Thursday with meeting

I rose again late. It seems like a new habit, but the previous night contained some disturbed sleep, and I decided to invest some of Thursday’s morning in sleep. I felt better, and the breathing and racing heart issues seemed less. I did have some breathing issues and started to use more of my inhaler, and that helped.

I started my late morning by texting Deborah, ‘Good morning,’ and connecting with her when she drove from work to her house. We often talk when we are driving. Deborah is still working.

I wrote an extra-long blog that took until the early afternoon to complete; my Wednesday was busy (as was the Thursday I am covering now). I reheated the chicken and root veggies I made a few days ago for lunch. I caught up on my YouTube channels as Battleship New Jersey had a fascinating visit to Battleship Wisconsin with a list of updates done to Wisconsin but never done to NJ, including replacing the butcher shop with a donut-making area. Less funny, but more interesting to me, was the update in Wisconsin to liquid flooring replacing the old school square cut laminate. The tiles caused rust issues to the underlying metal with water intrusion, but the update did not have that problem (I heard it was used now universally in the US Navy). One of the interesting things I noticed on WW2 ships is the lack of modern materials (let’s not even dwell on the lead paint and asbestos) and old power plants with pipes going every whichaway. There are good reasons to scrap old warships; you cannot update what they are made of.

I did dishes, showered, and dressed (colon issue and other things made it a good idea to shower again, for those wondering). I ordered more items delivered from The Swiss Colony, trying not to wince at the shipping cost to the West Coast.

I found an aged box of cake mix in the pantry and made German Chocolate Cake by mostly following the directions. Mom Wild used to make fabulous cakes from store-bought mixes by replacing the oil with melted butter, and I did that. While I started this, Corwin dropped by, and we chatted for a while I loaded him up with some Christmas items, including a set of IKEA meatball supplies (including the lingonberry sauce, gravy packet, and even a wisk from IKEA). Corwin wants a clutch for his truck for Christmas and has agreed to get him that.

Deborah and I talked for a while while I made the cake. I combined the wet ingredients, added the dry ones to my mixer, and let it mix for a few minutes. I then poured the mix into a sprayed castle cake mold. I let it bake. Sadly, the spray was ineffective (or I did not wait long enough), and the cake stuck and broke, but I could reassemble it without issue, and it looked good.

I took Air Ford (Escape) to Safeway to get some supplies. I was making a salad and needed more veggies, canned items (beets and little corn), and dressings. I brought that home, chopped and assembled a salad, and then collected everything to load into Air Ford. The castle cake was given a snow-like look with the powdered sugar. I heated the IKEA VINTERSAGA and poured the hot liquid into my new Grinch Thermal Carafe. It would be hot for our party. I put on my red vest and green Christmas Tie (from Barb, Susie’s sister, years ago–“You need a holiday tie”) with a gold-colored chain pocket watch and black shoes.

Ready, I took Air Ford (Escape) in building holiday traffic across Aloha into Old Town Beaverton to First United Methodist Church while chatting with Deborah while I drove. Soon, Dondrea and Z appeared, and we carried the items to the church. Costco makes inexpensive and excellent pizzas that Dondrea picked up. We got out tables and chairs and set out a spread. The food was good, and the Vintersaga was excellent.

(dressing at home)

The meeting was the ad hoc Christmas Party for Theology Pub; there was “no room at the inn” as the holiday parties had filled the usual location. We have reservations for January. The topic was “Following the Star” and the Three Wisemen and their decisions and how we need, like the story, to accept new ideas and focus on making moral decisions. The magi appear, give their gifts, recognize the fulfillment of prophecies, and then head home “by another road.” They don’t lead the authorities to do harm; instead, they accept the moment and do what is best, leaving. We concluded that we need to accept new ideas and events, but we need to not do harm or lead others to do harm. We must do our best with these new ideas and events, even nothing.

We cleaned up, loaded up, and I soon was headed home. Air Ford was soon home, and the rains were restarting tonight. I unloaded and soon put away everything (lots of cake and salad to eat this week). I changed out of my vest, did the dishes, and got some semblance of order in the kitchen.

Somewhere in the day, I sent a decorated tree to Mom Wild. I send them once in a while. She enjoys them.

After all the day’s events, I showered and started reading in my PJs in bed. I soon nodded off, turned off the light, and put on the music on the Echo for sleeping.

Thanks for reading!