Tuesday

I woke a few times, and the sunrise woke me, but I rolled over and did not rise until nearly 8. I rose, put on my slippers, and started my morning. I read my emails and looked at a few news items. I downloaded all the transactions into Quicken.

I wrote the blog with many distractions because I was not in a hurry. I finished it at about 11, which was very late for me. My lunch appointment was canceled, so I was not rushed. For breakfast, I had a banana and coffee.

I showered, shaved, replaced my bandage (still weeping), and so on. I used the microwave to heat a Trader Joe’s frozen Cuban-style rice bowl. I got reflux issues from it all day–f**k. I went through my electronics to find some existing parts for the miniature submarine I am thinking about building. The design I am basing this on uses an ESP VROOM without a connecting board. Not something I really want to do. I found I have an Adafruit Feather with the same hardware and would use Arduino IDE to program–better, but this will use more power and require a separate battery. Hmm. I also found a breadboard that I broke when plugging in another board with too long pins (It went thru the breadboard and ruined the connections–f**k). I found more batteries, jumpers, and another board (still loaded with stuff to read light levels for an Arduino sketch). While I spent some time looking through my supplies, I spent much of the time thinking of how to assemble a working test version on a breadboard.

I did the dishes and put more and more things away in the kitchen. I am starting to find the countertop! I am slowly putting away things, recycling items, and trying to get the house in order. It is a long-haul project!

I decided that I needed to clear the table with all my paints on it and make it ready for electronic work. This will require a lot of work, as well as finding places for paints, figures, and so on. That is the goal for the week: Get the table ready for electronic and modeling work (I want to return to my model building soon).

PT showed up at 3, and we went over my status. I graduated from home care (yay!) as I am not homebound but can care for myself. I have workout items to keep building strength and as the wounds heal (heal, damn it!) I will expand my workout. The joining of a workout place with a pool PT thought a good idea. PT and I discussed my experience on the MAX, and PT suggested some of my issues may have been balance-related. PT warned me about the Portland Street Car as they bounce more, and folks have fallen there when they have no issues on MAX or when walking on uneven surfaces. Boats and cruises maybe even worse. Generally, I should be careful and not surprised that I may get motion sickness more easily, which is too bad as I already had issues with it. PT checked my blood pressure, which was back to normal (110/70).

I saw PT out and was happy about my four to five weeks of services.

I did more reading and looked into basic tests for the hardware for the mini-submarine. Power and control, always complex and even harder at this scale, look like the main issues. I think the video part will be easy, as there are good examples, and that just requires copying from others who have this working. Video is writing live video to an SD card and then live serving that out via a web server. This is outside my experience, but I think I can do it.

I decided to take a break and try the Disney+ Acolyte show, which has a terrible rating. I had read that Disney haters had used social media to attack any new shows and that the ratings were wrong. So I turned it on and found a dark and interesting show set in the Star Wars universe, but 100 years before the movies. The assassination attempt (giving nothing away) in the first episode was surprising and extremely violent; Star Wars meets John Wick. While many people complain that the show is running against the accepted stories of Star Wars, I judge it on my interest and surprise level. I thought it was good and watched four episodes in a row. I will be back for more.

I made dinner, which took a while, and my back and legs hurt after that (I also did my exercises), so I found myself using painkillers to sleep. I made goulash from the German cookbook Michael G’s father gave me one Christmas. I added potatoes and carrots to the mix instead of making pasta. I chopped all the onions I had (some were bad and got tossed—I might stop buying them from Safeway, as this has happened twice now). I cook lots of beef stew meat and then add all the onions and garlic and let that cook. Next, I add all the spices, wine, tomato paste, and veggies and let it all cook on the stove for about an hour on something higher than low settings.

Corwin loved it, and I might have had a few bowls. I fill my bowls about 1/2-way now. Corwin agreed to do the dishes and put away the leftovers. I read some more, but I was cold and went to bed early. I read and took painkillers, as I said, and finally slept.

Not a very exciting day, but thanks for reading!