Today 17July2023

Again, I delayed the blog writing until the following day–I went to bed early but had trouble sleeping. I also woke up with the sunrise and just kept rolling over. I finally managed to fall deeply asleep two minutes before my alarm. I started at 7AM.

I made liberal Equal Exchange coffee and found my last banana and a slice of breakfast pastry (almost gone and from Wholefoods) that I carried back to the office. I started pounding out the blog for Sunday. Barb, Susie’s sister, was staying in the spare bedroom and was up drinking coffee soon after I made it–Barb is from the East and has a three-hour time difference (I find it takes folks about two weeks to adjust to the local time–Barb will be here just a week). Barb dressed and headed out to see Susie at 10ish while I continued to do various tasks in the house. I manage to get the games and books put away on Monday, and now I can see my Turkish rug again! The feeling of being overwhelmed by the mess is fading now.

I started rereading and reworking my Howard story “Howard’s Lockdown.” Howard is my version of H.P. Lovecraft, who lives in Portland and is a time traveler. He is also known in our Dungeons and Dragons game as Crazy Howard, where I played him as a 4E version of a warlock, and now he is a non-player character who appears when we need some help or to be rescued. The story, set and written in 2020, is about the lockdown for the pandemic and how that could bleed into the Lovecraft Mythos. I have now cut it to under 7,000 words, the limit for submission, and I am editing and finding typos that are years old. It also surprises me when I find more. A few more hours and I should have this ready to submit, I hope.

Next, I boarded Air Volvo and crossed Beaverton without seeing any of Beaverton’s Finest–but it was Monday, and I suspect the police know that traffic is slow and light on Mondays. While open, Nike and other local employers have most folks working from home on Monday and Friday. Thus, I arrived after 25 minutes of travel 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.

The weather today was overcast but not raining. It was hot and dry but never reached 80F (27C). A good day for an outdoor adventure.

Susie was in her recliner in the shared living room, watching shows with Barb. With my arrival around noonish, we decided to journey to Nike WHQ and try the Hollister Trail, available only to Nike Employees (I wore my badge while on the trail). The trail is cut through a large square of regrown forest (clear-cut years ago and left to return to a forest) that Nike owns but never developed. It used to be the hangout of the homeless, and Nike now patrols it, and the running areas are covered by security cameras. Nike Security has buggies with big tires to quickly check out things. You are quite safe in these quiet running and biking trails.

I unloaded Susie from Air Volvo without incident. WHQ parking spaces are regulation-sized, so there is plenty of room even when parked next to another vehicle. We then headed to the Hollister Trail in what was called Nike Woods and enjoyed the quiet walk. The forest is overgrown with poison oak and other prickly bushes, with signs saying to stay on the trail to protect the natural area and avoid the poison oak (I have seldom seen such healthy-looking poison oak). Barb said it made her legs itch just seeing it. We did about 1/2 of the Hollister Trail–I was ready for a break. Susie loved the new trail.

Next, after loading and unloading Susie, we did the McMenamins Cedar Hills Pub. Barb had a sandwich, and I had a salad (I had a 1/4 pounder with cheese at McDonald’s on the way in–it was actually good). We had some refreshing adult beverages, with Susie getting a sample too. The ice cream was unavailable, so we got Susie cheddar cheese soup with bacon and potato (it might be called loaded baked potato soup). Cheese makes Susie happy, and she managed to eat 20% or so of the soup, some sipped water (with thickener), and an adult beverage sample.

After that, we retraced our travels across Beaverton, not wanting to enjoy construction delays on Highway 217. Soon, I had Susie deplaned from Air Volvo and back in Jennifer’s hands (Jennifer is the weekday nursing aide). I said goodbye with a kiss while Barb stayed for the rest of the afternoon. My trip, once again across Beaverton, was uneventful.

On returning to the Volvo cave, I rested for a bit as the moving Susie and the long walk was more than I usually do, and I was feeling a bit tired. Once I recovered, I returned to the house chores and sorted through the books and games on the floor. My friend in Michigan will be surprised to learn that I recycled the handwritten adventures from the 1980s Dungeons and Dragons play on Monday–I still had them. I have carried them from Michigan to Maryland to Oregon: The Test, The Haunted House, and The Steiber Caste (and others) are now going away. I felt good getting the space back, and I have written thousands of pages (all digital) since those were scrawled on notebook and graph paper. I kept only the old Dragon magazines (and like material) and the last paper issue of The Dragon. I also retained D20 versions of Dungeons and Dragons as that version is not far from the current version–but I suspect they are unusable as monsters will be a mismatch.

The Call of Cthulhu stuff was also put away. Unlike D&D, CoC is easily converted to a 7th Edition, and, more importantly, there is no desire for an 8th edition (D&D 5E is rumored to be replaced soon with an all-digital version, One). I have thus retained my original CoC stuff (some might be valuable as collectibles) and added more to my play options. I put all that away–none was recycled.

The Lord of the Rings books for 5E were also put away. Yes, there is a special reworking of Dungeons and Dragons for LOTR. I gave my original LOTR set away to GoodWill, but I still have three versions now (including one non-D&D version). I did see my mint set of LOTR 4E maps was for sale at Powell’s for $250! I often dream of playing again as DM (Loremaster) in this setting, but I have never found a group or time to make it work. Having a character in the Tolkien world is a very dark experience as the Dark Lord has filled the lands with despair, and there is little healing or D&D-style superpower magic. It is more like what Aragorn looks like in the movie after falling off the cliff. Some day–back on the shelf. Someday!

The mail came, and I was surprised to find a new 2600 Magazine. I have been waiting about a year to be published and have heard nothing from the hackers running the publication. I opened the table of contents, and my thumb was over the last few entries, and I saw no sign of my piece; I thought I would have to check if they decided to pull it. I flipped through the paper copy and noticed my name. Yes, page 57! Rechecking, I found my piece, “Turing’s Battle,” near the bottom of the table of contents. Finally, I am published! The hackers will not have the new 2600, Volume 40 (number two), in finer pro-hacker bookstores for a few more weeks.

I reread it, and the editing, if any, was light, and the whole story was there. I originally wrote it for the Navy Institute, was rejected, and then sent it to 2600, who accepted it almost immediately. It is a story about Artificial Intelligence (AI) written a year before the panic you see now. This 2600 issue has an editorial about AI, and I suspect that is why they moved my story to this issue–there are quite a few AI items in this quarter’s version. I was excited and happy to finally get something out.

Returning to the narrative, Barb returned from Susie’s, and we headed to Von EBert’s in Portland’s Pearl District for dinner with Mariah. Once again, crossing Beaverton in Air Volvo, we had no issue and only saw a few Washington County Sheriff’s SUVs. The traffic was light, and soon we were hunting for cheap parking in the Pearl. No dice. We disembarked from Air Volvo in the parking garage, took the elevator to the surface world, and walked a block to meet Mariah, already at table #13–the best one for viewing the sports screens.

There we enjoyed the various brewed products, Mariah and Barb exchanged dog photos and stories, and Mariah and I had the world’s best chicken wings (rumors are that the chickens volunteer to be the best). At the same time, Barb wondered why anyone would eat that. Barb had a pizza (pineapple and ham that did not cause any pizza purists to run screaming from the room). We had a good time and fine food. Mariah got to see the 2600 copy with my name in it–all good.

Barb and I returned to the Volvo Cave without issue. We both were tired and decided it was best to sleep. I still had trouble sleeping, and I did reread my 2600 story.

Thanks for reading!