June 2009
2:56 PM Mon, Jun 29, 2009 | Permalink
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It takes some doing to find the small Pierce County town of Wilkeson. It is on the way to the northwest entrance of Mount Rainier National Park, but a washout has kept it closed for a few years. But long before Rainier brought travelers through Wilkeson, two industries kept the town bustling: quarries and coal mining. Today, sandstone and other rocks are still mined, although coal hasn't come out of the ground here in more than 30 years. But i...
9:04 PM Fri, Jun 19, 2009 | Permalink
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"Sunday's just about here," the clerk behind the counter shouted as I walked into my neighborhood convenience store.
"What's Sunday?" I asked.
"Are you kidding me?" he poked. "It's Father's Day!"
I hadn't forgotten, but my brain just didn't make the connection as I stood at the cash register that day. I don't think my husband would buy that excuse. But it's the truth.
Still, it got me to thinking. Do dads get di...
2:27 PM Wed, Jun 17, 2009 | Permalink
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City A: A trace of rain in June
City B: 5.32-inches of June precipitation, and rain on 12 out of 16 days
If you guessed City A is Seattle and City B is New York, then you get a prize. Seattle, today is your day of reckoning - when nearly a month of rainless days could culminate in a spring record. If the official Sea-Tac rain gauge goes wanting today, then it will be the 29th straight such day with no measurea...
5:13 PM Mon, Jun 15, 2009 | Permalink
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In the movies, a bank is robbed, the teller pushes a button and magic happens. Police race to the scene, catch the bad guy and recover the cash.
It might have worked that way (on occasion) 40 years ago when banks were few and their alarms were wired to police departments. But according to the FBI, there are now 80,000 bank branches in the U.S. If alarms went straight to the police, that's all officers would do.
And since most alarm...
3:27 PM Thu, Jun 11, 2009 | Permalink
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San Juan Island residents with a long memory might see something they haven't seen in 40 years. It's been that long since bluebirds flew around the islands and other parts of the Puget Sound region. But shrinking tracts of their preferred habitat -- meadows sprinkled with garry oak trees -- basically led to their demise.
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4:42 PM Fri, Jun 05, 2009 | Permalink
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I am a worrier. It's what I do and I'm really good at it. That's why I recently checked out 15 children's books on personal safety to prepare my kids for their first trip away from my eagle eyes this summer. The topics range from bicycle safety, to >> Continue reading: Worry Wart
5:41 PM Wed, Jun 03, 2009 | Permalink
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What do 90° in Seattle, a heat index of 100° in Boston and a heat index of 105° in Chicago have in common?
They all trigger a heat advisory issuance by the National Weather Service, like we had in Western Washington today. (Sea-Tac set a record high of 89°.)
So why the lack of consistency? It has to do with what people are acclimated to in different parts of the country. When it comes to heat, apparently we're weather wimps here in...
6:53 AM Wed, Jun 03, 2009 | Permalink
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This will never be a problem for my 9 year old daughter. I will never have to resort to sneaking extra calories into her meals. No one will ever have to call her twice to the dinner table; a little "gift" she inherited from me.
But my six year old son on the other hand... ugh. He eats what he's told, but never has "seconds." And he's tiny.
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5:14 PM Mon, Jun 01, 2009 | Permalink
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Today a national bird protection group called for cat protection groups to give up a popular birth control method.
Trap, neuter, and release, or TNR, is a favorite strategy because it prevents millions of unwanted kitten births and allows fixed cats to live out their days in the wild.
But the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) group says when those cats are released, they eat millions of song birds nationwide.
Both sides have so...
