Seattle Parks

This summer, I've made a point of finally exploring two of the biggest parks in Seattle, Discovery and Seward. I'd been to a picnic at Discovery years ago, and may have taken a quick look at Seward, back when I checked out a shared housing situation there years ago, but I've never really taken the time to look around.

May's low Memorial Day tide gave me an opportunity to check out the sea life at Discovery Park, which is at the end of the Magnolia peninsula in Puget Sound. The tide was low enough to see the necks of geoduck clams (geoduck in Lushootseed means "dig deep") along the sandy portion of the beach, although most of the sea life I saw was on the rockier norther shore. From my old apartment on Alki, I could see the light of the light house in the picture here.

This past weekend, I checked out Seward Park, It occupies Bailey peninsula, which juts out into Lake Washington. Lake Washington's fresh water lacks the diverse sea life of the Sound, but does have old growth trees. It's been a Seattle park for almost 100 years.

Rock Shabbat

I can't tell you the last time I went to synagogue. And it's probably been over a year that I've been meaning to go to Rock Shabbat at Temple De Hirsch Sinai, which happens the 2nd Friday of every month in Seattle. This past Friday night, I finally made it.

I don't think I've ever enjoyed a service more. My family was not much for going to temple, my mom and I would sometimes go to services for the high holidays, or I would go with my Bubi to services at her shul, which was conservative enough that the women actually sat separately from (behind) the men. The services I had been to were not very musical. At least, I don't recall the prayers being sung the way I've heard them back East. Even then, the music was simple. But not Rock Shabbat.

The biggest surprise about Rock Shabbat was that Rabbi Daniel Weiner played guitar. Somehow I was expecting the rock band to be more of a cantor or choir than that. It really worked and while I still found myself not always sure of the words, it didn't seem to matter as much.

There was a short sermon, too, in the midst of all the music. Talk of the 100th anniversary meeting of the NAACP, which happened Saturday, and the involvement of the Jews at a time when it may not have been the wisest move, but that Jews were always committed to fighting injustice.

During the service, I found myself wanting to bring all my Jewish friends back next month. It's definitely worth experiencing.

Summer comes early to Seattle

June is usually gray, wet, and colder than a summer month should be, with the standard wisdom being that summer in Seattle begins July 5th. But right now, it is 84 degrees in my living room. I've felt a bit like Goldilocks today, with my office being too cold, my home being too hot, and maybe the outdoors being just right (after walking the Vegas Strip last July, the 80's don't seem as hot as they used to).

I remember moving into my first apartment in the area and having a friend from Minnesota ask if it had air conditioning. I had to explain that a/c was not something many people had, given the limited number of days it got above 80. The average highs for June, July, August, and September are 70, 75, 76, and 70. I do have two fans, now turned on their highest speeds.

The thing is, it's been nice and sunny for an unusually long time--two weeks of sun, almost all above 68. As a Seattlite, I'm finding this a little disorienting. Normally, there's a rush to enjoy the sun because of it is a limited time offering. Even worse is when the sun is during the week and the weekends are cloudy or rainy. But none of that applies. It's all been glorious, if a little warmer than I like now. The end may be in site, though. Today for the first time I've seen rain in the extended forecast--next Monday!

Some Strange

As much as I hate to admit it, I am a creature of habits. Especially when it comes to food. It's not that I am unwilling to try new places or things, it's just that I've tried enough stuff to know what I like, and some stuff I like a lot more than the rest.

I'm not sure why, but April has been a month of not ordering the usual thing, and not traveling the same old paths. It felt good to mix it up even this little bit, like reconnecting with a part of myself, but I can't say I discovered anything I liked more than my old favorites. I guess it is just a reminder to keep putting in the effort, for once even the old favorites were new taste treats.

February Wrap Up

I remember my first February in Seattle. I had this feeling that something was missing. I realized it was winter. I'd missed winter. And then the daffodils started coming up mid-month. I was convinced they were suicidal little daffodils, but they knew the climate better than I did.

I now take it for granted that the daffodils will come up in February (one year it was the end of January when they started coming up). This year, it has seemed colder than normal. More overnights at freezing. More snow: I woke up to snow Thursday, much to my surprise. Thursday was also the day I saw the first daffodils. Walking into work, I saw their green stems coming up. Going to lunch, I saw them in full bloom. I don't think the snow mattered to them.

February has always been the month when I feel myself start to bloom. The days get perceptively longer (although I'll admit it was only the amazingly short Seattle Winter days that got me to consciously notice).

I realized the other day it was ten years ago this month that I moved to West Seattle. I'll skip the cliches about how we don't notice how much time has passed, although I will take the opportunity to blame W for it. I spent eight years living across the street from the Puget Sound. I had not thought I'd be there that long, at least not in the same apartment. And when I left I didn't move away from the place I'd moved to.

My parting February thought is this:
Did anyone else hear less about Black History Month this year? Is it because we are living black history?

Super Bowl Sunday

My first Sunday of life was the first Super Bowl Sunday. I don't suppose that would have meant much if my home had not been filled with football games every weekend during the season. My father was a big sports fan. He was a sports columnist on the Minnesota Daily, the University of Minnesota paper, when he was in college. He stayed a newspaperman, but earned his living as a copy editor, winning awards for headlines he wrote over the years. He still followed sports avidly. And while basketball was his favorite sport (in addition to being the reason my parents ever met), it is football I recall the most.

I'm sure the cold, snowy Minnesota winters combined with my family's indoor tendencies helped that. Plus, although I don't think I really thought about it at the time, it was a way to spend time with my father. (I'm sure a little of it was that was what was on television; although it didn't really change once I had my own television as a teenager.)

It's funny to watch football now (Pittsburgh just got the first td; or not). While a lot of my knowledge is out of date (especially with teams; Arizona? I know its been awhile too, and I can only hope the Cardinals will reset like the Raiders did!), I have knowledge about the games, judgments about the plays. I'd probably have more had my father been more into teaching it, but he really just wanted to watch. So I came up with cheers for the Vikings defense: Interception, incomplete, fumble, fumble at our feet! (sadly, the Vikings usually found a way to lose games, at least the 4 Super Bowls they were in during my childhood.)

They had a football pool at work, too. I played some years and, by the girlie method of picking nicer helmets and names, tended to do better than my dad. I know at least once I won a week.

Growing up, I was more of a baseball fan. One of my parents friends, who also worked for one of the St. Paul papers (back in the day when there was a morning paper and an evening paper), used to take me to the Twins games with the paper's tickets. But football was part of my home and my growing up.

50 Quarters

Today, I got the Hawaii state quarter, thus completing my 50 state quarter collection. It's a little weird to think I've been collecting state quarters for around ten years at this point; I'm not 100% sure when I started, but definitely by March 2000 at the latest. Having only 5 quarters released per year meant it was a slow task and, by my rules, not very active.

I decided when I started to collect them, that the quarters had to come to me, either in change, or from someone I knew. At the end of 2003, with my 23rd quarter, Maine, I started writing down when I got them. Looking back, I see some years I only got 4 quarters, which undoubtedly enhances the feeling of inactivity for the quest. Last year, I actually got 6, but not the final Hawaii coin. It was released November 3, 2008, so not bad, time-wise.

I don't have one of those maps for my quarters, either. Just a tin with some buttons and other items (so that is where my whistle is!). Maybe someday I'll do something else with them, but right now the collector part of me is pretty pleased to be done!