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.