Carl is.

And I am home, except that I can’t seem to get home for as much time as I might like.
Two days, and two late nights at work.
Yesterday was due to a last minute project that required a little bit of research.
Tonight was to go to a different agency’s planning commission meeting.

Not as bad as it might sound.

But not as good as an evening at home would probably be.

So, now I am home, and finding what my spovely louse left to keep me alive in his absence. Boy, I hope I am not this boring when he is around. I guess that must mean it is bedtime.

Or maybe raincharm.

It did rain during the day, but had cleared into a sunny late afternoon.
Spoke with Carl and arranged to take a walk when we both got home.

Left in the sun. It was raining lightly when I hit the bottom of the hill.
Continued as I got on the highway.
Turning into Bellevue, the sun came out, through the rain, and I actually thought, “I should be in a rainbow.”

[Of course the whole rain charm, rain stripe thing is always around.]

Anyway, the sun was streaming through the raindrops, and then it started raining harder. Top wiper speed harder. Hard to see through the sun, er rain hard.

And then I looked into the rear view mirror and it was all

RAINBOW.

From one end to the other. No cars, nothing but color.
It was intense, and beautiful, and a bit distracting for that moment as my brain tried to understand what I was seeing.

Then it moved to the side view mirror, and we exited the rain for a dry spell.
Actually, it rained on and off the rest of the way home.

It's obviously springtime

Traffic was unusually light this morning, and light this evening as well.
I believe some of the school districts have dismissed their urchins for the week.
The several school districts in our area all have their own idea of when spring break will fall. With Easter in the coming weekend I think many will be this week or next.
Seattle does not get out for another two weeks.
Hopefully this staggering means that traffic will continue to be manageable for April.

I was doing quite well on the way to work this morning, until I was fairly close to work.
Then I happened upon the road closing type of accident that can plague 2-3 lane roads when somebody is not paying attention. I have no idea what really happened. I am not sure how many cars were involved, at least four from what I saw. I got within about 5 cars of the accident. No flashy lights had arrived, and there were a fair number of people wandering the scene to help. So I figured I would be in the way if I found a place to pull over and got out. After about a minute of deliberation I did a three-point turn and headed back down the hill. When I reached the bottom, and set off on my alternate route I could hear the sirens. [One of my workmates coming a different route altogether, was entering a roundabout when the fire station next to the roundabout disgorged its truck. She was not sure what to do at first. You can’t pull over in a roundabout, and she did not know which exit the truck planned to take. So she just kept driving around the roundabout, until she was behind the truck instead of in front.]

AND

Jay wins the family final four. Or rather, Kentucky wins, and Jay gets the prize.

2012 - Kentucky and Jay win

It did rain today.
In the early morning, and a few spits here and there, and it may rain again tonight.

I did check the Weather Underground at one point.
It was sunny out, and we had not gone out for a walk yet.
[Carl walked about 9-10 miles yesterday, and I wasn’t sure whether he wanted to walk again. But it was sunny!]
The Wunderground hourly report said 100% chance of clouds, and 90% chance of rain.

But it was sunny. So we took our chance and set out.
4.5 miles later and it was still sunny.

We did not do much else today to speak of.
Finished the last of the taxes.
Finished a crossword puzzle.
Spent a bit of time cleaning up here and there.
Met with the architect for a bit more discussions.

And then the day was dark and done.

Saturday Nights Alright!

We have a pretty light social calendar right now.
But we did manage to be double scheduled tonight.

So we split up to our respective shows.

Carl took in the Sounders game.
He walked to the match, stood for the match, and then walked back to the Seattle Center.
The Sounders lost 0-1 to San Jose on a questionable penalty kick (the guy tripped himself over the Sounder).

I got to go to the Seattle Men’s Chorus show all about the Beatles.
It was great. Really. They had a handful of dancers that really added to the songs. Free Love style dancing. When they were singing Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds the dancers were slowly gyrating, and the entire men’s chorus was swaying as well. Not normal back and forth swaying, but as a whole looking like an anemone in a tide pool.

And dinner (great lamb burger). And the view from Kerry Park, in the sun after a rainy day.

Kerry Park in a Sun Break

I am watching it hail.
Small hail, but coming down hard. With a vengeance almost.

It almost feels cleansing.
I have had some hard thoughts running through my brain the last 24 hours.
The type of thoughts that you don’t want to think, but you have to.
Because you know stuff you don’t want to know.
But you do.
And it is hard to get them out of your brain.

Watching the hard rain, it seemed that maybe that could wash, or rather, beat, the thoughts away.

And we are here at Safeco field with several other fans. Currently in the 10th inning, tied 1-1.

Got up at 2 AM for the 3 AM first pitch.

A few offerings from this AM.

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The Mariners opened this opportunity for Season Ticket Holders, and let the first 170 that responded in. I think most of the major TV stations had people there. Channel 13 caught Carl on the way out. (That’s Channel 22-2 for us still on the rabbit ears.)

 Time for work. We’ll see what 3 PM feels like.

I went to work as normal, but flexed some of my extra time to take care of personal phone calls today. I actually let the receptionist know, so it ended up being a fairly relaxed day. The time spent on the phone today was actually pretty intense, but since I was initiating the calls, it was not that stressful. Except sort of.

Not making much sense today, so perhaps it was good that I didn’t try to give them a full 8 hours. And I did get to check a few things off of the work list. Good day all in all.

Time for bed. Hope to sleep soon.

OK – this was Sunday, apparently I forgot to push the “Publish” button.

To many it would be a wasted day.
I worked. A full day. At home. And it was not raining.

But this will undoubtedly help me sometime in the next week.
Maybe even tomorrow evening when I expect to be delivering project information to about 100 people. Including how much it is going to cost them. Hopefully they will not get out of hand.

During a portion of the day the NCAA Basketball tournament was going on.
I Kentucky managed to knock Ashlan out of the tournament, and I have a chance at the Final 2.

Carl still has Kansas, and is happy because his Grandfather played for Kansas, back in the day. He also played baseball, and we attribute his genes for Carl’s propensity for chasing small round objects here and there.

Marvin Harms, played guard for Fog Allen

Tall and skinny, just like his son, and his great-grandson.

And now it is Today (Monday)

After working the weekend, essentially, I worked a 13 hour day.
Of course, the last part was pretty much why I worked the weekend.

The public meeting went pretty well. Even got a polite round of applause after speaking for over an hour. This was an INFORMATION meeting, in which I try to impart 24 years of information to folks that are going to have to turn over some of their hard earned cash to us. They were not all happy, mind you, but only one of them sort of called me a name. Something about talking out of both sides of our mouths. But then a neighboring person actually said they disagreed.

Not bad. And tomorrow it will be back at it again.
Good Night.

Here is our family bracket – as it currently stands.

Family Bracket

Ashlan is the only one without a team in the Final Four.
Rey has Louisville.
Jay has Oh How I Hate Ohio State.
Carl has … Well, we don’t know who Carl has, but he has two teams playing tomorrow against each other.
And Ashlan has to pin her hopes on the Yellow Bellied Baylors, against Jay’s Kentucky.

Spent a good part of today working, but included a lunch with Carl.
And now, I get to spend more time with him. (Yeah – that is a good thing)

For a report on yesterday’s activities – work for both, and then the Sounders game.
Sounders beat the Houston Dynamo 2-0. It was a fun game, and it did not rain.

The daffodils are starting to show their colors, just a hint.