Today 2Jan2023: New Year’s Day (Observed) 2023

I tried to start the day a bit early, then rolled over and started at 8ish. I wrote the blog the night before. I spent much of the morning organizing my accounts and papers for November and began on December’s accounts. The new year starts with me using my new tax-efficient processes and preparing to try to reclaim money I paid to the various governments. I am hoping that I can reclaim a few months of payments. This level of organization prevents a fault in an audit or a denial of deductions.

While concluding the paperwork, I heard some banging on the house. My neighbor Mike had negotiated to clean my gutters. I was concerned that he under-evaluated the level of effort, and I increased the payment to twice the amount. I was willing to pay a lot to not have to climb on the roof with a hand shovel and empty the goo that is this year’s end leaves!

I drove to the bank, withdrew some cash, and returned and paid Mike. He cleaned up the mess and removed branches from the Japanese Maple that were touching or over the roof. Mike offered to spray for ants and repair my gate, but I demurred as I wanted him to finish what he promised. Mike is not known for being reliable. But today, he did an impeccable job, and I will ask him to fix the gate.

I left Mike to the gutters. I finished the giant scorpion for Dungeons and Dragons. I had reworked a plastic lobster into a monstrous D&D scorpion. I used modeling clay to complete the forms yesterday. I painted the clay and other areas with primer and let that dry. Next, I painted the whole thing, Chaos Black, from a spray can that is Games Workshop brand. After that was mostly try, I over-sprayed straight down with Desert Yellow from a can from Army Painters. This creates a weak 3D look. Once that dried, I painted Nuln Oil straight from the bottle with a large-ish brush. I will stop there, as the figure is just for gaming use.

Aside: This monster is my own creation and is not found in the current rules, but there was one in the previous versions (4E as vermin).

If I wanted the complete look, I would have to cut the claws and arrange them in a triangle shape closer to a scorpion, but the tail, stinger, and color are enough to get the basic idea.

I did all my exercises except for the bike. These are to unlock my lower back and strengthen my knees. There was no pain after the exercises.

When I opened the door to the garage, a cat jumped. Yes, the same cat got itself trapped for days in the garage. I left the door open for it for a while. I checked, and some things were knocked over (cat panic), and it seemed to have escaped again. This is the second time. This cat likes to slide into the garage when I forget to close the door and rest between the furnace and the water heater. Very comfy. I will have to check when I close the garage door, somehow for cats.

I reached Susie before noon (the traffic was more than I expected, but there were no shenanigans), and she was in her chair. I missed the nurse aide’s name for today, but Susie knew her. She got Susie in her wheelchair while I got Susie’s coat. I then loaded Susie into Air Volvo, and Susie was weaker than I was ready for, and I had to stretch to get Susie in the Air Volvo co-pilot seat. My back and legs would later complain.

We headed to Washington Square Mall, the last shopping day of the season. The mall was busy. We found some colorful socks for Susie at Sox Empire (I did not know there was a sock store)–owls and koala bears. Next, we found a red Bugs and Lola Bunny “Happy Year of the Rabbit” t-shirt for Susie. Lastly, we got a large arrangement of flowers to share at the hummingbird house.

While wandering, we called Leta, Susie’s mother, on the iPhone. She was happy to see us out and about in the mall. It was loud, and we had just a short chat. Next, we headed to the food court and hit up the USA-style food place for ice cream, strawberry for Susie, and an All-American hot dog for me.

I reloaded Susie with our loot into AIr Volvo, someone had just pulled in next to us (growl), and I politely asked them to move to the next slot (it was a huge Lexus SUV), so I would have room to load Susie into Air Volvo. They kindly did as I asked. Susie actually started to fall when I began the lift instead of standing, but I was ready, and we had no opportunities for stunts (or worse). It happened again when I unloaded her at the hummingbird house. We will need to consider some standing exercises for Susie soon. Despite the price, I may also ask for PT for her (It is a new year, and all the co-pays and out-of-pocket minimums reset). Strengthening and safety would be the goals to make transfers safer–use has to have goals to get this covered (even partially) by insurance and to have a doc prescribe it.

Susie was sad that I was headed out (I was a bit tired now) and disappointed that our time together was over at 2:30ish. I left with a kiss, and Susie headed to lunch/snack and likely an afternoon nap. I recrossed Beaverton without incident marveling at the traffic for a holiday.

I reached home, Mike was finishing his work, and I started fixing my radio after having some leftover Pork Vindaloo. I removed the blown-out amplifier I killed a week ago by connecting 9V to the power. I managed to unsolder everything without issue–I am always surprised when my skills come back and happy that the chemo did not damage my dexterity and delicate movements.

I broke out the wood backing for the speakers and drilled holes for the new posts to mount the new amp. It uses screw attachments and a standard plug. This makes the look better with the amp mounted on the same board as the speakers and all the wires attached with screw posts. More importantly, I power the amp from the regulated and cap leveled 3.3V, which will prevent another loss.

Everything works and seems a bit more stable. The strange signals from standing are gone, and the radio plays without issue now. Something with the power or wiring has been corrected by my rework. The volume is not as loud at 5V, but it is plenty loud at 3.3V.

I was also looking at a newly purchased device from Sparkfun in Denver: Qduino. This is a tiny microcontroller with built-in recharging and charge measuring hardware on a mini Arduino format. I have some exciting ideas for these.

Mariah has headed to Beaverton again. Tonight Golden Valley Brewery is open. We met in the bar; I had appetizers and a glass of wine. This is followed by coffee and chocolate cake. Mariah has a sandwich and a few beers. Sadly, the NFL game we were watching was stopped–a player collapsed and is in critical condition. The game is postponed.

I returned home, wrote this blog, and looked at some more of the hardware I just received today from Sparkfun- so much fun, so little time!

I also contacted Cowin, wishing him a happy New Year. We are going to start a new D&D game for him and a few folks–The adventure I wrote was originally his request. He should get a shot at it.

Thanks for reading, and welcome to 2023!