Monthly Archives: January 2012

Starbucks in University Place, will it snow?

They tell me there is a big old snow storm coming, though when I snapped this photo the skies were mostly blue. I needed some provisions (cookies, chips, milk, cheese) and stopped at Trader Joe’s and then for a cup of drip coffee at Green Fir’s Starbucks. It was packed and there was no inconspicuous way to take a photo, so I took one of the outside and it was truly awful! I mean really, really bad. So, here is a photo that I do like of one of the trees in the Green Firs Center. Now let’s see if we actually get this huge storm!

Lincoln High School

Lincoln High School at 701 South 37th Street in Tacoma opened its door to students in 1914. The building was named after president Lincoln and a 9′ tall bronze statue of the president was created by Tacoma sculpture Alonzo Victor Lewis and installed in 1918. The Knights of Pythias formed a committee to pay for the statue and coordinated a giant bake sale (2,000 cakes!). The school’s original name was Lincoln Park High School, but the Park was dropped in 1917.

The Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln High School and is defined as a program to “immerse students into academic life, boost their studying skills and social development and prepare them to graduate four years later as college or career-ready.  This is done through a program of enrichment and intensive academic support.  Students attend school from 7:35-5:00 four days each week with a normal school day on Friday.  Students receive approx. 540 additional hours of academic time each year, with summer school and two Saturdays a month adding to their academic workload.” About 25 to 35% of the student enrolled in Lincoln High School are also part of Lincoln Center.

The website for the school is http://www0.tacoma.k12.wa.us/schools/hsx/lincoln/

     

The Epicenter of Hope

I love big claims… the world’s best pizza, burgers, etc.  I love that Wallingford claims to be the center of the universe and I also love that Tacoma’s First Church of the Nazarene at 3640 South M is the Epicenter of Hope. So on this snowy day I drove over to the church to snap a photo. Their sign says that they have English and Latino Gatherings and that there is a Samoan Service at 2:00 on Sundays.

http://www.tfnc.org/

Jackson Hall was for nursing students

Today I participated in an earthquake drill at Jackson Hall 314 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.  The building had been known as the Tacoma General Hospital Nurses
Quarters / Jackson Hall and was named after Samuel Morley Jackson, banker and long time hospital board member.

The building was the site of a nursing school which was established in 1895 and closed in 1980. In the middle of that time (1945-1947), the original building was demolished and the “new” building constructed. The building became the Tacoma General Medical Office Building in 1980 and is currently being used as hospital space. In fact, the corridors connect under Martin Luther King, Blvd into Tacoma General Hospital!

For images of the nursing school/dorm as it was, go this Tacoma Public Library site http://search.tpl.lib.wa.us/images/dt6n.asp?ADDRESS=314+and+WAY&UNIQUE=BUILD

Harbor Freight Tools

I was sent to Harbor Freight Tools at 5401 6th Avenue  Tacoma, WA 98406 to purchase knee pads. They had really good prices, perhaps because of the sale, and some unusual products. Their website is http://www.harborfreight.com/

Great mural at Tacoma’s Fire Station #16

Fire Station No. 16 at 7216 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, WA, 98406, is the site of art by Bob Henry titled Wilson Rams. The Tacoma-Pierce Co. Public Art Tour site (http://wspdsmap.ci.tacoma.wa.us/website/Art2/viewer.htm) says that the medium is Paint on canvas and the size is 10′ x 30′.

I love the bright colors and the fact that it is a local artist and a local scene! What I don’t like is that it is primarily visible from a small side street that leads to the driveway of the firestation and a small apartment complex. It would be great if more people could enjoy it!


Moon over QFC

I went to a late Holiday Party last Friday and dashed into the QFC at 4101 49th Avenue Northeast
Tacoma (Brown’s Point) for a goodie to bring.They really have a great bakery. I picked the yellow cake on the bottom row, third from the left and it was as good as it looked! This appears to be the only QFC in Tacoma, with other locations including Gig Harbor and Parkland. The chain is headquartered in Bellevue, WA and has about 75 stores in the Puget Sound area. Kroger required the chain in 1998, though QFC has maintained its own identity.

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Cryogenics at Pacific Welding Supplies

The word cryogenics gets my imagination going! Per Wikipedia, It means “the study of the production of very low temperature (below −150 °C, −238 °F or 123 K) and the behavior of materials at those temperatures“. When I hear it I think of human bodies being frozen until a cure for the disease they are dying from has been found and I think of science fiction books where the characters are frozen for a long, long space voyage.

I found an interesting article on cryogentics here http://abcnews.go.com/Health/life-ice-world-crazy-cryogenics/story?id=14167348#.TwuZh1auHTo.  The article states “And for approximately $30,000, anyone can be cryogenically frozen. Currently, there are over 200 people in a frozen state at cryonics centers in the U.S. – and some 2000 people have signed up for it.”

Cryogenics is the word printed on the large canister at Pacific Welding Supplies, 2902 S M Street, Tacoma, WA 98409. I suspect that the canister is most likely used for the gases involved with industrial welding instead of human preservation or space travel, but still its fun to consider the possibilities! The website for Pacific Welding Supplies is http://www.pacificwelding.com/

Washington State Surplus

Washington State sells equipment that it no longer needs at their General Administration Surplus location at 7511 New Market Street, Tumwater, WA 98512.  My dear husband thinks it is great fun to go there and buy stuff for pennies on the dollar (if we need it or not). Today we bought a couple of VGA cords for me and some speakers for him. In the past he’s come home with a nice, rolling desk chair for $15 that we’ve used a great deal. Mostly they stock office furniture and equipment, but they usually have a nice selection of knives taken from people flying in commercial planes. Last time I was there, they were selling large crab traps!

http://www.ga.wa.gov/surplus/index.html

Mattress Mania

 

I’ve gone past Mattress Mania at 2901 S 12th St., Tacoma, WA 98405 plenty of times, but on Wednesday I paused to consider it for a moment. The Tacoma Public Library indicates that in 1909 the site was occupied by I.E. Russell Drug Store and in 1930 by Twelfth Street Drug Co. and in 1950 by Fowler’s Twelfth Street Drug Co. The Pierce County Assessor’s Office shows that the building was constructed in 1938 and I’m unsure if the original building was demolished