Friday, the 13th Month
It's Friday, October 1, 2004. I moved to this
town and this house on September 1, 2003, thirteen months ago. Our addition was
finished on July 29, 2004 and I've been using my studio now for two months. I
should have some observations about Seattle, the Northwest, and Puget Sound. I
do. This entry is comprised of things I've learned, things I like, things I
have observed which could be better, and, folded in with these, some
observations about the East and Washington, DC, in many ways, a different
country I left behind.
Things I like (or love, in a
lot of cases) about
Seattle:
Scenery - it's hard to underestimate the impact both internally (one's soul as it were) and externally (one's general well-being) of a dramatic landscape. Seattle as a city has ample dramatic landscapes, every neighborhood has its own look and feel and sits amidst the stunning background landscape of all these mountains and water. Washington is a beautiful city and the Chesapeake Bay area is a beautiful natural environment. But there simply is no denying the majestic beauty of the West Coast, and along this coast of the favored geology of the Puget Sound region. Our house sits on a nearly-500-foot hill affording dramatic views of the Cascade Range, of a great swath of Puget Sound, the entire Olympic Range, and of Mt. Rainier and on occasion Mt. Baker. When one can see over a landscape which extends twenty to fifty miles distant, it provides an honestly different kind of feeling than simply gazing out across the street or even across the neighborhood. I guess I knew this from the many mountains I've hiked up in my life but to live in a place where the daily grind includes the sun setting across the Sound and behind the mountains is simply fantastic. The city also has an admirable skyline, enhanced by its fronting on Elliott Bay and amplified by the ferries and other ocean-going traffic which come and go. It also helps that this is such an evergreen place because even in the dead of Winter I'm surrounded by green, which, believe me, beats the browns, greys and dirty whites of Eastern cities.
Weather - a lot of folks complain about the moisture and grey skies of Fall, Winter and sometimes Spring out here. Not me. I love the changing atmosphere. Even at its worst, in the darkest, cloud-covered, moisture-laden days of January, there is something mutable about this place. The weather isn't static. The rain pelts then lightens then mists then pelts again. The streets glisten with lights reflecting off the moist concrete or macadam. And, Summer is outrageous - blue skies, perfect temperatures, breezes off the Sound, white puffy clouds. By the way, that weather can occur at any season and the big secret out here seems to be that Winter isn't always dark and drizzly. I've actually got that part figured out - the way the low's come in off the Pacific, it's usually three days of some form of moisture followed by two days of blue sky followed by three days of moisture, ad interim. The fact that we're so far north also enhances both the wonders of Summer and the dreariness of Winter - in Summer the days start at 4:30 am and end past 10:00 pm, conversely in Winter they start at nearly 8:00 am and end before 5:00 pm. The fact of the matter is, though, that the climate of Puget Sound falls into the generally-accepted "comfort" range for most humans about 90 percent of the year. With proper rain-repelling or protecting gear, there's no reason NOT be be outside the entire year. Grass grows here in Winter - how bizarre is that? The spiders, wondrous creatures that they are, define Spring with their emergence and web-making and define, again, Fall, with their last attempts at web-making and insect-capturing. That is no different from the East. Not really weather related, but one thing I do miss about the East are the crickets and the cicadas - neither seems to exist here in the Northwest. One thing I don't miss is poison ivy. There is none out here and I don't seem nearly as sensitive to the sumac and oak varietals which grow here. I became so sensitive to poison ivy that just brushing by it on bike rides would fill my leg with welts.
People - I moved here from a city which, as fantastic as it is and can be, is filled with pretentious individuals - people who actually believe they live in the "most important city in the world" (from a local, DC, Riggs bank ad). They may, in fact, live in the most important city on the planet but they carry that pretension with them nearly everywhere they go. That's not everyone, mind you, just a large sampling of any random encounter with a local from the Washington DC area. Seattle, by contrast, seems to be a city of reticent plebeians. There are, to be sure, all the Microsofties who cashed in their stock and drove up the housing stock here and who persist in driving around in their BMW or Audi two-seaters or their Hummers, but, by and large, the city seems filled with individuals who relish their individualism and who don't mind sharing what's on their mind with you or in providing some form of advice if asked. In DC, it seemed that most random encounters were of the form "what, don't bother me, I'm too busy." Partially this may be the result of the fact that here in Seattle people actually sometimes use machines to make their living and not their minds necessarily. Manhattan, not un-coincidentally, is even worse than DC with respect to people's pretensions. The only blue-collar jobs in the District were the transit operators (subway or bus), the folks who ran the printing machines at the Government Printing Office, and the custodial staff at every facility and the folks who actually built the edifices of the town. Here, there's actually folks who run trains through the harbor, individuals who pour steel into molds in foundries, individuals who piece together machinery or who pilot the tugs which move the ships into and out of the harbor. There are countless white collar types who design and code software, who run banks and insurance companies and who connive to develop portfolios, but, in general, Seattleites seem to act like and behave like we're all of the same species and live together in the same city. And, maybe it's the weather or the views, but nearly everyone out here seems to relish being out-of-doors. In the District, most folks in my neighborhood and throughout the other sections of town seemed to want to be either inside or outside behind their privacy fences. I also like the fact that nearly everyone here has pets - dogs and cats and even chickens and pigs. They walk their pets all the time and nearly everywhere and there are special, large-acreage, parks dedicated to allowing dogs free reign. It really is great fun and somehow enriching and uplifting to see a large number of dogs of different breeds cavorting and romping together.
Produce - I grew up near one of this country's finest farming communities - Amish-farmed Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Those folks know how to grow produce without chemicals, they know how to till the land without a mechanized army of machines, they know how to deliver their goods to both markets and canning and freezing factories. In between living there and moving here, I believe most of my food was a form of composite produce - partly natural and partly the result of chemical induction into the soil and chemical spraying after harvesting and even chemical coatings in the market place. There's a lot of "if's" about the good of that form of produce but most of the country lives on it. What I can say is how much more tasty, how much more crisp, how much more colorful the organic produce is than what I'd become used to. That's not to say that the entire Northwest eats organic produce, but there is so much more of it here than there was available in the big cities of the East. The price difference is not noticeable because I was paying an incredible premium for my food in the District to begin with and the slight increase in organic produce over non-organic out here is still equal to or less than what I was paying previously. Also, in this town, there's fresh apples, pears, plums and blackberries to be picked and eaten straight from the source be it a tree or a vine. That's really hard to beat.
Meat - the same goes for protein out here, the free-range beef and chickens and turkeys and wild Alaska Salmon cannot be matched with the hormone-and-vitamin-and-antibiotic-stuffed animals which are the norm pretty much anywhere these days. Yes, it probably does taste the same if it's a really good chicken or beef cut but the reduction in unnatural components entering my body and that of my family is something to think about. I still cannot believe that people, let alone as many people, eat at places like McDonalds, but so be it - it's their body not mine. I'm not a fanatic about this, it's just that the availability of chemical-free meat out here is nearly universal - heck even Safeway has free-range chicken, turkey and beef. When it's that easy to purchase it makes no sense to not indulge in the healthier choice. I still don't like soy (tofu) and can't imagine not eating meat so I'm pretty pleased that I can indulge my diet with healthier choices. One thing I have noticed, though, is that milk and dairy products in general seem to be about twenty-five percent more expensive than back East. Even on sale, milk is more expensive. However, Breyers is still sold in all the supermarkets and is still all-natural and, to my taste, still the best nationally-distributed ice cream on the continent. I'm thrilled, once again, to live in walking distance to a place which makes their own ice cream - Husky Deli, at Alaska Junction, has ice cream which is really, really tasty and they serve a huge scoop for a cheap price.
Food - this is a general category. People out here eat well, the components of a meal are as indicated above and the recipes and combinations of cuisine which comprise Northwest regional cooking is simply outstanding. That, or course, makes perfect sense since this is an area which is late in coming (100 years old, plus or minus, versus the older areas in the Midwest and back East) and can take advantage of all the previous cuisines, enhanced by the proximity to the Far East and the rich cuisine from dozens and dozens of countries. That, and being a port city in an agricultural state, makes for some really great cooking. The folks out here actually like to cook and eat - it's one of life's pleasures in addition to being one of life's necessities.
Music - so I've become another fan of the Seattle sound - if there is such a thing. There's just so much live music and groups making live music in this city. And, it's easy to get to - there's street fairs, music fairs, practically any event is an excuse for a live band of some flavor and there are a lot of fairs out here. As huge a city and metropolitan area as DC is, there's probably three to four times as many live music opportunities here in Seattle as there are in DC. Music just seems to be part of the background environment here and seemed more like "entertainment" back East. When it's entertainment it isn't as pervasive because it then competes with all other forms of entertainment. Here the music seems to be expected as part of any event. Not that there aren't a huge number of strictly music venues, there are, but in addition to being entertainment it's also background. I definitely like this approach to music. Maybe it's the less-formal nature of Seattle that creates a more welcome attitude toward live gigs or maybe it's the long, dark, Winters which produce more people who want to make music. Not sure, but I do like it. Seattle also has a thriving independent record label industry and encourages new music as a business venture. It's no Hollywood or Nashville and that's really a good thing. There are also an unbelievably large number of independent music stores - some catering to all musical tastes and others focusing on specific genres.
Radio - there was a really great radio station which popped out of nowhere a few years ago in DC - it was called Jammin' 99 and it was a rhythm-and-blues station which harkened back to the hey-day of DC when blues and blues-jazz were performed live in clubs on H and U Streets by some of the absolutely finest musicians of that genre. It played to a town which, when I was growing up, had two black AM radio stations which competed seriously well against the best that the East Coast could offer for R&B, including South Street in Philadelphia and the whole Atlantic Rhythm and Blues and Motown gig. Those stations went the way of AM and turned into talk radio. Jammin' 99 lasted two years and then became yet another notch in the Clear Channel bedpost. By the time I left even the "free form, alternative" station of choice - WHFS - had succumbed to play lists and top-forty "urban contemporary" stuff. Hardly the station I knew when its studios were next to the Psyche Deli music lounge in Bethesda and where Fugazi and other DC bands were first aired. No, DC radio simply sucked. Seattle radio, even the Clear Channel stations, doesn't suck and there are so many other choices including KEXP, which I used to listen to on webcast FM back in DC. There are stations for just about every college, community college and an incredibly large number of high schools and each and every one of them plays music NOT from a playlist. I've actually started listening to radio again. In fact, even back in DC, I was a huge fan of both KEXP and KAOS from Evergreen State University, just down the road in Olympia. I can now actually get KAOS and KEXP on the radio. Clearly, the music choices and the radio choices are related. We made a serious mistake as a country when the FCC allowed such consolidation of station ownership and the country at large is the poorer for that ruling.
City Services - Of course this is unfair because the District of Columbia is a completely dysfunctional urban entity. It's such a treat to live in a city where the people who work for Public Works, or the Mayor's office, or City Council members, or the Transportation Department, or practically anything you can think of actually believe they are there to serve the citizens and who actually do their job in a professional, efficient, and willing manner. I'm still taken aback by the work crews who actually perform real work and are not overseen by two or three supervisors who are doing nothing. It was so common to see as many as a dozen individuals working on pot-hole repair in the District and for that team to take as much as half a day to fill one pot-hole. Lord help anyone who lived on a street which was undergoing reconstruction or repair because it would take as long as a year to get as much as one block finished. Of course the District suffers from forty-thousand city employees many of whom received their jobs as a result of patronage and who, as civil servants, could essentially keep their jobs whether they actually worked or not. Forget about a parks and recreation department or even a vehicle inspection facility which did anything in a timely manner. Like I said, not really a fair comparison but still, Seattle has a superlative city staff resulting in a city which is actually a joy to live in. Oh, this city's staff is about 60 percent of the staff for the District, which has a nearly identical population.
Parks - and the entire concept of recreation. DC had some fabulous parks and is generally considered to be one of the urban areas of this country which relates well to its local environment and climate - which is true. Seattle has an outstanding set of parks, many of which are linked with the same kinds of greenbelts and natural run-off areas which make DC such a wonderful place scenically and environmentally. I really didn't expect this because most modern American cities have one or two token city parks and a few neighborhood city-blocks designated as parks but not an extensive set of greenswards throughout the entire urban fabric. I've yet to get to all the really large urban parks and natural areas this city has to offer and I've only seen a handful of the hundreds of neighborhood parks and playgrounds which are dotted throughout the city's diverse geologic confines. Seattle's nickname is "the Emerald city," and with all the greenery and flowering plants and fruiting trees it is truly fitting - for two different reason: the greenery is definitely solicitous as is the sparkle and depth of an emerald; and it's such a wondrous landscape that it has the visual allure of Oz.
Time Zone - although not exclusive to Seattle, I really like being in Pacific Time. By the time I get up most Easterners are ready for lunch and we're pretty much ignored by them. This is what I meant in my reference to another country. The East, and it's huge if you just look at the Eastern Time zone, moves about its day on its own time and waits, if they have to, for the rest of us to get up and go about our business. On the other hand, we can pretty much ignore the East with respect to any direct impact on our daily lives. Sure, there are plenty of businesses which must be attentive to New York or Washington or some other Eastern city of interest, but by and large the West Coast ticks away on its own time, in its own environment and removed from the drone and "hustle-and-bustle" of the East. This is definitely a good thing. The only bad part of this is I'm always thinking of calling my Mom or some friend or other relative right about the time the sun sets here and for most of the folks I want to call that's past their bedtime back East. Ah, that's what tomorrow is for, though.
Neighborhoods - I've been to quite a few other cities where there are lots of individual neighborhoods which are relatively unique from each other and which have definite and distinctive character differences. I've not been to that many cities, though, where the distinctive neighborhoods relate as well to each other as they do here in Seattle. I like this kind of city, it gives the place a definite tapestry and complexity which goes way beneath the surface and which contributes to the overall sophistication and yet down-home feel of the place. Pittsburgh is like this, Boston is not; New York can be as can Philadelphia and Washington but in the big Eastern cities the neighborhoods seem much more at odds with each other rather than celebrating the differences and thriving as elements of the whole. Surprisingly enough, Houston was more like Seattle in this regard with a great number of the neighborhoods being magnets for folks living in other neighborhoods for pretty much the same reason - each neighborhood had a distinctive and attractive reason to visit or linger and yet one would still return to one's own neighborhood when the day was done and like it. If Chicago weren't so flat I'd like to explore that town from the neighborhood perspective because I've heard a lot of really good things about Chicago's neighborhood elements.
King County Metro - okay I'll admit it, Seattle has perhaps the finest bus system in the country. It's only problem is that the buses must compete with every other vehicle for street access and that makes taking the bus an exercise in frustration a lot of the time - as it does for anyone using a car or driving a truck or delivery vehicle. But, Metro gets you to nearly everywhere in the city (and county, actually) and its buses are pretty much on time, making connections is pretty easy since there are transit centers in all the right places. Plus, it's the only place I've ever lived where the bus system encourages people to take the bus by it's generous and extended transfer system. I can very often take as many as four buses and conduct business in two or three different areas of the city - widely separated at times - and still use only one bus pass because of the three-hour (average) time limit on the transfers. I've sometimes had to insist to a Metro driver that I was really "going home" and didn't need a transfer even if it was an "owl" transfer. Owl transfers, handed out after 10 at night, are good through 6:30 in the morning which means one could use the bus system all night for the price of a single bus ride. No where else have I encountered such a forward-thinking and transit-friendly approach to public transportation.
Downtown - I love downtowns and Seattle has a really good downtown with lots of interesting places to visit and lots of interesting things to do and it's a walkable downtown. I even don't mind the fact that some of the downtown streets are at 10 to 15 percent grades from one avenue to the next. In fact, that's probably part of the charm, each avenue, because it's at a really different grade from the adjacent avenue, can be and is very different in feel and look and what it has on it. Seattle's a lot like New York in that regard, though New York's avenues are different for reasons not having to do with grade and are a lot longer with that much more of interest. And, downtown Seattle is anchored with two destination "attractions," Pike Place Market area to the north and Pioneer Square arts and entertainment district to the south. Frankly, I'd include Belltown and Seattle Center as part of downtown even though, for some reason, folks here don't. Also, downtown oozes up Capitol Hill on Pine, Pike and Madison Streets which makes downtown a great spot to wander all about in a variegated and rich urban landscape.
Waterfront - it's hard to underestimate the power of the sea and how much it lends to an urban area. Seattle's waterfront, though some would claim it's inaccessible because of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, couldn't be more accessible. It's usually one or two or no more than six blocks away from anywhere in the generalized downtown area and it's open to pretty much anyone who wants to either see it or walk to it or throw a rock or penny into it. Water plays such an important role for humans and to be able to access huge expanses of water whenever one feels like it is just wonderful. That goes even more for someone like me whose house is within a few minutes of a beach. And, because there's water on both sides of the city, pretty much anyone in town can get to either a fresh-water area (Lake Washington, Lake Union, Green Lake, Salmon Bay, Portage Bay, the Ship Canal) or a salt-water area (Puget Sound) within a few minutes of their home. There's nothing so relaxing as a walk along a shoreline with the sun or moon glinting off the water and the birds flying overhead or floating. On the Sound side there's also the advantage of the lapping noise of the waves on the shoreline, outside of the downtown waterfront, that is, because downtown there is the seawall which is a bulkhead, but that has it's own advantages because you can look at the barnacles and other mollusks which attach themselves to the pilings and there are numerous attractions sited on piers sticking out into the harbor area.
Seattle Center - in DC the focal point of pretty much everything was the Mall and it was and is wonderful. In Seattle the same focus is at the Seattle Center. It's different. The Mall is expansive and open and bounded on all sides by national icons and Smithsonian museums and has these lovely elms which line the two periphery streets and block-after-block of grass in between (when it's not cordoned off because it's been beaten down by the endless festivals and events which are always being staged there). The Seattle Center is much more confined and is set up in such a way that one doesn't wander aimlessly in one direction or the other as is the case with the Mall. No, the Seattle Center is a place where one meanders from hidden space to hidden space with a few places where the landscape opens wider but then closes back again. It's more a place of discovery and wasting time than a place of endless openness. They both work remarkably well for containing huge numbers of people for great and less-great events and for keeping aimless wanderers amused for vast quantities of time. I suppose every city of any worth should really have something like one or the other. The only other equivalent I can think of is the Champ de Mars in Paris and that puts both Seattle and Washington in pretty good company.
Mount Rainier - I do love having my own personal volcano. It's not just part of the scenery, which it certainly is. No, it's magical. Some days it's just there - bold, more huge than you remembered it last and more brilliantly defined than you considered atmospherically possible. Other days it comes and goes along with the clouds and it seems as if it's far farther than it's mere 50 miles distance would suggest. Other days it comes and goes in a dizzying array of forms, first as a definition along one face only and later with only the top three-thousand, glacier-covered, peak visible. In the late afternoon it can be red or pink or salmon or orange or even yellow. There are whole weeks which can pass without seeing it and after a while one begins to think it's just a myth and then it appears again, reminding us all of its presence. Yes, it is a dangerous thing and that's probably part of the allure. Many people die each year climbing its glacier-covered sides and yet they still come to climb. And, it's not the only volcano which is visible from here either - Mt. Baker, to the north, sometimes pops right out of the background atmosphere to remind us that we're basically surrounded by these magma monsters and that puts a little zing into the ordinary day. That's not to detract from the continuous pleasure of the Olympics to the west or the Cascades to the east. Those mountain ranges define the horizon and, like Rainier, come and go in their own mystical manner. One real treat late last Fall was to see the Olympics granite brown-and-grey and green one day and the next morning see them all white about halfway up their mile-high selves.
West Seattle - of course I like my own neighborhood, but the longer I live here the more I really like this place beyond what I last thought about. I like how easy it is to get downtown, or to the airport, or to Southcenter, or to Beacon Hill or Rainier Valley, or the harbor, or even Seattle Center. I like the fact that nearly everyone else in Seattle thinks West Seattle is isolated and hard to get to. In a way that makes this a real oddity of a neighborhood because there's just a ton of folks who live in West Seattle - over 70,000 of us - making this neighborhood twelve percent of the city's population and yet it seems as if very few of the other neighborhood residents trek over here - except perhaps in Summer when Alki Beach seems to draw them like bees to pollen. I also like the fact that I've discovered all sorts of "secret" ways to this or that other place. In DC, anyone who knew how to navigate Rock Creek Parkway or how to use Chain Bridge was considered to be a real insider because those are two of the most confusing and daunting roadway systems in the city and yet once one learns how to navigate them they are two of the most useful routes to nearly anywhere in town. I feel as if I've come close to having that same level of knowledge with respect to West Seattle and the rest of the city. And, my secret ways usually have no traffic, which here, like in DC, is practically unheard of. There's this local rumor that West Seattle actually gets more sunshine than other parts of the city. This may be true because the peninsula which West Seattle occupies is nearly surrounded by water, including large open expanses of Puget Sound. Water and weather interact in delightful ways and it is rare that we don't get late afternoon sun here even in the dark dreary days of Winter. Anyway, it may be a myth but it's a delightful myth and gives my neighborhood one more element of charm.
Utilities - who would have thought that my utility bills would be so much cheaper here than in DC that this would be a positive feature. My electric bill from Seattle-owned City Light is one-third to one-quarter of what I was paying Potomac Electric Power Company, a public-regulated monopoly business in the District and Maryland. It's true, the same kilowatt hour usage cost me from 300 to 400 percent more in DC. I was, unfortunately, used to monthly electric bills in the $260 to $350 range and my bimonthly bill here is from $80 to $160. My natural gas is even cheaper with my average monthly bill back in DC being nearly the same as my electric bill and my bimonthly bill here being from $50 to $90. Of course my water bill in the District was about one-half what I'm paying here for the same water, sewar and trash. The combination of utility bills, though, is less than half of what I was used to and expected to pay in the District. I'm not sure I realized how much of a premium I was paying to live in a large Eastern city. My phone and cable+internet bills here are roughly equivalent to what I was paying in DC, except that I now have unlimited long distance and digital cable (versus analog cable) and super-high-speed internet (3 mbps versus 768 kbps), so again I have gained in the transition.
I could probably go on for a dozen other items, but I think these make the point. This is a pretty spiffy city. It's definitely got pretty much one each of anything you might want in a city and a whole bunch more than one each of a lot of things which matter to me. It's dense enough and complex enough that I feel like I'm definitely living in one of North America's urban cities. It's coastal which means, like DC, there's a rich symphony of language tongues being spoken in public. There are lots of languages on most of the public facility signs and a truly multicultural flavor to the city at large. And, unlike much of the East or Midwest, one can truly escape the urban fabric in just a few minutes in nearly any cardinal direction.
What don't I like about Seattle:
Rapid Transit - unbelievable as it seems, Seattle is the ONLY West Coast city to NOT have real rapid transit. This will change, hopefully, but I simply don't understand what has gone on (or more truthfully, what has NOT gone on) in this city such that it's now facing perpetual highway and street gridlock. In this one area I would classify Seattle as one of the most backward, retro-thinking, Luddite places I've ever been. Like I said, this will change with any luck and by 2007 this town could have at least two first-class rapid public transportation systems. But, 2007 is about 20 years past when that should have happened. Perhaps everyone out here was still living under the delusion that this was a small town and that no one would move here or that the city wouldn't develop into the density it has. Washington, DC, has a population density of just over 8,300 per square mile. Seattle has a population density of just over 6,200 per square mile. This is NOT a rural area. If Washington, DC, has enough density to support a 100-mile subway system consisting of five separate lines, where were the heads of the Seattle leaders? Buried in the muck underneath Green Lake or perhaps hidden beneath one of the pilings along the waterfront? There is plenty of density in the city limits alone to support effective, rapid mass transit and yet once again the voters of Seattle are going to be asked to pass judgment on the Green Line monorail while they are being delivered a light rail system which fails at both ends to make appropriate stops - which is to say the light rail won't go anywhere near where it was supposed to go when it was forcibly thrust upon the city by the three-county transit district known as Sound Transit. But I'll stop here because this is just one point of contention between me and the residents of Seattle who preceded me here or who were born here. I have a completely different view of rapid mass transit and I'm hoping that the gridlock which everyone is experiencing here has convinced enough of the residents to make the right decisions.
Things I miss about DC
There's really only one thing I miss and that's my friends and family. Granted, my family was never "in" DC, it's just that I could drive to Baltimore to see my brother (the other lives in Tucson) and I could drive, albeit a long drive, to see my Mom in Charlotte. I did drop in on and visit with my friends in DC a lot, some lived relatively close - say a 20 minute car ride or an hour bike ride - and some lived a bit further out - say 40 minutes by car. I can and do email and call on the phone but it's just not the same as being in someone's house or meeting downtown for lunch or a visit to the latest Smithsonian exhibit or a quick break at the Botanical Gardens. Still, I've only been here a year and these are friends I'd developed living in DC for over two decades and I shouldn't expect to find new friends that quickly nor should I expect NOT to miss my existing friends. Just one of the hazards of moving.
All in all, it's been a pretty exciting year and I'm obviously still settling in and getting to know the place and new people. For those who remember my goals of becoming a multimedia artist in this transition, fear not I'm on the way. My abilities with music, digital audio, digital imagery and video and putting it all together in some form of either art or informative presentation are well along the way. I've gotten pretty good at some things, feel natural with a lot of what I do and have some clues as to where I might want to go with all this.
It was a good move for me and it was the right time to explore new frontiers and change perspectives. Plus, my health continues to be superb and I'm truly beginning to feel at home here. I love the house and the additions we've done are simply stunning. It's really fantastic to be living in and enjoying a home we've designed ourselves (well, with the help of a truly talented architect - Lisa McNelis, and a talented and dedicated builder - Todd Schulte, and his crew and subcontractors).
Chas
Scenery - it's hard to underestimate the impact both internally (one's soul as it were) and externally (one's general well-being) of a dramatic landscape. Seattle as a city has ample dramatic landscapes, every neighborhood has its own look and feel and sits amidst the stunning background landscape of all these mountains and water. Washington is a beautiful city and the Chesapeake Bay area is a beautiful natural environment. But there simply is no denying the majestic beauty of the West Coast, and along this coast of the favored geology of the Puget Sound region. Our house sits on a nearly-500-foot hill affording dramatic views of the Cascade Range, of a great swath of Puget Sound, the entire Olympic Range, and of Mt. Rainier and on occasion Mt. Baker. When one can see over a landscape which extends twenty to fifty miles distant, it provides an honestly different kind of feeling than simply gazing out across the street or even across the neighborhood. I guess I knew this from the many mountains I've hiked up in my life but to live in a place where the daily grind includes the sun setting across the Sound and behind the mountains is simply fantastic. The city also has an admirable skyline, enhanced by its fronting on Elliott Bay and amplified by the ferries and other ocean-going traffic which come and go. It also helps that this is such an evergreen place because even in the dead of Winter I'm surrounded by green, which, believe me, beats the browns, greys and dirty whites of Eastern cities.
Weather - a lot of folks complain about the moisture and grey skies of Fall, Winter and sometimes Spring out here. Not me. I love the changing atmosphere. Even at its worst, in the darkest, cloud-covered, moisture-laden days of January, there is something mutable about this place. The weather isn't static. The rain pelts then lightens then mists then pelts again. The streets glisten with lights reflecting off the moist concrete or macadam. And, Summer is outrageous - blue skies, perfect temperatures, breezes off the Sound, white puffy clouds. By the way, that weather can occur at any season and the big secret out here seems to be that Winter isn't always dark and drizzly. I've actually got that part figured out - the way the low's come in off the Pacific, it's usually three days of some form of moisture followed by two days of blue sky followed by three days of moisture, ad interim. The fact that we're so far north also enhances both the wonders of Summer and the dreariness of Winter - in Summer the days start at 4:30 am and end past 10:00 pm, conversely in Winter they start at nearly 8:00 am and end before 5:00 pm. The fact of the matter is, though, that the climate of Puget Sound falls into the generally-accepted "comfort" range for most humans about 90 percent of the year. With proper rain-repelling or protecting gear, there's no reason NOT be be outside the entire year. Grass grows here in Winter - how bizarre is that? The spiders, wondrous creatures that they are, define Spring with their emergence and web-making and define, again, Fall, with their last attempts at web-making and insect-capturing. That is no different from the East. Not really weather related, but one thing I do miss about the East are the crickets and the cicadas - neither seems to exist here in the Northwest. One thing I don't miss is poison ivy. There is none out here and I don't seem nearly as sensitive to the sumac and oak varietals which grow here. I became so sensitive to poison ivy that just brushing by it on bike rides would fill my leg with welts.
People - I moved here from a city which, as fantastic as it is and can be, is filled with pretentious individuals - people who actually believe they live in the "most important city in the world" (from a local, DC, Riggs bank ad). They may, in fact, live in the most important city on the planet but they carry that pretension with them nearly everywhere they go. That's not everyone, mind you, just a large sampling of any random encounter with a local from the Washington DC area. Seattle, by contrast, seems to be a city of reticent plebeians. There are, to be sure, all the Microsofties who cashed in their stock and drove up the housing stock here and who persist in driving around in their BMW or Audi two-seaters or their Hummers, but, by and large, the city seems filled with individuals who relish their individualism and who don't mind sharing what's on their mind with you or in providing some form of advice if asked. In DC, it seemed that most random encounters were of the form "what, don't bother me, I'm too busy." Partially this may be the result of the fact that here in Seattle people actually sometimes use machines to make their living and not their minds necessarily. Manhattan, not un-coincidentally, is even worse than DC with respect to people's pretensions. The only blue-collar jobs in the District were the transit operators (subway or bus), the folks who ran the printing machines at the Government Printing Office, and the custodial staff at every facility and the folks who actually built the edifices of the town. Here, there's actually folks who run trains through the harbor, individuals who pour steel into molds in foundries, individuals who piece together machinery or who pilot the tugs which move the ships into and out of the harbor. There are countless white collar types who design and code software, who run banks and insurance companies and who connive to develop portfolios, but, in general, Seattleites seem to act like and behave like we're all of the same species and live together in the same city. And, maybe it's the weather or the views, but nearly everyone out here seems to relish being out-of-doors. In the District, most folks in my neighborhood and throughout the other sections of town seemed to want to be either inside or outside behind their privacy fences. I also like the fact that nearly everyone here has pets - dogs and cats and even chickens and pigs. They walk their pets all the time and nearly everywhere and there are special, large-acreage, parks dedicated to allowing dogs free reign. It really is great fun and somehow enriching and uplifting to see a large number of dogs of different breeds cavorting and romping together.
Produce - I grew up near one of this country's finest farming communities - Amish-farmed Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Those folks know how to grow produce without chemicals, they know how to till the land without a mechanized army of machines, they know how to deliver their goods to both markets and canning and freezing factories. In between living there and moving here, I believe most of my food was a form of composite produce - partly natural and partly the result of chemical induction into the soil and chemical spraying after harvesting and even chemical coatings in the market place. There's a lot of "if's" about the good of that form of produce but most of the country lives on it. What I can say is how much more tasty, how much more crisp, how much more colorful the organic produce is than what I'd become used to. That's not to say that the entire Northwest eats organic produce, but there is so much more of it here than there was available in the big cities of the East. The price difference is not noticeable because I was paying an incredible premium for my food in the District to begin with and the slight increase in organic produce over non-organic out here is still equal to or less than what I was paying previously. Also, in this town, there's fresh apples, pears, plums and blackberries to be picked and eaten straight from the source be it a tree or a vine. That's really hard to beat.
Meat - the same goes for protein out here, the free-range beef and chickens and turkeys and wild Alaska Salmon cannot be matched with the hormone-and-vitamin-and-antibiotic-stuffed animals which are the norm pretty much anywhere these days. Yes, it probably does taste the same if it's a really good chicken or beef cut but the reduction in unnatural components entering my body and that of my family is something to think about. I still cannot believe that people, let alone as many people, eat at places like McDonalds, but so be it - it's their body not mine. I'm not a fanatic about this, it's just that the availability of chemical-free meat out here is nearly universal - heck even Safeway has free-range chicken, turkey and beef. When it's that easy to purchase it makes no sense to not indulge in the healthier choice. I still don't like soy (tofu) and can't imagine not eating meat so I'm pretty pleased that I can indulge my diet with healthier choices. One thing I have noticed, though, is that milk and dairy products in general seem to be about twenty-five percent more expensive than back East. Even on sale, milk is more expensive. However, Breyers is still sold in all the supermarkets and is still all-natural and, to my taste, still the best nationally-distributed ice cream on the continent. I'm thrilled, once again, to live in walking distance to a place which makes their own ice cream - Husky Deli, at Alaska Junction, has ice cream which is really, really tasty and they serve a huge scoop for a cheap price.
Food - this is a general category. People out here eat well, the components of a meal are as indicated above and the recipes and combinations of cuisine which comprise Northwest regional cooking is simply outstanding. That, or course, makes perfect sense since this is an area which is late in coming (100 years old, plus or minus, versus the older areas in the Midwest and back East) and can take advantage of all the previous cuisines, enhanced by the proximity to the Far East and the rich cuisine from dozens and dozens of countries. That, and being a port city in an agricultural state, makes for some really great cooking. The folks out here actually like to cook and eat - it's one of life's pleasures in addition to being one of life's necessities.
Music - so I've become another fan of the Seattle sound - if there is such a thing. There's just so much live music and groups making live music in this city. And, it's easy to get to - there's street fairs, music fairs, practically any event is an excuse for a live band of some flavor and there are a lot of fairs out here. As huge a city and metropolitan area as DC is, there's probably three to four times as many live music opportunities here in Seattle as there are in DC. Music just seems to be part of the background environment here and seemed more like "entertainment" back East. When it's entertainment it isn't as pervasive because it then competes with all other forms of entertainment. Here the music seems to be expected as part of any event. Not that there aren't a huge number of strictly music venues, there are, but in addition to being entertainment it's also background. I definitely like this approach to music. Maybe it's the less-formal nature of Seattle that creates a more welcome attitude toward live gigs or maybe it's the long, dark, Winters which produce more people who want to make music. Not sure, but I do like it. Seattle also has a thriving independent record label industry and encourages new music as a business venture. It's no Hollywood or Nashville and that's really a good thing. There are also an unbelievably large number of independent music stores - some catering to all musical tastes and others focusing on specific genres.
Radio - there was a really great radio station which popped out of nowhere a few years ago in DC - it was called Jammin' 99 and it was a rhythm-and-blues station which harkened back to the hey-day of DC when blues and blues-jazz were performed live in clubs on H and U Streets by some of the absolutely finest musicians of that genre. It played to a town which, when I was growing up, had two black AM radio stations which competed seriously well against the best that the East Coast could offer for R&B, including South Street in Philadelphia and the whole Atlantic Rhythm and Blues and Motown gig. Those stations went the way of AM and turned into talk radio. Jammin' 99 lasted two years and then became yet another notch in the Clear Channel bedpost. By the time I left even the "free form, alternative" station of choice - WHFS - had succumbed to play lists and top-forty "urban contemporary" stuff. Hardly the station I knew when its studios were next to the Psyche Deli music lounge in Bethesda and where Fugazi and other DC bands were first aired. No, DC radio simply sucked. Seattle radio, even the Clear Channel stations, doesn't suck and there are so many other choices including KEXP, which I used to listen to on webcast FM back in DC. There are stations for just about every college, community college and an incredibly large number of high schools and each and every one of them plays music NOT from a playlist. I've actually started listening to radio again. In fact, even back in DC, I was a huge fan of both KEXP and KAOS from Evergreen State University, just down the road in Olympia. I can now actually get KAOS and KEXP on the radio. Clearly, the music choices and the radio choices are related. We made a serious mistake as a country when the FCC allowed such consolidation of station ownership and the country at large is the poorer for that ruling.
City Services - Of course this is unfair because the District of Columbia is a completely dysfunctional urban entity. It's such a treat to live in a city where the people who work for Public Works, or the Mayor's office, or City Council members, or the Transportation Department, or practically anything you can think of actually believe they are there to serve the citizens and who actually do their job in a professional, efficient, and willing manner. I'm still taken aback by the work crews who actually perform real work and are not overseen by two or three supervisors who are doing nothing. It was so common to see as many as a dozen individuals working on pot-hole repair in the District and for that team to take as much as half a day to fill one pot-hole. Lord help anyone who lived on a street which was undergoing reconstruction or repair because it would take as long as a year to get as much as one block finished. Of course the District suffers from forty-thousand city employees many of whom received their jobs as a result of patronage and who, as civil servants, could essentially keep their jobs whether they actually worked or not. Forget about a parks and recreation department or even a vehicle inspection facility which did anything in a timely manner. Like I said, not really a fair comparison but still, Seattle has a superlative city staff resulting in a city which is actually a joy to live in. Oh, this city's staff is about 60 percent of the staff for the District, which has a nearly identical population.
Parks - and the entire concept of recreation. DC had some fabulous parks and is generally considered to be one of the urban areas of this country which relates well to its local environment and climate - which is true. Seattle has an outstanding set of parks, many of which are linked with the same kinds of greenbelts and natural run-off areas which make DC such a wonderful place scenically and environmentally. I really didn't expect this because most modern American cities have one or two token city parks and a few neighborhood city-blocks designated as parks but not an extensive set of greenswards throughout the entire urban fabric. I've yet to get to all the really large urban parks and natural areas this city has to offer and I've only seen a handful of the hundreds of neighborhood parks and playgrounds which are dotted throughout the city's diverse geologic confines. Seattle's nickname is "the Emerald city," and with all the greenery and flowering plants and fruiting trees it is truly fitting - for two different reason: the greenery is definitely solicitous as is the sparkle and depth of an emerald; and it's such a wondrous landscape that it has the visual allure of Oz.
Time Zone - although not exclusive to Seattle, I really like being in Pacific Time. By the time I get up most Easterners are ready for lunch and we're pretty much ignored by them. This is what I meant in my reference to another country. The East, and it's huge if you just look at the Eastern Time zone, moves about its day on its own time and waits, if they have to, for the rest of us to get up and go about our business. On the other hand, we can pretty much ignore the East with respect to any direct impact on our daily lives. Sure, there are plenty of businesses which must be attentive to New York or Washington or some other Eastern city of interest, but by and large the West Coast ticks away on its own time, in its own environment and removed from the drone and "hustle-and-bustle" of the East. This is definitely a good thing. The only bad part of this is I'm always thinking of calling my Mom or some friend or other relative right about the time the sun sets here and for most of the folks I want to call that's past their bedtime back East. Ah, that's what tomorrow is for, though.
Neighborhoods - I've been to quite a few other cities where there are lots of individual neighborhoods which are relatively unique from each other and which have definite and distinctive character differences. I've not been to that many cities, though, where the distinctive neighborhoods relate as well to each other as they do here in Seattle. I like this kind of city, it gives the place a definite tapestry and complexity which goes way beneath the surface and which contributes to the overall sophistication and yet down-home feel of the place. Pittsburgh is like this, Boston is not; New York can be as can Philadelphia and Washington but in the big Eastern cities the neighborhoods seem much more at odds with each other rather than celebrating the differences and thriving as elements of the whole. Surprisingly enough, Houston was more like Seattle in this regard with a great number of the neighborhoods being magnets for folks living in other neighborhoods for pretty much the same reason - each neighborhood had a distinctive and attractive reason to visit or linger and yet one would still return to one's own neighborhood when the day was done and like it. If Chicago weren't so flat I'd like to explore that town from the neighborhood perspective because I've heard a lot of really good things about Chicago's neighborhood elements.
King County Metro - okay I'll admit it, Seattle has perhaps the finest bus system in the country. It's only problem is that the buses must compete with every other vehicle for street access and that makes taking the bus an exercise in frustration a lot of the time - as it does for anyone using a car or driving a truck or delivery vehicle. But, Metro gets you to nearly everywhere in the city (and county, actually) and its buses are pretty much on time, making connections is pretty easy since there are transit centers in all the right places. Plus, it's the only place I've ever lived where the bus system encourages people to take the bus by it's generous and extended transfer system. I can very often take as many as four buses and conduct business in two or three different areas of the city - widely separated at times - and still use only one bus pass because of the three-hour (average) time limit on the transfers. I've sometimes had to insist to a Metro driver that I was really "going home" and didn't need a transfer even if it was an "owl" transfer. Owl transfers, handed out after 10 at night, are good through 6:30 in the morning which means one could use the bus system all night for the price of a single bus ride. No where else have I encountered such a forward-thinking and transit-friendly approach to public transportation.
Downtown - I love downtowns and Seattle has a really good downtown with lots of interesting places to visit and lots of interesting things to do and it's a walkable downtown. I even don't mind the fact that some of the downtown streets are at 10 to 15 percent grades from one avenue to the next. In fact, that's probably part of the charm, each avenue, because it's at a really different grade from the adjacent avenue, can be and is very different in feel and look and what it has on it. Seattle's a lot like New York in that regard, though New York's avenues are different for reasons not having to do with grade and are a lot longer with that much more of interest. And, downtown Seattle is anchored with two destination "attractions," Pike Place Market area to the north and Pioneer Square arts and entertainment district to the south. Frankly, I'd include Belltown and Seattle Center as part of downtown even though, for some reason, folks here don't. Also, downtown oozes up Capitol Hill on Pine, Pike and Madison Streets which makes downtown a great spot to wander all about in a variegated and rich urban landscape.
Waterfront - it's hard to underestimate the power of the sea and how much it lends to an urban area. Seattle's waterfront, though some would claim it's inaccessible because of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, couldn't be more accessible. It's usually one or two or no more than six blocks away from anywhere in the generalized downtown area and it's open to pretty much anyone who wants to either see it or walk to it or throw a rock or penny into it. Water plays such an important role for humans and to be able to access huge expanses of water whenever one feels like it is just wonderful. That goes even more for someone like me whose house is within a few minutes of a beach. And, because there's water on both sides of the city, pretty much anyone in town can get to either a fresh-water area (Lake Washington, Lake Union, Green Lake, Salmon Bay, Portage Bay, the Ship Canal) or a salt-water area (Puget Sound) within a few minutes of their home. There's nothing so relaxing as a walk along a shoreline with the sun or moon glinting off the water and the birds flying overhead or floating. On the Sound side there's also the advantage of the lapping noise of the waves on the shoreline, outside of the downtown waterfront, that is, because downtown there is the seawall which is a bulkhead, but that has it's own advantages because you can look at the barnacles and other mollusks which attach themselves to the pilings and there are numerous attractions sited on piers sticking out into the harbor area.
Seattle Center - in DC the focal point of pretty much everything was the Mall and it was and is wonderful. In Seattle the same focus is at the Seattle Center. It's different. The Mall is expansive and open and bounded on all sides by national icons and Smithsonian museums and has these lovely elms which line the two periphery streets and block-after-block of grass in between (when it's not cordoned off because it's been beaten down by the endless festivals and events which are always being staged there). The Seattle Center is much more confined and is set up in such a way that one doesn't wander aimlessly in one direction or the other as is the case with the Mall. No, the Seattle Center is a place where one meanders from hidden space to hidden space with a few places where the landscape opens wider but then closes back again. It's more a place of discovery and wasting time than a place of endless openness. They both work remarkably well for containing huge numbers of people for great and less-great events and for keeping aimless wanderers amused for vast quantities of time. I suppose every city of any worth should really have something like one or the other. The only other equivalent I can think of is the Champ de Mars in Paris and that puts both Seattle and Washington in pretty good company.
Mount Rainier - I do love having my own personal volcano. It's not just part of the scenery, which it certainly is. No, it's magical. Some days it's just there - bold, more huge than you remembered it last and more brilliantly defined than you considered atmospherically possible. Other days it comes and goes along with the clouds and it seems as if it's far farther than it's mere 50 miles distance would suggest. Other days it comes and goes in a dizzying array of forms, first as a definition along one face only and later with only the top three-thousand, glacier-covered, peak visible. In the late afternoon it can be red or pink or salmon or orange or even yellow. There are whole weeks which can pass without seeing it and after a while one begins to think it's just a myth and then it appears again, reminding us all of its presence. Yes, it is a dangerous thing and that's probably part of the allure. Many people die each year climbing its glacier-covered sides and yet they still come to climb. And, it's not the only volcano which is visible from here either - Mt. Baker, to the north, sometimes pops right out of the background atmosphere to remind us that we're basically surrounded by these magma monsters and that puts a little zing into the ordinary day. That's not to detract from the continuous pleasure of the Olympics to the west or the Cascades to the east. Those mountain ranges define the horizon and, like Rainier, come and go in their own mystical manner. One real treat late last Fall was to see the Olympics granite brown-and-grey and green one day and the next morning see them all white about halfway up their mile-high selves.
West Seattle - of course I like my own neighborhood, but the longer I live here the more I really like this place beyond what I last thought about. I like how easy it is to get downtown, or to the airport, or to Southcenter, or to Beacon Hill or Rainier Valley, or the harbor, or even Seattle Center. I like the fact that nearly everyone else in Seattle thinks West Seattle is isolated and hard to get to. In a way that makes this a real oddity of a neighborhood because there's just a ton of folks who live in West Seattle - over 70,000 of us - making this neighborhood twelve percent of the city's population and yet it seems as if very few of the other neighborhood residents trek over here - except perhaps in Summer when Alki Beach seems to draw them like bees to pollen. I also like the fact that I've discovered all sorts of "secret" ways to this or that other place. In DC, anyone who knew how to navigate Rock Creek Parkway or how to use Chain Bridge was considered to be a real insider because those are two of the most confusing and daunting roadway systems in the city and yet once one learns how to navigate them they are two of the most useful routes to nearly anywhere in town. I feel as if I've come close to having that same level of knowledge with respect to West Seattle and the rest of the city. And, my secret ways usually have no traffic, which here, like in DC, is practically unheard of. There's this local rumor that West Seattle actually gets more sunshine than other parts of the city. This may be true because the peninsula which West Seattle occupies is nearly surrounded by water, including large open expanses of Puget Sound. Water and weather interact in delightful ways and it is rare that we don't get late afternoon sun here even in the dark dreary days of Winter. Anyway, it may be a myth but it's a delightful myth and gives my neighborhood one more element of charm.
Utilities - who would have thought that my utility bills would be so much cheaper here than in DC that this would be a positive feature. My electric bill from Seattle-owned City Light is one-third to one-quarter of what I was paying Potomac Electric Power Company, a public-regulated monopoly business in the District and Maryland. It's true, the same kilowatt hour usage cost me from 300 to 400 percent more in DC. I was, unfortunately, used to monthly electric bills in the $260 to $350 range and my bimonthly bill here is from $80 to $160. My natural gas is even cheaper with my average monthly bill back in DC being nearly the same as my electric bill and my bimonthly bill here being from $50 to $90. Of course my water bill in the District was about one-half what I'm paying here for the same water, sewar and trash. The combination of utility bills, though, is less than half of what I was used to and expected to pay in the District. I'm not sure I realized how much of a premium I was paying to live in a large Eastern city. My phone and cable+internet bills here are roughly equivalent to what I was paying in DC, except that I now have unlimited long distance and digital cable (versus analog cable) and super-high-speed internet (3 mbps versus 768 kbps), so again I have gained in the transition.
I could probably go on for a dozen other items, but I think these make the point. This is a pretty spiffy city. It's definitely got pretty much one each of anything you might want in a city and a whole bunch more than one each of a lot of things which matter to me. It's dense enough and complex enough that I feel like I'm definitely living in one of North America's urban cities. It's coastal which means, like DC, there's a rich symphony of language tongues being spoken in public. There are lots of languages on most of the public facility signs and a truly multicultural flavor to the city at large. And, unlike much of the East or Midwest, one can truly escape the urban fabric in just a few minutes in nearly any cardinal direction.
What don't I like about Seattle:
Rapid Transit - unbelievable as it seems, Seattle is the ONLY West Coast city to NOT have real rapid transit. This will change, hopefully, but I simply don't understand what has gone on (or more truthfully, what has NOT gone on) in this city such that it's now facing perpetual highway and street gridlock. In this one area I would classify Seattle as one of the most backward, retro-thinking, Luddite places I've ever been. Like I said, this will change with any luck and by 2007 this town could have at least two first-class rapid public transportation systems. But, 2007 is about 20 years past when that should have happened. Perhaps everyone out here was still living under the delusion that this was a small town and that no one would move here or that the city wouldn't develop into the density it has. Washington, DC, has a population density of just over 8,300 per square mile. Seattle has a population density of just over 6,200 per square mile. This is NOT a rural area. If Washington, DC, has enough density to support a 100-mile subway system consisting of five separate lines, where were the heads of the Seattle leaders? Buried in the muck underneath Green Lake or perhaps hidden beneath one of the pilings along the waterfront? There is plenty of density in the city limits alone to support effective, rapid mass transit and yet once again the voters of Seattle are going to be asked to pass judgment on the Green Line monorail while they are being delivered a light rail system which fails at both ends to make appropriate stops - which is to say the light rail won't go anywhere near where it was supposed to go when it was forcibly thrust upon the city by the three-county transit district known as Sound Transit. But I'll stop here because this is just one point of contention between me and the residents of Seattle who preceded me here or who were born here. I have a completely different view of rapid mass transit and I'm hoping that the gridlock which everyone is experiencing here has convinced enough of the residents to make the right decisions.
Things I miss about DC
There's really only one thing I miss and that's my friends and family. Granted, my family was never "in" DC, it's just that I could drive to Baltimore to see my brother (the other lives in Tucson) and I could drive, albeit a long drive, to see my Mom in Charlotte. I did drop in on and visit with my friends in DC a lot, some lived relatively close - say a 20 minute car ride or an hour bike ride - and some lived a bit further out - say 40 minutes by car. I can and do email and call on the phone but it's just not the same as being in someone's house or meeting downtown for lunch or a visit to the latest Smithsonian exhibit or a quick break at the Botanical Gardens. Still, I've only been here a year and these are friends I'd developed living in DC for over two decades and I shouldn't expect to find new friends that quickly nor should I expect NOT to miss my existing friends. Just one of the hazards of moving.
All in all, it's been a pretty exciting year and I'm obviously still settling in and getting to know the place and new people. For those who remember my goals of becoming a multimedia artist in this transition, fear not I'm on the way. My abilities with music, digital audio, digital imagery and video and putting it all together in some form of either art or informative presentation are well along the way. I've gotten pretty good at some things, feel natural with a lot of what I do and have some clues as to where I might want to go with all this.
It was a good move for me and it was the right time to explore new frontiers and change perspectives. Plus, my health continues to be superb and I'm truly beginning to feel at home here. I love the house and the additions we've done are simply stunning. It's really fantastic to be living in and enjoying a home we've designed ourselves (well, with the help of a truly talented architect - Lisa McNelis, and a talented and dedicated builder - Todd Schulte, and his crew and subcontractors).
Chas
Posted: Fri - October 1, 2004 at 10:11 AM
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Published On: Jul 04, 2005 05:41 PM
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Published On: Jul 04, 2005 05:41 PM