Clarification

Sorry, but Tuesday was chaotic, and I could not find the time and place to write. Today, I will combine Monday and Tuesday.

Starting with Monday

The morning began with me waking with maybe six hours of sleep. Mom Wild had called me at 2, and it was hard to get back to sleep. Time change Monday sucks! After fueling with some locally roasted beans that I ground in my small electric grinder (and brushed with my little coffee brush to loosen the dusty bits), I started on the blog. I wrote until about 10ish and showered while Jeff began another work day at the house. It was not terribly cold or raining, and thus Jeff selected the powerwashing for today. I showered, shaved, dressed, and continued on the blog. Jeff found the deck resisting, and it took him most of Monday to strip it and get it back to wood. In the future, Jeff will seal the wood with a protective coating. Jeff then cleaned up some of the walkways and the house, which showed some moss or other streaking. He will return later in the week to finish a few other items.

Lunch for me was reheated pasta and Italian-style sausage in a red sauce from a jar. I ate it while I watched more YouTube videos. I tried the Epic History video on The Battle of Trafalgar 1805. There was also a commercial for their videos commenting that they do not use AI to create false histories. They showed ‘Napoleon at D-Day’ and other examples of ‘AI’ generated videos. “Are you tired of AI-generated history?” This had me laughing.

Jeff was still cleaning, so I decided to head to Wildwood Taphouse and write there. I talked to Deborah for a while and sent her some of the text for my story. I met JR at the taphouse, and we caught up. I am headed to California on Sunday, and he is headed south to watch some racing. I had a heavy and dark beer, “As dark as my soul.” This was followed by more beer samples, which kept coming. I wrote a few more items, and the tamale woman was there. I got dinner and dessert from her, paid her, and put that in Air VW the Gray.

I paid my bill and headed home. I reheated the tamale (they were just warm now) and talked to Deborah, ending her day as she rang off to sleep. I read more, but I was tired and tried to sleep after going to bed early. I could not fall asleep. Time change! I tried a few things and started. After a while, I read more Elric, and Benadryl finally got me to sleep.

Tuesday

Tuesday started with me finding my phone to tell me it was 8, and I knew I was forgetting something. Mom Wild called at 2AM but must have hung up as I would have woken if the phone rang for a while. There was only one call. I found the coffee, locally roasted beans, that I ground in my small electric grinder and poured into my French press using my coffee brush to loosen the finely ground coffee. I have English Muffins, and I toasted one and added jelly. The jelly expired in 2023; I should replace it, but it tastes fine. I had a banana with that.

Then I remembered I had a 9:30 game at Richard’s at 9:30. I jumped into the shower, skipped the shave, and soon dressed. I boarded the EV with a plate of my breakfast. The traffic in Beaverton was slow and seldom was near the speed limits. It was safe to consume my breakfast while driving, such as grabbing something from the plate or a swig of coffee at red traffic lights. Breakfast was over before I reached Highway 217.

I drove to Portland and found myself having to change lanes in the tunnel (extra legal) to get to 405 and was twenty minutes late. Today, James had us playing The Plum Island Horror, a newish zombie-attacks, worker-placement, and resource-management board game. I have played a dudes-on-a-board types of zombie board games, but this was a cooperative attempt to save folks and hold off the zombie plague. We each played five characters, represented by standees, and used our faction to save people and slow the march of the zombies (represented by a stack of counters).

James is hosting the game at Gamestorm, meaning this is a how-to session. We have never played it, but James has read the rules and watched the instructional videos. We spend time on James covering the rulebook to his memory and then start working our way through it by playing. At first, the game seemed clunky and starved for resources. But as we learn to play the game and keep shooting and blasting zombies and other infected creatures, it becomes more and more fun. Playing multiple characters is a favorite of mine (Frostgrave, for example). I had the mayor and other leaders of Plum Island and started to rescue folk. Richard had the National Guard and was enjoying blasting things and rescuing folks. James had the mad scientists and blasted and got crunched by the zombies (the scientists have to get close to try out their inventions).

I had to leave early, but before I left, I saw we had just about rescued the minimum number of people to win. After that, it was just a survival mission. I would like to play it again.

I boarded Air VW the Gray, retraced my trip earlier, and soon was home. I found that the IRA rollover check was at the house. I need to get this to US Bank Wealth Management; it is a lot of pre-tax funds. I drove immediately to US Bank at 185 and Farmington Road. I got there, and they had no idea what to do (“No, do not deposit it in my checking, that is illegal”). They asked me to take back the check and call Wealth Management. I thought it was US Bank, but no. After a frustrating time on the US Bank phone tree, Wealth Manangement called me, and Samuel and I agreed to meet on Wednesday morning to handle this. Done.

I am late for Celik from Morocco, Casablanca, at the house. The carpet folks drive carpets in a truck all over the USA to sell them. They shipped them in a container, imported them, and then brought them to former customers in the USA. I told them I am retired and not buying nice carpets, but Celik still wanted to stop by. I met him at the house, only a few minutes late, and we had glasses of water (he already had coffee and turned down my offer of mint tea), and he saw the house and my carpets. He was sure I needed at least one carpet for the living room. Something less colored from goat, camel, and sheep wool. I climb into the truck to see it, but demurred. Celik could not hide his disappointment, but I did give him my business card. He drove off to the next place.

With Celik gone, I had twenty minutes before Corwin visited for his math lesson. I made morocco mint tea (a black tea with mint, not an herbal mix). I was sleepy.

Corwin was on time, and we spent an hour on math. Corwin got many right in the workbook. He was having trouble with the order of operations and was careless when copying from the book, reading the problem, and then dropping a sign or other important item in his steps. I redid some of the problems for him and showed him my slow approach of simplifying by unwrapping the static values. Thus, 3² is 9, and 10-3² is 1, not 19 (to get 19, you would need 10+(-3)²). Corwin will rework the problems he had operational order issues with to ensure he gets his mind locked into the correct order before we head to another topic. Corwin’s graphing and geometric problems were good. There were some copying errors, but nothing required reworking.

Corwin enjoyed all but one tamale and finished the flan. I sent him away with a bag of frozen beef stew and some frozen ham. I made tortilla soup from a King Arthur Flour Company package while talking to Deborah. It did not come with tortilla strips (?!). I shredded two chicken thighs after defrosting and boiling them. I added the water from the boiling and half a box of chicken broth to the mix. The chicken went in with 1/2 of a container of medium salsa. I let this cook in a boil and simmer for a while. I had purchased strips to add to the soup. I forgot the avocado; next time.

It was excellent, and I finished a few bowls and had some while Deborah and I chatted. Soon, Deborah, on Eastern Time, was sleepy and rang off. I then sat down at my Apple and wrote this blog.

It is now a quarter to 10, and I am tired. I am posting this now. Thanks for reading.