Raincharm’s Weblog

Or is it lunch?
Ashlan is home from work, it is 5:20 PM, but I am pretty sure she called it “lunch”.
She has to go back until closing after this brief respite for food.

We will have linner together, but have spent much of today apart.
I walked 12 miles with two of my team mates – West Seattle, Alki along the Puget Sound, and the hills adjacent.
Carl went to see the M’s lose, again, but had a good chat with one of my workmates at the game.
Ashlan has been working.

A few chores remain, raspberries to pick, getting organized for the next week, go lay down – I’m tired.
Maybe after dunch.

Today C and I took a walk, interrupted by a baseball game. (M’s lose 9-6)

It started with a car that needed 4 new tires.
We drove it 4 miles to the tire store, where we left it in capable hands, and headed off on foot.

The walk was about 3 miles to the stadium, and about 3 miles back. Moderate distance.
Elevation changes

Start at 350 ft (above sea level)
Climb 75 ft in 5 blocks to 425
Descend 125 ft in 7 blocks to 300
Climb 50 ft in 3 blocks to 350
Descend 335 ft in 15 blocks to 15 (basically sea level)
Then walk along the waterfront to the stadium at roughly level elevations (if you don’t count potholes)

Pause for several hours of fun, friends, and sun after the 2nd inning.

Leave said stadium with one of said friends, and increase elevation to 40, over about 8 blocks where said friend decides to take a bus.
Climb 25 feet in 1 block to 65
Climb 105 feet in 3 blocks to 170
Climb 65 feet in 3 blocks to 235
Climb 75 feet in 2 blocks to 310
Climb and descend a bit each over the next 7 blocks with a high of 320, ending at 285
Climb 65 feet in 5 blocks to 350 (OK, there was a brief stop in this leg for a slice of pizza)
Descend 50 feet in 3 blocks to 300
Climb 125 feet in 7 blocks to 425
Final descent of 75 feet in 5 blocks to 350

Total elevation gain = 620 ft (total loss =620 feet too)

Car has four new shoes, and was waiting for us to drive it the 3 miles back home.

I was going to write this in the morning, but the car pool finally arrived.

It started really early in the morning, which was just an extension of the night before – I stayed up too late.
But I knew I would have trouble getting up in the morning.
So I did take a few more precious minutes to gather some walking wear (shorts and socks), think about what I would wear to work and then finally fall into bed.

Morning arrives, again.
Up and dressed
Put together a lunch of sorts, and ready for my pooler.

Now – my pooler is not what you would call a morning person,
so the time he chooses to arrive can vary a bit.
While I waited I put away the dishes, set up a coffee for C, got laundry from the dryer and folded it, put another load into the washing machine, took out the recycling, took out the compost,
and when I was ready to sit down and post – voila.

I think the chores probably helped me to wake up and be ready to roll when we finally arrived at work.
Ended the day with a five mile walk after work, drive into town (my car was at work), and another 1/2 mile to get to the M’s game (M’s win 8-2).  Actually nice to come home with several chores out of the way.

One of those days with a little of everything.
Main events –

Carl to the Occ Therapist, stretches done 3 times afterward
Jay – late to work (with C), but then to work
Ashlan – to work, not late

Fill-ins around the major events

Coffee shop changes – find another
Letters out
Raspberries picked
Carpooling
Gutter cleaner – roof walker
Leftovers for dinner
Biking for 1/2 hour (no miles though)
Late work (to make up for late to work)
Cat fight outside the front door

A little different than every other day, but nothing spectacular

GreenLake From Our House

Carl & I took a walk after dinner – 5 miles – to and from our house and around Green Lake. On our walk we saw:

Walkers
Runners
Joggers
Bicyclists
Rollerbladers
Skateboarders
Scooters
Golfers (putt-putt)
Soccer
Basketball
Softball
Volleyball – doubles and full team
Frisbee (ultimate short court – something with a big parabolic half-hoop)
Swimming in the lake
Canoes
Kayaks
Sailboats
Fishermen
Strollers
Breastfeeding walkers
Dog-walkers
Mallards
Mallards with mohawks (otherwise known as widgeons)
Pintails
Geese – Canada and hybrid
And Guys knocking frisbee rings out of trees – with a soccer ball.

It was and is a beautiful night. What we did not see was Ashlan – she was/is playing soccer.

It is the Baseball All Star Game tonight. Ashlan is off at a party to watch the game. Carl and I are watching it at home. It “started” at 5 PM pacific time. About the same time I left the office. Traffic was as bad as it has been in a long time due to an accident on I-90 that caused people to divert to several other routes, thus backing everything up. My normalish 45 minute commute turned into about 1-1/4 hours. With a normal commute I would have made the first pitch (45 minutes after it started). This was following a day that started with promise – write up my notes from last night’s meeting, work on a major project for the rest of the day. The day quickly diverted to customer requests on things not on my original agenda. But … I did make it through the day and home in one piece.  We had a good vegetable stir fry and rice. Dishes are done. Carl is writing some letters, and the game is still going. So I guess it is an All-Star Day all-in-all.

Twelve and one-half hours (minus 1/2 hour for lunch) = 12 hours work today. Luckily we don’t do that too much anymore. A public meeting on a proposed expansion of our headquarters site was the reason behind the late night. Sent out 250 notices and had about 15-20 people show up. Actually more than I expected, and they had good questions. Even if the questions were mostly concerning a part of the project that will not likely occur for several years. I suppose a 10 million gallon tank near your back yard is worthy of spending an evening asking questions.

This is where I work (Green roofs and the water tank in front = 2 MG. The proposed tank = 10 MG and would be in the trees back behind the houses.)

Well – time to commute home now. ETA 9 PM.

11-12 miles today. First training walk with another group this year. Last year at this time I must have done a dozen or so. Everything is late this year. One of our planned potty breaks at a park was disrupted by a locked bathroom. But as it happens a small coffee shop was located that would allow 20 or so ladies to use their facilities. (Starbucks is actually very accommodating on this point, but we were off main tracks where they live.) It turns out the proprietors father is an 18 year breast cancer survivor! Serendipity. She also makes a great scone.

Picked another bowl of berries, and am ready to relax with a newspaper for a bit.

The raspberries are ripe, and we are picking. I am getting ready to go out with the second bowl. I got about 2/3rds of the way down one side, and filled bowl number one. Ahh, summer goodness of berries.

Picker and picked

biggest harvest day yet

Update – final count 4 bowls (full if all were the starting bowl size, but I had to go for larger after the small ones got filled up. The pictures are after all of us and a few neighbors had some. Ashlan is working on raspberry smoothies as we (I) speak (write).

Thank the house gods, the stink is gone. For the last two weeks the house has had an aroma that was not too pleasant. Being in the sewer business I finally started looking into it. Our often backed up side sewer, was not backed up. Strike one, The next most common cause is a dried out trap in the plumbing. Not us, all water barriers in place. Strike two. The less common but possible cause is a leak in the vent stack. Difficult to pinpoint, and probably costly to diagnose exactly where the leaks are. After arriving home from the Mikado it seemed particularly smelly. So I went down to the basement to ponder the plumbing. I finally decided we were going to have to pay for another expert to sniff out or smoke out the problem. Then I noticed an area behind several layers of spider webs that appeared to be covered in some sort of tape. It was next to a joint where the pipe sizes change. Now I don’t know what would have caused the change, but …

The next morning I told Carl we could call the plumber or if he wanted we could try a duct tape repair in the area of this older tape. Since I was at work and Carl is a one-hand, Ashlan was elected. I wasn’t there, but apparently the spider webs were dispatched, duct tape found, and a wrapping party held.

And lo and behold – the stink is gone. The basement smells like a good old musty basement, and we can turn the house fan back on to pull the cooler air through the house.