Monday in the Pearl

I was surprised to wake at 8, as I usually wake with the sunrise and then roll over, but rise at 7. This time, I woke late. I went to bed late two days in a row—I needed the sleep. I found the kitchen after I put on my slippers–it had not moved. I found a banana and made locally roasted and ground coffee from Kenya that I had purchased in Hillsboro. I read the news, mostly political, and downloaded my transactions for my accounts. My AMEX is still getting used here and there; I am trying to change everything to my Alaska Air Miles card to insulate my bank card and earn the miles. I watch everything involving money with care.

Every account is protected with two-factor authentication, meaning a hacker/thief would require my user ID, password, and email or phone control to gain access to my assets. While there is some exciting phishing stuff now that is easy to slip into, the two-factor process halts all as it requires me to read the code to them (or physically have my phone or access to my email account at Apple), and that is not happening. And, as I learned a few times, there are source-of-fund requirements to move money, and hackers would find it difficult to move the money (as I have learned) without calls to various institutions and providing letters, bank statements, and other reassuring documents. I am as safe as I can make it.

I write the blog, and it takes a while to cover a busy Sunday. I am not done until late morning. I clean up and dress. I slice up some chicken breasts I grilled yesterday, add rice and teriyaki sauce, and microwave them. That is my lunch, and I cannot finish it. I located the quilt made from Susie’s t-shirts, addressed it to Leta (Susie’s mother), and took it to the post office. I also tried on some size 40 paints, and they fit better than my current 42 pants. I bought them years ago, and my weight was out of control, and they were too small. I kept them with the hope that I would get this under control. It has been a long time, but now they are usable. I put them in Air Volvo with the other package. There was a short line at the post office, and soon, the quilt was headed to Michigan. The dry cleaners will have the pants shortened (I purchased them unfinished) by Monday.

Today would have been my return to work day after my brain surgery. This is the 9th Monday since my brain surgery to remove the tumor. It is also the 13th Monday since being laid off by Nike, Inc. It seems a long time ago that I was in the ICU recovering from the surgery, and even further away, I was in Michigan with John Nilsen for another celebration of life for Susie. But it has only been eight weeks, and the layoff was just ninety days ago–so strange.

Returning to the story, I head to Big River Coffee and spend a few hours reading the Annotated Sherlock Holmes (the older and cheaper version) and marking interesting text with Post-It arrows. While I read and learn, I daydream of certain plot lines and puzzles for my own Holmes and Watson stories. To elaborate, after learning that Holmes and Watson had moved into the public domain, I started a new direction in short stories with a modern Artificial Intelligence story with Holmes and Watson. So far, I have only 1300+ words.

Before expanding my story, I felt I needed to get more familiar with the setting and the cadence of Holmes’ and Watson’s speech and writing (both characters write and tell stories in the original). I am in the first story, following the chronological order and not the usual order of following the original publication process: “The Adventure of the Gloria Scott” (1893). This short story shows Doyle’s skill in putting together a good Sherlock story with a cipher for a young Holmes to solve and other tricks of what hackers would call social engineering. An excellent one to start my learning and align with the original–I recommend it.

After a few hours of reading, thinking, and daydreaming (and a side task researching American Clipper ship model building after the clippers are mentioned quite a few times as the story is set in 1845, the heyday of clippers), I also learned that the story, as told by Holmes, is set in 1845, not 1855 which Holmes uses, as that would not fit the facts in the story—this is covered in quite some detail in the annotation. The story was told in 1887 in Sherlock and Watson’s timeline, and it may be a perfect time for my stories. I leave about 3:30 as my head is full of ideas.

Aside: Clippers were replaced by the last of the sailing ships, the windjammers. Windjammers were metal monster sailing ships (forcing or jamming the wind). The famous and only surviving clipper, Cutty Sark, is a transitional ship from clippers and windjammers with its metal, cement, and wood construction. In turn, the windjammers, who appeared as steam also appear, were soon forced out of service once steamships with the new technology stabilized. However, they were fast and huge and are what most folks think of when thinking of a sailing or tall ship now. A few later-built windjammers survive in Germany as museum ships. The wreck on Oregon beach, Peter Iredale, is a windjammer.

I return home and read for a while, changing to a dress shirt and my green sweater vest for dinner with Dondrea and Z in Portland. Then, some of my XIAO additional microcontroller parts arrive. This round watch-like display for XIAO includes a traditional LiPo plug battery connection, a clock battery, and various useful items, including an off/on switch. I like it. The rest of my orders just left China (I had to translate the trace into English). I will return to this project soon.

I headed to Dondrea’s house, facing only moderate traffic. I was slightly early, and we chatted for a while. Next, we boarded Air Volvo, and Dondrea, from the co-pilot/first-class seat, gave me directions to use the back roads for half of the trip. Z was napping in biz-class one row back. We arrived without issues in the Pearl District in Portland and parked in the Whole Foods garage. We headed to Powell’s and explored. I always check out the cookbook section and find one I like, but I do not like enough to invest in it; books are more of an investment at these prices. And climbed to the third floor and found the Artificial Intelligence section. There are new AI books,  and are priced at over $70; I did not find any that a good free online course would not cover the same material. I see that the AI deep learning has a lot of books now (same comment).

We reassembled and headed to dinner. But where? Our defaults were Deschutes Brewery or Screen Door. We walked up the streets and soon found over priced places were closed on Monday. We found The Star Portland and agreed on Pizza. We got a table and soon were waiting. Monday is not a great day to try out a food joint and the service was painfully slow.

We finally got our first appetizer, three meatballs. Dondrea raved about them, and we all loved them. The sauce was not overly sweet, and the meat was properly spiced and mixed—which was good, as the pizza we ordered had meatballs! Next, we got, again after a long wait, cheezy bread, a wonderful dill-based ranch, and more excellent tomato sauces served with it. That all but disappeared into us as now we were hungry.

Then, the deep-dish pizza appears. It is an amazing pie, and most of it disappeared inside of us. Dondrea and I regret every delicious bite, but we cannot stop. Dondrea is thinking about a five-mile run to remove the impact of pizza. I cannot imagine what I will have to do. It is the first pizza for me in months. Only two slices make it to a box.

Despite the slowness caused by the understaffing, the food was wonderful and recommended. Don’t come on an off-night (like Monday) and expect fast service, but the wait is worth it. We enjoyed it and soon headed out, later than we expected. We found the car in the parking garage, and I paid $8 for parking (!?). Air Volvo dropped Donrea and Z off at their house, and I arrived at the Volvo Cave without issue.

I did the accumulating dishes, read more, showered, climbed into bed, read even more, nodded off, woke after midnight, padded to the kitchen, found my eye grease, and slept well until waking late on Tuesday.

Thanks for reading!