Each year as we turn toward the beautiful autumn season, Jewish communities around the world get ready for our most important holidays.
It’s been a busy year here on Vashon, where the women hold strong opinions, the men try to look good, the children want higher grade averages and the schools are underfunded. School budgets have been the talk of the town for some time now. Our upstanding citizens ask one another, “How can Vashon schools possibly provide an education above the minimums mandated by state standards?”
It’s understandable that homeowners are hesitant to step forward to become the “poster child” in King County’s efforts to clean up Quartermaster Harbor.
For years, the fall air made me yearn for helmets, pads and tackling dummies. I would wake up from vivid dreams of Friday nights on the gridiron — my four years of high school eligibility somehow restored, and me now capable of catching passes rather than blocking for them! A true Walter Mitty moment.
Sometimes, in the cultural life of this community, an event comes along that is so special that for years afterward, Islanders find themselves divided into two camps — those who saw it, and those who didn’t.
Who ever thought a Staples commercial could be so controversial?
The smell in the air is distinctly autumnal.
Not many Islanders turned out for a meeting with the state Transportation Commission when it came to the Island to discuss proposed changes to the ferry fare structure earlier this month. But those who did spoke clearly, civilly and passionately.
Our Island children are all back to school again, and the yellow school buses are running along Vashon’s roads and highways, picking up and delivering students each morning and afternoon. Parents and students are adjusting to the new bus transportation plan, which includes reduced bus routes and fewer stops implemented as part of a plan to achieve a balanced school budget this year.
Last March, we, the community told the Vashon school board that we wanted preventive maintenance done on all our school buildings. We told them we wanted to have a fully funded maintenance program. Well, the Vashon school board heard our voices and is giving us a capital levy to vote on in November to cover a fully funded maintenance program and much-needed technology instruction and equipment.
For some time now, the news has been filled with stories about swine flu. One moment, it is going to sicken half of us, causing some 90,000 deaths mostly among young adults. The next, we are told that swine flu will be very mild. How worried should we be? In my opinion, we should be worried enough to prepare for the worst.
Just as they have from the beginning, current and former leaders of the group most critical of our project are once again having trouble accurately characterizing our proposal to provide the Puget Sound region with desperately needed sand and gravel in the most environmentally sound manner available.
A couple of Sundays ago, my betrothed and I married. The word betrothed is a synonym for “promised,” and the first thing she made me promise was not to write about the wedding.
