Category Archives: doing it wrong

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:

This guy chased the bunny around the yard, goofed at the camera but also was afraid of it, and then had trouble with his bath.

There is a vacation rental across the street and before it was a rental, the owner lived there and they rarely do anything with the yard. The theme was neglect. It was sad because the previous owners did a lot with the yard and had flowers. All gone now.

Today, at about 8:30a three trucks came in and they weed-eated and hedge-whacked and pruned and leaf blew for hours. They had a huge crew and I can’t even imagine how that many people kept busy for so long.

I have a little bit of use it or lose it leave time so I took an extra long weekend.

It has gone by so fast. I did a mixture of chores and lazy things. I watched all the men’s gymnastics coverage from the recent US championships. I haven’t watch men’s gymnastics in ages and I don’t understand why this sport isn’t bigger. Amazing athletics. I did lots of walks. I read 2 New Yorkers because the week before last arrived late. I made some whole wheat sandwich bread and a peach pie. Both came out great.

Now, I’m trying to take care of computer stuff that I’ve been putting off and every time I sit down I remember why I put it off.

This is my office building.

It looks so fancy from the outside. Like there must be amazing things going on inside.

And the curved part in the middle — those offices must be really cool.

Nope. It’s an office building. From the inside the curved part just seems like a window.

Sorry to disappoint.

Back when Mom was here, there was a fire in this building. They had some of the people on the news and it was so sad – people who lost everything and didn’t know where to go.

When I was waiting for the bus, people were talking about it and swapping stories. My office faces away so I didn’t even know it happened.

I was at the health clinic last week and saw the wreckage.