Saturday Smoke, Cleaning, and Games

Sleep was wrecked the previous night, and I finally slept about 5, waking a few times and rolling over. At 8:30ish, I finally rose, feeling the mopping and vacuuming in my back, legs, and arms. I found the kitchen and my usual chair in front of my Apple M2 Air Macbook 2023 24G memory 2T solid-state storage (called out if you are wondering, dear reader, what I use now); nothing moved. I made breakfast and started to write. The NYC bagel from Zabar’s on 79th (thanks, Joyce) was split and then toasted before cream cheese was applied. Coffee was again locally ground and roasted from Hillsboro. A banana was forgotten while I spent hours writing.

Yesterday’s blog was over 2,000 words, and I started to write it after nine, late. I also read the news (all good for liberals like me), downloaded my financial transactions into Quicken, and corrected the stock to show 500 newly purchased shares of Ford (which promptly went down). Ford currently pays a 6% dividend but failed to pay that during the Great Depression, making investors wary that Ford would cut or stop the dividend. While I believe the people running Ford are not crazy, others are less sure.

I wrote until the afternoon when I used the last of the Pine-sol cleaner in the mopping bucket and mopped the second large section of tiles that lead into the kitchen (which looks much better now). I had to do the dishes to clear the kitchen sink to run water for the bucket, and to dump dirty water when mopping. I also mopped the entranceway, leaving just the section of my work table and writing area to be mopped. The water was dark when I finished just those sections. Yes, I need to do this more often.

Air Quality was rated to green, but the smell, Mount Hood missing in the smoke, and irritates in the smoke kept me inside all day. I was sneezing and coughing inside the filtered air-conditioned safety of The Volvo Cave. I stripped the bed and washed the sheets. I risked a short trip to Safeway and acquired more Pine-sol, dishwasher soap squares, and paper towels (all things I missed in the last two trips). I was coughing, and my eyes burned from the air. I unloaded Air Volvo and retreated to my sanctum, The Volvo Cave.

Lunch was delayed, so it would also fill in as an early dinner. I made a grilled cheese (gouda) and ham. This is fried in butter, and a lid is used with water in a section of the hot pan towards the end of browning the bread, not near the sandwich, to heat the sandwich through. I cut the sandwich into squares so each is a little sandwich. Susie used to save one of the little sandwiches for later. I would hear her yelling at Corwin if he found her tiny square and thought it was up for grabs.

There was a tear as I looked at dinner, but it was a good memory. It is a blessing to remember those you have lost at a meal; meals have always been holy in human experiences, even when we don’t have time to remember them. I had some coleslaw (another Susie fav) with the sandwich.

I returned to SMS Derfflinger and started to paint the parts still on the plastic holders, sprue, and some of the etched brass. I used the hull color XF-66 Light Grey for some items and then went back and painted them the correct color, XF-19 Sky Grey. The Imperial German Navy, which lasted until 1919, painted their ships generally in two colors: a sea grey that matched the North Sea and a lighter grey that matched the mist. There was limited air use, so the decks were still bright wood and dark Linoleum (XF-79) for raised areas. When I corrected the grey color, the second lighter coat became easier and looked good.

I also looked into cutting a rifle from one of the unused parts of my American Civil War figures (yes, another unfinished project) for Scott to use in Dungeons and Dragons (his composite character uses a magic gun-like weapon). When I cut the rifle free from the holding arm (I have plenty of spares as Perry’s models are composed of various parts and poses, leaving lots of spares), but broke it. The plastic is too thin at the stock to cut free. I will bring spare arms and see if we can use the arm and rifle together on the figure (Matt V and I are good at bashing figures and models). We play D&D on Sunday night.

With some modeling done, I wish to make some progress every day. I headed out to Richard’s in Portland. The traffic was moderate, but the driving was not moderate. I witnessed more fascinating lane changes and desperation driving. I arrived early.

Air Volvo was just recently repaired after an Engine Check light appeared. I was disappointed to see the light back today after crossing Portland. Air Volvo will need to be back to the repair shop and with some family visiting next week, this is quite poorly timed. As my sister said, buying a new Volvo would be easier than getting an appointment to repair it. Last time, the dealership could not fit me in for two months, so I will return to the local mechanic who almost fixed it last time.

Richard was taking a walk, so I waited outside. The air seemed better in Portland, but soon, I started coughing, and my asthma would become uncontrolled later. F**k.

It was just the two of us as everyone else was busy with visitors or other reasons. We tried a new game, Aquatica, that Richard purchased after hearing good things about it. This is a fast deck-building and card-collecting game with some clever and easy-to-learn techniques for running your play area. We played two games, with the second game being more intense as I was ahead until Richard found a way to pull ahead using a card we had not seen before. The game ends abruptly and is quite short, and I found myself ten or more points behind Richard, but I enjoyed the game and would play it again. I might have to purchase this one as it is fast and easy to learn.

We got out the cooperative board game Unsettled from Air Volvo’s cargo hold. In this game, your ship has landed (crashed) on an unexplored planet. You need to do tasks to escape/survive. We played the Grakkis planet, which plays much differently than the first easy planet, and introduced some new mechanics. There are many planets, and each one resets the game to give it a new experience. The base box has two planets; I have a pile of extra planets and some add-ons from the last two Kickstarters. More fun and exploration; “try not to die” is the game motto.

My plan to stay together was wrong, and the risks on this planet were defined by the storm and not by random events of nodes (locations). We could have been more efficient and less risk-averse; we failed mission A (we died) by three moves. We had some other options that could have given us more time, and we could have split up. Next time. It took us two stressful hours of desperate trying to survive Grakkis. We had a few rules issues as I had not played the game in about six months.

Richard was already plotting the next game of Unsettled with Grakkis; I look forward to playing again. I headed home after chatting for a while with Richard. My coughing worsened, and I did not want to take a broken Air Volvo across the Portland bridges late, so I headed out before 11. Air Volvo had no issues and crossed the high-flying on-ramp and the tunnel as usual.

At home, the cough was worse, and I was pumping in my emergency inhaler, and my breathing soon stabilized. I showered and made the bed. I am reading The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood, which is the basis for the musical Carberet. These stories are dark and strange, and the writing is almost cruel to the characters. More to follow. I started to dream of Berlin instead of reading, put the book away, turned off the light, and crawled into my covers.

With the breathing issues gone, I was exhausted (likely the cause of some of the coughing). I soon fell deeply asleep and did not wake until after 5 a.m.

Thanks for reading!