Life In The Pacific Northwest
Walking past the stalls
Early morning at Pike Place
Tourists were absent
I lived in downtown Seattle for many years, though it’s been awhile. Many memories of walking through the Market on my way to work, grabbing coffee and a pastry for breakfast. Many fond feeling flooding through me.Â
​Reading about United’s PR debacle, and their CEO’s ratcheting up the tone deaf response, gets wearying after a bit.The tweet storm right now is simply horrendous. I’m glad I’m not with any element of their OR right now. Truly a Maalox moment.
But that’s all in Twitter. It’s just ugly right now. No one knows how to argue with dignity and grace.
Blindness to basic compassion and common decency. Rage filled vitriol, invective and brutality…The internet is loaded with the worst humanity has to offer.
I’m not sure of the way forward right now. United, I’m sure, is hoping this news cycle will be short, and memories shorter. Air travel as a whole has become an enterprise featuring dominatrix/management. Whip me, beat me, make me sit coach cross country. The
I wonder if we can move our society towards decency, respect and compassion. Note: I’m not saying “again”. I’m under no delusion that we ever were. Seems we have been better once upon a time. The
But maybe, maybe we can move towards a place where we value each other more than for a cheap shot, the few dollars we can eek out of them, if we can get any at all.
I hold out hope…most of the time.
We wandered around campus last weekend. Stunned by the masses of tourists…I heard that there were tour buses. Very cool l guess. But out wasn’t the most lovely thing. Still, the blossoms were a lovely site. I always enjoy walking campus while they bloom.
Another thing I enjoy about the U district: food. An interesting blend out food types, styles, ethnicities. No matter what you like, some one the ave, most likely, serves it there.
I experienced so much life there, learned so much. A let part of development centred there. And I didn’t study there much. Yet I still love it, and expect I says will.
My life has taken a few strange twists. One of the strangest: my time in the Navy.
I joined the Navy, ostensibly, to get away from Seattle and western Washington. Most of my life was spent here, and I missed the journeys to more exotic locales. With my early childhood spent wandering the US, along with a stop at two different Navy bases in the Philippines, there was a certain attractiveness to wandering inherent in the military.
Goal # 1: extensive time in Europe. Other global stops would be welcome bonuses. When I was stationed in Orlando for bootcamp, I thought I was well on my way.
One of the training steps for the nuclear power program is to spend six some-odd months at a prototype facility. An actual operating reactor based on the specs of fleet deployed reactors, it’s a great place to get real-world experience without the distractions of normal ship-borne life, and the life-and-death risks inherent in being at sea, on a combat ship.
When I was in (a couple of decades back), the prototypes were in Connecticut, New York, and Idaho Falls, ID (though the prototype in South Carolina had been established, hurricane Hugo knocked it offline for a few months). Well, when I was sent to Idaho Falls, I was a bit nervous that my European plans were messed up. My final orders to the fleet: SUBBASE Bangor. At that point, with a 30 minute ferry ride, I was less than an hour from the house I grew up in. I was rather frustrated.
At the end of one of my patrols, though (it might well have been the first one…which is how my memory portrays it…but I’m not sure), I had an epiphany of sorts. I had a break while we were transiting in through Hood Canal, so I popped my head up top side (at that point the sub was on the surface). The weather was classic western Washington, high grey clouds and misty rain.  Mesmerized by the mists pulling through the fir trees, the strings of the fluff pulled apart by the brushing branches. I had visions of cotton candy. A sense of connection, of belonging, of love washed through me. I deeply felt my connection to this region then. A full spiritual awareness; hauntingly beautiful. My relationship with the region changed at that moment. This became, in a richer, fuller sense, home.
That feeling’s only grown over the years. Studying my family’s history in this region, exploring the arts and culture, the natural history…all that’s connected me deeper.
Even with years of dedicated work to learn the region better, working at key Seattle area institutions (Starbucks, Amazon and Microsoft being the biggest ones), and exploring my region, I still feel weak with my knowledge. I’ve never set foot on a San Juan Island, nor been to the Petrified Forest, nor seen the Grand Coulee Damn, nor…well, you get the picture. There’s so very much more I have to explore.
With the above, I’m starting to plan out my summer. I’m thinking about hikes and areas to explore. Considering:
So, what are some unique and delightful trips I should add? Comment below with your ideas.
Rain falling calmly
Continuously, not hard
Strange tranquility
Looking to the west
Down upon the marina
Also two islands
Funny ol’ Everett. When I was a kid, I didn’t too highly of the town. Downtown felt so run down, south was over cluttered with bad signage. Not am interesting nor inspiring place. Well, it was fun to come up on the weekends and cruise. Yes, it was me and my cohort that got the cities of Everett and Edmonds to institute cruising bans.
Today I was in the northern part of town. I now love those old homes, even with their crazy, quirky problems.
But the town has changed, well since my teen years. That should be expected over a couple of decades. Id argue that it’s for the better. Personally, I believe Everett’s Navy Homeport is the root. Also there’s been serious effort to bring up the buildings in the downtown core.
Seems that it’s a much more dynamic and interesting city now. Maybe not as funky and hip as parts of Seattle. And it’s a rather quiet place, especially after normal business hours.
As I noted earlier, I think Everett has a lot of potential. There are a number of challenges ahead, but I think the city is well suited to not only “weather” them, but to thrive.
A challenge for the computer savvy amongst us: managing expectations.
An acquaintance was dealing with someone with a burned out motherboard, and they wanted to (maybe) just replace “a part” until their new computer arrived.
As some of you may know, a motherboard is pretty substantial piece of the computer. Not an easy swap…pretty much replacing the computer’s heart and lung’s.
So, when your friendly computer tech tries to gently explain such things, don’t get too grumpy. It’s just the nature of the beast, so to speak.
With 7 years working in Real Estate, I’m on tons of email lists. I don’t mind this much, as I get to see what’s going on out in the market. Today, though, got one that violates all my marketing skills, understanding and wisdom.
It seemed like the creator of this campaign worked really hard to ensure I not only didn’t connect, but actually ended up annoyed with them. Amazing how well it violated every tenet I have for effective email communication.
So, do:
Keep your eyes on the prize, folks. Sales pitches to the right people, in the right way, is a splendid thing. Spam? Yeah, no.
Go forth and do great things!
Currently, I’m working in the residential construction sector. At the first of the year, I shifted over from real estate. It’s been fascinating to apply my project management skills in this setting. Now, it’s only been a few months, and I’m only just getting my feet under me.
It’s been great to see several of my interests align. Some of my work at Starbucks encompassed green building, and here’s an opportunity to take that to a different level. Technology and the tools therein there have some powerful implications, opportunities that I don’t see leveraged well in this industry…yet.
Finance within this sector has been one of my learning that I didn’t expect. The was money moves is a bit different than with larger companies. And within other sectors.
I really appreciate the opportunity to take in something so dramatically different. Yes, there’s a lot of layering my old learnings, lots of synergies. But this sorts of shifts really provide an opportunity to grow.
I’m looking forward to getting to grow past learning and into making a difference, into effective leadership. It’ll continue to be a hoot.