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Montecito Post Debris Flow

GRATITUDE and RESILIENCY— MFD Pancake Breakfast

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The Montecito Fire Department’s Annual Pancake Breakfast had special meaning in 2018 folliowing the devastating and tragic January 9, 2018 debris-flow. We are grateful for the courageous and unselfish service provided  by all Montecito Fire Department personnel. Stan and Phyllis

 

Photojounalism

What Does Yassi Eskandari-Qajar Have In Common With Abe Lincoln and Justice Robert H. Jackson?

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Judge Thomas Anderle’s private chambers door to Department 3 of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. On very short notice, Judge Anderle and his secretary, Marilyn, agreed to conduct a swearing in of a local woman who passed the bar last November on her first attempt. Yassi Escandari-Qajar attended SB High, SBCC and later graduated from UC Berkeley in Environmental Studies. (©Stan Roden)
Judge Anderle gets to know Yassi’s background and history. (©Stan Roden)
Inside the chambers of Judge Anderle are the family of Yassi Eskandari-Qajar watiing for the judge to swear their daughter in as a member of the State Bar of California. From left, brother, Amir; father Manou, mother Fariba and Yassi’s friend, Steven Lybeck. (©Stan Roden)
Yassi takes the oath of the State Bar of California from Judge Anderle. He called special attention to a new line added to the oath in 2014, “”As an officer of the court, I will strive to conduct myself at all times with dignity, courtesy, and integrity.” (©Stan Roden)
Jedge Anderle walked Yassi and the family into the courtroom. He put Yassi into his chair on the bench and gave her and her family a personal tour of the courtoom. (©Stan Roden)
Judge Anderle encouraged Yassi to consider applying for a judgship later in her career. (©Stan Roden)
Yassi looks on while Judge Anderle’s explains some of the intracacies of the court process. (©Stan Roden)
Judge Anderle explains that the railing between the audience and offical personnel is referred to as “the bar,” through which only official sworn members of the State Bar are allowed to cross and address the courts on behalf of others. (©Stan Roden)
Judge Anderle shakes Yassi’s hand, as she displays the signed State Bar oath certificate. (©Stan Roden)
Judge Anderle looks on with visible admiration after Yassi told him that she did not attend law school. Like Abe Lincoln and many others in the 19th and early 20th centuries, e.g., Justice Robert H. Jackson, USSCT,  Yassi participated in an apprentiship program instead of law school. For four years, Yassi worked and studied at the Sustainable Economies Law Center, Oakland, Calif. This program qualfied her to sit for the bar examiantion in July 2017. She was one of only 49.6% who passed the July bar. The judge made a special point to say that in all of his 21 years on the bench, she was the first that he had the honor to administer the oath to who did not attend law school. He said he couldn’t wait to tell his tennis buddies, Don Boden (a former Superior Court Judge) and Judge Bruce Dodds (retired). (©Stan Roden)
Yassi gets a quick lesson from the judge on how to properly wield a judge’s gavel. (©Stan Roden)

 

 

 

Photojounalism

Jim Connors: A Good Guy With An Iron Will

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Before dawn on Thursday, April 12, 2018, Jim Connors, age 63, makes his way slowly to enter the code at the front gate of Sea Meadow, a homeowner’s association in Montecito, Calif. Connors has serviced the pool and spa at Sea Meadow since it was constructed in 1990. For over 20 years Connors owned and operated a thriving pool service business, during which he serviced over 60 accounts a week, including many of the large, fabled Montecito estates, which earned him a comfortable six-figure income. ln 2014 he underwent what he thought was routine lower back surgery to deal with chronic back problems. His condition resulted in part from a nearly fatal 1978 car accident that landed him in the hospital for six weeks. During surgery, Connors says the surgeon “nicked his spinal cord,” resulting in severe nerve damage, chronic back and leg pain and daily use of potent opioid medications to control the pain. Connors condition forced him to relinquish all of his pool and spa service accounts, except for the one at Sea Meadow. (©Stan Roden)
Jim Connors hauls his pool/spa leaf skimmer tool on Monday, April 9, 2018, at the Sea Meadow homeowner’s association pool, Montecito, Calif. In spite of his physical limitations and constant pain–Connors rarely sleeps more than two to three hours a night– he services the Sea Meadow account three or four days a week, depending on the weather, wind and intensity of pool and spa use. Connors’ duties include maintenance of the mechanical heating and related equipment, measuring and correcting levels of disinfecting chemicals, and most arduous of all, clearing out loose debris, including piles of leaves from nearby trees and sand imported by users coming from nearby Hammond’s beach. (©Stan Roden)
Jim Connors, single and living alone, regularly breakfasts at local Santa Barbara eateries. An immensely likeable, easygoing and gregarious person by nature, Connors chats with Javier Santana, a longtime employee of the Cajun Kitchen on Tuesday, April 10, 2018, downtown Santa Barbara, Calif. On the way out of the restaurant, Connors chatted with another Cajun Kitchen employee and later with a regular customer. (©Stan Roden)
Slowly and painfully, Jim Connors lowers himself to the floor of his home late on the morning of Tuesday, April 10, in Santa Barbara, Calif. Connors rarely sleeps in his bed because he cannot find a comfortable position, even with his potent opioid regime for chronic back and leg pain. Just about every day and often many nights, Connors finds some respite from his pain by placing his back flat on the carpet with his knees bent and feet flat on the floor. It takes him a long time to get down on the floor and an even longer time to get up, which presents a challenge unless there is some object nearby that will support him as he grabs and holds, grabs and holds a few times until ever so slowly, he pulls himself to his feet. (©Stan Roden)
On Wednesday morning, April 4, 2018, Jim Conners makes his way up the ramp early in the morning to the Muller Aquatic Center, Santa Barbara, Calif. Connors regularly uses the 91 degree aquatic rehabilitation therapy pool to relieve the chronic pain in his lower back and legs. Connors says, “When I’m in the pool, this is just about the only time when I am able to move with relatively little pain.” (©Stan Roden)
For the last seven years, Jim Connors’ only form of outdoor exercise is an occasional bike ride. Connors rides around the West Beach parking lot on Monday afternoon, April 23, 2018, Santa Barbara, Calif. Connors, a Santa Barbara native, centered most of his youthful and adult physical activities around surfing and his love of the ocean. In the late 1970s he was enrolled in Santa Barbara City College Marine Diving and Technology program. In his teens, he was a member of the Santa Barbara Surfing Club, whose members included many of the sport’s legendary names, such as surfboard maker Renny Yater. Connors accepts the extreme risk he takes riding his bike, for if he falls it is virtually impossible for him to get up without assistance. When asked how long he will continue to ride his bike, he says with a big smile, “As long as I can.” When asked how long he will continue to service the pool and spa at Sea Meadow, he says, “As long as I can do a good jobl and as long as they will have me.” (©Stan Roden)
Santa Barbara Impact Players

REFLECTIONS- ELIZABETH (BETS) WIENECKE (1936-2017)

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After becoming nearly totally incapacitated from arthritis, Bets in consultation with her husband Peter Haslund, family and doctor, entered into hospice care on Nov. 18, 2017. She passed on Dec. 28.
We interviewed Bets on Dec. 4.
She  talked to as us with the same clarity,  frankness and intelligence that marked her remarkable life and career. This video exhibits Bets’ unconditional  love, courage, openness and honesty, all peppered with  loads of wisdom and good humor, not to mention reverence and irreverence in equal measure.
Stan Roden and Phyllis de Picciotto