We planned to see the 3 of the 5 families that still live in Washington on this trip but it was not to be. Aidan, Ramona's daughter, picked up Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease and unknowingly passed it on to Dory's family. Since adults can carry the virus and show no symptoms and kids can carry it in their saliva long after they get well, and Trout and I never had it as kids, we decided it would be best if we were not exposed.
So we only got to see Katie and her kids this trip. Audrey, her youngest and the youngest of our 10 grandkids, turned 1 on August 31st. Katie held the party until we could get there on September 2nd after the racing. I didn't get any of the pictures at the party, but just imagine a small kid with chocolate all over her face and you get the picture. We went out to breakfast the next morning and I got lots of shots worth posting.
This is Jimmy and Trout in the back patio area of the restaurant. This is in Ellensburg, by the way.
Here's a good 3-generations picture with Audrey, Katie and Trout.
Here's Katie and Audrey.
This is Jimmy in his usual pose. For some unknown reason he hates having his picture taken. Maybe he's channeling his Grandma Mary. She did too.
No, Mom, no!
Run away, run away! I know we will be able to blackmail him with these when he hits his teens. Trout can hardly wait.
Here I am with Audrey.
Here's Trout with her.
Here we are with her.
And Katie got a decent picture of all four of us. Thank you Jimmy for cooperating.
Friends and a Rant
We were able to see some of the friends we hoped to see on this trip, but it seems like there's never time enough. If we missed you, please forgive us. Trout makes it up to WA about 3 times a year. For me it will normally be only once a year. Next time I guess we need to stay just a little bit longer.
I did manage to see some friends from work. There have been many changes there since I started in 1989 and not all for the better in my opinion. I guess it's just a sign of the times for some companies. When I went to work at Weyerhaeuser there were 3 libraries -- a business one at Corporate Headquarters, a technical one at the Technology Center and a forestry one at Centralia. Among the three there were more than 25 employees. In the late 90's they were combined and placed under a business organization. As far as I'm concerned, that was the beginning of the end. The emphasis shifted to cost-cutting from providing information services.
In 2000 they were all consolidated at the Technology Center and the staff was cut by more than half. Along the way, Echo, a library services contractor, was hired to do some of the work formerly done by Weyerhaeuser employees. There was the possibilty of more cuts in 2003 and I was hoping to be laid off, get all those good benefits and retire, but nooooooo! So I retired in 2004 anyway.
The remaining staff hung on until this year when their whole chain of command was obliterated. It's amazing how a group of people who were once so essential to a company can overnight become expendable. Now the library is down to a total of 6 people including the manager who is now a team lead because she no longer manages enough people to be called a manager. In my opinion, the most positive thing now is that the library is back under the Tech Center's wing. The scientists were the primary users all along.
So in slightly less than 20 years, the total number of people providing library and information services to a corporation of about 40,000 employees was cut by 75% or so. Of course, the company has changed dramatically in those 20 years, too, but no matter how few customers an operation has or how technologically modern it is, there are a minimum number under which the staff cannot fall or else there will be no real service at all. And if the company doesn't get rid of the primary library customers, the 20% who generate 80% of the work, the workload for that staff remains the same.
I'm sure many of you have seen this in your own work lives. I'm sure you've also seen the situation where the Indians are axed and the Chiefs left to do all the work except the Chiefs can't really do all the work. One of my favorite examples of that was when I worked for the Army. Some brilliant officer decided to cut back the number of enlisted in the organization because he didn't understand what they contributed. Then everyone wondered why they weren't getting their mail and Captains got the mail duty. Needless to say, the enlisted folks were brought back pretty quickly. Unfortunately, mega-corporations usually aren't nearly that flexible and not nearly that willing to admit their mistakes and correct them.
Puyallup Fair
The Western Washington State Fair is the 3rd largest in the U.S. I spent a day here with some friends I used to work with, Sally and Tami. We got to talk and see some neat stuff. They hadn't seen each other since Sally went to work at Microsoft. She works for that library services provider, Echo. Echo does much more at the Microsoft library than it ever did at Weyerhaeuser. The worst thing about the change is the commute. She lived within 5 minutes of where she worked before and now she has an hour+ van ride to Redmond every day. Tami is one of the few who is still at Weyerhaeuser. She's facing all the challenges of those left behind in a big cutback I mentioned above.
We really didn't talk too much about all that, but rather enjoyed the Fair and its food. Of course I got an Earthquake Burger and I brought the T-Shirt home for Trout.
What's a state fair without piglets. These are young ones. In the next enclosure there was another sow about to give birth. So some fair visitors will probably get see her do that.
The major thing we saw that day was a draft horse exhibition. I'd seen the draft horses in their barns before but never in action. The wagons and teams were each examples of different kinds of draft horse and wagon use -- except maybe the ponies. I think they were just for fun.
The announcer pointed out that the bigger the horse, the calmer the personality. But even the little horses stood calmly before their turn to circle the arena. As the teams drove around, the announcer gave details on the types of draft horses and the wagons they were pulling. Then each team drove around cones, backed up, etc. It was quite amazing to see them operate in such a small space.
Here are the ponies coming into the arena.
These Belgians were my favorites. At least I think these were the Belgians.
This 6-horse team was the biggest. They were so long, but they still made it around their cones just fine.
This was a team with 3 abreast.
Managing them was pretty impressive.
But then they stopped in the middle of the arena.
It turned out that part of the harness broke.
So they had to be unhitched and led out.
And the wagon had to be taken out by people.
Many of the exhibits at the Fair are for 4-H kids. I had seen the 4-H dogs before, but I didn't know they did cats. The kids decorated their cats' cages in themes and most were very fancy. They took their cats out of the cages for judging. They would show the cat and the judge would ask them questions about the cat, cat care, cat health, etc. There were winners in three divisions roughly related to elementary, junior high and high school.
One exhibit I never miss is the arts and crafts barn. Downstairs they have 4-H work. Upstairs are the adult crafters. The largest pieces are the quilts, of course. I was surprised to see this hooked rug and thought it was a great design. Wonder why?
Be sure to check out the rest of the posts from this trip.
Managing them was pretty impressive.
But then they stopped in the middle of the arena.
It turned out that part of the harness broke.
So they had to be unhitched and led out.
And the wagon had to be taken out by people.
Many of the exhibits at the Fair are for 4-H kids. I had seen the 4-H dogs before, but I didn't know they did cats. The kids decorated their cats' cages in themes and most were very fancy. They took their cats out of the cages for judging. They would show the cat and the judge would ask them questions about the cat, cat care, cat health, etc. There were winners in three divisions roughly related to elementary, junior high and high school.This is one of the cages.
One exhibit I never miss is the arts and crafts barn. Downstairs they have 4-H work. Upstairs are the adult crafters. The largest pieces are the quilts, of course. I was surprised to see this hooked rug and thought it was a great design. Wonder why?
Be sure to check out the rest of the posts from this trip.
She decided to try a lemon.
Dory seems to be questioning what Trout's saying here. Good job, Dory!
Dory set it up for Trout to see a blacksmith working at his forge while we were there. This guy also is Phill's boss and taught Phill how to be an electrician. He had some really cool tools.
