Saturday Wine and Games

I rose on Saturday to a dry and sometimes sunny day, but one of the shortest as the Winter Solstice is here. My decorative jars hung from the deck rain shelter, filled with solar-powered ‘firefly’ lights, some never lit and others lasting only an hour or less. The gray and short days make them short-lived. Yes, as was said in a Doctor Who Christmas Special with Matt Smith years ago, “We are halfway through the dark.”

I washed three of the jars’ lids with the solar panels, as dust and mold can block charging. I left them in the house to charge, but forgot that the kitchen light is a motion detector, and they soon were discharged. I will move the solar-powered lights to the eight-hour light system for the plants to ensure they get a full charge. Hopefully, they will recover (or their inexpensive light system failed).

I had not bought any liquid softener yet, so laundry was delayed.

I wrote the blog and chatted with Deborah, sharing some of our morning. We would connect here and there all day. We are counting down to seeing each other on Christmas; there are five days left.

I took the leftover chopped veggies from making jambalaya and froze them. We will make gumbo next month for 2026. With the blog done, dressed, and all of that, I headed to Beaverton in Air VW the Gray. The puddles are still there, and everything is shiny and recently washed by the river-of-rain. More roads are washing out, and rivers are high. I was surprised to see how high the Willamette River was in Portland when I drove through Portland later.

I stopped by the framing store to pick up Pastor Ken’s gift, which was not that expensive until I had it framed. Next, I decided on lunch out and stopped by Red Robin to discover that the bartenders had quit, and ‘Shy’ was my new twenty-something bartender. She informed me that “my name is Shy, but I am not shy.” That left me with no guy-over-60 appropriate comeback. Refusing to be trapped or shocked by those words, I ordered lunch without looking at the menu, which earned me a smile, having thus avoided any comeback she is sure she has heard before. Toche!

I learned that she was hired last month, that four bartenders had left, and that she was immediately promoted from server to morning bartender. I have been visiting the bar since before the pandemic, and it has undergone two remodels since I first sat at the bar. She shared that she hated the shake machine; it sucks to clean and breaks all the time. I have heard this from her predecessors before.

Turning to my food, my chicken breast lunch and salad were good and spiced up (perfect), but I spoiled its reasonable calorie count with a side of fries, but I did not get a refill. They had a beer I had not had since Von Ebert’s had closed in the Pearl District in Portland: Volatile Substance IPA. I am not usually an IPA guy, but this one is interesting.

I checked out with Shy’s help (the table machines were not correctly set at the bar, I was told), who was busy with about six tables, good for a Saturday, but she said they were slammed at night this week with all the holiday shoppers buying dinner.  I was happy to hear that the economy in Beaverton was moving for the holidays.

I stopped at Market of Choice, bought paper products, softner, and a reasonably priced, for what it was, steak for a later dinner. I returned home, read for a while, and nodded off a few times. I am not above sliding in a nap here and there.

I had yogurt for dinner after a large lunch. I boarded the EV and took it through the drying streets of Beaverton and Portland, but soon the Oregon Mist returned, and we were cold and damp. The VW does not have a heated steering wheel, and my hands were missing that warm caress of Volvo warmth I used to get.

I brought Chateâu Greysac 2015, a Médoc, to share. Chris, Laura, Richard, and I met at Richard’s basement to play Ada’s Dream, a new Kickstarter board game. This is a dice rondel-style game and engine-building (including ‘gears’ and ‘cards’ to program your engine). I liked this one because it avoided illogical goals, secret objectives, and grabbing super-powered cards (that a new player cannot know), which I find so frustrating with some engine-building games. The dice and programming were fun. And while I scored at the bottom (with Richard and Laura fifty points ahead of me), I learned that I did need to upgrade my cards (there is a light deck punning pruning mechanism) and that I need to program more. Still, I missed third place by two points. It is a heavy game with more iconography and rules than most, and is definitely a hard-core gamer option. We played for about three hours (with the ‘teach’ for me adding thirty minutes).

With that game done, we played a rushed (it was getting late, and we ended after midnight) Fate of the Fellowship LOTR Pandemic-style new game. We lost, and there was a bit of nervousness from that, but everyone enjoyed the game. We had lost Helm’s Deep and could not retake it, and we focused too much on fighting and taking strongholds rather than on objectives. Still, it was fun.

I drove home in no traffic, but Beaverton’s Finest was on patrol, and I passed at least two of them. I drove ‘casual,’ and they left me be (and stayed under the speed limit — looking very law-abiding). I made a grilled cheese and had half of it with my pills. I find I sleep better, and the pills are less impactful with food. I woke up often and slept for only a few hours. I did dream of other choices and programming in Ada’s Dream.

Thanks for reading.