Abandoned Pages, part X: Counties

Dear Diary,

We're almost done here.  This is the last of these from your youth, in this case December 2022; next comes one from late 2024, then updates on the two current pages.

Why?

I'm really not sure.

This was definitely conceived as a desk project, like library hours, and in fact with the library hours remit of western Washington.

It was much my most vainglorious idea, but at least I had the sense to start small, with Skamania County.

What?

The only post was an introduction, claiming that I could find all the public restrooms in each county using online sources.

It turned out that the job grew substantially in the doing, even with the first, simplest county, in which, for example, I tallied but didn't name fifteen settlements:

1. Stevenson, county seat, incorporated, in my terms a "city"
2. North Bonneville, incorporated, "city"
3. Carson, census-designated place, "city"
4. North Washougal River, "suburb"
5. Underwood, "suburb"
6. Prindle, "hamlet"
7. a "hamlet" around Volcanic Manufacturing
8. Cook, a "hamlet"
9. Northwoods, a "village"
10. Skamania, a "village"
11. Stabler, a "village"
12. Home Valley, a "village"
13. Mill A, a "village"
14. Mount Pleasant, a "rural centre"
15. Hood, a conglomeration adding up to a "rural centre"

It's characteristic of Skamania County that both its suburbs are suburban to cities in other counties:  Underwood to White Salmon in Klickitat County, and North Washougal River to Washougal in Clark County.

Why not?

Because I got a very demanding job and spent what little free time I had on a restroom hike of North Seattle, which I didn't quite complete.

And because, when that job ended, I looked wearily at the mountain of material I'd accumulated on Skamania County and thought "How I work is to go places and take pictures.  Why should this be an exception?"

What now?

Why indeed?

There's something repulsive to me about passing judgement from afar.

And there is public transport to eighteen of the counties of western Washington, though to do San Juan County properly, I'd need a private boat to the smaller islands.

But I turn 59 in two days.  Let's say I get a good job, and it's an accounting job.  Then vacation is mandatory, to catch any fraud.  I could study each county for a year, then visit it for two weeks.

Until I was 78?

And restroom availability doesn't just change in winter in Seattle.

Also, recent hikes have shown me I'm a lot more scared of heights than I used to be, and there are lots of mountains in western Washington, and specifically in Skamania County.

This task would obviously be impossible homeless, but just as obviously if I got a good job, especially if that meant sharing my life with others with their own views on how best to vacation.

Maybe funding could get it done, but maybe not.  I think this project was too vainglorious from the start.

It is true, though, that I'd like to see those Skamania County settlements I studied.  Though not with the aim of telling you, dear Diary, whatever the county does wrong. 

Good night, dear Diary.