The post-nasal drip-drip comes and goes all day. This means sudden coughing attacks, cough meds, and then nothing for hours. It was a constant issue and annoyance, but it was mostly ignored, and pills were carried just in case. The rains stopped, and the pollen was back in the Beaverton and Portland area.
I invested the sunrise and the morning writing the blog with a few asides. I was not overly focused on writing, and talked to Deborah. We were again getting used to me being in a three-hour time zone difference. We enjoyed chatting and will soon see each other 15Oct-20, Deborah’s birthday visit.
I wrote multiple asides and wandered a bit in the writing. I am avoiding boilerplate and repeating myself. But I did enjoy liberal coffee (I know I spend many words on coffee, but it is so nice to have fresh coffee every morning), and the bitter taste reminds me that Justice with Compassion is still a work in progress in the USA. But I have Hope and believe we liberals are slowly making the world better. I remember the scary world of the late 1960s and early 1970s. I also enjoy a banana.
I forgot to write about breakfast yesterday; sorry. I opened a salmon packet for a protein-rich breakfast with some cheese and olives (stuffed with almonds). I was later hungry, as I had failed to have some starch to keep me full. But still, I enjoyed the extra energy. I was worried as I assembled my tasty breakfast that I would taste salmon all day, but that did not happen. I remembered all those European hotel breakfasts (and Iceland too) when I ate my fish for breakfast.
This led, after taking a shower and talking more with Deborah, to defrosting some cod and then baking it with just salt and pepper. I cooked it to an internal temperature of 135°F (57°C). I reheated the leftover polenta in the microwave and opened a jar of canned sliced peaches to go with it. I watched a newly purchased animated film, Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham. A stand-alone story that freely mixes Batman with Lovecraft-like monsters and damnation stories in the 1920-30s; it even included a dreaded text. Not bad.
I found the chocolate mousse servings I got at Costco, took one, and enjoyed it. I also did the dishes (it looked like a chef had exploded a meal in the sink) and folded and put away the laundry. This all while enjoying the animated feature.
Time moved slowly, a pleasant change, and I made sure all the Cthulhu War parts were loaded in the car. I still had plenty of time; I headed to Portland. With I-5 South closed, the traffic pattern changed even on Saturday, and I stalled a few times on a sunny Saturday early afternoon. Mt. Hood and St. Helens were visible on the Fremont Bridge. A magnificent view you can peek at as two lanes merge at the top of the bridge and then split off into two directions, with cars and trucks switching lanes seemingly at random and always slowly, never fast.
Lucky Labrador Brew House on Hawthorn was my target, and I found it with a spare parking spot. I took my laptop and my Quantum Computing book with me. I bought a red ale and a bowl of peanuts to shell, and I did not put the shells on the floor–a sin here. You get a spare bowl for the shells. I read about tensors and then turned to the Internet and found an excellent explanation (here). I then read more in the “Systems” chapter of Quantum Computing. I did not feel I got enough to return to coding in Python and do something interesting. Also, the beer and the deep dive, only about 90 minutes, were putting me to sleep. It amazed me, as I remember getting sleepy when studying math back in the 1980s at Central Michigan University. Pure math can, for me, be a real nap causer. Coffee would be the usual solution, but you don’t get that there.
Instead, I caught up on YouTube and did a few Alton Brown episodes. Drachinifel had a fascinating WWII Battle of the River Plate episode featuring one of my favorite types of ship: Admiral Scheer-class pocket battleships. Really extra-heavy cruisers without enough armor to run fast. I had my EarPods, so this bothered nobody. The strange club of weird keyboards was meeting, as was a language club, practicing on each other over beers. A pleasant Portland afternoon at Lucky Labrador. I had a BLT; they make a wonderful one, and water. I did not want to sleep at Richard’s.
I drove from SE to NE to Richard’s, and Richard helped me with the heavy boxes, and we set up and did a teach on the Cthulhu Wars game. Chris, Laura, and Kathleen made it five with Richard and me. Chris owns an unpainted copy. I brought seven factions, all painted, but I am still short two. Two of mine have never been played, and I was excited when Kathleen took on the Ancients and Chris took on the Tcho-Tcho factions. Their first time in use.
(Laura and Chris looking dangerous as they control their evil factions. The Pretty castles are The Ancients; Kathleen is already taking over. This also give you a scale, dear readers, of the figures)
The play had little combat, unusual for this game, and focused mostly on expansion and building spell books. Soon the board was heavy with massive figures, some more than a foot tall, and while it was a crazy game, everyone seemed to like it and was fascinated by the exceptions to every rule from various superpowers. I focused on rules and play, not on building my Crawling Chaos powers. I scored last, but finished my spellbooks; Kathleen’s faction bribed the other players with power, and she used that to pull forward. Chris spread out and soon followed close behind. Richard’s Cthulhu forces could not catch the Ancients. Despite the ornate setup and asystematic play, it was played fast.
My marker for The Ritual of Annihilation looked great. I had painted it yesterday after discovering it was still unpainted. I may remove the shiny from some of the figures as it glares. I will repaint the yellow on the bases for Yellow Sign and maybe paint white and blue on the Ancients’ bases to separate them from Crawling Chaos. I also need to put the Independent Great One cards in the box, since the Ancients summon them. I had a few in the box that worked, and we just borrowed an unused figure. Still, it was nice to play it again.
With that, I was happy to lose, as it was fun to see everything run. Sometimes I am more an observer of a game than a serious player. We had not played it in four years; we were surprised to learn from Richard’s records. Richard uses BoardGameGeek to record his plays, scores, and game collection.
With Richard carrying the box for me to the car (I don’t carry things up and down stairs now that I have only one working ear), we chatted for a while, and then I drove home without issue, not even noting the loss of I-5 Southbound. I was soon home, put the game back on the shelf in the garage, and looked for the add-ons, but they were packed away on another shelf. I went to bed and fell asleep soon after. While I do not remember my dreams in any detail, they did not follow a Lovecraftian track. I woke once to prove hydration, but not for leg cramps.
Thanks for reading.
