Raincharm’s Weblog

So the baseball theme will eventually fade, but not today. Spent the day into night at the ballpark. Lots of friends and ballpark acquaintances. A large, generally happy crowd.

Edgar’s countdown to Cooperstown

The 4. Carl, Jay, Kevin and Mark

Carl’s sidewalk art

And the Mariners beat the 2018 World Champion Red Sox ace pitcher. 12 to 4.

This year’s group. Many from Oregon. An opening day tradition.

Part of the group anyway. About 26 altogether And Dave Niehaus.

And now that the season has begun, I will have to get into game shape. So it will be back to the ballpark tomorrow.

And not quite the home opener.

Saturday was a wander with fan fest in the middle. We took transit to the park, and then got lots of steps in wandering around. Met a few ballplayers, two of whom were really appreciative of the work Carl did on a postcard he asked them to sign. (It included stats from the game where they hit their first home run.) Two others had made their major league debut in Japan. Found lots of ballpark acquaintances and sat in the sun. That is, I sat in the sun, Carl chased after balls.

We finally departed back to light rail and UW. As it happened, the UW baseball team was playing USC, so we took our wander past their ballpark. When a ball is hit out of Husky stadium it might land on dry ground. But it is equally likely to land on squishy land or in the water. We found this pile of decaying baseballs gathered by someone else. Perhaps they were studying decay rates.

We finally tackled the hill back home. Several hundred steps to the upper campus, a stop at Trade Joes and finally home.

Sunday was much less vigorous, transferring “mobile” tickets to friends. It’s computer work, in some ways easier, but more potential problems with electronics, changing minds and hopefully no dead phones at the ballpark.

Yesterday we did a warm up game for the regular season. Except it was COLD. I will take more clothes on Thursday. Bring it on.

Happy birthday Mom!

I wish I were there to tell you how much I love you, and respect what you taught me through the years.

Keep on keeping on.

ICHIRO, ICHIRO, ICHIRO

This is apparently Ichiro’s last game. They are saying he is going to retire after today’s game.

I left work a little early yesterday. The early morning caught up with my focus. But yesterday’s early rising also allowed me to successfully go to bed early. That is, I actually fell asleep, and stayed asleep. So I was able to get up early this morning with a pretty good night’s sleep.

Carl was up and down yesterday and had a hitting session last night. He did get up for this morning’s game, but went back to bed after the 5th inning.

The Ichiro send off was so emotional. It would be perfect if the Mariners could actually win the game.

No early to work benefit from game 2. Extra innings. I may have to figure out what radio station is carrying the game.

AND THEY WIN

2-0

And at 2:35 am, the season is underway. This self-imposed early rising should make the rest of the day interesting.

The A’s may have hit the first HR of the game, but a new Mariner (Santana) hit the first Grand Slam HR. (5-3 Mariners, but only the top of the 3rd inning.).

We are texting with our seatmates. One up early, or possibly still up. The other is celebrating his 5th evening in Tokyo.

And after 3 cups of coffee, some mango and toast, it is time to go to work. Final score. Mariners win 9-7. 1st place!

Bunnies on the ball field.

Daffodils

And, hopefully the last of the snow.

I posted the series because I think this is the longest period of snow in our yard. Perhaps ever. It first snow fell February 4th. The last picture was this morning, March 18th. And it was 60 degrees in the sun yesterday. With a high of 70 predicted today, the last bit should disappear.

If you have read Boys in the Boat, you should recognize this name. If not, read the book, it’s excellent.

Some of those shells in motion.

And finally, The Mountain was out during our weekend meandering.

Tanks are us week.

This is a City of Seattle tank, at 32 million gallons, a bit larger than the 2 million gallon tank pictured earlier this week.

Well, the tank is underground

352 feet in diameter. Up to 55 feet tall. It’s immense. A forest of columns.

The hole in this tank is smaller than the hole in the tank at our office, but we cut the hole in our tank on purpose.

One of the many interesting (to me) aspects of this structure is the underdrain system. It includes perforated concrete pipes. And each of the perforations was hand drilled.

Here is a rather high hard hat. I don’t wear it often, so I haven’t bothered to try any adjustments.

Would you pay attention to this job boss?

IT’S SNOWING, AGAIN.

Okay, it’s not that much, yet. It’s the principle.

I arrived at work after dropping off the boys, at around 4 am. That is the drop off was at 4, work arrival a bit later.

There’s a hole in our tank!

The 2 million gallons that usually resides in this tank is on vacation while we do some seismic upgrades.

I managed to stay productive today, more or less. And then was greeted by this car as I neared home.

Time to find the inside of my eyelids.

Carl and the boys are leaving in the morning. Early in the morning.

It’s 8 PM and I should be going to bed. It will be the opportunity for 7 hours of sleep.

Carl is packed and ready. A second is scheduled to arrive in an hour, at which point he will be considered packed and ready. The third will be unknown until we arrive at his domicile at 3:40 in the morning.

So this will be it for tonight.

Nothing to see here.

Goodnight