West Seattle, Washington
05 Thursday
Whatever national media might have reporters here in town to cover fans reaction to The Big Game, you know someone will write the story, should Our Team prevail, “As the sun came out after months of rain in soggy Seattle, football glory finally broke through the home team’s clouds of trophyless years.” Or something like that.
In other semi-weather-related news, the Beach Drive water woes merited just one little line in this Times report. Blink and you’ll miss it.
Can anyone tell me why even a small paper like the Herald, equipped with a 24/7 online site like just about everyone else in this day and age, can’t add breaking news like a storm damage report? Even a blog, for heaven’s sake. If they want to be the community’s source for news, it would be so easy to do.
As for that hideous WestSeattle.com — which pompously declares itself “the official site for the West Seattle community” (when did we vote; did I sleep through it?) — storm? what storm? Even tiny Caribbean island towns use their community sites for storm reports.
Rant off … for now …
Just saw a TV news report (Q-13, if you’re keeping track) about flooding in a waterfront home along Beach Drive. Times like these are the only times I feel OK about not being able to afford such opulence — no chance of flooding here on the hillsides. (No, we’re not in a mudslide-prone position, either.)
As of this writing, the 520 bridge isn’t open yet — DOT has another handy page (separate from the link mentioned in the last post) with an update from just half an hour ago.
But at least here at West Seattle Blog World Headquarters, we’ll be watching The Big Game — no power woes after all.
A flicker here, a flicker there, but we haven’t lost power again, here on the south side of WS. The City Light site (see link in post below) says only 50 “customers” are still powerless. Still breezy outside, but nothing too out of the ordinary, according to the National Weather Service’s current-observations page (hint, look for KBFI, which is Boeing Field, and check “sp” for sustained wind speed, “gs” for gusts).
However, the 520 bridge is still closed, one of a variety of Western Washington road closures, according to the state DOT traffic-alerts page.
We’ve been out, as far north as the Junction, as far south as Burien.
No widespread panic, except for the crowd at the Junction liquor store trying to hoard hooch before, well, you know, that thing tomorrow.
We encountered only one spot of powerlessness, a couple blocks along Ambaum in what I fondly think of as North Burien.
If you’re in the city and you want to know what’s out where, turns out that Seattle City Light is posting updates on its site (scroll down) — fairly frequent updates, apparently; the one up now is from just 10 minutes ago.
Westwood Village is out, according to the spouse of West Seattle Blogger, as of his visit around 10:15.
WSB World Headquarters on a hillside on the south end of the West side: not out; we had a blink around 8 am, so far as I can tell from the clocks.
Hope you are OK; more updates as we get ’em.
2 things you might want to know:
-After my earlier snark about the proximity of Ben and Jerry’s possibly creating bad karma for the now-shuttered Urban Fitness, I noted with growing horror that the B&J’s never seemed to be open, no matter when I passed through the Junction. So tonight I finally called. Relief — allegedly they’ll be reopening March 1st. I mean, Husky ice cream is okay, but just okay.
-Pagliacci is starting its delivery service at noon on Super Bowl Sunday. Well, maybe that’s good news for you. Not for those of us who live south of their ridiculously selected delivery border, here on the S end of W-Sea. Not that I wanted pizza on Sunday anyway; we serve homemade yummies at our party.
Except for the Costco Chocolate Cake From Hell that we picked up today. I haven’t peeked in the fridge to see it yet, but I’m told it has a cute little Go Seahawks logo on top.
Which gives me a chance to use this memory, in parting … Remember back when all the local sports teams sucked? The rallying cry always went, “Go Seahawks … … … and take the Mariners with you!”
I was a Super Bowl guacamole-maker before the California Avocado Commission revved up its publicity campaign. Really.
So I’ve spent more than a few day-before-Super-Bowls frantically searching the Markets of West Seattle for the perfect avocadoes.
Gotta be black-skinned, not that weird gelatinous bright green kind. Gotta be soft but not too liquid. Most important of all, the price has to be reasonable … five avocadoes shouldn’t cost more than $10.
Thriftway is usually the most reliable source. You would think the beautiful produce section of Metropolitan Market would yield perfect guacamole fodder; not in my experience. Found them at Jefferson Square Safeway once, after a fruitless (truly) peninsula-wide search. But I’ll even go to Queen Anne Larry’s, if it comes to that. I probably shouldn’t wait till tomorrow; my dream avocadoes might vanish tonight.
Even if you don’t swim, pay the three bucks and change, and go hang out at West Seattle’s only city-run pool during one of the public swim periods. The air is tropical. If you choose to go in the water, you can also close your eyes and imagine yourself somewhere much, much warmer. Really, the admission fee probably falls short of what you’d pay to stay home for the same hour or two and keep the thermostat up. (I know I’m not the only one with an outrageous City Light or PSE bill these days.)
We are now more than halfway through those long, gloomy months between festival/parade seasons. Just five and a half months till the Junction Festival, for example. Hang in there!
Urban early-morning power outage! Folks from the morning newscast on Q-13 spent at least a couple hours near the Alki Bathhouse this morning, talking about The First of February Windstorm ’06. My favorite part — the horrifying revelation that Tully’s had to open late because of the outage. You know things can get ugly when you just can’t get that quadruple grande you’re counting on. Might I suggest a dip in the bay, as an equivalent wakeup jolt?
Didn’t think so.
Prediction for next Alki TV sighting: The traditional semi-annual orca pod drive-by. Choppers ahoy!
OMG, if they say four years, it’ll really be six. Start lobbying your boss for telecommuting …
Ah, if only “Seattle Live” were still around, maybe they’d finally find inspiration in this for an episode of “COPS — in West Seattle” ….
… for Best Community Newspaper in West Seattle, I nominate these folks. Kicks the Herald up one side of the block and down the other. Wonder if we can get something like that going on this side of Cali Ave someday.
I was going to chug out a rant here about driving down California Avenue SW and spotting only two “Go Hawks” marquees. Then the thought presented itself: Really, how many potential “Go Hawks” marquees/signboards/whatever-you-want-to-call-them? Darn few. (But on the south end of Cali Ave, really, you’d think at least O’Neill The Plumber and McD’s could join the lonely Thriftway signboard in Super Bowl spirit … I’ll keep watching.)
Hard to tell if this is anything more than an abandoned site, given the 2002 copyright and no evidence of absolutely recent activity … but it’s amusing (and heartening) just the same. (March 21 update: the link’s dead now … bummer.)
Something else from the “I had NO idea” file:
The City of Seattle has a dozen or so of its own traffic cams, in the vein of the well-known DOT cams you see on TV all the time, and two are on this side of the bay:
I’m thinking about making a separate West Seattle cams page for This Here Blog. These two will be a good start, along with the Fauntleroy ferry cam.
Today’s mail brought a “2006 (Legislative) Session Preview” from one of our West Seattle-based lawmakers, Rep. Eileen Cody. Conspicuously missing — some mention of transportation besides ferries. If I were a legislator based on this side of town, I would say something about the viaduct, at the very least, and perhaps add on something about water-based commuter service across the bay — not across the sound — how many of us really commute westward, anyway?
Among Rep. Cody’s other listed priorities are helping schools do more to “ensure that every student has a fair chance to pass the WASL.” Ugh. Let’s not put more eggs in that flawed basket.
Well, in this case, butcher-papered.
Just hours after we noticed the demise of Urban Fitness in the Junction, we spotted butcher paper over the windows of the tanning salon next to Pagliacci. Pulled over to have a look; it’s got a notice over the butcher paper, “closed, thanks for 14 years.” (The spouse of West Seattle Blogger notes, “Lousy location anyway, no parking.” True.)
What’s going on? This can’t all be blamed on the monorail ripple effect, can it?
We always wondered if the karma from Ben & Jerry’s in the Junction would cause some sort of cosmic trouble for Urban Fitness around the street. Now, whether it’s the ice-cream vibes or something else, it seems UF has vanished — just noticed this on our first drive through the Junction in at least a week.
This may be old news; we just called the club’s number and the recording told us they shut down as of Dec. 31 because they couldn’t negotiate a new lease. Surprising just the same, as this place was at one point so trendy that people came from all over town to partake in its cutting-edge exercise classes.
Perhaps the best-known gym on our side of the bay, 24-Hour Fitness @ Westwood, will have a better time staying afloat — not just because it’s part of a chain, but also because it’s across from something more compatible.
All the nice folks at Alki Elementary have to go through it all again — the folks who run Seattle Public Schools insisting the only way to save $ is to close school. We doubt they will escape the ax this time. Bummer.
West Seattle could grow if this happens.
Or would that be Southwest Seattle?
Would South Seattle no longer be South Seattle, if the city limits moved so much further south?
White Center is such a gray area, anyway. I dare you to identify, from memory, exactly where the city-limits signs are. I only know of one for sure.
But I would suggest, let’s not stop there. Let’s go ahead and just annex all of Burien. And SeaTac too. I mean, let’s end their miserable run of trying to correct people who don’t get the capitalization or punctuation quite right. We can stretch Seattle all the way to Tacoma … or, at least, Federal Way.
First of all:
One news source tonight reported that The Authorities are dismissing the possibility that The Sudden Seattle Smell from this morning even made its way over to West Seattle — mais non, it originated on the other side of the bay, couldn’t have possibly floated “over there” (here) — Well, I think this visual proof just seals the deal.
Second of all:
Talk about something that stinks. The day after the Ameriquest settlement went public, people are standing along Fauntleroy waving signs touting alleged refinancing deals. Have they no shame?
Third of all:
Are the “Walking on Logs” characters wearing Camp Fire gear just because no one’s bothered to take it off, or did they pay somebody for the right to keep it up? I’m not too annoyed yet because Camp Fire does not have Scouting-style prejudices — that I know of. But I’m working up a lather to complain to someone, somewhere.
That … is all.
For now.
OK, like 75 percent of the rest of Seattle’s bloggers, I will dutifully write something here about the Super Bowl-bound Seahawks. I will seek to tie it to This Blog’s theme by noting that I have been out and about in the hours since The Big Game concluded, and I have not seen any evidence of blue lights on roofs, banners on porches, new bumper stickers on cars, etc. C’mon kids, we can do better. Let’s get the Westwood Village QFC to at least offer some blue-iced cupcakes. Two weeks to the Super Bowl, plenty of time for a football frenzy.
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