Raincharm’s Weblog

My weekend alone.
Saturday goals.

Getting up in time for an early morning dentist appointment.
Completing the asbestos abatement project in our house.

Check and check.
Note that the final step of the asbestos project was taking the last double-bagged bit to the disposal company. The actual abatement had been completed more than a year ago.

Sunday’s goal was even smaller, although it took longer than Saturday’s combined.
Filing. Clearing the table loaded last weekend.

Check.

On to my week alone.
Carl’s weekend went well.
His team is 2 – 0 – 1.
In Phoenix.
A 55+ team known as the Seattle Blues.
Sounds like they are having fun.

A co-worker has been pushing Jasmine tea recently. Apparently her in-laws are big tea drinkers and travellers. They gifted her with an abundance of teas and she is sharing the wealth.

I accepted a Jasmine ball. I’m not quite sure what to call it, but it was spherical.

This afternoon I was looking for a warm drink, but not coffee.

The flower ball essentially unfurls, and most of it stayed together.

Here is the rest of the desk.

Busy tonight packing for Carl. Tomorrow morning will be an early rise, so this week earlier than normal mornings may end up being a good thing.

Yesterday the electronics rebelled.

It’s a good thing I was not driving the Prius.

After about an hour of work, just enough to get really into a document, my desktop computer took yet another powder. We have replaced memory and the motherboard. Now it looks like the power supply.

Back to the mini. I am amazed at how much it impacts my mood. Mostly because my productivity is so reduced.

On the upside, I have two meetings today that should take up at least half of the day.

And then when it was time to leave, the gates would not work. They were locked open. Luckily the project manager was still there to troubleshoot the situation. Unluckily he is my carpooler. Let’s just say I only saw the last out of the Cubs game. (He was able to close the gates and devise a procedure to lock them open in the morning.)

And I helped.

But they are not fixed. The gates or the computer.

Early in this morning. There are days when I am not up yet. And we are closer to work than to home. Hopefully we’ll get out relatively on time tonight for the Cubs last stand.

We had a few errands to run today and decided to try to get them done in the morning.

Our first goal was to get a map of Phoenix. A paper map. Metzger Maps was the place to go. In the middle of tourist town. But Carl will be there in a week, and is still more comfortable with a hard copy map than a small smartphone app.

Tourist town combined with a pending Seahawks game. Recipe for stretching your patience.

Example, There was an Armada that did a pickup move without really clearing the lane, so effectively blocked a lane while slowly loading a passenger. And then couldn’t just pull back into traffic, because an Armada has the turning radius of, well, an Armada. After backing and filling several times they got into the right lane, signaled left, changed lanes, stopped and started to move back to the right lane. Impossible to get past … All the while the Seahawk traffic is growing and impatient.

We finally decided that it did not matter where we were trying to get, we just needed to get out of the Seahawk area.

On to Ballard in search of Vernors. It may be easy to find in Michigan. Not so much in Seattle. Bevmo – a big box beverage store I had previously avoided. Bingo.

Next up , Northgate area to get some baseball duds for Carl’s upcoming tournament. Different colors and all that.

Gas up the car and on to the grocery store. The goal was cheese and coffee. Cheese was easy, but the in store Starbucks was clogged. Off to the real Starbucks. Finally ready to go home.

Along with everyone else trying to get home in time to watch the Seahawks lose.

Which we did.
I did make some progress on my filing.

The box had been full.

It has been relocated.
And the box is filling back up with paper to be shredded.

Just remember, this blog was started so the kids could keep up on what was happening at home. I don’t think they are regular readers now, but you get what you pay for.

Our office closes at 4:30 PM each day. I could count on one hand the number of times I leave within five minutes of closing, and most of those have to do with trying to catch a bus.

Last night my carpooler needed to get to the bank before it closed at 5 PM. (The reason is a complicated story with credit card fraud, PINs, automatic payments and a vehicle low on gas.)

As we were exiting the office, another employee let me know there were some kids in the trees just outside our fence. He wanted to be sure it was our property. ( It is.)

So I went over to get the kids out of the tree. Three of them. High school age. Lippy. Not my property, public property, what’s my problem, am I really taking their picture (yes), can they take mine ( go for it).

All this while knowing we were pressed for closing time.

I finally convinced them to come down by calling 911. The operator stayed on the line with me long enough for them to climb down and scamper away.

I only hope they think I got a better picture of them than I did.

And now I get to write up a report.

Literally, and we hope, figuratively.

Yesterday it was grey well into the afternoon. Today looks like it will be much earlier.

On a more individual level, I have been dealing with inadequate computer issues this week. Specifically being forced to work on a mini laptop instead of my regular desktop with two large monitors. I am amazed at my drop in productivity.

Printing out hard copies to review.
Almost missing meetings because my calendar is hidden behind many other windows.
And all of those things that just are not quite the same.
Don’t get me started on the Edge. (Not all of our applications work with the Edge.)
And then there is the super-sensitive space bar. Multiple spaces everywhere, and I am not a heavy handed typer.

The laptop is supposed to be used during meetings, and other situations out of the office. For limited periods of time. It has been full time this week, and will continue until the parts arrive to cure my desktop’s ails.

The original diagnosis was bad memory. Now it appears that the motherboard has taken a powder.

In our neighborhood it is not uncommon to put items out on the parking strip for others to glean.

A few days ago an across the street neighbor put an add on Craig’s List for a gas powered lawnmower – to give away. And our next door neighbor was mowing her lawn with an electric mower. She must have walked away for a bit, and when she returned, her mower was gone.

She put out a sign requesting its return, at which point the across the street neighbor realizes what might have happened.

So he feels bad and puts another post on Craig’s List requesting whoever picked up the electric mower to please return it to our neighbor.

And the mower is returned.

It has been cleaned, and the gleaner had researched the mower, found there was a recall for an electrical short problem, and that the manufacturer was providing replacements. And even attached the required paperwork.

Now everyone is feeling good about the situation, and people in general.

The primary focus of our day away from home was the Greek Festival at St. Demetrious. On Boyer. This annual festival is just the right distance for an easy walk. You have enough energy to enjoy the festival, and feel like you may have worked off some of the food. Today we had gyros, souvlaki, Greek fries and loukoumades. There was more we did not have, but we weren’t trying to spend the entire afternoon.

The festival was quite crowded. I think this probably reflected a slow Saturday when it rained hard off and on. This contrasted with the roads that were empty. Everyone was watching the Seahawks. It was even on at the festival.

We did see the new pedestrian overpass from the UW stadium and new light rail station to the campus side of a major intersection.

And there was this (for all of my Michigan car buffs)

I could not figure out the make until we found this.

A lovely fall day. I hope yours was too.

I missed game 1, and Carl missed most of the game. Work. What are we on the west coast to do.

We are enjoying game two with the Handleys. At least we are trying. St. Louis just hit a home run. (I am the only one in the room that did not spend part of my youth in the Chicago area.)

And while it is not politically correct to have a favorite child. I guess today it would be Ashlan. Sorry Rey.

It’s a nice afternoon to watch a game inside as it’s pouring here. A very Seattle thing to happen in October.

Hoping for better weather tomorrow so we can walk to the Greek Festival.

We left for Safeco field at about 9:20 this morning. We should leave Century Link field at about 9:00 PM. A long day, but so far so good.

Mariners won their last game 3-2, over the Athletics. We did a fair amount of scoreboard watching during the game.
Before the game we wandered and said so long to seat hosts, alcohol enforcement, coaches and a few players. Carl got four more baseballs, for a season total of 197. Just a few shy of a milestone.
And ichiro pitched an inning for Miami. Makes me wonder whether he is ready to retire.
A few years ago Ashlan went to six Mariner and one Sounder game. All were wins, and one was Felix Hernandez’s perfect game.
This week I have been to six Mariner games and am awaiting the Sounders. My record is 2-4, so far. I guess I don’t have the touch.

Again the weather has been remarkably nice for October. And I have been able to spend time with Carl and friends.

Go Sounders. And don’t let 6 AM come too early tomorrow morning.