Friday Slow and Laundry: Good Friday 2026

I rose as the sun did and drank coffee I made in the kitchen, standing on my new flooring that Jeff installed while I was in Utah with Deborah for about two weeks. The price was more than I had hoped, and Jeff was concerned that I had picked the cheaper “rental” grade floor, but he agreed with me that the color was wonderful and matched the house well. The extra cost was from mold and water damage from the previous laundry. That was where the smell was coming from. Jeff had to replace some of the walls and flooring. It looks wonderful, and I am happy.

There is no Good Friday service at First United Methodist Church of Beaverton. I do have to get some sausages and butter for Sunday. I have my two grills and Z, and I will be making pancakes for Easter. The usual Easter morning starts at 8 for us on Sunday.

I spent the morning writing the blog and running load after load of laundry. I made grits (with milk and water with a bit of salt) for breakfast. I added two pieces of bacon that Corwin cooked for me the day before. It all went well with the Fair Trade coffee. The bitter taste reminded me that the USA is at war, and there was a prayer and tear for the pilots who were shot down over Iran in their F-15E.

I wrote, then showered, and connected with Jeff. He came over, we settled up, and we talked about the new floor and the work. Next, I called the pharmacy that supplies Skyrizi to learn that they had done nothing (despite my signing up for automatic refills) and might miss my window to get the injectable. F**k. I called Emily, my nurse provided by Skyrizi; she returned my call, and we were both surprised. There is some hope that the pharmacy can get the stuff to me next week. Ugh! They will contact me on Monday (not Friday, since they don’t ship over the weekend) and maybe work something out. Hmmmm.

I got a double beef from Arby’s for lunch because my watch reminded me of a SPRC meeting (for those who do not speak Methodist, this is the church’s HR committee), and I ate my sandwich and fries during the meeting. I originally had the Zoom meeting running on my laptop on the deck, but the neighbors have a new, younger dog, and soon they were all barking, ugh! The contents of the SPRC meetings are private. We finished the meeting in 35 minutes.

I toured the plants as I had been away for two weeks. My surviving tulips were bright. Two of my roses are showing stress, and I added some bone meal and mulch to them. The stressed roses are both old roses and in a less sunny spot. I will likely (with the two exceptions) have roses soon (instead of impressive thorny sticks). The dawn redwood is happy, growing, and turning green again.

I then decided I was tired and just did laundry and read The Fourth Protocol, a 1984 Cold War spy thriller novel by Frederick Forsyth. I remember the movie, but I had never read the book. I enjoyed his earlier mechanical-thriller designs and recommend The Day of the Jackal. In The Fourth Protocol, he expresses political views against the Labor Party and suggests that any left-leaning organization must be controlled by Marxist-Leninist ideology (yes, this being before Fox News was even an idea), but I still like the story and its mechanical nature. I also enjoyed his book, The Odessa File. The movies are dated and treat women as objects. The new BBC show, an updated version of The Day of the Jackal story, was good, but it does not follow the book.

I made dinner instead of buying it, having done two weeks of restaurant food. I found some aging red potatoes left over from St. Patrick’s Day that I baked to go with a defrosted pork chop. I had the frozen green beans as a side (though they were not good). I overcooked the pork chop again, but it was still good. The wine was excellent.

I spent the rest of the night reading and resting. I spoke to Deborah often (we miss each other’s company). I will travel again soon (back to Michigan). I started to nod off as the book built toward its conclusion. I will likely finish on Saturday (though I have gaming on Saturday night and Easter pancakes).

I was asleep about 11 and did not wake until 6ish.

Thanks for reading.