Photoessay #2813 - Dying intestate

A cousin of mine recently died without leaving a will;; intestate is what they call it.  I did meet with him a little over a year ago.  My cousin, husband and I had a lovely lunch in an old-fashioned pizza (apizza) place in New Haven.  Um, a bit eccentric.  He was a widower, no children.  I've done the genaology work and had, in the course of building the family tree, knew he had several first cousins; now deceased.  Some children of those cousins, both older than I.

There were friends listed in the obituary.  I contacted one and asked that, if there were any Zunder family artifacts, could they please be donated to the Jewish Historical Society.  I knew he owned two small houses and, it seemed that he might be a hoarder.  He had told me that he had the plans for Zunder School but then he couldn't find them.

Another friend of his contacted me today.  He knew I knew him through this very blog.  He said it was hard to get my email.  I'll have to ask him how he did it.  He said he had some experience dealing with people dying without a will.  The friends want to be the executors, but they legally can't.  Relatives have to be informed and they could sign a paper appointing the executors.

Nobody that I know of would want to go through those small run down houses full of stuff.  None of the relatives would want any monetary interest if there was one.  If you don't take care of this, the state takes over. 

My first cousin lives in Connecticut; she could be a possibility.  I also contacted the two sons of the first cousins.  One is willing to cooperate, the other is out of town but also would likely be willing to help.  As in, willing to appoint executors and sign away interests; not to become executors and have to clean out the houses.

At one point, I looked at the city database for information on his house.  It was still listed in his wife's name and she died 10(?) years ago.  I thought, at the time, I bet he never did the paperwork on her death to change the ownership.  Very very likely.

Don't do this, by the way.  Die intestate.

Photoessay #2812 - More Harold/Rochester

A picture of my grandfather Harold Joseph Ginsburgh from the Harvard 1920 yearbook.  He would have been 20-21 years old.  Younger than my kids now.  The picture didn't come over too well.  Get a lot of gray scaling grid stuff.  I can't quite figure out who he looks like.  The eyes, it's a bit like I'm staring out of my own eyes in his picture.  The mouth, not so much.

He's a young man ensconced in the major institution of his life.  Harvard.  My grandfather was, first, a Harvard man and he always stayed close.  He went to University of Rochester his first two years and won a scholarship from the Rochester Harvard Club along with other scholarships.  Likely, he was just the kind of young man that some in Harvard would like to keep out.  Those studious Jewish boys from upstate New York that somehow snuck in.  There's evidence that the SAT tests were designed to keep the Jewish boys out.  They studied too much.  Of course, my mother denied this.

This is my father's father; from the Eastern European roots.  He went on to become an influential actuary and insurance company executive.

This house from Google, is the address located in the Harvard yearbook.  174 Berkeley Street, Rochester.  Built in 1910; a two family house.  Harold was the youngest.

Photoessay #2811 - King County but no Ellensburg

We originally planned to go to Ellensburg this evening for the reception at the Dean's house for the returning students from Macau.  It looked awfully nice.  But the weather has been so cold.  The pass the pass the pass.  We don't want to get stuck on the pass.  It would mean 5 hours of driving, mostly in the dark over the pass.  Where it's very cold and lightly snowing.  Dennis complains about how it's hard to see to drive at night.  That pass can be very treacherous.  Plus it was supposed to snow here.  He finally agreed that it was not smart to do this.  So we didn't go.

In preparation for many doing it, I caught a ride with a friend to do court support down at King County Juvenile Court.  But somehow we had both signed up to do cases in the morning and afternoon sessions.  And since we didn't go to Ellensburg that left me there all day.  Court support means you go with a parent to support them in court.  You don't do anything in particular other than keep them company and record what happens.  If you are allowed and, these days, you almost always are, you go in the court and quietly sit in the back.  Sometimes other things come up.  Today, there was an announcement of a name that might be an older kid that the parent believes is a bad influence.  Was it the same guy?  I volunteered to go into that session to see what I could find out.  Not clear if it's the same kid.

So I was there from 8:30 until 4:30 and, in general, things worked out in both of these cases.  Both were At Risk Youth petitions.  Courtoom sort of looks like this.

Photoessay #2810 - Flash scarf

My wonderful and talented cousin Flash Rosenburg has designed a scarf based on her cartooning.  She's offering it for sale; it's a benefit for ... not sure... a women's cause.

What choice do I have, I must purchase one.  Silk.  Comes in rose and white.  Even though I know that the white one would be more practical, I'm so drawn to the rose so I bought that one..

You should too!

I'm such a Flash fan; I admit it!  Everything she does is nominaly fabulous.  She is a artist-in-residence at the New York Public Library; an artist, cartoonist and performer.

She hosted a high-spirited Cousin Extravaganza last January in her Manhattan apartment including her mom, aunt, sister, niece, my cousin, me, my husband, I don't remember who-all.  She took us all around, very heady from those of us from the sticks.

Original tiny picture not so great so I took this picture of Flash from the New York Social Diary, used without permission.

Photoessay #2809 - Honey it's cold out there

Whew, it's cold here in Seattle.  It's been sub-freezing all week.  Chilly.  It's gotten colder, today in the 20s.  We were out last night.  We've gotten into this habit, must eat mole or similar at La Raza, a tiny place in a strip mall in Lynwood every weekend.  This place has completely ruined us for mexican food anywhere else. Place seats about 14 at tables and then some seats at the bar where you can watch them cook.  And the blaring soccer game in Spanish, natch.   Everything from scratch. I heard they were catering on Saturday so we went last night.  No mole sauce, he doesn't make it every week.  Their chile rellenos do make an exceptional meal.  Then onto Costco, we live an exciting life.  I was so cold when I got home.

So, since I don't have to go out there really, I'm not.  Though it might crest 30 and the forecast looks for warmer temps.  Naomi went over the pass to Ellensburg this morning.  Pass bare and dry, temp 2 degrees.  She made it fine.  They're planning a reception at the Dean of Education's house on Monday to honor the students who did the Macau trip.  I'm not wild about crossing the pass twice in one day in December.  Plus we just found out it's at 5 rather than 7.  Dennis is determined to go.

This picture ran on the front page of the Seattle Times this morning.  A fountain in South Lake Union.  Ken Lambert photographer, used without permission.  Grease marks courtesy of ourselves.

Photoessay #2808 - Acting out kids

They're everywhere.

I attended a lovely dinner last evening.  A pot luck meeting of members of my geneaalogy class a few years back.  We hadn't met since spring; we usually just yack and yack about geneaology.  Like last night, a lively discussion about different kinds of dna tests complete with diagrams and lots of laughing.  Six women there last night.

Just across the Fremont bridge.  I go to that area all the time, I'm really thinking I need to move somewhere near the University.  I go there many times every single week.  Get a clue!

Anyway, and it wasn't me, somebody brought up how difficult their daughter was to raise.  You could tell that this mom had really been through it.  It wasn't the extreme nature of the daughter's behavior; it was how it had injured the mom.  And this mom always looks like she has everything under control.  Another volunteered that her son, who had Tourett's (sp) had also been very very hard; they had sent him to therapeutic boarding school for all of his high school years.  I didn't quite get a sense of how things were now.  A third member (not a parent) volunteered how she had a niece who everybody in the family feared who disrupted family gatherings frequently.

OK, that's 4 out of 6.  The other two parents said their kids had been challenging but not so bad.

I started talking about parent group and they all said they really could have used it.  Actually several still can.  Work with that niece to make it so she doesn't have so much power.

Now, not everybody is willing to do the parent group program.  It definitely stands at the fringes.  For awhile, the Board was looking to partner with some other organization but apparently decided, as I would think, that having conventional social work supervision would destroy the program.

Did I mention, the other night when I came home from the weekly meeting. because I didn't feel so great?  When I got there for the tail-end of the monthly pot luck, it looked like a holiday party.  40 people; the place was jumping.  Very high energy.

One important aspect; as parents, we are told by the culture around us that we should do everything for our children's benefit.  That we are to discount abuse to ourselves.  Yet we should not allow ourselves to be abused and we need to teach our children that others will also not tolerate their behavior.

Picture taken from a 2009 BBC story, used without permission.

Photoessay #2807 - Nobuko again

Another picture of Nobuko taken during Naomi's visit.  I recognize the place; the garden behind the temple that Nobuko's family.  And the place, right by the entrance where Nobuko's family has their stone.  Her husband's ashes (Tadeshia) are there.  He died of esophageal cancer at age 60.  He smoked heavily like many Japanese.  We met him when they came to visit us in 2002.  I'm sure, I have a picture.

Nobuko is right there but it is so hard to communicate with her.  She spent a year in American at age 18 so her spoken English comes back to her easily.  Writing not so much.  Email also not so much.  So, there she is.  So grateful to her for hosting Naomi and Jackie for a few days last month.

I had pointed out that Japanese institutions are not always visible on the web.  For example, you cannot find anything on her center tor autistic children and adults, Ai Ai.  But it's a good size legitimate center in Yamagata, a provincial city.

A shout out to Nobuko, we love you!

Photoessay #2806 - Fantasy?

Featuring another picture from my brother Charlie.

Note:  I've made the image smaller to post it plus the pictures always show slightly out of focus on the main page.  If you click the image, you will get a clearer shot.

Don't you think this looks like it belongs on the cover of a fantasy video game.  Add some mystery to whatever.  I'm sure it's some mundane midwest location but it looks cool.

My brother's style goes for towards saturated colors and sharpened images.  Too me, it sometimes looks contrived.  He insists that he's designing the image to fit what he sees.  So maybe he is actually seeing things this way.  More full of drama and color.  So maybe we can enrich our own world by embracing his perception.  A little woo woo.

But I'm about woo woo.

I love the magical properties of this image.  Just draw you into a world of wonder and intrigue.

Photoessay #2805 - Hong Kong

Selected from Naomi's pictures of her 11 week trip to Macau, Hong Kong, China and Japan.  She spent most of her time teaching English in a middle school in Macau.

The cities of Asia are mighty indeed.

A view from a popular spot looking out on Hong Kong in September.  So many tall building.  I'm remembering around 1977, when the Hong Kong 'lease' reverted to China that a lot of affluent people took themselves and their assets out of Hong Kong and to the United States.  I lived in California at the time.

Who could foresee that China would become a market economy with lots of contact with the other world countries.  At that time, many feared that the Communist government would seize Hong Kong's wealth.  Seems like there's still much of it still around.

One great thing that Naomi got out of her trip was confidence that she can travel and live in another country.  Granted this Marau trip was heavily supported by the Macau school and Central Washington University providing just about everything they needed.

Isn't it great to say that you yourself took this picture of Hong Kong?