I have started using tumblr to track a few things I do. Things I like to listen to, things I like to read, things I see from my work everyday, and other things I just don;t want to forget. Here are the links if you so desire.
moving right along
daily elliot bay photo
daily rainier photo
things my eyes read
collections of nothing
Sorry for the delay.
Oscar decided that he didn;t want to wait until the end of August. He showed up a 9:09am 8/13/2010.
Things couldn’t have come together better for the 40th birthday party. The weather cooperated. The sunshine was out. The pig turned out to be quite a treat. Lisa made some tasty dishes to accompany the pork. Chard and Debby made excellent salads. It was also fun to have the Yadda Yadda Blues Band play, Always a treat. The neighbors appeared to get a kick out of the band as all sorts of people came wandering by,
The pictures aren’t anything bizzare, wacky or exciting. Just good times by good people.
wheee. nothing like finding the long exposure function on the camera. For once, these actually turn out somewhat interesting. I’ll use this a bit for the future and then come back and delete all the picture when I have the what was I thinking moment.
In front of the house on the fourth of July.
as i’ve said in the past, i’d usually post this straight to facebook but the thought would get lost in the shuffle. here i know that it will live on for eternity (or at least as long as i pay for the hosting). here are some nice flowers on what should be the true start of summer.
I walk through this intersection almost every week day. It’s on the first leg of the daily walk. It is right where the first part of the climb of Madison ends. This stretch embarks on the heart of the hospital area. Scrubs and walkers populate the area around the bartell’s and the various quick lunch spots. The McDonalds is on one of the corners. A wild assortment of humanity gathers here for some of their daily nourishment and other interaction with members of this planet.
I spot the same Real Change vendor day after day. I get mine at a different location, so not much interaction with this wild haired distributor of the underground news. A few juggalos can be seen from time to time trying to get money for the next gathering of the juggalos. I spy the same old lady walking west towards the freeway with her walker and bag of groceries.
Also, without fail, the light allowing the madison traffic to continue forward will change from green to red when I approach. Directing me to cross from south to north and wait for another light to pass so I can continue my journey to the east. I don;t need to cross to the north at this intersection but I do if the light is going my way (which is general always). This confounds me to no end. Why is the light traffic direction signal always being activated when I arrive?
Answers? I have no answers. Yet I still continue on this path and obey when it changes without fail.
Le Panier is a lovely spot for lunch. A popular spot for lingering tourists stopping off for a french baked good and a quick pick me up. Pre-made sandwiches displayed in the case are my draw. Crudités, Jambon-Fromage, and Pâté de Campagne are provide the nourishment to finish the arduous day and recharge the batteries. Times have progressed as this bit of nourishment has increase by a half dollar. The chewy baguette makes you work for you lunch.
To obtain this prize, you must enter the confines of the Pike Place Market. Entering the market on a summer day is not something that is undertaken by the meek or those short on time. Wandering and gaping are popular pastimes around the noontime hour during summer’s call. Flowers fishes, and vegetables are presented in their splendor with the gentle waves and breeze beckoning from nearby Elliot Bay. Tables adjacent to this harvest are lined with belt buckles adorned with the Space Needle, waxy sticks of honey presented in an array of flavors, and t-shirts adorned with wolves howling at the distant moon. Opportunities like this don’t present themselves as often as they should!
Headphones on, with eye on the prize mentality, I enter the gauntlet of the market on a summer afternoon. I weave through the masses on the sidewalk. As long as the caravan keeps moving, the sidewalk will remain my domain. Eventually, the eyes of the outsiders can not resist the allure of the tourist trappings. The need to escape the confines of the sidewalk weighs heavily on my brow as the forward progress declines. Luckily the roadway along the market stretch is full of slow moving traffic. It provides a quick escape route if the mass influx of people refuses to move. The cars are much easier to avoid than the stoppage of the human experience. But alas, without the mobs from abroad descending upon the market, these options may not be available to me on a daily basis. I may be salty but I am still practical.
I’m beginning a series of posts on the various places, objects, and events I encounter on my daily walks throughout downtown Seattle. The map below are the paths generally taken. The magenta walk is the one I do most days.
View Walks in a larger map
I have traveled down this road before stating my grand intentions of reviving the greatness that has been iowabeef.net but hopefully my words will hold true this time. Facebook has been my place of residence for my personal interactions with teh internets for a few years now. FB is a wonderful experience. FB provides a great deal of contact with avenues from the past and provides the daily interaction with those around me. The resumption of posting at iowabeef.net is seated in my desire have better access to the events I want to share and remember in the future. FB lacks the ability to go back in time and look at events that have been documented. Iowabeef.net has the ability for me to craft things a little more to my liking. In addition, I can always cross post to FB to show these wonderful things. Meh, maybe it’s better that some of these events are left in the past, but I still like the option of pulling them back out in the future. Controlling the environment the ideas are presented in provides some additional pull.
This thought goes along with the previous desire to write more. Writing is a challenge for myself on the computer when the only purpose it serves is to appease my desire to record my own thoughts. The ability to instantly edit my thoughts and words as I go along is too tempting. By the time I backtrack and edit the last thought, the next thought has already disappeared into the fog of the brain. I’ve begun to write out everything longhand in a notebook, then revisit it and transcribe it to the computer. Some editing takes place during the initial typing for clarity and then the overall awesomeness that it deserves gets crafted during the finishing phase. The separation of the process initially has presented me with the opportunity to write more ideas and to decrease the initial self censoring that can occur when writing straight to the computer.
6/10 – Most of the recollections that exist of Otto have been mainly pictures with few words. I’ll write a bit more about the otto experience from this point forward.
Current observations of Otto. Like all new parents, each moment continues to surprise. The leaps in comprehension and communication that little boys and girls take in such a short time span are truly amazing.
Name association is a recent adventure. Traveling in the car last Saturday, I mentioned to Otto we were going to visit Chard at work. His quick reply was, “and Ang?” I was clueless that he had those connections together. I should know better. He can recite the whole crowd from daycare with the slightest provocation.
The brain processes many things simultaneously and creates new outcomes to match the situation. Words are synthesized to the most logical conclusion. The first word that float in the air are “Mama.” When that doesn’t have the desired affect, “Papa” is shouted. The determination in his voice is firm as he rattles off the third mythical beast in the series that will save him from the clutches of his current predicament – “MAAAAPAAAAA!”
Mama sings varying tones of no-no to Otto. The song twists and turns throughout most of the alphabet – po-po, mo-mo, co-co, bo-bo. The final salvo ends in lo-lo with mama dropping her voice as deep as it can go. Otto erupts with peels of laughter and she tones out the last phrase, descending deeper until her voice disappears.
Otto is on a mission to regain control from mama and papa when going to bed at night. The process has been mama and papa centric up to this point. A good deal of book reading, perhaps a little boob, a little rocking, and then sitting in the dark singing songs to the little man as he drifted off to the other side. But a trip to Albuquerque presented Otto with a new experience, little children manage to go to sleep on their own! Otto had tried to get us to do this earlier but he realized mama and papa were not quite ready for that step. But back from our journey to the south, Otto thought he would give us another try and see if we could work with him. Otto gets the benefit of books being read and songs being sung as we wind him down for the night. He sips on a cup of milk and begins to fall into the night. Otto gets whisked away to his waiting crib to read a few more books in his crib with his good friends, elmo, grover, and the lorax. The initial moments still hold some anxiety, but quickly fades away. I think it is more of an act to let mama and papa down just a bit easier as another chapter in his life moves forward.
Even now as I scribble on my paper, I try to remember the little events that slip through my mind. Maybe I’ll ask mama and write more about the past from the thoughts she throws out. Perhaps I will just focus on the future. A few more Otto tales before I move on.
Otto gets up in the morning and follows mama around as she gets ready for work. When the routine arrives back to the bedroom, he boosts himself back into bed next to me. He pulls the covers up, lies his head on the pillow, and says “night, night.”
The squeals of laughter echo through the house as bath winds down. I lift him out of the tub and envelope him in a towel dry him off. Released from my clutches, he goes stomping off to stalk the elusive mama in parts unknown. He turns the corner, spies mama, shifts the afterburners on with the right arm pumping, directly into mama’s arms. After a big squeeze, he wiggles himself free, turns around, and bolts out through the hallway. Arms waving above his head, little butt scampering away, screeching at the top of his lungs. Trying to simultaneously be captured and escape the evil clutches of papa.
Recent Photos
