Airport Way

Always looking for a new walking route, I drove down to the north end of Boeing Field this morning and walked back south along Airport Way. I weaved back and forth between the sidewalk along the main road and the Perimeter Road closer to the airstrip. In all these years of driving that route, I didn't realize the sidewalk ends not far south of the King County Airport Terminal, and I ended up walking along the grass median when the occasional vehicle drove by along that stretch. I covered the 1.6 miles I walked, as far as the Clay Lacy Aviation, in 22 minutes, one way. Looking at the photo below, I walked from the word "Way" in the upper left hand corner, down to the orange balloon "A". My guess is that I could walk the perimeter of the whole airport in an hour and a half?, at a comfortable pace. I'll do that as soon as I catch up on a few of my other projects I have going right now. I'm trying to limit my walking times to 45 minutes now.

lunch-bucket war

“Whatever their fond sentiments for men and women in uniform, for most Americans the war remains an abstraction — a distant and unpleasant series of news items that does not affect them personally,”
- Defense Secretary Robert Gates

I remember being back on campus at UW after my return from Vietnam, and thinking it's nothing but a "lunch-bucket war". It's just something people talked about over lunch, or we watched on Walter Kronkite's nightly updates on TV. The "Nothing is Real" sentiment I felt over there just evolved into another form of no feeling?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013030661_apususgates.html

thank you GM Engineers

I changed one of my Chevy Cobalt's headlight's yesterday, after a few weeks of procrastination. Hate is a strong word, but I've hated working on cars ever since I was 16. I remember lying on our gravel driveway back then, under my 1950 Desoto, and changing it's transmission. I remember grease, and I remember the cuts on my hands, and I remember cursing, and I remember success. I had two '50 Desotos, and I traded parts back and forth between them when things broke down.
Anyway, I had to go on YouTube yesterday in order to figure out how to get to my Cobalt's headlight bulb.
From one of those Videos:
"a lot of people seem to have trouble removing the headlights on a Cobalt..." "mainly due to their design - thank you GM Engineers..."

water

After looking at the boater on the Duwamish photo, from yesterday, I decided to plug in a few more of my Water photos:

I checked out the "The Black River Riparian Forest" and Wetland yesterday. That was the sign I noticed when I was on my walk last Thursday.
It's a swampy wildlife refuge, with lots of birds and other critters, and I when I came out at the other end I discovered more walking and bicycle paths.


The Springbrook Trail followed some small creeks/channels of the King County Water Dept, and they merged with trails leading up to the Waterworks Park I visited on other walks.
Musty and damp, the sound of rain drops on the leaves...and then these wonderful works of art: small gardens and sitting areas, ponds with pebble and mosaic designs.






Today I walked down by the Duwamish, by the UPS and Boeing buildings.

today's Donnesbury cartoon, from his Buffet and Gates series, with them trying to recruit other rich people to give away half of their money...



from yesterday



Slate's "Daily Dose" has Donnesbury every day:
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20100925

I had a nice walk this morning, a little under one hour, and a route I've been wanting to try for a long time. From the upper left hand corner of the Google Earth photo below, there's a road that angles down right between the road names Maule Ave and Maule Ave S. I parked at the end of that road, and started walking S, over the Green River Trail bridge at the N end of Ft Dent Park. Instead of walking through the park, I cut E, under the train tracks and down Monster Rd SW (nice name, eh?) until it cuts back S over the hill where I took photos of a water works park awhile back. I then walked over the Grady Way railroad overpass and back through Ft Dent to my car.
I might have found another walk as well. There was a sign across from where I cut up the hill that said Black River something park. I'll drive over there and explore that tomorrow.


This photo is from yesterday, when there were some wonderful clouds and blue sky...

busy busy

I've been so busy lately, but it's been good busy...
Here's a few photo's from this morning's walk. I hope to upload more photos, etc, soon.

morning sun leaf

look close, or mouse click for larger image

What a Ride!!!

Number One again!

Seattle Storm wins the WNBA Championship!!!!

The Storm swept the Atlanta Dream with Game 3 tonight, to win their second Championship since 2004. Go Storm!!

Squak Mountain mist 2

I told Mike at one point, when we were walking through the mist and taking photographs, "some times I get this feeling - I'm getting some good shots!"
Yesterday was one of those days.
Usually when I sit down to edit photos on my computer, it's easy to choose which ones to Copy for editing. Some days, they're all throw aways. Not with this bunch.
Not that the ones I chose to post here are spectacular, but it was just so cool and enjoyable...and hopefully they capture a little of what we saw.

Squak Mountain in the mist

Squak Mountain in the mist, a very nice hike with Mike yesterday. Mike posted this video on YouTube, and some nice photos. I'm hoping to post some here also, later today.

Major engineering feat

I just moved this humongous old TV to the top of our bedroom dresser. I first dragged it into the bedroom using a blanket on the floor (whatever works), and then I got Nate's help to get it up onto a 33" high stand. After I drove Nate to school, I started the "ASCENT".





One brick/board at a time, and after one hour or so, and a lot of strategizing and panting, and positive thinking, voila!
We're getting a flat screen LCD TV for the LR that's 20" larger, and I can carry it all by myself!

T.G.I. Friday's in Afghanistan

"Though far from the front lines, KAF residents endure frequent rocket attacks that rarely cause casualties but force everyone — including patrons of T.G.I. Friday's — to hit the ground whenever the alarm sounds."
"For the most part, though, base life is monotonous."

These words reminded me of my last 5 months in Vietnam. The seemingly daily (nightly) rocket attacks very seldom caused casualties. They were mostly a kind of psychological harassment, coming in the middle of the night, just to disturb those of us who were trying to sleep?

I remember how we were monitoring radio communications of the VC, and being called to formations during the day where the Sergeant Major would announce "expect Incoming at 2am". Sure enough, the sirens would wake us up around 2am, and we would go through our ritual of putting on our flak jackets, grabbing our weapons, and running to the bunkers.
Hearing the sirens was better than hearing the sound of a "whump!" (a rocket hitting close by.) Even the the whistling sounds of rockets flying by overhead were ok, better than the "whump!" sound.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012827485_afghanbase07.html

"You have Diana, and we don't care."

My favorite sign, held up by a Storm fan who flew down for the game in Phoenix.

Sue Bird Hits Game Winning Shot - Storm Beat Mercury 91-88

Seattle Storm!!!

19 points down in the 3rd, and came back to win!! On to the Finals!!

building warmth

It was a gray, drizzly morning yesterday, with lots of grays and greens. Until I looked over at an office building office I was walking by, and there was this warm sort of bronze golden glow coming out from the ground level. Out came my camera.

Labor Day and factory work

I remember waking up every single night in pain (shoulder and back) for a full 9 months after I retired from the Bakery.

A good article from today's Parade.com/views - The Place My Father Didn't Want Me to See, by Connie Schultz:

http://www.parade.com/news/backpage/connie-schultz/100905-the-place-my-father-didnt-want-me-to-see.html

Sort of a blah picture, but this is why I like to walk in the mornings - the richer colors and angles of the early morning sun, the wonderful shadows and dark/light contrasts, the freshness...


more of the same




the following photos are from the past two mornings

Not being a fisherman, I was surprised when I rounded a corner and saw all of these fishermen out there.



I was thinking "nobody is catching anything" as I approached the bridge, and I saw this huge salmon? leap out of the water - this photo shows the fading circles of water rings it left when it jumped...
ps - I checked with my brother-in-law Bob, our family fisherman, and "they're silvers" (salmon)



the water level was very low, as seen here with the brown water line, and the newly exposed trees and branches across the way



and a few more

"Exercise your brain"

- something I've told Nathan ever since Kindergarten, when I dropped him off at school in the morning. I forgot this morning, his first day of High School. Oh well.

Central Visayas video