We, as a people, do some pretty dumb stuff. Some of us do stuff that’s even dumber than most of us. Dumb is just something we’ll have to live with.

But then there are things like this…

Photos are from GettysburgDaily.com

This isn’t dumb, it’s pure greed. Dumb is innocent (mostly), this is your basic, run-of-the-mill evil. The folks that let it happen might be dumb, but the folks who purposely put it there are greedy bastards.

Each year, the website Gettysburg Daily picks one “dumb” thing that’s happened to the battlefield at Gettysburg. Many dumb things are nominated, but only one can win.

This year’s winner was announced yesterday, on the 146th anniversary of General Dan Sickles dumb move at Gettysburg.

This building is this soon-to-be-finished Comfort Suites Hotel. It is located a handful of yards away from a historic cemetery and, though not on park property, it is on the battlefield.

Here is a bit of explanation…

It was through some fairly shady deals that it even came about in the first place. The land is part of Cumberland Township, not the borough of Gettysburg. Gettysburg gets all the tax revenue from the businesses and hotels – Cumberland just wanted their fair share, no matter the cost.

Of course, this is simply a disgrace. Here is a fine example of how we fail as human beings. There are many such examples, of course, this is but one of them.

Now comes the real question. Why is this still standing? It’s not protected by armed guards. It’s not surrounded by barbed wire fences. It’s made of wood and would go up quickly.

There are some radical environmentalists known as the ELF (Earth Liberation Front). They engage in property destruction. Nobody has ever once been hurt or killed, but GMO laboratories, Condominium buildings, and the like are damaged and destroyed. You may not agree with such tactics, but it does seems to drive the point home.

The ELF and your average Civil War buff have a gulf of differences between them. But them both hate development. Why not join forces? Why aren’t battlefield preservationists starting the BLF (Battlefield Liberation Front)? With the Wal-Mart coming within an angry mule’s kick of the Wilderness Battlefield and this utter disgrace at Gettysburg, their work would be cut out for them, but just think of the rewards!

Imagine how good you would feel inside if a structure such as this, right on the battlefield, so close to the cemetery, were engulfed in flames (either accidentally or on purpose).

The Gettysburg Daily is creating another award for the good things that are happening ob the battlefield. If the Comfort Suites Hotel were to suddenly be reduced to rubble, I can almost guarantee you that it would take home that award as well!

For the past three weeks, people have been visiting both Sarah/me and Ryan/Jaime. First, there was Sarah’s parents and then Jaime’s moms and then Ryan Full and Jason from back east. During this time we ate out a lot. So much.

It really showed us all the great vegan things that Seattle offers. Even though Sarah’s folks aren’t vegan/veg, they were GREAT sports and ate vegan with us most of the time (thanks!). Ryan Full and Jason are veg.

Around these parts, we have found more than enough vegan eateries. From donuts at Mighty Os to pizza at Pizza Pi. We round it out with breakfast at Wayward Cafe and Chinese at Bamboo Gardens or Thai at Araya’s.

These places are great. You look at the menus and you know that anything listed is not only edible for vegans, but probably really tasty too!

This is in stark contrast to my life back east in Central Pennsylvania. There, I could pretty much only eat Chinese. There would be maybe two tofu dishes on the menu and you’d have to trust the cook to not use a meat-based sauce (most Chinese places use chicken broth in their sauces – enough to make *all* Chinese places a no-go for me). Once in a while I could get Indian food in Harrisburg or Lancaster, but only the Lancaster place had the vegan dishes marked as such.

I got really sick of looking at menus and wondering, “what can I eat here?” The answer was usually “nothing at all.” But in Seattle, at the places we go, there is nothing I can’t eat! There are more choices than I could ever work my way through!

Another important aspect is quality. A lot of the places we go to use organic veggies. The dishes are fresh and look as good as they taste. The Chinese places we’d go to in PA had veggies that looked gray and beaten to death.

Sure, sometimes I miss central PA. It’s where I grew up, it’s where I’m from. But I’ll never miss the nasty excuse for food. Oh my no!

Sometimes it’s not about how good a movie is – how well it was made or acted (or reenacted).

The movie Gettysburg falls into that category for me. It’s not a great movie. And if it weren’t for Sam Elliot, I’d probably say it wasn’t even an especially good movie. But even with its many flaws, its historical inaccuracies, its bad acting (and reenacting), it still holds a fine place in my heart.

It’s probably not possible to make a Civil War movie on the scale of Saving Private Ryan (for example). Hollywood is okay with WW2 movies, but the Civil War remains largely untouched.

This is a shame since it was quite possibly the most important event in American history (post-revolution). As the 150th anniversary rolls around maybe that will change.

Today is the 146th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg. Neither Union or Confederate commanders wished for a full scale battle on this day. The Confederates pretty well wandered into a thin line of Union cavalry. Thinking they could just brush them aside, they pushed on, but the Cavalry put up some still resistance and held the ground until the infantry could arrive.

Even with infantry reinforcements, the Confederates out numbered the Union troops, routing them by day’s end.

You can read more about it here. There are even maps!

So today I’ll settle down for a viewing of the movie Gettysburg and enjoy it greatly, despite its flaws.

I’d rather be in Gettysburg, of course. Today, they are offering their anniversary tours. Thankfully, PCN TV will be rebroadcasting them starting tonight at 9pm (midnight for you east coasters).

Yesterday, RyJa, kids, Jason, Smartz and I took a trip to the kite shop. There, three kites were bought. Jason, Taviri and Sarah all got kited.

We then headed to Gasworks Park.

Even Arkaedi got to fly a kite!

We headed up to Carkeek Park for more kite flying.

Here, you can see all of the pics…

The bunch of us¹ recently ventured to Gas Works Park. There we saw a fine little vessel called Amazing Grace…

After some searching, I found a website about her:

“Amazing Grace is a topsail schooner and sets a square topsail on the foremast and seven fore and aft sails: gaff main, gaff topsail, main and fore staysails, fisherman staysail, and inner and outer jibs. These can be used in different combinations to suit the wind conditions. The rigging is complex and logical having evolved over the last two hundred years. She was originally rigged as a brigantine and would have carried three square sails; a course, topsail, and topgallant. We plan on restoring her to this original rig by adding these three sails soon!”

Though I couldn’t get any pictures of it, she does seem to be equipped with some firepower. We heard her firing her guns on a couple of occasions, which must frighten the crap out of other boats in the area (which is, of course, hilarious).

1. Ryan, Jaime, Taviri, Arkaedi, Ryan Full, Jason, Smartz and I [↩]

Ryan, Jason, Sarah and I hit the annual Greenwood Car Show just a few blocks away from our place. It was two miles of (mostly) classic and antique cars!

There were about a billion people there and I took a LOT of pictures (discovering that I kind of suck at taking pictures of cars).

But anyway, here they are!

Click to open photo gallery.

I’ve been impressed with the comings and goings of the tides at Carkeek Park in Seattle. Around the new moon, they vary more than I’ve seen in other places.

I’ve tried my best(ish) to capture the differences. I didn’t do such a great job, which is a shame, because it’s pretty impressive. I guess everyone will just have to come here and see for themselves.

You can click on them to make them a bit bigger. Sorry for the crappy quality – I really don’t know how to do the panorama thing.

Here are four shots from sort of the same angle. The day of the lowtide was really sunny, but the evening of the high tide was very evening. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do this again with better results.

So there. It’s much more impressive in real life.
Here’s a gallery of the low tide pics.

As you could almost see in one of the high tide pics, Smartz has decided to stick around Seattle for the summer. It took a little journey for her to come to that conclusion and eventually she might get around to posting about it on her blog.