The Doctor is in.

August 2015

Road Trip to L.A.

We left on our driving trip to Los Angeles at 1:00 p.m. on the 11th. We didn't get to sleep until after midnight west of Medford, OR, at the home of Jean's friend Angela. Angela's parents were very hospitable. We had chocolate sundaes with strawberries. We slept in their large motor home. I was woken up at 4:55 a.m. by their rooster.

Nathanael, Jean, and I did most of the driving since Nancy had been up all night before we left. (It's her way.) Our next night was spent at the condominium of cousin Rob Hollis (now age 71) in Walnut Creek east of San Francisco. He lives in the elegant Rossmoor gated community.

Our third long drive was down highway 101 to the Pacific at Pismo Beach and on to L.A. We managed to spot an In-n-Out Burger which I'd heard so much about. The burgers were good but not outstanding. The fries were good but the shakes were small.

We hit slow traffic on the Pacific coast through towns like Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Thousand Oaks. We arrived at the home of Arlyn, a P.E.O. member, who ran it as a bed and breakfast as a fund raiser for her local P.E.O. chapter QB. Her home is right on Manhattan Beach south of the LAX airport. We stayed there two nights. Quick swims in the surf before breakfast were the norm.

On our first full day in L.A., we drove around Hollywood and the La Brea area just south of Hollywood where Jean would be staying and where her classroom (on the 16th floor of a modern high-rise building) is located. It was over 100 degrees so we went to the California Science Center. It had air conditioning (and admission was free!) And just before closing at 5:00, we got free tickets to see the Space Shuttle Endeavour!

Jean's apartment is on the 7th floor (north side) of the building pictured below. You can see the HOLLYWOOD sign from her window. She is sharing a room with a student from Marysville, WA who is studying in Oklahoma.

8/28/15

Hi Family!

Doug Jones, a delightful Christian actor, spoke to the school last night about his career and how he has been able to be a good influence in Hollywood. He is around 55 years old and he called all the students "precious puppies" :) He spoke for 2-3 hours and held everyone's attention the whole time because he is just so chipper and cheerful and hilarious!

I had an interview for an internship with Roserock Films this morning. It went pretty well; I'll find out if I got the internship sometime next week. If not, I'll apply for an internship at a talent agency. Here's a link to an acting profile I made for class: http://www.nowcasting.com/jeansleight

It is warm, but God is good and all is well.

Love,

~JB

Jean drove us to our hotel in Koreatown just west of downtown L.A. She returned to drive us to Union Station and Amtrak the next morning. The train was an hour late getting out of L.A. and the trip was repeatedly delayed for the next day-and-a-half. I counted at least four engine changes. We were to arrive at 8:12 p.m. on Monday but pulled into King Street Station in Seattle at 2:40 a.m. on Tuesday. I enjoyed the long ride and Nancy especially liked going through southern Oregon in the daylight. These fires, as we turned inland north of Santa Barbara, had the northbound traffic on 101 stopped!

Nancy was happy with her window seat and I got two seats as nobody was assigned next to me. Nancy and Nathanael spent much of the trip in the observation car. Our one paid meal (dinner) cost $60, but Nancy declared her salmon "good."

I joined Nancy at sunrise in the observation car and she took this selfie.

In Portland, we were joined by Cynthia Eby, SPU '15 (Linguistics major/Spanish minor). She turns 22 this October. She spent two nights at our house, staying in Annie's room. She also got to visit Susan's house. As I'm typing this (on the 22nd), I'm listening to Cynthia and Nathanael as they Skype. She lives in Aloha, OR, just west of Beaverton. They've agreed that the term "courting" would not be amiss to describe their relationship. Cynthia was in Jean's University Scholars class and Jean might have graduated with her if she had not planned to go to study this semester in L.A.

Nancy started cleaning the garage and pulled out the bench that had been boxed up for so long in there, and she finally varnished and assembled it. They delivered it to Susan's patio for Ginger to enjoy. We expect it to eventually return to 1228 99th.

An Impromptu High School Reunion

This month Nancy and I got an invitation to travel up past Arlington to Karen (Niclas) Keith's home for a small high school reunion. This group at the right were all honors kids at West Seattle. (Dick, Nancy, Debbie Westwood, Laurie, Karen Keith, Lisa Bergman, and Karen (Boyd) Baughman. I was part of this group by virtue of my twin Laurie. Nancy was closer to these girls in high school than I was.

Our own Sleight/Kleespies clan took the opportunity to get out into the country. Karen has lamas and a horse. Little Zack Kidwell is quite cute and entertaining. Lisa is a concert pianist and a host on Classic KING FM 98.1. Debra oversees three branches of the King County Library System including the downtown Bellevue branch. She will be a good person for Thomas to meet once he completes his degree next spring.

This shot below is a rare one of much of our clan: Nancy, Annie, Jean, Nathanael, Dick, Tom, Laurie, Katherine, Zack, and Adam.

Nancy at 60

We had a brief party on the 21st for Nancy before settling in to watch the pre-season Seahawks game (her choice!) Annie had just returned from Korea and brought Grandma Ginger. Annie got her a scarf and sun hat. Nathanael and I got her garden clippers and I got her a silver necklace from England which held a six pence coin from her birth year 1955. (She had to open four boxes to get to it.)
She got her cake on the 24th at Susan's.

Annie and Thomas Travel Back to Korea

Annie joined Thomas on a vacation/UW study abroad trip that took them back to Korea. She got to visit friends.

I got this photo off of Thomas' blog, storytellingkitsune.tumblr.com. He will return September 16th. His study trip is part of his MLIS master's program (Library and Information Science.) He is a good writer. I should find more time to read his posts. The snow shows this is a shot from an earlier time in Korea.

I took this photo of Annie with Diana, because Jean's princess kitty is getting older and I don't remember having current pictures of her. But, then, she looks the same as she did ten years ago.

Surprise Departure

On the 26th, we received the surprise announcement that Dr. Joseph Williams would be leaving SPU at the end of September and that his service as SBGE Dean would end on August 31st!!! After only two years, our 5th dean (and my 4th), Joseph is our shortest serving leader. We expect more news about this to come out soon. See Jeff Van Duzer's message about this below.

Patrick & Rachel Kleespies

Laure and Tom's son Patrick Kleespies married Rachel Hunter on August 1st in Maryland.

Once again we could not attend, but we met them at Christmastime. Yet, they should enjoy our airfare we did not pay to attend.

Randy Moves on from His Truck

After major mechanical troubles, Randy finally sold his red truck and bought this Toyota Camry. I mentioned that he now had an executive car and looked less like a union guy going to work in a truck. Again this year, Nate, Don, and I joined him for an Everett AquaSox game.

Yet Another Nikon D300? Yes!

I had $220 in my PayPal account and was looking (at first) for a camera battery. But while I was on EBay, I noticed a Nikon D300 body with a low shutter count with the bid around $220 and about twenty minutes left in the auction. From the description saying "manufacturer refurbished," I understood why the bid was so low — but the description sounded like it had just been sent in for a cleaning, not for repair.

I already had three D300 cameras and one D70. I keep the D70 and one D300 at work. My "best" body had begun to fail intermittently. It was my first D300 body, purchased in January 2008, for which I paid full price, $1799 plus tax. It has over 192,000 shutter actuations on it, and the MTBF is only 150,000. My next two D300 bodies were purchased from EBay for around $500 each. As usual, I decided on the most I was willing to pay, $265 in this case. I watched the price creep up past $245 and patiently waited until there was just six seconds left in the auction before pressing the "Buy" button. I win most of the bids I place with this ruthless method. I won the item for $256 plus shipping.

This is a cropped version of my first test shot with the new body and a NIKKOR 50mm 1:1.8 D lens. I started by changing about two dozen settings to match how I like to shoot. Click on the thumbnail of Nate to see the full resolution quality. This was a great buy. Why buy a more expensive camera when all the accessories I own work with the D300 body? It is still great for sports and portraits. Just after this shot, Nathanael shaved.

Bits and Pieces

♦ A mid-rise apartment/condo has just had its ground breaking two blocks south and three blocks east of us called the Mirador.

♦ My study through Matthew finished where it should, at the end, the Great Commission. Members of the Emerald Heights group invited Nancy and I to the traditional lunch after the last session on August 6th. I'm seriously considering a study through Ephesians next summer, before returning for Matthew 1-7. I have already been invited back. And the $750 honorarium I received was much appreciated.

♦ Finally, after a few years of meager success, my tomato crop has come in well this month.

♦ In light of the new minimum wage law in Seattle, the Bellevue School District wants to stay competitive. In light of this, Nathanael learned that he will be getting a 7.3% raise this year, a nice surprise at the start of the new school year. He is running with the BCS Cross Country team and says the top three who he ran with on the opening day of practice really had him puffing. He sounds committed to applying for graduate school again this fall.

♦ I joined the BCS X-country team at their first-week hot dog cook out. Nathanael is coaching again this season. The boys team looks to be improved this year but the top three girls, including last year's league champion have decided to quit the sport — a tragedy for the team's first fan.

♦ Now beginning her third year at Seattle Christian School, Annie is already the English Department Chair. Of course she is.

♦ "This is an historic day!" --Jean Sleight [August 10 -- copied from Jean's Facebook account -- as posted by Annie. ]
For 15 years, a proverb in my family's house (whenever we couldn't find something) has been, "It's probably with the Majesty CD." This famous CD--we assumed--had been the subject of a mommy-ploy to get sister and brother off the computer and back to the rest of life. Now, fifteen years later, we find that said CD was not in fact a victim of mom's "put it somewhere safe and lose it" technique, for DADDY just found it in one of HIS books! Vindication! Now if only we could find the rest of that fifteen years' worth of misplaced items...

My Quote from August

Tauriel: "Why does it hurt so much?"

Thranduil: "Because it was real."

— from The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Regarding the Departure of Joseph Williams


	To:	SPU Faculty and Staff
	From:	Jeff Van Duzer, Provost
	Re:	SBGE Announcement
	Date:	August 26, 2015

Friends:

I’m writing to inform you that Dr. Joseph Williams will be resigning as Dean of the School of Business, Government, and Economics, effective August 31. Joseph has been working with me to help develop an appropriate transition plan, and he has agreed to stay on through the end of September as a “Special Assistant to the Provost” to help facilitate this transition. Thereafter, his plans are to return to the commercial world in some as-yet undetermined capacity.

I am grateful for the leadership that Joseph has provided to SBGE and as a member of Deans’ Cabinet and the Provost Leadership Team. Under Joseph’s leadership, the school successfully navigated its five-year secondary accreditation review, stabilized graduate enrollments, and grew undergraduate interest in business programs to historic highs. Joseph oversaw the integration of the Political Science department into the School and secured outside funding to add capacity to the School’s mentoring program. As a member of Deans’ Cabinet, Joseph consistently encouraged us to engage in “out of the box” thinking that opened up new possibilities as we wrestled with recurring challenges. He will be missed.

Please join me in thanking Joseph for his service and in wishing him the very best in the next chapter of his life. I would also appreciate your prayers as I meet with the SBGE leadership to map out the best direction forward at this time.

Jeff

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