#madisonvalley

[terrinakamura]

The week started strangely with a trip to the Emergency Room (ER) ⚕️ ⁣ An average visit to the ER in the United States can cost thousands of dollars. 💰This time my insurance copay was $90-- one percent of the cost the last time I visited an ER. 🏥⁣ ⁣ When we were visiting our kids living in Tbilisi in the Republic of Georgia, 🇬🇪 we took a trip to Batumi on the Black Sea. 🌊 After a day of exploring, my husband started feeling sick. He went back to our AirBNB and fainted. . We called an ambulance. 🚑 Two medics came and determined he had food poisoning. They hooked him up to an IV, gave him some meds 👩‍⚕️ and a prescription. They were with us for an hour. The cost was $50, including a $25 tip.⁣ ⁣ Does anyone remember when doctors made house calls? 🏡 Recently our son and daughter-in-law @queenhorsfall were traveling, and our son became ill. They were staying in a hotel, and the hotel summoned a doctor who came to the hotel 🏬 and diagnosed and treated him. The cost was about 100 euros, which seemed very reasonable! ⁣ Last month I wrote about how homeless people struggle to access healthcare, ⛺and how many of them also struggle with mental Illness. 🧠⁣ ⁣ Healthcare costs are so out of whack here. It can be a struggle for average people and worse for those without resources. I wonder what it's like in other countries. 🌍🌎🌏⁣ ⁣ Is healthcare affordable wherever you live?⁣ ⁣ I hope so, and I hope you are happy and healthy in this new year! 🎉⁣ . . ⁣ Photos: Ceramic flowers and birds at City People's Gardens in Madison Valley ⁣ ⁣ #flowers #birds #ceramics #flowerstagram #pottery #winter #nature #photooftheday #picoftheday #naturephotography #googlepixel #google #shotonpixel #teampixel #seattle #madisonvalley #citypeoplesgarden⁣ (at City People's Garden Store) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7dCp34g3a3/?igshid=1sx3saq910uyq

[soarrecordingsproduction]

Madison Valley / Range | Montana USA 📷 @kevinleaguephoto . Share your Rocky Mountain photos here: The Rocky Mountains Community Outdoor adventures: The Rockies Collection On IG @therockiescollection Guides | Maps | Destination Information on website (US & Canadian Rocky Mountains) . . . #madisonvalley #madisonrange #montana #idaho #VisitMontana #bigskymontana #visitidaho #rockymountains #visitmontana #visitmontana #bigskycountry https://www.instagram.com/p/CRl8ZvMLEvb/?utm_medium=tumblr

[stephenmarshphoto-blog]

I cannot wait for spring! It's so close! The flowers come to life and inspire me, and remind me of the beauty of life. #beautifulbrides #fredericksburgweddingphotographer #dcwedding #lovelybride #madisonvalley @grannndmadeath (at Fredericksburg, Virginia)

[montanaturtle-blog]

Silly Coyote, don't you know that fast food is bad for your indigestion?! #pronghorn #makersmovement #antelope #madisonvalley #handengraved

[captaintonygqusa-blog]

(via Best Smelling Candles Under $30 2016 | Candle Junkies)

[seattleinmemory-blog-blog]

Around town, by Brian

Up in the CD, on 23rd, the City Year - Seattle/King County office used to be right across the street from Red Apple.  They moved further south to Rainier Beach, and the office space was used for college counseling for a while.  Now it’s empty.  Pemco Insurance had an office across the street, and the corps members would, from time to time, take over their meeting room (they were a sponsor).

Downtown, Seattle’s Best used to rule where the pretend-first-Starbucks now lures tourists, at the corner of 1st and Pike.  Protein Planet next to Washington Mutual gave way to a skincare spa/clinic, and next door, Carhartt used to be PacSun.  The proudly “employee-owned” Hallmark gift shop is now a steak house, and Doc Marten finally moved up from its seedy location on 2nd and Pine to where the cookware store used to be.  Borders died and now it’s a bank.  A lot changed, just within that two-block radius, within the last four years.

The crossroads on 23rd and Madison, between Cap Hill and Madison Valley, used to have a big empty lot.  It was nice to walk by, even with the building litter.  Older residents remembered a housing project that would attract lots of drug addicts, with police cruisers trailing behind.  Then it was a lot, for years.  Now it’s Aegis, a luxury retirement community with its own movie theater and a cafe, growing more and more popular with local residents.  El Portal also, on the same crossroad, finally closed, after Ignacio’s repeated threats.

Remember when Easy Street used to be located on Mercer in Queen Anne?  You could stop by and shop and listen to some good music before headed off to a concert or a play or the ballet.  It’s a Chase Bank now.

There used to be a tree on the top of the hill where I live, corner of 24th and Valley.  I saw a man chopping away its branches one day.  Later the same day, I saw he was chopping at its roots.  Slowly the tree was rooted and reduced to nothing but a few hunks.  Is there such a thing as Tree Protection Services?  Even if there was, I’m sure the Property Owner already applied for a license.  But it felt helpless — as I do whenever I see locations change, and places disappear — to see this life, that had thrived, and could have continued to thrive, rooted out by someone’s will.  I didn’t used to notice the tree too much when I walked by that corner; somehow, without it, I feel a little empty each time I walk by now.

[citygirlcool]

Running free by Madison76 on Flickr.

[mealies-blog]

7/27 Ass-end of the day schmance pick-me-up.

Being too lazy for bus schedules and too cheap for a car, my bike takes me just about everywhere in the city. On the other hand, spending so much time in the saddle is obviously a little fatiguing- not only because my usual ride is an oft maltreated, early 90's mountain bike nicknamed 'Hellbent',  but also because I live in a valley.

I suppose its christian name is Madison Valley, but I like to call it ‘the pit’; it’s a bit more fitting, I feel. When I leave my house- for groceries, beer, to make money, I climb out of the pit. When I come home, I slide back in. It usually happens that I climb out and slip down into the pit several times a day (innuendo unintentional).

Yesterday, for example, I rode home after work had a brief respite then made my way to visit a friend a few miles away. Together we traversed a few more miles to get to a party and, having fested, I held no horses in making the late night trek back home to bedland. The day prior, I rode my nice bike to work and thus really had  no other choice but to spend an extra hour on the way home exploring  the evening air and the swiftness of something that works well.

Thus it happened that  today, I was spent. The shop was busy and  we closed late, leaving only a 30 minute window by the time I arrived down the last hill home before I would have to once again slog out of the ninth circle of hell to reach somewhere in the upper echelons. With no Virgil, I needed a serious pick-me-up, cool-me-down.

So, expresso maker goes on the burner. When it’s bubbling, off it goes and a milk foamer takes its place. Once combined, they make a fine enough yet thousand degree too warm macchiato. Which means I have to get serious….seriously fancy that is. I deconstruct the little gem with vast cinderblocks of ice, one after another after another. The result is unlike a macchiato, unlike an iced americano or latte. It is its own phase- like ice is its own phase separate from water. Foam peaks still linger and expresso still touches the tongue with its tang. The drink is called an icy-hot and I felt very accomplished making it.  

Which isn’t to say it was the greatest choice before a 45 minute ride up to a distant part of town. If I had paired it with a peanut butter sandwich or a banana and some sort of protein bar, maybe it would have been great. As it was I spent all of my 30 minutes home on my one little fancy thing so that by the time I was riding out I was alert, yes, picked up, yes, but also slightly of tummy ache and more than slightly of the shakes.

The house I visited? Had a pool table, a foosball table, a den made almost all of glass and way too many carpeted basement rooms with imperfect natural light. Win some, lose some, ride a ton in doing so.