Raincharm’s Weblog

This is the week of snow for 2012. At least as predicted.
It really started yesterday, but we did not have to go anywhere, so it hardly counted.

Today was a day I had to get to work, and had to be the driver.
Of the two car-poolers I share rides with one is from Chicago and has a 4-wheel drive vehicle. That means he is willing to drive in anything, and has an attitude about it. I am not complaining, because that usually means I don’t have to drive on dicey weather days. But today was a “floater” holiday. This means the office is open, but you don’t have to participate. He was not participating.

The other car-pooler is Hawaii born and bred. He doesn’t do snow. At least not if he can help it. So, he was dropped at my house this morning, and I got to drive. Compact ice on our street, but we are a flat street. The rest of the roads looked icy, but clearer. We went I-90, not to avoid the toll, but to avoid the reportedly icy corner on SR 520 at the Marymoor corner. I will pay a toll to get a better drive in the snow. The parking lot at work was an ice-rink, but managed to navigate OK, especially with less than 1/2 the normal cars competing for parking.

Most of the day was spent at an off-site manager’s retreat. I managed to score rides over and back with others, so my car could sit snug in its parking spot. The retreat location was a co-workers wonderful house. This was the view from her dining room.

Lisa's Fine Retreat

It snowed on and off during the day, but with the temperatures warming to just above freezing the roads were not getting worse. Worse should happen tonight when it all re-freezes.

Tomorrow may dawn similar to this morning, although it may snow more tonight. But I have arranged for Chicago to do the driving.  The real fun is predicted for Wednesday. I am predicting a day at home.

Very Young Rey

One of the pictures unearthed from a pile that was not pictures.
That is Rey at probably less than a few weeks old, enamoured of a TV remote.
Note the size difference with Poofter, our small cat.
Rey was well less than 6 pounds when born, and I think the cat was 7-1/2 pounds our so.

Carl has taken the lead on sorting of the house today.

He is going through innumerable piles of stuff from around the places he keeps stuff.
I am given occasional tasks to sort through sub-piles.
I also put about five bags of recycle into our bin. Unfortunately this is an off-week for recycle pick-up, and we are very close to filling the bin already. But I don’t want to stop the cleaning. (It seems to be picking up steam.)

We did get out a bit today – if only to play in the snow.
In the front yard more or less.

I did find that pulling the recycle and yard waste bins through the snow is much more difficult than I imagined. The snow and ice sticks to and cakes on the wheels, which only have a modest amount of clearance.

The living room is now covered in Carl’s piles of papers, the clothes that were out have all been boxed and moved to the study. I did realize after I finished that task, that there is still a boxful of clothes (at least) in Ashlan’s wardrobe. Maybe the last thing I will do tonight. Before that I do need to do a bit of work before my day-long meeting tomorrow.

And please, weather gods, make the driving slow and easy tomorrow AM.

The past week has blown past.
Where did it go, where was I, what did I do?

Well, I know I went to work.
I was at work until 5:30 on Friday.
With a car-pooler, sort-of patiently cooling his heels.
And an out of town duo in a meeting with me, rushing to get through everything.
And everybody else from my end had, well, left.

Moody? Yes – and that was about the size of my work week.
I was definitely in a mood the last two days.
I feel a bit like it has carried into the weekend, but am trying to keep it at bay.
But – of course, there is some work I need to do this weekend ….

And we are working on Monday. At least all of the managers – we have an all day retreat, to be sprinkled in with timesheets and payroll. The first of our bi-weekly payrolls after always being paid bi-monthly. (The use of the two bi-s meaning the opposite is interesting, but I think it is correct.) On the other hand, perhaps what I really mean is semi-monthly.
In the end – changing from 24 paychecks to 26. But since getting a paycheck is important, I am really trying to not complain about the change. We will all adapt.

Carl has worked a few days this week, but his days off were due to him getting strep throat. I have no signs yet. Fingers crossed.
I know he is on the mend now that he has drugs on board, because he is much more verbal and complaining about referees. (Hockey in the current moment.)

OK – back to the negativity index. I just uttered a triple negative to my husband. His comment, “You are usually such a positive person.”

On to the house report.
I looked at the last post to see where we were.
I had folded and boxed the stay clothes for both kids, and the go clothes for one.
The go clothes for Ashlan had been staged to the living room for folding.

And the Ashlan go clothes are still there. Waiting.
But in the meantime, we somehow got diverted to books.
One box has been sent abroad. But that was before we really got into the bookcases.
I really don’t know how many bookcases we have, and I don’t think I want to count.
Truth be told not all books were in bookcases.

As with clothes, we are identifying stay and go books.
We have a wide variety of books.
Many, many, many, many kids books. These are in varying states of still togetherness.
After all they have been through a large number of kids use.
Some we are sure we will keep. Suess, Dahl, the Eyewitness series (probably), and certain favorites. And then there are the nature guides – keep. Lots of science fiction/fantasy, mysteries, and on and on. And we have not even approached the baseball collection. Rey had gone through his room’s books before departing east. Not so much with Ashlan.

Not counting the kids rooms I have listed about 8-9 pages (landscape) of book titles and authors, and sent them off to the kids so they can give me any titles to keep. And others keep showing up. And we are running out of boxes the size I can carry loaded with books. (Copier paper size boxes. I have told our maintenance guy I am on the look-out for any we empty at work.)

I have found a few that were provided to the kids with notes explaining the significance of the book. One was translated by their great-great-great-great-grandfather Wippern.

Lately I have found myself identifying a few I think would be good “Cabin” books.Another standout was The Glorious Pool, by Thorne Smith. Written in 1934, it was his last book as he died before it was quite finished. His wife provided the finishing touches and it was considered quite a good read, a story about the fountain of youth discovered by an older couple. The front cover proclaims, “The gay and buoyant talk of three people who found their lost youth again.” This might be a good cabin book just because it is fun, readable, and dates to when the cabin was very young.

The beds have been changed, and the Sudoku and 1 crossword completed. So after a bit of work today it will be time to fold those clothes. I don’t think we are going to try going anywhere. Carl is still recuperating (and doing laundry), and it is morphing from rain to snow as we speak. I don’t mind that we are having this bit of snow (yet), as long as it is managed by the Monday morning commute.

Side note for those familiar with the Seattle commute conditions. I have now driven the 520 bridge with my Go-To-Go Pass in place. I have not checked to see whether it was correctly noted on my account. Fun and games to make that $3.50 decision every time we drive to and from work. So far we are at an occassional crossing – always in the evening when the traffic is heavier. Less than 20% so far.

From a blog perspective the new year has started slowly.

But at least part of that is because it actually has been quite busy.
Work has been busy, and lots of things to do at home.

Today the clearing of the house has continued a bit.
Mostly taking things out that have been moved around inside.
(Recycle day tomorrow.)

When I was outside with the recycling, I realized that it was a nice winter day, and if I didn’t finish the raspberry patch pruning started last weekend, I would regret it. This means that it would most likely be done on a drizzly day, rather than a dry one. So – finished the current round of patch maintenance. There is still a starter tree to dig out, and refurbishing the patch boundary.

The Ashlan stay clothes have been moved downstairs for refolding and packing.
(Rey’s clothes were done during the week. Started with Rey’s because 1) they were already downstairs, and 2) there were fewer.) After the stay clothes are done, the real task of folding the leave clothes will take place. Not sure whether I will get that far today.

Cleaning out is liberating, and I keep seeing other things I am mentally throwing out.
We did get to a fair part of the bathroom. The sorting there was garbage, keep or take to the drug disposal location. We have a few good drugs (street value), and more that are just old. The oldest expiration date we found was 1999. Lots of garbage. We even got down far enough to clean the cupboard shelves. Next up is the lower bathroom cabinets.

Perhaps it is not really a war, more like a skirmish.
But it is not the first.

First there was the new lawn.

Now we are into compost.
We have two green cones in the back yard.
They are for our vegetable matter not eaten.
We also compost meat and milk products, but those go to the city yard waste collection.

The theory is we use one green cone for as long as it takes to make it about 1/2 full.
Then we switch to the other, and let the first one sit, to prepare itself for future harvest.
This is my type of composting. Passive.

Except that now it appears there may be some action required.

A few weeks ago it looked as though something had been digging around the based of the active cone. But it could be that dirt was just sloughing in to the bottom of the cone. It looks quite a bit like a plastic laundry basket. Holes let the moisture out and the decomposers in. I put a few bricks over the hole. The digging reappeared, so I put more dirt in the hole and replaced the bricks.

Yesterday I was out pruning the raspberries, and noted that our sitting compost cone was open.
The kids have been around, and IF they had taken the compost out, it is clearly possible that they could have chosen the wrong cone. And they could have neglected to close the top. But I doubted that was the case. So I closed the lid.

This morning I put out the compost in the correct cone, and noted footprints on the side and lid of the active cone, and a brick askew at the base.
The lids were both closed, but I doubt this is the last attempt.

raccoon attempts

We are empty nesters again.
And spending the day in recovery mode.
My thought was to energetically spend the day taking down the tree and starting to re-box and better organize and label all of the items the kids sorted through during their short stay.

The kids both got out of town in states of severe drowsiness. Their goals were both to sleep on the plane.
Ashlan is now back at work and life in NYC.
Rey is now back in Michigan for a day or two, before returning to Tennessee to start his 4th year as a member of the Smokies organization.
We have only found a list of bowl game picks that Rey left, and some books that we were planning to send his way instead of carrying them on the plane.

The kids, however, each managed to leave town with an ORCA bus pass. (The Seattle use it anywhere pass for getting around.)

Our day started with Rey’s departure, early.
I wasn’t sure I would be able to go back to sleep after a trip to the airport and back, but in the end it happened rather quickly. We did not rise until almost 11 AM (unheard of). Just in time for the bowl games of the day to start. We are using Rey’s list of bowl game picks to determine who we want to win.

Our last planned act of 2011 will be to finish the ham.
The pea soup went at lunch/dinner time. (Getting up late really messes up mealtimes.)

Happy and safe New Year’s Eve to all.
See you in the new year.

2011 is almost in the books.
I went to work today, for almost an entire 8 hours.
I escaped early so I could spend a few more hours with Rey.

We did go through Rey’s clothes last night.
As compared with Ashlan – 2 boxes for Selling, a few items thrown away, and 1 box to Keep.
And the boxes were easily closed.
Not worthy of a picture.

This afternoon we went through the non-clothes stuff and got about two boxes of things (books mostly) that can go to new homes.

He will be off early in the AM, and then it is our turn to start paring down.
Also to go back through their boxes so they make sense for moving to their next destination.

Rey is out with friends for the evening.
Hope he has fun, and can get up in the AM.

I took a vacation day today. Mostly.
One small moment on-line to work to get an e-mail out the door.

Other than that it was pretty much a day at home.
Unfortunately, Rey & Carl are both a bit under the weather, so there was not much drive to get out and about. Ashlan was feeling fit, and since she is leaving (as I write I imagine she it getting onto the plane) my plans for the day focused on her.

That meant doing the crosswords without her (she was still in bed).
But then it meant filling out some paperwork, while she was in town.

And then …. the big room pack.
Now, we did not really pack up the room, but we did do a lot of sorting.
There is still a lot to go through, but we made major progress.

Ashlan's Room

Mostly we went through things that arrived back from school.
And clothes gathered over many years. And shoes. And shoes. And shoes.

The sort choices were 1) Keep, 2) Sell, 3) Throw away.
If you look at the picture you will not see the Throw away bags, which were dragged downstairs.
The boxes on the bed are Sell.
The pile to the left of the bed is Keep. (about 1/3 the size of sell)
There is more out of camera range, but this gives an idea of what we did accomplish.

The not gone through stuff includes a lot of course work from college.
There are also books (will not sell), and magazines (destined for throw away).

And there are the notebooks in the bottom drawer that I have been instructed to keep, and not read.

Heck, I just went through a personnel issue at work, where I had access to all sorts of paperwork, and I did not read any of it. ETHICs.

So – now it is Rey’s turn at the sorting Mom.
And he is ready, but his room is much less daunting.

At least for me – and only part time this week.
For a slow week, it was pretty busy. Perhaps aiming at a 1/2 day made it so.
Although I did end up staying a bit beyond my self-appointed departure time.
This was set so I would have more time with the family while they are in town.

So, where is the family?
The kids are off at a movie, with one of Ashlan’s Vancouver friends. (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.)
Carl is off grocery shopping. On the list – split pea soup makings to go with our ham bone.
I am here, and as long as I am here, I may finish some unfinished work that is due tomorrow.

But before I did that I put together one of this year’s Some Assembly Required gifts.
It is fun for what it is.
Soccer in the off-season.
And yes, the players at midfield have their backs to the ball when the kickoff is taken.
But, like many tables, the ball doesn’t usually stay stock still in the middle.

Carl won the opening game, and scored the first goal.

Foosball Mini