Today started with me not being sick. I was concerned that I would catch the really nasty cold that Susie was suffering through. But this morning, I was fine and worked from home. I did not want to give the cold to others if I caught it from Susie. So far, so good. I do have hints of something, but it could be allergies.
So I started at 6AM and managed to get moving. It was a night of dreams, and seemed to have been busy all night. But I finally found my focus and started. I got toast with less sugar jam and a banana after finishing my light set of exercises and stretches. It seemed more challenging today, and I was breathing header, but I still completed them.
I did the initial email, Slack channel, and news reading, then dressed and popped into the shower. Yes, I put on a dress shirt, even at home. An L.L. Bean grey-blue Oxford. I was ready before 8 for my first meeting drinking a mug of the Equal Exchange’s morning bled, certified fair trade, pure liberal in a cup, and packed and shipped from Portland, Oregon. What could be a more liberal brew (until the AOC starts to sell coffee).
The news was horrible. Mass shootings. Russia claimed the Ukrainians used drones to attack Putin’s residence, the stock market dropped another 200 hundred points, and there were more Tucker stories (just stop finding new Tweets). I just was numb to the news by the end of today.
I spent the morning working and covering some crises of the moment. Quite a few started to pop up. Lunch was here before I knew it. I called Jennifer at the hummingbird house, and Susie was not well. She had spilled her milk and could not feed herself today. She was leaning when she sat, showing the stroke damage. When Susie is tired, the stroke damage is more pronounced, and she can fall right out of the wheelchair.
Jennifer called me on her cell, and I did FaceTime with Susie for a few minutes. Susie could barely talk and looked exhausted. I only spoke to her for a few minutes as it was hard for her to talk and stay awake.
I made lunch from leftover pasta and sausage a few days ago. I watched some YouTube videos while I ate. More on Battleship Texas and its repairs.
I checked at work and was between things, so I headed across Beaverton to RiteAid to get some cold stuff for Susie (I will bring it over on Thursday) and brought my list of things I forgot to buy more groceries at Basics Market. Air Volvo made the round trip without incident. After putting them away, I returned to the office and finished my day with one more Zoom meeting.
It was a hot sunny day. I received my redwood twig (using the word sapling is going too far for the tiny thing). I will plant it when the weather cools a bit. It did rain for a few minutes in the evening.
Next, I made a roast beef sandwich with cheddar cheese. I heat butter in a non-stick pan (thanks, Steve W). I put the sandwich together with good sliced roast beef (I got it at Safeway), add two cheese slices, and fry in the butter. Flip with care twice. Get a lid that fits and pour water on the hot pan and steam the sandwich, trying to not get water on the sandwich. Flip again to dry out a bit, and then remove the steaming hot sandwich from the pan and cut it in half or quarters. The water boils hotter than 220F and instantly cooks the sandwich.
I had that with the end of the pickles in the old jar (I have more) and some potato salad. Perfect.
I also got my new stamp albums together today. I even added some of my beer stamps to the album. I am happy with it (it does not have Scott Numbers for the stamps, but I can make it work). The heavy paper and page protectors make the album as large as my US book (just paper one-sided pages).
I have about six beer stamps and will likely collect more. I have wine and newspaper stamps for which I do not have an album. I will probably acquire those in the future from the same source. I like these (even missing the Scott Numbers)–from StampParaphernalia.com. They only do US and Canada stamps.
I rest and then head to First United Methodist Church to meet Dondrea and Z for a board game. Z and I agreed to do Scythe, a 4x and thus a very competitive game set in an alternative steampunk world where the world wars did not happen. Z surprised me by remembering much of the process, but as we have not played it often, she did not have a strategy down. I spent most of the game developing efficient processes that drove a score of 51, and I won by twenty. Z was beginning to figure out the game, but it then ended. I remember when it was newer to me and having the same experience. She is ready for another game.
(You can see I was yellow against Z’s white. I ended the game in combat, and you can see the combat wheels are still out)
We played a few games of Azul, the tile game, and then it was time to leave.
I headed home after making plans to have dinner with Z and Dondrea–Indian Food on Thursday!
I am writing the blog at my office. Thanks for reading.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 