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SchadenFriday


CATURDAY

Friday to Today

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With my swims last week on Tuesday and Thursday, my normal Thursday visit to the tank farm got pushed to Friday. Really early Friday.

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I didn't see a lot since it was dark, except for one guy who's been showing up every time I go lately. He uses a cane and goes pretty slowly, clockwise, whereas I prefer counterclockwise so I don't have to spend as much time facing the bright lights of the train station. After I passed him the first time, I decided to cut across at the only point where you actually can and change directions. That led to me catching up to him about 1/3 of a mile later. After that, I did one more lap, crossed over to the Mukilteo Beach side, and then tried to head back to the car. But I found myself on the wrong side of the traffic coming off the ferry, so instead of waiting five minutes for it to pass, I kept walking up the hill to get to the Japanese Gulch interpretive trail, adding a couple of miles to the route. It was nice to see it again.

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And I got to see some good graffiti on the way back to the car.

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Friday"s awesome walk, 6.83 miles in 2:14, 14,805 steps
6.83 miles in 2:14, 14,805 steps



Obviously the rest of Friday was a strange and awful time for reasonable people the world over. The only part of the inauguration I've watched was when Richard Spencer was punched in the head by a protester, the fallout of which has been strange to see unfold. I abhor violence, but I make an exception for nazis. And it's really gross to see people call dangerous and hateful rhetoric "a difference of opinion." Differences of opinion are debatable, and there's no debating that it's wrong to talk about whether the USA would be better off without black people. Google Richard Spencer if you don't know why he got punched. And maybe take a moment to wonder why media outlets devote any time to interviewing people like him.

Anyway, I was up late Friday arguing about that on Facebook and was very exhausted and hung over Saturday. Garrett had a meeting in Arlington, so I had pho in Marysville and then we met there to finally see Rogue One, which was awesome. And I always get good videos on the way back from there.



Obviously the footage and photos of the Women's March events all over the world were a nice foil to the inauguration.

Last night should have been a better night of sleep, but I think my nose was a little stuffy and my CPAP kept running at a really high pressure, waking me up with the noise. I got up at 5:00 instead of 4:30, and headed out just after 6:00. Just before crossing the bridge, I spotted a hilarious restaurant I didn't previously know about. Will have to go eat there soon.

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It was a lovely morning at the island.

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Today"s awesome walk, 6.53 miles in 2:09, 14,185 steps
6.53 miles in 2:09, 14,185 steps

Two nights in a row of bad sleep really caught up with me somewhere around the five-mile mark, and I was really starting to drag. But then my favorite walking song came on my mp3 player, and I put it on repeat until I got to the car. It always puts a spring in my step, and I really enjoyed the rest of the walk.



No good deed goes unmentioned

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I had another of the type of project I've become the go-to guy for help with at work today. Well, I got it at the end of the day Friday but did it all today, even though I was sure it would take me until at least partway through tomorrow. I'm glad I took my normal swim, because I think stepping away for a bit is how I can do a ten-hour day in 12 hours with a break, instead of doing eight in a row and getting really burned out, making lots of mistakes.

On my way out of the pool, I noticed that the pile of clothes on the next bench over clearly belonged to someone who was going through a hard time. I folded up a $5 bill and slipped it in his boot. I originally thought I shouldn't mention it at all because it seems like we hear about good deeds all the time and maybe people's intentions are weird when they mention them, but then I thought of two counterpoints. First, you should do good things and encourage other people to as well in the process. Second, it's actually the faux good deeds that annoy me. I'm always hearing about people finding out that their Starbucks drive-through order was paid for by the person in the previous car, and then they'll pay for the one behind them, and it goes on and on and the longer it lasts, the bigger perceived good deed it is. But it's really only the first person who paid for an extra order, and everyone in a Starbucks drive-through can afford their own drink anyway, so it's a big feel-good thing with a really low actual impact.

Another thing I always think is that it's always possible to do more. I could have put up to $30 in that boot, but I stopped at $5. And then I found a key on the floor and stopped a little short of what I could do with that. I tried it on the lock that I suspected it went to, and was correct, so I locked it back up and took it to the front desk. So that guy would eventually have to have that moment of panic, possibly look all over the place, and then go to the front desk. It would only have taken me a couple of minutes to find each of the men in the swim center until I found the right guy, but that sounded awkward. Would that have been awkward? "Hi, I found this key and opened someone else's lock. Was that your lock? I promise I locked it again."

But then again, I suppose I could have rifled through the stuff in the locker to try to find a photo ID, which would have made it even easier to find the right guy, right away. But that would have been even more awkward.

So the moral of the story is, be cool, be generous, and don't be afraid to be a little awkward.

Fog chasin'

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I was heading to the marina this morning, but I saw fog off to the East, so I decided to hit my normal Sunday spot to try to see it. I might have, but I was a little weirded out by another car at the other end of my current parking spot, so rather than walk past it in the direction I normally start with, I headed East first. While I may have missed the fog because of that, I don't mind that it wasn't the first part of my walk for a change. It's always so cold right by the water there. I still got really cold for a few minutes starting out, but it wasn't as bad as usual. And, for the first time ever over there, I saw a deer! It walked by me, about ten feet away. It's somewhere in the plants in this photo.

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The clouds and were lit very well this morning, maybe because they were low and part of the fog. Really pretty.

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Since it was a weekday, lots of cars were going by on I-5, which looked awesome on the water.



Today"s awesome walk, 7.13 miles in 2:15, 15,112 steps
7.13 miles in 2:15, 15,112 steps

I nearly stopped at the 5-mile mark, but couldn't think of a compelling reason to rush back, so I headed North another mile. Hadn't been up that way in a while because I've been exploring those dirt roads so much lately.



I can't remember if I mentioned here that I bought some giant scissors for our friend who's a mayor. Today I took them up to a trophy shop to see if they could engrave them for me. They said no, but referred me to a shop up in Mt. Vernon, so I suppose I'll have that adventure on Thursday. I wish I remembered that my Tuesday conference call was moved to tomorrow, if I had I could have gone up today. Oh well. Since that shop is only a few blocks from Tacobook, I decided to go there for some takeout. Really tasty, but the red sauce is way hotter than I like.

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Change of plans

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It wasn't a very busy morning in the deep end today, and I'm delighted to report both of the women who swim around the outer edge weren't there today. I noticed that the hot tub was hopping, but when I went to the sauna, I was alone there for a bit. One guy I usually chat with joined us, and then a guy I've been calling Richard Branson joined us. But he's gotten a haircut and doesn't look as much like Richard Branson now. The nickname will remain. Then the other Chris came, along with a couple of other guys. The sauna's big and everyone had plenty of room, but it was starting to get pretty loud. I figured I'd get out and get showered before this group all had the same idea, and the timing was just about right. I needed to quickly run to Safeway and wanted to get to the post office right as it opened at 8:30. True to form, I was early, but only by about five minutes.


There are two reasons I needed more flat rate shipping materials. The frustrating one is that the postal service seems to have lost my latest Etsy shipment. They've all been taking a couple of days longer than they should to get where they're going, but this one hasn't been scanned since it left Kent on the 19th. The buyer is very nice, and we've been in touch about how much longer we should wait (tomorrow) and when I'll send a replacement (I said Monday, but I think Friday now.) I'm not super annoyed. It's just stuff, it's insured, and I'm sure they'll pay me when I file a claim. But what sucks is that I originally filled in three pages of forms on their site, only to get a, "Your request cannot be processed, please try again later" error message. I was about to call to ask about it, but I noticed that there's a disclaimer right by the number, saying the info you can see on their tracking page is the same info the agents have. It's nice of them to basically let you know there's no reason to call, but I used to work in heavy freight and I certainly never got to just tell people to wait and keep checking. All of our freight had to be added to bills of lading, and any issues involved having to do things like calling facilities and asking people to look around. On top of all this, we had a customer service call center which would do really shitty stuff like answer calls and walk away from the phone, or transfer angry callers to us without announcing it. I don't miss those days at all.

The fun reason for the post office visit was to get an envelope to send an old alt.music.nin shirt to boomstick, inspired by my posting of a Reznor heater that was at Tacobook yesterday. That shirt's 22 years old or so, but looks great because it's beige and I look terrible in light colors. There was a black one, too, and I wore it until it fell apart. Here it is, looking lovely in purple grow lights for my air plants. If you didn't know, Trent Reznor's a direct descendant of the founder of that company.



At work, our development cycle on the product I support is coming to an end, as is the full-time work on the project by the guy who built it for us. This means I won't have the regular opportunities to test and document new features like I have been for a while now, and I made sure to point out to my boss that I'm available for all kinds of other tasks. I knew we would be upgrading to the newer version of the software it runs on, but I wasn't expecting the message I got today, which was that the upgrade can affect anything, and that I'll need to test everything, and that I should do that as quickly as possible so that those issues can be addressed before February 1st. At first I was really worried, because when I write my test cases, I usually document every single step so that my results are easily checked without having to know too much or assume anything. During our call today, I realized I can be a little more broad in this case, since I have to do every process and look at every screen and report. So I told them I've cleared my afternoons and can work long days tomorrow and Friday if need be.

That means I'll probably go to Mt. Vernon next week for the engraving, which is fine. I may as well use it as an opportunity to go somewhere new for lunch and I hadn't done any research yet. I've only been up there twice so far. The first time was in 2002 or so for a hippie rave in a grange with Shannon (cattycritic) and my friends Paul and Autumn. I still know Shannon and Paul, and often wonder what Autumn's like today. She was maybe 20 when I knew her, but is in her mid-30s now. Strange to think about. I know I for one have grown and changed a lot since that time.

The second time I went to Mt. Vernon was on my way to up to that tiny house I rented for a night in August before climbing the wrong trail at Mt. Baker the next day. Ross Mathews is from Mt. Vernon and it was far enough away to be the perfect place to stop for lunch, so I went to Train Wreck Bar and Grill, and then planned to go to the mall he talked about working at in his book. After I ate, I looked for the mall on the map, and realized it was actually in Burlington, so really all I've ever seen in Mt. Vernon is a grange and a bar.

One of my primary fears came true today for a fellow pedestrian. A driver somehow managed to go off the road and kill someone walking near a spot I'd go to more often if it had better hours. The Narbeck Wetland Sanctuary doesn't open until 8am, even in the summer, so I've only been in it a couple of times. Sometimes when I want a really challenging hill walk, I'll park near the Boeing recreation center and walk to the wetlands and back. Parts of it are less ideal because there's no sidewalk, but as far as I can remember, there's always at least a curb. But I'm pretty sure the pedestrian killed today was on a sidewalk.

People generally react to any violent crime and think, "That could have been me," but I try really hard not to because we as a culture fear crime more and more even as the rates go down. And I don't even look at today's incident and feel like I should worry more. It's just a reminder that I've been thinking for years now that that's probably how I'll go.

It's funny, people always try to get me to fear being out in the early morning darkness or falling down the side of a mountain, and I do to an extent, but mostly I've learned to fear what my life would be like if I wasn't out doing the things I love. My ankles were very unhappy six years ago and I'm really glad I was defiant and used that as a sign that I should put them to work instead of being delicate with them.

Not as bad as I thought

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Thursdays at the tank farm are really great because I can go there as early as I like. The only limitation is that the spot where I park is off limits from 2:30-4:30am, but it never matters because I get up at 4:00 and always have my first cup of coffee before I head out. There aren't any hours on the Edgewater Beach side that I can find, and it's an extremely safe spot due to its location. I'm looking forward to the summer so I can see all the character again, but it still looks great in the dark.

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I especially like the ferries. There are two on the route and they leave every half hour. I took a photo today, but it's kind of boring, so I just grabbed a Snapchat video from today and shared it to Instagram. It's sped up, which I do to quite a few videos on Snapchat.



I thought about just doing three laps and leaving because I had a lot to work on, but then I remembered how disappointed I am when I do less than five miles, so I did a fourth lap. It was quite busy down there today! The guy I always see was there, plus another guy who did a lap before leaving, and one more I saw entering as I started my last lap. I've been wondering about the guy I always see. Is it his daily walk? Or does he also only do Thursdays? I'm thinking about going down there on Tuesday to see if he's there. We always say good morning the first time we pass each other, but it's awkward because he walks the other direction so we pass each other several times. It's really dark and I'm always able to tell it's him, but I wonder if he can tell it's me. Should I say hi every lap? That's my awkward side overthinking things.

The light was amazing on the way out.

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Today"s awesome walk, 5.44 miles in 1:43, 11,580 steps
5.44 miles in 1:43, 11,580 steps

The drive home was gorgeous, mainly because of the light but also because I took a detour to see the progress at the Lion House. It's in place and lights are on inside, but it looks like they're doing to do a lot of work in there.



I didn't have a good way to estimate when I was asked how long I would need to try every feature in the system I support, not just because I've never done that, but because a normal test is tedious because I usually document every single step I take. The idea in bigger organizations, as far as I know, is that someone will write a test case and several people will follow that case and confirm they got the same results. I'm the only tester, but I still like to do very thorough work. But since I was just looking for weirdness, I decided to just keep a list of the processes I checked and make notes about anything that happened. I flew through it. Thankfully, I only found a couple of issues, one of which seemed to be due to network problems as it's not happening now.

Even though it was not a struggle to get through, I was exhausted, and napped for an hour after lunch. Then I did my Thursday chores and took a shower to snap out of my nap funk, and felt great. It's hard to execute the perfect nap, but I did ok today.

SchadenFriday


CATURDAY

Catchemups

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I was in a hurry to get back to my desk and get stuff done on Friday, so I left really early and went down to the marina. For a change of pace, I parked at the center of my normal route instead of at the South end. Not that it made a huge difference or anything. The major construction down there is well underway, and I never realized how close the water comes to the street I saw it torn up like this.

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The daily special.

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Not much to see during the walk, but the sunrise was nice for a moment.

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Friday"s awesome walk, 5.38 miles in 1:39, 11,246 steps
5.38 miles in 1:39, 11,246 steps

When work was done, I hopped in the car to head up to Mt. Vernon to get those giant scissors engraved. Unfortunately, when I got there, they said it'd take a week. They originally said it could be done while I waited, but they were in the middle of a large job when I arrived. And I won't be able to pick it up this Friday because I have a tattoo appointment, so maybe I'll go there the following Monday. There wasn't much to see up there, and I didn't get to have lunch where I wanted due to a lack of parking, but here's the sign at the trophy/engraving shop.

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I went to the casino for lunch and lost $20 on a slot machine. It was fun.

Saturday at home was pretty relaxing. We watched the documentary For the Love of Spock, and then the first two Star Trek movies. It was very surreal to see the huge protests forming at the major airports over Trump's ridiculous ban of green card-holding residents from primarily-Muslim countries he doesn't have businesses in. This has gotten ridiculously out of hand really fast. Maybe that's for the best. I'm on a donation schedule but I made an exception today and gave to the ACLU, and it was awesome to hear they raised more money in one day this weekend than in all of 2016.

Today I met my friend Lisa at the Langus Riverfront Park. She hadn't seen the parts I recently discovered, so I told her to meet me at 6am, so it wouldn't be completely dark when we got to it.

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The ground was no longer frozen and even a bit muddy, but it certainly wasn't hard to walk on. Thankfully we took a moment to turn around and catch the sunrise as we were talking away from it.

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Lots of nice clouds today, which reminds me, I need to make a post on the Facebook Cloudspotting group.

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It's not easy to see it, but there was an amazing formation of geese.

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Today"s awesome walk, 8.57 miles in 2:59, 19,207 steps
8.57 miles in 2:59, 19,207 steps

We walked a little further than Lisa probably would have liked, and I had a hard time because something kept poking my left foot. I didn't figure out until I got home that it was because there was a sharp rock poking all the way through the sole of my shoe.
So it'll be interesting to see how much longer that shoe is usable.



We had a nice lunch out with Bev and Dennis (my in-laws) before playing dominos and Skip-Bo back at their place. We finished the most recent season of Veep once we got home, and I'm glad to hear it's coming back for a 6th season.

WaterWeek

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I didn't think I was going to be able to get out for any exercise today due to a work commitment at 6:30am plus plans with my friend Barbara for lunch and errands this afternoon. But I got a message at 6:15 saying I could proceed with my test, and thankfully the system failure I was trying to recreated happened for me on the first attempt. I was worried about that because after the first time I reported it, I couldn't replicate my results after many attempts when asked to try. So I ran to the pool, getting there just under an hour later than normal. I really liked that, because most of the deep end regulars were nearly finished with their swims and it was a lot emptier for my swim than it normally is.

The part of my foot where the sharp rock was poking yesterday was a bit sore as I walked around the swim center with bare feet, but I think it'll be fine for a walk tomorrow. So I think since I have a tattoo appointment Friday afternoon and can't swim for two weeks after that, I'll swim Wednesday and Friday this week. Obviously I'll walk at the tank farm on Thursday, but I'm still not sure where to go tomorrow. Not that I have to be so selective with so many extra walks coming up.

Last time I was there for a tattoo, I saw that they were remodeling a space to make into a piercing studio. If it's ready, I'd like to get my right nipple pierced. I had them both done back in 2007, but the right one migrated and had to be taken out. It's not particularly intuitive to get it done the same day as a tattoo, but if I have to stay away from the pool because of the new tattoo, I may as well do another thing that would also keep me from swimming.

Since I didn't include her in yesterday's post, here's Bella looking sinister, then cute, when we saw her yesterday.

Hi Bella
Hi Bella

I forgot to mention

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After lunch with Bev and Dennis yesterday, they wanted to see where Garrett's office was, and our route took us by the spot where that pedestrian was killed. I was looking out the window to try to figure out where it was and spotted a pile of flowers. I may go there tomorrow.

Foiled again

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This morning I drove out to a spot where I sometimes park near the Boeing Recreation Center. It's near the Northeast entrance to Japanese Gulch, and parking there's a nice way to walk around at the top of the East side without having to actually climb up. Another option is to walk the long, steep streets that lead there for a really challenging climb. You start at a high point and go down, then back up, so there are two huge climbs if you go really far, or just one if you turn back at the bottom. My plan was to go quite far so I could see the spot where a car recently jumped a curb and killed a pedestrian. I already know from driving by that there's nothing particularly challenging about that spot, so it'll be interesting to hear the excuse given.



But I didn't even get to park. Suddenly in the area where I've always left my car, there are tons of No Parking signs. I know there was at least one, but it was in the curved part and I would leave the car just beyond that. I was never worried either way, because the office building at the very end of the road after it turns was recently vacated and renovated, but now that it's being used again, there's lots of traffic in the area, and probably more enforcement. Which is a shame, because there isn't any other legal parking for miles. My original plan was to park at point A on this map, and point B is where the accident was.

Friday"s awesome walk, 6.08 miles in 2:08, 13,695 steps, 464ft gain
6.08 miles in 2:08, 13,695 steps, 464ft gain

Since I couldn't do that, I drove to the business park near the South end of Japanese Gulch, walked in the dark down to the bottom and back up, and did the access road a couple of times.

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Sometimes I accidentally get a photo while putting the phone away, and once in a while, I like it enough to keep it.

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Once it got bright enough, I walked back down a bit and then climbed up to the East side via the Rusty Car trail. It was so nice to see it again after so long, and there was really only mud in the one spot I knew there would be. Up at the top on the West side, the usual spots that are most likely to be muddy barely were, and I didn't even have to use the side paths to get by. Unless we get more rain, the only reason not to spend a lot more time up there now is that it's still dark way too late.

I liked these little bushes in a yard near the business park.

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And the clouds were cool, too. I really wish the camera I'm waiting on that I plan to use for time lapses was here, I bet this morning from this parking lot would have been nice.

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I was very productive this afternoon. I finally took the downstairs Christmas tree down and put it in a brand new plastic storage bin I got a few weeks ago. It just barely fits, which I guess is perfect since there's no extra space taken up in storage. And I did dishes. Maybe that's not a lot, but it felt like it, and I very nearly forgot my afternoon conference call. Thankfully I remembered with eight minutes to spare.


Everybody! Be somebody!

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For a few years in college, I went dancing every Friday and Saturday night. At the time, there really wasn't much else for a young single gay man to do in order to meet people. The first few months, I went to Albuquerque Mining Company with my friend Jennifer, but that place suddenly became a ghost town when the new club, Pulse, opened. So we went there. Eventually, Shannon (cattycritic) started coming along, and Jennifer stopped, and Shannon and I settled into a very regular routine. She lived closer to the club than I did, so I drove up to her place, used a lint brush to get the hair from her very white cat off her very dark outfits, and then we were off. We'd get to the club right when it opened at 9:00 and enjoy two discounted drinks each in the hour before the music started, then dance straight through drinking water until they closed at 2:00. We probably only missed a handful of Saturdays and Sundays during a two-year period.

The music was great, aside from the weird TV show theme remixes and the seemingly-endless supply of different remixes of "Missing" by Everything but the Girl. In the years since then, I managed to get most of the songs I liked that we used to hear all the time, but today I heard one I'd forgotten all about. I'm working my way backward through the Lip Locked podcasts by Anna Kiss, and in episode 330 she played this one.



What a treat. I can't hear it without a very vivid image of the Pulse dance floor and Shannon and I yelling along. Ever get nostalgia-related goosebumps while swimming? It's a neat feeling.

Later on in the show, there was a short bit of heavily distorted vocal samples from this track, which is a favorite from my rave days. Funnily enough, I associate it mostly with a party where my friend Nancy and I just heard a few seconds of it as we passed through a tent on our way to find somewhere to sit since she wasn't feeling well. She kept apologizing for being a party pooper but I was having just as much fun sitting around talking as I would have if we were down in the crowd.



It's been a busy and productive day, and I'm pretty tired because I fell asleep without my CPAP on for the first few hours. It's amazing how much of a difference that makes. I'd lay down for a nap, but I looked at the calendar this morning and realized I should get a haircut today and another one right before our vacation, so I texted Brenda and got today's 3pm appointment.

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Went to the pool again today because I wanted to go to WinCo this morning and it's so easy to go straight there from the swim center. No need to go home, shower, get dressed, and head out again.



Today's the second time I did something really dumb there, but I'm glad I did, because I figured out what went wrong. They only take cash, debit, and checks, so their self-check stations are a good place to get some cash. I really only need $5 at a time for lottery tickets, and ATMs only give out $20 bills, but the self-check has all denominations. I accidentally hit "enter" instead of zero, though, so I got a nickel in cash back instead of $5. But last time I had no idea why the machine jumped to finish the transaction two numbers early and I see now that it was my fault. :)

A request to test and retest something came in at around 11:00, which was just about as late as it could be because I had an appointment to take my car in for an oil change, and had to leave at noon. But everything worked out perfectly and I was out the door right on time. Of course I drove right by the shop the first time and had to go another mile or so out of my way, but that was fine because they were running behind a bit. My former coworker bought the shop about eight months ago, and gave me a free Car Care Club membership, so today's oil change was free, so when we went out to lunch, I paid.

She got a text from her crew saying I need new brake pads, which I figured, and a new power steering fluid pump, which I had no clue about. They were almost able to do that for me today, but they had to wait on a part and I didn't want to hang out until 4pm, so I'll be back on Wednesday. Her husband wasn't able to join us for lunch today, so he and I will go that day while she watches the shop.

It's not going to be terribly expensive, and I certainly can't complain because we got the car for free and haven't had to put too much money into it, but of course I wish I didn't have the expense right now. Not that there's ever a right time.

Tomorrow's my next tattoo appointment, and the shop posted on Facebook today that they're set up for piercing now as well. Tomorrow's not the right time for that, though, so it'll wait until my next tattoo appointment. Too bad, since they're having a 20% off sale, but I'd rather not be healing that when we head off on vacation.

SchadenFriday

CATURDAY

One spot, two walks

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I wanted to hit the tank farm on Friday, but there was a light dusting of snow overnight and I figured it'd be better to walk the gravel roads at Langus than go anywhere paved.

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It was pretty dark most of the time, and freezing rain started when I was at the point furthest from the car. That eventually became fluffy snowflakes that were so big, they looked like slow-motion bird poop.

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Friday"s awesome walk, 6.16 miles in 2:01, 13,378 steps
6.16 miles in 2:01, 13,378 steps

You can't tell in the video, but tons of snow came down the entire drive home.



Thankfully the snow didn't last or stick, because I had a very important appointment. Session 4 with Jimmy! We're now nearly done with the peacock, and once that's done, we can get to work on the rest of the sleeve.

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I want to do skyscrapers on the underside of my arm, but I don't want them to be real buildings because there isn't any particular city I feel that strongly about. Obviously Seattle's a big part of my life, but I'm just not into the idea of a Seattle tattoo. It'd be much cooler to do something retro-future, and I have a poster somewhere that shows that sort of view of Seattle. I need to find that and see if anything in it is usable.

This morning was another dark one over at Langus and I had a very nice time, though I turned back sooner than I normally would have because we had plans to go to a drag queen brunch at 10am and I didn't want to have to rush to get my coffee down and get ready when I got home.

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Today"s awesome walk, 6.21 miles in 2:02, 13,464 steps
6.21 miles in 2:02, 13,464 steps

Brunch was fun, but we had the first Uber ride I felt compelled to give a bad review for. I summoned the car and it went and sat in a nearby neighborhood. I figured maybe he got lost and was looking at the map, but he didn't move, so I finally called and asked if everything was ok. "Should I come pick you up?" he asked. Um, yes please. That's...what I asked for with the app. Very strange. Plus there was a bunch of junk in the back seat and he didn't even get it all when he reached for it, so I had to hand his hat and gloves over to him. And the car smelled weird. Thankfully we didn't get him again when it was time to go home.

The Super Bowl's on and we just saw Lady Gaga's half time show. I like that she had a keytar.

Snow

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No walk for me today.

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I don't leave when there's a lot of snow on the ground. Even if the main roads are pretty clear, our driveway is very steep and our neighbor keeps his boat parked across the street, and I don't really feel like sliding into it. Garrett anticipated it, and left his car parked on the street, so while he didn't have to worry about the driveway, there was a lot of snow for him to clean off it.

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They're not that big, but I think this is the first time I've seen icicles on our house.

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Poor garden birds.

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This particular tree should be ok, but I worry the bigger one in the left side of the background might lose a big branch today. Previously it's lost them to high winds, but one branch that isn't in the photo is bending way down right now.

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Here's a nice view from the camera pointed at Garrett's weather station.

Capture

I don't post many food pictures here, but today's breakfast was really good. Jalapeño bagel, half with cream cheese and basil pesto, half with Vegemite and Swiss. Pickle spear and yellow tomatoes.

Breakfast

I got tired of waiting for MTV Classic to do another Real World marathon, so I started the 2010 New Orleans season on Hulu today. Of course I already self-spoiled some of the plot points by looking stuff up, oops. Sad to find out that Knight, who was addicted to pain pills, died a few years after filming, just like Joey from the Hollywood season.

That season's house happens to be on the market right now.

Day 2

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As I suspected, a branch came down off that tree yesterday.

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It's also weird to see those bushes looking so small under the snow's weight.

I probably could have gone out for a walk this morning, but I stayed up about 90 minutes late last night. This morning I woke up at 3:59, one minute before my alarm, and decided to turn it off, after which I slept another 90 minutes or so. Everything evened out. And today's a good day for that since I'm waiting around for a conference call we have each Tuesday at 3:30. Of four people on the call, one's on vacation and one's at an annual meeting lasting several days. I suspect the other guy and I will dial in, wait five minutes, and be done.

The tattoo's at that gross stage where it's peeling and there are chunks of black skin everywhere when I'm done showering. If you've never had a tattoo, large areas of inked skin behave quite a bit like a sunburn. It doesn't hurt quite as much as one, though.
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