Fremont Sunday Market

I got up at 3:30 this morning. My biological clock, still ticking on Central Time, thinks it's 5:30. I am up early this morning because Lulu is picking me up at 6 to go to Seattle to go to the Fremont Sunday Market where Lulu has a booth pretty much every Sunday.

It should be an interesting, albeit, exhausting day. I have to get back here in time to drive back to the airport to pick up my incoming sister at 8:30 pm.

I've been to the Fremont Sunday Market a couple times. It's a good thing. One time Wanda bought these things called Hash Brownies from a street vendor at Fremont. Apparently this type thing is illegal in some places. They were tasty brownies.

The Fremont Sunday Market has been running every Sunday since 1990. It has grown into being a thriving, diverse, European type street market. Fort Worth should have sent someone to check out Fremont and Pike Place before claiming their pathetic predictably soon to fail Sante Fe Rail Market was modeled after Pike Place and European public markets. The sad little Fort Worth boondoggle did not remotely resemble either.

There is good food to be had at the Fremont Market. Things like Veracci pizzas, Chicago style hot dogs, French crepes, tamales, Thai desserts, Tuscan Bruschetta, a pizza oven on wheels, fruits and veggies, chocolate truffles and all sortsa pastry stuff.

I'll be shooting video today and YouTubing it later. I hope it is not a cloudy day. I know it will be cold. Temperatures here are averaging about 10 degrees below the norm. So much for global warming in the Pacific Northwest.

Seattle Seafair Torchlight Parade

Last night a crowd estimated to be around 300,000 lined 2.5 miles of a downtown Seattle street, a line of people stretching from the Seahawk Stadium, known as Quest Field, to the Seattle Center (that's where the Space Needle is) to watch the 49th annual Seafair Torchlight Parade.

The Seafair Pirates are always a big part of the Torchlight Parade. They act like really bad boys. There were several giant balloons, like the pirate you see in the photo. A goldfish and a killer whale (orca) also floated by in balloon form. A rather goofy balloon, perfect for ultra-green Seattle, was Seattle City Light workers walking the parade with a giant balloon shaped like one of those new corkscrew shaped light bulbs we will soon all be plagued with.

The Torchlight Parade is one of the many events that make up Seattle's Seafair. There were over 100 floats in this year's parade. A marching Army band played "God Bless America," bringing ultra-patriotic, ultra-liberal northwesterners to their feet.

The next big event in Seafair comes up August 1-3 when hydroplanes roar in races on Lake Washington while the Navy's Blue Angels make noise in the sky. I've personally never cared for the hydroplanes races. Way too many people, both on land and in the water. Watching fast boats. Reminds me way too much of a NASCAR race. I don't get why people like watching that either.

Drive Across The New Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge

Like I mentioned earlier, today I drove across the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge for the first time. The new bridge included improvements to the highway that connects the bridge to I-5, vastly improving one of the Northwest's worst traffic bottlenecks.

It might be of interest to people in Fort Worth, and maybe Texas, to know that this bridge came about via a vote by the people who use it. If I remember correctly, 5 or 6 different counties voted on the bond issue to build the bridge.

Cost? Over $1 Billion. Meanwhile, as many of you know, Fort Worth currently has a likely public works boondoggle in the making that the public has not voted on and which has not been funded by the public voting on a bond issue to finance building a little lake and some canals. As you may be able to tell, it appalls me that something so drastic can be proposed to a town's infrastructure, with the people not allowed to vote on it. Because the Fort Worth Ruling Junta wants their latest boondoggle and the Ruling Junta knows the public would vote a BIG NO.

Someday, maybe, Fort Worth may become a democracy. Who knows? The Berlin Wall came down, China now is a booming capitalist nation, if you live long enough you live to see some dramatic changes. Maybe Fort Worth can someday overthrow the Ruling Junta and become a democracy. Who knows? It's unlikely, but stranger miracles have occurred.

In the meantime, watch the video I took today of driving through Tacoma and across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

A Long Day's Journey Into Night In Tacoma

I've had me a day. And it's not even 2pm yet. This morning I did not get my early wake-up call from The Poodles yapping when the newspaper arrives. They were being too contented to bother, because my little sister convinced my mom that The Poodles got sad when left alone in their own room at night. How this information was gleaned, I do not know.

Now, before Grandma and Grandpa arrived The Poodles seemed just fine with staying behind the closed door of their own bedroom, while their Uncle enjoyed his peace and quiet in the basement.

After reading the paper and drinking my morning coffee I took off to Lulu's to let her dog, Pal, out of the garage. Lulu is out of town til tonight. Originally I was to go along. I'm glad that changed.

About 8am I leashed up The Poodles and let them lead me to Wright Park. That is sort of Tacoma's mini-version of New York City's Central Park. It was a long walk.

After I returned The Poodles, to the safety of their Grandma and Grandpa, I took off to take video of the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge. That's what you see in the photo. Parallel suspension bridges. The one on the left is the old bridge. I think it was built over 50 years ago to replace the previous suspension bridge known as Galloping Gertie, due to the way she swayed in the wind. Eventually wind knocked down Galloping Gertie. Washington has had its unfair share of bridge disasters, either falling down or sinking. Or combos of both.

After checking out the new bridge I headed to Point Defiance Park to take video of the hike through the woods that I had fun on yesterday. It was fun again. I don't know if it's the fresh air, the cool temps, being at sea level or that I'm in incredibly better shape than I realized, but I had no idea I could run up steep slopes like I did again today, let alone holding a video camera in one hand while doing so.

After I was done with hiking and being at the beach and watching all the boats I headed back here, checking out Stadium High School on the way. I won't explain right now why a high school would be interesting to see. I took video of it. You'll see why its a cool thing when you see the video. I mean, if you see the video.

I'll be having myself one long day tomorrow, stuck in Seattle all day in the Fremont district at the Fremont Sunday Market. I'll be in Lulu's booth. Drop by and I'll autograph a "Durango Texas" t-shirt for you. After you buy it, of course.

Driving Tacoma's Waterfront

I went hiking today at Tacoma's Point Defiance Park. Great trails hovered over by giant old growth trees. And it smelled so good.

As I was leaving there was a couple acting all concerned that they weren't allowed to walk on the paved trail that runs along the beach. I overheard them debating. I asked where they were from. I was already thinking I knew, due to the accent. Yup, they were Texans.

I explained that this was a public park, that the only fees were for the zoo and the aquarium, that they could hike all they wanted to. For free. Washington has started charging a fee for most day use at the state parks. It didn't used to be that way. Texas charges a hefty fee to enter their state parks. Hence the Texas couple's concern. They must have thought they were at a state park. I told them they should hike til the pavement ended in about quarter mile, because then they'd be at a driftwood covered beach with a lot of people having fun. Free of charge.

After the hike I drove the Tacoma waterfront. And took video. You can watch that below. Someday, way in the future, Fort Worth may have a little bitty bit of waterfront due to their very forward thinking Trinity River Vision. I really can't wait for that to happen.

Chesapeake Energy Turns Even More Comic

2000 miles away and I can't escape Chesapeake Energy looniness. What's the latest you ask? Well, as part of Chesapeake Energy's ongoing expensive propaganda campaign's onslaught on the minds of what Chesapeake Energy must think are easily brainwashed Texas minds, Chesapeake Energy is now targeting children.

Oh no, you say. Not the children. Well, the adults get Chesapeake's Shale.TV, newspaper ads, billboards, TV ads, radio ads, bus ads, I've likely forgotten some of the propaganda ads targetted at adults, so, isn't it simple common sense that some effort be directed at kids?

And so it will be, in the form of a coloring book featuring a dog drill rig worker named Chesapeake Charlie.

Why doesn't Chesapeake Energy take all the money being blown on their silly, not-working, just annoying people, over the top propaganda campaign and instead spend that money helping the people being directly affected by the drilling shenanigans. Like if you destroy someone's trees, make it right and plant even better trees. And send the family to Disneyland while you plant them.

Try dealing directly with the actual issues that bother people, rather than trying so hard to futilely try to convince them that Barnett Shale is pretty near the Second Coming. When people let you know they don't want a drill rig next to a cherished natural area, listen to them and don't drill there. You've got plenty of spots to stick your holes in the ground. You don't need to be doing so in controversial locations.

That's how you get people on your side, by treating them fairly and sensitively, not by bombarding them with a foolish propaganda campaign that the vast majority sees precisely for what it is. Self-serving blather.

Read more about the latest Chesapeake Energy foolishness here.

$18 Billion Puget Sound Light Rail Vote

Each day up in the beautiful Pacific Northwest seems to bring yet one more fresh reminder of why I find things, at times, so perplexing in Texas.

Today's example of how different things are done here, as opposed to Texas, was the news that the voters in the Puget Sound region will soon be deciding whether or not to support a $17.9 billion plan to expand light rail, trains and buses.

The first stage of Seattle's new light rail system will soon be completed. When it's done you will be able to ride a train from north of downtown, through the transit tunnel, that runs under downtown Seattle, and continue all the way to Sea-Tac airport.

All the time I've been in Texas the only proposal I have seen that has had over a billion dollar price tag has been a rather bizarre proposal to build a grandiose transportation corridor from the Mexican border north through Texas. This proposal seems to be mostly hot air with little hope of being built.

One of Texas' slogans is "Everything is Bigger in Texas." From my observation that is only applicable to the size of the people. Other than that they seem to think a bit on the small side.

For instance, in Fort Worth, there is this Trinity River Vision Project. The local propaganda makes this sound as if it will be a transformative project that will propel Fort Worth to a wonderful, better future. It started off costing a bit over $400 million. The latest estimate has this likely boondoggle costing a bit over half a $billion.

Now, here is where it gets weird in Texas. Unlike Washington, the voters of Fort Worth have not voted on this twisted vision. Unlike citizens of Washington they have not voted to tax themselves for this supposed civic improvement.

Not only have they not voted to tax themselves, like some sort of welfare queen, Fort Worth is sucking Federal dollars to fund over half of their likely boondoggle. Yes, you read that right, you in the rest of the country, some of the money you have paid the government is being channelled to Fort Worth to help pay for a bizarre project that the people of Fort Worth have not voted on.

A project that will destroy the confluence of two branches of the Trinity River to create a little lake and some canals. To get the Federal dollars a totally bogus, not needed, flood control diversion channel was added to the project. You in the rest of the country have already paid to control flooding in Fort Worth, back in the 1950s, when enormous levees were built after a really bad flood did a lot of damage.

Meanwhile, up here in Washington, the voters will decide if they want to pay for a multi-billion dollar project to help relieve some of the traffic congestion. You in the rest of the country won't be expected to kick in a few bucks to make it happen. What a concept.

Tacoma's Cultural District & Fort Worth's

There is a town in Texas with so much culture they had to build an entire Cultural District to contain it. That would be Fort Worth, with an area of its 700,000 plus population town designated as "The Cultural District."

It's true. I'm not making it up.

Fort Worth's Cultural District is basically a few museums, a fair grounds and one theater.

Meanwhile, little Tacoma, where I am right now, a little town, less than a third the size of Fort Worth, has no "Cultural District."

But, though Tacoma does not have enough culture to assign the title "District" to it, Tacoma does have a cluster of museums in the south end of downtown. among other cultural amenities, like a new convention center. Due southeast from the convention center is the Tacoma Art Museum, next to that is the Washington State History Museum, across a Bridge of Glass, from there, is the Museum of Glass.

The setting for Tacoma's "cultural district" is quite scenic, with Mount Rainier hovering above, on a clear day, like today. There are a lot of restaurants and shops and galleries in Tacoma's "cultural district." The Glass Museum connects to the Thea Foss Waterway, which is a sort of promenade along the waterfront, with marinas with a lot of docked boats. A cable stay bridge and the Tacoma Dome anchor the south end.

The free to ride Sound Transit train runs through Tacoma's cultural district, along Pacific Avenue.

Tacoma's "cultural district" is quite aesthetically pleasing. It would be a stretch to say the same regarding Fort Worth's Cultural District. Sadly, even if Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision's Town Lake and canals ever get built, that still won't provide Fort Worth's Cultural District with any water-based culture. While Tacoma comes by water features naturally.

As for any sort of rail moving people to Fort Worth's Cultural District. Well, I don't know if they are still running, but there are these little green trolleys that Fort Worth bought from some place in Australia, that putter from the Cultural District to downtown to the Stockyards. I've never seen anyone riding one. They may be gone now.

Below is video I took today of a walk by Tacoma's museums and the Bridge of Glass and Thea Foss Waterway. Sadly, I took the video about 1pm. An hour later The Mountain was out.

Happy Birthday, Big Ed in Texas

Today is the Happy 39th Birthday of my best friend in pretty much the world, or at least Texas, Big Ed and his even Bigger twin, Wally.

In the photo, the pair known to those who know them, as the Goober Twins, are posing awkwardly in front of a rock formation known as Twin Rocks. If I remember right, this was somewhere near, or in, Capitol Reef National Park, in Utah. We were on our way to go houseboating with a group of malcontents on Lake Powell.

Wally is about twice the size now of the Wally you see in this photo. Big Ed has shrunk from the size you see in this photo. I've not seen Wally since 2004. But I get reports regarding his increasing heft. I'm at the Fremont Sunday Market all day on Sunday. That's in Seattle about 3 miles from where Wally lives with his first wife, Wanda. Maybe Wally & Wanda will show up. I hope I recognize them.

Pa & Ma in Tacoma

My parental units arrived a day early, last night, about bedtime. What followed was about 2 hours of my own personal Seinfeld episode.

The first thing brought in the house was a giant cooler. I helped my mom, who has trouble seeing, but does remarkably well, unload the cooler and figure out what was in it.

Apparently somewhere in Oregon they paid over $30 for 2 dungeness crab. They thought they were fresh crab when they bought it. But the crab was frozen.

As mom and I unpacked the cooler my dad brought in box after box after box of other stuff, til the living room floor was lined with boxes.

One of the boxes was stuff for me. It's a big box. They know I'm flying and should know this is not convenient. This is not the first time. The last time I saw Ma & Pa was a couple years ago in Phoenix. My mom loaded up my backpack with oranges. This caused all sortsa problems going through security, as in oranges falling out all over, while I tried to find my electronic stuff to put in the scanner tray. Somehow during the orange debacle my cell phone was lost.

There is a long history of trying to get me to bring big loads on a plane. I remember back late in the last century I'd flown to Vegas with a group, including Lulu. My mom and dad had been touring the country and met up with me in Vegas. We went out to the Luxor buffet. But on the way back my mom informed me she wanted me to take a huge box of Christmas presents for everyone up north, back with me on the plane.

When Lulu saw the box she was appalled. She drug it down to the hotel's customer service and shipped the box home via UPS.

I've no idea what is in all the boxes in the living room. Last night my mom was going through them and telling my dad he'd mixed things up. He'd deny, over and over again, mixing anything up. And then my mom would say, over and over again, sorry honey, I found it.

Keep in mind my mom has Macular Degeneration and can't see very well. The quality level of her vision seems to ebb and flow.

My mom and dad were under strict orders not to give anything, but their prescribed food, to the poodles. Previously my sister was appalled to learn my mom had been giving bowls of cheerios with milk to them in the morning and bowls of ice cream in the evening.

Last night mom had a huge bag of bones for the poodles. I told mom this was a no-no. That didn't stop her. The poodles gnawed the bones til nothing was on them. When I saw Blue's bone was breaking up, I wrestled it away from him.

My sister has a long to-do list for mom and dad. To keep them busy. One of the to-do things is to make strawberry jam. My dad can't hear and my mom can't see. She tells my dad what to do, so basically it's my dad who makes the jam. It is supposedly quite comical to watch this. I'm going to opt out of that entertainment.

I am securely located down in the basement. Mom and dad don't like stairs. Or so I've been told. From what I've seen nothing much stops them. I think there is a lock on the door at the top of the stairs...