March 3, 2026

Griffin helps Grandpa; Dad misses the first 10 days of university; I keep learning Japanese; Two Scenes from Thurman Street

From The Woods

Griffin came from Victoria, BC for a week-long visit. He pruned limbs off trees along our forest roads and split firewood. Dad LET him use his pruning saw and ceded the use of the splitter. And Dad let him borrow a pair of his Wild Ass Jeans.

People Older Than Trees

After Dad graduated from high school, he headed to work the Kansas wheat harvest for the second summer. He worked for a family headed by Teresa Boylen. When Dad talks about the trajectory of his life, he credits Teresa for getting him to go to the University of Missouri, where he’d been accepted. He was only 10 days late.

Teresa brought lunch out to the fields where Dad and her son Johnny were working.

I Want to Know More

I have been studying Japanese off and on since 1983. When I first started, dictionaries were 6 inches thick and everything had to be handwritten because typewriters big enough to handle the two, 50-symbol syllabaries, and 3000 kanji (Chinese characters) used to write Japanese were cumbersome. I’m not sure I even saw one.

Now, there are apps, websites, YouTube channels, podcasts—all dedicated to helping gajin learn Japanese. My favorite is Wanikani, a website that focuses on learning kanji. Yesterday, an unfamiliar phrase popped up in an example sentence. 三日坊主, mikkabouzu literally, "three-day monk” a phrase used to describe people who never finish what' they’ve started. The example sentence didn’t give me enough context (as a former language teacher, I would like to complain) so I asked Yoko for help. No matter all the apps, a human teacher is always best.

Stumptown

Two Scenes from NW Thurman Street

On Thursday, Tom came home from work and invited me outside to look at the moon with his binoculars. So cool. We could see the craters. Perspective.

Abby insists on going to the “the tiny store” each time she visits. Once inside, a tough decision must be made: Bumble gum? Reese’s Pieces? Starburst (the ones with pink wrappers)? Nutella with dipper-sticks? After she’s put her treat on the counter to be scanned, we walk as fast as we can to Wallace Park and rip it open.