Back in town

[mithriltabby]

Got back from the Pacific Northwest late last night and spent the day vegging and catching up on my various news feeds— still very tired.

Had a good time visiting with preciousjade and grandmoffdavid, who showed us some of the delights of Seattle, including the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (they did a nice job there, and had a good mix of classic and modern goodies), Archie McPhee, and Gargoyles Statuary. grandmoffdavid was kind enough to play chauffeur while we were there, which was very relaxing after driving all that way; I discovered that I now experience mild cognitive dissonance when in the passenger seat of a car.

Hit a fair number of used bookstores on the way up and back, including Powell’s Books, and wound up with about four sacks. It’s a sign of how tired I am that I haven’t taken the time to them away in my library yet. :-)

divertimento, I regret to inform you that the Peyote Cult responsible for some of the more egregious road layouts in the South Bay also has chapters in Oregon and Washington. Portland has navigational challenges comparable to some of the weirder combinations of one-way streets and NO LEFT TURN signs in San Francisco, and there’s an exit in Washington— I think it’s exit 4 off I-5 northbound— where if you follow the obvious markings for a left turn at night you’ll wind up facing oncoming traffic in their far right lane. aemccurry, this is why I think the Balseraph of Urban Planning is bucking for the post of Demon Prince. (Just think of all the subordinates, such as the Habbalite of Caltrans...)

There was some very amusing signage along the way: an anti-littering campaign with the slogan LITTER AND IT WILL HURT. I immediately wondered if the State of Washington was going with local dominatrices or importing foreign experts from Singapore.