Raincharm’s Weblog

Walk we did. With a purpose this time – to shop of course.
Actually both Carl & I really dislike shopping, but sometimes you just need to.

So – we set out to walk to the mall to buy a telephone. Our many years old telephone has been playing music in the background for many years. And it’s getting louder, and now the volume sounds like a teenage boy’s voice cracking, and the standalone cordless companion phone gave up the battery ghost last week. I know we could have simply replaced the battery on the cordless set, but the music is getting so bad that I only use the base unit when absolutely necessary (like when the batteries give out on the other phone).

While up at the mall we also looked for my favorite shampoo, which of course the salon does not carry anymore, got some new unmentionables for both of us (no one thought to do this at Christmas and we didn’t want to wait for our anniversary), checked out the going out of business sale at Joes and scored a pair of lighter weight walking pants for when it is too cool for shorts, and I don’t want to wear jeans. Stopped by Red Robin for a bite and ended up chatting with one of Seattle’s finest who was gathering donations for the Special Olympics.

So the walk home starts with the steeper hills (up) and ends with a long downhill (reverse of the walk there), so we content ourselves with checking out the gardens and homes along the way. One cute little house stood out for its lack of size. Carl thought perhaps someone had connected two trailers. It did not have the brick exterior like many of the neighborhing houses. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Tudor trailer.

Carl is off to his spring mistress, and I am here to put together the new phone system (plug it into the wall). I could have gone to keep an eye on Carl, but there is soccer on LOCAL, NON-CABLE TV tonight, so I have my own plans…

Just had a conversation with Ashlan about housing for next year. Yousa, not getting into the “dorm” is expensive. She has enough north of the border to cover the first check. Next up is to see if we have enough to cover the next check plus first tuition.

Just when you stop thinking about money for a day (literally, about a day).

Ooooohmmmmm, oooooohmmmmm, repeat ad nauseum

Ours have been filed, hopefully yours have too.

So – today’s focus was work. Having taken yesterday off, I kept having a difficult time figuring out what day of the week it was. I managed to keep forgetting that I had a night meeting as well. At 4:15 I started thinking about whether I would work out when I got home. Followed quickly by the realization that I had to stay until 8:30 or so. (Could still work out, but it is much less likely.)

Carl spent the evening with the Mariners. Griffey did not disappoint – and hit his 400th home run as a Mariner (613 overall). It looks like it went right over our seats. Not to be outdone, Ichiro hit a grand slam. I’ll bet Carl is a little amped up when he finally gets home.

The day is at last upon us, dawning cold and cloudy with light precipitation.
Carl is off to work, making a house call for a parent’s appointment.
The guests are breakfasted and off on their quest to meet Seattle friends and prepare for the days events (friends for the elder, Archie McPhees for the younger)
Refitting the packs for a baseball game – food, clothes (what will the weather be???), mitts, tickets, pencils for scoring, and a blanket for the cold one.

There is a planned tribute to the Tuba Man – sure to bring memories and maybe a tear.

7 Miles to go. Update to follow.

7 miles down, well up and down. Cloudy and cool, but we warmed up quickly and actually took off a layer. Stopped at the Experience Music Project for a kazoo (and potty break), down to the waterfront and on the the ballpark.

A little batting practice, catching up with friends we haven’t seen since last October. Out to kazoo with a other kazooers and two tuba players for the tuba man. Back in to the chilly stadium. They close the roof for the opening ceremonies. When those were finally concluded they open the roof and – – – SUNSHINE! The temperature went up (must have made the 50’s. Still cool, but a warm cool.

PLAY BALL. The biggest thing for the Mariners is that Ken Griffey Jr is back. He left several years ago to play for Cincinnati and be close to his extended family. But he is back, and the town welcomed him with open arms. They also had 6 tubas play Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the 7th inning stretch.  Oh – and the Mariners won the game 3-2 in the 10th inning on a sacrifice bunt.

We did not have to walk home. One of Carl’s kid’s parent borrowed our car and we met at the game. So only had to walk as far as the carpark.

I have had to remind myself several times that it is not the weekend. Amazing what a day off in the middle of the week can do to a person’s mind.

Tomorrow is opening day of baseball season in Seattle.
Today it was snowing when I left work. Large sloppy wet snow, but still, baseball, tax day, it is past the time for snow.

Nonetheless, I believe we will hold to our plan and walk to the game tomorrow, report to follow.

And for those Phillies and Tigers fans – my condolences.
I don’t remember Harry Kalas, but I do remember Mark Fidrych. And I wasn’t really a baseball fan at that point.

Not mist, not a thunderstorm, not showers, just rain.
Continuous rain.
What to do? Go play soccer of course.

Thankfully the temperature was not too low, so it was just wet.
Wet, wet, wet, wet, wet.
Hat (had to take it off anyway), glasses (take them off too, can’t see with drops on them, of course the seeing with them off is also limited), sweatshirt, team shirt, underarmour and the jogbra – all wet. Pants, shorts, unmentionables – all wet. Socks and shoes too.
Home and leave it all on the basement floor for the launderer.
Hot shower and finally time to sit down and take a load off my tired legs and feet.

By the way – we won 5-0. Our goalie got to play out of the net for the second half – fun for him. No women subs (Easter and I think both our team and the other team had several members eating a nice hot dry dinner.)

Thankfully most of the Easter egg hunts are held on Saturday when rain was limited. Today it was/is just rain. Kind of refreshing.

We spent most of the day going here and there, mostly there.
First up the Seattle Women’s Chorus matinee. A great show with lots of Broadway tunes.
For the evenings entertainment we saw the Seattle Sounders – LOSE for the first time. Really it was a pretty good game, but they red-carded the first string goalie at 30 minutes in for handling the ball outside of the box. A red-card offense. I don’t really fault the call. But it meant that not only did we have the second string goalie,  they had to play with one less player for the rest of the game.

No walk around the lake today, but we did walk to and from the afternoon show, and parked a ways away from the stadium so we would have a good walk to and from the soccer game as well.

That and calls from both kids and it is time to call it a day.

Got home a little later tonight and chatted with the Boy. The Carl surprised me by asking me if I wanted to go for a walk. Of course I said yes. It was 7:30 ish (missing Jeopardy!) so it was a bit later than our other walks.

Back to Green Lake for a quick walk around. Now Carl is a counter, and he inquired as to what we should count. I decided that it was probably a bit late for strollers (the wheeled variety), and went with Cell Phones. Carl chose dogs. Amazingly, during the 3 mile walk we saw 10 dogs but only 3 Cell Phones in use. And 2 of the cell phones were really the same phone with the same talker as we passed her the second time. One cell phone a mile. I would never have guessed it would be such a small number. Now we did not count the total number of people passed in the three miles so can not report on the frequency of use per population. And certainly there were many fewer (figure that one out – it’s late) people than on our earlier walks, so while the cell phones per mile number would certainly be higher, perhaps the cell phones per person would be similar.

Anyway, that is probably a good thing (to not have so many cell phones). It’s not really a contest, but I would have had more to count if I had chosen I-pods.

I feel like I am awake.
The hair is washed, I’ve driven 25 miles (successfully) and I even had a discussion about emergency response.
But then I took a sip from my home travel coffee cup, set it down and poured creamer into a different cup. Now if I follow through I will have two cups at the same time.

We had the opportunity and weather for a quick 3 mile jaunt after work and before dinner. Once around the lake. Carl has done it by himself almost every day this week, but during the day. I was home, not early – but early enough, nothing else on the docket, and our rainy day was really lacking rain. (Weather people!) Well it did rain overnight, so they weren’t completely wrong. And I am not complaining. My favorite Carl moment was when we passed a couple with a small furry dog, and Carl muttered, “Swiffer”.

Hm, the news just said the stock market is not open tomorrow, Good Friday. Interesting choice for this type of institution.