Raincharm’s Weblog

I would say that was the theme of the Seattle Women’s Chorus show Making Spirits Bright. Specifically songs titled, Rosa Sat by Amy Dixon-Kollar, The Christians and the Pagans by Dar Williams, and Thankful by Carole Bayer Sager, David Foster & Richard Page. Rosa Sat and The Christians and the Pagans are pretty much listen to the words to figure out the tolerance theme. But with Thankful they started by having a couple, together for 32 years, that had been featured in ads for Referendum 71 this last election, briefly address the crowd on the importance of our “everything but marriage” law for domestic partners that was kept on the books by the voters.

But it goes beyond that. It seems the nation has been “Jerry Springered” and often finds it unnecessary to use decorum and civility with each other. I thought the shouting that goes on in so many meetings stops any discussions that might happen before they can get going. Nobody says we all have to agree, but we do need to get along. No red states and blue states. We are all shades of purple.

First, an update on 2 of the gingerbread houses.

Decoration of a Gingerbread House

It is the last weekend before Christmas. So – all those that have been waiting to go out and join the crowds – now is the time. We plan to do a little joining today, but basically we are feeling on good ground. Our need to get done bit is cleaning the house for a FULL HOUSE. Between Tuesday and Wednesday all will arrive home, and that is the exciting bit for us this Christmas.

Rey’s Montana Grizzlies played in the championship game for NCAA 1A division last night. In Chattanooga, Tennessee. Since it was relatively close, Rey went. He got to sit in the cold rain and unfortunately Villanova was the better team this time. But I think he had good time anyway, meeting some other Montana Alumni. He thought that other than the family from Atlanta, he had the shortest distance to travel. On his travel back he found that snow was falling at his place. Apparently the last 20 miles were snowing, the last 4 with fresh inches on the road. But he made it safely, which is the most important thing. His winter driving skills are being honed.

So – time to decorate, clean, walk and shop a little.

Kids village ready for decoration

And from the night before.

The house is starting to take on that holiday look.
We have been to one Christmas show, the Green Lake Luminaria, the Jingle Bell Dash, Candy Cane Lane (me once, Carl thrice), and done some shopping. But for all that the you would not have known the season by looking at the house.

But now the Christmas tree has been moved into the living room, lights finally added, and I think decorations may be going up today. I think the kids may be doing some decorating since they really wanted the lights on the tree. Christmas cards to go on high shortly and the manger scene, etc should follow. Now all we need is the rest of the family to arrive.  Oh, and there were some of those Stickees on the window as well.

When we bought our Prius 5 years ago it was the fanciest car we had ever owned. It has keys that you don’t even need to take out of your pocket to open, get into and drive the car. I have fully adopted this trait. But you don’t have to keep it in your pocket. You can put it anywhere in the front area of the car, and there is even a slot to put it in if you want to.

Because of the proximity feature, we wondered early on if it was possible to lock your keys in the car. But we never formulated an experiment to try and accomplish this goal.

This morning when I went to the car it was unlocked. That happens now and again, somebody forgets to lock the car. When I got to work I got ready to get out of the car, and after opening the door I hit the “lock” button inside the car. That way I don’t have to fish around in my pocket to find the key and hit the “lock” spot. 
But when I closed the door there was a distinctive “unlock” two beeps. So I reached in and hit the lock spot on the key.

When I left work this evening the proximity function was not working. I could not just walk up and be greeted by an openning door. So I hit the unlock spot on the key and it opened up for me. After arriving home and once again locking the car from the inside button the car “unlocked” when I shut the door.

Carl left later that evening and could not find the 2nd key. So he took my keys and left. Much later he called to say he found the 2nd key in the lower cup holder. This solved our initial question. Can you lock the key in the car? Yes, but only if you have another key.

This morning was the BIG race. The Jingle Bell Run. Big as in lots of people. It was actually a very relaxed race as they go. Up early and trying to decide how many layers to put on. I ended up with 5, but 4 for the actual “running.” In the 30’s and no precipitation. For the record I started off running, and finished running. The parts in between, more running than not. Maybe I will actually train for one of these so I can look relaxed and ready to go even further.

The Jingle Bell Runs around the country raise money for the Arthritis Foundation. To honor my Mother-in-Law I wore a Christmas sweater she made several years ago.  It was one-of-a-kind, and fit the theme perfectly.

Jay, Asea, Devany & John

The start was uphill, for several blocks. I did not do any warmup or stretching ahead of time either. (Although we did go with the wave that left 15 minutes before we had originally planned, so that will be my excuse.) I went quite a ways up the hill, but then decided I really needed to not burn out on the first bit, and walk/stretched for a bit, ran for a bit, walked a bit, and then jogged. That is until the 2 lane part of the tunnel, where I could walk as fast as anyone else was moving.

The next part I jogged, and the game of deciding where to run kept me occupied. Moving around walkers and slower?!? runners, deciding on whether to stay on the main pavement (most crowded) the flat shoulder (with a few hubcaps) or in the ditchline (with who knows what). After quite a while I decided to walk for a bit again, and then got into a 100 strides (counting both feet as 1 stride) running and then 50 walking. This seemed to serve me pretty well, and I could have gone longer on the running each time, but rules are rules. There was a block long steep up-hill near the end, just before the 4 block downhill to the finish line. Luckily my 50/100 put me into the walk phase about 1/3 of the way up the hill. And of course, I had to run the last bit. I knew Carl would be along that stretch and had to put on a good show.

Jay's first finish in about 20 years

Now, finally putting together the futon. I think you get what you pay for, and I did not pay too much for this frame. Both of the end pieces say “inside left” on the sticker. Only one of them is correct. Guess which one I chose first. And partway through I found a design flaw. Which I decided to ignore as it was not a fatal flaw. Of course when it was time to put the long pieces (actually 2 short pieces bolted together – hence the smaller than expected box referenced a week or so ago) onto the frame, the incorrect “inside left” made itself known. It was about a 1/2-hour error. Here is the finished product.

The Frame (#2 try)

Trying it on for size

Carl helped a bit on the frame and really helped hefting the futon onto the frame.

I do. For many years we used dial-up, when everyone else was moving to DSL, Broadband, whatever was faster. It was fast at work, so I would do tricky things there, after work, of course. But for the last year we have been connecting to our neighbor’s fast connection. With permission, paying for a bit of it. This was after we bought a laptop that had a wireless card that made it easy.

It, the neighbor’s wi-fi, was not there last night, or this morning. So I unplugged the phone and found the phone plug-in on the computer and was off and running. It is slower, no question, but not as slow as I remember. Then, again, I have been getting lots of little chores done this morning. Hit enter, go empty the recycling. Hit enter, take out the yard-waste. Hit enter, wrap a package. …

So – that is all for now. Will try to figure it out later. Am also remembering to check for voice mails on the home phone every now and again, since it is currently playing second fiddle to the computer.

Cold and Tired are two words that are often seen together.
I think I know why. Just being cold wears me out.
I work inside, but my office is not quite toasty. I have worn gloves at least a few days this week at work. I can type with them on, and it works better than when I am sitting on my hands.

I left a little early to get a shot and buy a Christmas Tree (and wreath) yesterday afternoon. So I took some work home with me to do in the evening. However, I found I was so tired, that by 9 PM I could barely keep my eyes open.

It was not the tree and walking through Candy Cane Lane with two small children that made me cold, I was wearing two jackets and nicely warm. I think it is the never really getting to warm over the majority of the day, when I am inside. And I generally wear a sweater, and yesterday had a scarf on all day as well.

So – in addition to trying to work last night I was going to see how early the Olympic Bus Network site was open. We are going to Cypress Mountain to see Women’s Ski Cross during the Olympics. You have to take a shuttle bus – which is good. You have to buy tickets for the bus, and they are for specific times. Ashlan & I figured out what would be a good time, and I want to make sure I get that time if possible. The bus ticket sales for our event open up on the 11th, today.

Anyway, I just could not make my self stay upright so I pulled a blanket over me on the futon and promptly fell asleep. Promptly at midnight I woke up. Went to try the Bus Network site, and no change. It was not letting me in. So I retired to the warmth of a real bed.

Tried to buy the tickets first thing this morning. Still no luck. Finally followed a link that said when the site would be open (and it is actually in Pacific Time Zone time). So I will be scheduling a break a little bit later this morning.

And speaking of breaks. Funny thing yesterday. After I left work, the Water District sprung a leak. One of the pipes entering the building in an exterior wall of our mud room burst. Apparently the heater in the room had gone on the fritz. But we fixed it yesterday, and then the pipe warmed up and “pop”. So they made an announcement that nobody could use the toilets until it was fixed. A customer at the front counter asked, “Has anyone had called the Water Department?” (‘Ha, ha, ha’) To which our Customer Service Rep said, “Yes, but no one is answering their phone.”  A little work humor (very little). One thing nice about having a field crew that works with water pipes, is that it only them a short while to fix the leak. Of course, what it did point out first was that not everybody knows where our meter and master shut off valve is located. Next staff meeting discussion possibly.

Not ours, at least not yet.
I know the weather in the upper midwest has been frightful.
Around here it has been merely cold. Really cold, for several days in a row, and it doesn’t usually get that cold around here.

So people are not always prepared, or more specifically, their houses are not always prepared. Like disconnecting hoses from hose bibs, possibly covering hose bibs, blowing out irrigation systems, keeping plumbed spaces heated … The list goes on.

The water side of my work got very busy yesterday when the sun started warming up certain pipes that had frozen. You see, when the water freezes in the pipes it expands. This sometimes breaks the pipe, but it is not always apparent that has happened right away. The frozen water is acting like a plug in the pipe. But when the ice thaws, all of the leaky spots come to light. Of course this usually happens when the sun is out, which is when people are at work and school. So mid-afternoon on there may be a flurry of calls asking for help. I wonder if our on-call person got any rest in the evening.

At one point we had the fire department in the office. I think it had to do with ice on ponds and ice on the roads (from broken pipes in houses), but we were telling them about half-built multi-family developments, where the fire sprinkler systems are all tied together. Unfortunately, the un-half built buildings do not have heat, or walls, or anything above the slab. Only exposed pipes with water. To stop the bleeding spraying water we had to turn off the feed to all of the fire systems, the occupied buildings too, not just the non-buildings. So inform everyone you can and hope the developer does the right thing and gets some plumbers/contractors on the line.

At our house, so far so good. The hoses are disconnected, but I did not install the little hose bib houses. Fortunately they are directly off heated areas of the house, and I think our walls may let a little heat slip through.

Anyway – I hope your weather is staying manageable. Kind of rambling, but what is on my mind.

I had planned to do a little training last night to prepare for the Jingle Bell Run. Should take less than an hour overall, portal to portal.

But I had also planned to pick up a last present to ship, finish wrapping the last presents to ship, make sure presents to ship were in appropriately sized boxes, do our 2009 taxes, and eat dinner. Oh, and say more than two words to Carl.

All good intentions. But then did not get off work until 6 (Board meeting). Launched on the store thing – went very well. Home, traffic reasonable and light.(When is the holiday traffic going to kick in?) Present wrapping. Hit a bit of a snag. Not really a snag, just had to work on some creative packaging – Carl was helping. So I ended up cooking dinner, finishing what Carl had started. Eat dinner – check & check.

Back to the packages – this was taking longer than originally thought, but finally got things in gear, and finished. But it was probably after 9 by now.

Running? Don’t think this is happening. It would have been before dinner, and the timing was just not working out. That and the fact it was about 20 degrees outside. Brrrrrrrrr.

So, on to taxes. Had already loaded the program. Why now? Needed to direct where, and more importantly when, an additional paycheck was going to be deposited due to budget cuts. (This may seem counterintuitive, but from a business perspective it has to do with on the books or off the books and some other accounting things.) I was going to try and figure out if we had withheld enough to not create a large payment to the IRS due to extra income. In the end I got too confused and rushed, too much estimating this and that, and just decided to defer the problem to next year. That way I can put it into a retirement type fund if I want to shield it more….

But, on the bright side, I am loaded and ready to go when the real numbers arrive.

But yesterday evening felt like I have bits of segmented time, and whatever is scheduled to happen in that segment must get done or who knows when it will see the light of day (or dark of day depending on what time you call the end of day).

Losing one day of training shouldn’t be such a big deal, but I have an evening meeting tonight, so no training until Wednesday at least. And it is supposed to remain cold through Saturday, and the start to rain again on race day.