Some remarks on Seattle, before I forget them
These people really know how to recycle. Unlike Minneapolis, where one had to look at the numeric plastic indicator for plastic bottles, (only 1 and 2 were allowed, as I recall) keep glass, cans, paper, newspaper, and cardboard separate, and perform any other number of organizational tasks, Seattle has two categories of recyclables: glass, and everything else. Garbage also comes in two categories: yard waste and everything else. It’s nice not to have to separate paper from cardboard from aluminum and tie up corrugated cardboard. It all goes in the same bin. It’s also nice to have a place for the banana peels, tea leaves, carrot bits and corn husks. Not to mention pizza boxes. It all ends up in some sort of glorious municipal compost melting pot, without having a dilapidated, rotting compost bin in everyone’s back yard.
Most of the roads here are concrete. There are practically no pot-holes, few cracks, and there are a plethora of bumpy road-widgets where the lines are painted. They don’t do the thing they do in Massachusetts–counter-sink the road reflectors to to keep them safe from the snow plow–these things are designed to create noise if one drives over them. Some of the bumps are really quite large; maybe an inch or two high. Sometimes lanes are separated by a tall, yellow, ceramic tiled curb. These are unsurprisingly covered by lots of rubber marks.
I hear that concrete lasts a long time — much longer than asphalt. In Seattle, it seems to have lasted so long that there are literally ruts in the interstate and other highways. The surface of the road has worn away where the majority of the tires have traveled, leaving the stones (that were once a part of the concrete) exposed. It makes for some noisy driving. And rattling. So I make an effort to drive next to the ruts, so I look like I don’t know where the lanes (which are definitely narrower than lanes the mid-west) are.
People drive considerately for the most part. Sometimes too considerately. It’s difficult, as a pedestrian, to wait for a break in traffic without some well-intentioned Seattelite stopping everyone behind them to pleasantly wave you on.
People have told us we arrived for fall. What seems to happen is this: In the morning, the sky is guaranteed to be cloudy. Some call this “fog,” for the likely explanation that even though it does not look like fog, at about 2pm, regardless of how impenetrable the clouds looked, it ‘burns off’ and the sun peeks out for an hour or two. Sometimes all afternoon. The sky is rarely entirely clear. And if it is, it’s bound to become cloudy again soon. I suspect this pattern will not continue much longer. Welcome to the suicide capitol of the lower 48.
October 3rd, 2007 at 9:11 am
Concrete does last longer than asphalt. It’s probably also considerably more expensive. But the reason it lasts longer in Seattle is that they don’t have winter in Seattle. (I say confidently, as one who’s never lived there.). Not real winter, if you know what I mean.