I woke early and was up at about 6 writing the blog. I could not sleep after sunrise today. I had liberal coffee made in the French press, yogurt, and a banana. I was strangely hungry all day and snacked a few times. I finished the antibiotics, and the bleeding in my belly incision is now just a single dot of blood. I was in my PJs until noon as I had no plans and was not going out.
I did remember on Thursday to put out the trash and the recycling, so I did not have to rush out in my robe when I heard the trucks. I was right that it was recycling week. My neighbors had out the lawn waste, but I was sure (based on my full recycling bin) that it was a recycling week. |
I found the leftover beef-based goulash had not been consumed, so I heated it for lunch. I was careful to chew and not choke while watching recent YouTube Battleship New Jersey and ShipHappens releases. I had choked before when eating too fast while multitasking, so I was careful and aware. Battleship New Jersey is back at its dock and will soon reopen to the public after dry docking. The video covered why New Jersey is the lightest of the Iowa-class Battleships (less armor)–definitely a Battleship geek fest. ShipHappens has reached the point where they are about to rebuild the deck on their WW2 wooden ship (it was at D-Day). After my naval geek-out, I showered, dressed, and prepared for the rest of my day.
My allergies are harsh. I sneezed for five minutes and had a coughing attack when I went to bed. Today, it was cold and overcast, but there was no pollen-removing rain. The impact is less as I take Montelukast at night, a generic of Singulair. I have been taking it for over a year, and it helps, especially in our winter, which is often full of mold. I no longer cough all the time.
The afternoon was spent picking up the house, doing laundry, and the dishes. Dondrea and I agreed to meet for lunch and the board games on Sunday for Birdie (Dondrea’s nickname), pizza, and salad. Z and I will teach Birdie how to play Wyrmespan. It is an excellent game, and we have played it over and over.
With no plans for Friday, I made dinner. I boiled salted water, found pasta sauce in a jar, cooked sweet Italian-style sausage, and cooked pasta in the water. The sausage was from Trader Joe’s and not bad. I fried all the links in a non-stock pan (thanks, Steve) and got them brown on two sides. I then added water that turned quickly to steam. I covered it and let the hot steam cook the sausage and also render out some of the fat. I then cut each in half, now cooked, and sliced them up. This is tricky as they are literally steaming hot. I managed to get it done and then browned the bits in the same pan. The water cooked away, and soon it was browning. I heated the pasta sauce in a pan and then poured that into the frying pan (my father would have removed the fat, but I don’t) and let it cook with the sausage. The pasta was cooked the usual way. I take a measuring cup and grab a cup of the starchy and salted water. I add this to the pasta sauce in the frying pan. I strain out the pasta using the usual way and then combine the now thicker pasta sauce with the pasta. I had a few bowls but never a full bowl. It was good; my tastes slowly returned as the impact of thrush was fading.
I read for a while and started clearing my table of figure painting items. I plan to start on my mini-submarine project, but I need some unclustered space. I also tried to make the Arduino Alvik that arrived a few days ago. I was disappointed as the device requires complex Unix-based updates (Apples are Unix/Linux-based machines, so I can do it on my Apple) that are only partially explained, so I gave up for now. There is an install.sh that needs to be run from somewhere, but it is unclear where (the name is popular, and I have many of these on my Apple). Arduino Alvik is Python-based, and I hoped to demo it at the Hillsboro Python and Machine Learning Meetup. Maybe they will update the instructions, or I will decide to invest the time to work out what is needed and do it. More to come, but I put the device in the garage; I was frustrated that the device was not better supported–I moved on.
Having seldom left the house and resting, Friday came to a close. Friday, I changed back to my revised practice of showering before going to bed to reduce the pollen in my sheets. This reduces the coughing. My bandage, as I said, showed only a tiny spot. Better.
I received my last paycheck from Nike. It included 102 hours of paid time off and my unused stock purchase money being returned to me. About 1.5 months of pay. I called HR and learned that the settlement of 48 weeks’ pay will be paid out in July. I am officially no longer part of Nike today. I was sent COBRA information, strong suggestions not to use it and to find my own insurance (no surprise there), and information on how to file for unemployment. The Oregon Insurance marketplace does not provide dental or vision care, so paying COBRA for 16 months makes sense to me now. More to follow.
A short blog today for a quiet day. Thanks for reading.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 