I work in downtown Seattle. I don’t like cities in general because I have strong introvert tendencies and crowds of people “drain my energy”. Go to a lower, more detailed, and less personal, level and it just gets worse.
This happened January 1st in a place I walk through twice a day:
Several shots were fired inside the Westlake bus tunnel in downtown Seattle Tuesday night, according to the Seattle Police Department. But, officers were unable to turn up any suspects, witnesses or victims.
Two bike officers heard the shots while patrolling Westlake Park around 11:40 p.m.
Several people were running out of the Metro tunnel when the officers arrived. But, the man officers stopped said he only heard the shots and didn’t see the shooting.
Officers found six bullet casings and fragments on the tunnel’s mezzanine level and are reviewing surveillance video in an attempt to come up with any additional information.
Within the last few months the bank, essentially across the street from where I work and where I do most of my banking was robbed at gunpoint and there was a shooting in the hallway I traverse to get to the pizza place in the mall where I frequently get lunch.
This morning as I was riding to work the bus was stopped and could not enter the Westlake tunnel station where I usually get off. There was a fire in the tunnel and it was being evacuated.
Two years ago this happened in that tunnel where I get on and off my bus.
Had someone been kicking a 15-year old girl in the head while she was on the ground when I was around and within range they likely would have been shot (the guards just a few feet away doing nothing could have been collateral damage that I wouldn’t have been too concerned about at the moment—They have standing orders to “observe and report”). That would make for a very messed up existence for weeks and perhaps years for me.
I just want to go home to Idaho away from everyone but a few close friends and do something safe in the middle of a 100 acre field. Something like play with explosives.
I am originally from a small town in Idaho, and currently live in the Seattle area and go to school in Seattle. I’m sure we’ve likely crossed paths at some point here. I suffer the same angst of city living and can’t wait to be done with school. I’m trying hard to get a job back home.
Joe – I completely empathize. That year I spent working in Manhattan was the most miserable year of my professional life, to date. That includes being deployed to some miserable spots around the world.
One of the primary reasons that I enjoy Boomershoot so much is that it is my chance to get away from the soul draining that my chosen profession does to me. While I come for the shooting, as I have said to anyone that will listen even in the midst of a snow / sleet / rain storm being on that 100 acre field and out of the office is the most wonderful thing in the world. Thanks for giving me that opportunity.
I will see you in April.
There are times where I tell myself, “You know, they’d pay you more if you worked in Seattle.”
Then I remember the pay “hit” isn’t really a hit, I actually have a huge bonus. Remember you do have an everlasting hotel room if you want to come play.
I just don’t like working in downtown Seattle. On the east side of the lake it isn’t so bad.
I understand about the hotel but I would really rather live and work there than just play after hours of driving. And I have “hotel service” at my Dad and brothers place as well which is much closer.
Thanks.
There is much to be said for having your own spread, and living on it. That is how America was built, Ladies and Gents.
As kids we were lucky to grow up in a very small town (nano-town) with miles and miles of running around room, no one getting their noses up in our business. I remember when “city kids” came to visit, they were bored to tears, and we thought they were dumb (and a little flabby and pale). When we visited the city, the feelings were somewhat reversed. Go figure. One thing is for sure; we could do a lot more, physically, than any city kid, and we could navigaqte the mountains and lakes of the inland Northwest without no stinking map or compass.
When in high school, you end up with the odd, extra keg of beer, you know, just in the regular course of doing things. What would four high school kids do with a keg in the city but get into trouble? We drove it to the top of a mountain in winter in a friend’s custom flat-bed 4 x 4 (which he built in his dad’s shop), camped out, built a big fire in the snow, and got stinking drunk for a few days. All perfectly safe for a few crazy kids, and who would dare try to get up there and bother us? A person would have to be plumb crazy to go out there in winter, with no roads, so we were both safe and free.
On your own land, you can grow food, have room to store it, have a workshop, and so much more. A person might could get by with very little outside income if things were set up just so. Just our little double lot on the edge of Myhometown is enough to do some of those things. I need to spend some serious bucks to enlarge my garage for more shop space, build a pressing and brewing shed, and a generator shed among other things…
And that’s the downside. Property requires maintenance, and a large property requires large maintenance. If you live in a rental, and you’re not required to do the building maintenance, you really are somewhat pampered in that regard. On that note; a person really doesn’t know much about life until they’ve owned property (and I bet they’re far more likely to vote communist too).
Lyle, that’s why you originally had to be a land owner to vote, IIRC.
I remember hearing about that attack. I was working as a rent-a-cop at the time.
Yep, I might have been fired…but there’s no way in hell I could stand there and watch it happen.