Meredith Rawls

Good points, all - several years still for me to wrestle with tech life choices between now and then 🫠

A Truck Hit My Friend. He Lived. But That’s Not the Point. A crash, a near loss, and a call to action. When Keith survived, the real story began. This is about what comes next, and why silence is no longer an option.

A story:
About forced car dependency
About freedom of movement
About the road where it happened
In the Pacific Northwest.

A life of bike advocacy begins: "I'm going to fight for something simple, something overdue. A bike lane. On the stretch of road where this happened."

Hope he's joined a group.

But I also anticipate lots of talking about it: if she doesn't want to location share in the future, we can come up with other mutually acceptable boundaries and let her turn it off, especially if she is message-able as you say.

There are so many considerations in this realm 🤯

My spouse & I location share w/ each other and the kids' grandparents, and it is SO helpful as a safe (passive) driving/biking ETA

My 7yo likes her AirTag; I'll let her bike/bus more readily in the future if I can see where she is (likely via watch)

Who Is Diane Turnshek, Pittsburgh's Dark Sky Advocate? When was the last time you really saw the stars at night in Pittsburgh? Diane Turnshek is trying to change that — one light at a time.

I may spend too much time on Zoom, but at least the never-ending meetings during this particularly impossible time are often with some of the coolest people! Here is just one example www.pittsburghmagazine.com/profile-dian...

It would work with a bungee for a single backpack, mayyybe 2, but the bag is truly 10/10

I like Hauler Rack + Weathertop bag. More maneuverable than Transporteur Rack but essentially identical capacity - 2 backpacks easy.

Screenshot of my As to the Qs from the survey 1. We love the environmental learning center programs, like their family getaways, and wish it were more accessible. 2. Continue and deepen the cultural history connections to the area, and center the priorities of Indigenous folks in these conversations. 3. It is necessary to drive to access the entire area, and parking is limited near popular sites. Regular bus service would be amazing, and would tie in directly to the environmental learning center's sustainability goals. Consider converting some roads into hike/bike/bus only. Don't just add loads more car parking!! Cars are the biggest source of environmental pollution in the region. Provide viable alternatives so the default access mode is not driving, so folks that actually do need to drive (and are willing to pay a premium for the privilege) aren't overcrowding. 4. Booking a family weekend, Skagit boat tour, tent camp site, or similar program should come with the expectation that you will select a bus stop and time window for at least the last part of your journey to the site. The bus will need to be equipped to carry large quantities of luggage, including oversized items like coolers and camping gear as well as strollers and large bicycles. The option to pay extra to drive and park onsite could be offered in exceptional circumstances - this should be priced similar to airport parking. 5. Thank you for working on a big picture plan for access to the region! Please consider incorporating AQI evacuation facilities for when the region is inundated with wildfire smoke and outdoor excursions need an alternative indoor refuge with top notch air filtration. Such a facility should also be readily accessible on a bus or shuttle loop, and could be used for other educational or facility support purposes when the AQI is green.

Done!

this is … not what we meant when we encouraged members of the astronomical community to talk to their representatives

Step 0. Stop defunding science ?!?

Nah, let's jump straight to "send the Jupiter orbiter on a physically impossible $15M joy ride, because aliens"

Solstice Symphony Orchestra Presents: Treason & Triumph Solstice Symphony Orchestra returns for its third season with Treason and Triumph — a high-stakes program where betrayal and loss give way to revolution and transcendence. Join us on Saturday, August ...

Seattle! Come to the Solstice Symphony on Saturday August 16 and hear some lovely classical music, like Beethoven's Eroica, featuring yours truly in the veeeeery back of the viola section 🎻

TODAY ONLY tickets are 33% off (though they're not expensive to begin with) www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticket...

hey look, it's pretty much exactly what my city tried to do, and will probably try again 😭

this whole thread re. school transportation is worth a read... families' localized problems with school buses are probably more universal than you think

WEST COAST PEEPS! No panic yet, just be aware

*Warning for some Aleutian Islands
*Advisory for Alaska
*Watch for BC south through WA and OR down to Cal/Mex border

Tsunami warning/watch/advisory page
www.tsunami.gov/events/PAAQ/...

One of those nights where a car parked near your bedroom window has its alarm go off periodically between 2-6am for no apparent reason

I don't know why we collectively decided the metal boxes we hurl ourselves around in regularly should have a HONK MORE feature, you know, for safety and security

This is nice, but then, why at the bus stop at 3rd & Pike is there a hideous high pitched noise designed to repel people? Gave me a headache when I was just trying to take the bus home after an event at Benaroya Hall.

first they came for the ships, but my research was not done on a boat

I mostly use DevaCurl No Poo and One Condition but it's mostly because I haven't bothered to find something I like better. Too much fragrance but does the job. They were the OG "curly girl method" people. I do really like Loma Curvy Crème. Agree with others to find local curly stylist to guide you!

Yay! Basics:
- no shampoo, or very mild shampoo used sparingly on scalp only
- plenty of conditioner, run your fingers through your hair in the shower to detangle (can use wide toothed comb)
- "plop" hair onto towel, & promptly scrunch silicone-free product into it
- no comb/brush outside of shower

(For the record, the pictured 2.5yo rode on one of our bikes for the majority of this excursion, but she got to ride solo along the car-free section of LWB, as pictured, and also in Genesee Park, with another kid her age)

Toddler in tie dye on a purple Woom bike glides sans pedals at a fast clip along Lake Washington Blvd on a perfect summer day.

The Montlake bike bridge makes the ride from Ballard➡️UW➡️Lake Washington Blvd very nice!

We rode down to Genesee Park➡️Columbia City for dinner, & up to UW via light rail for an easier loop.

If the northern part of LWB wasn't actively hostile to anyone not in a car, I'd recommend this route to all!

That is fair, but in the meantime, why not both dot gif 😉

The handful of times I actually drive in the city, I rely on Google Maps, and it always reroutes me to neighborhood streets to "avoid traffic" on an arterial. DO NOT WANT. Between that and the ceaseless "are the police still there??" pings, I understand default driver behavior much better now 😭

The waterfront pier 58 playground is open AND you can bike there from the ship canal trail and/or West Seattle (and/or Bell St connection to Westlake!) on a fully connected protected bike lane network 🪼

Looking forward to checking this out sometime soon 😄

This is the kind of real review I am here for 😂

I would like a very detailed review please!!

This is all so unnecessary

I love the bus!!

Riding it should be pleasant and objectively better than driving

If I were a normal person I'd be saying "ugh we should have driven and paid for parking" by now 😞

In related news

It would have been nice for SDOT and King County Metro to talk to each other so our poor D bus driver knew what to do once forced to turn right onto Leary at the bottom of the Ballard Bridge ramp

It's jackhammer party time, and we get front row - apparently stationary - seats

3rd & Pike 😭 just the one I have to use every time I go downtown, to the waterfront, or to the airport

Ride the bus, they say

The bus stop has:

- new daylight white LED flood lights
- nowhere to sit
- no shelter from rain or sun
- a security car parked on the sidewalk
- a constant high pitched noise designed to drive people away 😰

And no bus for 20 min on a Friday night.

We can do better, Seattle

A mutual colleague of ours unexpectedly dropped off a meeting (about astronomy and satellites) today, and then later sent an email saying, sorry, apparently there was a Starlink outage 🫠

This is all my when2meets, so I'm reasonably confident the poll creator is in Europe, most of the people are on the US west coast, and many of them are probably part of a collaboration that tries to have no-meeting Fridays lol