Why not to use flash on little dogs

Here is a perfect example of why I shouldn't have used the flash to take a picture of my little Jerry. He looks like he has X-ray vision or could be an extra in a B movie. I'll have to learn how to correct that but today isn't the day for it.

I've been flocked

The first things I saw this morning when I came down the stairs to take the little dog for a walk were pink flamingoes. They weren't a total surprise, I had asked to be flocked (this is the way the youth group of our church raises funds during the summer) rather than having the flamingoes planted in somebody else's yard. I just didn't expect them to show up so soon. I'd only made the arrangement by phone last night.

There was a nasty letter to the newspaper editor in the paper last summer, somebody rather grumpy thought it was a horrible idea. But I like it. It involves no calories, I don't have to buy things I have no use for, I get to support a great group of young people and I find it tremendously amusing. Maybe I should have them decorate the rest of my yard. Or, maybe not :-)

Goodies :-)

My daughter is visiting from S CA and brought some box bags she made. The bright red one has my name on it but I like the others as well. Giving me a choice is never really a good idea :-)

She also brought a whole bag full of scraps for my new obsession - those little Dotee dolls. Not that I need any more fabric. Many years of quilting have left me with a huge stash. But, it's always nice to use fabrics somebody else has chosen.

Raise the Rail - Save a Life

The link to this site was buried in one of my previous posts. It was put up by the Whitmer family who lost their youngest son Matthew in November 2007. He is believed to have jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge, but his body has never been found. That is not unusual, the tide under the bridge is very strong.
This petition will be passed on to the Golden Gate Bridge Authority. There still is too much opposition.
Please consider signing the petition. Thank you!

The Bridge Authority Open House

Yesterday, we attended the first open house the Golden Gate Bridge Authority held in San Rafael so the public could see pictures of the proposed designs for the various suicide barriers, vote on computers set up specifically for this purpose and talk to bridge officials. I didn't do the latter, that's something I still have to work up to. Nevermind that the reporter (yes, I talked to the press even though I was determined not to) from the Chronicle called us activists (her word, not ours) in her article, I'm much too new at this sort of thing to go up to total strangers.
One of the fathers who lost his only child, a daughter of 17, in January did work the room very well. He talked to just about every official and I hope at the next meeting I'll be able to do something along those lines.

We were supposed to wear nametags (and a few of us did) to put a human face to the losses. I spent quite a lot of time on mine - cutting and pasting (and I mean scisscors and tape).

I did, however, introduce myself to several people at the meeting, but they were all "good guys," people from the Bridge Rail Foundation, the police captain who is in charge of patrols on the bridge and quite a few other survivors. I also got to meet Kevin Hines, one of the less than 2% who have jumped and survived.

Going to the meeting was very much a last minute decision but I am glad we went. Now I can put faces to names I knew from newsletters, emails and through facebook. I got to meet the man who does a lot of the PR for the group; Ken Holmes, the Marin County Coroner (who is a very outspoken proponent of a barrier), and several other parents who have lost their children. Unlike us, though, the bodies of their children haven't been found and their losses are much newer than ours and it was heartbreaking talking to them. Just like us, they are trying to do what they can to prevent what happened to us from happening to others.

If you have already voted for a suicide barrier, thank you very much.
If you haven't had a chance to, please, please consider doing so. It would mean so much to us (and many other survivors). The opposition is still fierce but there is very compelling evidence that a barrier will prevent suicides on the bridge.
So, please take a few minutes to look over the various designs:

https://www.commentmgr.com/projects/1181/docs/Alts-withLabels.pdf

and then vote (and, please, don't vote for "no change"):

Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Deterrent Barrier

You are asked to leave comments on every design, not necessary. A comment to the effect that lives are more important than a pretty view or something along those lines is enough.

Thank you.

The Urge to End It All

This is an article that appeared in the New York Times on July 6 and I finally read it - pencil in hand to underline the important bits. It's recommended reading for those of us with an interest in having a suicide barrier built on the Golden Gate Bridge, especially if we are going to the Open Houses today and tomorrow (I'm only going once) to possibly talk with bridge officials. I draw the line at talking to the press.

I have done quite a bit of reading about suicide over the past 14 months, but found things in this article I didn't know yet (everybody studying suicide has a different theory about the "why" and different opinions on predictability and whether anything can be done about it).

This article concentrated on impulsive suicides which tend to be more deadly than those that are premeditated. I didn't know that, but I did know that jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the deadliest forms of suicide: less than 2% of jumpers survive. Gunshots are 85-92% fatal, overdoses, poisonings even less so. Couldn't find numbers on hangings, the most common form in Germany (my father was a homicide detective and cut plenty of people out of trees).
Of special interest was the study by Richard Seiden, a professor at UC Berkeley who found that of the 515 people who were prevented from jumping between 1937 and 1971, only 6% went on to take their lives.

Anyway, enough editorializing, I highly recommend reading this article and, just in case the link in the title doesn't work, here it is again:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Making dolls

I took a break today from "have to's" and made a little doll á la Dot Christian - My life, my values, my art.... She has a tutorial on her site for making these cute, little dolls.

I didn't really know what I wanted her to look like, just played. And, wouldn't you know?, even with all the beads I have, I still don't have the exact right ones.