I do woodworking. One of the things I have been thinking about is the life-cycle of our waste products. For example, the sawdust. It is frequent that wood workers are now integrating plastic products into their production processes and shaping them with the same tools used for wood. I have done this with Plexiglas and the image below from Willamette Valley General Contractors shows the worker cutting a Trex decking like material and wood. Typically in these set ups there is no clean-up process to remove plastic shavings from the environment. The process is to set up an outdoor workstation and make sure everything looks neat when the job is done. We don't set up our wood shops to consider the differences between wood and plastics materials either. So what do we do with these plastic shavings and how are those impacting our environment? When we cut materials outside do we just expect the plastic to integrate with the environment?
Image of Willamette Valley General Contractors cutting deck material.
I have the immense joy of listening to Katja play many songs on the piano by ear. She picks them out perfectly after several tries using both black and white keys. I reflect on my own challenges in learning music as a child. When I tried to play on my Casio 210 sound tone bank I never played the black keys. It was as if they were in another class of toggles that needed special permission to depress. I never had the level of support that she does (from her mother and me), but as I help her I am refreshed in my memories of music from my childhood. For example, Why, WHY, is the Key of G-Major the key of one sharp? And why is that sharped note F#? It should be called the Key of F#. Or if it were to be organized by alphabetical order then a key with no sharps should be the Key of A (they partially got this right with A-minor) and then the key of one sharp should be the Key of B, two sharps would be the Key of C, and so forth. The terminological labels are out of control in music.
So I buy blueberries for my kids and they leave them til they mold. The neighbors’ bush goes ripe and they pick three quarts and eat nothing but blueberries all day.
I thought I was doing well till I got to the locker room today and talked to the high schoolers. I asked them how far they swim in a week. 50km—that is insane. Two practices a day at 7-8k a practice. I’m so far off from state level. Granted a young high schooler could be my kid.
Our original Christmas plans were interrupted this year and we developed new Christmas plans on the fly. We had selected these tricycles for our kids and I didn’t wanna put them inside and I wanted to build a enclosed area for bikes and such but that has not happened. Nevertheless, we waited and waited and waited with the gifts on our fireplace hearth. So we decided to have Christmas in July, probably should’ve had Christmas in June.
Hugh and BeckyBecky and KatjaThe Hughs
This was the first year we have gone to see 4th of July fireworks as a family. Hugh V likes them more than Katja, or at least he has in the past. Oddly I was excited to go. Other than being beyond tired the kids fared well. We went down to the Springfield bridge.
We went to see a fireworks show which was simple and for its type, well done. However, as I take my family to observe the fireworks in the present, it makes me wonder how many Americans really connect the 4th of July celebration to the events and social context of over 200 years ago. That is, do they associate the fireworks with the rocket's red glare, with the bloody cost and toll of human suffering? How many know and understand the story of our country's origin–all of it–not just the "freedom from England" part? I noticed people of different ethnic origins enjoying the fireworks. People speaking different languages. People with different social values and personal itineraries. It made me wonder do people understand this country–really, especially first and second generation nationals. Can people in Junior High really articulate the story of this country and what would they say. Or is this festival of fireworks understood through the lens of understanding fireworks and their social context as experienced in other parts of the world, e.g., East Asia and Latin America? It occurs to me that unless the oral history of our country's origin is repeated that the origin story can't be heard by the next generation regardless of their origin. How is that history supposed to be passed down by playing the 1812 overture–a masterpiece of music–but one that celebrates France's defeat at the hands of the Russians? And while the 4th of July seems to celebrate the freedom from the British Royal Crown, is it in some way the consummation of a continuing policy against the peoples who lived in, on, upon, and from the land? And if this is the land of the free, home of the brave what freedom was being granted in the same breath that freedom was being claimed. At some level I still believe in the Constitution, especially when I say we need some additional amendments and to clarify some points via an act of Congress. However, is the foundation of that Federal organization morally valid–either as secessionists or oppressors?
As I think back to my childhood, the history of our country's origin was not hid from me. It was specifically narrated through events, monuments, and military history. I wonder how should or can I narrate that for my kids. Frankly, the challenge is that if I don't valorize one side of the story, then it looses its novelty. And yet, sometimes I wonder if the colonialists should have rather marched on London to overthrow the king! How different would our world be today, India, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and even the Middle East?
In 2019 Katja and stayed in Eugene from September to January without Becky. I needed a list things to do with her that changed and still had had a set of options that didn’t require me to “discover” new things with the limited amount of time and energy I had. I made a list of index cards.
I have the immense joy of listening to Katja play many songs on the piano by ear. She picks them out perfectly after several tries using both black and white keys. I reflect on my own challenges in learning music as a child. When I tried to play on my 
