My Book of Hours, part III: July 29 to August 3

 Dear Diary,

Wonderful news!

It turns out the new whatever-it-is that Blogspot installed at the beginning of this month did not actually eliminate most of the site's useful features, it only hid them, and it only cost me $7 to find this out with the help of a rental computer.  So without paying any more, I can tell you all about the maniacal squirrel at far too long last.

July 29

At Laurelhurst Community Center, restroom opening happened from 7:02 to 7:04 A.M.  This is the day I observed the southernmost water fountain in Laurelhurst Playfield get turned on.

Eventually I dragged myself out of there, figuring I just had to observe closing at lower Ravenna Park, but visiting Cowen Park and University Playground first just in case their restrooms had been opened.

So at Cowen Park that evening restroom closing took from 7:05 to 7:07 P.M.

I picked that night my spot at Cowen Park, a bench from which I could sort of see the women's room door, but not at all that of the men's room.  This bench is in shade most of each summer day, a real rarity in Seattle parks and much of what made the ensuing days tolerable.  Since Cowen Park is hard for me to move my cart through, I tried to limit my trips away to daytime ones, and ideally times it seemed safe to leave the cart behind.  Unfortunately for this plan, Cowen Park's water fountain would not be turned on until sometime after the morning of August 3.

July 30

When I woke, it turned out I wasn't the only person who'd slept there.  A couple had slept on the spinner I've previously proffered as potential neat stuff.  That morning, the woman entertained herself using chalk on a sort of chalk permission floor in front of the restroom building.  When the sun came out, she took off most of her outer clothing, and from this, the complexity of the underwear thus revealed, and the things she chalked, of which I remember "Bad [Female Dogs] Only", I concluded that she probably belonged to some category that Palaeoliths like me would understand as "transgendered".  I didn't see this couple there again, but her chalk remained, right next to a playground.

At Cowen Park there seems not to be a single usual parking spot for those who lock and unlock the restrooms; not all of my observations featured new parking spots, but most did.  So I routinely missed arrival times.  On this day the women's room was unlocked at 7:34 and the unlocker drove away at 7:39 A.M.  Closing was 7:00 to 7:04 P.M.  I only needed one more day at Cowen Park - and one more closing at lower Ravenna - and I'd be done.  Piece of cake, right?

July 31

Not if I had to stay in the park all day verifying that the restrooms wouldn't be opened.  Running out of water, running low on food...  I actually went and bought a newspaper, because I figured not even you, dear Diary, would believe this little project of mine had stumbled onto a closed-restroom day without serious proof.  So:

Meanwhile, I wasn't the only hungry mammal around.  The squirrel in whose territory that bench is, understands the world thus:  all food within its territory belongs to it, regardless of other circumstances.  It was so fearless I worried it might be rabid.  While taking these photos, I found out that, unfortunately for squirrels, the sound they make when irritated sounds rather like a cat's purr.

But all bad things come to an end, and a parks employee did eventually notice the situation.  Opening from 4:21 to 4:36 P.M., leaving only the women's room unlocked; much of the extra time went to hosing down both rooms, and a first stab at removing the expressions of the elegantly dressed woman from two days ago.  Later a parks employee came by who recognised me - he's the one who'd given me food while closing the Laurelhurst rooms.  I asked him to open the men's room, which he did at 5:10 P.M.  As a result, I now understand the remark Erica Barnett made in early April, mentioning deep water on a floor; that can, it turns out, happen after hosedowns.  This gentleman came back to close at 8:04, leaving at 8:40 because of a long conversation with me.  He only locked the men's room, to accommodate a woman camping in the other.

I decided this day wouldn't count.  It would've been a pain to handle the men's and women's rooms separately, and I'd affected too many of the times directly.

August 1

At 10 A.M. I decided this day wouldn't count either; I wasn't prepared for another day of privation and combat with squirrels.  From Cowen Park I took the ravine path to lower Ravenna Park, only to find that the restrooms there were also locked - this time both of them.  I couldn't conveniently  buy a Sunday paper for proof, but anyway here are some door shots:

So I went to University Village and Safeway, but then figured Ravenna's restrooms were likelier than Cowen's to open, so maybe I could get that long-postponed closing time that day.

By 4 P.M. I was ready to give up, but as I was leaving my friend arrived, and unlocked the restrooms about 4:15.  We both noticed jazz coming from the bowl downstairs, so I went that way, and he decided to take a lunch break and went separately.  This turned out to be the same group I'd seen before, minus the guy who'd been most of the reason I didn't approve of their social distancing, and so didn't identify them, before.   If I understand correctly, this was the Parkswangers' last show of the summer before the bandleader returned to New York.

I wasn't sure how to observe closings now that I'd started making friends with the guy who did most of them, so didn't try that evening, but I did want to see what would happen with Cowen Park's women's room.  At around 7:30 P.M. I found Ravenna Park's upper restrooms open; at around 8:00 Cowen Park's were both locked.

August 2

Back to Cowen Park:  triumph at last!  I slept until 7:47 A.M., by which time two park employees had arrived separately, one of them unlocking both restrooms.  The other left at 7:48, the unlocker at 7:56, after hosing down everything; this is what mostly removed the contributions by the woman from July 30.

Long before closing time, the squirrel returned.  I'm not sure it had learned fear, but it had recalculated the cost of my food, and spent considerably less of its time not getting as close.  I considered giving it a cookie as a reward for making this page more entertaining, but forgot.

Closing that night featured locking taking one minute or less, finishing at 8:35 P.M., and departure at 8:38.  By this time it was close to sunset, and I had zero interest in trying to steer my cart out of the park in the dark, so I decided to take one more observation at Cowen Park, which would anyway result in equal numbers of openings and closings.

August 3

Cowen Park's restrooms were opened from 7:23 to 7:36 A.M.  This took so long because the opener also collected trash; the women's room was unlocked at 7:35.

At lower Ravenna Park, the man who'd introduced himself as an Eskimo found me.  He said his partner had left him, planning to return to heretofore unmentioned wife and children.  Also, his phone had disappeared, possibly with the partner.  Nobody answered the phone; eventually I left a message at a number the Eskimo said was his aunt's.  The closer arrived while we were still talking, 7:47 to 7:56 P.M. close.  (Some of this time went to my telling him about issues in the lower Ravenna and Cowen Parks' men's rooms.)

Days later, I found that while I'd been photographing the squirrel on July 31, it had gotten further than I'd thought, chewing through the plastic bag holding my bread, and getting several bites.  It had taken care of its own reward.

Whew.  All done, dear Diary.  I'll probably write a page of analysis (sorry, no squirrel photos) tomorrow.

Some News

Dear Diary,

I know it's been a long time.  This is for two reasons.  One is that I actually haven't spent that much time in parks lately.  I do, however, know that the following water fountains are now running:

Burke-Gilman Trail at 30th Ave

Burke-Gilman Playground Park

Cowen Park

University Playground's was not running when I checked this morning.  I've checked View Ridge Playfield and Bryant Playground several times each recently, but not for some days now; they weren't running then.

Anyway, the other reason I haven't written much in you, dear Diary, lately is that doing so has become much harder.  First of all, I lost access to Wi-Fi at the University of Washington when my phone was stolen, so I've had to rely on Seattle Public Library Wi-Fi, which means hiking.  More importantly, Blogspot rolled out a new impairment - well, they call it an interface - at the beginning of August.  This impairment makes it impossible to insert links, photos or videos in the composition window I've normally used.  (It also turns ordinary typing from challenging to very difficult.)

There are three obvious workarounds.  First, I could just insert these by typing the HTML myself.  In fact I remember how to do this for links, and can copy Blogspot's own HTML for videos.  But it turns out the site used to do its own processing on photos, and I'm not sure how to replace that.

Second, I could just use Blogspot's app.  This does still offer ways to insert all three.  However, the app's main purpose is to crash before anything can be saved, and to crash harder and more scarily each time the user foolishly persists in trying to use it.

Third, I could use a desktop computer.  Maybe Blogspot has only crippled its mobile website, and on such a computer it still works normally.  I've put off buying a laptop out of the $1200 because I have nowhere to charge it, and more recently because I've been so relentlessly stolen from.  But later this week, after I shower, I'll see whether I can post the photos on a rental computer.

One way or another, I may be able to write in you again soon, dear Diary, but I can't make any promises.

My Book of Hours, part II: July 22 to 26

 Dear Diary,

You remember from last night's page, right, that I was observing restroom opening and closing times by listing when the parks employee who did the locking or unlocking started or stopped the engine of the pickup truck he used to reach the park.

This page reports my original observations at Ravenna Park.

July 22

I didn't observe any opening this day.

At Ravenna Park's upper restrooms, my usual spot was a picnic table, the one nearest the restrooms, from which I could see the women's room door but not the men's.  I think I did it all during those days - slept in the park and elsewhere; stayed there by day or left.  The usual parking for the employees' pickup trucks is near, but as at Laurelhurst not *that* near, a parking lot.  Closing 7:14 to 7:15 P.M.

July 23

Same restrooms, same park.  Opening 6:52 to 6:55 A.M.  I think I must have stayed at the park this day, and it was the day I encountered a homeless gay couple, in which case I didn't find my "usual" picnic table until late afternoon.  I first noticed one of the men, a guy who walked around with a permanent scowl, as he scared off three people at a table near the one I was at; I actually called 911 so as to be ready if things got violent (which didn't happen).  Sometime around noon, the other introduced himself, a friendly man who said they'd recently arrived from San Diego, although he himself was an Eskimo.  I gave him some cookies and directions to a place to charge his phone on campus, which he later told me he couldn't find.  Closing at or before 5:49 to 5:50 P.M. (I wasn't paying attention yet; probably what happened at 5:49 and made me notice was the locking of the women's room.)

July 24

Same restrooms, same park.  I'd been noticing that most of the trees surrounding this part of Ravenna Park are conifers, and took a video to show you, dear Diary.

EDIT 11/12.  Unfortunately, it appears that the sight of naked trees is too racy for YouTube's community guidelines.  Or something like that.  Maybe.  Or maybe.  Or when desks bark sedately in the west.  Please see the more recent page "A Problem" for more information, or at least more confusion.  What it means here is that you can't watch this video right here embedded in the page the way it's meant to be.  To watch it at YouTube you may follow this link:  https://youtu.be/zK3ZM7dGQdU.  You have to be signed in so no children can be traumatised by the sight of grass.  No, I am not making any of this up.

Anyway, opening 6:52 to 6:55 A.M.  I left the park for midday, and on returning found my "usual" table blocked by a baseball game whose rules surprised me.  It was co-ed, and I mainly paid attention to one extremely attractive player, but did notice that hardly anyone was masked, and only the players on the field were socially distanced.  These and other clues eventually convinced me it was a fraternity/sorority thing.  I did finally get to that table before closing, 7:27 to 7:37 P.M.  The employee took so long because he refilled the soap in the men's room (which had been empty since I'd arrived two days earlier), did some cleaning in both rooms, and waited for one last woman.

July 25

At Ravenna Park's lower restrooms, there is no parking lot nearby.  The pickup trucks were parked in at least two locations.  My usual spot (and I stayed these two days mostly there) was the easternmost picnic table near the restrooms, near the men's room but actually within sight of neither door.  In the afternoons when that table gets no shade, I usually spent much of my time north of it, in the shade of the restroom building, often watching the tennis players at the courts nearby.  This was the only "usual spot" where I couldn't at all pretend that people were unlikely to come within 6' of me, and had to spend much of each day masked.  Opening 6:23 to 6:27 A.M.  Closing 7:56 to 7:59 P.M.

July 26

Same park, same restrooms.  I missed both arrivals this day, neither of which parked where those of the 25th had.  Noticed opener by 8:53 A.M.; he unlocked the men's room at 8:56, the women's at 8:58, and restarted the engine at 9:01.  The closer locked the women's room at 6:38 P.M., the men's at 6:39, and restarted the engine at 6:40.

Later

I took July 27 and 28 to recuperate.  By this time I'd decided to do five observations at each park, so on the 29th I started at Laurelhurst, then figured I just had to verify that Cowen Park's and University Playground's restrooms remained locked, get a fifth observation at lower Ravenna, and I'd be done.  Instead I spent the next five nights and six days on an epic quest to record five actual openings and closings of the Cowen Park restrooms.  This entailed many photos not only of locked doors, but also of a maniacal squirrel, so until Blogspot decides I can upload photos again, it'll have to wait.

My Book of Hours, part I: July 17 to 21

 Dear Diary,

Hello again!  I'm sorry it's been so long, but I'd tackled a long project which I only recently finished, after which I really needed some downtime.  So now at last I can report on it.

The short version:  Park restrooms are indeed on their non-"peak" schedule.

The long version:

I went to each local park pair of restrooms that was open during the project - Burke-Gilman Playground Park's, Laurelhurst Community Center's, the upper and lower pairs in Ravenna Park, and finally Cowen Park's.  I observed five restroom openings or closings at each, except six at Cowen Park.  Because I could rarely see both doors at once, and because I didn't want to have to decide whether a restroom had been opened when it was unlocked or when the staffer left it, I recorded times based on what I saw.

Each of the 26 occasions had these features:  A man (I saw no women) drove up in a white Seattle Parks and Recreation pickup truck, along a path vehicles don't normally take, parked in a place vehicles don't normally park, but close to the restrooms, got out and locked or unlocked them, did whatever else they might do, then got back into the trucks and drove away.

So although I sometimes recorded other events, including lockings or unlockings, I focused on the time the pickup's engine stopped, and especially the time it started again.

I took notes of times, and took a video at upper Ravenna and photos at lower Ravenna and especially Cowen Parks, but I remember the least from the first park I did, Burke-Gilman, partly because it's the only one I didn't spend even one whole day at.  (There isn't much shade near those restrooms.)

July 17

At Burke-Gilman Playground Park I usually got a spot adjacent to the men's room, from which I couldn't see the women's room at all.  The parking was usually adjacent to, but not in, a parking lot. The opening was from 7:50 to 7:53 A.M., meaning the truck engine stopped at 7:50 and restarted at 7:53.  I missed the closing, which was completed by 7:09 P.M.

July 18

Same park.   Opening 6:31 to 6:33 A.M.  Closing  ~5:20 P.M. arrival, 6:06 locking (yes, both rooms), 6:07 departure.  (The driver cleaned the restrooms and did other things in between.  This driver had parked further from the restrooms and my spot.)

July 19

Same park.  Opening 7:32 to 7:35 A.M.  Closing - I missed the arrival (I was finishing a book, and not in my usual spot) but know it was after 7:00 P.M.; locking 7:14, departure 7:15.

July 20

Laurelhurst Community Center and Playfield.  The restrooms are in the former, but I observed from a bench in the latter, the one closest to the restrooms, facing the tennis courts.  A parking lot is not far from the usual pickup parking place, but also not as close as at BGPP.  I stayed at the park the whole two days, since it's so hard to reach, and when the bench had too much sun to read on my phone, watched the tennis players, and to a lesser extent the tennis.  Opening (by the gentleman I'd met at Northacres Park) 7:49 to 7:52 A.M.  Closing 6:40 to 6:49 P.M., delayed by the employee's interactions with me (I told him about a problem; he fixed it; he gave me some food); locking was at 6:45.

July 21

Same park.  Opening 6:36 to 6:41 A.M. (unlocking ~6:37; employee then used one of the restrooms).  Closing 7:19 to 7:20 P.M.