Raincharm’s Weblog

Throughout the week we managed to get up at the proper time, despite the time change.
Then last night arrived.

FRIDAY! TGIF! time to go out and party. Or at least relax.
Except Carl went to bed about 7:15, exhausted. I would have followed fairly closely, but one of his friends wanted to drop something off, at 10 PM. So I stayed up.
I would like to say I used the time productively, but I was also a bit exhausted mentally, and just could not pull it together. I did not even blog.

I did watch some basketball, and then Grimm. [Grimm is a TV show based in Portland, OR where some of the characters have fairytale alter-egos. Werewolves, vampires, … Grimm is a police detective, and his lineage has taken on dealing with the evil alter-egos through time. The evil alter-egos, of course, fear Grimms and will harm them if given a chance. He has a friend who is a vegetarian Werewolf, who was brought up to know the stories, creatures, etc. It is entertaining. And one of my co-workers is a sometime stunt-man who does a share of the fight scenes that occur in makeup.]

And then I fell asleep on the couch. A time-honored family tradition. Carl eventually reappeared and woke me up so I could go to bed. He noted how tired I must have been because I still had my shoes on.

My yesterday was very different. I started normally, at work, for a meeting – and some work. Then I started talking to bankers (or credit unioners) about loans. And there was a very good meeting with the contractor and architect to further hone the scope of the project. And then, another banker, and then a phone chat with a “loan officer.” About then Carl showed up, and I babbled at him for about 30 minutes. And then I was done for the evening for all intents and purposes.

Today I must all of the information from yesterday organized, and sent out to those that need it.

And the Sounders Season opens tonight. (Of course it is supposed to be in the 30’s with rain, maybe snow, and a smattering of drunk drivers for St. Patrick’s day.) (So we are busing.)

And, the family NCAA Basketball Statistics after Round 2 (although I think it was really Round 1)

Ashlan: 6-10
Rey: 8-8
Carl: 8-8
Jay: 10-6

It would appear that I have the advantage, but that is only in numbers. Everybody still has their number 1 seed, and Carl lost 2 number 2 seeds.

March Madness.
I could be talking weather – we have rain, hail, thunder, snow and precious little sun, and all of my relatives (well a good number of them) are having warmth and sun. Of course there was at least one tornado warning thrown in for good measure.

But I am talking basketball.
The Family Statistics after the first full day.

Ashlan 3-3
Rey 4-4
Carl 4-4
Jay 5-5

So there is no clear front-runner at this point. Ashlan almost lost her #1 seed, but held on in the end.

And I am taking off 1/2 day tomorrow.
To meet with the contractor, and some bankers.
The goal – to move this remodeling project along to the next stage.

Today was spent in the meeting that Saturday and a bit of Sunday was spent getting ready for.
The PowerPoint went off without a hitch.
Well – there was the one project that had a date of 2011 on one slide, 2012 on another slide, and should have been 2013 everywhere. As things go, fairly minor.

The animations (my part of the whole shebang) were well received.
And we will use the main one for a staff meeting too, so it is more than a one-time show.

Started putting dollar amounts into the Excel Amortization template.
How handy is that.
I am a bit calmer about the prospect of getting a new loan now.
Now I need to see what the banks will offer.

And – get back with the contractor to show him what I think we can go for, so they can move forward. Right now it looks like we will either be starting early summer, or late fall.
It is dependent on another project the contractor is bidding on.

Either way will probably be OK for us, as long as I can get a loan while interest rates are low!

The project is currently – major kitchen (wall changes included), major basement (waterproofing, earthquake retrofitting, new furnace), major upstairs insulation, and maybe a bit of work around the upstairs bathroom.

That is my plan for now – we will see what changes over the next few weeks.

Yesterday was …. I am not even sure what yesterday was. I think it had moments of dryness, followed by a lot of wetness. Carl did get out of the house for a bit and watched some high school baseball. Then he came home.

What he mentioned to me was that he saw a lot of my back.
All day.

That is what he says when I sit at the computer.
I spent most of yesterday PowerPointing.
The result was really pretty good, if I do say so myself.
I actually exclaimed out loud when I got a particular animation to work as I wanted it to, and Carl came to see what was wrong.

By the end of the day I was fighting to get a rainbow, and have it appear with a pot of gold.
Using the pre-packaged bits was not working well, so I let it go for the night.
Sometimes you just have to make it yourself. This AM I made 7 arcs of different colors, grouped them, wipe in, and wipe the clip art pot of gold in as well. Nice effect. (Again, I am patting myself on the back that Carl is watching.
It is done.

We also watched The Descendants last night.
I heard some DJs discussing when was the last time they had seen a movie, without knowing what it was about going in. I think I came close to that last night.
I remembered one preview where a daughter told the father their mother was having an affair.
That was about it.

I thought it was a well done movie, and an enjoyable way to end the day.

This morning we have taken a short, errand walk. (After said rainbow work).
We are now preparing for Selection Sunday and the start of March Madness.
Hopefully we will be able to team up with the kids, although I only have a firm date with one of them so far. But the brackets are ready, and the randomizer primed to go. (Actually, it goes off all the time, every time you do anything.)

For those that don’t know, since the kids were small we have randomly split the teams in the NCAA Basketball tournament between the four in our immediate family. Initially the kids liked the prizes (candy mostly) they got for every team they had that won a game. Starting with 16 teams guarantees some good 1st and 2nd round hauls. Lately, the prizes have become less important, and just about absent. This is at least in part due to the distances that separate our home store from their domiciles. (We still buy the prizes, we just don’t send out their winnings.)
((That’s not true, we just pocket the savings.))

Perhaps I will post our bracket once they have completed the drawing.

Sorry ’bout that.

Life sometimes just goes on by.
We had some things going on this week in the evenings, but not every evening.
There was some TV watching.
There was some reading.
And there was some sleeping.

Work has continued to be fairly intense, and I do plan to work some this weekend. But this weekend I get to play more with PowerPoint. We have a “retreat” at our office on Monday with our Board. One of the items of discussion is a bit of personnel restructuring. Like so many places, the economy has impacted our bottom line. As people have left over the past few years, they have not been replaced. We just fill in here and there to make sure things get done, but it is a bit out of balance. So this is a rebalancing, and will further take advantage of an upcoming retirement.

I have not been deeply involved in figuring out the restructure, although I am generally aware of the proposals. But for the Board, there is an associated PowerPoint presentation. The part that I am assisting our HR person with includes the transition from our current org chart to the proposed org chart. It starts out nice and cheerful, and then we dim to currently or soon to be vacant positions, move some folks around the board, restructure a bit with some positions moving, and others disappearing. There is a lot that can be done with Powerpoint, flying bits about. It is pretty fun. Not “my” work, but I enjoy this kind of challenge, and I think it is turning out well so far.

And on the home front, literally, or really the home back if we are speaking literally, we met with the contractor and architect for a cost estimate. GULP. Now it is our turn to prune a bit, meet with some bankers, and generally figure out what we can bear. We are so close to paying off the house that I hate to get into more debt than we have ever had. But, it is the right time to get it done, and it does need to get done. I think I would rather spend some money and end up with a nice product, than rely on our home improvement skills (or not), and pay for it in the long run.

I pledge to try to get on here a bit more as well.

Because we miss some of the little notes of happenings.
Like the weather.
From snow, to almost 60 degrees, and back into a darn good rainstorm, and predictions for snow again.

March 2012 - at work. This is gone, but more is predicted.

Yesterday we bought a few old postcards, and posted one on the blog.
Less old, but longer in our possession, are the following two examples.

Manufactured Postcards

The one simply titled Seattle is funny for the western horizon. As if Seattle was on the Pacific Ocean (a really calm ocean) rather than the Puget Sound. There are islands, and many other land masses in the Sound. None are visible here. Perhaps a mirage has obscured them. (See the latest Scientific American for a brief on how mirages can hide masses from your vision. Including icebergs.)

Ever Changing Seattle appears to have two Space Needles. The back of the card notes that the Space Needle is at the far left of the picture. But it just doesn’t seem quite correct, almost too tall. And there is another strikingly similar structure a bit further into the picture. Again, I am not sure whether it would be visible from this perspective.

Now, with a city as picturesque as Seattle, why would I think these postcards were playing fast and loose with reality. If you look at both postcards you may note that the clouds have a certain similarity. In fact, they are exactly the same! (Shifted slightly, but the same.)

Perhaps there was a “Postcard Photographers Day” and they were taken at exactly the same time. Since there were no cell phones, they must have had strings of walkie talkies so they would all take their pictures simultaneously.

The pictures credit two different photographers, were copywrited by a company in Boston (with sequential numbers). I think we bought these in our early Seattle days, intending to send them off to our friends and family. The clouds were noticed only after they were in our possession, and they just resurfaced in our shuffling of items around the house.

We took a walk today.
And that will probably be the biggest thing I accomlish.
(I did the crossword earlier)
7.2 miles.

I think the lack of food (and exercise) over this past week has really put a dent in my ability to push myself physically. So this was a good test. Had breakfast (yogurt), and lunch (couscous and applesause), and then set out. And now I am setting sitting.

It is Seattle, so there were hills.
For those that are familiar with the City, we walked southwest to Gasworks Park, into Fremont, over to the Troll, north to Lower Woodland and Green Lake, and then home again.
I have this app on my phone (Endomondo) that tracks your workout.
It is pretty fun – has a gps function, so you get a map of where you went.
On the computer, you can see the map, elevation, speed (at least by the mile), and a few other bits of information.
Carl started trying to guess certain distances, and he was usually pretty close.

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It was sunnyish, and I had one layer too many. But we survived.
I did have to stop at a Starbucks, rest for a bit, and eat a yogurt/fruit parfait. I let Carl eat the granola bits on top.

If there was a focus to the walk, it was Fremont. The Center of the Universe, and home to a “Vintage” store. Vintage includes many things I grew up with. And they have a collection of postcards. Some used, some not. But we did find one that we just had to get.

Looking for guesses on the year (note the knickers on one boy). The lead boat name appears to be James something. It is a colorized picture. The picture was published by A.E. Young, of Sault Ste. Marie.

Vintage Soo Locks - How vintage?

This week has seemed just a bit off.

I have been at a loss to describe why or what specifically has made it different, so I am calling it transitions, although I am not sure that is the best word.

My physical self has been off, but there is a known cause.
I have not taken any pain meds for over 2 days, and there is a constant dull ache in my mouth. I may start the OTC type again, but I felt the need to stop it all so I could feel where my body really was.

Family losses lurk in corners of my mind, and there have been other losses around more locally that just seem to pile on.

Work? Well, work just keeps on coming. That is a good thing, and I am not really complaining, but I could do with a week or two of relaxed schedules. (Don’t think that is realistic however.)

The house purging has slowed down over the past week and a half. Some necessary, some due to “completion” of a small phase.

So what to do to move things back into gear.
Well – the weekend is upon us, so that would be a good time to refocus energy on filling boxes.
Taxes? Should be able to finish that this weekend as well.
And if the weather is at all cooperative – a WALK. It seems like it has been a long time since we had a good, long walk.

The rest of the near term forecast? Well, the Sounders have started playing again, and in about two weeks is our first game. And the Mariners Spring Training has begun, which means the season is not too far away. Next month as a matter of fact.

Aaaaand, that would be my carpooler on the phone – so off to work.

I wake up in the morning, and feel pretty good.

By 4:30, I am tired, and my jaw area is aching.

But, as wisdom teeth go, I think I have had a pretty easy go of it.
Not too much PAIN. Just aches, and now a sore tongue. (Didn’t see that one coming.)

It is the end of the day, and so I am heading off to bed after doing my best to do my part of our house life for the day. Luckily, Carl has been doing more than his part, so the house is still standing.

I did manage to get one errand done that had been pending for a couple of weeks.
Although I don’t quite see the reason, since it was snowing as I returned home from said errand.

ready for summer

Ashlan, how did I do all by my lonesome.

The title has nothing to do with the weather.
It has been raining, or not. Snow is a possibility, which means it must be cold.
I don’t know, and I am not sure how much I care right now.

Yesterday two things happened of note:
1. My aunt passed away. So sorry, but I believe she was at peace.
2. I had all of my wisdom teeth out.

This made for a very interesting juxtaposition, which remains.

Yesterday was a blur of information.
If I wrote it down, there is a chance that it will be “remembered” correctly, and taken care of.
If not, who knows.

The extraction process went well from my perspective.
Laughing gas and Xanax, and then I was home.
They gave me all sorts of stuff to take. amoxicillin (must take), Alleve (suggested to start with), and two different narcotics for either moderate or severe pain. Frankly, the pain has been fairly well-managed with the alleve. I did take a moderate before going to bed. I really just wanted to sleep through the night.

Today I am up am moving around, although I am not attempting more than requires sitting.
I am not sure how much I trust my thought processes, but there are a few things that need to get completed, so I am muddling through them 1 by 1.

Carl has been a great support.
He picked me up, got the medicine, and then left.
Of course, the option was to stay around me with two 5 year olds.
Leaving was the better option.

I set myself up on the couch, put the movie “Up” in the DVD, and promptly slept through most of the movie.
I survived on pudding and applesauce. Today Carl has been home and I got a yogurt and fruit shake, and now scrambled eggs. He is a good caretaker.

I feel a nap coming on, so …..