Another Tuesday

I have not been able to sleep in the morning, even with the darkness of overcast and the shortening of the days. I wake at 4 and have trouble falling back to sleep, and I continuously keep waking. I was headed to bed earlier, and I think this is causing this. Being a former IT guy, I am used to staying up until midnight for various reasons and then having to rise at 6ish or even earlier. I am not used to extra time to sleep. I am now up around 6, which is a change as I was rising at 8-9 a few weeks ago.

I rose, found the kitchen, eventually remembered to turn on the lights for the Orchids (I don’t have the automatic controls running yet), and made coffee. I started on the blog, trying to remember what happened on Monday. My lack of structure (or work-based day) means that I often cannot remember all the things I did during the day. I often find myself with free time and unsure what to do, and I like this feeling after working in a corporate environment for someone else since I was in high school. I do find a slight hint of loneliness as many of my friends do work, but that I think is just a function of getting used to this lack of structure and being widowed.

I am also avoiding eating out and having too many beers at the wonderful taphouses in the area. I am still hopeful of reaching 220 pounds (I am still at 234), and I managed another 5,000+ steps yesterday. I am on the last loop of my belt (again) with my new one-size smaller pants that barely stay on. Yesterday, I skipped a Kickstarter for a book as I am retired and can’t buy books. I will only use it as a prop for €100. I am feeling better and trying to be a responsible retired person.

It is 90 days on Tuesday since my brain surgery, and it seems so long ago and just yesterday at the same time. Doctor G told me it is a year to recover, and I am experiencing a slowing down of my recovery. My Bells Palsy is nearly undetectable. My left eye is closing correctly, but it still blinks slower (only I can tell, and I still use eye protection outside when there is any wind). My taste has returned chiefly, but there is still a part of my mouth that does not taste well. Part of my lips on the left side of my face are still hard to control.

Returning to the narrative, I continued to write the Monday blog. While writing, I was surprised to see that the orchids had shifted in their pots, with one orchid leaning into another, roots headed into the air, or reaching for another orchid’s pot. Orchids are pets and plants.

Coffee was liberal, and breakfast was a change to yogurt and blueberries. Susie had a strong aversion to blueberries, so I always ate them first and found blueberries an exotic treat. I tried to remember Monday and published a blog, but an hour later, I added more to the story. I remembered my trip to the taphouse and recounted some of it in a short addition.

I putted around the house and surfed the Internet. I cleaned up, shaved, and all that, concluding that I was dressed and ready to start my day before noon. I left as the lawn service, about $220 a month, appeared and was unloading their mowers and other various loud gardening items. I am the late morning, early afternoon Tuesday appointment with no lawn work before 11 as a kindness to my neighbors. It is an old Mid-West and East Coast tradition of no mowing until late morning and never on a Sunday; if you can get it done days before Saturday, it is even better to enjoy the lawn on weekends (no damp lawn cuttings).

I headed to Wet Pets and Ernestos (next door) off Farmington and on Beaverton’s other side. I arrived with no entanglements with Beaverton’s Finest or construction delays. I walked through the four rows of fish tanks and admired the marine, brackish, and African fish (which follow you when you walk by). There were giant Angels and fast, tiny zebras and neons. A collection of small tanks held various fancy tiny live shrimp for sale for, I believe, for small desktop-sized marine (salt water) tanks, a new fashion in aquariums I learned post-pandemic. I resisted rejoining another hobby I knew well from my younger days. I am sticking to a no-pets policy if I wish to travel (the orchids will survive for a few weeks without me).

Next, I celebrated my 90 days out with lunch at Ernesto’s. I was disappointed that there was no hot food in their salad bar. I ordered from the menu and had an overly cheesy pasta dish with a meatball. The salad bar was the highlight of the meal. The pasta was cooked well, and the red sauce buried in the cheese sauce was superb. While I could not make the meatball, which was excellent, the rest was too much cheese for me. More Italian-styled mac and cheese than I was prepared for. Next time, I will ask for no cheese or a sprinkle only.

Stuffed, I returned in Air Volvo to the Volvo Cave. I watched the rest of the episodes for “Midnight Mass” and concluded, no spoilers, that the ending was a moral tale about humanity about good and evil and our perception of each other in the light of terror. I did cry at the end. While there was some eye-rolling for some of the set-pieces of movie horror, I thought the writing and acting were excellent, and some of the long speeches were poetry or even sermons on humanity. While not something I recommend to everyone, it was well worth the time, and I am considering another short series from the same director (more scary, according to Mariah) on Mariah’s recommendation: House on Haunted Hill. Enjoy, but yea are warned.

I read and nodded off (pasta effects) but soon rallied. I was going to head to the park to walk, but instead, I walked in the neighborhood. It was still an hour before sunset, and it was warm (75F), and there was no wind. The clouds often blocked the sun and stopped it from striking hard. There was no California bleaching sun today.

The stone fruit trees are overflowing this year, and while walking, I saw a couple having pulled up a pickup truck on the sidewalk underneath a plum tree in a public drainage area and climbing on top of the cab roof to get at some of the fruit. They were getting baskets of fruit. I could see they were concerned that I would yell at them, but instead congratulated them on finding a new use for a pick-up. They offered me some of their bounty, but I demurred. I instead found some pears and apples lying on the ground on my street and took them home. I have to look at my own tree and see if any of those hard green apples from a previous century are usable. I believe the apple trees (many in backyards arranged in lines from the original orchard) were planted as part of the original farm for cider (likely fermented) and winter storage.

I could not resist Make Magazine’s new math books (Geometry, Trig, and Calc), so I ordered the four physical books (plus the teacher’s book). You may purchase the books in PDF format for a separate payment (I think they should give you both, or at least a discount for buying both). I am thinking about sharpening my mathematics skills for my AI work and also teaching math in a Meet-Up. More to follow.

I made dinner. Boneless and skinless chicken thighs are defrosted in the microwave—mostly—cut in half and roasted in the oven with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. I heat arrabbiata sauce from a jar. I boil water with salt (nowhere near what most folks use). The chicken takes about an hour to cook and is not dried out. I use garlic and black pepper, artisan linguine-style pasta, to go with the spicy sauce and the plain chicken. I have made too much food (again) and have a few bowls of pasta and some chicken. I call Corwin and invite him to share in dinner. He was still delivering food for one of the online food services but showed up about an hour later and had a bowl.

Corwin heads out after a nice meal and chat, and I return to SMS Derfflinger 1916, which I skipped working on yesterday. I cut out one of the larger etched brass bits, which covers a whole section of the stern lower superstructure. The overlay wood deck may have to be cut to allow it to fit properly (the deck overlay is not part of the etched brass kit and can conflict). This overlay comprises three complex folded and glued etched brass pieces and is large enough to be seen. It needs to be nearly perfect. The sequence of a model like SMS Derfflinger is disorganized by these kits of brass and wood deck overlays. The plastic kit instructions cannot be followed. Instead, you must build from the center out and bottom-up; otherwise, your hands will hit the newly installed pieces. This is true of wood shop builds, too, which often have you add the little details last, but then you need to place the items without breaking a mast or rigging. It is best to reconsider the directions and build and place fragile bits while they are easier to handle.

I am tired, so I decided not to glue these down this evening and to think more about it. I am uncertain of the build sequence. I put SMS Derfflinger aside, placing the new parts in a spare OcCre part container. OcCre supplies these containers with each wooden model ship to keep parts organized. I love them.

I shower and read, go to bed, and soon sleep too early, but I did get my 5,000+ steps in. Thanks for reading.