Sunday 34th Wedding Anniversary 

I woke at 4ish and rolled over, but I started my day before 6. I had church today and wanted to finish the blog without rushing. With summer running towards fall now, it was dark when I rose, and I turned on a light. Soon, it will be dark and raining. The rains start in September but now do not fill the days with Oregon mist (and worse) until November. We have seen our first often lovely dry Halloween these past years to the delight of those in costumes. Before Halloween, it was an affair of soaked jackets over costumes, with only small kids able to ignore the cold for candy and show excitement.

I started off on my task of writing, but first, as it was early, I made a scramble of eggs, sausage, onions, peppers, and cooked potato. And while it was delicious and took no time, my tummy was upset all day after. I had to take rest and managed not to throw up. Not a happy day.

Air Volvo has a Check Engine light and so Monday morning will be at the repair place to see if they can fix this. Last time, just a few weeks ago, it was an air leak in the engine from a bad oil fill cap (?!). So lets hope for something easy and cheap.

I was able to finish the blog by 9ish, get dressed for church, and rest, as my tummy was already giving me issues. I boarded Air Volvo and reached Old Town Beaverton and First United Methodist Church in light traffic. There was an India-styled event at the park that adjoins the church parking. The police had closed off all parking at the church; we had no warning. I found a space near the congregational church just a block away and walked through the park and the event to reach the church. It looked like quite a nice event, and the smell of spicy food would usually get my attention.

I arrived at the church to the usual suspects who did not let the lack of parking stop them from going. There were some angry words for the City of Beaverton as we had no official warning that we were aware that the Police would shut down the parking near our church. We are, by nature, a forgiving bunch, and as we moved on with the church service, Pastor Ken was surprised by our attendance—the count was the usual number.

Ken was preaching today. He explained that it was a “between-day” (no set plan or scripture of the sermon), so he picked Psalm 34 for the topic. It is, he explained, a Psalm of David and from a time of great distress for David. The time the Psalm covers was when David lost everything, was a beggar, and went insane from his losses; Pastor Ken explained this to help with the context of Psalm 34. The Psalm celebrates God’s protection of his people and how God comforts them. David wrote about how, despite his losses, his face showed no shame as the Lord delivered him from his fears. Powerful stuff, especially when understood in the context.

I was happy to not be sick and made it through the sermon! I did stand and sing as the nausea faded for a while in the background. There was an after-church meeting, and I decided I was not staying for it, I walked past the event, which looked wonderful, and found Air Volvo. I returned to The Volvo Cave via McDonald’s and got a chocolate shake and fries, which sometimes work.

Today was our 34th Wedding Anniversary, and I was missing Susie most of the day. The day hurt more than I expected. I was sad all day.

I spent most of the afternoon resting. I managed to paint some parts on my model of SMS Derfflinger 1916 so that I would make some progress. I also watched the last episode of this season of The House of Dragons. The show still surprised me, and I liked it. The episode set up for a bloody next season of war but resolved nothing.

At about 4:45, I headed to Matt V’s house across Beaverton and to Portland’s mailing address. Portland really starts on the other side of the large hills. Matt makes grilled burgers with different buns for different diets, I had the usual ones. Today’s Dungeon and Dragon game was finding a new plane, the plane of the living machines, and finding the next part of a relic. As usual, my character, a newly minted good cleric of the light and 15th level (which means very powerful), still failed most of my attempts to resist falls and traps. I am in magical metal armor and cast spells most of the time–not a trap voiding guy. If I am close to our combat players (Karen and Mackers), I can also reverse the various effects caused by bad guys on them. Unlike older Dungeon and Dragon versions where cleric mostly healed the characters, I am mostly about blasting and protecting, I heal once in a while.

We tried to tiptoe through the complexes, as I, being a good cleric, did not want to fight our way through when we could just slide in and take things with our stealthy guy (Scott). We did manage to take one set of items with only a small fight that we actually ran away from, as we had what we needed (plus a little bit more to pay the bills).

We found the main search area and again tried to be quiet. In the end, the bad guys made us pay for that by waking creatures we had slipped by. This led to a harsh battle, and I was using my best spells. Players will often hold back until the final battle, but I find you never use the spells. Instead, I play my cleric, always casting spells. We managed to not lose anyone and found the next part of the adventure, but then ran out of time just as my cleric of light was going to turn some nasty undead we just found. I also have some spells left that drive out ghostly possessions.

With that, I headed home after a chat with Scott about how our tactics worked (and did not work). Air Volvo soon had me home. I read some more and considered some orchid-growing items (to celebrate our 34th and my bonus), but I made no decisions. I punched out the pieces for another planet for the board game Unsettled. I soon showered and read about 1930s Berlin until I started to nod off. I slept.

Thanks for reading.