Shoreline

So it is the birthday of Shoreline, its all of 17 years old.  As readers of this fine blog my know, I like to say something about the significant towns in my life.  Shoreline was a significant town, it is where I lived both before and after Ellensburg.  Actually, that is not correct.  Before I moved to Ellensburg, I lived one house north of where I would live upon my return.  However that house had a Seattle address, since Shoreline didn't exist.  Shoreline was created during time in the mid nineties when nobody wanted to be a part of unincorporated King County.  Shoreline is a large mass of land that didn't really have a center or coherent feel, its just a bunch of older neighborhoods, some nice, some not so nice with a central government.
 

Sky Rockets in Flight

So last Christmas I purchased a model rocketry kit for the boy.  I thought we could have some fun launching them.  Our busy summer of leisure finally allowed for time build and launch the rockets.  And good fun they are, I remember building a rocket in the 5th grade and launching it and watching it float into a tree, sad day.  But the rocket went exceptionally high so that was fun.  In fact I remember building the rocket was good fun for the whole family, well my mom and dad and myself.  Rocket day at school, was one of the great days of the school year, all the kids got to out and watch the 5th graders launch their rockets in alphabetical order.  Anyway, we have three rockets now and all are slightly flawed, but seem to be air worthy and fly well, it's the landing that seems to be at issue.  Hopefully there will be a few more launches before the soggy weather returns.
Tonight's post is dedicated to the Lego dude.  Sadly, his capsule could not hold him and he fell to earth and was lost to the vast fields of the Meadowbrook Farm.

 

A Missing Link

Back on this day in 1966, the Astoria-Melger Bridge opened finalizing the ribbon of concrete from Olympia to the Mexican Border.  This replaced the ferry that ran from Astoria to Melger and also basically doomed Melger.  This is a long and big bridge, in Astoria it dwarfs the town and is visable everywhere in town.  As a kid I remember seeing it in the Guiness Book of World records and thought that it was really cool.  I remember going accross the bridge for the first time with my Grandparents and thinking it wasn't so cool.   Even today, I am not the biggest fan of accrossing the bridge, especially if the wind is blowing.

To Continue a Theme

With summer winding down, I have decided to pull out an old photo of summer past.  These days we have 12 volt adapters for our cars and outlets throughout the car to do this sort of work.  That said, the pictures of blowing up intertubes aren't as captivating in the modern world.

Endless Summer

August is always a difficult month, with few exceptions summer peaks right about the first week of August and then slides ever so quickly toward fall.  The days are noticeably shorter each week and the signs of autumn start to arrive, spider webs, morning dew and that evening chill in the air.  As I have mentioned before these signs of which I wish was blind too, but I am not.  I can remember though, summers in which the signs of autumn were masked by unusual warmth right through until the start of school.  Those years, I remember well, the joy mostly, believing that summer was endless.  Of course it was not and by November the rain would set in for an indeterminate cycle.  Tonight's photo endless summer days.

A New Schedule

So my summer long vacation and new schedule in general has been brutual on the old blogging schedule that is why I am going to start a new blogging schedule as of today.  No longer will I be blogging on a Sunday, Wednesday and Friday schedule, instead it will be a Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Fear not loyal readers, I have the drive to continue bringing you a top shelf product.

So Maybe I've Talked About This Before

It's mid August and it is delightfully hot outside, but in the back of my mind I hear my mother's voice, announcing that fall is just around the corner, she can feel it in the morning and evening air.  Talk about a buzz kill, that is exactly what every school aged kid doesn't need to hear, for two reasons, fall equals school and the end of summer means cold air and rain.  Truth be told, my mom was right, about mid August the nights start getting cooler and the days shorter.  I wish though, I had never heard her say it, I could have blissfully continued with my endless summer thoughts until the school bells rang and the grey skies and rain returned.  Tonight, pictures of summer, enjoy it while it lasts.

Perfection

Today was one of those days, a special and unique day.  Especially if you enjoy baseball.  Today Felix Hernandez of the Mariners threw a perfect game, 27 batters retired without reaching base.  A magnificent performance.  I was lucky enough to be at today's game with Cicely and the boy.  We now can say what only about 575,000 can ever have said, "I saw a perfect game."  There have been only 23 such games in the 150+ years of professional baseball.  Since the founding of the National League in 1876, there have been approximately 400,000 games played.  So this is a very rare thing to see.  I remember going to a game with Cicely some years back and saying, you know you just never know what you will see at the old ball yard.  That night we saw the Mariner's finest pitcher, Freddy Garcia lit up for eight runs in less that three innings  Not quite what I was hoping for, when I made the statement.  Today's game wasn't exactly the way we would have liked it, it was hot and the boy was hot and a bit bored and wanted to play more than watch.  So what if we didn't sit in our seats for the whole thing.  We saw the important bits and years from now, the pitches and at bats we did not see will not matter, what will matter is that we were there.

Poor Timing

On this day back in 1994, I arrived in New York City.  I had a great time in the city and have longed to return.  One thing I could not do in New York was to watch a game in Yankee Stadium, not because the Yankees were on the road, but instead because major league baseball had gone out on strike.  Poor timing, but not the first time, back when I was in 4th grade or so, I couldn't go to ball game on my birthday because of a strike.  

10 years

Today is my 10th wedding anniversary and it seems rather hard to believe that it has been 10 years.  We are different people than we were ten years ago, but we are still in love.  Cicely continues to amaze me everyday and I hope that I can give her all that she so richly deserves.  On my desk in my office is a photo that was taken on the night of our first date, I look at that guy and think he is pretty lucky.  I look at tonight's photo and know that I am still pretty lucky.

Fort Simcoe

On this date in 1856, Fort Simcoe was established on the Yakima Indian Reservation.  The purpose of the fort was to keep the peace between whites and Indians by keeping the whites off Indian land.  The soldiers at Simcoe would also participate in the ongoing Indian wars of the time.  The soldiers from Simcoe assisted in the killing of Indians believed involved in attacks on white prospectors.  In October 1858 to Yakama Indians were hung at the Fort for the killing of Indian Agent Andrew Bolon in 1855.
Just about the time the fort was completed in April of 1859, the army abandoned it sending the troops to Fort Colville and to Fort Walla Walla.  In May of 1859 the BIA took over and sent of the Yakama Indian Agency.  In 1974 it became a state park.

  

Roosevelt at the Dam

On this date in 1934, President Roosevelt stopped by the Grand Coulee Dam to check on the progress.  At the time it was to be a low dam of hydroelectric purposes only.  He toured the land and stopped and gave a brief speech to the estimated 20,000 in attendance.  He would return three years later and marvel at all that had been done, by that time the project was to build the high dam.  Tonight a recent photo of the Grand Coulee Dam.

Yet Again

Another year and another round of bad news for those that like open space and public land.  The Washington State Parks are facing being cut out of the budget for 2013, since the Discover Pass system should foot the bill.  Problem is the Discover Pass system in only bringing in half the revenue it was suppose to.  This is leaving the Park system in a bad spot, it either has too cut back on the parks, hope for the legislature to do something or find other revenue streams from public lands.  Once again it is the people that enjoy the land that will lose out the most.  Lets hope for the best and in the meantime go enjoy a park or DNR site while you can, oh and purchase the Discover Pass if you do.