Raincharm’s Weblog

Who knew that after owing a house for about 25 years we would still be such good movers. We got our skills honed during the remodel move-out (and move back).

This particular exercise is to provide a clean area for bug eradication.

The move started with today’s drive north from the LP (Troll-land) to the UP. Unlike a few days ago when it was snowing here and there, it sprinkled briefly, but not enough to turn on the windshield wipers.

We stopped at the Downtown Café in West Branch for lunch. Carl wandered around downtown looking for postcards while Rey and I found a Home Depot for some moving boxes. They sort of fit in the back seat with food, backpacks and me.

My philosophy is get more than you think you will need, because you don’t want something simple like missing boxes to slow down your packing.

Our only real error was getting medium size boxes instead of small boxes. Kitchen stuff can be amazingly heavy, and you can’t put too much breakable stuff into one box.

We are not wrapping and doing a real pack job as we would for a real move. Our move is about 150 feet, from the cabin to a cousin’s garage, and most stuff is getting driven over in a car. And no furniture.

My thinking is to move stuff that is easy to move out of the space instead of cleaning it later because we are not sure of how much bug stuff was around. We are covering furniture, but most everything else is out the door. We made pretty good progress, but still have to go through to small rooms, get decorations off of the walls, and on the last day the few dishes, suitcases, etc.

Wednesday morning is day 0. We got such a good start today we are planning to visit Whitefish Point tomorrow.

Of course, Jane got everything rolling during her weekend ahead of us, and we did not have to spend any time turning on water and electricity. THANK YOU JANE.

It was downright balmy (in the low 50s) when we arrived. It is probably below 40 now and heading into the 30s tonight. Fire in the kitchen fireplace, Tigers on the radio, and we are content.

Just entered Kentucky.
On our way from Tennessee to Michigan.

Today will be the lp, although I have never heard it referred to as such. (Lower peninsula).

We have been having some good family time. Graduation of course, a UT baseball game and a Smokies game last night. (Cubs AA team). Some good barbecue restaurants too. A bit of home cooking by Carl, and most importantly – cupcakes.

Rey’s Information Sciences graduating class of 2016. Rey is 5th from the right in the middle row.

My one attempt at a picture, an action shot.

Post ceremony, pre-dinner, courtesy of photographer Mark.

Pooh and Mark joined Ashlan, Rey, Carl and me for the aforementioned festivities. It is so nice to have family together. Pooh and Mark drove over from St. Louis. (And brought the cupcake pan.) Ashlan flew in from New York, with the most eventful trip due to delays arriving into Charlotte where she had to connect to a flight to Knoxville. Late leaving NYC, holding pattern over Charlotte, and then no ground crew to unboard the plane. We were actually contemplating a 90 minute drive to pick her up in Chattanooga or Tri City, TN. As it turns out her connecting flight was also delayed and she is a fast runner.

The return flight was looking as though it could be a repeat in reverse. They called her a few hours before the scheduled departure to tell her about a delay, that would have messed with her connection. Later flights didn’t work unless it was so late it was the next day. Luckily she asked about earlier flights since we were quite close to the airport. And they had very limited seats on the connecting flight to NYC, so she had to sit in FIRST CLASS!

Tonight we will get to see a different sister and parents, and then it will be on to cousin land, with possible snow. (I think the snow will have passed, but they did have some traces overnight.)

Rey, Carl and Evan at the Smokies game. Barbecue bacon grilled cheese sandwich, green goat salad and kettle corn.

Barge on the Tennessee river at the Ijams Nature Preserve. We took a one mile hike along the river and up over some homemade staircases and a tower trail.

Moving to the driver’s seat.

From kindergarten to grad school

Robed and ready

Real life action

This is what several days of short sleep and long Mariner games followed by a day on planes looks like.

Not bad, just ready to stretch out. But it’s a bit difficult to stretch in a Bdubs (buffalo wild wings). Rey had to go to Bread Bash, and we ate dinner and are cooling our heels waiting for his return (with the car and the apartment key)

Scenes from today

Rainier in the foreground, Adams in the back. Mt. Saint Helens was off to the right.

Spent an hour in DC, but the only sights we saw were on postcards.

And Carl missed his first Mariner game of the year. (They won)
This is from yesterday’s Mariners game.

No work today, and I left at 4 PM yesterday. Vacation is officially underway.

I know I am rambling, so I will sign off.

So I have a few uninterrupted moments.

Between work, the Mariners and an occasional Sounders game and now the Silver Foxes, I have not made the time to post. (Note I don’t call it writing.)

And I just know there were some interesting tidbits to share.

House jenga

The full glorious sunny weekend that was spent walking and watching, when we were actually too hot on a Sunday in early May. (I am still taking lots of clothes to the game tonight.) Felix Hernandez pitched one of the games and we sat in the K section. To celebrate Felix the King, they give out a roasted turkey leg to a deserving fan, and they gave it to Carl.

The sinkhole in our neighborhood, likely from the light rail tunnel in close proximity. We walked by after they had filled it with several loads of concrete. I was wondering where the actual hole was, and they had helpfully painted “hole” on a sheet of plywood across the sidewalk.

Carl’s first baseball game of the season. He played first base, pitched three innings, got two hits, and ran the bases. Last year he always had courtesy runners. And not that he looked like a gazelle, but he stole second.

I now have a seasonal worker doing some data entry for me, but it is taking more time to keep her busy… And I have to get 1-1/2 weeks ahead of her so we can go see the kids and other family.

Speaking of family. Happy birthday to Ashlan, happy mothers’ day to all the mothers out there, and happy fathers’ day in case I fall off the face of the earth again.

Just because I like this picture.
Almost to work. Signing off.

We now have a deck.
It has been in place for a few years now and it is time to do some maintenance.

The primary focus is on the wood elements. Cleaned and brightened it was time to consider the plastic (trex) decking. So Sunday I got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed. And then hosed it all off. I have to admit it was not hard scrubbing, but I was worn out at the end. Picture is about one quarter clean.

And now my back is teetering on the edge. And we still need to put the finish coat on the wood elements.

I have never read so many limitations on when the work can be done. Over 45 degrees, but not when the wood is hot. 48 hours after being wet and 24 hours before rain is expected. Really?!? In Seattle!

Maybe a little bit tonight and I am going to try to get out of work early tomorrow. Chance of rain on Wednesday.

Stay tuned.

Busy day too. Started by sleeping in until 8. Ahhh.
Then the work began. For Carl it began yesterday. He scrubbed the deck woodwork with a cleaner. I think it took him about 4 hours. This morning we followed up with the brightener. With two of us it took about 3 hours, but that included buying a pump sprayer, taping off the metal and then doing the actual brightening (whatever that is).

Finished in time to head to the Seattle Center for the grand opening of the new KEXP studios. We arrived to a long line and decided to follow plan b. Before we could embark on the new plan we ran into some friends that had arrived with a similar plan a. While we were chatting Sagan, her mother and grandparents showed up.  They were at the Center for Whirlygig. Carl had taken Sagan two days during the week and she wanted more. More chatting and then we worked on figuring out our plan b. It started as the Pacific Science Center but soon morphed into dinner at the Athina Grill followed by a walk to the waterfront and along the waterfront to the stadiums.

As you can see, Rainier was out.

Tonight’s activity is a Sounders game. Hopefully they will win, as the Mariners did earlier. In New York City beating the Yankees with Ashlan in attendance. I forgot to ask whether she wore any Mariner gear.

April 15th.
Most Americans know April 15th as tax day. Our house also knows this as
1) the day after Pete Rose’s birthday
2) the day after the first due date they gave us for Rey, who was eventually born on June 6th
3) Jackie Robinson day!

Carl always tries to attend a baseball game on Jackie Robinson day. Today he has two scheduled, Garfield High School and University of Washington. UW is playing UCLA, attended by Jackie. Carl called the UW a few months ago and suggested they should make this game a Jackie Robinson game. He never heard back, but we looked at the schedule this morning and it is indeed a celebration of Jackie Robinson. Maybe it was already planned, who knows.

As for tax day, that has been delayed until April 18th due to the celebration of Emancipation Day today since April 16th is a Saturday.

The weather in Seattle is supposed to be nice this weekend. A penalty day for those that put off their taxes until the end.

And so it begins.
Opening weekend in Seattle in April.
Unlike some other cities it did not snow, and didn’t even rain. (Of course the weekend is not over yet but no rain is predicted. Friday was in the 70s, yesterday the high 60s, and today the mid 60s. Hard to complain.

Friday was great fun. Carl and I walked downtown, and had to stop to buy sunscreen. (Turns out there was a small tube in my backpack that I missed.)

Our regular stop for refreshments and restrooms.

I look a little worse for wear, but it was a hot walk.

Between posting the above picture on Facebook and texting a few we gathered the usual suspects before the gates opened.

And so did everyone else. The crowd was reported at over 47,000.

Part of the draw was Ken Griffey Jr throwing out the first pitch.

We should see him again in a little over 100 days.

The games are ready to begin.

To be continued.

And we’re off.

We watched parts of the three games yesterday, and Carl watched the Mariners today.

It was a day game, and I was unaware of the outcome until after our Board meeting (6:30 PM). Felix was okay, 6 strikeouts, but not infallible, 5 walks, and neither were the field players – 2 errors – behind him. It’s only the first game, so no worries.

I just got home (9:30) after writing up the minutes from the meeting because the Executive Assistant had an unexpected medical issue to deal with. Maybe at this rate I won’t need to burn a vacation day on Friday for the Mariners home opener.