It was overcast and raining, not just Oregon Mist, all day. I wore a coat or a sweater for most of the day. I could not put on the heat for one more day (I woke up to 65°F, snuggled deep in my blankets on Friday, and turned the heat on; the AC will likely not be used until 2027). The weather forecast has one warm day next week. September is full of this back-and-forth of sunny days and then days of rain. The sun breaks become shorter and shorter until they disappear in mid-October. I can see the impact of extended shade on the roses. They have suddenly slowed their growth and blooming.
My alarm wakes me at 3:30, and I call Deborah. On the second call, she answers and is surprised that her boyfriend has called her in the morning. We enjoy a short chat before Deborah gets her day going. I had missed her for a goodnight call, and I decided to get in a good morning before she headed to work. Deborah was thrilled, and I slept until 8 once I nodded off again.
Watching the rain and the squirrels hide filberts in the yard, I write the blog. The wind, another sign of winter’s return, whips the trees into their winter dances, and old dead limbs fall. Once again, I imagine the squirrels wearing seatbelts in their dreys, squeaking out a yee-haw as the trees swing many squirrels’ lengths.
I write the blog, check the news, and take my usual steps to ensure my finances are sensible. On Thursday, Wall Street decides to reverse all its drops and climbs again. But this does not change the yield rate, so I am now making money twice as fast in my IRA. Betting on debt and boring, low-expense indexes seems like a good Trump strategy. Thanks, US Bank Wealth Management.
Coffee, made fresh, and a banana join the toast from the bread maker with peanut butter (cut into squares, not triangles) while I write. I manage to finish the blog with a few interruptions around 11. I dressed after making lunch.
I got out a NY Strip steak that I had soaking in Teriyaki sauce for a day. I grabbed a cast-iron pan and fried it in avocado oil (less smoke) until it was crusted on both sides. I then finished it in the oven at 350°F (425°F, I think, would have been better), checking the internal temperature, and stopped after about 12 minutes (turning it once) once it hit 135-40. I made a salad by chopping some veggies and tearing lettuce (still safe here in Oregon when buying a head). I let the steak rest, then thinly sliced it, and put about 1/2 on the salad. Excellent.
More For All Mankind was watched while I ate the whole salad. It was good, better than what I get at most restaurants (almonds stuffed into olives are unusual but good). The show is losing its charm for me. It has become predictable to me, and I find few of the characters sympathetic, which I understand makes it more real, but it makes it hard for me to be more than a witness to mistakes and violence.
I had a church meeting at 2 and finally showered and got ready for the rest of my day. I spent an hour in the church SPRC Zoom call. For those who do not speak Methodist, this is the HR committee. We covered many items and finished our agenda in just over an hour; the details are confidential and cannot be discussed here. We do use Zoom’s built-in AI to compose meeting minutes, review and revise them, and then publish our human version. It works well.
Mariah and Emma had asked me where I wanted to go for a trip. I had suggested the dunes and Gold Beach about six hours away by car on Thursday at dinner. I was surprised that they wanted to give it a whirl this weekend. I found Jot’s Resort (I stayed there with M@ a few years ago and loved it), booked a Sunday-Monday stay, and I plan to fly the EV there early Sunday morning (missing church).
I read for a while and discovered that Thursday had disappeared, and started on dinner. I boiled the remains of a bag of pasta, parboiled some broccoli florets, sliced up the cold steak, and sliced an heirloom tomato. The finished pasta was heated, mixed with butter, and combined in a bowl. I added parmesan cheese and the juice of 1/2 lemon. It was excellent. I ate almost all of it.
I collected my books, including Quantum Computing from No Starch Press, and headed to Insomnia Coffee at Reed Crossing in Air VW the Gray. There I ordered a London Fog and read the rest of the long mathematics chapter. I learned what are ket’s and bra‘s, and yes, used together, they are a braket (eye roll for math terms that are also a joke). I am having trouble getting it all back in my head, and reusing symbols for vectors is difficult for me. Also, some of the shortcuts involve linear functions, and I am not used to playing loose with functions when they are known to be linear. So more homework is needed. I did flip back a few times to start to understand.
I thought they closed at 8, not 9 like I thought, and they have to tell me they are closing. Yes, I closed the coffee bar while reading linear algebra processes. I finished the mathematics section just as they closed, yay!
The EV gets me home, and I do the dishes and think about how the house is really just a base for me. But an excellent, warm, and friendly base. I am tired, and my brain is spinning on vectors and complex numbers. I head to bed, snuggle in, and read more Nero Wolfe. It is early. I get a chapter read before I nod off.
I save my place, turn off the light, and roll over. I wake every couple of hours, have to prove that I was well hydrated three times, and wake around 5. I managed to roll over and slide into a light sleep. My phone pings at 6 with texts from Deborah. She starts my Friday morning — an excellent start!
Thanks for reading!
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 