| On my arrival, I went straight by the Bally I had chosen as my normal place
to shower; it is close to Syda Yoga and the only Wal-mart Supercenter in the
area. However, I learned later that there are NO Wal-mart Supercenters in the
area. Drats, what will I do without my food store with always good prices (no
need to wait for a sale) and open 24 hours a day (in case I need a bathroom
early or whatever). |
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| On my way to Seattle, I had stopped at a rest stop to use the bathroom and
stretch my legs. Another traveler noticed my windshield and commiserated
with me. He gave me a couple of numbers of people who replace auto glass for
less than normal. One of them also travels to your location. Cool. Here
is my windshield before it was replaced. In the sunlight I thought it looked
very beautiful (and it wasn't as hard to see through when driving using
stereo vision). |
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| On the phone, the woman said they could give a two hour period when we
would meet. We agreed to meet at Bally's on May 10 from noon to 2PM.
After 2PM I was considering calling, but at about 2:25PM he arrived and
started working on my windshield. |
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| In less than an hour it was replaced and it was so nice to have a
windshield that I could see out of. The total came to $160 while
the other two shops had offered $190 and $195 plus tax. |
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| Here is the library (third floor of Lynnwood building) at Edmonds
Community College. They have very good internet access and fine hours during
the week (7:30AM to 9PM), though their hours on the weekend aren't that
great. They are just a few blocks from Bally's so should be quite convenient. |
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| Here is the Lyunnwood Public Library. They have a very good book collection
and pretty lenient library card policy (I just need an address they can mail my
card to). They also have fast internet access which is well controlled, i.e.
based on your library card the computer will allow you up to two hours of
internet access per day. The only down side is that they don't allow access
to the diskette drive, so I can't upload pictures from there. Looks like the
Edmond Community College will be my main place for evening access. |
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| For weekend internet access I had checked out the local universities as
schools with students living on campus often have better weekend library hours.
I found that University of Washington has a campus just a few miles away in
Bothell. It is a new campus which is shared with Cascadia Community College.
On the right is community college building. |
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| All the buildings on the campus are quite new and of similar style. Here it
looks like they are trying to build a swamp/wetland. Certainly looks odd to me
right now. |
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| Here are two building of the Bothell campus of University of Washington.
The library is just behind the large auditorium area you can see on the right of
the picture. |
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| They have lots of computers in their library, but their weekend hours aren't
great. For example, noon to 8PM on Sunday until June 14, then noon to 5PM for
the rest of the summer. I would have thought that was because they don't have
that many on-campus students, but the main Seattle campus seems to have similar
hours. |
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| Here is the food store with the most reasonable prices I have found. Boy do
I miss my Wal-mart Supercenters. They are open 24 hours so I shop any time (
and I often start my day early) and use the bathroom any time. Fred Meyer is
open 7AM to 10PM daily. Fred Meyer's prices aren't as good and they have
sales, so each week I need to check out which store has the best prices for
this week (their sale week starts on Wednesday in Seattle area). |
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| Here is the other store I expect to be using a lot. Albertsons prices are
often higher, but with sales they can be competitive. They are also just a
few blocks from Bally's (which makes them a mile or so closer than Fred Meyer)
and open from 6AM to 1AM. There is a Safeway super store across the street
from Albertsons which is open 24 hours, but their prices are even higher so
I don't expect to use them much. |
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| Here is the Safeway. They are open 24 hours, so I am happy enough to check
their sales prices each Wednesday morning (and use the restroom of course),
but have never found them to have the best price on anything. |
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