Going backward, I was in bed about 2AM after putting around the house for a few minutes after returning from Portland. I was in Portland at Richard’s home playing board games until midnight, and then we chatted for a bit. I took the Fremont Bridge on the way back, the tallest and longest of Portland’s bridges. The on-ramp to the bridge is taller than the bride deck at its highest! I call it the “space shuttle” drive. None of it is see-thru, so I don’t find it very scary.
We played two games at Richard’s, with Shawn joining us. We first played a simple and speedy game that Shawn and I had to learn: Notre Dome. This was a worker placement and resource management game set in Paris. It is a bit abstract, and the components show it is an older game as the parts are smallish with repeating tiny art. Newer games have nicer components and brighter art, but the game played well (it has been reprinted and has expansions we did not use), and I enjoyed it.
Aside: The game is from 2007 and is out of print. Often reprinted games are pretty good as they were good enough to reprint and are frequently revised to improve a few misses.
We next played another game of Through the Ages: New Story. This is the new version of this card and resource management game with a civilization-building theme. I enjoy this game, but it is easy to make mistakes and fall behind. I was holding my own, as usual, but then slowed and watched as Richard built engines and started having longer and longer turns. In the end, in the third age of the game, I resigned, as did Shawn giving Richard the game again. Someday I will get the balance right! I did play better.
Before reaching Richard’s, I drove to Portland in Air Volvo with just a bit of traffic. I stopped by Guardian Games across the river in the old industrial area. I am always a bit nervous there as that is where I lost the car’s back window and various laptops were stolen. Actually just two blocks away from the location of the incident. And some street theater was going on with a fight between intoxicated homeless folks not far from where I parked. So I would not be in the store for long!
At the store, I found and purchased a copy of the newest add-on for the board game Root and a book from The Lamentations of the Flame Princess (lotfp–lowercase, please) role-playing game (RPG) that is all drawings of 1600s-styled buildings, ships, and maps slight adjusted to the world of the RPG. Fantastic detail and usable in any fantasy setting! Focusing now on the RPG, the lotfp setting uses a cut-down form of the old Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (OSRIC) but set on Earth where magic is sorcery and demons and devils are the source of well evil. The books are all in English but published out of Finland. OSRIC is adjusted to include a horror mechanic and magic to raise the dead, and other OSRIC-centered spells and monsters are gone. I like this new system except for rolling dice to create characters; I like to use an array system to allow players to have exceptional characters.
Aside: OSRIC was re-released in 2013, so I did buy yet another copy of the rules in a soft cover.
Before heading to Portland, I spent a few moments at home and watched my email, text, and Slack channels. I am on call without specific responsibilities; thus, I worked on my model building cabinet from OcCre for a few minutes. I also repaired my 3D printer. For the repair, I replaced the film at the bottom of the tank. It was scratched and stretched out in one area. I had bought the film, shipped from China, before Susie’s stroke in October and planned to fix the printer, but instead, I was in the hospital with Susie in New York City for almost five weeks. So the repair was something I could fit in between events today.
The tank bottom is highly transparent, high-temperature, and no-stick film. I had to take the tank apart. First, all the screws (a lot) come out to release the film holder from the tank. Next, a huge amount of small screws that hold the film tight in a frame are removed, remove the old film, and wash everything with rubbing alcohol to remove the toxic residues from the epoxy used for 3D printing. After that, you take a new sheet (I now have many of them), peel off the protective sheets, lay it in the framework, and reverse the process. The screws have to puncture the film, and they pull the film over the tank’s bottom edge to make it water-tight–you have to cut the film extra off when you have it in the framework. It is a lot of careful work with Allen wretches that you need to not scratch the film with! I managed to not damage the new film–you have to go slow. It is also, like putting a car wheel back on, essential to tighten opposing screws and not to do them in a line. You have to evenly pull that film over the tank edge.
With that done, I put the 3D printer back to work. I had it print a few Cylons busts I gave Richard for a Battlestar Galactica board game.
Before getting home and getting all crafty, I was with Susie. I was able to get there in the morning around 11ish. Vanessa was the nurse in the morning, and then it changed to Hana in the late morning. Susie was asleep in her recliner in the living room when I got there. Vanessa was pleased that Susie had eaten a large breakfast. Excellent! There are no signs of the TIA or stroke that we thought she had–most excellent!
Susie was when Vanessa was free as everyone wanted breakfast or to get up at the same time, placed in her wheelchair, and we took a spin in the park, Metzger Park. We went four-wheeling into the grass. Always going slow, so I don’t dump Susie in the grass with a sudden stop. The picnics were just starting in the park with families grabbing the best spots, a table in the shade, while their kids tried all the swings and the park’s various kid facilities–somehow, the kids were everywhere at once. There are no biting or stinging insects (at least none have shown up so far), so the park is good for just sitting and watching the butterflies and dragonflies swoosh by.
We returned to the Hummingbird House, and Vanessa placed Susie in the spare recliner in the activity room (an extra bedroom, actually), and Susie and I enjoyed John Wick 2 movie. It is hard to describe how violent this movie is. Still, I love it, and the evil assassin hotel theme continues and is even expanded in this movie until it becomes a significant plot device. There is a branch of the assassin hotel, The Continental, in Rome (of course there is). Susie fell asleep a few times (between explosions and gunshots), but she seemed to enjoy it.
With Susie falling asleep, Hana took charge of Susie, and I left with a kiss. I had a glass of water during the movie for Susie. She seemed a bit dehydrated, and the water seemed to help. I think Susie might need to drink more water–I will mention that to the nursing folks on Sunday’s visit.
I stopped by Arby’s on the way back to the house after leaving Susie. I wanted a chicken salad sandwich, but they had dropped that from their menu (It was delicious). So instead, I had a poorly tasting Rueben sandwich–I won’t be back.
I started my day at 7ish and then at 8:05 status meetings. I had a bagel and a banana for breakfast.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 