I made another Sunday night run out to Amazon Fresh on Jackson Street last night.
They were again out of the Amazon branded milk and Chobani yogurt that they had previous times, and that I was looking for. It’s not a big deal; I was just a little surprised.
On the plus side: I discovered that they stock these biscotti called Nonni’s Biscotti ‘Originali Classic Almond’.
The biscotti are so dry that I dunk them for less than one second in my coffee, and then they are all soaked up and ready for eating.
It was only 56 °F (13 °C) when I went out for a walk at 6 pm today.
Still not scarf & glove weather, though. I’d say those are for 45°F (7°C) and below.
This is 17th Ave East here on Capitol Hill. The leaves are falling, the way they always do this time of year. When fall comes, the green chlorophyll of summer breaks down in leaves and its nutrients go back to the trunk and roots. These leaves turn yellow. The leaves on some trees turn red, and botanists are still not 100% sure why they turn red. The red color is due to a new pigment in the leaf called anthocyanin, which has to be made afresh as autumn takes hold. It may contain antioxidants to help against harsh winter conditions.
From CNN Style: Made up of 9,090 pieces, the replica model divides into three sections to reveal the interior of the ill-fated vessel, including the first-class grand staircase, which sprawls over six decks, as well as a Jacobean-style dining saloon and the engine room. The LEGO ship is a 1:200 scale model and also includes a recreation of the ship’s bridge, promenade deck and swimming pool. “At the time of its launch the Titanic was the pinnacle of nautical engineering, the largest moving vehicle ever created. It has been an incredible journey to recreate this iconic vessel from LEGO bricks, using blueprints created over a century ago,” Mike Psiaki, design master at the LEGO Group, said in a statement Thursday. “Designing the LEGO Titanic with such a focus on immense detail and scale, but also accuracy, has allowed us to create one of the most challenging building experiences to date,” he added. The set won’t come cheap though: Available for pre-order from November 1 and general sale from November 8, the ship will retail at $629.99.
Wow, the U District station has served me well just in its first week after opening.
I made another run up there to today on the train, to get to my doctor’s office for my annual check-up. And I got my flu shot today, as well.
I am very happy to see the Neptune Music Company on the corner of Brooklyn St & NE 45th St is still there. It’s basically right next to the U District light rail station. The large basement is overflowing with collections of vinyl, CDs, DVD movies, VHS tapes, the works.And just around the corner, the Neptune Theater is open as well. The Neptune is a performing arts theater with about 800 seats. It opened in 1921 so it’s 100 years old. (Google says The Front Bottoms are an American folk punk band from Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. I don’t think I will like their music. ‘That’s not my bag’, as Austin Powers would say).
We walked down to Chuck’s Hop Shop in Central District for our beers tonight It was barely 60°F/ 15°C, with a little wind chill.
The beer was good, though, as were the burgers and chicken sandwiches from the food truck nearby.
Poster at Chuck’s Hop Shop, advertising a ‘fresh hop’ beer fest on Saturday. (That’s Fresh Hop Bear, the mascot). A Quick Hops Primer: Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant Humulus lupulus. The first documented hop cultivation was in 736, in the Hallertau region of present-day Germany. Hops are traditionally dried for their use in beer, but since the 1990s some brewers have started to use fresh hops: picked from the vine and immediately used for brewing beer. (Hops are harvested around this time, at the end of summer).
It was nice to have the U District train (instead of the No 48 bus) to take home today after my visit at the doctor’s office.
The 22-story UW Tower (completed 1975) is a nice beacon to use, to navigate to the new U District train station on Brooklyn Ave (teal canopy to its left, on the street). The UW Tower house the head offices of the University of Washington.Here’s the station’s entrance. I would call the color of the lining of the glass canopy turquoise, but it’s officially teal. (Between teal and turquoise, teal is the darker one).Inside the station at the platform level, looking at the Fragment Brooklyn art installation. The woman in the window is doing embroidering.Here comes the south-bound train. This train has the older train cars from Kinki Sharyo Co., Ltd. (also known as Kinkisharyo, one word), based in Osaka, Japan. It’s a 6 minute ride from here to Capitol Hill station. I think the No 48 bus to Capitol Hill takes 3 times this time (it has many more stops than the train, to be fair).Outside the Capitol Hill station two stops down from U District, I can catch either the No 8 or the No 10 bus to take me the 8 blocks up the hill close to where I live. This electronic board with the next arrivals that are due is new, and a nice addition to this bus stop.
Here’s the board of one of the few games I have won recently against Scrabble Grand Master Zoey (she is an algorithm).
I was sitting on 402, with my last letter, the ‘I’ tile left. TI and IS in the corner would have gotten me 6, but KI was one better at 7. So now I had 409. Oh well, I lose, I thought, but forgot to note that Zoey was stuck with the Q (with no way to play it). So she lost 10 and I gained 10, for a net gain of 20, and for the win 429-427. A sweet victory.
I looked up some of the words that Zoey played, the ones I didn’t know.
I don’t do that for every Scrabble game (I am too lazy, and besides: it cuts into my Scrabble play time).
Here are the words, for the logophiles (persons that love words): NOES noun plural of the negative response called ‘no’ PLOTTIERadjective superlative of plotty (marked by intricacy of plot or intrigue), as in ‘this spy movie was plottier than the last one’
a plotty novel MEHinterjection— used to express indifference or mild disappointment ZAnoun slang for PIZZA (a word which my friends & I never use) ALUNITEnoun a mineral that consists of a hydrous potassium aluminum sulfate and occurs in massive form or in rhombohedral crystals KInoun 1. alternative spelling for chi, the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet; 2. also: aura, chi (or ch’i also qi), energy, vibe(s), vibration(s), as in ‘martial artists learn to use ki to fend off would-be attackers’ LUXnoun a unit of illumination JERRIDnoun (British English) a blunt wooden javelin used in games involving horsemen in some Muslim countries. DEVInoun used in India as a title following the personal name of a married woman (in Hinduism) ARnoun the letter r written out FAHnoun abbreviation of Fahrenheit WYESnoun plural 1. a Y-shaped part or object 2. the letter y written out CONInoun plural of conus, a very large genus (the type of the family Conidae) of tropical marine snails comprising the cones and including many harmless forms and a few chiefly in the southwest Pacific that are highly dangerous because they are capable of biting with the radula and injecting a paralytic venom that has been known to cause death in humans DIPLEGIAS noun, plural, paralysis of corresponding parts on both sides of the body
Note to self: when next in Australia, never mind COVID, just steer clear of the Australian cone snail (Conus textile) with its gorgeous shell. This one has its proboscis extended and poised for attack. Their venom (active ingredient: conotoxin) is used for paralyzing prey. Researchers in Australia think they can use it to produce a safe painkiller for humans, 100x more potent than morphine. [Image credit: AAP Image/Melbourne University/David Paul]
I had a procedure done at the dermatologist’s office, on my back.
I’m not allowed to reach up too far, or out, or down, with my arms until Wednesday when the medical tape comes off.
This is the kind of cartoon one finds in The New Yorker magazine (I love them). Check out the T-Rex by the xerox machine in the back. The cartoonist is Daniel Beyers and he resides in Hales Corners, Wisconsin, with his family.
The light rail train was much less crowded today, and I went to check out the new U District and Roosevelt stations.
Capitol Hill station, just boarded. This is a new Siemens S700 car, with the blue light lining the closed door. The light strip is green when the door is open, and starts flashing as the door is about to close, and amber at the close. This sign above the door is not animated to show the train’s current location, but there is another overhead LCD panel in the car that does that.U District Station, just arrived. The art installation on the wall by the southbound track (by Lead Pencil Studio) is called Fragment Brooklyn: ‘an imaginary streetscape of building parts’. One of the streets bordering the station is called Brooklyn Street.U District Station. An element of the Fragment Brooklyn art installation. (Could that be an 80s Dunlop Maxply wooden tennis racquet in the window?).U District Station. More of the Fragment Brooklyn art installation. Nicely done, the faux air conditioners, window frames and canopies.U District Station. One more of the Fragment Brooklyn art, this part with a classic New York City fire escape ladder. (The copper wires are not part of the art installation! Those are for the trains.)U District Station, outside. I know my way around U District, but it’s still disorienting to come up from below and suddenly be outside on the street, because the immediate area around the station had been closed to the public for so long.U District Station, outside. I cannot read Chinese characters, but I am 99% sure the mat says ‘Welcome’. I like the teal color scheme. I learned later that following the teal from the platform up to the street, gets one to this exit on 43rd Street.U District Station. Going down to the platform again, to catch the next train to Roosevelt station. Following the orange markings on the escalators will get one to the north exit of the station on Brooklyn St.Arrival at Roosevelt station. Here’s the explanation of the moose symbol for Roosevelt station on the station name signs & light rail maps.Roosevelt station. A southbound train arriving as I take the escalators to the street. Yes, that’s the hindquarters of the moose in the previous picture.Roosevelt station. Glancing up towards the top of the escalators leading to the exit.Roosevelt station. A little public space with a large art installation (Pascal’s triangle of sorts, a mathematician might say). I did not make a note of the artist.Roosevelt Station. I walked a block to this entrance on the south side of the station, on 65th Avenue.Roosevelt Station. Ticket stations just inside the south entrance, with retro neon sign artwork overhead.Roosevelt Station. Heading down to the platform. One of several sculptural mural art installations by Luca Buvoli. This one is a cyclist on an 1880s Penny Farthing direct-drive bicycle.Roosevelt Station. Waiting for the train.Roosevelt Station. And here’s the southbound train that will take me to Capitol Hill in 10 minutes. Cannot beat that, not even if I had a Tesla Model S Plaid.
Today marked the opening of the 4.3-mile extension of the Seattle area’s Link light rail system towards the north, with three new stations: U District, Roosevelt and Northgate. These are the final stations in the system that was proposed to voters in 1996. So it took twenty-five years to get it all planned and built, a lot longer and much more expensive than planned, but it’s here at last. The price tag for this last phase was $1.9 billion.
Central Line is now called Line 1 with its 19 stations. Line 2 to Bellevue is under construction and will open in two years in 2023.
Bryan, Gary & I made a run to Northgate and back. (I will stop at the Roosevelt and U District stations some time later and take some pictures. These latter two are both underground). Here’s the elevated platform of the Northgate station. There are escalators and stairs to street level, and a connection to a new, large pedestrian/ biking bridge across Interstate 5 to the Seattle North College campus.Roosevelt and U-District are underground, and Northgate is above ground. Construction to the north continues, with the extension to Lynnwood slated to open in 2024.The Kraken Community Iceplex (the training facility for the Seattle Kraken) is nearby Northgate station. The Northgate shopping mall is getting a make-over, and some 4,000 new apartment units are under construction as well.Northgate station is elevated above street level. Changes to existing bus routes have been made to stop at the three new stations.A new train with four cars entering Northgate station. Sound Transit has started to purchase these newer technology train cars from Siemens Mobility (they entered into service in May 2021). The model name is S700, and these cars cost around $4.5 million each.The new John Lewis Memorial Bridge (pedestrian/ biking bridge) across Interstate 5 to the North Seattle College campus spans some 1,900 feet.This weird rotary-dial phone was set up as a curiosity (I think), at the entrance of the bridge.
I live in one of the bluest (most progressive) Democratic districts in the country, and my representative is Pramila Jayapal. She leads the 100-member progressive caucus in the house (100 out of 224), so they have a lot of clout .. and they feel the time is NOW and nothing happens/ progressive legislation gets completely watered down time and again if the progressives do not make a stand.700,00 deaths in the U.S. from COVID-19, including 100,000 since the vaccine rollout.
Another week gone, and here is October 2021 on us, already.
Every night all the calamities of the moment are covered by NBC Nightly News. In a way, the news is always the same.
We’re in a climate crisis.
Hospitals are still filled with Covid-19 patients.
We’re told America could be just weeks away from defaulting on its debt for the first time ever.
And as far as enacting President Biden’s policy agenda, we don’t have 6 major political parties in government, the way the Germans do. We have only two.
I would argue we actually have only the Democratic Party.
(The Republicans are AWOL. They very, very rarely work with the Democrats. They will kill American democracy— and kill us all— if they come back into power).
The moderates and the progressives in the Democratic Party are tussling over two big policy bills.
There’s the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, and a $3.5 trillion social policy bill that includes measures related to climate change, family aid, and expansions to Medicare.
Here’s what Amber Philips writes in today’s Washington Post about the key players in the Democrats’ congressional battles. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.):Leader of centrist Democrats in the House What he wants: A vote on the infrastructure bill on Thursday, which he didn’t get. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.):Leader of the progressive caucus in the House What she wants: Centrist Democrats, particularly in the Senate, to get behind the $3.5 trillion spending bill that would be the capstone of Democrats’ control of Washington right now. Sen. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.):A centrist holdout in the Senate
What he wants: Democrats’ social safety net legislation to cost much less, around $1.5 trillion. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.): Another holdout in the Senate
What she wants: First off, for the House to pass the infrastructure bill. She helped negotiate that in the Senate, where 19 Republicans voted for it.
And like Manchin, she wants Democrats’ social safety net/climate change legislation to cost much less. But unlike Manchin, she’s been more quiet about what she could support, frustrating liberals who feel like they can’t negotiate with a moving target, or no target at all.
I made another Sunday night run
out to Amazon Fresh on Jackson Street last night.
