture last night. It took a few refreshes, but the viewcam cooperated and I was tickled to catch my youngest son heading in while his older brother was still at the tender.  Okay....I know I am a crazy person thanks to all the political stuff I listen to ....at least that is what my sisters think :o) ...and the Gig Harbor webcam is the antidote :o)

Here's an inside view of a day fishing outside the harbor.....what we don't see through a viewcam. It was taken in October by the father of my son's neighbor who was here from the east coast visiting family and who son took out for the day.

Thomas Sowell makes so much sense.

Why I ask

President Obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees—the Christmas Tree Tax—to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.
In the Federal Register of November 8, 2011, Acting Administrator of Agricultural Marketing David R. Shipman announced that the Secretary of Agriculture will appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board. The purpose of the Board is to run a “program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace; maintain and expend existing markets for Christmas trees; and to carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry” (7 CFR 1214.46(n)). And the program of “information” is to include efforts to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States” (7 CFR 1214.10).
To pay for the new Federal Christmas tree image improvement and marketing program, the Department of Agriculture imposed a 15-cent fee on all sales of fresh Christmas trees by sellers of more than 500 trees per year (7 CFR 1214.52). And, of course, the Christmas tree sellers are free to pass along the 15-cent Federal fee to consumers who buy their Christmas trees.
Acting Administrator Shipman had the temerity to say the 15-cent mandatory Christmas tree fee “is not a tax nor does it yield revenue for the Federal government” (76 CFR 69102). The Federal government mandates that the Christmas tree sellers pay the 15-cents per tree, whether they want to or not. The Federal government directs that the revenue generated by the 15-cent fee goes to the Board appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out the Christmas tree program established by the Secretary of Agriculture. Mr. President, that’s a new 15-cent tax to pay for a Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.
Nobody is saying President Obama doesn’t have authority to impose his new Christmas Tree Tax — his Administration cites the Commodity Promotion, Research and Information Act of 1996. Just because the Obama Administration has the legal power to impose its Christmas Tree Tax doesn’t mean it should do so.
The economy is barely growing and nine percent of the American people have no jobs. Is a new tax on Christmas trees the best President Obama can do?
And, by the way, the American Christmas tree has a great image that doesn’t need any help from the government.

If you stayed with the article and reached the bottom of the page...here is a good read by Dorothy Rabinowitz on Newt Gingrich. I must say, he's a joy to listen to in a debate.

And in my usual fashion, I bounce from one topic to another...here is a view that might make you happy you don't live there.

Early morning set

The fishermen are outside the harbor again this morning taking turns setting their nets in hopes of getting the big one. It's Chums they're fishing for and I sure hope my guys are getting their share.

Rainier West

It looks like winter has finally arrived at Paradise.

Valdez Glacier

With all the discussion about global warming, and whether it's man made or just mother nature doing what mother nature does, I thought these two pictures were interesting. One was taken long before the 1954 picture of Valdez Glacier and you can see the change in the size. With that in mind, I'm sticking by my  theory... it's mother nature doing her thing and not the CO2 that I produce by the truckload when I play my flute that caused it to melt :o).

Messy

Yesterday was such a nice day I decided that I'd walk downtown to do my errands instead of drive. Along the way I passed these fellows cleaning under the area where people walk at the Russell Building. I had always wondered what it looked like under all those concrete  squares  and yesterday I found out :o)
And...something totally different...she's a doll and I see she's as tall as  his chin.

By the way..did you notice that today is 11022011 ?  Happy palindrome day :o)

Halloween 2011

Halloween came and went and I can't remember one more beautiful. Ing and Berg stopped by wearing their costumes and smiles and sat on granny's heath so she could take the annual picture. Jacob stopped by in his Woof outfit and was ever so delighted to see that the girls were here. Later, my friend Arlene stopped by and happened to arrive at the same time as a couple of her children with their children. Some  went home and some stayed and those of us who stayed sat down to some fine boxed wine and chicken soup.  It was the perfect end to a perfect day.