No longer eligible for parental medical coverage.
But that’s okay, gainfully employed and has her own.
We are proud, but miss having the responsibility of taking care of our little one.

OK, so I am a control freak!

Happy Day!

Hope you get to

have some fun.

This is the second half of our trip home.
It happened on Monday, but I was too tired to manage a post that evening, and then it was just a bit busy here.

To recap: On our trip to Colorado our flight was delayed so we arrived two hours early.
This was due to getting rescheduled on a direct flight, skipping the Sacramento stop.
Return trip did include Sacramento.

This meant that the second half took us up the west coast.
We sat on the right side of the plane (east) to try to catch a glimpse of Mt. Rainier as we came into Seattle.

We got Mt. Rainier and 8 more volcanoes.

Shasta, Diamond, Bachelor, Sisters, Hood, Adams, St. Helens and Rainier. (Crater Lake too, but no pictures.)
[Pardon the poor camera quality, and a dirty window as well.]

And they decided to come in reverse order!

Home again

Rainier

St. Helens

Adams + St. Helens + Rainier

Adams

Hood + Adams

Hood

Sisters + Hood

Sisters

Diamond (close), Bachelor and Sisters

Shasta

In other news on sights to see, I sat through 45 minutes to go a few miles today on the way home. Turns out the traffic jam inducing event are boats lining up for Saturday’s Opening Day of Boating Season at the Montlake Cut. Opening Day includes boat parades, crew races, and traffic jams. As I was finally getting to see the boats myself, an eagle flew over and landed on a light post as I passed under. I guess that was payment for waiting 45 minutes because of a boat blockade.

Sacramento here we are.
Right back where we were supposed to be a few days ago.

We essentially reversed our route from Thursday. Except that we actually went are going through Sacramento this time. All flights full and on time.

Fort Collins was welcoming, it even tried to make us feel at home by raining yesterday. It was good to check in with Bob, and to share space, time and brief moments including Doris.

Yesterday we spent some of the time bouncing between Denver, Chicago and Seattle teams on the telly. Perhaps luckily for us, the televised half of the Seattle teams were the Sounders and not the Mariners.

Hanging out in airports almost lets us stay in travel mode. Work is still at arms length. That reality can wait for the morning.

We have been able to spend a good amount of time with Bob over the past few days. Lots of reminiscing and going over good memories.

Comfortable setup here at MacKenzie Place. Good meals and cozy rooms to sit in.

As Ashlan had predicted, Bob put us to work helping reorganize parts of his apartment. There are many administrative bits and pieces that Bob and brother Steve are tackling. We get to focus on the easy bits.

Getting together with each other is the best part.

Off to spend a few days with Bob, Carl’s father in Ft. Collins. We were transported to the airport in style by Chauffeur Mark. Got us there in plenty of time.
We had decided to go with carry-on luggage, even though we could check bags for free. This was due to a relatively short time to get our bags and make the 8PM shuttle. (The next shuttle would be at 9.)
It looked like our plane was going to be populated by giggling teenagers. A volleyball team and an orchestral group. Of course this was flight one, to Sacramento. About a 1+ hour layover.
Then I noticed a half hour delay. Still manageable. Then it stretched to1-1/2 hours, and we would be out of luck. So I stretched my legs over to customer service. As it turned out, a direct flight to Denver had also been delayed, and there was room for two more.
So, due to our delay, we arrived 2 hours early.
And we should get to check in with Bob tonight.

Now for news of a more mundane sort. Carl can be seen in a scene from Wednesday’s Mariner win. This is from the Seattle Times I believe.

If you can enlarge this, check out Carl’s expression.

You can see a bit of Pooh’s quilt work on the rail. Bonus question – what flag is next to the quilt.
I am there as well, but obscured by Kevin.
All for now. Hard to type on a phone in a jiggling shuttle.

Baby Doris

Probably in 1928, somewhere in South Chicago.

A few years later.

Young Doris

Doris was beautiful, and bold for her time. Out on her own at 19.

And a mother – 3 boys! (Not at 19.)

Doris with Baby Carl

There must be more mother and son pictures that happened before this shot with Carl – he is number 3. But this is undoubtedly the cutest.

1970 with Carl and Steve

And as you can see, hiking in the mountains played a big part in Bob & Doris’ life together. They liked the mountains so much they retired to Colorado.

1971 Doris with Bob & Carl

1981 Doris and Bruce

Early 1970s – all 3 Boys and 1 girlfriend

Bob, Doris, Carl & Ashlan in 2010

Ashlan and Doris

Doris was a teacher, math. Carl credits Doris with his love of numbers. Even after Doris retired she continued tutoring high school students. She was so committed to being helpful that she took the class to learn how to use the new-fangled graphing calculators.

And the crafts. This Christmas tree brought to you by Doris Harms.
Pictures through the years have graced our trees. Not to mention the stockings.

Carl and Rey got to spend some time with Bob & Doris last summer. (I have always thought Carl favored Doris, while Rey favors Bob.)

July 2014 Doris with Carl, Rey & Bob

Doris – you will be missed.

Everything feels like it is accelerating. I don’t mean just time because I am older, but this specific week, or month. Taxes, Final Four, work, vacation planning, Easter, and our particular holy day – Opening Day of the baseball season.

I did most of the tax return well over a month ago, and then sat back to wait for the final information. It has been in our hands for more than a few weeks now, and I just need to sit down and complete the forms.

Tomorrow starts the end of the basketball at the college level. I have 2 teams. Duke and Michigan State, although ashlan will claim at least one of those as hers. (Go State)

Between getting lodging and flight plans I don’t think we will ever have a low Visa bill again.

Carl boiled a dozen eggs to color with one of his kids. Then said kid came down with the stomach flu, so I think we get to be creative. Deviled eggs anyone?

Which brings us to Monday. Our current plan is to leave early, on foot. Between regular workday parking and a sold out game, there is no reason to submit ourselves to that level of frustration. And there is always the bus if it pours.

Fans of the Fez, Fan of the Year, and Friends.

So much fun to make up group names for our 20-plus, although our group is scattered around the stadium.

Bits and pieces of spring today.
Baseball bats and daffodils.

Signs of Spring

This morning I put on my sunglasses to drive into the sun to work.
There was heavy dew around, fog above the water and light clouds up high.

And Sun Dogs (or parts of a halo).

Sun dogs, care of Wikipedia

I don’t know if I have ever witnessed these before. And I don’t have any of my own pictures, because I was driving. At first I noticed a “rainbow” to the right (south) of the sun. Then on another section of freeway, there was a left rainbow. And finally, walking into work I saw a bit of the top.

It was quite nice today, in the mid to high 60s as I sat in my office.
Still nice enough when I got home to convince Carl to take a walk with me.

We saw lots and lots of runners, many walkers, frisbees, small children, large children and old children.

Graham

And a couple of old cars in somebody’s driveway. There was an old Ford too, but I really liked this grille.

I will end on another baseball reference of sorts.
The title of this post refers to the timing of the Kingdome implosion (and Carl’s broken kneecap).
Follow the link for news coverage of the event.

Kingdome Implosion

And for the final bit of spring for the evening.
Our March Madness bracket before the games today.
You don’t need to know who is playing, just who is leading the way in our family.
Ashlan – Orange,   Rey – Purple,   Carl – Green,   Jay – Blue.

2015 Madness after Round 3

And it is not always how much color you have, but where your color is.
Notice that Carl, green, is very strong in the lower left, but only one team can come out of that.
I have blue pretty well distributed, but I think my numbers will be much depleted after the next round.
Rey has a small amount of purple left, but he does have Wisconsin, and Ashlan only has a small amount of orange, but she does have Kentucky.

We started our day as we do many weekend days, with a walk.
Except it wasn’t a weekend, if was Friday!
First day of Spring to boot.

Springtime in Seattle

It was a beautiful spring day – except that there was limited sun. But the sun of the past weeks means that spring has really arrived.

We took an intentionally hilly route.
The choices were down-up, or up-down-up.
Each of course had many rolling bits as well, but we chose the route with the most vertical.

The walk also took on a certain rhythm. (I had to spell the last word three times before I realized it only had one vowel – sort of.)
The rhythm was drink coffee while walking, stop in a coffee house to use the bathroom, buy a coffee, repeat.
The first coffee was from our own maker, but the lack of parks or grocery stores along the route meant that coffee houses were the most likely venue to have a public bathroom. And the coffee was good. We took turns buying, so we did not exactly go broke. (Starbucks does support bathroom usage for walkers without a purchase, but my cup was empty at that particular stop, so …)

Almost as high as the Needle

Our goal for the day was the NCAA Regional Basketball tournament being held at Key Arena.
Friday was the Round 2 games for the South and East Regionals. Held in the Northwest of course.

Key – on our way down

It seems it was a year ago that we bought the tickets for Rounds 2 and 3 (on Sunday).
Our family has done a random draw bracket for many years, and attending the games seemed like a logical extension.

Key Arena, after 5+ miles

The vertical aspect of our walk continued into the stadium.
Our seats were not bad, but in the next to the top row. (Hence a lack of pictures worth sharing here)

If you want to see the scores, they are available on many different digital sources, and in the hard copy paper for those that still get one to read. I want to talk about the mascots.

The first game was the Northern Iowa Panther vs the Wyoming Cowboy.
This was a close match, but the Panther had a bit more action going. I think the Cowboy’s outsized head limited their versatility.

Next up was the Louisville Cardinal vs. the UC Irvine Anteater.
Just for uniqueness the Anteater started out ahead. The Cardinal held his own, but it was just another red-bird that could have been for one of many Cardinals out there. The Anteater did many jigs, fast fleet feet.

Louisville Cardinal

Irvine Anteater

The third game paired the Davidson Wildcat against the Iowa Hawkeye. When the teams first appeared I thought the Hawkeye looked a bit weird. But the mascot grew on me as he interacted with everybody within reach. Cajoling, harassing, and never sitting still. On the other side was the mopey Wildcat. Honestly, this mascot mostly wandered around, barely even clapping their hands. Maybe it was the long flight from North Carolina.

Iowa Hawkeye

The final game was the North Dakota State Bison vs. the Gonzaga Bulldog. This was essentially a tie. The Bison was closer to our end, so that may be why they seemed to be more engaged. Both had large heads that somewhat limited their mobility.

Overall winner? I give it to the Hawkeye. Loser – definitely the Wildcat.

Continuing on the mascot vein, we lost a dear friend last week.
Wayne Drop was burned up in a house fire. He was there for a cleaning. No word yet on a possible replacement.

RIP Wayne Drop

The cheer squads were also worthy of rating, but harder to remember which went with what team. There were several varieties of dancers, flippers and lifters. All had women, and most had men. One had one man who looked like a weightlifter. He would lift a women up, holding her aloft with one hand. And the bands. I like college bands, and we were treated to different tunes and tones.

The set-up was that you entered the arena for two games. After those two, which had about 25 minutes between games, you had to clear out. Entry for the second set of two games required a separate ticket. As it turned out, there was only about one hour between the end of the second game and the time for start of the third. The second game ended about 3:30, and we were more than ready for lunch. Luckily, we knew the area and had pre-planned our location. We tried to get reservations, but they only do reservations for large groups, and it is not usually crowded at 3:30.

At the closing horn for game two we booked down the stairs and out of the arena. There were all sorts of people headed in every direction possible. This is where knowing our destination allowed us to move directly toward our destination. While there were many folks on the sidewalk passing by the door to the Athina Grill, I think we were the first of the basketball crowd to actually open the door and head inside. We ordered, and took our seats at a table. There were two other tables with people who had been there for a while. Carl took the opportunity to use the restroom. He was only gone for a minute, maybe two, but when he came out the restaurant was full and there was a line out the door. So full that we invited others to share our table. This turned out to be fun, and add to the generally fun atmosphere.

Sated on a lamb-burger with feta, and feta fries, we made our way back to the arena for the final 2 games.
The marquee game was the fourth, starring the Gonzaga Bulldogs. There are well supported throughout the Puget Sound region, and because they are a mere 5 hour drive away, the crowd was rather heavily bulldog.

We did stay through the entire four games, but by the half-time of game four we had seen enough basketball to last for a while. There are two more games on Sunday, with the winning teams from Friday making their return appearance. Since Gonzaga has moved on, Sunday tickets should be in short supply. We actually made our decision to give up our Sunday tickets a few weeks ago. I listed them on StubHub, looking to cover our initial cost for all of the tickets (3 games). We sold them last Tuesday, so got to essentially enjoy the Friday games for free. We don’t normally sell tickets for a “profit”, but I think we made a good decision in this case. Got to fully enjoy Friday, and really don’t think we will miss being at the game in person.

Our trek home was limited to a little more than 1 mile. A new bus route for us took us to the southern end of the University District. We did not wait for a bus that would carry us closer, choosing the check out the Friday night life on the Ave instead. As always it was colorful, and not a trek I would want to make every night.

We have had a relatively slow start today. Soccer on the telly, and Skype with the boy.
We have decided that some soccer players sort of resemble dinosaurs.
This came out of nowhere when Ayoze Perez suddenly took on the look of a parasaurolophus.

Parasaurolophus

Carl retorted that Skrtel would be a pachycephalosaurus.

Pachycephalosaurus

Others?

The best part about yesterday?
It’s still only Saturday.

I am starting this post at 3-14-15.9:15. So not quite Pi minute (9:52).

If we had stayed up another 90 minutes last night (this morning), it would have been a very symmetrical trip. As it was, we hit the rack about 2 am.

One week ago most of us dealt with the time change. Those not dealing with the lost sleep were the citizens of Arizona. They have figured out how to become the center of their universe. During half of the year those states in the mountain time zone align with AZ. Then, without lifting a finger or batting an eyelash, those in the Pacific time zone come running, and the mountains retreat.

I really don’t know how the Arizonians look at it, but that is my take.

Back in my universe, the rains have returned. Just in time for the second Sounders game of the season. I think we will try out our new water proof shells that we got around Christmas time. They are almost Rave Green, although the choice of color had more to do with nighttime visibility than team support.

Carl said the spoils of his vacation included 20 used baseballs, but only a handful made the trip back north. The best parts of the trip seemed to be hanging out with a couple of old (older than me) ballplayers. Trading and sharing stories of life in the big leagues, being a breath away from the big leagues, and living and breathing
with a passion for the big leagues.

And, yes, they were at two of the Will Ferrell games. And separately interviewed by a few young folks about physical therapy.