The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Fall colors: My best photos for 2009

The fall colors in and around Olympia, Wash., captured my attention in the last few weeks. I took 1,500 photos.  

Thank goodness for digital photography. It would have been too expensive to take that many photos on film and have them all developed.  

Despite variations in weather, I was able to get 100 great photos. Although cloudy days are supposed to result in excellent photos because the fall colors pop out, my best photos were taken on sunny days. 

I was out photographing several times at twilight. The pink sky is so great this time of year. When I was out at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, I watched the beautiful sky for about half an hour. The rosy hues suddenly faded and turned into gray, grainy clouds.  

Here are my best 100 photos of fall colors this year. Enjoy.   

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Photos of 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific-Exposition at Seattle museum are outstanding

The Museum of History and Industry in Seattle is featuring exhibits of the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific-Exposition to celebrate the centennial of the event.

One of the exhibits is a remarkable collection of photographs of the exposition.

Called “Photographing the Fair: The A-Y-P Photos of Frank H. Nowell and Others,” the exhibit is a display of photographs taken on 8 x 10 glass plates. The clarity of the photos is outstanding. The people and buildings look so real it’s as if they were recreated today for a movie set.

The photos will be on display until December 2009.

The exposition was Seattle’s first World’s Fair. Its purpose was to let the world know about Seattle.

The Klondike Gold Rush had made Seattle the leading city in the Pacific Northwest, due to its shipments of supplies to Alaska. The goal of the exposition was to show off the growth and development of the Pacific Northwest and Seattle, and to call attention to the value of trade with the Pacific Rim.

When Japan agreed to participate, the exposition became an international, multi-cultural event.

Seattle officials also hoped that the exposition would encourage people to move to the city.

The University of Washington, on Lake Washington, with a view of Mount Rainier, was the location selected for the exposition.

The Igorot, native people of the Philippines, were displayed in their loincloths in a village setting, as they were at other world’s fairs of the era. Indians and Eskimos also were also displayed in exhibits.

The exposition cost $10 million, and 3.7 million people attended.

Although the exposition brought enormous tourist dollars to the Seattle, few long-term benefits occurred, according to the essay “The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.” There was no increase in population and trade. However, Alaska's tourism did increase. 

The exposition’s buildings were built quickly and cheaply and didn’t serve the University of Washington well for the long term. Few were usable as classrooms.

The University of Washington Libraries offers photos of the exposition with corresponding photos of how the area looks today.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Baby boomer event ticket-buyers: BBB says to avoid TicketsMyWay.com

Plays, concerts, and sporting events are big draws for baby boomers.

The Better Business Bureau is warning people who are trying to buy hard-to-get event tickets that they might have trouble when shopping online with TicketsMyWay.com.

Hundreds of complaints against TicketsMyWay.com, run by Las Vegas-based Event Tickets LLC, have been received from consumers across the country. Consumers claim they paid for tickets to shows, concerts, and sporting events, but say they ultimately received the tickets too late, received tickets for seats that weren’t valid or weren’t as good as agreed on and, in some cases, received no tickets.

Event Tickets LLC has an unsatisfactory rating from the BBB due to its performance. The rating was issued due to about 100 cases of non-delivery of tickets, 100 complaints involving refunds and exchanges, and 200 occasions in which the company failed to respond to the BBB or consumers to resolve issues.

“Sports fans, music lovers, and theater buffs may not seem to have a lot in common, but all are complaining to BBB about their dissatisfaction with the TicketsMyWay.com site,” said Steve Cox, BBB spokesperson, in a statement about the company. “There are many reputable online ticket resellers that consumers can safely purchase hard-to-get tickets from, but unfortunately, some consumers have been placing their trust in Web sites such as TicketsMyWay.com and are telling us they are getting ripped off.”

The BBB offers the following advice for online ticket buyers:

• Buyers should always look for the BBBOnLine seal, when buying from a ticket reselling company online. The seal is a sign that the company has a good reputation for satisfying customers and a secure Web site for processing payments.

• Buyers should pay with a credit card or through PayPal to provide protection and the opportunity for potential reimbursement if the company is uncooperative. Consumers should never pay with a cashier’s check or wire money to a seller, as they’ll have no way to get their money back if the tickets don’t arrive.

• Buyers should scrutinize pictures of tickets on the Web from individual sellers closely for any inaccuracies or alterations, and crosscheck the seat assignment with the map on the venue’s Web site before buying. Individual sellers often include pictures of the tickets with their posts on auction sites or bulletin boards.
  

• Consumers need to read the fine print and policies stated on the Web site before buying from an online ticket reseller. They need to pay special attention to the consumer protections provided if they aren’t satisfied with the tickets.

• Consumers who’ve had problems buying tickets online may file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau online at www.bbb.org. They can also file complaints with their state Attorney General’s Office.

Good luck with your ticket shopping and have fun at the event.

Copyright 2008, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

A thrill for the art lover -- art in a botanical garden where it's warm

When I was in Florida for Christmas, I was lucky to be able to visit the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami.

While I love botanical gardens, my oldest daughter being a botanist, I was excited when we arrived to find art displays among the lush, tropical gardens.

Work by Roy Lichtenstein and Dale Chihuly is being exhibited through May 31.

Lichtenstein, a Pop artist icon, is famous for using simple outlines to define forms in his paintings along with primary colors, angled lines, and Benday dots. Benday dots are dots used in a printing process.

He used the same elements in his sculptures; black lines to define the shape of the sculpture with angled lined and Benday dots on the surface.

Lichtenstein sculptures range from eight to 30 feet high.

Dale Chihuly is recognized worldwide for his revolutionary blown-glass installations. Over the years Chihuly and his teams have created a wide

variety of blown forms, revisiting and refining earlier shapes while at the same time creating exciting new elements.

I'd certainly recommend a visit to the gardens this spring for those looking for some sunshine to break up long, dreary winter days in the north.

As a person who loves art and museums, it was a new art thrill to visit this show. And the weather was wonderful; around 80 degrees.