City of Contradiction

I have a pretty great view from my desk at work. On particularly slow work days (like, um, today), I've been known to pause mid-keystroke to watch a ferryboat trudge across the bay or to consider the real estate value of one of those condos perched on Alki point. Even in bad weather, the view is still pretty great. This is a realization I came to while working at the Space Needle, actually: Seattle looks good almost all the time.

Since our offices are located in a older building (no double-panes here) above a busy street near Pike Place Market, though, my daily soundtrack is a series of events I can hear but not see - tires screeching, unattended car alarms, sirens, blaring horns, those damn Duck Tour loudspeakers, obscenities and random shouting (alternately frightening and entertaining and sometimes in connection with the Duck Tours), and a guttural chorus of engines large and small. Regardless of the auditory assault, the corresponding imagery always looks something like this:

It's a bit of a disconnect, I must admit.