Last weekend I didn't do any updating as the weekend went along, and then my days in North Cascades National Park and Winthrop on Monday and Tuesday came along and really complicated my getting everything covered. I'm taking Monday off again this weekend, and although I'm not traveling anywhere this time, I do have other stuff going on, and I don't want to make the same mistake again.

Right after work yesterday, I went down the waterfront to the new, finally reopened Pier 58. I've been seeing the jellyfish sculpture, which is part of the new children's playground there, for months (at least since last fall), and in fact for a long time I thought it was an octopus—Shobhit was at a civic event last year where someone clarified that it's a jellyfish. Anyway, that part of the pier has been done for so long, the wait to see the pier reopen kind of started to get tedious.

There's a lot of very cool things about the pier, not least of which is the reinstallation of Waterfront Fountain, which was first installed in 1974 but has been missing from the waterfront for the past five years, since the old Pier 58 partially collapsed and the fountain fell into the water. I only learned about this fairly recently; I'd say I'm surprised I never heard about it in 2020, but the pandemic was going full force at the time and we all kind of had other stuff on our minds. In any case, I'm really happy they were able to retrieve the fountain structure from the water, and now it's been restored and reinstalled along the waterfront. Even with such significant renovation to the pier, I love having that piece of history still there—even if it did take them a whopping five years to do it. It's there now.

I had asked Ivan on Thursday night if he had plans on Friday, and he said no; he even expressed interest in joining me for checking out the pier—I should have known to take that with a grain of salt, as Ivan has a history of sounding interested in something I propose, only to bail at the last minute. I had said I would likely get there around 5:00, which I messaged to him just before 2:00 yesterday afternoon, which he just gave a "like" reaction to. And then he messaged me at 4:37, while Shobhit and I were walking together down to Pier 58: I am currently meandering around Green Lake. Don’t think I will make it today

I mean, you know. Whatever.

As for Shobhit, he'll take any excuse to get some steps in. I deliberately took the bus downtown yesterday morning instead of riding my bike, knowing I would be walking down to Pier 58 after work, and Shobhit happily joined me—he actually met at my office to walk with me. He did pass by the pier first, though, walking downtown and then north along the waterfront. This way he could be there when the official opening ceremony occurred at 4:00. He even took a few photos or me, which I added to my Flickr photo album for this event, which ultimately got 20 shots added to it. You can't see him very well, but in one of the photos Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, who spoke at the event, is visible.

Two of the photos I took were actually on Pier 62, now the happening place for events along the waterfront, ever since that spot had its own renovated reopening as part of the broad Seattle Waterfront redevelopment, last fall. Indeed, I have a whole collection of albums related to this, including shots as far back as 2011 when the first public events were held about the eventual demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct (which finally happened in 2019). There are now five full albums for openings for the revitalization over the past six years, including the Seattle Aquarium Ocean Pavilion; the Overlook Walk that stretches right over that Pavilion and provides a pedestrian connection from Pike Place Market to the Seattle Waterfront; an event for new public art that was unveiled last January; the opening of Pier 62; and now the new Pier 58. All that's left, I believe, is to get down and take photos of the now-complete "Park Promenade" all along Alaskan Way; and ultimately the official Waterfront Park Grand Opening, now scheduled for Saturday, September 6. That's also the day Shobhit and I will go to Tulalip to have fondue at Karen and Dave's newly constructed second house, but at least the opening celebration starts at 11 a.m. so we'll have time to do both. That'll be a busy day.

Anyway. This means 15 of the photos in my Pier 58 album yesterday were actually taken by me at the actual pier (three were taken by Shobhit, and two were taken at Pier 62, and the Aqui Mercado event that was happening there). Overall I was impressed with the new Pier 58, it's very cool and has several unique and fun features. My only complaint would be that I swear there were more trees in the early renderings I saw online, and as it exists now, there's really no shade there at all. It's just a wide open space that will bake in the summer sun. It does have an "elevated lawn" at its south end, with some trees planted alongside it—hopefully over time those trees will grow much larger and provide at least a bit more shade.

Shobhit and I were there all of about ten minutes before we left again. Ivan's message had come right when we arrived, but I didn't see it for several minutes. At least that meant we had no reason to wait around for him. And, since Shobhit had already gone on an incredibly long walk, he suggested we take the RapidRide G bus back, so that's what we did. The stop is conveniently across the street from Trader Joe's, so when we got off we went in and got a few things.

I can still say Ivan socialized with us, though: he got home from his visit to Ravenna Park (where he said a homeless man chased him several hundred yards with a branch, after Ivan walked past his tent on a relatively secluded trail) shortly after Shobhit and I got home, and he happily partook in the tofu vegetable stir fried rice I helped Shobhit make for dinner.

I had signed up for a week free trial of Paramount+ (I had to use my iCloud email, which I never use, and now means I have used four different email addresses to get a free trial four times) so I could see the instantly-notorious season 27 premiere of South Park, which depicts President Fuckwit in a relationship with Satan (just like Saddam Hussein and Satan, 25 years ago) and shows him several times getting naked and with a tiny penis. The president is apparently livid, which delights me, but I sure wish the episode overall had actually been funnier. That said, when the episode switches to a live-action impersonator who collapses in the desert and then his tiny penis peaks up over the ridge of his belly and gives him a pep talk—that was hilarious.

Then we started watching the science fiction show Foundation on Apple TV. It took some time to retail the complex plotting, but we got into it enough to burn through three episodes, and Ivan hung out with us in the living room through all of it. He spent most of that time just looking at his phone, but that's what he's always done.

I might as well catch you up on the day so far today too: I had a Braeburn Condos theater double feature with Laney—and Ivan, somewhat to my surprise, actually joined us for the first movie. Laney and I are embarking on an Alexander Payne marathon, and his first movie was the only one I had never seen—in fact none of us had ever seen it, and Ivan had looked it up after I mentioned it and declared it sounded interesting: Citizen Ruth. We all quite liked it.

Ivan left to go on a walk and skipped the second movie, so it was just Laney and me for Payne's sophomore effort, Election. These made a great double feature, and there was one cutaway scene that was actually a sort of easter-egg reference to Citizen Ruth. You'd probably have to watch these movies back to back to notice it.

I'm hungry now and I want to make myself some dinner.

[posted 5:30pm]