Going backward, I reached the Volvo Cave at 12:30AM from Portland without incident, but it was difficult as I was tired. I had dropped Kathleen at her house at midnight on the far side of Portland and then crossed back and then crossed Beaverton to reach home, the Volvo Cave. The night was hot and dry; folks were passing me at high speeds, and some were having trouble staying in their lane. A mini-van decided to own more than its lane in the tunnel on Highway 26, but I saw it in time and took evasive action. After taking my evening meds, I was soon in bed and asleep.
The shoe company ran a data conversion all night, but it finished early, and I went to bed as it was wrapping up. So I followed along all Saturday. The official word was on Sunday morning that everything was done. Excellent!
Before boarding Air Volvo, we played the board game The Grand Hotel Austria, my copy. I have all the food in excellent 3-D printed models. Thus the strudel, cake, coffee, and wine are neat little models. I have the updated Kickstarter version. It is a rules-heavy resource and worker placement game based on placing guests in your hotel. Sounds simple, but the guests want refreshments before heading to their rooms. The room has to be prepared. The empire also wants you to support them too. All of this, and then you may hire staff to help. The game takes a play to get the basics clear, and competing elements make it a brain burner. Kathleen would take some time to find the perfect move. Richard won, but Claudia and Kathleen nearly caught him. I was lapped as I struggled to escape a mistake I had made. The game can punish you if you make a mistake. I still like it.
We also played an out-of-print card game called Zero. It has a simple set of rules, but no new cards are acquired after the start. So to get five of one color or five of one number (the cards are six colors and numbered one to eight) is mainly based on the hope that your fellow players will discard what you need. Nevertheless, it played fast and was fun. We played a few hands before and after the mind-bending hotel operations.
In the early evening, Corwin planted the rose bush I received from Dondrea and Z for my birthday. We agreed last week that he could plant it for me at his own time on Saturday. So I am happy to get that in the ground!
Before this, I was at the house resting and getting some early dinner, Popeye’s Fried Chicken. I was having issues again with nausea, and food seemed to help. I had left Susie at about 2:30 and went home to rest, eat, and decide if I was well enough to head out. I decided to push through, and I was fine for the games.
I spent the early morning and part of the afternoon with Susie. Just before noon, I found Susie sleeping in her recliner in the shared living room. There was no traffic going there (the traffic back and to Portland was heavy on a sunny day–Oregonians seem to migrate on sunny days). One of the other residents was having a birthday party, so Susie and I headed to Metzger Park to get out of the way.
Susie resides at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116.
The morning was warm and dry, and the sky was partly sunny, with many white cotton candy clouds covering about 1/3 of the sky. Today’s sky was a lighter blue as the air was full of pollen and other light-defusing particles. The smoke from Canada and Washington State forest fires is not blowing this way (the air quality in Idaho was bad yesterday). The air was fresh.
I saw a few large butterflies on the way in and one by the hummingbird house but found no larger ones in the park. Soon. I took Susie in the opposite direction, started on the road, pushed her to the back of the park, and then went through Metzger Park and back to our start. It was about an hour.
Susie and I watched the people out on Saturday with kids and dogs enjoying the warming, dry day. We called Leta, Susie’s mother, on my iPhone using FaceTime. Leta and Barb, Susie’s sister (also residing in Michigan), planted flowers and tomato plants and weeded Leta’s flower beds. Barb had found planters to place on the new deck’s railing. Leta can sit on her deck and look at her plants. Leta sounded quite pleased, and we got to wave (via FaceTime) to Barb. The roses are blooming in the park now.
My legs are stiff, and it was a bit hard for me (my new workout seems to be pushing a wheelchair in 80F+ (26.7C). We were soon back, and Susie was placed in her rocking chair, and we watched the Disney classic animated Sleeping Beauty with Susie singing all the parts. I was tired, and the nausea revisited me, so I slept through about half of the movie. Susie did not notice. After the film, with the nausea rising, I headed out, and Susie kissed me.
Before this, I was up at 7:30ish and wrote the blog for Friday, had liberal coffee and an NYC bagel with cream cheese, and then read for a bit. The first bout of nausea hit in the early morning. I reheated some leftover pasta to see if that would help. It did not get worse, so I pressed on.
It was quieter but punctuated with nausea Saturday.
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