April 6th, 2006
It's getting sunny in Seattle - warmth. Seattle summers are georgeous - like living in a Maxfield Parrish poster.

Uncle Frank (not the guy on Jimmy Kimmel) visited Seattle to check on the yacht he's having built here; 78 feet, 20-foot beam fiberglass three-decker with twin Caterpillar engines. He couldn't find a boat-builder in Florida he liked. When it's done he's having it loaded onto a ship and sent to Florida. We took him to Serafina's. He liked the food but thought it was a little "basic"(the floors were uneven). At 80, he still has the world by the ass.

There are a bunch of multiple-unit projects going in all over this area (Ballard, in the north end of the city). Developers are buying single-family units and even some older multiple dwellings, demolishing them, and putting up town-houses. There are two right here on our street and three or four more within a block or two. Most of the structures in this part of town were built in the '50's through the '70's. They are archetecturally uninteresting and aren't going to be missed, still, I hope we don't end up with the mess they created around the U. of W. - towering, boring multiple-dwelling units right next to each other with no sense of esthetics whatever. Monuments to raw capitalism.

post script: 5/28/06; we learned last week the lovely old farmhouse next door to us is going to be sold to a developer. It is one of the few remaining artifacts of early Ballard, a true farmhouse and one of the few structures in this area worth saving.