Briefly, briefly, briefly

The Northwest Corner drifts into the dog days of a Seattle summer. Yellow school buses, morning fog over the Sound, and leaves changing color -- they are already discernible as a dark line on the horizon. But the long languid hours of summer are still very much with us.

Having exhausted all reserves of profundity in my prior posting, I think it's time to retreat to a format last used in May, and give you a quick summary of life here in the Northwest. Maybe I'll make these summaries a quarterly feature.

• While the rest of the nation bakes, fries and burns in record heat waves, us Northwest loggers and fisherfolk have had a fairly cool summer. A few nice, warm weeks in July, but August -- generally our hottest month -- has been, for the most part, partly cloudy and moderate in temperature. Highs in the low 70's all this past week.


• Yes! I did ultimately get my new bike! I'm riding about an hour and a half every other day, increasing each ride's distance as my legs develop. I stay in as high a gear as possible, to increase the resistance against my muscles, and try not to shift down when going over small hills. I have at my disposal the Burke Gilman trail, an excellent paved bike trail that I enter just a few blocks from my house. It continues miles northward, past the Seattle city limits, around the north end of Lake Washington, and then eastward through some of the Eastside suburbs. Denny and I leave for Laos in November, and I have only a short time to train before the autumn rains descend upon us. The riding is fun, the scenery along the lake is great, the people-watching on the trail can't be beat. And my legs just keep getting stronger!


• Denny, for his part, is training daily in Sonoma for the Santa Cruz Sentinel Triathlon on September 23. My hopes that he might be slacking off, so I could catch up with him by November, have been rudely dashed.


• I'm sending in applications this week for visas to Laos and Vietnam. The Vietnam visa is probably unnecessary, as we are only changing planes in Saigon airport on the way home. But there are stories of airlines that have refused to carry passengers into Vietnam, even just to change planes, without showing a visa. I see the visa fee as hassle insurance.


• Kathy and Clinton visited from Sonoma last weekend. That was so much fun! We visited new landmarks that I discussed in my May summary -- the new Seattle Art Museaum, and SAM's outdoor sculpture park. We also had Sunday brunch at an old landmark -- the Space Needle! I never enjoy Seattle as much as when I'm showing it off to someone else. Which should be an inducement for readers to come visit me -- it would make us both so happy!


• Seattle Seafair, at the end of July, is a puzzling annual tribal rite -- or assortment of rites -- left over from the very distant past. The high point of the week used to be the Seafair Unlimited Hydroplane Races, a noisy and incredibly boring event on Lake Washington that locals seemed to love. The winner of the event no longer is guaranteed front page celebrity, and being the subject of fond discussions throughout the coming year. But the rite continues, as rites are wont to do. We also still have the visit of the Blue Angels -- a Navy squadron of F/A-18 Hornets that fly in wingtip to wingtip formation, seemingly at rooftop level -- shattering the peace each year for the benefit of Seafair. Family pets across Seattle spend the weekend cringing under the family bed. What's this craving for noise? All we lack is NASCAR!


• But not for lack of trying. Local boosters -- including the Seattle Times -- have been trying for years to lure this bizarre "sport" to the Northwest. Apparently not hard enough. NASCAR officials have been reportedly offended this year by local taxpayers' apparent lack of interest in funding construction of the necessary speedway. Thank God.


• The Mariners continue to limp along, three games behind the Angels. They don't seem very impressive, but they would in fact be the wild card team if the A.L. playoffs were played today. No one wants to say too much about the pennant race, I guess for fear of jinxing them and because they have broken our hearts so many times in the past. I may have said too much already.


• Meanwhile, and still in the wonderful world of pro sports, the SuperSonics appear to be on the brink of pulling up stakes, leaving town and moving to -- so help me, folks, I'm not making this up -- OKLAHOMA CITY. Hahahaha! So long, Sonics. I'm not crying.

In reading over these items, I sense that summer in Seattle sounds kind of boring. It may just be my mood. But in this world in which we now live, I can think of worse things than being boring. Or being bored, for that matter.

And that's how it is, briefly, in the Northwest Corner. Good night ... and good luck.