Sometimes change sucks

In May Zack started delivering the West Seattle Herald to about 30 customers around our neighborhood on Wednesday afternoons.  His first time doing the route by himself was in the pouring rain, pulling papers out of his backpack, checking addresses off his list, trying to keep everything dry – what a miserable way to start a job.  Susan got a tearful call from our newly-minted carrier, and was able to help him get the papers delivered and figure out some easier ways to do it next time.

Zack settled right into the routine.  His buddies helped him deliver papers.  He struck up friendly conversations with neighbors.  He acquired new customers, earned tips, and wrote thank you notes.  He deposited checks in his new bank account and had his own money to spend on the school band trip to Idaho.  Zack enjoyed a responsibility that belonged just to him.

Now big newspapers are fighting for survival.  Our own well-loved Seattle Post-Intelligencer lost the fight a few months ago, leaving the city with one daily paper that has no soul.  Smaller papers are feeling the squeeze, too.  The West Seattle Herald is consolidating its operations and switching to distribution by mail, and this past Wednesday was the last time neighborhood carriers delivered the paper.

Like millions of boys, having a paper route was Zack’s first regular job.  Like millions of Americans, he recently lost his job.  He’s already had at least one of his customers ask if he’s available for other work, so it’s good that he can see how ‘referrals’ and ‘networking’ and ‘good customer service’ come into play.  It just bugs me a little bit that he had his first taste of ‘unemployment’ at the age of 13.

SWAT team right down the street

My neighbor and I were en route to the dump this afternoon when we passed a SWAT team van with lights going.  Don’t see that every day.  We joked about getting out just in time.

Coming back home we were surprised to discover that the van was in our neighborhood, accompanied by about 20 police cruisers.  Apparently a man with a gun has been holed up in an apartment for a couple of hours in a standoff situation.

I just heard something like firecrackers, then several louder explosions.  Rather than walk over to the scene, we’ll continue to follow the story on the West Seattle Blog, our best source for local news.

LATER THAT EVENING…

Situation ended with man taken into custody after about five hours.  No hostages, no injuries.  Whew.

Sometimes I amaze myself

For years we* have made half-hearted attempts to come up with a free-standing system to allow our pea vines to grow up on a string trellis.  Seems simple enough, but we always ended up with something that was inadequate or ugly or both.

* Susan’s done the lion’s share of work in the garden

Last year we decided to plant the peas in a different part of the garden and take advantage of a large beam extending out over that paht of the yahd.  I tacked a bunch of little finishing brads into the beam and into a 2×3 (I’m calling it a footer) that lay on the ground.  Loop the string around the nails, and there’s our trellis.  On a nice angle, too, to keep the vines off of the house.

All was fine and dandy until the peas got going and put some weight on the strings.  Rocks and bricks didn’t keep the footer in place, strings came off the little nails – all hell was breaking loose on the string trellis!  If I pounded rebar into the ground to anchor that blasted footer, we might put our eyes out or rip open our legs when we later forgot that the rebar lay hidden there in some weeds.  I’d have to think of something different next year.

And I did.

First of all,  no more little nails barely visible to the naked eye.  We’ve got a row of screw eyes in the footer:

eyelets spaced about 5" apart on the ground...

... and on the beam.

McLendon Hardware stocks solutions to almost every problem.  Even if you don’t find exactly the solution you’re looking for, you may very well find needed inspiration there.  Mine came in the form of a gizmo for securing a leash:

I removed the swiveling collars, drilled a big hole in each end of my footer, and twisted them into the ground.  If you can open a bottle of wine, you can do this:

The corkscrew anchors were $1.89 each.  That footer is going nowhere, strings stay taut, and when the peas are done we’ll just cut the twine, unscrew the footer, and put the assembly away until next year.  How’s that for a simple, elegant solution?

A thing of beauty.

Thawing outside and inside

The beautiful blanket of snow that covered our fair city for most of the last ten days has lost about 99% of its charm.  Temperatures in the mid-30s and intermittent rain have turned light, dry snow into heavy, wet slop.  It’s no longer good for sledding, snowballs, or even walking.  We’re ready for it to go away.  To that end, as Susan and I walked to the neighborhood bakery this morning we cleared snow from every storm drain we knew of along the way.

On Christmas Eve an awful lot of people seemed to have last-minute errands.  Unfortunately, that brought out the cars.

I was just starting to make Swedish Toast when neighbor Maureen called for help.  She was assisting an older gentleman whose car was stuck across part of the road at the bottom of our hill.  We ended up putting chains on his older Mercedes.  I got behind the wheel but made no progress going up the street.  He left us with his car and walked up the hill to get more help.  By the time he came back with his grandson and a bottle of wine, we’d managed to get his car off the street.

As I walked back up the hill, neighbor Lisa was standing by her car at the top of her steep driveway.  She hadn’t driven for eight days and missed the last five days of work.  Afflicted with cabin fever, she thought conditions might be good enough to try to get her car out.  I shoveled two tracks down the driveway so she’d have bare pavement to drive down.  That worked okay, but the slush at the bottom of the driveway convinced her to ‘quit while she was behind.’  I drove her about three miles to work in our trusty all-wheel drive Toyota van.  On our way we passed Mr Mercedes putting on chains again, with faithful neighbor Maureen standing guard to make sure he didn’t get run over by passing cars.

* * * * * * * * * *

An article in today’s paper included a picture of a man dressed like Jesus to “show people what Christmas is all about.”  Apparently about 400 people from a church in Kansas are doing something similar.  The man in the picture wore a beard, a white robe, and a crown of thorns, and was reading a newspaper over a cappuccino.

How am I going to explain this to my neighbors?

As I read the scriptures, it seems more likely we’d find Jesus in a Tent City or a soup kitchen or a hospital than sipping a cappuccino at Starbucks.

“When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink?  And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?”  Then the King will say, “I’m telling the solemn truth:  Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me–you did it to me.’  (Matthew 25)

Jesus might be seen in the face of one serving a hot meal, offering shelter, or visiting a prisoner.  Or he might be seen in the face of one being fed or housed or visited; or maybe even the guy needing help chaining up his car.  A good reminder to me – and perhaps to you – during this Christmas season.

Around the ‘hood

Cars in the driveway on Sunday:

Car in the driveway on Monday:

Wind + snow:

Wind + snow + roof:

For skiing on the beach:

For taking it all in at Lincoln Park:

Bird brains

It’s usually pretty quiet and peaceful in West Seattle, but readers of the West Seattle Blog were shocked by news of a murder yesterday.