Hey, if you’re in Washington State, you should have received a ballot. If you haven’t, you can contact your county elections office and ask for a replacement. It’s municipal elections, so it’s things you see on the ground.

Here in Seattle, the choice for the municipal elections actually feels like a choice. The Prosecutor’s race is a Republican versus an abolitionist. It’s very exciting, although I am old enough to remember the Sidran era, so am a bit pensive about the result.

Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And of you’re still unvaccinated, you’ve had plenty of time, just get vaccinated.

Salmon are spawning upriver of the Grand Coulee Dam. What an amazing thing. It still needs humans to get them upriver, but oh boy is this something. Can’t wait to see if any of them return in 2024 and beyond.

Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And if you aren’t vaccinated, rectify that today.

Congratulations to the Seattle Kraken on their first game. A win would have been nice, but that’s often not the case for expansion teams. We’ll see.

Personally, I don’t really understand the appeal of hockey. I suppose with sports, it’s more visceral than logical, and it just never grabbed me. But I love seeing people already excited on Twitter. Glad you’re having fun!

Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And if you aren’t vaccinated yet, for goodness sake, get vaccinated now; Make your appointment today.

Good morning to everyone except Kathy Lam­bert. Seriously, that isn’t a mistake, it was a deliberate choice. She must have thought that she could get away with it. And hell, maybe it still will.

Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And my goodness it’s time to get vaccinated if you haven’t yet.

Sorry, I forgot about this until now.

Holy cow, everyone. There’s light rail up to Northgate. Northgate. Northgate to Downtown. On a light rail. You don’t need to get a bus on the crowded freeway.

Some of you are recent transplants to the Seattle area, or lived further South. But I can remember as a teenager catching the 307 when I wanted to go Downtown. And it would inexplicably stop at Northgate. And then when you left Northgate it felt like forever. And the 41 to and from Downtown always felt so slow. I am glad that it will be much quicker. I can’t wait to try it out.

Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And for the love of God get vaccinated if you haven’t yet.

I haven’t been paying much attention to the Seattle mayor’s race since I already know who I’m voting for. But my goodness, Bruce Harrell is so bad on homelessness. Come on.

That said, I do think that as COVID-19 decreases in the region (touch wood) the capacity of some groups dealing with homelessness will increase. So the visible to non homeless people parts of homelessness may decrease regardless.

Anyway, please wash your hands right now and for goodness sake get vaccinated if you haven’t yet.

The other day, I linked to the Washington State Redistricting Commission’s legislative district maps. Now they have Congressional District maps. Very exciting.

Do the maps make sense for your community? Are you upset about them? Are you just dreading having to learn new Representatives? Rant about it here, or make your voice heard by contacting the commission.

And, hey, please wash your hands right now. And get vaccinated if you haven’t yet.

I forgot to mention it last week, but there are new potential legislative district maps from each of the redistricting commissioners. People who are much smarter than me can figure out the implications of those maps. But for me, I like the maps that keep me in my same district.

Anyway, please wash your hands right now and get vaccinated if you haven’t yet.

It seems like the right call for Eatonville Middle School to go back to remote learning when there’s an outbreak of COVID. Still though, must stink for the parents and the students. Quick change of plans, and a step backwards.

The vaccine has helped, but of course for middle school, there’s only so much you can do. And there are plenty of people who could be vaccinated, but aren’t.

So, please get vaccinated if you haven’t yet. And hey, wash your hands right now.

Coming soon, our eviction moratoriums will be much more patchwork. Washington’s will expire at the end of the month. And Seattle’s has just been extended to January.

One odd effect of this patchwork is that the places that have been hardest hit by COVID-19 are the least likely to offer further rent relief. I am very glad Seattle’s moratorium was extended. But COVID is hitting Eastern and parts of Southern Washington a lot harder than here. But it’s less likely that they have the same sorts of extensions.

Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And get vaccinated if you haven’t yet.

Good luck to the family of Manuel Ellis. Their lawsuit won’t bring him back. But it is the closest thing to justice they can get.

Justice would have been him still being alive. It would have meant he wasn’t detained for no reason. It would have meant no officers kneeling on his neck.

Perhaps it means that the next cop doesn’t do those things. That we never see the need for another lawsuit.

Anyway, please wash your hands right now. And get vaccinated if you haven’t yet.

Good morning, you lovelies. Seattle going back to grey and drizzly is so great. It’s going to turn too rainy, too dark and much too cold. But this? It’s grand.

Honestly, it’s the best. Mild, delightful drizzle. No smoke. No blazing sun. The rain is light enough to not soak you. Seattle summers are nice, but this is the best time in the city.

Anyway, you’ll be doing more things indoors, so please wash your hands right now and for goodness sake, get vaccinated if you haven’t yet.

7000 is too many deaths from COVID-19. And we’re a state with relatively low deaths. Thank goodness.

We’re a state that has taken precautions and has a governor who takes the virus seriously. Honestly, could you imagine how much worse it would be if Bill Bryant was governor, or Culp in the last year?

But still, 7000 is too high. There’s a free vaccine. It’s pretty effective. We could be mostly out of the woods by now.

For the love of God, wash your hands right now. And get vaccinated if you haven’t yet.

Good morning to everyone who is fighting ICE detections of children. Fuck me, some of the stories in that article are awful.

It has got a lot better under Biden, but more work needs to be done. Including in Washington. The Cowlitz facility seems pretty bad.

Anyway, please wash your hands right now, and get vaccinated if you haven’t yet.