Today 27Oct2023

Dear reader, I am at Wildwood Taphouse having a beer. I told the bartender that my wife had passed away on the 13th when she addressed me. I got a hug, and my beer was on the house. I did not know how to say it, so I told her. She was shocked and saddened, but now I did not have to pretend. The bartender seemed happy that I shared that with her.

I am writing the blog at a table, just enjoying the company and the energy of our local taps.

It was a dry day today, but it was still cool and grey. The forecast suggests sun for the weekend, but we will see.

I have been building a model, N-Scale, on and off all day that I am making for Richard for the board game Suburbia. It is not going as well as I hoped. The model has broken and has not come together as quickly as I expected. I also have to go out of order to enable lighting of the building, making it more complex. I decided to stop after painting some of the model’s surfaces. I will need to mask it, and that will take time. I also searched the house for my coin battery holders, but I could not find them. I put them somewhere before Matt organized the room, so it was not that. I gave up and ordered some more ($6) from Amazon to be delivered on Saturday.

Before this, I was eating Brunswick Stew with chicken I had made from scratch today, a huge pot. I found the recipe in the NY Times and wanted to try it. I started this before my work day finished as it needed to simmer for multiple hours. My boss reminded me via Slack that I had some training to complete. This corporate year, we have 90 days to complete Unconscious Bias and Cyber Security training. My laptop browser was not working right for one of the classes, so I stopped 1/2 way last month. Today, I copied the URL to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, and everything started to work–I use Google’s browser as a default. I completed the strew and the class at about the same time.

I watched the last part of the very long and latest Mission Impossible movie on my Apple while enjoying dinner. I had a couple of slices of my homemade bread with the stew. I buttered the slices and sprinkled them with just a little sea salt (I use unsalted butter). I enjoyed the movie. Dinner was good.

Before this, I was working from home, and it was a quiet day with about four hours of status meetings–all Zoom. The project I am working on is busy this weekend with a few things, but generally, we are quiet, and I do not have to work this weekend.

I did slip out and grocery shop for the Brunswick Stew and a few other items at Safeway. It is still strange to me to see full shelves and no masks being required–some folks (more than before, I think) are now wearing masks. I got a few bags and returned with my goodies to the Volvo Cave.

Work started at home at 8AM. I had trouble sleeping and woke at 5ish every ten minutes after that until I gave up and started my Friday at 7ish. I made liberal coffee, butter a slice of my bread, and added some jam; lastly, I finished the canned peaches I had started yesterday. I scoop out the fruit and, being diabetic, send the sugary juice down the drain.

I plan to pay off the loan on my 401K to cover Susie’s medical costs with the insurance money for Susie, but eTrade cannot seem to make their banking work. I can write a check and deposit and might do this soon. I should be able to transfer freely to my US Bank checking. I had issues with this before. eBanks are good at taking your money and less about sharing it. I am mildly annoyed–I have experienced this before, and if they don’t fix it soon, I will make some harsh decisions about their service and contact agencies about not having access to funds.

Before I headed out, I put the stew in containers and a freezer bag. I have enough for all week!

Thanks for reading!