It is Friday morning as I start recalling Thursday, and the steak dinner, dessert, and beer seem still to be with me. I am up at 6 after a night of leg cramps and multiple opportunities to prove hydration and attempts to remove the leg cramps and headache created more hydration, a vicious circle (or at least a sleep-losing circle). I have only a few days to clean and pack now. I’m headed to PDX on Saturday for a hotel stay, as my flight on Sunday is early.
Thursday started with me rising without a headache to another gray Oregon mist-filled morning. I rose after 7 and started the blog, but I knew it would be a tough day to complete it, as I had church meetings every couple of hours. Additionally, most of that will not be a story for this blog; there is no need to overload this blog with private matters, such as hiring and church staff items. I managed a few paragraphs before I had to shower, shave, and so on. Air VW the Gray was ready for me with an 80% charge. Traffic was still heavy, but I arrived a few minutes before my first church meeting.
We spent an hour talking about paint, flooring, colors, and other refresh items in the fireside room and entranceway of First United Methodist Church in Beaverton. We covered some of the outstanding issues and challenges (such as water leaks) in these areas. We agreed to a general plan and colors (specific tiles and flooring samples will be reviewed later).
Next was an interview for a church position. I cannot cover that here. That took me to about noon.
Dondrea, who was in the two meetings, joined me at Red Robin in Beaverton for lunch. I had the ensalada chicken platter (with one chicken breast) and replaced the salad with fried. I meant to have fries on the side, but it worked for me. I stuck to iced tea as I had yet another church meeting on Zoom at 2.
The meeting at 2 was the S/PRC meeting (for those who don’t speak Methodist, that is the HR committee). We had multiple issues to address, and the meeting lasted two hours. Later, I called and talked to other officials at our church about some of the issues. It felt like I was back to working.
Mariah and I enjoyed a later dinner together at BJ’s Brewhouse. Eric was our usual waiter, and soon I had a few beers while Mariah had a nice red wine. We opted for steaks and even dessert, as I mentioned earlier. We talked about travel and writing. Mariah is interested in the trip in November.
Here is the Southern trip website: here.
Like most liberals, I began to follow the Elon-Trump texting pie fight with amusement—I usually ignore Elon and Trump news, it seems contrived to me. And while the dispute appears real, it has captured headlines, which is the standard operating procedure for Trump. I would not be surprised if we see a big make-up between them next week to create more distractions and control the headlines.
From what I have read, Tesla would do better without the changes found in the Big Beautiful Bill, and with liberals turning away from Tesla, might need those tax incentives after all (Elon originally suggested Tesla would not need them). I reviewed some of the updates related to carbon capture, and there are changes in the bill in the tax treatment of carbon capture. This is bread and butter for Tesla, and while I do not fully understand the changes, this bill is not friendly to EVs and carbon capture, and I expect this will hit Tesla’s carbon credit sales (generated by making EVs). It appears to be a serious effort to eliminate most tax benefits of EVs and tax carbon credit-generated income. I cannot imagine this is good for Tesla or Elon’s holdings.
I read more Elric, and the headache returned. I am not sure if it is the bright lights or the food and beer. I tried to sleep with more stories from reading “The Sleeping Sorceress” by Michael Moorcock in my mind.
Thanks for reading.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 