Dear Diary,
They said this winter would probably be cold and wet. So far, half right. It's certainly been wet, and part of my fear of rain comes from the certainty that nothing that gets wet will dry out anytime soon. But even though I've been shivering a lot, it hasn't been all that cold. My basic clothing right now, thanks to my own lazy refusal to go change, is absurdly underdressed for winter, and the only reason I'm getting away with it is mild temperatures.
We should, in fact, dear Diary, consider this in relation to your upcoming birthday. Our wonderful mayor was getting a lot of criticism, last March, because she sent people to closed park restrooms. Well, that was careless (and it isn't a good thing that her parks department is repeating the mistake this year) but many of those restrooms should in fact have stayed closed; the last night to reach the mid-30s was April 13, one week after she ordered those rooms opened.
Um, so, anyway. It's been warm. Most of the time these days, when climbing hills with my cart, I regret it if I don't actually strip down to my seasonally inappropriate T-shirt. And since it was close to noon, of course that happened yesterday as I climbed Maple Leaf Hill. I'd tried to use the topographic maps I've downloaded to plan my travels, and it partly worked, but it was still uphill.
N 45th St
But first I have to backtrack a bit; last night I forgot something important. On my way to Wallingford Playfield I knew I'd pass the street water fountain on N 45th St near Wallingford Ave N, in front of QFC.
Now, in "Water Fountains: Things We've Lost, Part II" on May 1, I boldly claimed that these street fountains stayed on all winter, little dreaming that when winter came I'd still be writing you and accountable for that. I strongly suspect what allows this to work is heat supplied by nearby institutions, which would explain deference the fountains sometimes show to their neighbours, most obviously the one painted red in front of Bartell Drugs at 5th Ave and Stewart St.
I already knew that the peculiar fountain on 15th Ave NE south of NE 43rd St had stopped running, though not whether that was for the winter or permanently (due to its damage and to construction nearby). And the street-style fountain on the Burke-Gilman Trail had been shut off, but that happens every winter.
So I made a deal with myself. If the fountain was working, I'd get the day's groceries at the QFC that probably made that possible. It was, so I happily, um, well, no, in the rain it was actually a tedious nuisance, but still, I was able to fill my bottles. And on my way from Wallingford Playfield to Meridian Playground went and got the day's food at QFC.
Maple Leaf Reservoir Park
I first told you, dear Diary, about this park May 29, in "South to and from Northgate". The first pictures I showed you were in "Standing Room Only, Part V: Elsewhere" November 24, but rather more came three days later in "The Kingdom of the Winds".
Between that, and worry that I'd have to deal again with the harasser mentioned in that page, and the fact that the park was crowded enough (though socially distanced) to give me some trouble finding a place to eat the food I'd bought - well, on this visit, I only took the three photos I'd come to take:
Last winter, these rooms were supposed to stay open, and they're on both the current HSD and the outdated Parks maps; no surprises here.
As I got ready to leave, a man with an accent similar to the harasser's, but not similar in voice or appearance, asked me for cash, and I refused.
Northgate Park, Community Center and Library
Turns out the peak of Maple Leaf Hill is actually on Roosevelt, so I went down to 5th Ave NE to avoid it. I resisted the impulse to hike into Beaver Pond Natural Area to photograph the South Fork of Thornton Creek. My missions were: Northgate Community Center, to photograph its closed doors, and Target, to replace my umbrella.
At first I went to what turned out to be the wrong door of the Community Center, where I found something astonishing.
Anyway, it was the wrong door, so I went round front. The postcard shot:
And the closed door:
Now, that sign is arguably not entirely true. This page offers signup for child care starting Tuesday, September 8, which means 2020, at a bunch of community centres, including four in North Seattle: Bitter Lake, Meadowbrook, Ravenna-Eckstein - and Northgate. Considerable physical evidence attests that this care is in fact being provided at Northgate, which would explain all the health check stuff at the door. (Why check the health of people entering the building if nobody is entering it?) However, I haven't seen actual kids, so still could be wrong.
Anyway, as I turned to go, I found something else astonishing.
This is not, up to right now, on either the HSD or the Parks map. Now, the Parks map may be bureaucratically restricted, showing only things Parks pays for; that might explain its omissions both at University Playground and here. (Though that's not a very helpful sort of map.) Alternatively, this might be omitted from the Parks map if its physical location is actually the library's property.
But library and park are both city property, so unless this "sanican" unlocked itself and walked to Northgate from a nearby construction site, it's city-funded - which should qualify it for the HSD map. And I wrote to HSD nearly 24 hours ago now. I'm mildly surprised their map still omits it.
As to the interior? Plenty of toilet paper, but dear Diary, did you remember the angle of that doohickey in yesterday's photo?
Another "sanican" without sanitiser. This makes four now.
Well, I went to Target, and found the last umbrella of the same size and colour that they had. Then I checked my phone and found that I was nearing my photo limit. So I went to
Hubbard Homestead
And while I sat on an already mostly dry wooden bench there and played a trick on my phone to let me take more photos, I remembered that I still have not shown you, dear Diary, a single picture of this unassuming park where I have now several times stopped for such utilitarian purposes. I didn't have time to study the park properly, but hope these two photos conveniently close to where I'd sat will tide you over, dear Diary, until I do.
A pond. I hadn't at all remembered a pond.
I need to get moving, dear Diary, but still hope to find time to write another page in you tonight. We'll see. [EDIT a few hours later, but technically the next day. Nope, I've gathered the data but they still don't make sense to me, so not tonight. Good night, dear Diary.]
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