Dammit!
I had really hoped for another really nice weekend but it just wasn’t to be. Friday evening I mowed the lawn because some drizzle was expected on Saturday. Good thing I did. So I didn’t hike. I could have from between the time I got up and about 1pm as it was just threatening rain but never did. But I stayed busy doing other chores. Wendy got off work at 4 and at 5:15 we headed into town for a wedding. The daughter of Wendy’s boss got married at Blessed Sacrament Church, just off NE 50th near I-5, an old catholic church dating from 1910. A large steeple visible from the freeway made it easy to find, and their own good sized parking lot held plenty of cars. 140 people were invited and about that many showed up. The bride and groom drove away in an older Bentley with right hand drive, to the reception down at the Shilshole Bay Beach Club, almost next to Rays and Anthony’s. It was a nice place and the reception featured an open bar and a buffet dinner. Some wonderful steak and salmon, risotto, salad, cheese plate and fruit plate. Plenty of food to go around. I had seconds as we didn’t get to eat until about 9pm. Home by 1115.
Sunday was still overcast when I got up but forecast to be nicer. I got up about 7 but I read a book for an hour, then took my time fixing oatmeal and deciding where to hike. I finally left the house on foot at 11am headed for Twin Falls. I told Wendy(she had the day off) I might give her a call if I decided to hike past twin falls and up to the John Wayne trail and down to Rattlesnake Lake, the reverse of which I’ve done so often. It was a cool but dry start, 50’ish, and it took me just an hour to get from home to the old rail grade trail. I knew at that moment I couldn’t just turn around and head home, I was going to keep going to Rattlesnake. After a brief lunch stop at Ragnar, an old signed railroad stop from the Milwaukee days, I got down to Rattlesnake lake at 1:30, 6 miles total in 2.5 hours. Not bad. I called Wendy when I got there, and had about a 20 minute rest while waiting for her.
After a 1 hour rest at home, I had a couple more chores to do outside. I transferred about a wheelbarrow full of 2″ rock from along the driveway where I’d put it a few years back down to the mailbox on the street. When the mail is delivered, the mail truck driver has to swing off the road a bit to get to our mailbox, and over time it turns to mud and settling ruts. I filled in the ruts with the rock. I’ll probably have to do it again in another year or two. Then I got the chainsaw out and finished branching up the last log from the tree that fell in December. I still need to pull it out and set it next to the other 5 logs by the side of the house. No rush on that. Sprayed some weed and brush killer on the new growth starting on the trails around the house and on the weeds on the gravel parking areas. Partially clearing skies made a nice ending, but still on the cool side.
Anyhoo, the day is done and I feel pretty good now. OH, one other thing, on Friday, Kent and Steve and I had to help unload a container at work. Steve had a hot one that needed to get out, and if we hadn’t helped it might not have. We knew ahead of time on Thurs that we’d be doing it, so we dressed appropriately. Friday morning we had a huge breakfast at the office, Ken and Kent cooked up omelets and pancakes and bacon and sausage for everyone. We all pitched in 4 bucks. I stuffed myself but good thing I did as I needed that energy to work the container.
It was a 40′ can with 1400 ctns of digital video cameras that was stuffed to the ceiling front to back. They were all the same but had to be loaded onto pallets in various numbers to be shipped out to various consignees. The container arrived about 9am and we started about 930. I forgot to bring gloves so I ran over to NAPA and picked up a couple pairs. That really helped our hands. After we got the first 1/3 unloaded, Steve said he had too much on his desk to do so he left(chickened out I think) and Kent and I finished the rest ourselves. One of our regular warehouse guys drove away the pallets as we got them stacked, and we were just going fast and steady. We were done by about 1115. That really gave my arms and shoulders a workout which I’ve been feeling the rest of the weekend, but its a good feeling. We got kudos from the rest of the regular whse guys, a little respect for pitching in when needed.