July started with me having a weekend day off–that does not always happen (I will be working my shifts through the following weekend). I slept in as I had trouble sleeping Friday/Saturday morning. I did not get organized enough to load up the cargo bay of Air Volvo with various no longer needed goodies here in the Volvo Cave and send them to Good Will to find new homes. I found time to clear a few items from here and there and improve things.
I found three eggs and some kielbasa left over from the jambalaya I made a few nights ago for breakfast. I stepped into the bedroom for just a moment, I thought, and then found on my return to the kitchen that the eggs in a non-stick pan almost burned, and I quickly flipped near-charred breakfast. Saved! I ate my breakfast with freshly made liberal coffee in my French press. I watched some short videos on YouTube, mainly videos of Rock and Roll songs. YouTube has watched my playing of music and now has autogenerated a playlist for me–most excellent (or is it?).
I put three new purchases in my stamp album to help get things back to where they belong. I improved my US Postage Due collection (the early ones from the late 1800s). After making a list of potential purchases (my missing spots in my US Stamp Album), I returned the albums, my stamp mounting supplies, and my US Specialized Catalog to their usual places (When it is time to update my reference material, I find a used copy now on Abe Books or Amazon instead of paying the exorbitant costs for a new one). I collect only older stamps with a cut-off of about 1940 for world stamps. I sometimes fill in the new stamps in my US album, but that is mostly just spending money on fixed prices for a year of US stamps; I do not find it that interesting and only buy the set if the mounts are provided.
Hopefully not boring you, dear reader; I have one expensive catalog I bought a few years ago, Scott 2017 Classic Specialized Catalogue of Stamps & Covers 1840-1940. Yes, everything is covered there in 1,320 pages (and a new one for discounted $159 means I will keep mine for a long time). I like to collect the colonial stamps from the late 1800s. Additionally, as I collect US local carriers, I have invested in books on forgeries as that is an issue in those stamps, including the famous Pony Express, which had its own stamps (I have a few originals and some fakes). I can identify forgeries now, and I collect fakes, placing them having a small album just for forgeries. The old fakes, made a hundred years ago, are becoming quite valuable–a surprise to me–as their stories are fascinating and well-recorded.
Stamp collecting, to me, is a search for impossible-to-find used US stamps (I have most of the easy and cheap ones already) for a price I am willing to pay. Sometimes picking up a forgery or an original that others will not risk buying (could be a fraud) on the cheap. I try not to pay more than 1/3 price and aim for a 1/10 catalog. I will take damaged stamps or even cheaper, proof versions to fill a slot. For example, a $350 catalog value 3-cent postage due stamp, in perfect condition, from the late 1800s is currently floating at $25 as many bidders are on summer vacation, and postage dues are not a priority to most collectors as they are boring looking and have few interesting variants to collect. I might slide in and get that cheap. To me, stamp collecting is a quest.
I will stop my essay writing on my hobbies, a bad habit much like a villain monologuing in a Marvel movie or Doctor Who (“Yes, let me tell you my evil plans for you, Doctor”).
The morning disappeared in a poof of activity and watching music videos on YouTube, and soon I was dressing and boarding Air Volvo, lamenting that I was out of time so Good Will would wait until Sunday. Fortified with my last cup of liberalness, I drove across Beaverton to 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.
I found Susie’s French-styled hat and brought it to her.
Aside: I spoke to Dan from the church while flying in Air Volvo and disappointed him that I will not help with a July cookout for the church. I found I was tired from the Easter Pancake Breakfast for days, and Susie found herself alone sitting while I worked at the cooking. Getting worn out and then having Susie in her wheelchair while I cooked was not a good use of our limited days and strength. Sorry, but I will use that seldom-used word-for-church stuff, “no.” Dear reader, I do not criticize Dan or churches–I just want this blog to represent my experiences and feelings.
Susie was asleep in her recliner in the shared living room and had trouble waking for me. Anassa, the weekend nursing aide, said that Susie was up and had her breakfast without issue, eating everything. I planned to take Susie to the mall, but she was falling back asleep while we waited for Anassa to finish a few chores, so instead, I changed my plans for just the park today. Anassa popped Susie into her wheelchair for me, and I then pushed Susie outside to Metzger Park.
We found a shady bench on another perfect early afternoon which we never had on July 1 (Before the weather pattern changed here, the rains never ended–I mean hose down dumping of rain–before July 5). Until recently, on July 4th, fireworks were often canceled or done in clouds, with us Oregonians often seeing more flashes than pretty bright explosion blooms most folks associate with fireworks. Now, July starts with blue skies and hot days (we did not get hot until August and often only for a few days for my first twenty years in Oregon), with us likely seeing near 100F (37C) on Wednesday!
Aside: Susie has AC at the hummingbird house, and the Volvo Cave has an oversized AC unit (and two-pane windows). We stopped by the magnolia tree, and it is just starting to bloom.
I called Leta (Susie’s mother), Zorida, and Michelle & David Smith from the bench in the park. The park hosted two parties, free guitar lessons (?!), and the dog count was quite large. It was clearly an excellent weekend to head to the park. We had a lovely time calling and chatting with folks as dogs visited us here and there. The butterflies were back and doing spins in pairs in the sky.
Some homeless folks were also in the park, identifiable by their body language (“stay away”) and being alone. The public bathrooms provide a sink to clean up with and, of course, toilets. I have learned that staying clean is one of the challenges of homelessness (and finding a safe place to sleep). Years ago and in Maryland, my church there would provide beds in our church for a week in the winter, and we rented a room at the hotel, heavily discounted, to take the homeless to a shower. Now, many churches have showers and laundry facilities to help with those obvious but easily ignored needs of the homeless and financially struggling families. We have considered upgrades to First United Methodist Church in Beaverton to include a shower and laundry, but our 1950s design of our facilities does not make this an easy change, and so far, we have not found an answer.
Returning to the narration, Susie was waking up, but my time, limited on Saturday, was flying away, and we returned to the hummingbird house. Susie was set in her bed, and we played Peter, Paul, and Mary (who we have seen live–Mary is gone now), including us singing along to Puff the Magic Dragon. I then left with a kiss; Susie felt better and was sad to have me go, “I miss you” (It makes me cry to write that).
I met Evan at the 649 Taphouse in Aloha, Oregon, but first, we ate at the Mexican place across the parking lot (Tapatio: Mexican Restaurant). I had a small Dos Equis, Dark from their tap, with a bowl of Tortilla Soup. Evan had a drink and a large plate of food. We then crossed the parking lot; I got a recently purchased board game from the cargo hold in Air Volvo, Furnace, and returned to our old haunt of the 649 Taphouse.
Stephen and a gal I had not met before were running the bar. I opened a tab and got a small red ale. Evan got a mixed drink. I taught this simple but profound game to Evan. The game is a resource management game where you buy more factory cards in an auction, where a loss means compensation, sometimes worth more than the lost card (factory). Once the auction completes, you run your factories having to complete the programming, like symbols in each card, before moving to the next factory (card). Thus, you collect resources by compensation and new factory cards and then use the resources to gain more resources and to upgrade your factories (flipping over the card) to get more resources/upgrades/money. The winner is the player with the most money after four turns. The game is the perfect mix of player versus player in the auction, resource management, and exploitation (engine building) that boils down everything to simple rules and processes. I recommend Furnace (priced at about $34). It is well-rated on the Internet too.
Evan and I played two games; Evan scored well in the second game losing only by about seven coins. I was able to build slower and recover in the second game. A card I wanted was purchased by the non-player (two-person games have a non-player random player), and that trashed my plans for the first two turns (again, there are only four turns in a game).
After playing two games and the light brain burn precluded a third game, we chatted, and I ordered a pretzel which, when it arrived, with cheese fondue, was so anemic I would say it was more of a breadstick with hopes of being a pretzel someday. It was still good, but I did feel like it was a 1/2 order. After that, I paid the bill and headed to Richard’s in Air Volvo. There was no traffic, and I was there early.
It was all new games tonight. TrailBlazer is another game in the form of Weather Maker and other complex turn games that I am terrible at, but I like them. I scored last, even with Claudia complaining that she did not play well. I missed, as often happens to me, a significant mechanic and scoring options, but it was a positive game (unlike Darwin’s Journey) and bright (and cheap at about $60). Richard puts this game on the bottom of the scale of complexity and brain-burn-like games, and I agree with him. Still, it was the best, to me, as it avoided any punishing mechanism (Darwin’s Journey) or weird and complex scoring systems (Weather Maker). And, I understood the game about 1/2 through and would play faster next time (and will remember not to overpack and do the elevation track)–an excellent game.
Heat is a racing game with little cars and a race track board with a deck-building process (where your deck gets worse the more you risk your vehicle). Richard won after I spun out in my second sharp corner, and I brought my car in with some of the car’s engine still working for second place. A fun game with some fascinating add-ons (design your own car–card deck) that I have read about. It was a good finish for gaming night. A good game.
The trip home was the usual bridge with the stupidly high on-ramp and cars flying past Air Volvo on the bridge’s roadway showing signs of relativistic redshift. I stopped by Popeye’s and got a newly increased price of $12 for a three-piece chicken meal. I consumed the chicken breast and mashed potatoes and took my pills, and then later, not able to sleep, took some ibuprofen to help me sleep at 1ish. Finally, sleeping before 2AM showed on the clock radio. I left the other chicken pieces for lunch on Sunday.
Thanks for reading!
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