a weblog of whereabouts & interests, since 2010
It has been raining a little every day for ten days, and it looks like it will continue for several more.
It was 5:39 p.m. and 54°F (12°C) this afternoon when I walked over to the Safeway grocery store.
The blue sky was filled with both high and low clouds. I boosted the blues in the photo below using the iPhone’s “Vivid Cool” filter, and I really like the result. You can see the outline of the Olympic Mountains, and if you look closely, you can see an airplane in the photo as well.
White snow flakes started coming down here in the city in the wee hours of the morning, transitioning to a very light snow for most of the daylight hours.
Snow in Seattle during March is uncommon— recorded only a handful of times in the last century.
Temperatures are mild today (38°F/ 3°C), so some of the snow on the ground has melted away already. (About 3 in. of snow on the ground).
I took these pictures shortly after 9 am this morning.
It has been a cold week here in the Emerald City with the low dipping below freezing on Friday morning, and a few snowflakes in the air this morning.
Highs were in the low to mid-forties (6° to 7°C).
Here is a late afternoon sunbreak on the Cascade Mountains today.
I am standing at Capitol Hill’s 23rd Avenue and Mercer Street.
That is Lake Washington and downtown Bellevue in the foreground.
I made my way to the south end of the waterfront late this afternoon and walked up to Pike Place market.
The day was brilliant and bright out— but with the air temperature still sharp at 48°F/ 9°C.
I took the sunset picture from Elliot Avenue and Lenora Street.
The daffodils are blooming as well.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
I was among the hundreds of thousands lining 4th Avenue in downtown Seattle today to catch a glimpse of the Seahawks victory parade.
I took the No 12 bus to Westlake Center and walked north along 4th Avenue to Belltown, checking in on the crowds at several of the cross street corners.
Look for Blitz, the Seahawks mascot, in my pictures below.
I believe that is defensive back Julian Love holding the Vince Lombardi trophy.
Sports anchor Paul Silvi is right next to him in the yellow KING5 jacket.
In another picture, a guy in stars-and-stripes pants wears a t-shirt that says WE.DID.NOT.CARE.
Those were the words of head coach Mike Macdonald following the team’s victory in the 2025 NFC Championship game, commenting on a reporter reminding him that many pundits had written the Seahawks off as an ‘afterthought’ in a division dominated by the Rams and the 49ers.
There is going to be a trophy celebration event at Lumen Field tomorrow at 10 am (tickets sold out in an hour or so on Monday).
Then, targeted for around 11 am, a parade will start along 4th Avenue in downtown Seattle.
The Seattle Times reminds readers that in 2014, hundreds of Seahawks fans had already camped out along 4th Avenue by 6.30 am .. and also that the day is sure to set light rail ridership records.
In 2014 some 500,000 people attended the parade and at that time the light rail ran only from Capitol Hill to Seattle-Tacoma airport.
BEEP BEEP THE HAWKS ARE BACK IN SEATTLE.
And so are 750,000 of your closest friends, all coming to Seattle to celebrate our SUPER BOWL CHAMPS.
So if you’re heading to Seattle tomorrow, take whatever ferry, bus, train, or spinning teacup is closest to you.
Please.
– Tweeted on X by Washington State Dept. of Traffic @wsdot
Happy Friday.
The 12s flag is up on the Space Needle.
Today was another very mild winter’s day here in the city (57 °F/ 14°C) with clouds and sun.
I walked down to the Melrose Avenue overlook to see if the 12’s flag is up on the Space Needle yet.
(It is not. I believe it will go up tomorrow, Friday).
Amazon is laying off 16,000 employees. That’s on top of 14,000 that were let go in October.
The company is America’s second-largest private employer, behind Walmart. It has over 350,000 corporate employees, so these recent rounds of cuts represent about 9% of the company’s overall office staff.
Amazon also announced just this week that they are closing all of their Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh grocery stores. (The Whole Foods franchise stays put and will be expanded. Grocery delivery for orders placed online will continue as usual).
Finally, there is the troublesome matter of Amazon foisting a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump on America.
Oy, Amazon. What the hell?
Here is whatNicole Sperling and Brooks Barnes write for the New York Times about it:
The film’s rollout is huge — a $35 million marketing campaign that includes television commercials during N.F.L. playoff games and a premiere simulcast in 25 theaters in the United States.
Starting Friday, the film hits 3,300 theaters worldwide.
Amazon’s all-hands-on-deck handling of “Melania,” follows Melania Trump, the first lady, in the days leading up to her husband’s second inauguration.
Ms. Trump produced the film, which was directed by Brett Ratner, who has not made a movie since 2017, when multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct. He has denied those accusations.
Amazon paid Ms. Trump’s production company $40 million for the rights to “Melania,” about $26 million more than the next closest bidder, Disney.
Dry January has come to an end, with rain last night and today— about a quarter inch here in the city today.
There will be more on Thursday and Friday.
The cloud cover made for elevated temperatures as well: 48 °F (9 °C) in the morning, with a high of 52 °F (11 °C).
Sam Darnold threw three touchdown passes, and the Seattle Seahawks outlasted the Los Angeles Rams 31-27 in a thrilling NFC (National Football Conference) Championship Game on Sunday to advance to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 2014 season.
They will face the New England Patriots on Feb. 8 in a rematch of Super Bowl XLIX.
– Nate Atkins and Michael-Shawn Dugar reporting in The Athletic in the New York Times
This January here in the city, has now seen a record-setting stretch of over 10 consecutive days without rain.
Every day has been sunny and cold, and the massive storm system playing out in the rest of the country is also passing us by.
Late afternoon, I ventured out for a quick walk (39 °F/ 4°C).
The ’12’ flag is up on top of the Space Needle.
(The 12 represents the “12th Man” —a tribute to the dedicated fans of the Seattle Seahawks NFL team.)
Happy Friday.
It is a major sports weekend for Seattle— the Seahawks face the Los Angeles Rams this Sunday for the NFC Championship and a spot in Super Bowl LX.
I spent a lot of time this week sorting the hundreds of loose stamps I had bought in Tokyo, by year. Here are some ones with nice postmarks and a sports theme.
Manuel Valdes writes for The Associated Press:
With breaches and tail slapping, a pod of orcas put on a show near Seattle on Friday.
The close encounter attracted dozens of people to the shore of the West Seattle neighborhood. Whale watchers identified the pod as Bigg’s killer whales, a group that hunts sea mammals and lives in the Salish Sea. The pod was seemingly hunting.
Three of my amigos have birthdays this week.
We went out for something to eat and drink at Bai Tong Thai Street Cafe on Capitol Hill’s Pike Street.
The food was great. After the table was cleared, the staff came out with a cake and props, and delivered a rowdy rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’.
The Diamond Princess was still plying her way through the waters of the South China Sea towards the port of Cam Ranh today.
We are due in at 7 am in the morning.
The plaques with artwork on them are from the walls on the Promenade Deck. They commemorate the dates when the Diamond Princess called ports around the world.
The inaugural call for the Port of Seattle was May 29, 2004. This is the very year she was delivered from the shipyard of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Tokyo, Japan to the cruise line.
The other two plaques are from Nha Trang. (Passenger cruise ships stopped calling directly at Nha Trang’s main port starting around late September 2024. The pier was closed for urgent repairs and safety issues, forcing cancellations and rerouting to alternatives like Cam Ranh Port. Some ships are scheduled for returns for 2026 after the completion of the repairs.)
We arrived at Tokyo’s Haneda airport at 6.25 pm Saturday night local time (well past midnight, Friday night Seattle time).
Aircraft carrier USS Nimitz* returned to her home port in Bremerton yesterday after a 9-month deployment— her very last one, after being in service for 50 years.
*Named after World War II Pacific fleet commander Chester W. Nimitz, USN, (1885–1966), who was the Navy’s third fleet admiral.
The stills below are from a video posted on kitsap.com.
From navytimes.com:
The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier docked in its homeport of Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington, on Tuesday for what is scheduled to be its final visit there. The Nimitz returned from a nine-month deployment to the U.S. 3rd, 5th and 7th Fleets that began March 21 when it set sail from Kitsap.
“We have traveled more than two-thirds of this planet during this nine-month deployment, and I cannot overstate the positive impact Nimitz Strike Group has made as part of our mission to maintain peace through strength by sustaining credible deterrence alongside our allies and partners,” said Rear Adm. Fred Goldhammer, commander of Carrier Strike Group 11, according to a release.
The world’s oldest aircraft carrier, commissioned in 1975 with a service lifespan of 50 years, is set to return to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, in 2026 and be decommissioned.