Category Archives: doing it wrong

Our building decorates an elevator for Halloween. It’s always a surprise at the beginning of the month when you wander into the building at zero dark thirty, in a daze because you haven’t had any tea yet, and the elevator doors open to this.

I love it.

I was going to post this yesterday but I’m barely going to make this 30 day thing as it is, I’m starting November with a Halloween post.

The dog skeleton on the left can howl but they don’t leave it switched on all the time. We had a safety meeting and at one point this quiet howling noise could be heard and then everyone laughed when they figured out that the elevator must have stopped on our floor.

The Cerberus also moves and barks but it’s usually switched off.

We always joke that the rain is starts after Halloween and goes to the 4th of July but often, it turns out to be true.

The last two days I had a walk at lunch because it looks pretty soggy after this.

I did all the writing I thought I had time for and I was short 92 words so I powered through and added a bit more.

5168 / 5000 words. 103% done!

I knew it was going to freeze so I picked the last of the pretty dahlias in the yard.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one but, — I just can’t get on top of anything. Last week I said: I feel like I’m dog paddling and barely keeping my head above water.

Yup, froze. I told my friend: it’s like if you put lettuce in the freezer. It’s never the same again.

What possible better idea could there by when feeling overwhelmed then deciding to do a modified NaNoWriMo?

Part one of the modification is that I started this month with a goal of 5K.

On October 29, here’s how I’m doing:

2859 / 5000 words. 57% done!

The rest of the plan is 20k next month plus a daily blog post that might be just a photo on some days.

I just ate some Halloween candy that was pure flavored sugar and now my lips and tongue are blue and my heart is racing! I’m off to do some yard work.

I could not successfully embed this so you have to click through to YouTube. No time to troubleshoot.

Well now I can’t even link it. What is wrong with me? One more try:

Link to clip of Arky Barking.

This is Arky, short for Archimedes. I don’t think his namers knew him that well when they gave him that name. Here he is letting me know that unless I am giving him treats, he isn’t much of a fan.

He is super adorable which is good for him because he is a fire-cracker and would have been fed to the wolves by now if not for those wide-eyes.

Here he is again in his Halloween costume. Cute little bat dog. He did let me pet him a little bit but only (a) during the process of giving him treats or (b) if he was super tired and his mom was right next to me.

This is Luna. Even less of a fan than Arky. She would growl at me even if I was completely minding my own business. She did hold my hand this one time when I held the cup for her to lick the foam.

This is the whole pack on a library walk. The big brown dog is Clover and she is a sweetie except she doesn’t really like other dogs and can yank your arm off during a walk if you aren’t paying attention. The cattle dog is Millie and she is blind and old and kind of angry about it — but will still snuggle and accept petting.

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I just re-read the last post I did about the squash and realized I never finished my thought about the squash seeds out front but I have a couple of very pretty pumpkins out there that haven’t been harvested yet. Details to come.

My other news is that I had my first tooth extraction yesterday. I didn’t love it but it wasn’t as bad as I expected.

During a regular exam my dentist found some sketchy looking areas around one of my teeth. It’s a miracle that the tooth wasn’t causing me problems. Yesterday it came out. I probably would have been fine but I went home and sat on the couch for the rest of the day. I didn’t eat anything except mashed up fruit and yogurt so I’m feeling wonky this morning. I expect once I eat, I’ll be about 99%.

There is public art everywhere in downtown Tacoma.

When we arrived and walked to the hotel from the train station it was like 28 Days Later – remember that zombie movie where Cillian Murphy wakes up in the hospital and goes outside and there’s no one around?

Later we saw people around but not many walking right in that area.

I don’t know if this is public art but there were language tidbits in the concrete which I am guessing are Puyallup.

I have a few more photos. Perhaps more to come.

I can’t remember how to do Photoshop arrows anymore. I tried to put one in and it was gigantic and then I fiddled with it and got it to a decent size but I couldn’t rotate it. Couldn’t remember how to deal with text either. No patience for re-learning today.

Many years ago we used to go this fantastic bluegrass festival called Wintergrass in Tacoma. A couple of old posts: (Wintergrass, 2002,
Wintergrass, 2005)

Turns out our hotel is the Wintergrass hotel which has been rebranded. As we walked around we remembered all the places we’d seen music: ballrooms down a floor, little nooks on the mezzanine level, and the restaurant is now a spa. Lots of great memories.

When we were walking around the hotel we remembered the area although almost everything has changed.

We went to the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum. The museum director grew up in Vancouver around the same time as Bob so we had a fun conversation and made a new friend.

Not long ago, I posted about the statue where I get off the bus.

Here’s a view of the statue from the office if you stand at the very edge of this one window: