Raincharm’s Weblog

Yesterday was …. I am not even sure what yesterday was. I think it had moments of dryness, followed by a lot of wetness. Carl did get out of the house for a bit and watched some high school baseball. Then he came home.

What he mentioned to me was that he saw a lot of my back.
All day.

That is what he says when I sit at the computer.
I spent most of yesterday PowerPointing.
The result was really pretty good, if I do say so myself.
I actually exclaimed out loud when I got a particular animation to work as I wanted it to, and Carl came to see what was wrong.

By the end of the day I was fighting to get a rainbow, and have it appear with a pot of gold.
Using the pre-packaged bits was not working well, so I let it go for the night.
Sometimes you just have to make it yourself. This AM I made 7 arcs of different colors, grouped them, wipe in, and wipe the clip art pot of gold in as well. Nice effect. (Again, I am patting myself on the back that Carl is watching.
It is done.

We also watched The Descendants last night.
I heard some DJs discussing when was the last time they had seen a movie, without knowing what it was about going in. I think I came close to that last night.
I remembered one preview where a daughter told the father their mother was having an affair.
That was about it.

I thought it was a well done movie, and an enjoyable way to end the day.

This morning we have taken a short, errand walk. (After said rainbow work).
We are now preparing for Selection Sunday and the start of March Madness.
Hopefully we will be able to team up with the kids, although I only have a firm date with one of them so far. But the brackets are ready, and the randomizer primed to go. (Actually, it goes off all the time, every time you do anything.)

For those that don’t know, since the kids were small we have randomly split the teams in the NCAA Basketball tournament between the four in our immediate family. Initially the kids liked the prizes (candy mostly) they got for every team they had that won a game. Starting with 16 teams guarantees some good 1st and 2nd round hauls. Lately, the prizes have become less important, and just about absent. This is at least in part due to the distances that separate our home store from their domiciles. (We still buy the prizes, we just don’t send out their winnings.)
((That’s not true, we just pocket the savings.))

Perhaps I will post our bracket once they have completed the drawing.

Sorry ’bout that.

Life sometimes just goes on by.
We had some things going on this week in the evenings, but not every evening.
There was some TV watching.
There was some reading.
And there was some sleeping.

Work has continued to be fairly intense, and I do plan to work some this weekend. But this weekend I get to play more with PowerPoint. We have a “retreat” at our office on Monday with our Board. One of the items of discussion is a bit of personnel restructuring. Like so many places, the economy has impacted our bottom line. As people have left over the past few years, they have not been replaced. We just fill in here and there to make sure things get done, but it is a bit out of balance. So this is a rebalancing, and will further take advantage of an upcoming retirement.

I have not been deeply involved in figuring out the restructure, although I am generally aware of the proposals. But for the Board, there is an associated PowerPoint presentation. The part that I am assisting our HR person with includes the transition from our current org chart to the proposed org chart. It starts out nice and cheerful, and then we dim to currently or soon to be vacant positions, move some folks around the board, restructure a bit with some positions moving, and others disappearing. There is a lot that can be done with Powerpoint, flying bits about. It is pretty fun. Not “my” work, but I enjoy this kind of challenge, and I think it is turning out well so far.

And on the home front, literally, or really the home back if we are speaking literally, we met with the contractor and architect for a cost estimate. GULP. Now it is our turn to prune a bit, meet with some bankers, and generally figure out what we can bear. We are so close to paying off the house that I hate to get into more debt than we have ever had. But, it is the right time to get it done, and it does need to get done. I think I would rather spend some money and end up with a nice product, than rely on our home improvement skills (or not), and pay for it in the long run.

I pledge to try to get on here a bit more as well.

Because we miss some of the little notes of happenings.
Like the weather.
From snow, to almost 60 degrees, and back into a darn good rainstorm, and predictions for snow again.

March 2012 - at work. This is gone, but more is predicted.

Yesterday we bought a few old postcards, and posted one on the blog.
Less old, but longer in our possession, are the following two examples.

Manufactured Postcards

The one simply titled Seattle is funny for the western horizon. As if Seattle was on the Pacific Ocean (a really calm ocean) rather than the Puget Sound. There are islands, and many other land masses in the Sound. None are visible here. Perhaps a mirage has obscured them. (See the latest Scientific American for a brief on how mirages can hide masses from your vision. Including icebergs.)

Ever Changing Seattle appears to have two Space Needles. The back of the card notes that the Space Needle is at the far left of the picture. But it just doesn’t seem quite correct, almost too tall. And there is another strikingly similar structure a bit further into the picture. Again, I am not sure whether it would be visible from this perspective.

Now, with a city as picturesque as Seattle, why would I think these postcards were playing fast and loose with reality. If you look at both postcards you may note that the clouds have a certain similarity. In fact, they are exactly the same! (Shifted slightly, but the same.)

Perhaps there was a “Postcard Photographers Day” and they were taken at exactly the same time. Since there were no cell phones, they must have had strings of walkie talkies so they would all take their pictures simultaneously.

The pictures credit two different photographers, were copywrited by a company in Boston (with sequential numbers). I think we bought these in our early Seattle days, intending to send them off to our friends and family. The clouds were noticed only after they were in our possession, and they just resurfaced in our shuffling of items around the house.

We took a walk today.
And that will probably be the biggest thing I accomlish.
(I did the crossword earlier)
7.2 miles.

I think the lack of food (and exercise) over this past week has really put a dent in my ability to push myself physically. So this was a good test. Had breakfast (yogurt), and lunch (couscous and applesause), and then set out. And now I am setting sitting.

It is Seattle, so there were hills.
For those that are familiar with the City, we walked southwest to Gasworks Park, into Fremont, over to the Troll, north to Lower Woodland and Green Lake, and then home again.
I have this app on my phone (Endomondo) that tracks your workout.
It is pretty fun – has a gps function, so you get a map of where you went.
On the computer, you can see the map, elevation, speed (at least by the mile), and a few other bits of information.
Carl started trying to guess certain distances, and he was usually pretty close.

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It was sunnyish, and I had one layer too many. But we survived.
I did have to stop at a Starbucks, rest for a bit, and eat a yogurt/fruit parfait. I let Carl eat the granola bits on top.

If there was a focus to the walk, it was Fremont. The Center of the Universe, and home to a “Vintage” store. Vintage includes many things I grew up with. And they have a collection of postcards. Some used, some not. But we did find one that we just had to get.

Looking for guesses on the year (note the knickers on one boy). The lead boat name appears to be James something. It is a colorized picture. The picture was published by A.E. Young, of Sault Ste. Marie.

Vintage Soo Locks - How vintage?

This week has seemed just a bit off.

I have been at a loss to describe why or what specifically has made it different, so I am calling it transitions, although I am not sure that is the best word.

My physical self has been off, but there is a known cause.
I have not taken any pain meds for over 2 days, and there is a constant dull ache in my mouth. I may start the OTC type again, but I felt the need to stop it all so I could feel where my body really was.

Family losses lurk in corners of my mind, and there have been other losses around more locally that just seem to pile on.

Work? Well, work just keeps on coming. That is a good thing, and I am not really complaining, but I could do with a week or two of relaxed schedules. (Don’t think that is realistic however.)

The house purging has slowed down over the past week and a half. Some necessary, some due to “completion” of a small phase.

So what to do to move things back into gear.
Well – the weekend is upon us, so that would be a good time to refocus energy on filling boxes.
Taxes? Should be able to finish that this weekend as well.
And if the weather is at all cooperative – a WALK. It seems like it has been a long time since we had a good, long walk.

The rest of the near term forecast? Well, the Sounders have started playing again, and in about two weeks is our first game. And the Mariners Spring Training has begun, which means the season is not too far away. Next month as a matter of fact.

Aaaaand, that would be my carpooler on the phone – so off to work.