Four perfect Spirals
Good day followers and readers. Perhaps no one is following anymore as I have not posted anything in over six months. Busy. Life is busy. Very Busy! In the interim six months I've traveled a bit, mostly on business but I did take some time for myself. I've been to Charlotte, NC, Houston, TX, Atlanta, GA, Syracuse and Pulaski, NY and Seattle, WA.
Seattle was the personal trip. Washington has been on "the list" for some time. What's "the list?" I've been trying to get to all 50 states. Last year, as some readers may recall, I finally got to the state of LA. I went to New Orleans for a few days. After that trip it left just one of what we call "The lower 48," or the 48 contiguous states. Washington. I spent a long time trying to decide where in WA I wanted to visit.
I've long wanted to go to Walla Walla, just because it's fun to say. "Hey Answerman-where'd you go on vaca?" "Walla, Walla, Washington!" It doesn't even sound real. However, I settled on the far west coast. Puegot Sound, Bremerton Ferry, Olympia Mountains, Mt. Ranier, etc, a city settled by native Americans. The decision was a good one. Seattle has a great, clean mass transit system, much to see, whether you are a tourist, hiker or sight seeker.
Ever since the Seattle Supersonics basketball team moved out of town, taking their forest green and bright yellow uniforms, all the remaining pro teams have the same color scheme. Bright green with dark blue, with a little teal or white. The colors are literally everywhere. I had also read that it always rains and is cloudy or overcast and it leads to depression in greater frequency than other places. I found that the weather advisory to be untrue with only one day out of four overcast. It barely rained at all and it was sunny with blue skies for three of my four days. However, there was something else that was depressing.
Seattle also has a massive homeless population. Quick reminder, I am a native Philadelphian. That is Philadelphia, PA, USA. Philly has long had a problem with homelessness. Philly has a huge problem with drugs, mostly opiods. The latter leads to the expansive homeless problem. However, I was completely shocked by the vast homelessness everywhere. People living in cars, on the street, bushes. In huge populations in every part of the city. I must say that it was daunting and demoralizing.
However, in one of my most memorable interactions I was walking up from the the dock area to do a "touristy" activity- I was basically alone. It was fairly early on my first day in town. My biological clock was still on east coast time. I had been up for hours but it was only about 9 am. There was a beat cop walking nearby, then suddenly on the corner rose one of the Seattle homeless. He was of native American descent, wore athletic shoes and socks and dark blue shorts and a white tee shirt with a Seattle Seahawks logo on the sleeve. Over top he had a bright green practice vest, the kind that football players wear over their practice uniforms. It was the "Seattle Green." In his right hand was a football.
I was about 15 yards away when he hopped up from his mat on the sidewalk. The beat cop smiled. The homeless man motions for me to turn back down the street and "go out" for a pass...and then he throws such an amazingly perfect pass down the street that I kept thinking "do NOT drop this pass!" I didn't. He claps and call for a pass. I took my time, thinking I had better throw a good pass. I did, he caught it, fades back, motions me back down the sidewalk and zips another perfect spiral. When I threw it back I went lefty, he dropped the pass.
My Seattle catch mate drops to the sidewalk and pumps out 10 push ups and yells "I owe you 10." He looks at me and says -" I couldn't follow the reverse spin on the left handed throw." Impressive. I clap for a short pass, it's ridiculously perfect. The cop is laughing. Apparently this happens frequently. I toss it back right handed and then as I get to his corner, thank him for the game. He says "go out across the street" and motions me to the next corner while I have a green light. I get to the other side and the light changes, traffic starts moving and this perfect lob shows up in the sky, up over the cars and the delivery trucks. I catch it. I spot the homeless man on the other side of the street clapping for a return throw and motioning down the sidewalk. I throw, over traffic and he hauls it in and yells "nice pass- thanks!"
On that trip out west I saw many sites, did my own thing and didn't really do too many touristy activities. My most vivid memories of my time there was the depressing amount of homeless and the four perfect spirals that a homeless man threw me on day one of my trip. The Answerman says "always appreciate what you have in life, take joy in the small things that you experience and sometimes the small things make the world better than you know."
Be well.
Seattle was the personal trip. Washington has been on "the list" for some time. What's "the list?" I've been trying to get to all 50 states. Last year, as some readers may recall, I finally got to the state of LA. I went to New Orleans for a few days. After that trip it left just one of what we call "The lower 48," or the 48 contiguous states. Washington. I spent a long time trying to decide where in WA I wanted to visit.
I've long wanted to go to Walla Walla, just because it's fun to say. "Hey Answerman-where'd you go on vaca?" "Walla, Walla, Washington!" It doesn't even sound real. However, I settled on the far west coast. Puegot Sound, Bremerton Ferry, Olympia Mountains, Mt. Ranier, etc, a city settled by native Americans. The decision was a good one. Seattle has a great, clean mass transit system, much to see, whether you are a tourist, hiker or sight seeker.
Ever since the Seattle Supersonics basketball team moved out of town, taking their forest green and bright yellow uniforms, all the remaining pro teams have the same color scheme. Bright green with dark blue, with a little teal or white. The colors are literally everywhere. I had also read that it always rains and is cloudy or overcast and it leads to depression in greater frequency than other places. I found that the weather advisory to be untrue with only one day out of four overcast. It barely rained at all and it was sunny with blue skies for three of my four days. However, there was something else that was depressing.
Seattle also has a massive homeless population. Quick reminder, I am a native Philadelphian. That is Philadelphia, PA, USA. Philly has long had a problem with homelessness. Philly has a huge problem with drugs, mostly opiods. The latter leads to the expansive homeless problem. However, I was completely shocked by the vast homelessness everywhere. People living in cars, on the street, bushes. In huge populations in every part of the city. I must say that it was daunting and demoralizing.
However, in one of my most memorable interactions I was walking up from the the dock area to do a "touristy" activity- I was basically alone. It was fairly early on my first day in town. My biological clock was still on east coast time. I had been up for hours but it was only about 9 am. There was a beat cop walking nearby, then suddenly on the corner rose one of the Seattle homeless. He was of native American descent, wore athletic shoes and socks and dark blue shorts and a white tee shirt with a Seattle Seahawks logo on the sleeve. Over top he had a bright green practice vest, the kind that football players wear over their practice uniforms. It was the "Seattle Green." In his right hand was a football.
I was about 15 yards away when he hopped up from his mat on the sidewalk. The beat cop smiled. The homeless man motions for me to turn back down the street and "go out" for a pass...and then he throws such an amazingly perfect pass down the street that I kept thinking "do NOT drop this pass!" I didn't. He claps and call for a pass. I took my time, thinking I had better throw a good pass. I did, he caught it, fades back, motions me back down the sidewalk and zips another perfect spiral. When I threw it back I went lefty, he dropped the pass.
My Seattle catch mate drops to the sidewalk and pumps out 10 push ups and yells "I owe you 10." He looks at me and says -" I couldn't follow the reverse spin on the left handed throw." Impressive. I clap for a short pass, it's ridiculously perfect. The cop is laughing. Apparently this happens frequently. I toss it back right handed and then as I get to his corner, thank him for the game. He says "go out across the street" and motions me to the next corner while I have a green light. I get to the other side and the light changes, traffic starts moving and this perfect lob shows up in the sky, up over the cars and the delivery trucks. I catch it. I spot the homeless man on the other side of the street clapping for a return throw and motioning down the sidewalk. I throw, over traffic and he hauls it in and yells "nice pass- thanks!"
On that trip out west I saw many sites, did my own thing and didn't really do too many touristy activities. My most vivid memories of my time there was the depressing amount of homeless and the four perfect spirals that a homeless man threw me on day one of my trip. The Answerman says "always appreciate what you have in life, take joy in the small things that you experience and sometimes the small things make the world better than you know."
Be well.
Comments
Post a Comment