Raincharm’s Weblog

Father of Texas, professional wrestler or the Six Million Dollar Man?

I am debating which of these has a better chance of beating UCLA tomorrow.

Our family has a long tradition of participating in March Madness with a random draw bracket. We all go in wanting to get certain teams, and can be torn when we don’t get one of our favorites. And – we all want to get a coveted number 1 seed. After all, there was chocolate at stake. [Treats for each win, double if it is an upset.] But it is a random draw. And random is random.

We had a wonderful time doing the draw. We had a 3-way Skype going, with Pooh and Mark standing in for Ashlan & Rey doing the actual drawing out of the bowl. When all was said and done it was my job to enter the results into the bracket, and add the teams after they were drawn.

It was only then that I realized the highest seeded team I had drawn was a No. 5!!! Really. No 1, 2, 3, or 4 seed graced my share of the bracket. [I did manage 3 of the 4 number 5 teams.]

Still, a number 5 seed plays their first game against a number 12 seed, so you would think that I could get a few games out of my 5s. But NOOO. Two of my 5s went down to Harvard and Stephen F. Austin. As luck would have it, I also had the No. 12 seed – Stephen F. Austin, so I was still alive for the next game.

For the round of 32 I had only four teams. Stephen F. Austin (12 seed), Pittsburgh (9 seed), Oregon (7 seed) and St. Louis (5 seed). It is now Saturday evening, and I am down to one team. Stephen F. Austin. A 12 seed, slated to play UCLA – a 4 seed.

We used to joke about directional schools not having much of a chance. For instance, Michigan and Michigan State just have the name of the state. Western Michigan has to add a direction. Stephen F. Austin does not even get a state name, although you might consider it a City name. Sort of.

Anyway, I think I am going to be out of this tournament faster than anyone in our family has ever made an exit.

In addition to tracking the basketball scores we took a walk today. A few sightings.

Wheee – phone booths

We have plenty of collections at our house, but none like this.

We introduced my brother-in-law to a new waterfowl on his recent visit. Wigeons, or mallard with a mohawk as we like to refer to them. We usually have American Wigeons around Seattle. But occasionally there are some visitors from the east that arrive with their American counterparts. We had told Mark about the Eurasian variety, but never saw one. Today we spotted one in the flock at Green Lake.

Eurasian Wigeon on the left, with the rusty head

Oh – HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! I will call tomorrow (I am not the best daughter today).

I have been doing a bit of work, and a lot more play over these past few days.
Pooh and Mark finally made it to vacation time, and gathered all of their vacation karma to cause the rain to cease. At least for a few days.

Foggy Sound into Kingston

It was a glorious day. Foggy crossing the sound, but the sun melted the fog as we landed in Kingston. (See – we didn’t need to get up any earlier, because we would not have been able to see as much.)

Wednesday morning we launched for the Olympic Peninsula.
Target – The Elwha Dam.
Or rather the Elwha Dam Site.
That is no longer the site of the Elwha Dam, but rather the site of the past Elwha Dam.
The dam Dam is gone.

Old Elwha Dam Site

If you go to visit the Elwha dam sites, today, you will only be able to get to the Elwha Dam. The upper dam (Glines) is on her/his way out. Because there is occasionally dynamite used to bam departing dams, we were limited to the lower Dam on the Elwha, the Elwha Dam (or past dam site).

To get to the site we followed the path to a lookout. Then we took the path off of the path – to a much better lookout. Then we took the path that was not a path off of the path, but rather a road – or a past road – that was used to get to the dam, when it was a dam. This took us right into the dam pool. (Lake Mills I think.) Except it was no longer a pool, but an area being reclaimed by vegetation.

Intrepid Wanderers

Tree Gnome (looking for a tree)

The most obvious signs of the roughly 100 years between the dam construction and destruction are the tree stumps.

Loggers Spring Board notches

Not Quite Up to the Notch

This Elwha silt is a recurring theme of the area at this time. I thought another hiker had dropped a handful of mud/silt on the ground – until I realized we were in an area where the dam pool had allowed the normal silt and mud flow to settle.

Glob of Elwha Silt

And as the water level was lowered, some of this silt stayed on top of the stumps.

Mud Cap

From a hydraulic engineer’s point of view, one exciting sight was the river meanders that could be easily seen in the mud and silt that is still the river bed.

Elwha Meanders

I really want to return to this site over the next few years – just to see the changes.
We even saw a bit of wildlife.

Wildlife Siting in a Spring Box

Then we took off to see other sites along the river.

Along the banks of the Elwha

First stop – Madison Falls.
Or rather a stop for Pooh and Mark. Jay realized that she no longer had a handle on her phone, and had just said as we left the lower dam parking lot, “Does everybody have their camera? I thought I heard something fall off the car.”

Carl & Jay headed back towards the lower dam.
Carl decided to call the phone just in case the other couple at the dam site was near the parking lot and had picked up the phone.
Except, we could hear the phone ringing.
Certain that it was in the car, we returned to Madison Falls, and spent about 5 minutes hunting the phone down. You would not have thought it to be that difficult a task – it is only a Prius. It was finally located beneath the driver’s seat – safe and sound – with 6 missed calls.

Madison Falls

Madison falls was well worth the short walk off of the road. The rain from the past week had it  roaring over the drop.

Pooh wanted to find the point where the Madison entered the Elwha – to see how the clear Madison mixed with the muddy Elwha. Unfortunately this happened just beyond the No Trespassing sign.

Mud and Silt signal freeing of the river

So back to Port Angeles.
We spent a bit of time sunning on the Ediz Spit, looking back at the Olympics and trying to identify the water fowl hanging about. And we even spotted a seal, but I am not posting my picture because it looks very much like a floating log.

The next morning we launched in search of breakfast, and found the New Day Café. It was a lovely place to spend some time, but a ferry schedule beckoned and we headed to Port Townsend for the short hop to Whidbey Island. From there we went north to Deception Pass. Hiked a bit, crossed the bridge on foot (which was a bit hairier than we liked), clambered over rocks and logs, and finally headed back south to La Conner for lunch, a quilt museum (and historical house tour) and the daffodil fields. At least a few fields were in bloom. (I figured if my daffodils were blooming, theirs should be too.)

And finally home again.

And today, I finally got to use a Christmas present from the girl. (THANK  YOU)

Pooh & I enjoyed a retreat at Banya5 in the South Lake Union neighborhood.
I would most likely never go to a spa by myself, but was pleasantly surprised by the easy ambience of the place. A sauna, steam room, cold plunge pool, tepid salt-water pool and hot tub filled the spa area, along with a few showers for rinsing between pools. They were all very enjoyable (except perhaps the cold plunge, which felt much like the temperature of Lake Superior). After bouncing back and forth between these amenities, we set off for home. And while I initially felt ready for anything, I now feel ready to settle down with a movie, or a nap.

I would have been happy just to make it to the Elwha Dam site.
But to have the dam, spit, pass, 2 ferry rides, quilts, flowers and at least three good meals – with a side of two sunny days in a row – followed by a spa day; this has been an excellent vacation – and all close to home. And to see much better pictures – go to RegenAxe.

[It is times like this that make me ask why we don’t take off for weekend adventures more often.]

Sometimes it takes an outsider to remind you how to be a local.

We always say that if you want to do something, don’t worry about the weather (that is “rain”), or you will never do it.

This was really true when the kids were growing up.
Sports? Yes, we rarely cancelled a soccer game. Snow, sleet, pouring rain … play on.

Maybe we are getting soft, because I do check the weather before heading out.
Not that we don’t go, but we can temper the location and length with the predicted arrival of precipitation.

But when you have guests, there is no time to dawdle – must get out.

So we set out to go parking. The foot tour encompassed Queen Anne Hill (Kerry Park), Kinnear Park (even though much of the route was closed, sort of), Centennial Park to Myrtle Edwards Park, the Sculpture Park, and finally the Seattle Center (really, a big park).

Sewer system as art

Just another tube

Almost spring in the Vivarium

We visited the EMP in the center, and spent some time in the Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic room. They have a model from one of my long-time favorite movies, The Dark Crystal.

Dark Crystal Mystic

They have a Mystic. One of our favorite scenes plays better as part of the entire movie, but it is linked here, the Skeksis dinner scene (the part at 1:60 had us in the aisles).

I also managed to unpack a few more boxes (files) and am now getting ready to do a little work.
Oh, and watch the Oscars – to decide which films we might try to see.
I don’t think we have seen any of the major nominated films this year.

Seattle has had a relatively dry winter.
That is until the past three weeks.
I think we have just about caught up to normal.
Early thoughts about water conservation have given way to stories of the snowpack at the ski resorts.

Today I was scheduled to get my eyes tested and get some new glasses.

This an exercise I have been doing every year or so since third grade.
Actually, there was a hiatus during the time between high school and young children when I could see well enough out of one eye to not need my glasses except for very, very fine print.

Then age kicked in, and my good eye has been marching toward my bad eye’s numbers ever since.
During the exam the doctor put the machine to the new prescription for each eye at the same time, and asked me how they worked together.
I said, fine, as long as you didn’t mind double-vision.
She was a bit taken aback, but recovered explaining that I must allow one eye to take over to avoid this state, to which I replied that my left eye had been doing all of the work my entire life. The right eye is just along for the ride, and the occasional lead when the left eye is covered.

Then it was on to the always fun choosing new frames when you can’t see a darn thing.
Where is Ashlan when I need her?
The woman helping me was nice and did provide some comparison notes between frames.

I chose a pair that is about the same size as the current pair, but works with new super thin lenses (for those of us that need what used to be THICK lenses) that vary from reading to driving vision. The style had apparently just arrived in their store, and they are from Germany, so they will take a bit to get here. And, they are purple. See what happens when I go by myself.

And out to the car for the ride home.
So I wept the entire ride home, with my sunglasses on holding one hand to shield the blasted sun at bay.
Finally  got inside the house, and wore the sunglasses until the sun went down.

The glasses expedition was necessitated not by my sight deteriorating below my current glasses, but by the need to make sure I spent that pre-tax money put away for medical expenses (125 Plan). Money that you lose if you don’t use it. By the end of February.

When I guessed the amount to hold out for this year, it included an assumption of a fair amount of visits to a chiropractor.
Earlier in the year, when I started going to this practitioner, the paperwork for the visits was being sent through to our HMO so they could determine what they would cover, and what we would pay (and submit to 125 for reimbursement). Then, for some unknown reason, the chiro stopped submitting paperwork to the HMO. There have been many visits by myself and more by Carl. No paperwork has gone through since March 2013. I don’t know why – we did ask about this a few times. The Chiro practitioner changed, the office staff changed, and why is this so difficult! (this is not the first Chiro office that just can’t seem to process standard health paperwork). So I have been on their case.  (Don’t get me started about Chiro plans- I get three different sets of numbers – what we pay, what they submit, what the HMO allows – why can’t they all be at least similar numbers.)

I am so in the dark about what I might be able to claim that I decided to spend some more money that I know will be reimbursed. So I made the eye appointment. And then got a call this AM saying my health coverage did not start until March 1, 2014, so I would need to reschedule.

!?!?!?!?!

I have been covered for more than 20 years. And now they are showing a 2-week gap in coverage?
Two calls to customer service, and our insurance broker, and it looks like somebody made a “typo”.

I don’t think I will be happy about this until we are done dealing with this Chiro.
[Carl has a new Chiro that is very good, gives us paperwork after every visit – that we submit. Yes I am a control freak, but a happy control freak.]

OK – enough ranting. Time to relax.

I think every time we have purchased a piece of exercise equipment, somebody makes a comment about it becoming an expensive clothes hanger.

The first piece we bought was an exercise bike. That was a lit of years ago. I am thinking 25 or so. It broke at the base once. My boss at the time welded it back for us. It is loud and a bit clunky, but it takes the miles.
The second piece was a rowing machine. This was not a well put together piece and saw sporadic use. We purged this hydraulic fluid leaker in our house cleanout.
Third came the universal machine that required a bit of the wrecking ball to fit it in to our workout room. The ceiling was cut out between the hoisted to fit the top of the machine. There was only one place in the room it would fit. The floor and interior walls to the room were demolished in the remodel, and the ceiling repaired. The universal is waiting to be reassembled, and then we will find out if the new room is tall enough (since we removed the floor).
There are some weights and bands that have joined the group along the way.
And finally our favorite, the elliptical.  We got this a number of years ago, at Costco. I took our Prius at lunch to pick up this machine that was on sale. A co-worker was with me to help. When we looked at the box it was clear it was not going to fit in my car. I decided to phone a friend (my carpooler with the SUB). Only my phone was dead. I had to leave the co-worker in the store with the machine while I went to my car where I could plug in and use the car battery. With help on the way, we checked the behemoth box out the door. It barely fit into the larger vehicle. Once home, Ashlan and I put it together. And it served us well from that day forward. A true sweat machine.
It was one of the few pieces that never left the house during the remodel. It moved about the basement, and yes, more than one worker hung their sweatshirt on the handles. But Carl would sneak out of the apartment to spend an hour or two sweating in the basement.
But today, after an hour of work, a weld gave way.
What it should look like.

When it detached.

The jagged edge

I have started the hunt for a replacement so these oldies can continue to sweat.
A lot of words for a thing, but we will miss it. Only good thing about the timing is that our last big trash run is yet to come. It just got a bit bigger.

Yesterday’s snow probably continued into the wee hours this morning.
But it stopped. However, the temperatures have conspired to keep the snow around, except where shoveled, in bright sunshine, or where it was incorporated into a snowman (or two).

These are showing the change of the seasons.

The Great Event of the Recent Past

The Great Event of the Near Future

(World Cup for those that can’t read the shirt)

The Long Grind

Then we have the seasons of Carl

Good Night

It was so nice and sunny early on, we decided we had to take a walk.
About 5 miles down to the Seattle Center.

The attraction?
A bunch of Lego.

This particular Lego exhibit is all about buildings. Big buildings.

Chrysler Building

They also had an area where you could build your own.

Build your own area

Russell Wilson is Everywhere

5 miles was all we planned for walking, so we mass transited home via the Monorail and bus.

Then, after a short rest (and dinner), we got in the car and drove back to the Seattle Center.
When we were downtown earlier, we had considered just hanging around and bumming a ride home later, but no.

And now, as we headed out again, our sunny day had turned to snow.
Not quite predicted snow. But we had a show to see – so onward.

After the show it was still snowing. Traffic crawled out of the Center area – a combination of several shows getting out, 3 lanes into one, closed roads and detours. Oh, and snow, although the snow was not part of the problem, until we got going faster. We saw a few people slide, a few people going slower than was really safe, but no major problems on our route. Other roads in the area were shut down.

Hats for Bats

Home, safe and sound, although happy that we did not have to traverse any of the steeper hills.

My brother-in-law frequently mentions how many parades happen in the city of St. Louis.
The City of Seattle has a lot of little neighborhood parades with Seafair, and one big Torchlight Parade.
I saw something today that estimated the normal Torchlight Parade attendance at 100,000 plus.
(Oh – and I should not forget the Macy’s T-Day parade)
Nor should I ignore that Ashlan has participated in smaller parades, Macy’s and Torchlight as a princess.

Today’s parade was short by comparison but eclipsed the attendance levels by multiple magnitudes.
Yesterday early they were expecting 300,000. Then 500,000 this morning. At the parade I heard there were 700,000, and then in the Victory wrap-up in Century Link field they said it was over 1,000,000.

There was the parade, and the celebration at the football stadium, Century Link, and the overflow viewing (on the largest screen in the MLB) at Safeco Field. You had to be a Seahawk Season Ticket holder to get a ticket to Century Link. You had to be a Mariner Season Ticket holder to get a ticket to Safeco. I started trying for a Safeco ticket about 4:30 PM – not too long after they were available. I watched the spinning circle on the screen as I worked on other items. I finally left work around 7 PM (carpooler issue), and started over trying on the home computer. About 10:40 I got through to request tickets. 4? Not available. 3? – YES – just print this set of tickets. This notice was followed by an hour of frustration as the pdf provided by Ticketmaster was apparently corrupted. The bar code would fade in and out, and would not show up on the print-preview, and when I tried to print anyway it said there were no pages selected to print. I tried to get back into my account and start over again, but it just indicated the tickets had been printed. Bulls***.

But then I had a moment of clarity that said this was supposed to be fun – tickets be damned. We would just go it with the masses.
We were supposed to rendezvous with 3 others downtown. As we were coming into downtown, the third bailed. In the end it was a lot easier to be making decisions on our own, but I am sorry they missed the experience.

The first thing all those people had to do was get to downtown.

Sound Transit

We drove. A bit early, but no where near as early as those that moved couches in or camped overnight.
Our parking location was in a Seattle Center lot, not too far from the start of the parade.
We have a monthly pass for this lot via Carl’s day care parent (he and Sagan spend a lot of time at the Seattle Center).
As we arrived it was clear that they were using this parking lot to park police vehicles.
It was directly adjacent to the law enforcement staging area.
Carl showed the pass,  said he worked there, and they let us in. (We are not sure whether it would have been a problem, but we were in.)

We found out later that the players staged at the EMP (Experience Music Project), also at the Seattle Center.

We arrived in the downtown core a bit before 9 AM. By Monorail.

We’re In – monorail mass transit

It was probably 20 degrees.

We’re In Seattle

I’m not really sure of the exact temperature, but it was cold. I broke out the hand-warmers right away.

2 among the million

This was the view across the street – from when we arrived, until the parade was supposed to start.
We had arrived early enough to score a pretty good spot.
Behind a couch (Who brings couches to a parade?!?)
It pretty much guaranteed that we would not have somebody standing right in front of us.
Carl could feel the crunch more than I did, because he ended up standing behind me.
The couch moved from the curb, into the street, was folded from the hide-a-bed out to hide-a-bed in, and finally stopped about 1 foot in front of the curb. So I was at street level, and Carl was on the curb.

Crowd – on arrival

Crowd – passing the time

Crowd – when the parade was supposed to start

The sun started across the street, moved to our side, came in and out of building’s shadows.
It did help to have the sun warming here and there, but it stayed cold throughout.

Street Vendor

This vendor provided a bit of entertainment. We saw him at the end of the parade, and he was almost out of everything.

Looking down 4th Ave

The crowd just continued to grow. At about noon I heard they had asked people to stop using their cell phones. The cell towers were overloaded and they were concerned about missing 911 calls. I did notice that the one text I tried to send failed to go through.
And then there was the problem of my phone battery dying.
It does not last a full day – not even close.
I turned off the GPS to try and conserve power.

FINALLY it was parade time – 11 AM.
The crowd was ready. But apparently the parade was not.
At 12:12:12 there was a Governor decreed moment of NOISE (30 seconds is apparently a moment).
The first picture I had from the parade was at 12:33, and we were near the start of the route.
And the phone was in Yellow power phase.

After a few team dignitaries (Paul Allen, etc) the first player arrived.
Marshawn Lynch – throwing skittles (and catching fresh packs).
The following picture is not mine, but from the King5 site. This is just better.

Beast Mode Lynch (on a duck)

And the Sea Gals

Sea Gals

The Ducks and Military style Humvees each had a team group.

Russell Wilson – he’s too small, NOT

The Lombardi Trophy was with the Special Teams group.

Lombardi Trophy – the hardware of heroes

And not too long after this picture the phone decided it was time for a power nap. I missed getting a picture of Richard Sherman.

At the end of the parade we had to figure out whether our limbs would still work.

The parade continued to wind its way through the crowds.
We returned to our car, and drove home (it was crowded driving as well).

We easily got back in time to see the Century Link ceremony on TV.
In a warm house. Trying to warm up.

Century Link Celebration

And I am still trying to warm up.
I changed clothes to just change the dynamic, but have 3 layers on top again.
So in the end, not adding a Safeco Field viewing into the dynamic was probably a good thing.

At least a small amount of the early morning was spent recounting yesterday’s events with co-workers.

Little Russell Wilson

I am including a few of the funnier bits (that really happened) here, so you can understand Seattle a bit better.

Seattle has a reputation (deserved) for waiting for the walk signal to cross a street. Even in the late night when there is no traffic around. And, yes, the police do issue jay-walking tickets. Here is a short video from Ballard, and another from West Seattle. (The West Seattle intersection is an all-way walk.) And then there was the #HowSeattleRiots twitter feed.

True there were “riots” in Seattle that included burning furniture.
These were close to us, in the frat row area of the U District.
But by the 11 PM news, there was barely a person out in that same area.
Apparently it is time for mid-terms.

During the game the Space Needle would set off fireworks when ever the Seahawks scored.
As the game wore on, they had to start rationing the fireworks to make sure they did not run out.

Space Needle Celebration

Bring on the parade
Wednesday. Turns out it is a vacation day!

At the risk of changing karma, I am starting the blog now.

It is nearing the end of the 3rd quarter, score – Seahawks 36, Broncos 0.

I am almost starting to feel comfortable, but not quite. Things just don’t always go my/our way, even when it seems they must.

Yesterday was relatively easy for us. We had a plan, and it involved a lot of our energy, so there was no extra to expend worrying.
Today has been much more difficult. Before the game both Carl & I expressed the feeling that we just could not fully function. That is, on anything that required concentration.

BAD-bad-bad. Should I stop? The Broncos just scored a touchdown.

Before the game Carl finished a jigsaw puzzle, we Skyped with Rey and watched a bit of soccer (the other football).

When the game started, Carl saw the opening safety, and departed for the basement to elliptical listening to the radio. This went on for the first half while I made feeble attempts at Sudoku, jumbles and crosswords while watching the video.

The second half has been more jittery in the house. Carl is prowling, and cooking. (Stuffed peppers. We are trying to substitute smashed cauliflower for rice.) And now he is having his beer. (In all truth, I had a bit of Baileys in my third cup of coffee before the game started.)

I think we just want it so much. So much that all of our little superstitions are fully in play.

Back in 2003, the Chicago Cubs were trying to get to the World Series.
They were playing the Marlins.
My sister Jane called, and then the Bartman play happened. (Reached in and tried to catch a fly ball that Moises Alou, the left fielder, was trying to catch. Bartman did not even catch the ball, and wasn’t even the one that truly interfered.)
Since then we do not accept family calls during big games.

Today I have cut off texts from the same sister and a brother-in-law.

With Seattle’s 12th Man being so important to the season, is it any coincidence that the safety was at 12 seconds, and I believe the first score of the 2nd half was also at 12 seconds.

And it is all because Phil chose the Seahawks.

And the cheers and fireworks commence. Really – you can hear the neighborhood.

GO HAWKS

And now for a few taunts (for our Colorado friends — all in good fun).

Wilson doing the Bronco Stomp

Owning the Fat Tire (CO Brew)