Ruby & David Race Theo To New Cabin On Puget Sound Island

I was feeling just a little despondently depressed this first Saturday of the 2019 version of October.

And then this afternoon incoming email from Tacoma, with photos, cheered me totally free from my despondent depressed state of mind.

A few paragraphs of text explain the photos you will see here.

First...

Ruby, Max, Nica and Theo C. at the finish. With Nica’s little brother cheering them on.

That appears to be my one and only all time Favorite Niece Ruby, crossing the finish line first, followed by longtime boyfriend, Max, right behind Ruby. I do not believe I have met Nica, or her little brother. Or Theo C. I have met Theo S, who is Ruby's twin.

And then text explaining what all this running is all about...

David and Ruby signed up for cross country and had their second meet yesterday. It’s pretty cute. Ruby’s age ran a mile, David’s a little more. David has a soccer game today and it will be interesting to see how he does because I suspect his legs are tired. He was almost last and had to walk at parts but he plugged along and finished.

And the explanation as to why my Favorite Nephew Theo was not running with Ruby and David...

It was at the middle school next to Swan Creek so Theo and Kristin went bike riding while I stood around and watched the runners.

That is Theo under a bike helmet above, holding what looks to be some sort of cookie, leaning on a table with a thermos with a "YOU'LL LIKE TACOMA" message stuck to it.

What's not to like about Tacoma? That would be a good slogan too. Lots of parks, all with modern facilities, multiple public pools, streets with sidewalks, free to ride light rail from an intermodal transit center to downtown Tacoma, a pair of HUGE suspension bridges, built over actual deep fast moving water (built in less than four years), miles of developed waterfront, none of which took decades to develop while employing a local politician's incompetent son, with the billions of bucks spent on development in Tacoma coming from private investors, not pork barrel welfare handouts such as some backwards backwater towns in America rely on to try and do the simplest of public works projects. Such as build three little bridges over dry land.

And then in the other cheering news I learned there will be a new vacation cabin to visit when I am in Washington next summer...

We are buying a vacation cabin on Hartstene Island.  It is in a gated community called Hartstene Pointe.(you can Google it, interesting history as it was started by Weyerhaeusers.) The house doesn’t have a view of the water but the community has 3.5 miles of private beach, an outdoor pool and hot tub that is open in summer, 5 miles of walking trails, tennis courts and a lagoon where the kids can learn to row a kayak. They can ride their bikes all over. It’s less than a 5 minute walk to the beach from our place. We hope to spend a ton of time out there, especially in the summer.

Now that is a cozy looking cabin. With wooded surroundings. I miss being outdoors where it smells like Christmas trees year round.

That is one cozy looking deck. I like the wide wood planks.

And that is one cozy looking kitchen. I do not remember when last I cooked in a kitchen whilst being able to gaze out windows at an evergreen forest. Likely it was 1998, in my kitchen in Mount Vernon. My sources tell me the cabin will be ready for cooking by November. I am available for Thanksgiving dinner chef duty, if needed.

Above is a sky view of the lagoon where the kids can learn to kayak. The water looks crystal clear. Something I do not see very often at my current location. I wonder if they hold Rockin' the Lagoon Happy Hour Kayak Floats in the lagoon in summer? Likely not.

Ruby, Max & Theo Cardboard Boat Regatta

Sunday morning Spencer Jack and Hank Frank's Grandpa Jake went swimming again with one of their favorite uncles.

During the course of pool time Grandpa Jake asked if I had seen Ruby and Max together.

What an odd question I thought to myself, what with Max the poodle having gone to dog heaven way back in summer of 2017. So, I said, yes, I have seen Ruby and Max. Why would you ask, I asked?

Because they are just so darn cute together, like an old married couple.

To which I said Max the poodle and Ruby are like an old married couple? Max has been dead for over two years, said I.

No, the Max who is Ruby's best friend since they started school said Grandpa Jake.

So, I then texted Ruby's Mama Michele to ask about this Max character, and to request some photo documentation, which was quickly forthcoming, arriving as I drove Miss Daisy on her first drive of the day.

The photos came with explanatory text, which I will copy and paste. for the most part, with the following photos, except for the photo above, which is not below, in which we see Max for the first time, sharing a jacket with Ruby.

Max and Ruby have been best buds since the start of kindergarten. I will find some photos.

Theo, Ruby and Max.

Max is not a huge fan of swimming but he helped out at the cardboard boat regatta. Did I mention the regatta to you? Theo and Ruby took second place.

The cardboard boat regatta had not previously been mentioned to me, and so more photos with explanatory text were sent.

Regatta was June 1, at the wave pool they took you to. They won their heat and took second in the final.  

In the above  pic Ruby and Theo squeak by a boat at the finish.

After that all the remaining boats got to go out and they turned the waves on, which is the third pic (the pic above). Middle is their boat. Had to be cardboard and duct tape. Max's dad, Saul, helped us build the boat and then we covered it with duct tape. It was free to enter the regatta but I spent a fortune on duct tape. LOL. Was totally worth it. So much fun. They won an inflatable boat.
I agree with what Betty Jo Bouvier recently said, that being that those kids sure do have a lot of fun adventures.

I Don't Think I Will Ever Get Maxed Out Riding Arlington's Public Transit To The Dallas Cowboy Stadium

Last week, the day before I drove to Arlington to watch the USA team get beat by Belgium in the Dallas Cowboy stadium I blog my lament about not being able to take any form of public transit to the Dallas Cowboy stadium.

That lament had someone calling him or herself Anonymous making a blog comment informing me that I could have used public transit to get within walking distance of the Dallas Cowboy stadium......

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "I Won't Be Pedaling The Cowtown Cycle Party To Arlington To Watch The USA Beat Belguim Today":

You could have gotten off of the Max bus at Collins and Andrews. It would have been a 10 minute walk to the stadium.

When I read the above suggestion from Anonymous I vaguely recollected reading about a new bus service in Arlington that was some sort of limited test type deal.

Googling brought me to the RIDE THE MAX website, a screencap of which is what you see above.

From the RIDE THE MAX website I learned that ".....for a roundtrip price of $5/day (or $80/month), Metro ArlingtonXpress buses will travel between the TRE CentrePort/DFW Airport Station and College Park Center at UT Arlington. From CentrePort/DFW Airport Station, riders access any DART bus or train or T bus to travel to Dallas or Fort Worth."

So, for me to take public transit to get myself to the Dallas Cowboy stadium I would need to figure out which Fort Worth T buses I needed to get on to get to the CentrePort DFW Airport Station where I would then get on a MAX bus which would then take me to the intersection of Collins and Andrews from whence I could take a brisk 10 minute HOT walk to the stadium.

Or, I could drive about two miles from my abode, to the Richland Hills Trinity Railway Express station and hop a train which would take me to CentrePort where I could get on a MAX bus to get to the point where I take a brisk 10 minute HOT walk to the stadium.

I am assuming that I would need to pay to ride the Fort Worth T bus or the TRE to CentrePort, adding to the $5 roundtrip MAX fare.

I don't think I burned $5 worth of gas driving to Arlington to watch the World Cup last week.

So, this method of getting oneself to the Dallas Cowboy stadium from my location in Fort Worth is what Anonymous thinks is functional public transit?

I have been in towns with functional public transit. I know what functional public transit is. You can use functional public transit to easily get yourself from one location to another. The town to the east of Fort Worth, called Dallas, has functional public transit in both bus and light rail form. Soon one will be able to take a DART train to D/FW Airport.

Vancouver, up north in this country called Canada, has a very cool public transit system called SkyTrain. You can get on SkyTrain south of Vancouver and have yourself a mighty fine ride into town, where you can hop on a seabus, included in your fare, and cross some saltwater to North Vancouver. And a SkyTrain line runs to the Vancouver airport.

Portland, in Oregon, has a light rail system which runs all over town, including the airport. If I remember right, and I am fairly certain I do, the Portland light rail is called the MAX.

Seattle, in Washington, has light rail known as the Link, which takes you from the downtown Seattle transit tunnel to the airport. Buses also travel through Seattle's downtown transit tunnel, with those buses taking you to locations all over Seattle, and beyond.

Unlike Arlington, one can easily take public transit in both rail and bus form directly to the sports facilities in downtown Seattle. You don't get dumped off a 10 minute walk from the Seahawk Stadium or the Mariner's Ballpark.

The video below, which I took in August of 2008, should give Anonymous an idea of what actual functional public transit looks like. First I walk across Westlake Center, which is Seattle's version of Fort Worth's Sundance Square Plaza, only bigger and surrounded by big stores, like Nordstrom. I then walk into Westlake Center, which is a vertical  mall and the south terminus of the Seattle Monorail. I then descend to the Westlake Center transit station. There you will see the transit tunnel which runs under Seattle. Near the end of the video I exit a bus and you will see a long line of buses, filled with fans heading to a Seattle Mariners game, with no 10 minute walk needed, just an escalator ride to the street level.....

My Little Sister's Brady Bunch Expanding Tacoma Tribe

My little sister is a lawyer. She works for the state in Olympia, driving there from Tacoma. One would think this would keep her busy. But, somehow she finds time to take care of two poodles, named Blue and Max. Well, actually Max is part poodle and part who knows what. Blue is a purebred pedigree with a very condescending, dominating attitude towards Max, even though Max is about twice as big as Blue.

Blue and Max have been going through a period of medical problems requiring multiple surgeries. Both are recovering well. But they are still being restricted in their movements.

Prior to my visit (for a month) last summer, my sister had taken in a couple of foster kids, Emilie and Abby. Emilie and Abby had gone to live with their grandparents by the time I arrived. That month last summer was the longest I've spent with my little sister since she was a little baby. I had no idea she was so tightly wound. I always thought she was like me. Easy going, with a highly evolved sense of humor and a tolerance for differences.

Instead, things like repetitive noises, or even the soothing sounds of a waterfall, could set my sister's last nerve on edge. And she's very particular. She has some sort of watering fetish. Even though she lives in the wet northwest, she pours absurd amounts of water on plants that don't need so much. I pretty much grieved for the poor drowning tomatoes I watched struggling so hard to stay alive under the daily flood of too much water.

I used to grow huge tomato plants that produced huge red tomatoes, when I lived in Washington.

I also used to BBQ a lot. I have all sorts of BBQ techniques to get chicken nice and brown and BBQed. Or pork chops totally smoky and well done. Or steak flipped over and over again til it's perfectly BBQed. When I was at my sister's I was forced, against my better techniques, to grill steak at an extremely high temperature and forbidden to flip the meat. The predictable result. Burnt steak. After the burnt steak incident I refused to BBQ chicken unless I was allowed to BBQ it my way. I did so, and when it turned out tasty I was asked to BBQ chicken again, using my perfected technique.

If only I'd been able to save the tomatoes.

So, after seeing what a tightly wound operation my sister's house is, I could not fathom how kids were added to that mix.

And then she got Evie. Everyone loves Evie. Evie does look like a fun kid. She's about 2 years old and reads at an 8th grade level and regularly wins legal debates with my sister.

Then a couple weeks ago a little boy, Marley, was added to the mix. Marley looks to be about 1 or so. Marley arrived right when Blue and Max were having really bad woes.

And then last week Trey was added. Another little boy, the same size as Marley. So, now the boys outnumber the girls for the first time in that house. I think this is a good thing. There was a distinct need for more testosterone in that abode.

You should have seen my little sister trying to use power tools to do something simple like remove a screw. She suffered the humiliation of me doing it for her.

Humiliation? Yes. The basic Zeitgeist whilst I was in that house was that I was inept at all things, constantly having shortcomings pointed out to me. It was exhausting. I regularly have nightmares about those drowning tomatoes.

The Blue Max Coneheads

Max and Blue are both being coneheads, but they are still keeping up with their blogging. Blue is feeling better. He did some jumping, against doctor's orders. Blue is going to get his surgical staples replaced. Stapling a little poodle seems wrong to me.

Max's condition sounds less dire than Blue's. Blue is a bit more delicate than Max. Blue is a purebred. Max is only part poodle, but it's the dominant part.

Both my sister, who, incidentally, Blue and Max take care of and Gar the Texan informed me that that text message from my parental units that said, "be good at noon" likely was intended to say, "be home at noon." Something about the text predicting function. I don't do texting. All I know is how to read one if someone sends me one.

I called the PU's Arizona landline about half past noon, my time. They weren't home, so I left a message saying I had been good at noon, but now that it is half past noon can I start being bad again.

My back continues to be pain free, but I've found other injuries from this morning's brutal fall. I landed on my right side. It was very rocky. Somehow I got a big bruise on the top of my forearm. I believe I tumbled and rolled onto my arm, reaching out to stop the fall. There are cuts on my thumb, too. I don't know why I did not notice these injuries til hours later. Post-traumatic stress, most likely.

I had a bike wreck back in the late 1990s, up in Washington, out on some National Forest land on the Olympic Peninsula. Worst bike wreck ever. When I hit the mud my thumb got bent back. It took at least 6 months to quit hurting. The same thumb took the hit today. The pain is slightly deja vu, but this is not going to turn into a long term pain. I hope.

Below is YouTube video from last summer in Tacoma. Blue and Max like McDonald's Cheeseburgers, but I was told not to give them any while they were in my care. I always do what I'm told...

Spencer Jack Invited Me To Read His Blog, While Blue & Max Look After Evie & Marley

Yesterday I think I mentioned that my favorite great nephew, Spencer Jack, was not letting me look at his blog. It was by invitation only.

Well, today Spencer invited me to his blog. Spencer has grown a bit since I last saw him. That is Evie, with whom Spencer is enjoying a Popsicle.

From what I saw on Spencer Jack's blog it appeared he was at my sister Nancy's, in Kent. I saw my mom and dad, brother, his latest wife, my ex-wife and nephew Joey. I don't think I saw Spencer's mom. She must have been taking the pictures.

Evie and Blue and Max take care of my little sister, Michele, and Kristin and Marley. Marley is a new addition. My little sister does not have enough going on so she has foster kids. I can't even take care of myself, properly, and my little sister takes care of 2 little kids and, currently, 2 extremely ailing poodles, while during the day she goes to Olympia and does legal things.

That is Max playing with Marley. Currently both Max and his brother Blue are recovering from being operated on. Blue had bladder stones that could have ruined his kidneys.

Max tore his ACL. I have no idea what that means. But I think, maybe, it has something to do with a leg joint. Whatever it is, Max is currently wearing one of those plastic guards around his head.

Blue and Max are supposed to do no jumping or running for 2 weeks. I have no idea how this is accomplished. I need to ask my sister if she realizes what happens with those poodles when the mail arrives. Utter chaos.