All posts by Steven Gardner

So many stories of where we’ve been

Since October I’ve been fortunate to host storytelling events here in Bremerton. Over five months we did three at the Manette Saloon and since March, thanks to a partnership with the Friends of the Kitsap Regional Library Sylvan Way Branch, we’ve been going monthly at the Cloverleaf Sports Bar and Grill. At the bottom of this post I’ve left a few samples of what we’ve heard at the most recent two.

Screen Shot 2015-08-05 at 6.48.21 PMOn Thursday, in addition to hearing great stories around the theme, “The Great Outdoors,” the library will hand out something to prepare you for a special Story Night in October.

Each year the library hosts a monthlong event in October called “One Community, One Book.” The library’s program is designed to get the entire community reading a single book together.

This year’s book is “The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving,” by Bainbridge Island author Jonathan Evison.  In October Story Night will center on the themes found in the book. Over the next couple of months I’ll get a discussion going on those themes over at the Story Night main page under the Events tab, and on the Story Night Facebook page, which you should go “like” right away.

To prepare you for the One Community One Book event, on Thursday the library will hand out one copy of Evison’s book per household at Story Night. The idea is once you read it, pass it along to someone else. It’s a chance for members of the community to bond over a single story. I’m glad we can do our part.

I’m a believer in our stories. I wanted to start Story Night in some part because I wanted to get better at live storytelling. I’m not sure that has happened for me personally, but what has happened is I have managed to get connected to a part of our community I might not have otherwise known. We understand each other better through our stories. We find ourselves more willing to shed our judgment through our stories. We empathize. We don’t always agree, but we see someone we might have discounted as an enemy as a teacher. We relate in ways we didn’t know we could.

And we have fun.

Thursday’s event begins at 7 p.m. Most Story Nights are on the first Thursday of the month, but September’s will be on Sept. 2, the first Wednesday. Even our best storytellers have to cede the room to the Seahawks for a preseason game. The theme that night will be “Offended.”

Want a taste? The first story below was told at our June event by Alison Loris. The theme that night was “Advice,” and Alison told us a story about the advice she received from her former husband Jesse Bernstein, a Seattle poet and performer.

The second recording features two stories on the “Summer or temp jobs” theme from July. Scott Park explains the story behind why he wears long sleeves at work even on the hottest of days. Rosi Farley details the grueling work of laughing for pay.

 

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Obamanism, right here in Silverdale

As I envision our future together I look forward to the day when we’re both either shackled or lobotomized. I hope it’s just shackles, because I will desperately want to have the mental wherewithal to tell you “I told you so.”

Thanks to the eagle-eyed reporters at nesaranews.blogspot.com, we can confirm what only the most astute/paranoid suspected, that the new shopping mall in Silverdale will actually be used as a FEMA concentration camp. This news is not without its upside.

Unwitting, but highly skilled, workers build our future slave quarters.
Unwitting, but highly skilled, orange-shirt wearing construction dupes build our future slave quarters.

What Nesara News discovered was that many shopping malls are under construction with what appear to be decorative gun towers. Perhaps they’re not decorative at all. Our new mall, The Trails at Silverdale, doesn’t have any of those, but Nesara News astutely noticed that Central Kitsap Reporter reporter Chris Tucker used militaristic language to describe our newest retail complex. “The massive walls at the Trails at Silverdale construction site loom over the surrounding area as if it were a modern-day hilltop fortress.”

The site did not mention another fact from that story, that some of the walls are “25 feet taller than Kitsap Mall Boulevard.” As soon as someone explains to me what that means, I’m pretty sure I will be impressed.

Why we would need to be in concentration camps is unclear to ignorant dullards like me, but apparently Nesara News readers are in on a secret, that this next Christmas season is “a time that is not expected for things to be good here in the United States.”

This means this is not just happening here in Silverdale, and we are not alone  “Interestingly enough, and possibly just by ‘coincidence’, EVERY one of these shopping malls that will be opening in October of 2015 has characteristics of FEMA concentration camps including guard towers overlooking the properties and several of them LOOKING just like fortresses!” the site reports.

But again, it could just be a “coincidence.”

In Texas, as you undoubtedly already know if you click on any Facebook links, Wal-Marts are being prepared to house residents there when the federal government takes over what it already controls, as much as anything in Texas can be controlled. The Daily Sheeple has a report on that.

No word yet on how to reserve your space in Silverdale, and if you can you will want to, because It’s not all bad news. Kitsap Sun business reporter Tad Sooter is characteristically optimistic about the future. “I, for one, welcome our new retail overlords,” he said.

We here in Silverdale have a leg up over other fortressy shopping centers, because according to Nesara many of these malls have yet to announce any stores. People there might just be ushered into a mall with no tenants and will therefore be forced to live on government spray cheez and meat-flavored product. We, on the other hand, have already been privy to some of our new masters, and if you’re lucky enough to get a bunk in Silverdale your daily menu will include Chipotle and Blazing Onion.

We may be government slaves during the Obamanist indoctrination process, but we will eat well.

Note: Because so many people fall prey to stories like this, I feel it my journalistic duty to inform you that the story you see here is not entirely factual. Yes, it does appear on a blog sponsored by a reputable news source staffed by journalists of impeccable integrity, but this piece is intended to be satire, or something. If it turns out that the Trails at Silverdale does become a FEMA concentration camp, I probably won’t be around to apologize for my tone.

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Awaiting more of that fresh, tar smell in Silverdale

You have a week left to give a farewell to those pipes we all love under the Bucklin Hill bridge.
You have a week left to give a farewell to those pipes we all love under the Bucklin Hill bridge.

Mourn the loss of Bucklin Hill Road for a year beginning July 1. That’s next Wednesday until July 1.

As a Silverdale guy, I know construction lately. I was headed home the other night and that usually means Highway 303/Waaga Way to the Ridgetop exit. There was lane construction happening, but a sign said “Exit Open.”

It was not.

I had to go to Silverdale Way and backtrack. Given enough perspective it’s not that big a deal. Nothing is a big deal if you can find enough perspective, just like anything is within walking distance if you have enough time and sturdy shoes.

I love new roads. I love how my car feels new on them and how black and unsullied they love. I love the tar smell, even.

Bucklin Hill will be widened between the bridge and Mickelberry. The culvert from Clear Creek to Dyes Inlet under the bridge will be removed in favor of something more natural.

That means you’ll be left to find alternative paths, like Ridgetop, which I think we can all agree could use more traffic.

This shoud be a pretty sweet deal once its done after the new year but before we elect another president. You’ll have time to get in at least one more “Thanks, Obama” after it’s complete.

The county’s press release follows.

Continue reading →

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Officer faces second round with brain tumors

Doug Dillard is a name we’ve seen a lot here in the newsroom. With the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office for 30 years, Dillard was most recently was tasked with monitoring the county’s sex offenders. That also meant organizing meetings with residents when, as Josh Farley wrote, “Level 3 sex offenders change addresses.”

Now he’s got a different job, battling a brain tumor thought to have gone away 14 years ago.  According to GoFundMe page set up on his family’s behalf:

“Doug has an inoperable brain tumor called a glioblastoma . Brain cancers are extremely difficult to treat and glioblastomas are among the most aggressive tumors. Unfortunately, Doug’s is no different. His Neuro Oncologist has Doug on a treatment regimen that includes bi-weekly  infusions, daily anti-seizure therapy, and routine MRIs to monitor his brain tumor .”

Former Sheriff Steve Boyer wrote of a Dillard’s courage throughout his ordeal, saying that Dillard “never became victim,” when the tumor returned. He expressed admiration for Mary, Dillard’s wife, calling her “an angel.”

The GoFundMe page has a goal of raising $20,000 to help the family with expenses as Dillard goes through infusion treatments. “We want to show Doug how much we, and his community, love and support him,” the page’s author wrote. “We are saying, ‘Thank you for being an amazing husband, father, uncle, and friend. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your example.'”

On Friday the site passed the $4,000 mark.

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Orcas make a memorable visit

The big guy got close. Photo taken from video shot by Emilee Wright Fyffe.
The big guy got close. Photo taken from video shot by Emilee Wright Fyffe.

It was May 2002 I drove up from Camas, Wash. to interview here. Another reporter had already been picked for the job I was after, but the editors told me I’d likely be luckier in the summer. I didn’t know if I would want a job here, but I knew I wanted to want the job.

The drive in was beautiful until I hit Gorst and coming into 2002 Bremerton didn’t make me feel any better. The whole time, though, I knew there had to be something cool about this place for Money Magazine to have given it the label as the best place to live in America in the early 1990s.  During lunch on the deck at the Boat Shed we watched three eagles circling our side of the Manette Bridge, which for me was a positive development. What sealed it happened after I left the office. It was the ferry ride. Within about 2 minutes I told myself, “We have to live here.”

The other notion that fascinated me was the idea that on any given day I might be near water in which I could see orcas. I had been to Sea World in San Diego as a kid, back when most of us bought into the idea that zoos and ocean parks were good because it gave us a chance to see something we otherwise wouldn’t. It took about 30 years and one viewing of Free Willy to call that idea into question. I wanted to see orcas in the wild. This was the place.

My luck there has been spotty, but within three years I saw them twice, once in Silverdale and once on the ferry to Seattle when I was headed there for work to greet a veteran coming home on Christmas Day. Those were both distant and fleeting viewings. It took several more years to spot any more, and that was a good one. One day after work I heard the whales were in Bremerton and I drove to Bachmann Park, knowing that was their likely path out. I scored as I watched them pass all too quickly.

I don’t know that it can get any better than it was on Monday, though. We had family in town from Utah and decided to spend part of Memorial Day at Point No Point Park in Hansville. While I dozed off in a camp chair I heard my sister in law yell that there was a killer whale. It was a great scene out in the water as the whales headed south, then stopped in a spot for a while. We guessed they were feeding on salmon.

And then, like a miracle, one giant orca surfaced probably 50 feet from shore. The entire beach began to follow it then, and the visitor gave us one more view.

This is one of those times we’re not only lucky to live where we do, but when we do. I had left my phone in the car, but I was the only one. There were plenty of cameras pointed at the ocean to capture the action. My thanks to Emilee Wright Fyffe for sharing the video.

If you’re among those whose luck has not been this “amazing,” have faith that your day will come.

Enjoy the video. The first 1 minute 30 seconds was the kind of sighting I had always envisioned at Point No Point. I wasn’t counting on “amazing.” The big guy makes two appearances in the last part of the video to make that happen.

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An unsympathetic autobiography from a Klahowya grad

Screen Shot 2015-04-17 at 6.39.50 PMAbout two-thirds of the way through “Smoke: How a small-town girl accidentally wound up smuggling 7,000 pounds of marijuana with the Pot Princess of Beverly Hills,” 2004 Klahowya High School grad Meili Cady confesses:

“…I’d hung my last hope for happiness on my future with Ben. But I knew that he would leave me. If I’d had the choice, I’d leave me too. I couldn’t stand what I’d become. I was stuck with me and this bizarre, unbearable reality that was suffocating me.”

Having read the previous 186 pages, seeing Cady come to the conclusion, “I’d leave me, too,” might inspire you set the book down for a moment and, if you’re a demonstrative type, yell out, “You think?” Yelling at a book doesn’t count for normal activity in most settings, but page after page Cady gives you reason.

For the uninitiated, Cady moved to Los Angeles after high school to pursue her Hollywood acting dreams. Over the years she landed some screen work, but not a lot. Finding a friend was tough, too. A mutual friend introduced her to Lisette Lee, the “Pot Princess” in question.

The story of what happened over the next few years was first revealed in a 2012 Rolling Stone story, “The Gangster Princess of Beverly Hills.” That was the first time many of us were introduced to Cady, who was Lee’s unlikely friend. When we did our story on Cady I was somewhat sympathetic to her, because in five decades I can count a few times when I’ve done things despite my suspicions because I wanted to believe those suspicions were off base. Wanting to believe can be a real hazard.

Reading Cady’s own written version in “Smoke,” I was less sympathetic, and that might be a compliment to her. Cady tells us what happened, what she did, without much effort to justify it. It’s a gutsy move. It’s also the most accountable way to tell a story.

The book is a fast read, reveals much that you didn’t know from the earlier stories and could be the last we ever hear of this tale, unless Lee starts talking or there is a movie. I don’t know about Lee, but the movie is a real possibility.

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Another Kitsap crew runs in Boston

BostonCompactOn Monday 19 of our ambitious, dedicated and skilled friends will run the Boston Marathon. Bib No. 18775 is a friend of ours. Who you see here as Luz M. Rodriguez is someone my wife, Diana, and I know as Marcela.

We met Silverdale’s Marcela when she and Diana were teammates in a relay that runs essentially from the Canadian border in Blaine to somewhere on Whidbey Island. Those relays are a tough haul. Diana had to run two extra miles when she missed a turn. Marcela herself wasn’t sure she could tough out the last of three legs each runner agrees to run, but she did it, making it look like it was easy. Diana has since run the Portland Marathon and from what I can tell is not eager to run another one.

Marcela, on the other hand, set her sights on Boston some time ago. We’ve celebrated her progress. And since Boston is something you have to qualify for, we’ve been especially proud of her work. So has her home country of Chile. Marcela comes from the southern quarter of that country and on Friday was featured in her hometown paper. At the end of the story she’s telling anyone that if they want to, they should go after a goal like this one, repeating the Spanish version of the common English saying, “If I can do it, anyone can.”

The view from Chile of Silverdale's Luz Marcella Rodriguez.
The view from Chile of Silverdale’s Luz Marcela Rodriguez.

While I don’t agree that anyone can qualify for Boston, if it’s not a marathon that’s in your dreams, there is something. And in that sense, Marcela is right. If she can achieve this dream, you can achieve yours. I have a few things I dream of accomplishing, and finishing a marathon is one of them. Aside from the fact that it’s hard for anyone (Well, a few people make it look pretty easy.) to run 26.2 miles, for me to do it would prove that I had accomplished so much more. If you’ve met me, you know what I’m talking about. Any marathon would be my Boston.

So maybe that’s the question. What is your Boston?

Good look to all our Kitsap runners. Thanks for inspiring us to pursue our Bostons.

Note from Esteef: I tidied this thing up quite a bit since its initial publication.  I normally give these things at least another read or two before hitting the “publish” button, but it was late on Friday and I spent most of the week coughing, so I was tired and ready to go home. Had I read it at least one more time I might have noticed a few things that needed changing, including the fact that I misspelled Marcela’s name throughout. I also forgot to mention that of all the Spanish or Portuguese-speaking nations in the world, Chile is the best. It’s not even a close contest. Some of it is the dramatic variety in the nation’s landscape, going from the driest climate on Earth to a point where the next neighbor to the south is a penguin. It’s also got great beaches, mountains and enough earthquakes to satisfy even the thirstiest of thrill seekers. I hear the wine is quite good. The shellfish is excellent and plentiful , Chileans have perfected the art of dressing up a hot dog and the empenadas should be part of every death row inmate’s last meal as a testament to our compassion for even the most vile among us. The best parts of Chile are probably the Chileans, except for the one in charge when I lived down there. He was a jerk.

Anyway, all this to say that most American of explanations, “Mistakes were made.” 

 

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County offers Bucklin update website

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If you haven’t already heard that beginning July 1 Bucklin Hill Road is going to be closed for more than a year, I am posting this note on the off chance that you’ll find it out here. Though unlikely, it’s possible. If necessary, I’ll post it in an AOL chat room and more importantly on an Albertsons Haggen community bulletin board.

The more important news here, though, is the county has a website where you can get the latest on the project designed to deliver the bridge you see above. The county has set up a web domain BucklinHill.com, where you can see timelines, project history and a page dedicated to helping you plan your way around the closure.

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CK grad and Kitsap 12 represents at his home in Super Bowl country

Note: When I first posted these photos earlier in the week, I left out most of the details because I wasn’t sure if I might include Ashtin Fitzwater in the story about 12s going to Arizona without game tickets. I posted it early because other news agencies were already getting the photo out there and I didn’t want to be too far behind them.

So here is an expanded version of Wednesday’s post, with more information I had then, and updates, including one that’s humongous! And I don’t use that word or exclamation points liberally.

Central Kitsap High School grad (as well as Ridgetop Junior High School and Emerald Heights Elementary School) represents the 12s at his home in Chandler, Ariz.
Central Kitsap High School grad (as well as Ridgetop Junior High School and Emerald Heights Elementary School) Ashtin Fitzwater represents the 12s at his home in Chandler, Ariz.

Ashtin Fitzwater left the Northwest in 2004 following his graduation from Central Kitsap High School, but remains a 12, representing in his new hometown of Chandler, Ariz.

We first posted this Wednesday, but a lot has happened since.

Fitzwater took about five hours on a Saturday to paint the home he and his girlfriend rent from her mother. I was skeptical, and so was one of my editors, that a house could be painted in five hours, but Fitzwater has skills. He graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in housing and community development and has worked in construction since. “I’ve painted a lot of houses,” he said.

The Seahawk logo on the lawn was done by hand. He set himself up to do it well, applying math to the Seahawk logo from his construction helmet to measure out a 20-foot-by-7-foot rectangle with corners staked with rebar. (And you kids say math won’t help you in life.) He used string to create the box for the bird and went to work, looking at his helmet and spraying the lawn.

This week, as you can imagine, there has been a crush of media in Arizona, including lots from Seattle. KING-5 TV was, I think, the first media outlet to post pictures of Fitzwater and his house. Fitzwater’s brother, Jeremy Hunt, re-Tweeted a KING-5 photo and mentioned he’s a CK alum, so I got him on the phone. Since then, other Seattle news agencies have been by and the Fox affiliate in Phoenix paid attention. A Spokane station, KXLY, has given him the most attention, which we’ll get to shortly.

Fitzwater said he’s seen lots of people driving by to get a look. A neighbor counted 30 cars one day. One family came by and the mom had a Patriots jersey on, so the 12s that were with her had fun and put duct tape over her mouth and wrapped a Hawk flag around her as they took pictures. The mom was a willing victim, so save the nasty letters.

Yesterday when Fitzwater arrived home he found someone had left him a jumbo bag of Skittles. He set up a camera to see footage of people responding to the setting. A lot of people have taken selfies, some of them looking around nervously as if a house that’s begging for attention is also demanding privacy. One day Fitzwater heard a woman yelling “We found it!” to her friends. They’d been out scouring Chandler neighborhoods looking for the Seahawk house.

As Fitzwater and I were talking Friday a mailman stopped across the street to get a selfie with the house behind him.

And so it has gone, but that’s not the biggest news yet. Hunt is, as of this writing, traveling down to Arizona to watch the game with Fitzwater, but that’s not the biggest news either.

KXLY caught the big news, Fitzwater proposing to his girlfriend, Melissa Duke, at night as both are standing on the Seahawk logo. The two have been together eight years and have been talking about marriage. They’ve been talking about it so much, in fact, that Duke kept telling Fitzwater that he couldn’t surprise her.

She was wrong.

A friend asked Duke on a scale of 1-10 how surprised she was by the proposal.

Can you guess her answer?

Hint: She’s a Seahawk fan, too.

Second hint: Look to the roof of the house, or any car with a flag waving anywhere near Seattle.

Standing behind them in the KXLY video were a pair of friends, Adam Collins (also a 2004 Central Kitsap High School grad) and Christina Adams. They’ve been engaged two years and have been having trouble figuring out where to get married and what kind of arrangements to make. According to Fitzwater they now plan to get married Sunday morning, on the Seahawk lawn.

Duke, for her part, has always dreamed of a destination wedding, so she and Fitzwater are beginning to make their plans for sometime in the future.

My suggestion: San Francisco, early February 2016. If all goes well they could be there to witness the birth of the Three-Hawks.

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NK School Board to pick new board member on election night

The North Kitsap School Board is scheduled to meet Monday evening in executive session to review the applications for the vacant position on the board.

The board is expected to make its selection Tuesday evening, election night.

The District 2 opening happened when Dan Weedin resigned from the board in early October.

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