The Really Big One

Aug. 23, 2018

A poster for an event seen at the bulletin board at Gordon's. Local real estate people and the Chamber of Commerce will not like this blogpost.

This poster advertises a talk by Charles Wallace, aka Chuck Wallace, Deputy Director of Grays Harbor Emergency Management. It is sort of unsettling the event is set for the date of Sept. 11th.

Anyway, Mr. Wallace has been working hard around the county in presentations attempting to inform people about our inevitable disaster when, not if, when the Cascadia Subduction Fault decides to unzip.

The last time this baby became undone was in Jan. 1700. The next cyclical geological shift in these plates could happen at any time-- five minutes, five hours, five days, five decades. We don't know. When it does happen it will be the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

Imagine a 9 point or so quake where the epicenter moves offshore from Cape Mendocino up to Vancouver Island, lasting about five or more minutes. The coast will drop around six feet, followed by a giant tsunami where the effect will reach clear to Montesano.

Goodbye Ocean Shores, Westport, Long Beach, Seaview, Tokeland, Oysterville, Moclips. Adios to downtown Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Cosmopolis.

McCleary will only drop about a foot, meaning most of the century old plus dwellings in town will collapse, like mine. But our town will probably serve as a refugee station, with air supplies landing at Sanderson Field in Shelton.

Our current federal government's response to the Puerto Rico disaster after Hurricane Maria does not exactly inspire confidence in depending on outside help after the Cascadia unzipping takes place. I think Mr. Wallace is trying to let us know we need to be responsible for ourselves and prepare for the worst.

Check out Kathryn Schulz "The Really Big One" (2015) in the New Yorker
 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one

Hay! Look!

Aug. 22, 2018

Rolling up hay like this is illegal in some areas because their agricultural authorities say livestock should get a square meal.

West McCleary exit still closed

Aug. 21, 2018

State Route 8 remains bottlenecked for a few miles at McCleary. This has been a very long construction project.

Mason County has vanished

Aug. 21, 2018

Looking north down 5th Street from Oak. The forest fire smoke is so bad that the hills of Mason County are no longer visible on the horizon. When sunlight does filter through it has a red tint solar eclipse sort of light.

Vote Here

Aug. 7, 2018

Voting by mail has killed off the voting booth and the social ritual of filling out your ballot on the spot.

I poked my head in the door of the VFW Hall on Primary Day 2018 only to see a vast empty room save for two dour senior citizens sitting at a forlorn table with a big box on the surface in which voters could place their ballots. I felt like I had disturbed their nap and they were rather cross about it.

Skidmarks at Anarchy Intersection

Aug. 7, 2018

Skidmarks at a pedestrian cross walk on the Anarchy Intersection where Summit, Simpson, Main, and Third come together. I believe this is under the jurisdiction of WSDOT who likely won't place a much needed traffic light here until someone is killed or seriously injured.

Munching on apples in the shadow of Simpson

Aug. 7, 2018

A young deer enjoys a breakfast of apples under a lone tree next to the VFW Hall right across the street from the Simpson complex.

Path through the Pines

Aug. 7, 2018.

This path on the SW corner of Maple and Main goes through the Pines. But where are trees, you might ask.

The Pines was a name applied by Cal Clark in the 1950s to the final incarnation of one of the old-time two-story false buildings in downtown McCleary until it was closed by the IRS who padlocked the doors and then later burned (allegedly by kids playing with matches) after being abandoned for a few years in the 1980s.

On this lot at different times in history was a gathering spot for the local Greeks, it was also a house of prostitution upstairs, a topless bar in the 1960s, a family restaurant, a meeting spot for labor agitators in the 1920s-1930s, and a card room where Cecil "Primo" Boling was the dealer with his giant hands.

I recall watching the high flames shoot up from the roof which pretty much gutted the place. The burned out derelict remained standing for far too long as a wrecked reminder of McCleary's colorful past.

The former Timbear Cafe stands across Maple St.

Where the sidewalk unbends

Aug. 5, 2018

This sidewalk is only a couple years old at best, but the elements are already catching up to it fast. On 4th near Simpson.

Moron!

Aug. 5, 2018

Political comment found on the Post Office bulletin board. In the same handwriting the bottom of the article (snipped from the Olympian) is inscribed "traitor."

I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you, to see that someone out there ... is still reading a newspaper in hardcopy form.

And you think moss on your roof is a problem? Check this out.

Aug. 3, 2018

For a company that has a long history in cutting down forests, it is somewhat amusing to see several young broadleaf trees apparently thriving on the roof of the Simpson lumber dry kilns.

The Three Bears

Aug. 3, 2018

Bear icons in front of the Bear's Den.

Maybe they could somehow include a Goldilocks figure with a word balloon saying, "The food in this restaurant is just riiiight."

Squaxin Island Tribe bus

Aug. 3, 2018

The Squaxin Island Tribe bus, which includes McCleary as a stop, has my vote for the most amazing and truly Northwest transportation logo in these parts. If you look closely you can pick out the seven animals representing the seven clans of the Tribe, all united into the form of a fish. There is a lot of history behind that graphic.