http://chris-russell-v2.spaces.live.com: Personal

Dave Russell Sr.'s 95th Birthday

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 21:04:15 GMT

My grandfather, Dave Russell Sr. of Springfield, Vermont (no he doesn't watch the Simpsons) is turning 95-years old on Sunday. My dad and I recently put up a website for him which will be used to promote a book he published two years ago entitled "Verses from a Vermont Hillside". I spent many happy days during my childhood up on the farm in Vermont and will always remember my grandfather's office in the basement and his old typewriter and hundreds of short stories and poems strewn about his old rolltop desk typed on carbon paper and on the back of discarded scraps of paper. The book compiles the best of his stories, poems and essays and is a great read. We hope to get some additional information posted that will allow people to order copies soon.

Happy 95th Birthday Grandfather. You're a great man and I miss being within driving distance of the farm.

http://daverussell.net

In Memory of Kyra Husky

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:34:22 GMT

I am extremely sad to report that our female Siberian Husky Kyra died today two months shy of her tenth birthday due to liver cancer. We first became aware of a potentially serious problem on Tuesday and an ultrasound, an exploratory surgery and three days and she's gone. She was loved dearly and will be sorely missed.

Odds and Ends News Update

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 23:15:34 GMT

It's been awhile since I posted so I thought I would do a quick round-up of the happenings here in Washington State since May.

Vicki has a new job over in Kirkland. She's now managing the Multiple Sclerosis Center at Evergreen Healthcare in Kirkland. She really likes it and is settling into her new set of responsibilities.

Cody & Kyra (our Huskies) have been getting a lot of walks in the Tolt Macdonald Park in Carnation where they enjoy crusing through the big cedar trees and swimming in the Snoqualmie River. Both are doing well and have acclimated to West Coast life (i.e. they sleep out in the yard all day while we're at work). Kyra objects to the carpet color in the house and has been taking matters into her own paws recently (read steam cleaner rental will be required at some point).

I have been spending somewhat fewer hours at Microsoft as the project I've been working on since the beginning of the year is nearly complete and is slated to ship with the next release of the Windows Logo Kit. The project, KitSetup, is a generic configuration manager for software kits (i.e. complex software distributions comprised of many smaller interdependent components).

On the home front, I spent a few weekends building 18" x 8' x 8' shelf units for the garage. Altogether, I built six or seven of these units - enough to cover most of the exposed wall in the garage and get all the moving boxes from the barn in Maine off the floor. I still need to go through all the boxes and sort everything out so I can find it. But, that can wait until it starts to rain.

Bought a $45 used lawn mower which is receiving a beating. I miss the fancy John Deere riding mower from Maine but couldn't really use it out here even if I had it. Two of three giant brush piles from last summer's tree work operation got burned early this summer with help from Kenny and his excavator. One additional pile (half the size of the house) remains from last summer and Kenny and I created another one last week clearing windfall from last December's massive windstorm. We got another load of logs (mostly Douglas Fir) out of the windfall which I'm going to sell to the mill to defray the cost of Kenny and his excavator. I've definitely been getting my money's worth out of the Stihl MS390.

I gave up on my old GT zero-suspension mountain bike (basically every component was broken and needed to be replaced). Vicki and I both are getting new mountain bikes (I'm getting a Specialized and she's 90% fixed on a Trek). I was down at the Marmot Mountain store in Bellevue earlier this afternoon and picked up several Washington State Department of Forestry maps that show all the logging trails out behind the house in the Alpine Lakes region of the Cascades. We can get out to trails directly from the house without ever hitting paved road and have access to hundreds of thousands of acres of logging road and single track. We should be able to get some fantasic vistas as it looks possible to ride up to 4 or 5K feet and get a commanding view of Puget Sound out to the Olypics to the West and Mt. Rainier to the South. Cool. I'll post some pictures and try to outride the couugars and bears :)

We've been talking some about coming back East this fall to visit friends and family in New England but there's nothing definite yet.

Talk to you all soon!

Power Restored Last Evening

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 23:03:03 GMT

The power got restored last evening seven days after the windstorm took down all the lines. I think that's the longest I've ever been without electricity. I had planned to go out Christmas shopping last weekend but that didn't happen as I spent the entire time cutting trees, provisioning backup power, and searching for fuel. I tried to do some shopping this morning in Bellevue. But, so did everyone else. I got into the mall but after getting pushed around for about ten minutes, I left that horrible place and went into work.

Off the Grid

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 22:37:42 GMT

When the windstorm hit us Thursday night I was unprepared for an extended power outage. So were many other people who quickly bought up the local supply of generators. Also, there were quite a few people who camped out at HomeDepot and then purchased entire shipments of generators as they arrived only to turn around and resell them in the parking lot for a 60-100% premium. At the advice of my neighbor Ty, I got a small portable 1.8 KW 120 VAC unit early Sunday morning down in Carnation and managed to get it wired into the breaker box Sunday afternoon. This was sufficient to get the heat back on, a few lights, and the TV. However, the well pump runs on 220 VAC so we continued without water.

Last night I drove up towards Canada and grabbed a 5 KW 120/240 VAC generator from Lowes who got a small shipment in. Actually getting the unit purchased and in the car involved a small argument with a angry man who insisted that he was there before me. He wasn't and I got the generator in the car while keeping a watchful eye.

Early this morning I ripped my rigged 120 VAC wiring out of the breaker box and rewired for 120/240 VAC and fired up the new unit. Cool! We now have water and I took a nice long hot shower and then came into work.

I still haven't done any Christmas shopping... I was planning to do that this past weekend but getting the house up was more important. Especially so as Vicki's mom was here from Boston (she left on Monday in the early AM). Maybe I'll stop and get a tree on my way home tonight now that there's a better than even chance of finding the moving boxes that may or may not contain the Christmas decorations.

Side note: Moving packers are really odd - it's like they go out of their way to screw with your mind. I open boxes and find collections of completely unrelated items... For example, I found a box in the garage this morning that contained four formal dinner plates, some jewelery, a collection of spent tennis balls, several alen wrenches, and some paperback books, and a half-eaten dog biscuit that was lovingly wrapped up in packing paper. Ummm... !?

Here's some notes from the Puget Sound Energy website posted this morning:

"Significant progress was made again yesterday and last night to restore customers' power. We've now re-energized 158 of the 159 substations that lost power from the fierce windstorm. The only remaining substation without power, serving Duvall, should be re-energized today. And we've now repaired 70 of the 85 transmission lines that lost power from the storm."

From what I'm hearing via the Microsoft Duvall e-mail list this isn't entirely accurate however. People are saying the power crews coming in for coffee in town are really tired and don't think they'll have the substation and surrounding neighborhoods online until after Christmas. Even then, there's quite a few miles of smashed utility polls and downed lines to repair before they get out to Stossel Creek. But we have our generator and despite the fact that I normally curse HughNet satellite Internet service, it's actually kind of cool to fire up the generator and be online despite the fact that you can't even get out with dial-up at this point because all the lines are down.

Anyway, back to work for a few more hours. My late lunch is now over.

There is Unrest in the Forest, There is Trouble With the Trees...

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 04:58:32 GMT

... No oaks ignoring maples. But, the Douglas Firs and Cedars are pissed off. Last Thursday night's storm was scary as we lay awake in bed listening to the trees crashing down around the house. Luckily we sustained no damage to the house and cars - amazing... A dozen or so Douglas Firs fell behind the house and all stacked up pointing North. Had they come East the house would have been completely destroyed. Likewise, if any of the trees on the East hill overlooking the house had fallen it would have taken out the cars and the house...

Spent most of Friday and Saturday cutting out of the driveway and down the private road to get to the paved road out to Duvall. The neighbors lost several of their Huskies who ran away after a giant cotton wood crushed the corner of their kennel. Don't ask me why those dogs were outside during the storm... But that's another post for another day. It was a good excuse to meet some of the neighbors while taking breaks to sharpen the chainsaw chain.

This afternoon I got a small 1850 Watt generator jacked into the breaker panel so we now have lights and heat again. Unfortunately the well is offline until the big generator I have on order arrives. They estimate that they'll have power restored in Duvall by this weekend. However, it's my guess that it will be another week, maybe two, before they get the power back on out here... They're going to need to replace twenty miles of phone polls and lines before they flip the switch...

For posterity, here's a cut-n-paste from the Puget Sound Energy website:

Storm Recovery Update

As of 6 p.m. PST, Dec. 18, 2006*

The scope and severity of damage to Puget Sound Energy's electric system from Friday's windstorm is unprecedented. In many hard-hit areas, our crews are having to re-build the system from the substation to customers' doors – after downed trees and debris are cleared away. Crews now have successfully repaired the core backbone of the system – our high-voltage transmission grid – and as of midmorning Monday, they'd restored power to more than 525,000 of the 700,000 customers who lost power.

We're continuing to repair other portions of our transmission and distribution systems, with more than 400 crews, representing over 2,000 workers, involved in the restoration effort. Besides our local crews, PSE has enlisted nearly 170 additional crews from across the western United States and Canada to help restore customers' power, and two dozen more crews are arriving later today from Missouri. Because the storm's damage is so widespread, however, we believe it will take most of this week to restore power to everyone in the hardest-hit areas.

Carnation, Duvall, Fall City, Snoqualmie and North Bend areas

Restoration work in the heavily damaged Snoqualmie Valley will continue late into the week, perhaps Friday or Saturday. The North Bend, Snoqualmie and Snoqualmie Valley areas were among those hardest hit within our service area. Work is focused on restoring the high-voltage transmission grid and the substations that feed electricity to local neighborhoods. We hope to have our substations in these areas re-energized by midweek. Once this work is complete, we can concentrate on repairing the local distribution lines that serve customers.

Duvall Island

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 21:39:10 GMT

Record flooding of the Snoqualmie River turned the towns of Carnation and Duvall into islands yesterday by flooding all roads across the Snoqualmie River valley for the past thirty hours. I just got into work by driving South on Route 203 to Fall City and then driving North on Route 202 up to Redmond - a route that still officially closed.

Bye Berryfield

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 23:01:18 GMT

We sold the house on Berryfield Rd. in Yarmouth this afternoon. The closing finished up about an hour ago. So we're relieved to have that done. But also sad to leave a place and friends we love so much. Thanks to Diane, Charles, and Dave for your help getting the last remaining items out of the place. Anytime you want to take a trip to Washington State, we'll leave the latchstring out.

Safely Back in Washington

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 22:33:03 GMT

Vicki, the two Huskies, and I drove down to Boston on Tuesday and eventually got the dogs checked into Alaska Airlines cargo for the flight to Seattle. We were told initially that the dogs had to be delivered to Alaska's cargo terminal and got as far as getting them out of the rented SUV, into the cargo area, and up on the scales before they figured out that a mistake had been made and that they were booked under some other designation that required that we check them curbside (not exactly a simple process with a rental car that needs to be returned elsewhere). Long story short, we got on the flight and arrived safely. Remind me to blog on the major security loophole in TSA's process for transporting live animals on flights later when I have more time...

We all finally got back to the new house in Duvall after midnight early Wednesday morning. The dogs went nuts running around which was cool until Cody came charging down a hill in front of the house and ran out of ground and took a really nasty header into the driveway. I was 40' away and was pretty sure that he was badly injurred by the fall. But he seems okay which is amazing, and quite lucky because it would have been pretty much impossible to get him emergency vet care quickly at that hour. So, we're really thankful that he seems to be okay but we're keeping an eye on him... Kyra, as always, seems to be perfectly happy to be anywhere we are and adapts very quickly.

Yesterday (Wednesday), I called out of work and we walked the dogs and did errands. I'm back a work today. Vicki has an interview tomorrow... Still need to sell the house in Maine. Man --- I can't wait for things to be normal-like again.

Thanks to everyone who saw us off, and checked in on us to make sure we arrived safely. We love you guys!

Return to Washington

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 06:09:36 GMT

Returning to Seattle tomorrow PM with Vicki and the Huskies. We're flying from Boston and the dogs have to be crated and delivered to Logan cargo so it's going to be a long day before we all get back to the new house in Duvall. That's it for me today...

Completing the Move

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 04:54:09 GMT

I'm heading back to Maine on a red-eye a week from tomorrow for two weeks to tear down my office, clean out the barn, and be onsite for the packers, and the moving crew. I haven't been able to get back to see Vicki and the Huskies since the middle of June (!) so despite the fact that there's a lot of heavy work in front of me, I'm really looking forward to getting back East and seeing them and the rest of the gang from Yarmouth.

Vicki has been coordinating with the relocation people while I've largely been observing this process via e-mail cc's. It's a godsend to have a super organized spouse because I honestly don't think I can handle much more right now. Between trying to get productive at work, clearing trees out of the line of sight to the satellite (that I'm using right now), watering the plants that have been without rain for months, and attempting to remotely triage/fix a series of network problems back in Maine, I'm pretty much tapped out by the end of the day. And then there's the issue of construction defects at the new house here in Duvall - a situation that's cost me a lot of time and aggravation over the past two months... More on that another time. Actually - I don't even want to talk about it. I just want some stuff fixed so that life and return to "normal".

If everything goes according to plan, the moving van full of all of our belongings will leave Yarmouth and head West before I have to return back to work in September. Vicki and the dogs will follow shortly thereafter. It's bound to be rather sad - we've become very attached to our beautiful house in Yarmouth and made a lot of very good friends there. However, there's no doubt in my mind that we'll stay in touch. In fact, there's talk of the Yarmouth crew coming out here to Washington over New Years.

Photos from My First Days on Campus

Sat, 12 Aug 2006 17:54:41 GMT

Here are a few photos from my first days on the Mircosoft Campus in Redmond that I took back in May with my Sony Ericsson w600i camera phone.