December | 2008 | ran dum thots

So it is officially four years since I did a holiday letter.  I used to be famous for them.  Or maybe it was infamous.  Don’t remember for sure.

Once again, my big ideas and oversized ambition got the better of me.  Three years ago I decided to make a holiday video instead of a letter.  So I did.  Well, I shot and then edited a bunch of footage, put it to music, and only had the narration left.  Still need to do that narration. Guess there were just one too many steps in the project.

So, as our friend Patrick used to say, we’ve got a lot of catch uppin’ to do. But you do realize that my memory ain’t what it used to be, so there’s no way I can reconstruct three years of activities at this point.  So what you’re gonna see here is what you call a quick rundown and overview…

I’ll take it family member by family member, beginning with the doggies. Did I mention they were Doggies of the Month at D’tails in the Pearl grooming salon?

Pippi!  

Okay, so much for Bichons being insanely healthy dogs. Since we last talked, Pippi has had a few challenges:  surgery for an infected anal gland (sorry, TMI), surgery for bladder stones, then she was in the ICU for more than a week with pancreatitis (we almost lost her), and then another bladder stone surgery (turns out the special diet she was put on after the pancreatitis caused bladder stones?!?)  (As I always say, why stop at having human family members with a disability, let’s get goddammed dogs with disabilities!!  Hell yeah!!)

So now we make their food, using only organic ingredients.  Every month Ric sets up a production line in the kitchen and whips up a bulk recipe, using 5 lbs. of boneless skinless chicken breast, two number 10 each of cans of yams and carrots, brown rice, whole oats…  He freezes them in individual scoops and give the dogs 1-1/2 scoops each every morning and night.

When she’s not suffering from an ailment, Pippi is a very happy little pup who continues to welcome every human visitor with her tongue up their nostrils, immediately after closely sniffing the butts of every canine visitor. 

She just turned 7, and so far has only cost us about her age in years times 1,000 in medical bills! We love her very much, and she thinks she is Ric’s wife.

Poppi!

Unlike Pippi, Poppi has always been our healthy dog. There was only one exception, but it was a really really big one:  last year she had a herniated disk, requiring neurosurgery and an extended stay in the ICU as well.  She just turned 6-1/2 and yes, that’s about how many large she’s cost us in surgical bills.

Not only that, since she’s not supposed to jump anymore, look what Ric built her so she could still sleep with the humans:

It’s an unfortunate fact that a Ukranian refugee family partly depends on watching us to understand Americans.  Upon seeing the dog ramp, Domke asked what it was, and when I explained it to her, her eyes widened and then she asked, “You use too?”

We love our Poppi, she has the sweetest and most adorable disposition, probably partly from being constantly kept in check by Pippi, who considers Poppi her bitch.  Poppi may think I am her wife. 

Blaine!

In June, Blaine celebrated five years of service to Free Geek, his home away from home.  There’s a lot more about this in a recent blog post I wrote.  He is a true and utter geek and contributes a lot to the place.

He’s still into chess, but hasn’t played in a RL (real life) tournament in a while.  He plays on the Internet and kicks chess geek ass at Free Geek once in a while.

Blaine has the gambling gene. As he explains it, it’s one of the few ways he can really take risks, which apparently is something men like to do. Go figure. He and Ric go to the casino a few times a year. I’m so grateful they don’t make me go along, I get to stay home and snuggle with the dogs (and visit them in the hospital).

Blaine is a pureblood Blazer fan.  As far as I can tell, he is in charge of all sports forums on the interwebs.  He’s VERY active in all sorts of discussions, both on and off topic.  For example, here’s an interesting and revealing recent discussion you might enjoy reading.

He and Ric have purchased half-season Blazer tickets for the past two years and have a blast attending the games, especially now that the Blazers actually win and no members are doing time (that would be a jail reference). 

Blaine’s health has been good (knock wood!) and we’ve had a REALLY ginormous development along those lines in the past few months. A wonderful woman named Francesca has been helping him with his personal care! And it’s been a completely liberating experience for both Blaine and me!  We feel so much gratitude to her, I can’t even begin to tell you…

Blaine’s resolution for 2009:  to get a resolution.

Ric!

Ric loves the Blazers almost as much as Blaine does, and he loves to get in on the gambling action too. He claims he’s going to the casino to give Blaine a ride, but I know better.

A couple of years ago, he started a handyman business, which is going gangbusters. He only advertises on Angie’s List and by word of mouth, but he’s always booked about a month ahead. So many people need the kind of help he can provide, and he has the tools and the chops to be very versatile. In fact, he has SO many tools he had to switch out his van for a bigger truck. And boy is it ever bigger (a Sprinter)!  He even wrote a love song for it (which will be on his new CD).

Yes, he’s putting out a new CD in the next month or so. And trust me, it’s really good!  I think one of the songs on it (“Hear Me”) is his best ever!  The new CD is called “A Thousand Songs.” He’ll let you know when it’s available, it will be on iTunes, of course.  Ric has been especially productive musically this year, with topics ranging from new trucks to lost and found love to colonoscopies. Okay, never mind…

Ric’s health has been good too (knock wood again please) and he stays very active!  That’s my Ric!  (Although he hasn’t made many entries since he got busy handymanning, his blog remains a rich archive of some of our activities from earlier years.

All the spaces in his commercial building are finally rented (Cha!Cha!Cha! Taqueria, FaceBodySoul day spa, Alexander’s Goldworks jeweler, and Edconline math teacher training/tutoring business), after Ric spent several months fixing up a new space from the former warehouse storage area.

We only got to take our Airstream Toaster Moon out once this year, but now that Fran is in the picture, we plan to do so more often next year. We can’t wait!

Ric’s had four birthdays since we last talked, and the most recent one was number 60! Wow! He’s a  sexagenarian!! And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Ric wishes he could visit daughters Stacey & Tim and Amy & Gary and grandchildren Joe, Colin, Owen, Calla, Caitlyn and Ellery more often, but we love it when they come down!  They visited for Christmas last week just before the big snow storm hit, thank goodness they didn’t wait til this Snowpocalypse weekend!  We went to a performance at Do Jump! theater together and Caitlyn got to dance with a cast member on stage!  They are growing up so fast, and we are so very proud of all of them.  They are the best grandkids evah!  Which can only mean they have the best parents!

Ric’s resolution for 2009: to learn how to use a router.

Marie!

Marie continues to work as director of communication and learning at Meyer Memorial Trust. Her biggest project over the past three years was connec+ipedia, a shared learning tool for the nonprofit community that is a wiki with database capabilities.  She’ll be working on a major redesign of the MMT website over the next few months.

Marie also serves on the board of directors of Free Geek, partly as a way to support the organization that means so much to Blaine, and partly because it’s the most amazing nonprofit she’s ever met.

She’s been trying to fit in more quilting, having now finished six quilt tops that she is beginning to actually get quilted.  She and her mom spend a week or two quilting together every summer, something we both enjoy so much!  Her mom is a quilting wonder woman, and Marie wishes she could inherit just 10% of her talent and patience.  Marie also took a rug making class and just finished her first ever rug, likely the smallest rug in the history of the world, but it’s for the bathroom floor in Toaster Moon, which itself is the size of two size 10 feet.

Speaking of small, Marie loves being in the World’s Smallest Book Group with Joyce and Reba and Darcy.  We’ve been meeting monthly since September 1990!  That’s a lot of book discussing, and a boatload of conversations about every possible thing under the sun. Decades-long friendships with women  FTW!

Marie wants to make more movies, but finds it hard to fit in. Maybe someday she can retire and do that! She certainly is way full of a lot of documentary ideas!  But Marie did finally start making semi-regular posts in her personal blog (after many many many false starts), where you can keep up with her randumthots in the future.  She also frequently tweets on twitter.

Oh yeah, one more thing:  Marie is now a member of the clergy. Whisky Tango Foxtrot?!?  I shit you not! And she has married people even! And did you notice her clergy outfit!  

Marie’s resolution for 2009:  to turn 60, get her fitness back (no more excuses, just get off butt!), to reconnect with long lost friends she’s neglected in her correspondence (like you maybe?), to finish all the quilts she’s started, to finish at least one documentary, to walk the dogs more, to spend more quality time with Ric and Blaine, to not watch any more reality tv except Project Runway and Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew,  to never forget another birthday, anniversary, graduation, etc. for the rest of her life, and to become the kind of person who doesn’t set ridiculous unattainable goals.

—-

Okay, so now we’re cool, right? Starting with a clean slate next time? Good. You have no idea how relieved I am right now. The holiday letter thing has been on my to-do list for the past four years, and I feel like such a failure when I can’t ever cross it off and I start the new year with a hangover from the prior year.

My mom and Sarah, Dave & Jeff and Curt & Velvet and Denny, Tammy & James are supposed to come for Christmas dinner, if the weather cooperates.  That will be a lot of fun, and I can finally give James the present I got for his graduation from high school last June and his November birthday. See what I mean?

The three of us are counting down the days and hours until Jan. 20, 2009, if you catch our drift.  And speaking of drifts, please let us know if you need any snow… we had another six inches last night on top of the foot from yesterday, and it’s still snowing.

So here’s to you and yours. Have the holiday season you dream of…

Love,

Marie, Ric, Blaine, Pippi, Poppi

Made a little video of what the snow looks like at our house, with special attention to what it’s done to some of our plants…

I love the weather apps for the iPhone, especially the ones that let you select a place in the world and let you see what the weather conditions are like there right at that moment.

As we’ve had some extra-cold-for-Portland winter weather over the past week or so, I’ve frequently sought comfort by looking at my iPhone to see what the current temperature is in Yakutsk.

Why Yakutsk? Well, let me take you back…

One of my favorite geography classes in college was Geography of the Soviet Union, taught by Professor Chauncy Harris. I took it in Spring of 1971, my last quarter of college before graduating.  Professor Harris – Samuel N. Harper distinguished service professor of geography at the University of Chicago – was an amazing teacher.  He died in 2003 after teaching at U of C for 44 years. I swear I remember more from that class than any other class I took in college. He taught principles and big picture ideas, and provided the kind of deep understanding that comes from learning something from someone who really groks what he is teaching. He was also an amazingly kind and personable human being.  I feel so lucky to have taken his class.

One of the things he taught was a great understanding of the geographic challenges the Soviet Union faced, largely through its northern latitudinal location and its great continental expanse.  It makes for very cold winters in the eastern part.  I remember some of his stories of Yakutsk, a city in Siberia that got so cold in the winter machinery had to be left running all the time in order to not freeze. Some call it “the coldest city on earth.”

The winters in Chicago were astonishing enough for me. I remember walking outside in cold winds so icy and fierce they literally took the breath out of one’s lungs.  One particular night I walked home when it was -20 degrees because the buses couldn’t run.  So a place that was 30 degrees below a Chicago weather extreme every single day for months on end was more than I could imagine.  But that’s Yakutsk.  And more than 200,000 people live there!!

Oyuunsky Square in Yakutsk. Check out how bundled up the people are! Image courtesy wikipedia.

Check out these other photos of Yakutsk on flickr. And a website from Yakutsk translated into English (very charmingly).

And here’s a video taken in 2003 when it was -44 degrees (a heat wave?):

Right now in Yakutsk it is -56 degrees. It’s not been above -50 for days on end. Can you imagine?  Actually, the winter months are some of the best months in Yakutsk, from a practical standpoint.  That’s because one can safely and reliably reach Yakutsk when the Lena River is frozen solid.  There is no bridge across the Lena in this area, because one really can’t be built there. (Something else I learned from Prof. Harris is that because most rivers in Russia flow from south to north, and freeze in winter, the start to thaw in the south and progress north, which causes no end of problems because the meltwater and floating ice has nowhere to drain, because downstream it’s still frozen. A ginormous flooding mess results and bridges can’t survive! Apparently they are working on building a bridge now that’s scheduled to be finished by 2013. Good luck with that!)

In summer months the temperatures can rise into the 90s, making Yakutsk home to some of the greatest temperature fluctuations on the planet.

According to wikipedia, Yakutsk is home to the Institute of Cosmophysical Research, which runs the Yakutsk Extensive Air Shower installation (one of the largest cosmic-ray detector arrays in the world), and the Permafrost Research Institute developed with the aim of solving the serious and costly problems associated with construction of buildings on frozen soil. Good place for it! Please note that they recommend wearing warm clothes for a tour of the Permafrost Museum, which naturally is underground!

I found a very cool article about Yakutsk published earlier this year in The Independent from the viewpoint of an outsider visiting and marveling at the place!  And of course you can buy stuff from Yakutsk on the interwebs!

I’m so happy to be able to share my deep fascination with Yakutsk with you! It’s encouraging me to try to go deeper.  I just found an email address on the Yakutsk website, so I’m going to write them and see if I can get some dialogue going.  I’ll keep you posted here!

Snowpocalypse… Whatever name it will be known by, and given the fact that it just started snowing again, I thought I would show you the view from inner SE PDX, which will explain why we are homebound.

What the first snow looked like at our house, about 2.5 inches by noon, Dec. 14.

Then it got really really cold.  The plants have been suffering mightily.

The Bear’s Breeches might just be toast.

And I swear I can see this Michaelea shiver!

Zonal denial may be catching up with me.  This may be the year the banana belt does not come back to life.

Will the banana forest spring back to life? Or will ’09 be the year of Banana Stumptown?

The backyard pond is freezing over, and despite running it 24-hours-a-day, the waterfall is turning to ice.

Hope the koi are okay!

 Here’s why we can’t get out of the house safely.The ramp is a sheet of snow and ice.

And the street is a sheet of snow and ice.

The neighborhood animal population is hurting too.

The squirrels are starting to watch us eat.

And eating from the bird feeder if necessary.

But all is toasty and snug in the greenhouse.

We can’t wait to see the electric bill for this one!

The best part about this weather event is the fact that our electric power is still up and running.  That’s what makes a snow/ice storm unbearable: losing electricity.  But so far so good!  Knock wood please.

And even when it’s frightfully cold and the forecast is for more and worse, there are always little signs of hope.  Like this:

Big wheel keep on turning, flower keep on blooming.

So I signed on to participate in the Great Portland Interview Experiment, the very cool brainchild of Portland network engineer Chris O’Rourke.  Here’s how it works: you sign up for it, you get interviewed by the person who signed up right before you and then you interview the person who signs up right after you. So it’s very random.  More than likely you interview someone you don’t know… well, you prolly follow them on twitter, but you may not know them in real life yet. RL, I mean.

So I got to interview Ramona White.  Didn’t know her, but now feel I do.  Here are my questions and her answers:

I see from your blog you write poetry.  How long have you been up to that?  Are you planning to respond to my interview questions poetically?

I’ve been writing poetry on and off since I was about eight-years-old. I’m also a sometime singer and songwriter and I made my debut last Februrary at Artichoke Music in Portland as part of a group called “Decent Folk”. I haven’t had time to perform or even practice since April but I have written a few more songs.  I’m using the blog to nudge myself to focus on poetry and to produce more poems. So far I’ve been able to post poems I’ve written some time ago but that won’t last long. @DrPFenderson and I are plotting #CampfireReads a storytelling/poetry meet-up that we hope will get more people composing and sharing.

I don’t plan to answer all of your questions poetically; I do plan to answer them honestly, probably preventing me from ever holding public office. 

How do you spend your days? Nights?

My parents moved into a “gracious retirement living” facility and I moved out of my apartment and into their house. It’s the house I grew up in and they had lived there for forty years. Never let anyone tell you there’s no God or that God lacks a sense of humor. Why else would a housework-impaired person who was barely functioning in a one bedroom apartment wind up caring for a three-bedroom house? The part of the day not spent doing homework or on Twitter is devoted to sorting out my stuff and sorting and rehousing or recycling or throwing out forty years accumulation of you-name-it.

My nights are spent in class, playing the Sims 2, helping my kid with her homework or trying to get her to talk to me. Occasionally I drive out and play pool with my dad. We’re both horrible players so we walk around the table for an hour or two and that’s at least good exercise.

What is your present state of mind?

Generally happy but also confused. I’m confused because I’m supposed to be graduating in June if not before and I still don’t know what kind of job I’m going to be looking for, where to look, or even what might be available in this economy. I’m generally happy because I have an awesome supportive family, lots of coffee, and I’ve met some very cool people online and had an opportunity to interact with them offline as well. When my daughter and I went to CyborgCamp she told me I was “radiating happiness”. Yeah.

Please tell us about your particular path to geekdom?

As a kid I watched “Star Trek” and I was very impressed with Mr. Scott. Not just the accent but he was obviously the go-to person when things really hit the fan. Unfortunately this was the Dark Ages- late 1970s- and the only computer I saw was the one in the counseling center. It was a dumb terminal that enabled you to figure out occupation was right for you. (Spending hours playing with this program should have been a clue to the counselors that you didn’t need the program.) At college, my roommate was on the custodial staff. I had arrived between terms and had nothing to do and when she got tired of me following her around she parked me in front of a computer and introduced me to “Adventure” and another game I don’t know the name of in which your weapon was a rat-tailed comb. Somehow I was convinced to enroll in a BASIC class and, since I was hanging out in the computer lab, I encountered Dungeons and Dragons. This led to the wasting of many hours over following years and the overconsumption of Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew and Cheetos. Time passed, I held a variety of jobs, I took the occupational assessment at the Employment Office and they said I should become a MicroComputer Support Specialist. I enrolled at Clark College in Winter of 2008 and here I am. I haven’t played D&D in years but I regularly beta-test interactive fiction games and look forward to IFComp every year when I get a lot of them to play.

And you are one of the geekmoms.  Tell us about your child.

She’s sixteen, beautiful and brilliant. She does her Advanced Algebra homework last because she likes it the best and that way it’s motivation. She’s had access to a computer and the Internet since she was about five so it’s old hat; She played with Photoshop 5.5 when other kids were using paper and crayons. She’s aced all her technology classes but doesn’t consider herself a geek because she prefers a GUI and refuses to learn to program. She’s outspoken but rather shy and that means she gets easily embarrassed like the time it was pajama day at work and I didn’t change before the parent-teacher conference. (In my defence, I did remind her and she said, “Whatever. Just get there on time.”)

Where were you on this day 10 years ago and what were you doing?

I was in Clatskanie, Oregon in Columbia County. I was beginning the fundraising for the Reading is Fundamental program I started at my daughter’s elementary school. I was also following the whole Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.

Where do you think you will be on this day 10 years from now and what will you be doing?

Ten years from now- unless I’ve been there already- I will be packing for a trip to Tokyo. Years ago I listened to Thomas Friedman’s book “The Lexus and the Olive Tree” and he described being in a hotel in Japan on New Year’s Eve, ordering some oranges and having trouble getting what he wanted. That’s a long way to go for oranges but that idea of being there on New Year’s Eve has stuck with me. My parents aren’t in the best of health and they’ll likely be gone by then. My daughter will be off having her own life. She’s invited along but if she doesn’t want to go it will be a fun place for a nearly sixty-year-old woman to start the new year. I imagine I’ll still be wearing sneakers then- I love Converse- so maybe I’ll be there on business having to do with either sneakers or some kind of technology. I don’t think I’ll be the Foreign Affairs correspondent for the New York Times but it’s possible.

What are your favorite books of all time?  Why?

One of my all-time favorite books is “The Closing of the American Mind” by Alan Bloom. The first half of the book discusses the sad state of the American education system. The second half traces the history of Western Philosophy. I learned so much from that book because Bloom would say “Bertrand Russell says thus and so” and I’d think “Well, who did Russell learn that from?” I’d have to go look it up. Maybe he learned it from Descartes and Descartes learned it from someone else and I had to keep looking things up and learning and it took quite a while but it was like an idea scavenger hunt so I was having fun and didn’t mind.

Now I have to cheat and say that my other favorite books were the Harry Potter series. It’s cheating because there were seven of them rather than one and because what made them my favorite wasn’t the writing. What made them special was the anticipation and the community. I remember being at the Barnes and Noble at Jantzen Beach the night “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” came out and there was a magician and a costume contest and babies with lightning bolts drawn on their foreheads and there’s just as much craziness online to this day. Because of the Harry Potter books I’ve met wonderful people like @pennygersh who helped me so much after my mom had her stroke. And my daughter and I could discuss the books when both of us were in pissy moods and wouldn’t talk about anything else.

Who is your Blazer boyfriend and why?

I’ve been told that a good Blazer boyfriend for me would be Rudy Fernandez because he’s 23, he’s a millionaire, he’s good at basketball and he’s smoking hot. Also he’s often the one who puts the Blazers over the one-hundred point mark and the crowd all gets chalupas. I love chalupas. 

If you’d made it my Mariners boyfriend that would have been an easy choice. I’m J.J’s girl all the way. He goes out and does a good job. He’s the closer so he has to work well under pressure but if things don’t go well he puts it behind him and starts over the next day. I’ve had relationships with people who even after they say they forgive you and it’s all over it still isn’t over so J.J. would be a refreshing change.

Do you think our best days are behind us or ahead of us? Discuss.

I think that for us living as adults the best days are still ahead of us. I think that for kids the best days are probably behind. When I was a kid it was fairly likely that you might be molested by some family member or friend of the family. A lot of kids were and, in fact, that happened to me. But it was extremely unlikely that some psychopath would snatch you up on your way to the park and molest you or kidnap you or who knows what other awful thing. We played outside at the park or in the yard and our mothers didn’t have to have GPS locators on us. We  clothespinned towels around our necks and pretended to be Batman or Batgirl or some invented superhero and got fresh air and occasionally fell down and sprained or broke something. Now kids don’t really have those options.

I think our best days as adults are still ahead because there is technology and knowledge allowing us to live longer and healthier lives. (They’re not talking me out of bacon though.) We also benefit because we can connect with other people via the Internet and find jobs or share recipes or patterns or experiences or just have someone say “There there. Have a sip of coffee. Breathe in and out.” Those things are especially important for older people who aren’t communicating with their family for one reason or another or they can connect with someone who’s actually interested in their stories and experiences.

Please tell us about dating the guys who are probably dying.

I lived in my apartment building for four years. For the middle two of those years, a man lived across the hall from me. The first year we’d see each other on the way to the garbage chute or in the stairwell and say “Hi” or something else noncommittal. It turned out he was a Mets fan and neither the Mets nor the Mariners were having a very good season so we’d chat about that. Then a friend of mine sent me a belated Christmas present of a lot of chocolate and coffee and I thought, “Oh, who am I going to share all this with?” I remembered that my neighbor drank coffee and I figured everyone likes chocolate so I knocked on his door. He was very happy to see the chocolate and coffee and by extension me. A few days later he returned my coffee mug and we talked about Valentine’s Day coming up and I said I was going to an open mic poetry reading and try out some of my stuff. He asked if I wanted to have dinner before or after and then laughed and said “But, of course, you’ll be with your date” and I said that I didn’t date because no one ever asked and I’d had one disastrous date involving a jack-in-the-box and he asked me to brunch for the following Sunday. We had a great time and he was a good sport even when he came back from the bathroom and caught me taking notes to be used in later e-mails. He kissed me “Good-bye” at my door and the following Friday night invited me over to watch “Monk” and everything went fine until Valentine’s Day. That morning I was leaving for work and I was locking my front door and he said, “Good morning” and I turned around and he was getting his newspaper and he wasn’t wearing a shirt. This next part sounds very silly because God help us all I was 45 but he met me in the middle of the hallway and we kissed and I turned pink all the way to the tips of my ears. I giggled all the way to work and when I got there I told the other ladies who were very similar to me in age and they all giggled too. There we were ho-hoing and tee-heeing about my having seen this guy without a shirt and having kissed him. I ended up having to work overtime that day and we never made it to the poetry reading but he fixed me a nice pasta dinner with sauce from scratch and we watched “The Departed” and it was very nice. After the movie ended and we were just sitting on the couch he said something like, “Remember how I told you before about my heart attack?” and I said, “Yeah.” And he said, “Well, my heart still isn’t very strong” and I said, “Yeah.” And he said, “Until it hits” I forget what the exact number was now “percent we can’t have sex.” And I said, “That’s fine. Geez, this isn’t even our third date. I can wait. It’ll give us time to save up money for a room at the Hilton so we don’t scandalize the neighbors.” The thing is though the relationship pretty much went downhill from there. Before that he’d call and leave me messages and I loved to hear him talk because he was from New Jersey and it was like being in an old movie but after that I never really saw him in the halls and he only called me when he was out walking to strengthen his heart. He really pulled away from me and it was totally his choice. I was absolutely willing to wait. Wait to have sex with a guy who could cook like that and kiss like that? Are you kidding me? His having had a heart attack didn’t scare me that much because he was 51 and like I said I was 45 and I figure by the time you get to be our age body parts start falling apart- everybody’s got some kind of baggage and it’s all about how you carry it. He thought I was funny and I thought he was funny and we could talk for hours or just sit and be in the same place and he seemed like a great guy. I guess he was too busy trying to keep from dying to have time to live.

What do people need to know about you to truly grok you? 

I understand that I need money in order to pay bills and buy food and keep myself in Flash drives and Converse sneakers but I don’t entirely get how the money thing works. I have a vague idea how much is in my bank account because I check online but I never even attempt to balance my checkbook. And if I didn’t have to have money for those things I listed earlier I would just do whatever people needed or wanted to be done and not charge them for it. I have spent hours on the phone helping my parents’ friends’ fix their computers or classmates do their homework. I have spent many many hours knitting hats and scarves for homeless people or cancer survivors or friends while I was watching Mariners games on TV or listened on the radio. My ex-husband wisely said that if I ever won the lottery I’d have no money left after a year but there wouldn’t be a kid in the Portland Metro area without braces, fillings, sturdy shoes, and a warm coat. Oh and lots of books.  It’s not a self-esteem issue. It’s not like I feel I have to do these things so people will like me or that I feel what I do has no value. It’s more like if I have these skills then I must have them to make the world a better place and who am I to let money get in the way of that. 

Please confess your guilty pleasures.

I love to watch “Perry Mason”. I’ve loved it ever since I was a kid. It’s on at noon on channel 12 just as it’s been for probably forty years. I’m sure I’ve seen all the shows by now and I usually know who did it but it’s kind of comforting to sit down and spend an hour with these people I grew up with.

And I majorly heart Alan Rickman. I don’t know why. It isn’t just his voice although I did sit through all of “Return of the Native” just because he read it. (After hearing him read one of the love scenes I arrived at work blushing to the ears again and had a rough time convincing people I’d just been listening to an audio-book.)  It can’t be his acting because I’ve seen so many movies in which he was just bad like “Rasputin” and “Truly Madly Deeply” where he was a ghost and had that cheesy moustache. I tell myself he’s too old for me and he’s happily living in England with an avowed Socialist and then I’ll find myself watching “An Awfully Big Adventure” or as my friends call it “The Many Moods of Alan Rickman” and none of that matters.

What question do you wish you had been asked?  And what is the answer? 

What would the perfect afternoon/evening look like? The perfect afternoon/evening would involve caffeinated drinks, Crazy Eights and Egyptian Rat Screw, wireless Internet, Buffalo wings, ideas zipping through the air, whiteboards, an assortment of music from The Ramones, Vanilla Ice, Kraftwerk, whatever other 70′s and 80′s bands we could think of and a handful of really great people to share it with.

To be honest, World’s Smallest Book Group didn’t actually discuss the book we read all that much at our December meeting. Why talk about travel writing when most of our members had been travelling: Reba to Switzerland: Darcy to Switzerland, London, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, etc.: Joyce to Argentina.  Lots of wonderful travel talk.  Didn’t leave much time for the book.

Joyce liked it best because she had actually been to many of the places along the Silk Road described in the book. (She’s easily our most exotic traveller and all my distant travels have been with her!) The book is well written and has fascinating information, especially since he takes the “hard seat” approach to travel in Asia. Interesting juxapositions of yesterday and today in his encounters. But somehow it didn’t really grab us. 

Perhaps there’s been too much going on in the world of late for us to let ourselves be swept away this time. 

One personal note:  this is the first book group book I’ve read on my Kindle. Boy did I miss easy access to a good map. Found myself going to Google Earth to follow along.  Plea to Kindle designers/makers: please incorporate awesome map technology asap so I don’t have to read it at a computer.  Thanks.

I really really heart my friends! They are really putting out for Free Geek!

Thank you so much Reba Sundberg, Charles Rooks, and Beth Kanter. (That I know about!)

That wonderful Amy Sample Ward has made Free Geek her birthday cause! She’s turning 26 on Dec. 27th and is asking folks to donate $ 26 to Free Geek. Look at her site to see how much she’s raised so far!

And famous artist and author (of book and blog) Alicia Paulson is donating proceeds from the sale of one of her beloved dolls to Free Geek.  Fiona Flannery  is an Irish dancer (and also plays the bodhran semi-professionally), frequently attending ceilis around county Antrim. She’s single, but fine with that.

 This eBay auction is a quick one, better act fast if you want to get in on the action, ends at 6:49 a.m. on Dec. 18.

Much thanks also to Rick Turoczy of Silicon Florist for including in his blog and to Oregon Startup Blogs for reposting.  

Thanks to Howard Rheingold, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Beth Kanter, Jean Russell, Amy Sample Ward, Phoebe Owens, Grant Kruger, Doug C0leman, Chris O’Rourke, Sandra Golden, Don Park, Tom Mack,   Greg Lund-Chaix for retweeting (that I know of…)

You all know how much I love Free Geek.  I’ve seen quite a lot of nonprofits, and I have to say it’s the most amazing one I’ve ever encountered.  Why?  Well, here are a few of the reasons…

• Free Geek is one of the few organizations in the U.S. that can accurately say it recycles materials it can’t reuse in an environmentally and socially responsible way. None of its materials end up poisoning children on other continents. (Did you see the recent 60 Minutes coverage of this shameful subject?) Do you know where the ewaste you produce ends up? Watch what happens when you ask for documentation about its disposition (and watch the 60 Minutes piece!).  Free Geek has applied for BAN certification and we expect it to come shortly.


• Free Geek is where the poorest people in the Portland area earn free computers and learn how to use them, gaining valuable job skills that can change their lives.


• Free Geek is where you find immigrants and refugees building their own computers and taking classes in free software, helping them find a way in their new land.


• Free Geek is a place where brilliant young geeks get recognized and encouraged.  I just met a 13-year-old boy there who already can program as well as any of the veterans in this magnet for brilliant geeks.  Free Geek is nurturing his talent in a way that wouldn’t happen otherwise.


• Free Geek is where a man in his mid-80s finds a community that appreciates his talents and where he stays in touch with people.  He’s built more than 500 computers to help the needy get nerdy.  A very smart 5-year-old is now building computers there with his mom!


• Free Geek truly means what it pays.  Staff members who are paid all get the same hourly rate. Yes, from the person answering the phone to the person dealing with big picture policy.


• It’s the most grassroots and hands-on organization I’ve ever seen, helping the neediest people in our community.


• I’ve never met a kinder or more giving group of people in my life.


• It serves the most diverse group of people of any organization I’ve ever seen, in nearly every measurement: age, gender, background, abilities, disabilities, ethnic & racial, world views, etc. etc.

And of course last but not least there’s the meaning it has in my son Blaine’s life. As many of you know, Blaine was born with spina bifida and is paralyzed and lacks sensation below his armpits.  This past summer, Blaine received an award for “Volunteer Extraordinaire” at Free Geek in recognition that for the past five years, every day Free Geek is open and he is not really really sick, Blaine has been getting himself up and ready to go in and help that amazing nonprofit organization.  I get to see what it takes for Blaine to make his important contribution. What can I say?  He’s my hero.

I’ve always know what Free Geek does for Blaine, but I was stunned to hear what he means to Free Geek.  Recently some of his co-workers there shared some thoughts about what Blaine provides Free Geek.  When I heard these things, my heart soared like a hawk.  I wish every mother had the opportunity to hear people appreciate their son or daughter like this:

• “Recently my niece signed up to volunteer at Free Geek, opting to work her way through the Computer Build program to earn a free computer.  My advice to her was, ‘Prepare to work independently, overcome great frustration, and when in doubt, stay close to Blaine.’”


• “Blaine’s tutelage was instrumental in my making it through the Build program at Free Geek (launching me into other areas of contribution), and I know he has provided similar assistance to hundreds, if not thousands of other volunteers there.”


• “Blaine is an amazingly knowledgable and patient instructor and coordinator of other volunteers. Despite his limited mobility, Blaine is able to help direct and answer questions of our volunteers, which in turn keep our organization running.”


• “Blaine is among the most valued members of the Free Geek community and of its volunteer labor force.”  


• “Blaine helps teach others good work skills and reinforces the importance of showing up on time and doing your job with all you have, and he is always willing to learn more from others to share with his students.”


• “I have been very impressed with Blaine’s patient and consistently upbeat contributions as a volunteer with the Free Geek build program.  He was extremely supportive and helpful to a young man from a Haitian refugee family who learned a lot from a series of afternoons with Blaine: about computers, people, tolerance and empathy from his supportive manner and patient instruction.”


• “He is a beloved member of our community. It’s impossible to work with Blaine without appreciating his cheer and warmth. I’ve never seen him get irritated, even in the most difficult times; His equanimity helps us all to maintain our own sanity. He’s an inspiring presence.”

What You Can Do to Support Free Geek

Unfortunately, because the bottom has fallen out of the commodities market, greatly affecting the value of recycled materials, Free Geek is hurting right now. And like many social service agencies, demand is higher than ever as people lose their jobs and experience great financial hardship. 

So I’m pleading for your help. Here are several things you can do: Take your no-longer-needed computer and other electronic items to Free Geek at 1731 SE 10th Ave. in Portland, just a couple blocks south of Hawthorne. Make a charitable donation to this wonderful organization (tax deductible of course!).  You can give through PayPal directly on the Free Geek site or through the Willamette Week Give Guide (and get some schwag for your trouble!).  Or of course you can mail or deliver a check to Free Geek, 1731 SE 10th Ave., Portland OR  97214.  (Tell them Marie sent you.)

As many of you know, I’ve been so inspired by this organization and what it means that I made (with my beloved Rev Phil) a movie showing how wonderful it is.  

You can see on YouTube at:

The Short Version about 5 minutes long (viewed more than 50,000 times so far!):

The Complete Movie about 12 minutes long: