I admire everybody who is able to complete all 29 stops on the Seattle Independent Bookstore tour in the past week. I checked off ten of the total stops and am looking forward to visiting more of them (and returning to many). After last weekend’s long Sunday of ferries plus walking around downtown I decided I deserved a big gelato. What a great event to motivate exploring across the entire city and into the outskirts.

Got out for another ferry trip this weekend! This time, rode with the family and the puppy over to Bremerton, north along the peninsula, and then back on the ferry from Kingston to Edmonds.

I got out yesterday for a ferry ride across the sound to Bainbridge Island. On the return trip this container ship crossed directly ahead of us. I was happy with the lineup of the person watching the boat below me, with the boat further off. (And their sweatshirt lets me call this photo Freightful Dead.)

My first trip of Indie Bookstore Day yielded a couple of books, a cookie and a cappuccino at Third Place. I’d say it’s a success! I’ll be trying to hit up all the indie shops in town over the next week to complete my passport book.

I watched the Sounders win yesterday. Thinking about becoming. Seattle sports guy. Uh-oh.

Just quite pleased with the espresso I made this morning, from Herkimer Coffee. That’s it, that’s the post.

Listening to this Josh Ritter album after dinner tonight as the sky gets darker. Released for just a few days in Dec of 2020, it’s a wonderful album of live performances of so many favorites. Wish I could tell you where to pick it up. Friends’ll have to come over and listen to it some summer night.

I photo-walked to a neighborhood shop for coffee and breakfast first thing yesterday. It was a beautiful morning to get out for a walk.

Mods are asleep, post desktops.

I finished reading The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson. It’s a sometimes harrowing adventure story about searching for peace and home, and while it wasn’t written specifically for this time we’re in, it has passages that hit home in the moment we’re navigating. The more I look at the things I highlighted, the more the through-lines of hope, finding who you are, and the power of truths shine out.

On happiness and struggle, a character says,

“Let me tell you something important. The real struggle on this earth is not between those who want peace and those who want war. It’s between those who want peace and those who want justice. If justice is what you want, then you may often be right, but you will rarely be happy.”

And on survival:

Her breath would come only in gasps, long stuttering things that burned her throat, but she took them, one after another, agreeing with each one to live a while longer.

I’m really grateful for this lovely and evocative novel.