Friday Cleaning and Meeting Friends

I rose on Friday feeling tired from all my broken sleep. Leg cramps (which did not happen today when I did only one beer and lighter food) entered my dreams, and the pain woke me as the pain moved from dreamed suffering to actual waking discomfort. Ugh!

Aside: It does feel like one of the ironic moments. “Please stop the headache,” I ask. Poof. Now leg cramps.

I am just too busy getting ready to be out for two weeks in California with Deborah. We get there the day before the conference begins and start at Disney on Friday. I fly back on Friday, the 20th.

I write a short blog that shares my stories from mundane days before my travel days. The EV is down to 70%, and I try not to be concerned that I have 200 miles of driving until Air VW the Gray. It is still hard not to strive for a 100% charge at all times. After showering and all of that, I board the EV and travel to Beaverton and Cedar Hills McMinamin’s. Scott has a table outside, as it is sunny and warm (with temperatures over 90°F/32°C for the weekend!), and soon our usual waiter brings us our usual beer. We ordered the lunch box, and both of us enjoyed their homemade-style clam chowder (with Pacific clams) and a salad, along with half a sandwich (turkey for me this time).

We talk about family and travel. Scott is headed to dive in a few weeks, and thus we will meet only a few times in the next four weeks (I am headed to Michigan and Iceland just after the 4th of July). We also discussed my discovery that now Boost Solutions for Artificial Intelligence classifiers (for supervised training) are part of the Open Source offerings, and that the examples include Jupyter Notebooks, where you can run and modify them. Things have certainly progressed since the pandemic, and my previous reading and classes, which I taught before the pandemic, have also evolved. I shared with Scott that I have not heard anything from HOPE_16 regarding my offer to give a talk on the same topic. Just a single beer (which was fine with me), we headed our separate ways.

Pastor Steve saw me and invited me to join him and his partner, AJ, to chat. I ordered an iced tea and sat down with them as they placed their order. They were in town, living on the Oregon Coast, and grabbing lunch before charging the EV and heading back. We discussed travel and some changes in their lives (which is their story to tell). They were well and happy. It was nice to get a bonus lunch meeting!

Next, I headed to the Columbia Employee Store; Joan S gave me a pass. It was a short drive, and as I identified myself as a first-time visitor, they gave me a map and instructions on the fitting rooms and other interesting areas. I picked out some shirts and a coat, but they did not fit, so I replaced the shirt with a larger one. I got help and have too-long waterproof pants that I will get shortened before the Iceland trip. I also have waterproof gloves. I also got some socks.

I took my loot home and began the cleaning after having some roast pork. After that I cleaned out the frig and started sweeping and getting ready for some mopping (using swiffers) and then vacuuming. I spent the next couple of hours, as the sun was setting, doing light housework. I restarted the AC for the house for the first time in 2025. I have central air with an oversized unit, which helps prevent it from overstraining or incurring higher costs.

For the reading wondering, while I, a liberal, have not gone solar. I have too many trees that would block a set of hot water or electrical panels. I am also concerned that there are too many con offers, and the life expectancy of the panels is too short. However, I have friends who have managed to make it work. The trees make it a moot point for now.

I collect clothing and pile it next to the suitcase, knowing that it is part TARDIS, and this will fit in there. My carry-on is also a pile of items to be placed here and there. I try to layer it with useful items on top.

I take a break and head to Beaverton’s Salt and Straw, a locally made and slightly weird ice cream shop. There, I try a short-lived tart cherry pie version, which is precisely what it claims to be. Turning tart Oregon cherries into pie and then somehow making that ice cream. Recommended.

I thought about doing the blog at night, but the vacuuming, washing the toilets, shower, and sinks, plus mopping, has me ready to sleep. I read more Elric, continuing on the stories involving the Sleeping Sorceress.

I head to bed and can sleep. There were no leg cramps. The smell of Scrubbing Bubbles filled the bedroom as I got on the dream bus and visited dreaming Portland and other lands. But my memories fade before I can write them here.

Thanks for reading.

If you want to read about my version of Dream Portland, here is my Pay-What-You-Want (including $0): here. The reader can visit my Dream Portland, where bookstores merge with the best bar scenes to serve only the finest drink-stories. But do ask what is in a drink-story before ordering!

While it may be self-serving to recommend your own story, it is still recommended: here.