The naming ceremony

Well, it's official.

Soher--salsa dancer

& executive director

Eight One World Futbols have been christened with calligraphy just before their trip to Quito, Ecuador. The ceremony took place at 10:30 a.m. Monday morning at the  Overlake Terrace Retirement Community in Redmond. Arranging the ceremony was Soher Bishal, a salsa dancer who daylights as the center's executive director. The ceremony was open to the residents, and a small, quite interesting group showed up. It's amazing the stories you can hear about the lives of people in these centers.



The three resident/witnesses were Sharon Linder-Smith, a retired school counselor whose duties involved helping families with drug problems; Margaret Kuhn, a German import who spent 20 years as a midwife (and helped deliver as many as six babies one night); and Ramon Burge, who had the quite unusual job of outfitting backpacks for the lunar surface. That's right -- he outfitted astronauts. Or in this particular case, lunar-nauts.

Water is heavy, Ramon observed. So instead of hauling a whole lot of it into space, you simply take a little and recycle it. And you know what that means. Some of the purest water those astronauts ever drank was produced after being collected in those backpacks, he said.

It's not easy performing calligraphy on a round surface, but K.C. was up to the task.

Performing the Calligraphy was K.C. Baillargeon (the initials stand for Katherine Cecile). K.C. is a staffer of the retirement community who has Spanish, Irish and French roots, as well as a steady hand with a felt marker.

One-by-one K.C. carefully inked the names submitted by donors: Ganador (winner), Carmen, Suri, Atoc, Pato (Duck), José, Júbilo (Joy), and Ben. Ben was named for the son of peace activist Joe Colgan, who died in the line of duty in Baghdad. I, Wilson and Wilson's relatives met Joe at the Seattle federal building during our walking Marathon. Suri and Atoc are Quechua names: Suri for "fast as an ostrich" and Atoc for "sly as a fox."

There are some remaining names that were suggested and held in abeyance. Those will be "calligraphed" onto futbols destined for Tijuana in May.

The calligrapher and the witnesses. From the left, K.C., Margaret, Sharon and Ramon.

Epilog:  Wilson, I and the kids got some coverage from the Capitol Hill Times. Read "The Lone Marathoner," at http://www.capitolhilltimes.com/2015/03/the-lone-marathoner/. Of course, that bit about the Lone Marathoner is somewhat misleading. Like the song says, "hike on, hike on, packin' nine soccer balls and you'll never hike alone, no, you'll neeevvvveeerrrrr hike ahhhhh-loooooooone." Something like that.

On Wednesday, Team Wilson flies out of Sea-Tac Airport for Quito, Ecuador. Tomorrow will be time for me to take my altitude meds. The air is gonna be thin in Quito.

Love,
Robert,
Wilson,

And Ganador, Carmen, Suri, Atoc, Pato, José, Júbilo, and Ben.