I made another Sunday night run out to Amazon Fresh on Jackson Street last night.
They were again out of the Amazon branded milk and Chobani yogurt that they had previous times, and that I was looking for. It’s not a big deal; I was just a little surprised.
On the plus side: I discovered that they stock these biscotti called Nonni’s Biscotti ‘Originali Classic Almond’.
The biscotti are so dry that I dunk them for less than one second in my coffee, and then they are all soaked up and ready for eating.
It was only 56 °F (13 °C) when I went out for a walk at 6 pm today.
Still not scarf & glove weather, though. I’d say those are for 45°F (7°C) and below.
This is 17th Ave East here on Capitol Hill. The leaves are falling, the way they always do this time of year. When fall comes, the green chlorophyll of summer breaks down in leaves and its nutrients go back to the trunk and roots. These leaves turn yellow. The leaves on some trees turn red, and botanists are still not 100% sure why they turn red. The red color is due to a new pigment in the leaf called anthocyanin, which has to be made afresh as autumn takes hold. It may contain antioxidants to help against harsh winter conditions.
From CNN Style: Made up of 9,090 pieces, the replica model divides into three sections to reveal the interior of the ill-fated vessel, including the first-class grand staircase, which sprawls over six decks, as well as a Jacobean-style dining saloon and the engine room. The LEGO ship is a 1:200 scale model and also includes a recreation of the ship’s bridge, promenade deck and swimming pool. “At the time of its launch the Titanic was the pinnacle of nautical engineering, the largest moving vehicle ever created. It has been an incredible journey to recreate this iconic vessel from LEGO bricks, using blueprints created over a century ago,” Mike Psiaki, design master at the LEGO Group, said in a statement Thursday. “Designing the LEGO Titanic with such a focus on immense detail and scale, but also accuracy, has allowed us to create one of the most challenging building experiences to date,” he added. The set won’t come cheap though: Available for pre-order from November 1 and general sale from November 8, the ship will retail at $629.99.
Wow, the U District station has served me well just in its first week after opening.
I made another run up there to today on the train, to get to my doctor’s office for my annual check-up. And I got my flu shot today, as well.
I am very happy to see the Neptune Music Company on the corner of Brooklyn St & NE 45th St is still there. It’s basically right next to the U District light rail station. The large basement is overflowing with collections of vinyl, CDs, DVD movies, VHS tapes, the works.And just around the corner, the Neptune Theater is open as well. The Neptune is a performing arts theater with about 800 seats. It opened in 1921 so it’s 100 years old. (Google says The Front Bottoms are an American folk punk band from Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. I don’t think I will like their music. ‘That’s not my bag’, as Austin Powers would say).
We walked down to Chuck’s Hop Shop in Central District for our beers tonight It was barely 60°F/ 15°C, with a little wind chill.
The beer was good, though, as were the burgers and chicken sandwiches from the food truck nearby.
Poster at Chuck’s Hop Shop, advertising a ‘fresh hop’ beer fest on Saturday. (That’s Fresh Hop Bear, the mascot). A Quick Hops Primer: Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant Humulus lupulus. The first documented hop cultivation was in 736, in the Hallertau region of present-day Germany. Hops are traditionally dried for their use in beer, but since the 1990s some brewers have started to use fresh hops: picked from the vine and immediately used for brewing beer. (Hops are harvested around this time, at the end of summer).
It was nice to have the U District train (instead of the No 48 bus) to take home today after my visit at the doctor’s office.
The 22-story UW Tower (completed 1975) is a nice beacon to use, to navigate to the new U District train station on Brooklyn Ave (teal canopy to its left, on the street). The UW Tower house the head offices of the University of Washington.Here’s the station’s entrance. I would call the color of the lining of the glass canopy turquoise, but it’s officially teal. (Between teal and turquoise, teal is the darker one).Inside the station at the platform level, looking at the Fragment Brooklyn art installation. The woman in the window is doing embroidering.Here comes the south-bound train. This train has the older train cars from Kinki Sharyo Co., Ltd. (also known as Kinkisharyo, one word), based in Osaka, Japan. It’s a 6 minute ride from here to Capitol Hill station. I think the No 48 bus to Capitol Hill takes 3 times this time (it has many more stops than the train, to be fair).Outside the Capitol Hill station two stops down from U District, I can catch either the No 8 or the No 10 bus to take me the 8 blocks up the hill close to where I live. This electronic board with the next arrivals that are due is new, and a nice addition to this bus stop.
Here’s the board of one of the few games I have won recently against Scrabble Grand Master Zoey (she is an algorithm).
I was sitting on 402, with my last letter, the ‘I’ tile left. TI and IS in the corner would have gotten me 6, but KI was one better at 7. So now I had 409. Oh well, I lose, I thought, but forgot to note that Zoey was stuck with the Q (with no way to play it). So she lost 10 and I gained 10, for a net gain of 20, and for the win 429-427. A sweet victory.
I looked up some of the words that Zoey played, the ones I didn’t know.
I don’t do that for every Scrabble game (I am too lazy, and besides: it cuts into my Scrabble play time).
Here are the words, for the logophiles (persons that love words): NOES noun plural of the negative response called ‘no’ PLOTTIERadjective superlative of plotty (marked by intricacy of plot or intrigue), as in ‘this spy movie was plottier than the last one’
a plotty novel MEHinterjection— used to express indifference or mild disappointment ZAnoun slang for PIZZA (a word which my friends & I never use) ALUNITEnoun a mineral that consists of a hydrous potassium aluminum sulfate and occurs in massive form or in rhombohedral crystals KInoun 1. alternative spelling for chi, the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet; 2. also: aura, chi (or ch’i also qi), energy, vibe(s), vibration(s), as in ‘martial artists learn to use ki to fend off would-be attackers’ LUXnoun a unit of illumination JERRIDnoun (British English) a blunt wooden javelin used in games involving horsemen in some Muslim countries. DEVInoun used in India as a title following the personal name of a married woman (in Hinduism) ARnoun the letter r written out FAHnoun abbreviation of Fahrenheit WYESnoun plural 1. a Y-shaped part or object 2. the letter y written out CONInoun plural of conus, a very large genus (the type of the family Conidae) of tropical marine snails comprising the cones and including many harmless forms and a few chiefly in the southwest Pacific that are highly dangerous because they are capable of biting with the radula and injecting a paralytic venom that has been known to cause death in humans DIPLEGIAS noun, plural, paralysis of corresponding parts on both sides of the body
Note to self: when next in Australia, never mind COVID, just steer clear of the Australian cone snail (Conus textile) with its gorgeous shell. This one has its proboscis extended and poised for attack. Their venom (active ingredient: conotoxin) is used for paralyzing prey. Researchers in Australia think they can use it to produce a safe painkiller for humans, 100x more potent than morphine. [Image credit: AAP Image/Melbourne University/David Paul]
I had a procedure done at the dermatologist’s office, on my back.
I’m not allowed to reach up too far, or out, or down, with my arms until Wednesday when the medical tape comes off.
This is the kind of cartoon one finds in The New Yorker magazine (I love them). Check out the T-Rex by the xerox machine in the back. The cartoonist is Daniel Beyers and he resides in Hales Corners, Wisconsin, with his family.
The light rail train was much less crowded today, and I went to check out the new U District and Roosevelt stations.
Capitol Hill station, just boarded. This is a new Siemens S700 car, with the blue light lining the closed door. The light strip is green when the door is open, and starts flashing as the door is about to close, and amber at the close. This sign above the door is not animated to show the train’s current location, but there is another overhead LCD panel in the car that does that.U District Station, just arrived. The art installation on the wall by the southbound track (by Lead Pencil Studio) is called Fragment Brooklyn: ‘an imaginary streetscape of building parts’. One of the streets bordering the station is called Brooklyn Street.U District Station. An element of the Fragment Brooklyn art installation. (Could that be an 80s Dunlop Maxply wooden tennis racquet in the window?).U District Station. More of the Fragment Brooklyn art installation. Nicely done, the faux air conditioners, window frames and canopies.U District Station. One more of the Fragment Brooklyn art, this part with a classic New York City fire escape ladder. (The copper wires are not part of the art installation! Those are for the trains.)U District Station, outside. I know my way around U District, but it’s still disorienting to come up from below and suddenly be outside on the street, because the immediate area around the station had been closed to the public for so long.U District Station, outside. I cannot read Chinese characters, but I am 99% sure the mat says ‘Welcome’. I like the teal color scheme. I learned later that following the teal from the platform up to the street, gets one to this exit on 43rd Street.U District Station. Going down to the platform again, to catch the next train to Roosevelt station. Following the orange markings on the escalators will get one to the north exit of the station on Brooklyn St.Arrival at Roosevelt station. Here’s the explanation of the moose symbol for Roosevelt station on the station name signs & light rail maps.Roosevelt station. A southbound train arriving as I take the escalators to the street. Yes, that’s the hindquarters of the moose in the previous picture.Roosevelt station. Glancing up towards the top of the escalators leading to the exit.Roosevelt station. A little public space with a large art installation (Pascal’s triangle of sorts, a mathematician might say). I did not make a note of the artist.Roosevelt Station. I walked a block to this entrance on the south side of the station, on 65th Avenue.Roosevelt Station. Ticket stations just inside the south entrance, with retro neon sign artwork overhead.Roosevelt Station. Heading down to the platform. One of several sculptural mural art installations by Luca Buvoli. This one is a cyclist on an 1880s Penny Farthing direct-drive bicycle.Roosevelt Station. Waiting for the train.Roosevelt Station. And here’s the southbound train that will take me to Capitol Hill in 10 minutes. Cannot beat that, not even if I had a Tesla Model S Plaid.
Today marked the opening of the 4.3-mile extension of the Seattle area’s Link light rail system towards the north, with three new stations: U District, Roosevelt and Northgate. These are the final stations in the system that was proposed to voters in 1996. So it took twenty-five years to get it all planned and built, a lot longer and much more expensive than planned, but it’s here at last. The price tag for this last phase was $1.9 billion.
Central Line is now called Line 1 with its 19 stations. Line 2 to Bellevue is under construction and will open in two years in 2023.
Bryan, Gary & I made a run to Northgate and back. (I will stop at the Roosevelt and U District stations some time later and take some pictures. These latter two are both underground). Here’s the elevated platform of the Northgate station. There are escalators and stairs to street level, and a connection to a new, large pedestrian/ biking bridge across Interstate 5 to the Seattle North College campus.Roosevelt and U-District are underground, and Northgate is above ground. Construction to the north continues, with the extension to Lynnwood slated to open in 2024.The Kraken Community Iceplex (the training facility for the Seattle Kraken) is nearby Northgate station. The Northgate shopping mall is getting a make-over, and some 4,000 new apartment units are under construction as well.Northgate station is elevated above street level. Changes to existing bus routes have been made to stop at the three new stations.A new train with four cars entering Northgate station. Sound Transit has started to purchase these newer technology train cars from Siemens Mobility (they entered into service in May 2021). The model name is S700, and these cars cost around $4.5 million each.The new John Lewis Memorial Bridge (pedestrian/ biking bridge) across Interstate 5 to the North Seattle College campus spans some 1,900 feet.This weird rotary-dial phone was set up as a curiosity (I think), at the entrance of the bridge.
I live in one of the bluest (most progressive) Democratic districts in the country, and my representative is Pramila Jayapal. She leads the 100-member progressive caucus in the house (100 out of 224), so they have a lot of clout .. and they feel the time is NOW and nothing happens/ progressive legislation gets completely watered down time and again if the progressives do not make a stand.700,00 deaths in the U.S. from COVID-19, including 100,000 since the vaccine rollout.
Another week gone, and here is October 2021 on us, already.
Every night all the calamities of the moment are covered by NBC Nightly News. In a way, the news is always the same.
We’re in a climate crisis.
Hospitals are still filled with Covid-19 patients.
We’re told America could be just weeks away from defaulting on its debt for the first time ever.
And as far as enacting President Biden’s policy agenda, we don’t have 6 major political parties in government, the way the Germans do. We have only two.
I would argue we actually have only the Democratic Party.
(The Republicans are AWOL. They very, very rarely work with the Democrats. They will kill American democracy— and kill us all— if they come back into power).
The moderates and the progressives in the Democratic Party are tussling over two big policy bills.
There’s the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, and a $3.5 trillion social policy bill that includes measures related to climate change, family aid, and expansions to Medicare.
Here’s what Amber Philips writes in today’s Washington Post about the key players in the Democrats’ congressional battles. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.):Leader of centrist Democrats in the House What he wants: A vote on the infrastructure bill on Thursday, which he didn’t get. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.):Leader of the progressive caucus in the House What she wants: Centrist Democrats, particularly in the Senate, to get behind the $3.5 trillion spending bill that would be the capstone of Democrats’ control of Washington right now. Sen. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.):A centrist holdout in the Senate
What he wants: Democrats’ social safety net legislation to cost much less, around $1.5 trillion. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.): Another holdout in the Senate
What she wants: First off, for the House to pass the infrastructure bill. She helped negotiate that in the Senate, where 19 Republicans voted for it.
And like Manchin, she wants Democrats’ social safety net/climate change legislation to cost much less. But unlike Manchin, she’s been more quiet about what she could support, frustrating liberals who feel like they can’t negotiate with a moving target, or no target at all.
Rumor has it that a LEGO Titanic set is forthcoming, as early as November 1st (the LEGO company is mute).
The LEGO Creator Expert set #10294 is said to have 9,090 pieces, so it will be bigger than the Colosseum ($550, 9036 pieces)*.
*The 2021 LEGO World Map has 11,695 pieces, but it is a flat model with a large number of mosaic pieces.
(Unofficial, not confirmed by LEGO!) This is what the LEGO version of RMS Titanic, operated by the White Star Line, will look like. Reportedly it has no mini-figures (so no crew, and no Jack & Rose from the Titanic movie in the bow). It is also not known if the interior of the ship will show a few details such as part of the engine room, or the grand ballroom of the Titanic with its spiral staircase. [Picture from https://www.brickfinder.net/]
Here is a set of slides from Deutsche Welle’s website that shows the outcome of Sunday’s federal elections in Germany.
Angela Merkel’s party (the Christian Democrats) lost ground everywhere.
For the first time since the 1950s, at least three parties will be needed to form a coalition in Germany’s government. (The two largest parties are unlikely to form a coalition on their own).
The Social Democrats and the Green Party made the biggest gains.
The historic Reichstag building in Berlin which houses the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany’s parliament. It will house members of the 6 major German political parties. It was constructed to house the Imperial Diet of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894, severely damaged in 1933 (set on fire). It was only finally completely refurbished in 1999.C.D.U./C.S.U. Christian Democratic Union/ Christian Social Union (the Bavarian sister party to C.D.U.) S.P.D. Social Democrats AfD Alternative for Germany (Deutschland) F.D.P. the Free Democratic Party Left The Left Party (‘Die Linke’) Greens The Green Party SSW South Schleswig Voters’ Association (regional party in Schleswig-Holstein)There’s still a marked geographical element to support for the parties. The Greens have strong support in the big cities. The anti-immigrant far right AfD party has strong support near the borders with Eastern Europe.The Greens have much more support among voters with higher educations; the AfD has much more support with voters without higher education.Greens have more support in the cities; the AfD in the rural areas.Older voters support the more traditional and established parties; younger voters the more progressive parties. No surprise here, I guess.No marked difference in the male and female vote.
I made another run to the Amazon Fresh store tonight.
Every time I go there, they give me a voucher for another $10.
So will I have to go back again :^).
These paper bags work better in my high-tech cart than my heavy canvas bags (that cannot stand up, opened). Amazon Fresh gets bonus points from me for carrying my hard-to-find Irish oatmeal. Shockingly, though, they were completely out of plain whole milk tonight. (Got milk? No.) So I settled for a half-gallon of Amazon brand lactose-free Happy Belly Whole Milk. I am sure my belly will be happy.
I realized on Sunday, driving around in the pouring rain, that’s it’s a new experience for me in my car (it’s been dry ever since I had gotten the car at the end of June).
The windshield wipers switch on automatically, but at times they seem to be a little too frantic (enthusiastic?) with the wiping. I intervene then, and adjust the wiper frequency down a notch.
I like the stalk on the right of the steering wheel to push on*, to get to the wiper controls (and not to have to go through the console screen selections).
*Tesla’s new steering wheel on the Model S and X has none of that, as the steering column is not equipped with any stalk.
I am on Denny Way, waiting at the traffic light to turn left, to get to I-5 South. Looks like the 1200 Stewart St apartment tower has topped out (45 floors of apartments). The twin towers in the distance on the right, are part of the 1120 Denny Way apartments (construction is just about complete).
The kraken (/ˈkrɑːkən/)
1. a legendary sea monster of gigantic size and cephalopod-like appearance in Scandinavian folklore
2. Seattle’s new National Hockey League team, commencing its inaugural season in the league
For the first time in almost a century, Seattle has an ice hockey team again that competes for the Stanley Cup. (The Seattle Metropolitans beat the Montreal Canadiens in 1917 to become the first American team to capture the Stanley Cup. After the Metropolitans had disbanded in 1924, there were other teams, such as the Seattle Totems, that competed in the Pacific Coast Hockey League, but not in the National Hockey League).
So tonight, in a preseason game for the upcoming 2021-22 NHL season, the Seattle Kraken took on the Vancouver Canucks. More than 10,000 fans packed into the Spokane Arena, all the way across the state near its border with Idaho.
Forward Riley Sheahan (#15) scored the first-ever goal in Kraken history tonight.
The Kraken ended up winning 5-3.
Hockey pucks (1 in. thick, 3 in. diameter, weight 6 oz.) are made of vulcanized rubber, with diamond patterns on the edges to improve the grip of the hockey stick on the puck. Pucks are frozen before the game to reduce bouncing during play. Ice hockey started out with a ball, such as the one used for field hockey, then in the 1870s came a square puck. Soon after that, the round puck came into play. The origin of the word ‘puck’ is obscure. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests the name is related to the verb ‘to puck’ (a cognate of poke), used in the game of hurling for striking or pushing the ball, or from the Scottish Gaelic puc or the Irish poc, meaning “to poke, punch or deliver a blow”. A hockey puck is also referred to colloquially as a “biscuit”. To put the “biscuit in the basket” (colloquial for the goal) is to score a goal. [Source: Wikipedia, Picture @SeattleKraken on Twitter]Action on the ice in the Spokane Arena tonight. The Seattle Kraken wears the dark blue. That’s defender Jamie Oleksiak (#24), forward Jared McCann (#16) and forward Jordan Eberle (#7). These guys are all Canadian-born, but we also have Scandinavian-born players and hey! a few Americans on the team. It’s professional hockey. Money talks and the owner/s* buy (is that too harsh a word?) the players for the team from all over the world. * Billionaire private equity businessman David Bonderman is the majority owner.
The new iPhone 13 Pro, rendered in augmented reality on my desk by Apple’s website.
‘One or more items in your order will be ready for pickup at Apple, University Village’
– Text message from Apple, complete with map and QR code
I took this message to believe my new phone and its leather case were ready for pickup.
The phone was indicated as ‘available’ on Friday when I placed the order. And did Tim Cook not say (at the Apple event, Sept. 14) that there would be enough phones out of the gate, this year?
Long story short: I left the store without my phone. (It’s not a big deal. It’s just an illustration of how the best-laid plans can go off the rails).
Inside the store after a long, long wait for the phone to show up: No— they did not have it— and would not have it for another four weeks.
I suppose I could have double-checked online if both my items were ready, before going out to the store.
In hindsight, the other red flag was that my credit card was charged only for the case as I placed the order on Friday, but not for the phone .. but I thought that was because they would check the condition of my trade-in phone, and then finalize the charge amount today.
So the message & QR code they had sent out, the time slot of 11.45- 12 noon for the pickup, the careful choreography in the Apple store, was all for just picking up a phone case.
Back at home came the e-mail from Apple with my receipt, and the standard invitation to provide feedback of ‘my experience at the Apple store’.
I basically wrote back:
‘I took your text message & QR code as confirmation that both phone and case were ready for pickup.
Why on earth would your ordering program assume I would want to come in to your store, fight the traffic piling up for the University of Washington football game nearby, to come in and pick up only the case for the phone?
Somewhere along the line there should have been a clear message saying that the phone would be unavailable/ not ready for pickup’.
P.S./ Two days later There was in fact in e-mail sent out by Apple on Friday, that stated that the phone was not available. So yes, I should have checked the status of my order inside the e-mail before I went out to the store.
It was lovely outside today (76°F /24°C), and I walked down to the Twice Sold Tales bookstore on Harvard Avenue.
I browsed around in the store but did not buy anything this time. (It’s just fun to look at all the books, so mission still accomplished).
Sunflowers (Helianthus, from helios, Greek for sun) is a genus comprising about 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae. Before blooming, sunflower plants tilt during the day to face the sun in order to gain more sunlight for photosynthesis, a response called heliotropism. Sunflowers are thought to have been domesticated 3,000–5,000 years ago by Native Americans who would use them primarily as a source for edible seeds. [From Wikipedia]The plywood boarding is still in place at Twice Sold Tales, a little curiously. Maybe the owner likes the artwork with the cats on. (The cats inside are still there, as well). I like the T-Rex sign, myself. The sign on the door says that the store is not buying books right now. Seattle fire marshal ordered the store to stop piling up so many books inside. (It makes it harder for fire fighters to navigate the inside, and for customers to get out).The little plaza by the Capitol Hill Light Rail Station is in good shape: no graffiti and no trash lying around.This 20-foot tall public art sculpture of silent speakers in the shape of an X (or a positive sign on its side) is part of the artwork commissioned for the AIDS Memorial Pathway (AMP) project, a tribute to the missing narratives of women and Black people lost to the AIDS crisis. It is called ‘andimgonnamisseverybody’. The artist is Christopher Paul Jordan (b. 1990), and he used bronze, aluminum and stainless steel.
Andy Slavitt’s podcast with Dr. David Agus and Tom Moriarty of CVS Health.
I listened to a podcast of Andy Slavitt (former Biden White House Sr Advisor for COVID Response) today, and it’s clear to me what to do now.
I need to march into a CVS store (or any other, or a clinic) by November, and get a booster shot.
It appears that the protection afforded by full vaccinations, wanes by about 6% per month.
There is no apparent downside for adults getting a booster shot.
So if it’s OK for 65+ people, and for workers (of any age) at high risk, it is surely also OK for me to get.
As Dr Agus put it: striving for perfection is our enemy here. Why try to get it perfectly right (re: timing and shot combinations), and come down with Covid in the meantime?
On Sept. 19, I had been fully vaccinated for 4 months. By the time that 6 months will have gone by for me (Nov. 19), it would be time for a booster shot. The recommendation from the podcast is to try to get the same shot as the 1st & 2nd dose shots (Pfizer 1,2 + Pfizer 3 OR Moderna 1,2 + Moderna 3). If that’s not possible any other combination is OK as well: J&J 1 + Pfizer 2 OR J&J 1+ Moderna 2 OR Pfizer 1,2 + Moderna 3 OR Moderna 1,2 + Pfizer 3.
That snake-eye brick comes from the LEGO Ninjago 9450 Epic Dragon Battle (2012) set. It was in a bag of used bricks that I had bought. Let’s just say that it represents COVID-19 this fall, still lurking in the shadows.
I made another Sunday night run
out to Amazon Fresh on Jackson Street last night.
