West Seattle Walk

I have never known anyone worth a damn who wasn't irascible.
-- Ezra Pound

Saturday, September 15, 2001
One year ago: Practicing
Two years ago: Broken Glass
Four years ago: O Comfort-Killing Night

I spent the early part of this day over at my Capitol Hill place, doing journal catch-up. Now that we have DSL over at the new place, I need to move my computer over to West Seattle so Jack can rebuild it ("we have the technology!") or transfer the content over to the machine that was my parting gift from Stockcharts.com.

I also gathered stuff that I've been wanting in West Seattle: my food processor (very old, a gift from my godparents in the early eighties when they upgraded -- I think it was the original model of Cuisinart!), my crock pot that has a removable crock (all other types are a big pain to clean), and James Beard's American Cookery. I'm going to try using some of the pears Jack's folks gave us to make pear chutney.

I tried to get the new phone, bought yesterday, up and running. But it's cordless, so the battery needed 17 hours to charge. I did manage to get it plugged in, but when I tried to reinstate the old phone, it wouldn't turn on! I don't know if the power adapter just wouldn't respond, or what the problem was.

I'd been wanting to go to a bakery thrift store, now that we have a freezer that can hold bulk buys of bread and baked goods for us. So I looked up the locations for Gai's bakery thrift outlets online, since I'd been startled to find the wonder bread thrift store closed, permanently, on my way over to Capitol Hill. I spent about five dollars and got a bunch of good stuff!

I also stopped at Office Max on the way home. I was looking for supplies to set up some household files, as part of my ongoing organization efforts (see Julie Morgenstern's Organizing From the Inside Out, home information center section). Of course, I had to wander up and down almost every aisle in the store before settling on cardboard file holders that I hope will fit in the lower section of the dining room buffet. I knew we already had suitable file folders so no need to buy them.

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I laughed when I unpacked my car in the alley; the odor of garlic reached that far! I'd tried a Laura Brody recipe for carmelized garlic, but I think Jack's brand-x crockpot was a bit too warm when set on high, or else I'd left it too long. The garlic was beyond carmelized, and had moved on to "carbonized," for the most part. I was able to use a few pieces, not so burnt, on a piece of thrift-store focaccia, along with salami and parmesan cheese. This made a nice light supper for us later. Luckily the garlic and oil weren't very expensive.

After I unpacked the car, Jack suggested we go for a walk. Sounded good to me! He's been on a few expeditions, exploring the neighborhood, but hadn't made his way down to the water yet. We wandered through the streets, zigzagging downhill. Jack talked to me about business plans -- what products are possibilities, sources for hardware. After passing by a large property for sale, we were on Beach Drive -- the waterfront!

I really enjoyed the views! The weather was perfect, a gorgeous late afternoon. We'd really come further than we intended, though, and Jack's knee was starting to bother him. How to get home? I suggested we push on, since I knew there was a bus that comes down Admiral Way. The public spaces along the waterfront are worth visiting; sculptures and informative plaques abound.

We didn't have to wait long for a bus up the hill; we stopped for a snack at the Admiral Junction Jack in the Box, then took another bus to "our" Junction.

I really enjoyed the walk, but felt guilty for pushing Jack to go too far. But he and I were both tempted by the views, and before we knew it, we'd have had to do some serious climbing to get back up again! But I like this sort of expedition. I used to do it quite regularly: listen to my walkman radio and walk for an hour and a half (until All Things Considered was over), then take a bus back to my home.

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Jack's been working on a server he bought last year. He's getting it configured for use in our business, installing software, and so on.

So this evening, I asked if he could connect his laptop to the TV so I could watch a DVD, when he came to a good time to take a short break. He said he'd do it right away, and watch the movie with me. He'd previously said it would take only about five minutes to set the laptop up this way, so no big deal, right? Oops -- the cable he thought was in the laptop bag wasn't there. Oh well, he'd hook some speakers to the laptop itself and we'd just watch it there. Darn, the right connectors for that purpose weren't easily findable, either. Jack was very frustrated, and I regretted even starting this. He was aggravated that he couldn't find what he needed, I guess. But we haven't yet completed the job of unpacking and organizing the office stuff, so I hope things will be better in the future.

Finally, while looking for the speaker cables, he found the video cable! So all was well, and we watched the Matrix. It was interesting seeing the Windows 98 desktop on the TV! But I didn't get the chance to play with all the DVD extras, which was what I'd actually had in mind if Jack had kept working. By the time the movie was done, we went right to sleep.