I was home late, after midnight on Saturday night (Sunday morning). It was a cold, clear night, making the dark drive across Portland and Beaverton pleasant. My fellow drivers did not perform any driving stunts this time, but I saw one car change to the left lane (the fast and passing lane) and then slow down. Another car, unable to understand this, was speeding and changed into the left lane and then suddenly had to brake. I was glad there was no contact and just shook my head. With pleasant traffic, no rain, and a clear night, the tall bridge did not scare me, and my trip was fast.
On reaching home, having no dinner, I just forgot that I had made a plate of ham and ate it too fast, and maybe it was too salty. I had some refluxes and later leg cramps. More water! I showered and stumbled into bed before 1. I closed my eyes and soon fell asleep once the reflux calmed down. Ugh!
Returning to my time in Portland, I was leaving Richard’s house in SW Portland after we talked politics for hours after playing three two-person games. We often cancel with just us two for games, but I was already in Portland, and we started early. The games were Unconcious Mind, a new game I had just seen in the gaming store: a Middle Earth version of Duel—The Seven Wonders—and Istanbul with Mocha and Baksheesh. I lost them all the games, but all were good, and I was at least a threat or scored well.
(We play in Richard’s home theater room)
I have described Unconcious Mind before and like the game, but I won’t repeat myself. It is too long and complex for my church group gaming, but I am tempted to get a copy (though the $200+ price tag for the upgraded version has cooled my willingness to do so). I scored 125, but Richard, having one of those perfect games where every random item improves your score, was having a ball and scoring double my score. Had he not forced the game to end sooner than I liked, I would have scored even higher. It was a high-scoring and fast game, as I had the rules down and enjoyed the game. Richard kindly noted that his morning group did not break 100 in Unconcious Mind, “Yours was an excellent score.”
Middle Earth Duel is a two-person light game of card play and goal-seeking, all reskinned and redesigned for the new theme, The Lord of the Rings story. I think it is better than the original, and it seems to be an excellent game that flows well and has clear choices. I will likely purchase it as it is small, fast, and fun. I was chasing Richard, and he just managed to beat me by buying something that let him pick a card and unite the Free Peoples against Sauron (me). I was two steps from the little hobbits, had control of 1/2 of the lands, and would have won had the Free Peoples not found a last uniting card in the discard pile (“There is a discard pile?” Was Sauron’s last words as his tower fell and his ‘eye’ went out). Next time, Precious.
Istanbul has also been covered before. We played a back-and-forth game of two-person Istanbul, which is more of a race with just two. I reminded Richard of how to play (we had played a year ago), and soon, he was pushing me around a bit. I was being less efficient than usual as I was teaching and could not quite get organized in my thinking. Richard got the last ruby, but I managed it too. I had less money, so I lost on the tiebreaker again. That makes three losses in a row for Istanbul for me. Hmmm. But it’s always good to be a close game.
Before the games, I was at Lucky Labrador in Portland. It was busy, and one group was playing a Compass Games war game, Brotherhood & Unity. Compass Games simulates real-world and recent military events, such as the Bosnian War, as in this game. I just watched a few plays. I checked, and it is well-rated for a war game and not expensive ($45 and cheaper). I have from Compass Games, which is still unplayed, their China versus USA naval game.
Various other groups of folks were meeting for a beer. I found a table, a beer, and peanuts and did some work, though I was distracted a few times. I finally worked out how to put text into my notebooks on Kaggle. I was back to Python work, but just trying to figure out the logistics of adding text to the Jupyter Notebooks used in the competition. I was still part of it; I still have a few months to improve my score. I doubt I can do better than a mid-ranking, but still, it is something. After leaving for two years, I am trying to get my head back into AI. It is also fun, and you can impress your friends with remarks such as, “My Python code ran my AI classifier, and I got decent results by using bagging this time,” with a knowing look.
Richard contacted me early and invited me over, and soon, I was headed there after paying my less than $10 bill (another reason I like it there). The hall was quieter when I left, as some groups broke up before dinner. As I walked out, I saw that the war game group was still fighting the Bosnian War with a three-person version.
Before this, Air Volvo took me across Beaverton to Tigard. I avoided some Saturday afternoon traffic by ignoring navigation and driving through my usual backroads in Beaverton. I reached Walmart, and there, I received two travel-sized tubes of toothpaste.
Dear reader, I know what you are thinking, but why? I ordered new travel-sized toothpaste from Walmart to avoid using Amazon as I am trying to abandon the less-than-camouflaged politics of Jeff Bezos, paid for by his billions made on Amazon. Effectively, “F**k you, Amazon,” but I need a replacement, and while Walmart is not the land of liberalness, it is not another billionaire-controlled ego-project. I had to add to my order to get free shipping, so I added a few other items I needed to reach $35. All wonderful, you would think. But no.
Walmart decided that I would pick up the toothpaste in Tigard as instructed. At least three Walmart locations are closer to my home, but I am aligned with this idea to drive to Tigard. I would need to download and install their app and then use it to get my toothpaste. I did. Thus, on Saturday early afternoon, I headed out in Air Volvo, with my app telling me where to get my toothpaste. I drove 11 miles. Parked in an official pick-up location. Used the app to tell them where I was. Soon, a little bag with my toothpaste was brought to me by a slightly confused Walmart employee wearing a reflective vest.
Tigard to Portland is a lovely drive along the river and with less traffic. I headed to Portland from Walmart with the precious toothpaste in the cargo hold. There was parking in the Lucky Labrador lot, which was all good.
“But what about the rest?” you ask. All but the creamer was delivered to the wrong house–I have a picture that is not my house with the package. They refunded it and sent me a discount of $10 for my next order. I talked to a nice person on the phone while drinking a beer at the Lucky Labrador; the only way I would call Walmart customer service was with beer, and they handled it quickly when I discovered that the pickup was not the missing items.
The creamer is being delivered next week as it seems to be a complex item. Another truck will bring it; it took two weeks to get to me. I hope it appears at The Volvo Cave soon. I am out.
Totally insane, but it’s a good story.
I rose at 7ish and wrote the blog. I had liberal coffee, finished the last of the Trader Joe’s version, and consumed Trader Joe’s cereal with milk. I put away the laundry and finished the dishes (though there was a new set of dirty dishes on Sunday morning). I plan to mop, dust (for the first time in years), vacuum Monday through Wednesday, and do laundry to have everything excellent for my return, as is my habit for traveling.
I cleaned up, shaved, and dressed in a dress shirt and my green sweater vest with my usual LL Bean pants. The sweater and shirt are getting floppier as my belly shrinks (but not fast enough). I am looking forward to new Large-size clothing in the future.
I had leftover gnocchi for lunch while watching videos on the ShipHappens and Battleship New Jersey YouTube channels.
And that takes me full circle!
Thanks for reading.
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