Thanksgiving part one
last update: 11/23 @ 14:30

Robert didn’t think his schedule would allow for coming home to Alexandria for Thanksgiving.

But his schedule changed and Sarah was able to find him flights and so we had a perfect reason for the first fire of the season.

A nice warm game of Catan — when Robert smoked us in surprisingly short order.

It was fun, but too short a game (from my point of view) — I could have gotten longest road back if he didn’t swoop in an win so fast.

And, following the tradition of recent years, David Z. arranged for hockey tickets. The seats were great and the game excellent: we didn’t think the Caps had a chance.

A game tying score in the last two minutes sent it into overtime.

And a game winning score with 3 seconds left in overtime was an astounding conclusion!

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Blue Skies
last update: 11/12 @ 10:23

Cool water and the leaves are just past peak.

It was a clear day even if a little cool.

But the river remains low.

That blue sky is not helping our drought. But it is nicer to be out in than the drizzle we had Friday.

It was fun to see some blue skies peak through as we watched the UW Huskies football game (which also had some drizzle and a lot of wind) in the afternoon. While the Huskies won, I think the fans and players may have preferred our weather to theirs.

We’ll miss Robert for Thanksgiving but are looking forward to having him back on our side of the country for Christmas!

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Looking very much like fall
last update: 10/29 @ 22:06

It’s looking a lot like fall out there.

But yesterday, at about 85 degrees, was much warmer than fall.

Sarah is visiting friends in Long Island, so I did a few chores yesterday and got on the river today.

The water level is very low — it’s been a while since we’ve had a good soaking rain — and it was about 10 degrees cooler today. But still very nice to be on the water.

The clouds were coming in, but not very fast. Maybe we’ll get some showers this week; the river would be greatful.

We should have more fall-like weather later this week.

And the trick-or-treaters will likely be happy in a warm costume this year. We hope a few come by so we’re not stuck with the candy we have to give out.

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Three Brothers
last update: 10/28 @ 19:08

With the three of us together, we recreated a great picture Bob Martindale took in Seattle decades ago.

There is a bit less hair now but we tried to get the right pose…

And as Steve and Helen had a bit more time with us, we took them on our walk to the river. We did a little extra meandering and Steve’s tracker said it was just about 4 miles.

Not the normal trek he tracks — this was clearly an urban walk.

But we got to watch a little bit of work on Alexandria’s tall ship (someone was working near the top of the mast) and the weather and views did not disappoint.

Of course the chance to visit and hang out was the best part of the long weekend.

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Fun visit
last update: 10/28 @ 19:07

We lost a good family friend, Buddy (or Jake or Mel) Herrmann (Hank’s dad) earlier this year. He almost made his 106^th birthday. And was active until just about his last day.

Loren, Steve and Helen came up for the service celebrating his life last weekend.

We took advantage of getting together to make the most of the time.

Steve helped with the smoker while Loren was flying up from Atlanta.

While my hands were a bit messy while we ate dinner, I did get a picture of dessert: we were celebrating Steve and Helen’s 35^th anniversary!

And there were several games of Catan, Canasta and Scrabble as well. We’ll have to get Susan next time and stretch the visit out more.

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I remain impressed
last update: 10/15 @ 11:29

It was time to take down The Loop. That was a monumental build for Robert’s birthday.

But it also takes up space in his room.

And it misses him running the cars along the track every now and again.

So I partially disassembled it this morning.

And I was impressed again at the ingenuity of such a complex and fluid looking design to be built from basically blocks.

Yes there were specialized pieces, but I hadn’t realized how many of angles braces were created.

It really is very cool.

And now it’s packed up ready to shipped…

…somewhere. When Robert is ready to have it back.

For now, we have a little more space in his room to share with guests.

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Cooling Off
last update: 10/10 @ 17:30

The weather has taken a turn towards fall. It was pretty abrupt but we’re expecting it to warm back up a little bit this week.

Fortunately the water takes a bit longer to cool down so it was very nice to be out yesterday (thank you federal holiday).

Let’s see how long I can keep my streak of at least one trip on the river a month going this time. I missed July so it’s a pretty short streak now.

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Visitors!!!
last update: 09/30 @ 17:05

Billie Mae brought her parents up for a wedding.

Well… Maybe they brought her up.

Either way, we get to hang out with her while they are off celebrating.

Which is great! A little one in the house again.

Books to read… Toys to play with…

Birds to watch… Bunnies to count…

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Robert keeping up the tradition…
last update: 09/27 @ 20:53

Robert had an early first class for his second year at UW. I’m not sure who else was stirring to take this picture for him.

He stayed in Seattle over the summer; spent some time working for the Cascades and Tempest Ultimate teams. And he’s now moved into his new dorm for the year and settling into his new class schedule.

Here’s the traditional look back:

• 2022
• 2021
• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2017
• 2016
• 2015
• 2014
• 2013
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008

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Blue Sky
last update: 09/17 @ 14:03

Splendid weather yesterday for getting out on the river.

Just about 80 degrees.

Blue Sky.

Cool water.

Still low water, though.

I took advantage of the weather to go up the gorge to Rocky Island — very low as you can see. But a great day to be out and about.

While I was at Rocky, I saw a couple slalom boaters attaining up the rapids. I wonder if they could attain Wet Bottom Chute. I portaged that and Anglers but both are short and easy to get up.

I could easily see attaining Anglers (with two paddle blades — that’s my excuse). But Wet Bottom seems a lot harder to get up; I’ll have to keep my eyes open there.

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