Today 16June2023

It is Saturday morning when I write this. Our weather has returned to our usual June grey and rain. We have some sprinkles Friday night, and Sunday, according to the forecast, is a usual June Oregon hose-down. The rain will leave after that and will not likely be back, except for a thunderstorm, until September, and the rains will not be back until October/November. We hope (and pray) the smoke and the 120+ temperatures will stay away this summer.

Going backward, I was back at the Volvo Cave before midnight. Air Volvo got me from Dondrea’s and Z’s house after we all returned from Portland. We had seen A Midsummer’s Night Dream at the Armory in the Pearl District in Portland. This is one of my favorite Shakespeare play (The Tempest and Macbeth being my other favs–I like the fantastical plays), and the pre-play discussion described how this play is unique; the story and structure do not appear to be based on any existing works (much of Shakespeare’s plays have an origin in other works). The play inside a play makes this very approachable.

The Portland Center Stage at the Armory group reduced the cast to just nine people, and they switched roles and costumes, with some of the leads taking secondary positions. In contrast, others played almost the same character in both versions (the Duke, Theseus, and Oberon being the same actor). It was fun to see the actors taking different roles all night, and the costume changes helped to direct the adaptation for us, the audience. The play switched to slapstick and physical comedy a few times while the actors shouted Shakespearean insults at each other. It worked. Dondrea, Z, and I enjoyed the play and were laughing through much of it. Recommended if you can fit it in (closes on 3July2023).

We visited Powell’s City of Books before the play, we had an hour to kill, and there found On a Pale Horse for Z. This is the first book in the old incarnations series by Piers Anthony, and we could not find the second book, on time, but Z was happy with something new to read. I resisted Powell’s stacks of board games and did not visit role-playing games (RPG) as there is always something there I want.

We ate at Van Eberts before heading to the books store and the play. Dondrea and Z joined me in consuming the best wings I have ever had. These are smoked before recooked with your choice of excellently made sauces. Mine, Korean-style, was almost black with the sauce brushed on and then broiled–cooked twice. The rumors are that the wings are so good the chicken volunteer. Dondrea and Z had their sauce on the side and loved their wings. Dondea tried a cider, I had the Volatile Substance IPA (their award-winning IPA), and Z had a Shirly Temple with a bitter cherry (an Oregon cherry) that Z did not like.

Moving backward, Dondrea picked up Z at school, and we headed directly into the back roads and Highway 26 to reach Portland. The traffic was moderate, and we were not rushed. I had left Air Volvo at Dondrea’s house after coming from 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.

Being a work-from-home day, I completed my afternoon working online from Susie’s room. Susie listened to Emmerson, Lake, and Palmer while I did various Zoom meetings and followed along with work via Slack channel updates, texts, and emails. The current crises of the moment were going to run all weekend, so all of us on the team must check in all weekend, and I will attend the morning status meetings. Susie was happy to have me hang out with her and was not upset when I left at about 3:20. She looked sleepy.

When reaching the hummingbird house, Susie agreed to head out to the park. I had only twenty minutes before my next meeting. We rushed out and found a bench. Susie loved the still-warm weather, and the park was quieter today; apparently, all the kids were back in their respective schools and not visiting the park today. The butterflies, Oregon Swallowtails, three doing circles together, were out and enjoying having the park almost to themselves.

We called Leta, Susan’s mother, and chatted for a while. Leta was working on getting her car repaired (she has a scrape on it, which is a leased car, so she needs to fix it) and had some blood work done. Leta is still unhappy that the local deer enjoyed her best flowers. We could only chat briefly, and soon I had Susie back in her room (Jennifer popped Susie into her bed for the afternoon).

Moving back to the start of Friday, I got going at 7:30ish and did not feel like an animated undead creature rising, but more human. I put some breakfast links into a glass dish and baked them in the oven. I put six eggs in a pan to hard boil and headed to the in-house office. I try to make homemade breakfast on Fridays with leftovers for Saturdays. I then started the usual Zoom meetings on status and defects that go from 8AM thru 9AM. I cooled the cooked eggs in ice while the meetings went on, and I was relieved that no new crises of the moment surfaced like a terrible iceberg ready to sink the weekend. I had my breakfast of links, eggs, a banana, and liberal coffee (my next two months’ supply arrived on Friday). I found a break in my meeting, slipped into the shower, and dressed in a dress shirt.

The last morning meeting at the shoe company was a discussion and lecture on encryption options and processes to be used by Nike IT–and nothing that can even be summarised here! Next, we had an excellent presentation and discussion on tax-efficient approaches for foreign trade for the shoe company; the next version. Again, indeed, nothing to be discussed here in my blog. Michael G presented, and it was his usual nearly perfect delivery of a complex subject. Always a pleasure to attend the software architect forum, which I will be taking over for the summer as Subha is on sabbatical.

My last thing in the morning was to open a can of peaches, spoon them next to cottage cheese, and eat that for lunch while watching a few videos on YouTube. Drachinifel channel had a new video on the inside of the USS Texas battleship, a pre-WW1 Dreadnought, that is currently in dry dock being made safe to survive another fifty or more decades.

I did not finish the video (it is a long one Drachinifel videos are best taken in smaller bites), but instead cut a pile of roses to bring to Susie and the hummingbird house. My Wedgwood roses canes are nearly breaking under the weight of the blooms. I also did a bit of deadheading of my other roses. I arrived at Susie’s with a pile of roses after 1PM.

Well, that was Friday! Thanks for reading.