Today 16Nov2023: Thursday

Wednesday night, I finished the blog sitting at the bar of Wildwood not far from the Volvo Cave. I had a second lighter beer, a locally made Pilsner while setting up the solo game, Ottoman Sunset. Some of my fellow beer drinkers were interested in the board game and came and looked at it after I had played it for a while. The goal was to survive the events that the Ottoman Empire (and later the Young Turks) faced from 1914 to 1918. These events are represented by a deck of cards that move threats, represented by troop markers on tracks coming closer to Istanbul. The deck has three sets of events at different times, but you must play them all to win. You can also sort them by number to repeat history in order. While the threats come closer, you have battles on other fronts to win and keep the people supporting the war. If they don’t, you repeat the fall of the Empire, just like what happened in history.

I found the cards exciting and managed to get through most of them, with maybe twenty left when Istanbul fell to the British Mesopotamian force. Lawrance of Arabia was also closing on me, too. I am not sure I like the game yet, as I mostly hoped for good rolls (representing driving back the invaders), and that is not a strategy (but it might be historically more accurate). I think it will play fast once I have the game rules down. The events in the deck are like a class on WW1 moments. I think there are more strategies available to me.

I closed Wildwood as I left just before 10PM when they close on Wednesdays. Air Volvo got me home without incident, and soon I went to bed. I woke up; I was working from home today as I had a delivery today, at 7AM (getting a little more sleep than my usual 6AM).

Waking and getting started were hard. I was missing Susie and just wanted to say, “F**k you,” to the world, and roll over and never get up again. I don’t want this world without my wife. I do not want the memory of her death and her body’s last moment with me, lovely dressed by Jennifer and holding Bunny, her hat, and a rose I brought her a day before. No tears, just sitting on the bed looking at my slippers.

But I put them on. I got my robe. I made coffee. I reheated wonton soup for breakfast–I need to go grocery shopping, but I like soup for breakfast. I take the soup and coffee into the home office and start my day.

Today for work is a KT day: Knowledge Transfer. Our team has a consulting company writing the code and designing some of the solutions for the new go-live this December. They need to turn them over and provide us with KT. While the developers have written some impressive items, the code has flaws and needs some important corrections. Apparently, I am still a talented enough ABAP programmer to help define these issues. I am glad I could bring some value. Notes and discussions will follow, but KT is done. We get the new stuff with the issues we identified. Life in IT for a multi-national. All this is on Zoom with India and the USA overlapping our morning and their early evening.

Between things, I also cleaned up my Quicken accounts and got eTrade reconnected to Quicken, at least partially. I also opened a new high-interest savings account, a 4.5% interest account in US Bank, under my name and Social Security Number. I can move the insurance money there now. Better.

John Nilsen has set aside 23March2024 in Beverton and 18April2024 in Lansing for Susie’s Celebration. More details to follow. I still have to check with Grace United Methodist in Lansing if we can have that date, but I think it should be OK as we are so far in advance.

Leta, Susie’s mother, has surgery on her broken arm on Friday. Leta fell last week and broke her right arm. I am hopeful.

I had a few more Zoom meetings to approve software changes and process items. A headache had me resting for the afternoon. I was glad I was home; the headache would have sent me home anyway.

My super (and expensive) chessboard controller for my cool electronic chessboard was delivered today. I powered it up and updated it by giving it access to my WIFI network. It is Raspberry Pi inside and Linux and can play, using a natural and standard wood chess set, across the internet. Yes!

I recycled Susie’s Skater Magazines and started clearing away the paper blob she had from years of ice skating, judging, and interacting with the cancer folks in Seattle. The rules books, notes from classes on judging, and other items without context without Susie are going. It is sad, but Susie would likely have tossed them years ago if she had been well enough, so there is nothing to save.

I found Susie’s own clipboard with her name on it. It was a treasured possession of hers, a gift for judging in a competition, and she always had it with her when judging. She would always use it instead of a plain clipboard. The clipboard was next to three inches of rules books in a Cambell Soup World Championship skating bag, another treasured possession. I remember Susie carrying that with her when she was judging. I kept the bag and the clipboard.

I will continue clearing the papers, magazines, and unneeded documents. Again, Susie would have done it if she was well enough years ago. Time to let go. There is time for everything, as the preacher said. I hope to get the room back in order and my chess table back in the room to use with the new computer.

I forget how grief leaves me mixed up sometimes. I popped out to Safeway for groceries and items to make Indian food tonight. It took me three trips around Safeway to get everything. I realized I had forgotten my wallet, put my cart aside, headed out, and took Air Volvo on a here-and-back trip to get it in just a few minutes. I then checked out and walked out without my bank card or paying.

I must admit, I was thinking about Susie the whole time I was shopping today and almost heard her telling me I should buy something. “Buy the good toilet paper–remember the last time you bought the cheap stuff,” I remember her saying.  Susie loved to grocery shop with me. She was the dietician, so I had to do what she said; she loved that. She pushed the cart, and I got to walk behind.

Returning to the story, one of the checkers, the Iraqi guy Awz, stopped me, wished me well, and told me how sorry he was about my loss. While I did not think I was upset, I managed to walk out as I said. The other checker ran after me and brought me back to Safeway to fix everything and return my bank card. Everything was OK, and everyone was supportive–they saw the grief that I did not know I was showing. It was a hard day.

On the more fun side, the holidays are starting, and the world apparently needed to update the gingerbread house. Yes, you can get Barbie, Trolls, Swiss Miss, Godiva, and Minion versions of the old gingerbread house kits. I said, “F**k,” when I saw this. Not sure we really needed this.

I know what you (at least some of you) are thinking. “WTF! Where is the Star Wars one?” A silver one for the Mandalorian. Maybe we should also have a retro Star Trek house too. Hmmm.

After I returned to the Volvo Cave and put away my goodies, I defrosted the chicken breasts I had put out in the microwave. I reserved one huge chicken breast for later. I cut up the rest, still partially frozen (it cuts easier), and made a mix of garlic and ginger paste with lots of ground cardamom with salt and some turmeric powder. I added cayenne pepper for a little zing. I put this on the chicken and rubbed it in, and let the chicken warm up while absorbing the spices. I thinly sliced a red onion and combined that with some bay leaves together with the chicken, and fried it in a pan. Once done, the chicken was a bit tough, I sprinkled some chopped cilantro on it to finish it. I heated some frozen Naan from Trader Joe’s to go with it. This is a reworking of a recipe in 666 Curies, my favorite Indian-style cookbook–recommended.

I watched a movie, my usual modus operandi while cooking, and enjoyed Knives Out again. The headache comes and goes today. The food was great (but likely better with thighs or drumsticks as per the recipe). I then wrote the blog.

Thanks for reading.