My morning bus route has had the same substitute driver a few times now. He has been excitedly greeting everyone who gets on the bus, “good morning!”

If every driver had to do that, it would be a horror. But for one driver not every day, it was nice? Maybe.

I remember a conversation I had after the consent decree in Seattle. A friend of mine couldn’t understand why SPD needed it. They said something like “there are so many big city police departments that are so much worse.” I don’t know if that’s true, but if it is, it speaks poorly of policing in general in this country.

If Charleena Lyles couldn’t rely on the supposedly not so bad SPD, who she called, there really has to be fundamental reform of all police.

Seattle has a lot of neat little parks. I was in one just North of Northgate Mall over the weekend. It had a bunch of exercise equipment. What a hoot. I used them all in my street clothes.

Another Rainier cherry post.

Washington state cherries are in! So good. So still not good for me how many I’ve eaten.

Also: I was walking up some stairs and there was a cherry tree with dozens of Rainiers on it. It was on public property, so could I have taken some? I have taken black berries from public rights of way many times, but cherries seem different.

Another reminder: Please don’t shoot anyone.

How late does drunk singing on the bus become OK? If you want to say never, that’s probably correct. But I was on a late night bus over the weekend, and a drunk couple were singing their hearts out to a song I didn’t recognize. It was more charming than obnoxious. But if that had been rush hour on a Tuesday, it would have been horrible. Maybe it’s more of a continuum, slowly becoming less bad as the night progresses, than a switch.

(I promise I’ll get back to politics at some point, but here’s more inane nonsense)

I was walking through the park and a man walking the other way started talking to me. Now I’m wearing headphones because I have something I’d rather do than talk to some stranger. Also, It’s Seattle, and we have a culture of keeping to ourselves, that I appreciate. But fine. I took my headphones off and started listening to him.

“You have long hair.”

I was aware. It wasn’t cool hair or cut your hair, hippie. Just a statement of fact that he knew that I knew.

I walked by a building the on the way to Drinking Liberally, and I noticed that the name of it was written in cursive. People aren’t being taught cursive in a lot of schools. It’s a decision I generally support, so this isn’t a getoffmylawn post.

I wonder how long until most people find that building indecipherable. It’ll probably get painted over long before that. It made me wonder what I walk by that I don’t notice that everyone would have understood 50, 100 whatever years ago.

There is a crow’s nest in the tree across from my apartment. They must have just had a chick, because they’re aggressively dive-bombing people. Over the weekend, I saw that avian asshole attack 2 people so much that they ran away. Fortunately, they haven’t gone after me yet. But others have. I feel like they’re more aggressive than usual this year, but I don’t know.

I’ve been trying to cut down on my time on the Internet. Not a complete shut down, but just not faffing around. Anyway. Turns out that I am once again writing some nonsense from the bus rather than having written anything in advance. Sorry, but it might be better for me.

Look, we all agree that Alaska Rep. David Eastman is the wooooorst. Fuck that guy. What an ass.

But! Maybe Seattle’s tourism industry should embrace it. A city so great you’ll have a dangerous second trimester pregnancy terminated just for a visit.

In Wednesday’s Open Thread, I called a hair shirt a “hare shirt.” I got called on it by Roger in the comments, and I feel so, so, so bad. I’ll have to say 30 hale merrys.

I was talking to Darryl last night, and he wants you all to know he is very, very, very sorry that he missed yesterday’s Drinking Liberally thread. It’s a deep sadness. It probably kept him up last night. He’s wearing a hare shirt.

I’m feeling a bit blah today. So even less of my nonsense than usual.

This week 3 of my dinners have been Rainier cherries. I don’t think it’s good for me, but it’s still pretty great. I was talking to one of the people selling them at Pike Place, and she said they were not from Washington yet. I may be done with them by the time the Washington crop is selling, but I doubt it. Hopefully the price comes down a bit.

I did have a minor ethical issue. On Tuesday night I had 2 pounds of cherries before going to Drinking Liberally. I wasn’t hungry. I don’t normally drink on weekdays. So I wasn’t going to spend money. Is it ethical to do that in a group if you’re a regular who normally gets food? I eventually felt bad and got the smallest thing on the menu, and over tipped.