Leaving the Altadena house

The photos and videos from Los Angeles are breathtaking in their depiction of destruction: smoking, charred remains of houses; intact homes with active fires licking inside; drone shots of entire neighborhood blocks ruined; stranded architectural features—bereft chimneys and pools, spiral staircases winding up to nothing; singed trees; bulldozed cars; mailboxes coated in fire-retardant pink. But …

Light switch

We are deep into the Big Dark, that point of late autumn in the Pacific Northwest when the sun rises after breakfast and by dusky midafternoon, thoughts turn to dinner and pajamas. The Big Dark—like cilantro and rollercoasters—is something you either love or hate. Single-digit hours of daylight saturated with large quantities of rain and …

We brake for salmon

It’s nice to live in a city where traffic jams are caused by spawning salmon. Last weekend, we headed to Carkeek Park here in Seattle to cheer on the chum salmon currently making their way from Puget Sound up Pipers Creek to reproduce. Carkeek is a big place with a gorgeous swath of beach along …

Grounds for hope

Heinz, our tomato-red 2015 Altima, was squeaking, or rather its brakes were. Heinz materialized a few months back after our old Subaru Outback was rear-ended and totaled. (Everyone's fine, thanks for asking!) It seemed prudent to check the squeak. Heinz, however, is our only car, and while owning a single vehicle is cheaper and more …

In a rut?

If someone had told me last month that I'd be spending most of February on my Yaktrax, I would've just laughed. I mean, come on, the forsythia was blooming and the daffodil shoots were beginning to poke up. My January jacket selection was several levels south of maximum (that would be the black, knee-length down …

You are here. Trust the dot.

I've been studying a lot of those "You Are Here" maps lately. At malls and transit centers, on school campuses, in the middle of parks, tall buildings, and parking garages. And the pulsing blue circle on my phone, me in the Google Map universe: I look at that a lot. I appreciate that these dots …