Bussing Marilyn

Westlake Station

103 degrees in Seattle?!

The Seattle Times building sign today -

and the headline was "Temperature shatters record" -

"Temperatures soared into three digits around Western Washington early this afternoon, hitting a record 103 at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport by 5 p.m." Is this really Seattle? The official record, registered out at Seatac Airport, was 103 degrees (39.5 degrees Celsius?) Whew!

for Sports fans

My favorite from this morning's "Sideline Chatter" sports column in the Seattle Times:

"And from Mike Penner of the L.A. Times: 'If David Beckham goes into the stands after a heckling fan, does that count toward total game attendance?'

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sidelinechatter/2009554645_chat29.html

Now Playing Everywhere!

Just sort of "getting my toes wet" with Facebook right now, for 'Friends' only, and I clicked on this name suggested as a 'friend' -

this individual "only shares certain information with everyone"

Everyone? That's a lot of people!

Reminds me of the advertisement for a Clint Eastwood movie - "now playing EVERYWHERE!"

Everywhere is a lot of places!!

Doonesbury's cartoon today

http://www.uclick.com/client/sea/db/

Doonesbury's cartoon today, one of the few I look at each day, deals with a GI who decides to "re-up" because she misses the experience? of being in Afganistan.

It jogged a memory/realization for me. For many years after my return from Vietnam and getting out of the Army, I had these dreams that I re-upped. God, nigthmares I guess, because I didn't even remember them during my waking hours other than these little flashes of images. Whew! They kept coming back for around 10 years or so.

my favorite radio station right now

http://www.kixi.com/listenlive/

My favorite radio station right now, along with Classical King FM, and NPR. Shows my age I guess, covering mostly the 50s and 60s. I chose the "Silverlight" player download option, and I like it.

"work", and "retirement"

I had an Aunt who once told me "I don't know how I found time to go to work before!" She was enjoying her retirement so much!

I also remember from my working days co-workers telling me why they were putting off their retirement - "what would I do? I would get bored."

WHAT?!!

My list of "to-dos" (things I want to do), things I had dreamt about during those "working class hero" years, my list of "to-dos" had grown so much that I would be going until I was 150 years old.

It's sometimes difficult to fall asleep at night, I am so excited about getting up again and starting a new day...

my excellent mini-adventure

Saturday morning, Nathan was still sleeping, and Inday called saying she had Overtime at work. So what was a guy to do?

Go ride the new Link Rail!

"The early bird gets the worm", even on weekend days when there's a Sounders soccer game at Qwest Field at noon, and they're getting set up for the Seafair Parade downtown tonight. At 9:15am, I parked in the free main Park n'Ride lot near the entrance to Tukwila Station. There were only 20-30 cars. When my return train pulled back in at 11:15am, the lot was full, and the second lot across the street was filling up fast. The first platform, where I had walked right up and purchased my ticket 2 hours earlier, was filled with curling lines of people. The line was just then reaching back to the top of the escalators and stairs.

My infatuation with our new LRT reminds me of my first airplane ride. 17 years old, and I flew down to Portland, a 30 minute flight, to buy clothes for my first year of college. It was a very big deal for me. And I took 24 photos of the airplane wing in clouds!

At the Tukwila Station, I didn't get to use my nifty ORCA card because the computer system hadn't updated the money upload I did online just before leaving. What was cool though, was that I could add money to the card at the machine, so I tacked on another $5. This way I could still use the card for the day's trip. I put in a $20 bill, and I got a whole bunch of gold colored Sacagawea coins back. I felt like I was in Vegas!

My plan was to get some breakfast at Lowell's (Pike Place Market), where Tom Hanks and Rob Reiner had coffee together in "Sleepless in Seattle", but I didn't count on the gazillion tourists and early Seafair parade? people. Busy busy, so I just got a few things, and I stopped to listen to this wonderful old Asian guy playing this chinese sounding string instrument. I got some video, and put in some money. I'll try to upload it later.

The ride itself was wonderful. It's amazing to me how much one's perspective is changed by moving along a storey or two above the ground and looking down at the houses, streets, people, cars... And I wonder at our future view in Cebu, 16 floors up. Wow!

More later, in future posts.

Mt Si trail...up and up


Mt Si Mist 1


Mt Si Mist 2


Mt Si today with Andrea: success! (Note - we did "Little Si" on Tuesday, and it was a good warm-up hike.) Mt Si is the bigger, more established trail. Two hours to the top was our goal, and we made it in an hour and 50 minutes.
I won't say that Little Si on Tuesday was "a piece of cake", but...
Mt Si was UP, up, and more up. The trail was mostly incline, with very few level spots, but oh the exhilaration!, and the views, once we reached the top. I do understand what I heard about people using this hike to prepare for Mt Rainier. "To make it up in 1 hr 58 minutes with a full pack"? Something like that.
The last part before you reach the top is nothing but rock. There's a Forest Service sign about the "Snoqulamie Viewpoint" and the "Haystack Scramble" with more Up arrows, and the words "Use Extreme Caution".
We're already planning more hikes, and I'm sifting through my memories of our favorite ocean hikes, Crest Trail, Carbon Glacier, the Olympics...

barbells

I'm going to hurt my arm here, patting myself on the back, but I decided to be functional today and combine my morning walk with some errands. I parked in the Costco parking lot and walked up the Green River trail, across the bridge to the W. Valley Highway, and back north to the Gai's Bakery outlet store. Got in my 30-45 minute walk, and then finished off by doing my Costco shopping just after they opened at 10am.
One thing I didn't think about though was to bring a little backpack. I probably looked a little silly though walking down the Valley Highway, hoisting these 2 lb grocery bags up to my shoulders and back down, alternating between my right and left arms. Like little barbells.

snake skin

Andrea, my daughter, and I are going to do the Mt Si hike tomorrow morning. I'm pumped. I haven't done any real hiking in forever!
The last time I remember doing Mt Si was when Colbert and I hiked up to check on one of his "Pyramid"s, from the year before. From his phase where we went to different places in Washington and built pyramids out of rocks and stone, drank a little wine, and generally had an "artistically" fun time. Anyway, we found his pyramid (this one about 4 feet high), a little worse for wear, with a few rocks and stones that had fallen or been knocked off. But right on one side was this wonderful snake skin. A snake had slithered up onto Jim's pyramid and had shed it's skin. Cool.
--------------------------
from my "Wednesday, February 4, 2009 Jim Colbert" post towards the bottom of this page:

Jim Colbert, the left saxophone player in the Title photo...1946-2007
6
we miss him every minute of every day...

http://www.artnet.com/Galleries/Artists_detail.asp?G=&gid=906&which=&aid=25774&ViewArtistBy=online&rta=http://www.artnet.com7

"downtown" on an early Sunday morning

the "downtown"s in many American cities on an early Sunday morning...

fresh and clean feeling
after a good night's sleep
but where are the people?

ps -Ironically, I drove my car into downtown Seattle this morning, and bussed back home. My wife and I are taking the new Light Rail into downtown with this second day of the Grand Opening. But then we want to go to the "Bite of Seattle" festival which is also happening. For the food and music. We can stay later if we choose.

Seattle Light Rail Grand Opening

Today is the grand opening for Seattle's new Light Rail! I might try it this morning solo, and tomorrow Inday, Nate and I are going to make a day of it. Might just hop on the monorail at Westlake Station and go over to the Seattle Bite festival too. Nice weather, and good food, music...
I'll post a few Rail links I found on Youtube this morning.
I'll have some of my own photos and video in the next week or two.
cr
ps - the first one shows part of my walking route along the Green River, at the video's 2:10 mark...

but is it Art?

boxes

"Walking Box"


Lady Box


Box of Charms 1


Box of Charms 2


Box of Charms 3


Creature Box


miscellaneous boxes


boxes on rocks



"Head and shoulders"

"the gift of surrender"

etching


plastic resin


collage


"Lifer"



landscape

self portraits

marquetry mirror self portrait

paintings...

"John Lennon"

"Adding Machine"


"Chair"


"Lifer"
An interesting story with this painting - acrylic, which dries very fast - painted while I was in the Army stationed overseas. I put the canvas up on top of my locker when I stopped painting this first session. The next evening, when I pulled it down to work on it, I decided that the painting had been "finished" - by some rat(s) who walked all over it. If you click on this image, you can see all kinds of multicolored rat prints...


Landscape


Dennis Hopper, from "Easy Rider" - the photo, another story...
Attention, family and friends, I can't locate this canvas. Do one of you have it?


Woman

photos, some old, some very old, and some new...

"Lines"


"Lion bench in Park"


"Bridge in park"


Nate's missing tooth


bamboo


Buddha statues


snow car


Corona del Mar


cousins at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair


"goggles"


Nathan's eye


"reaching for the sun"


"Sagwa in the Christmas tree"


tree face


scary halloween