Wednesday No Games But Game Writing

I rose later after waking for the sunrise and rolling over. I was experiencing (enjoying?) jet lag as my body (and mind) began adjusting to the 3-hour time difference. And I have the unenviable possibility of having reached normality in time to be in New Hampshire and experience the three-hour change in reverse on Sunday-Monday.

I rose, and the coffee was not made despite being set up the day before. I am quite awake in the morning. I drag in the early evening. The winter light is affecting me. I sit under bright lights. Here in Oregon, we have had an unusual set of sunny winter days; my roses are still blooming with the bonus sunlight. It helps too.

Laundry is completed using The Machine on Wednesday (the first load completed on Tuesday), with each load taking a couple of hours and then extending. I manage to get the stuff out when it is ready to be hung. Dress shirts and pants are best pulled while warm and slightly damp to finish drying on hangers and thus avoid wrinkles. The Machine is a so-called Intelligent Appliance, my first, and it sends me updates to my phone and emails. And while I have doubts about the intelligence needed to process laundry, it manages to complete all my clothing, and I put it all away. My closet and dressers are stuffed. It is a good feeling to finish the trip (trips are done when the last bill is paid and the laundry is done and put away).

For those keeping track, I have purchased my air flight for Christmas. Flying to Detroit on 25Dec, arriving in the evening, and returning to Oregon on 6Jan, arriving midday. I am headed to New Hampshire via Logan in Boston late 23Nov (this Sunday!), staying in Merrimack. I will spend the last two days, starting 1Dec, on my own exploring Boston (including JFK Library) and returning to Oregon 3Dec in the evening.

I have too much coffee and am soon a bit shaky. I did have a breakfast of cheese, toast, and lunch meats—sort of a European breakfast. Again, symptoms of jet lag. I find the other half of the fantastic Reuben sandwich I had in Portland, and that brings the hunger and over-coffee’d status under control. Yikes!

I pay bills, and get through the bills and transfers. I write the blog. It is a busy morning.

I watch some more Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and like it. But this one has one sad moment, which reminds me that Susie’s birthday is 11/20/1962. More tears for this day. Many days have tears. Grief does not end, nor is it really mitigated by time. It is.

Susie’s favorite Carmina Burana is performed by the Oregon Symphony in Portland on her birthday. She would have loved it. And here is one of her favorite songs, we used to clap to this: here. And here is the less famous beer song (wait for it…’ beer, beer, beer’): here. We would sing this one, the chorus. Some fun memories for a birthday!

I took a short trip in Air VW the Gray to mail some items for Deborah from the trip and a postcard to Mom Wild.

I am dragging and sad. It is too early for dinner, but I am hungry. So I cook, rushing nothing. I make tacos. I use the low-sodium seasoning pack (I have a jar of salsa I forgot I could use instead) as I scramble a pound of hamber, now defrosted, mostly by running water over it (thanks, Steve, for the non-stick pan). I bake the shells loaded with slightly overpriced, spicy, locally made Mexican-style cheese. Yes, American Midwesterns, we do our own cheese here on the West Coast.

I make enough for three, but leave about 1/2. I love old family-made tacos. I watch the YouTube channel on destroyer-class ship construction from Drachinifel. I manage to stop and put the remaining away in containers (thanks, Gene and Glenda, for those).

I grab my laptop and board the Air VW the Gray and head into heavy Beaverton Traffic to McMenamins Cedar Hills. They are busy for a Wednesday. It is also dark already.

There, I had a dark beer to match the dark sky, then coffee and their surprise dessert (which was surprisingly good and pretty), and arranged with the manager for Theology Pub to have a room on Thursday (tomorrow, at that point). I find it best to be there and have something when asking for a room.

I also discovered my bartender played D&D, but with the crowd we had, we had little time to chat. I brought my laptop and completed the first level of my adventure for next week. I am reworking a 2014 4E adventure for Dungeons & Dragons into a 5E single-sitting adventure. I am happy to see that the 2024 text and even some of the encounters can be easily upgraded to 9th-level 5E without much change. Grammarly finds many typos and makes it easy to rework. I cleared the level and am ready for the next, and even left one encounter almost unchanged.

I am still sad, and it is dark. Deborah and I chat, and I read her my fluff text (the pre-written descriptions that I write for myself and maybe someone else if these ever get published), and that makes me smile, and she likes it I feel better and nap in my chair, and finally rise to get to bed. I sleep, wake, sleep, and jet lag continues.

Thanks for reading!