Easiest Dryer Repair Ever

Note the new white selector knob.

A few weeks ago my GE dryer died overnight. One day it worked; the next day it wouldn’t start. The resulting repair, professionally done, might approach record territory for its speed and simplicity. Although I’m out almost $200, I’m happy with the result.

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Wild Horse Closure

Wild Horse Visitor Center with wind turbines in the background

This isn’t a secret. The PSE Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility and Renewable Energy Center (see photo), located near Ellensburg, Washington, has been closed for at least month and perhaps longer. Recently, though, the message on their web page became more specific and made me realize that the visit I had been planning is a no-go—for 2025 anyway.

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Westside Pizza Lottery

Good logo, better pizza

I don’t mind promoting Westside Pizza in Belfair. Like the other Westside franchises, they make great pizza, and I’m a frequent customer. This week Westside held a pizza lottery. The prize: a free one-topping medium pizza. Let’s look at the odds of winning.

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ACL Separation

There’s no photo accompanying this post. No one was around to snap one when I fell off my bike yesterday in my own driveway at Treasure Island and landed hard on my right shoulder. The result: several ugly abrasions and a separated ACL. The latter means the ligaments that connect the top of the shoulder blade (acromion) and the clavicle (collarbone) are injured. Fortunately, no surgery is needed. But it still hurts like Hell.

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Almost an ADU

Technically, a DADU not an ADU
Accessory to what?

I like ADUs (accessory dwelling units). I like reading about them, touring them, thinking (OK, dreaming) about having one built. Especially entertaining are accounts of the wars that pit neighbor against neighbor when local governments relax ADU building codes to the point of absurdity in the interest of promoting density and creating additional affordable housing. Seattle and San Diego, are you listening?

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Bremerton’s Highest Point

Sylvan and Olympus

A high point that’s easy to find

This post is about elevation not cannabis stores.

The highest point in Bremerton is not actually in Bremerton—at least not in a part of the city where there are homes and parks and stores. In fact, it’s in an area that’s off limits to the general public. The photo shows the highest point you can go to. But that point is a lot lower than Bremerton’s highest point.
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Night Baseball

The first MLB game played under the lights took place on May 24, 1935, in Cincinnati. This week, 84 years later, a two-game series between the Mariners and Athletics takes night baseball to the extreme—at least for Seattle and Oakland fans on the West Coast who want to watch or listen live as their teams kick off the 2019 season. The games are in Tokyo.
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Mud Bay in Business Names

MudBay Dispenser

In case you didn’t bring a pet waste mitt

The names of at least two Olympia-area businesses are inspired by the Mud Bay that’s located west of the city at the head of Eld Inlet. One, MudBay [pet products], helps advertise its products by providing a dispenser of free pet waste mitts at the Old Ferry Landing park in Gig Harbor (see photo taken last summer). There may be other similar dispensers in the Puget Sound area, but this is the only one I have noticed.
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Neighborhood Book Exchanges

Marine Drive Book Box

Converted from an old newspaper vending box

Does your neighborhood have a book exchange box (see photo), often called a Little Free Library? If you walk or bike much on the streets near your home, you most likely know the answer to this question. Rocky Point, my neighborhood, has one. Marine Drive, a smaller neighborhood just to the west of us, has three. Perhaps Marine Drive has more readers and more community spirit.
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A Housing Project to Watch

Rocky Point Building Site

It looks like two lots are being combined.

Because I bike the length of Rocky Point Road almost every morning, I should spot any changes to its established homes and few remaining wooded lots right away. Not always so. On today’s ride I noticed a new housing start at the corner of Rocky Point Road and Water’s Edge Lane (see photo). Either delivery of the first load of building materials and site clearing have happened since Friday, or I’m not as observant as I thought.
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