It’s a long shot that anyone reading this would have a similar problem, but if the buttons on the handset of your cordless phone stop working, there’s a fix. I’m not sure what’s more amazing—that I fixed my phone (which implies almost anyone can perform the repair) or how easy it was to find a solution using the Internet.
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Keypad Button Fix
Did You Hear Any Salmon Today?
Chico Creek at the Taylor Road Bridge
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Another Neighborhood Flower Shop
Remodeling at 1107 Marine Drive
Last Saturday I found out what the plans are for the building at 1107 Marine Drive (see photo). When the new owners began fixing it up last month, my neighbor and I made some guesses but we weren’t even close. Sporting a fresh coat of green paint, a remodeled interior, and a new garage door, the building looks great. But no amount of remodeling will fix the site’s biggest problems: access and parking. Thus I was surprised to learn that Flowers To Go will be opening a shop there. The very name implies a business that depends on in-and-out traffic. Their decision is even more surprising because Paul’s Flowers recently moved into the strip mall at 3850 Kitsap Way next to Subway, just a stone’s throw away.
The new home for Flowers To Go is only a half block north of Kitsap Way, one of Bremerton’s busiest roads. Because traffic backs up often on Marine Drive while drivers wait for a green light, it can be difficult to exit the building’s small parking lot especially if you want to go north on Marine Drive. Lack of access hurt the other businesses that tried their luck in the building, most recently a cleaners. The other Flowers To Go shops in Kitsap County have drive-through windows, a feature impossible to put in at the Marine Drive location. Still Flowers To Go will be a welcome addition to the neighborhood. I hope they are successful.
Posted in Business Beat
Game Birds
Staging pen for pheasants
In the rural Belfair Valley near the Union River, almost at the base of Gold Mountain, a man keeps pheasants in a pen that is easily seen from Wilkinson Road. Until yesterday, I thought he raised them there. That’s when I rode by on my bike to see this year’s flock, something I do every fall, along with checking out the salmon runs in local creeks.
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A Sign from the Past
Highfield & Myers sign
This morning when I picked up K’s mom to take her to work I saw an abandoned real estate sign in a vacant wooded lot across the road from her house (see photo). I have been to her house hundreds of times and never noticed it before. Yet there it was. Real estate signs are apparently indestructible as she said it’s been there about 25 years. The sign brought back some memories because Blaine Highfield was one of the first people I met when I moved here in 1975.
Just before the Trident submarine base was built at Bangor, Data-Design Laboratories, the company I worked for, decided to open an office in Silverdale. I volunteered to help staff the new office and relocated here from Norfolk, Virgina, arriving in October. During the Trident boom the office grew to more than 100 people. But when there were just a few of us, thousands of miles from our East Coast homes and unsure of what to make of rainy western Washington, it was Blaine and his wife Doris who extended a warm Kitsap County welcome. He found office space for us, first in a trailer across from the old Poplars Motel and later above Mitchell Lumber. In 1977 his real estate firm, Highfield & Myers, built what was then the largest office building in Silverdale on busy Bucklin Hill Road. We were the first tenants. I should call Blaine and ask him if he wants the sign as a keepsake.
Posted in Friends & Family
One Less Charley’s
Perhaps you have eaten at Charley’s Grilled Subs. According to their web site, they have more than 400 stores, many located in or near malls, and are the #1 Philly CheeseSteak chain in the United States. To me Charley’s was a lunchtime indulgence I looked forward to whenever I visited the Kitsap Mall in Silverdale. But as I learned today, even a great menu might not make you recession proof.
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Posted in Business Beat, Economy
Mud Bay Walk
South End at High Tide
This morning I did something I haven’t done since I first moved to Rocky Point Road in the late 1970’s. After putting on my oldest shoes and waiting for low tide, I slogged my way along the shore to Mud Bay’s south end to see the wetlands there. The photo above shows the wetlands at high tide as seen looking north from Kelly Road. A split-rail fence, punctuated every 50 feet or so with a sign saying “Wetland Buffer Boundary,” marks their southern end. The fence parallels an access road added in 2007 when several houses were built adjacent to the wetlands.
I wanted to see the wetlands from the Mud Bay side and, short of trespassing through someone’s yard, the only way to get there was by hiking from my house (about half a mile). There’s no trail to speak of. To avoid sinking into the ankle-deep mud I stayed close to the shore, although low-growing Madrona and Douglas fir branches provided frequent obstacles. I followed what appeared to be a raccoon highway; their prints were everywhere. The Mud Bay basin flattens out at the south end, terminating in several acres of wetlands covered mainly by a mixture of pickleweed and a type of marsh grass. To my untrained eye the area seems undamaged from the new houses close by. After watching a great heron work the mudflats in search of breakfast, I hiked back and hosed off.
Posted in Mud Bay & Rocky Point
This Should Get People’s Attention
Please Conserve Water
Today Long Painting (Kent, Washington) began sandblasting the inside of the 150,000-gallon water tank at Treasure Island in preparation for repainting it with a Bar-Rust 233H coating. To reduce wear on the three well pumps, the water distribution team has been telling islanders they can help by using less water during the three weeks the tank will be offline. The vinyl banner I attached to the tank ladder this morning (see photo) is intended as a daily reminder. Certainly people will see it. As you drive up the hill from the bridge your eye is drawn to the dark green water tank—perhaps because it is the tallest structure on Treasure Island at 65 feet in height.
I have never put up a sign or banner in an attempt to get the public’s attention. Nor have I ever tagged a building or railroad crossing (well, not as an adult). Originally I thought we needed a conservation banner to use during hot late summer droughts. But in the last few years summer water usage has gone down, partly due to weather and partly due to fewer visits to the island by family members and guests. So I didn’t get approval for the banner until a couple of weeks ago when we were planning the tank job. I had it made at Signtown, taking advantage of their fall special. The price was reasonable. I just hope the banner gets its message across.
Issues in the Rocky Point Water District
The first question on the survey handed out at the town hall meeting held September 16 at Crown Hill School asked if I even knew there was a Rocky Point Water District (before that night). I did, but just about everything else said at the meeting, including the issues we are facing, was news to me. So I’m glad I attended and applaud the three elected commissioners (Gil Knutzen, Bhaskar Deodhar, and David Rhine) for holding it. My estimate is that around 10 percent of the RPWD customers attended. One mistake on my part: I should have eaten dinner before the 6:30 PM start.
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Posted in Mud Bay & Rocky Point
A Page-Count Winner
Whatever else it is the San Diego Weekly Reader is a winner when it comes to page count. I learned this yesterday while perusing its latest issue during my return flight from San Diego to Seattle following a family visit in Del Mar. In a short section titled “Thought you’d like to know” the Reader listed the average number of pages per issue in 20 alternative newsweeklies for the period February 9 to March 13, 2009. The Reader led the pack at 148, with the Austin Chronicle (136) and the Los Angeles Weekly (122) finishing second and third. If you’ve got it, flaunt it.
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Posted in Uncategorized
Mud Bay Blog 