Finding Money

Posted on April 4, 2011 | 2 comments

A lot of wishes


I’m not especially sharp eyed, but I do seem to find a lot of change (see photo). The other side of the coin (pun intended) is that people lose or drop a lot of change and cannot be bothered to look for it. Most of the time I’m probably not the first person to spot these abandoned coins. To many Americans our money is of such little value that it’s not worth picking up.
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Posted in Economy

A Moment of Silence for Dave

Posted on April 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

The Seattle Mariners, the media, and the public have honored long-time baseball announcer Dave Niehaus in a variety of ways since he passed away from a heart attack last November. But a special tribute observed in the radio booth during last night’s season opener against the A’s in Oakland was the shortest and perhaps the most fitting.
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Posted in Sports

Long and Shiny and Black

Posted on March 23, 2011 | 1 comment

A sure sign of spring


I have posted two previous entries about a black 1958 Pontiac seen occasionally around Bremerton. The first, almost two years ago, observed that spring is the time to start thinking again about collector cars. Last September a second post confirmed that the car and its owner live on Rocky Point. But until now, you had to take my word that the two-door Bonneville is flat-out gorgeous. The photo shown above was taken this afternoon at the QFC just before I went inside. By the time I finished shopping, the car was gone.

There’s one more picture after the jump.
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Posted in Cars

Rocky Point Pond—Take Two

Posted on March 14, 2011 | 2 comments

Larger than last time


In a January 2010 entry about Rocky Point Pond, I said it was as large as I had ever seen it. After a rainy first fortnight in March, the pond (see photo) now appears to be about 50 percent larger and several inches deeper than the old record. Given normal average monthly precipitation for Bremerton in the winter, it’s crazy to think the pond would be bigger in March than January, but it is. That’s what 7 inches of rain (the official measurement so far this month) will do.

Of course it’s not really a pond, just a low spot that fills with water after several days of heavy rain. In so doing, it makes a handy neighborhood rain gauge. How big and deep will it get? The forecast calls for rain for the next few days, and the ground is so soggy the pond is draining very slowly during our rare rain breaks. So it should continue to grow, although I doubt if the driveway on the right is in jeopardy.

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Posted in Mud Bay & Rocky Point

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Retiring an Old Friend

Posted on March 10, 2011 | 1 comment

It used to be dark green.


After 9 years and an estimated 1800 bike rides my old Microsoft Visual C#.net sweatshirt (see photo) is going into retirement. A friend who still works at the company that makes Windows got me a replacement this week. The new sweatshirt has already provided my outermost protection on two rainy rides. That’s a good start on the process of achieving the proper weathered look biking apparel should exhibit.

Although today is trash day, I’m not going to toss out the old one. Too many memories for that. The old sweatshirt is exactly what the Beach Boys had in mind when they put this couplet in the lyrics to “Little Honda”:

Put on a ragged sweatshirt
I’ll take you anywhere you want me to

So I’m going to keep it and perhaps bring it out of retirement from time to time.

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Posted in Biking

A Gas Story

Posted on March 3, 2011 | 1 comment

We've seen this before


My local Shell station (see photo) has hiked the price for regular gas by 9 cents a gallon in the last two days. This latest round of price increases reminds me of a long-ago trip when I experienced a severe case of “pump shock.” The story goes back to the 1970’s, a decade of oil embargoes, gas rationing, and steadily increasing fuel prices. The media summed things up then by coining the term “gas crisis.”
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Posted in Business Beat, Economy, Friends & Family

Mud Bay Rainbow

Posted on March 3, 2011 | 2 comments

Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-Blue-Indigo-Violet


Marine Drive and Rocky Point were briefly bridged about noon today by a gorgeous rainbow (see photo). The multicolored arc was encouraging—you don’t see one unless the sun is shining—but short-lived. As I write this the weather is back to showers followed by rain followed by showers. If there is a pot of gold where the rainbow’s west end touched down at the tip of Marine Drive, it looks like an easy dig at low tide. Does anyone have a clam rake?

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Posted in Mud Bay & Rocky Point, Weather

A Community Effort

Posted on March 2, 2011 | 1 comment

A quick response


About 2:20 PM this afternoon high winds toppled a clump of fir trees in the 2500 block of Rocky Point Road blocking the road and knocking out power briefly for the second time today. By chance I was returning home from a bike ride just after the trees went down. With a couple of chainsaws, a big pickup truck, and the efforts of about a dozen of us, the road was open for traffic in about 15 minutes. When I returned later with my camera, the only evidence of the big crash (see photo) was a pile of branches and a man loading some free firewood. As one of the chainsaw operators, he was welcome to it.

Most of western Washington has been under a high wind advisory today with gusts of up to 60 mph forecast for the coast. Tonight the local TV stations will respond with coverage of big waves, downed trees, and other evidence of the storm. There won’t be any footage from Rocky Point though as we were too fast for any newshounds looking for wind damage. Our community effort even beat the fire department. The last few branches were being dragged off the road just as a red ladder truck from the Westgate station showed up. The number of cars backed up in both directions by the short delay surprised me. But the wait could have been a lot longer.

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Posted in Mud Bay & Rocky Point, Weather

A Thousand Icicles

Posted on February 26, 2011 | 2 comments

North Shore ice


The weather has been frigid the last few days with daytime highs in the thirties and lows in the teens at night. A few days ago most of Puget Sound was on an extended snow watch with some areas getting up to six inches of snow. Even so I was surprised to see an icicle tree on my bike ride today (see photo). The winter wonder is on Hood Canal’s North Shore Road about a half mile west of Belfair State Park.

The family who lives there usually decorates the trees along the road at Christmas time with lights and hanging snowflakes (a few are visible under the ice). For this late February display they seem to be going for the spiky frozen look. I don’t know if they sprayed the tree with a hose or perhaps a sprinkler head broke and supplied the water. Either way the icicles are real (brr) but probably not natural. The green layer under the frozen branches is a mixture of rhododendrons and sword ferns, leaves heavily encased in ice.

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Posted in Other Local Places, Weather

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Christian Suspense

Posted on February 21, 2011 | 1 comment

Until I read Deceit by Brandilyn Collins last week, I didn’t know there was such a thing as Christian suspense. But a quick search on the Internet turned up numerous web sites, a blog, and a category on Amazon.com devoted to promoting and selling quality fiction in this specialized literary genre. Christian suspense books appear to be popular.
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Posted in Books & Movies