Happy Friday.
The new pickleball court facility called Sideout Tsunami Center is open for business (but the official grand opening will be in November).
This weekend, the center is hosting the finals of the National Pickleball League team competition in the “Champions Pro” division for players aged 50 and above.
I stopped by this afternoon to check out the new courts and the action there.
P.S. A win for the Mariners in Game 5!
From the Seattle Times:
Cal Raleigh and Eugenio Suárez delivered eighth-inning homers to send the Mariners to within a win of the World Series, and send T-Mobile Park into a frenzy.
A little pro shop tucked into the corner by the entrance. The facility is at 2300 26th Avenue S in Seattle, in a non-descript building (a former Pepsi bottling plant) with a large, newly-paved parking lot outside.Twelve teams from all over the USA compete for gold, silver and bronze medals. Look for the logos of the Indy Drivers, the Austin Ignite, the Kansas City Stingers, the Boca Surge, the Naples JBB United, the Princeton Bruisers, the Denver Iconics, the Houston Hammers, the Seattle Tsunami, the Coachella Valley Scorpions, the Columbus Hotshots and the OKC Punishers.A first look at the courts. There are no pavilions or bleacher seats in the spaces between the courts. Maybe some will be added later for one or two show courts.Three mixed doubles pairs make up a team. Here is the No 1 team for Austin Ignite (left) facing off against the No 1 team of Coachella Valley Scorpions. It’s best out of three sets, first to 11 by one point. Coachella Valley Scorpions won this match.Pickleball in the Pacific Northwest. (The whale is a humpback whale.)
Game on, and on to Game 4.
The Toronto Blue Jays rocked George Kirby and the Mariners, 13-4, in Game 3 on Wednesday night, silencing a sold-out Seattle crowd and climbing back into this best-of-seven American League Championship Series in emphatic fashion.
– Adam Jude, Seattle Times staff reporter
Western Washington’s interior lowlands got its first frost of the autumn this morning.
Here in the city of Seattle the low was still above freezing: 40°F (4°C).
On my fence this morning: Mr. Squirrel, contemplating life while catching a little sun.
Tim Booth, Seattle Times staff reporter, concludes his analysis
“ALCS: Three impressions as Mariners take 2-0 lead vs. Blue Jays” as follows (this series is best of 7 games): .. but general playoff history, momentum, belief, maybe a weird witch-induced aura are all on the side of the Mariners. The opportunity is there for Wednesday night to be one of the most important games in the history of T-Mobile Park.
Win and put a stranglehold on the series.
Lose and the Blue Jays are right back in it.
A guy takes his dog for a walk on Capitol Hill’s East Republican Street (dog jacket with a Halloween pumpkin design 🎃 ). It was clear and felt downright cold to me here— 6.00 pm (and 53°F/ 12°C) with 24 mins to go to sunset. It will be clear and cold here in the city through Thursday (‘cold’, because I’m not yet used to October’s normal highs of only 58°F/ 14°C or so).
By Jodi Rudoren reporting for the New York Times, Monday morning NY time
I am the former Jerusalem bureau chief.
They’re free. Two years — 737 days, to be exact — after the Hamas terror attack that set off the war in Gaza, the last 20 living Israeli hostages left Gaza this morning. In exchange, nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are being let go; the first buses filled with them just started arriving in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The releases are part of the first phase of a cease-fire deal that took hold Friday. A triumphant President Trump, the force behind the deal, flew in Air Force One over jubilant crowds in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square and timed the plane’s touchdown to coincide exactly with the first hostages’ arrival in Israel. He is about to address Israel’s Parliament and then will head to a summit of world leaders in Egypt, where the agreement was negotiated.
It’s Monday morning in Gaza. The release of the hostages (and Palestinian prisoners) is imminent, it seems.
May the war and the destruction and the famine and the killing of civilians stop now.
Here is a very interesting analysis that appeared in the New York Times recently.
(Whoah! Electricity is very expensive in the Golden State.)
How Much It Costs to Drive an E.V. and a Gas Car in Every State
Charging an electric car battery is usually cheaper than going to the gas pump. But it depends on where you live.
– Report by Francesca Paris in the New York Times of Oct. 8
The federal subsidy for electric cars has ended, which means E.V. sales will probably fall because of simple math: Electric cars are generally more expensive than comparable gas cars. (Some automakers are offering discounts to get around that.)
But there’s one place where E.V.s are usually cheaper: the cost of filling up.
Driving 100 miles in a typical gas car that gets 25 miles per gallon costs about $13 on average.
In an E.V. you’d pay just $5, if you recharged at the average home electricity rate. (Stopping at a fast-charging station — if you couldn’t charge at home, or had to travel far — would cost quite a bit more.)
There’s also a big difference between a standard gas car and a hybrid. A typical hybrid (not the plug-in kind) is essentially a highly efficient gas car — a Toyota Prius can get more than 50 miles per gallon — and so its fill-up costs can be roughly on par with an E.V. charged at home.
It’s almost go time for Game 5.
Below is a ticket from the Mariners game against the Texas Rangers that I had attended wa-ay back in 2004. 🤗
10.30 pm:
They made it!
At the bottom of the 15th inning the score was still 2-2. Jorge Polanco delivered the walk-off* on a sharp groundball to right field to score J.P. Crawford and end the winner-take-all game 3-2 against the Tigers.
*A walk-off in baseball is a play where the home team scores the winning run in the bottom of the final inning, which immediately ends the game. The term walk-off comes from the fact that the visiting team “walks off” the field, as they have no more opportunities to bat.
What happens next?
From espn.com: Starting Sunday in Toronto, the No. 2 seed Seattle Mariners and No. 1 seed Toronto Blue Jays will clash with a trip to the World Series on the line. Seattle outlasted the Detroit Tigers in a thrilling ALDS Game 5 on Friday night, two days after Toronto dispatched the AL East rival New York Yankees to get to the ALCS.
I believe the Mariners batter pictured on the ticket is Bret Boone. The Seattle Mariners 2004 season was not a happy one. It was their 28th, and they finished last in the American League West at 63–99 (63 games won and 99 lost). P.S. Two days before, on October 1, Ichiro Suzuki set a new major league record for hits, breaking George Sisler’s 84-year-old mark with a pair of early singles. Fans in downtown Tokyo watched Suzuki in sports bars and on big-screen monitors. [Source: Wikipedia]
Whoah! was my reaction as I rounded the corner and came up against this giant Halloween skeleton with blinking eyes. It made me think of the Terminator*— even though the terminator had red eyes, and a metal skeleton.
*From the 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron. It starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cybernetic assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to assassinate Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose unborn son will one day save mankind from extinction by Skynet, a hostile artificial intelligence, in a post-apocalyptic future.
[From Wikipedia]
The entrance of The Maryland condominiums on 13th Avenue East on Seattle’s Capitol Hill.
The Mariners crashed to a 3-9 defeat in Game 4 today in Detroit.
Game 5— the deciding game— will start at 5:08 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday night in Seattle.
A picture is from yesterday. The leaves have turned golden on the trees lining Martin Luther King Jr Way in Central District.
There was a rain delay to the start of the game in Detroit.
Once the game started, though, the Mariners were the first to put several runs on the board. They held off a late attempt by the Tigers to come back in the 9th inning.
A summary of the match generated by Chat GPT.Seattle Mariners’ Randy Arozarena is tagged out at first in Game 3 of the ALDS Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025 in Detroit. [Photo by Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times, caption from The Seattle Times]
Just a small town girl Livin’ in a lonely world She took the midnight train going anywhere Just a city boy Born and raised in South Detroit He took the midnight train going anywhere
A singer in a smokey room A smell of wine and cheap perfume For a smile they can share the night It goes on and on and on and on
Strangers waitin’ Up and down the boulevard Their shadows searchin’ in the night Streetlights, people
Livin’ just to find emotion Hidin’ somewhere in the night Workin’ hard to get my fill Everybody wants a thrill Payin’ anything to roll the dice Just one more time
Some’ll win, some will lose Some are born to sing the blues Whoa, the movie never ends It goes on and on and on and on
Strangers waiting Up and down the boulevard Their shadows searching in the night Streetlights, people Livin’ just to find emotion Hidin’, somewhere in the night
Don’t stop believin’ Hold on to that feeling Streetlights, people
Don’t stop believin’ Hold on Streetlights, people
Don’t stop believin’ Hold on to that feeling Streetlights, people
– Lyrics from Don’t Stop Believin’, a song by Journey from their album Escape (1981)
Go Mariners!
The Mariners* are in Detroit for the third and fourth games (Tuesday night & Wednesday night) in the playoff series against the Detroit Tigers.
The Mariners and Tigers are drawn 1-1 in the series.
*Baseball team from Seattle that competes in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) West Division.
“The M’s,” named for Seattle’s nautical heritage, have never won a World Series. They have won the AL West Division four times and appeared in the playoffs in 2000, 2022, and now this year, 2025.
A sunset picture from last night (sunset now at 6.40 pm), from where I was standing at East Mercer St & 13th Ave East. That’s the Mariners flag on the Space Needle. The graffiti on the ‘Stop Sign Ahead’ sign reads “Don’t Stop Believin’ “, likely a reference to the 1981 classic pop song with the same title, from Journey.
Three of us ran out to the Ballard locks* this morning.
Even though the salmon runs for the season are over (there were none to be seen in the windows by the fish ladder), there was still a lot of activity to look at.
*The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, or Ballard Locks, is a complex of locks at the west end of Salmon Bay in Seattle, Washington’s Lake Washington Ship Canal, between the neighborhoods of Ballard to the north and Magnolia to the south.
[Source: Wikipedia]
Here’s looking towards the waters of Puget Sound. It looks like the Salmon Bay bridge (drawbridge) had to be opened just for the little sailboat with its tall mast! (in the middle of the picture). There are seagulls in the sky above the sailboat, and a speck that is a seaplane, as well.This is the smaller of the two side-by-side locks. The gates are just closing behind the two vessels. We chatted briefly with the owners (an elderly couple) of the larger vessel at the back that goes by De Anza III. She was built in 1958, and this was the first summer they owned her.A closet look at the woodwork on De Anza III, as she is lifted up by the water being pumped into the lock. The new owners have done some work this summer to sand the woodwork and give it a new coat of varnish, but they still have a lot to do.This is the larger of the two locks, with two commercial vessels about to leave the lock and go on to Lake Union.Hey! There’s a harbor seal that had just caught a salmon. So even though the salmon runs for the season are over and done with, there are still a few of them in the water. I wonder if the fish are fatigued (from their swim upstream), and easy to catch.A great blue heron (Ardea herodias) on the edge of the canal’s water is patiently waiting its turn for an opportunity to pounce.The O-fish-al count (get it? official count) for 2025. So there are distinct times for the peaks of the runs of the different species of salmon. Q. And how do they count the fish? A. Fish are counted at the Ballard Locks through daily visual counts by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and Muckleshoot Indian Tribe staff using the fish ladder itself. Fish are observed passing through the ladder during specific periods, and these visual counts are converted into daily and weekly totals to estimate the overall fish run for the year. [Google AI Overview]
Happy Friday.
It was a beautiful fall day here in Seattle (the high 70°F/ 21°C).
I walked to Volunteer Park late in the afternoon, and took a few pictures of the Black Sun.
Black Sun is a work of art by Isamu Noguchi (1969) made of Brazilian granite and 9 ft in diameter.
At this point there are no signs of an imminent resolution of the partial US government shutdown.
The BBC reports on its website that “some, but not all, US government services are temporarily suspended, and 40% of the federal workforce – about 750,000 people – are expected to be put on unpaid leave”.
From the Washington Post:
How concerned are Americans about the partial shutdown of the federal government and whom do they blame for causing it? The Washington Post texted a nationally representative sample of 1,010 people on Wednesday to ask.
The Post’s poll finds significantly more Americans blame President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans for the shutdown than Democrats, though many say they are not sure. People express moderate concern about the shutdown’s impact at this early stage, with “somewhat concerned” the most common answer. A large majority support Democrats’ call to extend federal health insurance subsidies in general, though just under half support the party demanding this if it extends the government shutdown.
Here’s my Japanese lantern that I got at the Ozeki Tokyo Gallery.
The packaging says ‘Gifu* Lantern Project 001’, designed by Yuka Noritake, and ‘Made in Japan’.
*A reference to the city of Gifu in Gifu Prefecture, Japan.
The frame with handle (inside the paper and wire sphere) is just cardboard paper. The paper is Mino paper, made from the paper mulberry plant that grows in the city of Mino. There is a little LED bulb inside with a switch, that is mounted on a coin cell battery (so the lantern has no cord). There were at least a dozen more lanterns to choose from in this size and shape, but with artwork such as cherry blossoms, trees or Mt Fuji. I liked this plain one with no images on, best.
September is a wrap.
We had rain yesterday and today here in the city of Seattle.
The Republican Party is shutting down the United States government at midnight.
This afternoon I opened my remaining Takara Tomy animal figures that I bought at Yodobashi Camera’s toy department in Tokyo.
Gorilla (model AS-36) with movable arms There are actually two species of gorillas: the eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei) and the western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla). And yes, wild gorillas eat pineapples, skin and all.Nile crocodile (model AS-08) with movable jaw The Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) is native to freshwater habitats in Africa, where it is present in 26 countries (including South Africa and Botswana).Chameleon (model AS-28) with pliable tongue😝 Chameleons (or chamaeleons) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade* of Old World lizards with 200 species described as of June 2015. The members of this family are best known for their distinct range of colors, being capable of color-shifting camouflage. *Clade: a group of organisms believed to have evolved from a common ancestor [Source: Wikipedia]
Lion (model AS-01) with movable head, and meerkat The lion (Panthera leo) is a large cat native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the tip of its tail. Adult male lions are larger than females and have a prominent mane. The meerkat (Suricata suricatta) or suricate is a small mongoose found in southern Africa. It is characterised by a broad head, large eyes, a pointed snout, long legs, a thin tapering tail, and a brindled coat pattern. [Source: Wikipedia]Cheetah (model AS-13) with movable head and legs The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is a large cat and the fastest land animal. It has a tawny to creamy white or pale buff fur that is marked with evenly spaced, solid black spots. The head is small and rounded, with a short snout and black tear-like facial streaks. [Source: Wikipedia]
Hey! The postcard I had mailed to Seattle from the top of Seoul tower made it into my mailbox.
Gyeongbok Palace Situated at No. 1 Sejong Road in the Jongno District of Seoul, the palace was originally built in 1395 as the palace of the King of Choson. It was listed as a cultural property on Jan. 1, 1963.Mailed on Sat. Sept. 13, and processed on Mon. Sep. 15 at Seoul Yongsan Post Office, a stone’s throw from Seoul Tower.2021 Republic of Korea Definitives Issued Dec. 17, 2021 Perf. 13½ |Design: Ryu Ji-Hyeong |Engraving: Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation |Litho. |No watermark #3555 500₩ Multicolored |Fruit cluster of bunge (Crataegus pinnatifida) This tree is also called Chinese hawthorn and is known for its bright red fruit that is used in traditional East Asian medicine and foods (like candies and teas). 500₩ = US$ 0.36 [Source: stampworld.com]
Golds, silvers and grays in Elliott Bay in Puget Sound at 5.56 pm tonight— an hour before sunset (at 6.54 pm).
This is a view from the top of the pedestrian bridge in Myrtle Edwards Park, near the Queen Anne beer hall.
Sony a7CR w. Tamron E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071 lens at f/5.6 | 1/1250 sec. | ISO-160 | 96 mm
