It’s time to lose the Roman numeral designator that’s been part of the Super Bowl’s name and marketing since the game’s early days. Allow me to make a few suggestions on what could replace it.
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Super Bowl 48/ /New York/2014/XP
Cat Trail
The shortest distance between two points
It’s the Mud Bay version of a private on/off ramp to Highway 101. Shown in frosty relief in a photo taken on a cold January morning, the cat trail is a permanently flattened route in the grass that bisects my nearest neighbor’s small waterfront yard. It directly connects my deck with the main Mud Bay shore trail. The Mud Cat uses the cat trail all the time when he visits the Muller’s.
I have never seen another animal use this route. Other than raccoons there aren’t a lot of pets or critters in the area. Dogs are rare and always stay on the beach. I see an occasional cat, but the Mud Cat is so territorial that feline visitors don’t hang around long. Raccoons shuffle across my deck daily hoping for a handout, but when they come up empty they go up the hill or head down to the shore in the other direction. Perhaps the plot of grass is off limits to raccoons.
That leaves the Mud Cat as the trail blazer. Or aliens.
Posted in Mud Bay & Rocky Point, Pi
Expires 01/14
Today’s question isn’t why credit cards expire. It’s how much work the card holder is saddled with when they do run out. In my case, the expiration date on my VISA is 01/14, and updating the autopays in my online life has already started.
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Posted in Business Beat
An Effective Sign?
Honest, I just stopped for a photo op.
The sign (see photo), hand lettered, reads: “This Is Not Your Wood! If I Catch You Cutting or Removing Any I Will Prosecute You!” I spotted it along the Old Belfair Highway during today’s bike ride. Left unexplained is how anyone could cut up the wood and load it without making a lot of noise. The rounds must weigh a couple of hundred pounds each. Perhaps I was late to the party and all of the wood that could easily be rustled is already gone.
After my bike ride I drove back to the sign’s location. While I was taking pictures, I noticed a small SUV pulling into the nearest driveway to the wood. It stayed at the edge of the road, engine running and brake lights on. I wondered if it belonged to the wood’s owner, ready to catch me in the act and hand me over to the Kitsap County prosecutor. If so, he didn’t need to be so vigilant. My fireplace burns gas, not wood. I just like taking pictures of signs.
From Movies to MJ
A great place to sell pot?
Tad Sooter, a business reporter at the Kitsap Sun, recently blogged about the applicants for marijuana retail licenses in Kitsap County. Curious, I perused the list he provided to see if a pot shop will be opening near me. Assuming the licenses are granted and business plans succeed, there will be several, with two businesses indicating that they want to operate out of former video rental stores.
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Santa Has Landed
Cleared for takeoff
With a week to go until Christmas perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Santa is about to take off (see photo). One thing is for sure, this Santa won’t need any help from Prancer, Dancer, and the rest of the reindeer this year. I spotted Santa’s plane on a grassy lighted landing strip along the North Shore Road just west of Belfair State Park during today’s bike ride.
Wheels up, Santa. And stick to your flight plan no matter what the FAA says.
Boat Traffic
Headed out after a quick exploring trip
Perhaps it’s the gorgeous May weather. Or the favorable afternoon tides. Whatever the motivating factors are, I have seen more boat traffic on Mud Bay in the last few days than I can ever remember. Kayaks, standup paddleboards, runabouts, even cabin cruisers. Despite its name, at high tide the water is deep enough in Mud Bay’s main channel for all of them. The photo was taken late yesterday afternoon. Both the tide and the boat are on their way out.
Mud Bay is not a navigable waterway. I figure most people who sail, paddle, or motor in know that and just want to see its upper end. But perhaps some think Mud Bay connects to Oyster Bay, its larger neighbor to the south. It doesn’t. You have to navigate through a narrow passage between Marine Drive and Madrona Pont to get into Oyster Bay. Marine Drive is the next point to the west of Mud Bay.
It’s been fun seeing all of the watercraft. With great weather forecast for the rest of the week, I hope the boat traffic keeps up.
Trellis Envy
Why can’t our trellis look like this?
What is the name of the trellis plant shown in the above photo? Not only is it gorgeous, it’s doing exactly what you would want—covering the trellis with no apparent extra effort by the homeowners. Their home is on Phinney Bay Drive, a main route into Bremerton, so almost every day I’m reminded how much better their trellis looks than ours.
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Found: Timberland Regional Library’s Old Bookmobile
Rusting away in Neilton, Washington
The Timberland Regional Library is a far-flung empire. Serving five rural counties in Western Washington, it has 27 community libraries, two cooperative library centers, and three library kiosks. It also used to have a Bookmobile (see photo). The old workhorse is retired in Neilton (population 315) on Route 101 in rainy Grays Harbor County. I took the picture yesterday on the way home from an overnight stay at Kalaloch Lodge on the Washington coast.
Neilton is about five miles south of Amanda Park, a small town on the Quinault Indian Reservation. Perhaps the Bookmobile feels at home in Neilton because Amanda Park is the location of Timberland Regional Library’s most remote branch. I wonder how many miles the Bookmobile logged and readers it served in the five-county area before being parked for good.
Need a Bank?
There’s more than great landscaping going for this place.
For as long as I can remember, a bank has occupied the triangle lot where Bertha Avenue dead ends into Marine Drive. That could end in about 3 months. This week Kitsap Bank account holders got a letter saying that the West Bremerton branch, located at 1140 Marine Drive, will permanently close on June 28, 2013.
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