MatterPics

Spare time is scarce lately ... but I was fortunate to have Scott with me all weekend (we never have an entire weekend off together). It was too short, and we didn't get to the hundreds of things we'd like to do together, but it was quality. And now we've been out in the fresh air, talking to wonderful neighbors (we met a new one today), our hands are dirty and we smell like earth and leaves and early spring.

It's about time for a little rejuvenation. We all need it.

What The Hell Is Wrong With Our Society??????

On Halloween night, two police officers parked on the side of a street near our home were ambushed, with one murdered. The city was in shock, with a huge memorial immediately forming at the site, candlelight vigils, the whole nine yards. Not just in our neighborhood - which is on and off a center of horrible violence - but everywhere. You just don't kill cops just because they're cops. You just don't.

Sunday morning at about 8:15, four police officers in a coffee shop in Parkland, a suburb of Tacoma (about 30 miles south of here), were murdered. A man walked in, pretended to place an order at the counter, then turned and executed the officers as they were getting ready for their shift. The murderer is still not captured - although there was a night-long vigil at a home in the Leschi neighborhood (just south of us) where he was last seen, and apparently another surveillance tonight in Renton, just south of Seattle.

Now, I understand that there has been talk of retalliation against Seattle police for brutality in some arrests recently. I don't discount that. That, in and by itself, is disgusting. And hopefully, being investigated and corrected. I get it.

But "an eye for an eye" leaves both sides blind.

All of these officers were, quite blatantly, executed. These were not any officers who had any dealings, to public knowledge, in any case that would call for retaliation. These were hard-working members of a force that is sworn to protect us. These were fathers and mothers who leave behind families who will grieve for the rest of their lives. These were mentors, teachers, people who I wish I had known. These were people who were murdered for the mere fact that they wore a badge and had devoted their lives to the protection of people that they didn't even know. People like the cowards who decided that they weren't worthy of living.

This is all "alleged". Nothing has been solved. And I'm a pretty far-left leaning liberal, who is supposed to fight for the rights of anybody, no matter what they "allegedly" did.

But what the hell is going on in our society???

You kill because you have a beef with the police??? WHY DO YOU HAVE A BEEF WITH THE POLICE??? Is it perhaps possible that you did something that you SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE that got in into trouble in the first place??

I am less and less tolerant the longer I live in this neighborhood. Yes, it's true - you have been living a down-trodden, unlucky life. That in iteself is not your fault. Yes, you've been left out of the good-luck lottery. I get it. I DO get it. I support all kinds of things that will help you. I want you to succeed.

But really. Seriously?? This is what will lift you up, will make your life worthwhile, will show the whole damned world that you are as good as everyone else???

Our neighborhood, our city, our lives are in turmoil right now because there is no respect for authority, for right and wrong, for society, for anything but "an eye for an eye"?





This, truly, is our downfall. The idea that no one is better than "me". We're all in this together. C'mon - this isn't the way to do this. And the fact that this alleged assasin should have been put away for life (another idea that I strongly am disagreeing with - with some, there is no "rehabilitation") is even more dusgusting. How should this person have been "treated"? How far do we go in trying to rehabilitate someone? When do we know that someone should be released back into the world, with the risk that they're going to do something evil, and harmful, and life-altering to someone and to their friends and family and the world and that we should just take that risk???



I realize I'm ranting and am writing in frustration, so I'm ready to take my lumps. I just don't get it. I don't understand - or agree with - the "eye for an eye" mentality. You look at the pictures of these officers, of their families, of what this is doing to my city, and you explain to me that it's right. Please explain it to me ... I have no perception of this.

Life in the Central District.

From our neighborhood police scanner blog:

10:34AM - E Olive Way & E. Denny Way - Welfare Check - Man with an unleashed dog is walking in and out of traffic. He's a white male early 20s, 6' tall, with flowers in his hair, and hitting himself with a rope.

Welcome to my world.

No One Wants To Be Defeated

There was a flash mob in Seattle today, performing the dance to Michael Jackson's "Beat It" in three different locations to celebrate his 51st birthday. I found out 12 minutes before the rehearsals started - it would have been a blast to be a part of this! A co-worker was one of the mob - he's a riot and I bet he had a great time! (Dance, Clarence, dance!)

The first flash mob took place in Pioneer Square, about a block from where our offices used to be when I first worked there; the second is at the Pike Place Market (home of the fish-throwers). Fun fun fun. Enjoy:

(Update: The Official video including the third performance at Kerry Park on Queen Anne)

MatterPics

We took a day trip down to Mt. Rainier National Park today, a little over an hour away. Unfortunately it was cloudy down by the mountain, but it was still nice to get out of the city for a few hours.

Heading toward downtown:

Leaving the city:

Seattle finally has some semblance of modern mass transportation:

Passing near the adoption agency where I got Joe Jetta:

Farther south, somewhere near Puyallup:

Really in the middle of nowhere ... getting close to the park:

Yes, that blue sign says "Volcano Evacuation Route":

Entering Wilkeson, the last town before entering the park:

The long and winding road:

Too cloudy to see the mountain:

The Carbon River flowing from the Carbon Glacier - the water is kinda milky-white from the mineral content:

On this side of the sign, you're in Mt. Rainier National Park ...

... and on this side, Mt. Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest.

The road was closed and we couldn't go up as far as we wanted, but we took a short hike through the rain forest:

There's Scott - he really is standing on a path:

Hiking up the mountain:

Hiking down the mountain:

Crossing that bridge when we come to it:

On our way out:

There's a steep drop-off to the right - and one lane of the road had, well - dropped off:

Looking down at the valley:

NOW the sun comes out:

Back in Seattle - for those of you who really believe it always rains here:

Downtown:

We won't talk about the other road we took in the mountains to see a pretty lake. Let's just say that I think it is completely idiotic to have a gravel road hugging the side of a mountain with no guard rail. Since my hands were sweaty and I'm pretty sure my heart stopped a few times, I wimped out with no shame. I'm like that.

Hope you enjoyed our little trip!

Matterdays Is Alive And Well And Bringing You Pictures, If Nothing Else.

Sometimes lately, I think that I don't have any intelligible thoughts or opinions or news to post. That makes me sad. My head seems to be constantly pre-occupied with work issues ... and once I get home, I'm either in decompression time, or doing chores, or worrying about not getting chores done. When I started this blog, I was unemployed and taking a long break, and had time to breathe and eat and think and write. I miss that. I miss writing things that people would actually read and think about. I miss being able to express myself that way.

I have had to accept some of my shortcomings lately at work and adapt to them, and I'm doing that here, too. I haven't had the time or energy to write and post the way I would like to, so I guess keeping this blog as a purely egocentric album of the passage of my days is what it exists as for now. It'll have to do. It still does me good to have it, and it always does me good to know the friends that I know from this blog experiment. I'm not planning on going away ... but I have to accept the fact that this forum isn't the cathartic outlet I had hoped it would be back when I had the time and energy for it to BE cathartic. Does that make sense?

Anyway - Life is okay these days. Work is work, and takes more of my waking thoughts (and indeed, non-waking thoughts) than I would like, but I'm employed. In this day and age, and in the industry I work in, that alone is a gift. Weather's been good. Scott is a rock for me, as always. I'm a lucky guy.

The current state of acceptance/broken promises/irrationality of my particular minority (I'm a big fag, if you don't already know) is annoying and tiresome. But this column by Mark Morford, whom I truly believe is a superhero and definitely an idol of mine, gives me a little hope, as he always does. (If you're offended by the title of his column, please ignore it and keep reading - it's actually not as blasphemous as it appears at first glance). The hope wanes when I start reading the 800+ comments to his article, but what can you do.

One comment that really stuck with me, though, was one that echoes a thought that I've heard a lot (or paid a lot of attention to) recently. The comment was, "You gays keep 'procreating' your way and see how far it gets you". The gist of this sentiment seems to be that we gays are pushing to have homosexuality be the norm, the majority, and to take over the world.

Even though I don't know what "The Gay Agenda" is, I'm pretty sure this is a big part of the definition. So I'll give the tired, Matterdays-is-sighing response. We don't want to take over the world. We accept the fact that we are a minority. We're okay with that - kinda like it sometimes, quite actually. We just want all y'all to accept - not tolerate, but accept - that we exist, that we are normal and natural, even as a minority, that there's nothing wrong with us, that we are who we are, and let it go. Just let it go. Quit making such a huge ugly deal of it and just let it go.

Okay. Now for a slew of pictures from the past few weeks.