Happy President’s Day! It was a travel day for me – I left Seattle very early at 6 am for Chicago, then on to Pittsburgh.
Monday/ Happy President’s Day
Sunday/ hug the tree
It was nice enough today at 46 °F (8 °C) to go for a walk just before the sun set at 5.37 pm, and that’s what I did. My Capitol Hill neighborhood has a lot of apartments due to extensive construction early in the 1900s through the 1950s – and right now several new ones are under construction as well. Average studio apartments here now goes for $1,200 per month,
one-bedrooms for $1,500 p.m. and two-bedrooms for $1,950. Not cheap, but hey – we’re not San Francisco or New York City. Check out the New York City apartment map from below from http://www.nakedapartments.com.
Friday/ Seattle’s old Fire Station No. 7
I often walk by the old Fire Station No 7, on 15th Ave in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. It now houses a video rental store. It is usually cloudy and rainy (especially this time of year). So on Friday afternoon when I looked at the doors, I thought ‘Man! Did I know the doors are that violet (and violent!) blue color? I guess I know now!’.
Thursday/ guns in the home
So – what to make of the shooting death of South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius’s girlfriend? I’m just catching up on all the background information.
The facts : there was a domestic disturbance at Pistorius’s home inside a gated community at 1.30 am Thu morning, and gun shots were heard at 3.30 am. His girlfriend and model Reeva Steenkamp, was found dead with gun shot wounds to the head and arm at the property in Pretoria shortly after that.
So Pistorius is now in custody, charged with murder by the State. He and his family say it was a tragic accident.
Here is what the British ‘The Guardian’ says about guns in the home in a report they title
Fear and Self-arming in South Africa
Despite efforts by the government to limit it, the level of private gun ownership remains high in South Africa, with some estimates putting the number of firearms at almost 6 million – or 12 for every 100 citizens. South Africa ranks 17th in a world league of gun ownership. In 2000 the government introduced a Firearms Control Act, introducing a competency test to restrict gun ownership. But anti-gun groups say that domestic shootings remain an inevitable outcome of allowing gun ownership. “For many South Africans having a gun in the home is about protecting them against the stranger-intruder but data both in South Africa and elsewhere shows that you are four times more likely to have a gun used against you than to be able to use it successfully in self-defence,” said Adèle Kirsten, spokeswoman for the anti-gun group Gun Free South Africa (GFSA).
Meanwhile, here in the USA we have Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association (NRA) writing in an on-line op-ed called ‘Stand and Fight‘.. no wonder Americans are buying guns in record numbers right now, while they still can and before their choice about which firearm is right for their family is taken away forever. After Hurricane Sandy, we saw the hellish world that the gun prohibitionists see as their utopia. Looters ran wild in south Brooklyn. There was no food, water or electricity. And if you wanted to walk several miles to get supplies, you better get back before dark, or you might not get home at all.
So La Pierre is tapping into the survivalist and ‘Obama-is-going-to-take-your-gun-away’ sentiments of his supporters – and totally distorting what really happened during Hurricane Sandy. Yes, there were reports of looting. Yes, there was no food, no water and no electricity. But there were no marauding gangs of criminals, and no deaths attributed to crime, only due to drownings and the storm.
Wednesday/ Von Trapp’s in Seattle
A group of nine of us went out to Von Trapp’s tonight : a new German-style bier and bratwurst hall right here in Seattle’s Capitol Hill district on 12th Ave. The inside of the place is cavernous and comes complete will some bocce ball* courts as well. *closely related to bowls/ lawn bowling
I washed down my bratwurst and sauerkraut with a pils (of course : it’s my favorite type of beer), and also had a roasted beet salad with it. We all agreed that the food was not outstanding, but definitely worth coming back to. The place was packed with people and noisy! .. but I suspect that’s what patrons of these establishments like. The noise makes for a buzz of excitement, to go with the buzz from one’s beer!
Tuesday/ the State of the Union is .. still divided
President Obama gave his State of the Union speech and I liked it a lot. Late Tuesday night the left-leaning New York Times already had an editorial out on line that opined ‘While many of the president’s proposals were familiar, and will probably be snuffed out by politics, his speech explained to a wide audience what could be achieved if there were even a minimal consensus in Washington’. Some of the proposals were : background checks for all gun sales and banning assault rifles, raise the minimum wage to $9 from $7.25, withdraw 34,000 troops from Afghanistan by this time next year, universal public preschool in every state, a tax code that encourages manufacturing, immigration reform, and improvements in the the voting system (yes, that means especially you, State of Florida*).
*Voters spent up to 8 hours in line at the November elections. Chris Matthews of MSNBC pointed out that he was in South Africa for the historic 1994 elections and that the longest
time South Africans spent in line anywhere in the country was 4 hours.
Senator Marco Rubio ‘The Republican Savior’ addressed the nation with his response to the President’s speech saying ‘More government isn’t going to help you get ahead. It’s going to hold you back. More government isn’t going to create more opportunities. It’s going to limit them. And more government isn’t going to inspire new ideas, new businesses and new private sector jobs. It’s going to create uncertainty.’
Sunday/ Seattle’s stadiums
Sunday was a beautiful blue-sky day. I went with my friends Bryan and Paul to the 50th Seattle RV* show in CenturyLink Field stadium (home of the Seattle Seahawks football team, and also the Seattle Sounders soccer team). Nearby is Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners baseball team. These two stadiums are in SoDo (South of Downtown) and maybe there will be a third one in a few years. The Seattle Sonics basket ball team may come back to the city, and may get a new $490 million stadium even though there is the KeyArena stadium in downtown that they could use. (Pictures of the proposed new basketball stadium here http://bizj.us/dfu85/i/6).
*Recreational Vehicle, also called motor homes sometimes
The Year of the Snake 2013 is here
Sunday Feb 10 is the first day of the Lunar New Year 2013, the Year of the Snake. The snake represents wisdom, intelligence and self-control.
Saturday/ Snohomish antique stores
My friends Bill and Dave and I drove out to the town of Snohomish today to get some lunch and to go check out the antique stores in the historical downtown.
Some of the antique stores are very large, with several floors of spaces for dozens of sellers displaying their wares. Everything from porcelain, crystal, books, art, advertising signs, clocks, collectible cards, figurines, toys and even clothes such as mink coats, is on display.
Thursday night late/ arrived in Seattle
I know we live in the information 
age, but I am still impressed every other day with the information I can get to with the internet and my smart phone. Check this out, a run-down from last night.
7.01 pm We have landed at Chicago, in from Pittsburgh. The snow in Chicago has started falling. I can see that, don’t need the iPhone weather app to tell me that! But what is the temperature? If it’s not too cold, the snow will melt quickly and not be a big problem for the runway and the aircraft. Well, it is 34 °F. Better get out of here before it drops to 30 °F in the next hour or so, though.
7.14 pm We’re still on the tarmac, waiting for the plane at gate B5 to get de-iced so that it can move and allow us to pull up. Hmm. Let me check with United’s app if my flight to Seattle is still scheduled for an on-time departure. Yes. I can even see where the incoming plane is from (Washington, DC). It has almost arrived and is scheduled to arrive 9 minutes early, in fact.
8.06 pm We have gotten to gate B5. I just have to walk over to gate B10 for the Seattle flight. Almost time to board. If I’m lucky I will get upgraded to the big seats in first class. Have I been? Yes! .. the upgrade list that used to be classified information available only the sometimes-surly ground personnel, is now available to everyone (to obsessively check every 3 minutes if you feel you have to?). That’s me in seat 3E on the Upgrade List. (Later, before we departed, the guy across the aisle in 3B made a fuss when he discovered his seat’s overhead light was not working. ‘I need it to read, my Kindle is not backlit!’, he complained to the stewardess. I knew exactly what was going to happen next : ‘Will I be so kind to consider trading seats with him?’ she asked. ‘Alright, then’ I said (thinking : Good Grief, the way that guy is carrying on, they’re going to hold the @#$% flight to call Maintenance to get it fixed. Can’t let that happen).
8.30 pm Our turn to get some de-icing done. It has actually stopped snowing and is raining now, so we should be in good shape for getting out.
8.45 pm We’re getting pushed back from the gate. Four hours to Seattle, and 1,720 miles for an 11 pm Pacific Time arrival, two time zones away from Chicago’s Central Time.
And what is the weather like in Seattle? I forgot to check before we left in Chicago. This flight does not have in-flight internet, so I will have to wait until we land to know – which was perfectly OK. It was great to be headed home to the Pacific Northwest, far, far away from the Northeast which was about to be pummeled with the blizzard of the century.
Thursday/ at Pittsburgh airport
I was the passenger in my colleague’s rental car to the airport, so I could take a few pictures on the way out. It looks like my connection in Chicago is still good (without delays due to the large weather system forming in the northeast).
Wednesday/ winter storm Nemo
‘Winter Storm Nemo is now poised to become the latest example of a powerful, potentially historic, February storm’, says the Weather Channel. I am located north of Pittsburgh, just outside the storm area but it’s going to come down heavily north and east of here. The word ‘storm’ when snow is involved, is often the equivalent of Roberta Flack’s song ‘killing me softly with his song’ : soft fluffy white stuff that just keeps coming down, and eventually snarling up traffic, snapping tree limbs, damaging power lines, and all that. And when I was working at a utility company in California, I learned that there was something called a ‘heat storm’ : a term for an extended heat wave also has potential for widespread power outages due to increased use of air-conditioning.
Tuesday/ write it up
We have a lot of documentation to complete for our Blueprint, and so we’re knuckling down and cranking out the documentation. It is cold and snowy outside, but Salt Lake City taught me that there is still a long way down if you’re in the 20s (°F). The Japanese TV channel in the hotel room reports that Ulaanbataar, the capital city in Mongolia, is sporting a withering temperature of -18 °F (-28 °C).
Monday/ from Moon to Mars
I’m in Pennsylvania, in the Pittsburgh area again for a few days. Moon is just north of Pittsburgh airport, and Mars is where the hotel is. It’s a 40 min drive to the hotel. There is snow on the ground but the roads are clear of snow and ice. Just watch out on the turns for iced surfaces !
P.S. So the black birds (Ravens) won the Superbowl, and no word from officials at the Superdome and its energy company, Entergy, as to what caused the 34 minute black-out. A circuit breaker worked as designed, but why did the circuits become overloaded? ‘It’s NOT Beyoncé’s fault*’ says James L. Kirtley Jr., professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
*Beyoncé and her dancers put on a dazzling, hologram-assisted halftime show on a lit-up LCD-like stage floor.
Sunday/ watching Superbowl XLVII
It’s Sunday afternoon in Seattle and I’m watching Superbowl XLVII. The San Francisco 49ers are playing against the Baltimore Ravens.
Friday/ art backdrop at bus stop
There is new artwork up on the partition that separate Seattle City Light’s new substation construction site in South Lake Union from the street. There used to be a bus stop right here, but the sheltered bench and post were removed last year. But for now I see the No 8 bus is stopping there again .. must be because construction is currently scheduled to start only in Jan 2015. 
Thursday/ the legal immigration morass in the USA
I am following the current discussions to make reforms to the broken US Immigration laws with interest. The 11 million illegal immigrants in the country will have to go ‘to the back of the line’, some people are fond of saying. Well, probably so – but that line is very, very long. Check out this chart that appeared in ‘Reason’ magazine in 2008 .. Legal Immigration Chart.
Wednesday/ lunch at Pesos Kitchen
My lunch with my friend Doug on Wednesday was a chicken burrito from the Pesos Kitchen & Lounge in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood.
The place has a ‘cantina’ atmosphere and my Ranchero style burrito was delicioso. The outside sign and doors and windows feature some cool cast-iron artwork.
Tuesday/ got my new passport
I picked up my squeaky new, squeaky clean passport full of blank visa pages on Tuesday. Since I rarely park my car downtown, and still had some time on the meter afterwards, I took a little walkabout to check out the architecture around Pioneer Square.
Monday/ Forever Stamps?
‘All first-class stamps will soon be ‘Forever’ stamps*’ said the guy at the postal services store here on 15th Ave. Yes, but will stamps be forever? I suppose so. We haven’t gotten rid of paper money – or of paper in the office yet, have we? Congress is supposed to take up legislation this year to improve the dire straits the Postal Service finds itself in.
*Forever Stamps are first-class stamps issued by the United States Postal Service with no explicit postage noted. So stamps are valid ‘forever’ even if the first-class postage rate goes up in future years,
