Fireworks

The Fourth of July is always accompanied by displays of bright colored lights exploding in the sky. Most everyone enjoys them. Some who have been in harms way cannot, and for that I am sorry.

And NOISE! The felines of the household do not appreciate the sound and the fury. We have found a type of cat treat which supports stress reduction. They seem to work pretty well, although growls are still elicited when the neighbor's cannon erupts.

I thought to watch the Gasworks Park/Lake Union display which was to be televised from the lake.
The station decided to change their broadcast and instead fit several short sequences of fireworks into a news broadcast. All in all I think I saw 5-7 minutes of the 35 minutes estimated for the display. The fireworks started at 10:20. I was going to watch the news at 11:00. The pre-show from the park started before 10:00 and was a review of the previous evening's talk about what was new and different for this year and shots of the crowd on the darkening park grounds. The news broadcast commenced at 10:22. I was extremely disappointed. Next year I may just watch the early showing from WA DC, NYC, or Boston - all of which seemed (according to the schedule) to have full coverage. BAH!

We cannot see the Celebration Park 4th display from home because of elevation and trees. We can hear it. It isn't far distance wise but is pretty popular and the grounds get crowded well before noon. It is a small display which commenced at 10 PM and was finished  by 10:25. The local exuberance however lasted until nearly 3 AM. It had quieted down around midnight, with the intermittent firecracker going off somewhere. At 1:15 AM there arose quite a racket from just across the street in a backyard 2-3 houses down. We could see the lights, we could hear the whoosh as the rockets went up. We were unimpressed to have been gotten up. If I could have been more sure which house was involved the FWPD would have been called. The cats, who had been settling, were even less impressed than we were.

Someone, however, must have complained to the miscreants.  About an hour later the effects began again - this time from the schoolyard 1/2 a block the other side of us.  Guess they just HAD to finish shooting off all their shells. At least I hope they did and there will be no reprise tonight.

Grocery store

It was said that hot dog buns were needed for a 4th of July potluck at my Dear Heart's place of employment. As I needed to go out to pick up a prescription we decided to journey together. Medication purchased we headed to the grocery.

We perused the selection of hot dog buns and the preferred packs were placed into cart. Now we turned to the selection of breakfast items behind us as I had not prepared anything to be quick to hand the next morning. Muffins were decided upon.

Dear Heart asked if we had salsa at home, a staple. I replied that indeed we did but I wondered whether we had sufficient chips. (Chips and salsa is often an apre' work nibble for Dear Heart.) Off we went to the chip aisle.

At the end cap of the aisle were the shelves of numerous sizes and types of tortillas. It was wondered if such would make a good wrap for left over roast beast and horseradish cheddar, with possibly some lettuce and sour cream or guacamole for a bit of moisture. The 10" mixed grain rounds were added to cart. We proceeded up the aforementioned aisle to select the tortilla chips desired to accompany salsa. Dear Heart wondered where the salsa for chips was as it was not in sight. I informed him that said item was, of course, to be found with the Mexican food items (they moved it when a couple of stores combined; I was told it was to simplify stocking, which then made me wonder why honey is now to be found in 2 locations based on size of container).

As we exited the aisle we found an "inducement" table stocked with a goodly quantity of dark red and yellow cherries. Dark sweet  cherries were now added to cart.

It was decided that we were now finished shopping and headed to the check out lines. While Dear Heart got into line I headed out to the car to retrieve a larger shopping bag. I had taken a small bag into store as we were only going to get hot dog buns. Heard this one before have you?

Dear Heart proceeded me to the checker and stood ready to retrieve our bag(s) when they were tallied. Hmmm wonder where those Reeses Sticks came from, my love's eyes went toward ceiling and he did a little whistle.

We exited store with one quite full bag, the unused bag being slipped down inside. 

Have you ever noticed how frequently this scenario seems to happen. You run in to quickly pick up an item, possibly two, and it turns into a 1/2 hour or more of gathering "oh yeah" items. My grocery list helps immensely but there are still times when I think that grocery stores can be very menacing.

A new attempt

We started this year adventuring. Over New Year's we took a 10 day Mexican Riviera cruise. Quite enjoyable; the #1 memory from the cruise was the whale watching. While on board we signed up to do a 2 week cruise for our 25th anniversary. Relatives have been invited to celebrate with us.

April brought a trip to the other side of the Mexican peninsula. We did an all-inclusive at the El Cid resort in Puerto Morales (south of Cancun). Yes, you can sunburn while lounging in a cloth enclosed cabana. There is a lot to see in that area, we will be returning. We need at least another full day at Xcaret park.

For the 1st year since 1960 we do not have barn swallows nesting under the front eaves. I guess I didn't do a good job of cleaning after they departed last fall. I miss my little birds.

Ghost is in training to be an indoor only cat. He had one too many expensive trips to the vet after a tussle. He knows the sound of the door knob turning well enough to try streaking for the opening. It's a learning curve for both of us.  Pearl still goes out, she usually wants back in in just a few minutes;unless she goes out just as I head for the UPS and/or grocery.

I continue to submit applications for employment. I admit that I am very frustrated. It is depressing to be bypassed for position after position for which I know I am qualified. One local store had openings for 4 positions. A couple of days ago I had occasion to be there; all the new hires were under 30. Do I want to be a WalMart "welcomer"?

I'm in the window for social security and medicare registration. About to be eligible for more senior discounts.I need to look into the feasibility of delaying soc.sec.benefits for better payment at a later date.

I wonder when this year's summer family reunion will be. I haven't heard from any of the OR contingent for quite a while. At times I feel the the Salem/Federal Way distance to be more than just a distance of miles.

Guess that will be enough for now. I "intend" to come back to this site on about a weekly basis, use it as a sort of diary. Hope I  can maintain that. 

AAAARRRGGGG

Sometimes technology is not a friend.

I just entered a full page of new blog, went to preview, and then when I tried to return to post and publish - the whole blooming thing disappeared.

I will try to reenter what I wrote after I regroup from the aggravation.

TOO MUCH RAIN!!!

Those of us who live in the Pacific Northwest have a love/hate relationship with rain.

We love that it keeps the air (relatively) clean, and it maintains our green appearance. We do like our pretty flowers and summer gardens.

On the other hand, we get pretty darn tired of it when it goes on day after day for a week or two, or three.

This past Saturday one of the worst (remember St. Helens?) natural disasters in state history occurred about 55 miles north of Seattle. It took mere seconds to wreak horrendous devastation.
.
The mountainside, becoming saturated and having a predominantly clay composition, broke off and slid down slope. The slide was 1 1/2 miles wide and slid about a mile forward. [think an area the size of the entire downtown of Seattle]

It virtually wiped out the town of OSO, WA.; taking out both sides of the North Fork Stillaguamish River, and covering SR-530 in up to 15 feet of mud. Nearly 1/2 the population of the town is still missing. Because of all the debris there is no way yet to know how high the death toll will rise. Suffice it to say that we are in shock. Responders have been working round the clock for days trying to locate the missing. Their stories and the stories of the survivors are heart wrenching.

As if more bad news was needed - they are still getting rain. The forecasters are saying that it "might" be drier by this Sunday.

There are 2 "good" things: 

The voluntary aid to Oso, monetary and material, was immediate and generous; everyone wants to be involved. A couple of terrific recovery plans were actually suggested by young people; I'm talking under 16 here.

The other thing is that the river immediately started cutting a new channel through the slide, so the flood risk was much diminished. I heard last night that the river had reverted to an earlier riverbed, one that had been blocked by an earlier less extensive slide.

A geologists report from 1999 has been found, and pulled into the light, which suggests that "someone" knew that a catastrophic slide was a clear possibility in that area. This has raised many questions about why permits were given to build. Homeowners are saying that they were never told of the danger when buying properties. I wonder how thorough the appraisal reports were, or if anyone read them.

I cry every time I think about this, and yet I am not directly affected. So much loss. I hope that the families can rebuild their lives. They will have a difficult time. They are in my prayers, I hope that they will be in yours.

Do we still have a comet?

Comet ISON passed its closest to the sun on Thursday morning. We had been told that two things might occur.

1. The comet could disintegrate from the heat.
2. The comet could develop a new intense glow, and become more highly visible in the night sky.

Thursday the astronomers watched.  It went into the solar horizon - and disappeared.  Reports went out saying that ISON was no more.

But then -

they started to see a dust smudge on their images, and it got brighter.

As of Saturday, there is still no certainty that there is enough of a nucleus to form a new comet. There IS something happening which has the scientific community watching. The news reports now say "stay tuned".

The little comet that still might.

I'm still interested, how about you?

What happened after the dinner

Neither of us is very fond of turkey giblets, so we offered them to the cats.

Apparently neither of our 2 current cats are fond of or even very interested in turkey giblets.

I took the pro-offered and refused giblets, put them into a small recyclable plastic container, and put them out for Stranger; our unofficial barn cat.  They disappeared. So someone likes giblets.


The cobbler, yeah, hmmm

I had covered the cobbler with foil and left it on the counter. Thankfully I had used enough foil to wrap over all sides and crimp down a bit.

It is still fine, just a bit smashed. The filling pushed out of part of it into open section of pan. It will need to be eaten from a bowl, I think.

Seems that overnight some feline decided that it was in a perch spot. Said feline SAT on it.
It was heavy enough foil not to split - saving both the cobbler and the cat's rear end.

Cobbler now resides in oven.

Thanksgiving Dinner

We decided a few years ago that Thanksgiving Dinner, if it was just us two, did not need to be an overblown feast. A regular meal with some special ingredients suffices.

This year's menu was:
Roast turkey (heh, heh, heh, I win) - see previous post for explanation, if you haven't already read it
Green beans
Corn Pudding
Orange-Cranberry preserves
Pecan Pie Cobbler

I did not make the corn pudding this time, we tried Trader Joe's. It is heavier on the onion than mine and due to the cream in it is more souffle-ish. It is good. Next time I will make my own recipe again.

The orange-cranberry was also purchased at TJ's. It is heavier on the orange than we might have preferred. TJ's regular just plain cranberry preserve was too tart for my taste, thus the flavor choice.

A FB friend gave me the recipe for the Pecan Pie Cobbler. Yum!
Start with a box of prepared pie crusts, see it starts out way easy. Roll crust out to 13" x 9" size.
Make a sticky gooey filling, with lots of chopped nuts.
Crust, filling, crust, bake a few minutes.
Add rest of filling and top with pecan halves, bake a few minutes more.

I didn't buy any vanilla ice cream so the cobbler got a smoosh of whipped topping.

Yup, it's tasty. It is definitely sticky. I wonder if there is a way to make a good pecan pie without it having to be sssooo sweet?

Thanksgiving Turkey

Thanksgiving Day was Thursday.  Due to work schedule disruption, Thanksgiving Dinner will be on Friday at our house.

We found the smallest turkey we could, 11.76#, on the Saturday prior.

It was carried home in a double layer of plastic from the store. It was carried into the house and put in the kitchen sink while other groceries were put away. Then I went to move it to its "thawing" position. I picked up the double bagged bird, lifted if from the sink - and BOTH of the plastics split, dropping nearly 12# of frozen turkey onto the toes of my right foot.

Those wine bottle chiller sleeves that you keep in the freezer until needed (?) work perfectly to ice toes.

Later we went to the local ER to check the condition of my foot. It didn't hurt nearly enough to my way of thinking.

The PA told me that due to the restricted size of toes, as soon as they swell they can diminish blood flow and block nerves. She said to have ibuprofen on hand for when the swelling went DOWN.

X-ray showed toes not broken, just bruised.

Round 1 to the turkey, just wait, I have the final victory here.

The color of weather

You might know that I work in an office which has a view of Lake Union.  Over the years that view has changed due to the rise of new building, the moving of a houseboat, the removal of trees.

I know that several times a day I can expect to see a seaplane arrive or depart from the lake as the carrier has several courier and commuter runs.

In season we can see, and occasionally hear, the U.W. sculls out on the lake training.

Sometimes the lake is flat, sometimes it has whitecaps.

On foggy days I judge the fog level as to whether I can see the lake or across the lake.

The other day the sky was clear, the air was crisp, the lake surface was a definite mid-bright blue.

The day before Thanksgiving the sky was overcast, the air was chilly, the lake surface was a steely gray.

One of my small pleasures is watching the weather change the face and color pattern of the lake.

And the WINDS they do blow

This year we had a dry, mild, clear Halloween night. Practically unheard of around here. The standing Halloween joke is about the costumes that are not seen, except as flashing glimpses from under coats, as Trick-or-Treaters brave ice-y rain in order to get their candy. Neighborhood parties are quite common. As are the cars that idle down the street as parents watch their group of kids.

Naturally there is a price to pay for this weather boon.  It arrived last night, November 1st. It started with driving rain that pummeled the house. Loud enough that it woke me. That has been followed by a wind storm. We are on Alert until 8PM tonight (at the moment) because the winds are 25 mph with gusts to 60 mph.

Nope, not letting the cats out.

So far our lights have only gone out for a minute, along with a few flickers.  Just long enough that we had to reset clocks; and the "favorites" preferences on the water dispenser for the refrigerator. We are lucky, PSE is saying that they currently have 95,000 customers who have lost power. I learned this while paying bills. Hope we stay lucky.

Our backyard had a carpet of fallen leaves from the weeping birch tree (luckily trimmed this summer).

The winds picked them up and painted them on the chain link fence by the back driveway.

They are much prettier there.

R-R-R-R-R-R-Rainier

If you didn't grow up in the Pacific NW, the Seattle area in particular, you may not know that one of the most iconic older buildings in the SODO district (South end of Downtown - renamed about the time that Starbucks took over the old Sears building, and fka the industrial district) is the old Rainier Brewery.

Rainier has not brewed any beer there in many years. The old red lighted "R" came off the roof, and was put into the Museum of History and Industry (MOHI). The old brewery was re-developed into lofts and office spaces.

For the past several years it has been the property of Tully Coffee. A new sign went up on the roof, a big green "T". Yup the headquarters of the 2 biggest coffee chains around are a few blocks apart. Or were. For whatever reason, Tully had decided to move out of the building as of the end of October 2013.

They did something for the community before they left.  They commissioned a new lighted sign to go up on the roof.

Those in the "know" knew what it was going to be; others saw a big white sign bearing a ? go up on the building.

This past week a new red "R" appeared on the roof.

Now about the patchwork paint job on the building.....


After I had posted this I learned the D.W.Drang has posted a companion piece on thecluemeter.blogspot.com. The Running of the Rainiers and other of the humorous commercials for Rainier Beer. Go check them out.

A trip, a discovery, and Outstanding! customer support

Some of you know that in February of 2012 I bought myself a Baynes double drive/double treadle spinning wheel. It has done a bit of traveling and has gotten me fairly broken in on its likes and dislikes. Unfortunately it has not had much of a workout lately what with one thing and another. No, please don't ask me to explain; it's complicated and having a cast on one leg for a month is only a small part of that.

I determined to take my Baynes wheel to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno the 2nd weekend of September. I went to accompany my terrific D.W. on the trip, pretty much knowing that I was not going to be putting in any range time and would need to  entertain myself. Setting up to spin or read in the hotel pool area seemed a fine idea.

2 things stopped me.
First thing was that the Silver Legacy does not have an outside pool, only an exercise pool by the "spa" in the hotel. The only outside in the sun at the hotel is on the sidewalks around it.
Okay, we had a nice view from our 15th floor room, I could watch the hot air balloons floating out and over a neighboring hill.
Then I discovered that, somewhere along the line of moving my wheel about, I had lost the drive cord tensioning knob. OOOPS.

For non-spinners a double drive wheel can be used in double band mode with two separate drive bands and using band tension and treadle action to control speed, or in Scotch tension mode where both drive bands work as one and there is a separate tension control "brake". Not having the drive cord tensioning knob meant that the wheel could only work as Scotch tension. Think Toyota versus Cadillac. Both have their place but each has virtues of its own.

I called the distributor from whom I had purchased the wheel, Susan's Spinning Bunny in West Danby, New York. Did they sell spare parts or could they tell me how to fix it? Susan could give me only a broad idea of doing a homemade fix. She could, however, tell me who to contact at the Baynes factory in Ashburton, New Zealand; she gave me his email address. If you have ever ordered anything from Susan you know that she is a wonderfully knowledgeable and friendly lady.

Emails were exchanged between myself, describing my dilemma and asking direction, and Murray B. at the factory.

Murray told me the particulars of the part I needed including screw width, pitch, and length and the total length of the part. He told me that I could most likely replace the screw at a local hardware store but that I would have a bit more difficulty finding the weighted knob to which the screw was affixed.

And then he said "I think it would be just as easy if I sent you a new knob and threaded rod complete at no cost.", and asked if my postal address was the same as when my wheel was shipped from the factory. This offer was quite unexpected but definitely appreciated, of course I accepted.

These emails were exchanged on September 7th. The replacement part arrived September 19th.
A small replacement part at no cost and half way around the world in less than 2 weeks.
That is what I call amazing customer support. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Can I get snaps and kudos for these 2 marvelous people?
Anyone looking for a new wheel? Fiber? Spindles? Accessories? Yarn? Patterns? Knitting needles?

Alaska - half way

We are here. Only took us 20 years to get around to it. I'll try to post pictures later.

We were in Ketchikan yesterday. Chilly. Met  some interesting locals.

I have never seen so many jewelry stores in one place. The cruise line pointed everyone toward several of them, they paid sponsorship in a coupon book, by staging a 'scavenger hunt' of questions.

That being said, my favorite stores were both non-participants in the kickback game. They were Sockeye Sam's and Tongas Trading Company. I bought a silk shawl with Tlingit bear box motif at Sockeye Sam's.
From Tongas I got a nifty alpaca knit hat with ear coverings and those braidy strings.

Today we got up early and spent 2 - 2 1/2 hours on the upper deck (in our warm gear) as we traveled through Tracy Arm Fjord. There is so much gorgeous scenery that I couldn't decide where to look. After a couple of hours we kind of went into overload. A "few" pictures were taken. A glacier calved. Wow, just wow.

This afternoon we moored in Juneau. There must be a clause in our ship's contact that says that they must moor at the dock farthest from whatever town they stop at. Yesterday that meant a 10 minute walk. OK, did that. Today the note in the ship's paper said "15 minute walk to AJ Dock" Oh and BTW there is a low fee shuttle available for those you need it. HMMM walk or ride? Oh yeah that was tough. I doubt anyone walked.

Favorite store? Alaska Knife company, or maybe Rufus Page. R.P. is a small shop that carries local, and quite high quality, crafts. We purchased a man-size ulu for mister, among other small items.A.K. had a caribou antler handled ulu for me with a chopping bowl and sharpener included.

We are pulling away from dock and I am about to lose signal. Bye for now.

In April I put in some raised beds for planting veggies and herbs.

Here is a pic from a couple weeks ago. The tomato plants are taller now, still flowering. The strawberries are bearing small but very tasty berries; it's their 1st season. The kohlrabi are forming nice bulbs. The snap peas are trying to bush rather than climb, but hey we've got dinner veg. The string beans not quite so well. Fennel seems to really like me this year. You can't see it in the picture, there is a small planter of nasturtiums for color and to go into the salad as well. The cat? That's Celia.

There is enough green leaf, romaine, friese lettuces that we are sharing with one of his co-workers. And I think it is going to be a good thing that we like spinach salad as well.

 A friend will be tending the garden while we go on vacation. She's been told to share in the harvest.

Multi-color blooms

A bit more color, a few days later.

May flowers?

The weather has been so on again,  off again between sun and downpours of rain that it has confused the flowers.  I took this picture as I left for work this morning.

Pay to sell my car?

The title of this post sounds distinctly odd.

I'll explain.

The problems that evolved last year with my back and leg made me realize that it can be problematic to count on a small, low, stick shifted car to get around in.

My small car is a 1990 240SX, which is popular with the street car fans.

It drives well. It is in quite good shape for its age. Yeah, it needs cosmetic work. We all do as we age. Florence is still fast and beautiful.

There is a neighbor kid (17) who wants a car that he can get to school in and work on. He is enrolled in classes to become an automotive engineer. He works on his Dad's BMW. He has no money, or not much.

His father works on Boeing's airplanes. He has come and looked car over, ran it, approves.

So we now have a "handy-kid" who is gung-ho about helping with yard work, or other work, that we don't want to tackle (like climbing up on a roof to spread moss stuff). He doesn't want money in hand, we are keeping a worksheet of hours worked and/or tasks performed to show accumulation of value.

So I guess you could say that I am paying him to buy my car. The old barter system at work.
His grandparents (who I am guessing to be around my age, based on ages of his parents) got a chuckle out of it when they heard.

Handy-kid also works for others around the neighborhood but says it is hard to get enough jobs.

He doesn't work on Saturdays. That's his dirt-bike day.

Bang!

Did I tell you that the local firearms store relocated?
Did I tell you that it is now within a mile of home?
Did I tell you that it is also now an indoor range?

Last month I went in and took a refresher course on shooting. My grip is much improved.

Ladies get discounts all day on Tuesdays.
Met a lady who wants to be shooting buddies.

LCR tries to bite which is not nice.
Star, OTOH, behaves better than others of its ilk that the range master has seen. :)

I'll let you know how this goes.

Age, definitely a state of mind

This year I will have a garden. More exactly I will have 4 raised beds that are 4' X 4'. With risers for viney things.

I put in 2 different types of tomato, several herbs, an assortment of greens, peas, beans, cucumbers. There will also be carrots and radishes, also kohlrabi and golden beets (hopefully).

We got a string of days with really nice weather and so in went the vegetable starts. Then we got a couple of frosty nights. Followed by a couple of nice days. Followed by thunder storms.

I like rain, it means that I don't have to water anything. It's just that I don't want it in such a way that it eradicates my plantings. Sigh.

But I am feeling "young" and able and cane free; so very unlike last year when there was only pain and hobble.


And now I will start shooting again. More about that in a separate post.

But I am older according to the calendar so I guess I'll have to accept some of the things that occur as a result.

Eyes:

My optometrist informed me that my eyes are aging. A change in prescription, stronger, is in order.

My present glasses suit me admirably; unless I get tired, at which time I occasionally loose focus at bit. So the new ones should keep me sharper.

I picked up my new glasses a couple of days ago. They are going to take some getting used to. The first time I wore them and moved around very much I got a bit dizzy. On the other hand I can now read the fine print on things without "trying".

I'd never heard of the frame brand of Ellen Tracy. The pair I chose is called Greenstone. The stems have sort of a jungle grass pattern, and in just the right light there is a subtle green tint.

Back:

I started getting some pain from the herniated disk again in late January. Saw the doc, again.

This time he wanted me on a nerve paid medication. Start with 1/2 a pill 2X day and work up to 1 whole pill 2X day.

Uh uh. 1/2 a pill made me feel dopey and unfocussed. Not a good trait for a bookkeeper.
So I talked to my pharmacist. She said to reduce the medication and add an Aleve tablet.

It works!  So morning/evening I take 1/4 pill + Aleve (it's shorter to spell than generic name) and am pain free.

Now if I can just keep from miss-stepping and twisting my ankle...