Author: alohawild

Going backwards, it is Monday when I write this, and my sleep was wrecked by a stuffed ear (I have only one working one now after the brain surgery). I was up at 4, took a nap, and now I am coughing and feeling off. Not enough sleep and rest. Ugh!

I reached home about 9:30 in Air VW the Gray after playing Dungeons and Dragons 2024 at M@ place without the usual group. Jack was filling in for Mackers. We finished Desert of Desolation: Pharaoh (once I3) adventure. Again, details cannot be recounted here, but Karyn’s character was slain by some undead. But when we finished, we got a free wish, and we used that to return Karyn.

I have DM’d the original I3 in the AD&D version back in the 1980s, and can say that the reworking was better. I had only a small memory of the original, and it has been on my shelf for years. I keep them for when I am looking for ideas for another adventure.

Scott brought vegan gift loaves, and I provided pencils from the JFK Library (I gave pencils from the Carter Center before). M@ made burgers, and we played our newly leveled-up 8th-level characters. Jack was a paladin and not a bad choice to take into an undead-filled tomb. It was a tough challenge; Karyn’s loss was tough, but we managed to survive the attacks, absorb the punishment, and finally break out and finish the challenge.

Before this, I was at home, tired out from rising at 6:30 to cook jambalaya and then helping with ushering and helping with the potluck. It was a pleasure to serve, and everyone seemed to like my food. I unloaded the dishwasher and chatted here and there with Deborah. She had some family obligations, so we were both busy on Sunday.

Church was before this, and upon my arrival, I unloaded the huge pot of jambalaya, along with some spices and other possible additions. I delivered these culinary joy items to Z, the head of hospitality at the church, and she tasted them and was pleased. I put on a warming oven (Bill pulled it before it re-cooked; even the warm setting is a bit high). The church folks for First United Methodist were in full potluck mode (as the other church, Emmaus Church, was headed out). I headed to the church service and took up my usual post as usher.

And I did have a gentleman, younger, with his gym bag and backpack, walk in and out. I stopped him from leaving and offered him coffee and lunch. This was not what he expected. I walked him down to the now set-up Wesley Hall and got him a plate of jambalaya. He is a cook, and he thought it good, and I shared the recipe with him. Z and Bill said they were good with him there; no issue. I saw him leave early, smiling and waving.

Next, the Pastor decided to focus on the repression of people worldwide and how we can help for a Christmas series. I suspect I would have chosen something more traditional, like holiday symbols or cookies. We light a red candle to remember these folks. Ken directs us to Jesus’ “Love your enemies” statement. I do check the translation, as he tells the story of some right-wing folks who deny that it is a Biblical quote (it is, translated correctly, and in two Gospels).

Before all of this, I rose at 6:30 and played music, danced, and cooked in my kitchen. I had prepped the day before, and so this was cooking and assembly. I followed the recipe I did in New Orleans at the NOLA School of Cooking. I adjusted it to be spicier (remembering one of the assistants telling me, “You always need more of the spices”) and cooked down the veggies, then browned the sausage until it was dark brown. I later added more spices, crab boil, cooked shrimp, and more uncooked veggies to give the rice-packed goodness a bit of bite.

I remember Chef Renée making it in a demo back in NOLA. I took note then and included some of his recommended updates.

And that takes us to me rising, thanks for reading.

 

I did not start early on Saturday and found no coffee ready, as I still had 1/4 pot from last night. Corwin and I made coffee while we played my newest board game: The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship. We lost the game, and I left the game set up in case I want to study it.

I reheated some coffee, sat down in my office (formerly Corwin’s bedroom), and started on my usual tasks: updating Quicken, reading my email (which means deleting most of it), and doom scrolling (i.e., seeing what the latest excuse for raising prices, deporting US citizens, and not delivering the Epstein Files is). Satisfied that I was depressed enough, I stopped reading the news and played a few late-night comedians to get their take on the chaos. Laughed.

Next, I returned to Friday in my mind and began constructing a narrative of what I remembered and selected to share. I typed this into WordPress with the help of Grammarly (though I have to resist its AI effort to turn my words into mush). I spent the next couple of hours, as I often do, creating this blog. I watched the sunrise and, with reduced clouds, actually saw some blue and light.

With the blog done, I returned to the kitchen, on my third reheated cup of coffee (liberal Fair Trade) and got out Mom Wild’s smasher chopper. Oh, yes! I cut up and slam the veggies through the weird non-electrical appliance. So satifying to smash ’em. The onions, now even more insulted than knife work, release their worst, and I can barely see. I revel in the slam chop.

Deborah and I connect here and there through Saturday. Her sons are there to start their holiday break at home.

I am short of green pepper. I cut up the baked chicken and am happy there is enough left (1.5 lb needed in the jambalya) for my lunch. I slice the sausage into coins (I like to do smaller squares, but the coins are the tradition for New Orleans). I load all my work into the fridge for Sunday morning. I do multiple washes, not wishing to mix the chopped items and cause cross-contamination.

I head to 185 Veggie folks and grab a few green peppers, three of their smaller ones, and a few items. Their prices are good, and I do not break about $7.00. I rewash everything and chop-slam the green peppers with all my work done, and the morning and early afternoon gone, I rest for a bit.

I also get that laundry done that I skipped on Friday. I am happy that The Machine did not leak, as I risked the tub-cleaning process that once before flooded the area during subsequent use. I put out a towel just in case. It worked without issue. Reports from Deborah: She loves her new side-loading laundry.

I made cheese and toast with a little bit of summer sausage and some sweet pickle slices that have been in the fridge waiting for the right moment. The blue cheese, made by our local world-renowned Oregon cheese makers, was lovely. I had some other French cheese slices. It was a great lighter dinner with Market Choice cheeses. I had tea with it.

I also updated my Dungeons & Dragons character, an Other Sorcerer, to 8th level as we are playing on Sunday night. This is D&D accounting, and while others find it fascinating, I just try not to make mistakes and follow the character arc, avoiding some min-max options for more role-playing choices. I am part thief with a charlatan background. But I am too charismatic to hide, so stealth is not my thing (I do try, though).

After ordering a gift for Deborah, I found that time had run away from me. I had packed away the LOTR game and offered it for tonight. I got aboard Air VW the Gray at 5ish and headed to Richard’s place in Portland. Beaverton traffic, it is now a week from the Winter Solstice, in the dark.

Navigation sends me over the hill, and I connect with Highway 26 after much of the slow-moving merge traffic from 216 and Beaverton. I managed to arrive at Richards in about 50 minutes, not a terrible time for Oregon, but in Michigan, I would be halfway to Flint from Detroit in the same time!

Laura, Richard, and I teach the LOTR game, and we soon have it down and flowing. We play the standard first scenario as suggested on easy mode. It takes us a while to get into the groove, but soon we are playing fast. We manage to get ahead of the Pandemic-like engine that controls the Dark Lord’s forces, and Frodo’s hope is excellent as we have kept the Eye of Sauron off of the character. We get five Ring cards to Frodo, and the Eagle card will take him to Mount Doom (like in the funny YouTube videos), and we win!

Richard proves that he has Flip-7, a favorite card game, down, but it is still fun to play a few games. We talk for a bit, and the verdict on the LOTR games is “Yes, we could play that anytime.” Laura looks for a copy for her kids but finds none at any of the cheaper sites. I recommend buying full price at Guardian Games, which has copies; their online inventory is almost impossible to search.

I head home, and the traffic is snarled on the streets of Portland for unknown reasons. I turn away from Broadway, and Navigation takes me across various streets to a familiar entrance to the highway by a hospital. From there, the EV faces no more challenges. I arrive home at 11 and soon am reading in bed about Judge Dee in a fantasy Ming China.

I start to fall asleep and turn off the light. I wake a few times and once again am wandering for my dreams, but this time more tourist than breathing issues or other nightmares. My alarm wakes me too early to start cooking.

Thanks for reading!

 

For those who read the blog and even wait for it to appear, yesterday it was very late. I had problems with my laptop backups and was focused on them, so the blog didn’t finish until late yesterday. Sorry.

What I discovered while writing the blog was that I could not find a Microsoft Word document on my laptop, and I thought I might have deleted it in error (I had the wrong name for it). I checked my backups. I use Apple’s Time Machine to keep long-lasting records of changes to my laptop. Meaning I could, at least a few months ago, check back a year or more for something. I was shocked to see that something had changed, and Time Machine now contained only a week of history. Yikes!

Corruption or malicious changes often take a month to discover. A backup needs to be able to recover the laptop from a month-old copy. A week is not enough. My checks, which I was doing instead of writing the blog, showed that the fast, solid-state drive I have used for years was now 90% full, with only a week’s worth of updates. The same drive that once held for years. Something changed.

And indeed it has, I am using the Tahoe 26.1, the latest version of the OS, and it appears that this destroyed all my backups. Apparently, there was no backward compatibility, and it just scratched them all. Time Machine is not always stable over the years, but I have rescued my Apple Laptop many times with it. Every hard drive has failed, and I have rebuilt my systems from a Time Machine image.

I also have another fast (and expensive) external drive that I keep not in the house (usually), and I manually copy all my files to it. I also back up Quicken to it. If I wanted to get ancient-style, I should use an optical drive and make everlasting copies, until the technology fails or you realize the copy did not really work. But a simple file copy works, and most of what I want to keep is not current. Quicken also backs up online (part of the service) and will sync an old copy. Had to do that once already.

I found the file on the grey drive that I grabbed from its hiding place (my Time Machine drive is called ‘Silver’ — the metal cases are different shades), then found it on Local on my laptop. Somehow I had searched the Cloud, not my Apple laptop (?!), and do not get me started on iCloud and how my files are there, too. Still, I was disturbed that my dream of safe backups was dashed. I manually copied my files, and ran out of space. F**k!

I was out of time, the morning spent on an IT mission to get safe. I have found that backups and file searches somehow take hours that disappear in a puff of IT blue smoke. I hopped into the shower, shaved, and all that. Ignored laundry day (Friday for me), and boarded Air VW the Gray and headed to Beaverton.

I was only a few minutes late for my blood donation, but then I was told to wait until the setup was done at my church, First United Methodist Church in Beaverton. Not ‘Global’ but ‘United’ as we are the loving original now officially accepting LGBTQ, and we fly a flag on the outside of the building matching this. Generally, we UM folks think there is enough ‘excluding’ out there without us adding to it.

I have to fill out the online form. I got multiple calls, texts, and emails reminding me of the appointment, but none had me fill out the online form. But I then remember it is only good for 24 hours, and just sit and do it on my iPhone. There are two people ahead of me, as I am now a walk-in, as I did not do the online form first, and then show up (eye-rolling moment, but it is a volunteer organization, so it gets special dispensation, and I just smile and follow their processes). I waited about ten minutes and chatted with Cliff, the check-in volunteer. We both worked at the same local NGO, Building Together, but did not know each other.

I pass with exceptions (travel to Iceland, having cancer, and breathing issues not currently an issue) and soon fill a pint while trying to read, bleed, and relax. I am feeling fine. I have now done this about every three months and have no issues except a headache and some fatigue later in the evening. With a cookie and a bottle of water, I head to get some groceries. I plan to make Jambalaya for the church potluck (yes, more UM stuff). I stopped by 185th Veggies, and they were happy to see me. I spent $20 on veggies (and some microwave popcorn).

Next, I stopped, fading a bit, at Market of Choice and was once again amazed at the prices. I got some sausage and a whole baked chicken for the Jambalaya, and found Pacific Seafood’s shrimp without tails (and cleaned). I grabbed a few other items (including more eggnog) and still spent more than 5x at 185th Veggies. The hams were $8 a pound, more than twice Costco’s price, I learned from Dondrea.

With all my goodies, I head to the house in the EV. I talk to Deborha on and off while traveling. I still forget some items, and I sit in my chair and get a few minutes’ nap when Corwin shows up.

We return to the board game we started on Friday, The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship, from the same people who made Pandemic. We make corrections, and this first play is really invalid, but we finish the game and win. We reset and play again with the rules all correct, I think, and it reminded me of the Pandemic building engine. We soon became desperate, hoping to just make it. We manage to distract Sauron like in the movie by marching out our armies of the Free Peoples, but the Ring Bearer is not in Mordor, and hope is fading. Corwin, again running Frodo and Sam, gets them in Mordor, but hope is lost, and we lose: Frodo loses hope, and Golem is not there (he is not in play for two players). Next time!

It was an excellent experience, and the game works and is not overly predictable like the original Pandemic (which makes sense for a virus). It reminds me of the War of the Ring by Ares, but faster and for more than two players (though War of the Ring can play three, it is not really a good three-person game). There is dust on War of the Ring as it is hours to set up and hours and hours to play, and often many rules issues as you try to remember how to play and keep all the rules right. After two add-ons, a rollout map, and other updates, it’s an expensive game to gather dust.

(got to read the map upside down)

After our loss, I had to head out, and Corwin and I said our goodbyes. The EV crossed Beaverton using the same sliding path I used when visiting the Humminbird House after getting two tickets. I avoid lights with cameras and Beaverton’s Finest using this path. Dondrea and Z welcome me to their home for a quick dinner, a giant pot pie from Costco. We open some gifts and, after a delicious dinner (I brought the pumpkin pie and the new eggnog), I teach how to play a new board game, Tiny Epic Galaxies. Dondrea, telling us she does not get it, smokes us.

With the game taught, box packing needing to be done, and me getting tired fast (blood loss showing). The travel in Air VW the Gray across Beaverton without issue (or attracting unwanted attention from civil authority). I did little more than sit in my chair in the living room and relax.

But the blog was not done, and that is against my discipline, so I would not let it carry over to the next day. I grabbed an electric blanket, my laptop, and wrote the blog in my chair, not my desk, and finished and published the blog wrapped in a warm blanket (thanks, Kathy and Martin, for the blankets).

I decided I need to invest. These wonderfully fast, wallet-sized, multi-Tbyte, solid-state drives are not cheap; the OWC Apple site provides the latest (and more expensive than last time, damn tariffs!). Too much money (over $400) and it will be here next week. I cannot risk deleting old data due to Time Machine instability to free up space on my manual backup. I click and spend; ugh!

I put on my PJs and take my meds, but not my emergency inhaler. I read more Judge Dee stories and finally turn off the light near midnight. Sleep is disturbed by dreams of small spaces, suggesting a feeling of drowning. But not too serious this time, I remember in my dream being able to breathe and deciding to try to go on.

Sleep was hard, but not as bad as the night before, and I got some rest. I do wake and take my inhaler, and that helps.

Thanks for reading.

I write this Friday morning. Bad dreams, a headache, a stiff neck, and stuffed ears are making me slow this morning. I am at least alone in the house and can turn up the music so I can hear it, like Leta. I am also finding my emotions are close to the surface this holiday, and I miss Dad Wild and Susie. Elric and Joyce no longer comment on my posts. I miss them. But then I see Leta dressing in a Roman helmet and sword for their Christmas play in Michigan, and the laughter returns. It is a fantastic season.

I slept until 7:30 without an alarm, and with the bright light, the sky showed some clearing and even blue, atypical for December in the Pacific Northwest, waking me. I rose and found my way to the kitchen; it had not moved, but it felt like a trek. There I blessed that I had assembled the coffee correctly, made from Fair Trade coffee from Safeway, and liberal coffee was waiting for me. One sip, and the bitterness reminds you how far we have to go to find Justice, Compassion, and Hope, but even fairly traded coffee can make things just a tiny bit better. Yes, black coffee for me with nothing to diminish the bitterness that we have such a long road, but at least we are on the road, like the words of the  song:

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered.
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

I look forward to the gleaming future.

Returning to remembering Thursday, I had chores to do, and I focused on punching out the blog and getting ready. I finally finished before 10 and showered and dressed. I checked the mail, and neither the mail had been delivered nor the trash and lawn debris had been picked up. I found the checkbook and my list of Christmas Gifts. I write it every year from an address list I keep. The fruitcakes were already sent. Now to get the cash and gift cards assembled.

I give small pictures of U.S. presidents and Postmasters to the younger relatives. The US Grants ($50) for younger (there are few left in this category) and the rest Ben Franklins ($100). I have gift cards to give out to, I believe, Beaverton’s best food, Golden Valley Brewery.

I dropped my first off and checked on the construction at the church. There, I met Lowell Greathouse — he was stopping by for some business, a former pastor from the 1990s — and I gave him a tour of the construction. He shared that he was a pastor when the exterior work was completed. Blake was there, I introduced them, and he and Lowell worked out that the work outside is called an Exterior Insulation and Finish System (EIFS). Blake had installed some of it in the past. It was interesting to learn more about the previous remodel under Lowell.

Lowell was happy to see the improvements, and we said our goodbyes.

Cory Johnson, a good friend and fellow gamer and role player, passed away days before Susie left us. It was his birthday, and I dropped off a box of Hicory Farms food to remember Cory and his birthday. I miss Cory every time we play and think of him often.

Next, I headed to Happy Panda for lunch and enjoyed Beef Broccoli while I addressed cards for cash and gift cards. I handwrote the addresses for the cards. I ate my lunch between cards. I paid my bill and parked the EV at the post office. I waited in line to get three types of Christmas stamps. I then stamped my addressed letters with little pictures of US Grant or Ben Franklin.

I returned home, and Corwin soon followed after I let him know he had his Christmas gift and some mail was at the house for him. A GVB gift card and a Ben Franklin, along with a hot chocolate Grinch bomb, came with his mail. I then worked out with him how to play my newest game, The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship, based on Pandemic. We misplayed here and there (I checked the rules, made corrections, and played again with more corrections). Still, we enjoyed the game and revelled in the reworking of a familiar system to create an immersive experience. It was a blast. Corwin and I could not believe how well the engine that controlled the Dark Lord worked and how real it felt.

Corwin and I agreed to finish the game on Friday afternoon; I had to head out to Theology Pub. I took Air VW the Gray across Beaverton in the dark; we are approaching the shortest day of the year. I had a note from Dondrea that Dan and Janice were already there. I arrived at McMenamins Cedar Hills, and it was busy. I was tired and out of sorts, worried our room reservation had been lost, but the staff and our waiter (whose name I forgot) soon had us settled.

I had a few Old Fashions and a Captain Neon Burger, a favorite (I was giving blood on Friday and thought rare meat was a good idea).  The subject was waiting, as many Christmas stories are about waiting. What do you wait for, and what makes the season work for you? Dan Gray reminded us that we often find a process or ritual to be a form of meditation (like baking Christmas Cookies), and we have usually failed to teach it and share it.

I left before the group broke up, which was unusual for me, after paying my bills, Donrea’s, and Z’s. It was a good meeting, and everyone seemed to enjoy our last 2025 meeting.

I returned home and slept poorly. Some days during the holidays are just hard. Nightmare and discomfort ruled the night. Ugh! No horror, but the usual dreams of work and travel, and nothing going right. I could not get anything started or done in the morning.

Laundry will wait, and this blog was finished late.

 

 

I am afraid that Wednesday is not that interesting. I did have what I call pumpkin quiche (pie) for breakfast with coffee, which I had assembled the night before. I wrote the blog as I watched the skies turn almost blue, and the waters had withdrawn here; my backyard is empty. Washington State, north of here, is in a tough spot, as it received more rain in the interior than Oregon did. Our rivers are high, but that is not usual for us, and they quickly return the water to the ocean. It was a lovely winter day with some Oregon Mist, and even a hummingbird checked out my roses for a meal (likely all the bugs it was looking for were washed away). I hope some ants were out there for the bird to find. The ground is still drying, and I saw the squirrels stay in the trees and on the fence tops.

I wrote the blog, happy to have survived without issues another river-of-rain event. I wrote my blog while I considered also a Christmas gift for Mom Wild. Jackson and Perkins supplied a gardenia for Mom for too much money. But that is true of all things. I have read and heard in news reports that health insurance companies (and a friend of mine works for one, and she assures me they are not getting rich either) are raising costs to employers by about 6%, twice inflation. Wages are reportedly rising for union and blue-collar workers, but not for service workers or white-collar workers. According to the reports, union contracts are coming due and reworked with 3% increases or better. I heard a Marketplace news report that in Phoenix, Arizona, the plumber and pipefitter union is training apprentices at a strong rate. According to the report, the new AI focus means more computer centers, which require extensive cooling and thus more pipes. Yes, high-tech needs pipes. I remember a Dr Who episode where the plumbing hints at the issue, and the Doctor says something like “Always check the plumbing.”

I met Scott at McMenamins Cedar Hills, changing the day to accommodate him picking up his daughter. We talked about travel and investments. We spoke about Nike and the changes there, with me speculating that the newest CEO needs to find a working solution soon or face the company being bought by some bored billionaire. It is always good to connect, and I think it is grounding to talk to Scott.

We said our goodbyes, not seeing each other again until after the holidays and in 2026. We are both slightly taken aback that we are talking about 2026 now! It is misty now, and I head out shopping. I went to the Washington Square Mall (which is in Oregon) and found a few items I was looking for. I waved at Santa and tipped my hat to him. I did not get my picture with him, but I thought about it.

I enjoyed my walk, but I missed Susie and Deborah. I’m still happy to be here and able to walk the mall and wave to Santa again, even alone. When I walked by the flowers, I thought I should get some for Susie, and then smiled as I tried to imagine which bunch Susie would pick; it was always the brightest and freshest colors when I would wheel her here in her last year. I would have to do the lifts and was trained to do that.

Shopping in Williams Sonoma (yes, I have an account there, I told the cashier), I resisted anything but gifts. In Made in Oregon, Deborah replied quickly with some sizing information. I am not really alone when I have my phone! It was great to do some shopping and walk. I did pass by The Cheesecake Factory, but I was tempted by a coffee drink and a dessert.

Instead, continuing my shopping, I took some messy highways (216-26) to Golden Valley Brewery (GVB) and sat at the bar. My bartender got me four gift cards and a Spanish Coffee. I remember back to the years when another place was open on Christmas, and the Dungeons & Dragons folks joined Susie and me for a Spanish Coffee and chips. It was a good holiday! It is the nature of holidays that they are full of memories. No tears for that, and I had a dessert too.

The EV got me home, and I fell asleep in the chair while watching a YouTube video about the last pre-dreadnought battleship in Japan (and, by strange accident of history, the only preserved British-built battleship). I woke, and Deborah and I were going to watch the current episode of Matlock, but I nodded off waiting. She had some work items surface. We connected and watched the show together, and then, it being late for Deborah, we said our good nights. It was wonderful to start and end our days together.

I made bread in the bread machine. I will get out the bread, slice it, and store it in the freezer on Thursday morning. I do not eat bread faster than mold appears!

Dinner was leftover Chicken, potato salad, and coleslaw.

I did the dishes, assembled the coffee, and saw it was getting late. I remembered to put out the trash.

I still sat down at the table, put on my eyeware (3x bifocals), and started on the Colonel Sherman T. Potter 28mm figure for some touch-ups. I had trouble with my eyewear, and repainted some of the figure when I realized the lack of 3D vision (one eye fogged) did not improve my painting (oops). But once I changed eyewear, I was able to correct the mistakes, and I think it is close. I will check again once all the paint is dry. I think a minor touch-up is needed. I have four more M.A.S.H. figures to go. There is also a Quansit hut and a helicopter to build to match. I enjoy painting figures.

I read The Chinese Maze Murders, which appeared in my books I purchased and had shipped from Boston. I have read the series before, but I could not resist getting one again for $6, less than a cup of good coffee. I enjoyed the crazy story, now set in the Ming rather than the Tang of the original. The cases to be solved were gleaned from historical Chinese imperial records and then rewritten into a story by a Dutch diplomat.