Raincharm’s Weblog

For me, anyway, it was a quiet day.
I went on a 6-mile walk this morning, just to see how it felt.
Amazingly awake, and not sore.
And best of all I met a new fellow walker, also looking for a walk, and spent the 6 miles getting to know each other. So different, and yet we had many things in common. (Michigan connection for one) It was early in the morning, so the City was still sleepy.
Then I spent the better part of the day doing data gathering on the computer.
Ashlan and Carl went to the Mariner game, so the house was relatively quiet.
There were occasional loud spells when the Blue Angels flew over, but they were limited, and expected.

I don’t think I’ve had a really quiet day in a while.

The normally full day –
Jay – Walk 17 miles in the morning
Ashlan – Go to work – 8 hours or so
Carl – Mariners are in town – so some sort of basebally thing.

Well – the 17 miles and 8 hours got done in a fairly usual fashion, but the basebally thing took all sorts of interesting and different turns.

First of all it is one of the two days per year when the Mariners “appreciate” the fact that people pay lots of money to them to get the privilege of watching the team win some and lose more. They let us in an hour earlier, and gave out long sleeve t-shirts and hats.
It was also trading card day, for all fans. They give every fan a pack of Mariner cards that have all but 6 cards from the set and then 7 cards of one player. The idea is that you trade your extras to other fans that have the ones you are missing. It is actually my favorite give-away. It is fun when everyone is trying to find cards. We established quite a trove of cards and I was trading like crazy. Giving someone that last card they need is fun – especially the kids.

Now the early opening and cards were for everybody.
But Carl’s ticket person had asked him to come in really early and do an interview about the Mariners, family and Safeco field. Since I had finished my walk and didn’t want to walk to the bus later I decided to go with Carl, early, and so did our two friends and seatmates Kevin and Mark. They interviewed Carl and then all of us as well. I am not sure what they are using this for, but they were interesting questions.

Then – out to our seats before just about anyone else was in the ballpark. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon. Watching the Mariners warm up on the field. Others arrived, batting practice was on, and then

Carl’s ticket person contacted Carl again, and asked him if he wanted to throw out the first pitch before the game – Season Ticket Holder Appreciation Day. So – Off we go – got to stand on the field during a few openning acts, the national anthem, and then Carl got to throw out the pitch. A strike, right over the plate, thrown to Cesar Jimenez, a Mariner reliever.

What fun – Ashlan had arrived from work and was cheering from the really expensive seats right next to the field (no she didn’t get to sit there).

Then the game started. And ended in another loss, but still – a really full and fun day.
I think it was so much fun because we didn’t know what to expect from the interview and everything after that was unplanned, and just happened.

(Oh – and in the 3rd inning they have a contest where two rows compete to try and pass a stack of empty pizza boxes from one end to the other. The first row to finish got free pizza. Well our row tried, but fell apart just before us.

And now I am tired and ready to go to bed.
This has not been particularly witty or erudite, but it really was a fun day.

Relatively good focus at work today. Did not complete my task, but got well into it. Enough to identify questionable areas to be further addressed.

Home – not so good – the stink is back! More tape helps, but I think we need to do more than a bandaid.
First probably need to try to access the roof vent to make sure it is free and clear of debris. Or call somebody else to climb up the almost three stories. Not that I am afraid of ladders, but this is in a difficult area.

Why is everything costing so much right now. Not that it is more expensive than before, except that it is, but that there are sooo many bills right now. We just got the ambulance bill. Not as bad as I thought it might be, but still …. what next? Oops should not tempt fate.

The day went well, I think. A party, nicely done, with good food and lots of peers. Our retiree to be is a survivor buff, (not a scarf, although she scarfed some food), so we voted her off our island. About a dozen different workmates put their reasons on film and we showed it at the lunch. Much fun. A few gifts, and back to work. Oh yeah – our boss made four cakes – really good cakes. None left.

To unwind two of us workmates took a 5.3 mile walk after work. It was a new route for us, and afterwards I checked to see just how high those hills were. We had 465 feet of total elevation gain. Most of it in three major hills. But a good way to work off the BBQ lunch.

Sigh, maybe tomorrow I will get some more focused WORK done.

That is how I feel about today.
Nothing really bad – just work and walk.
Much to do at work, much of it important work that has lagged to long.
Need to focus on some, think it through.
In my true “green” fashion (we do colors at work – green = overanalyzer, but trust the work when finally done) I am getting ready to review a technical piece by reviewing the work that I did that will support the piece, or not. This needs to be done, should have been done long ago.

But that is not the deep source of today’s trepidation.
We are having a farewell – really want the leaving to fare well. It should be HAPPY. And yet, it is not totally full of happiness. I have prepared what I hope will be received well, in the spirit given. But I want to survive without a total lapse into blueness (touchy-feely, emoting – not one of my strong suits, so I don’t control it well).

Without change we can not grow. Not all change is bad – just different.
FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS – ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE.

This quote was in a newsletter I got today. I thought I would share it with any who choose to visit today.

“A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt … If the game runs sometime against us at home, we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.”

Thomas Jefferson

According to Wiki From a letter of 1798, after the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts

Just got back from a 17 mile walk. Low 70’s, so really perfect walking weather.
The walk took a long time. There were 30-40 of us, and one of the bathroom stops was at a bakery/coffee shop. It was a french bakery, and they did their baking right next door to the storefront. I had an almond croissant – mmmmmmmmmmm. So fresh and light and good. Worth the long time we had to tary there to take care of our business. Also walked by a wedding on Lake Washington, a few picnics, lots of bicyclists (actually they rode by us) and several runners. Should I walk tomorrow? 13 miles planned by this group – decisions, decisions.

Update: No 13 mile walk today. Sleeping, the body feels a bit out of kilter, and a light misty rain. Will try for a shorter walk later to shake all of the bits back into place.

I don’t usually focus on Friday’s, at least not like TGIF.
But this Friday feels different.
It is not so much that I don’t have work planned for the weekend, I do. (I may or may not get it done, however).
It is supposed to be cloudy tomorrow, but not rainy, and I have a good long walk planned.
Sunday is fairly empty, so it isn’t that the weekend is stuffed with stuff to do.

I think instead it is that a good friend is retiring, next Friday.
So now it is down to the last Monday, Tuesday …

It gives one pause. So great for her, but so different as well.
You get used to seeing people. 20 years of seeing each other is a long time.
And you just don’t know what is going to happen next for getting together.

This evening’s entertainment was provided by …
No, not the Last Comic Standing, but Ashlan.

Ashlan and Rey both learned to drive in our little manual shift Mazda.
But then the Prius arrived, and neither hesitated to make the jump to an automatic.
[Of course it was also new, plush, air conditioned, electric windows.]

Well, after a few years Ashlan has decided it is time to get reacquainted with a clutch.
This would have nothing to do with the Prius being in for an oil and water pump change!
To her credit we had talked about this being a good summer to redevelop this skill before putting the other car into the shop.

So – off to our old clutch learning haunts. Parking lots with reasonable slopes. A few hills on the way home.
No we did not attempt any of Seattle’s downtown monsters, that can come much later. I don’t even like to do those after decades of clutch driving. It was like deja-vu, but this time I was only having to pay attention to hitting the point, and good speeds for each gear, not – not so close to the parked cars, don’t hit the curb, that’s a stop sign. 

Carl greeted me with a drink. But tomorrow he has to accompany Ashlan on her first trip to work, just to make sure she is comfortable. The Mazda can handle it. This time there is only one of them.

Theme for the moment.

Ashlan’s soccer game was at a heavily used field not too far from our house. So Carl & I went to watch. It’s a fun team, dedicated to having fun while playing. But the field was so dusty last night, you would lose sight of the ball occassionally. After starting out slower than usual and going into a 0-2 deficit, they won 4-3. Woo-hoo.

Our house, in general – and yet I don’t grab a dust rag every time I see some.

My windowsill here at work. The excitement for the day will be when the maintenance guy cleans my windows. He asked that I clean my accumulated debris off so he could remove the screen to get to the glass. Wheee. And since our internal network server appears to be still sleeping, I’ll get to that now.