I have often been called a tree-hugger. But it was raining so hard today that I did not hug two trees in our backyard goodbye. goodbye. Anyway, Carl is the sentimental one amoung us, so I will leave that to him. If all goes as scheduled two of the five trees in our backyard will be taken down today. The largest, a sweet gum, is a sewer sucker, and is the impetus for this move. The two trees also have branched into all other trees in the vicinity and blot all sunlight from the backyard. On the positive side, they do traspire alot of water skyward and keep the house cooler in the summer. But, we still have three trees to pick up some of the slack.

So – we still have a rainier cherry, blue spruce and some sort of asian fir (I asked the tree guy what this one was). Next steps may be to try and level the backyard some, and get a lawn back for Carl’s kids to play on. The current lawn is more moss and weeds and sweet gum seed pods than grass.

We have had so many seed pods over the past few years that Carl would go out with the kids and play counting games picking them up and putting them in buckets. The seed pods  do their job of digging into the grass too well, prickling the bottom of bare feet, and clogging the lawn mower (reel, but not with bare feet anyway).

The question is now how well I manage to revamp the backyard with my limited gardening/lawn care skills.

I wonder if just that much will lead to anyone knowing the rest?
Remember when the beach cousins were younger and used to have fun with their names

Nosyalnif anyone?
I just got a “you need to update your connection” message to a site I am registered with.
They provide the initial password, and then you get to change it to what you will remember.

Well – guess what password they started with.
I recognized it before I even finished reading the word, or grouping of seemingly random letters.
Made me wonder about how things like that are imprinted in our brains.
LOL to start the day – always good.

OK – anybody that is not family may have a tough time with this one … sorry.

Votiing – it energizes me. I voted this morning – twice in fact. [Once for myself, and I dropped off Ashlan’s ballot.]
We got to the polls about 6:50 (10 minutes before they opened). We were about 30th in line. My carpooler was about 15 in front of us. We were done by 7:20.
In King County they have been condensing many polling places to a few, so there were about 16 precincts. Finding the right little line after the signs were blocked by those in front was a bit difficult. But I can always think of better ways to arrange things for next time.

But alas, in Washington there will be no next time. We are going to all mail voting. 74% already vote by mail, and it is a cost saving measure. But I still don’t like it.

As I was waiting to put my ballot through the scanning machine, and put Ashlan’s into the drop off box, the man in front of me commented on the huge turnout (compared to most elections), we decided it was “fun” and that we would miss the social aspect of voting.

I am still energized. But – the Washington Governor’s race is expected to be quite close (129 votes last time), so I don’t particularly want to watch the results tonight. Think maybe we’ll get some movies.

If you have not already, and are eligible – VOTE.

I am home with two computers running simultaneously.
I have two presentations on Wednesday – one for the District’s 60th Birthday.
I was tasked with putting together a power-point presentation showing some historical pictures.
So of course it has blossomed, and I now have about a 10 minute show going. It is not done yet though.
All pictures have been assembled and a map that shows the District’s growing.
I am working on titles and animations.
The animations are somewhat limited for most slides. I have one that fades three different buildings (well houses) in over each other to show the changes.
The other is the growing District. This required drawing the boundary for each incarnation of the District. In 60 years there have been many many incarnations. I started this using the drawing functions in Powerpoint 2003. (I do not do enough art to have real drawing programs, and drawing in Office is generally pretty easy for me.) But when I worked on my home computer over the weekend I had to use Office 2007. Now most frustrations with the upgrade involve just finding out where they have put all of the functions. But the drawing has gotten too complicated – they couldn’t keep it simple (stupid). So after being almost in tears because I couldn’t figure out how to change the default from curved lines to straight segments and more annoying (because I know how to change the segment), I couldn’t get it to free up my placement of the vertices – it kept jumping them. Yes I tried to set all of the bits to let me be free – but. Eventually I went back to VPN, which was taking forever due to the number of layers I had going. I would move a vertice, watch some TV, move the next one, and on and on, watching it redraw each layer in between each move – twice. I got fairly far through my list, with about 1/3 remaining. I was able to finish the last 1/3 in about 1/2 hour at work today….

So, since I am still working on the animation and don’t want to wait an eternity for each move, and don’t feel like fighting the 2007 battle, I brought home a work computer (with 2003 loaded).

Ah – I think I just ranted.

Oh – VOTE!!! We plan on hitting the polls for their 7 AM openning. I am supposed to meet my carpooler there and leave after we have both had our turn.

We spent the afternoon/early evening at a Day of the Dead celebration for our friend Nick Gallo.
Nick was a great friend we had known since we moved to Seattle. His family misses him greatly, but are moving ahead and creating art that celebrates his memory and keeps it fresh. They are also making it possible for many old friends to gather, connections to be made and to expand the web of threads that bind people together into a society.

I had one of those, do I know you? moments, but we assumed it had been at a previous gathering with Nick & Laurie. But when Carl joined a conversation the connection was made to a toddler coop that we had benn in with Rey and they with their daughter. So, almost 20 years later … And this was after they had provided a potential connection for Rey’s job exploration. Fate – it works in funny ways.

Toast to all we miss – to your memory and continued influences on our lives.

Twice today I have been moved to laughter, all while working essentialy 12 hours.
The first was reading a letter to the editor from one of the always opinionated realatively old-timers in the local small circulation paper (local at work, not home) I thought it was funny not just for what/how it was put, but that it started out small, and just seemed to grow. Maybe it is because I am familiar with the writer and can picture him saying the words. But I am in the mood for sharing.

The second was when I arrived home at approximately 8:15, and saw Carl’s pumpkin offerings.

The following is reprinted from the Sammamish Reporter 10/31/2008 Letters to the Editor

More retail needed in Sammamish

Seven years of promises and more promises, and I have not seen any retail stores coming up here on the Plateau so that we do not have to run 20 miles round trip to get a pair of socks or some shoes.

You would think making it out the door in the morning 5 minutes earlier would not be a problem.
5 minutes is the difference between being in front of or behind the school bus.
5 minutes later really means 15 minutes later.
Now – I am all for school buses, they have a great potential to reduce driving or drop-off traffic. And this particular school bus is taking the kids probably 1-5 miles, depending on your pick-up location, along roads that are busy and do not have sidewalks, or reasonable alternatives.

Today I even got another potential delay when the garbage truck, also following this route, pulled into the line waiting behind the bus. Often the garbage trucks are as slow or slower than the school bus. Lack of said space along the road. Although I think they should plan their routes to avoid the arterials until after rush hour. Luckily the garbage truck did a semi-3-point turn and backed down a road, before we had reached the point where the bus stops pick-ups, so no real time loss.

Finally got to the next turn, where I drop the bus. It is a free right-turn yield lane kind of turn. At this point I stopped, only to almost be passed/rear-ended/side-swiped by a high-school student in a slightly lowered shiny black pick-em-up truck. I was stopped only because the person in the car in front of me had not quite figured out that she really could drive forward because the left turners in the road we were turning to were blocking all possible traffic from reaching our little lane. But you can never be too careful, so she carefully checked it all out, while I was just about crunched by a newbie driver that probably did understand the lights, and assumed everyone else did too.

In the last 1-1/2 miles of my 25 mile commute there are three high schools, two school districts and a catholic high school. Usually I only deal with real traffic from the first I encounter, as they are all coming from my direction to reach the high school. Since there is a split between the two school districts, there is only a small amount of true school traffic in the 3/4 mile between them. Now that the catholic school (a big one) has opened in between them, it should get interesting. But to be honest I have not gotten stuck in a jam with them … yet (1st year).

OK – I made it to work, and now need coffee.

I would like to get rid of two trees in our backyard.
They are too big for the space (we have 5 in a postage stamp).
One of them is a sewage sucker, with our side sewer being the source.
I have received 3 quotes (called 5, but two did not respond)
$2200, $1000, $1900. Hmmmmm.
The first quote was the first, and floored me a bit. The guy seemed sincere, and I had one good personal reference, but he kept pointing out potential problems (access) so I was a bit worried about increases or not being able to perform.
The second quote, the lowest, was very tempting. But I didn’t really know much about them so I checked the state and BBB sites. No real problems (violations) showed up on the state, but the BBB has a no recommend based on four complaints, some of which were resolved.
The third quote, requested after finding the No recommend, is close to the first, but the fellow seemed really knowledgable and spoke about how he could get the project accomplished (instead of problems). No bad hits on state or L&I site, so …..

Decisions, decisions. I need to get this done before the winds pick up and the tree folks get busy.

Not that Carl is not my friend, but we have been watching and listening to the World Series pretty much by ourselves. We finally managed to get together in SUNNY Seattle with our baseball buds in time for the game. But then the game was being played at the end of fall/beginning of winter in SOGGY Philadelphia. Suspended, and they sure took their time making the decision. It looked like Seattle City Soccer League tournament, which is the best deal for playing soccer, but tests spectators ability to withstand cold and rain. 

Can’t wait until next year when the World Series will be a week later. This is silly – it is not going to be good baseball if you play in the really cold and wet and possibly snowy situations.

Anyway – on the friend front it was good, and good food as well.
Our hope? TB to win the suspended game and the 1st game in Tampa, and then then for game 7 – choose your favorite.

We did our quick trip north today.
Shopping, voting, soccer, frisbee and flag football.
That pretty much sums up our time in Vancouver.
Oh – and seeing how turned around I could get at Ashlan’s dorm.

The dorm has lots of angles. I guess they do that to make it interesting, or some math major was trying to figure out how to cut a pie into five pieces with a straight edge and a string (something like that).
Here are a few pics of her dorm suite.
When you walk into the suite there are 10 doors to choose from! (really only 9, since you just came in one of them.) Oh but turn around quickly and try to go back out the way you came in. Which door would you choose? I would probably go for the one with the Exit sign, but that would be wrong. Yes it does exit you from the room, onto a stairwell. It’s even the same stairwell you just climbed. It’s just in a different place on the stairwell than you used to get to the door that allowed you to enter the suite. –

5 doors

3 more doors

These suites are considerably different than my MSU rooms.
There are 6 pod bays that each house one girl. Cozy would be a good word.

1 person

Then there is the common area – kitchen/dining/living room. Cozy would be a good word here as well. They even have a cute triangular balcony (remember the angle thing). But I don’t think all six could get on the balcony at once, even if they were all standing up. It appears to function as a recyle area and cell phone quiet space.

common pod

kitchen pod

Anyway, a good trip with minimal border waits, dry roads and only a few other drivers.