Birth Week 1976 Local Landmark #10: Ballard Avenue Landmark District, Seattle, WA Designated April 11, 1976 Added to National Reger of Historic Places July 1, 1976.

Barbara has arrived! She's an old friend I have known for 30 years—60% of my life!—and you'll see much more of her in the Part Two email, as we flew her out to Seattle from Louisville for my 50th birthday and is here for the remainder of my Birth Week.

But she otherwise has nothing to do with what we're standing in front of here, which is the Ballard Centennial Bell Tower, which was rung by Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman and Sweden's King Carl Gustaf XVI (Seattle, and particularly the Ballard neighborhood, has a strong Nordic heritage) to commemorate the creation of the Ballard Avenue Landmark District in 1976, preserving about four blocks' worth of historic buildings that were otherwise destined for demolition.

The Bell itself has had its literal ups and downs over time: it hung above Ballard City Hall when Ballard was an independent city, until it was annexed into Seattle in 1907, in so doing increasing Seattle's population at the time by 17,000—or at least 17%. The bell was removed after that, and the former City Hall building was demolished in 1965. The tower, though not officially dedicated until 1989, stands on the original site of the former Ballard City Hall, where it also stands as a focal point of the Ballard Avenue Landmark District.

One of the old, triangular buildings in the Ballard Avenue Landmark District, the first historic district created by the City of Seattle outside of Pioneer Square.

. . . My Birth Week posts this week have been almost exclusively just copied and pasted from relevant sections of my Birth Week travelogue emails, but today I need to add a bit more here, to share some other notable things that occurred today. For example? I had my semiannual haircut today; that happened at the Rudy's on 12th and Pike this morning at 11:00, and would explain why my hair is so much shorter in the above photo.

Also: Shobhit and I picked up Barbara at the airport, where her two flights from Louisville to Chicago and then Chicago to Seattle were not only on time, she actually landed early—at about 2:00, when the originally scheduled landing was at 2:27. And she is not the only person who arrived: Ivan came down from Edmonds, and is staying in the Braeburn Condos "Guest Suite," actually free of charge (well, to him, anyway).

There's actually a lot more to say about that, because Barbara's friend Becky was supposed to be using that Guest Suite, and she even Venmoed me the $65 nightly fee to stay there. But, she texted both Barbara and me on Monday that "I just got a steroid shot from a new provider and it's not working like it should so no way I can travel by Wed." Being less than 7 days in advance, there was no option of canceling and getting a refund. Ivan had already accepted my invitation to join us for our day trip to Olallie State Park tomorrow (on my actual birthday, and on his as well), and when I told Becky I had a friend who could probably use the room, she seemed thrilled that at least her $65 wouldn't go to waste.

I didn't see the sense in asking Ivan to pay for it, as otherwise it would indeed just go to waste anyway. And when I asked him if he'd like to use it, he replied with Yes please. He did ask if he could drop off his stuff in the morning before he went to spend the day in West Seattle and I said that was fine; he brought as many bags as he had when he came to stay over the weekend we all went with Alexia to the Tulip Festival. I figure he brought all the stuff he has with him, and as he's still been staying in AirBnBs in Edmonds, he probably took this as an opportunity not to have to pay a lodging fee for the night.

Anyway, when we picked up Barbara, we drove straight to Ballard so I could check off the 1976 landmark I had on my list for today, the Ballard Avenue Landmark District. We parked the car and were there for all of about 40 minutes, and then we headed over to Karen's in Magnolia, as she had a cake dish she was willing to give us and which Shobhit needed for the cake he plans to bake for my party. (Karen told me I didn't need to return it; she said it was gifted to her from someone who got it at the Dollar Store and she was happy to pay it forward.)

Now, we parked in front of Karen's house and only I got out to go get the dish. But, since I did not have the opportunity to schedule anything with Karen for my Birth Week this year, I did ask to get a quick photo with her after she invited me inside. Dave was there, and he offered to take the photo for us. Given that we did get a photo, she basically gave me a gift with that cake dish, and she had a birthday card also ready to hand me, even though I was with her for just a few minutes, I think I have decided to qualify this as Karen's participation in my Birth Week this year.

And then? We got all of a few blocks from Karen's house, and after Shobhit commented on how the steering was off and leaning the car to the right, he finally pulled over and I got out to take a look—the passenger front tire was flat.

And we all knew exactly when it had happened: Shobhit had insisted on taking a work call while driving on the approach to Karen's house, he was talking and not paying attention, and he hit the curb rather hard when he parked. This is the kind of shit he constantly complains about other drivers doing (paying more attention to their phones than their driving), but now he wants to use the excuse that he "had an important call" to take. Well, he could have pulled over first before taking the call. And now he's got a flat tire.

We considered trying to put the spare tire on ourselves, and then Shobhit quickly decided just to call AAA. Barbara noted that they would get it done far more quickly than we would, and they'd probably arrive faster than we'd get it done ourselves. All true.

It was concurrent with all of this that I was also dealing with getting Ivan access to the Guest Suite. Check-in is supposed to be at 3:00, but I did not get the email with the access code until 4:24. I'm sure all of this had a lot to do with us having a temporary manager on staff while Alan is out for surgery recovery. I finally found the manager phone number on the building website and called it at 4:22, and the temp answered the phone and told me he was literally about to press "send" on the email.

Well, then there was also this: Ivan texted me that he was outside, clearly assuming we were home by now, at 4:36. I was trying to text him back with instructions from the email I had barely just gotten, but the cell phone coverage was terrible out there in Magnolia and the texts would not go through. Jesus Christ!

So, I called him—Ivan and I never talk on the phone, and this was easily the longest phone conversation we ever had (3 minutes). I got him into the West Building where the Guest Suite is, and after some slight difficulty, got him to locate the room and gain access with the entry code.

The AAA guy arrived and put the tiny spare tire on the car, which we now plan to drive on out to Olallie State Park tomorrow which is a little dicey but it's the option we have; Shobhit couldn't get an appointment with Costco Tire Center until later tomorrow afternoon. But, this was all done in a pretty timely manner, and we were on our way by 5:22, and parked at home by 5:53.

Shobhit had already made a bunch of food for dinner, and Ivan came upstairs to join us (though not before I had to go back into the Guest Suite with him to see where there was indeed a set of actual keys left for him on the counter). Shobhit then made parathas and I made us all chai. Ivan, as is typical of him every single time he visits, asked if there was anything for us to watch. I found Dust Bunny on HBO and I figured he would enjoy it, so we watched that. Indeed, he spend an unusually little amount of time looking at his phone while the movie was on. By this point Barbara had crashed in the guest room.

Speaking of whom, of all of my friends, I'm not sure any two of them are really more different from each other than Barbara and Ivan, who I never would have thought would wind up even meeting. I figured it would be interesting hanging out with the two of them together. But, not that interesting, I guess: they're both very good at being totally chill with even people who are very different from them. I can't say Barbara and Ivan really have anything in common at all, except their friendship with me, and I suppose an interest in hiking out to Twin Falls tomorrow. Ivan's birthday is also April 30, remember–except he'll be 41.

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention he bought me flowers from Pike Place Market as a birthday gift today. It was a lovely gesture. I'd say I didn't get him anything at all, except hey—he got a free night's stay in the Guest Suite (although I think he kind of preferred having company, he did retire to the Guest Suite as soon as the movie ended) and we're driving him out to Olallie State Park tomorrow. So there's that!

[posted 6:26am]

Birth Week 2026, Day Six: Ballard Avenue Landmark District / Barbara and Ivan arrive

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