"It's Curtains!"

Blow the dust off the clock. Your watches are behind the times. Throw open the heavy curtains which are so dear to you -- you do not even suspect that the day has already dawned outside.
-- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Tuesday, May 13, 1997.

A sequel to my contractor bay rant of last Friday. Today a workman came and installed "sound-blocking" curtains at both ends of the long narrow room where I work. They are heavy, with weights in the hem, and made of crimson velvet. I think they were expensive to make! They block about thirty percent of the sounds from the hall, and are closed by default. We now see not a speck of natural light. Previously, even though we don't have a window, some daylight crept in around the corners. The room now bears a resemblance to a submarine, perhaps from "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea." Ah, well...

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Tonight was the season finale of "Caroline in the City." I am very fond of Malcolm Gets as an actor, and his character actually seems like someone I could know. It was aggravating that they ended in a cliff-hanger again, but I probably should have expected it. When they first started this Caroline and Richard thing, I was dubious, but what the hey.

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Such a beautiful day! I walked to the grocery store to get a few things for dinner. The block I live on, in Seattle's Capitol Hill, is not a commercial block, but there are two grocery stores two blocks away, and another a few blocks farther. My street is one of the north-south streets that follows the axis of the hill, so I can walk all around the neighborhood without having to climb any hills. This makes it far more convenient to walk around the neighborhood.

I have lived in Capitol Hill ever since I moved to Seattle. My first place was at the northern, tonier, richer end, in a "luxury apartment" that I shared with my parents. I think the only thing really luxurious about it was the fireplace, which we never used. We didn't even have a balcony, although we did have a view of the Cascades, the mountains to the east of Seattle. Our building was right opposite Volunteer Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead who designed Central Park in New York. I used to take my mom there in her wheelchair when the weather was tolerable. This was mainly to give us both a break from my dad and the TV, but the park is beautiful, and at that time the Seattle Art Museum was located there.

The building caused quite a local scandal when it was first built, because the developer demolished several fine old Victorian houses to build it, which he had allowed to run to seed. It really doesn't go with the rest of the neighborhood. But it was available when we needed to find a place quickly, and it had a garage and an elevator, so it was what we needed.

Now I live at the other end of Capitol Hill, in an old co-op apartment building. No parking, No elevator. The co-op nature of the building means that we, the owners, need to take care of things; there is no management company to call. But I like my building, and I like my apartment.

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