Raincharm’s Weblog

For those who wanted a high-scoring free-wheeling game, the World Cup 3rd place game between England and France is the one to watch.

The game last night between Ballard FC and Utah United was epic. By that I mean epically long. Both teams wanted badly to win to move on to the quarterfinals on Sunday. There was no score through the 90 minutes of regular time, so they played two 15 minute of overtime. At the conclusion of those 30 minutes the referee said 2 minutes of extra time. Ballard scored after about 1 minute. YEAH, game over right? No. The referee kept adding time. Some extra would be expected, but it just kept going. And after 5 minutes of extra time Utah scored in the final second apparently, because then the referee blew the whistle. Penalties  – and Ballard prevailed when their goalie saved 2 shots.

Tonight’s local game is the women’s team, Salmon Bay vs Vermont Green for the national title. These are generally college aged kids.

Outside of soccer, the day started with my weekly Weight Watchers meeting, held in a hotel meeting room. Driving into the parking lot there was an unusual vehicle,  although I have seen it before.

The Seafair Pirates perform at neighborhood and citywide fairs throughout the summer. “Terrorizing kids all summer long and handing out sweets.”

I got to our meeting room, and

The Seafair Pirates have apparently been using this room all week. I thought it was a test.

Lower key than the World Cup. It’s playoff time for the USL2 level. Two local games today, ar 2 and 7. We decided to go to both and walk in between in a different neighborhood.

The 1st game was between a team from Snohomish County and one from Colorado.  The Colorado Storm won 2- 1 and will play in the quarter finals here on Sunday. The evening game is between Ballard FC, our local team, and a team from Utah. The winner will play Colorado on Sunday.

This is all just a bit more interesting than my morning. I spent the morning changing auto deposits and withdrawals from one bank account to another.  It was actually quite a bit of work. But it’s done, except for one account with a deposit likely happening tomorrow. I’m going to wait for that to process. I have authenticated myself probably 50 times this morning. My phone is tired.

Speaking of work, yesterday over lunch I met with 3 old work mates and 1 new employee who is now doing a good part of my work. They had a list of questions, some specific and some more general. It was good. I provided some background on “why we do it that way” in a few cases. Understanding how things started can be helpful. Not that they can’t change, but why they are.

And before that meeting I drove our friend’s daughter to her camp at Digi-Pen. It’s on designing concept graphic art for projects. Or something like that. We’re trying to help out while they are dealing with health issues. A ride may not be too much, but I  can see where avoiding 1-1/2 hours of traffic would be welcome.

That same friend allowed me to put stuff in her driveway for a buy nothing event. As probably reported earlier I took the remnants to Goodwill.  Today I completed another step in the clean out by going to Ballard Reuse and dropping off hardware, floor carpet tiles, plus they took the first aid supplies from when we coached kids.

I’m rambling.

Our air quality is fine and the temperature is in the 70s.

All for now.

I looked back, and this exercise started at the beginning of April. 3-1/2 months later I am declaring our work done. Except cutting down one pruned branch and loading from smaller bins into the actual yard waste bin. And returning our neighbor’s ladder that we’ve had this entire time.

No before and after pictures, it’s really hard to get perspective with the other vegetation in the area. What I’ll miss is 2nd breakfast with Chai tea.

And then just because we can, a few stopped by for the World Cup France vs Spain game. Brie and a Spanish goat cheese, olives, and some veggies and hummus to carry us through the game.

And a tired late afternoon time.

Only one soccer game today. Evening game and home by 8.

Much of the day was focused on a “Don’t Buy Anything” event in the Maple Leaf neighborhood. Our friend was participating and invited us to add to their giveaway.

I just went to the garage and selected many of the items put out for our garage giveaway a few months ago. I had lost the movement I had going and inertia set in. So I loaded the car and drove up to Maple Leaf. I’m pretty sure I added more to their driveway than they had.

No pictures, but a lot of stuff was taken from the driveway.

I returned late in the afternoon to pick up the leavings. And since it’s in the car now I need to use this momentum and get it to a donation site.

Stay tuned.

Ballard 4 – Snohomish United 0.

Tried to complete all of our chores (pruning, laundry) and errands (prescription pickup, shopping) before noon. That way we were able to watch the England vs Norway game with a few friends. And we are now at the Ballard women’s team, Salmon Bay, game. They are in the national semi-finals, playing a team from Minnesota, the Aurora.

The Aurora has not lost a game all year. Their first goal this game was due to a mental error by a Salmon Bay fullback resulting in a penalty kick. Salmon Bay scored a tying goal, also a penalty kick, almost at the end of regular time, sending the game to overtime. After 30 minutes of overtime the game was still tied 1-1. Into penalty kicks! Of the 5 kicks each team takes, the Minnesota team scored 2 and Ballard scored 3, winning the game.  So Salmon Bay will play for the national title, but we don’t know where yet.

Tomorrow we’re going to watch the Ballard FC men’s team play their final regular season game. Their playoffs are next weekend.

Soccer, soccer, soccer, soccer.

We seem to have multiple folks who could use a hand right now. My sister’s are managing my Dad without me. They’re doing such a good job that he has moved to rehab. Another friend has a child who has been in and out of the hospital. This is one where being directly hands on is maybe not realistic, but we would really like to do something. Sometimes figuring out how to help is difficult. And yet another friend is dealing with a very serious cancer fight. And we have found a way to help, by providing chaperoning duties (driving) for kids.

It’s only a little thing, but it helps them. Hopefully the little helps will add up.

Before our 1st pickup run, we did some pruning next door. I was tired almost immediately. Carl blamed our walk yesterday, I think it was a blood donation hangover. We’re going to try again tomorrow for a bit more. I want to finish this by the end of next week. It just needs to be done.

For those of you following along, my Dad moved to rehab today.

More paperwork for us. Banking, social security, orders, prescriptions, it never seems to end. So we took a break to look at some other paperwork.

I thought we were going to see the Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents that Forged a Nation. That’s not until the end of the month. What we did see is For Which it Stands: The Many Threads of the American Flag.

It was about the American and other flags. This was at MOHAI, the Museum of History and Industry.

A few of the artifacts/stories that stood out for me.

1936 Flag from the Olympics

The pledge of allegiance: I didn’t get a picture of the flag from the classroom, but here’s a local story.

The pledge of allegiance was written after the Civil War. It being said in elementary schools each day was started a long, long time ago. A Seattle school teacher, Marietta Iwasyk, from 1963 to 2024,had her students recite the pledge, as was required. However, when she found out the male teachers were being paid more than she was, she added 2 words to the end, “We wish!”

I also learned that Memorial Day was started by Civil War veterans who didn’t want others to forget what they fought for. I wonder if all of the folks who like to make the flag their symbol alone and patriotism right white might remember the history.

My big activity today was giving blood. It took two finger pokes to get the required iron level, but we made it. I felt especially inspired this time as my father needed a unit of blood this week.  We’re a few thousand miles apart, but still, somebody nearer to him is doing the same thing.

I had watered before I gave, and took a moderate walk later, but mostly just hung out for the day. Almost decadent.

And when I peeled off the bandages this evening, one of the finger pokes decided it wasn’t quite done giving.

Money transfers: we opened two new accounts with the goal of transferring from existing to 2 new. Easy-peasy right? Same bank, same type of account. Bank email and online account both directing me to transfer money to the new accounts. Online all is easy, all in one place. Done. Until it wasn’t. First the accounts were locked by a fraud alert. It was unusual, we don’t transfer to new accounts every day … Call the fraud line. Spend time verifying who I am, and what we’re doing. Okay, proceed. But, one of the transfers is now rejected! We happened to be in proximity to a bank branch (see Doctor’s appointment below) so we walked in. They got on the phone, just like we had. They had our ID. The banker was satisfied with who we were, but the other end required more, say a debit card. Note that I  don’t have a debit card. Luckily Carl was there. And why their obsession with debit cards for ID checks. The banker finally got them to agree to let the transfer go through when we tried. I don’t have a banking app on my phone, so that waits until I get home. Done, again, we’ll see.

Doctor appointments: Made this appointment, regular clinic, sometimes doctor. On time, check in. No room assigned yet, please have a seat in the waiting area. Waiting. FIRE ALARM! Everyone evacuates, patients to the next door parking lot (where the bank is located). Fire trucks arrive, false alarm. Eventually get back into the clinic and continue to wait. After a while Carl inquired about our status. Of course the room assignment was lost in the evacuation. They told him a room, which was locked. Again part of the evacuation protocol. Finally saw the doctor, got a blood test, x-ray, and referral.

US Men’s Soccer: I hate that a certain person has seen fit to insert themselves into the festivities. This is why we can’t have anything nice. That aside, we were very excited to have the US Men’s team playing in the round of 16.

We had excellent food and convivial conversations. Unfortunately, the US team was fairly flat, and Belgium came to play.

In the end we had to drown our sorrows with Belgium Waffles. They were good, including home whipped whipped cream. If Belgium makes the finals we’ll need to repeat this part.

The US may be out, Seattle’s games to host may be over, but the tournament continues. And we will continue to enjoy the play.

We had a good day. A little shopping, a local soccer game, and dinner out.

And a shout out to Pooh and Mark for their 46 years, and for stepping up to help out.