Mount Rainier rocking...

 

Beginning at about 1:29 AM PDT (8:29 UTC) on July 8, a swarm of small earthquakes began near the summit of Mount Rainier.  The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network is locating earthquakes with the largest so far being a M1.7 at 04:52 PDT (11:52 UTC), ranging from depths of 1.2 – 3.7 miles (2-6 km) below the summit.  There are hundreds of small earthquakes occurring at rates of up to several per minute at times. No earthquakes have been felt at the surface.  

Mount Rainier is an active, ice-clad stratovolcano geographically located within the Mount Rainier National Park. Mount Rainier is located about 45 miles (73 km) southeast of Tacoma and 60 miles (97 km) south-southeast of Seattle in Washington State. It is the tallest peak in the Cascade Range and is covered by the greatest concentration of glaciers in the contiguous United States.

Hazards and Normal Background Activity

The most hazardous phenomena from Mount Rainier are volcanic mudflows called lahars, many of which reached as far as the now densely inhabited Puget Sound lowland. Other hazards include ash fall, pyroclastic flows, and short lava flows, however these stay well within the present limits of the National Park. Mount Rainier is considered a Very High Threat volcano according to the USGS National Volcano Warning System (NVEWS) based on many factors including the types of hazards and distance to people, property and infrastructure. The volcano has a widely distributed network of monitoring devices. Normal background levels of activity at Mount Rainier include steam and gas emissions, and low levels of seismicity.

Holocene Volcanic Activity (activity in the last 15,000 years)

Nearly all of Mount Rainier’s far-traveled lahars formed during times of eruptions, but one contains a large volume of altered rock that avalanched from Sunset Amphitheater on Mount Rainier’s upper west flank about 500 years ago with no known triggering eruption. A lahar with no known trigger is known locally as a “no-notice lahar.” Future eruptions are likely to produce lahars that could descend river valleys on any side of the volcano, but a “no-notice lahar” is also possible from the upper west flank of the volcano and could feed into the Puyallup and the Nisqually River systems. No physical evidence exists to confirm a reported but disputed eruption in 1894, nor eruptions earlier in the 18th and 19th centuries.  The most recent eruption with strong geologic evidence was about 1,000 years ago.

Places I have Lived: Seattle

Seattle, Washington


I love Seattle. I miss Seattle. I wrote this post about band clothes:

Years ago I had a conversation in Seattle with a musician who told me, "music is medicine." He even had a small record label by that name.

Music was my focus and life in my teens and 20s.  I was a professional rock musician. It was more than a career. It was a calling... (and the weird thing is I am not finding any people in my first family who had musical talent but both my adoptive parents were both talented musicians.)

I'd kept quite a few "vintage" dresses from my rock band days, which was in my 20s, eons ago.  They are kinda like a scrapbook of fabrics (yet I don't sew a lick!)

Why do I keep them?   ...these are many many good reasons...

First, I am from a family of dressy women. My adoptive mom Edie wore evening gowns! I can't even imagine a holiday dinner when she and I (and guests) weren't dressing up.  When I left home at age 17 I had little money to buy like her but I did collect a mix of vintage rayon, satin, silk and retro velvet.
Second, when you are in a rock band, you barely make rent money. Wearing unusual band clothes was a "fitting" thing to do... especially if you are female.  Fitting is my way of telling you it was very hard for me to afford tailoring.  The rock bands I joined had no budget, seamstresses, or dress codes. When I started in the late 70s, there were a tiny handful of female singers.  ((Hint: Linda Ronstadt was one. Heart came along eventually.))

Third, most of these dresses were found in thrift stores yet they are probably the most precious creations I could own or wear.  One vintage 1940s black rayon midi-length has two beaded hummingbirds. (see photo)  I also wore this to work in Seattle, I wore it to nightclubs, I wore it on a cruise. It is still lovely but I did a crappy job hemming it years ago...I found a tiny hole in the bottom of the dress. (No tag inside means it must have been handmade.)

Fourth, mainly it's the feel of fabric and touching recreates memory for me. (Sometimes I think being adopted did cause me some brain damage and trapped some memory in fog.) (I've kept some old tshirts from my travels too; some are from bands, of course.)

I think of band clothes as body armor; in a way these simple clothes create an illusion that isn't there.  Black leather pants -- and what do you think?
Some of my rock band clothes were gifted.  One blue velvet dress was given to me in college by a classmate (the mother of Wendy who I knew somewhat in high school). Her mom wanted me to have this family heirloom and of course I did wear it often.  (I do wonder if Wendy knew about this?)
There is even a pink quilted bed jacket my mom gave me.  No, I have not worn it.  When did the bed jacket thing get popular? I think women in the 1930s and 40s had much better "taste" than we do now.  (I'll admit I've a taste for kitschy colorful table linens, too.)
The rayon green print wrap dress was found in an abandoned house in Wisconsin (my friend's grandmother lived there and was deceased)(top photo of dresses) (I scooped up a black fur coat, too.) That green number was what I was wearing when I met Blackfoot. (You will have to read my memoir One Small Sacrifice to know that rock and roll saga). I also wore it when I sang in Automatic and then Tropic Zone in Minneapolis.
I didn't give up on music; my first marriage killed it for me.

Another post about my working for Jerden Records in Seattle 
Oprah spoke of Maxi Priest and his music is medicine HERE.