A Sunny Afternoon In Seattle

 Seattle on an 88 degree day, with the hazy Olympic Mountains in the distance.

As I mentioned earlier in this blog, I recently got a smartphone, to replace my trusty flip-phone which no longer works on the local cell systems.

I am not much of a phone person. Never have been. But I've found -- like many people have -- that smart phones are fairly handy. Mine has an FM radio that works reasonably well (although the sound is in mono) and the camera works well.

A couple weeks ago I was out on an errand with my boss, which took us to several places in Downtown Seattle, delivering documents.

The construction crane is a symbol of Seattle's growth since the software boom during the 2010's.

A mural on the wall of a business on the north side of Beacon Hill.

I used to work in Downtown Seattle, but I have to admit I don't go there very often, as it is 15 miles / 20 km from where I live, traffic is always bad, and parking is always expensive. But those times I go there I'm always impressed by the atmosphere -- when I worked downtown in the 1990's and early 2000's Seattle was a burgeoning place. Today it's apparent that software industry money has made it a glass and steel, high tech haven.

One of the minuses is that the City has lost some of its soul.

But I digress. As my boss and I drove through the streets in the afternoon traffic, it was 88 degrees F and a beautiful, sunny day. I reached for my trusty Nikon L32 camera -- I had forgotton to bring it with me. Thdddt.

Looking south on 7th or 8th avenue (can't remember which) in Downtown Seattle.

But then I remembered: I had my new smartphone, which has a camera also! I pulled it out and snapped a few photos. The pictures on this page are the result. Some of the pics came out fair, others came out better than I expected.

They give a feel for what the City is like on a bright summer day.

A look downwards towards I-5 from an office building on the eastern side of Downtown Seattle.

Looking South from an office building in Downtown Seattle. Interstate 5 is in the middle of the picture. To the left is "Pill Hill" -- First Hill, where many of the City's major hospitals are located. SE King County and the Cascade foothills are in the distance.

A view of "Pill Hill" from an office building just west of I-5.

MW DX Conditions Seem To Be Picking Up

On the radio front, I've been DXing the Medium Waves a bit -- using my thrift-store Sony Walkmen, my GE Superadio 1, and my Sangean PR-D5 mini-boombox.

MW Long Distance DX conditions have picked up a little. I logged one new station out of Utah, but I think they were running higher power than normally. While I was working out with weights the other day in my sunny storage room, I heard a station from Yakima, Washington (about 200 km / 150 miles away -- Yakima is on the other side of the Cascade Mountain range), KIT 1280, at one p.m.

Yakima is on the desert side of Washington. Both Yakima and Wenatchee (another city about 200 km east of us) are the shipping centers for Washington's apple industry.

KGRG-1: Classic Alternative Rock and Grunge on the AM band

I also tuned my Sangean mini-boombox to a station out of Enumclaw, a small city maybe 30 km away from me. The station is an interesting one in that it plays classic alternative rock music on the AM dial. KGRG also have an FM (KGRG 89.9), but the FM doesn't reach my house very well. The AM station is KGRG-1, 1330 khz. It comes in well on most of my radios.

Looking up the side of one of the modern, soulless office buildings on the edge of Downtown.

An old building with several Asian shops in it. Asian businesses are all over the Seattle areas, especially in the International District, and in South King County.

They play a lot of Seattle grunge music from the early 1990's, as well as a lot of other alternative rock music from that era. They have an online stream -- but I have no idea if it's available in other areas of the world.

I listen to them a lot while working out. I've heard all kinds of stuff I haven't heard in years: Mudhoney, Temple Of The Dog CD tracks, album cuts off of Soundgarden albums that the local FM rock stations haven't played in years, etc. They also play some alt-pop tracks and rock tracks from 90's to spice up the mix. I heard them even play a track by Tool yesterday.

The building where some of the previous photos were taken.

Today it is 78F out and sunny. It's our "Indian Summer", I guess, and the weather is supposed to hold for a few more days.

Here's hoping you all are having a nice September.

MY SEPTEMBER 11th

My shadow late in the afternoon of September 11th, 2016. It was a warm, sunny day. I took a bike ride while listening to the Patriots/Cardinals football game. There were a few people out on the Trail and in the parks, but not many.

September 11th, 2001. I can't say it's a day that altered my life forever, but it's one of those events that you never forget.

The day started out well enough. We were in the midst of a great Indian Summer, with temperatures in the high 70's F to low 80's.

I was working the early shift at a company in the radio industry. We shipped CD's and music-on-hard-drive to about 1500 radio stations in the U.S. and Canada. I don't remember what project I'd finished, but when my boss came in around 6 a.m. he said something like "Wow, some plane hit the World Trade Center in New York."

"Was it a big plane or small plane?"

My boss wasn't sure. The news out here was sketchy at that point.

An empty cricket field with long shadows, but the sun feels so warm on my back.

Of course, being out here in Seattle, our news sources were limited concerning quick events Back East. All we had was the radio, TV, and newspapers -- the internet news wasn't as fast or efficient as it is now.

And social media was in its infancy -- there were no instant pictures taken by someone on their IPhone to simultaneously Tweet to the world back then.

Someone spray painted 'Trump' on a retaining wall. The local Trail has had several chalk markings placed by a pro-Trump supporter as well. Obviously, by the use of  graffiti, this particular Trump supporter may be in the 18-24 demographics. :-)

No one in the production department -- at that time -- bothered to switch on the radio. We had the stereo blasting most of the time, anyway; after all, we had to, to listen for digital glitches, skips, or swear words that we may have inadvertently missed on CD's -- we usually took cuss words out whenever we found them on the CD's we were burning. You had to -- it was for radio airplay.

So when we heard a plane hit the World Trade Center, we figured it was a private prop plane or maybe a business jet, hitting the skyscraper by mistake. It's happened before with small planes and skyscrapers. In the 1920's or '30's a plane hit the Empire State Building.

About half an hour later the number two guy in our department, who had been listening to the radio in his office, came out and told us that a second plane hit the World Trade Center.

"A second plane?"

"Yeah, a second plane. And they're saying they were passenger jets. 757's."

"You're kidding. How can that be?"

He didn't know. By that time, no one had said it was terrorism.

Listening to the New England Patriots / Arizona Cardinals football game on KJR 950 AM, on my $2.99 Sony Sports Walkman, which I got several years ago at a thrift store.

Instantly I went back into my CD studio and grabbed my portable radio, and switched it to the local news station, KIRO. The main announcer, Dave Ross (who is still the main morning guy on KIRO-FM), was watching the cable TV news feeds.

"You won't believe this, if you're not watching. But the two towers of the World Trade Center look like the Twin Smokestacks." They were talking about the planes being passenger jets, like 757's, and the problem of fire. How could they put the fires out?

You can tell Fall is approaching because the clouds start to look more interesting.

When I went back out into the main production room, we were all talking. We knew it wasn't a mistake -- you don't have two planes hitting a prominent, well-known skyscraper with it being an accident. It had to be an act of war. But who was it? That was the question.

Word got around the building that someone had switched on the TV upstairs, which was hardly ever used. Soon enough, most of the people in our building were up in the conference room, and the video we were watching was mind-numbing. The two towers were indeed looking like smokestacks. Hardly anyone said much -- I think we were all equally shocked.

A bullfrog pond that is used as a water trap at a nearby golf course. The City took an old gravel pit -- which had turned into a deep pond -- and lengthened it, and made it part of the golf course. Over the years it became a natural part of the landscape.

Then came the report of the plane hitting the Pentagon. Then rumors of a plane going down in Pennsylvania.

"This is war," someone said in the room.

But with who? Of course, about three hours later the news came out about the pilots, the plot, etc. But in the first few hours of coverage, there were more questions than answers.

Next we all saw, live on television, a mountain -- a monstrous cloud of dust rising from the streets surrounding the towers. Then they showed the first tower collapsing -- it had collapsed while there was someone being interviewed, and the TV network had cut to the live coverage when the pall of dust rose. Soon after, the second tower collapsed, live on television.

I felt a huge pit in my stomach. All those people.

Soon after, it was time for me to go home.

I remember the day was sunny and warm. Almost like summer when I made my way out to my car and drove south towards my suburb. The weather looked like a great day, when in the back of my mind was the uncertainty of the national disaster that had just taken place. Of course, over the next few days the news got worse: the accounts of people diving out the windows, trying to escape the fire. The dust, the terror. Horrible.

For several weeks afterwards people around Seattle acted differently. American flags began to appear on cars and trucks on the highways. People were more polite to each other -- even to total strangers. Perhaps in the attack on our country we all felt more of a sense of unity.  It's a sense of unity I don't see here now.

A few years ago I commemorated 9/11 by watching two movies on DVD, "World Trade Center" and "Flight 93". I'd suggest that anyone overseas who is interested in sensing what it felt like to be an American and go through 9/11 to watch them.

As for September 11th this year? I worked out twice, and went for a bike ride. It was a 75 degree day (around 24C), and beautiful and sunny. There were a few clouds in the sky, and although there was a slight breeze, the sun felt so warm on my back. It felt really good, and lifted my spirits. I listened to a football game, on my thrift-store Sony Walkman. The New England Patriots won, even though their star player wasn't playing.

Someone had some extra stickers they took off their car's visor (Airbag warnings, etc.) and for some reason they stuck them to the back of this sign.

Throughout this blog post I've tossed in some pics that I took the afternoon of the 11th.

 A Canadian Thistle, considered a "noxious weed", but it's just another natural plant. This one is ready to spread more noxious weeds in the vicinity.

The next couple photos were taken earlier this month, over the previous week. On my Canon camera -- my trusty Nikon still has nearly 3 gigs of pictures to go through, save, edit, etc. :-)

Bright morning sun glinting off the Cedar River. Taken the first week of September.

The river still looks swimmable -- but no one has been swimming there since the 90F weather we had the last Saturday in August.

80 degree weather and it looks like June, but it's the first week of September -- generally an iffy month weather-wise. Here in Seattle it's always a wondrous time when the sun is out bright. I think it's because of our grey weather half of the year.

Here's hoping you have a good mid-September, wherever you are.
C.C. 9-12-2016

GREY AUGUST, BRIGHT AUGUST

The Big Rock (the massive boulder seen near the treeline at the bottom of the picture). Probably dropped by glaciers 20,000 years ago, it was a local swimming hole up until a combination of factors blocked it off to public access. I took this pic on August 4th, when the weather changed from grey to summer again.

August is usually the best, sunniest, warmest month in Seattle. However, this August started out grey, with moderate temperatures (between 65F and 75F usually)(18-25C or so). This year, the Seattle "Seafair" festival, which is usually held the first weekend of August, was grey and rainy, including a few thunderstorms.

By the second week of August, my apple tree began dropping apples. I was able to get a few of them off the tree before the rest decided to hit the ground.

However, the first couple of weeks in August progressed from grey to sunny, and lately the weather has been beautiful.

My cousin inherited my grandmother's gardening genes (I guess I inherited my grandfather's musician genes, even if I haven't made a dime off of it). And the corn on this barbecue is an example of his bounty. I know the rest of the world calls it maize, but we Americans call it corn anyway. On the 11th I roasted some hot dogs for something different (and more protein) and roasted some corn, too.

I rode my bike down to Renton one evening this last weekend around sunset, and I took a few pictures. It was 80F out and beautiful. Ironically, no one was swimming in the river at the usual places. But there were a lot of people out walking, biking, and skateboarding.

The Cedar River Trail, which I ride daily, goes all the way through Renton to Lake Washington. Where the Trail ends at Lake Washington there is a boathouse and fishing pier, where there frequently are people fishing for yellow perch. I've fished there, and have caught one or two perch. There is a knack to catching perch, but also a certain amount of luck -- they run in schools and Lake Washington is a really big lake. :-)

The sun broke through the grove of cottonwoods near my favorite spot on the Cedar River Trail. I took this pic on my way to the Lake.

Further down the river, the Trail crosses it on a pedestrian bridge. You can see people floating / swimming in the river, and a few hanging out on one of the numerous rocky reaches on the side of the river during Summer.

At Liberty Park there was a softball game, and numerous people chasing Pokemon at the Library nearby.

As the Cedar River goes through central Renton it has the Trail on one side and a couple parks on the other side. During Summer it can be a nice walk.

The Williams Avenue bridge was refitted in the 1980's or 1990's, and when they rebuilt it they added rolling abutments. After all, this is earthquake country.

A picture of Lake Washington taken at the end of the Cedar River Trail. In the distance is Seward Park and the hills of Seattle. In the foreground is the "Cedar River Delta", a shallow area of sandy earth just a few feet below the water. In the Summer it can be very warm water. Kayakers and floaters launch into the river and go out a ways into the Lake when the weather is fine.

About a mile from Lake Washington the Trail passes the Renton High School Stadium, where the city's three high schools play their home football games.

A few years ago when I was fishing at the Lake with my late stepfather I caught several bullhead catfish, a couple crayfish, and then a trout. I have had more luck fishing in a few of the other, smaller lakes in the area, where yellow perch seem to be more abundant.

One evening this past weekend when I rode to the boathouse, the sunset was spectacular, but there were no people fishing on the pier. I was able to snap a few photos of the sunset, though. The skyline of Bellevue (a nearby city of 100,000 people just north of us and East of Seattle), and the Columbia Tower were visible, as well as the northern edge of the Olympic Mountains.

A Turkish airliner being painted before delivery at the Boeing paint shop.

A full view of the new 737, being painted for Turkish Airlines.

Across from the Boeing plant lies the Renton Airport. The wind sock was lit up a bright red, glaring in the fading sunset.

Last week I had a few days off, and did some yardwork as well as some 'summer cleaning' -- I want to be ready for the holidays. I know the holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's) are a ways off, but I'm hoping to have better ones this year than last year, and part of that is having the decorations ready -- and having them all stored in one place really helps. :-)

The Cedar River slows and deepens as it reaches the edge of Lake Washington next to the airport and Boeing Plant.

KFOO 102.9 FM -- Alternative & Classic Rock from the 80's, 90's, and 00's

While doing stuff around the house I've been listening to 98.9 FM KVRQ and another local alternative / rock music station that comes in well on my Sangean mini-boombox, a station called KFOO 102.9 FM. KFOO broadcasts mostly to Tacoma -- Seattle's twin city just 40 km south of us -- and their transmitter is in Centralia, WA (about 100 km south of Seattle), and they play a good mix of alternative rock from the 90's and 00's as well as some classic hard rock from the last three decades.

The Renton Boeing plant -- or, what's left of it. It used to consist of ten or more massive factory buildings that took up most of North Renton. Now there are just three buildings left -- one of them an office building. This building with the zig-zag roof was built during World War Two to build B-29 Superfortresses, at the time the most powerful and advanced bomber aircraft in the world.

Similar to KVRQ 98.9, KFOO 102.9 play a lot of late 90's / early 2000's era rock (I heard Linkin Park's "Crawling" on 98.9 last night for the first time -- I'm not a Linkin Park fan, but I remember that song and liked it. Now it's made it to 'classic rock' status). But 102.9 add more alternative rock from the 80's, 90's, and 00's into the mix.

A view of the Bellevue skyline from the end of the Cedar River Trail. Bellevue is the next major Seattle suburb north of Renton.

Here in the U.S., Rock radio was divided during the 1990's and 2000's into "Active Rock" (the heavy stuff, from mainstream hard rock like AC/DC to nu-metal) and "Alternative Rock" (anything from grunge to post-grunge alt-pop, with some rap thrown in). Both 98.9 and 102.9 do a decent job of bringing back much of the music that was popular on both rock formats during those two decades.

A view of the Cedar River "delta", looking towards Seattle. All the driftwood in the foreground washed down the river over the past few years.

BACK TO REAL LIFE

This week is back to normal. Work, biking, some photography, and working out. The weather later on this week is supposed to be in the high 80's and low 90's F (over 30C). I'm looking forward to it.

I finally got a smart phone. I figure it's called a 'smart phone' because you have to have a fairly high IQ to figure out the simple tasks, like how to find your phone number on the thing so you can tell people what your number is.

The Renton Boathouse, with a fishing pier. Usually there are at least two or three people fishing for yellow perch on the pier, but this particular evening there wasn't a soul there.

A view of the inside of the Boeing plant from the Renton Boathouse fishing pier.

A 737 being assembled inside the Renton Boeing plant. The fuselages are hauled by train from Kansas or California, and the wings are attached to the plane, and the rest of the work is also done here. The Renton Boeing plant built B-29's, 707's, 727's, 737's, AWACS, 757's and 767's.

I know my smart phone is supposed to be user friendly, but to find some of the functions you actually have to (gasp) read the manual. Completely unlike my previous phone, which was antiquated 2G technology but easy to figure out without a manual. Live and learn.

Once I got the hang of using it, it was fairly intuitive -- but not as icon/menu driven as the 'smart' flip phones were. It has a great camera on it. Even took decent pictures through the plastic camera lens cover (woops!).  I will post some of those I took in downtown Seattle soon.

During the first week of August, a lot of the weather was similar to this. And on this particular morning, the highway was backed up more than three miles.

One of the first leaves of Fall, on August 4th! Yikes. Two cottonwood leaves I found -- among others -- on the Cedar River Trail.

An Oregon Big-leaf Maple tree leaf, also in Fall colors. I found this one on August 10th.

A splendid afternoon with massive cumulus clouds, set off by a church spire. Taken in White Center.

More of my photos from August (which I'll be posting there soon) and a lot of other photos taken over the past two years can be seen on my Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/120507399@N03/

A bright 85 degree day in August, the Trail looking like a shining path into the cottonwoods.

Here's hoping you are having a great August, wherever you are.

EDIT: As I post this, it's several weeks late -- it took some time to sort through all the photos. But I decided to leave the post as is. I hope everyone had a great August and a great summer (in the Northern Hemisphere).
C.C.

My Only Summer -- Pictures of August

"My Only Summer" -- it's the name of a cool song by the Deftones that a local covers band ("Right In The Face" -- not sure if they're still around) did excellently at the local Sliders pub back in 2001.

Obviously, this wasn't my only summer, but I thought it was a cool title anyway. :-)

This August was O.K. at best. The first part was a bit grey (as noted here before), but then we got into a decent stretch of mostly sunny weather with temperatures in the 80's, and a few days it got over 90F (32-34C).

One of my favorite photo subjects is the Cedar River, tracking its changes from season to season. Here it was a bright, warm morning. Perfect weather.

I went down to the Trestle and waded in the river a few evenings after work, and a couple of Saturdays I went swimming there, which was fun.

I also engaged in some cleaning up of my place. Some rooms just became overloaded with storage and junk. I had a ton of Halloween and Christmas decorations that needed their own closet space. The closet had stuff left over from my parents' days in the place. Out most of it went.

I took this picture to try to get the dragonflies -- unfortunately they didn't show up in the picture! There were maybe 8 or 9 or them flying about.

I'm still working on my novels. It's a never ending track of editing and trying to come up with the closing chapters on two of them.

Here in the U.S. it's election time, and I've avoided Facebook for the most part, because of all the politics.

Morning traffic on the highway. The sun was bright and it was 80F out. Incredibly awesome summer weather here. "California weather". Pic was taken sometime in late August (my Canon camera's date stamp doesn't seem to work well).

I got a new cell phone, a smart phone. Finally, I've figured out how to do the basic tasks on it, including making calls and taking pictures. A couple weeks ago, on August 24th, my boss and I delivered some documents into downtown Seattle, and it was an awesome 88 degree day, with dry heat which was quite pleasant. With all of Seattle's natural beauty around me, I felt my pocket for my Nikon camera (which I usually keep in my inside coat pocket). I had forgotten it!

It took me an hour (we were in heavy traffic the entire time) to realise I had a camera with me: the camera on the smart phone.

To my surprise many of the photos came out quite well. I will include a blog post later with many pictures that I took downtown.

I went with my mom to the doctor in Auburn on a day off, to help her find their office. The 167 freeway goes straight through the Green River Valley, which used to be farm country but now is a vast industrial park, with a few green belts in between. Here you can see a dairy farm -- one of the few dairy farms left between Sumner and Renton.

Right now it's September, and the weather is Septemberish -- grey mostly, with temps around 20-22C. No Indian Summer yet. Some years we have a terrific Indian Summer. Others? Bleh.

Afternoon traffic when its 89 degrees out. As you can tell, the grass on the hillside is brown -- typical for rainy Seattle in the summer. When I first went east of the Rockies a long time ago, I was amazed that the grass stayed green year 'round -- even in summer.

For those who are overseas, "Indian Summer" is an American term for the times when summer weather extends deep into September in the more northerly latitudes. Here in Seattle when we have Indian Summer it's usually 75-80F and the afternoons are warm, while the nights are cold.

A couple sunset pics I took a week ago; the clouds were quite remarkable. Generally in my valley the sunrises are much, much better than sunsets for some reason. Taken on my Canon snapshot camera.

ORION THE HUNTER -- HARBINGER OF FALL

I usually ride my bike two times a day. Early morning, and often I'll ride when it's still dark out. Then I'll take another ride in early evening. In late August the astronomical harbinger of Fall appears in the Eastern morning sky: the Constellation Orion.

The Constellation Orion is probably the most impressive constellation in the sky. It not only looks cool -- the "Hunter" with sword and scabbard -- but it has some nebulae that are visible when you look at it through a telescope. In some areas, they can be seen with a good pair of binoculars.

Seattle on August 24th; photo taken on my new smart phone. The Olympic Mountains -- about 90 km to the West, across Puget Sound and the Kitsap Peninsula -- are in the background. I took this pic on my smart phone.

When I see Orion for the first time, usually the third week of August or so, it gives me an ishy feeling. It's because the appearance of Orion means the warm weather will soon go. Orion is our most prominent Winter constellation (the "Summer Triangle" / Cygnus the Swan being the most prominent Summer one), and usually when you see it high in the night sky it's freezing out.

Right now as I write this it is grey out. It's supposed to be mostly cloudy today, and the temperature just might hit 70F.

It's already Halloween at least in one aisle at the Renton Walgreen's. The skull pumpkins in the bottom photo are apparently animated -- they move and make spooky sounds. Or something. Both pics were taken on my smart phone.

About five days ago I went into the local Walgreen's (a national drug store chain) to get some supplements and there it was: a Halloween decoration display! Now, Halloween is my favorite holiday -- but August is a bit early to be selling Halloween stuff, isn't it? Ah well.

The photo's a little grainy because I took it on the fly, but the lenticular clouds are a bit unusual. They look a little like the appearance of the motherships in the movie Independence Day. Another smart phone pic.

Here's hoping your September goes well. For those who want to see more of my photos, taken with all my cameras, I have a Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/120507399@N03/

I have a lot of photos there -- some of them are also here on this blog, but there are many, many more also.

Until next time, stay safe everybody.
CC 9-4-2016