Author: alohawild

I had to get going early and rush the blog writing. I was tapped to grill hot dogs for First United Methodist Church in Beaverton next to the fountain and the Farmer’s market. I was up with my phone alarm at 7AM. I am retired, and I have no need for alarms. I usually just rise when I feel it is time to start my morning. Often, the sunrise wakes me, but then I go back to sleep.

Coffee and a slightly aging berry and cheese Danish was breakfast. I had purchased the Danish from La Provence Boulangerie & Patisserie at Orenco Station, an unequaled bakery, and even older, it was still better than most. I ate those while banging out another blog entry on my Apple. With limited time, I stayed to the events and skipped any boiler pieces and commentary. I was still over 800 words as time was running out. I published it all, overflowing my time limit by fifteen minutes. It was a conservative every-thing-breaks planning time limit. As my grill was already moved to the church, my only concern was that the grill still worked, the gas tanks were there, and folks actually had hot dogs to cook. Any of these failures would require at least an hour to recover. You, dear reader, may think I am overthinking this, but I have seen these challenges at church events. The only fix is to be early and have enough time to overcome the issues.

I cleaned up and dressed in Air Force Ones and my usual LL Bean pants, but now I have added a white dress shirt, pride tie, and sweater vest. I also have my blue-striped cooking apron and brought a bright orange Zbar’s apron that came in a gift box (I think it was from the Smiths) for Z. Z agreed to help cook.

When I arrived after nine, the Praise Band was practicing in the sanctuary. Z (Dondrea brings Z to church, usually early, as Dondrea is the worship leader) was frustrated in her attempt to make coffee because the filters were missing. We found the grill and tanks, and I dragged them outside and connected everything. Lemonade was made so the church members would get a chance to decaffeinate with lemonade.

The moving process knocked about the splash and grill plates. I put them back and lighted the grill, and everything worked. Now, I was just too early. Z and I saw that the church service was going by unusually fast. I lit the grill and set it on to the maximum to burn off any oils from previous food.

We found the pack of hot dogs, two packs of 24, and opened one. We also had two packs of Polish dogs, 12 to a pack. I turned down the grill, and we started the process. Z learned that you just roll the dogs. Z also learned that reaching over a very hot grill with metal could get hot fast! She used a long-handled flipper after that. We pushed the dogs to get grill marks on each side and some small burn marks here and there. We did not cinder anything or drop any.

We got the Polish dogs and started rolling them. Soon, those were cooked. Pastor Ken had spent some time covering the attempted assassination of former President Trump and America’s painful history of assassinations. There are so many assassins that Off-Broadway did a musical of the presidential assassins: Assassins. The church service finished later than we expected.

Z and I grabbed the hot dogs already cooked and returned them to the grill.  We sent them to the now crowd hot. Z got the next batch of hot dogs (we did not cook the second pack of Polish Dogs as there was plenty already). The grill was now cooler, and Z did not experience hot-handed moments; it was more comfortable cooking. Z rolled the dogs until the grill marks and a few burn marks made them extra delicious, and soon we were done. I turned off the grill and left it open to cool. I detached the gas tank and moved it inside (a tempting theft target, and it best not to have them where crazy people could find them).

I had a hot dog and enjoyed chatting with Ashley, Andrew, Dondrea, and Z as we sat together. We had dinner and games the day before. The grill would be returned after it cooled down. I cannot lift it due to restrictions from my brain surgery, and my balance issues are best not tested by lifting a heavy gas grill anyway.

I returned home, changed into cooler clothing, and rested. That evening, I woke up and started preparing for my Dungeons and Dragons 5E game. My character turned good and to the domain of light, which meant all new abilities and spells. I had to learn them. I thought I had a handle on it, but I still had to look up some things.

The game was that evening, and soon, Air Volvo, still with a check engine light, carried me to Matt’s. Matt grilled hamburgers and served salad with them. Matt had used his 3D dungeon-building skills to make a spectacular play area. We are now on the 14th level, and soon, we will face powerful demons represented by figures six inches tall. We are at the level where really scary-looking things are placed on the gaming table.

My character has a very high armor class and is a cleric of light and, thus, was mostly blasting things. We had to withdraw once (I was unconscious). We regrouped and got some help and went back and used better tactics for an all-out demon-filled dungeon fight. We found more bad demonic company; I will not cover the details as this is published material. We fought all evening and finally won.

I returned home in Air Volvo after talking to Scott about tactics and options. There are only four players in our group (five being the usual number), and we are not organized for dungeon crawls. We will see if we can make some improvements.

I was tired from a long day. After a shower, I read and fell asleep in bed. Thanks for reading!

I am writing this Sunday morning, and I am time-boxed as I am cooking for the church this morning. I will cover only some events, and I will go backward as there is less going on in the morning.

Former President Trump was shot today at a rally in Pennsylvania. I was following events of that terrible happening all early evening and night. I imagine nearly everyone in the USA was following.

I arrived in Air Volvo at the Volvo Cave as the clock told me Saturday was over and Sunday had started; it was past midnight when I quickly got into my PJs and tried to sleep. The excitement of playing Wyrmspan made it a little hard to find sleep, but I soon nodded off.

Ashley and Andrew had invited the DMZ (Dondrea, Michael–me, and Z) to dinner and games at their apartment in Slabtown, Portland. According to Ashley, this is “Little California” in NW Portland. I had not been in this area in years (before the pandemic), and the dive bars were gone. It was clearly upscale and gentrified. The crowd on the street looked young and reminded me of Hell’s Kitchen in NYC, an area that had changed from scary to hip.

Ashley and Andrew had made a wonderful Hawian-style dinner of bits of chicken cooked in hot oil marinated in a flour mix. Salad, a pasta salad, and rice finished this out. Spicy sauces were available for the chicken. Dondrea brought some sparkling wine and fresh pineapple. I bought the games.

We got out the board game Wyrmspan after dinner. This would be a five-player game, and Ashley had not played before, and Dondrea had only played once. I taught the game, and this made the game seem filled with complex rules and processes, but the play in Wyrnspan just flows and is easy to follow, and soon Ashley did not need much help, and Dondrea would pull ahead and become the person to catch. Z stalled and was not much of a threat. Andrew appeared to pull ahead like Dondrea.

I helped Ashley and others to make better decisions as the game was new to them. Z found (as I did) that with five players, those excellent cards on display seldom make it around to you! Dondrea, Z, and Ashley completed a row (the gold one) of dragons and used that to get many cards. I completed only one row, but I was the first player to complete three columns (unfortunately, the Dragon Guild scoring for columns was filled before I could get it, losing me nine points!). Andrew would do this for nine points, as he did get the scoring bonus. I learned that by having three good rows, but not complete rows, and not spending on the last excavation column, I could play more dragons, and exploring all my caves gave me a balanced set of resources and cards. This took me to first place, with Dondrea nearly catching me; Ashley was next in points. Andrew was ahead of Z, who had little luck in this play (that happens to me sometimes). Everyone had a good time, and everyone liked the game.

Moving to the afternoon, I received my COBRA paperwork from Nike in snail mail (instead of email!), and I immediately filled out the form to resume my medical coverage for about $750 a month. My severance package has Nike paying for the first six months of COBRA (June-December), and then I can pay the cost and get another year of coverage. I looked through the papers and read some. There is small print and lots of pages trying to say you might have better options on the Marketplace via what we usually call Obamacare. With me recovering from brain surgery, it did seem to be the best time to start shopping for insurance!

I used my new Epson tank color printer to scan my signed application for coverage (effective and backdated to 1 July 2024). I emailed the forms to Wageworks (now called HealthEquity), which is apparently running Nike’s Healthcare coverage purchases. I was distressed that my healthcare coverage lapsed while this process was running and then will be made effective without loss once I get these forms in and accepted.

I received my quarterly statement on Susie’s IRA, which is higher and doing well. This IRA uses the PAX fund (now IMPAX), which was the first socially responsible mutual fund. It was created by some Methodists in Washinton, D.C., to give folks a place to invest in small amounts and follow the Methodist Church’s traditions for not investing in guns or “sin” companies. It was also a balanced fund and included a mix of equities and bonds to reduce the risk (but often did not rise as fast as other funds and often did not fall as fast). The PAX was beat up by the double hit of the Great Recession that managed to crash bonds and equities prices at the same time. As it was in an IRA, we road out the pain, and now PAX has returned to the slow rise, and with socially responsible investing more popular, the rise is accelerating. I am tempted to roll over my 401K to PAX.

I managed to find time (but the blog was not finished until almost noon) to travel to Reedville Creek Park and walk four loops, with the last loop being hard to finish. I was late, and the sun was hot. The park was busy, with many folks walking or running the loop. I completed 4K steps.

One group was curious. A group of six Asian men was sitting on a bench (one was standing, as there was no room for all of them), all furious, tapping on their phones. They did not look up or talk to each other; they showed no emotions other than extreme attention to their phones. They would then rise as a group. Walk slowly on the loop, still looking only at their phones, and then sit at another bench with one guy standing. They would later rise and walk back to the previous bench, never stopping the tapping and only looking at their phones. I thought it was very Alice in Wonderland or The Matrix.

I rose later, around 8AM, and went slow with many interruptions.

And I will stop there as I am reaching my time limit. Thanks for reading!

I rose before 8 and ran my Quicken updates. It polls all my active accounts and downloads transactions. It makes an attempt to assign the transaction to a category (think of a GL account using names, not numbers). I then review them and correct the transactions; I then re-review all transactions at month-end and make corrections. There, in US Bank, was my severance payment of 48 weeks pay with taxes withheld using my W-4 settings. Excellent. I had set my W-4, after Susie’s passing, to “Single” with few deductions as Trump’s changes to SALT (State And Local Taxes) meant I would be back to the standard deduction. Trump’s tax cuts for corporations were paid for by putting limits on SALT deductions, costing folks like me, with house interest and medium to high local taxes, to lose the equivalent of $2,000 and more some years of Federal refund every year when filing with the standard deduction.

Aside: For my Republican friends who dismissed my tax information as political, SALT changes were made in a process called reconciliation that required no increase in the deficit. Thus, the SALT changes had to be made to pay for the corporate tax rate. This process, reconciliation, was used by Trump and his congressional allies as there were not 60 votes in the Senate to allow for a deficient increasing tax cut. As a taxpayer in a high-tax state, I was impacted, and I regret the loss, but I do give Trump credit for completing these campaign promises. Thus, I set my W-4 to assume the worst, and so far, there has been no repeal, and I will likely pay the worst case. Golf clap to Trump and his allies.

I wrote the blog slowly, read the news, and checked in on Mom Wild, who is in the hospital (I will keep her status private) in Lansing, Michigan. Linda and I chatted by text and later on the phone. We decided that I would remain here in Oregon and continue my recovery. Linda is rightfully worried that the travel would be too much for me; I am still only up to 5,000 steps (which is less than the usual for a flight and airport walking). I spent the day going slow and using Air Volvo (with a check engine light) for short trips.

Charlotte called, and I am tapped to cook hot dogs for the church this weekend. She were wondering about that (Charlotte was calling the wrong number and finally reached me on Thursday). I cannot move my gas grill (I have balance issues and limits to what I can lift). Charlotte will have her husband and someone else come and get it. They will deliver it to the church and return afterward. I agreed, but I was not sure I would be at the house when they came.

After the call, I washed the grill, disconnected the gas, and cleared a path for folks to carry it out. I did the cleaning in my PJs, dressed, moved stuff, and then tossed an old hose. I bought all the new hoses in the spring but did not have to use them until the summer.

I finished the blog around 11 with all of these interruptions at 1,200+ words—more than I was expecting. However, Thursday (I was writing the blog in the morning again and getting to bed earlier) was more chaotic than I remembered when I started the blog (thinking I would be lucky to make 500). I begin to remember as I write. If I take my time, I discover memories of events of the previous day I missed and add them to the blog, going back to place them in the proper order. I try to make the story tell a continuous and well-organized tale, but often, it is a jumble in my memory, like a poorly edited documentary with parts missing. I next fix wooden and incorrect wording. Grammarly is good at this and then rewrites my sentences to mean something completely different. F**king annoying and hard to spot (for example, it wants to replace in this sentence “F**king” with “It is,” which is definitely not the emotion I want). I make a strong effort to remove Dryer’s forbidden words, which, sadly, the AI in Grammarly likes to use.

I headed out to Reedville Creek Park and walked my loop for 4,000+ steps. It was harder than the day before, and I struggled to finish the fourth go-around. As I was later in the day, I did not recognize anyone, and there was a mother and daughter practicing softball, with the daughter making some good hits. The park has tennis courts, a baseball diamond, and a large grass field for soccer and setting up other games. There is a cement curvy and wavy skateboarding area, too. A most excellent park. Sadly, I have not seen the county or city adding these parks to new areas. We are just building more and more houses with tiny lawns and miniature parks in drainage areas. Not enough.

After walking, I head to La Provence Boulangerie & Patisserie at Orenco Station. This was once a favorite, and I would take Susie or bring her back French Onion Soup if she wanted to sleep in. I would have a glass of wine and have some wonderful French-style breakfast or go for the most decadent sandwich, a Monte Cristo. It was no longer breakfast time, so I ordered a gin and tonic (it is my summer drink since the janitors of the Kronheim Companies told me it is the only proper drink in the hot Maryland summers back in the late 1990s).

I ordered a Monte Cristo from the bartender, Marko. He later brought me a box for a quarter of the wonderfully made sandwich, which I will keep for lunch on Saturday. I am sitting at the bar (most folks are outside) and watching a Thor movie while I eat (without sound).

I finished most of my sandwich, and Marko got me extra jam to take home. Yes, you put jam on the sandwich—if you are in, you need to go all the way! I stopped by after paying to get a croissant to take home and a cheese and berry Danish (breakfast for two days). This bakery is unmatched in the Beaverton Area. I next do some catch-up grocery shopping at the New Seasons. I get some sausage, freshly made, and non-cured bacon. I pick up bananas and a few other items.

I get this all home with Air Volvo still holding together (the engine light issue is OK to drive for a while). I put away the stuff and read. I nap. While I am asleep, the grill disappears, and my trash contains are moved back for me. I assume my grill is at the church now.

As I wrote, I woke up and discovered the grill was gone. I decided to make jambalaya from a box mix with bacon and two types of sausage I acquired at New Seasons. I also made a spicy rice and meat-only version with onion, pepper, and celery as the base (the Trinty) and garlic (the Pope). I bought the movie Twister on Apple for $4.99. I used 1/2 of the meats from New Season and cooked it all until shiny and good. I add the box mix with water and cook that on a simmer for 25 minutes.

I can taste the mix, and it is very hot and spicy. This is new, as the thrush infection from the effects of the surgery had robbed me of my taste. It is coming back (or the food is so spicy it can’t be ignored). I am grateful for dinner and for tasting it. I watch the rest of the movie. It seems dated and artificial–the love angle is not that interesting; the last time I saw it, I was flying in 1996 from Maryland to Oregon (for my move to Oregon). It’s not a film to watch with turbulence!

I head to bed early and read after a shower. I finish The Mimicking of Known Successes (The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti Book 1) on my Kindle. This is a strange mix of detective and sci-fi. It is a first-person narrative in the distant future in a colony of humans using a gas giant as a new home–the earth is unhabitable. The narrative assumes you know this future and its technology. I find I am at a loss to understand some events until later. I read this book on and off for six months. Reading three or more books while slowly reading this one. It was better in the second half, or my attention focused on it, so I would say it was OK, and my rating includes a tough time with brain surgery. I will try the next one in a few months and see if I like it; then, I will give a recommendation or not.

I slept after that, waking once for proof of hydration.

Thanks for reading.

 

With Air Volvo with a check engine light, I decided to keep my local travels short, and I felt I was pushing it a bit more than I should. Thursday became a go-slow day, and while I feel like I am wasting my life by not doing two impossible things by noon every day, it felt good to just veg out.

I rose stupidly early, writing the blog and having liberal coffee before 7AM. Again, I hate to sleep in, as I feel like the day just disappears, and I want all the days I can get. I am greedy for living. Dad told me, a few years before he got ill, that he rises early every day to see the sunrise: “There are so many left for me, and I want to see them all.”

I got the last hard-boiled egg and a cup of canned peaches to go with the liberal coffee and later added some toast with jam. I carefully consumed this bounty of leftovers, not wanting to surface the choking issue from the Bell’s palsy, while writing and listening to music, my collection of often-forgotten great tunes. Here is Pink (who I met at a Nike event), and this music will get you moving: Get This Party Started! I tried not to rush and to use the forbidden words of Mr. Dryer: very, rather, really, quite, in fact, just, so, pretty, of course, and never use “actually” again.

And if you find that Pink was not enough to kick you into weekend mode (this was written on Friday), there was this dancing piece: Neutron Dance.

I drove Air Volvo with the check engine light to TV Highway Automotive, and they ran a diagnosis for me. The fuel mixture is too light. I hope for the cheapest fix: I think the fuel filter is the issue. The Volvo dealership can’t help until September. TV Highway Automotive will get me in on Monday morning. They also said it is safe to use Air Volvo.

Thanks, everyone, for offering to help.

With the blog done, I put on my hat, remembered everything, and headed to Reedville Creek Park. I managed to walk four loops, but it was harder than the day before. The weather was excellent, with a light breeze and a sun that did not strike. I watched a volleyball team assemble after the mower aligned the grass to the same height. When I walked my fourth loop, the net and lines were placed, and they were playing. It was a comfortable day for volleyball. With 4,000 steps, I headed back to the Volvo Cave with Air Volvo showing its check engine light.

For lunch, I got out the cold steak and made a steak salad. The steak was good the second time, and I was attentive to my eating; I did not choke. Somewhere in the morning, I cleaned up and dressed. I also did the dishes.

Corwin arrived and assembled the spare bedroom for me. Since I could not lift heavy items, he dragged/carried the mattress back to the room from the garage. With the exception of his motorcycle, the garage is now my stuff. The bedroom appears to be mostly my stuff now. Dusting, vacuuming, and other usual items are now on my list. Excellent!

I rested some and returned to some SciFi as I was not ready to return to serious things like Homer, Dryer’s writing suggestions/demands, and things that require attention. I nodded off but soon rose again. I will not have the day disappear!

I returned to my miniature Arduino project: an aquarium-sized diving bell and submarine. The XIAO is ESP-based hardware ported to Arduino, and a new update to Servo software for Arduino caused the compiles to fail. This hardware is not supported and is now flagged as excluded. I found a replacement library for ESP in my selection of libraries. While not a base library, it looked well-supported, and I loaded it and its examples.

The example used pin 17, but my pins were D and A numbers. I was confused. The examples were for other Sparkfun ESP devices and not Seen-produced miniature stuff. Puke! I attached the servo, having soldered pins on it yesterday to use it with a breadboard, and nothing worked. I went back to reading and resting.

I rose again and went back to Seeed’s website on XIAO ESP32S3 Sense boards. The code I found for servos used numbered pins (again, these pins are D or A pins on XIAO). I checked the code I am copying for controlling a Hot Wheel car and found that, too, it was using numbers. Nothing on the website matched this. I was missing something.

The pin-out diagram did not have numbers on it. I have a printed color copy for reference. The XIAO board does not have the pins’ names on the top. The bottom has the names but is currently facing the breadboard; it’s not helpful. I saw a mystery Excel file in the download list next to the schematics and Eagle files (to make a PC board). This is a list of pins using numbers in English and Chinese. It maps everything to the physical pins and D and A numbered connections. Hmmm.

My reaction was I had enough for today. I saw a post on Facebook referring to the 2025 transition plan that Trump and his allies (The Heritage Foundation) cooked up. I read and scanned the section on the Veterans Administration and agreed that the plan included cutting benefits as stated in the post. I like to verify claims, and I downloaded a free copy of the Heritage Foundation 2025 plan when it became available. The document, with its determination to remove civil service protections and many services (including abortion) from all government agencies and change the government to answer to only one man, is quite scary; it reads like something from the 1930s.

With the darkness from the 2025 plan, I decided to make a simple dinner. I got out a frozen Steak and Stout Pie from Trader Joe’s. I baked it for just over an hour. It is a high-quality beer-based pot pie. I enjoyed the flaky crust, and the contents were very flavorful, with carrots, potatoes, and bits of beef. It is recommended if baked.

At 7, Theology Pub was still on Zoom. As the number of COVID-19 infections is increasing, we have never stopped using Zoom. One person was still in isolation after being tested and discovered that the annoying summer cold was COVID-19. On Zoom, we discussed the choice of posting the Ten Commandments instead of the Sermon on the Mount in public classrooms in some states. Why would Christian leaders pick this to represent their values? Further, the law in Louisiana required a specific wording, which was only found on a stone carving that the Supreme Court agreed to allow in a courtroom. It matches no published translation.

Some of us thought the Louisiana law, while bizarre, was not worth worrying about. Others were concerned that the government was mandating religious symbols in classrooms. Many could not understand the selection of this Ten Commandments wording, an informal, at best, translation of the Hebrew. We all agreed that if you want to teach children, it is easy to get them to recite or know ten things, but the cultural and social message of The Sermon on the Mount was a far better and certainly Christian message, Jesus Christ’s own words as recorded in the Gospel. We thought that saying that the meek and poor in spirit are blessed is a good place to start.

After that, I read some more and went to bed early. I kept it a quiet day. Thanks for reading.

A series of events defined my Wednesday, and I will forgo my usual format and describe these incidents instead.

I managed to walk the circle track at Reedville Creek Park and make four loops. I scored over 3,000 steps, but I was not expecting that to be the end of my walking as I usually can combine that with a few trips shopping to be over 5,000 steps in a day, but not today. I was up after 7 and had canned peaches for breakfast and liberal coffee made in my French Press. I had written the blog on Tuesday evening, so I was less rushed.

(Even the light posts in the Pacific Northwest have moss!)

However, I had a 9:30 appointment at Big River Coffee to discuss jobs and work with Mackenzie, which limited my walking time. I headed to the coffee place after 9:15, as it was only a few minutes away. Soon, I was discussing work experience with Mackenzie. Layoffs had caught up with Mackenzie (a shared experience), and we discussed our work experiences. We tried not to focus on our disappointments with employers, but we both feel that corporation people management is out of alignment with corporate long-term goals. I tried to share memories that could help with Mackenzie buying our coffees. One strong suggestion was to align the vocabulary in Mackenzie’s resume and interview with Data Cleansing and Data Science. Yes, the words used when discussing Artificial Intelligence are the hottest new thing. I think my advice and thoughts were at least worth the price of a cup of coffee (a medium-sized Amercano with a shot of caramel syrup). We said our goodbyes.

I returned to the Volvo Cave to notice that the check engine light was on. I could not find any code or cause. I turned off Air Volvo and restarted it. It returns. F**k. I headed into the Cave and chatted with some folks, and, after thirty minutes, tried again. The check engine light is still on. F**k. I called the local Volvo dealership and soon was talking to scheduling and discovered that their next repair opening was in September. WTF–it is a check engine light, not scheduled maintenance (I was polite on the phone, but I am sure they heard the WTF in my mind), September. I found a local place that can run the diagnosis on Wednesday morning and tell me what they think. Maybe it is just annoying Volvo’s demand for service. The accented voice whistled when I said 2015 Volvo–not sure if they work on the new ones (or that was related to the cost of the usual repairs; neither interpretation is reassuring). I will be there before noon on Wednesday. F**k.

Grounded now, the next event kept me in the house and watching Star Wars movies while I waited for updates. Mom Wild is in the ER with low labs and general fatigue. Linda (my sister) and her husband, Jesse, are with Mom, and generally, their job is to keep Mom Wild calm enough to stay. Mom often just walks out of ERs and hospitals. I called and helped explain that Mom would be admitted and that she needed to do this. Using my “the good son” powers to help her understand and accept. As usual, I started laundry and dishes and prepared for the next flight to Michigan (red-eye through Chicago for about $800 one-way at 11PM, arriving before noon in Lansing). I look at hotels as I do not have the time to plan an extended stay. Mom Wild stays in the hospital, and Linda and Jesse are there until 2ish, and then they go home to sleep. Been there.

Corwin comes over and collects more of his stuff. I even saved him a box. He collects his stuff and will clean up the house on Wednesday or Thursday now that temperatures are more normal (days are in the low eighties, 27C, and nights a cool high fifties, 14C). Corwin needs some knives, and I gave away my Chicago Cutlery, which we got when Dad Wild added it to our registry for our wedding in 1990. I send the block and all I have. It is time to have less stuff. Corwin will use them well. He gets the matching knive block, too. I find duplicates and items I have not used, but I am sure he could use them in the pantry, put those in the bag, and send them on, too. I went to Amazon, found a magnetic board (the new hot way to order knives in the modern kitchen), and ordered a plain, unbranded one for $39. It was delivered today. It needs to be assembled and comes even with a screwdriver and an extra screw: Done!

Before the events messed up my day, I was soldering a tiny linear servo to pins. I am still working on using a breadboard to build my prototype. The wires are tiny, and it took some care not to break or burn them up while soldering (I set my Hakko iron to 380F/190C). I have various colors of pins. I have a bag of these in the garage, along with various other parts; I have RadioShack in my garage. I match the pins to the wire colors. I can use the pins to insert into the breadboard or to attach female jumpers.

With that done and the servo now plugged into the breadboard, I needed to code a test program/sketch to run it. In my design, this servo will control the rudder for the service boat that will lower the diving bell with the video in it. I plan to build a tiny boat for an aquarium controlled by Wi-Fi. Once this works, I will go with the submarine. And the XIAO is not supported by the Servo code provided by Arduino; the compile fails. It appears that the servo libraries have been updated to check the hardware and fail if attempting to compile it over unsupported hardware.

While thinking about what to do, I broke for lunch, cut up the pork chop that I defrosted yesterday, stir-fried it with some frozen peppers, chopped onions, ginger (also frozen), and curry powder, and reheated some Trader Joe’s naan to go with it. The curry powder left a graininess in the food that I didn’t like, but the flavor worked. Next time, I will just add some spices like ground cumin.

I continue to follow along with events in Michigan. Mom Wild is seriously ill, not cooperative (the usual), and put up with it for now. Linda and Jesse update me when they can. I stay home with a coding Volvo and possibly need to get to PDX soon. I wash clothing and get dishes ready. No need for me to fly tonight.

I had defrosted a ribeye steak, and I cooked that on the grill. I cut it into slices. Covered a potato with sliced steak and had some peaches with it. The rest of the steak and another potato is in the frig as leftovers for another day. The calory count for Wednesday was 1,400. Better.

I managed two Star Wars movies and finished one I started. I really like the first and third movies in the last bunch. Other folks decry their failures to follow the logic and the established canon. I think the first and last find some comedy and tell an interesting story, with the last one threatening to tip to horror and even Lovecraftian creations but pulls back as it approaches that abyss. I like that. The failing emperor’s word “unnatural” says it all.

That was the last event of Wednesday, and I headed to bed a bit late. I did hear what I assumed was the temperature difference, making the house make noise. I was up with all the lights on and checking. I went outside and saw nobody. After that, I put on “sleep” on my Echo Dot. I slept well.

Thanks for reading. My weight stabilized and went down to 238. Better.