Story 10Sept2022

Going backward, I was home rewatching episode 3 of The Rings of Power at 11ish. I managed to get 1/3 of the way before falling asleep and going to bed. Before this, I discovered that the new print on the new huge 3D printer failed and was a pile of hardened resin at the bottom of the tank. Frustrating.

Moving to the earlier evening, I played board games at Richard’s house in Portland. Val and Shawn joined us for a four-person board game of Vast. Only Richard was familiar with the rules. I have not played it since before the pandemic; it is not a very good two-person game. We played my copy as I had the figures for the game (an extension that just adds plastic pieces in place of wooden or paper standees). I played the Cave which was a bit boring, and I helped the knight too much, but I was relearning the game. Richard slew the dragon; Val played the dragon. Shawn was the goblin horde, and he was getting beat up by everyone.

Vast is an exciting game as each player plays an entirely different game that all interfaces on the board. It was the first of the genuinely asymmetrical competitive board games I learned. When you have four good players, and they know the rules, it is an exciting game. Our game was a bit muted by having to check rules and actions, but it was still enjoyable.

We then played the card game, The Crew, for the rest of the evening. This is a version of a trump-based card game, but unlike many card games, this is a cooperative game. Each mission is mainly to ensure that a particular player, or crew member, gets a specific card in a trick. This means you have to provide the player receives the lead and takes the trick, which is easier said than done and runs against my usual card play. Cooperative card play makes for an exciting game. But, you may not speak during the play. Instead, you get a marker and can flash one card and use the marker to partially describe the card. It is a good filler game.

It was a pleasant game, but soon I was tired, and time to leave. My drive was not difficult, though there was a lot of smoke. I was coughing in the car from the smoke.

Before heading to Portland to play board games, I wrote more for my naval institute contest fiction story. I managed to reach the second draft and edited it to below the limit of 3,000 words. I will do the final editing on Sunday and then let it rest for a bit. It is due 15Sept.

My coughing and sneezing slowed in the afternoon.

Susie was ready for a visit to the nearby Metzger Park when I reached the hummingbird house just into the afternoon. I had driven across Beaverton in the smoke, and I was having, in the morning, out-of-control coughing and sneezing. It was so bad I took a Covid-19 test before heading out, which was negative. I was unsure if I should see Susie or play board games with Richard if all I could do was cough and sneeze.

I managed to control the coughing and sneezing when I reached Susie’s place. Tigard, the location of the hummingbird house, is near the Columbia Gorge, and the wind blew much of the smoke away. We managed the park, but it was covered with tree debris, and we stopped at a bench not under any trees. There, we called Susie’s mother, Leta, on the cell in the park.

It was good that I stayed out of the trees. I pushed Susie on the path in her wheelchair in the park, and I was hit in the head by a pinecone. I had worn my Indiana Jones hat for today, preventing any cuts.

We saw a dragonfly holding on to a rose bush. It was hot, windy, smoky, and not a place for a large dragonfly.

After surviving the park, we got comfy and watched, for the first time, The Rings of Power, episode 3, in Susie’s room using her TV (we had a challenge with the logon first, but that cleared up), which again bounces all over a map of Middle Earth from the Second Age. I am a Tolkien fan, so I like the maps and art, but still, the story is moving at Game of Thrones (GOT) speed, so I wish for more action and a faster pace. But, I think, like GOT, the writers are setting up for the big push (likely at the season’s end). Susie nodded off here and there, mainly during the Numerian and hobbit scenes, and was soon ready for a nap. I kissed her goodbye, and then Vanessa moved Susie to her bed to get some rest.

Before this, I wrote the blog and made improvements on the previously mentioned fiction story for the Naval Institute fiction contest. The smoke blogged out of the light this morning, and I had to turn on my desk lamp to write!

Lunch was leftover Southwest salad from BJ’s Brewhouse.

I also got a finished print from my new and expensive Jupiter 3D printer. This was my first successful printing and, so far, only successful print. The test print is two chess rooks on the same print.

I used blue-clear water-soluble resin, it was all I had, and they are perfect. I then tried a huge bust of HP Lovecraft, but, as I said above, that print failed and left me with only a puddle of clear resin stuck to the bottom again. Somehow appropriate for Lovecraft, I think. I am unsure what I am doing wrong, but I will try again.

I started at 7ish and was coughing and sneezing all morning. So I had oatmeal and liberal coffee for breakfast.

Thanks for reading.