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Monthly Archives: September 2014

99

18 Thursday Sep 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Uncategorized

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Tags

camping, formative years, hunting, Mabel Hanson, Mable, nonagenarian, Temperance River


My grandma turned 99 yesterday.  It should have been a bigger event, but I was reminded by an electronic notification.  She is in hospice care in AZ, a long way from Seattle.  I’ve visited her once/twice a year for the past 10 years and watched her slow decline from a distance while raising a family in Seattle. I’m sad that I missed this moment, but I may have a chance to hit the big 100 with her.

Hanging with G-Ma

Hanging with G-Ma

It feels like a big deal that a family member is reaching this age.  Not many people these days can live nearly a century.  My great grandma Viola lived to 99, but most people I know are gone by 80.  I feel like I need to start writing about my experiences with Mabel – she was easily the most colorful character in my immediate family, and was always a loving grandparent.  The kind that always had a big smile when I showed up.  I spent a lot of time with her in my childhood – she lived an hour north of us in the Twin Cities.

Mabel and Ralph had 80 acres in Bradford, MN, and it was always like a fairy tale when I went up there to visit in the summer.  My folks would bring me and my sister up for several weeks at a time to stay on “the farm”.  It wasn’t really a farm, but sort of a hobby ranch.  No animals other than wild – I recall deer, rabbits, squirrels, and birds of all sorts.  It was a great place for my formative years as I was allowed quite free reign.  Not too much to worry about as they lived on a rural road on a lot of forested and swamped land.  They had planted trees on the majority of the land – rows and rows of pines that were 20 feet tall when I was learning to hunt at the ripe age of 10.

My grandparents were Scoutmasters when my dad and his brother were growing up, so needless to say they instilled a love of the outdoors in me.  When it was 90 and humid on the farm, they took us up to the north shore of Lake Superior for epic camping trips in the 60-70 degree mild inland sea climate north of Duluth.  I would be allowed free reign there, as well – I don’t think this would happen as much today, but I ran all over the shoreline, and did a lot of hiking up river (Temperance River).  I recall trips of 2 weeks at a time.

I got my first knife at the farm.  I got my first gun, a Red Ryder styled Daisy BB gun.  I shot my first .22.  I killed my first bird (traumatic unintentional ceremonial burial – cried my eyes out).  I went duck hunting with my dad and grandpa.  I drove the tractor all over the place.  I explored for days, got poison ivy, wood ticks, many mosquito/deerfly/horsefly bites.  I worked on wood projects in my grandpa’s shop – learned to sand, shape, cut with the jigsaw, build stuff.  They moved to Arizona at some point – they had been going there for years in the winters, but I don’t remember the year they bought a place in Mesa – probably while I was distracted in Jr. or Sr. High.

My Grandpa died in 1990, and I moved to Seattle in 1991.  Therein begins my stories of Mable (how I used to spell her name).  Her golden years lasted roughly from 1991 through the mid 2000’s.  I will try to recollect some of the amazing things she did during this period in the next few posts.  After Ralph died, she started traveling, visiting places like South Africa, Kuala Lumpur, and Sri Lanka (when it was still in turmoil).  She also sent us interesting gifts and care packages after our move west, but these can wait for better explanations…

Please don’t go halfway

09 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

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Tags

2nd ave, bike infrastructure, bike lanes, commuting, protected bike lanes, Seattle bike, seattle cycling, traffic safety


I rode the new 2nd ave protected bike lanes in Seattle yesterday.   These were put in over the past weekend to improve safety on a notoriously sketchy street.  I applaud attempts to make things better for bikers, and hope we continue this.  I really want to like these improvements, as well.

Some constructive criticism:  I would appreciate it even more if it wasn’t only funded for several blocks in the middle of the city.  To use this path, you still have to get to it.  C’mon Seattle – first it was the worlds shortest trolley route, and then the excruciatingly slow rollout of light rail.  Now we are slow-rolling bike infrastructure.  Can we sacrifice a few feelings to get stuff done occasionally, people?  Please???

Here’s an idea – close down the inner core of Seattle to car traffic.  Set it up for bus/train/trolley/bike/ped only.  Here’s another idea – if you want to fund a corridor, do it for all, not just a few folks who live in a 8-block radius in the inner core.  I am sure city planning,  getting funding, and dealing with all the politics is tough (and it should be), but doing things like this halfway can hurt more than help.

Case in point – there are more pissed-off drivers now who see these short bike paths as merely a restriction on the lanes.  It seems obvious that the funders weren’t serious about safety, as they didn’t make the lane the length of 2nd – at least get up to the top of the hill?  It’s like a new bottleneck in the central core which is not what anyone needs.

Now on the plus side, I saw a very happy biker riding north on 2nd today – happy smiling face as she crossed the intersection in front of me.  She was obviously very happy to be heading north and felt more protected.  I also appreciated the folks volunteering on the path yesterday during the first day.  They were attentive, and helped bikers and drivers with some of the changes.

Tonight near 2nd and Madison as I was leaving the office, I was flipped off and honked at by a white van for what, I don’t know, until after 2 more intersections I had been waiting at, he drove up next to me and told me to “follow the rules of the road”.  I asked him what I had done, and he said I blew a red light (which I hadn’t – I stopped at all of them on the way down the hill and waited patiently for the green light).  When I told him I stopped, he railed on about how “all you guys are the same…” at which point I rode away.   After a mile down the beautiful Myrtle Edwards trail along the waterfront, I remembered that he was probably just having a bad day, and had seen too many bikers doing this before.  Probably just karma from all the times in the past that I actually had blown through lights.

Here’s a reminder for him that we all need to follow the rules of the road, and “I’m the man and you’re the man and she’s the man as well…”  Tool wisdom for all…

 

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