VW bus. Phil. John. Oregon wilderness.

Inspired by Simon?

Introducing the Colman Triangle

My local polygon has joined the much-hyped neighborhood blogosphere.

At a recent community meeting called to discuss arson, vandalism, and other feel-good subjects, we took some time to talk about how we might connect better. We planned to come together, again, for Seattle's Night Out event, and also to create a team blog for the neighborhood. I am thoroughly addicted to several of Seattle's neighborhood blogs: the Central District News, Rainier Valley Post, Miller Park, Capitol Hill, B-Town (Burien) Blog, West Seattle Blog, and Mid-Beacon Hill...for starters. There are more.

Neighborhood blogs have become a great source of local information, sharing news other local media don't cover (and I don't watch television or listen to commercial radio, so I'm limited to newspapers, electronic and echt, and public radio.

Our new local blog is called the Colman Triangle News. I'm not sure yet how we'll use it. Hopefully we'll follow the good lessons of other successful, local efforts. Whatever happens, I'm sure it will be fun.



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Advice I didn't need

The following arrived in my email box this morning from Public Health. Steer clear of bats. Okay. Gotcha. They carry rabies...but I avoid them anyway. The press release mentions a couple who found a bat in their home, where I'm sure they thought they were steering clear rodents with wings.

Reciprocal advice to bats: steer clear of people--they will kill you and send you and send your carcass for testing. Stay in your bat place. Please.

Yuck.

Steer clear of bats – they can carry rabies

KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON - Bats in King County can have rabies, as a local couple found out recently when a bat they found in their house tested positive for rabies. Because they weren’t sure whether the bat had scratched or bitten them while they were sleeping, they received post-exposure treatment, which is 100% effective if given promptly. Without treatment, rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms begin. Since the beginning of 2008 in King County, 22 people have been treated for exposure to potentially rabid bats and two of the bats that were tested were found to be rabid.

» View full press release.

Image: http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/living/graphics/t_bat.jpg

Action at 26th and Massachusetts today

I was on a walk to the dog park this afternoon, when a single cop car (the one in the center), pulled in behind me and picked a young woman out of a group of kids. I let the dogs into the park and lingered, though out of earshot. The first officer asked her a lot of questions and took a lot of notes. The cop car number quickly rose to three, and there was a lot of cop-consultation while the young woman sat on the front bumper of the car. No arrests, and I have no idea what this was all about.

Pretty Good

Pretty good day, today. The morning was lazy and lazed into the afternoon. I was in danger of not leaving the house at all, which would have been a tremendous mistake; 75-degrees, sunny, nice breeze, not a weekend. I rallied after lunch and headed out on my bicycle.

Through the tunnel and down to the lake. I'd intended to sit at Colman Beach with a book, but took a detour down to Seward Park, round the point and back up to Colman. There, I watch two dopey guys lope out of the water with turtles they'd found--or turtle-napped--from a the shady spot nearby where several turtles live. They declared their intention to race the stolen testudines on the lawn. Shockingly, the critters didn't respond to their trainers' verbal prompts, and sat totally still. A good move for the turtles: the dopes got bored put them back in the water.

You'd think that was the end, but at that point a woman in a yellow duck inner-tube floated by and scolded the dopes for not returning the turtles to the shady shore where they'd found them. Something about shade and goose poop and death--I didn't totally get it, but giving your spurned, pet turtle a ride home seemed like a reasonable gesture. The dopes didn't get it either: they apologized to duck woman, but didn't re-enter the water to retrieve the turtles. So duck woman exited her craft and dove for the reptiles. Good work, duck woman.

I was again--for the second time this week--without sunscreen on a sunny day...in the sun. I feared returning home, while an effective sun-screen, would mean sitting at the computer reading blogs and flying to Puka Puka and the like with Google Earth, so I decided instead to check out Medgar Evers Pool for some lap swimming (first choice was Colman Pool in West Seattle, but there's a masters swim meet there and the pool is closed to the public for three days).

Now, one might wonder why (risk of sunburn notwithstanding) I might choose to leave a perfectly good lake on a warm day and pay to swim indoors. Brooke, in fact, asked just this question. My reply: milfoil. Nasty, nasty stuff. According to Cornell's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology:

Eurasian watermilfoil is a long, slender plant that grows underwater. It has a round, light colored stem with flat, feather-like leaves. In water less than 30-35 feet deep, watermilfoil can form dense stands that often reach to the surface.

And it's gross, and monsters live in it. If there's a monster in the pool, I'll see it and leave. Milfoil-dwelling monsters just reach right up and grab you from their creepy, slimy houses in the weeds. You never know until it's too late, and you're caught, like some dumb turtle, and made to race.

So I went to the pool, and had a very nice time, and wasn't killed by monsters. I wasn't even scared, thank you.

The hour of chaos was near, so I returned home, made dinner for Zoe & Elliott to ignore (though Elliott did eat Zoe's edamame, and didn't choke, and wasn't killed by monsters either). Played outside with the girls and neighbors, Zoe to bed sans hassle, dinner, and an episode of Weeds (season three, too good).

Et voila. Man of leisure. Journal entry complete.

Maybe tomorrow, sea monster.

The end of drug rep schwag!

According to the NYT's "Well" blog, drug companies will voluntarily back off dumping buckets of pens, post-it pads, clocks, and other cheapo-pharm-schwag into the hands of doctor-advertisers:

Clipboards, pens and mugs emblazoned with drug company logos are about to become collectors’ items. The pharmaceutical industry’s trade association, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, has issued a new voluntary code of conduct that prohibits distributing the brand-adorned freebies to the nation’s doctors.

Glory be. I feel fortunate to have spent the last three years in a pharma-free residency program, and I regularly toss drug-logoed crap directly into the trash whenever I find it lying around (in doctors lounges, waiting rooms, etc). The clinical years of medical school featured daily lunches from drug reps (I ate them) and as much junk as you could grab: pens, stethoscope covers, measuring tapes, hand sanitizer, flashlights, scissors, stress balls, reflex hammers, mouse pads. So much clutter. My absolute favorite, while it lasted, was the Viagra pen: hefty, firm, metal shaft. Alas, it didn't measure up to a simple Bic Ultra or Uniball Deluxe Micro. The mighty stylo phallique cracked after just a couple of admission H&P write-ups. Junk.

By the middle of my fourth year, my fascination with free stuff and bad lunches was pretty much over, and I started to read the medical literature on the effect of drug reps on prescribing practices: turns out they do all this stuff because it works! It wasn't hard to remove reps from my life, especially after joining a non-rep-friendly residency.

As Tara Parker-Pope points out in her blog, getting rid of cheap tchochkie's printed with expensive brand name drug names isn't the same thing as cutting out speaking fees to physicians and informational dinners at El Gaucho, but it might un-clutter health care a little.

Burglarpalooza

According to the Central District News and CHS Capitol Hill, we're awash in crime lately. Is it the usual summertime increase? Climate change? The cost of gas? Corn? Starbucks employees anticipating unemployment?

Our South Precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator, Mark Solomon, sends out this regular newsletter to help with strategies to avoid getting your stuff stolen. Enjoy.

South Precinct Email Community Newsletter

July 7, 2008

Dear Community Friends,

Burglaries

I had been gone about four hours and when I returned home one day following an appointment. As I entered and looked at how my dining room table was out of place and the cabinet drawers were open, I thought, “I didn’t leave it like this, did I?” As I looked in my office area and found things off the shelves and on the floor, I thought, “How did this happen?” It wasn’t until I went in the bedroom and found that the jewelry boxes had been upended on the bed that I realized I had been burglarized. Forced entry through a locked rear door inside a locked fenced in yard. They stole jewelry, a laptop, my digital cable box, digital camera, cash, DVDs… and they took food out of my freezer.

It Can Happen To Anybody: Don’t Blame Yourself

I understand that queasy feeling that surfaces when you realize that your space has been violated, that someone came into your home, rifled through your dresser drawers and took your stuff. I know first hand the second-guessing, the questioning and the self-blaming. “If only I had done _____.” “Why didn’t I ______?” You have to admit, it is ironic that the crime prevention guy, the one that hammers you with home security tips, gets his place broken in to. It does go to show that; 1) it could happen to anyone, 2) If you have already taken precautions to improve home security, there may be some things you haven’t considered (the BB gun used to break the double-pane glass of the rear door was a new one for me; one that I’ve seen a few times since my burglary), and 3) further improvements could be made.

And since I know you’re wondering, I also waited 3 ½ hours for an officer to respond. The crime was not in progress, there were no witnesses, and there was no suspect information. With other things going on in the Precinct, my non-emergency call could wait.

What You Should Do: Lessons Learned And Reinforced From Me To You

1. Always lock doors and windows when away from the home.

2. Have a home security assessment to see what you can do to improve your home security. This is a free service. Learn from my professional and (recent) personal experience.

3. Take inventory of your valuable items. Make a list of the items, model number, serial number and approximate value. For items that can be engraved, put your driver’s license or state ID number.

4. For those items that cannot be engraved, take a picture of them and have a written description of the item. Do the same with jewelry and include appraisals of the items.

5. Communicate with neighbors. There had been recent burglaries in the neighborhood, so alerting neighbors when an incident occurs makes everyone aware so neighbors can be more watchful.

Night Out Against Crime 2008

Speaking of communicating with neighbors, we encourage you to participate in “Night Out Against Crime 2008” on Tuesday, August 5, 2008. Night Out is a national crime prevention event designed to heighten neighborhood awareness, increase neighborhood anti-crime efforts, and unite our communities. It is a great chance to connect neighbors and share information with each other while learning more about crime prevention.

To register your block for Night Out Against Crime 2008 on line, please use the following link: http://www.seattle.gov/police/Nightout/default.htm.

The 2008 event theme is partnership with the Emergency Management Office to promote the SNAP (Seattle Neighborhoods Actively Prepare) program: More information about SNAP can be found at http://www.seattle.gov/emergency/programs/snap/.

Until next time, Take Care and Stay Safe!

Mark Solomon, South Precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator

Injury Test: failed

I posted yesterday from the sunny peak of Mt. Si, which I climbed as a test of how my painful heel would hold up on a steep trail with the support of a rigid sole. Overall assessment: ouch. At baseline these days, I've got a pain level of 2-3 (my reference points are zero=no pain, ten=can't bear weight on it), with periods of 6-7 pain. I'm happy to walk with a 5, and would hike with 6, if there were a compelling reason.

After an evaluation last week, I had decided to put off full-time "boot rest" for a few weeks while I readied myself for a hike up Mt. Adams. Once that ascent (and descent, hopefully) was complete, I'd go into the boot for a few weeks, get some new orthotics made, and work toward recovery, with the ultimate goal of a return to running.

I would also like to be pain free, but I don't know how likely that is. This pain has become chronic, and chronic pain doesn't usually go away.

But yesterday's experiment has changed things a little. At the trailhead, pain was minimal (about a 2), and I felt comfortable in my old Vasque boots. I climbed well, covering the four miles and 3,200 vertical feet in just over an hour. The last mile of ascent is steeper than the first three, and steep has been the thing that aggravates my pain the most (putting strain at the insertion point of my plantar fascia). My pain quickly rose from a three to a five to an eight, and by the time I was sitting, sans suncreen, at the sunny base of Haystack peak, I was worrying about how the trip down would be.

Justifiably worried, it turns out. The trip down, usually quicker than the walk up, took about two hours due to heel pain that caused me to alter my gait, putting strain on other parts of my foot and ankle. Pain was solidly at eight most of the descent, and was a nine by the time I got back to the parking lot.

At the trailhead, I sat with my foot in the icy creek for twenty minutes (a ten for pain until the numbness set in), then hobbled to my car. More ice last night.

This morning, nine. Ice. Still nine.

So, new plan. I fear I'm not fit to walk up and down Mt. Adams in two weeks time. I'll still go, but hang with the trailhead crew: Amy, Jen, and kiddos. Starting now (yesterday, actually), I'm in the boot most of the time, icing and resting. Until I'm doing better, I'm not a runner or a hiker. I bike, I swim, I act sensibly.

Podiatry follow-up next week.

Sunny...must flee

Top of Mt. Si. Forgot sunscreen.

Jimi Hendrix Gets A New Doo

Zoo doo, that is. The park adjacent to the Northweat African American Museum has recieved a giant load of topsoil. Over the last couple of weeks, workers were finishing up the insallation of a sprinkler system, and are now covering the park with manure--and covering the neighborhood in sweet aromas of rhinocerous, elephant, hippo...

This is a welcome development for the Jimi Hendrix Park, long in planning, development, and even longer in execution. The former parking lot may now, finally, become a place where people go to do park kinds of things rather than simply pass through.

Now, when will that Jimi Hendrix statue from Broadway delivered?

Guitar: chords and strums

I spent some quality time hurting myself with my new guitar today. I was glad for it, too, since yesterday proved an exercise in frustration and excruciating tone deafness.

Somehow, yesterday, I managed to get completely out of tune. Efforts to tune were comic and embarrassing. With no reference point for a note--any note--other than plastic horns in my kids' toy bins, I had no way of knowing where to begin. Naturally, I went to the internet. There are many online how-to-tune-your guitar tutorials, many of them handy You-Tube videos. One I watched was very straight forward, but required that I be sitting at a piano. Another wanted me to use a tuning fork (I have one for neurological exams, but wasn't sure that would work out). But...the guy in the video was sitting at a piano...right? And if he could summon an E for me, then it would be like I was at the piano.

I had a piano!

I went through the steps of tuning low E, then tuning the rest of the strings by ear. Quite proud of myself, I thought I'd celebrate with a big, happy G chord. Well, it sounded like shit. Really. Awful. Not G. Not anything. I was sure that I'd heard the E correctly and the rest of the tuning went well, so clearly that means I'm tone deaf. So be it.

I had some errands to do, one of which took me right past the Guitar Center (where I'd bought my guitar the night before). I willfully violated Joe's clear advice and bought a tuner. Not only that, an electronic tuner. Clips on to the end of the guitar and tells me it doesn't care if I'm tone deaf.

I also bought some picks. Sorry, Joe.

So today, once I got off my chair long enough to pick up my guitar and put myself back in the chair, I was in tune, or so my new friend told me. My chords sounded good to me, but what do I know.

I spent some time working on the five chords in chapter one of my Fretboard Logic book, working on finding them and playing them without awkward rattles or muted string sounds. I spent about an hour with that, then jumped into one of the free online lessons at Next Level Guitar. I chose "How To Strum," because I don't know how to strum. I watched the short video several times (had to learn a new chord participate--now I know six) and learned a couple of strum patterns and a chord progression. Next I'll learn what those terms mean.

So now my fingers are, well, injured. I would have loved to keep on playing, but couldn't put my fingers on the strings, they hurt so much. So I read about fixed gear bikes for a while and headed out for some errands.

I'm sitting now at Stumptown Coffee, across from the girls daycare, and it's time to pick them up. So off I go, bloody fingers and six chords in my head.

Unemployment is good.

Park close to home to shut down for July 4

Reported yesterday in the Rainier Valley News, one of my favorite neighborhood blogs, Sam Smith Park (the I-90 lid park) will close mid-afternoon of July 4 for safety reasons. To quote the Post:

The same goes for Sam Smith Park - the largest and most central part of the I-90 lid, which ironically enough, is home to the Urban Peace Circle, a sculpture by Seattle sculptor Gerard Tsutakawa that was dedicated to children killed by gun violence in Seattle’s inner city.

I guess that's a good--if sad--thing: the park is regularly a mess after July 4, with fireworks strewn everywhere. But will the fireworks--and the people who light them--just disappear? Where will they go? Other parks. Parking lots. Streets.


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I guess we should be happy the city is looking out for our safety. We'll see what kind of impact it has on the neighborhood. There's a lot of good discussion on the park closures on the RVP's site.

Guitar

Many thanks to Joe, my friend and mentor, who took me out to the Guitar Center last night to help me buy...a guitar (I was tempted by a few drums, though). I am a total novice with the guitar: I know three chords and my fingertips are soft and callus-less. For now. Joe and I sat with several guitars, playing "Little Boxes" using the chords I can play, and eventually settled on a Yamaha, reasonable price.



I stayed up last night playing my three chords, watching videos of people playing guitar, and wondering when my fingers might start to bleed. I also spent some time reading Fretboard Logic, the book recommended to me by Guitar Center dude for learning the "reasoning behind the guitar's unique tuning." The book is good...logical. I'll work on the first chapter, learning the basic open chords, until my fingers can't take it anymore.

I don't anticipate posting any videos of me playing guitar. Nobody wants that.

Foot

I had a visit to the podiatrist this morning to talk about heel pain. Six months, two steroid injections, buckets of ice, tubs of ibuprofen, one loud "pop," and ongoing nagging pain that gets worse, not better.

It was a good visit: an informative discussion about short-term plans (summit Mt. Adams in three weeks) and long-term goals (return to running, pain-free). Dr. Huppin says both should be fine, and that the healing begins with a week in a charming rocker-bottom boot to let my plantar fascia--presumed to be partially-torn, that was the "pop"--rest.

The idea of training for a climb to twelve-thousand feet while resting in a foot immobilizer is a little hard to get my head around, but I'm okay with paradox. I'll just wear the boot when I can (like when I'm not riding, swimming, driving...).

In a week, I'll ditch the boot and do some more serious training: stairs, hills, mountains, along with ice, ibuprofen, and lots of tape.

In three weeks, I'll do the climb, put myself back in the boot (for one, two...three weeks?), and get fitted for new orthotics that I can use for running. My current orthotics are, it seems, not overcoming my tendency to pronate.

And it will take a long time, I thin, to return to running. My partially-torn plantar fascia will get better, and I'll get back to running (so I can mess with my knees and back), but I may need to exercise something like patience.

Funny concept.