Story 06Aug2022: Saturday

Susie is still recovering from Covid-19 and is still locked down in her room at hummingbird house. I am troubled by a new issue. The muscles in my thighs are still painful from the ladder work I did to fix an electrical fixture on Friday; I am more brittle than before chemotherapy. I had trouble on Richard’s house’s stairs, but with some help, I was safely out and home. I am surprised as I have done that kind of work before without issue and will have to be more careful. Ibuprofen and Tylenol together are bringing the pain and inflammation under control. I am not quite in need of a cane, but if it got worse, I would.

Feel free to call or send cards. Susie resides at:

Allegiance Senior Care
Adult Foster Care Home
9925 SW 82nd. Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97223

The house phone number: 503 246-4116

Telling the story of Saturday backward, I got home at about 12:30AM. I grabbed, as I said, the pain killer and anti-inflammatories as my legs were locking up, and getting to the house from disembarking from Air Volvo was sort of walking on stilts without the height.

Before this, I was with Kathleen driving to her home in Milwaukee near the furthest edge of Portland after playing with her with Richard at Richard’s house. The drive was uneventful without naked folks, a local hazard I experienced on my previous trips from Richard’s, distracting us. I mentioned the event to Kathleen, and she was sorry to have missed it. Her family was visiting from out of town, and they were on the coast when I was maneuvering Air Volvo around the naked bike riders and runners the previous weekend (the first Naked Bike Ride in Portland since the Covid-19 emergency).

Before taking Air Volvo, I was at Richard’s house with Kathleen playing board games, my weekly game with Richard and friends. We played Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra, which Richard had just punched and none of us had played before. We really enjoyed the changes to the basic Azul that we know and love and played the game twice. Kathleen crushed us in the first game, and Richard won by one point over Kathleen’s score in the second game. I was less bad in the second game.

We then played The Lost Ruins of Arnak with the Expedition Leaders new add-on using my copy with all the bling and the add-on included (the add-on refreshed the game by adding more standard components and making the Leaders still optional). Next, using the new rules, we picked Expedition Leaders. Kathleen had not played before and picked the Falconer, Richard the Explorer, and I the Professor. As often happen, I got into my groove and pushed far ahead, but Richard caught and crushed me by exploring and defeating sites. I was using the unique abilities of the Professor to buy lots and lots of artifacts, but Richard was right when he explored and defeated guardians. An artifact gave you some interesting powers and was worth one to two points at the end of the game, but exploring a site was worth eight or, for the second-level sites, eleven points at the end of the game and gave you resources. Apparently, like many academics, I spent more time acquiring artifacts than performing fieldwork, which cost me the game. Next time! Kathleen liked the game but still loves Terraforming Mars better. Richard and I like Arc Nova (a game we played last month a lot) better than Terraforming Mars as the play, I believe, is more steamed-line.

Before playing the games, I was early today and stopped by Elephants Delicatessen in Northwest Portland for an early dinner. I had a pastrami Rueben sandwich which I had not had since I was in New York City last year. It was wonderful.

Aside: My Internet connection, via Xfinity (Comcast), has eroded (or possibly corroded as there is a connector outside that has been an issue before), and my connection speeds have collapsed to almost dial-up speeds. A truck is scheduled for Monday, and I am considering other faster and oddly cheaper options as I do not need the cable subscription. I would watch any local news on the web and use Amazon Fire for shows. Thus, unless Xfinity can get this fixed soon, I will try a new fiber non-cable service and forgo all the cable and the Xfinity monthly equipment rent.

I was at Central Taps in Beaverton even earlier, meeting Evan there. Evan was limited in his time to play games. We played a game of The Lost Ruins of Arnak with Leaders, and Evan crushed me (I made the same mistake as later and focused too much on artifacts, and the cards did not break my way). I had a beer and a smaller beer as I did not want to enjoy using Air Volvo too much.

Before being crushed in a board game by Evan, I had dinner at our local Pastini Pastaria. This is a chain, but the one in Beaverton’s food is often better than most chain joints. I had the lunch special, spaghetti carbonara, with an iced tea, extra garlic bread, and gelato to finish. They make a decent side caesar salad. I was reading while eating Math for Deep Learning. A book I purchased at Powell’s that is next door. It seemed really well done and uses Python programs and not exercises to help the reader learn the math concepts covered in the book–I like that.

Before I had lunch, I visited the hummingbird house delivering flowers I picked up on the way from Safeway for Susie. I had permission to drop them off and to talk to Susie through an open window. She was relieved to see me, even through a window. So I spent twenty minutes (even with the inflamed legs) standing in the garden below Susie’s window talking to her. Susie told me she was getting sleepy–the new side effect of Covid-19–and I left with a wave.

Before this, I was writing the blog, a long one, for Friday and getting ready for the day. I had planned to go to Ikea but dropped that as I would have to return to Portland again to play board games in the evening; it seemed a waste to drive into Portland twice.

I was up at 7ish and had breakfast of strawberries from the Aloha Farmers’ Market and yogurt.

Thanks for reading, and sorry if this feels rushed. I am trying to finish the story before my Internet completely fails! I am really not happy with Xfinity.