Recently in Seattle Category

In a couple of weeks, an asbestos crew and a furnace company are coming to replace our old coal-burning furnace. For a decade or two it's been attached to an oil burner, but when we moved here the coal bin was still in the basement, right under a window. (No coal was left behind, though.) We have lived in this house for ten years so it's about time we got a new furnace. It will still use oil, but only a small amount compared to what this has been using. It almost makes me look forward to next winter.

I spotted an unusual and beautiful bird in the yard the other day and watched while it explored the fountain rim, the flowerbed, the patio, the wheelbarrow, and another flowerbed, then flew up into a big shrub. When I found it in the bird book, it turned out I'd seen it before. I'd made notations in the book of seeing it six and seven years ago almost to the day. It's a mid-to-late-April yardbird. The yellow-rumped (Audubon's) warbler. (Cornell Ornithology Lab photo) Today I was weeding and heard a woodpecker's drilling sound. I often see flickers but they seem to go tap-tap-tap instead of really drilling like other woodpeckers. I followed the sound and saw a downy woodpecker going at the top of the utility pole next door. I think it was a female because I didn't see the red patch on the head. (Wikipedia photo)

It was dry at 8:00 this morning when I left home. I worked with a personal training client until 10:00 in the gym and then it was raining, so I decided to stick around and work out on my own and see if it would stop raining. This stretched into two hours somehow (clean shrugs, pressing and deadlifting all require rest in between sets, that's how). I got all my scooter gear on, opened the door and it was snowing. But not sticking.

The gym is close to the ship canal, not much above sea level. Getting to our neighborhood takes me down about five miles of streets that stick pretty close to the water, until the last two miles, when I head straight up a long slow incline. The higher we got the more snow was sticking to the grass and a little bit on the street.

The roads were mainly just wet, but my helmet visor was accumulating snow on the outside and fogging on the inside. I had to ride with it half open, which caused the snowflakes to feel like tiny blades at 35 mph. I took some slow side streets and finally made it home.

Last night in the guitar class we learned the Allman Bros.' "Melissa." That's a fun song to strum and our teacher pointed out it's really easy to solo over, so we all had to try that. There are four or five of us in the class on any given night and so far everybody agrees it's more fun than private lessons. I was so glad when this was offered because I still miss the Old Town School in Chicago and its group classes.

On the way home last night at 9:30 PM I was waiting at the light at Boren and James--this is right outside the heart of downtown--and a coyote crossed the intersection. I'd heard they are in Seattle and it's not too unusual for them to be spotted, but I'd never seen one in town and was especially surprised to see him in that totally paved, cold, urban setting. He looked perky but I felt sad for him having to run around on the concrete.