Saturday was a good day to sleep in. I woke about sunrise on another cold, clear-skied January morning here in the Pacific Northwest. Later, it would cloud up and even sprinkle, but that was just a brief visit from the Oregon Mist, and it would return to freezing, cloudless nights. Our normal winter/spring weather, endless inbound Pacific-based dampness, has been pushed away by a polar vortex, which is troubling the central and Eastern USA. Today (Sunday when I write this), we will cloud up and endless damp returns all next week.
Returning to Saturday’s memory, coffee was waiting for me, more Sleepy Monk brand (thanks, AJ, Steve, and Nikolas), and I tried to find focus. I had made the bed with clean sheets, and it is always nice to wake to warm, clean sheets. It was difficult to rise and find direction, but at least there was excellent coffee waiting, having assembled it the night before. The coffee and the kitchen were where I left them; they had not moved. But it seems a longer trek on some mornings.
I have to be at Richard’s in Portland at 6 to play games. I invest the morning writing the blog, folding and putting away the laundry, and chatting with Deborah. I make more Trader Joe’s frozen Chinese-style meals, going with Mandarin Orange Chicken and adding sliced bits of orange and green beans. It was good and not drowned in sauce.
I completed The Umbrella Academy series with their final episode, watching the last three episodes here and there all day on Saturday. Like all endings of series, you don’t want it, and it never feels like enough. Still, I enjoyed the four seasons.
Deborah, Dondrea, and I had a call and discussed options for Deborah’s and my trip to Utah at the end of March and the start of April. Deborah and I agree with Dondrea to see the Arches National Park in southern Utah. Dondrea gave a list of walks, museums, and parks to try. I took notes. I will try to assemble a plan from it. Deborah and I are also headed to California again in June. We have decided that we enjoyed having Air VW the Gray when in Long Beach, and this time I will head to Orange County in the EV. I am excited to do another road trip EV-style. We are definitely headed back to the Hollywood area again.
Some time on Saturday afternoon, I take some bread slices (frozen and made in the bread machine), toast them, add some Swiss cheese slices on their last legs, and heat them in a small pan in butter. Add some water and cover with a lid to let the steam heat the cheese. That is dinner.
I never got out for a walk, but I was busy all day. I take Air VW the Gray to Portland and enjoy the interestingly slow, imprecise driving from my fellow Oregonians. How they can drive this badly always amazes me. Coming to a near stop when changing lanes on a f**king bridge with a merge and exit five stories in the air (who designed this!) is insane, but usual here. Still, with no paint loss, I make it to Richard’s.
LOTR: Fate of the Fellowship, my copy, was our game for tonight. Robin, a new player, joined us. Chris also joined. I set up the Pandemic-based game for four players, and we went through the basic setup. We discovered that I was moving too many enemy troops, and that made it easier. The game, I feel, is immersive, and it is also cooperative with the Pandemic-like mechanism that drives the Dark Lord and minions. It is a race to complete various objectives and to send Frodo and Sam to Mount Doom to try to destroy the ring. And while the old War of the Ring board game (and expensive), a two-person game, is immersive and fascinating to play, this new version is a up to five-person game and done in an hour (which might cover the setup time for the other game). I like it and may not return to the other game.
We got lucky, and Frodo got four ring cards on his own. We completed the tasks, and three characters escorted Frodo and Sam to Mount Doom. The ring (represented by five ring cards) was tossed into Mount Doom with no chance of losing hope. We did lose the Shire and barely held the dwarven and elven strongholds in the north. It was fun.
I was home early, we played just one game, and started a small laundry run. As I covered, I finished The Umbrella Academy. I was in bed about midnight; I am, of late, running late. I soon fell asleep. While I cannot remember any dreams, I woke refreshed early, rolled over, and slept until nearer to 8 than 7.
Thanks for reading!
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