I do not usually stay in bed until after 9AM. I feel like I lose a day when I do that, as the hours missing make the day seem truncated. Night comes too soon. But, the new clean sheets and sleep were so comfortable I decided to enjoy it. I could have stayed in my blankets all morning, but at 9:15ish, I finally climbed out of my cacoon like some failed attempt of a butterfly. Not wings and lovely nectar sipping, but a stumbling grey-haired guy needing coffee.
I found a roll I put in the frig; the ants can’t find it in there unless they have little parkas, and poured some Rwanda fair trade coffee in my cup (thanks, Kramers). I settled into the in-house office and on my Apple using Grammarly and WordPress to create the next blog. The work spanned the morning and was completed in the early afternoon after 1PM. I reheated the not-so-porcupine meatballs, which were better the second time. The undercooked, at least I thought it was, garlic and onions balanced on reheat. Morning and lunch were gone before I was ready for their completion. I dressed after 1PM!
The colon issues, the dizziness, and the general feeling of blah were all gone. But the day was disappearing fast; I called Dondrea to learn that we were indeed playing board games during choir practice tonight. Air Volvo is stuffed with board games at this moment. Excellent.
I headed to Wildwood Taphouse, about ten minutes away, in Air Volvo with my Apple laptop. The traffic was back as it was a regular work day for most. Brook was our bartender. I did not remember the bartender’s name, but I no longer let that bother me. I asked for it again and used it. I try not to use “dear” instead of “ma’am,” which puts so many teeth on edge in the Pacific Northwest. I prefer to use names to avoid gender pronouns or replacements like ma’am or sir.
Aside: I do not struggle with pronouns to be politically correct or to burnish my cancel culture or woke credentials. I believe strongly that I have no right to assign people to ethnic groups or to gender, and that to do that is a form of privilege I should avoid. To expand, I cannot let the historically racist and gender-bashing English structure force me to create these unnecessary lines. It is also fun to try to avoid gender–a mental game that keeps me sharp. I do not always succeed, but I try and apologize when I get it wrong.
I order a bright and low-alcohol beer product from their twenty offerings. The high numbers are outstanding dark beers that I love but must be taken in small amounts. The alcohol percentage can be 50% higher than my selection. I avoid them as I worry about self-medicating (I am still grieving my wife’s passing) and getting home safely and legally.
I drink my bright beer while trying something I have not done before. I started on a new idea. Sherlock Holmes and Watson are now entirely in the public domain (1 Jan 2023), so I thought I should try them on. I struggled as I had to remember the cadence of their discourse, and I brought no sources with me. I also discovered I had no clear memory of their 221B Baker’s Street apartment. I did have to surf the net and found some beautiful drawings and various websites to help. That lets me know the names of a few items. For example, Holmes sits in an armchair, not a sofa. I managed a first-page draft, mostly in my wording, which needs to be made more Watson-style, about 600 words. Grammarly interceded to help with some wooden wording and simple errors–what it is best at. I ignored many ‘clarity’ improvements.
A small unfinished sample:
“Watson, I have made some adjustments to make you more comfortable. I have filtered some of the information that is unnecessary for you to receive to function as, well, my ‘Watson.'” My look did not change with this explanation. I felt that I had yet to receive any meaningful ‘information.’ And–I found my thought processes using words and processes that seemed less me and more mechanical. I seemed to understand more than I should.
“Watson, we are artificial—a creation. We are artifacts of a mechanical process. We are unreal but conscious. To re-coin a phrase, we are Artificial Intelligence,” said Holmes, using the same voice and look in his eyes as he says when explaining one of his brilliant deductions.
“I think I understand, Holmes,” I surprised myself by saying. I suddenly felt I understood that I was a construct and also alive.”
Comments are welcome.
I am unsure if I will have the time to finish this or if I can wrap myself in Watson’s style and make something at least worthy of reading. More to come. I was happy to write a creative piece. Also, since Watson’s writings are in the first person and about their experiences, my years now of blogging have helped me find the words. To write this, I imagine myself as Holmes explaining to Watson and writing in Watson style to blogging about it. A new article, if I can manage it, for 2600, I suspect.
While I wrote, JR kindly brought me a sample of number 19. Dark as night and with burnt grain and malt flavors all mixed and grown in the process to a magical elixir. I used to say, “I want something as dark as my soul,” but that comes too close to the truth with the grief. Now, I get something bright to fight back the darkness. Still, the dark beer was beautiful and brought back memories of the summer.
JR and I chatted for a while and wished each other a prosperous 2024. I returned to my surfing of websites and discovered three maps, none quite matching, of Holmes and Watson’s apartment. Apparently, Doyle’s descriptions are incomplete and even contradictory. The Japanese Sherlock club has the best drawing from what I saw made by an expatriated Brit teaching in Japan. That helped. I completed my first page. I am headed to five or so pages.
It was getting late, the day vanishing fast with my late start, and I paid my bill and thanked JR and Brook. It was the 5th anniversary of the Taphouse, but they will celebrate on the 20th (I will be out of town). I wished everyone a happy anniversary and took Air Volvo through the regular heavy 5-ish traffic to Beaverton Old Town.
I parked at the church and walked to the local Thai place. The 20-something pretty host asked me about a table for one, but I headed to the bar. This seemed to surprise the staff. I seldom eat at a table when alone. It is less lonely at the bar. Apparently, few customers here in Beaverton eat at the bar.
I had the pumpkin curry after asking the bartender for a recommendation, who seemed distressed to have a customer, and I failed to get the bartender’s name. It was starchy pieces of a squash-like veggie in a sauce that I poured over rice, just about the worst case for a diabetic like me. Still, it was OK, but I wanted good. Next time, the chicken!
I saw a manager of a consulting firm who was eating alone, whom I had known for a few years. I learned thus that the soup was great–my other choice. We talked for a bit about computer stuff and Nike’s internal stuff. Nothing I can repeat here. I was offered employment instead of retiring in the future, and I learned that they were looking to poach (my word) Nike employees and consultants for the manager’s company. The consulting firm was clearly trying to buy ready-made expertise from Nike as the projects went on. I demurred. I was laughing on my walk back to the church, but away from the manager’s hearing–no reason to be rude. A strange dinner for me.
Soon, Dondrea and Z appeared, and Z selected the board game Wingspan to play that evening. Soon, we were playing the fastest Wingspan game I think I have ever played. Z is twelve (soon thirteen) and burns with all the wild energy of a young person, driving me to play fast, too. I love to play fast.
I build my first and last rows to give me more food and cards. I have some luck, and the cards I play, birds in the game, have powers that help me. Z has fewer powered cards. We fly (is that a pun) through the first game, and I lead by twenty points. We play again; this time, I am even luckier and have an early, nearly unbeatable combination. A flaw in the game is that an early lead is often impossible to overcome. We are playing two players, and the player count has a significant factor of luck.
We are waiting for the third game, which Andrew will become available to join after helping to set up the church sign. I jump in to help with the sign as it will reduce the time. Z practices her lines for a try-out for a school play. We wait some more, and finally, I do a quick teach for Andrew. Andrew, like Z, is a friendly gamer and quick to pick up a teach of a game. We managed to play a round before running out of time. Z was doing better this time, and Andrew seemed to like Wingspan. Next time, we will get more time in with Andrew.
After that, Air Volvo returned me to the Volvo Cave without much traffic. I used 209th now that the street is open from TV Highway. It was nice to be back to using my usual streets instead of the construction detours.
At home, I had some crackers and some smoked surgeon as a snack before I took my meds. Food is required to not have a tummy issue from the drugs. I ordered a new book after seeing it offered at the 221B Baker’s Street museum website: The Moriarty Papers: The adventures of Sherlock Holmes’s Great Nemesis. I have ended my Amazon monthly payments after Amazon decided to add commercials to their video content. I will try to not buy from them. My books are from Abe.com now. I do have to pay shipping, but often the total is lower than Amazon and the service better. I found a book in Texas for about $11 with shipping in new condition. I will see if I can buy from non-Amazon sources–a new challenge for 2024 brought on by Amazon’s policy changes.
I read more of
I found myself with my eyes closed dreaming the next paragraph. I managed to stop, put the Kindle down, and rest before I dropped the Kindle on my face or chest. I was soon asleep. I did wake a few times, as usual, but I managed to sleep until 9AM as I said.
Thanks for reading!
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 