Volume I, Number X: 1997
Wee Jack! New Nephew Arrives
HAMIOTA. MB - "I have been waiting for him for 69 years," explained Elaine's mom as she excitedly showed pictures of "Wee Jack" to a neighbor. For his part, Elaine's dad took Jack David James Routledge to show and tell at the local elementary school where Grandpa Jim works. Indeed, the little guy is rich in Routledge heritage. Named for both Jim and great grandfather Jack, he was born on the anniversary of his paternal grandmother's birthday - September 25. Back-in Brandon, where Jack was born and lives with his parents Ron and Pattie Routledge, they are planning to distribute digital photos of Jack via e-mail - a move heartily endorsed by his west coast relatives!
Passages
Elaine had long hoped to complete the James Anderson Sr. story in time to share it with her great aunt Georgina Robertson. She left a copy with Georgina during a recent visit with her in Brandon. We understand that Georgina’s daughter read the essay to her days later -- and just days before Georgina’s death on November 8, 1997.
Earlier this year, Paul lost his last surviving grand parent. His maternal grandmother, Katherine Toews died on May 7, 1997, after a long illness. Her family and friends gathered in Steinbach, MB, to remember her in her prime -- prior to being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, she lived life large with a sharp wit and social conscience. In her many ways, she was a role model -- except for the part about getting deported from the United States.
In-house certified Genealogist documents Family Matters
SEATTLE, WA - Elaine wrote a social history of James Anderson Sr.'s emigration from Scotland as the final project in a Certificate Program in Genealogy and Family History at the University of Washington. Anderson was Elaine's great, great grandfather. The nine-month program, complete with a 120-mile weekly commute, consumed much of the last year for Elaine, but the results have been rewarding. She has been the invited guest of the Olympia Genealogy Society and the South Puget Sound Museums for presentations on capturing a family's oral history. With the return of the rainy season to the south sound (delayed as it was by EI Nino), Elaine has retreated to her genealogy den to extend her social history to cover Anderson's arrival in Canada and progression through Ontario before homesteading in Manitoba.
Home to Manitoba
WINNIPEG. MB -- Paul returned home briefly for his grandmother's funeral in May and both of us made a scheduled (if somewhat stealth) visit back to Manitoba in October. Our visit coincided with Jack's arrival and an early celebration of Paul's parents' 40th. Wedding anniversary. Given that, we made a purposeful decision to make our immediate families the first priority this time through. We did not see everyone we would have liked to but, as the familiar refrain of our hometown Blue Bombers goes, "maybe next year." Those with a particularly keen eye may have spotted Elaine sneaking away for research trips to the Manitoba Archives. She claims she needed to check ship and land holding records for the name of, you guessed it, James Anderson Sr. It's a genealogy thing. She can't help herself.
Harborview: the hospital just up the 1-5 from here
SEATTLE. WA - Elaine now has 5 years service in the Coronary Care Unit at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Since moving to Olympia, she has been a commuter nurse. having figured out a travel plan in which she only drives a third of the 60 mile commute. The other 40 miles are spent snoozing on an express bus between Tacoma and Seattle. The routine repeats itself 2 or 3 times a week. The unit is characterized by constant patient turnover, almost as frequent staffing changes and relentless technological and medical advances. To hear Elaine tell it, she wouldn't work anywhere else.
A Digital State of Mind
OLYMPIA. WA - Paul is still with the technology agency of Washington State government- DIS. As part of strategic planning and policy division, he gets to think about cool stuff -- video streaming, encryption, digital signatures, electronic commerce, GIS --and work on the continued efforts to improve service to the citizen through the World Wide Web and advanced networks for education, health care and law enforcement. Its no panacea but Washington was named the Digital State by the Progress and Freedom Foundation because of its exemplary use of technology in the public sector.
The Truth is Out There (and other observations)
SEATTLE -- Hang around Seattle long enough and you end up working on some interesting projects. Paul was project lead on usability tests for the forthcoming interactive episode of The X-Files on CD-ROM, produced jointly by FOX Interactive and HyperBole Studios. Can't say much more -- except to encourage you to make room for it in your CD-ROM drive by mid-1998.
The countdown to 2000 continues on a Web site with the ambitious title everything2000.com. The brainchild of Paul's friend John Locher, it is quickly coming into its own as a vehicle for all manner of Year 2000 information and millennium madness. Regular readers of the Taylorgram may recognize a turn of phrase or two in the pages of the e2000 Web site.
Truth be told, the folks here at Taylorgram have a number of ideas about original content on the Web but, alas, there hasn't been enough time this year to get it together for this dispatch. As is common signage for unfinished retail outlets and Web sites -- Watch this space!
Role Model: Tim "the Toolman" Taylor
OLYMPIA. WA - Given that the embarrassing bits were never captured on video, we can say with certainty that we thoroughly enjoyed our first year of home ownership and working in the yard.
There was the occasional misstep, and more than a little grunting, but we made out all right with a few home improvement and landscaping projects. We built a new staircase to get down the bank in the back yard and re-built a couple of other dilapidated structures. We also took truck loads of ivy, vines and other stuff from our formerly overgrown yard. There's a lifetime of work yet to be done but we've made our mark.
Perhaps the finest moment of the summer came with the first bite of the first vegetable from our first garden. Perfect.
It was also really nice to share our place with visitors this year, including extended visits from Elaine's parents and Paul's niece, Naomi. A number of our friend's from Paul's broadcasting days included us in their plans -- John Pater from Edmonton, Neil Colligan and Sue Ekdahl from Winnipeg, and Collin Friesen from Los Angeles. We also had a pleasant surprise when Ronn and Kris Howe -- old friends from Winnipeg, now living in California - swung through town.
Bureaucat Update
OLYMPIA, WA -- Perhaps you have seen the plaque that reads, "If you want the best seat in the house, move the cat." That is true of both cats who have explored every vantage point for watching birds and taking naps. In between naps, both cats managed to get in just a wee bit of trouble.
Mistoffelees does not seem to have the lungs to be a long hair cat. He proved that when he had an asthma attack this fall during which he coughed and choked himself purple. Elaine rushed him to the vet where he spent a number of hours in emergency. (Paul didn't know that there was an emergency room for cats --imagine his surprise when he saw Mistoffelees in an oxygen tent later that night). He is now back to normal (a term used advisedly) and is as healthy and hungry as a horse, thanks in large measure to his new regime of monthly steroid shots.
Not to be out done, Rumpelteazer thought her destiny was as a "big game hunter" so she took off for the great outdoors. It was her first time outside. The longer she was gone the more it seemed that she had become lunch for one of the dogs, possums or raccoons in the neighborhood. She picked the eve of our 9th anniversary for her adventure and she did it on Paul's watch. She did return four hours later, a little colder and a little wiser, on the 167th verse of Fred Penner's classic, "The Cat Came Back."
That’s it for this year from Olympia
South of Seattle, north of Portland
And nowhere near normal.
HAMIOTA. MB - "I have been waiting for him for 69 years," explained Elaine's mom as she excitedly showed pictures of "Wee Jack" to a neighbor. For his part, Elaine's dad took Jack David James Routledge to show and tell at the local elementary school where Grandpa Jim works. Indeed, the little guy is rich in Routledge heritage. Named for both Jim and great grandfather Jack, he was born on the anniversary of his paternal grandmother's birthday - September 25. Back-in Brandon, where Jack was born and lives with his parents Ron and Pattie Routledge, they are planning to distribute digital photos of Jack via e-mail - a move heartily endorsed by his west coast relatives!
Passages
Elaine had long hoped to complete the James Anderson Sr. story in time to share it with her great aunt Georgina Robertson. She left a copy with Georgina during a recent visit with her in Brandon. We understand that Georgina’s daughter read the essay to her days later -- and just days before Georgina’s death on November 8, 1997.
Earlier this year, Paul lost his last surviving grand parent. His maternal grandmother, Katherine Toews died on May 7, 1997, after a long illness. Her family and friends gathered in Steinbach, MB, to remember her in her prime -- prior to being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, she lived life large with a sharp wit and social conscience. In her many ways, she was a role model -- except for the part about getting deported from the United States.
In-house certified Genealogist documents Family Matters
SEATTLE, WA - Elaine wrote a social history of James Anderson Sr.'s emigration from Scotland as the final project in a Certificate Program in Genealogy and Family History at the University of Washington. Anderson was Elaine's great, great grandfather. The nine-month program, complete with a 120-mile weekly commute, consumed much of the last year for Elaine, but the results have been rewarding. She has been the invited guest of the Olympia Genealogy Society and the South Puget Sound Museums for presentations on capturing a family's oral history. With the return of the rainy season to the south sound (delayed as it was by EI Nino), Elaine has retreated to her genealogy den to extend her social history to cover Anderson's arrival in Canada and progression through Ontario before homesteading in Manitoba.
Home to Manitoba
WINNIPEG. MB -- Paul returned home briefly for his grandmother's funeral in May and both of us made a scheduled (if somewhat stealth) visit back to Manitoba in October. Our visit coincided with Jack's arrival and an early celebration of Paul's parents' 40th. Wedding anniversary. Given that, we made a purposeful decision to make our immediate families the first priority this time through. We did not see everyone we would have liked to but, as the familiar refrain of our hometown Blue Bombers goes, "maybe next year." Those with a particularly keen eye may have spotted Elaine sneaking away for research trips to the Manitoba Archives. She claims she needed to check ship and land holding records for the name of, you guessed it, James Anderson Sr. It's a genealogy thing. She can't help herself.
Harborview: the hospital just up the 1-5 from here
SEATTLE. WA - Elaine now has 5 years service in the Coronary Care Unit at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Since moving to Olympia, she has been a commuter nurse. having figured out a travel plan in which she only drives a third of the 60 mile commute. The other 40 miles are spent snoozing on an express bus between Tacoma and Seattle. The routine repeats itself 2 or 3 times a week. The unit is characterized by constant patient turnover, almost as frequent staffing changes and relentless technological and medical advances. To hear Elaine tell it, she wouldn't work anywhere else.
A Digital State of Mind
OLYMPIA. WA - Paul is still with the technology agency of Washington State government- DIS. As part of strategic planning and policy division, he gets to think about cool stuff -- video streaming, encryption, digital signatures, electronic commerce, GIS --and work on the continued efforts to improve service to the citizen through the World Wide Web and advanced networks for education, health care and law enforcement. Its no panacea but Washington was named the Digital State by the Progress and Freedom Foundation because of its exemplary use of technology in the public sector.
The Truth is Out There (and other observations)
SEATTLE -- Hang around Seattle long enough and you end up working on some interesting projects. Paul was project lead on usability tests for the forthcoming interactive episode of The X-Files on CD-ROM, produced jointly by FOX Interactive and HyperBole Studios. Can't say much more -- except to encourage you to make room for it in your CD-ROM drive by mid-1998.
The countdown to 2000 continues on a Web site with the ambitious title everything2000.com. The brainchild of Paul's friend John Locher, it is quickly coming into its own as a vehicle for all manner of Year 2000 information and millennium madness. Regular readers of the Taylorgram may recognize a turn of phrase or two in the pages of the e2000 Web site.
Truth be told, the folks here at Taylorgram have a number of ideas about original content on the Web but, alas, there hasn't been enough time this year to get it together for this dispatch. As is common signage for unfinished retail outlets and Web sites -- Watch this space!
Role Model: Tim "the Toolman" Taylor
OLYMPIA. WA - Given that the embarrassing bits were never captured on video, we can say with certainty that we thoroughly enjoyed our first year of home ownership and working in the yard.
There was the occasional misstep, and more than a little grunting, but we made out all right with a few home improvement and landscaping projects. We built a new staircase to get down the bank in the back yard and re-built a couple of other dilapidated structures. We also took truck loads of ivy, vines and other stuff from our formerly overgrown yard. There's a lifetime of work yet to be done but we've made our mark.
Perhaps the finest moment of the summer came with the first bite of the first vegetable from our first garden. Perfect.
It was also really nice to share our place with visitors this year, including extended visits from Elaine's parents and Paul's niece, Naomi. A number of our friend's from Paul's broadcasting days included us in their plans -- John Pater from Edmonton, Neil Colligan and Sue Ekdahl from Winnipeg, and Collin Friesen from Los Angeles. We also had a pleasant surprise when Ronn and Kris Howe -- old friends from Winnipeg, now living in California - swung through town.
Bureaucat Update
OLYMPIA, WA -- Perhaps you have seen the plaque that reads, "If you want the best seat in the house, move the cat." That is true of both cats who have explored every vantage point for watching birds and taking naps. In between naps, both cats managed to get in just a wee bit of trouble.
Mistoffelees does not seem to have the lungs to be a long hair cat. He proved that when he had an asthma attack this fall during which he coughed and choked himself purple. Elaine rushed him to the vet where he spent a number of hours in emergency. (Paul didn't know that there was an emergency room for cats --imagine his surprise when he saw Mistoffelees in an oxygen tent later that night). He is now back to normal (a term used advisedly) and is as healthy and hungry as a horse, thanks in large measure to his new regime of monthly steroid shots.
Not to be out done, Rumpelteazer thought her destiny was as a "big game hunter" so she took off for the great outdoors. It was her first time outside. The longer she was gone the more it seemed that she had become lunch for one of the dogs, possums or raccoons in the neighborhood. She picked the eve of our 9th anniversary for her adventure and she did it on Paul's watch. She did return four hours later, a little colder and a little wiser, on the 167th verse of Fred Penner's classic, "The Cat Came Back."
That’s it for this year from Olympia
South of Seattle, north of Portland
And nowhere near normal.