West Seattle, Washington
19 Friday
The automated ticket machines and other components of “Wave 2 Go” have been working their way down from ferry routes further north; now the date is set for their Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth debut.
For those of you who have asked — the city transportation department says the Admiral/Olga cam that popped up a while back will not be providing webpix like other city cams; it’s for traffic-signal “video detection” only.
Checked the 35th/Holden Chevron station this morning, for the 2nd straight day. Somewhere between midnight and 10 am, the price of regular jumped another 4 cents to $3.26/gallon (as shown at left). Our subsequent unofficial drivearound survey suggests this may currently be the most expensive price in WS (let us know if you find differently).
This is one mystery we slightly, wistfully wish could have stayed unsolved … but the genie’s out of the bottle. Dan from Seattlest dropped in, two posts down, earlier this morning, to say the bear, the owl (the Grouchos too? they don’t seem to fit the theme), and much more, are the work of “No Touching Ground.” Watch the video linked to the name; there’s no doubt. The video doesn’t match a real-life name to the artist but a little rummaging around the web comes up with it. (And he’s got a show up at a Pioneer Square coffeehouse right now.)
If you want to be ready for NEXT year’s windstorm, we saw a big pile of small generators @ the nearest Costco, less than $200 each.
Some would call him/her/them an artist, some a vandal. Whatever the case — looks like the person/s behind the bear, the owl, the Grouchos, etc., has struck again — the photo below is just in from Nick Peters, who spotted it under The Bridge (and at almost the same moment, we got a note from someone else saying only ONE Groucho is left! LATE UPDATE: a photopost proves it).
Or maybe “strange bedfellows” is better. Anyway, we mused last month about the proximity of the new Temenos spiritual center to Mars Hill-WS. Now, they’re truly rubbing elbows; on off-days, the MH buses have their own little pen in the Temenos lot:
The headline about 4-buck gas might not be so far off. Example: We passed the 35th/Holden Chevron twice in the past hour. First time by, a worker was taking down the 3.18/gallon price for regular. Second time by, when we had a camera in tow, the new price was up (left). Good site for checking local gas prices is here. UPDATE: Even the state wants to know how come we pay more around here.
Some of what’s happening in WS this week, before we get anywhere near the next fun-filled (Water Taxi! Farmers’ Market! Hall @ Fauntleroy open house!) weekend:
–Tonight (Monday): Celebrate National Poetry Month (and Shakespeare’s birthday!) with a Poetry Read-Around @ the gorgeously renovated Southwest Library (35th & Henderson).
–Tuesday: Have dinner tonight @ Endolyne Joe’s and part of the proceeds will go to the Fauntleroy Fall Festival.
–Wednesday: This is your last-chance deadline to register a yard sale as part of Megawatt’s West Seattle Community Garage Sale on May 12.
–Thursday: Dine Out for Life to fight AIDS. West Seattle participants are Abbondanza (dinner), Angelina’s Trattoria (lunch & dinner), Blackbird Bistro (lunch & dinner), Buddha Ruksa (dinner), Eats Market Cafe (breakfast/lunch/dinner), Mission (dinner), Ovio (dinner), Skylark (lunch & dinner). Also: After an early dinner or before a late one, check out WS-based Adventure Associates‘ free slideshow “Adventures in Mexico: Copper Canyon,” 6:30 pm @ C & P Coffee.
As Earth Day meanders toward evening … two photo posts from WS-based bloggers:
-At Beach Drive Blog, Rhonda captured the graceful great blue herons often seen at water’s edge (especially at low tide).
-At Alki Beach Walks, Cathy captured some of Alki’s Sunday morning beauty.
For once, a local storefront formerly devoted to food/beverages has gone in the non-consumable direction: North of Morgan Junction, the former Al’s Deli & Espresso (previously Bubble Lounge Caffe) space is now an expansion of the salon next door.
Just happened onto the “for sale” ad for the waterfront apartment building at 3633 Beach Drive. It touts “excellent high-end conversion opportunities.” (We have a memory of this building: a little-remembered windstorm in fall 1991 that caused some roof trouble, and other mayhem along that stretch of Beach Drive; the repair permit is still in city records.)
Not surprising, but in case you were wondering, Seafair says it’s too soon to say if today’s deadly Blue Angels crash will affect the plan for their annual appearance here (Aug. 4-5). We looked up what happened after the Angels’ last deadly crash, in 1999; looks like they were back in the air pretty quickly that year. On this year’s schedule, they have 16 shows planned between now and Seafair. (Note for any of our fellow geeks out there: not having been to the Seafair site in a while before tonight, we noticed they’ve redesigned in a big way after years with a relatively anemic site.)
Two Three (adding one since original post) questions arrived in the e-mailbox today. We have some thoughts on the first two but not a clue on the second third, so we’re throwing them out to the wonderful WSB readership to answer via comments on this post:
#1 — A new WS arrival wants to plant a vegetable garden and is looking for advice on “good times to plant, and good vegetables that thrive here.” (We had success with cabbage, lettuce, and spinach some years back. Planting time would be now, though, since those are mostly cool-season veggies. What else?)
#2 (added 10:16 pm) — A local family is moving from one WS location to another and plans to handle it themselves. Recommendations for who to use for trucks/etc. for self-moving? (We had a good experience with the 35th/Morgan U-Haul, but that was loooong ago.)
#3 — Someone else reports a woodpecker “attacking” their house. For now, they put a rock in the resulting hole (photo below), but they’re wondering what else they can do to discourage it from further attacks.
… unless you can answer it for us: What IS a “Snooty Walk”? We thought we’d get the answer if we showed up for the last half-hour of the Pet Rodeo & Snooty Walk, but the party was already breaking up. Did spot Hizzoner, however, probably there to cheer on his wife in her role as Head Judge.
The Blue Angels become local news once a year around here during their Museum of Flight-based Seafair stay, and we’re major Blue Angels fans, so we are taking some space to say we are sorry to hear that a BA pilot died in a crash at a South Carolina airshow this afternoon. UPDATE: Other sites tracking this include BeaufortGazette.com and Bluffton Today.
Haven’t mentioned these in a while; slow day so far, so here goes.
-When you hear sirens and want to know what’s up, the fire department’s live 911 page is the place to go.
-We’ve added several more blogs in the past week to our Other Blogs in WS page. (58 total and counting.) We’ll reorganize it alphabetically someday soon, but in any format, it’s a fun list to check if you’ve got web-wandering time on your hands.
-If you would like to subscribe to WSB — notification by e-mail every time we add a new post — send us your address.
Metro is marking Earth Day with free bus rides all day tomorrow. Worth checking out even if you don’t regularly use buses and don’t plan to; we use Metro for weekend trips downtown on occasion simply because it’s a relief not to have to hassle with parking.
Update from the city says the Cali repaving is a week ahead of schedule. Remember to show some extra love to the businesses behind the lines, when you can, to help them get by!
At the suddenly megabusy Cali/Charlestown crossroads, the burned-out ex-Schuck’s store eyesore is one step closer to demolition: The city has issued its land-use decision for the project proposed at that site. We’ll leave it to our professional land-user readers to comb the fine print for surprises; as for us, we’ll just be watching for the demolition permit, as this is one building we will NOT mourn.
The day we reported Bikes & Brew’s impending demise, we got a note saying Backstage Thrift also is closing. Couldn’t verify it ourselves at the time but now we’ve received another report and photographic proof. Reader “Luckie,” who sent these photos, says the shopkeeper told her they’re closing their Capitol Hill location too and will continue the 50% off “going out of business” sale through month’s end:
After tracking the march of megachurch Mars Hill into WS for almost a year, we find ourselves on their press-release e-mail list. For the benefit of its local neighbors as much as current/future attendees, we note that the newly arrived press release declares “… the congregation has already outgrown the building,” going on to note:
There was standing-room only on Easter Sunday. The sanctuary seats 850 people, including the balcony. The total attendance on Easter was 1,215 people. Over 300 people were seated on children’s chairs in a multi-purpose room and in the hallways. Over 150 people came and left as there was no room remaining, even to stand.
… Sunday (April 15), attendance remained 100 people above seating capacity. Staff members and volunteers are working frantically to equip overflow rooms with audio and video so more people can participate in the Sunday service. These overflow rooms will allow just under 1,100 people to fit in the building.
A second Sunday morning service will be opened as soon as possible.ÂÂ
As we hinted a few times already, SO MUCH happening in West Seattle this weekend, you might as well not bother going anywhere else. World-class shows (like the members of COTR appearing at Cafe Rozella), free swimming, Earth Day celebrations galore, and … how can you pass up the first-ever Pet Rodeo and Snooty Walk? Full list with links, a click away:
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