Raincharm’s Weblog

Tomorrow is Halloween. There may be a few neighborhood kids that probably planning to stop by.
There are about a half-dozen kids on the block, and we are known as a kid-friendly house.

We are in that every year decision – to get ready for them, or to ignore the night.
And it is predicted to rain as well, decreasing the possibility of more than a few kids arriving on our doorstep.

But we do have a couple of good size spiders that are waiting on the porch to welcome the little ones.

Our first. He/She lives under the light.

The other one. He/She lives off to the side. Obviously not as dominant as the shelter from the wind and rain is not as substantial.

Here is one we encountered along a walk the other day.

And at work we have a really big one, judging by the web.

(This is the IT guy’s (Wizard – see the hat) cubicle, decorated by a customer service friend. )

And tomorrow we may get some more information on the horror story from NYC.
Late breaking news is that Ashlan will be accompanying her GM to their store to assess the damage.
And then go help out at another store that is further from the flooding.
I have requested pictures.

I wrote this post yesterday. Published it. Updated it. Really.
But when I went to look for it today – it was not there!?!?!?

The idea was to update the storm impacts to dear Ashlan. This is information from yesterday, with a brief update from this morning.

She is still in Queens, at a friend’s house.
She had self-evacuated there shortly before the subway system shut down.
Kitten, movies, and power. She has it all.

Ashlan’s Cuddle Buddy

Her opinion is that the move was a good move.
A few pictures from her apartment’s area.

At one corner of the apartment complex.

20th St and Avenue C

A Google-Map view from a sunny day.

A drier version of 20th and Avenue C

Where we walked about a month ago.

Battery Park Walkway in September

Yesterday – we would have needed some rubber boots.

Battery Park Walkway

No work today – her place of business is near Battery Park. Probably out of power, and possibly flooded.

Speaking of power. Here is the video of the power sub-station putting on a light show next to her apartment complex. You may well have seen this on the news.

And while she is in Queens, she is in A, not Breezy Point where 80 homes burned. (This was the news we woke up to this morning, not knowing where she was in Queens.)

Today’s challenges have extended to Michigan as well.
We have rain, and lots of it – but then we are in Seattle.

I think yesterday’s version was better written, and maybe had more information – but ……. oh well.
I blame the computer!

Yesterday was wet. Today not so much.
So dry so far that we might walk to our home for the World Series.
That is, here in rainy Seattle.

We spoke with Rey earlier, and apparently winter has arrived in eastern Tennessee.
They had 80s not too long ago, but are expecting snow now.

On the east coast Sandy is dominating the news.
Ashlan is without an umbrella and the subways will be shutting down in less than an hour.
She is in Zone B, so evacuation has not been ordered.
She is also on the 8th floor, so if the windows are closed they will probably stay dry.

Stuyvesant Town – Hurricane Zones

There was no mention of rain during the Seattle Seahawks vs. Detroit Lions game earlier today, so we are assuming Game 4 of the World Series will go on as scheduled.

We have managed to watch all games so far with our little baseball family here in Seattle.
All at Chez Handley.
Chez Handley features TiVo, which allows late arrivals, breaks to refill plates with food, and replays of our own design.

The food:
Game 1 featured Sausage, mashed cauliflower, salad, and a few other sides. With local ice cream (Marionberry and Chocolate Pudding) for desert.
Game 2 was a vegetable spread and fruit  salad, accompanied by some “popped” chips.
Game 3 included roast chicken, tabouli (couscous really) salad with feta, greek olives, tomatoes and onions. We finished the ice cream as well.
Game 4 is scheduled to be chili with cornbread.

The games themselves? Heavily weighted toward Giant fans.
I am the sole true Tiger fan at these events.
Carl has wavered a bit, and doesn’t cheer as loudly as the others.
Yesterday there were claims of others supporting the Tigers, but really they are just hoping to extend the Series into next week.

GO TIGERS!

OMG
I have moved myself to Turkey Day, already.

I was having a bit of chocolate, just to help the coffee go down, and I started thinking about sweets and my holiday relationships with sweets.

I decided to be able to control myself from too much partaking of the holiday excess that can arrive at our office in November and December, I should start stopping now.

Then I self-congratulated our house on getting through Halloween without candy and/or its leftovers.

After a moment I realized that Halloween is still a few days away.

Game 1 came and went last night.
It was definitely the Giant’s night.
They were hot coming out of the NLCS, and were still hot.
I am hoping they cool down just a bit, and let the Tigers have some fun too.

We have been graciously invited to watch at least the first two games of the World Series at fellow fan Mark’s house. This is good because 1) he has TiVO, which means that those of us that take an hour to get home sometimes don’t miss the game, and 2) he makes a great dinner.

Last night we had sausage with grilled onions and pepper, mashed cauliflower, salad and pickles. Mmmmm.

Tonight Carl is bringing a fruit salad, veggies with humus, some crackers and will be ordering a pizza.
(Note: Pizza isn’t exactly a low-carb alternative, or low-salt, but should be OK in moderation.)

Tomorrow? Don’t even know exactly where the viewing party will be, so the food is an unknown.

GO TIGERS!

(I think I am the only one truly rooting for the Tigers in our bunch. There was much panda praising going on last night. However, I will admit that Carl has tried to balance the shrine with both Giant’s and Tiger’s paraphernalia.)

So the weekend was actually pretty full of comings and goings.
Dennis had arrived, but we really only got to hang with him a bit.

After dragging ourselves out of bed we headed off towards Green Lake. After a truncated walk (about 2.5 miles) we stopped to watch Eve play soccer. Eve is ten years old now. Carl took care of her from 0-5. It was a fun game to watch, and she scored a goal! They are at the age where many of the players are getting the idea of putting a play together, and going to the ball. Then it was on to Starbucks and a walk home.

The next big event after going through the Saturday paper was a visit to WalMart!
Not my usual Saturday trip, and especially not to a store in Lynnwood.
Now I don’t really have anything complaints about Lynnwood, except all of their traffic lights and endless strip malls. But we ventured forth anyway. And armed with the address, we drove right by the store.
I would not ever have expected to be able to miss a WalMart, don’t they have huge signs announcing their presence? As it turns out, not in this case. They did have a few guys on the sidewalk waving signs, but that was it. The store is new, I think brand new, and maybe it did not have the sign permits in hand yet. It is also not a super-store, but a “Market”. I am not sure how that is different, as we never got inside of the store.

We were there to meet Mike Blowers. Prior player, and still associated with the team. Carl wanted his autograph on a postcard regarding his first home run in the majors. Really his first 2 home runs, since he hit two in that game. Carl had put the box score with details on the card. Blowers actually seemed to like that it had that bit of information included.

In the evening we went out to see the Seattle Women’s Chorus in St. Marks Cathedral. It was sitting in pews on a concrete floor in a big church. But it had an organ and fantastic acoustics. One piece had me melting into the pew. Carl thought it was one of the best performances we had seen.

St. Marks – on the hill

Sunday dawned, but I did not, at least not for a bit.
Then we were off and reading – the newspaper.
When we finally got ourselves moving however, we did not stop.

First was the Seattle Art Museum, and their Elles: Women Artists from the Centre Pompidou, Paris  exhibit.
And the non-visiting part of the museum had also been transformed into an exhibit of works by women from the museum’s collections. My initial impression was that I had liked some, but not all. Many statements about the objectification of women, made in a variety of mediums. But we found ourselves talking about it more than I would have expected, so it did have an impact.

We dawdled as we were leaving as it was raining cat’s and dogs.
Finally out on the streets again, headed toward the Sounder’s March to the Match.

The Sounder’s coach had been suspended for making some well deserved, but disparaging remarks about the prior game’s referee. So he was there too. We signed up for the give-away drawings and started to mill about. Then the hail started. The emcee suggested that Swanies (a bar on the edge of the square where the march starts) would not mind some business, so we took his advice and got inside. Met up with an old soccer acquaintance chatting.

When the festivities started up again, I went where I could hear, just outside the outside part of the bar. Carl stayed, sipping a beer and chatting. Wouldn’t you know it, the last name called out was, “Carl Harms.” Of course Carl could not hear. So I ran over yelling at him, and he came out. I was trying to get through the crowd telling them Carl was here, but in the meantime another guy went up, claiming HE was Carl Harms. They asked for ID, but he did not produce it, so they let him have the Montero Jersey. (A NICE PRIZE) I could see him as he left the stage, so I grabbed his arm and asked him for the jersey, since I knew who Carl Harms was. He kept saying he was Carl, but would not produce ID. I followed him around, trying to see where Carl was in the crowd, but they eventually took off, and I did not think I should follow further. There was one other fan who had tried to intercede on my behalf, but these 20-something year olds were really lacking in the ethics and morals department. (I was pissed, still am I guess.)

Meantime, Carl had made it to the stage, with ID. But of course they had no additional prizes to give out, so they gave him an e-mail to contact them through. Which we did. I hope they send a jersey (we had actually talked about getting one earlier that day), but they will probably send some more junk that we really don’t need. I was really disappointed.

The game was fun, including the drenching downpour. The Sounder’s won 3-1. [3 goals means free haircuts, and I could use one.]

We did not stay around for the after-game festivities, but took off for our next activity, Dennis’ show, “The Mormon Church Explains it All for You.” He has a bunch of training and morals films made by the Mormon Church in the late 60’s. They were amusing to say the least, but very serious. And some of the hair do’s must have had inner structure and spray. Not a hair out of place, and very boufant. (Follow the link for more information.)

Finally home – into bed and off to work again.

With Age Comes Wisdom
Sounds Like a Pretty Lousy Trade-off to Me.

We are finally emerging from underneath computer issues.

Bought myself a birthday present, in the form of a new computer.
This would seem to be a good thing, but there are always several layers of frustration for me associated with starting any new computer. Getting the right programs installed, without paying for a brand new system every time.

As soon as I stop yelling at the new machine, we will figure out a way to get along, and then it will be smooth sailing.

Really, it should not be as bad as all that, but it is on my mind. (It took me about an hour to crop a picture. Windows gallery? Not on this machine – you must join Windows Live to use their new version.)

In the meantime, life has gone on.

Come live with me and by my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove

Christopher Marlow

Carl & I got to spend the afternoon together on Friday – and it was great fun!
The funny thing is that it was at the doctors’ office. We both had appointments and accompanied each other.

I guess you need to be an old married couple to understand, but trust me, it was much more fun doing it together.

Carl had an appointment to learn a bit more about diabetes.
I joined him, and then went to my own to figure out why my jaw hurts.
(No jokes here about flapping my jaw too much – it is my birthday after all.)

I dislike going to see the doctor with these little piddly ailments. Not so bad to make you go right away, and it almost seems like maybe there is nothing wrong with you. (Speaking of old – I think I was older than the two doctors ages combined.) They diagnosed TMJ. (Too Much Jay according to Carl)
TMJ = Temporomandibular joint disorder
They suggested I go to a clinic that specializes in this disorder, at the University of Washington.
(Carl thinks the doctors there may be even younger.)
My goal – to chew without hearing it in my ear, and be able to open my mouth wide again.

Essentially, Carl has to watch what he eats, and I need to watch how I eat.

Sorry for the lack of communication.

Computer issues
Hopefully they will get resolved next week.

Love to all.

We are home now. One week gone, but it seems like much longer. We were able to see and do so much, and there was so much we did not do and see.

This is just a short synopsis. I apologize for the previous few blog posts coming basically at the same time. This was partially due to being in travel mode, without a dedicated computer (or time). In addition, upon return WordPress was not allowing me to upload pictures, and so I could not complete the posts until just recently.

Accomplishments in transportation: Hailed a taxi, rode the subway (many times), drove a car – in the city, and walked and walked and walked. [I think there is a reason we did not see as many really overweight people in NYC. I am sure they exist, but you do expend a fair amount of energy just getting to where you are going.]

We saw (in no particular order):

• A Broadway Show – Wicked
• Times Square
• Empire State Building
• Grand Central Station (Jay)
• Yankee Stadium (the new)
• City Field (the Mets)
• Camden Yards (Carl via the Mega Bus to Baltimore)
• High Line (Jay)
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• 9/11 Memorial
• Statue of Liberty
• Ellis Island
• Cooperstown
• The Catskill Mountains in full fall color
• Sports field at Baruch (think Frisbee)

We thank Ashlan (and her roommates) for putting up with us. Carl did some cleaning to try to repay the kindness, and Jay unloaded the dishwasher twice (good luck finding things). It can be difficult to share your space and routines for as long a time as we were in town. Hopefully we will be welcome to come back again sometime.

We thank Rey for sharing “his” vacation with us.
I was originally looking at October, or later, for our vacation. But September was still baseball season, and NYC has 2 teams!

The main memory of visiting New York City is PEOPLE.
There are so many. Everywhere. At all hours.
It is rather like driving across the entire country to understand how big it (the country) is. You have to experience the place to understand and internalize the reality.

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