— पांच हजार चार सौ इक्कीस —
Shobhit was invited, in his capacity as a Seattle City Council candidate, to join a walking tour led by a volunteer with the "
Lid I-5" project. I think they invited all of the Council Candidates in District 3, and I have no idea whether they did but it would have made sense for them to invite the
six candidates for District 7 as well, as that's the district on the west side of the freeway. All I know is, among the District 3 candidates, Ry was the only one who also came.
When Shobhit first had an email exchange with them about it, he copied me because he sends me all his emails regarding scheduled events, which I then put in a dedicated Google Calendar I created just for his campaign. I registered us both to join via their website just to make things easier for everyone. I've been going to most of his events with him when they occur outside work hours, and if I don't have other plans. This one, I actually have a lot of interest in, irrespective of Shobhit running for office.
I quite enjoyed it, and found it both informative, and honestly, also slightly dispiriting: something like this takes way too fucking long. Like, the Nisqually earthquake cracked the viaduct in 2001, and they did not even tear the fucking thing down until 2019. Only right now are they finally in the construction phase of the redesigned waterfront.
The tour guide spoke
optimistically about an I-5 lid getting done in "ten years or less." I'll saw my own head off if they finish earlier than ten years from now. (That's how we know it's not going to happen.) Which means, I'll be fucking 57 years old before we see anything really happening here. So, we're really just doing this for the next generation. What about me, goddammit! Okay, I guess it can be for my retirement. I'll be pushing sixty, for fuck's sake.
Anyway. I figured I would take some pictures, but I took just
a few more than I expected, at a whopping eight shots. I later added another two, swiping photos taken by our tour guide for the organization's
Twitter account. This included what he called a "Shoe pic," and in the end Shobhit did not extend his leg close enough to the circle to get his foot in the shot. Mine can be seen in the blue jeans on the lower left, though.
The tour started at 5:30, which meant that after I got home on my bike at 5:00, Shobhit was all ready to go—to such a degree, actually, that he had a sandwich made for me to eat to go, along with a to-go cocktail! How nice was that? He also had sunscreen ready for me to use, which I wasn't even thinking about. You see how he looks after me? I was in jeans and a long sleeve button-up so I only really needed to spray my face and neck and the part in my hair. And off we went, walking the 24 minutes down Madison and Marion to the corner on 7th and Marion.
The path we walked is shown in black dashes on
this map. That walk was about one full mile, but with Shobhit and me walking there and back from home, we walked a total of 2.8 miles.
— पांच हजार चार सौ इक्कीस —
— पांच हजार चार सौ इक्कीस —
On the way home, we stopped in for the first time at
Korn Dog, which has been there for a while now at Pine & Harvard but I had yet to try it. It's basically breaded mozzarella sticks on a stick, although most of their options also have hot dogs inside. There's a few cheese-only options, though, and we got one with the potatoes sprinkled all over the breading.
I guess I'll give Shobhit a Social Review point for this. He'd get one if we went out for dinner, so I'll give him one also for stopping in for a snack. And, that also combines with our walk together to and from the walking tour. I also ate my dinner while walking with him, after all.
I haven't been giving him Social Review points for candidate forums or events I go to with him. I don't consider that "social." He'd get a Social Review point for this walking tour if we were going for our own interests, but it only happened because he's running for City Council, and the organization naturally wants the attention of whoever winds up on City Council.
But, after we stopped in for the Korn Dog, today I'm giving him this loophole.
We walked the rest of the way home and Shobhit still had an Indian meal packet to eat. A cheese stick wasn't going to fill anyone up on its own. And then he actually spent some time working on candidate questionnaires. I tried to research another one I thought I would fill out for him, but unfortunately now I can't find it. And I spent a lot of time just looking for it.
— पांच हजार चार सौ इक्कीस —
In work news, I was registered for the Co+nvergence conference in Saint Paul as of Wednesday; I selected by flight itinerary through the NCG conference portal yesterday; and this morning I saw the email, actually sent at 7:07 last night, indicating that my flights have been approved and booked.
Having waited for that to happen, I finally sent out my Outlook announcement for my days away: Tuesday, August 1 through Tuesday, August 8; the conference itself Wednesday-Friday, August 2-4. This is definitely happening now, and I am relieved for it to be a done deal, after months of talking about it.
Now all that's left to do is book a hotel of my own for the extended time I'll stay across the river in Minneapolis, Saturday through Tuesday that week; I'll want Shobhit's involvement in that. And then, at some point, we'll want to get a flight booked for Shobhit to come out and join me those days. That week's going to be packed with new experiences all around, between the conference itself and the time visiting two cities I've never been to before.
— पांच हजार चार सौ इक्कीस —
[posted 12:30 pm]
