Category: Seattle Life

Spring Forward…

In a few short weekends Daylight Saving Time and the dread “Spring Forward” returns. That day when an hour of our day is taken from us, not coincidentally mind you, while we are asleep. Something like 2 am is the official time to move your clocks forward one hour. We go to sleep in one world and awake in another, often late for church, brunch, or other Sunday activities. I awake with a sadness that my day is one hour shorter and find myself watching the clock and silently cursing the evil DST.

I’ve read a lot on the origins of DST. One theory holds that it was a joke by Benjamin Franklin – one he never meant be adopted. Regardless of the original intent, Daylight Saving Time (no ‘s’ on the end of saving) or Summer Time as it is known outside the US has become a part of our lives but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Yes, the logical part of me knows spring forward means it will be light when I get home at night and as we move toward summer and our relationship to the sun changes, it will be light later and later. When I was a kid I will confess I LOVED this. I remember playing outside until late in the evening and it was still light; that beautiful summer, 9 pm “dusk” sort of light. To the young Christine it was glorious but the “old” Christine views it through a different lens.

Interested in learning more about DST?

I did receive some interesting news today out of Olympia, WA. Apparently, there are some lawmakers who would like Washington to cease springing forward and falling back (read the article). If adopted, Washington would join Arizona and Hawaii (currently the only two states that don’t observe DST) in year-round standard time. This taxpayer would embrace such a change. Until that blessed day, I will just have to grumble my way through “spring forward” (coming up on March 8th this year) and hope that the “wonder of late night dusk” magically transports me back to that time when play was outside, seat belt’s were optional, and bicycles were ridden without a helmet. Yes, the “good ole days” when you were kicked out of the house after breakfast, to play in the neighborhood all day long….

I’ve Come to Realize…

One of the things that drew me to the Pacific NW back in 2001 was the “creative scene” here. Many creative outlets (glass blowing, woodworking, pottery, painting, mixed media, and crafting) all have significant presences here. I’m a mixed media artist which is simply a swanky way of saying crafter and I loved that there were so many shops that sold gel mediums, stamps, paints, stencils, inks, and paper here. In the heyday, before the events of 2008, the Pacific NW was flush with these wonderful little havens of creativity.

I can remember participating in the NW Paperchase in 2008 and driving from Bellingham down to Centralia, visiting many of these wonderful locations. Sadly, 6 years later the majority of these shops are closed. It is a truly sad day and it’s partly my fault.

In September we lost the Scrapbook Nook down in Kent and [12/3 UPDATE] on Monday I learned that the Mad Scrapper in Issaquah is closing on December 21st. After 17 years they lost their lease and could not find another place to move. Once home to many local shops, the area is reduced to a scant handful. It’s a sad, sad day.

I have always said that shopping locally is important and I believe it … but I don’t always practice it. Herein lies the issue. How can the local store stay open, much less compete, with the big-box stores and online warehouses if we don’t shop there? Don’t get me wrong, I know the online warehouse is often a small company, but they aren’t local to me so when I shop with them instead of locally I hurt the local shop owner.

I have two reasons for my disloyalty: variety & price.

Let’s look at variety first. The local shop owner has to decide what to carry because they can’t afford to carry everything. This affects my ability to find that “must-have” thing and frequently drives me online.

As for price, the local shop owner isn’t buying 1,000 of something. They buy in smaller lots and so the cost is higher. The big-box stores also have mechanisms for marketing, workforce, etc that the local shop owner doesn’t. I often struggle to justify paying retail for high dollar items when the big-box and online warehouses (Hobby Lobby, Blitsy, Amazon, eBay, etc) are selling the same items for much less.

The largest benefit of the local store is in community and learning. The big-box stores may offer classes, but the curriculum is always very basic – so it appeals to the widest audience. The local store is the place to grow creatively. This is their place to shine and certainly to prove that they have a place in our shopping staples.

The local store owners need my patronage and loyalty. I am happy to be able to support Impress and Urban Scrapbooker and enjoy taking classes and filling up my creativity tank at these wonderful stores as often as I can.

Winter comes to Seattle…

A view off Dabby's porch to the winter wonderland...
Winter wonderland...

It does not often snow in the metro Seattle area. Sure Mts Baker and Rainier are snow covered in July, but that’s a fact of elevation, not of the typical weather in Seattle. As you might imagine, a geographic region with little annual snowfall will nearly always choose to invest in equipment other than snow plows and road sanders. That’s not to say the metro area doesn’t have these things, just not in large quantities.

So, when it does snow two things happen. One, it takes the WSDOT a bit of time to mobilize and two, people who don’t usually drive in snow and ice are suddenly thrust into the deep end (so to speak).

A view of the distant Cascade mountains and a tower crane.
A view of the distant Cascade mountains and a tower crane.

Having grown up in the Midwest where snow and ice are just part of the daily routine, I know enough to stay off the roads. No heroic, white-knuckled attempts to make it to work and no raiding the grocery store for all the canned milk and bottled water my car can hold.

Case in point, Wednesday evening. We all went to bed in a dry, sane world and awoke to a “blizzard”. I say blizzard lightly because the worst hit neighborhood (mine) received 6″. I know anyone from Michigan or upstate New York is laughing themselves onto the floor right now, but remember, other than skiing, Seattleites don’t know snow.

Another view out Dabby's window....
Another view out Dabby's window....

What I realized is that I miss snow. Not enough to move home or to Michigan or upstate NY, but enough to admit that visually it makes things lovely – trees, yards, porches, roads (at least until they plow). Coming just before Christmas, is very Rockwellean.

So, for your viewing pleasure, I submit a few photos off my best friend’s back porch, which has a lovely view of downtown Redmond and the Cascades.