Saturday without games

Our leader for games on Saturday is camping, and Kathleen was unable to join me in Portland. It was a quiet Saturday.

I rose at 6, with the sunrise waking me at 5. I tried to roll over and return to sleep, but the hives drove me to get up and treat them. I was itchy all day. I was able to control most of the hives with some skin cream and taking a morning shower. Something in the smoke is making me sneeze and react. The air quality is good, but something in the air is irritant. I must have walked through something and carried it into the house. I will wash the bedding as that usually helps.

I wrote a long blog, but as I started early, I was through before 11. I had the usual distractions, but I wrote more than 1,800 words. Again, there were many asides and musing and a few rewrites to remove ‘so’ and then to re-write the re-write from Grammarly, which is out of its AI’s mind. I still use the service as it finds missed plurals and other basic mistakes that I find difficult to spot. Grammarly attempt to rewrite a paragraph often requires me to correct its updates. I often reject its more invasive recommendations.

I’m happy to publish the blog before noon; I shower, shave, and so on to be prepared for Saturday. A text updates me that Dondrea has already done her run, which motivates me to put on my Air Force Ones and head out. The air has a hint of pine and smoke, and the sun is not yet burning hot. There are some clouds in the sky, and some of the blue is dark, meaning the smoke is not heavy; it still feels cool from the evening. Air Volvo takes me to Reedville Creek Park and soon I am walking the loops.

The group of Asian men, now one with a girlfriend, is there again, sitting at a bench and doing something on their phones. They are intense and then walk, looking at their phones the whole time, to another bench. They go back and forth on the benches. The girl is as intense as the others looking at her phone while having an arm around one of the men.

Another couple was running and walking the same loop. I told them that I measured that loop at 725 steps or thereabouts. Later, we stopped and chatted, and they said that steps are a function of heights and that the loop is about 1/3 of a mile. The world is literally smaller for taller people. We both continue with our loop. The park is busy and at least four groups are on the loop this Saturday morning. I managed to complete five loops, with the last one being hard, but I feel I might be able to do six soon. Better.

I stop by Sonics and commit a lunch sin, but a favorite lunch. I have a foot-long Coney Island dog with chopped chili, onions, and cheese. I have a Coke Zero for the first time–not terrible. The onion rings, extra, were not worth eating. I listened to the end of “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me” and some of “Live Wire” on Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB). Having a Coney Island and listening to my favorite shows on OPB was nice.

After dumping the trash (and most of the onion rings) in the supplied container, Air Volvo headed to Big River Coffee across from the car wash, which I did not need, having washed Air Volvo on Friday. I had no pen in the car to mark Post-Its arrows with notes. I opened the Annotated Sherlock Holmes to “The Musgrave Ritual,” which is sort of a treasure hunt story, and found the footnotes quite interesting (this is the older 1968 book, not the new and more expensive annotated copy). The footnotes were about the streets, buildings, and living costs.

This caught my attention, and soon, I was on my laptop searching Abebooks.com for an 1887 London travel guide–the year the telling of “The Musgrave Ritual” by Holmes to Watson, according to the experts. These older travel instruction documents are often inexpensive and can be found in good condition. I have a whole collection for the 1920s. There were few choices for London, but there is a special version for Americans: Charles A. Gillig’s guide to London and important suburban districts: specially compiled for the use of American travellers, 1887. I could not find an original for cheap, but the book reprinters and binders in India offered a $40 leather-bound copy of a print from a digital copy. What the hell, I thought, and I ordered one (it takes a month). I have two other reprint books the same way and like them. I like to be precise when writing about the past.

I return to the Volvo Cave after finishing my coffee and finding reading not what I want to do. Then I sit down with my new Strategy and Tactics Quartly Fall 2024: Grant’s Overland Campaign. I have played these battles and Grant’s earlier chaotic victories in the West (back then, the Ohio Valley was West), and I find I was wrong, and I can read. I finish the prologue. This issue is written by a retired General Bell (no relation, I think), and I enjoy his writing style. I have a subscription to these quarterly military history publications as they are current-thinking and colorful, and I often read 1/2 of the whole magazine.

I do some more research on investing. I discovered that the Treasury’s short-term instruments, as their quality is unquestioned, pay low rates for inflation-protected options. I can get the same rate in my savings account without locking in for years.

I managed to put down Grant’s story. I head to The 649 for a beer and a light dinner. I brought my laptop, hoping to do some more writing. Natalia is bartending, and I have not seen her in months. We catch up, and I have a lighter summer beer and find a seat that points out the window. Most of the tables are already in use, and no smaller tables have proper light.

I wrote for a while and then started back into my AI story of Holms and Watson as AI creations. I found an ending with Holms refusing to accept a poorly created client interface. I thought having an AI refuse to work with its creator over bad software was fun. I was able to finish the first draft and will return to editing it and smoothing it out soon.

I also discovered a 4.6% interest for 100K CDs at US Bank and locked in one for seven months. I will leave much of my money liquid, but getting some good interest on 1/3 works for me. I also ordered a coffee while doing high finance and a hummus platter with mostly veggies, some cheese, and some pita bread.

I returned home after paying the bill. I returned to my model building now that it was dark and beyond 9. I finished painting the hull of SMS Derfflinger 1916 by adding a thin black line to the bottom of the waterline model. I started to read the etched brass instructions and removed the plastic that brass would replace. I primed one sheet of brass and then discovered that the parts were scattered across multiple brass sheets. I will have to prime them all before I start on the full build. With this kind of model building, you ignore the plastic model instructions and follow the new instructions with the etched brass. You build the model in sections and assemble it all at once. This will prevent you from breaking and smashing up the brass you built previously.

At 10, I decided that I was not going to open, clean, wash, or prime ten sheets of brass. I returned to reading about Grant and soon showered and headed to bed. I have to wait for The Machine to finish with the sheets. I remake the bed and soon sleep.

(the bourbon rose is reblooming!)

Thanks for reading. Sorry, the last section was rushed as I ran out of time.