The day (I am writing this Saturday morning) started with me sleeping into 7:30; it was a work-from-home day, so I rested until the last moment. I sleep poorly on some weekdays and am tired on Fridays; a little extra sleep helps. When I arose in the sunlight, I was surprised I did not burst into flames, making my best vampire-meets-sun reaction Friday morning. As apparently I would have to go on, I found the coffee (having to get more from the case I have from my last purchase of liberal coffee), made hot water in the electric kettle, and assembled all in my French Press. I had a slice of Whole Foods’ Cream Cheese Brioche with peaches from a can, 1/2 of the can, for breakfast. I drank the coffee all morning.
Work began with a team meeting and all of my Zoom meetings using my Zoom avatar–it is Avatar Friday. My avatar is a pale-skinned gray-haired mustached guy with a cowboy hat, and the software moves your avatar’s lips when you talk, and your image sways a little bit to not look so robotic. Slightly creepy.
I spent the morning in staff and status meetings. I had a long break after 9:30 and watered the roses. I still have not installed the new hoses for the back and side of the house. The roses are blooming, and the stress is fading, but I see that insects have found all the roses, and the rose leaves are, near the bottom of the plants, looking perforated. There is some black spot showing also on the lower leaves. This is likely from the watering as the fungus that causes black spot is found in the ground. I don’t cuddle my plants, and it is unlikely I will treat them either, but I do remove the cuttings from roses and any leaves that fall below to reduce the disease. This is the best preventive care for roses. Many rose folks burn the canes to prevent the fungus from traveling into mulching. I put it in the trash (not the yard debris container).
After watering (The new redwood tree I planted is still alive and still 2″ tall), I slightly dampened, headed into the shower, and dressed in a t-shirt Kickstarter for the Jupiter Disco in Brooklyn. I was in the Kickstarter to help this crazy venue survive the pandemic–I got a t-shirt and an excellent paperback with drink recipes and some of their edgy stories from the bar at the disco.
I received the package from Mouser Electronics. My potentiometers, expensive nobs that vary resistance that can be measured by a microcontroller like an Arduino are tiny and perfect (even the golden rod color will look OK on the wood radio box) and fit the holes. Usually, a nod like this is under $10 and usually just a few bucks, but these premium products were just under $25 (costing nearly as much as all of the electronic boards combined). Despite the high cost, these are 1W and under 50V maximum components (my project is about 250mA and 3.3, so far below 1W).
Next was a Zoom meeting on how Nike assigns inventory to customer orders and the impact of this process to order processing and reporting. Maybe not exciting to you, dear reader, but this is a critical process and is being revised with our new software (to be installed this coming year-end–Christmas and New Year are canceled). The meeting went over. I ate two pieces of cold pizza while the presentation and discussion lasted fifteen minutes over the hour’s time slot. As the camera was off, my avatar was not shown to be eating pizza (I am not sure it does that, anyway). Once the meeting was done, I packed up my Nike and Apple laptops with the charger (it works for either as they both use USB-C for power), boarded Air Volvo, and headed to Susie’s 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 trip there was not memorable, which is a good thing, and I arrived there without incident and in light traffic. Susie was in her recliner in the shared main room, napping. I woke her and brought her the flowers I bought at Whole Foods during yesterday’s grocery shopping. Susie was delighted to have a visit and loved the flowers.
Jennifer, the nurse aide for the weekdays, moved Susie to Susie’s room, put her in the bed, and I set up next to her with the Nike and my Apple computer. I use both. There was a production issue in our group’s system, so I had to follow along. We are now in summer hours at Nike, and most folks take off Friday afternoons by finishing their work by Friday noon. Our project is not respecting this as it is driven by Accenture, which does not have summer hours, and our timeline is 7/24, so we will be working Fridays all day. We also do not get June 19th or July 3-4 (much of Nike WHQ gets both days, as July 4th is Tuesday this year). Susie napped as she decided not on TV or movies but music, and I put on The Best of Billy Joel on Alexa (I pay for the all music service on all devices–Susie’s Alexa is an extension of my account at the house).
We called Leta, Susie’s mother, while in the room. Leta was thrilled to see us and was on her deck watering her new plants and some volunteers from last year’s plantings. Marrow is a favorite. We use FaceTime to see each other, and Leta could use her phone to share an image of all her plants on her new deck. Leta is pleased to have a new sprayer on her hose. I had some distractions from work, so I handed the phone to Susie, who could just manage to keep the camera on her face. It is good practice for her. Once work did not need me, Leta rang off, and Susie returned to listening to Billy Joel.
At 4PM, the production issue was being worked out by our lead of development, I stopped working and put aside the computers, and Jennifer got Susie ready to head out to Metzger Park in the wheelchair. Susie was happy to leave the house, and the temperature was finally warm. We have cloudless nights, and that can drop us, like a desert, into the fifties at night. It takes a while to warm back to comfortable for Susie. By 4PM, the sun was hot, and the shade was cool but not uncomfortably cold. Perfect.
We traveled to the park next door, and to prevent the bouncing from the crushed gravel, which has gotten freer with the hot, dry weeks (it has not rained for weeks and will not shower for at least ten days), I used the paved trail into the tennis courts, not in use at that time. So I crossed the netted courts to the park’s usual paved trails. Susie was confused by the extra travel but was pleased not to have her body nearly rattled out of the wheelchair by the gravel!
The park was busy with families that had the late afternoon off too. School is still on in Beaverton, so the later time for the families work (school ends at about 3PM with sports and other after-school activities starting after that). Susie and I found a bench and watched the folks for a while. There were fewer dogs than in the morning, and the crowd was primarily families and younger children. All the joggers and older walkers used the park on the earlier day. We did our usual tour of a circle in the park. Then, I returned to the hummingbird house and sat with Susie on the porch for fifteen minutes.
With a kiss and a promise to return on Saturday, I headed out from the hummingbird house. I stopped by Panera Bread for dinner. I had a strawberry poppy dressing salad with chicken, but they were out of strawberries (they gave me more lettuce and then told me they were out–I ate it anyway and demurred when they offered to refund the incomplete salad). I had lukewarm tea (their hot water tank was not) and had to go back and get the bread I ordered with my salad. They were a bit stressed by having customers in the evening, and it is unlikely that I will try dinner there again.
Next, I stopped by Target to get some flowers for Z; I selected sunflowerAfter that, s. I walked the store to see the Pride section, which is very controversial according to the media and could not find it. Dondrea told me I just missed it. I also got some cough syrup (no sugar and suitable for high blood pressure).
I traveled the short distance to Z’s middle school and soon sat next to Z for the slightly truncated school version of Legally Blond, the musical. My memory of school, dimmed by forty years, does not include the hot no-air movement rooms and disordered reality. I paid my usual $20 for a $7 ticket (likely making a mess of the count) to support the school and found Dondrea in the first row, saving me a seat and a seat for her son Jackson (who arrived just on time).
The show has the usual problems of poor sounds (not helped by my hearing loss) and actors who are unsure of themselves. The lead pulled off most of the songs, and the supporting singers, too soft for my taste (and reduced hearing), did fine. The dancing, which this musical does the dance video looks over and over, was still being worked out by many gawky teenagers. The ending was pulled off well and ended the musical, 90 minutes total, with a 15-minute break, on a high.
Z played Enid and supporting roles. Z was dressed in a huge curly blond wig (which kept moving on its own), and this time Dondrea had helped Z with make-up that made her face distinct on stage. Z got a few good lines here and there, and looked like she enjoyed being part of the musical and a chance to be on stage.
After the play and everything settled down, Dondrea and Z joined me at a nearby Mexican place. Z had a no-booze frozen drink with Dondrea, and I have the house margarita on the rocks (no salt for Dondrea). We shared nachos with chicken. Dondrea had promised Z ice cream after the musical, and this was upgraded to fried ice cream. Z began to fade (after all that food), and we went our separate ways, with me taking Air Volvo back to the Volvo Cave.
After quickly taking my meds, I returned to my Kindle, headed to bed, and read more of Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. This was recommended by Dondrea and is set in the 1920s, an era I read about (H.P. Lovecraft horror is placed in these years, and so is the role-playing game The Call of Cthulhu, named for Lovecraft’s most known horror story). There is always something to learn about these times, and I did not know the story of the Osage Nation, and some more info is here on Wikipedia. The writing is excellent so far, and the author knows how to hide facts and reveal them slowly to keep it more of a story than an emotionless recounting–so far recommended.
I was only to read for a short while, and soon, despite the constant coughing today, I fell asleep and did not wake up from my kidney working overtime.
Thanks for reading.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 