Saturday No Games

Saturday was often board gaming-heavy, with me playing two or three games before getting to Richards to likely learn and play some new super Euro-style board game. Today, I did not touch a meeple, pick a card, or arrange resources all day. It felt strange.

Richard, like many folks, was busy on some trip for the summer. Kathleen, another gaming friend, had returned from a trip but was still busy untangling her return with lawn work and other mundane tasks. Later in the day, while drinking a beer and writing at The 649, I saw a group of people so young they could be my kids playing Mothership. I was envious that they got to try out the new, low-complexity sci-fi horror role-playing game. They were a happy, clean-cut group, not what I had imagined as players for this make-you-cry-or-scream style game. I managed to get lots done on Saturday and spent many hours talking to Deborah on the phone. It was a good day.

Starting with waking too early and getting going before 7. Coffee was assembled, and I pushed the button to make it as it was before 7, my coffee-making time. There were some clouds in the sky, but I could see that the sunrise was in process, and that made me think of Dad Wild. “There are only so many sunrises left. I try to see them all now,” he told me once. And, while I roll over and sleep through sunrise, I wake for most.

With coffee made, I dress, wash my face, comb my hair, and collect my laundry. I strip the sheets from the bed (I miss one) and add that to the collection. Hangers, detergent (poured from a large Costco container into a smaller one for travel), dryer sheets, a laptop, and an iPhone are all assembled. It takes two trips to Air VW the Gray to be prepared, as coffee is poured into a travel cup, and it is best not to balance hot coffee over clothing, laptops, and myself.

The travel time is short, I unload the cargo, and the place is busy. It is a different crowd that I have seen before, but today is Saturday and not a workday when I usually do my laundry. I discover I  am not the only gray-haired person doing laundry for one. I see that older men, each alone, are also doing their wash. I think about them. Will I someday be in some rented space without a laundry machine and have to, with my cane, bring my wash to the mat? They seem happy, clean, dry, and not hungry — maybe that will be okay.

I turn a $20 into quarters, and a man asks me immediately to buy him some food, pointing at a dispensing machine. All the sound and talking seem to stop, and I feel it is more of a test than a request. “I must do my laundry,” I say and walk away, and the sounds start again. Being aggressively panhandled was not something I cared for. I look for the guy later, and he just walked away (apparently, he is not welcome there).

I took four smaller washing machines (I could have done three) for over $3 each. The larger machines are in demand, and I am not interested in running everything together for over $7. It is less than thirty minutes for the washers. I manage to find a cart, supplied by the laundromat, and also score a pair of mid-sized dryers when a mom and her daughter finish with them. Shirts and pants in one machine, and the rest in the other.

An hour of spinning allows me to write the blog. The crowd is a mix of Spanish-speaking people who seem confused by the process and older Americans like me who are here to get’er done. The attendant, an older gal in homemade clothing, steps up and helps them when their washer halts. It is leaking as they have not properly closed it. I finished my shirts early. I like to have them finish drying on hangers, and there were 30 minutes left on my dryer. I got one of the Spanish-speaking families to use the dryer, saving them 50 cents.

I write and wait. I am not focused on writing as the new families seem to tell a story, and I watch. I feel for folks buying soap and drinks priced profitably for the owners, but not cruelly high (soap is a buck, and food and drinks are two bucks). I see a family find a nearby grocery and bring drinks. Later, after collecting my remaining clothing, which is now dry, folded, and neatly packed into my basket, I see them eating lunch at the nearby taco cart. They wave, happy to see someone finish.

I take the washing home, finish the blog, shower, and all that. I discovered I missed a sheet (F**k). There are no plans, and I feel at loose ends. I head to The 649. Natalia is bartending, and when she is free, I show her a collection of photos from Iceland on my iPhone. She is enchanted, and Iceland has now moved up on her list (she travels internationally often). My usual beer is not on tap, but she recommends their summer ale; it works. I have the veggie soup with a scoop of chopped chicken added.

I write my Fantasy story in Scrivener. I am disappointed that a few words of text are missing. I will be more careful saving my work. I return to my story, often looking out into space as I write the narrative in my head, which seems to take forever to find its way into the text. This part of the story is a conflict and is hard for me.

Only a thousand words, but the story is moving now. I resolved the conflict in the story, but I am worried that I only made an outline of the conflict. I will have to rework it, I think, to make it more real. I also did not write long, colorful descriptions, and I may need to insert that into the text, as well. Overall, it still seems more stream of consciousness than a story. Still, the bones are there, and just going forward is essential.

I ordered hummus and coffee after two beers and 1,000 words. I add a few more bits to the story and correct a few mangled sentences. Grammarly or I did some damage. Generally, I do not let Grammarly update the SciFi stuff (only letting it suggest minor fixes), as it often reverses the meaning of my work and ruins the paragraph. It seems that Grammarly AI stuff is trained on boring text, and it just removes content if I let it at the SciFi or Fantasy text. Yikes!

I head back across Beaverton after paying the bill and saying goodnight to Natalia. Next, Barnes & Noble was expensive. I buy four magazines, The Economist, and technical electronic and programming stuff, including Make, and a UK-based electronic magazine I enjoy. Make has at least two projects I want to find time to do. Maybe I will find the time. I also find Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Empire. I was unaware that a new history book with footnotes and real research existed. While many people trust the Internet for history, I prefer a two-inch-thick book with notes and reviews. I am excited and bought it and, putting aside the SciFi book, started in. I have already learn new things. For example, translations of Assyrian texts are available in specific texts, but all of them are also online and being revised and updated on the online site. Excellent! I check footnotes and translations. I am not mistrustful, I just like to dig deep.

With the sand and dust of Assyria blowing in my mind and names like Sargon and lost Akkad flashing in my memory, I start to sleep to dreams now forgotten. Thanks for reading.