Raincharm’s Weblog

In which Ashlan gets to meet Ichiro face to face.

Carl & I got around 10 miles today. I say around because I have not measured the actual distance yet. I had planned a route that was about 10 miles, and we actually took our first steps along that route.

But then bacon came in to play. That is Bacon-man, on the side of the new Archie McPhee’s store. Said store was not along my originally planned route, so we modified. This was fairly near the start and could lead us to Fremont, just following a different path. So off we modified.

Now just before the new McPhees is the Blue Star Cafe. Since neither of us had found coffee yet this morning, we decided to stop for coffee and breakfast. Carl had an omelet, I had a scone and fruit and Bacon. Then on to the pictures with Bacon Man. And off down the hill to Fremont.

Along the way we tried to give directions to a kind man who said his GPS had died. Now we knew where it was, but not the names of all of the streets in between. So we gave him a reasonable start and then said – just stay on this side of the water (ship canal) and go west.

In Fremont we paused to take some more pictures with the Waiting for the Interurban sculpture, and to use the friendly corner coffee shop for a potty stop. (Coffee at the Blue Star and all.)

Across the Fremont bridge and Queen Anne beckoned. Queen Anne is a hill and your choices are 1) Follow Westlake (along the lake) for quite a ways, and then find a hill to climb, 2) Follow Dexter up an incline for quite a ways and then find about 178 steps to climb, 3) Go straight up 4th Avenue (I do mean straight UP), 4) go west and then eventually south and up a big hill.

We chose 3) Go straight up 4th Avenue. Except, just as we were starting up the hill there appeared some steps to our right – so we took them instead – about 86 I believe. Then we continued going up residential streets until we were back at 4th Avenue, about 1/2 of the way up the straight UP hill, and went up the rest of the way. We continued to wind our way around Queen Anne – always UP, until we turned at Galer and went down – about 68 steps.

Followed a few more streets down to Kerry Park, which looks out over the Puget Sound and downtown Seattle. So we took a few more pictures. Then walked down about 50 steps to the lower park, which had a different name like Kinnear, across the street and down a hill next to Franklin Park, and continuing down hill.

And then – Rain. Big drops at first, and then harder. So since I was the only one with a real rain coat, we found a bar and stepped in for more coffee and breakfast. French toast (shared) this time, and the rain slowed and then essentially stopped.

Back out and continued mostly down into downtown Seattle, eventually making the waterfront and south to Safeco Field.

Ashlan drove.
Ashlan also sat at our regular seats. Carl and I were sitting in the 3rd deck in line with first base. Not too bad, and they had been purchased for $1 each  – so not complaining at all.
Our regular seats are front row in Right-Center field. Ashlan was sitting with a friend – Mark.

Game on …. (you can look up the box score if you want real details here).
Roof had been closed when we arrived, but they opened it as the game started.
In the 6th inning Mariners are up 3-2 and they bring in a new pitcher (Batista).
Nelson Cruz is the hitter – BOOM – home run – right over Ashlan and Mark – I mean right over.
So close that Mark was trying to catch it, Ashlan (eating fries, mitt on the ground) stood up (and ducked at the same time – try it). She said she looked back and the ball had hit a child (child was OK – got the ball and a bunch of things from the Mariners to go with her ice-pack).
When Ashlan turned back around she was face to face with Ichiro, who had climbed the wall.
Check out this link and watch it until the end (for the close-up). It might take a moment to load. Ashlan has on a brown tank top – she’s in the front row – behind Ichiro.

The Mariners did come back and win the game. Ashlan did give Carl & I (and Mark) a ride home.
And the rain has returned, now with thunder.

South side – 6 foot privacy fence – no vision – don’t even know who lives there.

East side – 10 foot some sort of thick vegetation – sold that house to him (with a 3.5′ small fence) so we do know him

West side – BRAND NEW 6 foot fence – not full board, but boards to 5 foot.

I HATE FENCES.

Instead of getting to know our neighbors and feeling like our postage stamp yard was just a little bit bigger we are now totally hemmed in.

Nothing to do about it, I guess I will become anti-social.

Start with NOT sleeping in, generally a good thing
Add a 15 mile walk, starting and ending at Green Lake
Mooove on to the Milk Carton Derby on Green Lake
Relax
Maybe a ball game (maybe this is a Carl & Ashlan affair, it’s not at Green Lake)

That is the plan. We’ll report later on how the day progresses.

(Milky White is the cow in Jack and the Beanstalk, at least in the Into the Woods version.)

Went to the Mariners game last night.
Left work on time.
Caught the bus.
Got to read while on the bus, which was much better than watching the slooooow traffic around me.

They are replacing expansion joints in the westbound I-90 lanes, which means they are closed. All westbound traffic is now on the two lane express lanes  bridge section. So – 3 lanes plus a carpool lane down to 2 lanes. Traffic has been affected.

Anyway, walked the 1/2 mile from bus to stadium, and sat down in the sun. (2 hours from portal to portal) The sun lasted at least for an inning or two, at which point the sun dipped below the stadium wall. (Until it came through the bank of windows, and then through the concourse hole – which is always a bit like being lit up individually – think The Natural)

Got to talk with a few friends and watch Felix Hernandez (All Star) duel it out with a Ranger. Close game. But they finally scored (boo). 1-0. 8th inning heroics. Ichiro on. Branyon out. Lopez out. Griffey walks. Gutierrez hits a mighty wallop! Yeah 3-1. The top of the 9th was two long flys to Ichiro and a slightly shorter one to left field (name escapes me). So that was the game.

Nice. Didn’t know there was a ticket for me for tonights game until this morning. After the chance of trying to drum up a carpool, and too late to catch the bus. So – either skip or get there late. Driving at prime drive time across I-90 will not be good. Decisions, decisions.

OK – just slow Jay day.
Big project is on its way, which means my part is just about over (I hope).
Some clean-up, and then the actual physical clean-up remains.

Yesterday was spent in meetings, with said clean-up, and trying to list all of the things that had fallen by the wayside over the last 3-4 weeks.

Then my body did its own little rebellion, so we are even slower today.
I don’t think I have the flu or even a real cold, but still …
If you are sick – stay home. So home I am. and slow.
So – off I go to pitter patter around the house.
I will probably try to slowly do some work on-line – it is not vacation time yet.

As Carl would say, go have a glass of workahol.

Friends
That have good times with you.
They have bad times with you.
They cheer you on when you do hard things.
That let you just be lazy when you need a break.
They let you be yourself.
They marry you and stay with you for a long time.

7-5-1985

Kris, Jay, Carl, Dave

We are!
This is reminiscent of a vacation we took a few years ago, through St. Louis.
Actually, the biggest similarity is that it is hot. Triple digits or at least close.
A few years ago we were in similar temps with a car with no AC. But that was in August.
There was also a St Louis vacation (me alone) on the 4th of July. Went to the Arch. Played Knots. Ran through a rainstorm.

Last night was an Em’s game (Little Minor league A M’s), followed by fireworks.
The game was crowded and stiffling hot. The fireworks were fun. Down on the outfield, lying in the grass.

This morning was the Butte-Butte run/walk. Dan ran, the rest of us walked. The walk was a 4.5 mile. Enjoyable fun. Everybody made it – Jay, Carl, Chris, Elisia, Parker, Maggie, Sue, Kevin, Angela – ages 4-52. Then a few of us walked about 1-2 miles more to get coffee (how Seattle). Really, the minivan only held so many, and there were a few more of us than so many.

So – my milage is a bit shorter than it should be, and last week was devoid of exercise.
Falling off the training wagon, but will get back on next week. 45 days or so to go, so it won’t be the end of the world.

(Rey – if you’re reading, Carl said he parked 70, and Parker got 1 off of Carl)
I’m not sure, but there may have been a little bit of exaggeration going on.

I even tried to leave work early.
Not tremendously early, just 1/2 hour. A mere 30 minutes.

I went to check with my project of the hour compatriot to be sure he had things handled.
I knew he had just been talking with one customer because he had asked me a question.

But less than 5 minutes later – he was gone.
And then I realized that all other manager, supervisor types were also gone.

So – I turned my computer back on, called home to give an ETA of home arrival, and went back to work.

But at 4:30 I was packed up and ready to skeedaddle. Checked in with the 2 that stay until 5, and out the door.

The original idea had been to get home, pack (since there had not been any time to accomplish this earlier), and take off for a 5 hour (under good conditions) jaunt southward.
But while slogging through the homeward commute I decided that the tonight or tomorrow AM question was listing toward the AM.

So – now, as soon as that was agreed to by all involved, the tiredness is coming in waves.
I need to pick it up for a bit and finish the packing part.
Early to bed will probably not be an issue, and then it will be early to rise.

It will also allow us to spend at least part of an evening with our friend Dennis – who lives south, but is spending the fabulous fourth here.

3 Day Weekends are:
Sweet, Awesome, Rad, Cool, Groovy, or whatever your generation likes to use to describe Nice.

Saved by friends.

You know when it’s your significant other’s birthday,
but you’re just too busy to do much,
you manage one kind-of present – not a surprise (so practical)
and you just can’t find your way around work
and you only come home because you think your kid needs the car?

But your friends decide to have a birthday party –
at their house
with pizza and cake and ice cream and presents

And another friend brings movies (16 mm)
from the 1920’s up through maybe the 1960’s
with an intermission and everything
(The Marquis would have really enjoyed the approximately 1957 film on bicycle safety).

And somebody called a few more friends and we all had a good time.

And I now have a lot to be thankful for.

And Carl had a good birthday.

It is almost tomorrow.
I just got home from work – really probably 15-20 minutes ago.
Still.

Public meeting tonight. We try to end them at 9, and at 8:50 I tried to reel it in, but it just kept going.
All in all not a bad meeting, and I am sure we did some educating, especially for our Board.
This was not originally intended to be a Board meeting, but they all wanted to hear what was going on – so they did.

Tired

8 AM meeting in the morning. I got my stuff ready for that one at about noon today – so it should be a breeze.
Then it is prep for the 7/6/09 meeting, which sounds far off, but is really just 3 work days away. Getting ready for today’s meeting provided an opportunity to do double duty for both meetings (today and the 6th) and I took it and ran with it – burning up multiple copy machines.

We finished our last packet of information 10 minutes before tonights festivities started.

OK – this is way more information than anyone needs, but I tend to dump my head after a public meeting. It is kind of like a performance. So consider that you are all saving Carl from at list a little bit of me blabbing away.