Wednesday Back to Normal Kind of

The dinner, beer, and coffee with ice cream on Tuesday brought me no new issues, yay!

Sorry, this took all day to get finished. Been a busy Thursday.

I woke, having dilly-dallied until midnight on the Internet, and I woke late, about 8:45 (after rolling over a few times), but I had only one appointment, gaming at First United Methodist Church, Beaverton, with Z. Z is now 15, and I can say my days of losing to a 14-year-old are over.

With no deadlines, I wrote slowly and covered some upcoming travel plans. Deborah and I are still working out the details. I was surprised to feel better (it has been about 10 days of struggle, and the rash is now controlled). The depression lifted, and I found it easier to do things. I had not realized how sad I was. The colors in the world seem brighter, and again, I am bouncing around tasks and thoughts about projects and ideas. Before, I was just spending all my energy surviving and trying to make progress. My weight has been circling around 230 (down from 234), even falling to 226 for a moment. Better. Still losing slowly, but more importantly, not rising. Emotionally, I feel better when I’m not seeing 240 on the scale (yes, for those regular readers, I do check that the scale is properly zeroed before I step on it).

I write lots of words and take all morning. I discovered cheese blintzes in the freezer and prepared three for lunch. Breakfast was a banana and instant coffee (not wanting to risk more than a cup). I find some frozen fruit in the freezer and use hot water to defrost a bowl. I have not whipped cream nor any cream to make it. But still I go with it. It was barely above average, and I have had better. I will look at what it takes to make them fresh. But still not terrible. I connect with Deborah and, still in my robe, we talk about the trip to Utah in a few weeks. After that, I got to the shower.

I scrubbed, washed, and reapplied all the lotions (potions?) that seemed to bring the skin rash under control, and some of it seems to be gone. I did all the rest and soon was dressed. My accountant at Cornerstone Tax called, and I need to check something and get back to them. I did, but then drove the documents to them, paperwork for them. I found a parking spot around the block and then walked into Hillsboro and dropped off the paper. I then went across the street to a former theater, now a less-than-well-kept antique market (like most), and trolled around in their items (‘trolled’ meaning a type of fishing), but nothing caught my attention (thus an absurd pun). No calls. I headed to the coffee shop, Insomnia Coffee (a chain), and had a scone (cutting it in half and saving more for later), and did some calls and some Internet surfing.

I next walk down to an early dinner at Amelia’s Exquisite Mexican Dining, a favorite. There I stuck to water, but ordered a large platter. Time to test the tummy. All went well, and it was interesting. I was also looking at the history of Tomyris and looked for a modern coin with her image. It was an expensive series silver coin (silver prices have been rising over the last six months). Nothing I wanted — I was hoping they used it for the regular coins, as those I might be able to get for gaming. I enjoyed my meal, it was a lot.

Showing no signs of discomfort, I headed to Beaverton and arrived just after Dondrea and Z. Z had finished her dinner and set up a table. We then went for the board game Raiders of Scythia (Tomyris being a famous Scythian), and soon we were collecting our crew and resources, then raiding the old empires around 600 BCE. In a two-person version, there is very little direct competition between the players. It is a race-and-push-your-luck game. I imagine that with three players, it becomes more competitive. I risked a raid, which was crushed with some bad rolls. This gave Z a break, and Z pushed her advantage, building a strong crew. Z then raided, completed goals, and reached good points with her strength. I rebuilt a new, very strong crew and began pushing back. I raided and completed multiple rewards to scratch out every point. But in the end, when I ended the game with one more raid, Z had more than ten points ahead and stayed that way.

I lost by more than ten points to a 15-year-old. It sounds better.

With that done, Z is happy with the results. I head home having enjoyed the game and, while not winning, it is still fun to play. I got home, read, put out the trash, and did the dishes. I still ended up reading until midnight.

Thanks for reading!