Currently we are living with Covid—19 government and health authority face mask recommendations and mandates. Our government, who is here to help us, has refused to tell us about a serious and devastating downside risk to wearing face masks for fear of generating panic in the streets. This risk may cause irreparable harm to our […]
Lakewood
Westside Story – Vote August 4, 2020
August 4, 2020, is our Washington State political primary. Every vote counts, especially yours. Choosing the leader of our Pierce County Sheriff’s Department is an important vote to get right because the sheriff’s department can impact on each of us as Pierce County citizens in a number of ways. We have four candidates to choose […]
Westside Story – Accidental Article
August 1, 2020, I sent what I consider a heartfelt email to Lakewood’s Deputy Mayor Jason Whalen with a copy to my wife. My wife responded with, “Good note.” A bit later in the morning, the idea for incorporating my note in a Westside Story came to me. Sharing my thinking and experience related to […]
Across the Fence: German Girl in America
Submitted by Susanne Bacon. I can’t remember when I had my first encounter with the website of German Girl in America on Facebook. It might have been as early as 2014. Ever since I have been checking out the blog on the internet, and over the years, its creator, Karen Lodder Carlson, and I have […]
Letter: When you no longer have to look where you’re going
What happened this beautiful morning, barely a ripple on the water, will probably never happen again. But what a morning, what a memory. With the oldest – and the smallest of our children – as cox, the rest of us remarked later how odd it seemed to not have to look over our shoulder. That […]
Letter: A portrait of a leader
We had gathered for our annual picnic in the park mostly to be together but also to traditionally share – in this month to remember our parent’s birthdays – our usual family lunchtime fare when as kids we were growing up: baloney sandwiches. My brother, whose birthday is this week, chewed a simple self-portrait into […]
Across the Fence: Libraries
One of my favorite pastimes – and who wouldn’t have guessed – is reading. Ever since I was able to hold books, I was fascinated by their haptic and their content, starting from my first children’s books to the art books that my parents let me leaf through when I was pre-reading age. Today, I […]
Letter: Planted together
We weren’t sure what it was. Had to look it up. Like, way up. Turns out – eventually it’ll turn out – it’s apparently a sunflower. Just a bunch of random seeds for $1.00 all planted together in the garden space and suddenly, reaching for space, it seems like overnight, there it was. Jack and […]
Letter: Showers of blessing
The massive wooden door of the castle opened slowly as if on its own accord. The girls of the community, some from fairly impoverished dwellings – certainly in contrast to where they now stood – starred mouth agape in awe as the ‘La vie du chateau’ door responded to their shy, tentative rap of the […]