Raincharm’s Weblog

Had 12,500 steps by 12:30.

Started by watering everything in the backyard, even the grass. The grass only gets an occasional drink, and this was the first augmentation of the year.

10,000 steps were on a walk to drop off our all mail-in ballot, and continue around Green Lake. Other than the ballot drop box we avoided the walking path, sticking to the sidewalks across the street. Much easier to social distance. The real reason for the early walk was to avoid the heat of the afternoon. It’s supposed to hit 80. My dad informed me that would be a cool day in Michigan.

Speaking of Michigan, while I am spending a weekend day of leisure, those that are vacationing at the cabin are hard at work. Squirrel access eradication is the chore of the season. That is until the roof leak was discovered, chore 2. The big breakthrough today was verifying at least one point of access. And finding a second possibility, also addressed.

Head poking out over some old foam

Now plugged.

But the benefits of spending time at the beach was getting a pretty good view of the comet, looking as though it will land in Canada.

Note: All pictures are from Mark and Pooh, used prior to asking permission.

And now, back to a crossword puzzle from mid-June. Fully Covid free by now. Or work on the current jigsaw puzzle.

We found a new restaurant (for takeout). Almanqal Grill. The ocassion was a socially distanced meet-up to take some real pictures for virtual attendance.

Dinner was really good, kabobs of all varieties, the best pita bread and humas I have had in a long time, maybe ever. Dolmas, Baba Ganoush (I did not try this, not an eggplant fan), and a salad. And baklava, again – really spectacular.

The pictures were for attending Mariner home games, at least showing our faces.

We are trying to get our cutouts put in our actual seats in the outfield. They say you can’t choose your location, and they are in foul territory, but we are asking anyway. If a foul ball hits your cut-out, they are supposed to send you the ball. I wonder if they would do the same for a home run.

In other pursuits of no import, we finished this jigsaw puzzle. It was 1000 pieces, and a good challenge. It took a few days of picking through the many colors. Getting the second card table was definitely a good move. The shadow is just a shadow, not part of the puzzle.

Do you ever have a day where you just can’t get anything going, and it turns into a no-good, very bad day.

And I’m listening to our Governor ask folks, especially young people, to take the restrictions seriously. The state did quite well for a long time, and it’s going up again.

So you find something nice to see.

We sent a present to Corwin, and he is trying it out.

Thanks Rey and Becca for sharing.

And hope our small gathering planned for tonight, us plus 2 for dinner outside, is safe.

For lunch today.

Tuna glop

Roasted Potatoes

All enjoyed in the sun, on the deck, before tearing myself away and back into my meetingful work day.

Sunny lunch work attire, and fruit of the day, fresh from the raspberry patch.

Note the wispy Covid hair style of the day.

This has been another weekend with video chats. What was, and still could be Skype, has changed to zoom and video calls (if you happen to be a fellow android).

Yesterday we got together with some far flung friends.

It’s a bit funny where everyone is focusing on, depending on the screen to camera difference, and if something else is being looked into.

This morning was time with our favorite grandson. He is usually occupied with whatever takes his fancy, but for a few moments today he was intrigued by his grandpa and the popping sounds he could make with a finger in his mouth.

Rey explained that when they left Becca’s parents last week they explained, “Yaya (Grandma Chen) is going back in the box (phone).”

We have also managed to squeeze in a few long walks, and have started another puzzle. This one is 1000 pieces and butterflies. It is challenging.

The weather has been great for long walks. Warm to hot by the end, but not sweltering. And good for the garden. The raspberries continue to produce, the tomatoes are coming along, and we harvested some kale yesterday. Sauteed and steamed with some garlic. The amount we picked was only enough for a few bites each. We will try more. I am still a bit unclear on all things kale.

After the rare appearance at the office, I am home again. Nothing too notable. I didn’t work on the items I intended to work on, but put out little fires instead. Of course that happens when I am at the office too.

Today’s fun is here.

And, a walk, in spite of a very swollen ankle. There is no ankle injury, this is due to a baseball to the shin deep bone bruise.

Not quite true, as I have been working steadily through the Change. But I went and worked in my office for the first time in 4 months. 4 MONTHS!

Just getting out the door this morning was interesting. Trying to remember to take the right things,like my badge. And to do the new things like the health check in before entering the building. (I did it from home, before I left.) And wearing my mask. I did pick up a District issued mask as well, so I have one more option.

My wakeup alarm went off as I started to back out of the driveway. And I found 2 closed roads trying to get to the freeway. And there was traffic, but much lighter than before the Change. There were 3 new big buildings rising as I drove through downtown.

I had 4 items on my list to be addressed while at the office. Badges for new workers and on old worker whose badge just up and quit a month ago. Looking through files for information not in the digital version. Both pieces for 2 vastly different projects were found. One hard copy report from 1999 and one handwritten list from 2005. Not tremendously old (jeesh, 20 years old), but squarely in the period when not everything had digital versions. In the end, 3 of 4 items were crossed off the list, and I have what I need to complete the 4th.

I was going to return a phone call and realized I couldn’t remember how to get an outside line on the new phone system we got just before the Change.

Went through the hard copy in-box that had been gathering dust. Recycled a lot and filed the rest.

And rescued some plants from the one locked office in our office, and put them where they have a fighting chance of getting watered.

I had enough to do that I spent the entire day at the office, which meant eating lunch. Since Carl wasn’t there to provide me with face food, he settled for face food text.

Yesterday

Today

All in all it was interesting to be back in the office, and get to say hello to a few co-workers in person, with masks, from a distance.

I also scored a few new jigsaw puzzles, and handed off one of ours.

Two years ago

See the changes two years can bring.

We are so proud of all they have accomplished.

Happy Anniversary

3 days in a row we hit 10,000 steps plus. I guess that’s what a 3 day weekend can do for us. For today’s walk we built around our special meal. For most takeout we go to places within quick walking distance. Today we splurged for our celebration, with Ivars Salmon House. We can walk to Ivars, but the food would not be warm when we reached home. So we drove to Ivars, 2 hours early, and walked out for an hour then turned around to return in time for the pickup.

We went through Gasworks Park on the way out. There were many people, but distanced for the most part, and a fair number wore masks.

We ran into a friend on the return trip and caught up on life in the time of Covid. The sun was out in full force, but luckily the temperature was only in the 70s. A generally pleasant walk, but we were tired and in need of nourishment when we got back to Ivars.

Dinner was so tasty. It would have been a treat to eat at the restaurant, and it was possible, but a risk factor we just didn’t need to add.

Ceasar salad, clam chowder, blackened rockfish tacos, grilled sockeye salmon, cornbread pudding, grilled asparagus and beer/wine. One of us had our chocolate decadence cake with raspberry sauce dessert. The other is holding the carrot cake with caramel sauce for later.

It’s now early evening and the exercise followed by a lovely repast means I feel like a nap is in order.

And don’t forget that it really is Sunday now, and the garbage does need to get set out.

I do know the date, I just don’t know the day. Since yesterday morphed into a Saturday, it only makes sense that today is Sunday. I keep having urges to do Sunday things. Like putting out the garbage. And doing the Sunday crossword puzzle, which I did do, only from a several week old paper.

We took a long walk. I do try to have at least one 10,000 step day a weekend, so which day it is/was, doesn’t really matter. I even picked up a book out of one of the little free libraries we passed. I hand sanitized after retrieving the book, and sanitized the book itself after arriving home.

The chores for the day focused on the garden. Raspberries picked, watered those, kale and tomatoes, and staked the tomatoes, again. When I bought 3 plants I only had 2 cages. And then I waited too long to get a third, as the plants grew to big to fit the traditional cage over. So I bought a few put-together versions that allow building around the plant, and putting the crossbars where they are needed. They come with three stakes to build as a triangle. A review I read said they would work better as a square, so I bought 2. I am glad I did, because now I have 2 extra stakes to help manage some wild branches from the plants in the traditional cages.

All three plants. Pink traditional cages, and green added structure.

Close up of some cherry tomatoes forming.

But the most fun of the day was hosting a family zoom with almost the whole family on my side and significant others. Most significantly absent were my Dad, and I realized we never saw Allen, although Theo made a cameo appearance. We discussed the normal family issues; squirrels, bees (bumble not murder hornets), boats, cars, middle fingers, computers and kittens. Of course the free 40 minutes goes by way too quickly- as did the second version.

I have heard one large boom this evening, several hours before the sun is down. Sunset is at 9:09, and it stays light for quite a bit afterwards. It is likely to be a loud night, but we can sleep in tomorrow.