The day started with me struggling still with ear issues. Both ears are full, and I am shouting in a bucket, and folks when I do hear them, are underwater and not nearby. Just plain difficult.
I had picked up the ear drops after stopping yesterday (Saturday) at the local Providence clinic. It was not busy on a Saturday afternoon. I handed over my insurance card, driver’s license, and credit card ($20), and they kindly spoke loud for me. I was quickly in with the provider after first updating my stuff on MyChart for Providence. The three primary providers for me, Providence, OHSU, and Legacy, all use MyChart, but very little is synced between the groups, so I often answer the same questions three or more times.
I meet with the PA. An ear wick is placed in one ear, and drops are ordered at the pharmacy. That is all it took. But, the pharmacy cannot fill the order as they only carry the generic, and my insurance only allows for the regular med. Apparently, another set of evil corporate folks has bought the rights to make the generic and set its price to 249.99 (I paid $100). The standard would cost me under $40, according to the pharmacist. I agree to pay $100 to not delay my treatment a day while RiteAid acquires the name brand. I just shook my head and accepted my sacrifice to have a drug and pay the rip-off price.
That was Saturday. Now I have ear treatment, and I spend the morning first doing that. Next, I make coffee and read emails. After that, I eat all the remaining donuts provided by Corwin, about 1 and 1/2 donuts.
I perform all the morning tasks now ordered by various steps to ensure that I do not use hand cream before I brush my teeth, for example (don’t want to grease up the toothbrush handle). Finally, I get into Air Volvo and head to Susie. The mask strings push on my ears, making it even harder to hear.
Without incident, I make it to Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center on 3900 Pacific Highway, Room 44A. Actually, there is no real traffic on Sunday morning and no creative driving from my fellow drivers. I have no fever and passed all the checks. Apparently, there is a lot of visitors to the facility on Sunday, and there is no wait. I suspect folks see Gran on Sunday after church, so the doors are covered on Sundays.
The Covid-19 infections have raised again at the facility. I received notification that one more staff member had tested positive for the bug. Susie has so far been spared.
My trip is made nearly impossible as I cannot hear with the mask pulling on my already filled-up ears. I try to be helpful and friendly, but Susie can see me struggling, and she is awake enough to know something is wrong. Susie has seen me battle with ear issues in the past and knows how uncomfortable I am.
I am given a little bag of Susie’s rings, engagement ring, and wedding band. They fell off and were recovered by the staff and need to be taken home to be safe. It makes me sad to take them home.
We do manage to get a FaceTime for Leta with me catching many of the words. Unfortunately, the mask is making the problem worse. I have hooks to avoid the ears being pulled, but I did not think to use them today. So I wish Susie well, give her a kiss, and head home. A short visit.
I spent the day just resting and being dizzy as my sleep was troubled by the ear issues and did fall asleep while reading. I have returned to a hard copy of Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy–now six books I discovered. I am in the first book, Sabriel, and I have forgotten how much I liked these books. They are a mix of kid stories with a few adult subjects mixed in.
I picked up a pizza and salad after ordering it from Papa Murphy’s online. Corwin and I managed to scarf it down before heading to the Dungeons and Dragons game at Cory’s house. Cory is handicapped, losing his legs to various infections, so we play, now again with masks, at Cory’s home.
This is the finale for the year-long campaign of the adventures trying to save a city from literally being dragged to Hell and all its inhabitants damned. I will not cover much of it other than we did epic battles and defeated the demon lords with the help of the lords of Hell and other heroes we had recovered from Hell’s embrace.
Matt set up a vast collection of devils and demons. We were aligned with the Hellish forces to stop the incursion that caused the city’s primary protector, an angel, to fall into the darkness of revenge. Matt has the best toys!
I was proud that my gnome wizard managed to drive our Hell Machine into the demon lord Orcus.
I built the model myself, and we used it for much of the campaign. I kitbashed a tank, a WW2 German staff car, and a 1970s USSR model kit of the Potemkin to make the Hell Machine. I built the base from plastic sheets and toy wheels. It uses magnets to hold the guns and car to allow for simulated damage. This is also a storage area inside. Dyed cotton wool makes the smoke.
The last use of the model. You can see the player’s figures on one last ride. The front is missing the main weapon as the “ship” took previous damage, but we were able to make it work, so it is back in the final attack on Orcus.
I had some trouble tracking the game as my hearing was troubled by the double mask, one paper, and one cloth (Rocky Horror’s Lips image on the cloth mask).
We survived and won the battle and good literally came back after the defeat of evil (but we did use Hell’s own lords to win, hmm).
We were done just after 9, the campaign ended, and the new one will start soon. All new characters and this one is a fey carnival, but I may not be part of that game. Chemotherapy starts this coming Friday. We will see if I am well enough to travel to Cory’s for a game.
One more game thing, I received the Venus add-on to the Concordia board game today–Amazon could deliver it in less than 24 hours (but I am still waiting for some N95s). It is an alternative (and slightly easier to play) version of Concordia and is priced at about the same cost as a new set of boards (under $40). It has a partner version that allows for six players. I read the rules and was happy to see that the cards are entirely replaced so I can play these cards or use the originals I still have. There are instructions to set Venus cards to match the original set-up, so buying Venus game versions (instead of just the add-on) allows for either version. It comes also with two more glorious maps of Europe to play on that can be used with either version. Not sure I would recommend Venus over the original game as I like the tightness of the original, but it certainly will be more forgiving for new players. And then there are those two boards…
My ears are just full of stuff. Reading allows for me to ignore it. But sleep is hard to find. I manage some Benedryl and that helps me relax and finally sleep about midnight. I do awake a few times, but sleep returns each time. Better.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 