Author: alohawild

Saturday started with me waking up with my alarm, but I had already rolled over as the light was rushing in one last time before daylight saving time. Yes, it is back (think Poltergeist movie). We must now purchase the Spring (20 March) with an hour of sleep.

I find coffee and the last banana (I will stop by 185th Corner and get more on Sunday) and have some babka to go with it. Jeff will be back on Monday for a few more items, but I am alone in my improved house this morning. I write the blog and enjoy writing it. Today, I am sharing more about depression and my thoughts on donating some of my 401K when I write. I have no plans and just write.

I also updated my settings in Quicken. I have a new investment IRA account at US Bank. I transferred the balance of IMPAX as shares and adjusted the 401K balance in and out to move it to the new account. The money is coming as a physical check made out to the account (not really me) without withholding. I will likely hold this as a cash balance in Quicken and adjust it monthly as I did before for Fidelity.

I showered, shaved, and dressed to start my quiet Saturday afternoon. I get out a jar of pasta sauce, Prego, a box of bowtie pasta, and defrost, shred, and fry sweet Italian-style sausage for lunch. Yes, more than I needed,  but it was fun. The pasta water, boiling hard, spills its saltiness on the stove, but it is not an issue. I do manage to burn the sauce, but I manage to save it by pouring it into the fry pan, and the burned bit, not much, stays with the pan. I finished the sauce in the frying pan (the sausage was not too fatty, so there was nothing to drain off). I drained the pasta and then combined it all. I have to admit I had a few bowls.

I watched the first half of the first John Wick movie while I cooked and heard, “John Wick…is a man of focus, conviction, and sheer will.” I am a fan. And the evil hotel, The Continental, also. So good. Here is the same scene from the first movie.

With lunch inside me and the rest in the frig, I cut up and freeze the ham still in the frig for almost too long, and then head out. I needed room for the pot of pasta. It is a lovely sunny day, and Mount Hood appears to be just beyond the turns of TV Highway. Mount Hood is about a two-hour drive of 85 miles away, nearly a straight-line drive on 26. The pioneers seemed to have placed Highway 26 (the Sunset Highway) from the mountain to the sea in a roughly straight line. TV (Tualatin Valley) Highway parallels it down the middle of the Tualatin Valley, my home.

I spoke to Deborah in the morning and later when I headed to Big River Coffee. There, I tried to get organized to write another sci-fi story focusing on a fantasy Dungeons and Dragons-like setting. I purchased Scrivener to help me manage my fantasy world I plan to create and write a longer story. I do well at SciFi at 2,500-5,000 words, but I wanted something longer this time. I spent the afternoon looking at various offerings, but the support and tutorials got me to risk $59 (less than the price of an add-on for my board games) for Scrivener. Later, I learned that Grammarly works inside the Scrivener editor. Yay!

I return home. The Air VW the Gray is fully charged and barely registers the trip. At home, I watch video tutorials and play with Scrivener. The food and yesterday’s grief seem to weigh me down, and I steal a nap for thirty minutes. I then jump out of bed and make dinner. Just an over-easy egg (from a blue-shelled egg) on a reheated biscuit with a melted slice of cheddar. Excellent. I even washed the pan and ran the dishwasher.

Aside: I noticed that one of the failing orchids appears to be coming back. It may have been dormant. The cattleya orchid has a green leaf, and I see another one rising from the roots. These orchids are two to four years from being large enough to flower. Orchid growing is a hopeful process.

The drive into Portland seemed to be in rush hour traffic, which I seldom see on a Saturday night. Drivers were making many extra-legal lane changes.  With Spring Break approaching and the time change this weekend, the local drivers seemed more desperate than usual. I had to brake and give way a few times. Yikes!

I arrived early and helped set up the board game Carnegie, which I had only heard about. Richard’s copy was the maxed-out Kickstarter version. The game uses a strange mix of components, iconography, and color usage, making me almost dizzy. It mixed freely with a shared board and individual boards. Actions were shared each turn, allowing all players to play the full set of actions (in order from first player, who picks the action, and then around). This was a resource management and worker placement game with progress tracks (which did minimal) and some meanness (meaning that some significant resources were limited, and you needed to scoop them up). I had never played it before, so I made quite a few mistakes as the process and icons confused me. Only 3/4 through the game did I begin to understand it. Kathleen got it right off and nearly took the game from Richard, who had twice my low score. Lauren scored just below Kathleen.

I can’t say I liked Carnegie, but it is highly rated. I would like to play it again to see if I like it better. Kathleen and I talked about it on the ride to her house after the game, and we think the game felt unfinished. Some of the elements did not score enough points to be done—why include them? It seems to be the first draft of a better, more streamlined game that dropped many less essential items. The board game Grand Hotel Austria, which covers much of the same mechanics, is better, I believe.

The EV got me home with much less traffic on Portland’s roads. The VW was already on the new time, warning me how late it was. The new lights on the house welcomed me. I was soon in bed reading, as I could not fall asleep. I took half a Benadryl as I broke out in a rash from my allergies. Ugh!

Thanks for reading.

I rose at 7ish, and Jeff was scheduled to appear around ten to work on repairs and updates to the house. I found the kitchen; it had not moved, and I was happy to see the dishes done. I made coffee by washing out my French press and loading it with locally roasted and ground coffee. My nose was full, and my ears were full too. Yes, pollen has started, and my allergies are in full bloom (pun generated by Grammarly–I suspect the AI is unaware of it, making it doubly funny to me). My eyes are stinging, which is the giveaway that it is pollen time.

I rushed through the blog but still managed more than 1,000 words. Sorry that the blog is mostly about living day-to-day, but the next trip, California by EV from Oregon, starts in two Sundays. Yay!  Today, Jeff (I have his business card if anyone local in Oregon needs someone to do some work) will finish the lighting outside, paint the door Twinberry (here if you want to see it), and do a few other small clean-up items. Jeff will be back next week to paint the back of the door white and finish repairing the main bathroom floor. He will bring his power washer and clean the deck and cement of moss and algae. He will cut the deck (he built it) to give the mountain ash more room. He was amazed at how much the tree had grown. We talked about replacing the cement driveway and walkways as they are starting to break up (1978 was a long time ago), but the cost will be a trip to Paris, and thus, we will wait. There are a few large items I am ignoring: replacing the flooring in the fireside room and kitchen, updating the kitchen, replacing the cement, taking down the large trees, and redoing the sewer and water connection to the house before they break (like I said, 1978 was a long time ago).

On the subject of money, I was dressed and so on just after Jeff arrived and then headed out to US Bank to talk money. Nick and Sam from US Bank had an appointment with me. I brought all my paperwork with me, including Net Worth Statements, copies of statements from all my investments, Susie’s death certificate, and our marriage license. I explained my finances, and Nick and Sam complimented my organization and clarity.

They offered to handle the investments and arrange a risk-appropriate model for me, including socially responsible investing. They could handle the movement of all the funds and later help me roll over some IRA to Roth to enable more liquid access. In general terms, we also discussed my wish to donate from the pre-tax amounts instead of the usual taxed withdrawal, and they were familiar with the process and outlined how this could be done. This would remove more funds but give me the ability to make tax-efficient gifts. I will need to set up new beneficiaries for my accounts at US Bank to align with my previous decisions, but these can wait.

None of this is free, as you, dear reader, can imagine, but I wanted to leave Nike’s management, and US Bank local folks appealed to my support for your neighbor’s belief instead of some phone tree. It is one of many options. Sam called Fidelity, and we arranged the movement of funds. The 401k  must be moved by check. Susie’s old IRA and PAX funds can be combined and moved using simpler processes. It was about two hours of work to arrange everything. I returned with less paper and will take the check to USB when it arrives to begin my next financial adventure.

Sam did inform me that US Bank investments do not connect well to Quicken, but I was already just tracking the balance at Fidelity by manual adjustment at the month’s end; it will be the same work for me. I am not interested in tracking the details; otherwise, I would have done it in eTrade and not used an investment team.

Air VW the Gray had me home soon. Jeff had the lighting done and was painting the door. I stayed at home as the door had to be open to let the paint dry. For lunch, I reheated the chicken, couscous, and North African-style couscous sauce. While eating, I watched more ShipHappens and other YouTube videos.

Jeff returned and finished up, and I headed to Portland in Air VW the Gray. The school buses were on the road midafternoon, and traffic was mixed up. Nav took me off Highway 26, and I crossed the hills into Portland. It was a sunny, warm day and an incredible drive with many twists and turns. The view was excellent (when I could glance over; hands on the wheel and eyes mostly forward–there is no shoulder, passing lanes, or room for mistakes on these streets)! The EV climbed up 500 feet and then back down to Portland, and the EV then re-climbed 500 feet again to OHSU, a local hospital complex, on a different hill overlooking Portland.

Parking is always a question, but I parked in the physician parking lot because I know they don’t ticket it, and there is always a space free. Security last time sent me there when there was no parking in the usual places. I walked by Shriner’s Children’s Hospital and George’s Park. I remember George driving Susie and me through Columbia Gorge and buying us lunch when we were new to the area in the 1990s. I still look over to the place he used to sit at church and think of him.

His story is still available on the Internet: George. I thought of him as I talked to the bankers in the morning. I will try to give some of it away, remembering how George Ruhberg gave.

I reached the confusing hospital entrance starting on the 9th floor and elevator B and soon found imaging. I was an hour early, and they were behind. The person who checked me in offered me a free pass on the tram, and off I went back through the lobby to the nearby tram. Part of OHSU is by the river down in Portland city in the previous brown fields of ship construction (poisoned with lead and other harmful items) now covered in buildings and new soil for some plantings (it is impossible to undo the damage without exposing the poisons).

The ride is scary to me but fun and relatively short. I had a round-trip pass courtesy of OHSU. The mountains were visible, with Mount Hood floating in the sky, Adams (I always confuse it with Rainier) peeking over some hills, and the broken cone of Mount St. Helens clear. Here, you see the fractured mountain, not the open crater, as that points North.

I returned to OHSU, took the maze in the hospital, and found imaging. My wait was short, and soon I was being poked for a contrast feed for the CT scan. Instead of undressing, I just unloaded some metal items on a chair, lowered my pants, and lay down. A warm blanket was supplied, and soon I was popped in and out of the machine. The results are not yet published. This is my annual check that there is no cancer spreading from the colon cancer. Chemo and surgery should be enough. My odds are reasonable: 4 to 1 that I will be done with colon cancer.

Walking by the park again, I found Air VW the Gray and took it back a more regular way down High 5 to 217. Instead, I stopped at the hummingbird house. Jennifer was out, but I got a bill for “The Estate of Susan Wild,” and I vaguely remember agreeing to pay for some extra help for Susie at the end of her life. I will write a check. It was just $44.57 a day when she was in hospice care for that last week.

Between the bill and providing the Death certificate, a sadness came over me. Deborah noticed when I spoke to her after dinner. I went to Buster’s BBQ off of 99 for dinner. It was BBQ, but not that great, but not terrible. They need to work on their sides, and I would have preferred cornbread to garlic toast. But still OK. Others like it, and it is kid-friendly.

When I returned home, I did not know that I was sad. I felt like something was missing, and I did not understand. I was looking for Susie; grief can ambush you. I had been tired these last few days, but that was grief and depression. For me, Grief, not Death, rides a pale horse as all the colors leave the world for me.

But, I found my way as you must. I thought of a new SciFI story and began to see the colors in the world again. I fell asleep thinking of myself as a wizard in my tower practicing my craft in some fantasy landscape. I dreamed of magic, though none of it I can recall.

Today, while I write this on Saturday morning, I recall yesterday’s grief and embrace it. It is a friend, not an enemy. I checked, and 2600 has not accepted my story (or rejected it), but it took months last time. My Howard stories are out there (not selling, but I don’t care). Look here for my stories (paying zero is good). Friday was a good day, and the colors were bright.

Thanks for reading.

The house has new lights and paint, and the screen door has been removed. The red is too bright in the photo. Digital photos can only produce the colors they see (it dropped the shades of brown in the door), something folks forget. Color old-school film will get it right.

Again, the blog is about my day-to-day experiences. I am OK.

I rose at 7ish and soon started my day. I put on my slippers to protect my toes. I have some neuropathy in my feet from the diabetes and/or chemotherapy, and I must protect them from cuts and walking them into things. I remember that during chemotherapy, I would have to rise, ignore how I felt, and put on my slippers. It was that most challenging part of the day as the bed felt good, and I knew I would have to take more chemo and feel awful in the morning. I looked at the slippers and did not love them. Now, I am happy to put them on and relish starting my morning and making coffee. Compared to those hard days, the kitchen seems only a few easy steps away on Thursday morning.

Babka bread, a chocolate-swirl bread, defines breakfast today with a banana and locally roasted coffee. I start on the blog and keep my focus. Jeff is returning at about 10 to continue the updates and repairs. He will rewire the outdoor porch light and add matching lights to the garage. The rest of the job will be finished on Friday.

Jeff starts on the fan replacement as I finish showering, shaving, and getting dressed. I texted him to come in and start if I was dressing. I finished the blog and chatted with Deborah. We miss seeing each other and will be reunited in California on the 18th. I plan to take two days to and fro the LA area in my EV. Hotels are all booked. I am excited to drive long distances again. I will get an audiobook, I think, to listen to on my iPhone. Or some excellent podcasts. I am leaving early on Sunday, 16 March. Corwin will check on the house and water the orchids and the pitcher plant.

Covering the area I have left of the the springs, on flowers inside, two new orchids are failing; another seems close to failing, but a vanda orchid is happy and growing, the other is not dying, and the oncidium orchid seems content. The roses outside are budding, having all been aggressively pruned by my lawn service. The tulips are starting, but fewer than I planted–I believe the rains and light flooding killed a few, and the leaves of the tulips are twisted, showing stress. Susie’s one daffodil is still lovely and bright yellow. The lawn is green and filling out again, but moss has invaded. My lawn service sprinkled the lawn with some pellets; we will see what happens to the moss. But generally, it looks excellent.

Air VW the Gray was fully charged and ready for me. I left Jeff to continue to work but warned him that the area between the garage and the rest of the house is closed off and difficult. It contains the electric, cold air exchange and fireplace. There is some lost space there, but adding the space to the living space would require a light remodel of the fireside room. I rudely call it Grandma’s vault. Jeff later told me it surprised him, and yes, it is surprisingly open and deep. He reported with a smile that no hidden treasures (or bodies) were discovered. My version of “Oak Island.”

I met Scott at McMenamins Cedar Hills and took our usual table. Our friendly waiter soon poured Hammerhead beers and served them. Today was one of their whiskey anniversaries, so we both ordered the special chicken sandwich with fries to celebrate. It was excellent. We spent an hour or so there. Scott was timeboxed today; we would stop at 12:30.

We talked about money, the economy, Trump’s impact on the markets, and the best strategies for us. Scott is working with his family to develop a well-defined plan for the older folks. He wants to validate that they are financially prepared and have a balanced risk/reward in their debt and investments. My joke, learned from an acquaintance from Nike, is not that your investments go down but that your horizon to make your investment goals is now longer. Scott and I, and others retired, must keep the cash flow working for our bills, daily expenses (a kind of bill, but more like spending money), and those wonderful trips. With the market doing flip-flops because of Trump and the election-year chaos, my investments are reduced to last July’s balances! My horizons are extended! Moving a tax-efficient amount of cash from the investments and earning 4-5% interest in cash investments seems prudent, but not without risk and tax implications.

Aside: Trump supporters, stop hyperventilating. I know you are cheering him on, but I am not enjoying the process. This is not a political statement or debate, just my observations.

Trump’s possible redefinition of the currency and the end of the Federal Reserve have caught my attention. Returning the US to the Bank of the USA would be returning to a politically controlled currency that caused the US to experience multiple banking disasters in the 1700s and 1800s (fascinating reading). Cryptocurrancy is the buzzword I keep hearing, but it is just another version of a floating currency, much like the old Bank of the USA (find the history here). I shared my concerns with Scott, and we both know it is nearly impossible for American citizens to hold cash in foreign banks; it is assumed you are a criminal and the money is dirty. Often, there are fees and little or no interest on the money. The tax paperwork is complex and can delay your filing for six months. I will follow the current administration’s currency moves and consider a Canadian bank. Yikes!

We will meet again next week. We saw a group of Nike folks having a corporate lunch together. Scott knew them from the Nike financials. I knew a few, as I had worked on many items for them, and others knew my name. They wished us a happy retirement, and we could see the longing in their eyes for our freedom. Soon, we headed out and went our own separate ways.

Europe is cutting interest rates. The US job reports (this Friday while I am writing this) were surprisingly good. The chances of a rate hike are vanishingly small, and a cut is in the cards. Prudence is hard to define this Friday.

After lunch, I returned to the house, and Jeff was finished with the problematic crawls through pink insulation, Grandma’s vault, and then the garage ceiling. He will finish up on Friday, and we will settle up. While it is not cheap, it should be less than a trip to Europe, and it was a long list of items that have accrued since before the Pandemic.

I made beef stew and again tried to enjoy Severance on Apple TV+. Deborah is right; the characters’ emotional pain may be too much for me. She was concerned for my grief, and the show’s acting and writing are excellent. You believe it to be happening when you watch. I stopped after episode 4 and will not likely return. It is a terrific show, but it seems too real to me.

The stew needs more salt, which is my usual failure as I don’t use much salt. Also, the beef broth I used was not excellent. The leek I cut up and added was great, though. I had three bowls. Yes, one too many, but still, it was good. I bagged and froze the remainder. One large bag and two single helpings are in the freezer now.

I had the pleasure of texting Deborah good night and reading and talking to Joan S about house fixes. She is working on a remodeling project that grew, as they always do, and hopes to find an end to it soon. She works at an independent Federal Agency (yes, there are things like that), and we talked about how the chaos is impacting her and the folks she works for.

I read more Elric stories, did the dishes, and put on my PJs. I read until after 11, turned off the light, and immediately fell asleep. Thanks for reading.

 

I could not sleep and woke at 4ish. I tried to roll over and sleep but rose at 5:30 and started my day before sunrise. I do not have sleeping curtains over the windows, and when the morning moves earlier in the Spring, I begin to wake with first light. I made coffee, had a banana, and chatted with Deborah, who was delighted I was awake during her time. We got to talk on the phone while she drove in to work.

I wrote the blog all morning and updated my transactions in Quicken. I am especially checking US Bank as I have moved money into new accounts for higher interest earnings. While 3-4 percent is not great, it is more than the less than 1 percent I was earning. US Bank had me move to ‘high interest’ accounts and cut their rates. Let us hope this time they leave it alone for a year.

I collected statements from every investment account. I printed out my Year-To-Date Net Worth statement from Quicken, which is now updated with the new accounts and updated balances (a few items are not automatic). I meet with US Bank’s Wealth Management team on Friday. Later, I added three years of 1040s, Susie’s Death Certificate, and our marriage license.

With all this done and the blog published, I showered, shaved, and dressed. I had finished the coffee before 10, and Jeff was visiting to make house repairs. I hopped in Air VW the Gray and used an ATM to get some cash for Jeff and also some for Corwin. I paid Corwin to plant roses. Jeff showed up at 10:20, and I began to cover items for him to work on. It soon was clear it was a two-day operation.

I read and helped where possible for the rest of the morning, and we soon had a list. The fan in the dining room was pulled down, and the electronics showed scorch marks. It was dead. Jeff, who has good taste, will pick a replacement and send me a photo (I agreed to it later). He will replace the connections with a more substantial setup and also to code. The front screen door was removed. It was not necessary and just in the way. The lighting outside the house will be rewired to code, and fixtures will be replaced. New lighting for the garage will also be put in place. The bathroom fan is dead and will be replaced. The bathroom faucet will be replaced; it can’t be repaired and was cheap. The front door will be painted a red-like color.

I had reheated ribs and mashed potatoes for lunch. Jeff was out getting items and lunch. When he returned, he started on the bathroom. It took longer, and Jeff was up and down the attic so many times that I lost count. We agreed on a color for the door, more brown cranberry than red, which better fit the woodwork and the dark gray on the house. Jeff will get paint and more fixtures and finish on Thursday.

I was happy to get some of the small items done. There are things like tiling the kitchen and the fireside room, but that cost will be more than a nice trip to Paris, and if I did the kitchen counters simultaneously, it could be close to a business-class flight! I will only do those things that are broken, out of code, or improve the curb appeal or value of the house. I will enjoy my older floors when I am here, knowing I can fix them when I am too sick and old to travel. Or just sell the place and move to a community!

Dinner was in Air VW the Gray. Yes, I ate in my new car. I stopped by Taco Bell and waited thirty minutes to order and get my food, which was once considered fast food. I ate my Mexican Pizza—no tariff on that—while driving, making a mess.

I have heard nothing from Oregon Public Broadcasting that picked up the Volvo wreck. I expect some paperwork will follow in a month or so. The old 2018 XC60 is now headed to an auction. I suspect someone will buy it and a wrecked Volvo and combine them into a working one. It is just time and materials to bring it back.

I sent my “Chat Holmes and Watson” story to 2600 The Hacker Quarterly but have not heard back. However, they did publish my last story, and I am optimistic. Waiting…

Jeff left about 3 to pick up his daughter from school. As I wrote above, he will return on Thursday. Some tile grout work is all that remains in the bathroom. The EV gets me to the church about 6ish, and by 6:30, the Ash Wednesday service was over. Shawn and I were offered to read the scripture. I pointed to a Shawn who growled but did it well, primarily disappointed that I was faster at avoiding it. Retirement training.

It was a lovely service, with mostly a reading script and singing old hymns. I have done the hour-long collection of people’s sins and things they wish to give up on paper notes, burning the notes, and then using those ashes. While elegant when it works, many things can go wrong, including someone filling out endless papers or setting off fire alarms and the appearance of the fire department (yes, both I have experienced). This was nice, had a good spirit, and above all, was simple and fast. It was very Methodist.

I returned home, made babka bread from a mix, used my bread machine to mix and rise the dough, assembled it, and let it rise again. I almost threw it unrisen into the oven, skipping a step, but saw the error, dumped the bread, making it a bit messier, into a cold pan after I retrieved it (yes, I did put it in the oven first and then releasized I was out of sequence–sequence is critical). I chatted again with Deborah as she was in bed, ready for sleep. It was nice to start and finish her day. She rang off and slept.

After it was finished, I let the babka rest; you eat it after it is cold. I read more Elric stories (back to the 1960s original but newly edited stories), did the dishes, showered, put on my PJs, and soon turned off the lights and slept. I slept and did not remember my dreams, but I suspect I traveled with Elric on the seas between worlds.

Thanks for reading!

 

I started the day at about 7:30, rolling over a few times and rising to prove hydration before finally rising. I was well-rested when I started my day. I soon found the liberal coffee and read the latest news soaked in Washington D.C. politics. Later, I would read posts on Facebook about the reaction to Trump/Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s public dispute. It was interesting to read a positive viewpoint of Trump and his dealings with Ukraine, though I failed to agree with any of it. I like to see what people are thinking. And this included some of the World War 3 threats being explained, and again, I think it is plainly wrong and without merit; it was interesting to see how this was justified. I heard echoes of “Peace in our times” in the explanation.

I wrote the blog and showered. I stripped the bed and washed the sheets in The Machine, trusting it would not flood the house today. It did not. I would later remake the bed with the sheets in the linen closet. The sheets did not fit; they were the wrong sheets–I have new sheets for the standard-sized bed too.

I showered, shaved, dressed, and headed to US Bank for an appointment via Air VF the Gray still at 80% charge. I met a younger man, Taylor, who helped me roll over my CD to 4.22% for five months. We then talked about money, and he said he had worked at US Bank for three years. Taylor explained that US Bank’s new savings account was paying 3.5% for large balances, which includes my CD in its calculations. I growled that this was my rate when I set up my first savings account, and then US Bank cut the rate. I was not instantly approved, to Taylor’s surprise. With no income or job, nothing is instant for me anymore. The account was approved overnight, and on Wednesday morning, I transferred the money and finished setting up the account using US Bank online banking. Nick and Sam from US Bank Wealth Management will meet with me on Friday morning to see what they can offer. Nick called me to set it up after getting a note from Taylor. I am looking to roll over my 401K to an IRA and begin slow withdrawals that are tax efficient.

With the interest from the CD moved to my checking account and waiting for my new account with better interest, I headed to Hillsboro. It was a pleasant drive, though traffic was heavy for lunchtime. I found a parking spot by the courthouse; Hillsboro is the county seat. I walked in sunlight after an Oregon Mist-filled morning to Cornerstone Tax, paid my bill, and picked up my finished taxes. They will transmit the results, and I need to pay Fed just under $1000, get a few grand back from Oregon, and a mysterious $125 from Portland.

I returned home, found an Acererak stamp (US Postage did a Dungeons and Dragons set of stamps, and the villain Acererak is one of the images), wrote the check for the taxes, and sent the payment (and Acererak) to the IRS–done! I called David S and wished him a happy Mardi Gras, and then he said, “What did you really call for?” and told him my taxes were done. “I knew it,” he said with a laugh. I have done this to him for years. I finish before he starts and call him. We laugh, and I wish him good luck with his family’s taxes.

I reviewed The Dummies Guide to Pre-calculus and prepared to meet with Corwin for math teaching. I reheated the jambalaya, and sadly, it was not as good. As warned in my classes in The Big Easy, the spices had changed. It was hotter, but the flavors faded against the heat. The New Orleans Cooking School recommends making their dishes flavorful and letting folks add the heat. Still, it was Fat Tuesday, and jambalaya still worked for me.

Corwin showed up while I was talking to Deborah on the phone, and they exchanged greatings; the phone was on speaker. Deborah rang off, and I started on math. Corwin had no lunch, so I warmed up my leftover couscous, chicken, and couscous sauce. It is delicious, and Corwin is then able to focus. We cover functions and transformation of the parent functions (i.e., f(x)=x², f(x)=|x|, and so on). I gave Corwin the problem text I found, and we reviewed which ones to do. There are about fifty. Corwin will work them this week and bring back any problems or failed ones for me to see if there is a pattern to any mistakes and to explain anything.

Corwin heads back home, fed and ready to do math, and Deborah and I chat (I call her back) while I dress for dinner. After discussing and checking various prices, we decided to stay in the same hotel. It is not much more, and it was a nice hotel. I will later add my driving hotels in Mount Shasta and the Fresno area for my trip to and from in my EV. Yes, I am going to drive an EV from Portland to LA!

I rang off from Deborah when Corwin arrived. I put on my gold vest and NOLA tie, find my pocket watch, and get that on, too. I use a summer hat to finish the Mardi Gras look. Corwin gets a tie, too, and sports a dress shirt. We headed to BJs Brewhouse (Mariha was ill) for drinks and a celebration of NOLA and me finishing my taxes. Eric is our waiter, and they work out a Sambuca Sazerac (they have no Absinth) for us. It was wonderful.

I had the full rack of ribs (and brought some home for lunch), while Corwin had the ribeye steak. My dinner was remade as somehow the ribs were cold (Eric and the manager were shocked). The second try was perfect. Coffee followed the drinks (one was enough!). It was a grand celebration.

We returned home, and Corwin, stuffed, headed off to the gym. I read and soon was in bed early, reading and falling asleep. TripIt was updated with my plans. I looked at possible events but could not understand how to connect to them from our hotel in Long Beach. I thought it best to wait and schedule items there. Deborah has four days of conferences that I can use to learn about the area. I will become her personal trip advisor in consultation with the locals.

With hotels, trips, and driving in my head, I soon stopped reading and slept. Thanks for reading!