Wednesday Going Slow and Brass

I rose on Wednesday without much of a plan. I did have two bagels from Emma, and one was soon toasted and covered in cream cheese. They are still a work in progress, according to Emma, and while not a bagel-like bread product, they were still not the same as the ones I got in NYC; they are still better than most here in the Pacific Northwest (thanks, Emma), and clearly a bagel. Thus fortified, and adding the last OP Bean coffee from Portland Coffee Roasters (so liberal that a few bucks from each bag is sent to Oregon Public Broadcasting), I began my morning.

It was another sunny morning, and I saw the hummingbirds searching the roses this time for pollen. I spotted the local squirrels carrying materials to hide or something. The grasshoppers are back. The dragonflies and damselflies often pass through. No cat patrols of late, and I have not seen a rodent running along the fence again. I am not sure if it is a mouse, rat, or something else, as it is fast.

Despite the desert conditions, the roses are blooming, with Mister Lincoln not wanting to disappoint anyone. The Herbalist, an impossible-to-find David Austin variety from 1991, is smaller but looks good. The other roses, while sporting smaller flowers, are all growing.

(Mister Lincoln)

(A David Austin Herbalist now only available in Europe, if there)

I was dragging after running the Call of Cthulhu tabletop role-playing game on Tuesday night, playing the same game the next morning, and having the colonoscopy on Monday. It felt like it was time to slow down for a bit. With the blog done and published, I strangely missed emailing it or posting it to Facebook (I did get it to Facebook on my phone), so I showered and dressed.

I painted my new Sultan Scythe figures. I am getting them further. The colors are gray, but I added more brass and silver shades to make them more 3D. I am still using diluted paints.

I was not sure what to do for lunch, but decided on BJ’s Brewhouse. I sat and was surprised that prices were now in the $25 range, but inflation is still above 2%, and the service industry had to endure huge increases (“surging profits” is the word that I read when looking at non-health insurance companies); it was not a real surprise. But what did surprise me was the $13 lunch offered on weekdays, which was 1/2 the size of the $26 version. Excellent. It was a suggestion from Chris, my soft-spoken bartender. I had sat at the bar.

With lunch inside me and having mostly read and skimmed the rulebook for the board game Brass for the newer Birmingham version, I returned home. I took a nap until 4ish. I picked up (having boarded Air VW the Gray and crossed Beaverton in our first after-school traffic this fall) Emma, and we enjoyed the Beaverton Carts for a 5ish dinner. I gave the rules to Emma and tried to explain Brass, but it is best to just dive in and experience it in a practice game (the practice game is highly recommended in the rules).

We arrive too early; today I am running early, and we wait at the church, but Emma gets to read more rules. Z, Dondrea, and the rest arrive about 6:30-ish, and soon we are about it. We assemble the board game, which takes some effort, as Brass: Birmingham has complex rules, many components, and lots of cardboard pieces to manage. The Praise Band practices and even plays the hymns for Sunday, as Brian, the organist and choir director, is out this Sunday, and thus they need to play all the music for Sunday’s service. We manage to get through the turns. Z struggles, as our last time playing Brass was a year ago, but soon Z gets it. Emma surges ahead, having read the rules and asking questions over and over that I can mostly answer. Z listens, and soon we are flying.

I was reading, as I was preparing to play Brass, that some universities use the game as an example of how capital is used to enable even more capital. How to use borrowing to enable progress, but also not to drown in debt and misspending. Capital cannot be held; it must be spent to increase income, cover borrowing costs, and enable more capital and even more borrowing.

We did not finish the first Epic or the practice game, but Emma and Z voted that it was fun and that we should play it again. We will get it out again. Next time, we should be able to finish the Epic. Also, practice will be longer when the choir returns in the next few weeks.

I dropped off Emma at her apartment, where the cats — she has two — are likely plotting. I understand the cats are of questionable sanity. I headed home, watched the depressing after-events Star City episode; I have only one left. I found it an interesting show, and the hour-long episodes fascinating, though dark. The word dystopian does not cover it; more like it is steeped in Orwellian anti-Justice and Stalinist terror.

I soon read in bed, but made no progress. I put aside my current book and tried something I found in Michigan, which better fit my mood, but soon nodded off. I closed the book, took off my glasses, managed not to drop them on the floor, and soon slept. I dreamed bright dreams of playing Brass, but this time, when you built something, it came into existence. Z and Emma were busy with their Empires too. Karen, the church treasurer, reminded me in my dream to increase my liquidity by taking out loans. I woke to prove hydration, but then returned to my dreams. I think I then toured my empire, which matched some of the features of Star City and rockets. As Chief Designer (dream logic can easily allow for a normally illogical change), I reduced the repression, but this lowered my liquidity. Morning came, and I woke. I do not remember if I improved my cash flow.

Thanks for reading.