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I-District
Monday, January 17, 2000 I left Bellingham early in the morning, bringing Jack's daughter H---- with me. Jack was concerned about imposing on me with this transportation task, but he needed to go to work, and H---- didn't have school today (the Martin Luther King holiday). The only factor that made it complicated was the arrival of the DSL installer at my house, sometime today. Because I didn't know when they were coming, I couldn't let H---'s mom know when I'd be putting her on the bus or train until later. The train station in Olympia isn't far from her place, so it all turned out OK. We got to my house around eight in the morning. I got caught up on computer stuff, while H---- watched TV. At my suggestion, she did some paper cutting. She'd picked up a book over the weekend, an old Dover hobby book about paper crafts. She'd been doing some cutting, folding and snipping projects up at her dad's, using newspaper to practice on, but I told her to make free with all the various sorts of card stock and construction paper. The phone company DSL installer showed up around ten. The procedure went very smoothly! The guy was puzzled at first by a few of my pc's quirks (a tablet instead of a mouse, for one), but he installed the netcard, programmed the "modem" (which is really a router, I think), installed drivers, and zing, there it is -- fast, always on, hot and cold running internet. hurrah!
I decided to go get some lunch with H----, before putting her on the train. We drove to Pioneer Square. We drove around and around the neighborhood, but I couldn't find a place to park! So I changed target, and went to the far end of the International District. That's the neighborhood on the other side of the train station, so it worked out to the same distance for us. I figured it would be interesting, too, since H---- is studying China in a class at school. We parked at the lot under the interstate. It's much more impressive than it sounds -- they've painted the massive pillars red and gold, with carp paintings. It was a bright, sunny day, good for walking. We visited one of the import stores. I've bought a lot of folding paper fans there, and given them away to my dance buddies. H---- ended up with a small tiger figurine (she's born in the year of the tiger), and a pack of red and gold envelopes, used for good luck money at Chinese new year. And she wasn't afflicted with that paralysis of being unable to make up her mind, which is often what happens when she is shopping. I like this area of Seattle. There are lots of interesting shops, lots of good places to eat. It's not just for tourists; it's a living neighborhood. We had a good lunch at House of Dumplings, then walked to the train. We barely made it! but H---- bought her ticket and boarded safely. I headed back home, unable to resist the call of always-on internet.
The new connectivity is great! But so far, I can't figure out how to send mail from my halcyon.com account; I can only download it. I've been using telnet to reply, which is rather inconvenient. StockCharts.com was down for a while this morning, because of power outages from the windstorm yesterday. Chip gave me a call, after getting the site going again, to ask me to help test a chat program that we want to try using. Moderated chats with our commentators is something we want to do. I went to the dance at the Century Ballroom tonight; the drop-in lesson is supposed to be intermediate/advanced, but there were a few folks that I know aren't up to that level. One guy went straight from the intro class right before! But it didn't impede my learning too much. The dance was fun, of course.
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