Raincharm’s Weblog

Perhaps I should not have been so into my walk yesterday that I promised to post mileage.

1 mile

at lunch

Way too much work being done today. Not that I begrudge my 8 or so hours at work. It is those after work I find myself begrudging.

After work I did a little more work.
Then I felt like I needed some exercise and Carl obliged me with a walk.
It is so nice that is stays light until almost 9 around here now.

Sometime in our early days in Seattle we bought a book called Footloose in Seattle.
It is dated 1963, with the third printing in 1973.
We moved here in 1984.

The walk was about 2 miles to reach the rock.
A few Seattle hills, but not too many.

And then we found the rock.
It is an erratic.
Not quite as big as the one off the Birch Point loop road, but pretty good size.

Another 2-1/2 miles and back home again.
This was probably my first true training walk.
That is as in – I have to go out and walk because I must train.
It has to start somewhere – being conscious about making the effort.
I will try to post mileage – if only as an incentive to myself.

First – Happy Mother’s Day to my mother. I did not manage to make the phone call, but it was a busy day.

Started off nicely with breakfast in bed. Omelet, bacon, croissant, melon and blueberries, and coffee.
And the newspaper.
Spent my time enjoying these bits until I had the opportunity to speak with Doris, my mother-in-law. We had a nice chat.

Then roust my own child. A bit later (after the crossword) off to the Mariner’s game.

The Mariners have lost 8 games in a row. Every game of the home stand so far.
But it was sunny today, and warm if you were in the sun. And it was Mother’s Day. And the game was well attended.
And the Mariner’s won. The last game of the home stand, and they won handily. Josh Wilson almost hit for the cycle.

Which would have been amazing because it doesn’t happen very frequently. It did not happen. But on this day the Athletics Dallas Braden  pitched a perfect game against the Rays. Because it was Mother’s Day, many major leaguers were using pink bats, and generally trying to draw attention to the fight against breast cancer. Dallas Braden lost his mother to cancer when he was a high school senior.

I digress. After the baseball game. Immediately after, Ashlan & I dumped Carl by the side of the road (really close to home) and took off for our soccer game. It was a hot game with no substitutes, again. After the game Ashlan helped me stretch, and then one of her toes kept going out of joint. Se we finally left the field – I thought we had tied 1-1. I was corrected – we actually won 2-1. This is how much we care about the final outcome.

Anyway, after the game, dinner time. Carl had been going to get something special – but took a nap instead. Which worked out well because we got to go out to dinner. It was delicious. And Ashlan has enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

But I did not get to call my mother, and it is way to late now. So – HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY – MOM. LOVE JAY

Just when you think your life has slowed down a bit, it speeds up.
That is with respect to how much time you have to consider doing nothing.
(Whether you do something or nothing is not the point, just that you have the potential for doing nothing.)

Then of course you must define what “doing nothing” looks like.
For me – let’s start with it doesn’t involve anything that could be written on a calendar.

So – the little one is home, the baseball season has started, work has picked up.
From my vantage point, I think the economy is starting to come back.
Builders are getting ready to build this summer – which means more work for me to help them get started.
Plus some major projects due
Plus reviewing about 30 resumes to replace our head honcho …
Plus it is a Mariner homestand, and 2 soccer games in 2 weeks … plus playing soccer.

So – last night I did not have tickets to the Mariner’s game, just Ashlan and Carl.
I got home, it was still sunny (been a while since we had sun).
So – I had the chance to do nothing.

But, the grass was about 5 inches tall in the back yard since I did not mow last weekend. So – I mowed the grass. One less thing for the weekend. It wore me out. Or more likely, put the last nail in the I’m worn out coffin. So I went inside, ate a bit, watched a bit of old TV on the computer, and went to bed.

This weekend we have 2 baseball games, 1 soccer game to watch in person, 1 soccer game to play in person, a family of friends in from out of town (with several of their other friends – and not staying with us this time), house work (maybe), getting a rental car and hotel together for a June vacation, and 20-30 resumes to review. Oh and Mother’s Day to celebrate…

It is definitely busier today than last month.

BC Place, home to the 2010 Winter Olympics, is getting a new, $443.5 million retractable roof — the world’s largest for a domed stadium. The stadium’s old air-inflated roof required 16 fans to keep it afloat and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in electricity.

Deflated fans

Worked until 8 PM yesterday. But it was not quite dark yet. Ah … Spring.

We had a Board meeting at 3 PM and a rate hearing at 7 PM.
Both meetings were punctuated by hail and rain, and a little snow.
Punctuated by the sounds on the skylights, which actually made you have to raise your voice to be heard.

Temperature in the 30’s when I finally left, letting the wipers get rid of the residual ice pellets.

Seattle area roads are in a state of flux, usually.
Expansions for Microsoft, changes at the interchanges.
As they build they shift lanes here and there.
They use a lot of the stick on reflector bits and rubberized paint stuff to identify lanes.
But when they flex for construction or changes, all those lane identifiers must come up.

They remove the reflectors, but a bits of the glue stay on the pavement.
They remove the paint by grinding it off, leaving a ground line instead.

When it has rained, and then the sun comes through at a low angle, the removed stuff can show up just as well, or better than the current lane markings. I know I am not the only one that is befuddled by what I am seeing.

But made it home safely as the sun finally disappeared completely.
I had driven in the rain all the way home, but to the west there was hope for clearing.

Nope – this morning it is clouds again.

The bluest skies you’ve ever seen are in Seattle.
Except that they are often obscured by clouds.

As my mother says, “You can get the worst sunburn on a cloudy day.”
Yesterday was kind of one of those days.
It was overcast, with hints of blue sky that never took over.

At the end of the day you feel like you have been out in the sun all day, except that you have not.
It was just cool enough to wear out a cold soul like me.
But warm enough that warm bodies were OK with a shirt and maybe a light sweatshirt.
It was not hot enough to consider that you might be getting some color added to the winter pallor of your skin.

Don’t worry Mom(s), nothing too bad, just a nice pink glow.
Mostly on Ashlan’s friend, a Boulderite, who does not understand that the rays come through clouds, because Boulder has 300 days of sun a year. The rest are not worth worrying about.
We will have the sunscreen with us today.
And hopefully the sun will shine.

And for those that are keeping track – I think Ashlan had a fun time out all day yesterday.
She did get carded ordering a beer at the restaurant, and got the drink she requested.
She also says thank you to all that sent her birthday wishes.

First they are tiny, and all yours.
And then suddenly they are 21, and their own person.

Let’s see, on Seattle’s schedule tonight is – Cliff Lee pitching his first game for the Mariners.
Many will not know who he is, or maybe care a lick about baseball.
But there are several thousand that do, and traffic will be heading to Safeco Field.
Safeco Field is at the west end of the I-90 floating bridge.

Also on the schedule tonight is getting ready for the Opening Day of Boating Season.
Which is tomorrow.
There are crew races (Oxford is in town), the parade of boats, lots more boats watching, and general merriment.
Many boats are already tied up on the log boom, and more on the way.
This is directly adjacent to an near the end of the 520 floating bridge.

Traffic going east to west has been impacted.
But I was carpooling (thanks for taking the car Ashlan), and just got to sit as the driver made decisions.
We started on I-90, then cut north through Bellevue to 520, skipping much of the 520 slog.
As a carpool we got to use the quick entrance to 520 instead of waiting in line.

The predicted time to Seattle via 520 when we made our decision to leave I-90 was 52 minutes.
We made it in about 35. Not bad.
And I had a ride – better than yesterday.

I didn’t really hesitate, I was just still working.
But when another worker from upstairs came downstairs and announced that all others upstairs were gone ….

Well that meant that my ride home was gone too ….

I did find him by phone, but he was well on his way home by then.
So off to the bus. (Did get a ride to a Park & Ride to avoid one leg.)

I am sure my looking for a morning ride earlier in the afternoon played into the loss of the ride home.
I just confused them.
Two potential rides, made a choice for the morning.
Maybe the afternoon ride was put out that I didn’t choose him.

No harm, no foul, and I got some work done on the ride home.

I only hope tomorrows ride in goes as planned.
It is harder to make up time going in to work in the morning.