11232166.1Millennium. Little things. I'm adjusting.123 Take the phone book, once a messy and indispensable object in every home. Now .. a review. Brother brought in a huge yellow plastic bag; it was on the grass down by the mailbox. Long story short: kitchen counter, grass-weeds-spiders clean-up, cutting knot off the bag, lifting 39# of new phone books out, replacing with old phone books [never used, incidentally,] hauling old books down to recycle toter [yes, I know; I won't be going by the 10806 SW 339st Street old phone book drop-off location any time soon;] stacking new books with the pile of other regional, semi-regional, neighborhood, metro, etc. books.

Do I really need all this? Frankly, it's only 10:30 in the morning and I'm ready for my nap already. A solution to all of this is the computer, of course, one of the few reliably good things about the computer: it has addresses and phone numbers and they are generally correct.

In cultural news, [Greg Gilbert/Seattle Times]


The Everett DuPen sculpture "FOUNTAIN OF CREATION," commissioned for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair and also sometimes known simply as "The DuPen" was unanimously recommended for removal by the City Council Parks Committee after listening to an appeal by the "skateboarding community." Yes, there is one. The site will be redeveloped as a new skateboarding park. Evidently, it was felt that a skateboarding park would be more in keeping with the location, site of


than some old sculpture/fountain.


posted by Rick at 10:32 AM

1 1232165.13rd & Pine.123 That's right, 3rd & Pine. Can you get more downtown in a more nice city? I don't think so. So, people from all walks of life were terrified, horrified, embarrassed, irate, stunned and annoyed by the gun battle which erupted there this afternoon. The details are sketchy, aren't they always, but apparently an altercation broke out between two groups of hoodlums and it ended with somebody pulling out a handgun and firing. No, I'm not making this up; right in the middle of the shopping! It's just a miracle that the young shooters weren't stampeded and killed right there in the crosswalk.

And the best part .. of all the uncountable thousands of shoppers, tourists and office-persons with uncountable thousands of bags and briefcases, only one young man was hit, and he is in non-life-threatening condition at Harborview Hospital, shot in the ass¹.

1. See #2159.RMACHERAT


posted by Rick at 9:47 PM

11232164.1Well now, this was a bit of a shock ...123 Playing with Google Earth - they just keep making it more amazing every day, don't they? Say, I wonder how the place where I worked for my very first real job is looking these days. Whoa ..


Either the place has been rubbed out by Homeland Security for some secret reason which we don't need to know, or it's gone. Some in-depth internetting was required. Turns out .. they demolished it. It's gone, and no one said anything. There are ex-alums all over the world, each with stories to tell, and no one saw fit to let me know the old shop was crushed, smashed and hauled away. Memories. When were the protests? Did I just miss all of it, or was it a case of nobody really cares, dude. I suspect the latter. We were all young, we've moved on.

So I got up to take two aspirin, and Brother arrived in the kitchen at the same time with a leading question designed to mess with my mind. He's wily that way. I handled it as best I could, and he went away, leaving me standing there wondering if I took the dad-blamed aspirin or not. That would have perplexed me no end a few years back, but no more. I promptly took two [or two more, who will ever know] and came back in here to resume typing. What's the worse that can happen? Okay yes, a massive stroke .. but at least I won't have a headache for awhile.

There were so many stories in that interesting little hotel/motel, a real car-stopper in its day. Did you ever write that book? Gosh no, I never did. All the hookers, drug dealers, petty criminals and thousands of plain old nice folks are gone, most dead by now probably, at least the hookers, drug dealers and petty criminals. The hotel could hardly compete with the newer places which were built at the airport. This guy was apparently still there until recently,

BEST HOTEL HAIR SALON
Mr. Paul of Paul's Hair Fashions is a sweet old guy who opened his salon in the Swept Wing Motel in 1967. The hotel has changed hands a few times and is now called the Airport Plaza Hotel. Mr. Paul's salon looks exactly like a trailer home--it's a smoky, cramped space cluttered with figurines, a TV, pictures of ladies from the '40s, and a screen door that stays shut. "It's been quiet for the last couple of years," says Mr. Paul. "I've been doing people here for the last 30 years.... I used to do everything: electrolysis, cuts, colors. There's nothing new in our business. Hair, going back to the '40s and '50s, it was just more or less finger waves and stuff like that." Mr. Paul, who won Alaska's Mr. Fur Face competition in 1960, says he's keeping a low profile in the industry these days. He no longer goes to the international hair fashion shows, but he still tends to his stable of regulars who loyally return every month for their trims and styles. 18601 International Blvd.

and I wonder about the abortion doctor. He leased a suite of offices many years ago to capture the business of people flying in to the airport from non-abortion states to have to procedure done and get back home the same day. The whole thing gave us all the willies. You could spot the customers as soon as they came in the door: young, pimply, scared, usually a girl with her boyfriend.

The reason that hotel means something to me is that it was the first one I lived in while working there. That's an interesting life, believe me. Maybe I should write something about all of one of these days. It was about eleven years after all, long time between check in and check out. And you know that movie, Hotel, with Rod Taylor from the Arthur Hailey novel? It wasn't exactly like that.


posted by Rick at 10:37 PM

11232163.1Lives of quiet desperation.123 Financial analysts are in the same condition as the other well-compensated professions in America, that is, living at the abyss of flesh-eating doubt, praying that the clods [i.e., us] never find out how truly incompetent they are. Small example: SuperValu, the megagrocer. They acquired Albertsons, you'll remember, when the suits at that company gathered for a meeting one day and discovered they didn't really know jack shit about the grocery business and promptly decided to sell, pocket their millions and go play golf. Great golf in Boise, by the way. Once Albertsons was a part of SuperValu, that company began to see a decline in the growth of sales. Odd, they must have thought, shouldn't things be going UP now that we have bought out the competition? The CEO, Jeffrey Noddle [great name by the way, huh?] explained in typical CEOese, and it was readily lapped up by the analysts, that the slow trend stemmed partly from competition [huh?] and high gas prices which resulted in customers making fewer trips to the store. See, your typical lame-ass analyst knows that gas prices are high because he fills up too, and the making of this connection lights a bulb for him, albeit a dim one. The Real Reason is that the old Albertsons employees do not care anymore, and anyone who shops there [or used to] can tell you that.

High gas prices, weather [too hot, too cold, too rainy, too dry,] and interest rates, anything about interest rates .. this laundry list of factors is used to explain and predict any economic eventuality. Just listen for a few minutes to any business blabber anytime.

Tomorrow morning could look like a buying opportunity. It isn't, so hold onto your cash. There will be buying, but it will be foolish buying because there are still some solid lumps ahead. How do you know? I just know, and I'm always right. I'll tell you when.


posted by Rick at 8:33 PM

11232162.1Dear Blog,123 Yes, I've been a bit MIA lately. It's because of new toys that Brother and I have bought. Once we get into manuals and F.A.Q.'s, we can get lost for days, but I never forget you, Dear Blog. It's just that wading through all the smelly boxes, wrapping and mechanicals from China to get to the computer ... well, you know.

These were topics which would have happened. Will they eventually? Sadly, no.

Declaration of Registered Domestic Partnership [cue organist]
The terror of cheese
Gluteus Glorious, a Latin fable
The Maude Z. Clumpett true story

Oh, a little hint about our latest toy - if we ever figure it out, I may not have to take pictures for you anymore just using my telephone.


posted by Rick at 9:08 AM

11232161.1Uh ... about the rain123 This is a little embarrassing. See, we're so phony and stuffy that we claim to be completely disinterested in visitors - "tourists' [ugh,] but the truth is that we're just like anyone else. We're down deep defensive about our weather, Summers are glorious, really! and we're secretly delighted to meet people from all over, even Southerners who laugh loudly and mispronounce words. Frankly, I'm astonished we get as many visitors as we do, and most of them seem to have a wonderful time. Go figure. And the taxes don't hurt anything either. Like most places, we really sock it to the tourists.

Something odd is happening this month, however. It simply Does Not Rain in Seattle in the Summertime. You can count on that and feel free to invite Aunt Billie [long story] with the promise that she'll be able to see The Mountain every day and especially on the day we drive up there to do it. So, there she sits, in a sulk by the vast picture window, the steamed-up, rain-spotted gray picture window which has been exactly that way for days and days and days. And it's not just her. All the rich people who go live somewhere else September through June are starting to grate, as if it is happening to them personally.

Oh look, Aunt Billie, Larry King is doing the whole hour on Tammy Faye.


posted by Rick at 10:54 PM

11232160.1Installation.123 The first few years of computers were fairly dustless and well organized, for me at least. First thing we always did was dust, organize, then install. I've gotten much more lax ..


and now the situation is completely out of hand. As the photo readily illustrates, there are two free USB ports on the little hub but many, many loose USB cables back there. How quickly the entire thing can get out of hand, although this is nothing compared with the room downstairs with the c. 1990's inventory of so much money. It actually hurts to think of the money. [I even bought software!] We never throw anything away, but we are running out of rooms.


posted by Rick at 10:12 PM

1232159.1Oink.123 Seattle has a problem, not a huge one but one which is exacerbated by the fact that this is, after all, Seattle and all that goes with it. The recent proliferation of highrise condominiums and their early-retired baby boomers and DINK thirty-something owners has come squarely up against the Club Scene. Both have staked out a previously run-down part of our city called Belltown. Oddly enough, the poor, druggies, homeless and crazies who were the original residents have all managed to stay. The result is an .. interesting mix. "Club Scene" is naturally a euphemism for "Hip Hop" which is a euphemism for black people. That would be black people with money. And cars. And guns. Can you visualize: drunk passed out in the doorway in his own vomit, yuppie couple steps over him and right into a gun battle between a crack dealer and a dood.

Fortunately, all of the young men cruising the club scene streets in their hot Japanese cars with three or nine of their friends along tend to be pitifully poor shots, the result being that victims have for the most part been only a few fashionable local residents shot in the ass. So, who do you imagine will attend the public meeting? You guessed correctly, and these citizens are upset as only their kind can be upset - with a shrill whine of indignation which inspires the rest of us to rise up and do absolutely nothing at all about it. Unfortunately for them, that would include the police department.

Here are some lovely fat white chicks having no trouble being admitted. [Jim Bates, Seattle Times]


The problem is that Seattle simply isn't big enough to accommodate all of this sociology at the same time. Other cities like New York and Los Angeles have Districts.

Seattle residents will have to begin reclycling food scraps by 2009. Yes, this means the greasy, yucky smelly stuff that won't fit down the disposall - assuming you have one which works, which I don't. That means we'll have to save the food for two weeks, then put it out in a separate container [this will make 13 of them] to be picked up [Hopefully,] after being thoroughly inspected by the [yes, we have them] Recycling Inspectors.

And Speaking of Rats, China has an extra two billion of them after the recent floods. Stories about peasants killing them by the hundreds and thousands with farm tools and poison were too graphic for this blog. On a more positive note,


it was reported that "people in Guangzhou have a lot of money and like to eat exotic things," and truckloads of live rats were on their way to restaurants in the south. Ahh, getting rich is indeed glorious, isn't it?RMACHERAT Inspired by jessejb


posted by Rick at 9:29 PM

11232158.1Hot Dirt.123 Yeah, that's how I remember West Texas - hot dirt. And as for the few places which were paved - hot concrete. Egg-fryin' hot, as someone would demonstrate about once each year. Found this,


hmmm .. I see they've planted some since I was there. It was my first day of school, the Very First Day of first grade, and I missed the bus. Had to walk home, but where was home? I knew it was on Sheridan Road, and this was Sheridan Road, but I didn't know which way or how far and that's what I told the soldier between sobs when he stopped to help me. I remember lots of tanks roaring about, clouds of dust, noise and one kind soldier. Evidently, he pointed me in the right direction because I did get home. Years later, I asked my mom who worried about everything if she was worried about me that day. She wasn't. Even on a safe-at-home extremely cool and rainy day in Seattle, some years later, no dust or tanks, I still kind of wonder about that.


posted by Rick at 11:15 PM

11232157.1Nature.123 My good neighbor, and I call him that to distinguish him from the other neighbors, who are all bad, is outside in the yard with one of his many tools. It's heartening to see a man of his age [80+] still able to wield something so destructive and noisy as he busily trims and hacks at the excesses of nature which annoy him. Me, I'm the complete opposite. Let it grow. I have to keep reminding Manuel, my lawn guy, to let things grow and just cut the grass, if he must. He would dearly love to whack this branch off my spectacular liquid amber tree where it touches the ground


so he could gun his massive riding-mower up to top speed and finish the front yard in about 2.3 minutes. True, most people would be eager to trim that tree, and in fact I've studied this tendency in people for quite a few years. You can spot the driven Whackers by the giant piles of stuff they leave. True Wackers hate to clean up. I figure Nature knows what she's doing and just let the whole thing be. Jeez, it'll take a platoon of bulldozers to clean that place out once the old bastard finally croaks. I feel fine, heh-heh.


posted by Rick at 10:23 AM

11232156.1I don't claim to be an expert on what's good.123 Like taste. It's fleeting anyway. But I do feel pretty comfortable talking about what's bad ... really, really bad. See, up here in Washington we have a large number of very wealthy people, probably more than you do. All that money came from Microsoft and other IPO's to people who got out early. Remember all the trillions that were Lost when the stock market imploded? - It was "lost" to someplace, in significant measure to brilliant lucky people in Seattle, most of whom went directly to an architect with the loot. Now that the marriages are busting up, many of these residences are coming on the market. With the madness in real estate, you can fairly well pull any amount from your ass and put it on your house. That makes a kind of sense. What I don't understand it how in the world houses which were built to suit the tastes of obviously disturbed people manage to sell. Is it just me,

or is the master bedroom/bath combo of this $3,850,000 riverfront home just a bit ... too much with the rocks and driftwood? Oh, and the rest of the place is just as weird. This is what you get when you show your architect the warehouse full of stuff you collected over your past 17 summer vacations and ask him to build a dream home around it. For $3 million plus, he will accommodate. Then, believe it or not, when your life falls apart a few years later, as most seem to do, someone else will actually come along and buy it and make it part of their own disturbed fantasy-come-true. Isn't America wonderful?

And yes, I am aware on some level that this is very close to an entry I made awhile back, probably also on a Sunday after reading the Real Estate Section of the paper. But heck, at my age and after, what, some 2,156 posts, that's not too bad, is it?

posted by Rick at 9:51 PM

11232155.1"Hewlett Packard Lemon"123 In case you were wondering, this particular search phrase will return 397,000 hits on Google. It would have been 397,001 if I had taken the trouble to post a complaint somewhere, as if it would matter. Hewlett Packard has a market cap of $123.74 billion and current EPS of $2.30, so they aren't worried about your stinking printer or its lousy ink.


posted by Rick at 10:15 AM

11232154.1Squibs.123 It's Saturday night after all. The sister-in-law is a true baby boomer, part of the cohort for whom the age for full Social Security benefits is now 66. The government sort of sli-i-d the eligible ages to the right just a skosh to save money, like it really makes any difference in the long run. Furthermore, she won't get her first check until the end of the month following the first full month after she turns 66. I believe this part was added by staffers in Congress only after they observed how much it infuriated people with IRA's. Not the shift, just the trying to understand the confounded instructions. I felt it was my duty to inform her of this and, yes, it has had the intended effect. She has brought it up at least four times since, and I know it gnaws at her constantly despite the fact that the dates in question are still years away. She is also one of those people who are considering waiting until 66, or even 70, to get as big a check as they can rather than retiring at 62 and getting reduced benefits earlier. It was a no-brainer for me; you can drop dead any day, and who wants the government to win that last one, huh? Since I've been drawing it, couple of months now, I make a point of wasting the entire amount every month.

This weekend is the Freemont Thing, a fair or celebration, I can't remember what they call it. Part of the event is the Nude Bike Riders. Most of the participants are indeed naked, but in recent years a few of the more modest riders have taken to wearing skin-colored tights. Either way, it's a ghastly performance. See, the Fremont neighborhood bills itself as the Center of the Known Universe, displays a huge statue of Lenin as its community symbol


and is made up entirely of Aged Hippie/Commies who live together in beat up old houses in groups of five or nineteen or even thirty and sell crafts to each other for food and weed. And I have to tell you, Fremont people Do Not Work Out, so I generally skip their solstice and other druidy stuff.




posted by Rick at 10:13 PM

11232153.1Unabashed dream blog.123 You know the drill, dream and pet blog entries are hit-killers. However, an exceptional dream and a blog which doesn't get hits anyway, well ..

I've known three Joe's in my lifetime, that I can remember anyway, and this wasn't any of them. That means he was created solely for this episode. Nice touch. Anyway, we were late for class, a very frequently recurring theme and I never do make it on time, and I had to stop for a bathroom break. On the way in, I thought the symbol on the door seemed more WOMEN than MEN and, sure enough, the room was full of chatty females in various stages of doing their thing. They paid me no notice. I quickly used the urinal which had been conveniently placed in there, even though there was standing water all over the floor. (At some point I should have guessed what was causing this dream, but you never do, do you?) This is where it became more "dreamlike." A line of stalls, all occupied, and I seemed to think Joe was in one of them. "Joe," "Joe!," I whispered loudly. Okay, remember the apartment building neighbor in that movie "Office Space," the guy with the deep voice, (Diedrich Bader?) yeah him, anyway after a few moments a voice like his comes from one of the stalls and says, "Joe's dead, man."

Well, that struck me as being funny, very funny, and I busted out laughing and couldn't stop. Laughed so hard it woke me up and I was still laughing right out loud. Now, those are dreams it's fun to wake up from. Then I had to pee, of course, like a racehorse.

Ah, Summertime. Keep yourself hydrated, drink gallons of water, then dream and pee and pee and dream, all night long.


posted by Rick at 10:07 AM

11232152.1The Deficit.123Junior year ... is that the best year of your life, or what? It was for me, so far anyway. I had Mr. Grover for U.S. Government. Mr. Grover was extremely intense and, thinking back, it seems all the more exceptional given that we were stationed on a remote air base a million miles from nowhere and it had to have been about 99th on his list of places to be assigned. I often wondered just how badly our teachers must have screwed up in their previous schools to get sent there, especially since overseas teachers are in it for the travel and partying anyway. Anyway, Mr. Grover was especially intense about the DEFICIT and how it would eventually grow and grow and devour the entire country.

[I also remember the view out of that side of our barracks school that winter. Snow. Epic snow. Snowdrifts that I cannot convince you really existed. They had to put up these special barriers so the snow wouldn't cover our school completely. I stared out the window at that snow a lot that year.]

We scoffed. Okay, he was right .. or was he? The deficit for the year in which I took the class with Mr. Grover was $3.335 Billion. No, that isn't a misprint; it really was three billion dollars, and people were truly worried about it. Funny, huh? We could pay that off with Green Stamps today. And that brings me to the solution for our current problem. Just wait. What? Just wait. It will go away or be such a pittance compared with the whole that we can pay it down whenever we feel like it. The trailer park people were right all along.


posted by Rick at 10:16 PM

11232151.1My new cable remote.123 Somehow, I can't help but thinking ..


that our old method was easier. When he was young, well, I guess when we all were, Brother would sit close to the television because he couldn't see very well. It worked great for everyone because he became The Remote. I should say it worked except when conflicting instructions were delivered, Turn it UP, Brother / Turn It DOWN, Brother, in which case he would naturally turn to my father for instant clarification. Brother caught on fast even way back then. We had three channels in the 50's and now we have about three hundred, give or take. I do enjoy the Korean Medieval Drama Shows [except the awful ones where they have introduced the flying-through-the-air king-fu nonsense.]

So, about the heat. It was 98° in Seattle today. Frankly, that is way too hot for us. And the worse is yet to come: our houses will not cool off, especially with sunset still after 9:00 PM.

There is a blonde news anchorperson on the television talking to a blonde guest about the blackmailing of Miss New Jersey who is also blonde and her picture is up in the corner. Is it just me, or do all blondes look very much alike? When you see two of them with the exact same blonde hairdo conversing on television, do they know? Or are they told to sit still, look blonde and repeat whatever words they hear in their earpieces?

I mean it was truly hot. We may not know how hot for days. Seattle isn't exactly the sort of town where people check on their neighbors, which makes it an excellent locale for operating massive suburban marijuana-growing operations. That is, until an old person dies from the heat and all the aid cars and police and coroners come and eventually someone notices the other smell.


posted by Rick at 9:38 PM

11232150.1You're so sexy when you're brilliant.123 I think it's kind of cute the way the youngsters have embraced this Green Business. We did that sort of thing too, back in the day. Of course, it isn't all youngsters; quite a few Old Toads are into it as well, but that's purely to soak up adoration from the young, precious [and firm.] They know there isn't a chance in hell of doing anything about the planet. We've already wrecked it, and it's true that probably the best thing to happen would be a rogue 13-mile-wide comet for a do-over.

It occurred to me tonight that there were two huge changes during my lifetime which brought us to where we are tonight. Both go with the music. First it was mainly silly, then it got serious and finally ... just mean. The first big change was about two years after President Kennedy was murdered. My class handled it reasonably well - we were already in college, but the next one took it personal. Ruined their entire senior year and therefore their lives. It was the Next one that changed, however, the class of 1965. Strange fucking bunch, I have to tell you. They discovered drugs, and because of JFK and having the laughter and joy of Camelot cruelly snatched from them, they've always felt "anything goes" in a lifelong sulk to get even. They started the Anomie.

I'll admit to being not quite sure who or what did Phase II, but it has something to do with the babies who weren't aborted when the floodgates happened after Roe growing up and realizing that they weren't going to be blown up by the Russkies after all and that deficits don't matter and that weed belongs in the food pyramid. Besides all the other shit which has rained down since then, as reflected in the "music," plus computers, and that's about where we are now. That's it? Huh? You're dismissing the state of the planet and civilization as "Phase II?" Yeah, pretty much. So, what about Phase III? There isn't a Phase III.


posted by Rick at 11:48 PM

11232149.1The Heat.123 Don't worry, it was just a starting point out of desperation for a subject. What could I possibly say about The Heat that hasn't been gasped before? Besides, it is quite likely a lot hotter where you are today.
My friend The Tomato is always coming up with provocative things. [That's his job.] Today, he actually mixspelled a word, and I am having fun announcing it to the world since that's his job too [not mixspelling wurds.] Just kidding, we both know that no one comes to my blog. The real reason I mentioned The Tomato is because it's fun to discover something new even when you're .. you know .. way past the crest of the hill, and it was good to learn that the word "claptrap" is nothing at all like its common usage in conversation. I plan to use it [properly] here in a week or so.

Besides The Heat, I've also written a great deal previously about The Flies as well as Leprosy. This year's crop is the lazy, cruising B-36 variety. You'll remember the B-36. No? It was a huge strategic bomber of the early 1950's that droned along lazily, making a dull buzzing noise - kind of like a midsummer Seattle fly about to meet its maker. I wouldn't ordinarily get this much enjoyment out of killing things, but these flies no doubt have come directly from feasting upon the dead bird in my chimney [see earlier disgusting topic.] Besides that, this year's fly seems unusually sullen, a trait I refuse to put up with.

McDonalds. I heard today that they will begin to accept credit cards in the near future. Wonderful. Now, not only will you be carrying all that Supersizing around on your butt the rest of your life, you'll be carrying the balance at 9.9% as well. Sir Humphrey used to talk about the thin end of the wedge, and that was before Tonya and fat on credit. I've got nothing against McDonalds, but the following episodes are completely true. I've dined with them exactly three times. The first time was in their huge restaurant downstairs at Ala Moana shopping center. The place was nearly empty, and I took my lunch and selected one of those tiny tables in the middle of the room. After a couple of bites, a leper came along and sat right next to me. That would have been unusual in itself, except he immediately began banging on the table and yelling. Just the two of us in the middle of that large room, with him doing that. I left. The second time was also in Honolulu, with my other friend Rick. I took one bite and it lodged. Pain and panic like you wouldn't believe. My friend, the madman, just nodded and said, "I've done that too. It'll pass". It did, but it hurt for about a year. The last time was just one regular hamburger and some fries. The next day was my annual physical, and my doctor, horrified by the numbers, put me on Zocor. For two years I let that gawdawful drug do its Satanic work on my body until I abruptly quit it. Within six months my LDL had fallen by 150 points. So there, medical science.

Semi-recycled.


posted by Rick at 9:15 PM

11232148.1My absence.123What can I say? There were a great many topics which came and went, and I did care, really. Just [insert excuse.]

I did do another massive pay-it-forward this week, and as usual I will try and not crow about it. Feels good. And it was big, too, bigger than the last one. Maybe it's just that I feel so good about the pay and Brother's very successful birthday that I can't manage even to write something senectitudish about the usual daily most-egregious crap uplifting event of the day. Later this week I will.


posted by Rick at 11:26 AM

11232147.1Schools.123 This is a subject which tends to inflame old timers, at least those who remember walking to their one-room schoolhouse, barefoot in the snow, as I do. Our district cuts across the boundaries of several cities since it was established long before the towns were. If anything, The School District is more identifiable as a "community" than any of the other administrative zones which have evolved: Sewer, Water, Library, Fire, Animal Control, Hospital, Police .. I think there are about 55 of them altogether and, as one would expect, no two cover the same area or are contained in a single town. This has two effects, at least: #1 - voters vote to approve school bond issues and pretty much nothing else, and #2 - old people go nuts as a result of #1.

We are presently rebuilding from the ground up every single school in the district - ostensibly for earthquake and noise [airport] concerns, but the real reason is that the schools themselves were built in the 50's and early 60's [when we were all poor] and are butt ugly. You've seen these types of schools all over the suburbs: single story, long prisonlike buildings arranged in a sort of campus with a central hub and maybe a baseball field and/or track. What the district is building in place of these structures is single story, long prisonlike buildings arranged in a sort of campus with a central hub and maybe a baseball field and/or track and a Swiss Chalet type roof. And soundproofing and earthquake-proofing too, so they say.

Not satisfied with the frivolating of megamillions in capital funds, the District also takes a greedy aim at the operating budget. We have four high schools, medium sized and easy to recognize. These days, however, it isn't enough to attempt your four years as part of a annually shrinking "class" in the traditional sense. No, we do "Academies" now. The latest thing. I am not making these up:

Arts and Academics Academy
Health Sciences and Human Services High School
Odyssey - The Essential School
Technology, Engineering and Communications School
Academy of Citizenship and Empowerment
Global Connections High School
ACTION Community
Global Business and Marketing
Renaissance Community
TERA Community
STAR Academy
Global and Environmental Science Academy
Exploration Academy
The 4th Academy
Aviation High School
CHOICE Academy
Highline Big Picture School

All of these ... entities have their own administrations and, I would expect, cliques and gangs. How long you figure before the whole thing falls apart? Oh, some time between when the students discover that they get the same old, bald or shrill disinterested teachers they had before ... and Homecoming. Those Swiss Chalet roofs will still be cool though.


posted by Rick at 9:51 PM

11232146.1The 4th Eve Eve.123 There is a young man out in our street, probably about nineteen years old, and he has gotten ahold of firecrackers again this year. He will stand there, light one and throw it to the ground, watch it explode, and repeat, every eleven seconds or so until he runs out or becomes unconscious from lack of food, water or sleep. He also does this on the days leading up to New Year's Eve. I think he has a brother or cousin who does the same exact thing on the street behind us and down a few houses. I am one of few people in the city who is annoyed by this, even though we have a strict anti-fireworks ordinance. Ordnance is what it should be called because there's plenty of that. Seattle is completely surrounded by Indian Reservations, with 71 casinos, smokeshops and fireworks stands.

These few days would be a good time to do a crime in our area, because the police never leave the station house. Because of the fireworks danger? No, because of the fear of a prolonged harangue from a local Old Person. So, call 911 then. You can't. There is a PSA running every half hour on every channel warning you not to call 911 to report fireworks violations. Doing so could involve a $10,000 fine for being an emergency nuisance.

In less irritable news, the government has awarded the contract for replacing wings on the A-10 Thunderbolt attack fighter. You'll remember this plane,


as one of the real heroes of Desert Storm War 00001. This plane is so old, many of you were not born in 1967 when the Air Force issued specs for what they wanted or even 1972 when the first prototype flew. Incidentally, that five-year period was fairly typical back then; now it is closer to 20 years [see: "F-35, The jet for the 22nd Century Air Force!"] So, not unexpectedly, the fleet needs some work, specifically new wings for 242 aircraft; contract award: $2 billion between 2007 and 2018. Whenever I see numbers that seem unfathomable, I reach for my handy Windows Calculator [Cntrl/Alt/+] and make them .. fathomable. Yes, that would run a little over EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS per aircraft. For two wings. Eight million dollars. No, they're still made of aluminum.

Now, when you are your age and paying a lot of taxes, news like that could understandably upset, same here maybe. After all, the original B-52's, which you'll note are Still Flying, only cost eight million apiece to build and that was for the entire plane.


Yeah, I couldn't help putting in an old-timey picture of a B-52 from back when they were still shiny.

Anyway, only when you get quite a bit older, before getting mad you'll look and see if you own stock in the company which got the contract and, if so, just how much stock you have there, and my goodness sometimes taking a moment to do that will save you a whole lot of angina pain.


posted by Rick at 9:50 PM