I am again using the standard editor and working my way through the new tooling.
I am also rejecting many of Grammarly’s suggestions now. I like my own voice. And yesterday it did scramble the meaning of a couple of sentences that I corrected after posting the blog. Hmmm.
The words ‘so’ and ‘actually’ are still not used by me. I do not like ‘because’ either, but it floats into my writing when Grammarly points out in blue highlighting that the meaning would be improved if I used ‘because’ and not some other word.
I rose early on Wednesday as my breathing was tough and my tummy unhappy. I also needed to prove hydration and thus started at 6. The time changes also had me up too soon.
I started the day early. It was the deep dark of predawn. I had to turn on the lights. I started my adventure of using WordPro and Grammarly to tell the story of my travel day, Tuesday.
At one point on Wednesday, I opened the garage door, and a red-and-green hummingbird flew down and looked me over. Deciding, I assume, that I was not a source of food, it flew up. It did hover and then left. I am not sure my neighbors are not teaching the birds to land on their fingers.
The backyard had three flickers that were eating the windfall apples. I have not seen the downy woodpecker return. There are fewer crows (they often drive other larger birds away), and I am not sure whether the birds are staying or passing through for the winter.
I spent the morning writing and doing the usual tasks of checking all my transactions in Quicken. I also checked, and my weight is up to 244, so it will be back to salads and less beer soon. Email is usually just deleting them. I have also seen more official-looking phishing emails, which I delete without much more than looking at the obscure email address that sent them.
I did get an email from the Social Security Administration that was official but led to nothing more than reminding me I get a cost-of-living adjustment at the end of the year of 3.6%. I logged on and confirmed my number matched theirs. Yup.
I reviewed my United Methodist Volunteers In Mission for, printed it off, and put it with my other papers. I am using a green mailer for my Brazil trip (19Nov to 30Nov2026). I later updated a health insurance reimbursement form for the trip. UMVIM is covering the trip for health trip (and less happy events) for a few bucks each day. Dondrea and I are the official and trained UMVIM leaders for the trip.
With the blog done, I showered, and all that, and dressed. After putting around the house, I headed out to the nearby UPS store in Air VW the Gray. After a short line with folks there to drop off various packages to be scanned and accepted, I was up. A very young woman then got out her stamp and notarized all the UMVIM documents she watched me sign. It was $10 a stamp (two needed), and a few bucks for a scan of the documents on the USB-A drive. Done!
Next, I was going to stop at the church, but Wendy called, and the internet access was out (a frayed cable, according to Jack C), and she was working from home, and various meetings were moved out, too. Instead, I headed to Portland.
I took the usual 26, crossed over Beaverton to Portland, and headed to the Cosmic Monkey on Sandy. There I got the newest Doomquest, #5, from Marvel. I have enjoyed this series. I also found #3 of Dungeons & Dragons: Total Party Killers and ordered #2, which was out of stock.
Ignoring the information above on my weight, I headed to Grassa and ordered a lovely salad (which would be wonderful with a little chicken for another visit for fewer calories) and a vodka pasta dish I previously enjoyed at the airport. A glass of house wine in a small juice glass went well with it. I read the comic books while eating and enjoying everything. An excellent meal and read.
This is too much food but so good; I finished it.
I also stopped at the 1960s-70s retro lighting and furniture store, Lounge Lizard, and managed to resist going retro.
Wendy’s update was a no-go for our meeting, so I headed home by the river on Highway 5; it was a lovely day, and the mountains were out. It added ten minutes, but the trip was enjoyable.
I managed to sit in my comfy chair after getting the mail, after returning home, and nod off for 5 minutes. Wendy called and was happy to meet at the church. I got up, put on my glasses and shoes, grabbed my laptop, and headed to church.
It was a short trip, and I joined Wendy, and we worked out cleaning plans for the church, mass mailing holiday info, and a few other details. We called Dondrea and talked with her too to get things moving. Busy. Busy.
After this, I headed to Ava Coffee and got a London Fog and an apple strudel, cut in half (Emma got the other half). I did more paperwork again and enjoyed my snack.
Next, Lay Days, a brewpub with good pizza, is not far away, and I walked there, got a table, and waited for Mariah and Emma, who showed up just as Trivia for Geeks started. We had pizza and drinks while trying to answer trivia questions. We managed, after an hour of coming in 6th. We had blown a few questions, and some music questions left us lost. Still, it was fun, and the Detroit square-cut, too-much-crust pizza was great (and again a bad plan for my waistline).
After trivia and closing the place at 10ish, we talked about role-playing games, and Emma and Mariah agreed to D&D on Thursday night or another gaming system. We will start with 5.5E D&D and see if we can make it work.
I found my copy of the Kickstarter rework of the AD&D adventure from the 1980s, Caverns of Thracia, to 5E (which is close enough to 5.5E for adventures). Maybe we can use this material to give me a break on writing until we see if this works. I remember the material was fun to play way back.
I got home, read more American Civil War history, set my alarm for an easy 7 since I had a 9ish visit with Doc M, and soon fell asleep.
