No Mail from Fife

Enforcement depends on the direction you are driving.


Every afternoon last week I checked my mailbox for an official-looking letter from Fife. On Sunday I learned that I won’t be getting any mail from the small city that straddles I-5 just east of Tacoma. And that’s a good thing.
Continue reading →

Would You Have Stayed at This Motel?

Was this motel for real?


From what I can find out there really was a Norman Bates Motel in Fife, Washington. The motel, located on Pacific Highway East (Highway 99), was razed several years ago. All that remains is the sign (see photo) and a cement pad, broken up by a carpet of weeds, at the back of the lot where the foundation used to be. The picture, taken yesterday afternoon, seems appropriate to post with about three weeks to go until Halloween. I wonder how creepy the site is at night.

I generally watch one scary movie a year. A couple of years ago my movie-critic friend recommended Psycho as that year’s Halloween night movie. As I watched it, I remembered some of the scenes from seeing the movie as a kid. But I must have been in the lobby or hiding under my seat when Janet Leigh, caught in a storm, checks in to the Bates Motel. After watching the movie as an adult, I can answer the question posed in the post’s title this way: No way. Not even if it was the only motel in western Washington with a “Yes” light on.

Bremerton Construction Projects Updates

Looking south toward the 11th and Warren intersection


The Mud Bay Blog played a role in getting Bremerton to start providing more timely information about construction projects in the city. Well, not actually the blog, but its purveyor. That would be me. But what does it matter who gets the credit as long as Public Works keeps updating the Construction Projects Status and Updates page on the city’s web site?
Continue reading →

Baseball Playoffs: Betting and Pizza

You can’t really win this much.


Betting on the 2012 MLB playoffs and pizza aren’t usually linked unless your wager involves a pizza. Mine doesn’t. In fact I can’t even make a bet via my computer because online gambling is illegal in my state. But notice how it appears to be easy to clean up on a World Series bet if you interpret the sample SuperBook betting card too literally (see graphic). I will explain and also try to resolve the pizza dilemma.
Continue reading →

Haunted Scrapyard

Are all scrapyards haunted or just this one?


I have toured a few haunted houses without wetting my pants, but this is a new one for me—a haunted scrapyard (see photo). For the last few years, Belfair Auto and Truck Wrecking on SR 3 has been scaring the Holy bejesus out of anyone brave enough to visit their automobile graveyard on weekend evenings in October. According to the man I talked to, the gore is unsurpassed. Bringing kids is not recommended. Their web site is called Scrapyard Massacre.

This sounds a lot scarier than Christine, the Stephen King novel and movie about a haunted 1958 Plymouth.

Duckabush II

My oldest brother and his wife have fond memories of a backpacking trip we took along the Duckabush River in 1990. They still talk about it. So when their son visited me earlier this month, it was important for him to see the Duckabush. He had heard too much about the river not to go there.
Continue reading →

Rocky Point Road Reflectors

A five-vehicle, seven-person process


Today a crew from Kitsap County Public Works installed road reflectors in the recently paved section of Rocky Point Road. Although the process is labor intensive (see photo), when the crew is working in sync they can install the reflectors quickly.
Continue reading →

A Cell Phone Story

Ever lose a cell phone? People leave them everywhere, including in rental vehicles. This cell phone story has a happy ending.
Continue reading →

Sports Illustrated Wild-Card Standings

How good are Atlanta’s chances?


MLB’s new expanded wild-card format ushers in complexities in roster decisions, scheduling, and tiebreaker rules. If your team is the current wild-card leader in its league, there’s also the issue of figuring out how far ahead you are in the playoffs race. The wild-card standings on the Sport Illustrated web site (see screen capture above for the National League) don’t always make it simple.
Continue reading →

A Long Game

Win or lose, a dedicated baseball fan always stays at the stadium until the final out is recorded. However, if you live in Bremerton and depend on a ferry ride to get home, it isn’t always easy to be dedicated. During last night’s Mariners game against the Orioles (a 4-2 Baltimore win in 18 innings), I took the easy way out.
Continue reading →