Month: November 2014

I have ten marvelous grandchildren, ranging in age from 13 to zero.  Each one is such a bright spot in my life.  Four of them live three miles away, three more live 700 miles distant, and three live literally half way around the world (but we stay close via blogs and video chats).

I can’t do any better than what my wife already posted, so here is a link to her blog entry about our grandkids.

 

It is only mid-November and it feels like we’ve already had a good share of winter weather this year.  Last week we had a strong, cold wind storm and then some freezing rain.  And yesterday on my bicycle commute to work I encountered this:

Needless to say, it was a rather brisk ride in to work. I don’t recall ever seeing this temperature in mid-November here.  But no wind, so it was fine.

Speaking of wind, I think our fall colors got curtailed with the cold and wind last week.  The trees are quite bare for this time in November, as you can see from my usual Intel vista.

By getting an early start does this mean winter will be milder and shorter, or longer and more severe?  Only time will tell.

 

 

In the summer of 1995 we had an extended family reunion in Utah, and I played tennis with my cousin.  It was a lot of fun, and I have to admit the competitor in me wanted a future rematch, since my cousin beat me.  So I instantly caught the tennis bug and started playing a lot with anyone I could get onto the court with me, including my oldest son just before he left for his two year mission.

Here in the Pacific Northwest tennis is a year round sport, with indoor play being most common for serious players.  I wanted to join a local club for more opportunities to play and ended up joining Sunset Athletic Club with a family membership, though I had to wait a few months until they finished some remodeling after a fire destroyed their main building.

Thus began my “tennis 2nd life”.  At the club I had many opportunities to play, including fun practice, leagues, and tournaments.  I felt like a kid again, having so much fun playing tennis like old times.  My game improved and I took some lessons for the first time in my life.  My younger children also took classes and played with me sometimes.  (My younger daughter went on to play for her high school varsity team.)  Along the way I got revenge at the family reunion in 1997, beating my cousin in a rematch.

To facilitate fair competitive play, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) uses a skill rating system (NTRP), so that players with similar abilities will play each other in tournaments and leagues.  I started out with a 3.5 rating, which is about average for semi-serious club players.  I entered some tournaments and played in some leagues, mostly playing singles, and by 2001 had improved my game sufficiently that I got promoted to the next higher level, 4.0.  I have to say that my last year as a 3.5 was a banner year, and so much fun.  I won several tournaments and went nearly undefeated in league play.  Our team went undefeated and nearly won the Northern Oregon playoffs.  It was a huge ego boost to get moved up, but almost instantly I became an “average” player again, as my competition was improved as well.

I played in men’s leagues, mixed doubles leagues, and summer leagues, as well as various tournaments through the year.  Over time I migrated increasingly towards more doubles play, and at times had a very good partner, yielding great results and very fun times.  Other times I didn’t and results weren’t as stellar, nor was it as much fun.

I’ve always been one to enjoy organizing things so I took on the role of being team captain, which is kind of like a player/manager.  He recruits players for the team, registers the team, organizes team practice play, and sets lineups for matches (including lots of strategy), as well as recording results.  I found it mostly enjoyable and satisfying being captain, and the players always appreciated my efforts.  It was a challenge sometimes trying to keep all the players happy, and deciding whether to play to win, or play everyone equal time.  I’ve been a team captain every year for over a decade now.

For league play, the top two teams in the division standings advance to the Northern Oregon playoffs.  The winner of the playoffs (and sometimes the 2nd place team as a wildcard) advances to the Pacific Northwest Sectionals championships, including teams from Alaska, British Columbia, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.  Prior to this year I had been on two teams that made it to sectionals, both times taking place in Sunriver, Oregon, and both times with 7.0 mixed doubles teams (two 3.5 rated partners make a 7.0 team, or also a 4.0/3.0 combo).  I was captain of one of those teams and we had a great group of folks, and this experience was a highlight.  However, both times we went as a wildcard — I had never been on a Northern Oregon championship team.

Until this year.

To be continued…

 

 

My earliest experiences swinging a tennis racquet were in 4th grade when our family played on some courts at Fallon Naval Air Station in Nevada.  In high school, I played basketball and hung around with fellow sports minded guys, and in the spring of my sophomore year several of us were playing a lot of tennis for fun, so we joined the school tennis team my junior year.  Being new to the team we had to start at the bottom of the junior varsity ladder and work our way up.  Several of us got to varsity before the end of the season, and I reached #3 singles.  My senior year I switched from basketball to focus on tennis, and played #1 singles for the team.  I wasn’t a great player, and had never had a lesson, but I won about half of my league matches.  And our school team, with its influx of ex-basketball players, had its best season in many years, perhaps ever.

I still have my actual Wilson Jack Kramer Autograph racquet from high school.  That was the popular model at the time.

I wasn’t good enough to play competitively in college, but I did enjoy playing intramural tournaments and other casual play.

Then life got busy with family and work, and I rarely played tennis for the next 20 years or so.

To be continued…

We have lived in our home for nearly 30 years.  We have a large loft in the garage which serves as a great storage area.  But we had to use an extension ladder to access it, so it was inconvenient, to say the least.  For the longest time we thought about constructing some stairs for better access and utilization, but never got around to it.

Until this year.  I was feeling ambitious, and perhaps inspired by the carpentry work being done in our bathroom remodel, so I set to work.

We have stairs that go up from the garage floor to a landing area to enter the house.  I designed an additional set of stairs to go from the landing to the loft.  It took quite a bit of study and planning, including use of trigonometry to calculate the stair step dimensions for the rise and length.  I also designed some shelves for storing shoes and other items.

I think it took the better part of a week to plan and construct the project.  But I have to say it was engaging work and very satisfying to accomplish.  We now have convenient access to the loft area.  I constructed more shelves up in the loft to offload our former master bedroom shelves and bookcase.

We were traveling outside the country for a month while most of the remodel work was being done.  It was a little uncomfortable not being there to monitor progress, and answer questions as they came up.  Thank goodness for email, so we could view photos and resolve questions.

The job was nearly complete when we returned in early February.  It was very exciting and we were quite pleased.  There was still quite a bit of work for us to do, as we painted all the walls, ceilings, and doors and window frames.  I also constructed the closet shelves and hanging rods.

Here is a video tour of the finished remodel.

Almost every day we reflect on how pleased we are with the new bedroom and bathroom.  It was (a lot of) money well spent!

For years we made do with an inconvenient walk-in closet, a small shower stall, and a single sink in our master bedroom/bathroom.  We contemplated various strategies of moving this wall or that.  To make a long story short(er) we arrived at a remodel plan that would leave all exterior walls intact, yet solve the major irritants.

We did two things to make more room, and reoriented the closet to make it much more usable.  First, we removed the jet tub.  While there were pleasant memories of kids splashing away in it, and using soap bubbles to create beards, it was very rarely used.  This allowed us to move the sink to that space and expand to a double sink.

Second, we extended one wall a few feet into the bedroom space to enlarge the shower stall.  We compensated by removing a shelf unit from our bedroom, simplifying the furniture arrangement for the reduced space.

Removing the old sink opened up a new wall into the walk-in closet, where we moved the door and the space became much more usable.  We also scaled back the amount of shelves in the closet, expanding the area for hanging clothes.  We found we didn’t need to store so much stuff in our bedroom closet, moving much of it into the garage loft area (which became much more accessible after another project, which I will blog about later).

We met several times with the same contractor who remodeled our kitchen a few years ago.  Initial ballpark cost estimates came in around $13K–not inexpensive, but doable.  Of course, once the pencils got sharpened and we planned more details, the price went up and up.  When we got to $23K we were pretty discouraged and looking for ways to cut costs.  But ultimately, we decided if we going to go to this much trouble and expense we might as well do it right, and make sure we would be happy with it in the years to come.  I think the total cost ended up around $26K or so.  We splurged on a few extras, like granite slab counter, tiled shower, and heated floor.

We did save some money by doing much of the demolition ourselves, and all of the painting.

Here are a couple of photos showing the demolition progress, and the rough framing.

The next post will show the finished product.

My long time cycling quest has been to find the Holy Grail of cycling jackets, one that would keep me dry in the rain without sweating so much underneath.  Here is a previous post on that topic.  While not perfect, I do have a reasonable jacket performing that function currently.

Now my problem is keeping my feet and shoes dry during wet commutes.  I’ve tried the usual cycling shoe booties, with varying success.  The most water tight pair are extremely difficult to put on and off (left most in the photo).  The most convenient pair worked well for a few months, but now leave my feet mostly dry only on very light mist or sprinkling days (center in photo).  The toe covers are convenient for days when there is a little dampness on the road surface (rightmost in photo).  So what I need is a pair of booties that are durable, keep my feet dry in the rain, and are easy to get on and off.  Seems like it shouldn’t be that hard a puzzle to solve, but no luck so far.

I have to take my cycling shoes with me when shopping for booties because the most common problem is putting them on and trying to squeeze them past my ankle and heel.  The online reviews for many pairs aren’t very encouraging, either.

Well, the quest continues, as I have the next several months of frequent wet commutes to look forward to.  I’ll be looking at REI this coming weekend with my 20% off coupon.

The weather forecast for yesterday was for a cold front blowing in during the afternoon with strong east winds.  Since there was no precipitation predicted I decided to go ahead and commute to work on my bike.

I commute year round, through rain and darkness, but draw the line when I think safety is compromised.  So I don’t ride if the streets will be slick with snow or ice (at least, not on purpose), or if stormy conditions might impede motorists’ visibility of cyclists.  I avoid strong or gusty winds, too, as they can blow you out of your bike lane.

The morning commute was a blast, with a strong tailwind most of the way.  I was flying along at 22 mph and feeling calm air, so the wind velocity must have been close to that.  I knew I would pay the price on the commute home.

I had an appointment come up so had to leave work mid-afternoon, right in the thick of the peak of the windstorm.  The first leg was a half mile heading north, so I had to contend with gusty side winds from the east.  Not good, but I managed.  I then turned east for 7+ miles of 30+ mph headwinds.  I had to gear down and just pedal away at a slow speed.  The straight on head wind was good news/bad news.  Good that gusts weren’t blowing me sideways, bad that I had to work hard to move forward.

I had to contend with tree branches and debris blown down onto the road, and a couple of downed trees partly blocking the way.  I did worry a bit about a large branch or tree coming down on me.  But, after a much longer than normal duration, I made it home fine.  Was it worth it, and would I do it again?  While it is satisfying to accomplish hard things I think this experience crossed the safety line I draw for myself.  So next time (perhaps even today or tomorrow) I may have to hang my head and drive a car to work.

Flags blowing straight out:

The first four miles had pretty open terrain, so little protection from buildings or trees:

 

Here is an updated look out the window at Intel yesterday showing the trees continuing to turn.  Today a cold front is supposed to blow in.  Should I still ride my bike to work?