Walking in Seattle

Today my morning walk took me to the Seattle Public Library. It was a pleasant walk, since the weather was a little cooler today and my route was mostly flat, not too many hills. It's a very large library, and the children's section was bigger than the whole Woodhaven library. They have a nicely set up reading area.

On my return walk, it started to rain. The nice thing about the rain in Seattle is that it doesn't last long. If you're walking about a block in the rain, by the time you reach the corner, it has stopped.

I'm surprised at the drivers here. I don't think I could ever drive here. I'm so used to the dog-eat-dog driving style in the New York/New Jersey area. Here when the light turns yellow, it really means stop, not speed up before it turns red. Here when a car is turning into the street you're crossing, they actually stop and let you go ahead. Back home it's a race to cross the street before the car turns. I don't know if I could stand all this courtesy on the road.

Walking

This morning when I woke up at 7:00 am (EDT) my first thought was that I can go for a walk. Seattle is a very interesting city for walking. They actually have sidewalks. Of course, it was too early to go out when I woke up, so I had to wait until 9:00 am (PDT).

I walked down to the Public Market and bought some cherries and grape tomatoes to munch on in my room. Everything was so fresh and the flowers in the market were just beautiful. I was tempted to buy some, but I decided the fruit was enough.

Later when my son picked me up, we went to the Arboretum and the Japanese Garden. It was so peaceful there, I could have stayed all day.

The only problem I have with Seattle is that it is very hilly. Tomorrow, I'm going to try to find a flat place to walk.

Travel

Today I'm in Seattle, my annual trip. I had an early flight, so I had to get up at 3:00 am. That, of course confused the cats no end. As you can see from this picture, they weren't too anxious to let me leave. They blocked my way to the front door.

Then, when it was time for me to leave, they wouldn't let me say good-bye with a little pat. They just ran away from me.

The car service arrived on time, even a few minutes early. They had a little trouble finding my address on Mapquest. It seems that shortly after my community opened, they discovered that there was another street in our town with the same name, so my street's name was changed. But no one told Mapquest. Fortunately, they did find the house, but as we were leaving, the driver couldn't figure out why the interior lights were still on after the doors were closed. Finally, he decided to see what would happen once he started moving. The lights went out.

Then, off in the distance we saw lightening, then rain. I planned an early flight to avoid the chance of thunderstorms. Fortunatly, the sun came out when it was time to take off.

Everything got better after that, particularly as we were approaching Seattle. I saw the top of a mountain, probably Mt. Ranier, rising above the clouds. The clouds looked like a blanket of snow. It was an awsome sight. Unfortunately, I was too busy admiring the mountain to think of taking my camera out of my bag and taking a picture. I lost a great shot.

Estelle Getty

This past week one of the Golden Girls died. Estelle Getty who was Sophie Petrillo was three days shy of her 85th birthday. She was one year younger than Bea Arthur who played her daughter Dorothy, but through the magic of make-up she was convincing as her 80 year old mother.

Their mother-daughter relationship was very real. They made us realize that no matter how old we are, our mothers still think of us as their little girls, that we have grown up but that we still need "dear old mom".

Other than remembering the characters of the "girls", Blanche as the "easy" girl, Rose as the dumb blonde and Dorothy as the serious, teacher type, I can't remember much of what they said. Sophia, on the other hand, had many catch phrases - "Picture this, Sicily...", "but I digress". Sophia was always available to pass out words of wisdom in her own way.

I understand that for the past few years Estelle/Sophia had dementia. Her friends would wait until she had moments of lucidity to speak with her, but they became fewer. It must have been very sad for them to see her like that, but it was even harder for her family.

Her physical death was a blessing to her friends and family since she died mentally several years ago. She will be missed.

Store Closings

I was just reading an opinion piece in today's WALL STREET JOURNAL. The author, Daniel Henninger, was commenting on the proposed closing of several Starbucks stores in an effort to cut expenses. Apparently, many people are begging Starbucks not to close their store. This is the coffee-lovers version of NIMBY. Close one of the others, but not mine.



Mr. Henninger states that it can't be just about the coffee, especially in the larger cities where there are Starbucks on almost every other corner. There must be more to it. Would people feel this strongly if the local Dunkin' Donuts closed, or even a Whole Foods? For some reason, people don't want to go two or three blocks to another Starbucks. It's a neighborhood thing.



This campaign to save Starbucks has been compared with the campaigns to save military bases or the closings of neighborhood churches.



There's a certain level of comfort in the local Starbucks. Even though there's no sign on the wall asking you to be quiet or polite, the patrons are. And the partrons cover all the demographics. You will find businessmen in suits, casual Friday clothes and even truck drivers. All searching for a good cup of coffee and a little quiet in their hectic world.



Maybe Starbucks has replaced the corner bar. It's certainly healthier given the recent findings that coffee may have some health benefits. More about that another time.

One Life to Live

For the last two days, One Life to Live has had special programming for its 40th anniversary. They revisited three of the past story lines, but updated them.

They had two characters go back in time to 1968. This time they were father and son, not the friends in the 2008 story line. It was great fun watching the younger man look for a remote to turn the TV on, and then waiting for it to warm up. There were some other light moments there too.

In another story, Vicki the main character dies again and goes to heaven again. This time instead of a spaceship, she goes on an elevator and meets some of her family that has died. It was good to see those actors again. Of course, they didn't kill Vicki and she recovers in true soap opera fashion.

The third story had two characters go over some falls. That of course was the cliffhanger for today. I don't know how they'll incorporate it into their regular programming.

It was a wonderful way to celebrate the anniversary. It was a way for newcomers to learn some of the history of the show and for us oldtimers, it brought back some nice memories.

Cats

The other day I was watching something on TV that explained how to protect your furniture from your cats. Since my cats still have their claws, I found it interesting. The first thing you should do is spray the area with a cat repellent. They find the odor repulsive.

I don't think Burnie found it that way.
He seemed to think it was an interesting smell.

Then, you should spray the scratching post with catnip, which as I understand it is a drug and which the cats really like. The premise is that they will avoid the furniture and stretch themselves and scratch where the catnip is.
As I mentioned, catnip is a drug. After Burnie got finished sniffing his scratching post, he got the munchies.
It took a while for Crash to notice the scratching post. This is about as close as she has ever been to it.
Let's hope they dislike the odor of the furniture and really, really like the scratching post.