Yes, it was a day for another quick trip up and back.
A loner trip, but luckily the drive up was interesting, and the drive back ended just in time.

But first, yesterday I stumbled on another glimpse of the boy, this time with a speaking role.

I measure my trips to Canada by birds and bears. The bears (Smokies) were in great evidence for the first half of the trip. Probably 6 or 7, some with paying customers. Then the birds came into view.

I got to see the Snow Geese while passing through the Skagit Valley. Next there were Swans. And after we got out of the States the Bald Eagles made their entrance. I put the count at about a dozen today, but there were a few spectacular views. First I saw an eagle soaring low over the freeway in front, with one wingtip pointed down, and the other up – great profile. Then when I reached this spot, the eagle flew over, about 10 feet above the car, clutching nesting material in his (her?) talons.

And of course, there was the girl sighting. We had lunch at Aphrodite, an organic restaurant, specializing in pies. We have brunch, and then shared a piece of pie. Ashlan had a walk to get in (like mother, like daughter) before dark, so I took off. It is nicer to drive before dark as well – so better for me as well. On the way up I had about a 5 car wait. The way down was a bit longer wait, and I chose the slowest line. I took all of about 20 seconds to get out of the border police clutches, once I got to the head of the line. But I had been cleared by the dog prior to reaching the booth. And I guess I just don’t look menacing. I am not complaining – the last trip had an hour wait, and this was not even close.

It’s Friday night. Home from work, work out and a bit of TV.
Tonight’s offerings? Jeopardy, an Olympic memory film and onto a crime show.

It is interesting how the shows that I have watched have changed over the years.
Cartoons, variety shows, sit-coms, dramas, crime shows and now reality shows.

I either tend to like them or not want to give them (reality shows) the time of day. The ones I like are the Amazing Race, Survivor and WipeOut. I like the Amazing Race because it shows me places I have never been. Survivor started as a chance to chat with others around the water cooler.  I did not watch it for the first few years, but I do find it intriguing. WipeOut is not really a reality show. Most contestants get about 2 seconds of screen time, and you probably don’t really see their face. This is what my father would call a “guilty pleasure.” I watch it because it makes me laugh.

This sounds as though I watch TV all the time. Not quite true. I know this because I do not know the TV schedule by heart – like I did in high school. And I can go months without. Well at least weeks (still no TV at the cabin). Even after the digital age arrived with a vengeance, we live with an antenna. We only get cable when the World Cup is on.

Mostly TV is used to unwind from work. Unlike the past few days, which were a fury of things here and there, and everywhere, today I decided to just try to get two things done. Finish an incident report and get an annexation notice out the door. Mostly done. Oh and I have to contact somebody to destroy our old flag. Other duties as assigned.

I just realized how lame my life can be.

The tortured artist, and his exhibition

Sorry Dan – I know this is your big day, but I don’t think you have been tortured enough. I believe this effort was inspired by the Picasso exhibit, which closed today.

You know how people say things happen in 3s?
I think today’s tonight’s full moon has put this number through some astronomical mathematical sequence – because today has been very, very strange.

First, a good friend’s father passed away. Tough times, and we wish their family peace, strength and tranquility.
Next, a co-worker is having some issues due to an accident – would like to have him back, perhaps tomorrow. And another is having a chronic issue flare up. [I appreciate my health more and more.]
And then we had a visitor at work. Known by many, and allowed to come in and visit. Rethinking that decision, as it appeared he had injested a little something extra and was not always making appropriate comments or taking appropriate actions. Finally managed to escort him away (not me). This incident showed our vulnerabilities and our support of each other at work as the effort to take control coalesced. So now time to re-examine our procedures. Many opportunities to figure better ways to react.

And finally – in the midst of visitor time the home water heater decided it had worked hard for 20+years, and was done. It started spitting its contents onto the basement floor. Several calls and mini-conferences later – we are getting a new water heater – tomorrow. A tad bit overpriced, but at this point I was to the, “You can do it tomorrow, with a direct vent, match our round hole with your square peg, and get rid of the 20+ year creature?” Fine – just do it.

There are certainly those that counsel us that replacing a water heater is not that hard, but I just don’t need that level of figuring it out added to the plate right now. Especially since it would be at least the weekend before it would be attacked, borrowing trucks, finding the correct dump (or recycle) area, and then worrying about working with natural gas lines. And I could have gone for at least one more quote, but  –  I just didn’t want to. Head was spinning already.

I needed some spice in my life yesterday – at least during the work day.

Meetings:
8-9:30+
9:30-1:00
3:00-6:00

Yeah – I had a two hour bit to get work done.
Lunch happened about 6, but it was really good.

Fruititarian. There were kiwi, pomegranate seeds, orange slices and grapes.

Home – finally, and sweat out a bit of the day.
Then dinner. Stuffed peppers with ground pork, carrots, mushrooms, onions, and what ever else was in there. Mmmmmmm. What a nice way to close the day.

And so today begins – meeting at 8.

I have been looking at papers all day.
Medical papers mostly.
It is rather interesting to go back through your medical life.
I have found a few things I had forgotten.
I have been astounded at how much they list things cost, and by how little we pay.

I guess that is what is meant by having good health insurance.
Don’t we wish we all had that.

And – the Seahawks lost – but life will go on.

No – we are not grandparents yet.
But Carl is often mistaken for a grandparent when out with his young charges.

He was at the Seattle Center with one, playing with a ball in the Center House.
A few other youngsters approached (balls and kids often attract each other) and he shared the 3-4 balls that he brought. He had 4 small children running around (exercise) and playing together, or at least in the same vicinity. Carl felt this was a good outing, a positive experience.

After they were done, he and his charge sat down to have lunch. While they were sitting there a woman, probably a street person, walked past shaking her head, interpreted, “tsk, tsk, tsk.” So Carl asked her if there was a problem, and she responded, “You are a pathetic Grandpa.”

Needless to say, this stung a bit. Good times to bad times.

There has been much talk about civility in government recently.
Perhaps that should extend to the general populace.

On to today.
We took a walk this morning – finding the hours when rain was least likely to fall.

We also took a breakfast out at the Portage Bay Cafe. We have passed this location many times, and there is frequently a line out the door. The only previous time I had been inside was to borrow their bathroom on a long walk. This time we took the plunge and had breakfast. Although it is very close to the UW, the prices were slightly above what I would expect a student to want to pay, but not horrible. Generally focused on organic, local, low impact food. And the food was really good. We will visit here again.

So sated and caffeinated we continued on to the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). They had an exhibit called Clutch it, the Purse and the Person. It was fun. A travelling exhibit with some local additions. There were insights onto why the size of purses changed through time, and what was carried about. From the information provided, modern purses came into being in the 1790’s when the fashion was tighter dresses, without the pockets used to carry necessities. They were called reticules at that time. [I did not take notes, so this could be wrong.] There are some women I work with that would truly enjoy this exhibit. I am going to try and schedule an outing for the one remaining evening when it will be on exhibit. (Usually closes at 5 PM, and there is no way we would get there on time.)

And then we continued on toward home, stopping at the evil empire for coffee, the Farmer’s Market for potatoes, and the corner organic store for a pomegranate.

Football anyone? The afternoon of watching grown men pummel each other into oblivion awaits.

We had a tailgate party at work today.
For those that don’t pay attention, and don’t live near the left coast, the 7-9 8-9 Seattle Seahawks are still playing football. They have a game on Sunday, in Chicago against the Bears.

We have a few folks at work that hail from the fair (and highly taxed) state of Illinois.
Some of them live with me too. (Not those from work, just from Illinois)
A few at work have not been able to change their allegiance from the midwest to left coast.
There have been all sorts of good-natured ribbing this past week. Verbal, signs, etc.

One of the Bear’s fans had the grand idea to have a tailgate party today.
Folks brought all sorts of good tailgate type food. Lots of barbeque.

I brought the makings for nachos.
I had good intentions.

But after diligently working for 3-1/2 hours I was going to head to the kitchen and start prep work.

Only – Jay to the front counter please.
So – 1/2 hour later – I had explained what I could to the customer (really a future customer), and grabbed my fixings and headed to the kitchen.

Of course, the kitchen was full of food (not mine) and people.
I felt a little bad, but there was ALOT of good looking food.

So I stowed my fixings and sat down to enjoy others – food and company.
It was really fun. Just one of those – “we ought to …” – at the last moment, that really worked out. Of course, we all stayed indoors, out of the rain.

My nachos will make an entrance – tomorrow.

GO SEAHAWKS!

What else? Not much. Work. Workout. Eat. Repeat.

Calculators, arms and movies.

I discovered the calculator on my computer at work this morning.
I was looking at the keyboard. It is new (to me) and has lots of keys that I am not familiar with, or have used. One located over the 10-key pad had a funny looking icon. So I pressed it. And presto, a calculator appeared on the screen. Now that I look at the icon, it is a calculator. Playing around a bit with it, it has all manners of calculators. Scientific, translating, regular, etc. This is interesting because I have two calculators at work. One, a relatively cheap casio type thing, I can not find currently. I am sure it will turn up. The other, a reverse polish HP model from many years ago, was given to my by my mother-in-law several years ago. This has become my go-to work horse. Of course, being able to find it is a big bonus.  But I tend to get partway through a calculation and forget the language I am calculating in. I go forward instead of in reverse, and it all comes out Greek. Now I find I have an alternative – could be helpful.

And in the personal betterment section, Carl & I have decided I should do a workout that pays attention to something other than my legs. The most obvious choice was my arms. So Carl has been pointing me in the direction of some exercises he does on our in-house exercise machine. After the first day, in which we just experimented with exactly how weak my arms were, I felt pretty good today. So I did it again, with a little more gusto. I intend to take it slow enough that I keep working on it – at least a few days each week.

To relax after the workout, we settled down to watch Brewster McCloud.
It is an old movie, but not one I have ever seen. I am sure I will watch it again.
The wicked witch lives! Except she dies. And I really think her singing voice is much like mine.

And, at a bit past nine, the movie ended and I wandered into another room, and saw

First snowfall of 2011

In the other direction

Most shovel the walk. Carl clears the yard.

All pictures taken with no flash.

7-foot tall snowman. Still snowing (check the grass coverage from earlier picture)

Today has been an at home kind of day.

I have plans to go through 25+ years of medical paperwork to thin the pile down to what is really necessary. I think I may try to compile a list of major events in each of our lives as well – with dates. I don’t know how many times I get asked questions and feel lucky if I can get within 5 years of when something happened.

I went to urgent care once, with an urgent issue. When they told me I had been there once before for the same complaint, I told them, “no – I had not.” It was only when they said a doctor’s name that I recognized that I believed.

The morning started with the paper, and much got wasted spent with a crossword. I did not come close to finishing. Then Carl got us started by suggesting a walk, approximately 6-miles. I agreed, but thought we should get the tree out of the house first (pick-up tomorrow). As that was coming down he suggested I get the recycle out, which I did. Finally had all of the trash, recycle, compost into their containers for pickup, and we started to walk. Got two blocks (to the mailbox) and it started raining. Cold rain. With 5-3/4 miles to go we decided there was enough to do at the house still, and returned home.

Wussies!

But the rain turned to a hard rain and then a wet snow.
I think we made the correct decision, although I am sure we could have completed it.
However, the last little thing done before starting the aborted walk was to make sure we had our bus passes along. Just in case we wanted to divert further along.

OK – so the title was a little dig at my beloved bro-in-law.
And it is not so much that he hates the Seahawks, or wishes them poorly, it is just that the Seahawks road to the playoffs went through the St. Louis Rams.
And the Seahawks were the first team to win their division with a losing record.
And they beat the Rams with a back-up quarterback – who has ties to GOD.

We started watching the playoff game today without a great deal of expectations. And a pan of nachos.
The nachos went quickly, and so did our expectations. The Seahawks were quickly down 10-0, including an interception.
But … strange things can happen, and in the end the Seahawks prevailed over the defending SuperBowl champions by a score of 36-41. WOO-HOO!!! It will be fun here over the next week.

In other news, we took a pre-game walk this morning. About 5 miles, although I haven’t check the mileage. The last time I set out on a 5-6 mile walk it ended up at 9-1/2 miles. Today we went with a much safer route, at least as far as the potential for unexpected length. The basic walk was to start at home, walk around Green Lake, and back home. This would be 5 miles. We decided to add in a little grocery stop, so diverted south after getting under the freeway – through a residential neighborhood and eventually intercepted the lake. Around about 1/2 of the lake, and then diverted for a mailbox, and eventually to the aforementioned grocery store (QFC in case you are following this ramble).

We could not find a pomegranate at the QFC, so we tried the small organic based grocery on our block – they had two. We brought one home and then stumbled on a little video on how to seed a pomegranate. It suggested banging and then rolling the pomegranate to break up the internal membranes before cutting into the fruit. Carl tried this technique, and indeed found that it made the seeds easier to extract.

Today has been relatively dry, but with threats of rain and snow in the offing. The snow is supposed to be minimal, but perhaps more in the last half of the coming week. Oh, joy. Time to start bringing work home with me again.

It did rain yesterday – hard in fact. When another worker was leaving just before me she was actually looking for her rain gear – just to get to her car. I realized I had an umbrella that Ashlan had suggested I keep. I had intended to leave it with the car, but it was still in my backpack. Now, despite living in Seattle for many years now, I do not usually use umbrellas. They are just another thing to hold on to. Since I had not used the umbrella before I tempted the fates and opened it indoors, so I could be sure to know how to close it quickly. [Otherwise the whole reason for using the umbrella would have been moot.] So I walked out the door and opened the umbrella. And as I walked it started to close around me. Apparently I needed to pay more attention to the whole opening bit. Got to and into the car relatively dry, and proceeded to slog through the deluge with all of the other commuters. My carpooler was at a hockey game, so I had to go it alone today.

And that about sums up my last two unbearably exciting day.

But I was reminded today of a happening as we waited to get through the border last weekend. We saw a coyote off the side of the road. It was checking out traffic and general surroundings, and eventually disappeared back beyond our view. I had initially thought it was a german shepard. It was quite large. Carl speculated that it might be a wolf-coyote hybrid, but I don’t know that there are wolves in close proximity to the urban border. That further raised the question of whether this sort of hybrid would be sterile. I really think it was just a large coyote, but still … I would not want to run into a colf or woyote, sterile or not.