Raincharm’s Weblog

Dad’s home!
In one piece, with a win under his belt.
Season’s off to a good start, even if the Ms and As are currently tied in the 7th.

We had ordered tickets through Stub-Hub and received an e-mail today asking for comments and suggestions from attending a game in the Colesium.

Hit the send suggestions and filled in the form. Carl had some comments and suggestions. Started out with the problems, ended with the good things.

SEND.

Mailer-Daemon – mail had nowhere to go. Hmm. One more comment.

Go to the As website and find their send us comments link.
Cut, paste and SEND.

Mailer-Daemon – mail had nowhere to go. Hmmm. Try again.

Found where the first was trying to go, cut and past the address into an e-mail of my own making. SEND. Still no luck.

Probably something I did, but who knows.
Kind of feels like the day at work, one step forward, two steps back.

What is important is that Carl is back. Someone to talk to in the evening.

Despite all predictions to the contrary, it is sunny this morning. But I’ll bet it changes before nightfall.

Yesterday when my friend/workmate left she asked, “What are you going to do tomorrow?” My answer was, “Sleep in.”

So I thought I was. I had gotten up once in the early dawn to make sure the alarm/TV was turned off so I would not have to respond when it turned on. (I could not find the remote either, at that moment.) Back snuggly in bed.

Woke later to the sound of the telephone. Leaped out of bed and made it through the maze before the 4th ring. Carl was calling to find out how the prior day’s move went. We chatted a bit, and I returned to my room, more casually than the earlier dash. I noticed the alarm clock said 7:45. That couldn’t be, I had slept in. So, I figured the wind yesterday had caused a power flick and the clock was just off. I finally turned on the TV, and sure enough the morning news was on. So much for my prior plans. But good because I now had the entire morning to dawdle over the newspaper.

Lunchtime now and ready to do something productive, as the sun starts to disappear behind clouds.

And the Mormon’s from the stakehouse down the block just stopped by to wish me a Happy Easter, and more I am sure, but I did not feel like chatting.

Ashlan is changing apartments. The new apartment is for next year, but is starting at the end of this year.
Biggest difference? Unfurnished.
It is a small (2 bedroom) apartment, for two. So maybe it doesn’t need a lot, but it needs some.

Ashlan requested (from our home): bed (actually 2 it is a trundle), a desk, a bookcase, a microwave (hers from year 1 at school), papasan chair, folding chair, small tv table on casters, sheets, and kitchen towels.

Ashlan got (from our home): bed (actually 2 it is a trundle), a desk, a microwave (hers from year 1 at school), papasan chair, folding chair, small printer table on casters, sheets, and kitchen towels.

The bookcase just would not fit. What it would not fit into was an Expotition (Ford) owned by a workmate. I was amazed that we got it all inside, even without the bookcase.

Ashlan had planned to take advantage of the vehicle in Vancouver for the day to move a bit of her stuff already there from one place to the other. Unfortunately she had only packed one box (maybe another suitcase).

What Ashlan had not expected was to pack everything in a few hours and move it all. Which is exactly what we did. I am exhausted. It will probably take her a while to figure out where everything is located. But, she will not have to carry it box by box on the bus.

Ride up and down, pretty easy punctuated by rainstorms. (It never really rained while we were loading and unloading and was fairly sunny in Vancouver.) Vera’s burger for lunch, Taste of India for dinner.

I still feel like I owe my workmate. It was a good day, and a good tired.

———————————
You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

———————————
Your file was big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.

——————————-
The Web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.

——————————
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.

—————————–
Program aborting:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.

——————————
Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

 From Snopes.com These originated from a January 1998 contest in Salon magazine, which challenged readers to come up with inventive error messages written as Haiku poems. I found the last one extremely accurate.

1 – Yes, 1-No

The raccoons have been spotted! I was sure it was raccoons pulling up our new sod to get to the tasty critters underneath. Bird netting foiled the attempts for most of the winter, but now that spring winter2 has arrived we had to pull up the netting so we could mow. Two areas continued to be pulled up fairly regularly. This morning – our first sighting. My foray out with a broom moved the racoon up to a low wall adjacent to the scene of the crime. But he did not leave until Carl joined me with a mini-basketball in hand. I don’t think this was a final curtain call however. Must figure a way to totally discourage this bandit.

Loved this article. Not quite Soylent Green.

It all started with a player piano roll.
Finding a box that would fit about 7 rolls that we no longer need.
We have a piano. It is a spinet, and had a player, not the old cool kind, but a modern mechanical marvel that rarely worked. Now, I am not complaining. We obtained this piano for the cost of moving it (paid piano movers). A woman Carl worked for said she had purchased it several years earlier for her niece. But the niece had indicated she was not interested, and she wanted to get rid of it. At the time we had an upright, that we had also obtained for the cost of moving from a co-worker of mine that was also moving. For several years we were a two piano family. But eventually we figured we should let another family have one, so we gave it to a friend with two young girls – for the cost of moving. We kept the spinet.

Carl does not play the piano, but he did know how to play the player. occasionally he would break it out for the kids (who plunk on the piano without the player as well). But the player had not worked for a while. When we recently had the piano tuned, he asked them to repair the player. The tuner looked at the player and said it would be difficult to repair, that the Kimball company had changed the design over and over so there were no standard parts, etc., etc.  Long story short, we don’t have a piano that plays by itself anymore, so we don’t need to few player rolls that we have. Anyone interested??? The piano still plays fine with fingers, and it is tuned!

That started a rifling through of other bits. … like I said, a small cleaning frenzy.

My mind.
Today I just had to deal with unexpected (mostly) small and medium stuff.
All OK.
Tomorrow – just have to get to the big stuff.

I unbuilt a desk last night.
Ashlan wants the desk, but without the hutch.
This is a computer desk from the days of large monitors, lowered keyboard and a printer underneath.
Good for what it is, but she preferred it sans hutch.

So – of course you have to take off the base to remove the hutch, and then reattach the desk top to the base. Not too difficult in the end. Just a matter of figuring out how things were attached. And to help me I found the original directions. No, not on the internet, but in my filing cabinet. Sometimes old habits of saving things can pay off. We bought that desk in about 1993 I am guessing. Maybe later, but it was a while ago.

Cleaning, rearranging, deconstructing, moving. All of those things have the house in a great state of upheaval. I think this would be a good opportunity to do some rearranging, painting, and of course a large throwing out party.

Almost sounds like fun. I need to leave work and get to it. But I don’t think that is going to happen, at least not until 4:30.

The final four are set.
In our families bracket we have winners and losers.
Rey is out – had all of his eggs in one bracket and it just didn’t pay off.
Ashlan who was down to very few is still standing with one – Michigan State. MSU has family ties, and I certainly was rooting for them today (even though Rey lives in the land of Tennessee).
Carl who had the most at the beginning of last week, is also still standing with one – West Virginia. Rey may be rooting for WV.
I am the proud holder of two teams – Duke and Butler. I actually have the potential to have both of the final two teams. And if you consider that I am an alumni of MSU, I have a 3/4 chance of rooting for the champion. Just have to get rid of that pesky WV.

On a more amatuer note, I had a soccer game tonight. I am hoping it is just a coincidence that both soccer games I have been involved with this year took place in the rain. Don’t want to get into this wet pattern. But I went tonight.
Felt OK, just a bit tired. We were playing a team of young athletes, but they were fairly new to soccer. I am sure they played it in school or as younger players, but their first game as a new team together. Our team of late teens to early 50s played OK. Got up 2-0 in the first half.

Some time in the start of the second half I tweaked my back. The young athletes on the other team may be new to soccer, but they can stop and turn on a dime. I can stop and turn, but it takes a boatload of dimes to describe the distance involved in slowing, stopping and changing direction. But that doesn’t stop me from trying to match their moves. We had one substitute, so I figured I would take myself out the next chance I had. I was also playing forward, an unusual position nowadays, but fun. Our best player, Dan, had the ball and was bringing it up the field. I moseyed down the field, watching the other players run up. Dan started yelling at me to go forward. Since everybody on our team knew who I was, I moved. He passed me the sweetest ball – nice pace, no bounce – and I struck it firmly with my left foot – and scored.

This is the second goal I have scored with this team. FUN! And best of all, since you can sub after a goal, I got to leave the game and stretch my back.
Final score – 4-1. A nice way to start the season.

The title should have been written yesterday.
But I was busy getting ready for our Kingdome Memories Implosion Party.

Can I say it was a blast? It was, although not the blow-out, have to apologize in the morning, kind of blast. More the great to see everyone again and remember all the great times we had there. Since the age range of attendees was 3 to 50-something, a few didn’t really have specific memories of the Kingdome. But they did enjoy the party none-the-less.

The house was decorated with so much of the Kingdome memorabilia that is usually hidden away in the house. It included a Mariner’s Kidzone banner welcoming those who attended, a life-size Ken Griffey Junior cut-out, pieces of the Kingdome (collected post-implosion), a seat bottom, a magnetic ailse-seat sign or two, posters from the 1980’s, t-shirts, sno-globes, commemorative plates, bobble-heads, baseballs, and other assorted paraphernalia.

The food included a Kingdome replica meatloaf, King”dogs”, salads, mac & cheese, strawberries galore, and a souffle that was supposed to implode. I have never made a souffle before, and neither has Ashlan. Armed with a recipe found on the internet we set off to do our best. We figured with our lack of experience, and the many tales of souffles falling at the slightest noise, that we couldn’t help but implode. So as it came out of the oven, to much heralding, it was carefully placed on the table. One of the attendees, who has a clap that may lead you to consider earplugs if you are sitting close-by, was chosen to lead the implosion. But of course, the souffle would not fall! So we ate it. To end it all there were Kingdome Cupcakes.

We were entertained by 3 tykes running amok and coloring, playing with clay (the idea had been to fashion several Kingdomes, but of course those spending most of the time with the clay had no memory of the dome), and generally running around. Those of us with ages in the double digits watched taped news coverage of the implosion, tapes from the early 90’s of Carl & Chuck calling a few innings here and there of live Mariner games, and batting practice tapes provided by our local movie maker mark. We also had Kingdome trivia and postcards sent to Carl from over 600 players, umpires, coaches and a few friends, with their thoughts about the Kingdome. This collection was started just over 10 years ago, and continues to grow, albeit slowly.

Today dawned sunny and cool, and we are enjoying the feeling that comes with having many friends gather together. That, and the leftover cupcakes.