Raincharm’s Weblog

1o miles was our walk length yesterday.
It was probably a bit more, but close enough.
What made it tough was the probably 3 hours of standing that punctuated the day.

We started on the bus, headed for Safeco Field.
Safeco was the site of the first 2 hours of standing, or at least walking at mall speed.
FanFest is the pre-spring training, pre-season, let’s not forget about baseball event.
It is most fun when enjoyed with a small child. Luckily, we always are able to find at least one to share the experience.
For this year, one of my memorable tasks was hunting down cotton candy for said small child. We had smelled it, but not spotted a vendor. When I set out on my quest I came upon the vendor just leaving their den of creation. I got the first bag sold. (Note that I am not a CC eater myself, but I understand the allure.)
Carl’s day was spent greeting old friends and meeting a few new ones as well.

We finally left that venue and headed north into downtown. Coffee and crepes for our mid-day meal.

Then on to Queen Anne Hill. I don’t normally call out specific neighborhoods, but this required several steep blocks of incline, followed by 87 steps. Then 3 more blocks of modest incline, and into a (baseball) card store.  Carl spends a fair amount of time in these type of establishments working on his projects and talking baseball with the proprietor. There was one other customer in the store, Derrick. I sat, and we all chatted a bit. It turns out that Derrick has invented a game, Telepathy. He brought in his prototype board, and we played a game. I beat him by one move, although I made two “bad” moves earlier, so maybe I should have done even better. The game is fun – a mix of Mastermind and Battleship. I do recommend it if you like games. I noted that I sat, but Carl did not, for about an hour that we spent her.

Then we had to leave, to make sure we got home before the sun set. In addition, Carl felt like he was coming down with some sort of winter crud. So onward, back down the hill through Fremont, back up and on towards home. Nearing the end we had to cross over I-5. Noticed that there were two spans missing from the guard-rail that separates the sidewalk from the drop to the freeway. There was a makeshift cable arrangement and a few barricades, but it looked ominous. We found out later that a car had somehow crashed into and through the barrier, but did not make the final drop to the freeway below.

Home, spaghetti for dinner, and an early bedtime to warm up. The day was not super cold, but it was lightly raining and in the 40s. An entire day outside just sucks out the inner warmth, even from Carl.

There is a show by that name on TV. But it is on cable, so we don’t get to see it, except when we are on vacation.
Or when my boss sees a show he thinks I would enjoy and he tapes it.

Yesterday he gave me a tape of Dirty Jobs, cleaning the Soo Locks in winter.
Very interesting. They were mucking out the channels beneath the locks where the water flows from Superior, into the bottom of the locks, and up through some rather large slits. Debris gets down into these areas too, so they have to clean them out periodically. Also in some pump channels, and then trying to melt the ice behind the stop logs and on the front of the lock.

I just never knew exactly what they did. Fun.
Although the host seemed a bit put off by the temperature. I think he does dirty well, just not so much the cold.

One little red bug in particular.

I have worked for my current employer for over 22 years. For most of those years I have driven the same route to work. We had to buy a car for me to drive when I started because it was not possible to take a bus. That has changed now, with only one transfer required. But to keep a flexible schedule I will probably keep driving until they put tolls on the bridges crossing Lake Washington. This could happen next year or the following year. This morning I was thinking how circular that would be … getting off the bus for the job, and finally back on to the bus.

As the number of customers we serve has more than tripled since I started working here, the amount of traffic heading off of the plateau in the morning has also significantly increased. When I started there were cars, but not so many that you couldn’t pick out a few that stood out as, “the regulars.”

One of my identified regulars in the beginning drove a red VW bug. Old style. The headlights had a kind of funny look, and the man driving the car had a goatee.  This car was a regular sight for years.

As time has moved forward, my time of commuting has changed here and there, to avoid traffic, both crossing the bridges and at the three high schools located along the last 1-1/4 miles of the trip. I am sure there have been similar impacts to the red Volkswagen. So, the sightings have been less frequent.

I have driven 3 different vehicles to work on a regular basis over the years. The brown 1981 Honda Civic (280,000 miles), the 2000 Mazda Protegé (still in service, almost at 100,000 miles), and the 2004 Toyota Prius (closing on 90,000 miles). And yet the man with the goatee still drives the little red VW bug. I spotted him this morning.

Blank
Awake
Coffee – and a pick-up

Staff meeting – learned some very interesting stuff about one of our 911 dispatch centers. I know a dispatcher, and though I have not seen her recently, we were in frequent conversation for many years. I learned it was a stressful job, but really rewarding when you make a difference to someone. Today’s presenter described their workstations with a slide. They have 7 computer screens arrayed for different information. SEVEN. She did mention multiple keyboards as well. I know when I have two going at once I constantly try to enter information on the wrong screen.

Work – feel like a drudge of never ending commitments lately. At 10:30 I got an assignment due at noon. No way could I really finish it, so the product says – delay to a certain date a few weeks in the future. But I did try and get a lot of the base information added (less to do later). Still trying to find a 1970’s document that I have laid my hands on once. But I can not remember to whence I filed it for safekeeping. I have scoured my desk, and am now pursuing old files. At this point I think it is wasting valuable time, but one of the Kings wants it, so on I slog. Wrote one long letter on how to get sewer service for only $100,000. I think there is another one on the docket for tomorrow. Got to meet with an older gentleman at the front counter. He told me he had worked for decades at a different District, blah, blah, blah. I finally played a, “I need to consult with another co-worker who is out for the afternoon.” Get the contact information and on. Try to get a few odds cleaned up. Finally – I HAVE GOT TO GO. So check to see if the carpooler is still afoot, and he says – 10 minutes.

Home.
Watch some music movie (still on the Steve Earle train, although this movie is about many of the other musicians of the era, with a 19 year old Steve Earle making a few appearances). I felt right at home with the mid-70’s decor and clothing.

Dinner, blog – almost time for bed.

I looked back at the title, and decided my mind is a meandering mess.

The day started with a cool crawl out of bed.
Followed by a wait for coffee (but thanks for making it),
Scraping the window (my arm hurts)
Windexing the inside of the window (please do not wipe it with an outside grime laden squeegee)
And the long drive to work (traffic not too bad)

My mood is dark. Too much to get done, and lots of people want things … now.

Wait for the traffic light to turn into work. About 90 seconds, a long light, and they won’t give us a free turn on green – we have asked.
As I am driving in the entrance road I notice a deer to my right.
Could be waiting to go through the gate, but the landscape guy is blowing in the parking lot.
After I park the blower moves further inside the lot, and the deer makes his way around the gate.
The next person coming in the drive is still hesitating outside of the gate, and then a younger deer scoots around the gate.
Blower off I let the landscaper know what was happening in his wake.
We all start to walk around the tank (2 million gallon) to the building, and 2 deer appear going the other way around.
We stop, they scamper across the lot to a wooded piece on the other side.
As we continue, the small deer appears around the tank, eyeing us suspiciously.
So we stop and even back up a bit. The deer gets behind a truck, but does not appear out the other side. We finally move forward and he has been spying on us around the bumper.
About that time, one of the larger deer comes back to find out what is keeping junior, and they all saunter off to the wooded place.

Oh – and our office area has been declared a wildlife friendly location.

The drive to Vancouver & back is getting to be a normal thing.
The questions now are what questions are we going to be asked at the crossing.
Today, Ashlan got asked about her trip down on our way up.
And I got asked about the county of my birth on the way down. I answered the city question correctly, but I am glad he supplied the county name. I am not sure I could have come up with Kent County. (I was only 4 when we moved to Washtenaw County.)

The trip was fairly uneventful, thankfully.
On the way up it was dry, with a 5 minute wait at the I-5 Peace Arch crossing.
On the way down it was raining, with a 5 minute wait at the Truck crossing.

I did miss seeing 88888 on the odometer, due to an unusually dense occurence of great blue herons, that were occupying my recreational moments of eye use while driving.
I also missed 88988 and 89000, but this was due to the increasing rain, reasonably heavy traffic, and need to really pay attention to the road.

I have not really been following football this year, but my choices for today’s games both lost. Jets, because one of Carl’s kids is named Jet. And the Vikings because I like Brett.

We don’t go out for the evening all that often, so last night was special.
It was one of the Christmas presents that gets to give for a while.
The girl got the dad concert tickets, and included the mom as well.

We went to see Steve Earle, with a warm-up by Hayes Carl.
Great time and greater guitar playing.
Steve Earle played for at least 2 hours without a break.
Favorite tune – City of Immigrants.

But that was not the entire evening.
I got off work 1-1/2 hours early (I had a bit of extra time this week), and came home.
When we all were ready we went downtown.
Started at Bodies, the Exhibition. We had seen this when it was in town before, but Ashlan wanted a re-visit now that she has taken/is taking anatomy.
After spending our time reading about how the body functions we went out to dinner.
Pike Place Bar & Grill, overlooking the market (closed for the evening), with a good view of the Public Market sign that lets movie or TV shows demonstrate they are in Seattle. It also includes a large neon clock so we could keep track of time.
Bar-b-que sandwich, crab-cake, and lemon salmon fish & chips.
Then off to the concert.

A good night, and a bit of a late morning today.
On tap for today – Avatar.

Well, now it is 8:02
I have been at work for about 10 minutes.
It is about 25 miles to get to work.

1 hour and 3 minutes ago I asked Carl, “What time is it?”
“About 7.”

I need coffee.

I have worked where I work for more than 22 years.
I drive 25 miles each way, but I get to do the “reverse” commute.
In other words, most people are heading into Seattle, and I am heading out.

Times have changed, and so have the traffic patterns.
Thank you Microsoft, which is along my route, and there are many folks in Seattle that drive to Microsoft.

The area where I work has grown as well.
There were just under 5000 customers when I started, now we have over 16,000.

When I started, after leaving the neighborhood, I could drive to work without stopping. All of the turns were “free” if there was no other traffic in the way. Mostly right turns but a few left. Now, taking the same route has at least 11 traffic lights, and none have the “free” option.

Going a slightly different route home takes me through 9 traffic lights. I go the different route home because while  initial route is shorter, it is also habitually stop and go.

Tonight I left at about 5:45 PM. Not early, but not really, really late (see last post). After leaving the office I was only stopped at one of the 9 traffic lights, and was not stopped at all on the freeway (there were some slowdowns).

Remarkable. (Hence the remarks)
It was like old times, except the car, the grey hairs, and the lack of any kid(s) at home.

Yes, I did work today.
I worked way too late in fact – till about 10:30 or so.
But that is in a large part my fault, for not having realized when deadlines were and prioritizing differently.
On the other hand I finished most of my capital budget in less than 24 hours.

What I also found out was the amount of influence a blog can have on a person.

No, not my blog. My cuzint’s blog. On this blog there is a lot of writing, and some of it uses extravagant spelling.

So I am trying to write a little description to go with the numbers in the budget that was occupying my time this evening. And at one point I could not figure out how to write the word PROJECT. Maybe it was because I was working on the budget. But I really think that my inability was influenced by so many readings of the word misspelled, intentionally. So I started with “prodgect”, finally moved to “prodject” and eventually realized that the “d” was really superfluous.

In any event it is time for me to drift off to dreamland.