We Interrupt This Broadcast

Dear Diary,

The long hike I took earlier this week tired me out plenty, but my aversion to doing another very soon was strengthened by my cart adding its own complaints.  Two nights ago (May 6) the right front wheel came loose; it had lost three spokes on one side.  Also, enough rubber has worn away from the right rear wheel that in places it's rolling on its rim.

I used to push the cart on its rear wheels most of the time, but it turns out to be somewhat different when I can't push it on four wheels.  And it takes more energy to push it two-wheeled; that's why, with the extra hiking current circumstances require, I'd switched to four wheels in the first place.

So I haven't been hiking much.  I've managed to write one page in you, dear Diary, on the basis of the parks department website, but can't make that a regular thing.

That said, here's one more page based on the website.  Yesterday's page critiqued it; today's draws on its information.

I found 109 things the department identifies as parks in North Seattle.  Two of those are trails.  45 of the rest are east of I-5, 62 west.

I've divided the area east of I-5 into three sections.  I've tried to cover the parks south of, say, 60th St, plus Magnuson Park,  fairly fully:

Burke-Gilman Playground Park (most pages)

Cowen Park (a fair number of pages)

Laurelhurst Community Center and Playfield (some pages, including one page mainly about the playfield)

Magnuson Park (mainly in three pages, one two three with bits and pieces elsewhere)

Ravenna Park (many pages)

University Playground (a fair number of pages)

The only news I have of these is that BGPP's men's room dryer isn't working.

It turns out I was ignoring a solid majority of local parks.  I'd managed to find out about Christie Park (for which see mainly this page, and to which the website seems to attribute a water fountain after all) but here are the rest:

• Belvoir Place
• Fritz Hedges Waterway Park
• Park Home Circle (near Ravenna Park)
• Peace Park (with which I was at least already familiar)
• Ravenna Boulevard (near Ravenna Park and already familiar)
• Ravenna Woods (near Ravenna Park)
• Union Bay Boglands (already familiar)
• University Heights Plaza (already familiar)

The website appears to attribute plumbing to none of these, but the last listed currently hosts "sanicans" and a hand-washing station.  Anyway, as I get used to handling the cart's current configuration, I'll try to get myself to visit these, verify the absence of plumbing, and take pictures.

The hike that took the cart down stretched from 60th to 110th Streets.  In the resulting page, I covered these parks briefly, without pictures (although it also includes a section on Magnuson Park with pictures):

• Bryant Playground
• Dahl Playfield
• Froula Playground
• Inverness Ravine Park
• Matthews Beach
• Meadowbrook Community Center and Playfield
• Ravenna-Eckstein Park
• View Ridge Playfield

It turns out I was better informed on this area than on my own neighbourhood; I'd only missed five more:

• Mock Creek Ravine
• Nathan Hale Playfield (seems my old map was right about it after all)
• Ravenna Ravine
• University Circle
• Wedgwood Square

Again, the website seems to mention no plumbing; I'll try to get to them to verify after the new wheels arrive.

The remaining 17 parks east of I-5 are between Lake City Way and I-5, or north of 110th St.  These too await the new wheels.

Finally, there are the 62 west of I-5.  My original goal was to reach the Ballard cliff; several parts of it familiar to me are hard for me to traverse with the cart, and anyway by no stretch of the imagination is Ballard in northeast Seattle.  But it would be unreasonable to ignore places like Gas Works, Woodland and Green Lake Parks.  I'm not at all sure yet how many of these 62 I'll look at.

So here's my point, dear Diary.  I've been writing in you as close to daily as I could manage.  That will pause today.  I'm not sure how many times I'll write in the interim, to repeat that nothing has changed in the local parks I've been covering or to add pictures of the ones I've been ignoring.  Once I have new wheels, I intend to return to writing daily until, dear Diary, we're done.  Good night.

Tell Me

Dear Diary,

Whew.  I just finished going through the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation's online list of parks, looking for the ones in North Seattle. I still have to verify that all those I listed are in North Seattle on my map, but there are certainly over a hundred.

At first it mystified me that the department's website doesn't - or at least seems not to - offer its own map.  But I can think of a couple of reasonably good reasons.

First, scale.  Some parks are huge, others tiny.  It's not unlike trying to get Russia and Vatican City onto a map at the same scale.  This problem is fundamental.

Second, there are park properties nested within each other, like Laurelhurst Community Center within Laurelhurst Playfield.  This problem can be solved in various ways.

So, no map.  What the department offers instead is a list of, currently, 413 parks.  (You get to this via the menu on the department's home page.)  They're presented by initial letter, mostly but not entirely alphabetically, grouped by four initial letters (e.g. EFGH) and then into pages of 25 parks.  Each entry on each page links to that park's main page.  The parks' names are presented inconsistently with regard to parks named after people; sometimes the surname is used, sometimes the whole name.

There are separate lists of community centers and pools.  If you click on the list of amenities, you get information about the listed amenities, but not necessarily information about which parks offer them.

Each park's main page offers one photo big; many also offer thumbnails of other photos, but flipside, I'm almost sure some of the smaller or more obscure parks are represented by stock photos.

Each park's page lists an address, the park's hours, and such, and has some text.  The wide variations in the text make another element present in many pages important; this is a list of "amenities", represented visually with symbols, not text.  There's certainly a symbol for restrooms, and I think the symbol showing waves in a cup probably means water fountains.  Sometimes a list of amenities in the text, however, includes ones whose symbols aren't in the list of symbol-coded amenities.

It all looks to me like a system that has grown organically, without much planning.

It's said that Seattle's parks levy, for capital projects, is in the red.  Since a serious upgrade to the website should certainly be treated as a capital project, that means it can't happen soon.  But having moved to Seattle in the first place to study databases, I'll pretend to be qualified to make some suggestions for that far-off day.

The department already codes parks by region, as shown in the announcement of seasonal closures linked to a couple of pages ago, dear Diary.  If it put those codes into the parks' pages, and then used them as links, someone who'd just moved into a neighbourhood and wanted to find all the local parks wouldn't have to go through all 413.  The amenities lists could be made links as they stand, though ideally they'd be made more thorough first.  (To be fair, the addresses already link to Google Maps.)

And these are just my ideas.  A really proper redesign would actually be an example of Seattle Process.  You're supposed to go around asking potential users what they want.

Right now, the department certainly has more important things to do, and as I said, money could be an issue for longer.  I just wanted to make the suggestions now, since for some unaccountable reason I don't much want to go through all 413 again.

Foolish Mortal

Dear Diary,

Unsurprisingly, I haven't kept to the schedule announced in the last page I wrote.  I've now gone through 155 of the 413 parks the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation currently lists, looking for North Seattle parks.  I hope to finish that tomorrow before going to Green Lake, but don't know when I'll be done visiting the parks I think relevant.

Anyway, today I felt very lazy, and actually used Safeway's restroom and University Village's water.  But I'd promised myself that I'd return to the three closed restrooms at more reasonable times, and the website had said Christie Park still existed, so I wanted to check that out.

At Ravenna lower, between 6:09 and 6:27, the restrooms were open and the water fountain not running.

At Ravenna upper, at 6:40, everything was the same as last night:  men's room locked, women's room unlocked, water fountain running.  I infer from this that you, dear Diary, still don't have a regular reader in the department.

At Cowen Park, at 6:59, same-same, but the leaves at the entrance to the men's room were leaking a puddle.  Well, maybe it was rain.

It occurred to me on this visit that I hadn't posted any photos of neat stuff from Cowen Park.  This is partly because the park irritates me, with my cart - practically all its paths are gravel or stairs - and partly because, for that reason, I usually leave my cart and so am in a hurry.  This time I picked two things I'd probably consider neat if they were in a more reasonable park.  A sort of spinner ride:

and another sundial:

I also wanted to illustrate an earlier mistake of mine.  A prominent feature of one side of the park is a huge, complex jumble that I'd seen people in, and I was sure it was an encampment of my peers.  No, it's actually a gardeners' storage - but doesn't it really look like an encampment?

Speaking of which, I forgot to note the time at University Playground, but it was before 7:35.  Still pretty late to draw conclusions from locked doors.  This time, however, one of the gentlemen camping there was sitting out, so I asked him if he ever saw those doors unlocked, and he said no.

I reported correctly last night on what was at the site I thought my old map indicated as Christie Park, but if my map really said that it was wrong.  The park is at the southwest corner of 43rd St and 9th Ave, and is still there, though closed for an expansion and renovation:

No idea whether either the before or the after would have a water fountain.

Oh, well, dear Diary, I've kept at this so late that tomorrow will be a real problem if no parks open timely.  (It's a day when Safeway has senior hours until 9 A.M.)  So good night.

Go North, Aging Man!

Dear Diary,

I'm very sorry this is late again, but I can't swear it won't happen again, because it probably will, tomorrow night and the one after.  I told you I'd tried to visit the parks of northeastern Seattle when I was in touch with Erica C. Barnett.  Well, it's time to make good on that promise.

Tonight's set is the parks between I-5, Lake City Way, 110th St, and the water, but only the parks shown on my old 2003 Rand McNally map of Seattle.  Unfortunately I lost that map on one of the last visits, so I can't violate its copyright and show you pictures.

Tomorrow I'll use the official list of parks to cover the ones between Lake City Way and I-5, on Thursday whatever I can of the ones west of I-5.  I hope one of those days also to cover parks omitted from the following list because they weren't on my map.

Anyway, I'm not trying to provide full overviews of all these parks, just put the parks I am covering more fully into context.  I wanted to know whether two aspects of the local parks were unusual:

1. Lots of closed restrooms; and 
2. Most water fountains not running.

In this group of parks, both these things are extremely unusual, but in opposite directions.  I only found one more closed pair of restrooms to add to the four I already knew about.  But the two running water fountains I'd already found are all the running water fountains I could find in the parks of this half of northeast Seattle.

I'm using this list to identify year-round restrooms and, by exclusion, seasonal ones.

So to proceed up Sand Point Way from where I sleep to:

1. Burke-Gilman Playground Park.

Restrooms, one pair, open, seasonal.
Water fountain, running.

I arrived at 7:14 A.M. to find the restrooms already open, and the water fountain, which projects from the restroom building, running.  So I did my morning routine, eating the deli salad I'd bought the night before and drawing three bottles of water, drinking one.

Further along Sand Point Way to:

2. Warren G. Magnuson Park.

Three restroom pairs (plus one dead pair and three ghosts), two pairs open, the beach one year-round, the other two seasonal.
At least four water fountains, none running.

I wanted to cover things I'd left out of previous posts this time.  So:

• The dryer still doesn't work in the beach men's room.  (The beach water fountain doesn't project from the building, but is actually inset into it.  It's a mystery to me why that fountain is ever shut off. EDIT 10/19 - Because it isn't inset into the building. I believed this when I wrote it, but it's never been true.)
• There in fact are no "sanicans" near parking lot E4.
• Someone got halfway through updating an events board, leaving the old listings piled next to the board:
  
• I wanted to get a better picture of the ducks.  People kept walking their dogs off-leash along that stretch of shore, breaking two rules at once near as I can tell, and sending the ducks wherever we homeless go when swept (I later saw one pair along the Burke-Gilman Trail), but finally I got a chance:
  

By this time my phone was dying, so I turned it off soon after.  Thus no more times for a long while, and no more pictures at all.

Up Sand Point Way to 95th, before checking the map and finding the turn at 93rd, oops.  This part of the trip provided opportunities to play many entertaining and instructive geographical games such as "Find the Sidewalk".

3. Matthews Beach.

Two pairs of restrooms, one pair open, which is open year-round.
One water fountain, projecting from the restroom building, not running.  I may well have missed more.

The restrooms that are open are two single-user "all-gender" rooms, as at Laurelhurst Community Center.  The ones that are closed are men's and women's, and include showers.  Those could be helpful to the stressed-out employed homeless mentioned in my previous post, but the sign on the women's room door says it's a "seasonal" closure, and I'm sure nobody could want an out-of-season shower.

Back up Sand Point Way to 95th, then along 95th:

4.  Thornton Creek Natural Area.

I not only didn't see any sign of plumbing, I didn't see any sign of trails that might lead to plumbing. (EDIT 10/19 - This part of the massive Thornton Creek complex of Natural Areas was renamed "Chinook Passage Natural Area" in 2019.)

Further along 95th to 35th Ave, then north on that to:

5. Meadowbrook Swimming Pool, Community Center, and Playfield.

Presumably the swimming pool has showers, closed as it is.  The community center is closed too, not keeping its regular 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. hours, except that its child care still runs 8:30 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. and it offers showers, according to a woman encountered in the parking lot, 2 to 7 P.M.  Presumably people there for either purpose also have access to toilets, sinks and water fountains.  In the playfield behind the building(s),

One restroom pair, open, seasonal
Three water fountains, one projecting from the restroom building, none running

My map confused high school playfields with parks, but skipping on past Nathan Hale, along 110th Street the short distance to 30th Avenue, then down 30th Avenue, which turns into Ravenna Avenue, to 103rd, beyond which my map showed more of Thornton Creek Natural Area. (EDIT 10/19 - This is "Lavilla Meadows Natural Area".)  Still no trails.

On to 98th St, where I crossed to Lake City Way.  The long hike south on Lake City Way took me past much of Thornton Creek's backside, whether it was a Natural Area or just a sort of natural area. (EDIT 10/19 - Apparently the latter.)  The hike also provided many opportunities for such exercises in self-knowledge as "Watch Myself Sunburn".  I bought a bag of tortilla chips, my preferred salt delivery system, at the first food source on my side of the road, a Seven-Eleven.  Finally, at 72nd St and 12th Ave (LCW having been et by I-5):

6. Froula Playground.

I saw no plumbing. (EDIT 10/19 - It's actually a park built on a still-operating reservoir's land. So this was careless of me to say, but it was also careless park-building.)

Not only my old map, but my much less detailed new 2016 map also thinks Roosevelt High School is a park.

But this had brought me to 12th Ave and 65th St; a quick walk along the latter and some fiddling with other streets got me into:

7. Ravenna-Eckstein Park

This is so dominated by a community center that I didn't expect any outdoor plumbing, but I was wrong; near a parkward door in the building is

One water fountain, not running

More fiddling got me to 25th Ave, which I took to 77th St and:

8. Waldo J. Dahl Playfield

One pair of restrooms, open, year-round
One water fountain, I don't remember where, not running

One of the biggest deficiencies Seattle's park men's rooms really have is privacy.  I suppose some of the, for example, missing doors, could be the result of vandalism, but in most cases it seems designed that way, probably to ensure nobody has any fun in there.  (Admittedly, some of the fun thus deterred tends to leave needles behind.)

Anyway, I'd talked myself out of testing men's rooms after Matthews Beach (which passed), but I needed to do Number One pretty badly by this time.  And thus found out that in that men's room, anyone who walks in immediately sees the toilet, and anyone seated on it. (EDIT 10/19 - Not quite true. Anyone who walks in will collide with a wall unless they turn left, and then they'll immediately see the toilet.)   I was lucky, nobody walking in while I was there, but seems to me that's a lawsuit begging to happen.

That men's room was also out of soap, and has no dryer.  Not recommended.

East on 80th St to ... 28th Ave.  Both my maps said 80th went through to 45th Ave; both lied.  So up to 85th St and across, then back down to 80th to actually reach this part of 45th, which I took until it ended. This part of the hike, and the next, were enlivened by an incredible profusion of Little Free Libraries and such, though I didn't find any books I wanted.

9. Inverness Ravine Park.

I left this park convinced I hadn't found it, only to be set right by a friendly neighbour.  Turns out it has three accesses, but two are blocked by blackberry bushes.  The one on 45th is thus the only way in, but only across private land, and until a few years ago the owner blocked it.  So there's no signage, and no such "improvements" as I'm telling you, dear Diary, about, but he said there is "plumbing":  a sewer line runs through the ravine.

Back down 45th all the way to:

10. View Ridge Playfield

One pair of restrooms, open, year-round
One water fountain, not running

This time I decided to ask some people where all the water fountains were hidden.  Turns out there was a water fountain near the restrooms as usual, but it was removed so as "to not spread germs".

Now I'd like to,believe this means the device was, say, hopelessly infested with E. coli, but I actually suspect this is a preview of Seattle's main excuse for discarding its inheritance for the next fifty years.  I mean, "Let's wreck this before the junkies do", or "the homeless", always seemed obviously idiotic, for all that it often won anyway.  But the nihilism behind "to not spread germs" isn't so clear.  (Hint:  "I don't know who's touched this car / house / clothing / food, so I won't use it.")  And in Seattle, I suspect it'll mainly be used, as here, to get rid of public amenities.

Further down 45th, plus some more fiddling:

11. Bryant Playground

One water fountain, not running

I then returned to BGPP (this is when I saw the ducks on the trail).  EDIT:  By this time I was really thirsty, after all, and if I wanted more water, that was where I had to go.

My old map showed a waterfront park in the Windermere complex, Windermere Park, but said it was private.  Now, I don't know it's still private.  I do know that through an imposing gate one can see no buildings, and that the whole block in front of that gate is full of "No Parking" signs except where one black car is parked.  But mainly I know that there's no Seattle Parks signage, which means I don't have to cover this park

From there I went through the local parks, except for BGPP.  But there was a surprise at the first, Laurelhurst Playfield.  A clock seen through a community center window read 7:40; the sun was going down, so this was P.M.  But the restrooms (year-round) were locked.  I knocked on the doors - were both just in,use?  No answer.  Well, the community center had been closed since before the time change - surely it was really 8:40?  That got me out of the park, but six pieces of evidence over the next forty minutes showed the clock really meant 7:40 P.M. PDT.

Between hiking and a stop at the U-Village Safeway, none of the other times were shocking.  Ravenna Park lower (year-round) was locked at 8:56.  (I'd turned my phone back on.)  The Ravenna Park upper (seasonal) men''s room was locked at 9:10, but the women's room wasn't, and I'm sorry, dear Diary, but we have a solution to the mystery of the light in the night.  That light keeps coming on at night, but probably both times I've found doors there unlocked have been the work of non-parks employees such as the persons I found near the women's room that night.

Anyway, Cowen Park's rooms (seasonal) were locked at 9:29, but this time they were brilliantly lit, so I could see that the huge drift of leaves at the men's room doorway hadn't been disturbed.  University Playground's doors (seasonal) were locked shortly after 10 P.M.  But the main reason I re-visited all these parks was to check their water fountains.  None ran except Ravenna upper's, just like last time.

I came back to campus via one last park on my old map, Christie Park.  It was a tiny one at the southwest corner of 43rd St and Roosevelt.  But the Jack Straw Cultural Center is there now, closed.  EDIT:  THIS IS COMPLETELY WRONG.  SEE NEXT POST.

Further on my way, I drank from the street water fountain on 15th Ave just south of 43rd, and noticed that the building whose shrubbery it's in is to be demolished.

What a weird series of events!  Dear Diary, I may not have time today to go to Northgate after all; I haven't even started going through the official list of parks.  So maybe today's proper page will come before midnight after all.

Metropolitan Market or, Reliability

Dear Diary,

I live on food stamps, which for some years were exactly $6.40 per day of a 30-day month.  With these, I buy four categories of food:  cheddar cheese in 2-lb blocks, loaves of whole-wheat bread, "calories" and "vitamins".  Calories, meant to represent the cost of sleeping outside, is usually a whole box of cookies.  Vitamins is usually between 1/2 and 1 lb of deli salads.  So I buy those two things every weekday, and bread as needed, and that's easy enough, but the cheese?

Well, each weekend I buy a big box of cheap sandwich cream cookies, a pack of bologna, some green onions and a green pepper, and either a bag of shredded cabbage or a few carrots, all meant to last two days, leaving the second day's $6.40 to cover the cost of the cheese.

One way I've dealt with the difficulty of doing Number Two lately is to eat less bread and more cookies and salad.  But the weekend's sandwiches (with fewer sliced vegetables since the cutting board and knife are harder to wash) matter to my finances, so for weekends I resign myself to doing Number Two twice per day.  The weekend of April 25 and 26, I ran into trouble one night thanks to friends.  This past weekend - well, last night and this morning - I think I was punished for saying I didn't value enough buildings' protection against vermin.

So at 9:15 P.M. last night, as I was loading my depleted food bag, last satchel, into my cart so I could go to Safeway, an odd insect landed in it, and all my efforts to get it out only pushed it further in.  Of course I didn't reach Safeway in time to use its restroom, but it wasn't that urgent.  Yet.

This morning I woke at 6:00, and by the time I got going at 6:40, it was getting urgent.  I was able to hold out at Burke-Gilman Playground Park until 7:32, then, drawn by the rumour of a customers' restroom at Metropolitan Market nearby, went there.

They were doing their seniors' hour, so I went and waited some more at BGPP, but at 8:06 gave up.

Confusing directions brought me not to the store's customer restrooms, but to their employee break room, where a woman kindly offered to show me the right way, then, seeing me struggle to get my cart back down the stairs, even more kindly sent me to the employee restrooms, which are on the ground floor.  There, well, let's just say I left rather less toilet paper than I'd found.  So I spent $9.40 of food stamps and bought a newspaper too.

When I got back to BGPP the restrooms were open, and I could do the rest of my current morning routine in peace.

There was at least one bit of neat stuff this morning near the customer restrooms I didn't see:  Snow.  In Seattle.  In May.  Well, no, of course not, it was pretty icy, and was probably shaved ice left over from something they'd received, but it was still neat.

Anyway, I couldn't help wondering, this morning, what if I had a job?  This may sound implausible, but actually, a fair number of homeless people work.  I have, myself, two winters of tax preparation.  Those times, I joined a health club to get reliable showers and such - but now, tax preparation is "essential", but health clubs aren't.  Of course a worker would need a shower, so no park restroom would be enough, but surely no employee should have to tolerate a morning like I had.

Metropolitan Market posts its hours, and keeps to the hours it posts.  It is reliable.  In contrast, the park restrooms' hours are only posted in obscure places, and unrealistically pretend that all the rooms are unlocked at 7 A.M. and locked at 9 P.M.; unsurprisingly, in practice, those hours aren't kept to.

Of course, Metropolitan Market is a retail store, with owners who make their money from customers.  In contrast, the parks make their money from taxes, and are owned by the city, right?  What's that you say, they're public land funded by the public?  What a silly notion.  If that were true, wouldn't they be responsible to the public, the way Metropolitan Market is to its owners and customers?

So it's wrong for us to expect anything different, but still, melancholy reflections on the plight of my employed peers weighed me down, and I hadn't the heart even to visit Ravenna Park today.

Inside

Dear Diary,

Today's yet another day of no news.  In Burke-Gilman Playground Park everything worked, the restroom opened soon after 7:30 A.M.  In lower Ravenna Park the restroom was open, the water fountain not running; in upper Ravenna Park the restroom was locked, the water fountain running.  So no, I didn't look at any more.

Dear Diary, you aren't going to get much longer.  I'd love it if, when your last page was written, every restroom was unlocked and every water fountain worked, but I don't think that would be a smart way to bet any more.  There is, however, another possible happy ending.

In normal times, I spend most of my waking hours in Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington.  A librarian there once said to me, "You know, you get a lot of free stuff from this library."  She didn't sound like she believed what she was saying - that is, she sounded like she thought I didn't know.  Oh, but I did, and do now.  Let me count the ways...

Running water.  Your main topic, dear Diary.  I prefer being inside because of this above all.  All I have to do to appreciate what a great gift this is, is remember my first Christmas homeless, huddled in my sleeping bag, fasting, begging for a bar's restroom by evening's end anyway...

Protection from vermin.  This is one I tend to genuinely appreciate a little less than I should.  Every summer some house flies get into the buildings I frequent and I get cranky.  But outside?  The biggest rats I've ever seen are those I've seen these last weeks.  Many kinds of insects, and some birds, also pay attention to me and to my food.  It's nerve-racking.

Shelter.  It's much, much easier to avoid both sun and rain indoors.  Well, duh; that's what buildings are centrally for.  EDIT:  Oh, and this week of all weeks, how could I have forgotten about the wind?

Electricity.  Yes, some public buildings restrict use of their indoor electricity, but they all restrict their outdoor power.  I have to break the law every time I charge the phone I write you on, dear Diary.  And as a consequence of this one,

Computers.  This may sound library-specific, but no, the reason I'm not using a laptop right now is that I have no way to charge it.

Research materials.  OK, this one is library-specific.  How different would you be, dear Diary, if I could just look up the history of Magnuson Park?

Temperature control.  When I tell people that I prefer to stay inside, this is always their first thought.  Well, no, I was raised in Wisconsin by a dedicated Scout leader who believed in winter camping; I don't need buildings to stay warm.  They sure do help, though.

Books.  This is the first thought of everyone I tell that I spend most of my time in libraries.  No one library has everything I want to read, but several have enough I want to read.

Paper towels.  Now that I have both a cart and some cash, this seems silly and minor; but before the cart, I kept getting rolls of paper towels soaked and being unable to replace them.

Suzzallo won't re-open before late June, according to Governor Inslee, but Suzzallo isn't the only building I frequent on campus, and if any of the others re-opened, it would be a happy ending for me, though not for most of my peers.  We'll see, dear Diary.

Laurelhurst Playfield

Dear Diary,

Today, as planned, I went to the nice, but hard to reach park I've mentioned before.  Technically, the restrooms are in the Laurelhurst Community Center, which is a building located within Laurelhurst Playfield.

I went quite early, and was astonished that a man came to open the restrooms just minutes after the park's opening time of 6 A.M.  I used the same room as I'd embarassed myself in before, so there's nothing new to report about that.

But today I explored the playfield more thoroughly than before, partly looking for water fountains.  First, though, the only neat stuff near the restrooms that isn't out of reach behind the Community Center's locked doors:  two fixtures in a playground just north of the building that offer visual appeal for adults as well as fun for kids.  One sort of pays attention to a treehouse theme:

The other follows its historical ferry theme rather more closely.  (The Laurelhurst neighbourhood has a shore on Lake Washington, where this ferry operated.)  The equipment is for children ages 2 to 5:

But the historical explanation is definitely aimed higher in age:

Beyond the playground is a Little League bsseball field, and there's a water fountain behind home plate:

Across the playfield's central grassy sward is another such diamond, with an identical fountain:

The water fountain I've mentioned before, visible from the restroom area, a little downhill near the tennis courts, is more old-fashioned:

All three fountains are surrounded by unpaved areas, so of dubious accessibility with wheels.  None was running at 6 A.M. on May 2.

Laurelhurst Playfield's own candidate for neat stuff is a fire pit, which they say dates to 1926 and is the only one in the park system:

If the other park water fountains ever get turned on, I'll come back to check on this park