November 28, 2012 - Wheedle's Tree

As a postscript to the November 21st post "Weather Permitting", the tree topping the Space Needle was indeed completed on time and lit in a ceremony the day after Thanksgiving.

Stephen Cosgrove's children's book "Wheedle on the Needle", illustrated by Robin James, was published in 1974.  The main character is a big, furry fellow that prefers peace and quiet.  The story explains that the blinking red light atop the Space Needle is the sleeping Wheedle's nose.  For the next several weeks, he'll have his own tree!

There's a Wheedle

On the Needle

I know just what

You're thinking

But if you look up 

Late at night

You'll see 

His red nose blinking

November 23, 2012 - Seven Shades of Gray

On a gray day so rainy the gray Space Needle is barely visible across the gray waters of Elliot Bay from gray Alki, a gray cormorant, sits on a dark gray piling gazing at the gray skyline.

November 21, 2012 - Piano

No TV in sight.  No radio on.  A Thanksgiving spent in a cozy 'parlour' with friends and family and a Smith and Brown grand.

Piano

Sadly in the dark, a woman is singing to me:

Taking me down the vista of years, till I see

A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings

And pressing the small poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.

In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song

Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong

To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside

And hymns in the cozy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour

With the great piano appassionato.  The glamour 

Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast

Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

by DH Lawrence

November 21, 2012 - Weather Permitting



In a brief respite from a series of rainstorms that have slowed their progress, the decorations and new paint job for the Space Needle sit partially complete.  The strands of lights that will form Space Needle's Christmas tree is half formed.  It is due to be lit this Friday, November 30th, in conjunction with the Macy's star and the downtown lights. Weather calls for winds today gusting to 24 miles per hour and continued rain.  Thanksgiving Day the winds are expected to die down.

The paint job that will transform the top of the 605 foot Seattle landmark into green hued silhouettes of evergreens was the result of the first ever public contest to determine a personal design for the top.  The painting started in October, but is only partially comlete.  "Trees" by Nicole Commins was the top vote getter.  Her design will remain on the top of the observation into April of 2013....weather permitting completion!

November 5, 2012 - Election Eve

Vote.

At 8:30pm on the eve of the General Election, this ballot box outside of the City of Lynnwood's City Hall was far from lonely.  A steady stream of cars seemed to indicate that Washington's Secretary of State Sam Reed's prediction of an 81 percent voter turnout might just be right.  Since 1952, voter turnout in the state is typically about 79 percent.  In 2008 a record 84.6% of registered voters exercised their right to vote.