our storied parking spot

Our neighborhood email list is abuzz with the news that multiple seven story apartment buildings are permitted to be built a block and a half west of where we live.  It's been an interesting discussion about environment, neighborhood character, gentrification, equity and the amount of density our neighborhood has been forced to accept.

Mostly we come down in favor of the density, but we're still very grateful to have squeezed in our little parking spot since street parking is about to get very competitive.   Someday we'll have an electric car and a good place to charge it too.   In the meantime, we don't complain about squeezing through bushes as we get out of the car, or having the kids climb through the back seat, entering the car through one door.

For your entertainment here are four bizarre incidents that have taken place in our parking spot.

1. When D was about 5 he awoke to the sound of a woman singing outside his bedroom window.   For security, we designed the ground-floor windows facing the parking spot small and high up, so D wasn't able to see out them, even while standing on the bed.   D spoke to the woman and she seemed untroubled by his little voice and kept rifling through our car, through a window a kid had accidentally left open.   She didn't find anything worth stealing so no harm done and we had a conversation with him about not confronting thieves.
2. Cars do get broken in to a lot and there are some weird people passing through our alley, so one night when we heard a knock on the door at about 11:30 pm, we were worried.   It was the police.   They had been passing by and noticed that our car doors were wide open, so they wondered if our car had been broken in to.   Nope!  In a flurry of unloading, Jack had left the doors open and had actually left his wallet in the cup holder.   In this case, any unsavory characters casing cars on the alley probably assumed the car had already been ransacked.  
3. Sometime in the early pandemic, when life was peculiarly paused, I found a paper bag behind our car, containing the contents of a woman's purse.   There was no wallet, but there was make-up and a glasses case and other odds and ends.  It looked like what a thief would leave behind after taking a wallet and a phone.  I looked through it all and found a receipt for a QFC nearby and I noticed that it had an employee discount applied.   I called the QFC and they found the employee who had recently had her things stolen out of her trunk, instead of her purse, like I thought.   She came and picked up her things and solving a little mystery and doing something kind made me feel good for a few days.
4. Lastly, earlier this summer, Jack returned home at about 9:30 in the morning after dropping D off at some camp and there was a car parked in our spot with a very naked man standing next to it.   He was not in the process of changing clothes, or thankfully any other unsavory activity, but was just standing there.  Jack hesitantly told him that it was our spot and then drove around the block and by the time he got back, thankfully the man and his car had disappeared back in to the streets of Seattle.

PEPS is still the best

Three years after our newborn PEPS group (see peps-is-best), I volunteered as a leader for another batch of new parents. It was a daunting time commitment of about four to five hours a week for twelve weeks.  I’m not going to pretend that I’m not excited to have my Monday nights back and my Monday nights’ sleep improved, but it was also a very rewarding experience.

As in the group Jack and I joined, it was an evening couples group.  That tends to mean very equal parenting and both parents going back to work during the twelve facilitad weeks.  Parenting a newborn is hard work for anyone, but it was nice to see the group supporting each other through similar challenges.  It made me realize how much we all need work-life balance role models.

Being a leader was of course different.  It was sometimes challenging to find the right balance between sharing my own stories while trying to fade out as they had more and more natural conversations.  PEPS is a very mature organization with great resources, so they have the group do a little survey in the middle.  Amusingly it was a split between feedback that I should fill up the occasional silences and that I should let them go on a little longer…

All in all, it was a great group and I am optimistic that they connected enough to keep the group going on their own.

race, gender, elections and boats

With national politics in such a horrific state, local affairs have become more interesting of late.  I just voted in the King County primary election and I am pretty excited about the diverse group of people running for office.  There are 61 names in our booklet and 43 of them are women (70%).  There are homegrown people and immigrants with all kinds of backgrounds, including one city council candidate I voted for who is a gay Muslim, Arab-American doctor (in mental health) with a husband from Peru.  Last year the city council was majority female and this year it seems likely we'll elect our second female mayor.  The first was Bertha Knight Landes from 1926-28.

It is not that individual people of color or women are more qualified, but electing people from all parts of the population does lead to better government.

I have one last thought on race.  As an adult I'm often struck by how white my childhood was and I'm happy to see changes on that front.  When we go camping I see more people of other races enjoying the parks.  The other day, I saw a family including three women in hijabs bringing a power boat through the locks.  Boats are great and I'm happy to see all kinds of people enjoying them.

42 pints and counting

 

While planning to donate blood recently, I was pleased to see that Bloodworks Northwest makes donor records easily available on their website.  I’ve always enjoyed giving blood, partly out of altruism and partly out of fascination, I think.  My parents were regular donors when I was a kid and I ate many cookies in the canteen while waiting for them, creating a positive association for me as an aspiring donor.  Aside from the periods of post-Grand Adventure travel restrictions and pregnancy and it’s aftermath, I’ve been a regular donor since late high school.  Lately it is the only type of community service I have managed to fit in to my life.

It was quite satisfying to see my Seattle donation count (23) though I had to estimate how many times I donated in Montreal, Pittsburgh and Boston.  Henceforth, I am crediting myself with 19 non-Seattle donations, which brings me to 42 pints, or 5 gallons and 1 quart.  Isn’t standard a quaint system?  Here’s a 5 gallon bucket for a visual.

* about 6 donations were apheresis platelet donations, but I’m glossing over that

I *heart* buy nothing

 

For the past few years we’ve participated in the Buy Nothing Project.  BNP is an network of local facebook groups that “offer people a way to give and receive, share, lend, and express gratitude through a worldwide network of hyper-local gift economies in which the true wealth is the web of connections formed between people who are real-life neighbors.”

In the last few months I have, among other things,:

• borrowed a weed whacker
• lent out a suitcase
• given kids’ pajamas
• received a fitbit charger
• received a laundry basket
• received a kids workbench with tools
• given cat food
• received some rubber stamps
• received an awesome toy construction crane
• given some sweaters
• received some toddler clothes
• given a shower caddy
• received a coffee table
• given hot peppers from our CSA

Every now and then there’s a wildly popular item given away, like a roomba, which will have 50+ people interested in it.  The giver chooses the recipient in any way they choose, ranging from their response to a funny question or just randomly.

Sometimes things are picked up from a porch without contact, but often there is a little bit of conversation, which is a pleasant way to meet people.  Our group has 1600 people, but a lot of activity if from a small set of people and so even online you get to know a bit about each other. 

The groups really are hyper local, so we’re in a different group now than we were in our apartment downtown.  Not all groups are as successful as ours is.  In the south downtown group, people complained that most activity was from people moving out and needing to unload a bunch of stuff at once, which didn’t build community from people that were sticking around.  There were also a couple of homeless people participating and while the project doesn’t elevate needing something over wanting it, it changed the tenor of the group.  On the flip side, I’ve heard that in some wealthier neighborhoods, no one is interested in the gives.   I like that in our group people accept small things like meals when someone cooked too much, or food that needs to be used while someone goes on vacation. 

I like that it’s easier to get rid of things I don’t need when I’m giving them to someone, rather than just giving to goodwill.  The opportunity to lend and borrow is also great.  Lastly, there has been some really touching generosity and gratitude, like the person who offered her airbnb space for people with family visiting for the holidays, or the person who wanted to treat a single mom to a back-to-school shopping trip, or the person who had surgery while estranged from family and was enormously grateful for the support of the group.

birthday charities

 

This year I picked a subset of the recipients from last year (2013 charities).  The task of donating (and writing this post) had to fit in to one of D’s 45 minute naps.

According to this, it was a good year for women and a bad year for Seattle food banks.

volunteering

My mom has always encouraged us to volunteer and as cliché as it sounds, I find that you really do get as much as you give.