Monday, December 3, 2012

Jingle Bell Dash!

Team Kelsey and the Kats is back!  Maddie and Jeremy couldn't make it, but Crista, Mathew and Konstantine walked with Kelsey and I.  The weather was just awful, but it cleared up for the walk! 

Kelsey is starting to warm to the idea of wearing a costume, so watch out Port Orchard, here comes the Kats!  Next year we will be in costume (maybe)

We raised $720!  Sweet!   John agreed to match funds up to $250!  Truly a team experience, we are so grateful to all that helped!

Hula Hoop contest

Costume contest

Costume contest winner!


2012 Team!

Kelsey providing fuel for the Team!


Monday, November 26, 2012

C line

I left Bs car at Alaska Junction today. She is on day 7. Two days ago, the chef and sous chef realized they had scheduled Max, the 23 year old, to 7 days in a row. They switched the sched to give Max time off, and put B in for 7 days in a row. ha ha. Classic

She got off early yesterday. but it was Sunday and she had a car. I am betting she will get off early today, especially when they realize she has been there 7 days straight. The first 56 bus is at 3:07, so she could have to wait a few hours to get home.  So, I left her car at the Junction and she can hop on the first C line that comes along. 

I don't think I will want to do this full time though. If it gets slow and she starts getting out at 1, we will have to figure something else out. I grabbed the second to last seat. It is so crowded I can't even read my book. The seats are smaller, which makes no sense cause people are not getting smaller.

Thanksgiving 2012

No kids this year, I ventured up to Cousin Mikes alone. Bronwen worked.

I got there before the rest of the West Sound family. Dan, Mike, Danika and Sean were there. Sean was preparing the deep fry the bird AND ham again.

Maddie, Jeremy and James showed up shortly after. I asked where Connie was, and she said "at home". What? I had no idea!  Crista, Jay, Mathew and introducing Constatine, arrived a little later. Crista said mom didn't want me to know she wasn't coming

The day was nice, Mike had us play a new game. I don't remember the name, but she gave us all 3, one dollar bills. Roll the three dice and it tells you to either give a dollar left, right, put one in kitty or keep your dollar. Once Kitty is full and one person has a dollar left, its over. Dan won!

Mike made deviled eggs. They were good. She also made pigs in a blanket.

I enjoyed a big plate of mash potatoes, salad and dinner rolls. I filed up. I skipped dessert. She had a bunch of pies.

Next up, Christmas eve. Maddie wants to have it at her and Jeremys new house. Mike is of course doing her dinner. I am in the middle. Since going to Cristas on Christmas, I will probably go to Mikes on Christmas eve. I havent seen Maddie and Jeremys house yet.

Danika and Sean are doing something else for Christmas this year.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Bus Success Story!

It's so rare these days to have a good bus story.

Yesterday I planned to go to the Island to visit friends.  Due to the bus schedule/route changes, I have no direct route home on my return.  B is working double time during the Holiday, so I didn't want to impose on her, after all, she did iron my new shirt!

Wednesday AM I left my house at 7:50. I found a place to park a block away from the Alaska Junction. I hustled up to the stop, One Bus Away can't track the new Rapid Ride buses, so I have no way of knowing when the bus will arrive, and I sure don't want to come into view and see the back of a bus pulling away. I got to the bus stop and the sign indicated the C Line was arriving in 1 minute!

The C line showed up, I got one the last seats. I arrived at work 20 min later. In fact, it was almost the same time I would have arrived had I caught the 56 at 7:54, instead of driving up the hill.

I came home on the 7:10 boat.  Again, no way of knowing when the bus would arrive, I hustled up to 2nd and Columbia. Sure enough, as soon as I could see the stop, the C line came around the corner!  I ran a half a block and jumped on the bus. WOW! Amazing

20 minutes later I was in my car driving down the hill.   Success!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Long Beach, WA

B and I got away to Long Beach. The place was great, it is called Inn and Discovery Coast. Room #7, top, SW room.  Wow!  It didn't rain as much as we thought, but we did go buy some extra gear just in case.
We made a trip to Astoria, and then up north as far up the peninsula we could go. I had no idea there was so much up north of Long Beach! Ocean Park seemed nice, but no hotels. Probably lots of cabin rentals though. The place we wanted to eat, Aloha Fish, was closed for the season, only open on weekends.  We did not eat any good food, aside from the breakfast in Astoria at the Pig and Pancake and the Smoked Salmon I bought in the Ocean Park Thriftway.  We drove home via Longview and had lunch with Bs sister and family.

Hail!

The room




You can sit in tub and watch tv, or the Ocean

It is pretty obvious these guys get fed. We did not feed them, but they never went away, one was always stationed on our deck. One even flew into the window! yikes!






Astoria boardwalk. Caution!

We drove up the hill in Astoria, into the neighborhoods. Of all the time in Astoria, I had never done this before! Great views!

Whale skeleton!

The Hotel.


















NW Harvest with Kelsey!

Kelsey joined me for an afternoon shift at NW Harvest. Today we packed Squash. Kelsey and I worked on the box station, but I was called out several times to help load the Squash on the table. 



Kelsey and I took turns writing "Squash" on a lot of boxes!


Thursday, October 11, 2012

bus....

On Wednesday I decided to finish my day working from home. I met Bronwen and we arrived at the bus stop about 2:30. I checked the bus app,  it says 7 minutes. I checked it 5 minutes later, it said 7 minutes. I realized that the data is not correct, then saw the link to the message that says the new Rapid Ride buses don't have realtime info yet. Metro is working on it.  Metro better be working on a lot of things right now!

The bus arrived about 2:45. They run every 15 minutes until 3. So we just missed one? not likely, we walked down 3rd for a block, so we would have seen the Rapid Ride had it came on time.  The bus was PACKED. for a 2:45 run! wowl  We did find two seats in the very back, well, B got half a seat anyway.

We arrived in Alaska Junction and deboarded. I pulled up the app, the 50 is not due for 15 minutes. Sheesh. So we went to West 5. Everybody talks about this place. lame. No Anhieser Busch products! ha ha.  it seemed like a nice bar, probably a decent friday night place. I ordered a PBR.   We left with minutes to spare, and the bus did show up on time.

When we arrived at our stop on Alki, we saw the 56x that left our downtown bus stop 7 minutes late according to my app, and yet it still beat us home! ha ha.   Our trip took one hour. The 56x made it in 20 minutes!

On Thursday AM I was finally able to get outside in time to get the 37x. It helped that is was a few minutes late. This bus was about as full as it used to be. Every seat taken, no one standing.  No apparent change here. Even though they slashed half the runs. It worked out ok,  40 min in to city.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Bus end of week 1

Bronwen missed the 3:37 56x when it showed up on time for the first time all week on Thursday.  The next one is 30 min later. So, she used one of the free C ride tickets we got from work and boarded the C Line. She arrived at Alaska Junction in no time.

Then she waited. She waited 20 minutes for the very late 50 to take her to Alki.  However, before the driver could get them to Alki, he needed to ask the riders directions. I'm not kidding. Apparently it was the first time he was driving rt 50. Really?   I don't believe this is common, I see the training coaches driving around all the time.

Friday, I took the 56x in. It was not overly crowded, but people were standing again.

Monday I took the water taxi.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

The bus...

Yesterday I drove. Went to see Kyle after work.

Today, I missed the 7:32 37x. I ran out there, and it was pulling away. What I didn't know was that the 56 leaves 61st at 7:34. Sigh.  I almost jumped on my bike and raced for the 7:45 Water Taxi, but I am not coming home til late, don't want to leave my bike on the street all day and night.

I caught the 7:54 56x. It was a small bus again. It was so jam packed that I am not sure everyone was able to board. I don't think I will take this bus tomorrow. I hoped it would get better, but so far, its gotten worse.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Northwest Harvest Sept 29

I've been doing some volunteer work with this group. They have a big warehouse in Kent and every weekend they have 3 hr shifts available for volunteers.  It's not hard work and I always meet interesting people.  This time it was Jay, a college student who was in the military and went to Iraq! We mostly talked sports.

Today we packed Rice into individual bags. 16 oz per bag, 24 bags per box.  The people at the table scoop the rice into a bag. They bring to our tables for sealing. We get the air out of the bag, and then use a machine to seal it. Then we put 24 bags in a box, then push the box down to be weighted, taped and stacked on a pallet.

We packed over 8,000 lbs of rice in 3 hrs!  



Bus changes

Its being called the biggest change to the bus service in modern times. I agree. I remember first riding the bus in high school for summer work at Fishermens Terminal. I would catch the 15 or 18. Not anymore.  It is all changed. Even the Free Ride Zone downtown is gone.

Now we have Rapid Ride.  It is supposed to be like a light rail or train link. A dedicated route with busses ever 10 minutes during peak hrs.  Many of the routes that used to go from surrounding areas to downtown have been eliminated or rerouted to connect with the Rapid Ride line instead of going all the way downtown.

One of the reasons we moved to Alki was because of the good bus service. We used to have door to door service to and from Downtown. Now only the peak runs remain. The 56 is down to 9 runs in the AM and the 37 has 4 runs in the AM. Reverse for return trips. Only peak hrs.

I told myself I won't judge until a month goes by. But here is how it is going so far.

First let me back up and tell the story of how this came to be. I started hearing grumblings of big bus changes 6 months ago. Metro posted notices of the routes affected and the times for meetings to discuss proposed changes. 56 and 37 were not on that list. I thought I was safe.

Fast forward to last week. I finally got the tip that my bus routes are hosed. It was hard to get information on exactly how hosed, Metro did not release the new timetables until the day before the change.

The C line and the end of the free ride zone went into effect on Friday, Sept 28. The end of the off peak 56 and 37 started on Saturday. Friday I had a 'back issue' and I stayed at home and Bronwen drove in.  As expected, there were some protests Friday afternoon over the loss of the Free Ride Zone.

Monday am. Time to go to work. I catch the 7:54 am 56.   There are two more runs after this. First I notice it is a smaller bus. It is the first stop of the run, so the bus is empty when we get on. A lot of people get on. By the time the bus reaches California St. it is jammed. Twelve people had to stand from West Seattle to Downtown.

Monday afternoon. I catch the first 56 back to the beach. It leaves at 3:07.  It is jam packed. I have never seen so many people get on it. I realize many of them probably used to take the 2:45 bus and now wait 15 min. Lots of kids from Holy Names Academy.  Three people end up standing. But, the new route is faster, it no longer services Spokane St. It stays on W Seattle Bridge all the way to Admiral. This should result in a shorter trip but since there are so many people, it takes the same amount of time today.

Tuesday am. I am up early and curious, so I hop the W Seattle shuttle. It is a free shuttle that goes down the beach, stops at the Water Taxi and then goes on up California St and back down Admiral. There is another Shuttle that meets at the dock also. This one goes to Alaska Junction. Nice service and its free!

I got on the bus and then realized if I am going to take the Water Taxi,  I need one dollar on top of my Orca card fare. I don't have a dollar! ugh. I ask the bus driver if the Water Taxi can give change. She says no and checks to see if she has change. She has none. So I wander over to the coffee shop across the street. Marination Makai, the new restaurant at the dock is not open yet, but looks real close. I hope they open before the Shuttle ends for the season, at the end of Oct.

I get my crappy tea so I can get change. I didn't have the heart to just get change, and they probably wouldn't have anyways.  I give credit to anyone who opens a small coffee shop these days....

As I am leaving the coffee shop, I see the 37 go by. It is crowded, more than usual, but no one is standing.  I think this is a good sign, until I see all the people who just got off the bus at the earlier stop, headig for the Water Taxi. There are probably 15 of them. I suspect they were stuck standing and decided to get off the bus and take the Water Taxi.

The water taxi is fine. More crowded than usual but plenty of seats. I didn't get a table though, so this crappy tea is a hindrance to my reading.   One reason I prefer the bus over water taxi, more reading time, but I really really do not like over crowded buses.

No judgement yet. Its too early. I think these things tend to work themselves out as no one likes over crowded buses! I just hope it does not end up with more cars on the road.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Chris Hansen bought me a beer!





Ok, not just me. Everybody!

When I first heard this announced, I though that it was pretty cool and I wanted to go. Everybody kept telling me it is silly and just buy a beer. But I thought about it some more. I wrote letters to council members, I signed petitions, I attended the rally.. dang it, I deserve this beer!

Jeremy joined Bronwen and I in the street outside FX and we drank our free beer.

I was very surprised how mellow the event was. It wasn't crowded, no lines to speak of.   Just a group of Sonics fans. We spoke to other fans,  admiring their Sonics gear. Many strangers asked to take pictures of us too!

I bumped into (literally) gubernatorial candidate Inslee in the beer line. I spoke to him, apologized for bumping the next Governor god willing!   He laughed and said it was no biggy, he got bumped like that by Obama in a scrimmage game! He told me about playing basketball with the President. cool!  He did not mug for cameras, or try to do an interview, he was a fan, like we were.  One of his associated did give me a button though. "ballers for Inslee" with a basketball background. It is being proudly displayed on my backpack!

Mayor mcGinn wandered effortlessly through the crowds. I guess it's time to move past the tunnel fiasco! He seems like a genuine guy.

I was interviewed by Q13 and 1077 the End but I don't know if it aired.  We were on the 9 pm channel 13 news though. Several shots of us in the crowd!

fun time, I am really glad I went to this. This was history!