Bus, Train, Streetcar, Burrito

Phillip asked me if I wanted to go somewhere for lunch today. I requested Chipotle. We hadn’t been there in a long time. I also requested how we’d get there: We’d walk over to Broadway and Denny, and catch the First Hill Streetcar to the next stop, Broadway and Pike, which is a half-block from Chipotle.

Phillip liked the Chipotle idea, but requested a change to how we’d get there. He wanted to go to Uwajimaya and get some tabi (socks with a big toe). Then we could stop at Chipotle on the way back.

I agreed with Phillip’s modification, and asked him how he wanted to get to Uwajimaya – light rail or streetcar? He chose light rail.

We stopped into the credit union on Broadway, on our way to Capitol Hill Station, to get some cash. As we exited the credit union, a 60 bus was arriving. So we rode the 60 to Broadway and Denny.

This is the coolest bus stop in Seattle: a bus stop, a streetcar stop, and a light rail entrance, all in one place. (Plus, there’s a Pronto bike share station across the street.)

The platform in Capitol Hill Station was packed with people. Many were wearing Sounders gear. Because our original plan didn’t include us being anywhere near a sports stadium, neither one of us thought to check the game schedules. The two-car Link train was jammed with passengers, standing-room only. This didn’t dampen our day. It was a quick trip to International District/Chinatown Station.

Phillip found plenty of tabi in the Kinokuniya Bookstore, inside Uwajimaya, but none in a pattern and/or color he liked. We browsed around the bookstore a while, then we headed over to the streetcar stop on Jackson Street. Phillip considered trying to find another shop selling tabi (there had to be some), but we were both getting hungry.

We just missed a bright pink streetcar, and had an 8-minute wait for a polka-dot (bubble pattern?) credit union-sponsored streetcar.

The streetcar was busy, but not full.

As the streetcar turned onto Broadway, it occurred to me that I didn’t quite know where the southbound stops are – and which one is closest to Chipotle. Phillip didn’t know, either, and it didn’t really matter. It was a nice day, neither one of us minded walking a bit.

I guessed that Broadway and Marion would be our closest stop, so we exited there. It turned out that it was about two blocks to Chipotle from there. The next stop, Broadway and Pine, was a block and a half past Chipotle, so it didn’t really matter either way.

We had our lunch in Chipotle, and walked home from there, doing some shopping along the way.

Where Is Pioneer Square?

Recently, a friend commented that Elliott Bay Books was better when it was located in Pioneer Square. That started me wondering what’s in the building that Elliott Bay Books vacated. And that made me realize that it has been a very long time since I’ve visited Occidental Square, in the heart of Pioneer Square. I have no idea what’s there anymore. I don’t even hear about it anymore – not like I used to.

Do the police still walk around in 1900s uniforms?

I regularly wander through WordPress blogs with the “Seattle” category. I enjoy reading about tourists’ impressions of my city. I see that tourists are visiting Pike Place Market and Seattle Center. Sometimes, they get “off the beaten path” and visit Fremont or Capitol Hill. But it seems no one is visiting Pioneer Square anymore – or, if they are, they’re not finding enough to blog about.

I read about the club scene in Belltown and on Capitol Hill. I remember when Pioneer Square was the club center of Seattle.

The next time I joyride on the First Hill Streetcar, I just may have to ride all the way to end of the line at 1st and Jackson and discover what’s there.

Trouble On The Wires

Our 47 bus was blocked this morning by a large semi stopped in the middle of the lane on Bellevue Avenue, at Pine Street. The semi had its 4-way blinkers on, so it obviously intended to be there a while. I couldn’t see the top of the semi from my seat in the back of the bus, but I guessed it was inches from the overhead wires. There was no way a trolley bus could get around it.

There was also a Metro supervisor’s van at the scene, parked next to the Pronto station, with its yellow overhead lights flashing.

My first thought was: The bus driver could let us out here, we could walk around the corner to the stop on Pine, giving the semi driver the stink eye along the way, and transfer to a bus coming down Pine.

My second thought was: Hey, we’re in one of those new trolleys – the kind that can travel without overhead wires for a few miles. We could get around the semi. This is what these new New Flyer Xcelsior XT40s are designed for. It would be a tight squeeze, but with that supervisor directing the bus driver, we could make it.

Then, a Seattle Police Officer appeared from around the corner, and said something to the semi driver. The semi started moving, and stopped on the opposite side of Pine Street (where there are no trolley wires). The construction workers didn’t seem pleased with the arrival of the semi into their work area.

I wondered if the Metro supervisor had asked the semi driver to move, and, getting “No” for an answer, called the cops.

Our 47 pulled into the bus stop on Pine. The driver got out and put the poles back on the wires. So, it seems the plan was to squeeze around the semi. I hadn’t even heard the poles being lowered.

And we were on our way.

Seattle Is Too Funny

Finding a book set in my home state, or even my home city, is almost too easy. For the first round of the Reading Challenge, I found a winner in The Light on the Island. For the Bonus Round, I wanted to go in a different direction. I wanted to read fiction this time.

I put Where’d you go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple, published in 2012, on hold at the library. It was a book I’d heard of, but knew nothing about.

The main character is Balakrishna (“Bee”) Branch. She’s a middle school student at Galer Street School, on top of Queen Anne Hill, in Seattle. Bee’s parents had promised her that if she got straight A’s, she could have anything she wanted for graduation. Bee scored straight S’s, the highest she could score (since Galer Street believes that graders erode self esteem), so she asks for a family trip to Antarctica.

Bee’s parents moved to Seattle from California. They live in a Queen Anne Hill mansion which was built as a Catholic girls’ reform school in the 1900s, and was supposed to be converted into eight condominiums, but, due to zoning restrictions, is now a single-dwelling home.

Bee’s father is Elgin Branch. He’s a team leader at Microsoft. He commutes to Redmond on The Connector. His TEDTalk is the fourth most watched TEDTalk of all time.

Bee’s mother is Bernadette Fox, a stay-at-home mom. The Galer Street School Parents Association doesn’t know much about Bernadette. (One mother did a Google search, and could find only a prominent architect in California named Bernadette Fox – obviously not the same person.) Bernadette is viewed unfavorably by the Parents Association because she may, or may not, have driven over another mother’s foot while picking up Bee from school. The Neighborhood Association doesn’t like Bernadette, either, because of the blackberry bushes growing at the edge of her family’s property.

Bernadette is arranging the Antarctica trip through her Virtual Assistant in India.

Bernadette Fox seems to be mentally falling apart.

One day, outside of the “Rem Koolhaas-designed public library”, an architecture student recognizes Bernadette, and the mystery of Bernadette Fox deepens.

Where’d you go, Bernadette is a hilarious send-up of Seattle’s liberal Yuppie culture. It’s about the difficulties of getting Thanksgiving dinner reservations at The Washington Athletic Club (even with a Virtual Assistant) and having to settle for Daniel’s Broiler. It’s about trying to get your child into the right school, and about over-spending at REI, and about running into the judgmental parent of your child’s classmate at Whole Foods.

The book pokes fun at the city, as well. It points out Seattle’s five-way intersections, its horrible fashion sense, and Chihuly sculptures as numerous as pigeons. It gives eight-step instructions for using a Pay To Park station in Downtown Seattle.

The title suggests, and the book jacket spells out, that Bernadette disappears. I was a little worried that this “book set in my home state” would use Seattle as merely an introduction to a worldwide adventure. This was not the case. This is a book about Seattle. In a sense, Bernadette disappeared before the book began. The other disappearance happens late into the story.

I loved this book. I had a tough time putting it down. Where’d you go, Bernadette is a comedy. It’s also rather dark. It is wildly unpredictable. I never knew where the story was heading.

Book-related internet search: While most of the locations in this book are actual places, there is no “Galer Street School”. A search for that name brings up Queen Anne High School. It was built in 1908. It closed in 1981, and was converted into apartments in 1986. It was then converted into condominiums in 2006. (Sounds sort of like Bernadette’s house, eh?) It’s located on Galer Street. It’s that big white building you can see from Seattle Center.

Video bonus: Here’s the author promoting the book:

• A book set in your home state

 

Like Clockwork

I bought The Girl and the Clockwork Cat, by Nikki McCormack, during the charity auction at NorWesCon 39, without knowing anything about the book. I simply liked the title. I like steampunk, and any book with “clockwork” in the title is usually steampunk.

Maeko is a half-Japanese teenage urchin, and thief, in Victorian London. While burglarizing a clock shop one night, with the assistance of her friend Chaff, Maeko finds a locked cabinet marked “The Proper Professor’s Companion from Clockwork Enterprises”. While she’s breaking open the cabinet, she sets off a silent alarm, and the police arrive. These are not the standard Bobbies, who are easily outrun. They are Literati police on steamcycles.

While hiding out in a rubbish bin, Maeko finds an unusual cat. Its left rear leg and hip are a complex machinery of metal gears and pulleys.

Maeko soon finds herself in the middle of conspiracy and murder. She must use her best streetwise instincts as she confronts Literati, private detectives, pirates, criminals, and her own past. It all seems tied to that clockwork cat.

And, on top of everything else, Maeko has boy troubles. There’s Ash, at the center of the murder investigation, who obviously has eyes for her. And there’s her mentor and friend (and possibly more?), Chaff.

The Girl and the Clockwork Cat contains all of the classic steampunk elements: clockwork machinery, steam power, inventors, strong female characters, and airships, in an alternate Victorian age. It mixes in some teenage angst and a murder mystery. Yet, all the wondrous steampunk technology serves as a backdrop to a realistic, rarely-pleasant, life of a young girl living on the streets.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It’s full of adventures and interesting details.

The ending felt rather open-ended to me. It doesn’t say that it’s the start of a series. Perhaps it’s setting up for a sequel. (Hey, what do you know? There is a sequel – The Girl and the Clockwork Conspiracy – and a second sequel coming out in September.)

• A science-fiction novel

Creepy Map

During my morning break today, I read an article in Walking in Seattle about dangerous Seattle intersections. One of the intersections mentioned was Ravenna Ave NE & NE 54th Street. I couldn’t picture where that is, and the aerial photograph didn’t look familiar. So, I turned to Google Maps.

As I was typing in “ravena ave” the first thing the search bar autofilled was “Ravenna Ave NE and NE 54th Street”. How on earth did Google Maps anticipate what I was looking for? It’s not like it’s the only street that intersects Ravenna Avenue.

During my afternoon break today, I read an article in Capitol Hill Blog about a new pizza restaurant opening. It’s at the corner of Pine and Minor. I could picture where that is, especially from the photographs, but I decided to check Google Maps anyway.

As I was typing in “pine a” the first thing the search bar autofilled was “pine and minor”. How does Google Maps do that?

Actually, I can sort of understand why it would default to Ravenna and 54th. It is a busy intersection by a large park. But Pine and Minor is neither one – it’s hardly an intersection at all.

Is it simply that a lot of people were searching for these intersections today?

Minor Miner

I had a fun day of gaming in Everett today. Neither Daniel nor Kelly could make it, and Colin and Sam have decided the game wasn’t for them, so it was Ben, Brian, Kathi, Phillip and me.

Today’s game was set entirely within a flashback, during the Wild West, in the southwest area of North America.

I played a character named Jeremiah Clutter. It was a character created partially by Brian (the gamemaster) during an earlier flashback game. I developed my character further for today’s game.  Jeremiah is around 10 or 11 years old. (He’s not sure.) He grew up in an orphanage, which he eventually ran away from. He got a job in a mineral mine, and does some pocket-picking to make ends meet.

Today’s game was centered around my character. (That made me happy.) Two men disguised as Native Americans attack Jeremiah, steal the turquoise he’d mined that day, and flee on foot into the desert. A deaf Ranger and/or Scout (Phillip) is sent to investigate. Jeremiah is convinced that his attackers are brothers, and possibly Mexican. Together, Jeremiah and the Ranger take off on horseback, after the criminals.

The criminals elude them, and they end up at the homestead of a young Irish woman (Kathi) and her younger brother (Ben). The brother is about Jeremiah’s age, and works at the stables in town. The Irish woman, named Bridgette, feeds Jeremiah and tends his wounds.

Bridgette invites Jeremiah to live with her and her brother, where he’d be safe and well-fed. Jeremiah declines her offer, preferring his life of freedom on the streets.

The two criminals, and three more of their outlaw gang, are seen heading toward the homestead. Bridgette and the Ranger arm themselves. Jeremiah is ordered to hide underneath the bed. Jeremiah obeys at first, then climbs out of the bedroom window, intending to ambush the criminals.

Bridgette’s brother comes home just as the fight is about to begin. Bridgette and the Ranger, with their guns, and Jeremiah with a slingshot, and the brother with a pitchfork, which he throws like a spear (!), fight off the five criminals. One criminal is killed, two are captured, and two escape.

The Ranger fetches the Sheriff and brings him to the homestead. They find a lot of stolen goods on the criminals, including Jeremiah’s stolen turquoise. The reward money is divided, and Jeremiah, once again refusing Bridgette’s offer of a roof over his head, heads back to the mining community. Bridgette’s brother heads back to work. The Sheriff and the Ranger head back to town with the two surviving criminals.

Jeremiah, the brother, and the Ranger, all hear gunshots. They return to the homestead to find that Bridgette has fought off the two criminals, who had returned to finish her off. She killed one and one escaped. Bridgette was badly wounded in the fight.

The Ranger orders Jeremiah to live at the homestead, and help out on the ranch, until Bridgette heals. He is allowed to keep his job at the mine, however, and Bridgette promises to pack him a fine lunch everyday. Jeremiah reluctantly obeys. The Ranger teaches Jeremiah to shoot a gun. Jeremiah is unhappy about losing his street life, but he cheers up a little when the daughter of the brother’s boss is sent to help with the housework. (The daughter is 12 years old.)

Jeremiah is settling in to his unwanted farm life when the kinfolk of the criminals show up, seeking revenge.

And that’s where today’s session ended.

Crazy Machine

Phillip and I went to the laundromat this morning. As usual, I used one big washer, and he used three or four smaller washers. We took a seat together on the bench in front of my washer.

Phillip got up to check on his washers, and when he returned he asked, “How come my clothes have 13 minutes to go, and yours still has 21 minutes?”

I set my book aside and watched my washer. It was going through an odd combination of Wash, Rinse, Drain, back to Rinse, back to Drain, and yet the time remaining was hanging at 21 minutes. There are no laundromat attendants on the weekend, but in an emergency, we can go next door to the grocery, and they’d know who to contact. My machine was acting weird, but it didn’t seem like an emergency.

Phillip went to go transfer his washing, which was done, to the dryers. My washer, meanwhile, was still displaying 21 minutes remaining.

I watched the dryer display doing its odd cycles, with 21 minutes always remaining. As I was wondering at what point I should just pull my clothes out of the washer, the display jumped from 21 to 7 minutes. Then, a minute later, it showed 6 minutes remaining. From there, the display counted down as it should.

At 2 minutes remaining, I went to go get a laundry cart. I returned to the washer, and watched the display change from 2 to 1. A minute later, it went up from 1 to 2. Then, a minute later, it was back down to 1. And then, finally, my washing was done.

I suddenly remembered watching Kerbal Space Program update last night, with its erratic “estimated time remaining”.

That was my excitement for the day. The dryer worked flawlessly. Then, later in the day, it was a teriyaki lunch and trips to the Post Office and library.

The Map Is Doing Well

On a whim, I decided to walk up the hill this morning and ride light rail all the way to work. I crossed Broadway behind a guy who was walking at the same pace as me. He continued walking at the same casual pace into Capitol Hill Station. He tapped his ORCA card, looked up, and then suddenly started running. I wondered why. He went flying down the first set of escalators, maybe touching every sixth step, and that was the last I saw of him.

Then I looked up, saw the “Next Arrival” display and understood why that guy picked up his pace: The next southbound train was arriving in 1 minute.

The train after that was scheduled to arrive in 6 minutes. That was fine with me. I had plenty of time. A five-minute wait wasn’t going to hurt me.

There was a question asked on Seattle Transit Blog recently about why the signs bother displaying more than one arrival time. (What difference does it make when the train after the next one arrives? was the point of the question.) This morning, I found the answer.

Yesterday, I wore the seven dollar Vans I found at Value Village last November. Today, I was back to wearing my new Oliberté. They’re nicely broken in, now. I forget I’m wearing them. I like the way the map looks when the sole gets dirty from walking around. The dirt makes the details stand out, and gives the map a nice textured look. The soles had a firm grip on today’s wet sidewalks.

I can see these shoes lasting a good long while.

 

 

My New Shoes

I don’t remember why I was in the Whole Foods at Westlake and Denny, many years ago, but it was there that I saw my first pair of Toms Shoes. Later, I bought a pair from the Toms web site. They’ve been my shoe of choice ever since. I like the shoes, and I like the company. I’ve owned several pairs over the years – often two or three pairs at a time.

Toms Shoes are not waterproof, and they aren’t well-suited for long urban hikes. (I’ve never tried Toms leather shoes, however.) But they are extremely comfortable. When it’s not raining, and I’m not walking more than a couple of miles, I wear my Toms often. I wear them until they wear out, and then I keep wearing them until they fall apart.

These are at least four years old.

Recently, Phillip sent me a link to a company named Oliberté. They’re a Fair Trade factory located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They make shoes and bags out of locally-sourced leather. I’m actually amazed at how reasonable their prices are – considering they’re small-factory leather shoes. I was impressed enough that I ordered a pair of Zabilo shoes last week. (I have standard-sized feet, so I’m comfortable ordering unfamiliar shoes online.) I decided to be cheap and opt for the free shipping. My new shoes arrived yesterday.

The map of Ethiopia on the soles is a nice touch.

I wore them to work today. It took some time to break them in, and to get them used to my feet and my pattern of walking, of course. There are comfortable. They feel sturdy. I can see these being useful for urban hiking.

My new shoes make me happy. I may have two favorite shoe brands now.