The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) grants emergency use authorization for the Covid-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech.
The pandemic is far from over (more than 3,000 deaths just on Thursday).
Texas attorney general’s ‘lawsuit’ (stunt), to try to overturn the certified election results (certifying Trump is a LOSER) in four battleground states, is smacked down 9-0 by the US Supreme Court. The AGs of seventeen red states, and 2/3 of House Republicans had joined the lawsuit. (Hey Republicans, newsflash for you: the United States is still a democracy. Your attempt at a coup is now dead.)
The Space Needle is lit up in green, in support of the Seattle Sounders, that will take on Columbus Crew in the 2020 Major League Soccer Cup Final on Saturday.
Update Sat 12/13: Sounders lost 0-3 to Columbus. Congrats to Columbus.
The Space Needle, bathed in green, and looking even more alien than usual. The reflection is on the nearby Museum of Pop Culture.
Three o’clock is still good for a walk outside, as the last of the sunlight catches the homes across the street. Four is now too late.
The trees lining 19th Ave are all bare now (looking south from Highland Drive).Here’s a 1964 Lincoln Continental that I found on 19th Ave (official color: Arctic White). The car’s length is almost 18 ft (5.4m). The rear doors are rear-hinged, and to alert drivers of open doors, Lincoln fitted the dashboard with a “Door Ajar” warning light (as seen on many modern automobiles). [Source: Wikipedia] .. which reminds me of the little pun ‘When is a door not a door? When it is ajar’.
It was sunny and 54°F (12 °C) today. I walked down to Denny Way, to check on the construction across from the Denny Substation.
Hey! Giant round mirror for sale by Pretty Parlor in the 1925 Biltmore Annex building on Summit Ave off of Olive Way. On the right is the 1924 Biltmore Apartments, built by Norwegian home-builder Stephen Berg in the Tudor-Gothic style. Berg built hundreds of homes in north Seattle between 1909 and 1922.The Reef Cannabis Store, on the corner of E Olive Way & E Denny Way, seems to be still going strong. It opened in August 2018. It used to be a pizza parlor, and a pub & grub joint before that.Alright. Now I’m making my way down Denny Way to where it crosses over Interstate 5. This red building has been ‘living on the edge’ for at least 20 years. The graffiti that stays on for months on end always makes me think the building is about to be demolished. The doggy day-care center is no longer there. Right now it has a vaping products store, a tobacco shop and a couple of restaurants for tenants. I’m sure the restaurants are struggling.Here’s what I wanted to see: the construction at the corner of Denny Way & Stewart Street. I am standing on the elevated viewing corner of the Denny Substation (to my right). On the left is 1200 Stewart St, with its twin 45-story towers (apartment units) starting to go up on a 3-story podium (retail stores). The 42-story tower (apartments) in the middle with the round corners is 2014 Fairview Ave. P.S. Amazing that there is NOT A CAR IN SIGHT. It is 4 pm on a Friday afternoon. Normally, Denny Way would be PACKED with rush-hour traffic trying to make it to Interstate 5.There’s a break in the 3-story podium. Hopefully the residents of the 41-story Nexus condominium tower (completed 2019, in the middle) have settled in, and can tolerate the construction activity on their doorstep. (Hey, a few cars showed up for this picture!).
Looking south from Galer St & 19th Ave, tonight at 4.17 pm. Sunset was at 4.26 pm.
P.S. In the town of Utqiaġvik (UUT-kee-AH-vik, formerly known as Barrow) north of the Arctic circle, and near the northernmost point of Alaska, the sun came up on Thursday at 12.54 pm, and disappeared 34 mins later. The sun will not appear again for two months; the polar night has started there. There will still be a number of hours of so-called civil twilight, every day, though.
There’s going to be rain every day the next week. It is November, our wettest month, after all. Rainy, breezy, showers. Low 43/ high 50 °F on Friday.. that’s 6 °C/ 10 °C! Not very warm, but not freezing. [Graphic from King5 Weather].
The pictures below are from Wednesday when it was still dry.
I walked down to the Capitol Hill public library — looking like a bank robber with my mask and woolen skull cap.
Only the lobby of the library is open right now, but that’s OK. It’s a hot spot for downloading electronic newspapers with the Pressreader app onto my iPad.
It’s 1 am on the East Coast, where the Pennsylvania* mail-in votes are still being counted.
*nickname The Keystone State.
Joe Biden is about to overtake Trump on the way to claim the 20 electoral votes from Pennsylvania that he needs for the win. (The mail-in votes overwhelmingly favor Biden).
Yes, Biden can still win Arizona and Nevada (17 total electoral votes), which will also get him to 270 for the win.
There was rain the last few days, with beautiful fall colors still around. It’s good to get out of the house and go for a walk, rain or not. This is a street corner on Capitol Hill here in Seattle.
In The Matrix (1999 film), the main character Neo is offered the choice between a red pill and a blue pill by rebel leader Morpheus. The red pill represents an uncertain future — it would free him from the enslaving control of the machine-generated dream world and allow him to escape into the real world, but living the ‘truth of reality’ is harsher, and more difficult. On the other hand, the blue pill represents a beautiful prison — it would lead him back to ignorance, living in confined comfort, without want or fear, within the simulated reality of the Matrix.
As described by Morpheus: ‘You take the blue pill … the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill … you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.’ (Neo chooses the red pill and joins the rebellion).
– [From Wikipedia].
The voting ends tomorrow, and then the counting starts.
My fervent hope is that the early results be reassuring — and not terrifying. Georgia, Florida and North Carolina sit on the East coast, and have experience will mail-in voting. They will also provide breakdowns of in-person and mail-in voting.
If Biden wins even just one of them, it will confirm his status as solid favorite to win.
If Trump wins all three, both candidates still have a path to victory.
A very detailed map of the 2016 election results. It is remarkable how the densely populated cities are Democratic islands in a sea of Republican counties. [Graphic by the New York Times].I live in the bluest of the blue districts. (More than 9 out 10 people vote Democratic where I live). But yes, there are districts in King County that vote Republican.
Kyk of jy vir my die son kan vang Daar’s ‘n kamer in die huis waar ons die son kan hang Dis donker by die venster in die middel van die dag Onthou jy nog hoe helder die kamer kon lag
(See if you can catch me the sun
There’s a room in the house where it can be hung
It’s dark by the window in the middle of the day
Remember how brightly the room would play)
– from Sonvanger (‘Sun Catcher’), written in 2002 by South African singer-songwriter Valiant Swart, with my rough translation added.
Sun catcher refers to a pendant that reflects and spreads sunlight around a room, in the form of rainbows and flecks of light.
We’re back on standard time here in the United States. We turned back our clocks by one hour last night.
Some 32 states have now engaged in legislation to establish Daylight Saving Time (DST) as the official time year-round. For this to become a reality though, Congress has to approve an amendment to the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
The end of a beautiful day. This is 13th Ave & Harrison St on Capitol Hill, looking towards the Space Needle (tiny, in the distance). Sunset is 11 mins away, at 4.51 pm.
It’s time to get out the woolen hats and scarves here in Western Washington. It was 48 °F (9 °C) as I headed out the door, while there was still a little gray daylight left.
I don’t know the name of this tree, but the yellows and oranges of its leaves are spectacular.New construction on 15th Avenue. Looks like there are three condominium homes, judging from the three mailboxes on the sidewalk. Interesting rusty metal finish (iron oxide?). They would go for oh, $1 million or so, each. Great general location, BUT 15th Ave is busy and noisy in daytime.Here’s the Walgreen pharmacy on the corner of 15th & Republican saying ‘COVID-19 VACCINE NOT YET AVAILABLE‘ on the door. (Wow. Can it be that people are beating the doors down, so to speak, inquiring about the vaccine every day?). We do need a vaccine. We’re hitting new daily record high numbers of cases here in the United States.
18 days until Nov 3.
I walked down to the ballot drop box on Broadway this afternoon to drop in my ballot.
There it goes! Yay! There was a lot more than just Joe Biden for president, to vote for on the ballot. We vote for Washington State governor (Jay Inslee), for our House of Representatives member (Pramila Jayapal is mine), and for a number of local ballot initiatives as well. The two US senators for Washington State are not on the ballot. US senators serve 6 years, and Patty Murray was re-elected in 2016, and Maria Cantwell in 2018.Here comes the Seattle streetcar. This is on Broadway, right where the ballot box is. The new apartment buildings across the street are coming together nicely. They might take a little longer to fill up with renters, with the pandemic hit that the economy has taken under the Trump Disaster Administration.A little further down is the Broadway Performance Hall, part of Seattle Central College. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1911 and renovated in 1979. The performers (singers, speakers, poets, musicians, dancers) will be back, but not any time soon.
It’s been foggy in the morning here in the city all week.
The air quality has been decent, in spite of a number of fires still burning in Washington State and on the West Coast.
Tiny droplets stick to the spider webs in the morning and make them stand out sharply. Later, as the sun comes out, the drops will disappear, and Mr Spider will regain the stealthiness of his trap.
It’s been awhile since I went down to South Lake Union to check out the construction there, and off I went today.
Here is the $1.8 bn expansion to the Washington State Convention Center, in a deep hole in the soil, and now in a financial hole as well. It seems as if construction is proceeding, but in May it was reported that the project was seeking a $300 million federal funds bailout to make up for lost tax revenue, due to the pandemic. Critics still say the city’s money for the project should have been used to built homes, schools and parks.The Re-bar Seattle (bar, indie theatre & night club) is temporarily closed. It’s become an institution of sorts, so I’m rooting for it. ‘Stay Weird Seattle’ is similar to ‘Keep Austin Weird’ (Austin, Texas). Now let’s talk about that sleek machine parked in front: a 1976 Cadillac Coup de Ville painted in a color called Calumet Cream, and with fur on the steering wheel and all. It’s 19 ft (5.8m) long. I am very sure she will refuse to be squeezed into a single parking bay anywhere in the city!This is by the Hilton Garden Inn around the corner from the Re-bar. The shiny panels, reflecting window panes & lighting will brighten up the gray winter days that are approaching.Yeah – that’s not going to happen, enough people deleting Facebook (market cap $719bn), or Twitter (market cap $31bn). Are Facebook and Twitter doing enough to fight lies and propaganda that may help Trump win again? Of course not. But Twitter is trying a little harder than Facebook, it seems .. now marking up Trump’s tweets that are outright lies or misleading about voting by mail, for example.Here’s the 1200 Stewart St construction along Denny Way across from the Seattle City Light substation. These are two base buildings with 3 stories that will each get 45-story apartment towers built on top of them. In the middle is the 40-story Nexus condominium tower (completed 2019).This 2014 Fairview Ave, another apartment tower further down Denny Way, that will have 42 stories. Check out the slight S-curve that the rounded corners of the floor slabs are making.A little further down Fairview Avenue is the El Grito Taqueria (El Grito = The Scream). I love the turquoise-ish color that complements the red bricks.Yes, open the windows, let some fresh air in! The Cascade apartments on Minor Avenue.
The air quality around Seattle had improved enough by this afternoon for us to at least venture out for a walk around the block.
I watered my plants at the back and front of the house, and then went back inside. We have really had no rain in the city for September– 0.06 in (1.5 mm) at the National Weather Service’s gauge at the airport.
The delicate little flowers on my blue leadwood (Ceratostigma) are the last splotches of color that I have on my back deck, before fall sets in. The color of the leaves are already turning.
Mr. Blue Sky please tell us why You had to hide away for so long (so long) Where did we go wrong?
– lyrics from Mr Blue Sky, by Electric Light Orchestra (1977)
Here’s a flock of pigeons – and yes, I’m looking directly at the sun – at 6.00 pm today.
The air quality here in Seattle has improved from ‘Hazardous’ to ‘Unhealthy’. There is a weather system moving in on Friday that should finally bring back blue skies.
Amazing satellite photo tweeted by Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (@pscleanair) on Wed. morning. All of Washington State is covered. I believe the white ridges are clouds and the flat gray lower down must be smoke.
There was no good news in the weather forecast tonight.
A low-pressure system in the Pacific will continue to bring in smoke from the south, and the little bit of rain tonight is not going to clear the the foul air that is blanketing the city, either.
It’s going to be a few more days, at least.
Mr Squirrel, chewing on a little pine cone that had dropped from a Douglas fir in my yard. He didn’t seem to be bothered by the smoky air.
It’s 1.15 pm here in Seattle, and there is an eerie orange haze outside.
The sun has yet to break through the combination of marine layer fog and thick smoke from the west coast’s man-made fires. (Calling them wildfires seems like a cop-out, as if humans had no part in it).
Don’t go outside, they tell us – it’s hazardous for your health. Large swaths of Oregon have an air quality index reading of 500+ .. off the charts and beyond what is called ‘Hazardous’. [Map from airnow.gov].Whoa .. hopefully some of this is marine layer fog. Picture from Saturday morning, I believe. [Picture Credit: Reuters/ Karen Ducey]
There was a place in the greater Los Angeles area that hit 121°F last week. That’s 49.5 °C. And so many fires— the fires that get worse every summer— in California, in Oregon and in Washington State.
Mostly sunny & smoke haze (87 °F/ 30.5 °C) for the city of Seattle tomorrow.
476 027 acres is 743 sq miles. I asked Google how many acres get scorched by wildfires every year, in Washington State. It seems the average is around 1 million acres (1,500 sq miles). That’s 2% of Washington State (71,000 sq miles).
The 2020/21 school year has started here in the Seattle school district, all online. It was a ‘soft start’, so as to allow for connectivity issues to be resolved, and for everyone to get settled in with the technology that will be used.
