Runnus Interuptus

Last summer we did a very ambitious overhaul of our garage and living spaces…re-org and clean out, renovation and remodel.  It was hugely successful and we so enjoy the many fruits of our many labors.  But….

The old bod took a beating in the process.  We had an improbable time-frame to deal with, and big big plans…I was so exhausted physically that running took a back seat.  Everything did, actually, at least for a while.

It took a long time to recover from that and some things–a weird ping in my shoulder, that little curve in my back never came back like it was–were just not right thereafter.

Recently I’ve had the insight to return to yoga…I used to be hard core about yoga until running slowly took precedence, finally beating it out entirely as my preferred activity.  Mistake, that.  I was so stiff after that summer project–and it just never seemed to get much better.

Running and yoga sometimes don’t work  so well together.  Sometimes those muscles you’re stretching like so much warm taffy actually work better when they’re a little less flexible, or little more taut. But I felt like the magic of yoga was likely going to be the only thing to get me back in my body, so I began practicing daily. It felt so good, it hurt like hell.  At the same time I’ve cut down my runs to about 25 minutes–good little runs, some hills, interesting paths–but not too strenuous.

When I get back, I do 25 to 50 minutes of yoga to follow on the run.  It’s working–that’s the big news.  I’m actually starting to feel right in my body again, and am going to continue this approach for a month.  I don’t run every day, usually every other day, but I do do yoga everyday.

It’s good.  Sometimes the same old routine just doesn’t cut it, and you need to reboot, as it were.  I’ll be back to my old running routine by Spring, I think,  but in the meantime, yoga is working its magic.

8 Reasons Why These Local Boys Do Good

Mike and Jason of Urban Build Inc.

We are in the final phase of a garage conversion which has gone unbelievably well and quick.  The biggest chore in fact was clearing out, recycling, using, giving away 10 years of stuff from the garage so it could transition to its new self.

We sort of had the insulation and demo lined up and were looking for drywallers when I had a moment of clarity.  It went like this:  couple months back we had a repair which required a full day of my presence at home.  I arranged it, canceling meetings and such, basically a day of work lost but it had to be done.  So here I am, waiting…waiting.  Finally the guy calls and says he’s coming from North Seattle, is stuck in non-moving traffic on 5 and won’t make it that day.  The whole day?  Yeah, whole day.  Too late to pick the shambles of my schedule up and too late to find a new company to work with.

So when I started to get bids for the drywall on this project, I recalled that and revised my craigslist search to <drywall west seattle>.  I found a few names, one with a website I could refer to  , Urban Build Inc–local guys, they live near Alki, so I gave them a call.  They came by that afternoon…and after talking with them, I decided to ask how they would do the whole job, not just the drywall.  Cut to the chase, their bid was fair, clear and made sense, so we gave it a shot.

Here is a list of the many reasons I’ll use Mike and Jason of Urban Build again:

1. Fast: Since they were local, they could drop by to view the site on their way home from the project they were working on and give me a bid by the end of the day. Immediate turn-around.
2. Conscientious:  avoid unnecessary waste, mess, or toxins.
3. Experience: Their professionalism took me by surprise–I don’t know, sometimes I have low expectations of craigslist.  These guys take enormous pride in what they do and how they interact with the client.
4. Communication: clear, easy, consistent. Super-value add: they listen.
5. Can-do: There was virtually nothing I suggested that they said couldn’t be done. That sounds weird but we’ve worked with a few guys who were all “oh no, you can’t do that. you’ll have to tear the house down to do that.” Really. Mike and Jason might add some ideas or explain how we might do it differently but “no” just isn’t part of their vocabulary.
6. Magic: They said what they were going to do and then, magically, they just did it.  In my experience, this is unusual.
7. Work ethic: Did I mention pride of work and ownership?  Again, less common all the time, and the job they did was gorgeous.
8. Design sense: they’ve seen a lot and have good taste–good ideas and suggestions.  For Mike and Jason, it’s the art and mechanics of the job, not just the muscle and know-how.

These guys are keepers and they are right here on The Rock.  They work all over, of course, eastside, north and south, but my preference is to keep things local when I can–especially with the price of gas and traffic issues we’re having just now.   If you need a contractor who can do it all, elec to drywall and plumbing, give these guys a shout.  

Also, just so’s you know I’m not overly partial, here are some rave reviews from West Seattle Blog and Yelp.

construction in process Urban Build

PCC is baggin’ my veggies: why?

PCC’s new veggie bags are buggin’ me

It’s a little thing, but it has now taken on a gigantic irritation quotient in my brain: PCC uses this funky, straight-to-the-landfill plastic netting on many of the vegetables, such as brussel sprouts above, green beans and the like.

Why this bugs me: the netting is completely non-reusable, and face it: my relationship with PCC is a values-based thing.  I don’t go there because they have the best price.  I go there because their values are supposed to be somewhat in line with my own.  And my values are like this: I re-use & recycle to the degree possible.  That means: as much as possible.

These little green mesh bags?  Not so much.  Can’t re-use, can’t recycle…in fact, they’re a total waste, not to mention that if I want a lot (and I do, I eat a LOT of vegetables), I have to buy sometimes two or three of these plastic mesh packages.

So when I asked Kevin, the veg manager at my local PCC why PCC has suddenly started using them, his answer so completely underwhelmed that I just walked away: because  ”it’s easier to stock with the mesh bags, and there’s less mess to clean up.”  No.  Really.

So, I went straight away to Metropolitan Market, it has a pretty wonderful veg and fruit section, and guess what!  Their sprouts and green beans?  Free as birds, no plastic mesh wrap.  And guess what else!  None on the floor.  No mess.  So I bought some of the green beans, and if this pattern continues, I may be heading over to Met Market for all my shopping.  I do like it better in many ways.

I work hard to avoid putting more stuff in the land fill.  I prefer to partner with organizations that are sensitive to the issues as well.  As I said, it’s a small thing…but those small things tend to have outsize power over time.

 

Garden abundance

My pal Jodene came over the other day and visited our extremely, record breaking, bumper crop veggie garden; she suggested I share some snaps…..For my photo-phile friends, apologies in advance, I took these in bright sunshine.   It’s really the first year in a couple of decades that I’ve even put in a serious vegetable garden, so this has been encouraging to say the very least.

We put in a new bed and used stumps from old trees we had to take out of the yard, using them as the container wall for the new bed.  Seems to be working really well:

you can see how the stumps have been lined up vertically to form a barrier wall

Here are some other shots.  We have grapes!  Very exciting, and certainly unexpected.  Tomato crop will be record breaking, and in response to the question on any given night, “what’s for dinner,” the answer would be: beans.  Good thing we love our french and roma beans, with onion and peppers (three kinds). Not pictured: cucumbers (2 kinds), broccoli, artichokes, basil (4 kinds), arugula. Abundance!

Roma beans and French: what's for dinner? You guessed it.

This grape stand, which will require a stronger support next spring, is only three years old

Early crop this year: black plums, russian, french caramello-yum!

Second Thursday in Lovely Downtown West Seattle

Second Thursday is a hood-wide art walk with lots of participants all along California.  Northwest Encaustic Studio, part of the art scene in The Building which will also have many studios open for visiting, is hosting a show of encaustic art by Mark Rudis.  The show and the art walk generally, goes from 6-9, there will be a reception and etc.  See you there

Here’s a sample of Rudis’ work:

Northwest Encaustic Studio 3-Day

After a zillion years of wanting to learn encaustic, I’ve finally jumped in with both feet.  Just finished a really productive and engaging 3 day studio intensive on encaustic miniatures with Larry Calkins and Sean Doll (Sean, get your website going!).  The class was small enough to allow for lots of conversation, observation of Larry and Sean in action, and hands-on work–really an awesome 3 days.

Northwest Encaustic Studio is one of our many gems here in West Seattle, housed in a 60s style apartment building converted to artist studios. It’s a great place to drop in on Second Thursdays to get access to lots of accomplished artists and their work.  Highly recommended.

Here are a few of the pieces I made this weekend.  The boxes are the sculptural part of the encaustic painting, made with Larry’s own finish recipe that adds a complex layer of depth to the piece.  The colors in the small paintings really shine when set in against the rough finish of the box.

This small painting is deep inside the box; I sort of like the depth of it--the secret life of birds

Many bird books refer to a certain type of nest as a "cup" with a tea cup used as the symbol. I've always loved the idea of a bird in a cup.

Encaustic on a 1" piece of glass, sort of a joke. Larry fashioned this large frame for the piece which really makes the color of the mini jump out

Send in the clowns: Parrot Tulips

Parrot Tulips, originally uploaded by seacat.

I’m really into capturing spring this year in our garden. This tulip is a favorite, always makes a late and dramatic entry. It’s almost tough to shoot because they’re a bit on the garish side. Enjoy!

Running in Snow & Bummin’ on Jobs

One of the great things about running outside (vs. in the gym on a treadmill) is that every day is different.  Every single day, there’s something new–a slightly different path, the weather, the angle of the sun, the birds, the other people out running…all different every day.  I love that.

Goldeneye Duck during snow shower

So the past two days I’ve run in Lincoln Park here in West Seattle, even though we’ve got enough snow to make me think we were transported to some Mid-western town with mountains during the night.  Yesterday I ran along the beach which was icy and not relaxing even though it was staggeringly beautiful, then back up into the park proper where I learned that you can gallop full out in dry snow without worrying about slipping–it was a real rush!

Today I stayed up in the park since I knew the beach trail would be way too slippery to be enjoyable.  The snow in the park had a crunchy crust but was fine for running and I found that even in 20 degree weather, you can work up a sweat and feel that happy all-over warm that I associate with x-country skiing.  I’ve never run in the snow before, so this is a big new adventure for me.

On the Jobs front: Steve Jobs, that is.  There’s so much talk lately since it was announced that Jobs wouldn’t be giving the keynote at Macworld in Jan that his perceived poor health was going in the unwelcome direction of Worse. I don’t know about it, I can only imagine it must be hard to grapple with that kind of media attention to personal matters, but as (Fake Steve Jobs) Daniel Lyons discusses in this Newsweek article, Apple is Jobs and Jobs is Apple.  The fanatical fan base is as bound up with the mystique of Steve Jobs as with Apple’s to-die-for product line (count me in here).

I can’t imagine Apple without Steve Jobs, and as a mac user and Jobs admirer, I don’t want to.  Still, as Lyons points out, Jobs is not just a genius of mythical proportions: he’s human after all.

Running after 50: The Hills of Seattle (a cool map)

Winning a Cold-War with myself so I’m laying low, just walking my run routes the last coupla days.  But someone sent me a map of the steepest hills in Seattle, kind of interesting.

View Larger Map

Our Neighborhood Ice Cream Shop and Deli

The Husky Deli in West Seattle is local delight.  In the summer, the line for the ice cream counter stretches out the door; you can see kids twirling around on the old-fashioned soda counter stools–you know the kind, round, twirlable–happily licking the drips from their cones and trying to keep up with the melting concoction.

I stopped by there yesterday to get myself a pint of their original Husky Flake ice cream to take home, and the guy who helped me looked a tad older than the usual summer help they get.  I assumed he was part of the familly who founded the West Seattle landmark that the deli is.

Looking around, I noticed some photos up on the west wall that I hadn’t noticed before–they looked to span about 80 years.  I asked him who all the guys were, and he just beamed: “The one to the right of the clock was my Dad. Next to him is my grandfather who founded the deli. The other side of the clock are my uncles and they didn’t do much.”

Then he said, “My grandfather founded this in 1932.”  I marvelled at the timing of this, considering the whole world was in a depression at that point–tough time to be opening an ice cream shop.  I said as much to they guy as he was packing in a generous amount of Husky Flake into the pint container (happy me!).

He said, “yeah, but you know, they got a grant to make ice cream cones that they delivered to the local schools, so they were busy every single day making those ice cream cones and delivering them.”

I asked if that was part of a PWA grant and he nodded, “yeah, the kids were happy, my grandfather was happy–worked all day and night, but happy.”

Husky Deli is still thriving to this day, more than 70 years later.  It’s a strong part of our entire community, and a local gathering place.  It was born in the midst of a crisis but hung on with government help.

That’s small business and government at its very finest. I cannot think of a better example of a win/win situation.

Here’s my question: Can you imagine our current government having the leadership and vision to fund a massive PWA in this day and age?  No, it’s simply out of the question.  The less taxes/small government people who insist they are for the small business man and woman would jettison the idea before it ever saw light of day.  That’s the party of fear, not progress.  The party of small thoughts, not big dreams.

And we would all be the poorer for that approach, because the time is perfect for a massive mobilization of grit and ingenuity focused on the environment and energy challenges.