Tag Archives: Seattle

Seattle Ferris Wheel and Cranes

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Seattle Ferris Wheel and Cranes

I went to Micro Center on Sunday. Women, don’t ever let you man go to Micro Center unescorted. Micro Center is a warehouse sized consumer electronics store with a twist. The twist is that the help all works on commission. Like I said, don’t let him go there alone. I went there with the intension of just buying two wireless mice. Our desktop’s mouse had lost its thumb wheel and the laptop’s was totally kaput. I have been buying ‘cheap cheap’ $8 mice, but they just don’t last. This time I selected two $30 Microsoft mice. So, I got out of there for $60, right? Wrong! Ladies, I was not kidding around.

Before I left home, I had been doing some file backups. My backup drive ended up being 98% full, while my main hard-drive only had a few percent more left. Back in December hard drives were exorbitantly expensive, something about typhoons in Thailand. Trust me on this, I leaned it at Micro Center. This time around, they were not so pricy. I bought a two terra-byte drive and escaped for under $200. What did I say about men and Micro Center?

Mister Ferris’s first wheel appeared at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It was subsequently moved to the north side of Chicago, before it reappeared at the 1904 Worlds Fair in Saint Louis. At the end of that fair, it was dynamited on site. Its remains, in particular its ten-ton hub was buried somewhere in Forest Park.

Plumbing Problems

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Artistic Plumbing Problems near Pike’s Place Market

I was all roto on Saturday morning, Roto-Rooter that is. We had a main drain backup last month and instead of the clean out lasting the nominal year that it normally lasts; it didn’t even last much more than a month into the six-month guarantee. Roto-Rooter sent a guy out, for free this time, first thing on Saturday morning, like they promised to. I met him at the front door and he seemed sharp enough. I’ve been doing this for almost thirty years, so I feel qualified to judge. I showed him what’s what and he set to work. He cleared the clog and then delivered the bad news.

The Three Rules of Plumbing

  1. Sh!t flows downhill
  2. Never chew your fingernails
  3. Payday’s on Friday

I’ve heard this bad news many times before. Our house is seventy-five years old. That means that the sewer lines are that old too, cast iron inside and clay outside. When we bought the house, there were four trees in the front yard. Every single time that we’ve called a plumber, tree roots have been the problem. Whether it is Roto-Rooter, Rescue-Rooter or Root-Toot-Tooter the patter is almost always the same. Your house is old, your pipes are decrepit, the end of indoor plumbing, nay civilization is nigh. What always comes next is up-selling that I have thorough experience, learned to avoid.

I did falter one time. The plumber was a young guy. He didn’t say much, but effectively cleaned out the drain. At the end of the deal, when I am normally armoured against up-selling, there was not the usual financial assault. Like I said, I faltered. I started talking stupid. I told the plumber that I should look at getting bids for a new sewer line. He only asked, “Why?” He was right, I was just being foolish. Even at $200 to $400 per year, it is cheaper to pay for service than it is to buy a $6000 new sewer line. Talk about a sunk cost.

The Money Pit

Walter Fielding: Do you know how hard it is to find a  good carpenter? Besides, he’s got a brother who’s a plumber!
Anna Crowley: Really? A brother who’s a plumber?
Walter Fielding: I think so.
Anna Crowley: Do you think I should sleep with him?
Walter Fielding: Maybe just this once.

I’m out on the ledge again, which isn’t easy to do down in the basement. Our basement smells like a swimming pool again and I am faced with another capital investment. The city has some sort of insurance program for collapsed sewer lines. I don’t think that we qualify for the program, but I’ll ask them to take a look anyway. They’ll run a TV camera up the line and we’ll know more for sure then.

Seattle’s Mosquito Fleet

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Washington Ferry at Night

Ferryboats have been active on Puget Sound since 1889. The City of Seattle offered the first scheduled service between Seattle and West Seattle. It was a bargain at 5 cents per passenger. Ferry system competition between privately owned boats, known as the “Mosquito Fleet”, was intense. The Black Ball Line became dominant in the 1930’s, owning the major routes, terminals and boats. With the arrival of the automobile the ferries became an extension of the state highway system, and a valuable part of commerce. In 1951 the State of Washington bought the company. This was the basis for the nation’s largest network of ferries. All ferryboats bear Indian names, except for one class of boats. This Northwest tradition is maintained in respect for the first vessels to cross the Sound, the Indian canoes.

The text for this post was paraphrased from a plaque aboard the ferry Hyak, which we happened to take both coming and going to Lopez Island. The photograph with this post was taken of another passing ferryboat, while we were returning to the mainland, on Sunday night, aboard the Hyak again.

Farmeurs Markets

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Pike’s Place Market Bouquets

Stephen Metcalf of Slate’s Culture Gabfest, has publicized this week the newly coined term farmeur to describe the ‘yuppie who is convinced of his agrarian bona fides’. Pike’s Place Market was once a legitimate farmers market in downtown Seattle. Pike’s Market has evolved from its agrarian past to its present day tourism. So, in this Metcalf-ian vein, would it be better to refer to these market patrons as Farmeur Market Shoppeurs?

Shooting Star T-Shirt

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Shooting Star T-Shirt

It was our last day in Seattle. Carl had taken us to Pikes Place Market. We had stopped in Starbucks store #1, coffee Mecca, and latté up. We toured the market and saw the flying fish, bought some Beecher’s cheese and were ready to head out, when I decided that I needed a souvenir t-shirt. I had in mind a traditional Northwest Native American art t-shirt. Something archetypical, like what is seen on totem poles. I had seen several on our first go around. Then I saw the t-shirt pictured above. According to the women selling it, its art is based upon the tootsie-pop. According to Wiki:

Some stores redeemed tootsie-pop wrappers with the “shooting star” (bearing an image of a child dressed as a Native American aiming a bow and arrow at a star) for a free sucker. This was clearly up to the store owner and not driven by the lollipop manufacturer. Tootsie Roll Industries distributes a short story, The Legend of the Indian Wrapper, to children who mail in their Indian star wrappers as a “consolation prize”. A superstition of the same wrapper is that it gives the bearer good luck for the rest of the day.

She didn’t have any XLs, which I prefer. I like my tees to be loose and baggy, but she talked me into a large and besides, I wanted it anyway. The t-shirt vendor/artist also practiced art on herself. She was festooned with many tattoos, hair highlights and piercings. I asked if I could take her picture, but she demurred. She thanked me for asking though. I told her that it usually worked out better that way. The legend’s superstition proved true, because we had a lucky set of flights home and Joanie was there to pick us up when we arrived. Compared to our flights out, this was good luck.

Front Yard Bone Yard

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Front Yard Bone Yard

Brother-in-Law Carl was the last fan left standing at Wednesday night’s Mariners versus Orioles game. At least in his section. The game ran eighteen innings until the Orioles finally prevailed. The Seattle Times posted a great photo of Carl, nearly alone in the center field stands. Jay reposted it on her blog here. Jay had linked to our experience at a nineteen inning Cardinal and Pirate game, so it seemed the right thing to do to link back to her. Ryan, another Cardinal fan and I were supposing about this picture of Carl at work on Thursday. We were trying to come up with some sort of Onion caption. The best that I could come up with is this, “Mariners trade their last fan for an undisclosed sum of cash. Yep, super-fan Carl and spouse Jay have been traded to Saint Louis.” Do the readers have any ideas? This post’s photograph is from Jay and Carl’s front yard. Carl started this front yard bone yard, but it has taken on a life of its own. Now new bats are planted by other people.