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Picture of the Day
Friday
October 19, 2018

spacer Opted for the bus this morning. The automotive lifestyle is seductive but a waste of time. Instead of losing one hour to simmering roadrage and inattention to everything but me and the obstacles in my path, I gain two hours of reading, writing, observation, and reflection. Slanting down Denny on the 8, I noticed this oasis of desperation, a desert isle hemmed in by death on all sides, people pushed to the limit isolated on a sliver of asphalt and noise. I was on my way to work, a slave in my own right. Who set this shit up and will it dissolve like the city in this picture? Nothing lasts forever, not even nothing, which is why there's something and it's all one thing, but it still hurts to see it fall apart. I took a shower at the jobsite, ambled in my finest duds to the 21. Transfer to rail, stepping onto the platform at SODO I dude-nodded an elder who eyed me with contempt and spat, "Fuck you!" I knew just how he felt and said, "Thanks!" Then a man with an accent asked me the way to Columbia City. Was he visiting? Yes, from Kenya. He shuddered: "Is it always this cold?" I told him enjoy it while you can, it's worse once the rain starts. The train came and we smiled in parting. There really wasn't room for me to squeeze in so I let it drift, thinking maybe the next one would have my wife on it. It didn't. Sarah and I finally united at Othello, walked up to NewHolly for a fundraiser in the "most diverse zipcode" in the US.

One way or another, we are all refugees and I felt it.