Friday, September 22, 2006

Friday Fotos


This is the shrine at the Buddhist monestary tucked in at the end of my block. The "compound" is flanked by trees on the south and east sides. It can be a serene place on the right day, in the right weather. The rest of the time, it's occupied by seemingly everyday people - except that they are all wearing orange robes and have shaved heads. But when it really comes down to it, they are in urban Seattle too and there is trash to take out, cars to wash, gardening to do and they all do it with grace and charm. We're very happy they are our neighbors.

Here is the view from my front steps:


Now here's an interesting one for you. Can you guess what it is?



Ok, ready?... It is the BASEMENT of my boss' new houseboat. Seattle is home to a rich "floating home" community made famous by Sleepless in Seattle. My boss is fortunate enough to own not one but TWO of these little gems. This is the basement and floating part of the home he bought a few years ago. When it is complete (they still have to add foam to the giant moat surrounding "the box" - where the guy is standing), they will attach cranes to all of the hooks you see along the bottom, raise it up, flip it and lower it into the lake. The big "box" on top sink into the water until only about 18" is above the water line. At that point it the base will be floating. Then the rest of the house will be rebuilt on the top. Pretty cool, eh?

Here is an example:

(I lifted his picture from this person's flickr site. Please don't sue me! I'll cease and desist if you tell me to.)

And finally, there's this guy:

I snapped this picture a few weeks ago. This is a City of Seattle water meter reader. I just thought it was so damn cool that he was using a Segway to get around. I dug around online and found out that the city purchased a few of these back in 2002 as a test to see if it would be more efficient for the employees to use Segways rather than CoS trucks. It seems to be working.

These are super fun to ride - I wish they were more practical! Here's Flynno and me on our Segway tour in Washington DC last summer. What a blast!


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