Oncorhynchus: Latin (?) for hook-nose

The Oncorhynchus have returned, an encore of sorts for the species, though not for the beautiful individuals who struggle to arrive and then die for the cause. 

Don’t we all in our own ways, struggle to survive, to arrive, and die?

Issaquah Fish Hatchery

Last Wednesday, a beautiful Indian summer day, three friends and I visited the Issaquah Fish Hatchery where 16,000 Oncorhynchus – better known as “Chinook” here in the Pacific Northwest where Chinookan was the common language of our First Nations clustered around the Columbia, or “tshawytscha” in a Russian-tainted Lushootseed, the language of Vancouver and Puget Sound, or “black-mouth salmon”, or “Kings” or "Tyee" --

Waiting to move up. These are about 30", 25#'s.

where they were waiting to have eggs stripped and sperm spread in order to start anew their cycle of life and death and renewal. Hundreds more were pooling below the dam and weir, waiting to leap and fight their way upriver. It’s been a strong run this year. These guys left four years ago and now they’ve reappeared like magic. Some will make it over the spillway to freely breed; most will struggle up the ladder and into the hands of men and women dedicated to the species’ survival. Future generations of chinook for future generations of humans to wonder at, to worship, to feast upon, to nurture.

Walk around block milestone

Sunday morning, I had my own survival arrival: my first walk around the block since contracting pneumonia in Carcassonne in May and being hospitalized in Clinic Universidad de Navarra, in Pamplona. That trek up the gentle slope and down again around my little block was a triumph. I didn’t get to shoot sperm at eggs – those days just a distant memory – but no less satisfying. Time is all I have to invest now.

Mt Rainier (I don't put a period after it because it's still alive.) 

Every couple of years we also get wonderful views of lenticular clouds forming over, formed by, actually,  another icon of our region, Mt. Rainier. 

Lenticular Cloud created by Mt Rainier

The highest in the Continental US, but reports The Times, shrinking, as I: I have lost 3 ½ inches; Rainier, 11 feet! Where I stood, on Columbia Crest in 1988 is now no longer Rainier’s highest point. Just as global warming and man’s depredations have taken it out on Chinook, we’ve caused the ice cover on my mountain to shrink and nearly driven our third icon, the Southern Orca, to extinction. (Once you’ve climbed Mt. Rainier, it becomes “my mountain.” Cameron’s and Grant’s Dad, Rob Janes, crested it six times!)

Extinction

My line, The Wallers, who migrated to New England in the 17thC, is nearly going extinct, too. Only one Waller grandson and his mate can extend the name. I don’t mean to put on pressure; the Waller and Taylor genes flow on in Stoners, Helms, Dorseys, O'Donnells, and in great-granddaughter Wallers. And Ancestry keeps reporting that they’ve found 2^nd and 4^th and 6^th cousins I’ve never even heard of. Who knows how far the tangles of our DNA stretch?   

Boeing, Starbucks, REI

That plant in front of Rainier and its lid is where the infamous Boeing 737 Maxes are assembled, on the shore of Lake Washington. Boeing is the fourth icon of the Puget Sound region, badly wounded by mis-management and its Board of Directors' feckless lack of accountability. (See May 27th, below.) 

Boeing is not alone: Seattle icons Starbucks and REI have hit rough patches, too. But nobody has yet been killed by a latte or a merino tee.

Microsofties are still transcendent.

New aquarium and waterfront park. New glass.

Seattle is getting a new waterfront and a new aquarium addition. And for my recent birthday, I gave my self a new piece of glass by Preston Singletary, one of the Tlinglit people: his take on Oncorhynchus, no less – just to close the loop on this rambling rumination. 

Salmon Chief by Preston Singletary

So, ‘til next time, that’s all from the Northwest for today.

PS: Tap a picture to see it larger.