After two weeks of stereotypical Seattle weather (cool, gray, and drizzly), summer returned in a big way this weekend with two magnificent days, and plenty more forecast. I took advantage of it by checking off several things from my to-do list.
Friday night I started installing the railing on my deck. I hadn't yet bought all the wood, but I managed to stain and install the four railing posts on the landing (another four will need to be installed at the base of both sets of steps).
Saturday was the big day. I had reserved a UHaul cargo van in the afternoon in hopes of getting rid of the built up construction waste in my garage, and also to pick up the new lumber for the railing. Prior to that, though, I went to a Lasik center to get screened and see if I am a good candidate for the surgery (I am). After that, I headed over to my sailing club to take the exam for the coastal navigation class that I've be in these past two weeks. It took two grueling hours, but I passed. After discussing selling my boat (sadly) with the club's owner, I headed over to UHaul about an hour behind schedule. By the time I got back to my house and started transferring the waste from the garage to the van, I realized I wouldn't have time to go to both the dump and the lumberyard. I chose the former, and I'm glad I did. The loading took a long time, and by the time it was all said and done, I got rid of 780 lbs. of garbage. Quite a workout! That evening, I met up with a friend and we attended the Fremont Oktoberfest, a big beer festival filled with thousands of 20-somethings packed into a small space.
Sunday, I got up bright and early to head over to Dunn Lumber, and managed to spend quite a bit of money on not a whole lot of wood. The real kicker was the post caps for the railing posts -- at $9 a pop these covered about 1/4 of the cost (and about 1/1000 of the weight!). Who knew these were so expensive? After dropping off the van, I headed over to the marina to go for a daysail with m boat partner. What a perfect day for it! Temps in the mid 70's and pleasant wind made for the best conditions in months. We headed up to Kingston for lunch, and by the time we got back to Shilshole around 5pm, I don't think I was ready to get off the water. This was already my 7th day of sailing this month (my 8th will be tomorrow). I think it's a bad addiction!
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Craigslist Rules
For those of you not familiar with it (where have you been hiding?!), Craigslist is a very basic-looking online classified website with local version in most major metropolitan areas of the country, Seattle included. Among things you could list/find there are jobs, housing, personals, and things for sale, not to mention adult stuff, and community stuff. Since I moved out here, I've used it mainly for finding roommates and housing, but I also found my current job on there, and have recently sold a few items. The thing that makes Craigslist work is that people know to go there, and the high traffic leads to an unusually high match rate for someone you're looking for (at least in my case). In many ways, it's a perfect exercise in capitalism.
Some people wonder how they got by without cell phones, or the internet, but in a smaller sense, I wonder how I'd solve some of my problems if Craigslist weren't around. In the last two weeks alone, I've found a buyer for my used laptop ($350.00 for a vintage 2002!), a new roommate, and also multiple plumbers for a slow drain that I have. In each case, I went into it worried that I was asking for too much (or offering too little, in the case of the plumber), but the result was that I got just the right number of replies (meaning I priced things correctly). Had I chosen an alternative route (not eBay, since I've been banned from there), I wouldn't have made out nearly as well. In essence, CL is like an odd mix of eBay and Priceline, where, even if you want a service done for you, you could still set a price and see who comes calling. Chances are, someone will.
Craigslist isn't perfect, of course. There's no quality control on the people that get in touch with you, and so there's the added risk that you might be wasting your time waiting for a buyer to come look at the item you have for sale, or maybe you get a bad plumber. I've experienced this for sure -- most of the time just trying to give away stuff for free, in fact. But the pros overwhelming outweigh the cons, and the result is that I could take care of things in a much more streamlined fashion, and it works out better financially to boot.
Let's hope that Craigslist sticks around for a few more years. It's big and getting bigger, and that means it will increasingly become a target for pranksters trying to take it down, and whiners filing lawsuits for the content it posts (some of which is certainly controversial). In the meantime, I plan on milking it for all it's worth!
Some people wonder how they got by without cell phones, or the internet, but in a smaller sense, I wonder how I'd solve some of my problems if Craigslist weren't around. In the last two weeks alone, I've found a buyer for my used laptop ($350.00 for a vintage 2002!), a new roommate, and also multiple plumbers for a slow drain that I have. In each case, I went into it worried that I was asking for too much (or offering too little, in the case of the plumber), but the result was that I got just the right number of replies (meaning I priced things correctly). Had I chosen an alternative route (not eBay, since I've been banned from there), I wouldn't have made out nearly as well. In essence, CL is like an odd mix of eBay and Priceline, where, even if you want a service done for you, you could still set a price and see who comes calling. Chances are, someone will.
Craigslist isn't perfect, of course. There's no quality control on the people that get in touch with you, and so there's the added risk that you might be wasting your time waiting for a buyer to come look at the item you have for sale, or maybe you get a bad plumber. I've experienced this for sure -- most of the time just trying to give away stuff for free, in fact. But the pros overwhelming outweigh the cons, and the result is that I could take care of things in a much more streamlined fashion, and it works out better financially to boot.
Let's hope that Craigslist sticks around for a few more years. It's big and getting bigger, and that means it will increasingly become a target for pranksters trying to take it down, and whiners filing lawsuits for the content it posts (some of which is certainly controversial). In the meantime, I plan on milking it for all it's worth!
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Hiking Mt. Pilchuck
Mt. Pilchuck is a 5400' peak about a little more than an hour from Seattle. Allegedly it used to have a ski area on it (though from the looks of it, I'd have trouble figuring out just where!). It's in the same area as Heather Lake and Lake 22, both of which I've hiked in the past year, and it has the added benefit of having a fire tower at the top of it. I decided that this Sunday would be a great time to go, and I recruited my friend Todd to join me.
Given the close proximity to Seattle, the trailhead was crowded even though it was a post-Labor Day hike. What surprised me the most is the diversity of people. Normally on the trail, you encounter people that look like they belong on the trail: mostly guys, mostly 20-40, always white. Of the people we passed, though, I'd guess only about 20% qualified as "normal trail people". The rest were teenagers, girlie-girls (you could tell by their baby blue Nike running sneakers or Capri pants), and we even saw the rarest of rare -- a grandmother and her teenage grandson. It's not that it was an easy hike either, since the vertical gain was over 2000' in about 5.5 miles round-trip.
The thing that sets Pilchuck apart from the rest of the hikes in the area was the firetower at the top, and of course, the views that said tower affords. Despite the fog on the south face, we were able to see 360 degrees: Rainier, the Olympics, the Seattle skyline, Baker/Shuksun, Glacier Peak, and all the less famous Cascade peaks. What a view! An added treat were the wild blueberries that lined the upper part of the trail, very similar to the ones we found on Mt. Baker a year ago at this time. Note to self: hiking in September = good blueberries!
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
San Juans, Part II
As advertised, the second part of my weekend featured a trip up to the San Juans to return my boat to Seattle (my boat partner had sailed it up earlier in the weekend). The forecast was for warm and sunny conditions with light to moderate winds, about the best you could expect for early September.
Sunday morning, after missing the early ferry, my friend Kevin and I got to Orcas Island to meet up with Rick and his girlfriend around 11:45. He gave me the boat keys, and I gave him my car keys, and then Kevin and I set out for Sucia Island, north of Orcas. We had wanted to go here on the July 4 trip, but had a change of plans. This time, since we didn't have the inflatable canoe, we couldn't get to shore so it turned into one long motoring trip, returning to Friday Harbor to spend the night.
The next morning we got up bright and early to try to cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca before the afternoon winds and current hit. We made it about halfway across (it is about 15 miles north to south), before the waves started building up to the level of our July4 trip, where it got very uncomfortable. This time, with only two people on board, we had to tough it out as best we could, switching off on helm duty. Shortly after Kevin took the helm, we were in the midst of turning and the shackle that connects the main sheet to the boom broke off. This caused the boom to swing wildly to one side, and since the mainsail was still up, made it difficult to steer the boat. Though I was feeling a little seasick, I had to go up to the foredeck to drop the sail, and then tie it up as best I could, all while rolling along with six foot waves. Fortunately, nothing serious happened to the either of us, but it was sufficiently scary, especially because we still had about two more hours in the straits before we reached calmer water. When we arrived at Port Townsend that evening, I inspected the damage, and saw that the force was so strong it it literally ripped the shackle out of the boom, leaving a big hole in the bottom of the boom. I spent some time jerryrigging the main sheet to a different shackle, so that we could sail the next day if there was wind. Dinner and a few games of pool completed this wild day.
Today (Tuesday) was very uneventful, aside from the fact that we made it back from Port Townsend in just over 4.5 hours (record time!), mostly under motor but with a few stretches of sailing thrown in. I think this will be my last big trip on the boat, as I am ready to sell my share of it in preparation for the big move in a few months. It's been a fun ride, but I think I've gotten everything out of it that I was hoping for, and am ready to move on.
Sunday morning, after missing the early ferry, my friend Kevin and I got to Orcas Island to meet up with Rick and his girlfriend around 11:45. He gave me the boat keys, and I gave him my car keys, and then Kevin and I set out for Sucia Island, north of Orcas. We had wanted to go here on the July 4 trip, but had a change of plans. This time, since we didn't have the inflatable canoe, we couldn't get to shore so it turned into one long motoring trip, returning to Friday Harbor to spend the night.
The next morning we got up bright and early to try to cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca before the afternoon winds and current hit. We made it about halfway across (it is about 15 miles north to south), before the waves started building up to the level of our July4 trip, where it got very uncomfortable. This time, with only two people on board, we had to tough it out as best we could, switching off on helm duty. Shortly after Kevin took the helm, we were in the midst of turning and the shackle that connects the main sheet to the boom broke off. This caused the boom to swing wildly to one side, and since the mainsail was still up, made it difficult to steer the boat. Though I was feeling a little seasick, I had to go up to the foredeck to drop the sail, and then tie it up as best I could, all while rolling along with six foot waves. Fortunately, nothing serious happened to the either of us, but it was sufficiently scary, especially because we still had about two more hours in the straits before we reached calmer water. When we arrived at Port Townsend that evening, I inspected the damage, and saw that the force was so strong it it literally ripped the shackle out of the boom, leaving a big hole in the bottom of the boom. I spent some time jerryrigging the main sheet to a different shackle, so that we could sail the next day if there was wind. Dinner and a few games of pool completed this wild day.
Today (Tuesday) was very uneventful, aside from the fact that we made it back from Port Townsend in just over 4.5 hours (record time!), mostly under motor but with a few stretches of sailing thrown in. I think this will be my last big trip on the boat, as I am ready to sell my share of it in preparation for the big move in a few months. It's been a fun ride, but I think I've gotten everything out of it that I was hoping for, and am ready to move on.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
One Man's Trash...
Today, at the suggestion and with the help of one of my roommates, I participated in hosting a yard sale. This probably doesn't sound like a big deal, but I had never done it before, and so it was hard for me to put values on things I owned (or in some cases, were just left behind in my house).
Fortunately, I didn't have a whole lot of stuff to sell, and the stuff I did sell went relatively quickly. Within the first hour, I sold two of my "big ones" ($20 each). By the end of the day I ended up making $119 and, equally important, got rid of lots of extra "volume" in my house, which will help me when it comes time to move. The yard sale was even more profitable for the other two couples selling at it -- one made over $150 and the other over $500. They'll be back at it again tomorrow while I'm off sailing in the San Juans.
The first highlight of the day came when I tried to sell two shelving units that I had from Pier 1. Initially, I had listed them at $15 each, but later decided that I liked them a little more than that and raised the price to $20. Incidentally, one customer saw them at both prices and was shocked that I raised the price --that's unheard of in yard sales. I told her the early bird special ended, and she should've made an offer when she first them first. But the really funny part of the story is that they sold (for $20 each) about ten minutes later when the mailwoman, of all people, came to deliver the mail and decided she wanted them. She came back in about half an hour with the money and had me load them into the mail van. What a treat!
Aside from selling stuff, the really amusing part of hosting a yard sale was watching your neighborhood pass you by. As you may be familiar with from my past posts, Ballard has its share of eccentrics. While most of them stayed home today, I did get to witness a most unusual event right outside my house. Here's the situation:
A biker dressed up to look the look (picture a Lance Armstrong clone) was flying southbound down 17th Ave. NW. His complete opposite, an older African-American man was struggling up the slight grade northbound in a bike that had seen better days. He was riding on the left side of the street.
The downhill biker rounded the right side of the traffic circle at the intersection and, to my surprise, pointed directly at the man biking uphill, even though there were no cars parked on either side and the street is reasonably wide for two cars, let alone two bikes. They converged at the curb, right in front of me, with both bikes screeching to a halt. Predictably, the downhill guy screamed at the uphill guy -- complete with several expletives -- that he was on the wrong side of the street, even though he went out of his way to ride him off the road. Here's a diagram:
This gives yet more evidence to two of my recent gripes: (1) I don't like bikers that act like self-absorbed primadonnas who think that just because they're not driving, they're a superior human being, and (2) I don't like it when people bring it upon themselves to tell other people how to live. The poor uphill rider was literally attacked by the downhill rider just to prove some kind of silly point. Was he wrong for riding on the left-hand side of the road at about 2 mph? Perhaps. Should anyone really care? Absolutely not. But I guess those are topics for my other blog. :)
Fortunately, I didn't have a whole lot of stuff to sell, and the stuff I did sell went relatively quickly. Within the first hour, I sold two of my "big ones" ($20 each). By the end of the day I ended up making $119 and, equally important, got rid of lots of extra "volume" in my house, which will help me when it comes time to move. The yard sale was even more profitable for the other two couples selling at it -- one made over $150 and the other over $500. They'll be back at it again tomorrow while I'm off sailing in the San Juans.
The first highlight of the day came when I tried to sell two shelving units that I had from Pier 1. Initially, I had listed them at $15 each, but later decided that I liked them a little more than that and raised the price to $20. Incidentally, one customer saw them at both prices and was shocked that I raised the price --that's unheard of in yard sales. I told her the early bird special ended, and she should've made an offer when she first them first. But the really funny part of the story is that they sold (for $20 each) about ten minutes later when the mailwoman, of all people, came to deliver the mail and decided she wanted them. She came back in about half an hour with the money and had me load them into the mail van. What a treat!
Aside from selling stuff, the really amusing part of hosting a yard sale was watching your neighborhood pass you by. As you may be familiar with from my past posts, Ballard has its share of eccentrics. While most of them stayed home today, I did get to witness a most unusual event right outside my house. Here's the situation:
A biker dressed up to look the look (picture a Lance Armstrong clone) was flying southbound down 17th Ave. NW. His complete opposite, an older African-American man was struggling up the slight grade northbound in a bike that had seen better days. He was riding on the left side of the street.
The downhill biker rounded the right side of the traffic circle at the intersection and, to my surprise, pointed directly at the man biking uphill, even though there were no cars parked on either side and the street is reasonably wide for two cars, let alone two bikes. They converged at the curb, right in front of me, with both bikes screeching to a halt. Predictably, the downhill guy screamed at the uphill guy -- complete with several expletives -- that he was on the wrong side of the street, even though he went out of his way to ride him off the road. Here's a diagram:
This gives yet more evidence to two of my recent gripes: (1) I don't like bikers that act like self-absorbed primadonnas who think that just because they're not driving, they're a superior human being, and (2) I don't like it when people bring it upon themselves to tell other people how to live. The poor uphill rider was literally attacked by the downhill rider just to prove some kind of silly point. Was he wrong for riding on the left-hand side of the road at about 2 mph? Perhaps. Should anyone really care? Absolutely not. But I guess those are topics for my other blog. :)
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