Tuesday Games, Arguments, Car, and Overpriced Dinner

Tuesday was full of disappointments. The first being my alarm at 6:30, and that I needed to rise (no rolling over) to make it to gaming at Richard’s house in Portland. Air VW the Gray is at the spa, aka the dealership (when they charge $580 for a realignment, it must be a spa). At $270 a month lease and $556 for insurance for six months (with a perfect driving record), and spa trips, public transit is beginning to look much better. Air VW the Gray has less than 12 months left on its lease, and I have an overage of about 2,000 miles. But this year, it may make up for it if I don’t drive it to LA again (2,000 miles for that trip alone). Oregon will charge a tax of 2.3 cents per mile for EVs starting in 2027.

Hmmm, that is $4,524 a year plus maintenance (spa treatments) and about $20 a month in electricity, or more when charging on a trip ($35 per fast charge). Public transit, renting a car for longer trips, and Uber are looking economical!

Aside: Grammarly is out of its AI mind again and often mixes in a strange, illogical change with its spelling corrections. I am watching for them. My apologies in advance if I let that slip in.

I rose, showered, and dressed, and soon had my book on my Kindle (which did not work as it had not downloaded the new book) and my iPhone (I have the Kindle app). It was after sunrise when I headed out at 8 and waved to Chris and Harper, her daughter (who turned 9 yesterday), as they headed out in Chris’s huge black SUV. It should be useful should a dystopian future arise.

I walked to Tualatin Valley Highway (TV Highway), waiting a long few minutes for the walk signals, and waited only a few minutes for TriMet’s 57 bus to arrive. The sunrise was wonderful with light clouds and Mount Hood stealing the show.

I managed 4500 steps on Tuesday (good), though Monday (and my legs complained; better) was 5000+ steps.

I boarded and scanned in without issue, then rode behind a silent older man with a dog wearing a vest that said it was a service animal. Without any drama (everyone was quiet and seemed to be headed to work or appointments), we arrived at Beaverton Transit Center, and I boarded the Max train to Portland. Another quiet trip, and I read my book.

I missed my stop as the book, The Regicide Report (Laundry Files Book 14), was getting interesting. I hopped off, rescanned my virtual ticket in the Hop app on my phone, and rode a train back to the park south of the failing Lloyd Center Mall (you can now use a credit card). Richard picked me up a few minutes later.

At Richard’s, we finished the setup for the board game Trainted Grail by undoing the manual save process. This is an app-driven cooperative board game with a role playing game (RPG) feel based on a mix of Arthurian post-apocalyptic story freely mixing SciFi and Lovecraftian horror. James bought the game second-hand and with the figures painted dark and scary (an excellent painting job using Object Light Source (OLS) techniques with an airbrush). James is also a completest; he has acquired every add-on and promo for the game, but we are playing the 2.0 rules (and app) without the extras.

I was hopeful we would find our way to chapter 8 today, but alas, we just slowly wandered the areas, some new, others we have not seen since we first started the game. We collected many new things, to our surprise, and the big-bad, with us now reading the rules again, hit us hard and will be back—a timer of sorts.

Richard suggested returning to the other side of the board, and we had learned that there was a way to jump to the other side before. We executed that, and the game did a reset and moved us to the extreme East. Wow! And we will start there next week. We did the manual save process for the game.

Richard and I argued about politics. I apologized as the Minneapolis stuff has me on edge, but Richard was not offended. He dropped me off at the Max, and I took that back to Beaverton. Reading my book. I was still upset, and that made me cold. I arrived in Beaverton, skipped past the Beaverton TC, jumped off a few stops later, and walked a few cold blocks (with poor sidewalks and sometimes no sidewalks) to get to VW. I was very cold.

I paid the fine for owning a VW at the dealership, over $600. I used my debit card to save an additional 3% charge for using credit. The spa does not miss a trick. The EV drove well and, though I think I imagined it, seemed to drive better. All the batteries and other things that could go wrong in an EV (and covered still by warranty) were good.

Home, I put on a sweater, and Corwin shows up. Nonna Emilia Ristorante Italiano is open at 4 on a Tuesday (closed on Mondays), and we decided on a late lunch, early dinner (I had no lunch) there. The food seemed a bit less finished today, and the prices were high. The check, about $100, had a $10 error, but still with tip for two, this is not a $100 place for two. Corwin agreed, and frankly, the food was not better than Olive Garden, and the salad was not $4 for a small plate. $10 for a scoop of ice cream, which is free at The Old Spaghetti Factory, was shocking. Back to The Old Spaghetti Factory for me. Portion sizes are still huge, and I brought back 1/2 my dinner, which reduces my shock. Sadly, I will not likely return.

Disappointed, we headed back, and Corwin was wondering out loud how he could afford to take a girl out with these insane prices. Corwin left, and I read and watched some more, musing on the Battleship President Trump has proposed on the Battleship New Jersey YouTube Channel. Ryan, the curator of the Battleship New Jersey,  explained why a Battleship use case suggests a conventional power plant. It was interesting as it considered topics I did not know. The projected cost, even with conventional power, is as high as $22 billion, with a Ford Carrier cost at $13 billion. Likely, the cost will be less. Ryan reminds the watcher that, with the exception of carriers, the US Navy has not built a larger ship in over 70 years (yes, WW2 and early Cold War cruisers were the last). Ryan is skeptical that these Defiant Class ships will come to fruition. He also commented that the pictures show an underarmed ship (the equivalent of 1.5 destroyers). But, in my thinking, maybe in these times of missiles and drones, a larger ship with plenty of space and power has a mission in the US Navy. Makes me want to get out my rules for the old Cold War tabletop game, Harpoon, and create a new ship to add to the excitement. Though I think the USS Trump/Defiant would be a more likely target for incoming ordnance and wouldn’t last too long. Even with present tech, it is hard to hide 800 feet of steel.

I read, as I said, and tried to get further in the incredible world of Charles Stross. I was soon nodding off and soon fell asleep. I am sure, though the dreams are forgotten, of avoiding the maze traps of The Dark Pharoh by never plotting against it. I woke early, before sunrise, and started this blog.

Thanks for reading!

Aside: The brain surgeon’s office called. We are still having trouble finding a place for my MRI, but we agreed that Good Sam’s in Portland should work. Still looking for a peek at the brain tumor site to check that it is not starting again. Last year’s picture left questions.