Raincharm’s Weblog

This work week has been just a little off of normal.
There have been many vacations.

My first inclination was, “Good, I will be able to get some of MY work done without them interrupting.”
The reality is that covering for them while they are gone takes time. My work? Back-burnered.

The number of people at work has been diminishing each day.
And then my assistant’s last day is today.
It just gets quieter and quieter.
If feels like the office is just closing up.

Maybe this is what retirement would feel like.
Just slowing down to a complete standstill.

I don’t really fantasize about retirement, yet.
But there are the occassional moments when I think, “Wouldn’t it be nice to just take off and do _______ for a few days.”

I predict Tuesday will be a madhouse.
Vacation reports, coverage reports back, and a Board meeting to boot.

Until then – nose back to the quiet grindstone.

A little less than 6 years ago I officially gained an assistant at work.

He is retiring on Friday.
Today we had the retirement breakfast here at work, with all employees invited. This is not to be confused with the smaller lunch we had last week with just a few department folks. We have around 50 employees, and about 40 showed up this morning. But – it was a week heavy with vacations. Last week before school, and an added Monday, so it was to be expected.

A catered event – the food was quite good.
And I managed to get in a Top Ten type list of reasons you should be worried about your OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) inspection. The last one said, “The inspector knows everyone in your office because they were a former employee you fired.” I thought it was pretty funny.

We went with safety humor because my assistant assisted me primarily in running the safety and emergency response programs. Safety coordinator is a thankless job. At least most of the time. I did see/hear several people come up and thank him for pushing safety, and that it actually made them think more about their safety even at home. He started (at the District) the WYE (What’s Your Exposure) program.

I added a few words about working with him, and when we clashed and finally could come to agreement.

In the end I have to admit I really enjoyed having a “Mature” employee. I did not have to try to teach him to take initiative. He also did not worry so much about whether others here would like him. (This is almost essential to the Safety Coordinator position.)

And at the end of the day, I am tired.
Just this little bit of presentation in the morning took it out of me in the end.

(And we are not replacing his position. Just spreading the work around amoung a few other individuals. This is called government belt tightening. Or in our case, working longer to get it covered, at the same salary as before.)

Ready for a night off.

Entertainment would be the title, if I were smart enough to fill in a title, and then be able to fill in text in the body. On the phone again, while driving to work. Mind you I am riding.

Thursday night Carl and i joined dan, of Eugene, for a night on the town. We went to Belltown, to the theatre and saw Peter Case, with opening act Peter Spencer.

Great music, very enjoyable evening out.

The weekend turned into a movie weekend. Although there are first run movies in close proximity to our house, our movie viewing was all from the house.

The fare included Bernie, starring Jack Black, Albert Nobbs, starring Glenn Close. Both were excellent. Sunday we watched The Secret of Roan Inish. This is an old favorite of ours.

They are probably all considered “chick flicks”, but worthy of your time.

I apologize for word-OS and punctuation errors. Almost to work, for the last week of summer.

Usually when Felix pitches there are a few sections where the participants where Yellow Felix shirts, wave K cards when he is close to a strike out, and chant and cheer him on.

This is the King’s Court section from the Perfect Game.

King’s Court

Note: Ashlan is in the lower right corner. (Yes this is a repeat picture.)

Tonight featured Felix once again, and a celebration of his Perfect Game. The Mariners knew they would not be able to contain the King’s Court, so they went for the Supreme Court. 34,000 of the 39,204 attendees got a t-shirt and a K Card. (By comparison, 21,889 was the attendance figure for the Perfect Game.)

The stadium was still filling at the first pitch.

Felix’s Supreme Court

Quite the spectacle.

Not quite as stellar as his last game, Felix still only gave up one run.
The other pitcher (also a Hernandez) had a no-hitter through 4-2/3 innings, but then we got a home run – and the game was on.

In addition, this was the night for the trading card give-away.
This is one of my favorite fan things. Not because you get cards, but the way they put it together encourages people to talk to one another.

The card set has 27 cards. But you only get 21 unique cards, and 6 extras of one card. Then you get to go around and see who has the cards you need to complete the set, and trade your extras. Just gets people interacting.

The sheer number of people in attendance made this a bit more interesting, as not all were really aware of the card game, or perhaps just not interested. We did successfully build a few sets. 

This morning there was a moment when the game was in peril. There was a watermain break, essentially 2 blocks south of the stadium. The  businesses closer to the break lost water service (and some were flooded). Thankfully, Safeco Field was only impacted by traffic restrictions in the area of the repair.

Quite a run. One more game in the homestand, and then we can clean up the house.

It is about the time I usually get up. Well, about the time the alarm usually goes off.
I am at work. Well – in the office, I am not quite working yet.

This was all because Ashlan had to return to New York today. On one of those really early flights that don’t seem so bad when you make the reservation, but when you set your alarm the night before, and it tells you that it will go off in 3 hours and 25 minutes, you reconsider the wisdom …

I dropped her off at the airport. At the Arrivals pick-up. Because the Departure drop-off road was backed up almost to the point of decision between Arrivals and Departures. This is a fine bookend to the trip because we picked her up in the Departures area, because Arrivals was backed up. Hopefully the time we saved will give her the edge to get to her plane on time. (She was not worried, but I was fretting a bit. And the long line at Departures may translate to long lines at security.)

The other great bookends to her trip were Mariner games.

Not that she did not do anything other than go to Mariner games, but they seemed to be a significant part of the schedule. Dozens of innings, but not quite up to St. Louis standards for innings at a time.  There was also a Sounder’s game, several meals out, friends, some movies, and the Great Seattle Wheel.

The first Mariner game she attended was Felix Hernandez’s PERFECT GAME.
The last Mariner game she attended was also a Mariner win, and Carl caught (<– vide0) the game winning home run by Michael Saunders. Saunders actually hit two during the game.

High five – Carl + Ashlan – after the catch

And I think every game she went to, the Mariner’s won.
Carl pointed out that my record for the year is fairly dismal.
Apparently Ashlan’s good luck overpowers my bad luck.

And tonight is Felix’s game, his first since the Perfecto.

People are all doing the “Felix” and posting pictures.
At the soccer game Fredy Montero did the Felix when he scored, although Ashlan disagrees on this point.
But enough people accept the Fredy Felix, so he is throwing out the first pitch at the game tonight.

My personal favorite

Wild Thing Felix

Somehow, I don’t think the Cleveland Indians are all that excited about the Felix hoopla, and will try to dampen the building mood for the game.

Safe flight to Ashlan!
And now it is time for real work.

Ashlan is somewhere near the front

I blame Ashlan.
Not that she has physically kept me away from the computer, but the schedule has been impacted. She has been extremely busy, friends and all. We did get to see her here and there. And she and Carl were both at the Felix Hernandez perfect game. Not together, but both there. Ashlan was in the “K” section that hais been part of all of the news reports. Dinners here and there, and a few movies (at home). She has a much better Mariner record than I do, so Carl is hoping she will accompany him to the game tonight.

I will try to do better this coming week.

Just a week or so ago I found a workmate that was not aware of the Mackinaw Bridge!
I was a bit taken aback. I know it is a location that not many get to, but the bridge is impressive and important.

We google-earthed the bridge, and she made suitable noises of being impressed. (Note: she used to live in San Fran)

But today is about a different bridge – impressive in its own right. It floats.
I don’t know if I had been on any floating bridge until I lived in Washington.
There are 3 that I know of, and I witnessed (on local TV) one sinking to the bottom of the lake.

The 520 Bridge is old and in need of replacement. They are building the pontoons elsewhere, and floating them in to place. The first pontoon came through yesterday. The route takes the pontoons through the Ballard locks, the Ship Canal and Montlake Cut.

As with many things, moving big objects must take into account what they need to move through. In this case the limiting factor appears to be the Ballard locks. A few feet on either side – through the large lock.

This is a video of the pontoon going through the locks (sped up)

Carl had a baseball game, and it ended after the beginning of the predicted time the pontoon was going to reach the locks. I had discovered a marine tracking web-site. It is world wide, but was able to narrow it down to tugboats in the Puget Sound area. The pontoon appeared to have reached the locks, so we headed for the Montlake Cut.

First view (well – first picture) with the Ship Canal Bridge in the background.

Pontoon – backlit

There is a tugboat sideways on the front.

Tug #1 and pontoon #1

The Mud Cat

Front tug

Two other tugs

One for pushing – the other for ? Maybe pushing when they were in more open water

Under the Montlake Bridge

Did not even need to open the drawspan

A view of the top side

People provided for scale

Out into Lake Washington

leaving the Montlake Cut

Parting Shot

The bridge being replace is just out of sight – to the right

This was my idea to see the pontoon – essentially a large piece of floating concrete. Carl played along nicely. Then we went home for dinner and Olympics.

Did it take me all week?
In some ways, yes. In others, no.
I do finally feel like I have energy again.
I rarely get tired at work, but this past week was a struggle.
Perhaps it was coming down from vacation, perhaps pushing the heat index, perhaps that I have not been working out as much as I should. And there have been the Olympic late nights.

This week was primarily work. Carl has been continuing to make real progress on cleaning up his hobby area.
I have not counted the boxes he has filled, but it is epic.

And this week we get to see our little one for a week.
At least I am hoping we get some time with her. Her friends are massing.

Before I completely let go of the vacation, I will post some pictures – fond memories.

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Thanks for listening.

OK – it was mine.

My idea was to walk down to Lake Washington at I-90, watch the Blue Angels air show, and then walk back downtown to see the Sounders take on the LA Galaxy (with Beckham). Total distance of around 10 miles. 7+ to I-90, and 2.5 to the Stadium.

Carl’s foot is improving, but it is not perfect. But he was game to give it a try.
Oh – and the temperatures were to be in the 90’s.

The Seafair Air show takes place over Lake Washington. The focus is just south of the I-90 bridge (which is closed during the shows). This is also the location of the Hydros races.

We got off to a pretty good start. At three miles we were feeling good.

Yes – we had water

my turn

All of the boats in the background are going in the same direction

The lake was packed with boats.

Seattle has more boats per capita than anywhere else in the USA

The first group is basically there for the air show. They are on the wrong side of the bridge to see the hydros.

Log boom – making the Hydro circuit

The log boom is the place to be to see both planes and fast boats.

We did see the planes, although my phone is not the best for photographing things that move really fast.
I had several blue sky shots, and a few with the planes nosing into the tree near the edge of the frame. Here are a few of my better attempts.

4 planes

The 4 plane grouping

5 planes

5 Angels

6 planes

6 planes in a triangle

Big Bertha (overheard from a 6 year old, “That plane carries the parts for the Blue Angels”)

Big Bertha

All I can say is if you are in a place where the planes are being used for more than just show – by the time you hear them, it would be too late to do anything about it.

There are no pictures of us at the end of our 10 miles.
The last mile took a long time, because I had to sit and cool down first.
We went out to dinner – which seemed to help.

And then stood for 2 more hours at the soccer game.

Carl managed fine, and I have recovered. And the Sounders won 4-0.

Our return to reality has not been as smooth as some.
I put the cause, at least in part, to sleep pattern disruption.

Today, finally, I was allowed to sleep until I woke up. And it was only 8 AM, so not too bad.

Today has and is the day to catch up on mail, bills, and potentially most important – voting.
There is an election on Tuesday.
(Who knew? Well, I know my sisty-ugler was aware as it marked the end to her northern vacation.)
And in King County they urge you to vote early and often. At least early. And all by mail (or drop site). The voters’ pamphlet states

I am not sure how I feel about this push to vote. It could reduce the time you take to make a decision, and you would not be able to consider late breaking information on a candidate or issue. And, most importantly, the candidates do not stop their incessant advertisements and robo-calls early.

We are voting near the end this time, but only because we were out of town when the ballots arrived. (I still read most of the pamphlet. The primary is always more interesting for those one-issue candidates that take their opportunity to put it out there for all to read.
I miss the polling places. It was an event that made you know you were part of the picture, especially for the big elections.

Now on to more mundane activities, like balancing the checkbook.

All of this done to the roar of the Blue Angels.
Tomorrow I am going to make an effort to be outside during the show.