It is a bit early for me to start the blog; it is a lovely sunny, dry unheard-of-nice-day-in-May here in once was rainy Oregon. There is no proper rain in the forecast and some clouds to keep us out of the 80s (27C). I have mostly recovered from the flu/allergy illness I have been fighting all week. I am still going slow and get dizzy or tired, but I felt more like myself today.
I started by waking at 5AM and sleeping from 11PM to 5 (yay!) and proved my hydration. I then went back to sleep (yay!) and woke again and could not believe I had refilled in the hour. Bodily functions can’t get an eye-roll, but I was surprised that my kidney’s working so hard. Lay off kids!
I went back to bed, but I was awake, headed to the office, and found the kitchen. I made liberal coffee (the nausea was the flu, not the coffee), found the can of pears I opened a few days ago, and spooned them into a small bowl. I went with another bowl of cereal with milk to complete breakfast. I consumed the first meal while reading emails, shoe company emails, Slack channel updates, and some news. This gets me ready for my day. I always check the news after 9/11.
My first team meeting was at 8, and the status meetings began. To everyone’s surprise, it was Friday, and the project kept its promise to let us have the holiday weekend. So I have three days off!
I read some design changes, approved them, followed along, and helped where possible. The data conversions have moved to transactional data (this time, I am only involved in master data), so I listened to other people’s problems for the morning. Some of the issues were very familiar, but I resisted getting involved.
After the status meetings, I was still feeling well and got cleaned up and dressed. I boarded Air Volvo after cutting some roses for Mrs. Wild and put Susie’s father’s shadow frame with copies of his metals and military picture during WW2. I figure Susie could have Dad’s (Ben’s) stuff moved to her room at the hummingbird house for Memorial Day. I just thought the shadow box that Ben created while alive was better than his flag.
I arrived without issue or much traffic at Susie’s place at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. Susie was delighted to see me, and everyone liked the flowers as I had two big blooms from Mister Lincoln to bring. I also had cut flowers from The Herbist rose, and Jennifer moved them into a vase with care (The Herbist ‘s thorns are sharp and pointed straight out–they hurt and stick deep). All the blooms are perfumed.
Susie and I headed out to Mezger Park in the warm sun of the early afternoon. The park was not that busy as the holiday weekend had not started. We found an unoccupied shady bench, hard to get as the park has become more popular as summer approaches. We called Leta, Susie’s mother, who was pleased to be reached and to see we had returned to our regular afternoon visit to the park. Leta asked about how I was feeling, and I reassured her I was feeling better but would return home to the Volvo Cave after the park. Susie was disappointed to hear that I would not spend, as I have for the last couple of Fridays, the afternoon with her (often having two computers out: Work and mine). So today, I would still go slow. After a pleasant sharing on FaceTime with Leta, we rang off and walked through the park. I was not uncomfortable pushing Susie all through the park and back (when the flu started, I had some issues with pain and stiffness), which surprised me. It was an easy, pleasant visit.
Susie was tired, and her allergies were not improved by walking through the pines in Metzger Park. Susie wanted a nap. I kissed her goodbye as Jennifer got her set to rest a bit. I promised to return on Saturday morning. I was happy to feel better, and spending time with Susie again was reassuring. I hate for her to have a day without a visit. The trip home was in low traffic, and I was soon at the Volvo Cave.
Chores have built up. After stopping at the house, I reboarded and took Air Volvo to be refueled at $4.45 a gallon (remember, we have no sales tax when you compare prices). It was reported that inflation is still pushing up, caused by increasing gas prices, I am sure (there is no reason for the costs to vary so much–just the petroleum industry hiding behind the false free market artificially creating shortages). Next, I paid $15 to wash the car (increased by three dollars in the last few years) and then stopped at Fred Meyer’s to buy some garden supplies.
I bought three replacement garden hoses, a neat box to keep the hose, and a handle to crank it back into the box. I also got some simple hose racks to put on the house for the other hoses on the side and in the backyard. I got nearly $200 in suff (including galvanized screws to mount the racks) back to the house and tried to install the box. The new hoses would not make a good connection with the box (it connects to the facet and routes water to the hose that screws into the roller). I was fiddling with it for some time (getting quite a workout) and discovered I was covered in tiny ants. Oh, that is where they come from–I was standing on a huge nest of little ants, and they were unhappy about it and swarmed me. As they were tiny ants, I ignored them. I managed to get a leaky connection done and roll up the new hose. The little ants bite. My first use of the hose was washing the ants off me and my clothing. It was a lot of ants. I placed the other hoses by their respective faucets, with a rack, and then put away the tools (I bought a small level I always wanted) while slapping ants off of me. I went inside, stripped out of my clothing, put on my robe for a while (got one more good pinch from the ants), and was ant-free.
I started the laundry (washing any remaining ants) and dinner. I checked in on work a few times, but it was quiet. I made spaghetti and meal balls (frozen and reheated in the oven) with Vodka sauce from a jar. I used the new hose in the front to water the roses and an old one in the back–the blooming is failing on some from days of dry heat. Finally, I put dinner together and ate some while watching my new guilty pleasure, Space Battleship Yamato 2199.
I dressed again (no longer feeling the ants all over me–yuck) and headed to the Wildwood Taphouse. There I wrote this blog.
I also used my OWC solid-state super-fast USB-C drive to copy every personal file on my Apple to the drive. This is a simple copy of everything, and I put this drive in Air Volvo’s tire storage (out of sight). If the house burns, I will lose everything, as my backup is in the office. I make a monthly (or so) backup of the files in my directory (1.5 million or so). It takes about thirty minutes, is over 300G, and then puts the drive back in the car. As I said, it is solid-state and will not overheat when not in use. The drive is 2T and extremely fast. I initially ordered it as a replacement drive for my older Mac, but that Mac needed a lower-tech drive due to a problem in its operating system. After buying it a nice case, I replaced the Mac instead and used the drive as an emergency backup.
If I lose the Mac or it fails, I can use Apple’s Time Capsule backup to recreate it on replacement hardware. I keep another (yes, I have two) super fast 1/2 T solid-state with a current copy of the Apple ready to restore at a moment’s notice. If the computer and backup are lost (i,e., stolen), I have a copy of most of my files on the other system and could lose only some changes. Emails, Quicken, and other data would resync to current with some work. I would lose something things, but it would be a slight loss.
Aside: I also have a hard drive of my old Windows system and my old original Mac image. All the files from Dungeons and Dragons writing and some other things still exist on those copies. I someday hope to find time to rework all those adventures, thousands of pages, and use them again or publish them. Someday!
I try to be covered. I don’t believe in having a corporate entity hold my data for me and promise it will be there when needed. I am just not going to accept their glossy brochure. Maybe I should be more trusting, but my experience says, “Stay away.”
Lastly, I read the first in the Murderbot SciFi series, something I have meant to try for years. A first-person story of a sentient robot that does not really like humans. The murderbot, as it calls itself, had hacked its control system and thus is free to take any action and cannot (again) be ordered to murder. It seems to find itself in situations where it gets involved with humans and has to help them. I liked the first book, but I am not sure I want to try another one–not a fan of one-point-of-view books. It was well written, and I could not stop reading it, so I am glad I read it. The first book is All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
Well, thanks for reading! I am glad I started early, as it took two hours to write this.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 