Chapter 207

Although we live in a naturally rainy state, rain like we had last week always amazes me. Rain was blowing through town in waves. Not figurative waves, but real waves! Our parking lot had whitecaps on it it was so windy. This is a picture of my trip to Fred Meyer after work. Editor's disclaimer: Not to worry, I was stopped at a light when I took this picture.

It was raining so hard I had to use an umbrella when I walked the cat after work. Nitro is a good sport about wearing his raincoat, as well as walking in the heavy rain, but then he is the one that wants to go outside so he needs to put up with whatever ridiculous situation I wish to put him in!

Obviously Bob is feeling better now. He still has some pain, but he is back on track with his projects. Here he is test drilling under his workshop floor mat to check out the thickness of his garage floor. Bob's thinking about getting a car lift for the garage and since it will be anchored to the floor, the concrete in the floor needs to be a specific depth so it doesn't fall over. 

Next he moved his Jaguar awards to the shelves he installed earlier. I got these at Goodwill for $10 and they are a perfect fit and color for our old kitchen cabinets. You can't really see the two glass awards on the top shelf but they look nice with the stained glass lighting behind them. No more car shows, Bob, you are out of space for your awards.

Since Bob was on a roll with shelves, he hung the shelf he'd made for the to hold the new bedroom TV. The few pieces of wood for the shelf seemed really expensive in proportion to the $139 TV it will be holding up. Crazy when electronics seem to be cheaper than wood.

Friday I took a student out to my car to help me carry something back to the shop. Since he'd never been in a classic car I let him hop inside. He's a large kid and he loved having lots of room in the car to spread out. Unfortunately he didn't have long to spread out because a bunch of guys came out and climbed into the car with him. Somehow they crammed 7 of them inside while whooping and hollering the whole time.  After some mild threatening I got them all herded back into the classroom, hopefully, to work.

After the rainy days we'd just had, Nitro was celebrating his outsided-ness by climbing one of the trees in the backyard. He loves climbing and scratching in the trees. He thinks he's a big bad kitty who will kick some wild animal butt if anyone messes with him. 

Nitro was parading around in the tree with so much confidence he fell out of the tree. This picture is the last thing that happened as Nitro free-fell out of the tree. After that the order of events got a little fuzzy. Nitro's little back toes were hanging on for dear life but the front end won the gravity battle over the gripping back toes and he fell to the ground in a spiraling ball of fur. Here's a tip: If your cat is falling out of a tree, just step aside. Whatever you do, don't try to stop a falling cat. It results in painful injury to the catcher.

The next morning I was greeted by this cheery message on my school computer. Since there will be no action on IT's part until the required restart has happened I quickly took care of that. You know this is one of evil sneaky little tricks. If I can ever catch an IT person, the first thing they ask is if I restarted the computer and then they dematerialize into the mist. If I don't restart first, I've lost my chance to ever talk to IT again since they know I am now looking for them and their stall technique only works once. (Sorry Richard, I promise I'm not insulting all IT folks.) After reaching IT, explaining my problem, proudly gave a positive response after being asked if I had restarted, I was told to "drop them an email" explaining the problem. An email? Really? REALLY??? (JoAnn, aren't you glad you don't have to deal with this stuff any more?)

The nice weather required compulsory yard work and I had to cut down my beautiful dalias since the rain rotted them and shortened their little lives.They look so forlorn laying out there in the compost heap announcing the end of summer.

My peach tree has not started the awesome comeback I had hoped for...not that I expect one, but I can hope. Until then I can use it as a giant sundial, I guess.

Since the cool weather has started, the spiders are building their fall webs everywhere. Where are these spiders all summer long? Where are these GIANT spiders and webs all summer long? You never see any of them. I always thought these big guys were creepy, especially when I walk into their webs that are strung between bushes, gates, and doorways outdoors. I wonder if that's why they are such a prominent fall and Halloween decorations?

Yesterday we went to a leather restoration workshop at Griot's Garage in Tacoma. It was riveting. So riveting in fact, that I walked to the fabric store...twice, and then back again for coffee. As you can see, I didn't fit the average demographics of the spectators. 

Afterwards we met Kyanne, Chris, and Carissa at Katie Downs for lunch. The Commencement Bay view from the tavern is awesome as well as the waterfront trail that runs out front. In line with the power poles, Mt. Rainier is clearly visible.

As you've noticed, I am fascinated by the way Mt. Ranier is the only mountain on the horizon and it towers over the landscape when it's nice out. It had some awesome shading on it today.

 I was out in the garage helping Bob and I noticed his license plate collection is taking up a good portion of his shop wall now. Just think how much money has gone into taxes and tabs to keep all the vehicles that wore these license plates on the road.

I would like to announce a new member of the family, the fulfillment of a long-time guy wish of Bob's, a personal car lift. Like everything else we have, Bob found it on Craig's list and we went to Seattle today to pick it up. It will mount on fasteners bolted into the floor and can be set up and removed at Bob's whim. Happy, happy, boy!