Tuesday Feeling Better

Going backward, I went to bed near midnight as I was reading more of Piper Kerman’s Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison. It is hard to put down, but it is a nearly week-by-week description of prison life, and the pacing is hard on the reader. I want it to end; it is hard to believe how broken the prison system is and how aware it is of this. Corruption is not the right word for the acceptance of treating people so cruelly; it may be evil. Dante’s version of Hell and evil becomes more clear to me. Evil may be the belief that cruel treatment must continue as there is no way to change, and thus, we must accept that as reality and participate. Awful. The book is recommended, and I assume the NetFlix show is good, too.

I showered and got into my PJs at 11, as I had been working on my project. There was no bleeding, and my weight remained unchanged at 234 pounds. My left eye still needs drops, and the left side of my mouth and taste, while improving, is still not working that well. The Bell’s palsy is slowly fading.

I was working with XIAO hardware from Seeed. These are easily programmed in my Arduino IDE, and I am very comfortable with the special version of C used in Arduino programming. I have one XIAO that uses WiFi and has a camera. This will be one XIAO with a camera that connects to WiFi to serve the video. I think I will go with the other Bluetooth one, which will control the motor, servos, and lights. Each has its own battery and charging. I am thinking first of a diving bell version. A boat above that can lower it, and this explains the two separate XIAOs. The idea is to build a smallish diving bell and lower it from a small service boat in an aquarium. This can then be rebuilt as a submarine once we get all the basics working. Due to power issues, the boat can do only one thing at a time, and likely, the boat motor can only run in one direction (using the most basic motor control with diodes and capacitors to prevent reverse power issues). There may need to be an extra power source for the boat, but that can wait.

I spent the last hours of the evening working on the project and thinking through the options (I ordered tiny 360 continuous servos while writing this). I made my dinner of a pork chop, the rest of Farmer’s Market carrots steamed, and corn on the cob boiled with butter and some salt. I made a pan sauce for the pork chop. I made dinner for one and apologized to Corwin when he showed up and smelled my dinner. I usually made him dinner, but since he moved out, I thought it would be dinner for one. He did not mind. He loaded up more stuff and continued the process of getting his stuff out of the house. The garage is mostly back to being my stuff, but the bedroom and living room still need work. Corwin surprised me by cleaning the bathroom and packing up his gear.

Before this, I cleaned off the table so I could start on my projects. I left the tools but put away the paints, figures, and brushes. I also collected various receipts and papers that have swallowed another flat surface. The paper blob is hard to resist as everything wants to give me more paper. I have most of my accounts set to paperless, but receipts and medical stuff generate endless paper. I put the paints and other items in small Amazon boxes in a space near the wall, out of direct sight. It all needs to be organized.

Before this, I headed to Reedville Creek Park, just a few miles away, and walked the walking circle twice. I wanted some safe and comfortable walking, and Susie and I used to love to visit this park. This park includes a skate park, and some young folks were lighting some loud fireworks in the fireproof cement of the skate area instead of skating (or doing fireworks in the woods and starting a fire). It being Oregon, nobody seemed to mind as there was no risk of fire, and the kids seemed enthralled.

After the walk, I went to Red Robin, thinking a bowl of chili would work. Alas, they don’t make that anymore, so I was stuck with an average Cobb salad with avocado and a half chicken breast (mostly dried out). I was tempted to order a side of fries, but I resisted (I should get golf claps for that). I gave the bartender (I had iced tea) a good rating as I paid the bill on their self-pay system. The salad was not his fault, but I regretted the $18 plus tip. I try to order things I don’t or can’t make, and I like their chili. F**k, I will make chili on Friday!

Before this, I rose at 8ish, having enjoyed multiple proofs of hydration, and sleep felt like a heavy blanket that one wanted to pull up and enjoy more. But throwing off the comfort, I rose and made a Denver omelet with frozen peppers (skipping the onions) and withholding the ham (I priced ham, and it skyrocketed in price); just the cheese, eggs, and peppers were good enough. I added to this coffee (liberal), toast with low-sugar jam, and a banana. I wrote the blog and finished before 11. Dressed and was ready for a walk.