Her eyesight shut down as she was rounding the curve, returning – thankfully – nearly as quickly as it had gone and just in time to avoid the bridge abutment. The ophthalmologist told her she needed glasses. The optometrist – who would have fitted her with corrective lenses except for what he saw – said she needed surgery. He was right. A Ping-Pong-ball-sized tumor had impinged upon her optic nerve and one of the best neurologists in the country performed eight-hour surgery just days later.
To Ponder
Letter: Feds, Not Fathers, On How to Roast Marshmallows
Reminiscing about my dad on this National Marshmallow Toasting Day, August 30.
If there was one thing my dad and I looked forward to at the end of a long day traipsing through the forest, clambering laboriously back and forth and up and down switchbacks and bushwhacking our way over and under fallen trees through dense underbrush and other infernal objects that impeded our access to yet another deep dark pool to catch illusive brook trout, it wasn’t toasted marshmallows.
Letter: Longing for Better Days?
Whether past or future given the present is most depressing? So did Nelson Mandela, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Cicely Saunders, Aung San Suu Kyi, Edith Cavell and Raoul Wallenberg. All the stories of these individuals just listed are found in the book by Gordon Brown entitled “Courage – Portraits of […]
Westside Story – Pierce Transit Tests EZ Boy Recliners at Bus Stops
On December 25, 2012, we published a story titled Pierce Transit Fights Obesity.
Being community minded and wanting to be a part of the solution to American obesity, Pierce Transit experimented with installing exercise bikes at their bus stop test sights.
It turns out that most bus riders do not like exercise and are actually quite slothful.
Westside Story – Missing Person
Hey, I miss you guys. My last article appeared in the June 17, 2014, Suburban Times. We have not shared one single Westside Story since.
I know some of you have been searching the obituaries for my name. Others thought I might be doing some hard prison time. There was even talk of putting my photo on milk cartons. My most loyal reader thought putting my photo on beer cans might be more effective.
Letter: Garden Party
Standing near the green beans that tower over her and her little sister, McKenzie said she wants to be a teacher “to help other people learn.”
Her little sister Gracie meanwhile has more immediate interests – eating her cereal with blueberries from the garden.
“The Garden” is where the TREE “edible education” program involves a number of local children on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 11 A.M. to 2 P.M. behind the Community Center in Tillicum.
Letter: ‘No Way, No How, Not Ever’
The question at Lakewood United early Thursday morning, July 31, was whether the four candidates represented at the platform, and wanting to represent you in the State Legislature, would use negative campaigning – ‘hit pieces’ – reflecting poorly on their opponent rather than run a race based on their own merits.
Letter: What The Heck Is That?
My wife planted a garden of vegetables – we think – but the jungle has not only taken root, it has taken over: the space available; the adjoining lawn; the bulkhead that separates the garden from the lake; and it has begun to obscure the view.
Our son-in-law swears he can see it grow (and grow and grow) while he’s watering it.
Letter: Money Made from Smoke and Mirrors
Lakewood is compensated up to $24,875 for its smoke detectors, aka the Lakewood Police Department Community Service Officers (CSO) and one Code Enforcement Officer.
According to a Public Disclosure Requested (PDR) document – the September 27, 2012 contractual agreement between the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (PSCAA) and the City of Lakewood – the City is reimbursed nearly $25,000 for the five members of Lakewood’s Burn Ban Patrol to observe, photograph, document and report those caught violating the air with smoke from chimneys, outdoor fires and even BBQ’s during burn bans.