Raincharm’s Weblog

The raspberries are ripe, and we are picking. I am getting ready to go out with the second bowl. I got about 2/3rds of the way down one side, and filled bowl number one. Ahh, summer goodness of berries.

Picker and picked

biggest harvest day yet

Update – final count 4 bowls (full if all were the starting bowl size, but I had to go for larger after the small ones got filled up. The pictures are after all of us and a few neighbors had some. Ashlan is working on raspberry smoothies as we (I) speak (write).

Thank the house gods, the stink is gone. For the last two weeks the house has had an aroma that was not too pleasant. Being in the sewer business I finally started looking into it. Our often backed up side sewer, was not backed up. Strike one, The next most common cause is a dried out trap in the plumbing. Not us, all water barriers in place. Strike two. The less common but possible cause is a leak in the vent stack. Difficult to pinpoint, and probably costly to diagnose exactly where the leaks are. After arriving home from the Mikado it seemed particularly smelly. So I went down to the basement to ponder the plumbing. I finally decided we were going to have to pay for another expert to sniff out or smoke out the problem. Then I noticed an area behind several layers of spider webs that appeared to be covered in some sort of tape. It was next to a joint where the pipe sizes change. Now I don’t know what would have caused the change, but …

The next morning I told Carl we could call the plumber or if he wanted we could try a duct tape repair in the area of this older tape. Since I was at work and Carl is a one-hand, Ashlan was elected. I wasn’t there, but apparently the spider webs were dispatched, duct tape found, and a wrapping party held.

And lo and behold – the stink is gone. The basement smells like a good old musty basement, and we can turn the house fan back on to pull the cooler air through the house.

Mt. Sentinel Post Fire

The Mount Sentinel blaze,

started by a 7-year-old and an 8-year-old playing with cigarette lighters, burned 390 acres, according to the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.
Photo by LINDA THOMPSON/Missoulian

The article that accompanied this picture noted that people should hustle off the mountain if they note the mountain is on fire. The mountain trail is also currently closed. I know Rey goes up and down on occassion, but I haven’t checked in with him on this point. If you look to the left upper side of the Mountain, you can see the big Block M in white.

Mt. Sentinel Fire

Rey called last night and said he was watching Fire on the Mountain. He was walking home from work, and could see the fire in the distance. He said lots of people were out watching, when he normally doesn’t encounter too many people on his walk. I checked the Missoulian this morning and it was/is on Mt. Sentinel, the mountain with the UM Block M that you can hike up to.  Hopefully they get this out quickly as they are in Red Flag warning meaning conditions are right for fires. Although the news report I red indicated this one was started by kids.

It’s our biggest subject of conversation these days, so you all MUST be interested too.

Went to see the Orthopedic PA today. They took the temporary splint off – whew! Arm was swollen, with bruising here and there – kind of like the pooling after a sprained ankle.

The decision was to keep it in a splint (not a cast), well wrapped for now, but removable for showers (thank you sooo much). The splint stays on and in a sling all the time, except for showers, until Friday.
Starting Friday it can be removed several times a day to work on doing elbow curls, to start getting some motion back. But no extra weight (like a beer?) yet. Also can try wrist rolls during these episodes. And ICE, ICE, ICE.

Go back to the Orthopedic office on Tuesday-Wednesday – that is if they can get us an appointment. The regular appointments for the PA we saw were booked until August. Also get to see the Occupational Therapist at that time to see what else should be worked on. Probably get to take off the splint at this time and just use the sling. Final decision made at that time.

Next time frame was no more than 2 pounds lift for 6-8 weeks. This will make the whole day-care thing interesting.
Probably 3 months before resuming baseball (in a game where you have to field and bat). Of course the season will be over by that time.

Ashlan & I will have our work cut out for us trying to keep him reined in. I am going to print up and post the rules in a prominent location.

As in my mind.
All day long there were many thoughts, things to do, places to be.

And at this time – nothing.
Must be time for bed.

Update: Must really have been time for bed, since I didn’t actually hit the publish button.

Some thoughts about how you react to a difficult situation.

You can sit back and think about what you can’t do.
Or you can go out and figure out what you can still do.

After a short stint on path one, thinking about how his season has seemingly been cut short, Carlos is definitely embarking down path two. I went walking this morning (9 miles) and then called to see how things were going at home. Ashlan informed me that the dishes had been done, Church of Baseball had been attended, and now C was off driving the car, picking up a friend before coming back to get Ashlan to go the Mariners game. And yesterday he caught a ball in batting practice using his father’s left-handed mitt (on the right hand), and kept score writing with his right hand. For the record – he is left-handed, but plays baseball like a right-handed person normally would.

Dishes, driving, shopping, writing, I guess he is testing to see what he can do with one arm, and it is probably easier without me jumping up to protect him at every turn. As Ashlan put it a few days ago, “I (me) can be such a Mother.”

Twenty-three years of everything with Carlos. It has been great. Alot of people have said we are an alternative relationship (he stays with the kids and I work), which has become more normal nowadays, but I think we have an extremely traditional relationship with flipped roles. Now I get to help with all of the things that he does to keep the household running. Outside of his demonstration that he can do dishes (albeit slowly and on drugs), I am looking at laundry, shopping, gassing the car, …. . I still have the better end of the deal, and it reminds me how much he does for me every day. 

Anyway – Happy Anniversary to us and Pooh & Mark, and Anne & Bill (almost) and Suzie & Barry (almost) and any others that I don’t remember right off.

Macaroni? No – although that would be a good guess in our family – with lots of cheese.
If we look back three days we see Carl with his pile of presents.

But the elbows we are dealing with today are those that are dislocated – another thing our family seems to do well.

I guess I really miss being on the lake for the 4th. We were reminiscingabout the year the lightning show coming in over the lake made the Brimley fireworks look small and insignificant.

We are having that kind of a show here in the great northwest now. Thunderstorms are fairly unusual here, and to have one that has been continuing to come through in bursts for over 12 hours is even rarer. Ashlan’s soccer game last night managed to squeeze between cells, but we were watching the storm advance on us during the 2nd half.  (They won 4-0)

Forecast is for clearing to sun later today, so maybe the 4th here will be sunny. Unusual weather as well for the 4th.

On other “Stormy” moves, the Storm are not leaving, but the Sonics are – heading to OK City, where they have a lot more T-storms. The NBA kind of reminds me of some administrations – say one thing to make it really expensive to keep a team (like – the current stadium is unusable, and can’t be renovated to meet current NBA standards), and then change your tune when it suits you – (well, maybe the stadium can be renovated, and if you show us you will do that within 5 years we may give you another team), after having previously said (if Seattle fights this move they will never have another team). … Oh well, big rich folks have to have their games to play too I suppose.