The Long & Winding Staircase

Still walking like an obese crazed middle aged man trying to catch up with his runaway youth. Adding a bit more as I go along. Last weekend decided to find out where the many staircases that are on the east side of Delridge go.

Stairs are difficult for me. I'm trying to use them 50% of the time at work (I work on the second floor, and until two weeks ago I always used the elevator except for the twice a year fire drill). My knees no longer work the way the once did. I guess there isn't a part of me that works the way it once did, but my knees really don't work the way they once did. Not that I didn't get a lot out of them back in the day, but now - not so much. So I'm pretty damn slow on stairs. If I hear that clickclickclick of someone bounding up and down the stairs, I wait 'em out. I would just get in the way, and I don't want them to see me do the hunched over crawl with the forehead spouting like a New York fire hydrant in July. But, I'm not giving up. I will keep using them. 50% of the time.

So Sunday I thought I'd take the pretty big stairs up to where there were trees. But when I got to what I thought was the top, there were more stairs leading up to more trees. And this repeated endless times. I had to stop to hack and choke and sweat and catch my breath, but I finally made it to the last step.


That step took me to a street I would otherwise never have been on. The rewards of walking continue - the revelation of the world outside the front door.

Parent Break

Yesterday Papa Seed and I went to a class that was being offered for folks involved in the Foster care system - either as parents or workers. Although we are no longer "Foster Parents", we want to keep our license current. You never know. It always makes me think of Tammy Wynette, who said she always kept her hairdresser license current in case the music industry gig fell through. That probably isn't the best analogy. Somehow it works for me.

Unlike some of the classes we have been to which are total snooze cruises, this one was very interesting - "The Disruptive Teenager" I think it was called. Something like that. We really liked the slightly crazy, totally energetic, very smart woman who taught the class, especially since she introduced the session by discussing how much she hated pathologizing kids by sticking a label on them that they would carry on their foreheads the rest of their lives. Yep. Papa Seed and I totally agree with that. Everyone has to have a diagnosis, a label, a sickness or mental illness. We wanted to be very careful just to call Mancub by his name. I think we've done pretty good with that piece.

It was also all a bit overwhelming. As the class went on, the stories became more intense - the stories about kids who just have everything going against them. The firestarters, the animal torturers, the suicidal ones. It is all so sad. Lives that are chaotic and insane from the time they land on earth - their version of "normal" is something so very shattered it is hard to wrap our minds around it.

We had a lunch break that we took advantage of by hitting a Vietnamese restaurant nearby. Papa Seed and I never get to have lunch together during the week. That was nice.

Alki Walk V

I got a couple of good shots of Papa Seed on this walk. I usually don't take photos of people, but since I knew this one it felt safe. Plus, at least on the anchor, I told him to get in the camera's view.





Satisfying and more than a bit exhausting, but like a good walk should be it left my spirits lifted and once again feeling so fortunate that we live where we do.

Alki Walk IV

Alki Walk III

There are treasures on the sidewalks and along the path - poems, stories, pictures. There are several large viewing machines that you can peer through to see vintage photos and drawings of the way it once looked in the area.

Alki Walk II

Some of the most beautiful homes in Seattle are found along Alki, most weathered and funky and now dwarfed by neighboring condos. Truly charming, but alas - not for much longer.

Alki Walk I

Papa Seed picked me up from work today. We were going to head home to get the boys and take them to the dog park, but instead decided we would head to Alki for a walk. Alki is part of West Seattle, as are we, but it isn't a place we go everyday, although I wouldn't mind if we did. Since I had already had a bit of a walk before stopping at the Thai Truck for lunch this afternoon, this was my second walk of the day. Most amazingly, I not only hit 10,000 steps on the pedometer for the first time since the New Walks, I made it to 11,690 for the day. Not bad for a way out of shape, way obese, middle aged dude with chronic pain and a penchant for blowing through Fiesta Sized bags of Tortilla Chips in one sitting.