It is a clear Wednesday morning, with blue skies, and I am rising late, after 8:30. It is the calm before the next storm. Another 2-4 inches of rain (5cm-10cm) from another river-of-rain is predicted for Thursday-Saturday. We are drying out in Oregon, and the Coastal Mountains absorb the initial rains, reducing them before coming into the interior; Washington State does not have the same barrier, and the rains come deep into its west before hitting the Cascade Mountains. I believe my area, the Aloha-Beaverton-Hillsboro area, southwest of Portland, will survive the storm with just big puddles.
Returning to Tuesday, I discovered that while I pushed the correct button and loaded the coffee maker with water, I had failed to put coffee in the machine. I had a pot of hot water, but at least it served as a cleaning. I redo this and have coffee soon.
I had no time to write the blog because I had to get to Richard’s house at 9, since we moved the time up by 30 minutes. I was rushing, showering, and all that, and poured the coffee into a thermal cup and jumped into Air VW the Gray. It would not start. I needed the fob, and second, I needed to unplug it. Yikes!
The traffic was heavy as usual for a Tuesday rush hour, and the earlier morning did not improve my experience (When I was in Washington, D.C., every minute past 7:15 was five extra minutes of travel, I calculated in the 1980s-90s when I worked there). I arrived on time, discovered that James could not make the earlier time, and Richard and I set up and chatted for a while.
James arrived at the usual time, and soon we started back into Tainted Grail and began to understand our goals. We are about 1/2 through the story and play, and our characters, this is a board game version of a role-playing game campaign, are powerful. I asked to try some new areas and something we have not tried before, with various degrees of success. Richard suggested redoing one location, and it worked as we now had the proper items and knowledge (there is a log of what you learn) to get different experiences.
The game seems more immersive, but we are a bit lost now as we stumble along looking for the next thread of the story. I am liking the experience more. We are also seeing tasks for higher points in the story. We are in chapter 7, and 11-14 are showing now. I find my interest in the game growing.
We stopped at 1. Richard had an appointment, and James shared some Christmas games for me (he picked something more to play at church — very kind). I gave him a JFK pencil (sticking to simple things this year).
Next, I drove back to Beaverton and had some SPRC work at the church (for those who do not speak Methodist, the HR committee is SPRC). It was a pleasant meeting, and later Wendy pointed out a mistake in the refresh work. Blake, who leads the effort from Pinepoint, our contractor, said he would look into it.
I headed to Elephant’s Delicatessen off of Cedar Hills in Beaverton. They had Beef Bourgogne for lunch! It was good, but mine is better, a variation of Julia Child’s version that Deborah and I learned to make in cooking classes in Detroit. Now with too much food, I head home.
Corwin shows up with a leaf blower and uses my ladder to clean my roof and gutters of mush that was once green and part of the trees. I am tired and sleep in the chair while he blasts away (the loss of hearing has some advantages) and get caught up on my rest. I also finally started the blog. Corwin offers to pick up dinner, and I order online from Gyro House. I had the veggie plate, and Corwin had the fried chicken.
As Lay Leader, leader of the refresh work, and SPRC member of my church, I had to attend the Church Council Zoom meeting and also another one before that. All church stuff, including the budget, was approved and finished by 7:30. I ate my dinner while on Zoom, and Corwin finished his. I also wrote a check for Corwin’s cleaning.
And for those who might need some leaf or other work outside: https://americanhomesolution.org. This is Corwin’s company.
I was tired and had my fill of Zoom (felt like I was back to work). I served on the Internet for a while and then read more Judge Dee detective stories set in China’s Ming Empire. I found sleep, woke, and finally slept the night away. No bright dreams that I remember, just comfortable blackness.
Thanks for reading!
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 