West Seattle, Washington
17 Saturday
Here are tonight’s pandemic notes:
KING COUNTY’S NEWEST NUMBERS: As with most nights, we start with the cumulative totals from the Public Health daily-summary dashboard:
*30,866 people have tested positive, up 451 from yesterday’s total
*811 people have died, unchanged since Friday
*2,639 people have been hospitalized, up 4 from yesterday’s total
*568,836 people have been tested, up 1,178 from yesterday’s total
One week ago, the King County totals were 27,967/804/2,582/545,102.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.
WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 50.4 million cases and 1,256.000+ deaths – see the nation-by-nation breakdown here.
(added 12:35 am) RESTAURANT CLOSURE: Talarico’s in The Junction announced via social media Sunday that the restaurant is closed because “a family member of Talarico’s staff has tested positive for COVID-19. Talarico’s will be closed until all staff tests negative and the entire establishment has been sanitized.”
SURVEY – COVID-19 & TECHNOLOGY: A reminder from the state Health Department:
The University of Washington’s anonymous COVID-19 and Technology Survey closes Nov. 10. Information from the survey will be used to inform the launch of a technology designed to help stop the spread of COVID-19. It asks questions about technology, privacy, your activities at this time, and some demographic information, such as your employment and the number of people who live in your household. The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete.
TELL YOUR PANDEMIC STORY: Another reminder – the Southwest Seattle Historical Society still wants your pandemic diary entry, to help tell the story for future generations, of what life is like right now.
GOT SOMETHING TO REPORT? EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT? OR? westseattleblog@gmail.com or 206-293-6302, text/voice – thank you!
Another day of waves and spray at Alki – as a fierce north wind continued to blow. But fans of calmer weather will be happy to hear it’s on the way out.
Tonight, the forecast says, the wind is expected to shift and slow, to 10 mph from the east. Then tomorrow and for the next few days, it’ll be out of the south/southwest.
While the wind speed is falling, so is the temperature – might be below freezing tonight.
(Mt. Baker from West Seattle – photo by Lynn Hall)
The views like these are on their way out too – with clouds due to return tomorrow afternoon.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Eight months after the pandemic halted in-person meetings, many West Seattle community groups are still going strong online.
Among them, our area’s “supergroup” of West Seattle and South Park organizations’ representatives, the District 1 Community Network.
Even through the summer, when some groups took their customary breaks, this one soldiered on with monthly meetings. One unique aspect of D1CN: Rather than having ongoing leadership, the group rotates volunteer facilitators for each meeting. When D1CN met this past Wednesday, Randy Wiger from South Park served as facilitator. The group serves as a forum to discuss and circulate issues and ideas of area-wide interest. Here’s what was discussed this time around:
Reminder – if you’re interested in hearing the latest on the West Seattle Bridge firsthand, you’ll want to watch as the City Council gets briefed tomorrow (Monday) morning (as announced last Monday). Though the bridge has been discussed by the council in various meetings, mostly related to funding, this is the council’s first full bridge briefing since a Transportation Committee meeting in August. It’s scheduled for 9:30 am; the agenda includes the planned slide deck and the recently released Cost-Benefit Analysis. You’ll be able to watch live via the Seattle Channel, online or cable.
Another outdoor flu-shot clinic is coming up at a local school. This one is just for Seattle Public Schools students – but they can be students from any school in the district, not just Roxhill Elementary, where the clinic will be held, Between 11 am and 4 pm on Thursday, November 19th, in the Roxhill parking lot , vaccinations will be available both by appointment and for walk-ups. The shots are being offered “at no cost to families, regardless of health-insurance status,” according to Roxhill’s health-center coordinator Josie Allen. To register in advance, you can call 206-452-2660 or scan the QR code on this flyer.
Work continues this week on the project rebuilding Delridge Way SW and upgrading utilities, getting ready for next year’s RapidRide H Line launch. Here are four toplines from SDOT for its contractor’s work in the coming week:
*Demolition and paving has started in Zone B between SW Graham St and 22nd Ave SW. 23rd Ave SW remains closed during this work, and residents are encouraged to detour to SW Willow St. When this stretch is completed, work will move between 22nd Ave SW and SW Holly St.
*Sidewalk, ramp, and curb demolition and paving will start between SW Andover St and SW Alaska St as early as Monday.
*Demolition and paving between SW Hudson St and Puget Blvd SW is scheduled to begin as early as Monday. SW Hudson St is currently closed on the east side of Delridge Way SW for this work.
*Duct bank work near SW Kenyon St will continue to move south towards SW Thistle St. This work will continue through the end of November.
Here are full details for the coming week, including a note that they will not be working Wednesday (November 11th) in observance of Veterans Day.
On recent Sundays, while some watch that bird-inspired football team on TV, we’ve been featuring birds here on WSB. We start this gallery with two from Mark MacDonald – above, a Bonaparte’s Gull; below, a Golden-crowned Kinglet:
Two from Jerry Simmons – a Steller’s Jay coping with the rain earlier this week:
And a Bald Eagle onshore:
An Anna’s Hummingbird, from Mark Wangerin:
One of our area’s ever-photogenic Great Blue Herons, photographed by Stewart L.:
As always, the linked species names go to Seattle Audubon BirdWeb pages where you can learn more about that bird and even listen to its call/song. Thanks again to everyone sharing photos, from birds to breaking news – westseattleblog@gmail.com any time.
An online memorial service is planned next Saturday for Christine Horner, who grew up in West Seattle. Here’s the remembrance her family is sharing:
On Monday, November 2, 2020, Christine Horner, loving wife and mother passed away at the age of 72. She was at home with her husband, Bill, and beloved daughters.
Chris was born December 22, 1947 in San Francisco. Her father was a former WWII pilot and her mother was a beautician. Her father’s roots were from Wichita, Kansas, and her mother’s family was from Seattle. Her father (Chuck) was working as a pilot in a commercial air (medical) service when he learned of an opening at Boeing. Chuck took the job and Chris was headed to West Seattle at age 4. Chris’s mother (Marian) had strong ties to West Seattle, so Marian and family were headed home.
Chris went all through public school in West Seattle: Jefferson Elementary, Madison Jr. High, and started her sophomore year at West Seattle High School. Chuck’s career was advancing well at Boeing, and after many years of saving, their dream home in Shorewood on the Sound was completed. Chris transferred from West Seattle to Evergreen High School near the end of her Sophomore year. She left many longtime friends behind in West Seattle but at the same time started to make new friends at Evergreen. She became involved in school activities and was editor of the Evergreen High yearbook her senior year.
High School graduation led to Western Washington State College (now WWU) in the fall of 1966. Initially interested in Chemistry, Chris found her calling in teaching and switched to the Education Department. Chris graduated with a degree in Education in Spring of 1970 and received a teaching contract to teach 2nd Grade in the Edmonds School District.
Chris met Bill in the final quarter of her Senior year at Western. Bill was also an Education Major. Chris loves to point out they met in a class called the “Sociology of Deviant Behavior” – well, what do you expect, it was the early ’70s. Both went two separate professional directions, as Bill took a job with the Aberdeen School District. A few months of separation proved to be too much. Bill and Chris were engaged during Spring Vacation of 1971 and married on June 19, 1971.
Thus began 50 years of marriage. Chris was able to take a teaching job in the McCleary School District for the 1971 – 1972 school year. Unfortunately, McCleary Schools suffered a levy failure and Chris was released. She went into the bank in Aberdeen, inquired and began a 15-year full-time, and later, a part-time career with Seattle First National Bank (SEAFIRST). In 1974, the family of three moved to Burien, as Bill had taken a job with the Renton School District. In 1977, Bill decided to leave teaching and went to work for Boeing.
Bill and Chris have three daughters: Rachele (born 1973 in Aberdeen), Katy (born 1976 in Seattle), and Annie (born 1983 in Seattle). The girls started to enter school and Chris decided she wanted to be a Mom meeting the girls as they arrived home from school. The SEAFIRST work dropped to one day a week with a very few days added in on rare occasions. Chris decided to get back to teaching in the late 1980s. She worked for two years running a preschool center for immigrant families. This program was operated through South Seattle Community College. After this assignment, she decided that she wanted to get back to the Public Schools and was hired as a substitute teacher with Seattle Schools. One sub assignment took her to Maple Elementary School on Beacon Hill. The following year, she had a continuing contract at Maple School, where she remained until her retirement in June of 2008. Her career at Maple School started in the Bilingual Orientation Center (BOC). This was a special classroom designed to receive recently arrived immigrant children. Her job was to prepare them to “mainstream” into a regular classroom. Chris had access to multiple language interpreters. She had no need to speak another language since she would have 5 or more languages represented in the classroom at any one time. Whenever asked how she managed, she simply would say, “My job is to teach them English.” After three years in the BOC, Chris transitioned into a regular classroom, where she taught 1st and 2nd grade for the next 14 years. Bill and Chris both retired in 2008, spending time with daughters and grandchildren as well as pursuing their favorite past time -Travel. Many great International and Domestic trips were taken between 2000 and 2019.
In 2016, the decision was made to leave the 1910 home in West Seattle (a home with many stairs) for a house with very few or even zero stairs. The hunt was started for a “rambler.” The primary area of focus was Bellingham. It appears, however, that the house they were searching for found them. That house was in Anacortes, a town that they have learned to love very much, and the house was perfect.
Chris has had three battles with breast cancer: stage one in 1990, stage 3 in 2014, taking us to stage 4 in late 2019 to the present. She was a fighter.
Christine was predeceased by her parents. She is survived by her husband of 49 years, Bill Horner; daughters (spouses): Rachele (Chris Jacobson), Kathryn (Zach Russell), and Anne (Josh Stilts); grandchildren: Alyssa, Emily Balogh, Lewis, Natalie, Charles Russell, Emmeline Stilts, Kaylee Jacobson; great-grandson Arlo Forville; and brother Jeff Cunningham.
A Virtual Online Celebration of Life for Christine will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, November 14, 2020 at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Anacortes. There will not be an in-person service. The link to attend the Virtual Celebration: here or here. To share memories of Chris, please sign the online guestbook here.
(WSB publishes West Seattle obituaries by request, free of charge. Please email the text, and a photo if available, to editor@westseattleblog.com)
(Fall colors in Seaview, photographed by Robin Sinner)
Here’s what’s ahead for today in West Seattle and vicinity:
ROAD-WORK ALERTS; Again today, as previewed here Thursday, two road projects are under way this weekend – repaving work on the southbound side of 16th SW by the north entrance of South Seattle College (WSB sponsor), and tree work in the 6000 block of West Marginal Way SW [map].
TODAY’S ONLINE CHURCH SERVICES: The list of more than 20.churches’ Sunday online services (with a few also offering in-person options), with updated links, is here.
WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: 10 am-2 pm in The Junction. Scroll down the page at this link to find the vendor list and map for this week. (Enter at California/Alaska; pickups for online orders are at California/Oregon)
TOYS FOR TOTS COLLECTION: 10 am-1:30 pm near the market’s entrance/exit, look for the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle, collecting new, unwrapped toys for Toys for Tots. (California/Alaska)
WEST SEATTLE TOOL LIBRARY: Open 11 am-4 pm – need a tool to fix or improve something? (4408 Delridge Way SW)
FREE TO-GO DINNER: White Center Community Dinner Church will serve to-go meals at 5 pm, outside, near the Bartell Drugs parking lot in White Center. (9600 15th Ave SW)
(Saturday sunset, photographed by Lynn Hall)
SUNSET: We’re now one week into Standard Time – the sun will set at 4:40 pm.
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