On Human Kindness

I don't read or watch the news every day. Too much emphasis and top stories about war, hate, violence, and other bad stuff. A step outside into the "real" world time and again gives me a perspective I much prefer. A little example from yesterday:

My travel itinerary was a car ride from Lucerne to Zurich, flight from Zurich to Frankfurt, flight from Frankfurt to Washington DC, flight from Washington DC to Seattle. The first 2 steps went off without a hitch. In Frankfurt we deplaned onto the tarmac and caught a shuttle bus to the terminal where I went down various hallways, several flights of stairs, and was halfway down a "disappearing into the horizon" moving walkway when I realized I didn't have my purse. Yes, the purse with my passport, money, credit cards, phone, boarding passes, etc. I swung a leg over the handrail, jumped off the moving walkway (long legs come in handy at times like this), and headed back the way I had come but didn't REALLY know where I had come from. I found the Lufthansa gates and was told I needed to go to lost and found. Funny thing is - lost and found wasn't easy to find - ironic? yes, I think so. I eventually found Lufthansa's Baggage Tracing desk. I had kept it together pretty well until then but after getting out that I had left my purse on the plane or the shuttle bus I could no longer speak without the threat of a full tearful breakdown. The lovely Lufthansa agent asked which flight I'd been on and I couldn't remember the number - just that I had come from Zurich. A nice man behind me stepped up with his boarding pass from the same flight and asked if that had been the one - yes, thanks! Then she wanted my name but I couldn't spit it out. "Just write it down" she urged pushing a pad and pen towards me. Then she said she needed to go to another location to make some phone calls and for me to wait. I was there about 20 minutes trying to stay calm as the time for my connecting flight got ever closer. I was wondering just what one does in a foreign country with no ID and no money - would I need to get to the American Embassy? have Robin come from Lucerne to bail me out? live at the airport ala Tom Hanks in Terminal? When the Lufthansa agent returned she told me she was waiting to hear back from several areas and that I should go to my connecting flight gate and if they found it they would send it there. I tried to return the way I had come but, as that would return me to a secured area I couldn't get in (I did try but set off an electronic warning). I realized I wouldn't be able to get to my gate without my ID and boarding pass so returned to the Baggage Tracing desk. The woman was on the phone and gestured to me to wait. A few minutes later she walked over and told me they had found my purse! I was SO relieved. She had to go get it and didn't know exactly where it was so I was again instructed to wait there. Another 20 minutes or so and she was back with my purse. I had missed my connecting flight so she instructed me to go to rebooking. At the rebooking desk I explained what had happened and at first the agent told me she couldn't do anything for me. Apparently a flight booked with miles and missed due to your own stupidity doesn't qualify for rebooking (makes sense but wasn't what I wanted to hear). She then started looking closer and said the original itinerary was one that probably shouldn't have been booked in the first place as the connection time was too close - and my incoming flight had been a few minutes late - so she decided to rebook me anyway! I was so grateful! I ended up with a better itinerary on Air Canada through Calgary on a half-empty plane.

Whew - too much drama! But mostly alleviated due to the kindness and honesty of total strangers. That's the kind of news I'd like to read about more often.

Fridays with Henry

Since August 2008 I have traded every other Friday with my sister in caring for her grandson, Henry. It has been great to be a part of his evolving life and watching him develop. My Henry Fridays have been a delight and about twice a month alone with a baby and now a toddler is just about right.

Here are a couple of pics from our early days (can't wait til he's about 16 and sees these!).

He has been very helpful with the housework but on this particular day his curiosity resulted in injury. Up to that day he'd never been able to get the desk drawer open because he tried pulling on just one handle. Ever since this owie it has been a running joke to ask him where he has gotten an owie because the answer is always "Amy's house" - no matter where it happened!







My last Henry day before the arrival of his baby brother. Trying out Amy's helmet.

Enjoying hot chocolate on a cold day.















It'll be interesting to see how Fridays play out once momma returns to working and there are 2 little boys involved!

How Goeth the Proclamation?

Signs 2 and 3 have come to pass. Sign 1 experienceth issues. The battle against the dark forces continues and I shall triumph in the end.

Proclamation

The reign of the Queen of the Failed Endeavor ends today. You shall count three signs over the next week which shall serve as proof. The number of the counting shall be three and three is the number thou shalt count. Precedence for the counting hath been set here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrgLj9lOwk

The first sign shalt be the arrival of a 2009 Kestrel Talon. The Talon shalt endeavor to fill the mighty shoes of the Kestrel SCI.

The second sign shalt be the overcoming of the obstacles set forth by those naughty in our sight (Boeing and British Airways) to securith a seat on an airplane bound for the British Isles.


The third sign shalt be the finalizing of lodgings for visiting family members in August.
Let it be so.

Baby It's Cold Outside - or how my R-12 attempt met its end

Saturday Dec 20 - already snow on the ground in the Seattle area for a week and this is what my thermometer showed at 7:35am - yes that says 17 degrees F! 2 days later early in the morning as I was looking at the window surveying the beautiful winter scene I heard an ominous drip drip drip from the window. Our gutters were full of ice and snow and the downspouts were completely frozen solid. Since our house has no eaves that means it backed up right onto (and into!) the walls and was coming in the house. Out we go with ladders, flashlights (it was still dark), drill, sharp objects, etc. We disconnected the downspouts and and thawed them in the garage until we could empty out the ice and reattach them. Next day I was on "downspout duty" and emptied one out before it got clogged - got about a 3 foot long section of "ice tube" intact - pretty cool.

Anyway, all this equates to no 200k ride for me this month (there is no chance for me before the end of the year now I'm afraid) so I'll be starting my R-12 quest over in January. Wouldn't it be great if Santa put a new bike under the tree to take up where the Kestrel let off????

We've got the suds

We've had some great bike rides recently but I haven't taken the time to post anything and now Robin and I are both sick. When we are in the UK we can watch Spongebob Squarepants (we don't get the channel here) and in one episode Spongey gets the suds. That's how we feel.

MIA? - you'll be sorry you asked...

I haven't updated my blog for over a month and I really have no excuse except letting everyday life run its course and I really have been trying to get our deck repairs finished so we can claim the remainder of our insurance money but the kitchen/sunroom project is still not finished either and we got our appliances delivered but there was something wrong with the range, fridge, and dishwasher and we need to do some wiring work before we can install the microwave so that can't be checked off the list yet and when I went to order a section of Trex deck railing I found out I could only order it in "sets" with a bottom rail section and brackets which I don't need and I emailed Trex for help and they called and said they'd GIVE me a top rail which is really cool but that was over 2 weeks ago and still no deck railing and Robin has been working a ton of overtime so when he finally has some time at home I don't like to hound him about the things that I need his help on and of course (on a good note) we like to get out and ride bike like we did Saturday to celebrate RUSA's 10th anniversary and rode a 200k on the tandem and had a great day and also got to spend an hour and a half at the BBQ/beer stop near Poulsbo and then dragged our sorry butts the rest of the 21 miles into the end of the ride and Robin will be leaving for England sometime in early September and the trip is "only" 30 days so I don't get a ticket and I'm getting grumpy because not only is he barely home now but soon he'll be gone for a full month and the utility folks have been ripping our street up for the past 2 weeks replacing gas lines and rattling the house with their equipment and I've been on the phone for literally hours over the past month and a half battling my mortage company because they decided to reserve the maximum amount allowed on our escrow account and when I enquired about closing it and paying my own insurance and taxes they wanted to charge me $250 and they have yet to give me a satisfactory answer as to exactly what authority they have to do that and it is really making me cranky and I've been trying to keep the yard and garden in good shape and the Olympics are on which I totally love but I've been spending WAY TOO MANY hours in front of the TV and staying up too late but man those athletes are phenomenal and I can't tear myself away and we had some out of town visitors for a couple of days and I had my great-nephew Henry for the day on Friday and we had fun but it was a bit hot for him the last couple of hours before his mom came to rescue him and he was SO tired but wouldn't take a nap and wanted to be held but we would just stick together in the heat but we had a great day together anyways and Robin's folks visited for a few days for the annual Hoquinault Tandem Ride and Robin rode tandem with his mom and they tried to bust a move on me on the way back but I happened to catch them in my mirror so they didn't get too big a jump on me and I was able to shut the dogs down and it was great weather at Lake Quinault and I helped out at the finish of the Cascade 1200 and it was great to see old friends and meet new ones as they finished up a a VERY challenging ride and then I got to help organize a 200k with my pal Peter McKay who was unfortunately not able to ride the pre-ride with us due to an ankle injury and the summer seems to be running away from me and I'm not ready to give it up yet so here's hoping for a return of summer weather soon and may it last until mid October and I hope the huckleberries have time to ripen before the cold weather returns and maybe I'll actually do a "real" blog one of these days with pictures and everything but for now that's about it.

Driving Lessons - Do It RIGHT!

Pet peeve: 2, 3, 4, and even 5 lanes of traffic all moving at the same speed. I'm not talking about during rush hour traffic jam. I'm talking about the typical American driver who enters a multi-lane roadway and immediately moves over to whatever lane he or she thinks she needs to be in - with absolutely no relation to what speed current traffic is traveling. I have observed that most of us have an almost visceral fear of being "trapped" by anyone else - God forbid we are held up one nanosecond by someone else. So, despite these words taken directly from the Washington State Driver's Guide: "On a road with two or more lanes traveling in the same direction, stay in the right lane except to pass. On a road with three or more lanes traveling in the same direction, if there is a lot of entering or exiting traffic, use the center travel lane." (my emphasis) I rarely see any drivers move to the right when there is room for them to do so after passing or worse, they are cruising along obliviously going the same speed as the vehicle in the lane to their right, or even 2 or 3 lanes to their right. Taking this fear of the right to the extreme I have observed the bizarre behavior of drivers dropping passengers at Sea-Tac Airport from the 2nd or 3rd lane out from the curb - even if there is space at the curb! I guess they think someone will pull up on their left and they will be trapped, perhaps forever, listening to the recorded airport drive announcements again and again and again.

People, PLEASE - there is a better way! If you want to stay out of the furthest right lane to allow free access for those entering and exiting well bully for you but don't drive in the furthest left lane or lanes unless you are actively passing someone. After you have passed, move right. If you see another car come up behind you traveling faster than you, move right. If you are being passed on the right, move right. If a driver behind you flashes their lights at you, move right. Once we are all on the same page with this there will always be the opportunity to move left to pass a driver in front of you. Really, it works, I've seen it in action. Oh, and please use your turn indicators - it is safe and polite - 2 things we could all use more of on our highways and biways.

Now exiting the soap box. Comments in support of my position only accepted. Happy driving!

Sometimes it IS easy being green

Several years ago a friend gave me an idea for water saving that I just finally put into practice in February. Keep a bucket in your shower to collect the water that is otherwise wasted while it is warming up. Remove it from the shower and keep it by the toilet to use for flushing. This is so amazingly simple and effective. Even though I often shower at my club rather than at home it still amounts to at least one flush saved per day and more on the weekends. Try it!

Diminishing Mental Capacity

Driving down the road today I had an inspirational idea for a blog posting. Problem is I can't remember what it was. Last night before I fell asleep I remembered I needed to return a phone call so I threw my current book on the floor (my "string around the finger"). I woke up this morning, saw the book on the floor and knew it was a reminder but couldn't remember what I was to be reminded of. It took until nearly noon before it finally came to me. Last night my sister Mary and I took our brother Tom to dinner. We had a gift card from Mary's daughter Megan that we wanted to repay to her. It took us about 4 attempts to figure out who owed whom how much money after I paid the balance on the bill after the gift card, Mary and I were to split the total and get $25 back to Megan. When we returned from our last England trip just before Thanksgiving I went to my gym to workout. I could remember the combination for my locker but not the names of at least 2 women there that I've known for several years. I have seen these women naked for Pete's sake. I mean, unless you're a medical doctor or heavy into pornography shouldn't you remember the names of people you've seen naked??? Or is it enough that I remember that I've seen them naked???

My main form of daily exercise is going up and down the steps because I can't remember why I went there in the first place, got back down (or up), and repeat as necessary until I remember or I forget that I forgot and carry on to something else. If I'm going to go down this path I wish it would accelerate to the point that I don't know how feeble-minded I'm getting and just get to the part where I'm happy happy happy and each day is a new adventure! Gotta go, I may have left the bath running or a pot boiling on the stove...

Sleepless in Renton

Robin left for England on Monday. He'll be gone for 3 weeks. I didn't sleep well on Monday night. Funny thing is for about the first 15 years we were married I slept better without him - maybe a symptom of marrying relatively late. Now I've finally gotten used to the guy I guess. He flew first class on British Airways. Full size bed in private space, turndown service, even jammies! He said it was a very bumpy flight. Poor baby, wonder if his personal crystal bottle of designer label water slipped off the engraved silver coaster?? Such a bother...

Tonight I'm off to my last Landscape Design class. I'm very excited about the design I came up with for our property. It certainly won't become reality anytime soon but now that I have a "master" plan I can gradually work towards it instead of just patching things together as the mood strikes. We'll see what my instructor thinks! The final product would result in an underground garage with access to the basement, our property sub-divided and cut down by about 1/3, and a lower maintenance but cohesive design. Wow, sounds great doesn't it???

Progress in the kitchen

We spent most of Robin's holiday break installing new countertops in the kitchen. We got a screamin' deal on Paperstone buying factory 2nds directly from the manufacturer in Hoquiam. Plenty of excitement getting the 400 pound piece unloaded from the top of rack on my brother's truck but no injuries to persons or product.

Old countertops removed










testing the new sink fit









sweet undermount sink









fine adjustments











Overall the kitchen is looking good. I especially love my new pantry and wall cupboard.

From ugly to fabulous - our new TV room

Before: ho hum...














In my usual style I first tackled our ugly TV room (okay, it is technically a bedroom but we are using it as a TV room cause we don't like having a TV as the focus of the living room) with no plan other than ripping up the carpet to see what was what. What was was a badly abused fir floor. That was in early 2004. So, I got the worst of the wall compound cleaned off and let it sit for 17 months.





September 2005 and the ball gets rolling again. We found a great deal on some mission style recliners and Robin decides he wants a "craftsman" style room. We restore the french doors we had bought long ago and happily tear out the world's ugliest aluminum framed sliding glass door. Tons of dust and cursing later and the floor is refinished. Intense debate at the paint display before deciding on a butterscotch color (much darker than true craftsman colors but we love it) and the room is coming together. We convert the small closet (which has a tiny window and electricity already) into my office and purchase a really cool rug at the Environmental Home Center, add a few accessories and voila! The best thing of all is that we can sit in that room without feeling a draft from the door. When we were removing the sliding glass monstrosity we discovered (this is an ongoing theme) that the crew that remodeled the house before we bought it completely botched the job - we couldn't figure out how that door had even held in place for 15 years - it was basically tacked in place with very little framing and none that was actually attached to the house!

Fun with concrete and plastic

Time to replace the rotting wooden deck and the de-laminating Louisiana-Pacific siding! Here we are before:

In April and May 2004 we sorted the siding with help from the family using Hardie Plank (hoping this newfangled stuff holds up better than the old newfangled stuff) on the sunroom addition. We had plenty of prep work to do tearing down the old deck, salvaging wood, replacing and rebuilding spots that the original "builders" of the addition never bothered putting siding over (under the deck where we couldn't see it), and replacing poorly installed window framing. Brother Ed already had experience (and the proper tools for) installing the siding. Brother Paul and nephew-in-law Chris joined in the fun to get the siding up in a jiffy. Robin and I finished up with caulking and painting.

High ho, high ho, it's off to the dump we go...








Paul demonstrates his firefighter skills on the scaffolding while Robin actually works and Chris supervises.














After a few months of play and travel time we were back on the job rebuilding the deck in September and October. We had decided on Trex which is a combination of recycling plastic and wood fibres (no more wood sealing!). Robin and I spent a lot of time working out the framing reusing as much of the salvaged wood as possible. We enlarged the deck and added a ramp for easy in and out with the bikes. Framing the ramp took a lot of calculating and Robin's head was ready to explode as he was also learning new design software at work and getting up to speed on his new job.

Once we had the frame built we called in the troops for a day of decking. Mom & Dad, brother Ed, sisters Mary & Teresa, niece Megan and her husband Chris, and our neighbor John all joined in. The crew covered painting balusters, preparing lunch and snacks, installing the decking, and building stairs. What a great family! Later we built all the railing sections and brother Ed helped me attach aluminum pieces to the bottom rails for support because we didn't like the look of using support blocks between the bottom rail and the deck. What a difference, we love our new deck and thank everyone that helped out including Sonia who helped with demolition, and Tom who lent his truck for hauling.

No splinters here! Check out that ramp and that stylish deck!

The big bad wolf at our house

We had a huge windstorm in the Puget Sound area on December 14. Record high winds in many places. In Renton the peak gust was measured at 51 mph at just after midnight. That may not sound like much but we are WAY inland and don't get wind like that. Our beautiful Ponderosa pinetree did not fare well. We were sound asleep when it split and hit the deck and roof. Amazingly it did not break the roof or any windows. The deck we had worked so hard to build just 2 years previously was really battered but it probably took the brunt of the weight that could easily have crushed the roof. Even more amazing was that the chunk that fell off pretty much engulfed our entire house and this was only about a third of the tree.