Raincharm’s Weblog

That is a walk to the park, in the park, around the lake (partway), beyond the park, through the zoo, south park, and back home again. 6.5 miles roughly.
Cold and sunny.
My layers = under armour, long sleeved tee, fleece vest, jacket, scarf, hat, fuzzy gloves. (and pants)
Carl’s layers = long sleeved tee and fleece vest, hat, gloves. (and pants)

Saw several friends where we stopped and chatted, had a burger at Red Mill (just as the crowds were arriving) (they had the biggest pile of bacon waiting that I have ever seen), coffee ala Starbucks, sun bears, tigers, orangutans, siamangs, elephants, zebras, antelope, exotic geese, too many dogs to count, and about as many children, and a soccer game (one of the players plays on a team with Jay).

Some other things of note that we saw on the walk.
Invisibility Cloak: We start off wearing our cloaks of invisibility. It is the only explanation. Car’s making turns just kept not stopping, cutting the corner close to our path, or cutting in front of us. And we were in crosswalks, or crossing at the corner, and this is Seattle where cars actually usually stop at crosswalks.

Chocolate bridal dresses. At least we imagined them to be. A little storefront on our route was for many years a Boehm’sChocolate store. Local, really good chocolate. They had ice cream bars that they would hand dip in melted chocolate just before serving. Mmmmm. Anyway, the proprietor finally wanted to retire, and no one stepped in to take over the store, so Boehm’s on Ravenna closed. Now it is a Bridal boutique. We figure the dresses are made from white chocolate, and getting the bride out of the gown just gets more fun. Use your imagination.

Faux foxes On our journey back through the park we passed the baseball field. Seattle parks shuts down the better baseball fields during the winter to try and preserve the outfield. Soccer and football players would use the outfield and tear the grass to smithereens. (There are very few grass soccer fields in Seattle due to the wet winters. They just get torn up. There are dirt and cintrex fields, and finally now they have several artificial turf fields that  play like fast grass, and hold up in the weather.) They would put rows of orange construction fencing across the grass to discourage open field play.  As we were coming down from above, it looked like an animal, dog maybe?, squatting on the field. Then I thought maybe a goose, or geese, making a different silhouette. We both were trying to figure out what this non-moving thing was. Finally close enough we realized they were stuffed, or very realistic looking foxes, in ready to pounce poses. There were three spread around the outfield. And what there was not, were any geese. This is really unusual, so they must be working. (There were no rabbits in view either, and there is quite a rabbit population in the area.)

North by Northwest, that is.
I am tired. Maybe it’s from working a full week for a change, and really working for a good part of it. I think I may leave our rather chilly living room for a warm waterbed, where the black and white TV (that I hope will work with DTV) resides.
How very 1970’s.

Well, not a lot of news.

Just that the Soo is still there. Perhaps a little more black and white than before.
Black, as in it was nighttime. White, as in a lot of snow on the ground.

And that Rey & Schaefer made it to that fine town, round about 7 PM local time.
After a brief contact to figure out exactly where Aunts house was located (remembered it was somewhere near the college), they arrived safely.

We are happy they are there, and will have a few days to visit and relax.
The trip was all about decent weather, not too much precipitation, and relatively good roads. (And, I am assuming, very low traffic volumes.) We are also happy they have such fine people to spend time with. I am a bit jealous.

Maybe I will be able to convince Rey to do a guest blog, and give you his perspective on the trip.

Well, in Bismarck the locals say that spring is just around the corner. It was sunny. Only 13 degrees, so apparently the sun is the determining factor.

Rey & Schaefer spent some time in Bismarck filling out an apartment application for Rey. For an apartment in Knoxville that is.  Faxed from the public library, and then hit the road.

Today’s trip was Bismarck, North Dakota to Superior, Wisconsin. Approximately 450 miles. Good weather, good roads, and only a bit of trouble with keeping the windshield clean. I think the Seattle windshield cleaner is not rated for single digit temperatures.

When Rey told me that Schaefer had done some of the driving today I wasn’t surprised. That is until I figured out that this meant Schaefer had not done any driving the day before. (Check the mileage from yesterday’s travel notes.)

Tomorrow’s aim is for the Soo!

Awesome.
I tried to do work and watch at the same time, but it quickly became apparent that work just had to wait. Well worth the need to maybe stay a little later tonight.

Thankfully I work for an office that is willing to be flexible.

UPDATE
Finally got out of work at 6-6:30.
Thought about the events of the day on the way home. The journey through the last year came to mind, rather local events really.

Starting with our caucuses. Long story short – I ended up being the chairperson of our precinct. One neighbor in our caucus said my volunteering on the spot had inspired him to volunteer to be a delegate, which included more than just the few hours effort I gave. I wonder what his experience was like, and how far he got. What a culmination.

Rey update: Called from Bismark (that’s North Dakota) ((that’s Bismarck)) 750 Miles. No real problems. Planning to aim for Duluth tomorrow. [spelling Bismarck incorrectly in Randmcnally.com will get you nowhere, literally. And it is Sault Sainte Marie, not Sault Ste. Marie.]

Few items

Rey – still in Missoula, visiting friends. Probably hitting the road again tomorrow.
Seattle – inversion trapping fog and pollutants. Noticeably poor air quality, unless you can rise above.
Carl – a cold from a few weeks ago seems to have made a return.
Jay – suddenly too many well defined items to be completed at work.

I decided it would be a good day to clean out a closet (mine and Carls). So I told Carl of my plan, thinking I should not spring the idea on him in the evening when I got home. I would have very little chance of getting a joint project going with that approach. So, planning ahead, plant the seed. And I really was interested in a joint project, as that would help to motivate me and make it go quicker. So – best laid plans. I get home and Carl has already gone through his portion of the closet, so I will have to get myself up there, … by myself…

As in Investment Sales Cost Basis.
As in we tansferred some money from one Mutual Fund to an education account.
My head hurts.

I am trying to do the draft of our taxes before receiving all of the information from the appropriate sources. The FAFSA is due, and the easiest way to fill it out is to get your taxes filled out first. The FAFSA even references the correct lines on the tax form to use.

But, I don’t want to have to figure out the best Investment Cost Sales Basis to use for a mutual fund sale. Eespecially when they threaten to impact you for many years in the future. “Once you begin using one of these methods, you must continue to use if for every sale from this fund. You can only change it if you receive special permission from the IRS.”
AND the Mutual Fund will probably have already made the choice of Cost Basis

I think I should be able to figure out this sort of thing. I had to do it once before when some stocks were sold inadvertently (I still hate KeyBank for this), and had to go back through all of the stocks changes from the initial purchase, through splits, to the sale.

My choices are – go for the big analysis and hope I am right on choices, wait for the investment company to send out their forms and hope it is there, spend more money to get the “advanced” version of TurboTax, that will probably not tell me anything more …

WAIT. I think that will be my choice. FAFSA will just be getting a really draft version of numbers this year. And since the Canadian school doesn’t appear to want to provide any additional support, and the boy’s school doesn’t care anymore since he is gone, FAFSA is not the driving force in my life that it once was.

Taxes, gotta love ’em, have to pay ’em.
Baked potatoes – love ’em even more. Time for dinner.

We did a good job. Now it’s his turn.

Rey - Day 1 Seattle to Tennessee

Quality of the picture compliments of a 1970s – 80s Polaroid One Step, with film to be used by 08/05. We are not sure exactly what year, maybe 1984.

Carl & I are up in our room while Rey entertains friends on his last night in town for a while. We want to let them have their space, so we are upstairs. We actually have two (three if you count the bathroom) to choose from. Ashlan might be a little worried that we have so much time to spend in her room, but we have chosen to keep to our own room for the most part.
Dinner (of sorts) and Jeopardy so far.
Interesting evening ahead.

Packing has begun!
The end is in sight. Or is it a beginning?
Well it will be a change, for everyone.

A new, and exciting start.
Exciting as in planning a drive across the northern tier states in the middle of winter, when the temperatures are reaching record lows in places, and the snow continues to fall and blow. [No, I’m not in the least concerned.]
Exciting as in living in a new state, with new roommates (assuming a domicile is found), and starting a new job.

I am almost jealous. And I will definitely miss my crossword partner. And Carl will miss his sports conversationalist, one that can do more than nod and offer less than insightful remarks. But we will gain a new spot to put on the summer vacation plans. (More on vacation plans coming soon.)

Anyway, packing has begun in earnest. Laundry planned for tomorrow, and then the final push to fill those last boxes.