Raincharm’s Weblog

Saturday was spent deconstructing several growing things around the house. So Sunday was spent groaning and moaning when ever new movement started. I figure this is the plant’s way of giving back. If I am going to seriously deconstruct, I need to do it on a more regular basis.

I always plan to do things on a continuous basis, a little bit every week and there will be no big projects. Nice idea, hard to put into practice.

So my sore Sunday was spent filing, trying to get that much closer to finishing taxes, and Super Bowling. The filing was the big project, and figuring out what to eat with the Super Bowl a side event.

We decided on nachos and Greek salad. We started (well breakfast did happen earlier) with the nachos. During the immediate pre-game.

The NHL game started at 9ish, a good game between the Nationals and Penguins. It actually foreshadowed the Superbowl, with the Nationals overcoming a 2-0 deficit from the first period to eventually win the game in OT. And we were watching hockey. Carl eventually asked what time the Super Bowl coverage started, so I consulted the paper – 9ish! We didn’t join them until after the hockey game was over.

There are only two of us in the house, and we made the same amount of nachos as we normally did. For once the pan was not emptied right away. During halftime Carl chopped the tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and onions (rustically) for the Greek salad. But by the end of the game neither of us were hungry, so into the refrigerator with the feta, lemon and olives.

We will have Greek salad tonight.
And I am still moving slowly when arising from a sitting position.
Who knew I had to train to work in the yard. I will be adding squats to my routine.

First, I apologize to anyone that is suffering with a hard winter. Especially now, like in D.C.. (two periods?)

And if you like the real winter you are having, that is not suffering.

I spent several hours outside yesterday. No, not walking – gardening. Well de-gardening was probably a better description.

• Dug out some hyacinth bulbs that had somehow gotten underneath the new lawn, and were sprouting.
  (Much of the lawn is growing, and we are going to have to get the mower rehabilitated soon.)
• Pulled several volunteer “I am not sure what they really are” in the area adjacent to said lawn and fence where two planters will be placed shortly.
• Cut back the raspberries. It was easier this year because parts of the “fence” I have around the bushes had been disembled by our neighbor when he was fixing his gutters. (There is <5′ between the raspberries and his house, and ladders demand a bit more space.)
• Put the “fence” back together with a few new bits. The “fence” consists of about 10 plastic 1/2″ diameter fence posts stuck in the ground, and 2 levels of bamboo pieces held on to the posts and each other with zip ties (wire ties).
• Pulled, cut, dug out blackberry (invasive) vines wherever seen against the two houses.
• Cut off branches from some large tree-like bush pieces Ashlan had cut down last summer.
• Pruned a rhododendron to within a foot of its life. Don’t know if it will come back, but it was terribly leggy and just did not work in that form.
• Cut down parts of a “bush” that has overstayed its welcome and is 1) blocking the route from the front yard to the raspberries, brushing against our neighbor’s house. I lopped off 3 or 4 largish trunks, and decided I needed the saw to get the others.
• Cut up the parts of the overgrown bush.
• Washed the tools off.
• Washed my shoes off.

The end result – 1 96 gallon yard waste container full. 1 32 gallon yard garbage can full – to wait for next week’s pickup.
One really tired person. Who also noticed a few weeds in the new lawn (yikes!), and several other projects that need to be done.
And this morning I found my bend over hamstrings, lower back and various arm muscles are rather sore this morning.

But the work was needed and, most importantly, the raspberries should be ready for next year.
It was in the mid-50’s and sunny for most of the time. I was in a sweatshirt.

Our friend, the film archivist, sent us to an e-bay site to look at a movie with pictures from a baseball game.
It is a baseball friend after all.

But while on the site I noticed some other films – including one labeled Michigan Copper Harbor vacation 1955.
It is only on sale for 19 hours more, so if you want to take a look – do it soon. You can see several stills. I am sure it starts in Copper Harbor, but goes by Castle Rock, down Ashman, the locks. You can’t see much, but a bit. Scroll down to get to the list of pictures. If you click on them you get bigger pictures. (What am I doing here, almost everyone that will see this is more tech savvy than I am.)

Just fun.

The Mountain was out today. That is Mt. Rainier. Enough sunrise to show what was out there, and it was out there. Rising majestically about all else. The other Mountain was also out today. That would be KMTT, a radio station I listen to fairly regularly. In the morning sometimes they get a bit chatty. They also changed DJs last year, and I have not settled into the new one yet.

So, this morning as I was leaving for work I thought I would grab a little music for the road. As I passed by our tower of CDs I reached out and grabbed two. No looking, just take a few.

Creed was the first off the shelf, so the first into the player.

Carl plays this little game with me. “Who is that?” as we listen to music. Or, “What group is this?” I rarely know. I know the music, and I know the group names, but I can’t put them together. I guess I have never focused on that information so it does not reside in an easily retrievable area of my brain. So a blind pick off of the shelf may not be much blinder than me scanning names of groups and musicians.

I suppose I would say that Creed brought me up to reality faster than some other music that I might have chosen. I did enjoy the ride, and they had settled into a tune I really like just when I got to work. But I kind of feel like I was yelled at the entire trip.

1o miles was our walk length yesterday.
It was probably a bit more, but close enough.
What made it tough was the probably 3 hours of standing that punctuated the day.

We started on the bus, headed for Safeco Field.
Safeco was the site of the first 2 hours of standing, or at least walking at mall speed.
FanFest is the pre-spring training, pre-season, let’s not forget about baseball event.
It is most fun when enjoyed with a small child. Luckily, we always are able to find at least one to share the experience.
For this year, one of my memorable tasks was hunting down cotton candy for said small child. We had smelled it, but not spotted a vendor. When I set out on my quest I came upon the vendor just leaving their den of creation. I got the first bag sold. (Note that I am not a CC eater myself, but I understand the allure.)
Carl’s day was spent greeting old friends and meeting a few new ones as well.

We finally left that venue and headed north into downtown. Coffee and crepes for our mid-day meal.

Then on to Queen Anne Hill. I don’t normally call out specific neighborhoods, but this required several steep blocks of incline, followed by 87 steps. Then 3 more blocks of modest incline, and into a (baseball) card store.  Carl spends a fair amount of time in these type of establishments working on his projects and talking baseball with the proprietor. There was one other customer in the store, Derrick. I sat, and we all chatted a bit. It turns out that Derrick has invented a game, Telepathy. He brought in his prototype board, and we played a game. I beat him by one move, although I made two “bad” moves earlier, so maybe I should have done even better. The game is fun – a mix of Mastermind and Battleship. I do recommend it if you like games. I noted that I sat, but Carl did not, for about an hour that we spent her.

Then we had to leave, to make sure we got home before the sun set. In addition, Carl felt like he was coming down with some sort of winter crud. So onward, back down the hill through Fremont, back up and on towards home. Nearing the end we had to cross over I-5. Noticed that there were two spans missing from the guard-rail that separates the sidewalk from the drop to the freeway. There was a makeshift cable arrangement and a few barricades, but it looked ominous. We found out later that a car had somehow crashed into and through the barrier, but did not make the final drop to the freeway below.

Home, spaghetti for dinner, and an early bedtime to warm up. The day was not super cold, but it was lightly raining and in the 40s. An entire day outside just sucks out the inner warmth, even from Carl.

There is a show by that name on TV. But it is on cable, so we don’t get to see it, except when we are on vacation.
Or when my boss sees a show he thinks I would enjoy and he tapes it.

Yesterday he gave me a tape of Dirty Jobs, cleaning the Soo Locks in winter.
Very interesting. They were mucking out the channels beneath the locks where the water flows from Superior, into the bottom of the locks, and up through some rather large slits. Debris gets down into these areas too, so they have to clean them out periodically. Also in some pump channels, and then trying to melt the ice behind the stop logs and on the front of the lock.

I just never knew exactly what they did. Fun.
Although the host seemed a bit put off by the temperature. I think he does dirty well, just not so much the cold.

One little red bug in particular.

I have worked for my current employer for over 22 years. For most of those years I have driven the same route to work. We had to buy a car for me to drive when I started because it was not possible to take a bus. That has changed now, with only one transfer required. But to keep a flexible schedule I will probably keep driving until they put tolls on the bridges crossing Lake Washington. This could happen next year or the following year. This morning I was thinking how circular that would be … getting off the bus for the job, and finally back on to the bus.

As the number of customers we serve has more than tripled since I started working here, the amount of traffic heading off of the plateau in the morning has also significantly increased. When I started there were cars, but not so many that you couldn’t pick out a few that stood out as, “the regulars.”

One of my identified regulars in the beginning drove a red VW bug. Old style. The headlights had a kind of funny look, and the man driving the car had a goatee.  This car was a regular sight for years.

As time has moved forward, my time of commuting has changed here and there, to avoid traffic, both crossing the bridges and at the three high schools located along the last 1-1/4 miles of the trip. I am sure there have been similar impacts to the red Volkswagen. So, the sightings have been less frequent.

I have driven 3 different vehicles to work on a regular basis over the years. The brown 1981 Honda Civic (280,000 miles), the 2000 Mazda Protegé (still in service, almost at 100,000 miles), and the 2004 Toyota Prius (closing on 90,000 miles). And yet the man with the goatee still drives the little red VW bug. I spotted him this morning.

Blank
Awake
Coffee – and a pick-up

Staff meeting – learned some very interesting stuff about one of our 911 dispatch centers. I know a dispatcher, and though I have not seen her recently, we were in frequent conversation for many years. I learned it was a stressful job, but really rewarding when you make a difference to someone. Today’s presenter described their workstations with a slide. They have 7 computer screens arrayed for different information. SEVEN. She did mention multiple keyboards as well. I know when I have two going at once I constantly try to enter information on the wrong screen.

Work – feel like a drudge of never ending commitments lately. At 10:30 I got an assignment due at noon. No way could I really finish it, so the product says – delay to a certain date a few weeks in the future. But I did try and get a lot of the base information added (less to do later). Still trying to find a 1970’s document that I have laid my hands on once. But I can not remember to whence I filed it for safekeeping. I have scoured my desk, and am now pursuing old files. At this point I think it is wasting valuable time, but one of the Kings wants it, so on I slog. Wrote one long letter on how to get sewer service for only $100,000. I think there is another one on the docket for tomorrow. Got to meet with an older gentleman at the front counter. He told me he had worked for decades at a different District, blah, blah, blah. I finally played a, “I need to consult with another co-worker who is out for the afternoon.” Get the contact information and on. Try to get a few odds cleaned up. Finally – I HAVE GOT TO GO. So check to see if the carpooler is still afoot, and he says – 10 minutes.

Home.
Watch some music movie (still on the Steve Earle train, although this movie is about many of the other musicians of the era, with a 19 year old Steve Earle making a few appearances). I felt right at home with the mid-70’s decor and clothing.

Dinner, blog – almost time for bed.

I looked back at the title, and decided my mind is a meandering mess.

The day started with a cool crawl out of bed.
Followed by a wait for coffee (but thanks for making it),
Scraping the window (my arm hurts)
Windexing the inside of the window (please do not wipe it with an outside grime laden squeegee)
And the long drive to work (traffic not too bad)

My mood is dark. Too much to get done, and lots of people want things … now.

Wait for the traffic light to turn into work. About 90 seconds, a long light, and they won’t give us a free turn on green – we have asked.
As I am driving in the entrance road I notice a deer to my right.
Could be waiting to go through the gate, but the landscape guy is blowing in the parking lot.
After I park the blower moves further inside the lot, and the deer makes his way around the gate.
The next person coming in the drive is still hesitating outside of the gate, and then a younger deer scoots around the gate.
Blower off I let the landscaper know what was happening in his wake.
We all start to walk around the tank (2 million gallon) to the building, and 2 deer appear going the other way around.
We stop, they scamper across the lot to a wooded piece on the other side.
As we continue, the small deer appears around the tank, eyeing us suspiciously.
So we stop and even back up a bit. The deer gets behind a truck, but does not appear out the other side. We finally move forward and he has been spying on us around the bumper.
About that time, one of the larger deer comes back to find out what is keeping junior, and they all saunter off to the wooded place.

Oh – and our office area has been declared a wildlife friendly location.

The drive to Vancouver & back is getting to be a normal thing.
The questions now are what questions are we going to be asked at the crossing.
Today, Ashlan got asked about her trip down on our way up.
And I got asked about the county of my birth on the way down. I answered the city question correctly, but I am glad he supplied the county name. I am not sure I could have come up with Kent County. (I was only 4 when we moved to Washtenaw County.)

The trip was fairly uneventful, thankfully.
On the way up it was dry, with a 5 minute wait at the I-5 Peace Arch crossing.
On the way down it was raining, with a 5 minute wait at the Truck crossing.

I did miss seeing 88888 on the odometer, due to an unusually dense occurence of great blue herons, that were occupying my recreational moments of eye use while driving.
I also missed 88988 and 89000, but this was due to the increasing rain, reasonably heavy traffic, and need to really pay attention to the road.

I have not really been following football this year, but my choices for today’s games both lost. Jets, because one of Carl’s kids is named Jet. And the Vikings because I like Brett.