A Tree by the Stream

Katrina Truck Drivers

2005-10-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting the technical kinks worked out. Here are a few of my photos of the Katrina Truck and its intrepid drivers. The top photo shows my MIT classmate Wayne, holding up the last package of diapers to be loaded--he was about to close the loading door when a red sedan pulled up and handed one more package out through the passenger window. He's also in the second photo down, the man on the far right is my classmate Wayne, standing behind his wife Chantielle. Chantielle and the two other men drove the truck from Vancouver, WA to the Astodome in Houston, heaviy loaded with diapers, wipes, and formula.

Katrina Truck -- belated update

2005-09-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

I had computer problems for a while; I still can't read the disk with the photos I had developed.

However, here's the text version of the update that I would have posted online on September 9 if I could have....

The truck arrived in Houston the morning of September 9 and was able to drive straight to the Astrodome to unload. At that time, Vancouver, WA was the furthest location to send actual supplies. The drivers signed on as volunteers at the Astrodome for the day; Chantielle had to fly home, but the others were able to stay for a while and then drive the truck back.

Lots of people worked very hard to make this trip a success--I know your efforts were appreciated at the other end.

Departure

2005-09-06T00:59:00.000-07:00

The truck left from Vancouver tonight about 9 p.m., with lots of prayers and cheers.
Details and photos tomorrow, if they come up. I used a one-time camera and I'll take it in tomorrow.

Elizabeth

Katrina Truck--Departure Scheduled

2005-09-05T16:23:00.000-07:00

Wayne writes:

Hello All,

We will have this truck full by the end of today!!!!!! Amazing I can not express in words how I feel. We ALL did it. This has been a wonderful experience.

My wife and two others will be pulling out tonight and on their way to Houston. We are trying to rally forces to be at the truck at 8PM tonight (Monday) to wish them a safe trip, exchange hugs and tears, and take care of any last minute details. I am personally asking everyone to show up. We all have worked tirelessly the last 3-4 days and it would do everyone a lot of good to get together one last time as a whole. Bring your families, kids, friends, neighbors, pets, anyone and help us send this wonderful truck down the full of good spirit as well as good baby stuff!!

8PM tonight. Wal-Mart / Carl's Jr. parking lot at 9000 NE Hwy. 99.

SEE YOU THERE!!!!!!!

Thank You,

Wayne"

The photos show donors shopping and some of the supplies. They aren't my own photos, as I live 40 miles or so away and haven't been down to the truck since I took some diapers in myself. I think Wayne gets the photo credit.

I know the Red Cross and many other agencies say "just send money," and I encourage you to do so if you want to give that way. But it feels so right to be involved in such a hand-on way with the effort. Most of us won't have the chance to help face-to-face and to say that we care, but this gets us a stop closer.

The state of Oregon is taking a thousand Katrina refugees. The city of Portland is setting up a shelter in a mothballed high school.

A question that will linger for a long time: If we can make this kind of an effort for the people who are made suddenly and tragically homeless by a storm, why can't we do better for the homeless who live among us every day?

Urgent need: Pallets and Boxes

2005-09-03T23:48:00.000-07:00

The Houston Food Bank needs the baby supplies to be packed in boxes and loaded on pallets. If you, or someone you know in the Vancouver or Portland area, can help with this, please contact me via hurrikathelp@yahoo.com and I'll put you in touch. They also need a pallet jack for loading.

Departure is rescheduled for Tuesday, September 6. Donations are accepted through Monday at the following locations:

1. East Park Church
3:00PM until 7:00PM
15815 NE 18th Street
Vancouver, WA 98684

2. Journey Community Church at
Skyridge Middle School
5220 NW Parker
Camas, WA
8:00AM until 2:00PM

3. At the Truck Itself
7:00AM until 12 midnight
Wal-Mart / Carl’s Jr. / Regal Cinemas Parking lot
9000 NE Hwy 99
Vancouver, WA

Katrina Truck from Vancouver

2005-09-03T23:17:00.000-07:00

My classmates and I, along with our professor, spent three hours of class time discussing the effects of hurricane Katrina and what we could do to help. We have a number of ideas that are still in the early stages, but one student, Wayne, arrived in class with a plan already in place--his wife Chantielle was making arrangements for a truck to take to Houston with supplies for babies. Diapers, wipes, and formula. She contacted the Oregon Food Bank and the Houston Food Bank for permission to use their names, located a sign painter friend to donate a professionally painted sign, found a business to donate the cost of a truck and gas.

Chantielle (top photo) and a friend are now collecting donations at the Highway 99 Wal-Mart in Vancouver, at the entrance by the movie theater. They are loading the donations into the largest Ryder truck they could rent. They will be there through the end of the day Sunday, beginning at 6:30 a.m.

The Big Easy

2005-09-03T23:07:00.000-07:00

Check out "The Big Easy" by Christopher Fisher (of somewhere in Texas). It's a powerful poem (hey, would I link to a bit of doggerel?). It's haunting.

Where I used to live

2005-08-06T23:33:00.000-07:00

This was our old place outside town. We rented it for about 6 years; then my husband (now ex) left and after the divorce I moved into town. I still miss this place, which had character and charm. I keep reminding myself that it was the kind of charm that wore thin by the middle of February, and what the first winter there was like, when we were burning truckloads of wood pallets to stay warm. If you held a hand up to the walls on a cold day, you could actually feel the cold air coming in right through them. But it was on 5 acres with trees and a meadow and apples, plums and blackberries. I loved it.

Safe? Unsafe? Good?

2005-08-05T20:56:00.000-07:00

J. Mark Bertrand--a very talented writer--has a post on The Master's Artist on the notion of "safe" Christian fiction. I admit I had a time in my life when I enjoyed having a safe harbor in my reading life--but it's not what I want to read most of the time, and it's really not what I want to write.

This piece is more than a casual blog post. It's a very good essay. If you like it, you might also enjoy exploring his own blog, or his writing.

Safe or Good

Creative cleaning

2005-08-05T18:06:00.000-07:00

DS12 aka Discreet is cleaning his room, without being asked. Many giggles from his room, where his best friend is helping him. They pulled the big outdoor trash can to a position under his window and are shooting baskets at it. Except to remind them that anything that misses outside has to be picked up, I'm staying out of the way and hoping that the expedition into order won't end with everything pulled out of his drawers and nothing put away.

Story contest

2005-08-05T17:53:00.000-07:00

Dave at Faith in Fiction has announced a new short story contest. The goal: to write a conversion story that doesn't make the reader want to throw the book against the wall. To write a conversion story that makes the reader want to keep reading to keep reading, to beg for more. Prizes, publications, incentives are still undecided, but in his Christmas story contest last year, several very good stories were submitted and the best were published in Infuze magazine.

If you aren't familiar with Dave, he's an acquisitions editor at Bethany House who is carrying on an ongoing dialogue about the nature of Christian fiction with a number of Christian writers (most of them NOT signed on with Bethany House.)

The conversion story, a mandatory feature of most CBA fiction, is also one of the most frequently criticized features.

See:

The cost of war

2005-07-29T22:35:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting and interactive link on the cost of the war in Iraq:

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar/index.html

2005-06-27T00:29:00.000-07:00

It was easy to illustrate Woody Guthrie's "Talkin' Washington Blues" in Kelso. It was so easy, it's downright creepy. The song talks about dust bowl migrants coming to Washington State and moving around looking for work. I found this shot just around the corner--and I'm ashamed to say I would have missed it if I hadn't been out looking for material. There's an eviction notice on the door, and the tenant's belongings put out on the street.

2005-06-27T00:25:00.000-07:00

Movin' on. Another shot of the same building--Art Associates on the left, an empty space where the Strand Hotel stood, and the Strand's other neighbor in the background.

2005-06-27T00:23:00.000-07:00

The Art Associates Building, Kelso. There's actually an antique store still in business in this building, behind the boarded up windows. They were closed for a year while the city forced the demolition of the old Strand Hotel, one building over. It was crumbling onto the sidewalks and building around it, and had to be taken down a few bricks at a time. Seeing it go was a real cause for celebration. But the tenants in the neigboring buildings weren't happy about being shut out for the whole time.

2005-06-27T00:16:00.000-07:00

The brick wall by the war memorial, around the corner from the Kelso Theater Pub.

2005-06-27T00:13:00.000-07:00

The Kelso Theater Pub. Movies, pizza, beer, no smoking, cushy reclining seats with a long wooden table replacing every other row of seats. Their web site is full of corny flash effects, but here it is: http://www.ktpub.com/

2005-06-27T00:02:00.000-07:00

Kelso's war memorial.

2005-06-26T23:57:00.000-07:00

Fringe, a new S. Pacific Ave. store -- trendy vintage resale.

Photoblogging

2005-06-26T23:24:00.000-07:00

I wanted to use some local photos for a class project, so I had to go out and take some. I discovered, when I tried to fill in the gaps in my project, that there aren't very many images of this area on the web, and they are mostly the glossy tourist images. So I'll be posting my own photos of Kelso and its neighbor Longview, good, bad, ugly. I don't have the equipment or the expertise to be a good photographer, but some of my results I like. Some are so-so but at least make the point. The first several will be in the "gritty" category because that's what I was after for my project, which attempted to illustrate Woody Guthrie's "Talkin' Washington Blues" with local and contemporary images.

All of the Kelso photos, so far, are just a short distance from my home. The group below are all of a mural on the side of the Kelso Eagles building.

2005-06-26T23:17:00.000-07:00

Detail of mural -- smelt feed notice. According to Longview Daily News, the Kelso Eagles record for eating smelt is 160 smelt in 2 hours (they didn't name the record holder.)

2005-06-26T23:13:00.000-07:00

Detail of mural - black cat

2005-06-26T23:11:00.000-07:00

Detail of the mural - boy with a bucket.

2005-06-26T23:10:00.000-07:00

Detail of the mural.

2005-06-26T23:08:00.000-07:00

A Kelso mural: Kelso is the "Smelt Capital of the World." Smelt are little anchovy-like fish that come in from the ocean every year. I don't think they are fished commercially any more, but people still go out and fish for them with long-handled nets.

Tired

2005-06-20T22:55:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's possible to be so tired and keep turnng pages. In fact, I've come to the conclusion that it's not possible. G'night.

Changes

2005-05-02T02:57:00.000-07:00

I'm about to start a master's degree program. I've been working toward this for over a year, and classes start in less than a week. When I'm done, I'll have a masters in teaching & will be qualified to teach K-8. But it's really really scary. The last few years have been difficult, but this challenge is so big it's hard to look at it one day at a time. Baby steps. Baby steps. Baby steps.

Our Legacy?

2005-01-12T22:40:00.000-08:00

In case you have somehow missed the news, here's some details from the first trial arising from the Abu Ghraib abuses.

Trikking in the New Year

2005-01-08T13:56:00.000-08:00

I used some of my Christmas money to buy myself a Trikke 8 scooter, which has been on my mental wish list (right up there with the Alphasmart and the Dana) for about a year. I was hoping to be able to ride it to work 2 or 3 days a week, but I found I can't just hop on and ride. I have to learn. But if I can get in 15 or 20 minutes on it a few days a week I'll get the exercise, and work up to it. Work is just over a mile away, and school is another mile, so this should be doable. I want to get pics up soon.

Weather is not cooperating with my plans. It's been cold either cold and wet, or cold and icy. However, you can look at trikkingnorthwest.com for regular updates on my progress. And if you live in my neck of the woods, and are intersted in organized trikke outings, contact me, because I would like to get something going.

Freedom Rant via Email

2005-01-05T22:37:00.000-08:00

I finally wrote my freedom rant--the last straw finally landed on the camel's back today with a couple of news stories, for instance, this story at the NYT. Instead of writing a blog post, I wrote my senators. Then I sent the same message to all the members of the Senates listed on senate.gov as members of the Judiciary committee. Here's what I said:

Re: Confirmation of Alberto R. Gonzales

Senator _______:

I strongly oppose the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General of the United States.

Recent news reports indicate that as early as 2002, he sought legal justifications that would authorize or condone the use of torture in interrogating terrorism suspects.

I hope that torture is a bipartisan issue in our nation. Torture by members of Federal agencies or the U.S. military is not acceptable. It is abhorrent.

When I read about the abuses at Abu Gharib--realizing fairly early on that they were part of a pattern of behavior condoned by higher levels of authority, and not the misbehavior of a few individuals--I was sickened.

For the first time in my life, I was truly ashamed to be an American.

If we make the world safe for democracy, who will keep the world safe from us?

I urge you and your fellow Senators not only to vote against the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales, but to vigorously oppose it. I also urge you to take strong measures to prevent future abuses by federal agents and military forces.

With respect,

Elizabeth [my last name]
[my town], WA

Too old for this?

2004-11-22T21:34:00.000-08:00

Dave Long threw down the gauntlet--he actually put a link to my blog on his. Now I have to write something. As blogs go, mine has been slow paced. Dave is pretty faithful--he has something new on faith*in*fiction just about every day.

My son had something flu-like last week. I'm too old to be getting up in the middle of the night to deal with vomit. But I told him: I'm your mom. It's in my job description. Getting up in the middle of the night isn't too bad. It's getting up again for work a few hours later that's so hard. He's back in school again today, and so am I.

My plans for Thanksgiving are . . . none. I have no plan. I might get really extravagent and fix myself some Chex mix, or take myself out to dinner, and I will pick up the phone and call family. I haven't spent Thanksgiving by myself since the first year I was separated, and it was pretty miserable. I invited myself to various places after that, for the years that DS was with his dad, but this year I haven't made any plans. DS will go off this year with his dad and dad's girlfriend. At some time during the 4-day weekend I will spend several hours studying for a microeconomics final, and several more hours filling out a grad school application. I even let my boss know I'm available to work Friday if I'm needed. That might be a first. Trying hard not to feel sorry for myself.

Maybe I'll do a little more reading on climate change to cheer myself up. That's a link to a fairly moderate site. If you want to give yourself the creeps, read the Pentagon's writeup on abrupt climate change.

Or ponder this message from the Inuit, who never needed a word for "robins" until the last few years.

Blowing Hot and Cold

2004-11-05T21:19:00.000-08:00

If you're still worrying about global warming, you're a couple of worry beads behind.

I like to think that I'm a sensible person, not entirely immune to alarmist yellow journalism, but capable of identifying (and ignoring) junk science. I would, for instance, ignore a headline that ran "Scientists Now Believe Global Warming Caused by Alien X-Rays."

But I'm starting to sit up and take notice. For instance: The NY Times ran Big Perils Seen in Arctic Warming on October 30. It's an advance look (provided by a "leak") at a science report scheduled for release on November 9. 300 scientists from eight countries participated, along with the elders of native communities.

The Arctic "is now experiencing some of the most rapid and severe climate change on Earth," the report says, adding, "Over the next 100 years, climate change is expected to accelerate, contributing to major physical, ecological, social and economic changes, many of which have already begun."

Our current administration isn't likely to lose any sleep over polar bears and seals, but effects on permafrost might get even W to sit up and take notice:

Oil and gas deposits on land are likely to be harder to extract as tundra thaws, limiting the frozen season when drilling convoys can traverse the otherwise spongy ground, the report says. Alaska has already seen the "tundra travel" season on the North Slope shrink to 100 days from about 200 days a year in 1970.

Did you notice the reference to climate change? "Climate change" is about to replace "global warming" as a buzz word. Or worse, "abrupt climate change."

Hot

2004-08-11T17:08:00.000-07:00

Ugh. It is so hot my clothes are sticking to me. I hate this. I HATE THIS. Somehow it just isn't possible to have a good attitude and imagine that I'm in a nice relaxing sauna. It was so hot and sticky a few days ago that some of the pieces of my son's bike helmet just fell apart while he was wearing it--the adhesive came loose. Which raises the question: SHOULD children's bike helmets be assembled with bits of two-sided foam tape? Maybe not. His bike was stolen the same day, along with the jacket that he left draped over it. It wasn't a good day for him.

I'm working half-time now and I'm signed up for the fall quarter at school. Microeconomics and American Government this time. I peeked in the microeconomics books and it's full of numbers and graphs. I'm also keeping myself busy just for fun with a book called "Linux for Dummies," seriously considering trying Linux and some open source software on an older computer system.

An Editorial Apology from the NY Times

2004-07-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

The New York Times just issued an editorial apology for its role in promoting the Iraq war. Although they opposed our unilateral invasion of Iraq, they believed the intelligence estimates that said Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were a real threat, and they are making a public apology for not examining the evidence more critically.

The New York Times > Opinion > A Pause for Hindsight

Stay tuned for upcoming freedom rant

2004-06-20T00:25:00.000-07:00

There are things I've been wanting to say that are too big to say in a few words; I'm thinking them through. It's in what some other writer (if I could remember who I would give credit) calls the "composting" stage. I want to take a long view and have a historical perspective. I was going to use the subject as a speech topic, but decided it was too big and changed my topic. I'm going to block out time to get it written next week, and will be posting it, probably in a few sections. But it's along the lines of "is this what our freedom amounts to? The freedom to torture, to humiliate, to abuse?" and "if we are doing such things in the name of freedom, can we say that we are free at all?" Stay tuned.

River

2004-06-19T22:36:00.000-07:00

I had to walk home tonight and stopped for a while on the Allen Street bridge over the Cowlitz River. Usually if I stand still for more than ten seconds or so someone will lean out a car window and shout "Jump!" but tonight everyone going by was polite, even the sidewalk cyclists who shouted out cheerfully to let me know they were passing behind me, in case I stepped back suddenly.

Light like that makes me wish I could watercolor....deep blueblack under the bridge and against the dikes, deep greenblack at a bend in the river reflecting tall trees, cut by a streak of silver where the water ripples across a sand bar. In between, reflecting sky, bands of pink, peach, mauve, gold, turquoise, then sky blue shading down to black, all freckled with silver where the fish are striking. Swallows dart down to the surface. Water fast and slick and powerful. Sometimes there are seals here, following the smelt and salmon fifty miles or so upstream from the ocean, but not tonight.

To the left, south Kelso and a picturesque little brick railway station. To the right, west Kelso and the Hall of Justice, an ugly block of concrete topped with radio towers. (People speak of Kelso as if it were in thirds: north and south Kelso, both east of the river, and West Kelso, divided from the rest by the river.)

When I turn my back to the view, I get another one. I can see the river running down towards me--reflecting pink and lavender--cut by three bridges.

First the one I'm on, a big concrete arch with bronze statues at four corners pinning it to the earth (owl, two otters, two trout, two more trout). This bridge, for a while, was known locally as the new new bridge, replacing the old bridge. The old bridge was a steel drawbridge built in the 1920s.

The next bridge up, the Cowlitz Way bridge, was once known as the new bridge. It was built in the 1940s, one of those green girder steel bridges and people called it the new bridge for the next 50 or so years, because it was new compared to the old bridge. People used to give directions here like that: "Take the old bridge and go right at the first light." The bridges are only three blocks apart.

When people say to go across the new new bridge, everyone understands which bridge. But if they say the old bridge, they hesitate, then try to clarify it "I mean the old bridge that was the new bridge, the old new bridge." If they try to elaborate, they find themselves going in circles. Then they hesitate again and try again with a physical description or street name.

Beyond the newly-old bridge, in the misty pink distance, is the third bridge, a railway bridge, a pale straight line drawn across the river. I suppose it has a name, but since it never comes up in driving directions, it doesn't come up in conversation.

"one word. so little time."

2004-06-16T01:28:00.000-07:00

When you click the Go button on the oneword site, a new page will display one word, and a window that stays open for one minute. If the word inspires you to write, you have 60 seconds to write. Then it prompts you for id and email. (I use a junk email address from yahoo for this kind of thing--when too many spammers pick it up I will deactivate that address and open another.) Then you can read what everyone else that day wrote....the variety is sometimes surprising.

The family that blogs together....

2004-06-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

DS11, aka Discreet, is begging for quality time.

"Want to blog with me?" I ask.

"Want to watch My Fair Lady with me?" he replies.

"Don't you know, the family that blogs together, stays together?" I ask. "How about we take out the trash together?"

"Mo-om."

We negotiate: I get 10 minutes undisturbed on the computer, he helps me in the kitchen for a few minutes, then we watch My Fair Lady.

"Don't we have any more movies that have Harrison Ford taking his shirt off?"

"MO-000M!"

Gotta run. My time's up.

Summer

2004-05-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

Summer is almost here...I was sure of it Tuesday night. I was out at ten pm walking to the convenience store, wearing a jumper with a thin short-sleeved shirt under it. There was rain on my face--a fine cold pin-prick rain--but it wasn't cold enough for a jacket. As I came around a corner the breeze down the open street was a little chill, but not unpleasant. And I was out at that time of night because I wanted sunscreen for the following day! DS had a field trip to Wild Waves. Sunscreen and batteries.

DS is using a screen name of Discreet, and has set up his own blog Life with a Weird Mom. He will be posting here occasionally as well.

A Viable Third Party Candidate?

2004-05-26T22:30:00.000-07:00

When I discovered this site, I enjoyed not just a chuckle, but a series of good laughs.

Mark Twain for President! It's all here--slogans, buttons, bumper stickers, interviews.

It is the work of Jim Zwick, who also publishes a more serious look at Mark Twain and a very large collection of articles and source documents on anti-imperialism in the early 20th century. Some of the material is eerie. If you substituted "Iraq" for "Cuba" or "the Phillipines," it might have been written this week.

2004-05-26T14:26:00.000-07:00

By a house in the country, where I lived for several years, there was a willow, over 50 years old, planted by my landlady's mother. This is a shot looking up into the winter branches--I used it as the photo for my Themestream index page titled "A Tree by the Stream." And in fact, a little stream ran through the blackberry thickets a few yards downhill. We used to have a hammock slung under the tree.

2004-05-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

This is me with Dusty, an 8-month old Australian Shepherd puppy. She couldn't adapt to city life and had to go to a new home when we moved into town. This pic is a few years old.

Introductions

2004-05-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

I've been putting off starting a blog because I didn't feel that I had much to say. Today I feel I'm brimming over, but I'm tired and I have the sense not to follow all those bunny trails at once. I expect my blog to ramble around between the literary, the political, Christian life, and the mundane--what's happening in my home and my life. Right now I'm working on notes for a persuasive speech (for a speech class) and some of my thinking will probably spill over here as I work it out. General theme, but not yet a fully developed thesis: If you are outraged by the Abu Ghraib scandal, speak up--translate your outrage into democracy in action.

My blog title, "A Tree by the Stream," was also the title for my "index" page at Themestream, where I published some poetry a few years ago. An interesting adventure in literature and greed; but I write more and better when I have an attentive audience, and Themestream gave me that. Long-time net friends may also remember my home page "A Sparrow's Nest" with its diary "Garden and Wilderness Notes."

Blessings.