My car was overdue for a wash, and got one at long last.
I had the place all to myself for a while.
Friday night at Uncle Ike’s car wash 💦
Saturday/ apartments with art 🎨
I frequently drive by the newly completed Midtown apartments on (23rd Ave. in Central District) with its colorful exterior and artwork.
Today I checked it out a little closer, on foot.
The images on the panels were created by photographer/ artist Adam Jabari Jefferson.
The artist is Barry Johnson.
Edwin T. Pratt (1930 – 1969) was an American activist during the Civil Rights Movement. He was assassinated at his home in Shoreline, WA in Jan. 1969. At the time of his assassination in 1969, he was Executive Director of the Seattle Urban League. His murder is still unsolved.
DeCharlene Willians (1942-2018) was a legendary owner of a Central Area boutique, who also founded the Seattle neighborhood’s chamber of commerce.
The artist is Central District native Myron Curry.
Langston Hughes (1901-1968) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. (The Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute is a cultural, community, and artistic center in the Central District).
The artist is Central District native Myron Curry.
Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) was a musician, singer, and songwriter and a Seattle native.
Ernestine Anderson (1928-2016) was an American jazz and blues singer. Her family moved to Seattle when she was 16.
The artist is Central District native Myron Curry.
The artist is Takiyah Ward.
Wednesday/ the Sounders make history
Seattle Sounders FC made history tonight by becoming the first Major League Soccer team (team from the United States or Canada, that is) to win a Concacaf* Champions League title.
*The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, founded in 1961, one of FIFA’s six continental governing bodies for association football (soccer).
The Sounders beat the Pumas UNAM (based in Mexico City) by 3-0 in front of a record home-crowd of 67,000 at Lumen Field. The weather played along, as well: a high of 65 °F/ 18 °C today before it starts raining on and off for the next several days.
[Picture Credit: Getty Images]
Saturday/ it’s not orange; it’s galaxy gold 💫
My mission for the afternoon was to get a few pictures of the Space Needle. It is again painted in galaxy gold for its 60th anniversary— the way it had been for its debut at the Seattle World’s Fair in April 1962.
I even drove up Queen Anne Hill to Kerry Park, to get the classic skyline-with-Space Needle picture.
The Davenport Apartments building is posted here as a ‘Find the Space Needle’ puzzle. (Part of the Space Needle appears in the picture). The Davenport was designed by architect Herbert Bittman in 1925, and has an unusual courtyard entrance to its 14-car garage.
Friday/ you look nice today
These pictures are from my walk back home from the Bartell pharmacy on First Hill.
Friday/ Earth Day 🌎
Mariette (looking at a picture of a tree) : What’s that?
‘K’ (the Blade Runner) : A tree.
Mariette : I’ve never seen a tree. It’s pretty.
– from the 2017 movie about a dystopian Earth, ‘Blade Runner 2049’
The Prez was here in Seattle today. He talked about legislation to help the U.S. Forest Service plant 1.2 billion trees on national forest lands.
Writes Katie Rogers for the NYT: ‘He unveiled a plan to restore national forests devastated by wildfires. He promoted a climate agenda that has largely gone unfulfilled. .. The trip granted him a bit of a respite from Washington and returned him to the campaign-trail style of schmoozing that energizes him. In Seattle, Mr. Biden appeared before a group of big-ticket donors that included Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft.
Thursday/ do rainbows have seven colors?
Here is my picture of tonight’s rainbow that was visible just before sunset, now at 8.08 pm.
– Paraphrased from the Wikipedia entry for Rainbow.
Wednesday/ U for Union
Three of the five amigos (two are out of town) had beers and a bite at Union. We liked the ambiance inside. The food was decent. Maybe the volume for the music videos on screens around the place was turned up a trifle too high— or maybe I’m not as young as I used to be.
One of us had to surrender a credit card as collateral, as soon as we ordered our beers. Say wha-aat? I thought. (It’s the first time in a very long time that we had been at a place that required that). They worry that unscrupulous clientele might vanish after a second or third round of expensive cocktails, of course.
‘Airy bar & eatery with a leafy patio, serving cocktails alongside hearty comfort food & happy hours’, says the online description. The bar used to be located at 14th & Union some three blocks away, but the building there had caught fire in April 2019. It all ended up in a relocation and reopening here in March 2021.
(Side note: very nice to see the sidewalk and street free of trash).
Sunday/ Denny Way construction report
This afternoon, I walked down to the 45-story apartment towers on Denny Way (official address: 1200 Stewart Street) to see how the construction is coming along.
The Brothers (a pair of prominent peaks in the Olympic Mountains near Hood Canal) are to the right of the bare flagpole on the right.
I see I caught a sun halo of sorts from the sun behind the building on my picture. I couldn’t really see it with the naked eye. (Sun halos can appear when sunlight interacts with ice crystals that are suspended in the atmosphere).
Tuesday/ beers 🍻 and pub grub
The watering hole called The Chieftain Irish Pub— that the amigos like to go to— seems to have survived the pandemic.
The place was busy tonight, possibly because it was Trivia Tuesday.
We don’t wear masks at the pub or restaurant anymore— almost nobody does— but I still wear my N95 mask when I go anywhere else indoors (grocery store, post office).
I have not gotten my second booster shot, and I probably should go and get it over and done with. There seems to be no downside.
Thursday/ tulips🌷
It was 70 °F (21 °C) here in the city today; it will be a lot cooler again tomorrow.
These tulips are from the little Thomas Street Garden by 10th Avenue.
Monday/ after the storm, a rainbow🌈
It looks like the stormy weather of the past two days is clearing up.
Seattle photographer Tim Durkan (@timdurkan on Twitter) posted this gorgeous picture today—of a piece of blue sky and a brilliant rainbow over the city.
I believe his vantage point was off Alki Avenue SW in West Seattle, on the very edge of the waters of Elliott Bay.
Wednesday/ homeless in Seattle
I noticed tonight that the dozen or so tents that had been in Seven Hills Park on 16th Ave and Howell, are gone. (Probably have been for a while).
I hope our new mayor (Mayor Bruce Harrell) is making headway with his plans to get homeless people out of the parks and green spaces and into shelters or homes.
It is an intractable problem. (In computer science, these are problems for which there exist no efficient algorithms to solve them).
A count from 2020 showed that our city of 750,000 people have some 11,700 homeless among us (half of which are in shelters or in emergency housing, and the other half unsheltered on the street or in tents and such).
Tuesday/ burgers from a new joint, soon
The Dick’s Drive-in burger joint on Broadway is not open yet.
It was a proper spring day here in the city with 63 °F (17 °C), and I had to take off my jacket and drape it over my arm, as I walked back up the hill from Broadway today.
[Picture from Dick’s Facebook page]
Friday/ at the map store
Metsker Maps of Seattle on 1st Avenue is a candy store for map lovers.
I went there today to buy a map for my friend in South Africa.
A handful of tents of homeless people right at Westlake Center (ground zero for tourists after Pike Place Market), were cleared out just today. Some businesses around 2nd and 3rd Avenue are still boarded up (!). Colorful artwork on the boarded-up window always helps, though.
Washington State and King County’s mask mandate for businesses is cancelled as of today, except for healthcare settings and for public transportation.
It will make no difference to me; I will still wear my mask to the grocery store and other indoor places for a while.
Friday/ the camel says hello
As evening fell, I was waiting by the Asian Art Museum’s camel in Volunteer Park for a sunset picture with a dozen or so other people.
Then I walked back home, by Uncle Ike’s pot shop on 15th Avenue.
Tuesday/ here’s March
And so it is March, the month named after the Roman god of war.
There was no rain this afternoon, and a high of 56 °F (13 °C).
I walked down to the Melrose Avenue overlook (over Interstate 5), and back to Capitol Hill’s top along Denny Way.
I turned around every now and then, to look at the beautiful hues of color in the western sky.
Sunday/ gray skies
Here’s the view of Interstate 5 and the city skyline from Melrose Ave and Thomas St tonight.
Wednesday/ vaccine status checks to be cancelled
Officials announced today that restaurants, bars, theaters and gyms here in the city of Seattle and surrounding King County will no longer be required to check the vaccination status of their patrons beginning March 1.
I get take-out food here sometimes, but the food always seems tastier and more enjoyable in the restaurant itself. So will delivery operators like UberEats and DoorDash hold on to any gains they made during the height of the pandemic? I doubt it.
Monday/ a little rain
It’s been a ‘dry’ February so far, here in the city.
Only ¼ in. has been recorded, and February gets almost 4 on average.
There was a little rain today— of the kind that does not make the ground wet under the big trees.
