November 2007

Last October, I had the pleasure of taking a tour of Southwest Youth and Family Services, a human service organization committed to providing low-income, or troubled young adults and their families with services they otherwise could not afford.

I was able to meet with Steve Daschle, the executive director of the program, see the classrooms, stop by the daycare, walk-in on a class devoted to healthy cooking for young parents, and even talk to some of the students attending the alternative high school classes or GED prep classes.

Everything seemed like it was going great -

Mount Rainier Rams head coach Jerry Capadanno, had his girls soccer team going quickly toward another super season, like four years ago when they were fourth in 3A state. They made the round of 16 with a 2-0 win over the Shelton Lady Highclimbers at Sound Sound Stadium in Lacey in a bi-district match Saturday, Nov. 3.

"We've played so well since the Lindbergh game," said Rams head coach Jerry Capodanno. "Just got to keep going."

The Rams did lose, 6-0, to Everett, in the game-after Shelton played Wednesday, Nov.

The rains came, literally, to start the second quarter, but that did nothing to influence the outcome of Evergreen's state playoff game against Meadowdale Friday.

What did it was the Wolverines' foe, down to the last down of what could be their season -- fourth and three from the six -- with less than one minute to play in the fourth quarter.

Meadowdale scored on Evergreen's Wolverines to come back and win, 20-19, in a 3A state playoff round of 16 match-up at Highline Stadium Friday.

Evergreen did have 36 seconds left on the clock right after that, but could no

Cross country

Ryan Prentice of Mount Rainier High School in Des Moines captured first place individually at the state cross country meet in Pasco that concluded Saturday, Nov. 3.

Prentice posted a time of 16:01 to lead the Class 3A pack.

Foster, meanwhile, came in ninth in the Class 2a boys team standings with 259 points. Abdi Giire came in second in a time of 16:19 to lead the Bulldogs.

On the girls side, Mount Rainier placed 16th as a team with 397 points.

Girls soccer

I screwed up.

I had a touch of carpal tunnel pain and overdid my exercise routine at the fitness club. Now I can't use my right hand. I need help on anything that calls for right hand use.

Try brushing your teeth left handed, writing, eating oatmeal without dripping milk on the table, or Cheerios that won't stay on the wobbly spoon.

I can't drive a car because all the knobs and handles are backward.

It was two years ago that my husband and I went to the Frye Museum on our first wheel chair date. He had recovered from a brain hemorrhage and we both needed an outing. Now that he has returned home again after recovering from a broken pelvis, we had another wheel chair date at the Frye. As we traveled up the ramp, our health aide (who was pushing my husband in his wheel chair) remarked, "Oh, the Katsura trees out front are turning golden and sending out their delicious aroma. Can you smell it?

Readers of the West Seattle Herald and White Center News have told us they enjoy the columns we run on a semi-regular basis.

These have spanned the range from the humor of Jerry Robinson's left handed approach to life (See Page 5), to Lori Hinton's discovery of many more than 101 Things to Do in West Seattle. Georgie Bright Kunkel looks at life from a feminist crusader who also is an octgenarian.

Camp Long has partnered with Sustainable West Seattle (SWS), a newly-formed group of West Seattle citizens who want to make a difference locally, to envision a West Seattle community of empowered citizens who actively lead us toward greater self-reliance, local democracy, social justice, and existence in harmony with life on earth.

Sustainable West Seattle's shape and activities reflect the talent and interests of those who participate, but they aim to provide resources and outreach for the West Seattle neighborhood on issues such as:

* Renewable energy & conservation

The future of the Northwest and its economy looks rosy and all we need to do is to shut out the rips and grinds of the rest of the United States. That was the warm and somewhat fuzzy news from Portland economist for hire William B.

An open letter to the Seattle City Council:

I'm Audrey Turpaud and my husband is Robert Turpaud. We have a little boy who is 5-years old in December and a little girl who is 3-years old in December. Our family moved from Lake City to High Point Neighborhood (last) January.

We moved to High Point because we really like the beautiful nature view in this neighborhood. Especially when we knew all houses here are built green, energy efficient and environmentally friendly.