Tuesday Long Gaming

I rose to another California-like day. I don’t recognize the weather here in the Greater Beaverton area. My first year was a wet year, 1996, with record rains in November and cold below 10°F (-22°C). I ground the last of the locally roasted coffee beans for another pot. I skipped breakfast as I was distracted by many little tasks and made little progress on the blog. It was lovely to talk to Deborah as I started my morning. It is hard to wait until next Monday to see each other

I had about 300 words done when I had to hop into the shower. Even with an extra hour, our Tuesday morning game was delayed an hour this week. I still managed to run late and arrived 15 minutes late (with the post-Rush Hour traffic in Portland allowing me to catch up on some of the time. I did pass two wrecks on Tuesday and was dodging debris on the outbound bridge from a wreck more than 100 feet in the air. That must have been a mess.

We spent three hours playing ISS Vanguard, a Sci-Fi role-playing board game, setting up our mission, and having many long discussions about the rules and possibilities. Richard is trying to game the system and get extra benefits, something he likes to do in the cooperative games, and also to try all the options. This part of the game is all about the process and decisions that impact the play. You can think about all the briefings and ship management before the exciting away missions, like in Star Trek. We run a simulation of assembling our gear for our characters’ mission, run all the game processes that represent ship functions, meet virtually in the hangar, pack the landing ship, and start.

It goes all wrong. We abort and return to the ship, we exhaust our planned characters, and find ourselves flying the ship to something less dangerous (Richard wanted to stay in the mission, but James and I voted to abort). Interestingly, the abort allowed us to complete the bridge upgrades to travel to the next world.

Another landing party, with all the gear already selected, we managed to run the landing process quickly and without failure (we added the new Warning Systems to our lander, which saved us), and we have a mix of horror, The Expanse, and Star Trek play. In the play, we cause a horde of giant insect-like creatures to swarm the planet and destroy our lander. We are stranded! We had no supplies. We managed to find our way, and my Engineer character recovered our discoveries from the wreck of our lander. We managed to survive with half our crew injured (I managed to avoid that this time), though my character failed at climbing, nearly fell to her/his death, but was saved by Richard’s character.

It took seven hours (!) to complete the mission and perform the save. We will play again on my return. I had not planned for such a long day, so I drove home during the early rush hour and headed out to get some food. I decided on the Old Spaghetti Factory. I wanted a salad and something filling; I was very hungry. My waiter served me a nice salad, a loaf of fresh bread with garlic butter, and a huge plate of spaghetti (slightly overcooked, as you find in most restaurants that don’t make their own pasta). The sauce was good. The meatballs and sausage were familiar and worked for me. A finish, a caloric festival, was Spumoni ice cream.

Next, I reached home in Air VW the Gray (down to 69%), took a break, and then headed to Walgreens to discover I was reading last month’s text and that only one prescription was filled (while I write this, I got a note that they did not stock my inhaler and there will be a delay). It is one of the reasons I prefer mail-order Rx processes. They are based in warehouses and can usually fulfill any order.

Jeanne L sent me a book on Michigan. We are traveling together (Deborah, Jeane, and me) in July to revisit and visit various nautical sights and enjoy the outdoors in Michigan. I will try to read the manual before we headed out on that trip. Thanks, Jeanne L!

Back at the house, I watched the last of season two of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (no spoilers), and the last season starts on July 23. I talked to Deborah and said good night. It is good to start and end the day together.

The rest of the evening was little things around the house and starting to pack. I did. It was late when I did this, and I found some hotels for my trip back to Oregon from California, but I booked them wrong (I called the B&B, and they corrected the dates). Spending an extra day to see the Lassen Volcanic Park at Bidwell House. I plan to return to the house on 26June, Friday. I went to bed past midnight, after sending a note to the B&B about the mistake.

Dear reader, please consider attending if you are in the area. From the press release:

BEAVERTON, Ore. — [May 18, 2026] — A new public forum dedicated to ideas, culture, and civic dialogue is coming to Beaverton with the launch of the Beaverton Lecture Series, a community-centered initiative designed to spark thoughtful conversation and deeper connection across the region. The series opens on Thursday, June 4, 2026, at 7:00 PM with the inaugural lecture, “Indigenous Place Keeping: Learning from the Land,” featuring cultural leader David Harrelson. The event will be held at The Historic Downtown Methodist Church, located next to the Beaverton City Library at 12555 SW 4th Street, Beaverton, OR 97005. Admission is free and open to the public. Harrelson, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the tribe’s Cultural Resources Department Manager, will explore the Indigenous practice of “keeping place” — understanding land not merely as physical space, but as a living network of relationships connecting people, plants, history, and community. “No matter where you live, you are on Indigenous land,” Harrelson says, underscoring the continuing relevance of Indigenous knowledge and stewardship.

With more than 16 years of experience in cultural resources and heritage preservation, Harrelson’s work spans ethnobotany, Indigenous foods, contact-era Pacific Northwest history, and Western Oregon Indigenous art. In addition to his leadership with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, he currently serves on the Oregon Arts Commission and previously served on the Oregon State Advisory Committee for Historic Preservation.

ABOUT BEAVERTON LECTURE SERIES
The Beaverton Lecture Series was created to provide an accessible and welcoming gathering space where residents can engage with important ideas shaping culture, history, identity, and civic life. Our hope is that this series becomes a trusted gathering point in Beaverton for learning, dialogue, and shared reflection.

HERE
What: Indigenous Place Keeping: Learning from the Land
Speaker: David Harrelson Date: Thursday, June 4, 2026
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Historic Downtown Methodist Church 12555 SW 4th Street, Beaverton, OR 97005
Admission: Free and open to the public

Here is more information: David Harrelson Press Release.docx – Google Docs

Thanks for reading and considering attending (if you are in the local area).