The alarm rang too soon. Fortunately, I’d prepared coffee the night before and sleepily pushed the button. While it perked, I checked Facebook for any messages that for some reason we wouldn’t be rowing this morning. There were none. At exactly 5:30 A.M., having consumed one-and-a-half cups of coffee, we launched. My daughter and I […]
Lakewood
Trucks leaving highway, trains leaving tracks
No Trains Through Tillicum is the featured presentation by Washington State Senator Steve O’Ban at the Tillicum Woodbrook Neighborhood Association (TWNA) meeting August 1, 6:30 P.M., Tillicum Community Center, 14916 Washington Ave. SW. You may have seen that sign along I-5, the one about trucks leaving the highway. Trains likewise should continue to be rerouted […]
Westside Story – Uncle Melvin’s Bike Story Contains No Political Opinions
I hope many of my readers think like me. I never tire of seeing Uncle Melvin’s bicycle. The bike’s appearance changes constantly. The bike is decorated in some manner every year by my talented, confidential, undercover, uncredentialed Master Gardener. She is not a card-carrying Master Gardener because she does not like going to meetings. If […]
Westside Story – New Name For Tacoma's Proctor District
There has been a lot of high tension hand wringing in the news lately related to a building expansion explosion in one of my favorite Tacoma neighborhoods known as the Proctor District. If you have never visited Proctor, I recommend you check it out. They have a Starbucks on the corner, the Pacific Northwest Shop, […]
Across the Fence: A Short Waterfall Hike
Waterfalls have always fascinated me. Especially from below, but also from a place distant enough where you can grasp their size. You somehow don’t get this when you are standing right on top of them. And that was one of the reasons why my husband and I decided to hike to some falls in the […]
Westside Story – Finally, Some Respect
Finally, some respect. Like Rodney Dangerfield lamented, “I get no respect.” At least that seems to be true in Lakewood. The way I figure it, people know me too well in Lakewood to give me any respect. But I find as I travel out of the city and go far enough north to the Town […]
Across the Fence: A Zoo Visit in Seattle
Admittedly, I have mixed feelings about zoos. On the one hand, animals in them are not roaming freely and lose lots of their natural instincts. On the other hand, it’s a way to preserve species and, in bringing them to the people, to have them understood and protected in better ways. I have grown up […]
Lakewood Elections Thus Far
Election season is upon us. The yardsigns have been up for two months cluttering up our city, and candidates are deluged with mail about ‘great deals’ on buying those yardsigns. We are into primary season. 15 years ago the State Legislature, ahem, decreed that a ‘Top Two Primary’ would make things so much easier. The […]
Westside Story – Beating Don Doman
If you are one of 24,000+ people who read The Suburban Times, I am confident you will instantly recognize the name, Don Doman. Don, who is a friend of mine; well at least he was before I wrote this column, writes interesting pieces often connecting with subjects that are different from the subjects I write […]