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Catching Up, October 9 - November 3
Nov. 4th, 2017 10:44 amMonday, 10/9: Bus to rehearsal wasn't very crowded. At the other end of the bench was a sleepy brown-skinned kid with his feet up; he wore his pants all the way down under his butt cheeks, and a jacket and ball cap. At Lynnwood he had to put his feet down so someone else could sit in front of him. Rehearsal went well.
Thursday, 10/12: Picked up my license plates at the dealer. Also, volunteered to dye my beard purple for Spirit Day a week hence.
Friday, 10/13: As we were expecting to hear after the news from the previous weekend, Gary from Federal Way passed away due to the injuries he'd sustained in the car crash. Brendan asked us to save the date for his Celebration of Life (what we'd call a wake) in two weeks on Saturday the 28th.
This was also opening night for the Seattle Women's Chorus program "Fired Up!" at St. Mark's Cathedral. As we'd done in the past, we took the 512 bus to 45th Street and the 44 to University Way so we could have dinner on "the Ave" before the show. We chose the Shwarma King restaurant about a block south where we'd eaten before. After dinner we returned to the same bus stop to catch the 49 to the cathedral. The performance was spectacular, especially when the Northwest Girlchoir opened the second act with "Be a Bird", sung in canon by five antiphonal groups placed around the church. After the performance we had a nice chat with a group of older ladies also waiting for the bus. We switched to the train at Capitol Hill Station and caught the 512 at Union Station.
Saturday, 10/14: We had a neighborhood emergency drill following our monthly radio check at 2 PM. Basically, we checked out the supplies we had cached in a shed at the nearby church and made sure we all had working keys to the shed and lockers. From there we did our grocery shopping at Costco.
Sunday, 10/15: Errand running. I stopped first at Ulta Beauty for liquid hair chalk and hairspray to dye my beard purple as mentioned. Next I stopped by Costco again, and then drove down to Destination XL for some purple polo shirts and khaki slacks. After all this I was hungry so I picked up some Thai food for lunch at the Alderwood Mall food court.
Monday, 10/16: Rehearsal. Trip was fairly unmemorable.
Tuesday, 10/17: Returned to the Starbucks on the Hill for a Retreat Committee meeting. On the bus from Ash Way a dude with a thick brown beard, wearing jeans, a rainbow unicorn T-shirt and matching ball cap, pink sneakers and a pink zippered hoodie, and carrying a pink sparkly backpack was lounging across the bench opposite the back door until he left at Stewart and 9th. The cub directly in front of me had a wispy brown goatee and wore a heavy black cloth coat, gray snap-brim hat and gray-scale striped scarf; he was rocking out to whatever was playing on his phone. I left the bus at Westlake Station and caught the train to Capitol Hill.
I ate a bag of Dick's for dinner, while being serenaded by a thin, grizzled dude with a guitar, standing on the sidewalk. He sang "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and "One Piece at a Time". From there it was all downhill to the Starbucks. The meeting went well despite one of the key people being stuck in a business meeting and unable to attend. I walked down the hill the rest of the way to catch the return bus. It was standing room only and I happened to overhear a couple of people talking about college sports and specifically Michigan vs. Ohio State. I turned and saw a young lady in a Buckeyes sweatshirt speaking with a marginally older otterish dude with ginger-brown hair and beard. We all left the bus at South Everett, where we discovered that all three of us had graduated from Ohio State in about a 20 year span (1988-2008).
Wednesday, 10/18: Parked at South Everett and bused it in to the office. Spotted a cute cublet who reminded me of Greg from Portland while waiting for the 535 bus at Canyon Park. After work, I walked over to the bus stop across the 405 from the office. On the way I spotted a cubbish dude riding a recumbent bike northbound as I headed south to the North Creek bridge. At the stop I spotted a cute cub, and caught the first available bus which happened to be the 522. I transferred to the 372 bus to UW main campus at the UW Bothell transit center, and then caught the 197 to Federal Way. There I met up with Gary and a contingent from the Northwest Bears for dinner at the Village Inn. We returned to Everett on the A Line, the 577, and the 512.
Thursday, 10/19: Drove in to the office for Spirit Day since I'd just as soon not bus it with my beard dyed purple. I did a lot of posting to social media but no one stopped by for a selfie. After work I washed out the chalk and Gary and I hit the Buzz Inn in Silver Lake for dinner.
Saturday, 10/21: Gary and I decided to take a trip to the Golden Corral buffet in Marysville for dinner. Afterwards I had to add fuel to the car and then we did some brief shopping before returning home.
Monday 10/23: Had an event at work called "I Thought You'd Never Ask". It's kind of like speed dating but its purpose is to get to know what other folks are going through. Today's topic was "Ask a Person of Color". Because I was running late and thought I might have to pick up something, I drove in to the office and from there to rehearsal. I arrived about 90 minutes early and spent the time with dinner at Blue Water Taco grill and a chai tea latte at Starbucks across the street. Rehearsal went well.
Tuesday 10/24: Had our neighborhood meeting, with speakers from the Everett School Board and Everett Transit. We filled out surveys and were given $10 ORCA cards for our trouble. Afterwards we had dinner at Famous Dave's which has become somewhat of a monthly tradition.
Friday 10/27: After a work-from-home day, I got a note from the Fireplace Bears on Facebook saying that they were going to do the corn maze at Craven Farm in Snohomish before the usual Friday gathering. We decided to have dinner at Ivar's first. We arrived just a bit late so we didn't see any of the other Fireplace Bears there. The theme was Alice in Wonderland and we had a good time exploring the maze in the dark, even though I did slip and fall once and got myself all muddy. After the maze we spent a few minutes checking out the animal barn, where we spotted a couple of kids (as in baby goats) named Starsky and Hutch. When we got home to change clothes, Gary found that there was a broadcast of the musical Falsettos in progress on PBS, so we decided to stay home and watch that rather than change clothes and return to the Fireplace.
Saturday, 10/28: We drove down to Federal Way for the wake. On the way we picked up a fruit tray and a veggie tray. The house was full of friends and food, and it was a shame we couldn't all get together under more favorable circumstances. We spent most of the afternoon out on the back patio, and exchanged contact information with Kent and Jeff as well as Ricardo and Steve. We noticed a severe construction backup headed back, so we decided to detour to Costco in Tukwila and pick up needed supplies there rather than waiting to return to Everett.
Monday, 10/30: Worked from home but missed lunch. Rushed downtown to get to rehearsal early for a Retreat Committee meeting, which turned out to be a series of casual chats as opposed to a sit-down meeting. Caught a ride home with Neil as usual.
Tuesday, 10/31: We had a total of 20 trick-or-treaters, 11 of whom arrived all at once.
Wednesday, 11/1: Had a Town Hall meeting at work. The cafeteria, conference room, and game room in our office building were transformed into a TV studio for the occasion, with two large racks of equipment on wheels over in the game room connected up to lots of computers and monitors, pipe and drape covering the walls and windows, and at least four cameras. Two cameras were staffed (I was seated next to the main camera and its rather cute operator; the other camera was peeking through the drapes to stage left of the speaker), and there were at least two robocams. There was also a feed from a remote conference room. After the show was over, I spoke with one of the production assistants (a rather cute black dude) and he said they were going to have to pack up all the equipment and ship it to DC at a cost of around $20K for the next event.
After work I caught the 238 from the bus stop by I-405 and the 372 to UW Station, so I could meet Gary on the Hill. On the 372, a huge young bear with long, thick brown hair and beard, wearing a gray sweatsuit, boarded at Kenmore Park and Ride. Later I spotted a bear in black (dress shirt and slacks) with thick hair and a bushy beard to match, as he left the bus at 25th Avenue and 65th Street. From UW Station I took the train one stop, and took my time walking down from Capitol Hill Station to the venue. When we were done we had dinner at Tangerine Tree, where the lady who served us was very happy to see us again. After dinner we took the streetcar to Union Station and caught the bus from there. I sat in front of Gary who was in the corner of the back bench, and spotted a young cub with a bald head and a light brown beard, wearing an F5 Networks shirt. I later told Gary he reminded me of what I imagine Rick Copp might have looked like at Ian Parks' age (both actors on Where the Bears Are).
Thursday, 11/2: I drove in to the office because I had a mixer to attend after work in Woodinville. Because I was leaving late for the office and there had been a wreck on I-405, the recommendation from Google Maps took me on a roundabout course to the office, via Lowell-Larimer Road and WA 9. I ended up staying rather later than I'd intended at the office, and stopped at Thai Tanee, a little hole-in-the wall place across from the Home Depot, on the way to the venue for the mixer, a little place called Village Wines. I got a chance to catch up with Greg, Ginger, Alex, and Chad on the LEAGUE side, and Maria, Dawn, Art, and a couple other folks on the HACEMOS side. There were lots of little noshes and a cash bar. I had a couple of glasses of a very nice pear cider from Oregon. While we were there, a cute cubbish dude sang and played the guitar, and at one point pulled out a saxophone for a solo. I stopped at Burger King on the way home to pick up a burger for Gary.
Yesterday, 11/3: Work-from-home day, followed by pizza and salad at Alfy's. A child of maybe five hadn't had his nap and was wailing loudly most of the time we were there. I sympathize with both the kid and his mother, as I remember being there many times as a child.
Thursday, 10/12: Picked up my license plates at the dealer. Also, volunteered to dye my beard purple for Spirit Day a week hence.
Friday, 10/13: As we were expecting to hear after the news from the previous weekend, Gary from Federal Way passed away due to the injuries he'd sustained in the car crash. Brendan asked us to save the date for his Celebration of Life (what we'd call a wake) in two weeks on Saturday the 28th.
This was also opening night for the Seattle Women's Chorus program "Fired Up!" at St. Mark's Cathedral. As we'd done in the past, we took the 512 bus to 45th Street and the 44 to University Way so we could have dinner on "the Ave" before the show. We chose the Shwarma King restaurant about a block south where we'd eaten before. After dinner we returned to the same bus stop to catch the 49 to the cathedral. The performance was spectacular, especially when the Northwest Girlchoir opened the second act with "Be a Bird", sung in canon by five antiphonal groups placed around the church. After the performance we had a nice chat with a group of older ladies also waiting for the bus. We switched to the train at Capitol Hill Station and caught the 512 at Union Station.
Saturday, 10/14: We had a neighborhood emergency drill following our monthly radio check at 2 PM. Basically, we checked out the supplies we had cached in a shed at the nearby church and made sure we all had working keys to the shed and lockers. From there we did our grocery shopping at Costco.
Sunday, 10/15: Errand running. I stopped first at Ulta Beauty for liquid hair chalk and hairspray to dye my beard purple as mentioned. Next I stopped by Costco again, and then drove down to Destination XL for some purple polo shirts and khaki slacks. After all this I was hungry so I picked up some Thai food for lunch at the Alderwood Mall food court.
Monday, 10/16: Rehearsal. Trip was fairly unmemorable.
Tuesday, 10/17: Returned to the Starbucks on the Hill for a Retreat Committee meeting. On the bus from Ash Way a dude with a thick brown beard, wearing jeans, a rainbow unicorn T-shirt and matching ball cap, pink sneakers and a pink zippered hoodie, and carrying a pink sparkly backpack was lounging across the bench opposite the back door until he left at Stewart and 9th. The cub directly in front of me had a wispy brown goatee and wore a heavy black cloth coat, gray snap-brim hat and gray-scale striped scarf; he was rocking out to whatever was playing on his phone. I left the bus at Westlake Station and caught the train to Capitol Hill.
I ate a bag of Dick's for dinner, while being serenaded by a thin, grizzled dude with a guitar, standing on the sidewalk. He sang "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and "One Piece at a Time". From there it was all downhill to the Starbucks. The meeting went well despite one of the key people being stuck in a business meeting and unable to attend. I walked down the hill the rest of the way to catch the return bus. It was standing room only and I happened to overhear a couple of people talking about college sports and specifically Michigan vs. Ohio State. I turned and saw a young lady in a Buckeyes sweatshirt speaking with a marginally older otterish dude with ginger-brown hair and beard. We all left the bus at South Everett, where we discovered that all three of us had graduated from Ohio State in about a 20 year span (1988-2008).
Wednesday, 10/18: Parked at South Everett and bused it in to the office. Spotted a cute cublet who reminded me of Greg from Portland while waiting for the 535 bus at Canyon Park. After work, I walked over to the bus stop across the 405 from the office. On the way I spotted a cubbish dude riding a recumbent bike northbound as I headed south to the North Creek bridge. At the stop I spotted a cute cub, and caught the first available bus which happened to be the 522. I transferred to the 372 bus to UW main campus at the UW Bothell transit center, and then caught the 197 to Federal Way. There I met up with Gary and a contingent from the Northwest Bears for dinner at the Village Inn. We returned to Everett on the A Line, the 577, and the 512.
Thursday, 10/19: Drove in to the office for Spirit Day since I'd just as soon not bus it with my beard dyed purple. I did a lot of posting to social media but no one stopped by for a selfie. After work I washed out the chalk and Gary and I hit the Buzz Inn in Silver Lake for dinner.
Saturday, 10/21: Gary and I decided to take a trip to the Golden Corral buffet in Marysville for dinner. Afterwards I had to add fuel to the car and then we did some brief shopping before returning home.
Monday 10/23: Had an event at work called "I Thought You'd Never Ask". It's kind of like speed dating but its purpose is to get to know what other folks are going through. Today's topic was "Ask a Person of Color". Because I was running late and thought I might have to pick up something, I drove in to the office and from there to rehearsal. I arrived about 90 minutes early and spent the time with dinner at Blue Water Taco grill and a chai tea latte at Starbucks across the street. Rehearsal went well.
Tuesday 10/24: Had our neighborhood meeting, with speakers from the Everett School Board and Everett Transit. We filled out surveys and were given $10 ORCA cards for our trouble. Afterwards we had dinner at Famous Dave's which has become somewhat of a monthly tradition.
Friday 10/27: After a work-from-home day, I got a note from the Fireplace Bears on Facebook saying that they were going to do the corn maze at Craven Farm in Snohomish before the usual Friday gathering. We decided to have dinner at Ivar's first. We arrived just a bit late so we didn't see any of the other Fireplace Bears there. The theme was Alice in Wonderland and we had a good time exploring the maze in the dark, even though I did slip and fall once and got myself all muddy. After the maze we spent a few minutes checking out the animal barn, where we spotted a couple of kids (as in baby goats) named Starsky and Hutch. When we got home to change clothes, Gary found that there was a broadcast of the musical Falsettos in progress on PBS, so we decided to stay home and watch that rather than change clothes and return to the Fireplace.
Saturday, 10/28: We drove down to Federal Way for the wake. On the way we picked up a fruit tray and a veggie tray. The house was full of friends and food, and it was a shame we couldn't all get together under more favorable circumstances. We spent most of the afternoon out on the back patio, and exchanged contact information with Kent and Jeff as well as Ricardo and Steve. We noticed a severe construction backup headed back, so we decided to detour to Costco in Tukwila and pick up needed supplies there rather than waiting to return to Everett.
Monday, 10/30: Worked from home but missed lunch. Rushed downtown to get to rehearsal early for a Retreat Committee meeting, which turned out to be a series of casual chats as opposed to a sit-down meeting. Caught a ride home with Neil as usual.
Tuesday, 10/31: We had a total of 20 trick-or-treaters, 11 of whom arrived all at once.
Wednesday, 11/1: Had a Town Hall meeting at work. The cafeteria, conference room, and game room in our office building were transformed into a TV studio for the occasion, with two large racks of equipment on wheels over in the game room connected up to lots of computers and monitors, pipe and drape covering the walls and windows, and at least four cameras. Two cameras were staffed (I was seated next to the main camera and its rather cute operator; the other camera was peeking through the drapes to stage left of the speaker), and there were at least two robocams. There was also a feed from a remote conference room. After the show was over, I spoke with one of the production assistants (a rather cute black dude) and he said they were going to have to pack up all the equipment and ship it to DC at a cost of around $20K for the next event.
After work I caught the 238 from the bus stop by I-405 and the 372 to UW Station, so I could meet Gary on the Hill. On the 372, a huge young bear with long, thick brown hair and beard, wearing a gray sweatsuit, boarded at Kenmore Park and Ride. Later I spotted a bear in black (dress shirt and slacks) with thick hair and a bushy beard to match, as he left the bus at 25th Avenue and 65th Street. From UW Station I took the train one stop, and took my time walking down from Capitol Hill Station to the venue. When we were done we had dinner at Tangerine Tree, where the lady who served us was very happy to see us again. After dinner we took the streetcar to Union Station and caught the bus from there. I sat in front of Gary who was in the corner of the back bench, and spotted a young cub with a bald head and a light brown beard, wearing an F5 Networks shirt. I later told Gary he reminded me of what I imagine Rick Copp might have looked like at Ian Parks' age (both actors on Where the Bears Are).
Thursday, 11/2: I drove in to the office because I had a mixer to attend after work in Woodinville. Because I was leaving late for the office and there had been a wreck on I-405, the recommendation from Google Maps took me on a roundabout course to the office, via Lowell-Larimer Road and WA 9. I ended up staying rather later than I'd intended at the office, and stopped at Thai Tanee, a little hole-in-the wall place across from the Home Depot, on the way to the venue for the mixer, a little place called Village Wines. I got a chance to catch up with Greg, Ginger, Alex, and Chad on the LEAGUE side, and Maria, Dawn, Art, and a couple other folks on the HACEMOS side. There were lots of little noshes and a cash bar. I had a couple of glasses of a very nice pear cider from Oregon. While we were there, a cute cubbish dude sang and played the guitar, and at one point pulled out a saxophone for a solo. I stopped at Burger King on the way home to pick up a burger for Gary.
Yesterday, 11/3: Work-from-home day, followed by pizza and salad at Alfy's. A child of maybe five hadn't had his nap and was wailing loudly most of the time we were there. I sympathize with both the kid and his mother, as I remember being there many times as a child.