Bryan and I are thinking about downsizing our auto fleet.

We have a honking big, beautiful red pickup truck – a Ford F150 Crew Cab off road 4×4. We got it so we’d have something that we could use to tow our boat (and boat trailer) with. It’s not a daily driver, it’s a secondary vehicle, but with the price of gas filling it up can run $90 or so.

We’ve never once towed our boat, or boat trailer, in 18 months of boat ownership, although we’re paying $60/mo to store the doggone trailer. We moor the boat in Brownsville. We have a mechanic that works on it in the water. We have family that can clean up the bottom, outdrive and engine while it’s still in the water. And if we really need it, Miller Bay or other area marinas can haul it out and and work on it dry.

Sure, a truck is handy for hauling, but we’ve never really hauled anything in it we couldn’t tote around in our minivan. It’s just a needless and rather spendy luxury at this point.

I’ve been looking at econocars online. My bro-in-law – he’s a serious commuter – just bought a little tiny red Toyota Yaris. I haven’t seen his Yaris, but I’ve had roller skate cars before (a Ford Festiva and Escort, a Chevy Chevette) and gotten tired of them, they can be just a little too bare bones and flimsy. Somwhere, there has to be that balance between economy and features, and practicality and appeal.

My mom bought a Toyota Prius. It’s really cute, and gets amazing mileage. The model is a tad too small for me, and they are quite spendy.

I’ve rented a Toyota Matrix a couple of times on business trips. It’s been pretty comfortable, a step up from the Yaris in headroom, size and feature set. It’s still inexpensive, and gets fabulous mileage, but seems like a good little car.

Believe it or not, I’m not married to a Toyota. It’s just an odd trend for my family. I do need a hard-to-find balance between a small, compact, high-gas-mileage car, but have adequate leg and headroom. Toyota does pretty well there. I drove a Dodge Caliber on another recent business trip and it was horribly undersized and uncomfortable – I had to wrench my neck sideways every time to fit through the door into the seat.

We probably won’t actually go car shopping until July, but it’s been fun looking around online.

This morning, on the ferry, I observed an interesting couple sitting in the booth next to us. They were fifty-going-on-fifteen.

He: Artfully tousled salt and pepper hair. A dozen piercings per ear, including big hollow plugs in his earlobes, a pierced nose and a pierced lip. A soul patch. Big patchwork cargo pants. Doc Martens.

She: Dirty, fuschia streaked short shaggy hair. A half dozen piercings pier ear. A pierced lip. Visible tattoos. Carefully mix/matched thrift store gear, including a tatty, dirty plaid wool jacket, a Grateful Dead tie-dye shirt, menswear pants and Vans slipon shoes.

You have to wonder – if they have children, what are the poor kids going to do to rebel? Become CPAs or GAP store retail managers? And why aren’t the kids telling them what NOT to wear?

When I get feeling a little midlife restless, I learn something new. Last restless phase, I learned to solder jewelry. I don’t pierce and tattoo myself – although that’s probably my generation. I just don’t want to have to live with certain body parts pierced, tattooed, wrinkled and sagging when I’m 85.

On Saturday, I shut down my computer for the day in honor of International Shutdown Day. I learned many things in my day in the real world, some of which I’m sharing here:

• I overestimate what can be done in a day. Always have, always will. But getting my chunky behind out of bed earlier would help me get a lot more accomplished!

• There’s an awful lot of dog poop in my back yard, and the slugs are out already. I noticed this as I was upgrading our solar lanterns. We like our yard lit up a bit at night, it’s awfully hard to tell if our long haired black girl dog actually squats in the dark.
• Speaking of that, don’t listen to Brad Paisley’s new single “Ticks” while drinking coffee and driving, nor while you have to pee. I just about snorted coffee out my nose, and then howled in laughter through throughout the song. You can hear the song on his Myspace site.
• Beer batter fish and chips and chocolate truffles are a really sad dinner combination.
• Teens really dislike being deprived of electronics. They are bbbooooorrrrrreeeedddd and make vague accusations of child abuse. And then they make their parents listen to Lemon Demon over and over again on the car stereo. Mine got back on the computer at 12:01am.
• Since I had to pick up Ben in Seattle last night, I really, really missed the ability to check the Bainbridge ferry schedule and the Amtrak train status online. The ferry runs every 50 minutes, and the train is gonna get there when it gets there (most likely late) but I still missed knowing the details.
• When someone leaves the passenger door open on the car most of the day – gee, that would be one of my teen passengers – the car battery dies. Having this happen while the hubby is out of town is really poor timing.
• If you rip your home office apart to build shelves – and you need 12 shelf brackets and they come in a package of 12 – you will misplace at least one. Or more. Buy extra on the first trip!
• It’s awfully difficult to go to Home Despot for more brackets when your car is dead. I have a small inverter charger but it’s slow, and by the time the car would start, the store was closed.
• I really, really hate working in a cluttered, destroyed home office. This almost motivated me to to make a non-required trip across to my Seattle office just for a calm and non-trashed work environment. But with both boys here, I stayed home anyway.

So, I’m still working on reorganizing my home office today- finishing my closet shelves, putting everything back, sorting drawers and shelves and updating the decor and feng shui. If nowhere else, I should focus on enhancing opportunity and creativity in my office space.

I really, really wanted to make jewelry this weekend… maybe later this week.

The Smith Tower‘s relatively new building owner announced yesterday that they have applied for a permit to convert the building to residential condominiums. This is sad news, both economically for surrounding business and for the current business tenants.

When I cross the water to work in Seattle, I work in this very lovely, unique building. It’s the oldest skyscraper in Seattle, a building with loads of character and location advantages. It’s light, bright and comfortable, although I do admit it has a fairly inadequate heating/air conditioning system, cold and drafty in winter, and too hot in summer.

The building is in the Pioneer Square area, surrounded by fellow old buildings with character. The sidewalks are inset with purple block glass, skylights for the Seattle Underground. From the 3rd floor, I have a tiny wedge view of Elliott Bay. Those up higher in the building have pretty spectacular views, and Chinese Room and the observation deck are just beautiful.

The facility itself is an fascinating blend of old and new. The entryway is marble, onyx, brass and dark wood – but there are double doors to the omnipresent Starbucks franchise off the lobby. The brass elevators are all run by elevator operators, but some floors open onto Danish modern office space.

Our floor has the same marble flooring, dark wood wainscoting and brass trim. We actually had to modify our video conferencing meeting rooms, adding cloth baffling over the marble and wood, to reduce the echo and improve sound quality. In contrast to the antique surroundings, our workstations are all modern, curved cubes. There are no private offices, we all have cubes, even the directors and VPs. Not all office suites are laid out like this – each one has been done individually by its renter – but we inherited this one and its modern, egalitarian style from Disney.

I don’t know whether or not it will be approved. I can’t imagine redoing the plumbing and electrical for residential use without impacting some of the beautiful marble and wood features. It seems, per the news article, that the only truly protected parts of the building are the public areas, and the private areas are eligible for sledgehammer and paintbrush.

Would I want to live in the Smith Tower? I don’t think so. Pioneer Square is still a scary area after dark, with blatant drug deals, rampant homelessness, and lots of trash and human waste. (Picture courtesy of C4Chaos.) The kind of price that we’ll see on these condos will do nothing to alleviate those crushing problems! During the day, I hear emergency vehicle sirens every few minutes. Parking is often unavailable, costing $18/day and more at special event time.

What would happen to our company’s office? I have no idea. Our main offices, with some 1,000 employees, are in Anchorage. We only have 14 employees here and another 7 in a different Seattle location. Most of us in the Seattle area have the ability to telecommute, and rather enjoy that option. We do use the facility intermittently for Seattle-based collaborative work sessions, but that contrasts with weeks when only 3 or 4 folks are in the office.

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

This is what I see from my downtown office when I do make the trek across the water. The journey is always an eye-opening experience.

As I walked through the ferry terminal this morning, on my way down to street level, I saw an odd little man. He caught my attention because of the bright gold plastic crown he was wearing on his patchy bald head. He was about average height, gaunt, probably 40 but looked 60, and was once very handsome. He was wearing clean clothes, new shoes and a jean jacket, but when he asked for information about the next ferry, he spoke with slurred speech.

Then, downstairs, leaving the terminal, I had to fight my way through the usual swarm of taxi hacks. No, I don’t need a ride. I never do. And if I do, it won’t be from you, because you make me very, very cranky. Get out of my face and let me walk to work!

While waiting to cross Alaskan Way, a van pulled up in front of me – Ravishing Radish Catering. What a great business name, and they had a cute logo too!

Under the viaduct, I was accosted by my first panhandler of the morning, a haggard twitchy woman with a hooded sweatshirt pulled down over her eyes. “Got change, lady?” I thought, gee, for what, a $20? But I civilly answered, “No change, sorry.”

On the way up Yesler, I saw a curious homemade recumbent cycle. It was reengineered from a standard bike and what looked like the prow of a small rowboat surrounding the rider as a splashguard and parcel bin. The rider was quite comfortable.

At Pioneer Park, I walked by a homeless man on a bench, waking up for the morning in a puddle of urine. It was scary; he was moaning, audibly, and I wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to stand. He barely managed it, turned around, and vomited over the fence into the shrubs. I am still not sure whether I feel compassion, sadness or disgust.

My favorite panhandler was back at the corner of 1st and Yesler after a few weeks elsewhere, as well. He’s a middle aged African-American gentleman, always clean, kind and helpful. He always greets female passers-by with a “Good morning, gorgeous!” Whether you give him money or not, he responds with a “God bless you.” I’d like to know his story, as he seems eminently employable, but I guess everyone has more to them than meets the eye.

I got a cup of tea at the downstairs Starbucks (yeah, I know, corporate coffee isn’t great for the economy but there’s nothing else for blocks around) and took the beautiful brass elevator up to my relatively cozy Smith Tower office.

I have a long commute – an hour and fifteen minutes. And I get annoyed by my job – the budget woes, the work load, the politics, the constant challenge of achieving work-life balance. But you know what? I need to be on my knees every day giving thanks for what I have, my family, my home, my health, my job.

I have so much, and I wonder – how should I help? The question is, does giving money directly help, or simply enable? I choose not to, and give to United Way instead, which supports shelter, soup kitchen and food bank programs. Can I do more? What could I do personally to connect, make a difference, even if it’s only with one person, one family who has no home, no food, no hope?

As I walk by those folks on the street, I am ever aware: there but for the grace of God go I.