Tuesday Mixed

As I drank liberal, fair-trade coffee, I read the news, updated my accounts in Quicken, and read emails. The news was grim for us liberals, and the dark news deeply affected many people I love. As usual, the far right identifies single outliers as reasons for mass punishment. Chaos is now considered better than having a plan. This is not my style of change.

But there is also Hope in my cup—not just the bitterness of unfinished work—that we, even the extreme right, may learn and improve from the chaos. I have already learned more about the US Constitution, including this little thought here this year (recommended reading). And one wonders why יציאת מצרים (Exodus) 22:21 is not remembered more often.

כא  כָּל-אַלְמָנָה וְיָתוֹם, לֹא תְעַנּוּן. Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.

It is hard not to become disenchanted with my fellow Americans, but in the end, we are all in this together.

I rose early and walked out to write the blog, having not written it the night before. I restarted The Machine to finish the Tub Clean. While writing the blog, I noticed the water draining well, as I could hear it. I made coffee.

I was sitting in a puddle. My slippers kept my feet dry. I stopped the LG washer/dryer combinations. I grabbed some towels and cleaned up about a gallon of water on the floor. I restarted the Machine while enjoying LG chatbots that suggested various procedures to clean various likely clogged locations.

The Machine pours water out through the detergent and softener door! I halt the process. Apparently, there is an issue, but another test run later, short wash, has no problems. There is a blockage when soap is required and water has poured out. There is a cleaning process for that. I will look up the process and perform it later. Ugh!

I could not complete the blog with all the events and rushed in the morning. I was ten minutes late at Richard’s house in Air VW the Gray in light Tuesday morning rush hour traffic, another forty-minute trip. When I arrived, Richard and James were still assembling the board game, Mansion of Madness, 2nd Edition. James had acquired a used add-on for the game that duplicated some existing parts, and he and Richard were compiling the game to a usable version. Also, Richard and James put all the cards for their games in plastic transparent sleeves, and all the new items needed these protections.

I played a new character from the new material that closely matched my previous one, with slightly different options that might be more helpful. But, as often happens, the scenario we played never enabled me to use my new powers. This storyline was more Hollywood than Lovecraft, with a haunted evil house motif that was first, from what I remember, done by Vincent Price in The House on Haunted Hill, but with ‘real’ evil forces like the Thir13en Ghosts (2001). I enjoyed the play and thought of Mr. Price and other Hammer Films as we continued discovering new things about the haunted house. Richard’s character went insane and failed to win, as the game required additional insane random goals for individual characters that he could not achieve. James and I did win, and we ended the threat.

I headed home, and EV had me home soon with little risk. I did see some fantastic lane changes on the inbound and outbound trips to Portland; one lane change was almost synchronized into the same space with speeding cars (very unusual in the Greater Portland area). Somehow, the drivers missed scratching their vehicle’s paint. I avoided some hot yellow lights but saw many folks getting the most out of a yellow light.

At home, I ran a trial run of The Machine, which did not leak (it would later). I watched more Classic Doctor Who and was surprised at how awful it was. I was curious about how the story worked and ended. Not recommended. I finished some baked beans for a snack. I also reheated the last eggplant bake I made Italian-style the previous month. It reheated well and was good.  Deborah and I chatted once she left work.

Corwin contacted me and suggested plans. He arrived around 5, and we headed to The Golden Valley Brewery, which offers upscale food and prices to match. I wanted to check out their offering for dinner for Deborah and me on 14 Feb. I had the sausages, with Corwin going for the pork schnitzel, and I sent Deborah a photo of the menu for their St. Valentine’s Day. While prices are high, their beef is shipped in from excellent ranches in Eastern Oregon. One of the managers asked Corwin to provide input on his meal; they were curious about what they got right and what was less correct. Corwin (and I had the same sides), and I thought the red cabbage needed more flavor and the potato salad would be better if a hot version was used. The pork was excellent, and the considerable portion size filled him up. We followed this by sharing a key lime cheesecake, a favorite I used to make. The bill, covered by me, was more than three people at another place, but all the food and drinks were perfect. I look forward, as does Deborah, to dinner there on St. Valentine’s Day. Reservations are in place, and TripIt has been updated.

We returned to the house, and Corwin pulled down a board game for me, Wonderland Wars. This is a push-your-luck, resource management, dudes-on-a-board, and worker placement game. It is unusual to fit all this into one game, and the game has some strong process controls and comes with flow charts (see Doctor Who comment on flowcharts here). It also has a mass of figures from Alice and Wonderland (not Disney’s look, but Pacific Northwest’s Manny Trembley) that I need to paint (I have the deluxe version).

I read and watched more Doctor Who and talked to Deborah late in her time. We like to say good night. I then painted figures until late. I am making progress on the 4077 figures (Deborah pointed out that Grammarly and I missed the article, the, in the previous blog, meaning Grammarly context is that I am painting 4,077 figures and not the M.A.S.H. context).

I read more after showering and getting on my PJs. I was wondering about laundry, but instead, I read. I set my alarm for 3:30 to wish Deborah a ‘good morning’ in her morning in Michigan, but my hearing missed the noise, and I woke at 6ish. Hmm.

Thanks for reading.