Raincharm’s Weblog

Bits and pieces of spring today.
Baseball bats and daffodils.

Signs of Spring

This morning I put on my sunglasses to drive into the sun to work.
There was heavy dew around, fog above the water and light clouds up high.

And Sun Dogs (or parts of a halo).

Sun dogs, care of Wikipedia

I don’t know if I have ever witnessed these before. And I don’t have any of my own pictures, because I was driving. At first I noticed a “rainbow” to the right (south) of the sun. Then on another section of freeway, there was a left rainbow. And finally, walking into work I saw a bit of the top.

It was quite nice today, in the mid to high 60s as I sat in my office.
Still nice enough when I got home to convince Carl to take a walk with me.

We saw lots and lots of runners, many walkers, frisbees, small children, large children and old children.

Graham

And a couple of old cars in somebody’s driveway. There was an old Ford too, but I really liked this grille.

I will end on another baseball reference of sorts.
The title of this post refers to the timing of the Kingdome implosion (and Carl’s broken kneecap).
Follow the link for news coverage of the event.

Kingdome Implosion

And for the final bit of spring for the evening.
Our March Madness bracket before the games today.
You don’t need to know who is playing, just who is leading the way in our family.
Ashlan – Orange,   Rey – Purple,   Carl – Green,   Jay – Blue.

2015 Madness after Round 3

And it is not always how much color you have, but where your color is.
Notice that Carl, green, is very strong in the lower left, but only one team can come out of that.
I have blue pretty well distributed, but I think my numbers will be much depleted after the next round.
Rey has a small amount of purple left, but he does have Wisconsin, and Ashlan only has a small amount of orange, but she does have Kentucky.

We started our day as we do many weekend days, with a walk.
Except it wasn’t a weekend, if was Friday!
First day of Spring to boot.

Springtime in Seattle

It was a beautiful spring day – except that there was limited sun. But the sun of the past weeks means that spring has really arrived.

We took an intentionally hilly route.
The choices were down-up, or up-down-up.
Each of course had many rolling bits as well, but we chose the route with the most vertical.

The walk also took on a certain rhythm. (I had to spell the last word three times before I realized it only had one vowel – sort of.)
The rhythm was drink coffee while walking, stop in a coffee house to use the bathroom, buy a coffee, repeat.
The first coffee was from our own maker, but the lack of parks or grocery stores along the route meant that coffee houses were the most likely venue to have a public bathroom. And the coffee was good. We took turns buying, so we did not exactly go broke. (Starbucks does support bathroom usage for walkers without a purchase, but my cup was empty at that particular stop, so …)

Almost as high as the Needle

Our goal for the day was the NCAA Regional Basketball tournament being held at Key Arena.
Friday was the Round 2 games for the South and East Regionals. Held in the Northwest of course.

Key – on our way down

It seems it was a year ago that we bought the tickets for Rounds 2 and 3 (on Sunday).
Our family has done a random draw bracket for many years, and attending the games seemed like a logical extension.

Key Arena, after 5+ miles

The vertical aspect of our walk continued into the stadium.
Our seats were not bad, but in the next to the top row. (Hence a lack of pictures worth sharing here)

If you want to see the scores, they are available on many different digital sources, and in the hard copy paper for those that still get one to read. I want to talk about the mascots.

The first game was the Northern Iowa Panther vs the Wyoming Cowboy.
This was a close match, but the Panther had a bit more action going. I think the Cowboy’s outsized head limited their versatility.

Next up was the Louisville Cardinal vs. the UC Irvine Anteater.
Just for uniqueness the Anteater started out ahead. The Cardinal held his own, but it was just another red-bird that could have been for one of many Cardinals out there. The Anteater did many jigs, fast fleet feet.

Louisville Cardinal

Irvine Anteater

The third game paired the Davidson Wildcat against the Iowa Hawkeye. When the teams first appeared I thought the Hawkeye looked a bit weird. But the mascot grew on me as he interacted with everybody within reach. Cajoling, harassing, and never sitting still. On the other side was the mopey Wildcat. Honestly, this mascot mostly wandered around, barely even clapping their hands. Maybe it was the long flight from North Carolina.

Iowa Hawkeye

The final game was the North Dakota State Bison vs. the Gonzaga Bulldog. This was essentially a tie. The Bison was closer to our end, so that may be why they seemed to be more engaged. Both had large heads that somewhat limited their mobility.

Overall winner? I give it to the Hawkeye. Loser – definitely the Wildcat.

Continuing on the mascot vein, we lost a dear friend last week.
Wayne Drop was burned up in a house fire. He was there for a cleaning. No word yet on a possible replacement.

RIP Wayne Drop

The cheer squads were also worthy of rating, but harder to remember which went with what team. There were several varieties of dancers, flippers and lifters. All had women, and most had men. One had one man who looked like a weightlifter. He would lift a women up, holding her aloft with one hand. And the bands. I like college bands, and we were treated to different tunes and tones.

The set-up was that you entered the arena for two games. After those two, which had about 25 minutes between games, you had to clear out. Entry for the second set of two games required a separate ticket. As it turned out, there was only about one hour between the end of the second game and the time for start of the third. The second game ended about 3:30, and we were more than ready for lunch. Luckily, we knew the area and had pre-planned our location. We tried to get reservations, but they only do reservations for large groups, and it is not usually crowded at 3:30.

At the closing horn for game two we booked down the stairs and out of the arena. There were all sorts of people headed in every direction possible. This is where knowing our destination allowed us to move directly toward our destination. While there were many folks on the sidewalk passing by the door to the Athina Grill, I think we were the first of the basketball crowd to actually open the door and head inside. We ordered, and took our seats at a table. There were two other tables with people who had been there for a while. Carl took the opportunity to use the restroom. He was only gone for a minute, maybe two, but when he came out the restaurant was full and there was a line out the door. So full that we invited others to share our table. This turned out to be fun, and add to the generally fun atmosphere.

Sated on a lamb-burger with feta, and feta fries, we made our way back to the arena for the final 2 games.
The marquee game was the fourth, starring the Gonzaga Bulldogs. There are well supported throughout the Puget Sound region, and because they are a mere 5 hour drive away, the crowd was rather heavily bulldog.

We did stay through the entire four games, but by the half-time of game four we had seen enough basketball to last for a while. There are two more games on Sunday, with the winning teams from Friday making their return appearance. Since Gonzaga has moved on, Sunday tickets should be in short supply. We actually made our decision to give up our Sunday tickets a few weeks ago. I listed them on StubHub, looking to cover our initial cost for all of the tickets (3 games). We sold them last Tuesday, so got to essentially enjoy the Friday games for free. We don’t normally sell tickets for a “profit”, but I think we made a good decision in this case. Got to fully enjoy Friday, and really don’t think we will miss being at the game in person.

Our trek home was limited to a little more than 1 mile. A new bus route for us took us to the southern end of the University District. We did not wait for a bus that would carry us closer, choosing the check out the Friday night life on the Ave instead. As always it was colorful, and not a trek I would want to make every night.

We have had a relatively slow start today. Soccer on the telly, and Skype with the boy.
We have decided that some soccer players sort of resemble dinosaurs.
This came out of nowhere when Ayoze Perez suddenly took on the look of a parasaurolophus.

Parasaurolophus

Carl retorted that Skrtel would be a pachycephalosaurus.

Pachycephalosaurus

Others?

The best part about yesterday?
It’s still only Saturday.

I am starting this post at 3-14-15.9:15. So not quite Pi minute (9:52).

If we had stayed up another 90 minutes last night (this morning), it would have been a very symmetrical trip. As it was, we hit the rack about 2 am.

One week ago most of us dealt with the time change. Those not dealing with the lost sleep were the citizens of Arizona. They have figured out how to become the center of their universe. During half of the year those states in the mountain time zone align with AZ. Then, without lifting a finger or batting an eyelash, those in the Pacific time zone come running, and the mountains retreat.

I really don’t know how the Arizonians look at it, but that is my take.

Back in my universe, the rains have returned. Just in time for the second Sounders game of the season. I think we will try out our new water proof shells that we got around Christmas time. They are almost Rave Green, although the choice of color had more to do with nighttime visibility than team support.

Carl said the spoils of his vacation included 20 used baseballs, but only a handful made the trip back north. The best parts of the trip seemed to be hanging out with a couple of old (older than me) ballplayers. Trading and sharing stories of life in the big leagues, being a breath away from the big leagues, and living and breathing
with a passion for the big leagues.

And, yes, they were at two of the Will Ferrell games. And separately interviewed by a few young folks about physical therapy.

Just the work week.
What started in the wee hours of Monday morning will end a bit past midnight tonight. Bookends at Sea-Tac.

I had plans to get some much needed home administration tasks completed, filing and taxes. But neither got so far as up to the desktop.

Instead the week has been work, dinner, dishes, lunch making, tv and Soduko. This filled the usually 3 hours before bedtime.

I still have this evening, and bedtime will be much delayed today.

I guess it takes more than a few days to transition to a more efficient evening routine.

On a somber note I want to acknowledge the passing of author Sir Terry Pratchett yesterday. His work has afforded me hours of entertainment. I may even still have one of his books in the glove box, waiting for a drive with Rey.

This is the third day of the time change. I go with the spring forward/fall back mnemonic, but I couldn’t tell you whether we are now in PDT or PST.

This has been my easiest change springing forward that I can remember. I think it is because we actively accepted the change and more or less planned for it. We got up relatively early both weekend days. To watch soccer. And went to bed reasonably early. As soon as we got home from the soccer game on Sunday night. (Sounders 3 – New England Revolution 0. And besting New England in just about any sport is a good thing.)

Opening Day 2015 – Our view from the red circle

The more alert change was not because we are forward thinking planners, but because Carl had a flight that required a 3:30 wake-up call. That’s right. He is basking in the Arizona sunshine.

And I will admit that last night about all I managed to do was make dinner. Hopefully tonight I will get to those chores that I planned to do during my time.

The evening all started because yesterday my carpooler said he was not planning to go “home” after work today. He was planning to go to West Seattle, but could drop me off downtown where I could catch a bus.

As it turned out Carl did not have work in the evening due to a grandparents arrival.

We hatched a plot to meet downtown and go to the Seattle Art Museum to look around in general, and specifically see their new Indigenous Beauty exhibit.

Like all best laid plans, my carpooler decided not to go to West Seattle and Carl was running a bit behind schedule.

Plan B – Meet at home, bus downtown, see the exhibit, grab some dinner, bus home.

It turns out that first Thursday is a free Art Museum month.
When we arrived it was fairly quiet, but when we left the museum was buzzing. And the exhibit had some really nice artifacts, and some newer creations as well. The basketry was especially intriguing.

When we got to the grab some dinner step, our plans changed again.
We had planned to go to Tacos Guaymas, just a few dozen steps down from the museum, literally. We were dismayed to find the restaurant was gone.

The restaurant across the steps had a 45 minute wait, a bit too long at 7:30 PM.

Luckily, the restaurant at the top of the steps was only a 2-minute wait.
It’s name is 1000 Spirits, (thirsty thursday?) and they did have a wall of bottles. And some advertising artwork. Including a Strohs Beer ad. I stuck to wine, and Carl to beer. (On a work night too.)

A full meal, and it was time to wander back to the bus.
Nice to not have to drive home, or deal with parking.