I am writing this Sunday morning, and the smoke is here. It came yesterday, which started with clear dark blue skies and ended with a smokey, yellow sunset. This morning I saw the yellow light telling us the smoke was still here. I do my exercising on Susie’s non-moving bike inside the AC house. The Air filters will have removed much of the worst smoke and pollen. So a more brutal start today.
Let us return then to the clear skies of Saturday morning!
I managed to get some good sleep and woke at 8ish and soon turned on the ABC News on the News channel on Amazon Fire and mounted the no-travel bike. I was at my limits at twenty minutes of two-bar peddling and did not travel four miles. This is my workout for the day and part of my retirement plan to lose twenty pounds. I prefer Bloomberg News, but that is $$.
Breakfast was an NYC bagel (thanks, Joyce) from the freezer. Popped into the microwave for twenty seconds, easily cut in half now that the bagel is not frozen and toasted. Added cream cheese to the bagel and poured liberal French Press coffee into a cup, and breakfast is done. Off to the office to read email, FaceBook stories, and news.
I ignored the laundry still in the dryer (it was already too wrinkled), stayed in the office, and disassembled the radio project. It has become a rat’s nest of wires, and the primary microprocessor is too slow and cannot store information between powering off and on. I am resolute that what I have is not what I want. I have another radio working with the same wiring, and I really wish it could remember the last station played. The new attempt included connecting the wires to a main board instead of the microprocessor and then connecting the processor to the same board. This created chaos instead of the order I thought it would create. Do over.
As the radio wires all landed in screw connections or other connectors, it was no problem to remove them. That at least worked. Soon I had the radio box back, empty, with wires in orderly bundles. Better. Ready to start again.
It was now time to visit Susie. I showered, dressed, and boarded Air Volvo. It is the last weekend before school starts for the teachers and another week for the kids. Some colleges are also beginning in August. Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer in the USA, is 4Sept2023 and is only a few weeks away. The sunlight was blindingly bright, and the skies were perfect dark blue, letting us know the air quality was good. The traffic was light (when soccer and other sports start running, even Saturday will be an adventure of dodging SUVs and minivans with desperately late soccer moms and dads), and I soon arrived 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.
(Yes, I copy that last bit into most blogs.)
Susie is happy to see me, and this time, as promised in the previous blog entry, I present Susie with her new scarf that I found at the Portland Art Museum (PAM). It was created by a native Pacific Northwest (PNW) American gal and is printed with local tribal imagery. It is soft silk and wide; soon, it will be the fall, and we will need it!
Before fall reaches us, after putting away the scarf for next month, Susie and I head out to Metzger Park next door; Anassa (the nurse aide on for the weekends) pops Susie into the wheelchair, and soon we are out the door. The weather was showing hints of fall already, as the temperature was back to reasonable, almost cold, and Susie had a blanket over her legs. The park was packed with events, and dogs were out with the humans; some of the humans were not even leashed. One large dog came over to be petted, but the unleashed human had to get the canine visitor as it taste-tested the gravel with likely unwanted results of those tests.
We found a bench for enough away from events not to have to claim we were their long lost relatives, Michael and Susie, and “Why, yes, I would like a hot dog and a beer.” But I digress. Instead of joining the 2023 Annual Cornhole Contest (with medals and ribbons to win), we called Leta and Barb, Susie’s mother and sister, respectively, by a three-way call on FaceTime. Barb was at Leta’s house but in the garden, and Leta was inside–kind of funny. We had a short happy chat. After the call, we finished a quick tour of the park and headed back inside. Susie was placed in her bed by Anassa, and I put on her TV the next season of “Only Murders in the Building.” Susie was soon asleep (she was sleepy in the park), and we just watched one episode; soon, I left after getting Susie safe with the gate and the crash pad in place (Susie sleepwalks or, in most cases, sleep falls). This setup process woke her, and I kissed her goodbye and promised to return on Sunday, and Susie agreed to get some rest. Friday’s Barbie movie trip wore her out.
Evan came in as the show started and was confused as he had not seen it before, but mostly the show is new each season. Evan and I were headed to the Scandinavian place after leaving Susie, but I forgot it was Viking Beer Festival, and I did not have tickets. The 649 was the replacement, but we ate at the Mexican place across from The 649. We had our usuals, and we learned that the Mexican waiter’s son married a Jewish girl, and he had a new grandbaby in Israel. What a fantastic world we live in–Grandpa was proud and slightly worried about understanding another culture.
Next, at The 649, Evan and I soon tried the new add-on for a favorite board game, Furnace. I incorporated the new components into the base game and got the game started with just a little fiddling. The new rules, components, and design for an automated opponent for two-player games worked well, except the Agent (as the automata is called) seemed unstoppable. Evan crushed me but was twenty points behind the machine player.
The changes to Furance were interesting. This included a way to buy another bid token. The new setup calls for separating the new cards and the basic cards from the original and selecting a limited amount of cards from the original game to balance the game better–exciting change. The game includes the addition of a possible fifth player. I have not tried the solo rules, and I assumed these, too, are improved rules. The game designers managed to avoid the usual bloat of add-ons for no purpose and to have recreated Furnace as an even better game. Recommended.
Next, Evan and I returned to the board game Architects of the West Kingdom. This game (my version is the final extended version with the matt) is a worker placement and resource management game with a suggestion of engine building. Scores are usually close, so every point (or negative point) matters. Evan knows this one well and fights to the end to win. I was running an alternative plan of building the cathedral and a great work. Evan had built high-value buildings. The final score, with my last turn empty (I was out of meeples, but I had no additional way to score anyway), was Evan’s 42 and mine’s 41. Anyone’s game, and I would play it the same way again. Evan built a building as his last act, proving that the game was ending in the next turn or so.
After that, I order too much food. I had ham and cheese (it is cheap there and a pressed sandwich) and a hummas** plate (less affordable)–I should have gone home and made a salad, but I wanted one more beer, and food is good with beer if you are soon driving, even one. Evan and I headed out our separate ways, with me winning no games and Evan proud of his scores. Next time!
**Grammaryly changed this word to human. Yikes! Always re-read!!
I rested at the house and read the adventure for the newish Role Playing Game (RPG) (Lamentations of the Flame Princess–lotfp), The Green Messiah. The adventure is written in the first person to the game runner (DM in RPG speak) with Bastard suggestions and references to other adventures. This low-level adventure is set on Earth in the 1600s is part of a set. I will have to get more.
lotfp is an alternative to the Old School Rules (OSR) of the original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Rules (AD&D) set in a 1600s alternative history Earth with magic (evil) and the church (the Spanish Inquisition being much less successful in this version of history) and royalty (the high authority still and using both forces with the means certainly justifying continued rule). Some day I will have to try it and maybe write for it. The Green Messiah is close to an adventure I wrote with aliens and mind control. I wrote this sci-fi adventure for Dungeons and Dragons 5E (Corwin wanted to try the SciFi alternative rules in 5E); I like this new stuff.
Next, I slept a bit (food and beer do that to me), woke up, and returned to the radio project. I drilled the radio case and installed a new power board by mounting it on brass stand-offs that I epoxied into the holes. This part needs a USB plugged into it, so it needs more stability than just hot glue. It will not move now.
I read some more while I let that dry for an hour. Next, it was getting late; I wired the new power to a new power board, replacing my previous idea of an interface board. I need power to be reachable, and I don’t care to have all the wires soldered to the same pin. I still need 5V and 3.3V power, so I used a Buck Regulator from Sparkfun in Denver this time. This excellent device is efficient and will cause lower heat than a usual regulator–it is much more expensive. I have it on stiff wires, which will float in the air. The power board, as I am calling it, will be mounted on the side and attached with hot-glued brass stand-offs. I do not need to have it do more than just stay up.
I put a coin battery-powered LED light in the radio box with hot glue holding it in place. This allows me to see better in the box. Initially, I was going to connect the light to the power board, but I burned myself on the diode I used to cut the power–talk about inefficient. The Internet is not always helpful in electronics; as I read that diode had to release 1/2 watt of heat, I wondered why this was OK when reading–so I tested by holding the parts together–pain! After running my fingers under cold water–it was not a cool design (pun, sorry). The tiny diode-sized blister is a good reminder that if it sounds wrong, it is likely wrong.
Going for the most uncomplicated design, I remembered I have hundred 2032 coin cells from China I bought some time ago (you are not surprised, I suspect, dear reader, that I have them). I had just ordered battery holders (single and two-cell versions with on/off switches) for another project (lighting gaming-sized buildings). So I just soldered up a coin cell light with a cool bar light (also from China and 3.7V and great with one coin cell)–these lights are used on kites to fly them at night as the lighting is lightweight and bright, and the extra metal, so helpful to attach it, is the heat sink too. Now I have a little light inside the radio box, making seeing so much better. I managed not to burn myself with the hot glue gun.
I tested more of the power, and everything worked. I connected the amplifier for the speakers. I split up the 3.3V and 5V without issue. Everything is ready for me to bring the M4 Grand Central Arduino Mega-styled board to the radio. This is a significant increase in power, and I hope my power system can handle the board, amp, and displays.
It was near midnight as I soldered the last wires not connected to the Grand, so I had gone as far as I could without programming. I did try to program a Gema (from AdaFruit in NYC) in Python to run the display. I have decided to run the excellent display with a separate M0 based $9 microcontroller, but my Apple M0 cannot handle the alternative storage of these devices. I will have to switch to my Windows system I have for such issues. Time to rest.
I, having taken my night meds, go to bed and sleep.
Thanks for reading.
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