Raincharm’s Weblog

We don’t go out for the evening all that often, so last night was special.
It was one of the Christmas presents that gets to give for a while.
The girl got the dad concert tickets, and included the mom as well.

We went to see Steve Earle, with a warm-up by Hayes Carl.
Great time and greater guitar playing.
Steve Earle played for at least 2 hours without a break.
Favorite tune – City of Immigrants.

But that was not the entire evening.
I got off work 1-1/2 hours early (I had a bit of extra time this week), and came home.
When we all were ready we went downtown.
Started at Bodies, the Exhibition. We had seen this when it was in town before, but Ashlan wanted a re-visit now that she has taken/is taking anatomy.
After spending our time reading about how the body functions we went out to dinner.
Pike Place Bar & Grill, overlooking the market (closed for the evening), with a good view of the Public Market sign that lets movie or TV shows demonstrate they are in Seattle. It also includes a large neon clock so we could keep track of time.
Bar-b-que sandwich, crab-cake, and lemon salmon fish & chips.
Then off to the concert.

A good night, and a bit of a late morning today.
On tap for today – Avatar.

Well, now it is 8:02
I have been at work for about 10 minutes.
It is about 25 miles to get to work.

1 hour and 3 minutes ago I asked Carl, “What time is it?”
“About 7.”

I need coffee.

I have worked where I work for more than 22 years.
I drive 25 miles each way, but I get to do the “reverse” commute.
In other words, most people are heading into Seattle, and I am heading out.

Times have changed, and so have the traffic patterns.
Thank you Microsoft, which is along my route, and there are many folks in Seattle that drive to Microsoft.

The area where I work has grown as well.
There were just under 5000 customers when I started, now we have over 16,000.

When I started, after leaving the neighborhood, I could drive to work without stopping. All of the turns were “free” if there was no other traffic in the way. Mostly right turns but a few left. Now, taking the same route has at least 11 traffic lights, and none have the “free” option.

Going a slightly different route home takes me through 9 traffic lights. I go the different route home because while  initial route is shorter, it is also habitually stop and go.

Tonight I left at about 5:45 PM. Not early, but not really, really late (see last post). After leaving the office I was only stopped at one of the 9 traffic lights, and was not stopped at all on the freeway (there were some slowdowns).

Remarkable. (Hence the remarks)
It was like old times, except the car, the grey hairs, and the lack of any kid(s) at home.

Yes, I did work today.
I worked way too late in fact – till about 10:30 or so.
But that is in a large part my fault, for not having realized when deadlines were and prioritizing differently.
On the other hand I finished most of my capital budget in less than 24 hours.

What I also found out was the amount of influence a blog can have on a person.

No, not my blog. My cuzint’s blog. On this blog there is a lot of writing, and some of it uses extravagant spelling.

So I am trying to write a little description to go with the numbers in the budget that was occupying my time this evening. And at one point I could not figure out how to write the word PROJECT. Maybe it was because I was working on the budget. But I really think that my inability was influenced by so many readings of the word misspelled, intentionally. So I started with “prodgect”, finally moved to “prodject” and eventually realized that the “d” was really superfluous.

In any event it is time for me to drift off to dreamland.

What was a German store for many years is now a New York deli.
It is a few blocks from our house.
We walked down one block further to get some movies and on the way back stepped into the deli.

Carl said he had a hankering for pastrami, and it happened to be their special yesterday.
Boy, were they good. The deli will definitely get a return visit.
They had kinishes and some other items that also looked worth a try.

They also had a map of New York’s subway system. I spent some time looking at that, but really don’t know where my grandparents lived when we visited them in New York City in 1964 (or so). I think I remember being the last stop on one of the lines coming home from either the Worlds Fair or the Statue of Liberty.

Maybe I should suggest they put up a Seattle transit map next, to help those that are actually there in person.

Took a nice 4 mile walk today. Didn’t even feel as though I needed to push the pace or distance because I had done some chores in the morning. I work off of personal guilt indexes more than I should.

A friend and her 2-1/2 year old stopped by to join me. The friend happens to be a HUGE FAN of Dave Matthews. Dave Matthews happens to have a house in Seattle that is about 1 mile from our house. So that is where the walk focused (at first). It is a lovely little Seattle style house, about 2 houses away from where Carl drops off and picks up one of his kids from preschool every day. He has actually unknowingly crossed paths with DM, while on his way. The sighting determination is based on the person’s accent and the musical paraphernalia that was being loaded into a truck.

We even managed to have a mostly dry walk. A bit or rain spits here and there. I do enjoy walking around Seattle. There are some really nice looking houses and yard/gardens. It makes ours look dumpy by comparison.  It is too late to garden today (getting dark). Still definitly in winter mode. Perhaps I will go through our inventory and settle back with a movie.

This is a mantra that I say probably 5 out of 7 days a week.
It happens maybe 1 or 2 days a week.
Early means before 11 PM. Not really all that difficult.

Yesterday was a day where I had a fighting chance. I only had to put sheets on a bed or two, should do filing, and most importantly Carl was going to be out with the baseball boys, so there would be nobody else to influence my decisions.

I was watching one PBS show, The Human Spark I think. Then it just went into the next show, Passing Strange. It was not your typical Broadway musical, but I really enjoyed it. So at 11:30, after Carl returned, I went to bed. But I wanted to share it, so looked for the PBS rerun time. It is 2 AM Saturday/Sunday. May need to look for a blank tape to try to record this so Carl can share, and I can see it again.

Just a plug for PBS, and this show in particular.

It was a dark and stormy night.
And then the alarm went off.
And I put on my new glasses and looked in the mirror.
When did my face do that?!?

It was a dark and rainy morning.
So I took my new glasses off and put on my old glasses.
And stepped outside to the car.

As a approached the Ravenna Boulevard Olmstead Park I saw a gaggle of geese (the Marquis is not the only bird watcher in the family) in a small section of the boulevard. Their necks were arching down to the ground to find whatever grubs and seeds they can.
Then the necks became arms and legs.
I thought, “Flash Mob?”
“No, not enough people to enjoy the event.”
“More likely a group of fitness buffs or ROTC recruits.”

The trip into darkness continued up the freeway ramp.
Beautiful twinkling red lights met my gaze.
The freeway was moving, but the on-ramp was metered – earlier and much more than necessary.
The red turned to green, to red, to green, to red, to green, and finally on my way.

Tonight or tomorrow I may try driving with my new gafas, so I can see what I have been missing on the road as well as in the mirror.

again. Guess why.

One of the first things I read was a card from home. My father mentioned that Sonia Sotomayor and Hank Greenburg came from the same Bronx neighborhood, and Hank Greenburg went to the same high school as my father’s siblings.

What I don’t quite get is why that is not also my father’s high school. Family move? School move? Father not go to school? (I have heard rumors about less than stellar grades, so maybe there is more to the story.)

It would be nice to hear those words, but my team does not play in the winter. So I did the next best thing.

Eliptical anyone? With a side of soccer. Literally.
Rey introduced me to ESPN360, which does live broadcasts of a smattering of sporting events, including soccer. Rey pays attention to schedules and teams he would like to watch. I just hope there is a game on, or more likely, available in replay. 

I was able to set the computer up next to the elliptical (on the high stool we got for playing the bass), and voila. The vision lines are not perfect, but not bad either. I set it on 3 and went for the first half (45 minutes).

The game I got to watch today was Barcelona v Tenerife (Spanish Primera Division). Barcelona is apparently the cream of the crop, but Tenerife looked better for the first 20 minutes. Then it got chippy, and then Barcelona got serious. They scored at 36 minutes, 44 minutes and in extra time in the first half. The second half has just started, and I plan to watch this half sitting down.

It did give me a goal, which I always need when I get much beyond 15 minutes of working out. This will help on these dark and damp evenings.