with bated breath

It's hard to know how to record life at the moment. The Black Lives Matter protest at CHOP seems to have become intermingled with a park full of hippies and anarchists. Agitators come in and start things. Yesterday, for Juneteenth, was a blackout day and so I stayed on the outskirts, but kept an eye on Converge Media's livestream.
Covid-19 continues to be worrisome. The border is closed now through July 21 (no family 4oJ for the first time in decades). Even though King County is in phase 2, our numbers are going up, as they are around the state. We're in better shape than Texas or Florida, but going outside is still a process of masking up, coming back in, sanitizing and washing everything.
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My early morning walks have taken on a surreal quality.
The other day, I was coming up Pine, and a 70's car with an older gentleman in plastic framed glasses yelled out the window, Where's the Precinct?
12th and Pine, I said.
Down the hill?
I pointed. No, up.
He and his passenger roared off.
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This morning I masked up and headed out around 8am. It had been a troubled, sleepless night. Juneteenth fireworks boomed well into the wee hours. At first blast, I thought it was the flash-bangs again but checked Twitter and it was fireworks.

Around 7a.m. I gave up on sleep and checked online again. Two shootings overnight just outside of CHOP, around 2a.m. One person dead. Conflicting accounts. I walked down Pine into a misty morning. Early risers stood around outside the tents and along Pine, talking. A disturbed man (there's always a disturbed man) shouted and ran around the Black Lives Matter mural. There was blood on the sidewalk outside Oddfellows.

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UPDATE: I came home from my work space and walked through the CHOP. Organizers had folks on the baseball field, figuring out next steps and precautions. A group of 20 or so was huddled behind home plate and as I got closer, I saw a figure laying on a tarp and a very upset woman running away. The figure seemed still but not injured so I kept going. I listened to the organizer for a bit, then headed up the hill to 12th, where I found a pickup truck, a Q13 reporter and camera, and 2 men in bulletproof vests, armed with what looked like guns and batons.

Who are you!? I said.

Security, the closer guy said. At least 6'2.

For who? (I know, whom. But I was rattled.)

The news.

What news?

A glance at the reporter, still sitting on the tailgate, on his phone.

Fox. Q13. Because of the 2 guys who got shot last night.

Okay, I said.

We talked. He said his company was hired to patrol the area at night.

Does this make me feel better or worse about the state of the neighborhood?

I honestly don't know.