The Gay Curmudgeon

All Internet access is down at Curmudgeon Central. Qwest.net reports an outage in the area that they hope to fix in 24 to 48 hours. Arrrgh! Anyone else down?

Last night really was a perfect summer evening in Seattle.  It was the kind of warm soft evening that encourages us to spend as much time outdoors as possible before the long gray clouds descend once more.

Lazing in that idyll with a neighbor we were startled to see a man and woman pick a bunch of flowers from the traffic circle that we maintain.  Now, this isn’t a complete surprise as each spring we catch a few people harvesting the daffodils when they bloom.  

What did surprise me is that the couple felt quite entitled to pick flowers from neighbors yards too, as they walked back to a house on 20th Ave E. 

This year we’ve noticed that people have been picking flowers from our yard also, leaving behind bare and mangled plants in their wake and robbing us of the pleasure of their blooms just as they are reaching their peak

After this latest incident we sighed, set aside our disappointment and  watched the setting sun.  Only thirty minutes later I went inside and, as I looked out at the street, I spotted two women and a man in the traffic circle.  The two women had scissors or shears and were cutting themselves some pretty summer flowers. 

The same flowers that come from plants that other people buy, water and care of (not the city) to make our neighborhood beautiful.  Not their house or table.

Unable to contain myself this time, I called out to them and explained that the traffic circle is planted and cared for by the neighborhood. They apologized and claimed “We didn’t know” and walked away towards 23rd Ave E. 

It’s getting so disheartening and dangerous tending neighborhood traffic circles these days that it’s a wonder anyone still does it.  On Thursday last week an elderly man was assaulted and killed after an altercation while he was trying to water the traffic circle near his home in Rainier Beach.  Pointless and tragic. 

As for our local miscreants, we’ve been trying to think of a positive way to get them to stop stealing neighborhood flowers.  The favorite so far is sending them a few packets of flower seeds and a note encouraging them to grow their own next year.

What's the best way to prevent flower theft and continue making our traffic circles islands of beauty on the hill?

Are you seeing red or orange water coming out of your cold water fawcett right now? Well, turn it off right away and I'll tell you why.

You are one of the lucky houses near fire hydrants that our Fire Department opened and closed earlier today. According to Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) when they do this the high pressure dislodges all the rust in the pipes and it takes hours for it to settle back down again.

Running your cold water tap just makes the symptoms worse and last longer. The best way to make this pass is by using as little water as possible so that the rust settles and the water runs clear again in a few hours.