Posts

Posted on

Tuesday/ Senator Warnock wins

Senator Raphael Warnock (D) prevailed over Herschel Walker (R) tonight in Georgia’s run-off election.
That means democracy in Georgia still works, more or less.
(Walker did not lose by much, even though he is utterly unqualified to be a US Senator. Today, election day, a work day, the polls were open only from 7 am until 7 pm. Georgia election officials, supported by the Republican Party, tried to prevent 70,000 citizens from voting early on Saturday Nov. 26. At the end, 13 judges had rejected Republicans’ effort to restrict voting, and the voters won back their right to cast early votes).

Posted on

Monday/ new album pages📄

The blank stamp album pages that I had ordered from Denmark, landed on the porch on Saturday, and I tried them out today.

The first two pictures below are my existing, preprinted pages and pockets, from German company Leuchtturm. They run from 1961 through 1981.  The pages from 1982 onwards are now out of print. I scoured Ebay and the internet, but could not find a used set.

So I am trying out Leuchtturm’s blank pocketed pages, to stand in for the years starting in 1982. I printed ‘South Africa — Suid-Afrika’ and the year on paper strips that go into the top of the page. It looks OK. Maybe I need cream-colored paper to print on— or is that being too persnickety?

Posted on

Sunday/ a ferry ride 🛳

I tagged along with Bryan for a trip to Hansville, today.

Downtown Seattle. Checking out the 1200 Stewart St apartment towers from Denny Way. Construction has almost ground to a halt, it seems. About 10 of the 45 stories are still completely bare, and all of the floors still need balcony rails.
Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The twin bridges connect the city of Tacoma with the Kitsap Peninsula and carry State Route 16 over the strait called Tacoma Narrows.
Route 307. This is just north of Poulsbo, driving north towards Hansville.
Bainbridge Island Ferry Terminal.
On the Wenatchee ferry.  Departing Bainbridge Island. The Marine Vessel Wenatchee is a Jumbo Mark-II-class ferry that was launched in 1998, and has been doing service on the Bainbridge Island-Seattle route alongside the Tacoma.
On the Wenatchee ferry. A view of the Seattle skyline from inside the doors on the passenger deck. There is a bone-chilling windchill outside on the deck.
On the Wenatchee ferry. The view from the car deck down below.
Arrival at Seattle Ferry Terminal. 
Pioneer Square. This is the Sinking Ship Parking Garage, with the iconic 1914 Smith Tower behind it.

We drove south and around Puget Sound to get to the Kitsap Peninsula, and then took the ferry from the Bainbridge Island Terminal to get back to Seattle.

Posted on

Saturday/ snow patrol 🌨

There was more snow on Friday night, with about 2 inches on the ground on Saturday morning.

I ventured out into the cold for a few pictures before the start of the USA-Netherlands World Cup match.
Congrats to Oranje for the win!

 

Posted on

Friday/ cold and gray ☁️

Sunlight and heat were in short supply today (the high 38 °F/ 3°C), but I ventured out for a short walk before it was completely dark.

Looking west from 14th Avenue and East Thomas Street. The Space Needle has its ‘Christmas tree’ on.
The bright colors and lights of the Red Balloon Company toy store bring some much-needed cheer to 15th Avenue ..
.. as does the neon sign for Victrola Coffee nearby.
The remodeling at Coastal Kitchen restaurant is almost completed (a 63-year old drunk driver had crashed his vehicle into the entrance some seven months ago). The restaurant is scheduled to reopen on Tuesday Dec. 6 —for dinner and weekend brunch.
Posted on

Thursday/ World AIDS Day

On World AIDS Day, we raise a red ribbon to remember how far we’ve come, the work that’s left, and those devastated by this disease, particularly the LGBTQI+ folks and people of color who endured the brunt of this epidemic instead of being seen.
Let’s finish this fight.
– President Biden on Twitter

That’s the National League of Families POW/MIA* Flag below the Stars and Stripes on the flagpole. On the right is the Tricolore, the national flag of France. President Emmanuel Macron and Mrs. Macron are visiting the White House, the first state visit of Biden’s presidency, after the Covid-19 pandemic had precluded these kinds of exchanges for the past two years.
*Prisoners of War/ Missing in Action
[Picture posted on the President Biden @POTUS on Twitter]
Posted on

Wednesday/ snow on the ground ❄️

Parts of the city of Seattle had a little snow on the ground on Tuesday morning (the first of the season), and there was more on Tuesday night.
Rain and a 4°C high melted most of the snow today, but there may be more snow tonight, and during the next day or two.

Looking out from upstairs last night, just as I was heading to bed at 11.30 pm. I guess this is an inch of snow— not much more than that.
Look at this, reported by John Clarke for the Wall Street Journal:
Every year, Mr. Chevalier, 36, who works in digital marketing in the automotive industry, refrains for as long as he can from turning on his heat. Being thrifty, of course, factors in. Fuel is expensive this year and many people are cutting back. But beyond that, there is a flinty group that always tries to stare down thermostats come winter. Denying oneself decadent warmth for the noble suffering of being too cold is a proud tradition among austere New Englanders. “Are you a true New Englander? If your heat is already on, the answer is no,” the Boston Globe asked in a recent headline.
Posted on

Monday/ go big, or go home ⚽️

U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner catches the ball during a match against England. It was a draw, 1-1. 
[Picture by Odd Andersen /Agence France-Presse/Getty Images]

DOHA, Qatar—Before Matt Turner became a star for the U.S. men’s national team, he was famous for the one and only thing that a goalkeeper never wants to become associated with: an all-time howler. 

The goal Turner gave up in 2013 was so astonishing that a Fairfield University soccer clip went viral. Videos of the play—which began with a shot that ricocheted off the crossbar, popped into the air and then rolled off Turner when he tried to collect it, into his own net—rapidly spread across social media and the nightly news. Turner rode the bench for the rest of the season while seemingly everyone watched his mistake over and over. 

What has unfolded in the years since is somehow even more remarkable. Turner went from fighting for a job at a small Jesuit college, through the hinterlands of low level soccer, all the way to the English Premier League. And now he’s America’s best shot at reaching the knockout stage of the World Cup. 

-Reported by Andrew Beaton in the Wall Street Journal

Brazil, Portugal and France are through to the knockout stage.

It’s go big (win) or go home, for the United States, in their Group B match against Iran tomorrow (Tuesday).
The young and talented US team has the youngest captain in the World Cup: Tyler Adams (23)— and the man nicknamed Captain America, Christian Pulisic (24).

Pulisic was featured in 60 Minutes in 2017, in a segment called ‘Can Christian Pulisic become the first U.S. soccer superstar?’ I believe the answer is ‘Yes’.

Posted on

Sunday/ along First Avenue 🏢

We had sun and blue sky today, and I went down to Pioneer Square station to do a another little self-directed architecture tour.

I had the platform all to myself after hopping off the train at Pioneer Square station. 🤗
The Interurban Building on Yesler Way started out as the Seattle National Bank Building (1890–1899). It was built after the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889, in the Romanesque Revival architecture.
There was a tour guide and tourists at the Merchant’s Cafe and Saloon, Seattle’s oldest bar & restaurant. Just then a confused and angry woman walked by yelling expletives for all of two city blocks. ‘It’s going to be downhill from here’ said the tour guide to his group, and I don’t think he was referring to the terrain. (Pioneer Square is nearby and is notorious for the street people hanging out over there. It was deserted and quiet there today, though).
All the way across Alaskan Way to the waterfront, now. This is the newly-opened waiting lounge for the Bainbridge Island and Bremerton ferries, five years in the making. The large windows offer views of Elliott Bay (Puget Sound) and the Olympic Mountains. Crews are still working on a new entry building along Alaskan Way and the elevated pedestrian connector to this new terminal building.
The city’s skyline seen from the north side of the waiting lounge. That’s the Leschi fireboat in the foreground, commissioned in 2007. Missions for its crew include firefighting, search and rescue, and responses to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) emergencies.
Here’s the view looking north along Alaskan Way from the temporary pedestrian bridge at Columbia Street. The new pedestrian bridge is up ahead. Roughly three years after the completion of the demolition of the double-decker Alaskan Way Viaduct, there is still a ways to go to tidy up and complete all the construction. To be fair, the massive Colman Dock ferry terminal project (on the left) had started in 2017, and is still slated to be completed on time in 2023 despite the pandemic and a 140-day long concrete worker strike earlier this year.
The renovation project on the beautiful 1932 Federal Office Building on First Avenue is now complete. There is a plaque on the northeast corner of the building that reads ‘The Seattle Fire started here on June 6, 1889. This tablet was placed by survivors of the Seattle Volunteer Fire Department’.
The chic 1901 Alexis Hotel is to the north of the Federal Office Building.
Construction on the Holyoke Building across the street had actually started just before the Great Seattle fire of 1889. It was completed in 1890 in the Victorian Commercial style with a few Romanesque touches.
Now we’re jumping ahead almost a century in time, to the 22-story condominium building called the Watermark Tower. Constructed in 1983, it has lots of square and rectangular elements on the exterior. The canopy at the entrance, and the window pane above it is much more interesting to me.
I have made my way to the corner of Seneca Street and First Avenue. The Colonial Grand Pacific Condominium building of 1902 has 37 units (remodeled and converted to condominiums in 1983). It is considered to be one of Seattle’s finest examples of Richardsonian Romanesque commercial architecture.
I can now easily squeeze the Qualtrics Tower (formerly known as 2+U and 2&U), completed in 2020, into my picture frame with my phone’s wide-angle lens. (Confession: these are all iPhone pictures. I left my heavy DSLR camera at home).
Look! A beautiful piece of blue sky, and the waters of Puget Sound. The elevated Seneca Street off-ramp that used to occupy this space has disappeared along with the the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
Posted on

Friday/ let the shopping start 💵

It’s the third Black Friday after the start of the pandemic, and we are in an economy giving off wildly mixed signals with inflation hopefully past its peak— but with a recession still not out of the question.
Retailers are hoping that despite all the discounts that they offer, they will move enough merchandise to put them in the black, of course.

 

It’s officially the holiday season at Westlake Park after Friday evening’s Tree Lighting Celebration in downtown Seattle.
[Caption from the Seattle Times and photo by Kevin Clark / The Seattle Times]

Posted on

Wednesday/ a Wale of a time 🐳

‘With football, I know it’s perhaps bad to say it, but you’ve got to have a drink, and you’ve got to have a good time as well’ said Tyrone Fowler, 28, a food delivery driver from Newport, South Wales, who was headed to Tenerife this week. ‘It’s about building the atmosphere.’
– Jack Williams reporting for the NYT

Wales has only ever qualified for two World Cups: in 1958 and this year, 2022. The trip to Qatar and the related expenses were too just much for many fans, so a large contingent has decamped to sunny Tenerife* at around a quarter of the cost, reports the New York Times.

*Tenerife is the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, off West Africa.

Wales fans in Tenerife, decked out in the country’s red jerseys and bucket hats and draped in dragon-crested flags, all of it underscoring the supporters’ nickname: The Red Wall. The national anthem is ‘Yma o Hyd’, a folk song released by the nationalist singer Dafydd Iwan in the 1980s that translates to ‘Still Here’.
Wales tied 1-1 with the USA on Monday.
[Photograph by Laura León for the NYT]
Posted on

Tuesday/ the rain is back ☔

The rain is back after 14 days, an unusually dry stretch for November.
As of Monday, only 1.67″ had been recorded this month.
On average, November in Seattle sees 6.31″ of rain.

Looking south, down 19th Avenue East, with Stevens Elementary school on my right.
Posted on

Monday/ yes, log as a workout

I walked down to the Capitol Hill library just before sunset today. (At 4.30 pm, the gray sky promptly turned pitch black).

On the way back, my Apple Watch buzzed on my wrist with the ‘It looks like you’re working out’ message (offering to record it).
A few minutes later at home, I found this cartoon in The New Yorker magazine that I had taken out at the library. 🤗

Published in The New Yorker magazine of Oct. 10, 2022. The cartoonist is Emily Flake.
Posted on

Sunday/ so here’s the 2022 World Cup ⚽️

Ecuador’s Enner Valencia heads the ball to score his team’s second goal during the World Cup group A soccer match between Qatar and Ecuador, at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor , Qatar, Nov. 20, 2022.
[Picture by Associated Press]
I don’t have access to the 2022 World Cup coverage (not yet; maybe I will still sign up), so I did not see the opening ceremony. As someone said: you’ve probably seen it all before.

Here’s ex-BBC reporter Matt Slater’s (somewhat irreverant) summary of the opening match. He writes for The Athletic.
Ecuador were all over Qatar, who have spent the past six months in camp together, training like a club side. A League Two club side by the looks of it.
Valencia would get his goal after 16 minutes when he went around Al Sheeb, only to be felled by a textbook tap tackle. There was to be no reVARsal of this decision and the 33-year-old, now with Fenerbahce in Turkey, picked himself up and tucked his penalty away. The watching Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan would have enjoyed that.
Ecuador’s night got better on 31 minutes, when Qatar’s stage-frightened defenders fluffed another clearance — right-back Angelo Preciado put the ball in the mixer and Valencia’s forehead did the rest.
That, in terms of the football, was pretty much that. Ecuador 2, Qatar 0.

My footnotes:
League Two is the third and lowest division of the English Football League (EFL), below League One, which is below Championshop League.
Valencia is Ecuadorian professional footballer Enner Valencia (33).
Al Sheeb is Saad Abdullah al-Sheeb (32), the Qatari goalkeeper.
Tap tackle is to dive at the other player’s feet and, with an outstretched arm, deliver a tap or hook to the player’s foot (or feet) causing the player to stumble.
VAR stands for Video Assistant Referee, a match official who reviews decisions made by the referee on video.
Fenerbache is Fenerbahçe Spor Kulübü, a Turkish professional football club based in Istanbul, Turkey.
Mixer a way of describing the penalty area, the box, especially when it is crowded with players.

Posted on

Saturday/ that’s a lot of snow 🌨

The city of Buffalo and its neighbors experienced potentially record-breaking snowfall, as officials said that more than 70 inches fell in Erie County — with more expected.
-Brendan Bannon for The New York Times

Posted on

Friday/ a low sun ☀️ and blue sky 🔵

It was another day with nary a cloud in the sky.
The day’s high (47 °F / 8 °C) permitted outside activity, and the amigos were at it, on the Mount Baker pickle ball courts.

Here’s where the sun sits at 11.30 am: not very high. The enormous high-pressure system that had kept clouds and rain away the last 10 days will finally break down on Sunday.