just laura

It’s been hot here, so rather than staying indoors on my laptop I’ve been spending a considerable amount of time out at Lake Washington to swim and stay cool. This week Seattle broke our record high temp of all time… or at least since the weather service started tracking these things in 1891. 100F+ heats happen often in Texas, I know that. But I also know in Texas you live with air conditioning in cafes, coffee shops, apartments, at home, at work, etc. Not so much in Seattle. It’s been 95F or higher inside my house this week with all of the windows open, so I’ve not spent much time around. That said, the swimming trips have been rather great… I went four times in a week! So excellent!

Seattle Breaks High Temperature Record
National Weather Service: Hottest Weather in Area Since 1891

(AP) Northwesterners more accustomed to rain and cooler climate sought refuge from a heat wave on Wednesday, as Seattle recorded the hottest temperature in its history and Portland edged closer to its own record-breaker.

The National Weather Service in Seattle recorded 102 degrees by midday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, breaking a previous record of 100 degrees, set in downtown Seattle in 1941 and repeated at the airport in 1994.

Jay Albrecht, a meteorologist with the service, said it’s the hottest it has been in Seattle since records dating to 1891.

Meanwhile, Portland ventured into its third day of triple-digit heat Wednesday, hitting 104 degrees by midday. Forecasters said there’s a slight chance the city could reach or even surpass its all-time high of 107 degrees, hit four times, most recently in 1981.

Doug McDonnal, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle, said the stretch of hot weather has lasted longer than usual. Wednesday was the fifth consecutive day above 85 degrees for Seattle, he said.

Throughout the region, shade, icy treats, ice-cold water, air conditioning units and fans were in high demand.

Geno Garcia, 40, a Boeing machinist, headed straight for Sears in Seattle early Wednesday when the family’s air conditioning unit broke down.

“We could have lived without it, but it would have been uncomfortable,” he said, as he stood in line with about 100 others who bought air conditioners.

Garcia said his family plans to keep cool by hunkering down in the one bedroom that’s air conditioned. They’ve already moved their TV, games and other necessities into that room, and have been eating meals there.

Darren Wilson, 38, a concrete finisher from Puyallup, Wash., started his Seattle street paving job at 5:30 a.m., three hours earlier than usual, to beat the heat.

“I’m drinking lots of water,” he said. “When I get off work, I’m going to my buddy’s house and jump in his pool.”

Portlanders were trying to stay cool every which way. Public fountains were clogged with children. Libraries swelled with people trying to stay out of the sun. And cooling centers for seniors were open late.

Shirley Markstaller, 71, parked herself in front of a fan and read the morning paper at a cooling center in downtown Portland.

She doesn’t have an air conditioner at home, so she’s been coming to the center every day for the past week or so. “I just thought, where’s the coolest place?” she said.

The weather throughout the Willamette Valley wasn’t much better. Temperatures hit triple digits in Medford, Eugene and Salem by Wednesday afternoon.

Coastal cities were cooler, including Astoria and Newport. Temperatures in Bend, Pendleton and La Grande had already reached the 90s by midday.

Forecasters have issued an excessive heat warning for much of western Washington through Friday. A heat advisory is in effect through Thursday in parts of eastern Washington, including the Yakima Valley and lower Columbia Basin.

Temperatures in western Washington were expected to cool off somewhat on Friday but will still be in the 80s, about 10 degrees higher than usual, McDonnal said.

In Olympia, a group of visitors were hoping to cool off at the popular Heritage Park Fountain, but were disappointed to find that the water had been turned off for regular weekly maintenance.

“We were expecting it to be working,” said Lucina Hernandez, 24, of Barcelona, Venezuela. “This is very bad.”

At the Tails-A-Wagging doggie day care in Bellingham, Wash., owner Angi Lenz and her staff kept dogs comfortable with special cooling fans, air conditioning, ice toys and water slides. “We have a waiting list to get in this week because of the heat,” Lenz said.

Not everyone was avoiding the outdoors. Enes Parker, manager of the Lacey Senior Center, said she found indoor air conditioning too cold. Lacey is in Washington, near the state capital of Olympia.

“I’m one of the few who like the heat,” Parker said. “I go outside every so often to warm up. I love the heat. It’s always too cold here.”

Fun stuff in the last two weeks since the last post:

• South Africa storytime w/ Ale & Drew to prep for their upcoming trip
• BBQ w/ Jacob, Brian, Molly, et al
• Threw at BBQ her for Mars’s birthday… huge crowd, good times
• Von Foxies burlesque show… a tribute to hair bands!
• Goodbye brunch with Cindy as she heads off to grad school in VT
• Beth’s birthday party (and swimming!)
• Swimming reunion with STPers
• More swimming with bikers, Miller, Susie & Steve, Joe & Kelly, etc
• Sangria and swimming at Katie M’s condo
• Harry Potter with Mez
• Dinner w/ Samantha & G
• SEAF volunteer appreciation party BBQ
• Garage sale madness with Mars & Samantha
• Lots of sewing for the giant Grooviks Cube we’re building

That said, the most exciting thing to happen in the past two weeks was by far the arrival of my niece Maggie! She was born July 22nd around 1am to cheers of family across the country! Congrats Charlie & Stef!

My brother Charlie and wonderful wife Stef just had their second child last week! YAY!! I’m very excited about upcoming trip to Austin on Aug 15th to meet Maggie, see Gus in action as a big brother, and give lots of hugs to all involved!!

I think this is an excellent idea! Makes me all kinds of warm and fuzzy inside. :) I hope some of the dealers take this opportunity to pick a healthier direction for the lives!

Police ultimatum to drug dealers: Quit, or go to prison
By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter

More than a dozen Central Area drug dealers voluntarily walked into an auditorium full of police and prosecutors Thursday night and were presented with an ultimatum: Stop selling dope or prepare for prison.

Confronted with photos, video clips and binders full of evidence gathered in a yearlong operation along Seattle’s 23rd Avenue corridor, from Madison to Jackson streets, the dealers were promised they wouldn’t be arrested, prosecuted or sent to jail for 20 months or more if they embraced the job training, educational opportunities and chemical-dependency treatment being offered them.

Should they break the bargain by selling drugs anywhere in King County, the dealers were told they’d feel the full force of the law.

“The community here cares about you but will no longer tolerate drug dealing in their neighborhoods,” said Interim Seattle Police Chief John Diaz. “This isn’t a joke, and it isn’t a threat.”

At a news conference at Seattle Police headquarters this morning, Diaz acknowledged “there’s a risk in doing this,” but said it’s time to try something different to eliminate street-level drug dealing in the city.

“We’ve done sweeps, we’ve done undercover buys and crackdowns and we’re still not getting a handle on drug dealing in our neighborhoods,” he said. “We’re trying to change the culture and the norms in the neighborhood.”

The Thursday night gathering at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center was an invitation-only event, where uniformed officers checked names at the door and a who’s who of Seattle’s criminal justice system sat alongside the dealers’ families, friends and fellow community members. For an hour, a parade of speakers took the stage to encourage the dealers to take the first-of-its-kind deal to ever be offered in the state. The “candidates,” as they are called, were told to listen without comment or question.

When the hour was up, everyone filed out except for the dealers and their “people of significance” — a parent, a friend, a spouse — who were asked to stay and ask questions of the neighborhood service providers who were there to help them change the trajectory of their lives.

“I’ve already bought drugs from you. These binders, these are the cases I’ve got on you,” Capt. Paul McDonagh, commander of the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct, told the men and women seated before him. “We’re not playing. You have to stop today. … And if you don’t stop, we will stop you and you will go to prison.”

Police and prosecutors spoke of how tired they are of the vicious cycle of arrest, prosecution and incarceration. King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg called it “an extraordinary day,” given that the gathered dealers were being offered “an opportunity no one else in the county has ever got.” Vince Lombardi, an assistant U.S. attorney, warned that even those who aren’t “kilo dealers” or drug-cartel members could find themselves facing federal charges and serving time in distant states if they didn’t change their ways.

An addict talked of her journey to recovery and those who were there to help, while a local pastor made a spiritual appeal, imploring the dealers to change their destinies and in so doing, help heal their community. A longtime home and business owner recalled the time a body was dumped on her sidewalk and later, when a young man was shot in her front yard.

“In the mid-80s, crack cocaine came in and the whole community went to hell, excuse my language,” said Jean Tinnea, who’s lived at the corner of 20th and Union Streets for more than 30 years. “You are part of our community and I really hope you’ll take these hands that are reaching out to you tonight and rejoin our community.”

The program is based on one first implemented in High Point, North Carolina in 2004 by police and New York City professor David Kennedy, a criminologist at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Five years later, the city has virtually no remaining public drug dealing and violent crime has fallen 20 percent citywide, according to the college’s Web site.

Kennedy, who visited Seattle in June, spent two days in private meetings with law-enforcement officials, city leaders and pastors and activists from Seattle’s black community. His model, which is being replicated in places like Milwaukee, Nashville, Chicago and Indianapolis, is being backed by the U.S. Department of Justice, which awards federal grants to train officials on how to establish programs in their own hometowns.

City Attorney Tom Carr and former Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, now the country’s drug czar, applied for the federal grant last year.

Five representatives from Seattle spent months learning the ins-and-outs of the Kennedy model — called a Drug Market Initiative (DMI) — and how best to replicate it here. The team included McDonagh of the East Precinct, a deputy city attorney and a municipal court judge.

Last week, Diaz sent letters to 18 Central Area dealers that police had built evidence against, inviting them to what was dubbed a “community call-in.” Sixteen attended. One person didn’t show up and the other was previously arrested on an unrelated charge.

But none of the dealers invited to Thursday’s meeting has convictions for violent felonies or gun charges, nor are they affiliated with a street gang, said Carr.

“This is a unique opportunity and a one-time deal,” Carr told the gathering. “We built these cases not to use them. We’re willing to toss them away on one condition: That you just stop.”

Go back on the deal, Carr warned, “and I can prosecute you for stealing a candy bar and put you in jail for a year — and I will.”

While police are offering low-level dealers an alternative to lockup, detectives are still going after the Central Area’s mid- and high-level dealers and gang members, McDonagh, the East Precinct commander, said at today’s news conference.

“We’re still in the neighborhood,” he said. “We’re pursuing them and preventing them from plying their trade.”

Bob Hood, the director of the Public and Community Safety Division in Carr’s office and leader of Seattle’s five-member DMI team, said today the ultimate goal is to dismantle the Central Area drug market. Crime data will be analyzed and the community will be surveyed in the coming months to determine if the effort is successful.

“The overall impact over the next several months should be the elimination of this drug market,” Hood said. “There’s nothing soft about this approach and we’re willing to try what seems effective elsewhere.”

Copyright © The Seattle Times Company

I’m going to Burning Man again this year and, similar to last year, will be out of town much of the time leading up to the big event. This making the hectic packing process even more hectic, especially since I’m waiting till the last minute.

This week’s progress: I acquired a new playa bike from Craig & Joe on Sunday – thanks y’all! It’s even a girl’s frame and fits me well! Yay! I also got a new bike trailer for my playa bike – thanks Seth! Both were found objects left over from last year’s burn and I hope to put them to good use.

Contribution on the playa: My current plan is to be a mobile iced coffee girl at some point at Burning Man… we’ll see if I can pull it together in time. Won’t require tons of money, but does require shopping prep and transport logistics.

My camp: I’m camping with an elaborate art project this year… the Groovik’s Cube. I’ve been planning social events for the camp (dance parties, classes, etc) and helping with sewing fabric panels as time allows. Read on, snipped from the website.

The Cube: An incredibly large scale (15′x15′x15′), functional Rubik’s Cube whose motion is simulated by 648 superbright LEDs which light the cube from the inside. The motion of the lights is accompanied by the sound of gears and mechanical clicking. The entire process is controlled by 3 separate controllers, each with 6 buttons. The three participants must work together to solve the cube.

Groovik’s Cube will be constructed for the Burning Man festival on August 31 – September 7, 2009. If you don’t already have your ticket purchase one and come see the cube on the playa!

We Are: A group of active members of the Seattle Burning Man Community – engineers artists and dedicated people who want t contribute to a collective vision. Our project team includes many people who have attended Burning Man and other regional events for several years as well as welcoming in some new burners to our crew.

The Motivation: The idea grew out of conversations between several of us, wanting to bring a large piece of art to the playa. We wanted an interactive structure, which would be challenging (very challenging) to the participants, which would make them think hard about a problem and force them to cooperate to find a solution. We wanted to create a landmark structure to be remembered. We wanted a place for people to meet and ponder.

We have evolved over billions of years from simple self replicating chemical reaction, to highly cooperative multicellular organisms. Notice how every jump in evolution is made by smaller, simpler components relinquishing their independence to form a larger, more adaptive, more powerful being as a whole. From organic chemistry to biology, from single cells to multicellular organisms. From complex organisms to ant states and hives, living and replicating as one. From simple neurons to highly adaptable, multi-purpose brains pondering the stars. For us, surely the next step is to cooperate once again on the next order of magnitude to solve the challenge of survival on this planet and in this universe. We, like the players of the rubick’s cube are too small ourselves to take on that challenge alone, and it is only through cooperation that we can succeed in the Darwinian game.

• Last weekend I drove M out to a retreat in British Columbia, 320 miles round trip with a beautiful ferry ride to Bowen Island towards the end. We stayed at a nice B&B called Twiggleberries and I came back to Seattle Monday morning. The three hour drive isn’t bad, but the 1.5 hours in lime at US Border Crossing was less than ideal.
• Tues AM I left for a work function, staying in the hotel in Bellevue until Friday evening. I had to be there in the evenings, working late, so no socializing or adventures for me.
• Friday night I got back to Seattle went to Lesley & Clayton’s engagement party… nice to see everyone and hard to leave early at 1:30am.
• And then after 3.5 hours of sleep drove the 4 hours back up to BC to visit M again. While driving up back to back weekends wasn’t quite ideal, I won’t see him again until mid-Sept, so this was my only chance to visit. We had lots of good, thought provoking conversation.
• I’m now back in Seattle, in my own house, watering my plants, and doing lots of errands. I’ll be here Monday-Friday… whew!
• Lest I get bored being in my own house, I leave town again on Saturday for a 10 day trip to Austin to see family and work remotely from the Austin office.
• I get back Sunday night on 8/23, am in town for four days, and then leave for Burning Man on Friday. Craziness. I’m driving down to Nevada with Geoff, but still a bit uncertain about how I’ll get back home. TBD.

The trip to Texas felt long but somehow no matter the length, it’s never enough time to see everyone. This trip was first and foremost to meet my three week old niece Maggie and spend time with family. :) I spent quality time with Gus and Maggie, and with Charlie and Stef, and Mom and Dad. Gus and I even went to a baseball and even got one of the fly balls… He was super excited as he’s quite obsessed with baseball.

I also got a few meals with high school and college friends… Chris, Alyssa, Charles, Laura, Andy, Katherine, Steve, Heather, and Ben. Maybe if I’m unemployed again come Oct I’ll be able to make another trip this fall. For now, I’ll get to see family at Thanksgiving in Naples.

My extra lovely housemates: Samantha, Mars, & me

My lovely new house

(front, before the tomatoes)

(back, with new fire pit and grill)