the frig blig

Hanging loose at the beach in Yachats, in the zone.

Saw this hiking the Cedar Butte trail a few weeks ago. The owner kept out of sight however.

The season called spring officially kicked off nine days ago, coinciding with the vernal equinox. All that week you could see industrious Seattleites busily digging in the dirt preparing their gardens. Then yesterday afternoon, snow fell from the Seattle sky — big old clumps of flakes. It caused several fender-benders before it ended after about an hour and a half.

This is the first time I’ve seen it snow in Seattle this late in the season for the 17 years that I’ve lived here.

This afternoon I got out my bicycle, pumped up the tires and pedaled a mile-and-a-half to Stone Way hardware for a porcelain light fixture. My first bike ride of 2008 it was. While I huffed and puffed in my lined black gloves, old memories of my bicyclist past hooted at how out of shape and unbikerly I have become. Well let him hoot; it felt good to be back in the saddle again.

S was busy whipping our various garden spots into shape — the pea chair, the raspberry patch and the vegetable plot. For her spring means spring break, and she intends to be productive with it this year.

S and I accompanied our friend N from SLC on a hike along the riverbank near Darrington yesterday morning. Moss-draped trees graced our path as we walked and gawked.

S and I spent friday and saturday being tourists in Victoria BC. We visited some residents at St. Joseph’s hospital, swam in the hotel pool, and did a lot of walking. More photos are under the Victoria listing in the galleries.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports this morning that the Crocodile Cafe has closed its doors and told its employees not to return to work. Thus ends another classic Belltown establishment; I recall similar feelings of shock and dismay when Sit & Spin closed, and the 211 Club.

Fun bands I saw at the Croc over the years include the Model Rockets, Huge Spacebird, and Martin Sexton. The joint will be missed by legions of music lovers.

Jimi Hendrix was born 65 years ago today, and shockingly, this fact does not appear on Wikipedia’s front-page ‘On This Day’ listing.

His music has and will continue to be discussed to death (NPI) but as I was in highschool when he died, allow me the following reminiscences:

1. I can’t do any better than to quote my friend Tim who upon first hearing Are You Experienced, recalled intense puzzlement, thinking “What the hell was that?”, followed by immediately replaying the album. The sound was that new.

2. I recently discovered quite by accident that prior to going to England he had a band for a few months in New York city, Jimmy James and The Blue Flames. I learned about this while researching Randy California, after listening to an old Spirit CD and wondering how he got that name. Turns out there were two Randys in the Jimmy James band and to distinguish between them Jimi called them Randy California and Randy Texas. The moniker stuck (and when Are You Experienced came out, 15-year-old RC was surprised to learn Jimi’s last name wasn’t James).

3. I gave away my copy of ‘Hendrix in the West’ to my highschool friend and Hendrix fan Tripp Anderson way back when; I hope you got lots of listens out of that disk Tripp! Regards whereever you are.

4. Who would have guessed that I’d end up living in Hendrix’s hometown umpteen years later?

Eight-year-old P from Corvallis was painting watercolors and S asked her for some ‘refrigerator art’. Here’s P’s resulting masterpiece:

We had a great time playing host to our friends from Corvallis and Beaverton this weekend.

Loyal and attentive reader J. congratulated the blig on it’s one-year anniversary a few days ago (thanks for noticing!). Looking back to it’s beginning in November 2006, the fourth-ever posting was ambushed-by-chum. This morning we (S&F accompanied by friends J&P, R and C) returned to the scene of the chum where I’ll be danged if they weren’t back at it again, swimming upstream in the creek to lay and fertilize their little eggs. The fish were too quick for my trigger finger, so instead of a picture of spawn-frenzied salmon I offer you the above photo of frost-encrusted leaves near the banks of the creek.