"Weak" 2

"The presidency is supposed to age the president, not the public." -John Stewart.

No, this is not a political post. I am just checking in before I get to other things, but....

Every  morning we wake to the radio news broadcast that begins with "President Trump" followed by another outrageous presidential order or directive or Tweeted insult. I am dreaming of a day when the news will start with something else. I fear it may take a national disaster to jar that man from the headlines. 

Tom and I have continued our political resistance campaign, this week concentrating on urging senators to reject the nomination of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. To borrow an over used phrase these days, she would be a disaster. 

Aside from following politics, we have kept up with our exercise routine. We enjoyed walking in sun earlier this week. Now the sun is gone, but I have an interesting sewing project going for the rainy days.  

 I'm working on a small quilt top made out of hexagons, formed out of triangles cut from six layers of repeat pattern fabric. Each hexagon is a kaleidoscope. I'll post more about that when the project is finished. 

We are continuing our quest to watch all of the Oscar nominated movies. This week we saw Manchester-by-the-Sea and Moonlight.
We really liked Manchester, thought it was probably our second favorite so far, after Hidden Figures. It is an intense family drama about a man forever damaged by a family tragedy.

Moonlight didn't really impress me as the movie was coming to an end, but then on the way home I began to analyze it. It really is a very good movie about the life of a boy to man growing up in Miami. Here is what I posted on Facebook:

Tonight, in our quest to watch all of the Oscar nominated movies, we saw "Moonlight". When the movie ended I was less than impressed, but as i began to analyze it on the way home, it grew in stature in my mind. My takeaway as of now: there is goodness in people even though their circumstances trap them into dealing in evil. We are all just people who need love.

Today was another cold, endlessly rainy day. We decided to go on a little field trip into the city using public transportation. 

We drove the short distance to the Link station to ride the rails downtown, where we walked through Westlake Center to the South Lake Union Trolley (SLUT) station just across the street. The trolley pulled in just as we arrived, sparing us much time standing outside. 

The area called South Lake Union is a boom town, with huge building projects, most notable the new Amazon headquarters.  

 The trolley took us to the shore of Lake Union, and walking past the Center for Wooden Boats,

 we found our destination, the Museum of History and Industry.

 The museum was moved into its new home in an old maritime building as part of the area development. 

 Here are located treasures from Seattle history and culture, like this old street clock. You can see we arrived shortly before noon. 

 A real icon of the past is the Rainier Brewery big "R" that stood atop the former brewery for many years. 

 Frequently seen in parades in days gone by, the dancing Ivar's clams and the herd of Rainier Beers. 

 The original Seattle hydroplane, the Slo-mo-shun. 

And a famous towing company truck. 

 Boeing's first commercial airplane, the B-1, which took off from Lake Union in 1919.

 A sculpture made from the planks of the old sailing vessel, the Wawona, build in 1896 and dismantled in 2009.

 A slice from an 800 year old Douglas Fir tree. 

 I learned about a dark time in Seattle's past. In 1886, President Cleveland declared martial law and sent in the troops because of rioting and loss of life as the "Americans", some immigrants themselves, turned on the Chinese, blaming them for taking all of the jobs. The Chinese had been imported to build the railroads and do the hard manual labor others wouldn't do, and for a lower wage. Now, with an economic downturn and jobs scarce, the Chinese were driven out.

Sounds kinda' familiar. 

 We took time out for a light lunch in the museum cafe, with  a view out over the park and the lake. 

 Canada geese don't mind the cold rain. 

 Apparently neither do the Sunday sailors.

 There was a maritime section of the museum, of course. 

 View from a gallery way up high. 

 Back when we had a basketball team, the Super Sonics won the NBA championship and we have the trophy to prove it. 

 I had to smile at this exhibit. The Lucky Lady was about the last of the bawdy houses left in the downtown area. It was right across the street from the Seattle Art Museum, and their marquee was always entertaining.  Forward Thrust was the name of the urban renewal project. 

 The architectural model of the King Dome, now also a thing of the past. 

 Yep, still raining as we walked through Westlake Park and back to the trolley.

We had coffee at a Starbucks before coming back home. We arrived home just before halftime of the Super Bowl game. We didn't really care about it, but I turned it on and had it here over my shoulder on a small TV next to my desktop computer. 

Since then I have edited photos, worked on this blog post, interrupted it for making and eating a small supper, and now as I finish this post, the Patriots have come from behind to win in overtime. Lots of celebrating going on for some folks. 

I have a date with PBS Sunday night line up. Bye bye.