GimletBlog

Readers of GimletBlog may remember reading about the Things’ grandfather, their Bopa, and our “senior member of Team Gimlet” from our 2008 trip to Hawaii.  We are very sorry to report that Bopa has been in failing health since January 2011 (which partially explains why we haven’t been posting to the blog this year).  Over the past months several aneurysms were discovered on his lower aorta as well as blockages around the heart which made surgery to repair the aneurysms impossible.  Bopa made the decision to have surgery to correct the blockages, as he had been very active all his life and couldn’t stand to be bedridden, and if the blockages were corrected, then the aneurysms could be repaired as well.

We visited him Sunday night (May 22) before the surgery.  Thing One had been ordained to the office of priest in the Aaronic Priesthood at church that day, and told his Bopa about an upcoming Mount Si hike with the older scouts.  Bopa was fond of Mount Si, and shared his old maps and trail guides with Thing One.  He congratulated Thing One on his ordination, and was looking forward to seeing Thing One’s photos and hearing his trip report after the hike.  We left with the usual hugs and promised to come visit him in the hospital Monday afternoon, as we had been assured that this would be a quick, easy morning surgery and he would be ready for visitors after lunchtime.

What followed was neither quick nor easy, and he spent nearly 48 hours constantly in surgery.  Late Tuesday night the doctor telephoned to report that everything was repaired, his heart was strong, and we could see him the following morning.  As the doctor hung up the phone, Bopa went into cardiac arrest and passed away.  Later we learned that his condition was so fragile that even without the surgery he would not have lived much longer, and his passing would not have been as quick and peaceful.

While our unwavering faith in eternal life and the eternal bonds of family is a great strength and comfort at this time, we miss our father, father-in-law, and grandfather very, very much and wish that we did not have to be separated from one another for so long.  We treasure the time we had with him and are grateful that our last visit was full of love.

A few notes about the obituary:

• One of Bopa’s many projects was keeping track of how many days he had been alive.  He was especially fond of round numbers, and would calculate out the date on which he would reach a landmark number.  If anybody asked him how old he was, he enjoyed telling the answer in days.   As we drove home from the hospital in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Uncle B did the calculations and determined that Bopa was about half an hour short of reaching 32,000 days.  That was close enough for us.
• Bopa was a bicycle commuter long before it was fashionable.  Once the Burke-Gilman trail was built, he had a safe, quick way to ride to work.  And ride he did, every day (and in the dark if he worked late), regardless of the weather, even in the snow.  His bicycling days came to an end when he was well into his 70s, after a bad collision with another septuagenarian cyclist (they actually knew each other from riding the trail all those years).

Morgan Powell (Tony) McKay, Jr. passed away on Tuesday, May 24, 2011 in Seattle, Washington at the age of 32,000 days.

During WWII he served his country in the Army as the communications chief for the 379^th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion.  He worked as an engineering technician in the Psychology, Electrical Engineering, and Civil Engineering departments of the University of Washington for 39 years and was a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He loved being active in the outdoors and instilled that love in his children. His REI membership number was 4179 and he rode his bicycle to work on the then-new Burke-Gilman Trail every day until he was in his 70s.

Blessed with a legendary memory and a love of poetry, music, and science, his curiosity about the world around him and interest in new things kept him young at heart.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the charity of your choice.

The family would like to thank the doctors and nurses of Swedish Hospital – Cherry Hill’s Cardiac ICU for their care and kindness.

He is survived by his beloved wife of 44 years, his four children, and his seven grandchildren.  He is also survived by his younger brother.  He has been reunited with his parents, his two younger sisters and youngest brother.

A gentleman and a scholar, to the very end possessing quiet dignity with a twinkle in his eye.  Atque in perpetuum, pater, ave atque vale.

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One of our friends coordinates a visit to a local fire station to bring them holiday treats and thank them for their service in the community.  This year, Thing Two and Your Humble Narrator were able to go.

When we arrived the fire engine was away assisting with a traffic accident, but we didn’t have to wait long before they arrived, followed by the ladder truck!  The ladder truck is based at a different station but it was driving around the neighborhood today so its new crew could get used to operating the truck.

The firemen put on a wonderful presentation for the children.  We saw how the infrared camera works to help the firemen see in smoke filled buildings, and one fireman put on his gear, explaining to the children how each piece protected firefighters or helped them do their work.

Then, they were invited to climb aboard the fire engine and explore it.

Thing Two and the other children (and their parents) had a wonderful time!  It was a fun morning.

Team Gimlet has two firemen in their family history:  Great-Grandpa Gimlet was a fire chief in the town of Logan, Utah, and one of the Things’ great-great grandfathers was one of the early firefighters in Seattle’s history.  When we returned home, a call to Hå was in order, and she soon found and emailed some pictures.

Based on what we know about this great-great grandfather’s careers in both the fire and police departments, we believe these photos were taken around 1900, and judging from what can be seen of the building we think this is probably Fire Station #3.  Great-Great Grandpa is fourth from the left in the back row, the clean-shaven gentleman wearing a vest.  Love the dog!  It looks like the dog owned by these great-great grandparents; perhaps theirs was a puppy or grandpuppy from the firehouse dog?  We don’t know, but it’s fun to wonder.

Isn’t this a great action shot?  Look at those horses go!

And here are the great-great grandparents; Great-great grandpa is wearing his fireman uniform.

One of our neighborhood firemen suggested that we visit the Fire Department Museum downtown.  We would like to get a better look at the apparatus the horses are pulling (a hose carriage?), hopefully identify some of the other men in our group picture, and learn more about what it was like to be a fireman over one hundred years ago.  Sounds like a good field trip for the upcoming school holiday break!

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Today Thing One picked up his tuxedo for the high school chamber orchestra.

He also had his braces put on, so no more popcorn until his 17th birthday.

Which probably explains his serious expression.  He was a good sport about having his picture taken, sore mouth and all.

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Recently the Gimlet has been heard to complain that the blog hasn’t been updated in a while.  After all the summer’s excitement, it can be easy to forget documenting more ordinary life.  Time to sweep the cobwebs off the blog and catch up!

We missed the obligatory back-to-school photos and post, but rest assured, the Things are back at school.

Thing Two is attending the pre-K program at his preschool.    It’s a small class of about seven boys (yes, all boys in the class.  Strange but true.)  He is one of the older children this year and is growing more confident about participating now that he’s well acquainted with the teachers and the routine.  Astronomy and monkey trees are still his favorite discussion topics.  We brought out the telescope to show him Jupiter, but he hasn’t quite got the knack of looking through the telescope yet.  StarDate.org has a handy calendar of when the planets and other objects are at their most visible, so when Thing Two learns how to use the telescope, we can find something interesting for him to see.

Thing One is a high school sophomore.  After a rough freshman year, academically speaking, we made the decision to take a more active role in shaping his high school curriculum.  Not only was Thing One having a miserable time, and could not keep up with the relentless, overwhelming (and in our opinion, unreasonable and poorly chosen) workload (so much for “no child left behind”) but we also grew increasingly concerned over the school district’s approach to teaching core courses.   Mathematics has received a great deal of local media attention, and we were appalled to discover that European history has been removed from the required high school courses.  There is plenty to rant about after last year, but we’ll stop there (but are happy to continue ranting upon request, if anybody wants more details).

As a result, this year Thing One is enrolled in online high school courses offered by BYU Independent Study for math, language arts, social studies, and a penmanship course since cursive handwriting is also no longer part of our school district’s education.  He still attends his high school for science, advanced French, orchestra, and theater.  After only one month on this new curriculum the difference in Thing One and our family is notable.  His confidence is returning with straight As in both his online courses and at school, and the self-directed pace of the online courses has significantly reduced the stress levels at home.  So far, so good!  And all these courses notwithstanding, Thing One has been agitating to add one more class to his schedule:  driver’s ed.  We’ll keep you posted on how that goes.

Checking in on Thing Two’s garden, this is the second tomato harvest of equal size.  (Most of the tomatoes are about hand-size and are being stored in a very large mixing bowl usually used for bread dough.)  Our two Early Girl plants produced so many large tomatoes that they were too heavy for the supports to handle, and we had to add extra stakes to keep the plants upright.  The tomatoes had to be picked while green, as nothing is ripening on the vine this year, but they are ripening up nicely inside the house.  Hå gave us two cherry tomato plants which were nowhere near as prolific as the larger Early Girls, but produced a few small treats.

The tomatoes fared the best in our gloomy summer weather; Thing Two has some very nice cucumbers coming along as well, but none of the pumpkins or carrots produced anything, and the basil and chives were scanty (but useable for one dinner each).

With the return of autumn, the birds have been visiting our feeders more frequently, too.   I was hoping to get a picture of our local chestnut-backed chickadees, or the nuthatches who hang upside down on the feeder, but these little dark-eyed juncos were the only birds lingering on the perch long enough for pictures.

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We hope Thing Two’s garden will produce a harvest, in spite of the late start of summer.  Every day he enjoys watering and caring for his rapidly growing plants.

The spearmint and peppermint are doing great in their new home.

The basil and cucumbers make their debut.  So many different shades of green!

Meanwhile, Thing Two has also become interested in astronomy, and on the few cloudless summer nights we’ve had, he’s been allowed to stay up and look at the stars.  Thing One also liked planets and stars when he was about the same age, so the books, solar system mobile, and bed sheets we had bought about ten years ago are now being put to good use again by by a new little stargazer.

As with all of Thing Two’s interests, he is eager to talk to anybody and everybody about constellations and the planets.  Much of the information is accurate, and some is his own invention.  He especially likes to create his own constellations.

• All about Boötes, the herdsman or ploughman, and the first constellation Thing Two was able to see in the night sky.  He was so excited to finally see a real constellation that he danced all around the deck.

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We aren’t sure how the distance to Anacortes compares with Ushant and Scilly, but it was certainly close enough to spend last Saturday touring the Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain.

The brig Lady Washington is a a full-scale reproduction of the first American vessel to visit the west coast of North America in approximately 1788.  Now the Lady is Washington State’s tall ship ambassador and the state ship.  She has been seen in several films, perhaps most notably as the HMS Interceptor in Pirates of the Caribbean:  The Curse of the Black Pearl.   (And like so many celebrities, she is much smaller in real life than one expects from her grand presence on the big screen.)

The topsail ketch Hawaiian Chieftain is a replica of a typical European merchant trader of the turn of the nineteenth century. Her hull shape and rigging are similar to those of Spanish explorer’s ships used in the expeditions of the late 18th century along the Washington, Oregon, and California coasts.

First, we toured the Hawaiian Chieftain.

(more…)

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Thing Two is not known for being restaurant friendly yet, but we believe that can be accomplished with enough training under appropriate circumstances.  With that in mind, we opted for an early Friday dinner at Ivar’s Salmon House on Lake Union.  We arrived just ahead of the weekend crowds, so the restaurant grew progressively busier (a noisy restaurant is good for hiding children’s activity) and while we were allowed plenty of time to enjoy our meal, service was prompt (also necessary for the impatience-prone Thing Two).  The variety of water traffic just outside our window kept Thing Two entertained, and the menu met with his approval.  Success!

We had so much fun watching the boats during dinner that instead of returning home, we decided to drive to the Ballard Locks.

The tide was fairly high, and the locks opened and closed quickly to let all the waiting boats out of the lake and into Puget Sound.  We saw a great variety of boats, from sleek racing powerboats to beautiful wood cruisers.

The fish ladder was full of sockeye and a few of the immense chinook salmon.

A harbor seal pup under the bridge attracted a lot of attention.  Judging from the large and frequent splashes in the bay, we think the pup’s mother was not too far away, busily catching salmon.

Regardless of the weather, the Ballard Locks never disappoint:  always relaxing, always interesting.  And on a warm summer evening filled with salmon and boats, who could ask for more?

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While Thing One is away at the National Jamboree, Thing Two could use a little cheering up.  We were glad to be invited by some friends to spend a day at the zoo.

One of our friends’ favorite places at the zoo is the Willawong Station.  During the summer, one can purchase a seed stick for $1 to feed the birds.

We discovered that height is a definite advantage when trying to attract a bird, so perhaps we can convince Uncle Q to join us at the zoo when he visits next month.

The snow leopards and the tiger were sleeping (not surprising to those of us who own cats) but climbing on the snow leopard sculpture, and the other animal sculptures around the zoo, is fun.

Thing Two’s favorite animals were the Gila monsters and the Komodo dragons.

He was also fascinated to watch the snakes during their feeding time.  Sorry, no photos, but rest assured it was quite exciting!  In all our years visiting the zoo, we have never seen the snakes so lively.  However, Thing Two avoided the pond turtle next to the snake exhibits because, in his words, “The pond turtle is kind of creepy.”  Would the pond turtle have seemed less creepy to Thing Two if it had been swallowing mice?

A few exhibits are all these four year-olds can handle, so after visiting the penguins, it was time to take our very tired little friends home.

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