Thursday Booze and Axes

I rose to another sunny sunrise and frost. Today, I noticed that the tulips I planted a few years ago have about a 50% survival rate. The flood reached them, and the soil isn’t great in that area. All bad for surivial of tulips. But that means I will have to pick out some new ones! The pomgrante tree looks dead, but it may be too early to look.

I made liberal coffee as I again forgot to assemble the coffee last night. I returned to the Raspberry Pi and kept my open browser session down, and I did not stall, and Grammarly worked. Though it is still trying to rewrite my words to something clearer and simpler, but also wrong. I resist the blue underlining updates, which are about style, not correctness. I write all early morning, and I am surprised it is not yet 10, and I have already done over 600 words with pictures. I published the blog and posted it on Facebook. I also send out my usual email for those who don’t subscribe to WordPress or use Facebook.

Note: I use Premium WordPress for about $100 a year. I use their tools to write and publish.

I shower, dress, and doom scroll the news. President Chaos-Battleship’s minions have been shouting at Congress while others withdraw ICE. Other minions are suggesting measles vaccines now that there are terrible outbreaks when we had nearly none for decades. Another minion suggests that we should stop the Justice investigation of the chairman of the Fed (as the Banking Committee has a hold on the President’s pick for replacement until the investigation stops). And that word that all this smoke is trying to cover, Epstein, continues to depress us with more depravity being exposed and, in the US government, ignored. Europe and US companies are firing people, and prosecutions may start soon in the EU.

I take Air VW the Gray and meet Scott W and Brad J for lunch. I have not seen Brad for a few years. He is now retired and, like Scott W, has a still-working spouse (my girlfriend, Deborah, still works). We mostly chat about travels and family. Scott W and I both do the plus-one thing when our wives/girlfriends travel for work. We talk about Social Security and Health Care, as I am the first to start SS and buy my own health care.

After lunch and two beers, I head home, and Scott W may take a walk before the next lunch. More to follow. I fall asleep, and it is a deep rest, and I do not hear Corwin, who leaves me to sleep. I wake and hear the microwave chiming. I deduce that criminals don’t know the combination of the house and would not be warming leftover coffee before committing crimes; it must be Corwin. And greet him as I walk into the living room.

Corwin needs work (and thus $), and I was thinking I needed to clean the house as exercise and was going to start after a nap. Instead, for $50, Corwin cleans the toilets, washes the floors, and vacuums. For an extra $20, he will return and clean all the windows. Corwin will never be called fastidious, and I do point out some improvements and requirements. In an hour or so he is done.

I take Corwin, and we enjoy the chaos of Costco after 4. Corwin is shocked by the low prices. I add a few items to the cart for him, my treat, and that should also make the money crunch a bit less painful. This includes the famously cheap and delicious Costco-cooked chicken, which I split with him (bagging it when I get home), a pile of pork chops, and a few other items. I hd acquired reasonably priced NY Strips, but then decided not to cook.

We unloaded and loaded Corwin’s car with various purchases and headed to the Axe Bar in Hillsboro. Now, maybe, dear readers, you think axe-throwing and drinking alcohol is a bad mix, but that is the new thing (and the Vikings were reportedly good at this). I was there for the food. They said they had smoked chicken wings, and that had my attention. While the prices were not low, the folks were friendly, and Scooby-Doo was playing on the big screen, along with other forgotten cartoons (Jackie Chan was once a cartoon). Who would not like a place like this?

The wings were smoky and not drowning in sauce, almost too light, and just celery was offered. Corwin also tried a taco, which he declared good. Food, while not cheap, is recommended, and I will be back. Maybe on a cheap axe night (though those words do not instill confidence).

The sign suggested that throwing children was free on Sunday. Yup, maybe I misunderstood that sign. But the idea of giving a child an axe to throw seemed somehow unproductive. But Corwin reminded me that Boy Scouts would do this.

Again, the wings and a side of beans were wonderful. I had a beer, breaking my weekly limit, and then paid $20 for Corwin to demo his throwing for an hour. QR Codes sent us to a waiver that we signed electronically. With three beers in less than four hours, I was not throwing an axe!

The axe spins like in the movies, and if the blade is in the right place when the wall is contacted, it sticks. I could count about 1 in 5 for this for folks without practice, which covers about the space in the spin of the axe to stick. I watched one man who had practice and he was always throwing the same strength and the same distance. That made sense to me. Still, it was fun to watch groups competing at different booths. I was careful never to be behind anyone, in case they slipped and threw it backward.

The place offers screened-in booths for throwing at a wooden board. There is a projector with targets that keeps score. There are even cartoon zombies. But from what I saw of the alcohol-infused throwers, we don’t have a chance against zombies!

With that experiment done, something I wanted to try for months, we returned home. Corwin went home with his car loaded to his doggie. I read, then got on the stationary bike and pedaled for thirty minutes while enjoying more of season 2 of The Foundation on Apple+.

I read later and did the dishes. I forgot, again, to assemble the coffee, but did update my log of pills. I dress for bed in PJs, and I read more and liked where Hail Mary went with the story. It was again hard to put down.

I did sleep most of the night. I woke from a now-forgotten dream where I was trying to solve a computer problem. It was mathematical, and I kept getting it wrong. I suspected, my dreaming self, that the dream was changing the problem each time I tried a solution. Hmmm. I woke a few times and went back to sleep. My last dream was Deborah and I traveling somewhere, but the details are gone from my mind.

Thanks for reading.