Rainstorm in Tacoma - or, Thursday (of Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday)

When I left the drugstore with my snapshots rain was pouring down.  Just a half-hour before it was sunny, I had waited in the park for the 1-hour photo and the ground was quite dry, only a little wisps of dew-like damp from the earlier light rain.  

According to my bus schedule booklet, a bus was to be along shortly, I headed to the stop and saw it coming at the light a block behind me. As I got on there was thunder and a flash of lightning, and the driver was at work with an interactive narrative with the riders.  "Lightning!" she said.

 

She must have been on the route all the way from Parkland when the rain began.  (Click on the haiku below for something of what she must have seen.) 

 

From the route of sun

at the hill's wide-screen landscape

clouds pour down deep rain

 

She must have said something like "Look at this come down!" at the transit center downtown. This discussion developed, and yet remained reasonable and respectful, at the entry to the Tacoma Community College transit center:  the drains there had flooded so deeply that there were two cars marooned in the flooding street.  The bus was tall enough to go through, ("Great work, bus driver!", and "Yay!  Bus Driver!") but as we went through, water was entering through the doors, it washed around the bus floor.  (During the interactive discussion I tapped on the shoulder of a rider with earbuds to show him the rainwater washing around on the bus floor.) 

 

I planned to transfer and the #16 was there.  The raindrops were very large, after I went under a transit center shelter briefly, I went across the wet pavement to the #16 and boarded.  The driver was to go - he went out to check with a supervisor closer to the flooded Mildred Street.  He detoured along 19th to Jackson Street, then turned at 12th Street, skipping only the TCC stops, where sheriff's cars and the obvious marooned cars and the huge flooded area showed why a bus might not stop there. 

As the bus left the transit center on the 19th Street side, I saw a similar flooded area behind us on 19th.  The bus was about fifteen minutes late when it reached Washington School.  Washington School, which has been in the rain for a hundred years, and is now undergoing restoration.   

If the library had been open until eight o'clock I probably would have gone in to Share on Facebook.  But I would have had only about ten minutes actual time, and I cannot Share on Facebook that quickly.  Since it is almost Labor Day weekend I was using white pants and remembered when I biked to hear Yevtushenko read poems at University of Puget Sound and got caught in the rain in white pants.  I caught cold.  I guess Pierce Transit will have to dry out a few busses, I hope this has not done serious damage and that the other riders have managed without getting ill.  Rain has always looked beautiful to me. 

Centralia Visit - or, Wednesday (of Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday)

The Chinese Reconciliation Pagoda can be seen
from the train as it goes through Old Town

The Adult Summer Reading Club Groundbreaking Reads totebag (with  longer handles and landscape instead of portrait position) was great for a lunch and bus schedule booklet and jacket on my train ride to Centralia Wednesday.  On the way out I dropped crushed cans in the dumpster and still had the plastic bag.  It rained a little at the Tacoma Dome Station, I covered my hat with the plastic bag for the walk to the Amtrak Station.   

In the Station I tried to snap a photo of the rather old luggage cart and re-read the Time Magainze article about how from one in ten to one in five people who are bypassing kids.  On the train I sat in seats arranged only one seat one behind another. By taking the train to have lunch with my relatives at a restaurant in Centralia,  I could avoid a long ride in a car and could look around Centralia.  The Chinese Reconciliation Pagoda can be seen from the train as it goes through old town.    

Model of Carnegie Library and Park at Centralia

Historic Marker for Centralia Founder

Centralia's founder was an African-American whose name was George Washington and the downtown park was part of his original homestead.  At the Carnegie Library they allowed me to take a snapshot of a tiny model of the park and library, I liked the proportions of the model and the sunshine was lovely.  After lunch we spent some time in antique stores.  Then it was all right with me to rest in the train station until the train.  It was not the Coast Starlight, sometimes the long-distance train is delayed, it was the corridor train, slightly delayed about fifteen minutes, from I think Eugene, Oregon. 

Steve's - or Sunday (Of Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday)

At the Potluck on Sunday I brought Steve's Beans.  This recipe appeared in the News Tribune in 1963, fifty years ago.  It is a variation of Salamagundi, a pirate bean recipe, and it appeared at Steve's Gay Nineties Restaurant on the Sunday smorgasbord.  This food is among fond remembrances of foods, and I have not found this sort of kidney baked bean recipe again.

The Holly Hotel Mysteries Continue for me through More Gracious Interlibrary Loans

About Interlibrary Loan Books during the Adult Summer Reading Club: some of these books have such nice illustrations. It has been great to reencounter some illustrations by Paul Brown. And Nora S. Unwin illustrated the Holly Hotel Mystery Series. An Unwin Scottish Terrier I once found on the internet resembles a favorite Holly Hotel character, Beetle. On the internet there is only a small amount of such illustrations. 

During the Tacoma Public Library’s Summer Reading Club I reported on Holly Hotel and TheMirrors of Castle Doone, both by Elisabeth Kyle.  Interlibrary loan mysteries by Elisabeth Kyle came in to fill gaps in the Holly Hotel Mysteries story.  In Holly Hotel a girl, Mollie Maitland, in Scotland writes posters that advertise her old house as a hotel,  the guests arrive, and the mystery series begins.  The second book of the group is Lost Karin.  In The Mirrors of Castle Doone, the third book,  boys camp on the moor and discover a mystery to solve, also characters from the two earlier books are present.  The third book, The Porvost’s Jewel, includes some characters from the series but in an unexpected way:  it happens that the villainous pair of jewel thieves and kidnappers reappear to test the defenses of other Scottish children, their activity in Lost Karin gets only a brief mention. 

The second story, Lost Karin, lands Karin Cloot at an airport near Holly Hotel’s Whistleblow Village, finds her taken in by the criminal jewel thief, driven towards a house in the ruined village familiar to Holly Hotel mystery readers.  When “Lou” the jewel thief has a flat tire, Karin chases a rabbit over a wall, falls into a low place on the moor, then overhears the arrived wife and accomplice of “Lou” discussing their real plans. 

When they do not find Karen, she exists on the verges of Whistleblow and is mistaken as a village household helper by an author, Miss Pitkethly.  Miss Pitkethly says, “plots are so difficult to get,” and the whole story seems dream-like. At the very end of the story she starts to type, and her title is Lost Karin.   Meanwhile Mollie Maitland with other child and adult guests search for Karin.  Although much foreshadows their convergence, the story often seems unlikely.  Lost Karin was published in 1946.  In the 1960s and 1970s European travel was often urged “before such places are spoiled”.  The dream-like Scottish village may reflect this “un-spoiled” quality. 

Illustrator of The Silver Robin Illustrated Litttle Black Sambo in 1927

The Illustrator of The Silver Robin, a book from Washington School Library that I read over and over again, also illustrated Little Black Sambo in 1927.  Frank Dobias was one of a number of illustrators of this story.  According to the internet, the Frank Dobias illustrated version of Little Black Sambo was a best-seller in Japan.  The book appears on the internet at this time, and is viewable.  I am at this time reading The Silver Robin - I remember liking the story and realize the illustrations were favorites of mine as well.

Golden Legacy and the Letter To Disney

In a report during Tacoma Public Library's Summer Reading Club I mentioned a letter used in Golden Legacy, by Marcus Leonard, as an illustration.  The letter occurs again in a video by Marcus Leonard about Little Golden Books, (in the video, at about 10:17) I feel quite convinced about the promise of humor when the letter is addressed to Walt Disney.

Great Garage Sale Friday and Saturday

Over at my cousin's house all the garage sale tables are laden with lovely china things and so many beautiful art pieces, one or two coats, boxes, silver items, and there is a great box full of headbands for tennis...not to be missed out on...