Story 6Sept2022: Tuesday Extra

I took off Tuesday and Wednesday to extend the holiday.

I was up, as usual, at 6:15 to write the blog and get some liberal coffee into me to get going. As I had guests, I made a pot of coffee. The blog took me about an hour, and then I had a shower and got dressed, not having any sudden reason to shower, which was a relief. We then headed to the French place for a more complete breakfast.

La Provence at Orenco Station is back to its pre-Covid-19 hustle and bustle. A few folks with masks, but the tables are close together again. Nobody still really sits at the bar, and you can always notice how folks try still to stay apart. Some things are changed forever, I think. I had Risotto Cakes & Eggs, which came with squash and rosemary and a perfectly French croissant.

The food was perfect. The food was always a treat, even when delivered in the middle of the worst pandemic. I would always order extra croissants, which would come with a slice of Brie and some jam. 

After breakfast/lunch at La Provence, we headed to the employee store. There I found a sweatshirt with a zipper in Susie’s size from Jordon (boy’s large size) and some socks for me. My guests found a few things. Unfortunately, the store was nearly empty of soccer and NFL items. Even the NBA and WNBA items were scarce.

Next, we saw Susie after trekking across Beaverton in Air Volvo. Unfortunately, physical Therapy was there at 12:30 and not at 2:30 as I had in my appointments. So I missed helping at the session. Susie was visibly worn by the workout but was happy to head to the park in her wheelchair.

We spent some time hanging out with Susie in Metzger Park. She was her Marvin the Martian sweatshirt and soon was a bit warm. The park was full of dogs and smaller kids. The gentleman pushing the baby walker with the small dog in it always brings me a smile.

Susie was soon ready to return to the hummingbird house, and we said our goodbyes, with me getting at least one kiss. We returned to the Volvo Cave for a few moments, having only seen a few exciting drive techniques; we picked up a game, then headed back to Beaverton and parked the car outside near Central Taps.

We all grabbed a beer and played the board game Azul until it was time to leave for the airport. I won a game. My opponents had learned that you needed to take tiles in Azul that gave you points and ended the game when you wanted it to end. You do this while disturbing the plans of your opponents. It can be mind-bendingly difficult to know which tile color to take when you are playing the meta-game in your head! We played three games while enjoying locally brewed products.

The trip to the airport was with some traffic, and we saw the mountains again from the bridge. Mount St. Hellens and Mount Hood were a bit grey from smoke. The traffic required me to not sightsee while driving (always a problem with such lovely views) and keep Air Volvo moving and safe.

Aside: Grammarly has revised its feedback process. Instead of giving me a list of issues and a means to sort them, it is now just popping each one willy-nilly and demanding I fix it. Not what I am used to, and I can find no means to return to a better workflow. Ugh! Grammarly is also making incorrect suggestions now; sad to see a good tool ruined. I repeatedly have given feedback and have a support ticket in for this.

I had to gas up the Volvo. The prices keep falling about five cents a week (or faster in the non-Metro areas). This time it was only $82 for a fillup.

I dropped off my guests to their fate as they entered the transportation system. They found dinner at PDX and then got on their first flight. We wish them well (and luck) as they head back home.

Evan contacted me, and I met him for dinner at Arrowood Tap House in Portland, a few minutes from PDX. Initially, I was going to stop by IKEA at PDX and have some meatballs, but I was already too late (closing now at 7PM for food). I had a nice beer and a cheeseburger with fries. I was hungry, and dinner was good.

I then drove once again back to the Volvo Cave. I wrote for a few minutes and did some laundry. Finally, I was in bed early as I was tired but had trouble sleeping as I was thinking over my Naval Institute story; instead of sleeping–I dreamed some of it.

Thank you for reading.