Raincharm’s Weblog

Our chiropractor has a white board in the treatment room where he writes little things like, “exercise, …”
Today I asked him if I could add a bit, and wrote, “Choose Your Attitude.”
(This is part of the Fish Philosophy.)

My own attitude was changed this morning when I spotted not one, but two, eagles perched together on a bridge light.
It just made me smile.
Smiling made me happier. (Smiling really does work to make you happy.)

Work today was all about writing.
Of course I was writing a piece that was due Monday (past) at noon.
I finished it before launching myself into traffic.
It was 2-1/2 days late, but it still felt good to get it moved on.

Carl spent the early part of the evening cooking.
He has put away about four days worth of food. For me.
He is leaving on a jet plane tomorrow for a loooong weekend, and didn’t want me to starve, or worse yet, fall of the vegetable cart.

Carl is leaving to visit his folks and Steve & Jeanne.
Doris had some surgery and is recuperating.
The initial idea was to provide support, do some errands, etc.
It appears that is still the plan, but the scope has changed.

Instead of spending a week or two or three in care facilities, Doris is home after one day.
Hmmmmm.
Apparently it is hard to predict what Medicare will and won’t do, and even after you are in the hospital it is apparent clear as mud.

Carl likens it to bullying.
Yes, you jumped through our hoops and will be cared for here, and in a care facility.
No, sorry, you have to go home.
Oops, we will care for you here.
Double oops, you must leave. Now.

I think Doris is doing OK, but I really won’t feel like I know until Carl can see her in person.

Tomorrow is our day of many things.
Work for both.
Cabinets, plumber, HVAC.
Airport for said plane.
And a talk about the Elwah dam deconstruction.

I am excited about almost all of the day.
And maybe there will be another sighting of the eagles.

Many wise people say they strive to learn something new every day. This allows them to thrive.

I would like to think I try as well, although I do not wake up in the morning with that thought in my head.

We did wake up to Sunday Morning. (The show on CBS, not that we did not sleep through Sunday.)
This morning’s show was all about the Oscars. It included a complete airing of one of the nominees for Animated Short. They were able to air the entire Fresh Guacamole entrée, because it is a short short. (Follow the link to see a short bit of this short.)

It involves an “avocado” and details how to remove the seed by gently hitting the exposed seed with a knife blade, which should then be embedded into the seed, allowing you to pull it out.
When Carl fixed a salad at lunch, including an avocado. And wouldn’t you know, it works.

We did more burrito wrapping today, and now Carl has reduced the (2) big brutes to 4 medium-sized brutes. We will wrap those soon. Then to the disposal site (not sure when this will be fit in to the work schedule). One more bit of toxic waste out of the house.

Except the two pieces of old ductwork that have FRIABLE asbestos tape on their edges.
I will have to re-read the asbestos material to see whether we need permits, etc.  They are small enough that we may be able to essentially encapsulate it from below before we detach it from the basement ceiling.

Filing enough months of paperwork backlog that it included closing our nice old small mortgage, and opening our nice new LARGE mortgage.

And now – watching the Oscars. (At least I am. Carl is slaving away – groceries, composting – and I am expecting that he is making dinner as well.)

We win – we have seen an Oscar winner, before it won. Brave. Best Animated Feature Film.

Carl has been spending part of the last several Saturdays pitching batting practice to the Garfield High School baseball team. He has done this for several years. This is Rey & Ashlan’s alma mater, and one of our friends sons is the coach. Now in early spring the coaches are not allowed to work with the kids. But a parent or two arranges time in the batting cages to throw, hit and generally get ready for the real team work.

The real practices start next week, so Carl may be done with this gig for the season.
This pre-season effort was a bit more fun for Carl than usual because one of the incoming freshman players had a father that helped out as well. He happens to be a former Mariner. I always enjoyed his play, Ashlan – not so much. [I really don’t know why.]

Baseball stories

Carl & Dan

We closed the evening by visiting an old acquaintances new restaurant. (Bruce Coogan for the kids)

Busy kitchen, (Jake Hoel’s mom on the right)

It’s call “Harry’s”, after his dad. Small world.

Harry’s

Good chicken (smoked, breaded in some secret spices and fried), greens (collard greens and kale) with caramelized onions cooked up on the grill, potatoes and rosemary roasted using duck fat. It was quite tasty and not at all greasy. It’s a small storefront, but it was filled up tight before we left.

Back to baseball. (There is a tie-in here, because Carl played baseball with Bruce). We ran into Jake Hoel’s mother at the opening. Carl was involved with Jake playing baseball with the kids. Jake’s mother gave Carl a real compliment, saying what a good positive impact he had on so many kids lives by coaching and generally hanging around playing. (Jake is in Auckland, so he wins the flying away from the nest contest.)

We are nearing the end of the great basement demolition project.
There is still some work to be done, but at least it feels like we are in the last stage.

The tile floor attached to its underlying plywood with Non-Friable Asbestos laden mastic, has been broken into mostly manageable bits. (Cold chisel and hot muscles. No power equipment here.) The 2x4s that were beneath the plywood, giving an air-space below the floor, have been pried off. Hundreds of nails have been removed, or pounded down to a less aggressive angle.

And now the wrapping party has begun. It is actually going fairly well, although our estimate of the amount of 6-mil plastic sheeting we would need was underestimated. And we are running out of duct tape.

The nice lady at the disposal site described how to properly package our flooring in plastic, “Like a burrito.”

6-mil double wrapped burritos. Ummmm

It took us a little effort, but we now have the wrapping down.
Carl, “It doesn’t need to be as neat as a present.”
Jay, “But that is easier to tape thoroughly!”

To complete we need to finish wrapping (with additional supplies), split the largest “not-quite-manageable” bit in two so that the burrito may actually fit in the Prius, and have a fun trip to the disposal site.

Of course that just leads to the next big step, which involves getting a contractor in to work on the basement drainage issue. This is now possible since the floor is out of the way.

And meeting with more and more sub-contractors.
And actually making some decisions.

This last week we met with a window guy, a cabinet guy, the insulation auditor guy and the general contractor is spending time running around measuring things and asking questions. Next week we are visiting the cabinet shop and meeting with the HVAC guy. (We need a new furnace, regardless of the rest of the work.)

It has been a good week for feeling like the project is actually moving forward.
Scary too, as we really need to get serious about packing. (May 2013 move out likely)

In other news, it appears that Spring is on the way.

Daffodils fighting for their space

Of course that probably means that so is our first big storm of the winter. While others have had extraordinary storms, we have been cold, wet, and very normal. (In a Seattle sort of way.)

As President’s Day, many folks had the day off. And many more had to take the day off because their kids were out of school.

At my office it is a “floater”. You may take it off as a holiday, or work and save your holiday for another time. The only caveat is that you must take the day before the end of the Calendar year. We have four days like this through the year, originally so that folks could save them to take the days between Christmas and New Years off. [Some companies in this area – especially those that make airplanes and employ large numbers of folks – do not operate during this week, and schools are out, so many are looking for this week as family time.] I usually work on Floaters, but have lost one or two over the years when I could not find time to take off later in the year.

Today I worked part of the day, but not the entire day.
Technically I worked, so still have the floater available for later in the year.
I don’t feel particularly guilty about skipping part of the day because I worked Saturday.
No problem with the 40 hour week bit.

The reason for the partial day was to spend the afternoon with various contractors.
We had scheduled an Energy Audit for the house.
The City has a program where you pay $95 for the audit (which they say would normally cost $400). [The audit contractor did spend about 5 hours at the house, so I know this part was a deal.] They provide a report telling you how to improve the energy efficiency of your house. If you hire the contractor (or another one participating in the program), you are eligible for rebates from both the City and the Power Works program.

Since we were going to be adding insulation and energy-saving features, this was a no-brainer for us. It will save us from having to track down and figure out rebate potential.

In addition to the auditor, our general contractor and architect showed up with a window person. We were hoping to get the furnace guy as well, but he apparently had a conflict. The window person is going to provide quotes for window improvements that will free our double hung to working shape again, add a second pane (slip) on the outside and a few other points I don’t recall. We are getting quotes on all the windows and will pare down to what is affordable later.

I can see many decisions looming on the horizon.

The current date for starting the real work is mid-April.
That means that our real work starts (continues) now!
Scary and exciting, all at the same time.

Movie: Somewhere in here we rented a movie, but I can’t remember which day, which doesn’t really matter anyway. It was  Finding Neverland, a telling of the creation of the Peter Pan story. This would have to be classified in the “Chic flick” category, but we both enjoyed in none-the-less. It was recommended by a friend who enjoyed the scenes of young brothers, putting on a show, which apparently rang true to his youth. Carl really enjoyed the liberation and transformation of imagination into a story, which is how he spends much of his work time.  

Valentines Day: We had started the earlier part of the week with a heart-shaped meatloaf. Heart shaped food continued to be a theme for this year. Breakfast was essentially a rendering of the normal food into a heart shape. Sugar beets made an appearance in the juice of the day – for the red color.

A Full of Beans Valentine

Lunch – I should have taken pictures, but you will have to use your imagination here. Meatloaf – cut in the shape of a heart. Peanuts, with a note claiming, “I am nuts about you.” A bed of blueberries topped by an apple cut in the shape of a heart. A hard-boiled egg with stickers proclaiming love affixed to the shell. And yogurt. Come to think of it, there was nothing special done to the yogurt.

Dinner included this strawberry spread. (I ate the “I” part of the message before snapping the pic.)

(Even the strawberries are in the heart shape-of-the-day)

At least the day left me well fed.

Friday Night: We decided to recreate college days – but whose college days?
We obtained to more traditionally college-aged youth (Ashlan’s friends) and found a nearby bar. Walking in I recreated entrance into the smoky bars of my college days. Except there is no smoking in Seattle bars, so I had to rely on my glasses fogging. We eventually found a table and had a pint or two. Well, the younger generation had a pint or two. I had a “small” beer, and Carl kept to his limit on carbs. It was great to see the girls and catch up a bit. So much fun that we closed the bar! Well, we got home about 1 AM – much later than I have been out for a while.

It is now Saturday morning – and I am at work. (And almost ready to start work.) Thanks to Caitlin for getting me roused out of bed and starting my day at a reasonable hour.

We skyped with Rey tonight.
Mostly the normal, run-of-the-mill family discussions.

And then we discovered

The Beast Within

Rey was ready to go to bed, but I just kept discovering more fun things to play with.
That is all.

My brother-in-law did such a sweet post, that I feel compelled to follow suit.

In case you don’t know what you are looking at – it is a heart. (With a smiley face 🙂 )
[I suggested an alien, but my suggestion was not taken to heart.]

I have heard the saying, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”
I guess that must be true for women as well.

When I met Carl he was working and I was in school
He had a house, and I needed a roof with low rent.
(Note that low rent does not always equate with no cost.)

Now WE have a house, I spend more hours at work (thanks to that schooling), and Carl takes care of me. Dishes, laundry, vacuuming, and cooking. I love his meatloaf, and now it seems – his meatloaf loves right back.

Ok – let’s face it. Mark’s tribute is just plain better on all accounts. But he has been married 5 years longer. (And I never, ever thought of the “Independence Day” to last day of independence juxtaposition before.)

Sunday was my weekend day at home.
Except that I started it out working from home – so what is the difference.

The difference was that we had a potential destination for the day.
AND after the fog burned off it was SUNNY!

Of course, by the time I got to the point where – I was not done, but needed to leave – the sun was about to be covered by a cloud bank. (Not a cloud that might cover for a bit, and then leave – but a bank of clouds that was continuous.) We continued on anyway. It was dry, and the sun had not been adding too much warmth.

Our objective was on south Capital Hill near the Seattle University Campus.
We took a bit of a different route than we had before and finally found the I-5 Colonnade Mountain Bike Park.

Be Careful Out There

We had been close on several different routes, but never directly adjacent.

Since we didn’t have bikes to play in the nearly deserted park, we took off on a Pedestrian Park – otherwise known as one of the many sets of Seattle stairs.

The initial view

This set of stairs should be named Progressive Disclosure.

Around a curve

You know from the start it is a long set of stairs, but every time you reach a slight change in direction even more steps appear.

End in sight – we think

In the end we climbed 300 steps. It was not the full set as there are steps below the Bike park as well.

Here is a Garfield pic for the kids. (Aren’t Garfield folks so serious)

Note the G hat

Five miles later we reached our destination, the Photo Center Northwest.
The primary reason for the visit was to view the Vivian Maier exhibit. This selection is from the Wilmette beach – kids under an upturned boat.

“Partial View of Feet”, Wilmette, IL, 1968

From the Vivian Maier Website (linked above)

My personal favorite.

Her story started us on our trek, and the pictures were worth the effort. As it turns out some were taken in locations that Carl frequented as a youth – doubly interesting.

This is where we were last night, at the Seattle Women’s Chorus concert, with Vicci Martinez.
Ms. Martinez is a fairly local product (Tacoma), and was on the Voice. I never saw her on the voice, but she sure has a great pipes.

It was fun. So crowded after the concert in the lobby that we never found our friends that sing in the chorus. We did run into an old acquaintance, parent to one of Ashlan’s friends growing up (Kyranny).

It was nice to have a break from the grind.

[I am actually back at the grind right now, but taking a break to communicate.]

Work is just endless right now, and for the foreseeable next few months.
So we will take our breaks when they appear.

I am also going to try to push a “fun” project at work next week.
Not a project I will probably get to work on, but one that might have some fun results.

On a visit to Ann Arbor a few years ago we ran across the hydrant exhibit outside of the old Fire House.
We have old hydrants in our bone yard. I thought it would be fun to paint them up and mount them in our “front yard” at the office. They could be painted by either us or outside folks. Kind of like the pigs, horses, and whatever else sprouts up around cities from time to time. We will have to see if I can generate any kind of enthusiasm. I think the key may be getting time alloted from normal work schedules to put it together.

The first hydrant is one of those in Ann Arbor (out of service), the others are in Cleveland – an in service.

And I had a moment of private satisfaction when a problem I had pointed out and had a little bit of an eco-freak hissy fit about at work, is actually going to get addressed. And it has been less than a month since the fit. The resolution may take a bit longer, but at least it has been recognized as a problem that must be resolved.

All for now – back to the grind.