The day started strangely, with me oversleeping until after 6:15. I was not exercising today, and I was soon in the kitchen getting my pill taken and breakfast arranged, yogurt and peanut butter toast. Time flies, and I quickly go through all my emails, work email, Slack channel updates, and news to be ready to start my day. Next, I boarded Air Volvo after cleaning up and grabbing my Nike laptop, but not the charger.
I was at work by 8 but then spent time searching Air Volvo’s cargo holds for the charger and left it at home. I returned and did the first meeting with a USB C from a monitor charging my laptop. I skipped the status meeting as Rajani was there, and we finished our tasks. I did part of another status meeting, which was not very interesting, so I left the Zoom meeting early. I wrote up my thoughts on some design changes and followed along. Next, I grabbed a turkey and cheddar from the coffee place (having a coffee between meetings–coffee acquired before 10AM is covered by the project leadership) and wrote some more. Finally, I discussed the design with the technical leads and reviewed my notes.
I got a text from Humminbird House, but then we understood that Susie’s appointment was Thursday and not today. So they let Susie rest after getting up early. She was then up late for lunch/breakfast.
After the meeting and another lunchtime meeting moving out (I bought the sandwich as I thought I would not have time for lunch), I headed to Susie at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. Air Volvo arrived without issues, with only the glare of a nearly perfect dry and sunny being the only risk. Oregonians are the only people I know that break for glare and sunlight. The rest of the country (world?) knows you clean your windshield and wear sunglasses when driving on a sunny day. Here it is a shock (with us getting gray for three months straight, maybe it is not such a surprise we have trouble with sun breaks).
I arrived safely, and Susie was just finishing her lunch/breakfast when I walked in. Susie was ready for a trip to the park. It was already 75F (24C), clear and dry. The park was busy and perfectly maintained. The benches were all dry.
Susie and I found one in the sun and called Leta, Susie’s mother, and chatted on the iPhone using FaceTime to see Leta, and she could see us. Leta was inside her house as it was hot in Michigan, but she planned to enjoy her new deck in the hot sun. We were enjoying the sun in the park. Dogs chasing balls were running everywhere. Leta would see a flash of a dog while talking to us! Soon Leta was done, and we rang off. Next, we moved to different benches and looked for the butterflies- none out yet. We reached the end of the park, turned around, and were surprised to see the park clearing out–it was after lunch. We toured the streets and looked at the trees and flowers (the trees are mostly now late-flowering cherries and other flower fruit trees). Soon I brought Susie in and left with a kiss to return to work.
Work was more Zoom meetings and discussions on design issues. I was headed out after doing one status meeting for the team. The drive was full of traffic and glare. I stopped at Shake Shack and had a Shack Burger, fries, and a Diet Coke. It was beautiful to sit outside and have the food delivered. The burger was everything Wendy’s or Burger King should be–excellent. The fries were freshly cut and perfectly fried with a hint of salt. Recommended.
I met Dondrea and Z at the church after 6PM. I read some rules for Scythe: The Rise of Fenris, a campaign add-on for the already over-the-top Scythe board game. The campaign plays 8 games back-to-back with new superpowers, rules to carry over stuff across games, and crazy new items. Everything is hidden in boxes; you open them to discover the following new things. Today Z even beat me at Scythe with the new rules to start the campaign’s story. We will do the next episode next week.
Z was playing Polandia, white color, and was not gaining many awards or stars. I was collecting them fast and aggressively, too aggressively. Z calming scattered across the board and collected more and more cash. She held the Factory. I pushed hard to get the stars and collected my forces into a few hexes, thus missing points. I ended the game and found us tied at 58, and Z won the tiebreaker and won the game. Next time!
We will play again next week and can spend our money on superpowers, and we recorded who won (Z) and the stars achieved. Once we have spent our cash, we play again, following the next episode: Peace. We voted for Peace (Z was for War, but I had collected more influence, so I got to decide–I have never played Peace). I played a campaign before the pandemic but missed the middle. I am happy to share this crazy extra game added to Scythe with Z and try it again.
We packed up the game with Dondrea having to wait for us; it took a while to close it up tonight. I then drove home and started on this blog.
Thanks for reading.
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