Probably if RantWoman posts vids like this, YouTube will send RantWoman more FIFA content.
Readers can search on #FIFA or #FIFAWorldCup for other previous posts cataloguing previous videos
RantWoman would SO like to have a president who does not generate the kinds of warnings and boycott threats that President #StableGenius is ginning up.
RantWoman is firing up her transit knowledge bank preparing to have as normal a life as possible. RantWoman is glad to know some other conversations are taking place and is has full confidence in very articulate voices involved. Stay tuned.
Does RantWoman have other things she is SUPPOSED to be doing, up to and including some formal way of observing Holy Thursday / Maundy Thursday / the version of Passover sometimes observed by Christians contemplating events leading up to Easter.
RantWoman went looking for info about Easter witches, a custom in Finland and Sweden.
Please enjoy the fruits of RantWoman's internet peregrinations.
RantWoman apologizes: she has not been keeping up with the ins and outs of sharing content across different platforms. Blogger may ask readers to click on a link and go directly to YouTube. The link works great.
First, please enjoy this lively commentary with some fun, yes, fun engineering details about how actually a light rail on a floating bridge actually stays afloat.
RantWoman also enjoyed some hints of festivity at stations she did not make it to. For more on the RantWoman experience, please read on the other side.
First the wardrobe, with thoughts of POSSIBLY stopping by a #NoKingsDay event: Nothing organization specific. A #WhiteCaneDay T-shirt under a hoodie that said "ICE OUT" in a long-winded, pedantic and harder to read way: "the GPS coordinates of your mother's cervix at the time of your birth have no bearing on your value as a human being." The hoodie turned out to be a great weight, warm enough in the morning, not too warm when the sun came out.
RantWoman is thrilled that the #CrosslakeConnection is open. RantWoman appreciated mostly cheerful sunny weather. RantWoman definitely applauds all the parents getting kids started early, even the tiny ones who fell asleep on the bus or while waiting for the bus.
RantWoman probably has some "Dear Accessibility community...here is an opportunity to preview..." email she has not read. RantWoman and Ambassador Thwack the #WhiteCane caught a bus unencumbered by much knowledge of the day's schedule. Plus RantWoman wanted to check out the Rainier Avenue entrance to the Judkins Park station.
Meh. Whose bright idea is it to put the bus stop nearly a block away from the light rail entrance. RantWoman will be interested to see what actually happens about scooter and biker share users stowing their vehicles in the designated areas.
Also, issue a bullhorn for the nice woman whose job it was to stand behind the pull down barrier and tell people over and over that the opening of that entrance was going to be delayed.
Never mind the delay. Hanging out where RantWoman was turned out to be an easy way for friends to find her. Excitement was contagious, even with the heavy crowds and long waits
RantWoman had an invite to an opening day meet and greet but realized that sleep was going to have to take priority. RantWoman also had to decide not even to try to get into a line to walk up the hill to the 23rd Avenue entrance where people were allowed to board sooner than from Rainier.
After about the third delay in the promised opening, with the line getting longer and longer, RantWoman decided to skip the thought of any inaugural ride. Instead, RantWoman did an errand involving the 7, the E line, a detour for lunch at IHOP and an ibuprofen, Despite some nasty pain issues, it felt good to walk to catch the 40 to Northgate.
The southbound 2 line was already packed, but RantWoman basically zoned out. At every station, lots of people got off, but an equal or larger number got on. RantWoman was lucky to have a seat. RantWoman would have preferred to face forward, but managed with a side seat.
RantWoman would like to say the view over the lake was glorious. RantWoman would like to say that, but the train was too crowded to catch more than a glimpse of sky and open water, with views of trees as the train rolled through to Bellevue City Center. RantWoman decided that was as far as she needed to go before heading back to the Judkins Park station.
Score a couple bright spots:
--After seeing construction for quite awhile, it was nice to see the train actually serving downtown Bellevue.
--RantWoman likes that the platforms seem wider than some other stations and that there is more space for people both to stand and to navigate along the tactile warning designs in the floor.
--It was fairly easy to find the elevator(s?) to go up and over to the return side of the tracks. One small grumble: RantWoman's glasses had turned dark but the hallway to the elevators could maybe use a little more lighting.
On the way back, RantWoman wanted to get off on the 23rd avenue side of the station so she purposefully headed for one of the rear cars. Again, the train was packed. A very observant guy indicated a seat next to him and then, when it was time to get off, stood and loudly asked people to move so RantWoman could get off the train.
Next, walk the direction everyone was headed toward the exit. Locate the elevator(s), again in a hallway where RantWoman might want a tad more lighting. Out the door, across the plaza, hoepfully to catch the #8 bus southbound. That was not to be. After various wanderings and directions, RantWoman decided to just take the 48 NB from the stop she could actually find and pick up the 8 at Jackson as part of her quest for bananas.
From there, life was easy. The only minor hiccup: somehow the pavement in the crosswalk at MLK and Union is, um, worn unevenly.
RantWoman has decided several times not to go to law school, but RantWoman has, in the comment rant below the video, RantWoman would like to propose a project for a fresh aspiring lawyer.
Time to test the #SCOTUS concept of "official acts?"
What is the emergency???
Has the local #StableGenius violated so many laws, architectural and construction standards, procedures, constrains on bribery... that SOMEONE can make a case that immunity does not apply?
I assume there is no chance the current DoJ would do it, but who might have standing to sue????
If President #StableGenius did not like the White House, why did he run for re-election??? Surely he can afford to live somewhere else and build his own dang ballroom.
Besides, what's one more civil judgment for the #StableGenius to ignore??? When he finally slouches off this mortal coil, probate for his estate could be SO much fun....
RantMom "departed for other realms exactly two months ago. Therefore, we interrupt the daily war coverage for...
--meditations on obituary writing process wrangling a whole life story into plausible obituary versions for different platforms
--effort both to collaborate with Little Sister and to tread among family religious and other emotional landmines.
--inchoate ranting about one popular obituary platform whose accessibility for RantWoman SUCKS.
Uhhh, how about just do the COVID piece?
Ding! Ding!
Adapted from the current draft of the obituary:
(RantMom) became good friends with the first Ida Culver Ravenna Resident to die of COVID. She tested positive herself cleared the virus and did not develop symptoms. The pandemic lockdown was very hard for everyone. The staff's meticulous observance of rules and safety practices as well as use of vaccines as soon as they became available ensured that COVID did not hit that community nearly as hard as other retirement facilities.
(RantMom) and several other residents of Ida culver Ravenna moved to The Lakeshore, along with numerous other residents of Ida Culver Ravenna. At the Lakeshore, residents enjoyed an expansive view of Lake Washington and resident bald eagles nesting in a tree near the dining room. Art shows, special speakers, music and dance performances and other activities kept life as lively as (RantMom) wanted.
The last year of RantMom's life at the Lakeshore was rough: Her younger brother died of prostate cancer. She had a lingering bout of actual COVID, not just testing positive and clearing the virus without symptoms as she had done previously.
Other chronic issues were becoming more and more draining. Even so, she continued to volunteer weekly at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center. To RantMom, this was a means to pay forward the excellent medical care she had received during her multiple battles with cancer.
RantMom's last few weeks were a blur of hospital, skilled nursing, and ultimately placement at the Agape Senior Care at Montlake -- with its extremely loving directors and staff -- where she passed away peacefully thirty years and six months to the day after (RantDad).
Fast initial commentary about Bad Bunny at the #SuperBowl
Screen size matters.
RantWoman still does not want a big television in her apartment. RantWoman saw #BadBunny perform via a very large screen. RantWoman found the production visually confusing. It probably would have been equally confusing viewed from a seat further back from the screen where RantWoman viewed some of the game with slightly more comfortable results.
Honestly, no matter what efforts are made in collaboration between @NFL and @ACBNational about #accessibility, with #SuperBowlLX, as with many other events rich in detail, RantWoman relies A LOT on social media commentary. This does not distress RantWoman. In fact, the discussion helps RantWoman feel included and feeds RantWoman's capacity just to blurt out opinions.
Audio / song:
RantWoman was part of both an in-person conversation and two text chats. English monolinguals were, to put it politely, confused. In RantWoman's case loud chatter made it hard to parse the song.
RantWoman solicited commentary from people in her circle and from one single voice on X. Commenters included two native Spanish speakers and two others with different levels of Spanish fluency. The verdicts:
Rap is not anyone's most familiar idiom. One commenter observed that probably a string quartet would be an unlikely sell at the Super Bowl
Something was muddy
Many people have trouble understanding song lyrics, especially the first time one hears them.
RantWoman caught "Nunca! Nunca! Nunca! (Never, never, never) as well as a long list of countries in the Americas where futbol means something completely different from the Super Bowl.
On social media, mainly Elon's sandbox:
numerous hashtags
MUCH praise.
Lots of haters in the replies in AZ Rep. Adelita Grijalva's feed on X. RantWoman DESPERATELY wishes people would make at least minimal effort to listen about actual culture before spouting opinions RantWoman definitely consider disagreeable or weird at best and generally tiresome and hateful.
Thank GOD, no posts YET from CO rep Lauren Boebert.
A word from an NPR addict
RantWoman has a hard time simulating interest in football, even when the #SeaHawks are winning. After a delicious bowl of turkey chili assembled in fine and ingenious form by some of RantWoman's neighbors, RantWoman fled the watch party and went back to her apartment and NPR.
And even more delightful if also in the weeds away from the #BenitoBowl, a trip down memory lane to the first college Spanish literature course RantWoman jumped into. RantWoman arrived at college having placed out of the language requirement based on high school Spanish and acutely aware of inability actually to understand anything. So RantWoman jumped into a course with Don Arcadio.about literature of the 17th and 18th centuries. Readers are invited to enjoy both segments above and Prof. Quinones discussion below of Puerto Rican identity.
#OnThisDay in 1960, four Black freshmen students from North Carolina A&T — Franklin McCain, Joseph A. McNeil, David L. Richmond and Ezell A. Blair Jr. — began to ask themselves what they were going to do about discrimination.
RantWoman is retroactively checking her drafts folder for #FIFA Content.
RantWoman and probably millions of others around the world seem to be headed for disappointment and perhaps disgustedness based on the behavior of President #StableGenius.
RantWoman would in principle like to pen a sunny "I love you all and I am sure life is going to get better" holiday greeting. That, alas, is not going to happen, or at least not before RantWoman just gets some opinions off her chest. With that in mind, RantWoman is going to offer a Christmas tree of posts assembled in such form as to give readers options to pick and choose which RantWoman eye views of the year sound most enticing, entertaining, elevating, ... Get the idea.
Lucky Lynnwood City Center Sound Transit station, the first window into RantWoman's year, and luckily for someone the topic RantWoman can most concisely summon rants about.
Start with Thanksgiving.
There was an invitation to family for feasting in Lynnwood. There was also an offer of a ride all the way that was going to involve too many people, a dog, and a vehicle specially lifted for off-roading. RantWoman owes the world a whole post about getting in and out of cars. In this case, RantWoman was still flirting too easily with some post-surgery crabbiness and wanted simply to take transit and, if needed be fetched from a transit end point.
RantWoman should have somehow been able to ask her info sources "which light rail station is closest to the address?" The answer: Lynnwood City Center is about a mile away. Instead RantWoman got various unhelpful suggested routings wound up having to ask Irrepressible Nephew to fetch her from an intersection before the one suggested by the trip planner.
Nephew was EXTREMELY good natured about this.
Family feasted well, petted a cat and two dogs, and did fine about many things.Then came time to go home. Nephew dropped RantWoman off at a station entrance inside the parking garage. Another woman in the same boat joined RantWoman in fogging around until we found the hallway with elevators to the platform. Some signage in the parking garage would definitely not be a terrible idea.
Next comes Christmas Day. The RantFamily did Christmas Eve church gathered around a laptop at the rehab where RantMom is currently in residence. The laptop does not do justice to a church organ but that was the celebration needed for this year. It also left RantWoman free on Christmas Day to invite herself over for takeout Thai food with her buddies The Weed Whackin Wenches who also live in Lynnwood. RantWoman would have been happy to take Zip to their house, but WingNut was itching to drive a few days after several days of heavy pain meds due to a dental abscess.
This is now the second try for connecting with the Wenches and their car. The first time was opening day. There were crowds and crowds. RantWoman got to a point where the only thing that made sense was to stand still somewhere amenable to car traffic and act tall.
Christmas day is SUCH a mellow time to travel on Light Rail. BIG shout-outs to everyone working on holidays. The train was not crowded. RantWoman found an elevator to "surface." The only problem: RantWoman does not consider it "surface" if there are 10 steps between the pedestrian path and what did turn out to be an acceptable driveway. RantWoman is not sure what signage would have provided more helpful guidance about how to connect with cars.
In any case, the day was a blast. The Wenches have been working on re-doing their kitchen. One appliance quit and then something else had to be moved and then another thing needed upgrading. Christmas saw the work paused in mid transformation. Hence the interest in take-out, along with a grand tour: new stove with an induction cooktop, big round tactile controls as well as the possibility to do all kinds of things from a smartphone app. Some electrical work is still needed to ensure the wiring is appropriate and now there is talk of a new exhaust hood to go with the new sink, new dishwasher, and new compact overhead ceiling fan. Never mind that the refrigerator is currently around a corner into the dining room. The Wenches just had so much fun talking about their kitchen. Everyone agrees that moving around the appliances opens up LOTS of ideas.
The Wenches also have two new cats, intriguing but not as snuggly as previous household felines. The cats emerged for dinner. RantWoman appears to have passed muster. After supper, the more standoffish kitty sat at the other end of a long hallway and just observed for quite awhile. The other more adventurous one visited RantWoman's dangling fingers several times. RantWoman got two nose touches, a leg brush, and a tail brush. Apparently this is high praise for this kitty around strangers.
Now an awkward confession: the Light Rail plus one bus is easy peasy for RantWoman. The Wenches like to drive RantWoman all the way home. RantWoman is always glad for car ride conversations. RantWoman is A LOT less glad about rides in the dark involving a lot of headlights from oncoming traffic. RantWoman is going to have to find some way to...
With that, may there still be feasts ahead as we kick 2025 out the door.
Happy posthumous 91st birthday to RantDad. And special appreciation to all transit, deivery, and taxi etc. drivers, with a particular asterisk for resonance about a couple anniversaries of horrible tragedies. The tragedies never go away, even when there is much else to occupy people's souls.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone involved in food production and food distribution!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone however you do or don't celebrate.
The pink Christmas Cactus
RantWoman considers Thanksgiving at least as important as Christmas. Enough said.
This year, the prep got off to more of a rocky start than usual. Dial-a-Tirade available about software updates and AI that seems to fry RantWoman's phone and other forms of technological disdain for RantWoman's current realities. On top of that, RantWoman spent half an hour of her usual Wednesday morning hourlong webinar trying to figure out a new portal.
Another novelty: an invitation to dinner with nephew and woman friend in exotic LYNNWOOD, but not the part of Lynnwood in range of the Alderwood Zip service. (Earth to RantWoman: did you check Find-a-Ride to see whether the service area might have expanded? NOooo.)
Nephew is both chef and chauffeur, with an offer to fetch both his parents, RantMom, and RantWoman, all in one trip. RantWoman had to reality check this offer. RantWoman is recovering well, but is still feeling a little irritable after some surgery last week. The thought of being crammed in a car even with one's nearest and dearest just does not sound fun. RantWoman really did not want to request two roundtrips to assemble the whole clan. Somehow a request just to fetch RantWoman from a nearby transit location is too much. RantWoman is quite happy with some exercise and public transit before a holiday feast. More on that in a moment.
RantWoman also learned that Little Sister just assumed RantWoman would be bringing cranberry something. It is a VERY good thing RantWoman discovered a big bag of cranberries stashed in the bottom of her freezer and has been able to assemble TWO kinds of sauce. Uncooked relish will have to wait for another holiday and fresh instead of frozen berries.
Off RantWoman went to Google Maps with the freshly supplied street address. The options with a couple nuances: either Link + the Swift Blue line plus a walk with suggestions to have realistics expectations about walkability or E line plus a Community transit line that runs once an hour on Sundays and holidays. Also, expect rain.
The actual walking distance from a close bus stop to final destination does not look very long. It just involves interacting with Highway 99 and no indication of crosswalk options. So fabulous: just take Uber the last leg of the trip and expect that family harmony will last a little longer with the right transportation options.
Second, Heather is a big RantWoman fan, as demonstrated by both reprinting some RantWoman entries AND listing RantWoman in the Fall 2025 Resources.
Third and most unexpectedly RantWoman has been Recognized at the WA Council of the Blind Awards Banquet. RantWoman will have to check her certificate for the exact title of the award. True to RantWoman form, RantWoman has other things to say, but for now a short meditation on #Halloween, the 279th anniversary of Princeton University, and the fun and hope intended in some tactile graphic renderings.
Next, awkward commentary about a #Halloween present, shown below.
For someone reading fingers only, this is just a big blob
What could possibly be wrong with this picture???
Urk. It looks like fun even to many people with low vision, but someone reading fingers only will experience just a blob they struggle to identify.
When RantWoman has played around with TactileView tactile graphics software, she has concentrated on images with clear lines. The picture has some clear lines but the task would be rendering the clear lines and then doing whatever with the color print.
RantWoman does think that the tactile image might be more comprehensible if there were different tactile patterns for the different colors of the image. Definitely an idea that would be fun to experiment with, for example by assigning different colors to different tactile patterns.
Now, with thanks to the Princeton 279th anniversary homecoming page, some examples from the kids' sections.
Believable tiger cub line drawing with foliage in the background.
A fierce tiger face that might be too busy for a clear tactile experience.
Just for fun:
A lecture RantWoman hopes will appear as a link or a podcast
Interests: Digital Inclusion, Languages and language access, walkability, accessibility, disaster preparedness.
When in doubt, laugh about something!
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com
PLEASE NOTE: I use both screen reading and screen enlargement. I would love to say Blogger is screen-reader friendly, but I am in no position to comment!
