Raincharm’s Weblog

Day 4 – slept in. I did not get up until 10:40. Now I try not to keep comparing to the west coast time zone, so I did feel guilty. But I think I also really needed to sleep. The heat and humidity are such a change. Seattle had not really left winter/spring behind when we left, so we are dealing with a 30 degree increase. It just seems to make us move slower.

Rey is at work, and our late start put us off of sightseeing much today. We are planning to do some local exploring and a little shopping.

We plan to go to a bar tonight to watch some hockey. Report later.

Day 3 found us getting up “early” so Rey could make an appointment he had in Oak Ridge Tennessee. That meant trying to be out of the apartment by 9 AM.

Rey’s apartment. Let’s see. It has a kitchen/dining area, a living room, bathroom and two bedrooms. It is sparsely furnished. Dining table, 3 wooden chairs, 1 folding camping chair (newer style with arms and good backrest), card table, twin blow-up bed (interestingly not quite a flat bed shape any longer), full bed box spring and mattress, and …….. a folding stool. I think that about covers it.  Oops – forgot the microwave oven.

Rey has graciously been sleeping on the floor, giving his guests the beds. I feel a bit guilty, but he seems little the worse for wear.

Onto our day – we visited the Sunsphere and area park (home of the 1982 Worlds Fair) while Rey delivered some tickets. Then went to the Knoxville Art Museum. Met up with Rey for lunch and back to the museum to finish up our viewing. On to downtown, where we visited the Tennessee History museum and learned about the settlement and growth of eastern Tennessee.

Then it was out to the ballpark – the Tennessee Smokies ballpark.

At this point we discovered that the car engine looked like it was “smoking”, and I assumed it was overheating. When we popped the hood we discovered the oil filler cap was missing. Rey had added oil the day before and apparently did not replace all of the parts. No oil light or poor performance, so whew – we caught it. I actually preferred this to an overheating engine. Easily remedied. Which we did with some new oil, duct tape for a temporary cap, and a new cap from an auto parts store just a few miles away.

Rey answered a few e-mails for work and we were back to the apartment again, for dinner and an evening of  naps and crossword puzzles.

Day 2 found us forcing ourselves out of bed for breakfast.
Carl & I that is. Ashlan chose to stay abed until the last moment, counting on her doting parents to bring her food from the breakfast buffet.

Then on to – wait for it – wait for it …. a Baseball Game!

Atlanta Braves day game. Got there early – but limited batting practice.
So we wandered around the park and had a sausage.  [One note is that as we have traveled around it has become clear that Safeco Field has more variety of food offerings than most ballparks.]

Our seats were in the front row in right centerfield. A fairly similar location to our Seattle seats. The seats were in the sun, and it was probably in the mid to high 80s. There were moments of respite when the cloud cover would come into play. We drank copious amounts of water and used up the last of our sunscreen. (Carl got pink arms – oops).

The game was fun, and fast. Braves 2 – Phillies 1. The Braves scored their second run in the bottom of the 8th, and faced only 4 batters in the top of the 9th. 2:28 was the time for the game, good for us as we were then headed to Jefferson City, TN.

Leaving Atlanta proved challenging. We did not have a good map of the area, and after waiting probably 30 minutes to get out of the ballpark parking lot, the only signs we could see were for I-75 south. But of course we wanted north. So we improvised through stop and go traffic. Finally after consulting with a neighboring car’s driver we were able to get onto I-75 north, in rush hour traffic. This was heavy and slow, but could have been much worse. We even went past an accident that had several lanes closed, and it was not a tremendous delay.

Finally after hitting Gainesville we broke free of most of the traffic. Our route followed US 441 North, I think almost until we entered the Smokie Mountain National Park, on the North Carolina side. We passed an elk feeding on the side of the road, and a few minutes later were greeted with lightning and an intense downpour. I was happy to have a vehicle in front of us to follow. The rain continued, but at a slower pace for most of the ride going up. At some point we entered Tennessee and headed down – more or less. The ride down was also dryer.

The Smokie Mountains were beautiful, and fully lived up to their name, even when the sun was poking through. There was a switchback on the way up that seemed to take you almost in a complete circle, and I commented that we were going to drive over ourselves. And then on the way down – we did. The road sign shows a complete circle, and that is exactly what you do, circling under your starting point in a short tunnel.

After coming down we had a choice to go through Gatlinburg, or take the Gatlinburg bypass. We chose the bypass as it was getting late, and we were ready to be at our destination. Part of me wanted to go through Gatlinburg to see if I could recognize our lodgings from my childhood. But I had heard that the area has changed quite a bit since then.

The only stressful part of the drive, from a directions standpoint, was our travel through Pigeon Forge. OMG. It is amazing and terrible. And long. And in the end the directions seemed to call for more turns than were necessary, and occasionally in the apparently wrong direction. Lucky for us we followed our senses, but were not sure we were right for several miles. This was the testy point of the trip, but we survived. Finally got to Rey’s place around 10 PM. He had dinner ready for us, and I am sure he was starving.

We said it, and heard it said by at least one other person on this day (that would be Tuesday). Things conspired to keep me off the blogsphere for a few.

Our modes of transport were

Bus
Light Rail
Feet to terminal
Airplane
Terminal – Airplane – Terminal – Airplane
Terminal – people mover train thingie – Skytrain
Automobile

Started at 7 AM PT in Seattle and ended at 12 PM ET in Atlanta

When the trip was originally scheduled we were to arrive in Atlanta about 5 PM. That was changed by the airline, who had us arriving at 9 PM, after visiting Baltimore (instead of Houston). Ashlan maintains she has still not been to Maryland, even though we got off of the initial airline to change to a new flight, and then had to get off of the new flight due to storms in Atlanta, and then back onto said second plane.

It was a long day, but other than delays once we hit the eastern time zone, it was fairly free of problems that can happen when traveling. And traveling was all we did that day.

Home projects – well not HOME projects, but projects done at home.
Carl & Ashlan are out at the ballgame for the evening.

I stayed home to ready for the morrow.
I should have walked down with Carl, but had decided the weather was not good enough to take me away from the home front. Of course, the sun came out just as he left, but I had made my mind up at that time.

Time up tomorrow = 6 AM. Not too bad, as long as I get to bed tonight.

Night-night

Grass, Sidewalks, Thread and Moths. (And Garbage)

Grass – This is the first year we have had grass that is worth caring about. Trying to mow the lawn on in Seattle can be interesting. I have been balancing work and rain. I completely missed last weekend due to rain and games. So the grass was especially long, a must mow this weekend. (It did rain almost every night this week and remember the 4-10s put me later in the evening getting home.) The weather report indicated Sunday AM was the most likely time for not rain over the 3-day weekend, so I had that in my sights. I did dawdle a bit over coffee, and when I got outside (only 9 AM) it was raining. But not hard, just a drippy drizzle. So I started in. Finished the back yard (with the new grass) in a sweat, and really needing a break. Carl arrived home (from hitting baseballs, by himself) and graciously completed the front yard. He was the first to use the new lawnmower other than me. We have a reel mower, human powered. I keep telling myself that is the right thing to do. Our lawn is not large, and we are fit enough. But our neighbor finished her similarly sized lawn in about half the time with her electric mower. …

Sidewalks – Took my first official training walk today. That would be with a group organized under the Susan G. Komen 3-Day rules and posted on the web-site, so you can find other like-minded individuals to join for long walks. This was an 8 or 9 mile event, I don’t remember. I got to reconnect with several people I had seen in previous years, and chatted most of the walk with a women I met on one walk last year. A brisk pace, mixed with breaks at Starbucks, grocery stores and a McDonalds. The McDonalds came into play when the grocery store restroom had no toilet paper, no hand towels and a sharps container (hmmm – well at least they are providing a receptacle for what is disposed of in their restrooms.)  And for those that are anti-the-evil-coffee-giant, they are very supportive of walkers and welcome the use of their facilities even when no one purchases anything.

Thread – I have had two mending prodjects (for Anne) waiting for attention for some time. They finally got to the top of the heap yesterday, only to be joined by a third.
The first was mending to split seams on a pair of Carl’s pants. They seem to be caused by use of the front pockets pulling at the adjacent seams. One was accomplished on the 50+ year old sewing machine, but the other required a bit of hand sewing.
Next up was a “seam” on a sweater that had pulled apart. I hand sewed this, and hope it works. It would probably be better fixed with a thin yarn, but I did not have any in the correct color, and unlike some relatives I do not have a large stash of yarn in my house.
Third was a late arrival of a very thin material top of Ashlan’s. It had several holes in one area on the lower front. It looked like something had snagged it somewhere. It has many colors as well, which hid the holes from a quick view. I pinched the material to put the holes in an interior space and sewed, by hand along the front. This resulted in a line of sorts, but it is central low on the top and may not look too out of place.

Moths – Not responsible for the holes in the top (they happened in Canada). And we have not seen holes in clothes, but we definitely have an infestation of small moths. They generally are in the basement. We think they are breeding under an old rug on the floor down there. So the rug will be history, but maybe not this weekend. We need to figure out where we can put it outside until we can get to the transfer station (dump). It has been raining a bit, which limits the places you want to put a moldy, moth infested rug. This will undoubtedly instigate another long-needed prodject to clean much “trash” out of the basement (to clear the rug for moving).  In the meantime, Carl gets in touch with his warrior self and goes on killing rampages.

Garbage – This is the start of Day 3. It is a holiday, but apparently the garbage truck people take no holidays. And we slept in. I may have previously mentioned that we are at the start of the garbage route, first thing in the morning. Now we did manage to get the yard waste and recycle out to the curb yesterday, but the garbage usually waits until the morning. Since I leave before it is due out, usually not a problem. But it is a holiday. Now we don’t normally come close to filling the container, so two weeks in one is not going to be a huge issue, just smellier than your normal week.

Hmm – seemed very much like the work week. Except

• I got to sleep in a bit.
• There was only one other person at work.
• I stayed until almost 6 (wait that’s not really all that different).
• The radio was blaring for most of the day.
• I mostly cleaned my office by filing and putting things away.
• Others are going to reap the benefit of requests from me as I figured out why things were on my desk waiting to be addressed. So many of them were addressed to others and sent on their way.
• I did not work on the primary task I had intended to work on, but clearing the desk off occasionally is good for the soul.

Then home to the new cable TV. After watching the Seattle sounders on TV (regular stations – no box needed), we are now flipping around to see what’s out there. That should keep us entertained for the evening. And yes it definitely feels like we are wasting time.

We made it through the 4-10s (and 1-8). A bit weary by the end of it.
And one of us is planning to go in tomorrow.

And tomorrow the cable gods are coming.
So the Hockey game is on regular TV – no cable needed.

I think our family is ready for a little break.
Everybody seems to be looking for that extra rest.
Nothing like a weekend in the sun – music at Northwest Folklife, lawn needs mowing.

Yeah – right.
It was a cold wet day today, and I think tomorrow is supposed to be the same.
I am not looking at Sun(ny)day yet.
Thinking about a long walk and don’t want to get my hopes either “up” or “dashed”.

Theme of the week – working longer than usual hours. 4-10s, which means you don’t get out of work until 5:30

I had seen an advert for barbeque ribs, and got a hankering.
We have been going to the Honeybaked Ham store for years. For Honeybaked Hams. Usually in conjunction with a holiday. Apparently they do much more.

Ribs it is.
Except the store closes at 6 PM.
And it is about 30 minutes or more from the office.
Out the door – through the gate – (wait for it to close, wait, wait – GO)
Over the hills and through the valleys, on our way to the freeway.
Freeway is fine, until the exit.
Screeech to a halt.

Through the long line of exit traffic and actually made the light,
and the next light, but not the next.
Hmmm, next to a driveway to a gas station – we cut through (shame on us).
One more light and then a right on red, into the parking lot – try the door?

YES! Last sale of the day.

Ribs and rice.

(I am not sure what it says about my life lately that this was about the most excitement today)

Kind of how my week has felt. 10 hour days with Ashlan, and I went in early today – even though she had the day off. The drive home was a slog – and I didn’t have a carpooler. Part of the reason for the slog is a soccer game tonight.

A “Friendly,” a game that does not count against either teams record. The Sounders are playing Boca Jr., an Argentinian team. Apparently they are not the dominant force they have been in other years, so maybe we will have a chance. Since the Sounders just played on Saturday, I am not sure how many of the big stars will put in long minutes.

And it is raining. Off and on all day. More on than off, but maybe it is starting to break up a bit now. But bring the ponchos.

Ashlan, Carl and some of the kids went to the Mariners’ day game. Carl is now doing laundry, but Ashlan has crash landed for a bit, to try and get energy for the night game. The Mariners won a fun game last night, with a late comeback to win 5-3. Today they scored 4 runs in the 8th, and won 5-4. Ashlan’s record at Mariner games may reach .500 by the end of the year.

Time to figure out how many layers of clothes to put on! (It got all the way up to 60 today!)