call your mother
I have, like countless others I imagine, a tendency to fall down a Google spiral (or Wikipedia spiral) and waste time clicking through to more and more things I find so fascinating and distracting that I forget the last thing I was looking at before I even have a chance to absorb it fully. My guess is what was how I wound up on this New York Times article from the end of last year, about the "Manhattanization" (and other "-izations") of Seattle as well as other cities. In the end it's more about the evolving meaning of using city names in that way than anything else, but I still found it a fascinating, if ultimately pretty superficial, read. I found it by Googling "US downtowns being Manhattanized," because I know certain people are saying that is what is happening to downtown Seattle, and I wondered what other cities in the U.S. are undergoing similar construction booms. (Arguably, none: Seattle has had the most construction cranes of any city in the U.S. for a couple of years now, although the latest such articles I can find are nearly a year old now and I wonder if the ranking will dip soon.) And I thought about that because of glancing at the Rainier Square Tower construction cam I keep open on one of my three monitors at work at all times. The view that shows many other buildings around Rainier Square Tower does look remarkably like any random shot of Manhattan in a way Seattle never did before this decade.
I took myself to see the documentary Where's My Roy Cohn? at SIFF Cinema at the Uptown on Lower Queen Anne right after work yesterday, and although it was about one of the vilest men in U.S. history—indeed, the one such man who shat out the President Fuckwit we know today—it was a relief finally to see a movie again that was actually good. I gave it a B+, and I had not seen a movie I have a grade even that high since I saw Judy on September 27, three weeks ago. After that and before last night, I saw six movies, only one of them even a solid B; three of them B-; and two of them C+. October has not been nearly the greatest month for movies, in a way it often is with at least some Oscar-bait, which I guess is being saved almost exclusively for November and December this year. It's pretty unusual for October to be full of so much cinematic crap, though.
At least I'll get to see the Korean film Parasite on the 25th, which is by all accounts one of the best films of the year.
Anyway, I called Mom and talked to her for about 35 minutes between work and the 5:15 showing of my movie last night, as I needed to inform her Shobhit and I were headed to Wallace on December 7 and staying for two nights. I've already told Nikki and TJ about it and Nikki said they will try to make it for a visit while we're there as usual. Mom told me Becca and Tyler were already planning to come for Thanksgiving, but perhaps I can convince them also to wait until the weekend of December 9, so we can all be there at the same time. That would save them the frustration of Thanksgiving weekend traffic, but I'm guessing Thanksgiving weekend will also be easier for them in terms of time off of work. So I don't have huge hopes of making that happen, but I will try.
I did get some clarity on my brother's employment situation. I already knew he lives in disability now, but I didn't realize he is officially employed as a "caregiver" by Loving Care & More, officially as Bill's caregiver, while Mary is Mom's and has been for 11 years now. I guess Bill is the one who has had the high turnover, and his caregiver has changed every one or two times I've visited; I'm actually not sure how long it's officially been Christopher, who has lived at their house with them in Wallace since, I believe, 2017.
I just know, based on the conversation with Mom last night, that he calls in to officially start his shift and then calls in when he's done, and he gets 20 hours a week for it. He does basic stuff like cooking or even bringing them coffee -- honestly, basically the kind of servitude Mom had us both under for our entire childhoods, only now my brother gets paid for 20 hours a week of it. I asked Mom, "So what happens when his shift's over? Does he not bring you coffee anymore?" Mom said, "Well, he does, because he's nice, and he lives here!"
I also asked about how this meshes with his disability payments, and Mom, post-stroke (2014), still has difficulty describing things of much in the way of complexity, basically left me with the understanding that as long as he doesn't work over a set limit of hours at a real job, he still gets to retain his disability payments. So, that's what he lives on: disability, and 20 hours of "caregiving" that he would frankly be doing anyway whether he got paid or not. Mom says the younger boys, Christian and Braeden (I use "younger" loosely now; they are both teenagers), come visit every other weekend, on weekends Christopher gets his paycheck. He then drives all the way into Spokane from Wallace, and drives the kids back to Wallace to stay for the weekend, and then does the round-trip again to take them back home to Katina. That's so much driving!
Tristen had posted something on Facebook about being headed to Western Washington and Shobhit was convinced it meant he might have moved in with Becca and Tyler. I didn't think so, and Mom confirmed I was right; Tristen had just been visiting Becca. Apparently Tristen did spend the past few weeks back with Katina, who apparently broke her leg, but I guess he was expected back this weekend.
It didn't take long to get all caught up on this stuff though and then I went in to see my movie, after which I bused back home and wrote the review and was getting ready for bed soon thereafter.
Oh, and by the way, another side note on Mom and Bill's rotating roster of caregivers -- Shelley, who had been their PSR ("psychosocial rehabilitation", from a place called Healthy Resolutions, moved to Whidbey Island last year; we haven't seen her since December 2017. Ironically, she is much closer to us now but far less accessible; I only get to Whidbey Island every several years (I did drive through it on my way to visit Ivan in Bellingham after seeing Auntie Rose in Port Townsend during my Birth Week this year, but there was no time to stop and visit her, and I think she was much further south on the rather long island than the road I was driving anyway) but we make our way to Wallace, Idaho usually at least twice a year.
(I did skip the usual springtime trip to Wallace this year, mostly just to placate Shobhit and save the money after the many other trips I had planned this year. I promised Mom the springtime trip will not get skipped next year, though, and therefore I will insist on keeping that promise. The late winter trip to Australia -- which will be late summer in Australia -- will be a massive commitment of time and money, but aside from the two treks to Idaho, and perhaps [hopefully!] an anniversary weekend in Portland, I have no other travel planned for 2020.)
I don't really know if Mom and Bill have another PSR yet. I don't think so. I didn't think to ask her last night.
I just got back from lunch with Karen down at the Six-Seven restaurant at the Edgewater Hotel, rescheduled from last week in conjunction with also having to cancel the one originally scheduled for next week, and therefore our only lunch we can do this month, thanks to scheduling conflicts and constraints on Karen's part. Which is fine, I'll live. We've been having regular lunches like this for almost a decade and a half now, so this will hardly kill me!
It was lovely and a nice time as usual. We meet for lunch so often, and have for so long, I almost never post any checkins -- but I did today! Because I recorded ten seconds of the choppy waters right outside the window right next to our table -- it's been a great many months since they gave us a table along the windows -- making it look rather like we were out at sea. It was fun. In fact, even back at the office now, I still feel motion like I've been on a boat, even though I wasn't at all. The Edgewater Hotel is constructed on a pier, and a perfectly stable one at that.
Nothing to report per se on what we chatted about, as it was all of fairly little consequence. It was light and breezy and the most important thing was the company, really. Now we don’t have another lunch scheduled until November 14—four weeks away! This is only because our second lunch in October had to be canceled, and our regularly scheduled lunches are the second and fourth Thursday of the month, and the first of November is a Friday. Hmm, maybe I should see it she wants to move the November 14 lunch back a week, just to spread things out a bit. For now though, I have to get back to work!
[posted 1:23 pm]