April 2016

By Amanda Knox

The pain started Sunday when I was on a plane for five hours. It was a dull ache across my lower back, like I had been punched in the kidneys the day before. A few days later, the dull ache was accompanied by stabbing pain in my abdomen, especially on my right side. It hurt to hinge at the waist, sit up or down, get into a car, carry a bag over my shoulder. It hurt to laugh.

The least uncomfortable position was to lay prone on my back, which I did. I lay in bed in the middle of the day, alert but weary, willing the pain to go away. Despite the fact that my partner was there to care for me, my anxiety spiked. The pain made me feel estranged from the functional world of people uninterrupted by pain.

I cried. It took a lot of talking to get me through what felt like a baby panic attack. The problem was, though the situation of being nursed by my partner for a kidney infection was as far away as you could get from the isolation of imprisonment, the feeling of physical pain triggered the memory of existential pain. 

By Pat Cashman

I stopped snooping around in my kids’ rooms some time ago. They, after all, don’t live in my house anymore---and it would be weird to drive way across town, sneak into their homes---and begin snooping all over again.
My daughter, Kate---now a fully independent woman---reminded me of my penchant for suspicion when she was a kid.

KATE: What were you looking for anyway?

DAD: My money, mostly.

KATE: A kid’s bedroom ought to be off-limits to parental snoopery, if you ask me. It’s a sanctuary.

DAD: Last time I saw your old sanctuary it was stacked pretty high with dishes, pop cans, magazines and shoes.

KATE: It happens.

DAD: Your room also had a framed picture of a naked man on the wall. What was the story with that?

KATE: You mean David? Yea, he was a favorite of mine.

DAD: Who was David---a member of a boy band? An actor? A porn star?

KATE: No. The picture was of Michelangelo’s famous statue of David. I saw it seven times in person at a museum in Florence.

ME: Florence? Isn’t that on the Oregon coast?

From the Washington State Department of Transportation:

We have just posted a new video that describes some of the monitoring involved with the SR99 tunnel project. We hope this would be helpful for your readers/viewers. Feel free to post/link.
https://youtu.be/YewUJ7vjrrs
 
Here is what it shows:
As part of the SR 99 Tunnel Project, WSDOT required its contractor to develop a robust system to monitor the ground, buildings, the Alaskan Way Viaduct and downtown Seattle streets. International firm Soldata was hired to design the monitoring system and review the data 24 hours a day. More than 4,000 different monitoring points near the tunnel alignment take gather measurements and share them with our engineers in real time. This video shows the complexity and scope of the monitoring effort.
 
Here is what it shows:
In addition, we recently posted a video showing how the viaduct has been reinforced and strengthened over the years at the location where the tunneling machine will pass underneath. This too might be timely for your readers/viewers to see given the April 29th start of the Alaskan Way Viaduct closure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOpreuHP1oM

$5,000 of wire taken from construction site

A construction company is missing $5,000 of electrical wire after a burglary occurred at a construction site on the 1400 block of N.W. 85th Street on April 18. Police were dispatched to the site after they got a call from the construction manager who said he arrived at the site after the weekend and found the wire missing. He said the electricians were the last ones to leave the construction site, but they had locked the doors. The main door was secured with only a lock on the door handle. The deadbolt to the door had not been installed. Police believe the suspect used wire to wriggle the door open. Police were unable to recover any fingerprints. There was no security footage of the incident.

Ballard woman loses bike to burglar

Bus stop thief

A thief made a hit at a bus stop on 15th Ave. and Roxbury around 7 a.m. on Fri., April 15. The victim was waiting for the Metro when he was approached by a black male in his early 20s, wearing a red shirt and black hoodie, asking to borrow his cell phone to make a phone call.

The man handed over his iPhone 5S but did not get it back, despite several pleas for its return. The thief told the man that someone was coming with a gun to take the phone.

The victim walked away in fear, heading south on Roxbury towards his home. Then, he used his father’s iPhone app to locate the phone, tracking it to 20th Avenue S.W. and S.W. Barton Street and reporting the theft to police. Officers responded, checking the area, but they could not find anyone matching the description. Soon the phone was turned off and could no longer be tracked. The victim did not have a serial number for the phone.

A wrench in his plans

By Joe McDermott
King County Councilmember

Anyone who commutes anywhere in our region knows that our transportation infrastructure is not keeping up with the region’s rapid growth. Too many of us are spending hours in our car when we could be spending time with our families.

Estimates suggest delays on our region’s freeways increased 95 percent between 2010 and 2015. Commuters who leave the north end and drive to the eastside wasted $3,300 in time and gas sitting in traffic. Those of us who live in West Seattle are all too familiar with wasted time and gas as we sit in long lines on the West Seattle Bridge waiting to get anywhere we need to be. With the growth only expected to continue (1 million more people in our region by 2040!), we must make bold and meaningful investments in our infrastructure.

On Tuesday, May 3, your donation to the Ballard High School Foundation can be matched and stretched!

How? On May 3, in the Seattle Foundation's annual GiveBIG campaign, a portion of all donations made to the Ballard High School Foundation through our page on their website will be matched by the Seattle Foundation's "stretch pool."

Help us make an impact! Support us on May 3 and intensify your impact!

To donate to BHSF on May 3 or
to schedule your donation in advance any time,
visit https://givebig.seattlefoundation.org/ , and make a donation of any amount you wish. You'll be supporting programs at Ballard including the library, GAINS, athletics, performing arts, technology, and the BHSF endowment. And your gift is 100% tax-deductible.

Please GiveBIG on Tuesday, May 3 and stretch your donation to Give More. All our students will thank you.

To learn more about GiveBIG, visit the Seattle Foundation at www.seattlefoundation.org. To donate anytime midnight to midnight on May 3, visit click on the link above or visit www.bhsfoundation.com and click on GiveBIG.

The Ballard High School Foundation

BHSF logo

By Lindsay Peyton

West Seattle resident Christine Juarez is preparing for the next step in her career.

After 23 years in the area and teaching dance classes all around town, she will open her own studio next fall.
Juarez recently purchased Kathy’s Studio of Dance, which has been a fixture in the area for 39 years.

And she plans to shake things up in the new space. She is changing the name to West Seattle Performing Arts – and will offer classes in ballet, tap, jazz, modern dance, as well as acting, music, yoga and art.

In addition, Juarez plans to offer seminars for students who want to become professional dancers and help them build skills and portfolios necessary to move forward.

She will also offer recreational classes for all ages –and serving all types of students regardless of ability or body type.

Juarez grew up in Philadelphia and earned a bachelor’s degree in ballet and music at Indiana University, before obtaining her master’s in modern dance and physical science from Washington University in St. Louis.

By Amanda Knox

I grew up with two mutt dogs—a chummy, runt named Ralph and his fretful, dominant sister, Britta. They always escaped from the backyard when we were away at school. It didn’t matter that we walked them everyday or that our backyard was bigger than our house or that they had plenty of food and water and each other to entertain. It wasn’t enough. It was like Ralphy and Britta just had this itch to be elsewhere.

I was an easy kid back then, my mom tells me. I put myself to bed early. I played nice and fair with other kids. I ate what was put in front of me. I did well in school, even if I didn’t do all my homework. I never felt the need to act out or object or rebel because everything seemed good and abundant and I never felt measured up against anyone else. There was nothing I could think to change, within me or without. I was just happy, and happy to just be.