Stories on the run

SEATTLE — Who are these people, you say? Why, Pistol Pete is the Oklahoma State mascot, and Dean Cokinos is the Tennessee Valley Vipers (2008 arenafootball2 champions) head coach. And they look very much alike.

… for now, at least.

I’m back home in Spokane after a short solo vacation to Seattle. I’m back at the office, at Indians baseball games, doing my thing as a sports reporter/videographer/multimedia producer/whatever. Seriously, what am I?

Perhaps I’ll find out in a few weeks, once the Spokesman launches its revamped website and our EIC announces his plan for the ever-looming newsroom reorganization. That’s why I said I’m back to the real world “for now.”

Just a few more baseball games. Just one more Shock game. Then a whole onslaught of Cougars and Eagles and high school football games. I’m trying to organize my schedule for the coming fall, but it’s hard because I have a muddy idea of what I really do at the Spokesman.

All I know is that I’m still busy, I have fun and I get paid.

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted, and I’m sorry. But we’ve had a death in the family.

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He lived swimmingly, floating through life without a worry. Or without memory longer than one minute. But, though he went around in circles, no direction in his life, Fred’s orange shimmer never dulled.

Fred battled an unknown illness for one long day. Seemingly paralyzed and listing to one side, his loved ones frantically tried to save him by changing the water in his bowl.

Though he showed some recovery in the evening, Fred didn’t have enough strength to survive the restless night. With his friend Ed sullenly watching, Fred died July 28. He was 4 months old.

His survivors include Ed and his owners, Nick and Lisa.

UPDATE: Lisa took this picture when Fred was still alive, breathing but struggling. Thanks for pointing that out, Lisa.

Admittedly, however, I’m not entirely positive if it was Fred or Ed who died. I’m fairly sure it was Fred, because I named him with the “F” because he had a stripe on his fin. The surviving fish has no stripe.

I just couldn’t resist posting this picture from Lisa’s blog. In front of my face is a magnifier for elderly newspaper readers. She explains.

Just the other day, I was driving around listening to George Carlin on my iPod, and I thought, “Man, it will suck the day he dies.”

It sucks.

Carlin, 71, died yesterday of heart failure. The counterculture comedian was a hero of many generations, from the Boomers to X to Y to the Millennials. He got my friends and me through our “angry” private high school years, and I have all his books. I have mentioned before that I have been known to listen to his books on tape (disc? mp3?) while going to sleep. As raspy and invasive as his voice can be, it’s surprisingly soothing. A real radio voice (which is how he got his start).

When I was in Denver, I saw a promo for an upcoming performance by Carlin there. I’ve always wanted to see him in person. I think he came to Seattle a few times when I lived there. I’d be surprised if he ever came to Spokane. But now it’s disappointing to know I’ll never see him in concert. The closest I’ll ever come, now, is his famous HBO specials.

I guess he swallowed too much of his own saliva.

RIP, George.

I’ve been withholding a post like this for quite some time, not wanting to sound like a whiner when I still choose to drive around my beast of a Suburban. But these gas prices, if you haven’t noticed, suck.

You know how gas stations used to have a $75 limit per purchase at the pump? Well, I have to admit, I noticed the very week most gas stations raised the ceiling. Two or three months ago, I was maxing out that $75 limit, but usually filling my tank almost all the way.

Now the limit is $99. And it’s not like someone happened to tell me the limit is now that high. I found out for myself.

It’s really time for a different car.

UPDATED 6/9/08: Cliffe, from VintageSeattle.org, commented on this post that there’s a new skyline post on his blog from 1979. So, look at the four skyscrapers Seattle had just 30 years ago.

I stumbled upon this blog via Victor’s blogroll … and it rocks. It’s a goldmine of awesome pictures and information about the history of Seattle. Most interesting, to me, is seeing how the city’s skyline has changed in just a short 50 years.

Compare:

(more…)

Dude. You know what’s cool? Science.

No, I’m not stoned. Recently I’ve gone on a bender of revisiting one of my old fascinations: space travel, namely the Apollo missions to the Moon. It’s been the subject of a few of my most recent “Wikiwandering” episodes.

So these past few days, as the Moon as been nearly full and the skies have been clear, I’ve looked up at the Moon and thought, “wow.” We sent people up there back when we were using slide rules, when a computer as powerful as my laptop would have barely fit inside a building.

And we left all this junk up there. And it’s still there!

The Moon, as you might guess, photographed from my porch tonight.