Raincharm’s Weblog

Ashlan is home, and talking about decorating her domicile for the next few months. So the ever helpful dad goes into his archives and pulls out several dozen posters. From Hitchcock to Griffey to a Soviet-USA Volleyball tournament. Amazing the amount of stuff that lives in this house that I had no idea even existed.

Every 7 years I am involved in a study known as the Seattle Longitudinal Study. This started at Penn State in 1956. (Why Penn State & Seattle? I don’t know, and just this past year the primary research has shifted to the U of Washington) Every 7 years they test a large number of people. They give them the same tests each time, exactly the same test. Using the test booklets from 1956 (new answer sheets). The study is aimed at how our brains age. The tests today included addition, matching lists of numbers, antonyms, synonyms, shape recognition (which shapes are the same as the original, when they are rotated (the wrong ones are rotated and flipped), flexibility of the brain checked by writing exactly what is written in a paragraph following all of the capitalization (that doesn’t follow normal rules sometimes), and then writing it again, except switching lower case and capital. There are time limits on everything, and you are not expected to finish. 2-1/2 hours on a weekend, two weekends in a row, every 7 years. I had done this in 1991, 1998 and 2005. It has only been 3-1/2 years since the last round, but they are adding a midlife section that occurs more frequently. They track your results over time. In 2005 I was in a room with someone who was on their 7th or 8th go round. I can always count on a Birthday card from this group, as they try to keep track of where people go over the years. 

After the testing session this AM Carl came by so we could take our walk. I was about 3-1/2 miles north of our house, so this would give us an opportunity to get further from home in some direction. We chose west – to the Puget Sound, dipped a finger in the water, and back again. 9 miles total. We started by going past the mall, through multi-family and then single-family neighborhoods, got lost in a cemetary (could not find a back entrance so traversed out the front again), down a winding road to Carkeek Park, out to the beach, back following a trail through the park, lunch at QFC (grocery store), past the second house we lived in in Seattle (rental), and back east to the starting point. A few of the sights around Carkeek follow.

“We didn’t get you socks Daddy.”
At Christmas when we had specifically instructed her to not tell Dad we had gotten socks for him. (We did get really clever and wrap them with mis-matched pairs, so he might have figured it out after the first one.)

“I just couldn’t resist”
After Mom opened some chocolates and there was one missing. Jane had been given the job of wrapping the box.

Happy birthday Jane. (And to Sherry (Gurk) Paul)

Short snipet c/o Rey
Rey was recounting a trip from 1992 when Grandma, Grandpa & Aunt Jane came to visit. The 7 of us went to Vancouver Island, and 6 of us ended up climbing Mt. Finlayson. Rey said that he (5 yrs) and Ashlan (3 yrs) thought Jane was expert at mountain climbing, and he really wanted to impress her and tried to follow her. He says the only things he remembers on the climb include Jane and Carl. At one point he and Ashlan were running ahead, but they listened to Jane when she told them to be careful, so they wouldn’t step on any slugs. (Such power a cool aunt has that parents just don’t)

On my drive this AM during approach to the floating bridge I thought I saw a Great Blue Heron flying away behind the trees. I peered up (Ashlan knows this move) and it flew back across the highway – beautiful. As I cleared the trees I saw the eagle, not on top of the light post, but on the sign post, even closer to the road. Majestic.

Redbellied Sapsuckers

Continuing on this mornings bird theme (sort of) my noon walk started with the sound of tapping on metal. The source was soon located. We think these are courting as they just kept at it, even with us in close proximity. (They are right outside our door, after all.)

This mornings news was all about ice on the roads. Visible ice, black ice, at least 1 fatal accident, and numerous others, caution and lower speeds advised.
Of course today my car-pooler was not available, so off I go – cautiously. Definitely a sheen on the roads. The first freeways I encounter seem OK, but speeds are down. Going onto 520 (a state road with a floating bridge across Lake Washington), traffic is quite slow. I am OK with this.
Getting onto the bridge proper we are slow enough that I start scanning the nearby sculptures to see if an eagle is there. I have seen them perched here before. None there, but as I look at the road again, I notice the eagle is perched on a light standard, directly above the road.

Almost immediately after the light standard traffic speeds pick up. So was it ice or the eagle that slowed the commute?

I got to work without any actual sliding. The last traffic report I heard included an accident right about where I started on I-5.

Rey snippet. Cleaning out cotton candy machines several months after their last use is really tough. And the proper tools may include a chisel.

Yesterday was a day with exercise followed by a sinking spell during which not much got done, except reading about a weeks worth of newspapers.

Today there was still exercise, but it took the form of actually getting some chores done.

Installed a new screen into the front door. The kids usually manage to push against the screen, and it finally just gave way. This was not too difficult, except that the screen material actually ripped on our first attempt. The difficulty was more being on my knees for an extended period of time. Carl had an epiphany when we were reinstalling the section into the door; put the screen in the upper part, and small children won’t be pushing on the screen. They will get the plexiglass pane instead. About this time, a fire truck (hook and ladder) came down the street, stopping almost in front of the house. I started scanning the roofs for smoke, but they went inside a house instead. Ambulance arrived, a neighbor taken away. [Later found out it was back issues, he is home again.]

Decided it was really time to get the TV converter box connected. Even though the stations can wait until June, it appears that our area is changing in February. We have three TVs to connect.
Started with what appeared to be the least complicated – Smallish color with built-in VCR. First step, clear around the TV so we can get to the back. Only made one small error doing the connection. Good news – clearer picture. Bad news – missing Channel 13 (Fox – which is not always necessary, but carries alot of sports). Will try rescanning later, or moving the antenna, etc.
2nd TV up is the 1970’s black & white. Hmmm. Antenna is directly attached to the TV. There are 4 screw in locations (2 for UHF, 2 for VHF) where you can apparently connect an additional antenna. And Hmmm. After doing a bit of searching on the internet I am thinking I need to buy an external antenna, choose either UHF or VHF (really not sure which one) connect  it up like the other one, with an added pig-tail to go from 2 screws to co-axial. So, I didn’t actually finish this TV.
3rd TV – have not attempted yet, maybe later tonight. It gets a little more confused as it has a DVD and VCR connected as well. I don’t remember. But much further along than before.

While I was downstairs I noticed a Nordic Track strider/cross-country machine that we are no longer using. It got retired when the eliptical arrived. If we could fit it in our exercise room it would still be in the mix, but that just doesn’t seem to be happenning. I originally got it from a co-worker, and am now going to deliver it to another co-worker.

Moving the exercise machine outside  put me in proximity to the weather, branches that needed cutting down for yard waste, and the raspberry patch that needs to be pruned back. So – grab some gloves and tools (and Carl). The branches, ala Carl, are cut down to size, the raspberries are pruned, resulting in a rather large pile of vegetation that needs to be cut down to size.  For another day.

While in the back yard we found the ladder that we took back there during the snows. Used it to put a bit of hardware cloth back into our “birds be gone” contraption that keeps the birds on the outside of the house. When we put in a bathroom fan exhaust the birds were going around the edges to find a nice warm place to nest. So we have a little cage around the exhaust pipe now. One of the pieces had fallen to the ground. Don’t know if this is just natural wear, or if something was actually trying to work it out.

Finally went on a short walk/shopping trip.

In short (or in this case long), busy and rather productive day.

make life fun.

We took a walk to do some errands. 7.5 miles more or less. Hills, long hills, followed by a short steep hill (both up and down depending on direction of travel). Carl was a trooper, because the steep downhill really can bug his knees. Errands ended up including socks, Ichiro toy figure, ground turkey, yellow pepper, celery, mushrooms, shampoo, confection and coffee. And we did not find all that we intended to find when we left the house.

Got an e-mail from my long-lost (15-20 years) college roommate a few days ago. Finally had a chance to sit down and give it a proper reply. So nice to be back in touch.

Spent some time with Rey on the phone in the AM. Got to hear about what he expects the job to be like during baseball season. We plan to stop in, so talked a bit about that as well. Summer vacations are always fun to plan.

You know how it feels when you finish something? I am on that high today. Now, basins are only a very small part of my life, and after they have been updated I will have to check them, and at least two other things landed in my lap yesterday.

But still, just having finished something feels good. And the girl is coming down next week, and even though it is raining today it is supposed to be nicer tomorrow and we can take a long walk.
On Sunday I will address all of those other things lurking in the wings

enough said
time for home