Three Things Thursday

Another Thursday, another edition of Three Things Thursday, the purpose of which is to “share three things from the previous week that made you smile or laugh or appreciate the awesome of your life.”

Three Questions and Answers

1. What’s that bird?

That’s the question we asked our waitress when we saw this bird:

We had taken the Tacoma Narrows Bridge over to Gig Harbor for a follow-up visit with the eye doctor after my cataract surgery. When we stopped for lunch after the visit, we saw this guy. Soon another bird who looked just like this one appeared as well. They both perched, though not together, where they could watch the water. We assumed they were probably watching for fish to eat.

The waitress didn’t know what kind of bird this was, so when we got home we consulted Birds of the Pacific Northwest Coast by Nancy Baron and John Acorn.

Answer: It’s a belted kingfisher. And yes, they were having lunch, too, watching for fish to dive for.

2. What does that mean?

While watching the belted kingfishers, we spotted this sailboat moored nearby in the marina:

When I asked my husband what zaftig means, he checked his phone.

Answer:

adjective, Slang.
1. (of a woman) having a pleasantly plump figure.
2. full-bodied; well-proportioned.

—Source: dictionary.com

3. What WERE they thinking?

That’s what I thought when I saw these bushes for the first time:

I wondered why anyone would sculpt their bushes into this suggestively phallic shape. When I noticed similarly shaped bushes at other houses, I assumed that the home owners must employ the same landscaping service.

On a recent Franke Tobey Jones outing, I heard a woman on the bus explaining this mystery to her friend.

Answer: The deer, which we have a lot of, eat the bushes. The tops of the bushes are wider because the deer can’t reach that high.

So I was right: The home owners do have the same landscaping service.

Three Things Thursday

Another fun edition of Three Things Thursday, the purpose of which is to “share three things from the previous week that made you smile or laugh or appreciate the awesome of your life.”

Yesterday I had cataract surgery on my right eye. The folks at the eye surgery center had set up a contest that allowed people to vote for their favorite pumpkin creation.

Cinderella’s coach is at the top of this post. Here are three more:

1. Snoopy

I fell in love with this Snoopy, the first of the entries that I saw. The body is a large pumpkin, the paws are two small pumpkins, and the head is a large butternut squash (a pumpkin is technically a squash, so this qualifies) with the stem as the nose.

I never would have thought of using a butternut squash for the head, but once it saw it here, I realized that it is, of course, perfect.

2. Scary Eyeball

I’m not sure if this is supposed to be anything in particular. But it’s definitely an eyeball, and that’s certainly appropriate for an eye clinic.

3. The Stay Puff Marshmallow Man

Do you remember the scene in Ghostbusters when the Dan Ackroyd character can’t control his thoughts and the evil force uses them to create a giant, threatening Stay Puff Marshmallow man? Here he is, in all his evil glory:

I couldn’t decide whether to vote for Snoopy or the Stay Puff Marshmallow man. So my husband and I worked together: I voted for Stay Puff and he voted for Snoopy.

I won’t be going back to the surgery center to see which pumpkin creation won. Actually, I don’t even want to know which one won. I just enjoyed seeing them all.

Happy Halloween, everybody!

Three Things Thursday

Thursday is again upon us. Time for another entry of Three Things Thursday, the purpose of which is to “share three things from the previous week that made you smile or laugh or appreciate the awesome of your life.”

Singing Group

Two or three months ago Tacoma Metro Park District put out a notice that they were thinking of starting a singing group for their 50 and Over activities program. I was in one community chorus or another for several years back in St. Louis. After moving to Tacoma I had looked around casually for a singing group but didn’t find anything in my league. What I mean by that is: if the group requires an audition, it’s out of my league.

I finally got word that there was enough interest in the Park District’s group that they were moving ahead. I attended my first meeting on Monday. There were about seven people there, plus two employees of the Park District. One of the women had brought some printouts of popular old songs such as Let Me Call You Sweetheart and Mr. Sandman. We sang through a few of those songs, without accompaniment. There is no money in the budget to hire someone to play the piano, but there may be a possibility of finding a volunteer.

The choruses that I participated in before sang in four-part harmony accompanied by an accomplished pianist. We prepared real music such as Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and an assortment of popular tunes, and we performed twice a year. Therefore, what I found on Monday isn’t exactly what I was expecting. But I’ll give it a few more weeks to develop. As the group’s existence gets publicized more widely, maybe more people will show up and a more formal structure will develop. I don’t play to stay if it remains just a few people getting together once a week to sing old songs without any accompaniment, not even a pitch pipe.

But the experience did remind me how much I enjoyed participating in a community chorus. I should probably start looking again, more seriously this time, for one that’s appropriate for my level.

Return of the Writing Mojo

I’ve been having a hard time with my writing lately. I’ve been at it long enough to know that the creative process ebbs and flows, and a writer has to be prepared to soldier on when the going gets tough and trust that the mojo will return. I’ve been gritting my teeth and continuing to type, even though only pretty pedestrian prose was showing up on my computer screen.

But a couple of days ago, the mojo finally returned. It always shows up in the same way: I wake up at about 4:00 AM just full of ideas. Then, whole passages of perfect prose begin to form themselves inside my head. In the past I’ve told myself that those passages would still be in my head later, then turned over and gone back to sleep. But I’ve learned that the passages will, in fact, not be there later, and I’d better get up right away and write them down before they evaporate.

It’s an exhausting process, but also heavenly.

Play Ball!

It’s my favorite time of the year: baseball playoff season.

My beloved St. Louis Cardinals had the best record in baseball this season, so they should be in the World Series, right?

Wrong. They came up against their archrivals, the Chicago Cubs, who won the wild card spot. The Cardinals and the Cubs have been playing since 1898, so this rivalry has had lots of time to fester. In a short series, any team might be able to beat any other team. That’s what happened in the best-of-five division series: The Cubs beat the Cardinals. And that’s why they play the games instead of just figuring the whole thing out on paper.

But in the next round, which is a best-of-seven series, the New York Mets swept the Cubs to win the National League pennant. I find some consolation in that, but not much.

The American League is still working on determining who will meet the Mets in the World Series. Right now the Kansas City Royals lead the Toronto Blue Jays by three games to two. If the Royals win tomorrow, they’ll advance to meet the Mets. But if the Blue Jays win tomorrow, there will be a winner-takes-all game on Saturday.

The World Series is an anxious time if your team is playing. But when, like this year for me, your team is not there, the Series takes on a kind of Zen aura. Then I can appreciate the game for its own sake. There’s a purity in being a disinterested observer watching the game unfold, a purity unsullied by the ecstasy of victory or the agony of defeat. Such a moment elevates my appreciation of the essence of the game.

And of course I’m only writing all that purple prose because this year, my team won’t be there.

Three Things Thursday

Once again, it’s time for Three Things Thursday, the purpose of which is to “share three things from the previous week that made you smile or laugh or appreciate the awesome of your life.”

It’s Pumpkin Thursday!

It’s fall, or the Season of the Pumpkin.

(Click on any photo for a larger version.)

Awesome Pumpkin #1

This is the centerpiece from our table at last night’s quarterly dinner for independent-living residents here at Franke Tobey Jones. These dinners are always awesome for two reasons:

(1) They are about the only time when all of us from the three independent-living sections get together. It’s good to see a lot of people I don’t often cross paths with in other activities.

(2) The food is always very good. This time Chef Tim presented us with the following menu:

mixed green salad with berries and raspberry vinegarette dressing

salmon Louie (salmon smothered in crab)

roasted pork loin in mustard sauce

asparagus

couscous with carrot chunks

apple turnovers with optional toppings: caramel, cinnamon whipped cream, and walnuts

Awesome Pumpkin #2

On our trip to Winthrop, WA, we stopped at Sherry’s Sweets downtown for some ice cream. There were so many tempting flavors that I couldn’t pick just one. After much deliberation, I went with two seasonal favorites, pumpkin and wild blackberry. They were so good that I still can’t stop thinking about them.

Awesome Pumpkin #3

Yes, it’s time for pumpkin spice coffee once again. I’ll change things up occasionally with a cup of Trader Joe’s pumpkin chai tea.

Until next week, I wish all of you a big dose of awesomeness!

Three Things Thursday

Another miscellaneous list for Three Things Thursday, the purpose of which is to “share three things from the previous week that made you smile or laugh or appreciate the awesome of your life.”

1. Potty Parity?

I had never seen a pink PortaPotty. As you’d expect, this one is labeled Women.

Photographed in the parking lot at the Washington State Fair.

2. Water Conservation

This sign happens to be on our front lawn, but we’ve been seeing them all over town since Tacoma joined the cities of Everett and Seattle in a voluntary water conservation effort.

According to Tacoma Public Utilities, “Over the last six weeks, the region has collectively cut back water use by 14 percent.” This conservation effort has been especially important now because salmon are swimming up river to spawn. Both lowered levels of streams and warmer-than-usual water temperatures can adversely affect the salmon run. The Green River, Tacoma’s primary water source, is home to chinook salmon, a threatened species.

Because we’ve had a bit of rain recently, our lawns don’t look as bad as they might have otherwise.

3. Profound Philosophical Pondering

It’s so hard to find a really good T-shirt nowadays. Many of them are just plain raunchy. I was delighted to find this one on our recent trip to Leavenworth, WA.

Three Things Thursday

Here’s the latest installment of Three Things Thursday, the purpose of which is to “share three things from the previous week that made you smile or laugh or appreciate the awesome of your life.”

Nuggets of Knowledge from the Washington State Fair

In the post about our recent trip to the Washington State Fair, I wrote about our visit to the animal barns. One of the things that makes this visit so much fun is seeing how the kids from FFA (Future Farmers of America) and the various 4-H Clubs invest in their animals. Looking at the displays that accompany the animals, it’s evident that these are not just fair projects; these animals are pets that the kids genuinely love.

On our first visit to the fair many years ago, we were especially enthralled by a poster put up by a child, age 10, about how to be a good shepherd. The poster listed all the steps that a good shepherd does to care for his sheep properly. The final item was “Docks the tails.”

This brought tears to my eyes. Can’t you just imagine a child being absolutely horrified when told he has to clip his lambs’ tails—until he learns the reason why (to prevent the tails from becoming encrusted with fecal matter)? And I can imagine him still having trouble actually doing the docking, even though he knows he has to, for the sheep’s sake.

This year we saw a young girl stretched out on the hay in a pen next to her reclining llama. (The llama was longer than she was.) One adolescent girl, while fondling her goat’s head, told us that this goat is “super sweet.” Everywhere we saw kids petting, nuzzling, grooming, and talking to their animals.

The signs and posters that the kids make to accompany their animals show how much they’ve learned from raising them. Here are three nuggets of knowledge I learned in the animal barns this year.

Nugget #1

Nugget #2

*Nugget #3

Three Things Thursday

Another week, another edition of Three Things Thursday, the purpose of which is to “share three things from the previous week that made you smile or laugh or appreciate the awesome of your life.”

Items in the News

Don’t worry, there’s not a presidential debate or Trump article among them.

Seattle Aquarium trains otter to use inhaler for her asthma

The Seattle Aquarium believes it has diagnosed the first case of a sea otter with asthma and is training the animal to use an inhaler.

A veterinarian is training a one-year-old sea otter to use an inhaler to treat asthma diagnosed when smoke from nearby forest fires made breathing difficult. The otter, named Mishka, uses the same medication that humans use.

Dr. Lesanna Lahner believes that lack of genetic diversity may have contributed to Mishka’s asthma. When sea otters became extinct in Washington State 40 years ago, Alaskan sea otters were moved south to repopulate Puget Sound.

Eating Healthy Foods May Lower Depression Risk

Here’s yet another reason to eat a healthy diet.

Research from a large new study suggests that people who follow a healthy diet to a moderate or large extent have lower risk for developing depression than people who don’t follow similar dietary guidelines. The study defined a healthy diet as one high in vegetables, fruits, nuts, and fish, and low in fast food and processed meats.

The study followed 15,000 university graduates in Spain for 8.5 years.

“Even a moderate adherence to these healthy dietary patterns … was associated with an important reduction in the risk of developing depression,” [study author Almudena] Sanchez-Villegas told Live Science.

These results, published in the journal BMC Medicine, support the results of Sanchez-Villegas’s earlier research, reported in 2006 and 2009, that found a lower rate of depression among people who followed the Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet is defined as one high in vegetables, fruits, fish, and olive oil; this diet is often used as a standard for the definition of a healthy diet. The new research studied participants whose diet closely resembles the Mediterranean diet but not not require strict adherence to it.

Coming Soon to Facebook: A ‘Dislike’ Button

Finally!

Sometimes people on Facebook post sad news or details of some misfortune, such as “I have a bad cold and don’t feel like getting out of bed this morning.” I certainly hesitate to “like” such posts, because I don’t like the fact that the person is sick or suffering from some other bad occurrence. But I would like to respond in some way that shows empathy, concern, and support. So far, the only solution I’ve found to this dilemma is to post a comment containing a frowny face emoticon, 😦 . I’ve often wished for the ability to choose a “dislike” button.

Now the New York Times reports that Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and chief executive officer of Facebook, says the company is close to testing a “dislike” button similar to the “like” button:

Facebook users — there are now 1.5 billion, the company says — have long requested a way to express negative emotions or empathy with something sad or tragic posted on the social network, he said.

According to the article, some critics of Facebook don’t like this idea because, according to one user, “There is already enough hate on Facebook and social media.”

I’m not quite sure how this logic works. If I “like” someone’s report of sickness or death of a loved one because I don’t have the option of disliking the news but don’t want to ignore it, isn’t that hateful? Wouldn’t it be better if I could click a button to show that I dislike the bad news?

What do you think? What do you do about “liking” bad news on Facebook?

Three Things Thursday

It’s time again for Three Things Thursday, the purpose of which is to “share three things from the previous week that made you smile or laugh or appreciate the awesome of your life.”

Here are three miscellaneous, interesting tidbits from our Alaskan cruise. Click on any photo to see a larger version.

1. Calendar carpet

With no cell service and only intermittent internet availability on a cruise, it’s easy to lose track of what day of the week it is. Fortunately, our ship’s staff changed the carpets in the elevators every day to keep us up to date.

2. Sitka humor

Notice the call letters of Raven Radio in Sitka, AK.

3. For all you Deadliest Catch fans

I’ve never watched this show, but our shuttle driver in Homer, AK, pointed out that this boat was in the harbor on the day we visited Homer.

Three Things Thursday

What a super experience today was for Three Things Thursday, the purpose of which is to “share three things from the previous week that made you smile or laugh or appreciate the awesome of your life.”

Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier

Our original itinerary called for us to cruise Tracy Arm today. However, we were awakened just before 9:00 AM by an announcement from our captain. He said that there were winds of 40 knots in Tracy Arm, which is a narrow passage. Because he deemed it unsafe to enter Tracy Arm in such windy conditions, we would be cruising Endicott Arm instead.

Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm are two deep fjords near Juneau in the Tracy Arm – Fords Terror Wilderness area of the Tongass National Forest. Both fjords are more than 30 miles (48 km) long, and about one-fifth of their area is covered with ice. Endicott Arm is shorter and wider than Tracy Arm.

As the ship entered Endicott Arm, people flocked outside to watch our approach to Dawes Glacier, a wall of blue ice half a mile across. The captain even opened access to the ship’s bow so we could get a good look. The massive wall of blue was visible from a distance and became more and more spectacular the closer we got.

I was surprised at how close we were able to get in such a large cruise ship. There was a much smaller ship that got even closer, but we get a good look even though we were farther back.

Now I wish I had paid more attention to those earth science units we studied back in junior high. I always found them supremely boring. If I had taken them more seriously, I would probably have better understood how the glaciers carved out the terrain here during the last Ice Age and appreciated how several glaciers come together here today.

Eventually the captain pivoted the ship around and we headed back out into open water.

Here are three photos from our visit to Dawes Glacier. Click on photos to see larger versions.

Photo #1: Small Boat, Blue Ice

Photo #2: Waterfall

This is the same small boat cruising away from the glacier, past a waterfall fed by a melting glacier.

Photo #3: Seals Like Cruising, Too

Seals relaxed on several small ice floes that drifted past our ship and out to sea. This was the largest, most highly populated hunk of ice.

Three Things Thursday

Another week, another Thursday: Three Things Thursday, the purpose of which is to “share three things from the previous week that made you smile or laugh or appreciate the awesome of your life.”

Rain, Much-Needed Rain

It hasn’t rained significantly here in our patch of the Pacific Northwest for something like five months. But of course the one day rain chose to come along was last Friday, the long-scheduled date for our annual picnic here at Franke Tobey Jones. The event was to have been held outdoors, under the big tent pictured above, but the rain and lightning, unusual here, forced its relocation to three separate indoor venues. Nonetheless, a good time was had by all, at least all of those where we partied.

I’m sure the staff had to scramble to relocate the festivities, and we appreciated their efforts. The chef had to set up the barbecue grill under a small tent right outside the building, so we had hamburgers and hotdogs authentically cooked outdoors, a necessary item for a picnic.

1. Hawaiian Table Decorations

The picnic has a Hawaiian theme. When we arrived we received paper leis and were seated at tables with theme-appropriate decorations.

The menu featured Hawaiian foods: pork, sweet and sour chicken, baked beans, hotdogs and hamburgers—those necessary staples of American picnic fare—ambrosia, pineapple upside down cake, mango ice cream.

2. Hawaiian Dancers

In keeping with the Hawaiian theme, a local group of Hawaiian dancers entertained us.

Had the picnic been held outdoors, as scheduled, they would have provided one long performance. Instead, they had to adapt by giving three shortened performances at the three indoor locations. Between numbers they conferred about which song/dance to perform next. We appreciated their willingness to cope with the changed circumstances.

3. Water-Conserving Efforts

It rained most of Friday afternoon and overnight Friday/Saturday. It was a gentle rain, not a deluge, and the grass gratefully drank it in. Our lawns are still amazingly green, even almost a week later.

But the lawns may not remain nicely green for much longer. Because our area is experiencing one of the driest, hottest summers on record, the City of Tacoma has moved to Stage 2 (voluntary reduction) of their Water Shortage Response Plan.

Our retirement community, Franke Tobey Jones, has agreed to cooperate in this effort, euphemistically known as “going golden.” That means we will not be watering lawns and will have reduced watering of plants and shrubs. Our two outdoor fountains have also been drained and shut off.

The aim is to reduce our water consumption by at least 10%. This voluntary water reduction is a joint effort of the Washington cities of Tacoma, Seattle, and Everett. A 10% reduction in water usage across the area could save 1 billion gallons of water by the end of the year.

One of the features that makes Franke Tobey Jones so visually appealing is its large swatches of beautiful green lawn. But no one is complaining about the lawns in light of the drought conditions. We are proud to pitch in.

Three Questions and Answers

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It’s Pumpkin Thursday!

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Nuggets of Knowledge from the Washington State Fair

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Items in the News

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Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier

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Rain, Much-Needed Rain

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