Thank you for asking, I am enjoying my vacation.

I feel like there has to be a better way of explaining the smoke than an out of context number. I mean the higher number is worse. But is, like, 50 smoke tolerable? If the number doubles do I cough twice as much?

Maybe thre can be a rating based on how many tears it’ll cause standing in this crap for an hour. Or maybe this is the new normal, and in a few years, we’ll all just have an intuitive sense of what the numbers mean.

Thank you for asking, I am enjoying my vacation.

Thank you for asking, I am enjoying my vacation.

I don’t understand how Medicare for all became the liberal end all be all for healthcare. I mean, sure, it’s better than the status quo. It’s much better than what came before the ACA.

But it’s still insurance reform rather than healthcare reform. Granted, it’s a rather extreme version. But it still says that we need insurance for everyone. I would rather have the Federal government build and staff hospitals and doctors offices than be everyone’s middle person.

Also, given some states’ grossness, I don’t think they would implement it, at least for a while. It took a while for the states to implement Medicare in the first place. Many are still resisting expanding it basically for free under Obamacare. It’s tough to imagine them being on board for covering everyone.

Thank you for asking, I am enjoying my vacation.

OK last vacation post. Back to the regular nonsense schedule later.

Thank you for asking, I am enjoying my vacation.

The Mariners are slumping and The Sounders are not very good right now. And there’s a group of Seattle sports fans who are in the dumps. But OMGosh, y’all. Seattle has something special in sports right now and so many of you are missing it.

The Storm are having an amazing season. They’ve poised to get a bye in the first round of the WNBA playoffs. Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart are great. Sue Bird is having a renaissance.

And holy goodness, the Reign. Second place in the NWSL. Megan Rapinoe is a walking highlight reel, and the whole team are such fun to watch.

I was reading another post #metoo redemption story. This one about will Al Franken run for something. I won’t link to it, but it is already becoming a genre. I believe in second chances, and that people can change. But it strikes me that in all of these there are a few related things missing.

There’s very little discussion, sometimes nothing at all, about how the person has changed. At best there’s repeat an apology and some vague reassurances that they understand that what they did was wrong.

The thing that I never see is any proactive steps taken to make sure that women are safe around them. Or at least less unsafe.

I will be on vacation parts of the next 2 weeks. So Open Threads may be spottier than usual. But it’s 2018, so I should be fine.

I’m writing this yesterday on the bus home from Drinking Liberally. So if there was something particularly Trumpish in the mean time I’m not ignoring it by writing how stinky the bus is.

But, y’all! It’s like stale fries with a side of burning oil. Why? I don’t see anyone eating fries (or burning oil).

Also, probably unrelated, but it was 18 minutes late. One Bus Away should have a feature where they let you know how your bus will smell, so you can choose the next one.

There’s a part of me that’s still upset RKCNDY isn’t a music venue. I was pissed when I came back from college and it wasn’t a thing anymore. I still walk by where the Velvet Elvis and King Cat theater were, and there’s a nostalgic twang for past shows. If the Showbox goes away, I’ll probably feel the same about it.

But, there will be new venues. The show will go on, even if it goes on somewhere else.

It kind of sucks how much the mayor wants to kill a street car expansion. Metro seems to be committed to half empty buses in exurbia. Maybe that’s a reasonable idea maybe it isn’t. But Seattle should figure out ways to get people around. And once the stretch of track is laid, you can’t move it.

You can’t blame every heat wave on global warming. But it is to hot. And Seattle is going to have more of these. Ugh. I feel especially strange wearing short sleeves to work. At least I am not buying an air conditioner.