Jody and Gamelan Pacifica

Wonderful performance last night! Jody, C's cousin from Uncle Jack, is a world leader and expert in gamelan, Indonesian music that combines percussion, flutes, vocals and a host of other fascinating sounds and rhythms. She had been working with Gamelan Pacifica for about a week at Cornish, and their concert featured her compositions, including an amazing blend of a Stephen Foster tune, Hard Times, plus Jewish themes, Sabbath Bride, with the gamelan.

After dinner at the Shanghai Garden on Thursday, she invited us to the performance. It was great to get her together with Max, so he could hear her comments and suggestions, as well as plug into her network of colleagues, while he continues to gather information in his college search.

We've been quite cultured this fall, Equivocation at the Seattle Rep, Abe Lincoln in Illinois at Intiman, after Othello and The Year of Magical Thinking, plus A Serious Man at the Harvard Exit. And, we'll wrap up the fall and transition into the holidays this week with Ellington's Jazz Nutcracker, guaranteed to keep you swinging through Hannucrist and into the New Year!

Link Light Rail

A fine weekend indeed, finishing with a 40+ mile ride in perfect Seattle summer weather. We've had a string of those in the past week, almost payback for last winter and spring. I've started to use this Airport Way, South Seattle loop as a training run, as the neighborhoods are interesting, there's little traffic on the weekends, Pioneer Square coffee and treats stops are convenient, and the route is somewhat flat. Pleasant alternative to the Eastside loops through Yuppieville.

After an early dinner at the Shanghai Garden, we walked down to the International District station to ride Link light rail yesterday, the first day of service. And, we rode the entire line! Great to ride through the Rainier Valley and see neighborhoods that we just don't get to very often. Plenty of places to explore, restaurants to frequent, now so easily accesible. The line goes all the way to Tukwila, with a shuttle to the airport for now, but by year end the promise is delivery to SeaTac. It will be interesting to see how this rail service changes how people commute as well as what happens to the places around the stops. But for now, we give the service two thumbs up.

Four weeks until RSVP. Should be ready, once the Bleriot gets a little tune-up.

More CTS

This week's CTS ride was the Eastside Urban Loop, circumnavigating Bellevue, keeping on the right as we left from Marymoor Park, climbed Newport Hill, and then dropped down via the I-90 trail to Enetai Park, underneath the bridge for the first rest stop.I was sucking wind as we climbed the hill, with chain slipping, falling behind, but caught up eventually.  Same thing happened through Clyde Hill and Yarrow Bay, and it didn't help to miss a couple of the turns that only increased the separation from the rest of the green group.  Maybe I'm a yellow (12-14 mph), the group for the next ride, two weeks from now, Marymoor-Snohomish.  Or, maybe fewer noodles, dumplings and less orange chicken from the Shanghai Garden the night before will result in less ballast.

Ended up at 41.5 miles for the day, 454 YTD.   Next week is the Tacoma Wheelmen's Daffodil Classic.  The group did a great job with the Headwaters Century last fall, and I'll wait to choose between the 4o mile Buckley Loop, and the 60 mile Eatonville circuit, which looks like more of a challenge from both a distance and elevation perspective.

After getting home (lunch, sauna, shower, stretch), took the Lemond over to Gregg's to see about the chain slipping.  Wade took care of an adjustment on a busy Saturday afternoon while I strolled over to Peet's for a coffee.   Great service!