Thursday Driving In Circles

I spent much of Thursday driving back and forth. I crossed Beaverton at least four times. But I drive an EV, meaning I did not add to local smog (most of the power is now renewable, with natural gas backing any missed generation here, and I pay extra for renewable-only power), and I did not spend much on the trip (I charge the car at the house), unlike a gas vehicle.

Starting from the beginning, I did rise earlier today, around 7, but I woke at 4, 5, and 6 and watched the room brighten, but resisted starting Thursday early. I made coffee and found a banana and a strange, whipped, and airy yogurt. I then wrote the blog all morning. My Thursday lunch was put off (and then put off until 20 August), and I heard from Emma and friends that they were off to Portland to see friends. We would reconnect on Friday for breakfast.

I received updates on a trip I am helping to plan and execute to Brazil for the church in November. I will be in Brazil for Thanksgiving week. The folks in Brazil got back to me, as did AAA, and I am trying to get my head around the trip, what we need to do to get nine people there for about a week, and back again. Avoiding a tour of the lesser airports of South America and other airline challenges.

With that read and still thinking, lunch was next, and I headed to Pastini at the Cedar Mills Crossing strip mall, making my first crossing of Beaverton. I had my usual pasta with iced tea, since I did not need a nap or a headache today, and their price for a glass of wine can be the retail price of a bottle. My server was excellent, and while Pastini is a change, this one seems to serve an excellent version of carbonara.

(Yes, magic & Pasta)

I stopped at Powell’s Books and picked up a small pencil-and-paper solo game to adventure with. These types of games are something I have enjoyed (I have a Cold War one and others). This one would be a gift.

Next, getting a cookie at Panera Bread across the parking lot, I was happy to write for the Call of Cthulhu tabletop role-playing game (CoC TTRPG). I ate my cookie and wrote at one of their tables. I updated my 4-page document on how I play and created a new version. I find it helpful to have an explanation of what I plan to bring to a game, to state some exceptions and processes (in this case, how to create investigators), and to ensure that the dice used are easy to read. I cleaned up the wording, updated it to my current thinking on playing CoC, and added drawing Tarot cards to the game process. I created a flyer and picked Tuesday nights as the times I should be available to play.

Returning home, I printed off the material and flyer, made copies of the covers of the New Orleans 1920s CoC adventures I plan to use, added a biz card, and paperclipped it all together. Made various corrections (there always seems to be one last thing to fix) and reprinting. Finally, I drove north of Beaverton to Rune & Board and gave the owner the packet; he is intrigued. He will get back to me. Fingers crossed.

Back to the house (a smaller circle of driving), and then at 6ish I head back to the Cedar Mills Crossing to visit McMenamins Cedar Hills for Theology Pub. They have a room for us, but there’s no air circulation, and it is hot today. It will not be improved by 10-14 people. Instead, being outside under a shading umbrella (though it falls on us when the wind catches it, and the sun’s movement makes this less effective) is a better option than inside. Our server is Ulysses (“Like in President Grant,” he tells us), and he keeps the food, booze, and non-alcoholic beverages flowing. He also acquires more umbrellas for us. He gets high praise for his service.

The topic is hospitality and later grief. Hospitality as it applies to visitors and our renters at church, and how we are to serve and interact. We discuss that some folks are finding the changes unpleasant and reacting with anger. It is suggested that this may be a form of grief (and grief easily leads to anger). We agreed that listening and remembering that when hospitality fails, it could be grief. We also talked about getting a cleaning service back to the church, as some old-time members may be reacting to stains and other messes. We are now in the biz of renting, which means more expenses for building maintenance, including cleaning.

We close the meeting, and some of us are irresistibly drawn to nearby Salt & Straw for ice cream. I have a small cone. While the locally made product is not cheap, it is excellent. Recommended.

With the dessert done, I read a note from Emma about breakfast on Friday, exchanged “good night” texts with Deborah, and was done for the evening. I took Air VW the Gray again across Beaverton. My fourth cross and sixth direction change for the day. The EV was done to 67%, and I plugged in the charger (yes, the car will not drive when plugged in, and this does not happen: Naked Gun).

I read for a while, including some CoC rules. I head to bed early.

Thanks for reading.