I ran out to the little second-hand LEGO store called Bricks and Wheels, in Bellevue, only to find it closed as I got there. It’s closed on Tuesdays.
That was actually a good thing.
1. There was no urgent reason to buy LEGO bricks TODAY.
2. I can use this little excuse some time soon again, to drive out there. 🙂
Here’s a still picture from my car’s dash cam video today, on the way to Bellevue on the east side of Lake Washington. I’m eastbound, on the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge towards Mercer Island. It’s a floating bridge that takes Interstate 90 across the lake. Construction started in Jan. 1939 and was completed in 1940. On the left is the Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge with westbound traffic (also a floating bridge). This bridge was completed in 1989, and named for Hadley in 1993.
There was no gay pride parade in downtown this year in Seattle. (It is held on the last Sunday in June every year).
A separate organization puts up an event called Pridefest in June—on Broadway in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. They postponed their event instead of cancelling it, and it was held today.
It turned out that the pandemic is very much with us, even though it is the end of summer. I was not too keen to rub shoulders with everyone out there.
Even so, I walked down to Broadway this afternoon, put my mask on, dodged the people in the street, and took a few pictures. The street was not very crowded, and many people were wearing masks as well.
This cute inflated unicorn was at Olmstead restaurant on Broadway. The weather is still fine, and warm enough to sit outside (75 °F/ 24 °C today).The stall of T Mobile, wireless network operator, outside their storefront on Broadway. Further up is BECU, a credit union originally established to serve employees of The Boeing Company, but now open to everyone.Here’s the stall of Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group and LGBTQ political lobbying organization in the United States. We have come a long way, but there is still a lot of work to do. LGBTQ Americans still face high levels of discrimination in public places, in school, and in the workplace.Several vendors had stalls as well, selling artwork, clothing or flags.
I like the weather-beaten lettering on the Flowers Bar & Restaurant in U District.
The new U District light rail station is just around its corner. It is underground, and opens on Oct 2 .. and I will be sure to go and check it out!
Flowers Bar & Restaurant at the corner of University Way NE and NE 43rd St. The sign in the window advertises margaritas, mojitos and mint julep, each for $5. A separate sign says ‘Irish Car Bomb $8’ : a bomb shot of Irish cream and whiskey, into a glass of stout (thanks, Wikipedia). Do not order it in Ireland or in the United Kingdom, for that matter. It refers to the car bombings of Ireland’s Troubles. The name of the drink offends many Irish and British people, and some bartenders there refuse to serve it.
The sky was still hazy today, but it will clear out tomorrow.
Bryan, Dale and I drove out to Shilshole Bay Marina after dinner, to catch the sun as it was setting.
It’s 8.05 pm and sunset today was officially at 8.22 pm. We are looking west, across Puget Sound and Bainbridge Island in the distance. Shilshole Bay Marina is in the foreground. Soon after I took this picture, the sun disappeared behind the (invisible) Olympic Mountains lying further to the west of Puget Sound. [Photo taken with iPhone Xs]
I took the No 10 bus to downtown to go to the dentist this morning.
Here are a few pictures.
Looking south on 15th Avenue. Coastal Kitchenrestaurant is open but only Wednesday through Sunday. (The combination rainbow-transgender flag needs a little straightening out, but that’s OK). The former QFC grocery store building on the far left has been deserted & boarded up for a few months now. There is a non-scalable fence around the parking lot. The guy on the electric scooter is using the street (not the sidewalk: good), and wearing a helmet, also good. There are three e-scooter operators in the city: LINK, Wheels, and Lime.There are new signs at Westlake Center, for locals and tourists alike. The 1929 Macy’s building was sold in April for $580 million. The new owners plan to renovate the 85,000 sq ft-ground floor, mezzanine and second floor to accommodate new retail stores. Amazon is leasing the upper floors, but I doubt there are any workers in there. Amazon pushed back a return to the office for its workers to 2022.I love the Pacific Northwest artwork at the Arc’teryx outdoor equipment & clothing store by Westlake plaza. The moon is my favorite. (I could not find the name of the artist).On the left would be Mount Rainier, and that has to be an orca fin in Puget Sound, on the right.And finally some salmon. That’s a sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) on the left, also called red salmon. Salmon are anadromous fish: spending most of their adult lives at sea, but return to fresh water to spawn. Catadromous fish (example: the North American eel) spend most of their lives in fresh water, then migrate to the sea to breed.Lastly, I had to go check out the completed $600 million Rainier Square Tower with its sweeping step-up side on 5th Avenue. Floors 39 to 58 at the top are ‘residences’ (apartments). The 1 bed -1.5 bath 896 sqft units start at some $4,400/ month. I’m sure a 2 bed 2 bath would be about double that. (Eek).Right across the street from Rainier Square Tower are the straight lines of this 1996 building that used to be a Red Lion hotel. I sat in its ball room in 2011, listening to my firm’s partners drone on about the value that a good brand brings to a firm (bottom line: you can charge more for your product or service than your competitors can). Then later that year in 2011, the Red Lion was sold. It was sold again in 2014, and a makeover made it into ‘Motif Seattle‘, now owned by Hyatt. Google Maps says there is a Tesla destination charger in its parking garage down below. (Destination chargers are installed by businesses and land owners for public use, but have a slower charging speed than superchargers).
A few rain drops fell on the tennis courts at Woodland Park tonight, and there was thunder and lightning overhead.
There was a little bit of rain in the city as well, but none was recorded at Seattle-Tacoma airport. Today was day 50 without rain there (longest on record is 55, in 2017).
Gorgeous pinks and grays, in this twilight picture by Seattle photographer Tim Durkan @timdurkan on Twitter.Â
“These people need to get down to business and clean up the mess in this city,” said Joe Howard, a Black 48-year-old financial trader who lives on Capitol Hill and decried the “disorganized nonsense” of the protest zone. “I understand you want to open up society, you want a fair and equitable society, but just being airheaded about things behind a liberal ideology is not going to achieve that.”
– Gene Johnson reporting from Seattle for the Associated Press
Mayor of Seattle Jenny Durkin is stepping down after a tumultuous year of handling the Covid pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests and the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone that drew national attention.
Gun violence has become an even worse problem in Seattle in recent months, as it has in many other major cities. And then there are the encampments of homeless people in the city’s parks and on the sidewalks and under freeway overpasses that need urgent attention.
So there is a 15-way race underway for Mayor of Seattle, and Seattleites are electing two candidates in tomorrow’s primary election. The top two will face off in a general election in November.
I for one, and for once, cast my vote for more moderate or conservative (gasp!) candidates— for mayor, as well as for each of the two city council positions that were on my ballot.
Cartoon from the online edition of alternative Seattle newspaper The Stranger at thestranger.com. The caption reads: We spy with our stoned little eyes: Jenny Durkan hobnobbing with cops, Jessyn Farrell testing out some innovative childcare infrastructure, Andrew Grant Houston posing with a constituent, antifascists schooling Bruce Harrell on the field, Lorena González netting a can of tear gas, Colleen Echohawk constructing some housing, Casey Sixkiller sweeping up someone else’s personal property, and a city emerging from a pandemic to confront yet another summer of smoky skies. [Illustration by JAMES YAMASAKI]
I stumbled onto this mural that wraps around the brick building at 1633 17th Ave on my walk tonight. It features the young poet Amanda Gorman, that read her poem ‘The Hill We Climb’ during President Biden’s inauguration. The artist is Gretchen Leggitt. Sadly, there is already some vandal’s graffiti on the artwork. Zero respect.
From Gretchen Leggitt @g2legit on Instagram: “FOR THERE IS ALWAYS LIGHT, IF ONLY WE’RE BRAVE ENOUGH TO SEE IT.” – Amanda Gorman
This is my latest mural in Seattle, WA located just blocks away from the #CHAZ. In 2020, protesters claimed this as an autonomy zone to fight for human rights through art, words, peace and unfortunately some with violence. I do not care to make any comments about this autonomy zone, but I do want to comment on the respect I have for the brave people who have passionately sparked and fought for the 21st century civil rights awaking. @blklivesmatter
I do not endorse violence or destruction. Instead I endorse voices of reason and peace. @amandascgorman was that voice for me when she shared her poem The Hill We Climb with the world. Her words spoke of perseverance, resilience and hope for ALL humans, which inspired this mural.
The woodpeckers were back this morning. Only a few of the mahonia’s berries remain.
There was a beautiful blue sky and white clouds overhead at 5 this afternoon.
We’ve been lucky thus far this summer here in Seattle: no smoky air from the wildfires.
Tesla’s highly anticipated beta* version 9 of its Full Self-Driving software is out. This is the version of the software that is called Tesla Vision (camera) only; so it is not using the radar sensor’s input. (I don’t have FSD. I opted out of the FSD functions when I bought my car).
*A version of a piece of software that is made available for testing, typically by a limited number of users outside the company that is developing it, before its general release.
Gali @Gfilche on Twitter took his Model Y for a test drive through the streets on Capitol Hill here in Seattle at 2 a.m. this morning. Here are a few screen shots of a video (on YouTube channel HyperChange) that he posted shortly thereafter.
I know this intersection at East John St & Broadway well. It is always very busy, and even at this time of night there are some cars & pedestrians. The Tesla is about to turn left, and it waited for pedestrians to cross & for the oncoming traffic to turn. Then the light turned yellow, and it was not clear if the Tesla was going to stop or go. The driver intervened and pushed the brake. [Still from video on HyperChange channel on YouTube, posted on Jul 10]A closer look at the new look of the FSD Beta v9 interface. The edges of the road are marked in red, the median in yellow and the path of the car in blue. This is the black background for the night view; the day view would be white. [Still from video on HyperChange channel on YouTube, posted on Jul 10]It’s 2 a.m. in the morning, and drunk pedestrians are running across the street at this intersection, against the red stop light. The car has the green, but detected them, and slowed down; sped up again when the street was clear. [Still from video on HyperChange channel on YouTube, posted on Jul 10]Here are the monorail pillars that divide the two lanes on 5th Ave. This made for a scary moment: the beta version of the software seemed to NOT DETECT the pillars; they were not shown as obstacles in the interface the way they should have been. The car turned on the turn signal to initiate a lane change, at which point the driver intervened and overruled the car. So yes, looks like there are still a few SERIOUS flaws that have to be ironed out in the software. [Still from video on HyperChange channel on YouTube, posted on Jul 10]
After 16 months, Washingtonians can again go to a bustling restaurant, sit at the bar, imbibe until as long as liquor licenses allow (usually 2 a.m.) and gather in large groups. If you are vaccinated, you can ditch the mask.
For now, masks are still required in healthcare settings, and on public transit. Employers are allowed to let fully vaccinated employees come to work without a mask— but they are also allowed to require masks for all employees regardless of vaccination status. Masks are still required in schools, childcare and day camps: the vaccine isn’t available to children under age 12, yet.
In King county, more than 70% of residents age 12+ have been vaccinated, but many other counties lag far behind, shockingly so. Despite being two of the four most-populous counties, Pierce and Spokane hover around 45%.
This banner was shown at a celebration rally in Wright Park, Tacoma where Governor Inslee said it was time for businesses to fully reopen. A flag that look like this was added to the flagpole on the Tacoma Dome today, below the big The Stars and Stripes flag. [Graphic from coronavirus.wa.gov]
A visualization of the heat dome over Pacific Northwest on Monday. The thin white lines are isobars at 250 hPa (isobars are lines that connect points of equal atmospheric pressure). The warm colors represent carbon dioxide surface concentration. [Image generated with earth.nullschool.net]‘The most severe heat wave in the history of the Pacific Northwest is near its climax. The National Weather Service had predicted it would be “historic, dangerous, prolonged and unprecedented,” and it is living up to its billing as it rewrites the record books.
On Monday, Portland, Ore., soared to at least 115 degrees (46 °C), the highest temperature in more than 80 years of record-keeping. It marked the third straight day the city had climbed to an all-time high. On Sunday, it hit 112 (44 °C) Sunday after reaching 108 (42 °C) Saturday, both of which broke the previous all-time record of 107 (41.6 °C) .
Seattle was up to at least 107 degrees (41.6 °C) on Monday afternoon, surpassing the all-time record of 104 degrees (40 °C) set Sunday, which had topped the previous mark of 103 (39.4 °C)’.
– Jason Samenow and Ian Livingston, reporting for the online Washington Post on June 28, 2021 at 5:50 p.m. PDT
Sunday comes from Old English Sunnandæg, which is derived from a Germanic interpretation of the Latin dies solis (“sun’s day”). Germanic and Norse mythology personify the sun as a goddess named Sunna or SĂłl.
– From livescience.com
Today’s high of 104 °F | 40 °C at 5.29 pm was the highest ever recorded for Seattle.
Monday will bring an even higher temperature.
Earth’s sun is an ordinary star, one among hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. It is, however, the only star we can observe ‘up close’. This image of the sun was taken in 2015, captured with NASA’s space-based telescope, the Solar Dynamics Observatory.
It’s Gay Pride weekend, but there will again be no Pride in downtown Seattle. (The organizers did not know at the outset of 2021 where Washington State and the city of Seattle would find itself come June, in the Covid-19 pandemic).
Honoring Pride Month at the White House on today, President Biden signed a law to designate the site of Pulse, a gay nightclub in Florida where a gunman killed 49 people and wounded dozens in 2016, as the National Pulse Memorial.
Pete Buttigieg, transportation secretary in the Biden administration, was the first openly gay cabinet secretary confirmed by the Senate, earlier this year.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, joined the Capital Pride parade in Washington on Saturday, June 12. (So how come Washington DC could have a parade, but Seattle could not get it together? I’m not sure why). [Photo credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images]
This weekend is going to be a scorcher for the Pacific Northwest.
I am among the 40% of Seattle households that do not have air conditioning installed. I do have a unit on wheels, that I will set up again in my bedroom.
Let’s see: that 76 is 24 °C, 79 is 26 °C, 86 is 30 °C, 96 & 97 are 36 °C and 94 is 34 °C. It’s weird how I know how hot a Fahrenheit temperature is, and also, a Celsius temperature*— but I still cannot switch from one to the other in my head, after all these years in the US. *South Africa switched to the decimal system and to SI Units of measure when I was in elementary school. [Graphic by the National Weather Service]
It was the first full day of the astronomical summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
We are just shy of 16 hours of daylight here in Seattle (sunset at 9.11 pm).
It was warm today (89 °F/ 32 °C), but there will be a little respite tomorrow & Wednesday, before the day temperatures go up again.
Daisies that I found on 12th Ave, here on Capitol Hill.
Here in Seattle it was a very pleasant 76 °F (24 °C) today, perfect for our social tennis group’s Thursday night at Lower Woodland Park.
Mild weather was not the case for the southwest of the US, though.
There’s a high-pressure heat dome hovering over southern California, Nevada and Arizona— with scorching day temperatures as a consequence:
125 °F (52 °C) for Death Valley, CA,
114 °F (46 °C) for Las Vegas, NV, and
117 °F (47 °C) for Phoenix, AZ.
The white hot sun of our solar system and the Space Needle, seen from my seat on the RapidRide E Line bus today at 6.00 pm. The bus is on 7th Ave North, and about to merge onto northbound State Route 99 that run by the Woodland Park tennis courts.The yellow chimneys in the first picture are part of a ventilation structure that allows exhaust fumes from traffic in the SR-99 tunnel to escape high above ground. (Fumes that are no longer in the tunnel, but still polluting the atmosphere, of course). The tunnel opened to traffic on Feb. 4, 2019.
I made my way to Amy Yee tennis center again tonight by bus.
It was 5.10 pm and the No 8 bus is notorious for being late, or ‘full’ (half-full, actually: half the seats are still blocked out, in order to create social distance between the passengers).
Plan B was to call for an UberX (cost: $20, quite a bit more than it used to be) if the bus (fare: $2.75) had not worked out.
The bus showed up in good time, though, and had a few open seats left.
Inside the Amy Yee Tennis Center. That’s Court No 5 in the distance, then there’s 5 more indoors, for a total of 10. Outside there are 6 more courts. The tarp ‘door’ pieces for the courts are still removed— so that people don’t accidentally bump into each other. Now and then the tennis balls escape through the opening, of course. And check out the silly little piece of blue tape on the floor warning of a ‘Bump’ (in the floor). Um. It needs to be a LOT bigger!
It’s Wednesday, and the amigos went to Thai restaurant Jamjuree on 15th Avenue for our beers and a bite.
The restaurant was still empty at 6 pm, but some people did came in for take-outs. A few more tables had diners by the time we left an hour later.
There is new artwork on the wall of the Neumos music & bar venue at 925 East Pike Street. Yes, the restaurants and bars are reopening .. it’s just that in general, the menus offer fewer items, and prices have gone up by a good 20% or so.
King county now has 75% of eligible residents (12 yrs & older) vaccinated with at least their first shot, and 63% who have completed their vaccination. Officials will soon shut down the mass vaccination sites here in Seattle (Lumen Field Event Center, North Seattle College and in West Seattle and Rainier Beach).
The smaller locations, pop-up clinics and even mobile units, will have to get people to come in, and find those that still have not been vaccinated (and convince them to get their shots).
Hmm .. if I had played hardball and waited to get my vaccine, I could have scored a Franz goodie bag with bread and doughnuts! Or even a $100 gift card. (Just kidding. I count my blessings, thankful that I have been able to get my two vaccine shots so easily at the Harborview clinic).
