October 2002

October marked a milestone in my life - the shed is finally complete... mostly, but it wasn't all hard work; we had a great mountain photography adventure this month, too.

October 5

Every now and then while we're out gallivanting, we like to stop at a furniture store and dream about replacing are old, hand-me-down furniture. Things we look at include a dining room table and matching hutch, sofa, love seat, and recliner. We stopped at the Oak Barn and found ourselves staring longingly at a beautiful oak dining room set for about $1000. It was just so nice! Even so, we decided to pass this time.

October 6

Painted the shed, started painting the trim.

October 12

Some days you just know that you need to grab the camera and run as fast as possible to the mountains. This was one of those days. The weather was incredible - warm temperatures and crystal clear skies with unlimited visibility - a perfect fall day. One of my most sought after mountain shots is of Mt. Shuksan reflected in the calm waters of Picture Lake, near the Mt. Baker ski resort in the North Cascades. I've seen this shot gracing several Northwest calendars, and it was even on the cover of the old Rand McNally road atlas that Susan bought me back in 1991.

Susan packed a lunch while I collected my photography gear and off we went. Once in the park, we took a small detour to investigate a waterfall that was a short ways off the main road. It was quite nice, but I couldn't get any great pictures of it because it was fenced off. I don't even remember what it is called.

Back on the road, we continued all the way to Mt. Baker ski area and circled Picture Lake. Mother Nature was calling - loudly - so we took care of that business first. While waiting for Susan, I found a trail that lead down a hill, across a creek, and into a small meadow with a pond. The fall colors were erupting all around me and reflecting off the water. Susan emerged from the building and wandered about, wondering where I went. She finally saw me and I hurried back to meet her.

The next order of business was lunch. We drove back around to the other side of the loop and parked. From the rear of the Honda, under the carpet, we pulled out our little portable table and set it up at the edge of the parking lot. We pulled out our collapsing chairs and cooler and had ourselves a nice little picnic.

We stowed our table and chairs and began the photo mission. Heather Meadows surrounds Picture Lake and has a nice, paved trail. Since it was such a nice day, lots of people had the same idea and we could see people walking all around the lake. Susan took the Canon and I carried the old Minolta mounted to the tripod. Around the lake we went, stopping every so often to snap off a picture or two. I ended up shooting two rolls of film and at least 50 digital pictures by the time we made it around the lake.

With the primary mission accomplished, we loaded up and headed for Bellingham. We stopped at a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. We felt a bit under-dressed, since we were in our hiking clothes, but there were few other customers, so we let the feeling go. After dinner, we drove to the waterfront and watched the sun set along scenic Chuckanuck Drive.

October 13

Finished painting the trim on the shed, added gutters, downspouts, drainage ditch.

October 19

It's time for another Honda tune-up; 37,500 miles already. Afterwards, I drove to Kirkland to look for a nice pair of sunglasses. I recently read a review about Scheyden sunglasses in AOPA Pilot magazine and I wanted to see them first hand. The only retailer in town is Kirkland Vision. When I stopped, they said that they didn't carry that brand. Disappointed, I browsed their showcase to see if I could find something similar. In the corner, I saw a nice pair of gray-framed glasses and asked to see them. Wouldn't you know it - they were Scheydens! I asked if I could try them on and the saleswoman handed me two pairs to take outside and check out. First I tried the amber-lensed pair. Although the sky was overcast, these glasses made it seem bright and sunny. Then I tried the neutral gray pair. These were very nice, without the bright glow of the amber pair. I chose the amber pair with the thought that they would be better for flying.

October 21

After only two days with the amber Scheyden sunglasses, I returned them to trade for the gray lenses. The amber was just too bright and I don't like glasses that change the color of the world. I prefer to see it the way it was intended.

October 24

The Four Square church in Everett occasionally hosts live performances of Christian music. Susan heard that Sara Groves was going to perform, so she bought us tickets. Never before have I sat so close to a performing musician with a record contract! And talk about a fabulous voice. Wow.

October 27

A few weeks earlier, there was a book sale in our building at work. I bought Susan (and myself) a Crock Pot cookbook as an early Christmas present. My first venture into the book was the pot roast recipe. The recipe was very easy to follow - just chop up some carrots and potatoes, throw in a large chunk of meat, and turn on the Crock Pot. How easy is that? The next morning, the house had a wonderful aroma and we enjoyed the pot roast for several days.

October 28

In an attempt to remove the Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) from our house loan, I contacted our mortgage lender to see what needed to be done. For those who've never bought a house before, PMI is required for all loans that are greater than 80% of the home value. For example, if you were to buy a house for $100,000 (not in Seattle, that's for sure) and you borrow more than $80,000, you must pay PMI fees monthly as part of your house payment. Let's assume you only have $10,000 down payment so you borrow $90,000. After several years, you pay down the loan and now owe $81,000 on the loan. PMI is still required because you still are borrowing more than 80% of the house value. During this time, the house increased in value and is now worth $125,000. Redoing the calculation, 80% of $125,000 is $100,000, and you are financing $81,000, which is less than 80% of the value of the house, so PMI can be dropped.

To see how much our house increased in value, an appraiser was hired by my mortgage company to evaluate our house. He came up with a nice number that, when combined with our current loan amount, would indicate that we were financing about 76% of our updated house value, so PMI could be dropped. Unfortunately, there was the small print that I had overlooked. The small print said that if you refinance within the first five years, the loan percentage cutoff drops to 75%. We were off by a percentage point from being able to drop the darn PMI. Argh!