Life proceeds

It's been a long time since I wrote anything here about us. It seems as if our lives just stopped some time ago.

Life doesn't stop.

So, some bummer stuff first. Nothing horrible, but not fun anyway.

We had some local flooding in the area about 45 days ago. It rains a lot in Seattle in the winter, but normal runoff handles the load under normal conditions. Unfortunately, it rained A LOT for a long period of time around here and we had some water issues. Two problems cropped up from this.

First, our drainage field filled up and water began to seep under our back door and flooded our downstairs. Yeah, downstairs is carpeted and finished. We have some damage and mildew. We're still trying to deal with it.

The second issue came from inexperience / inattention on Ed's part while driving his car to work. See, there was a sign about a mile down the road that said "Water over roadway." Traffic was avoiding the deep stuff in the right lane, but Ed just kept on driving.

BMWs don't ford water over 2 feet deep.

Basically, he sucked straight water directly into the engine. Hydraulic lock occurred. Pistons broke, rods bent, the crank probably twisted a degree or two. The car was toast. I think Ed learned a thing or two about the relative inexpense of comprehensive automobile insurance. He had none. The financial loss, while limited, was virtually total. Several thousand dollars were lost because of a puddle.

But that's the bad stuff. Into each life a little rain must fall. Literally.

The good stuff. We're still making progress on the house. It's obviously quite slow right now, but we inch along whenever it's possible. It'll get done.

Ed's career and experiments are going well. He can finally see the end of his data gathering and plan for the big number crunch / paper.

I went out to see my brother and his hubby in Dallas a few short months ago. It was good to be able to connect with them at their place, and I took the time to visit with some of my old motorcycling friends. It was nice to see the old guard and meet several new folks.

I had dinner with the two friends with whom I motorcycled into Canada. Wow, it looks like I haven't written about that. I should be shot!

See, I have two adventurous friends from Dallas who are long time motorcyclists. They decided they were going to ride from Dallas to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Yeah, that's 10,000 miles plus for each of them. Here's a link to the primer of the story.

Anyway, arrangements were made and we hauled butt from my house. 4 days, 1600 miles round trip, and some great scenery en-route.

Departure pic. Click to make it larger. From left to right, that's Tim, Brad, then me.

We had a good time on the trip. We also had a wonderful time at dinner with their wives, Tim's family, and another friend (female pilot, motorcycle racer, fun person.)

Anyway, I'll write more as I think of things and as life moves forward.