Building a Baseline, part VI: Retrenchment

Dear Diary,

In less than two weeks, fall quarter 2026 begins.  I still don't know whether I'll be taking any classes, and so am holding off on writing several things.  But one thing I do know now with some certainty is that I can't visit 500 places and write about them in you to my satisfaction, by the end of October, whether or not I have any classes.  So something has to give.

Two things are going to give.

First, I'm going to concentrate on City of Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation parks for the next two weeks, and to whatever extent I can thereafter, until I've visited all those in North Seattle.  Again, with a deadline of late October.

Second, I'm not going to write much about those visits.  None of those parks are going to be in the area setting this page is based on.  So, starting in November, to the extent allowed by any classes I take or any job I get, I'll resume writing parts of this page, as I'm able to visit the other places on my original list.

I currently have two areas for which I think I'm already done, but which I haven't yet written in this page, around Bitter Lake and around downtown Lake City.  As time allows in the coming weeks, I'll write those up.  Also, I intend to finish the park visits with Meadowbrook {Playfield | Community Center | Pool}, after which I'll get to spend some time at Meadowbrook Pond, and then be ready to write about places around Meadowbrook, the first part subsequent to this water fountain hunt.

One other thing might give.

Carkeek, Golden Gardens and Magnuson parks all have well-documented restrooms (modulo some uncertainty about the history of Magnuson's) and water fountains, and also all have lots of trails.  I promised, earlier in this page, to follow all the trails, and I'm actually finding that a very useful practice.  But I'll leave those three parks for late in whatever time I can spend on you, dear Diary, in case I just can't allocate that much time to them.  Kingfisher Natural Area also has lots of trails, but it isn't at all documented concerning plumbing, so I do think it's time I learnt those trails.

It won't be all Parks parks.  What I'm looking for is restrooms whose doors open to the outside, and outdoor water fountains.  I'm now pretty sure I'm wasting time looking for those things at Seattle Public Schools schools (and I wasn't actually visiting them looking anyway).  But we've already seen both things at Northgate Mall and at Dunn Gardens.  So about a fifth of the places I listed from OpenStreetMap are still on my list, including such large areas as the University of Washington's Seattle campus, North Seattle College, and University Village.  Anywhere I still hope to find the things I'm looking for.

Finally, while this page will languish for some time, "Under Construction", which is about construction this year at Parks parks, should perk right back up with the change of focus.

So we'll still meet again reasonably soon, dear Diary.  Just not so much in this page.  Happy days and nights until we do meet.