Day 53: Around Seattle

In Which M Has a Very, Very Bad Day

A View from the Top of the Seattle Great Wheel

Don't panic for us gentle reader, Bob and Lisa are both fine, and though M was attacked by a miscreant in the garage she is on her way to a speedy recovery.

But, I'll begin at the beginning and take you through our day-- both the fun and the frustrations.

We woke to a sunny morning, and had planned to do some sightseeing in the morning and then drive over to artist Michael Bokrosh's studio to get a tour and see his latest work. (He is the artist who made one of our first, and still favorite glass sculptures.  We bought it in a Seattle gallery 15 years ago, and were thinking about adding another new piece for our 25th anniversary.  More on that later.)

So, since the day was so nice we decided to go ride the Seattle Great Wheel which we can see from our condo window.  It was just a hop across the street, and though it was right in touristville it was a fun ride.  Watch:




Just as you could see the wheel from our condo, you could also see our condo from the wheel.  Here it is in landscape and close up.

City View with our Condo as seen from the Seattle Great Wheel

Closer View of Our Condo (taken from the Seattle Great Wheel)

Also visible from the wheel were lots and lots of cranes, so Bob enjoyed the ride.  Here are a couple of his favorite shots.

Cranes on the Seattle Dock (as seen from the Great Wheel)

More Cranes (as seen from the Great Wheel)

After the wheel we headed back over to the market to pick up dinner.  We bought cod and green beans.  The market was far less crowded today, and apparently the prices were marked accordingly. I bought the green beans from the exact same vendor as on Saturday, but they were half the price today.
(Zippy/Tom-- we also bought your T-Shirt.  We'll mail it out when we get the chance.)

Our next stop was over to Michael Bokrosh Studio, which was too far to walk.  So we headed over to the garage where M was parked to pick her up and drive over.  At that point our day got seriously derailed.  She was happily still there, but someone had smashed in her passenger side window.  They rifled through the glove box, and the center console but didn't seem to get much further.

M apparently defended herself admirably-- with no key the alarm sounded any time the plane of the open window was breached (a motion detector).  She refused to open the door and refused to open the trunk, and the thief was likely too large to crawl through the window.  All that appears to be missing is one good flashlight, 3 pair of prescription glasses (though I have no idea what someone would want with my strong glasses--and they were Zenni glasses, so a loss of about $25 each instead of $400), and possibly some allen wrenches.

Other than the window, the damage to the car appears minimal only some interior scuffing and a slightly broken piece of trim-- so once the window is fixed she should be fine until we get home.

On the window fix front-- huge cudos and thanks to our State Farm agent Shelly who stayed on the phone with me through the entire ordeal of getting the claim immediately approved. And also cudos to State Farm glass claims-- their representative made several calls to approved auto glass shops until she found one that could get the glass we needed (the first one she tried quoted a 2 week wait), would fix it tomorrow, and would keep the car indoors overnight so we could drop it off today.

M is now hopefully safe and sound in a garage and will be put back together by tomorrow morning.  Our challenge now is to find a safe place to park here for the remainder of our stay.  The condo owner was very apologetic and is looking for an alternative.  My plan is to try to sweet talk the manager at the 4 Season's Hotel (which is around the corner from us-- so it wasn't really a bad neighborhood) into letting us pay to park in their garage even though we are not staying there.  Wish me luck on that one!!

So, getting back to the other hero of the day-- glass artist Michael Bokrosh. Once we saw M we called to let him know that we wouldn't be able to make it. When he heard why, he kindly offered to pick us up at the auto glass shop, take us to his studio, and then drive us back to our condo.  That was truly above and beyond-- but we were grateful for the offer and didn't want to miss the studio tour because someone attacked M.

The studio was truly a craftsman's shop (Nelson, you would have loved it)-- and he showed us all of his big heavy grinding equipment, including an air hoist for moving giant pieces of glass around while he worked on them.  While he still creates some of his own art, his main business right now is repairing broken glass sculptures and bringing them back to life, even better than they were before.  He is actually one of the top people in this country doing this type of work, (when I first called he let my call go to voice mail because he was on the phone with a woman panicking about her broken Chihuly), and we were treated to view some of the repairs in progress and some of the recent completions-- all stunning pieces themselves.

To get a feel for his work (or if you need or know anyone who needs repair of a high-end glass piece), visit the Bokrosh Studio website.  Michael is currently completing many of the projects he started years ago as he has lost his lease and must move or retire in about 9 months.  

We were able to pick up a smaller piece that is largely clear glass with a dichroic bottom that is cut such that when light hits it you see amazing colors from the facets cut into the glass.  We're not posting a picture, as we don't have the camera or lighting to do it justice.  But here is a picture of Michael signing it for us.

Artist Michael Bokrosh Signs Our Latest Glass Sculpture

We loved, but simply could not afford, his larger pieces-- some of which were almost as tall as me. If you know anyone who might be in the market for a serious glass sculpture definitely pass along the website.

The piece is so wonderful it will probably get over the stigma of being the Injured M piece, but there is a little irony in picking up a glass sculpture on the same day we dropped M off to get new glass.

Anyway, back at the condo we finally exhaled.  Hopefully we will get M back tomorrow and she will be all better, and so will we.

Until them...

--Lisa