Salmon Running Through The Library

I’m writing this blog in the Renton City Library. It’s an older building constructed sometime in the 1960’s, and it shows. It’s not likely to be renovated or replaced any time soon because of where it sits. It straddles the Cedar River, site of an annual run of salmon swimming upstream from the ocean to spawn in the fresh water they were born in.



I took a little video of the salmon run here: (Don’t attempt to adjust your volume, there’s no sound.)



As I write this, countless fish are slowly moving upstream about thirty feet below where I’m sitting.

Apparently it’s quite a city event, attracting people coming and going from the library to the edge of the railing, the very spot from which this video was taken.

A few ladies were sitting at what looked like an information table laden with literature. Nobody, including me, is going to talk to them. They have a haggard look. They wear fleecy sportswear and hold their hiking sticks on their laps. I get the sense that they use those sticks every day, all day. I’m sure that, whatever they do, they’re very good at it, but only if that doesn’t involve inviting people to talk to them and dispense information. They seem out of their element, and nobody seems to want to rub it in by trying to talk to them.


As a true introvert, I’m much more content to find the information I’m looking for online . . . where I don’t have to interact with anyone to find what I’m looking for. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Anyway, chances are these ladies would want to do me physical harm if they knew what my political views were, and they’re armed. I could only hope to feebly defend myself with my Neo and my canteen full of water, but I digress.

It’s strange, but living here I seem to have so much more contact with nature than at any time when I was living in Utah. Just running errands can become a dazzling afternoon drive to see the fall colors.

I lived here before, and somehow I managed to take the wonders of this place (like the library built over a freaking river!) for granted.

I think the only thing missing here is a glass-bottomed area of the library that would allow you to look down and see the river rushing by. That’s not likely to happen, nor are any other major renovations or replacements barring a generous grant or private donation. I’m willing to bet the environmental impact study alone would cost as much as city’s monthly budget. Who knows, though. The stimulus bill has taught me to never underestimate the power of Federal pork.



I’m writing this at the next best thing to that glass-bottomed area that’s never to be. I have a window seat on the other end of the building from the entrance, allowing me to look down on the river and watch cars passing on the bridges as it stretches towards the lake, all framed with emerald, yellow, and red leaves on the trees along the bank.

Check it out!

-Tom