I've always liked walking in the early morning dark. These are from downtown Seattle and the Pike Place Market in 2017:

I come across this large collage photo every once in awhile, from the early 70s? Post Vietnam, when I was at UW maybe. This "head" theme ran through a lot of my stuff back then. The resin sculpture is sitting on my desk now, here in Cebu, approx 5 1/2" tall, with 3 1/2 sq base. This character also showed up in some prints I made, and paintings too.

We have never second guessed our decision to have a view looking towards the mountains instead of a view of the downtown, port and water. But I did enjoy standing at our hotel window, day and night, looking out at this view. Also, just like my downtown Seattle and Bellevue buildings walks, I've always liked the reflections of the glass facades as much as the lines etc of the architecture. I did a horizontal flip of the second interior reflection so you could read the "Old Navy" logo on my tank top :) The last shot is the hallway end window, with it's protruding arrow glass thing. It's actually not a corner window like it looks. It's on the West side of the building with the street in the Old Navy shot going left to right below us.

From my FB Memories folder this morning - this happened over 50 years ago: I remember buying a pack of cigarettes once. I don't smoke. I was working the Graveyard shift alone at a Gull gas station in Kent (south of Seattle), and three guys came in, two tall guys and a short guy. I saw the little guy sneak a pack of cigarettes into his pocket, and I told him he owed me 50 cents or whatever it was back then. Standing between his two friends, he smiled and said "frisk me". I shrugged, and told them to leave. Mario, the station franchise owner ran a tight ship, and even if the pumps and your till were off by only 3 pennies, those pennies came out of your paycheck. I think that's the only pack of cigarettes I ever bought in my life...

The weather patterns can change very fast here. It's one of things I like about Cebu, but when you mix in a few typhoons, well... I was talking to an artist at the Visayas Art Fair yesterday, and I asked him where he lived. He replied "I have two homes." His main home, south of where we live in here in Cebu City, has water up to... (he gestured to his upper body). He's staying somewhere else right now. There are lots of sad stories about Typhoon Tino on 2Nov here in the Visayas, and here on Cebu Island. We moved to a hotel nearby before Typhoon Fung-Wong hit on 9Nov, but it ended up tracking farther north, over Luzon. That's the larger island where Manila is located. These photos show how Fung-Wong played with the weather down here even when it was so far north. The first shot is from our place looking NNW several hours before we moved to the hotel with it's SSE view. The clouds in the 4th shot almost look like a watercolor touchup or something. I might have used my telephoto lens for that one. The last shot shows clouds masking the port area, the water and Mactan Island on one of our mornings there.

When I've been carving at my desk lately, I've been listening to the audiobook "John Adams" by David McCullough. It's fascinating when you think about about the founders of our Constitution, and what's happening in the US right now. I'm at the end of Chapter 4 now, and the future 2nd President of the US is writing the "Constitution or form of government for the commonwealth of Massachusetts"...(1779) This was when the Revolutionary War was grinding on, and I think Washington was moving his troops back towards NY after their winter at Valley Forge. (ps - the diameter of this wooden plate is 10")

Tops Oct 2025 #1: I hopped on a "modern Jeepney" and rode over to IT Park a few weeks ago. There was a drone thing someone posted on FB recently showing the newly opened Upper levels of the Tops lookout. "Tops" is a must-see for visitors to Cebu, and they have RT shuttles from IT Park for p200. I took a ton of photos...

I've never been good about saving my old photos etc, or even taking photos of my work. I found this in my FB Memories folder this morning. That said, I did take this series of shots, 5 years ago. A special treat was that a bunch of Comments with photos of my paintings and boxes were shared by family members and friends. 13Nov2020 - "I miss working with my hands. I found this little box in my stuff yesterday. Curly maple, approx 3"x 5"x 1/2". I think I made

It’s ironic how our building’s generator decided to break down the day after Typhoon Tino came through. A religious person online had posted something about God punishing those in it’s path for our their actions… It was our fault. Maybe he decided to break our building’s generator to make us realize how fortunate that our building is in an area that isn’t prone to flash floods. Share the pain. I don’t know. The photos and videos of cars piled up in muddy torrents of rushing water were mind boggling…lots of sad stories. When we moved next door to the hotel, with its electricity, I was talking to the young man who helped us with our bags. OJT - on the job training. He’s working without pay. He commutes a few hours RT/day, and the Jeepney rides total p150 ($2.55) I think many Filipinos only earn p500/day, the minimum wage. I asked him where he lived, and he said Liloan. Liloan is 17.5 km north of Cebu City, and Tino took over 30 lives there.

I’ve been watching a British series on Netflix called “Poldark”. The Netflix police have been following me around in cyberspace throwing up blockades and hurdles whenever they find me. Haha. It has to do with being “only available in“ such and such area or country. It‘s not available in the Philippines. Legal stuff. I made it to episode 4 or something of the 5th Season, it’s last season. Oh well. I‘m also reading an audiobook about John Adams, the 2nd President of the US (1787-1801), the same time era… I listen to audiobooks when I’m doing my wood-carving, and/or when I’m trying to wind down in the evening and get away from media. I would read hard copies more if my eyes would cooperate. What I’ve enjoyed most I think, about both stories, is how people lived their daily lives then: candle light in their homes, horses and carriages for their transportation, writing letters and messages with feather quills and ink, and then folding them and sealing them with wax and stamps - then sending them off with messengers on their horses. In general, I like Historical Fiction like “Poldark“. Historical Fiction, and historical Non-fiction are my favorites right now. ps - I found it on Amazon Prime for purchase.

I've been absent for awhile here. 2 months in the US, followed by a month or so refamiliarizing ourselves with Cebu. Followed by typhoons, etc. Life goes on...

When I go to a good car show, with lots of classics, I focus on the details. I love the lines, and the shapes, and the colors...

from a walk along the river in Bothell WA 4 years ago, in black and white...

Car Shows #2 - Chevies have always been my favorites...

Busy busy. The last 3 days just flew by... Friday was the Grand Opening/Celebration of the upgraded Seattle Waterfront. The first photo is from one of the advertisements. Just imagine more people, lots of entertainment, good food, etc. It was a wonder with the widened space for walkers, tourists and locals alike. We like the Waterfront even more now. We got Fish'nChips at Ivars. Really good! I remember watching Ivar Haglund promote his restaurant on TV in the 50s. Sunday was the Edmonds Car Show. I think it was one of the last big car shows of the year, and I took over 250 photos! Yesterday, we made one of our long walk - bus - LRT trips: downtown Seattle to renew Inday's drivers license. Like me, she doesn't drive anymore, but it's a good secondary ID. The woman behind the counter is from an island in the Philippines next to Cebu Island. Small world. We stopped by the new Sue Bird statue at the Climate Pledge Arena on our way back to the Monorail. The Monorail accepts ORCA cards now. 5 more nights in this AirBnb, and then we move to another AirBnb closer to Andrea's place.