Unbreakable

The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.
-- Joyce Carol Oates

Wednesday, September 19, 2001
Three years ago: Bungee Jump
Four years ago: Of Shoes and Ships

Rather than spend another day at home, I took the bus to my Capitol Hill place. In West Seattle we are near the Junction, which is where a number of bus routes come together. But I must have missed one by just a minute, since I did have a wait of around fifteen minutes.

I actually like riding the bus sometimes; it gives me a chance to look around much more than if I'm driving. When I got off downtown, I ran into Dan Ross, one of our landlords. He'd been on the same bus as me, but I hadn't noticed him. No time to chat, though -- the number 10 bus to Capitol Hill was right there and I had to hop on!

In my old building, they are going full speed ahead on repairing and rebuilding the apartment across the hall, which was damaged extensively in the fire some months ago. This is after a few months when nothing much happened. They've cleared away everything down to the studs, then sprayed them with "kilz" type lacquer-sealer. I guess this will get rid of the smoke smell; the studs were blackened in the fire, but not overly damaged I suppose. Electrical wiring has been repaired, and now they are redoing every square inch of drywall. I'm impressed! But it is a bit noisy.

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I took the bus downtown after doing journal stuff and online stuff (I see my server has newspro installed on it -- anyone have experience with this newspage or weblog tool?). Since the bus stop where I'd transfer is right by the Pike Place Market, it seemed like a good time to swing down there. And I was right!

There was actually room to walk, so tourist traffic must be down. We are past the peak time anyway, past labor day, and it's midafternoon on a weekday. I bought late-season cherries, and picked up a flyer for winter subscription shares at Whistling Train Farm.

This was my day to see folks I know, I guess. A former co-worker from Microsoft days, Elle Tracy, stopped me in the market and said hi. We exchanged news for a few minutes; she's laid off also!

Today I did succeed in buying some coasters, at Sur La Table. I usually avoid this place because all the great cooking gear, linens, tableware and such makes me drool. It took a while just to find the coasters (they were with the barware); no, of course I didn't ask, being such a shy thing. I bought a bunch that were woven of seagrass, and some made of slate. Veddy tasteful!

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When Jack got home he said he felt very tired, but wisely decided to go for a walk. "I need to get a lottery ticket," he exclaimed. We decided to walk to the thriftway south of us, more than twice as far as the Safeway near our place. "Just for a change!" Jack's daughter H--- was torn; she didn't want to go for a walk, really, but didn't want to stay home alone!

So we walked south. I like to examine the houses and gardens in our neighborhood -- what grows well, the different building styles. H--- chattered about school stuff. She does share a lot about what's going on, though it can take some prompting to get her going. I was surprised that her health teacher asked her and a few others, who are quiet in class, to tattle on anyone who is causing a disturbance. H--- said she didn't feel like taking on this role, wisely. Let the teacher discipline her students!

We were very disciplined and only bought the lotto and quinto tickets, no food or snacks, even though we hadn't had dinner yet. These walks are a good idea; we could all use the activity. And Jack felt more energized after the exercise.

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I boiled some fingerling potatoes, and sauted chicken breasts and veggies for dinner. But! I didn't nuke/thaw the chicken breasts quite enough, so Jack had to take the meat back and nuke it some more to avoid any tinge of pink in the middle. I wasn't offended.

I'd been pressuring Jack to get the CDs into our new coffee table, so we put Unbreakable on the DVD player and worked on that. Jack handed me CDs that were intended for stacks closer to me, and I reminded him that he might want to alphabetize the Grateful Dead under "G," not "D." I think this storage solution will work out well. I'm not sure what to do about my CDs, though. I'd go back and buy another coffee table, just the same, but I don't think it would fit in the living room.

I'm still not impressed by Unbreakable, on this second viewing. I am curious about what M. Night Shyamalan will come up with next, though.