Raincharm’s Weblog

It is suitably foggy this morning for Halloween. The area has settled into a pattern of foggy, misty mornings that eventually give way to sunny afternoons. Very pleasant. (I think that will change tomorrow.) 

Sunday was the same as we joined Sagan’s family for the purple stride walk against pancreatic cancer. A lovely walk. Carl and I lingered to chat with Sagan’s grandfather, who was not walking, and were the absolute last people on the path. We did eventually catch up with our group and caught glimpses of a few other friends. 

Sunday evening  (along with several others) we devoted to the World Series. Sunday especially, required devotion, durability, and it really helped to be in the Pacific time zone. The game went over 5 hours. It was after 1 a.m. on the east coast when it ended.

Game 6 is tonight, gathering at our house. We watch a slightly delayed game, so we all have time to get home from work. Tonight’s dinner will be chili ala Jim. Mmmmm.

Our latest decorations. 

We don’t go in big for store bought Halloween decorations. Hand cut skeletons and pumpkins are more our speed. But these just caught my eye. 

I have a big goal today for work. Finish one of my parts of the big project. If not today, then tomorrow. I frequently think I can see my way through a project, but skip the necessary mid-steps in my mind. This makes tomorrow a better bet. We shall see.

I chose the following picture because it has Bob, but also two of my other favorite people. 

Bob is 90 today! Quite an accomplishment. 
In addition to Carl, Bob and I share a birthday. I hope his breakfast was as good as mine (served in bed).

I allowed myself to sleep in this morning after a night out on the town. We saw the Seattle Women’s Chorus Fired Up! show. They included a long set by the Northwest Girlchoir and backed up Isolde Fair on her To All the Little Girls song, inspired by Hillary Clinton. click here if you haven’t already heard this

This was actually our second night out this week. We saw Ragtime Wednesday night at the 5th Avenue theatre. Another inspiring performance that makes you realize how far we came, and wonder why we have to repeat so many lessons.

Last Sunday we joined several others to dedicate a bench to our friend Nick Gallo. It’s hard to believe he has been gone for 10 years. Carl and Nick played years of softball and coached little league together. 

The bench features typewriter keys to celebrate Nick’s work as a writer, a bat signed by and presented to him by his little league team, and a plaque with a family etching  (the rooster is for Gallo). The plaque’s shape is the Kingdome’s baseball field shape. 

That’s Ashlan’s signature on the bat.  The bench builder was also in attendance. He did quite a job.

In amoung all of these events were the Major League playoffs, featuring the Cubs, until Thursday night. I suffered that game alone because Carl squeezed in a trip to Eugene to watch Parker,  a sophomore play in his high schools final soccer game of the season. Parker is quite a player, on the varsity team already and scored 6 goals this season. 

My long term birthday wish, other than world peace, is to watch a Mariners game on my birthday. Today I will settle for lunch out at Ivar’s Salmon House. 

The weather has been distinctly cooler this past week, in the 40s most mornings. This morning my first look out the window showed even cooler temperatures. 

Frost on the roofs. [Of course I don’t get such a clear view most mornings because it is still dark.]

We went out to dinner and a movie last night. We walked to the Seattle Center area, about 4-1/2 miles. Again the season is showing itself, we both wore outerwear  (sweater and jacket for me and a fleece vest for Carl). 

Instead of hitting up a restaurant we wandered into a grocery store and picked out a Greek salad and turkey pesto wrap to share. We wandered into the Center to a group of picnic tables next to the Center playground. The sounds of the kids playing was joined by the announcer and fans of the Roosevelt, our neighborhood school,  vs Rainier Beach football game at Memorial stadium. [Garfield, our kid’s alma mater,  vs Eastside Catholic was the second game scheduled for the evening. ]

It was comfortable at first, but as the warmth of walking wore off and the shadows lengthened, it got a bit chilly. 

With the dinner gone, we headed to the movie venue, MOPOP or Museum of Popular Culture, formerly known as the Experience Music Project. The museum hosts viewing of various movies in the Sky Church, known as Campout Cinemas. We saw the Wizard of Oz here a few years ago.

Tonight’s fare was the Dark Crystal, a 35-year old Jim Henson film.

People bring blankets, pillows and sleeping bags to put on the floor and get comfortable. Since we walked our comfort items were limited to a large couch pillow each. Good for the head, but not much for the body. Luckily, we were at the head of the line to get in and scored a seat on one of the few couches they provided. 

The movie was preceded by a talk by Cheryl Henson, daughter of Jim. If you zoom in the picture,  she is in the center. It also provides some scale for the size of the screen.

As usual, the Skeksie dinner scene was my favorite, but I saw more detail in the creatures of the world than I had noticed on our previous small screen  (probably 19-inch) viewings.

As we left, I captured a grainy view of the Space Needle, undergoing renovation. Scaffolding in the sky. 

Then off to the bus for a ride close to home. The work to improve vehicular connections between the Seattle Center and the South Lake Union area and I -5 has also made the pedestrian trek under Aurora much nicer. Bus system improvements, like a bus every 15 minutes even in the evening, also helps greatly. 

Walks to the Seattle Center are no longer hampered by how to get home. And on the reverse taking the bus to the Center for a show is pretty realistic, avoiding the whole parking issue.

Saturday was my idea of a typical fall Seattle day. Some rain and cooler temperatures. We hung around the house doing chores and a bit of work. Sunday promised better weather and we launched mid-morning to see what was up around the neighborhood. 

Our initial destination was some stairs. The only difficulty was deciding which set of stairs to aim for. Due to its hilly nature, Seattle has many staircases with hundreds of steps. For today it was either a 400+/- set from Eastlake up to Capital Hill or 300+/- from the University District down to the lower university.  We chose the latter.

Last year there was an attempt to have bicycle stations added around the city, as many other cities have done. It failed. This effort has been replaced with 3 companies that have bicycle just hanging out around the city, available for use. (These have no helmets provided.) I finally ran across all three varieties together. 

Our walk wound past University Village towards Husky Stadium. There was a Saturday evening football game, and a tailgating straggler still  remained.

Other detritus too. 

More natural forest flora. 

We found Hercules in a sylvan glen.

And a Meany hiding off the beaten path. 

All in all, a pleasant 5 miles or so.