UPDATE: Bridget Arrest

Pennington, NJ, October 26, 2009.  Our fearless reporter called the Dicksons back to check on Bridget's probation progress after her arrest, and got to talk to Johanna, Sean and Amanda, who all reported amazement at the improvement in Bridget's coat.  The threesome were in town from New York to attend a party of PDS alums on Saturday night, which turned out to be less than advertised.  Sean and Amanda have announced they are staying in their Upper East Side apartment for another year, ending a promising search in Astoria.

In an exclusive to Pop's Weekly Letter, we have learned that Peter visited the house of the family that took in Bridget last Wednesday and learned that the reason for Bridget's nice coat is the shampoo they used on her (they use it on thier own dog): Head and Shoulders!  (It's anti-fungal, their vet says).   A Procter & Gamble spokesperson said she was unaware of any product re-positioning for the product.

In other developments, informed sources have told Pop's Weekly Letter that Bridget is no longer housebroken.  Makes coming down the stairs in the morning an adventure.

Peak season

I hope everyone is enjoying as spectacular a fall day as we may have ever had!   Mary and I went for a foliage walk through a local garden and immediately regretted not bringing the camera along.  Still, photos never seem to do the foliage the justice it deserves.
 
There's a down side to all the gushing about leaves.  The leaves themselves, in the yard.  So the big question here is:  when to rake?  Does one do a mid-season rake knowing that more leaves will fall and make the yard look just as it looks now and knowing that you have no place to put the leaves?  Most of our neighbors have opted for NO.  Wait until the day before the signs go up in the neighborhood announcing the leaf clean-up.
 
Another big question is: when did people really start to go overboard with Halloween?   We have giant spiders on the side of the house, spiders webs over all the shrubs, mummies and ghouls all over the yard, tombstones with Freddy Kruger's name on it.  What's wrong with a pumpkin, carved like a 5-year old did it? 
 
We had a five-day work-week around here.  And one We recommend a movie we saw recently as well:  The Boys are Back.more to come.  Uggh.  We break up the week with a class at church each Wednesday evening, and Mary has guitar class on another night. 
 
Saturday, we got together with a friend from Mexico City for breakfast, and Margaret joined us.  We then went out for dinner at Cuban restuarant.  Too much food.   Forgot to mention that Margaret got a part-time job at a coffee/wine bar in an up-and-hopefully-coming neighborhood of DC. 
 
Had another first this week:  I walk by Joe's workplace every day on the way to and from the metro station.  This week, I ran into him on the street!!  And he didn't ignore me!!  He's been busy working on a couple of proposals.
 
Annie called on her weekend start night (Thursday) sounding worried about the shift the next group was going to have as several of the girls were on the verge of a meltdown.  She has been trying to rival Margaret's experience with the local DMV. 
 
That's all from down here.  Nice to see lots of contributions!!  Love.

NEWS FLASH! BRIDGET DICKSON ARRESTED!

Wednesday evening, Pennington, New Jersey - According to Ms. Bridget Dickson, 19, she felt the need for some exercise and possibly, an adventure.  Tired of the same old lawn, same old smells, same old expectations that she do her business and go home.  So, she went for a walk.  Ok, ok, so she forgot to tell anyone.  Give her a break. She's over 130 years in human math!  Ah, it was a beautiful night!  Clear skies, warmish weather.  Down the street she went.  Then further.  Down another street.  Whew!  This exercise really takes a lot out of you.  

Neighbors living about one and one-half blocks from the Dickson residence, found a small, black, and obviously tired dog.  Taking her in, they gave her a bath.  Unaware that she doesn't wear her collar because of a painful skin condition, they called the police to report a licenseless dog.  The police, came, and took said dog away.  Although she was very cute, especially wrapped in a large green towel, the law is the law, and vagrancy is not allowed in Hopewell Township.

Meanwhile, the Dicksons, husband and wife, Peter and Janet, had been searching for Bridget for nearly an hour.  Armed with flashlights, they covered every square inch of their property.  Ms. Janet Dickson reported that she even went into the dreaded vacant lot next to their house, also known as "Deer Alley."  She says that while there were no deer present, they left a lot of discards to slog through. Ms. Janet Dickson drove her car slowly around the neighborhood with bright lights on, while Mr. Peter Dickson walked the streets shining his flashlight around the houses.

In what was described as a very happy ending for all, the police car came upon Mr. Dickson, and asked if he was looking for a small, black dog.  Bridget was issued a stern warning, however, since she is deaf, she didn't hear it.  Mr. Dickson and Bridget returned home.  When Ms. Janet Dickson drove into the driveway, she was overjoyed to see Bridget back.  And smelling so good, too.

The ordeal of the night was lost on Bridget, who is now operating in a different world.  She does have some happy memories of her walk, it is assumed, because she tried to take another one the next night.  This time, Mr. Peter Dickson was ready for her.  Sadly, Bridget must now wear a leash when she goes out (the family reports that they tried to hook the leash on a tree limb, but Bridget was able to break the tree limb and was found, luckily, walking back to the house).  However, the family goest to great pains to make sure Bridget knows how important she is to the Dickson family.

Columbus Day

A day off.  Kind of.  Mary had school, and John went to work for a while to plow through e-mails and get ready for the week ahead.  But he still managed to squeeze in a nap.  And a long bike ride, since he rode back and forth to work.
 
One of the modern day conundrums is checking in on all the mail one gets.  First there's the real mail, then there's e-mail and now there's mail on facebook and other connecting sites.  So here's a sampling of today's haul.
 
-- On Facebook Janet wrote about the Springsteen concert and her close encounter with the Boss.
-- Margaret sent an e-mail from the Onion, which had a story on how to stay "Goth" past the age of 50.  We especially like the black lipstick on the guy.  Something new for retirement.
-- Joe sent a text message saying he left his Patriots hat here, which must explain why they lost yesterday.  Did anyone else notice the "Who Dey" Bengals, or the Cardiac Cats?  Makes you kinda forget baseball season.
-- David sent an e-mail with a concert of finger-snapping and thigh-slapping which sounded like rain.
-- Annie got a ticket home for the day after Thanksgiving!
 
We spoke with Grandma by telephone (how last century!)  She is well, and we talked about what I imagine people across the country were talking about from Friday on - Obama's Peace Prize.  At a conference on Friday for a group of women from Latin America, the sentiment was summed up by one woman:  I feel like we won this award, since what Obama stands for is what the whole world stands for.
 
We also spoke with Andrew, who had called to give Mary advice on her back.  Looks like Mary is going to postpone the idea of surgery on ehr back.  She's returned to exercise and it doesn't bother as much; still bothers her a little, but not as much.
 
Saturday, we went down to the Mall for the solar decathlon, where universities compete in the building of a solar and eco-houses.  There were universities from Canada, New Zealand, Kentucky (is that at foreign country?) and California.  The people from California had been invited by our Embassy in Chile to take their house down to Chile for an exposition.
 
This week, John finally got to see Hillary Clinton at the State Department.  He had missed out on about ten different occasions, due to travel and meetings, but finally did.  She was giving a talk before 500 people and even mentioned a project we have been working on in Mexico!  She was terrific, confident, articulate and surrounded by bodyguards and aides.  What a life.
 
That's all she wrote from down here!  Love

New Jersey Rocks!

To paraphrase someone, the family that rocks together, stays together.  Last night, Janet, Johanna, Sean, Amanda and I saw Bruce Springsteen at Giants Stadium, the last set of concerts there before they tear it down (Springsteen stands were selling T-shirts fot the "Wrecking Ball," a song he wrote about it).  He played from 8:20 to almost 11:30 without intermission.  We had general admission tickets on the field, no seats, stood the whole time and had a blast.  At one point, the Boss came down onto the field and Janet got to paw him all over his back.  You can't take the Jersey teenager out of her.  The New York denizens tok shuttle buses out and Janet and I stayed the night in a hotel next to the sports complex.  In the shuttle van going from the hotel to the stadium Janet and I were the only concert-goers from east of the Mississippi, including one who had flown from Australia and one from London.  The best concert I have ever seen.  Thank you Johanna for getting the tickets.

Janet and I are now doing dialysis doggy-style on Bridget, and the tests show it's working to overcome her kidney failure.  She's 18 years old.  Three times a week we insert an IV and force 200 ccs of solution into her, where it shows up as a baloon under her skin, which then gets absorbed over the next hour or so.  Did you know this?  Janet is also administering other meds.  Bridget must think we are trying to torture her.  But it's working, which is nice.

In The News, Encore

This is the link to New Jersey's monthly newsletter for the deaf; see page 4:

"McCarter Theatre Center's Access Coordinator, Janet Zoubek Dickson of Pennington was awarded the first ever Leadership Award from the  Cultural Access Network of New Jersey. In addition, McCarter's comprehensive access program continues to expand, adding a full season of open captioned performances to its schedule for the first time.

As access coordinator for McCarter Theatre for the past four seasons, Janet Zoubek Dickson has provided an invaluable service to the theater and its patrons by helping to ensure that each McCarter performance is accessible to the entire community, especially patrons with special needs. The founder in 1981 of the National Audio Description Coalition, Ms. Dickson helped introduce the first ever audio described performance at Arena Stage and worked as narrator and scriptwriter for the descriptive video service pilot program for public television's American Playhouse from 1987 - 1989. She also trains new audio describers throughout New Jersey and personally audio describes
performances at many of New Jersey's professional theaters.

http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/ddhh/newsletters/communicator/current/MCOct09.pdf

In the News!

Last Thursday, the NJ public broadcasting network televised a live debate of the three candidates for Governor in this year's election. The incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs chairman who has spent lavishly on his election efforts, has been far behind in the polls to Republican Chris Christie, the former federal prosecutor who has gone after corrupt officials (and by the way, weighs about 400 pounds). During the debate, they had taped questions from voters to ask the candidates. Mine was the first one they used.

http://www.njn.net/newspublicaffairs/coverage/09governorrace/debate1001.html

It's about 35 minutes into the debate. A few weeks before, I had been walking down Nassau Street and was stopped by an NJN reporter who asked if I wanted to ask the candidates a question.

Christie's non-answer was the subject of much commentary the next day. In fact, the state's leading conservative columnist said that if Christie does go on to lose, he might well look back to that answer:

http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2009/10/mulshine_on_first_debate.html

Corzine and Christie are now in a dead heat.

Also, although I haven't seen it, there's a Jumbotron at the entry to the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. An animation Sean did for his magazine is now playing on that screen.

Finally, Janet and her audio description work at McCater and elsewhere. Margaret Pfanstiel, the woman who developed the technique and was Janet's mentor, recently passed away. The Wash Post did a lovely story on her. Janet was one of the first small group of describers that Margaret trained.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/03/AR2009100302661.html?referrer=emailarticle

Margaret got an award from the national coalition for audio description at their annual meeting at the Kennedy Center in DC in August. Janet was the presenter and she closed her narrative by saying that "Margaret proved that you don't need sight to be a visionary."

It's fall

We never think it's going to end.  It's been hot and green for so long, that we forget that September rolls around and there's no going back. And don't tell me about Indian summer - it's a cruel trick.
 
Lots to report though - first Mary's school did win the national award and was the only public school in the DC area selected, which made it th enatural choice for a visit by the Secretary of Education!  Here's the story in the Washington Post:   
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/15/AR2009091501939.html?wprss=rss_metro/md
Interesting to see that our elementary school, Holy Redeemer, was also selected.
 
Johanna was also in the newspaper, last Sunday's New York Times real estate section, in a column called "The Hunt" telling the real stories of how people find places to live in the city. And how about this photo of Sean at work? 
 
We spent last weekend up in Pittsfield, thanks to the Yom Kippur holiday which Mary got off at school.  On the way we stopped at Grandma's and had dinner (Charlie Brown's!!) and also on the way back, thanks to Peter and Janet who came by for the soup supper.  Grandma looks as good as she has in over a year, and she had some news from Pomfret, about the house and about the neighbors who separated and sold their house.  Up in Pittsfield, we had dinner with John and Marilyn who talked about their trip to Niagara with their granddaughters - sounds like fun.
 
Annie has this week off, and is spending it in New York City with her friend Greg who is coming back from China.  Also, in New York were Dan and Mary for Patrick's parents' weekend.  
 
And there has been some sickness.  Margaret came over last night as she was feeling ill and wanted rest.  Good thing as we heard her roommates were up to 4am.  (youth)  Joe is getting over his bout with mono and strep throat.  He's applying now for grad school next year.
 
This is our birthday season, and we need to wish Paula, Johanna, Janet, Claire happy birthdays first.  And there are more in the coming weeks.  
 
Got an e-mail from Jeffrey, and some Facebook messages about health care. 
 
And, since I last wrote, I had traveled to Venezuela and Colombia.  It was an interesting comparison, of two countries moving in opposite directions, both in terms of their relations with the U.S. and in terms of well-being of their people.  Is there a connection? 
 
Sorry it's been so long since I wrote.  Anyone else want to write?  Just send an e-mail to popsweeklyletter.dicksons@blogger.com.

And today is the last day of the baseball season.  For Reds fans anyway.  Nothing to look forward to in the daily papers.
 
Love to all from down here!