Author: alohawild

The news from the ocean was grim, the submersible imploded, and the wreck was found a short distance from their goal: the bow of the RMS Titanic. Sad.

Yesterday, after I finished the blog, I wrote my 500-word horror story for the 2023 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. I learned last year that Gwen, the judge and one of the event’s directors, wants a story that makes her shutter and connects to  H.P. Lovecraft’s horror writings. This year I wrote a story that made me look over my shoulder, see things that were not there, and made it hard to sleep. I wrote about a dream that still scares me. I managed to sleep, finally. I hope it will work for Gwen (I won two years ago).

I started the morning at 8, sleeping in a bit; I had a breakfast of yogurt and some liberal coffee made in my French press. I put my work computer in the cargo hold, boarded Air Volvo, and then headed to Susie’s place at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116.

Jennifer had Susie dressed and ready when I arrived in morning rush traffic across Beaverton. I then used the moving belt (humans don’t come with handles) and lifted Susie into the co-pilot seat in Air Volvo. I put the wheelchair in the back. Before I left, I had unloaded all the games from the cargo area and some from the back seats to make room for the wheelchair.

We made the voyage of Highway 217 (under construction), which was slow to 26, with Beaverton’s Finest patrolling, moving at extra-legal quick speeds. We arrived at the Legacy Clinic building, and I unloaded Susie and rolled her into her wheelchair to get her blood drawn. We need to recheck Susie’s liver function after a month without her statin, hoping for an improvement.

It took two tries to get the sample, with Susie tolerating the first fruitless attempt. The second try was on a heated hand and a tiny needle. It worked and filled the tube. Done, without too much extra pain, we were happy to leave.

The Krispy Kreme Donut place is next door, and Susie and I agree we should consider that. A quick call to Jennifer, the nursing aide at the hummingbird house, confirms that donuts are allowed. We take the sidewalks to get next door and discover a Willy Wonka-like world of donuts. We get a coffee to share (I get ice and another cup to cool the coffee), and Susie sips this with great care as we watch the donuts get made. We get a dozen to share with the hummingbird house and get a hat.

I drop Susie off to Jennifer after retracing our steps back to the hummingbird house. My second lift did not go as well; I hit my head on the door frame but landed Susie well enough. I left with a kiss as Jennifer promised Susie some apple fritter (Susie’s fav from Krispy Kreme) for breakfast.

Air Volvo took me to Swift on Nike WHQ, our new building, in August, and I walked through the building and took some photos. I sent the pictures to my teammates, many of whom joined Nike during the pandemic and have never worked from Nike WHQ. I did months of meetings years ago in the building and liked the place.

 

I then parked my car in The Park, the first parking garage at Nike WHQ, and took the stairs from level 4. There are seven! I walked across campus to the Williams building and had a working lunch (salad bar) with Scott. We have met every week for years. We often design software together.

It was hot, and I walked the distance of the WHQ to The Park and climbed four sets of stairs. I am no longer using the lifts–time to get better. I am tired, and between the lifts, wheelchair lifts and reassembling, the long walks, and stairs, I have had quite a good workout today.

I drive back to our old building, Clubhouse, and I notice how worn and out of alignment with the norm this building is. I never liked it and will be glad to see it no more after August.

I spend a few more hours at the building, catching up and doing a few more meetings. I am tired and will head out at 3ish to the Volvo Cave. I arrive at Air Volvo without incident, rest until 4:30PM, and take the last status meeting from my home office.

I make dinner, jambalaya, without seafood, and watch the first episodes again of the show Wednesday. It makes me laugh, and I really like it.

Where did you learn those moves? My uncle taught me he was in Tibet for seven years in a monastery. Was he a monk? No, a prisoner.

Yes, the lines that Wednesday gets are fun. I wish I had written them.

After that, I did the dishes, pour a glass of Kalua, and started on the blog.

Thank you for reading.

 

Today is the summer solstice, and the sun is now just setting at 9PM, and this will stay after 9 for some time before the days start to feel like they are shortening. Pumpkin season is still far away! I woke with my alarm again, and I felt tired all day. It has been coffee and tea to keep going this morning and this afternoon. Dinner was reheated tamales from the tamales lady at Wildwood Taphouse–she sells them out of her truck on some Tuesdays. They are spicy and delicious. I ate them while watching the finish of The Rings of Power series (my third time watching it), and I genuinely love the last two episodes, and they make up for all the sloppy storytelling at the start. I am hopeful for the next series, but it will not likely surface until Spring 2024.

I rested for a bit, tired; even my boss commented on how tired I looked today. So I took the evening off and just relaxed. I am writing this as the sun sets on the longest day and the shortest night starts.

Today I took the stairs all day (the first time in some time) at our Nike building, Clubhouse, and we learned today that we are leaving it for Nike WHQ, just down the road, and leaving soon, August. We will be in the old Rogue building, now called Swift, and remodeled, a purchased building now included in the berm that surrounds Nike WHQ. We will be about two blocks from what I would call the campus. It will be good to walk by the lake again and eat in the cafes.

I also got my review, which was good, and I was disappointed with my new title, Principle Software Engineer. I will miss the Architect part of my previous titles as it better described what I do, but the pay is the same as are the benefits and a quick scan on the internet, and yes, my pay matches this title. I will have to get used to it.

Susie was talkative today when I arrived at Susie’s place at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. She was hard to understand, but we tried. Susie agreed to a visit to the park, and Jennifer (the weekday nursing aide) got Susie in her wheelchair, and we headed out to find a sunny bench in Metzger Park. It was about 80F (27C) with a light cooling wind–sitting in the sun was comfortable. The recent rains seemed to restore the trees and flowers. Cottonwood bunches were drifting through the air. The butterflies, yellow Oregon swallowtails, fluttered here and there in the sun, seemingly to warm themselves in the hot summer rays. A small dog rushed after a ball that the dog’s human threw. The dog would bring the ball back and, if ignored, would bark and jump to get the human’s attention. Small kids were in the park. Beaverton Schools closed for the summer today, so the kids were still saying goodbye to their teachers and friends for the summer. I remember it was always a sad day for me. Once I rode a large bike (a three and later a five-speed), I could at least reach the nearby kids and sometimes some of the more distant ones on good weather days, and that made things better, but the last day was always a strange day.

We called Leta, Susie’s mother, from the bench, but Leta was at a church meeting, so it was a short call. Soon I needed to return to work and get some lunch, so I took Susie through the rest of the park, and then we traveled on the streets. The homeless couple living in their car was not there today–I hope they are OK. The guy with the ducks in his van (!) was also not there.

I soon left with a kiss with plans made on Thursday morning to take Susie for a blood draw in the morning to check her liver function. The labs were catawampus last time, and we hope to drop the statin drug will get Susie back to normal.

Susie is also losing weight, and I have another message for the doc on that. We will get a new weight soon and hope things are stable. Otherwise, that is a new issue.

Lunch was at our old stomping grounds, Happy Panda. I used to eat with Michelle and Michael there, and I missed them while I had a quick lunch by myself. The food was exactly the same

To finish, recalling the early morning, I had yogurt and a banana with my coffee–Liberal and French Press–for breakfast. I ate the banana while taking Air Volvo to work. I was suddenly nauseous again and hoped it was a result of my pills and the banana would help; it did. It was usual to read emails and Slack messages after rising at 6AM, shower and dressing 7:00-7:30, and out the door to reach the office before 8AM.

Thank you for reading. Enjoy the short night, and Thursday is only a few seconds shorter, so enjoy the week of long days and short nights!

 

 

 

The day, a work-from-office, started with my alarm waking me at 6AM. I managed to rise without references to undead and locate the kitchen without issue and made coffee and found the yogurt, of some fruit flavor not remembered, in the frig. I took this to the home office (formally Cowin’s bedroom), drank the coffee, and consumed the yogurt. I reviewed all my emails (work and my personal ones), reviewed the Slack channels, and then read the news. Sadly, the submersible missing on its way to the wreck of the Titanic has not been located. Many wrecks, some U-boat wrecks come to mind, claim many lives. We hope and pray that the folks are on the surface and have not been found yet.

I plan to start exercises again, but I have not worked out the timing. I clean up and dress, board Air Volvo at 7:30, and reach the office before 8AM. I then enjoy three hours of defect, status, and alignment meetings. I finally head out to see Susie, but then I have an ad hoc meeting in the hallway about my new work. Next, I board Air Volvo and head to Susie’s place at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. I reached her at about noon, and she was resting in the recliner in the shared living room.

It is still cold today and damp, typical June weather: grey. Instead of visiting the park, we called Leta, Susie’s mother, from the recliner and talked to her for a while using FaceTime to see each other. Leta went outside; it was warm again in Lansing, Michigan, and showed us the new steps from the back of the house. We talked for a while, but I had to return to work; a short visit today. I kissed Susie goodbye and left.

On the way back to work, I ordered a Jimmy John sub and ate it there while reading the Guild rules for the board game Vindication. Time to add in some more stuff. My sandwich was more food than I needed, and I was tired all afternoon–light food coma. Work continued with three more hours of meetings, one so dull I nearly nodded off. I made hot tea to wake up and finished the day with the 4:30 status meeting.

I did get some work done on some new work and talked to another director about it. Everyone seems happy for me to start on this. Excellent.

I drove home and arrived at Air Volvo without incident. I reheated the rest of the Jambalaya and put on the NetFlix Rings of Power series (my third time watching)–A lot of folks did not like it, but I liked it. Unlike many, I am also a Tolkien nerd and can tolerate messing with the canon to make a good story. I like the war-mad Galadriel, who cannot stop fighting, and Elrond, the honest political trickster everyone lies to. But, the depiction of the dwarves is my favorite part of the show–it seems so real then. It is nice to rewatch it again.

I was sad and lonely today, so I headed to Wildwood Taphouse, got a dark beer, and wrote the blog. I am feeling better now that I have written this, and I think I will do some other writing tonight.

Thanks for reading. Sorry that I have been sad these days. It is midsummer night today, and I am looking for Puck or the fairies to lighten my mood.

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends

Again, thank you for witnessing my writing and daily memories. I try to remember every day–it seems important to me to not let a single day go by without recording it. Be well!

Some days I just want to hide from the world and write, code, build, and read. I don’t want to see anyone, and I don’t want to write the blog–I want to write some SciFi or a fantastic adventure for Dungeons and Dragons or take one I have already written and rewrite it to 5E or improve it enough to publish it. I want to get on a plane with a pile of books, chargers, and laptops and write from some exotic location sitting at a bar eating only appetizers and drinking Cuba Libries.

But feeling passes, and I do want I am supposed to do–being a responsible adult can suck. Also, getting older and having trouble hearing people (me all day), having to read larger print, and trying to do some building requires me to use bifocals safety glasses (yes, I have 3x bifocals on my eye protection) sucks. I am trying to find focus and not hop the next plane to Paris (the flight leaves PDX at 10:30AM–I checked, and is only $2500 tomorrow).

Putting the complaining aside, I started the morning just before 8AM. I woke a few times before my alarm, but I just rolled over and slept a little and then woke; repeat. I made liberal coffee, peeled some hard-boiled eggs, and heated some links I made a few days ago for breakfast. I enjoyed an hour of status and defect meetings, including sending my teammates a request for an update on one issue. After that, I am just following along. I wrote the blog until after 10AM.

Next, I started on my radio project again. I repaired and rewired the mistakes I made yesterday. I then cut a veneer piece to cover the basswood (white without much grain). I also drilled the basswood after mounting it on the front of the radio box. I drilled into the box to mount pretty brass screws to hold the plate.

But the veneer moved, unknown to me when I pressed it between some books–puke! That ruined it; I tried to soak the wood to remove the veneer, but the white glue was locked in. I made a new face plate, veneered it first, and then started drilling. That is working better and might look better in the end, as I have not had to beat it up as much as the first piece.

After making some progress on the radio project, I got a lunch of pasta I made a few days ago with Italian sausage. I finished watching one video on YouTube (ShipHappens) and some more tours of the inside of the USS Texas (Drachinifel), which included some exciting (for warship geeks) views of armor plates that have rusted and now breaking bulkheads as the rust expands. The WW1-style doors, open connection electrical controls (knife switches), and other unique items like the torpedo room (yes, WW1 battleships had underwater torpedo tubes) were fascinating.

I finished lunch and then took my meds (I missed them in the morning), and yikes, I was nauseous and had to rest. I am unsure if it was my lunch or poor timing with my meds. I finally could move around without tossing my cookies and headed out in Air Volvo.

I stopped by McDonald’s to get a shake and fries–my comfort food. I was in the drive-in and watched a car hop a curb and leave. When I got to the window, I paid and saw it was not my order. My hearing missed the question of whether I was “Joe” and got that order. It took five or more minutes, and two people decided to just ignore this (I paid less for Joe’s order) and was given my order.

I sipped my shake and ate my fries as Air Volvo took me in low traffic (it is a holiday) to see Susie at her place at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. The weather was damp and grey, typical June, and the streets again showed local light flooding–back to normal.

Susie in her kids Just Do It with Bugs Bunny–a nearly impossible-to-find Nike shirt (I paid full price).

Susie was happy to see me, and the 55F (13C) and sideways rain discouraged us from visiting the park–I was damp just from exposure to the rain from Air Volvo to the front door. Instead, Susie was set up in her bed by Jennifer (the weekday nursing aide), and I sat in the over-stuffed chair next to Susie. Susie is again having painful constipation.

Aside: passing stool is hard lying in a bed. Susie cannot sit safely on a toilet and let gravity work for her. Instead, it is all up to her. This is a common problem I read about when we were in NYC’s Mount Sinai West. Their policy was to get folks on the toilet ASAP to prevent these problems–letting gravity work.

In her room, we watched the third Indiana Jones movie, The Last Crusade. Again, I forgot how fun these movies can be. After that, Susie was now on her side to help with the passing, we listened to Elton John, and I managed to fall completely asleep in the chair. After 5PM, I left with a kiss. Susie was falling asleep again, but I put M.A.S.H. on her TV for her–Susie has HULU and gets M.A.S.H. without commercials and in order.

I stopped on the way back at Red Robin in Beaverton. I was surprised that our original bartender, Chen, who cared for Susie for years when she used to walk all over Beaverton and ride the buses. Back then, she got lunch there from Chen. He got me an Ensalada platter with two chicken breasts, a regular-sized Stella (beer), and a side of fries. The salad had a wedge of core (I hate that), and the chicken was different than what I got at another Red Robin; it seemed to taste better. I decided not to stay and write there, and I paid and left after finishing my dinner. Chen wished me well and hoped to see me again soon–he sent his best to Susie.

I reached the Volvo Cave splashing through the now large puddles on the roads. I started the laundry, made a pot of tea, and started back on the radio (I made a new plate and tested it fitted to the radio box–tight but works) and then started on the blog. The new plate is ready for the drilling, which hopefully will not break it, and I have to make the third one!

Thanks for reading!

 

The morning started with me sleeping in until 7:45, mostly rolling over, sleeping for fifteen minutes, and waking again. I made cereal with sliced banana for breakfast, pouring milk on it and eating it as I listened to the status meeting at 8:30 on Sunday. The crises are mostly resolved (we are still loading data related to Foobar, but that should end soon). The meeting was perfunctory, but we know that unless you have a daily status meeting at the shoe company, things tend to drift in a fog of miscommunication and missed dates. The status meetings reinforce the plan and strategy to complete the thousands of tasks needed for the complex software installation, data conversions, and processing.

While I listened to the meeting, I started to write the long Saturday blog, 1,400+ words, and finished it just after 10AM. It was cold and rainy–our typical June weather. Later in the day, we got warnings for sudden heavy rains and the possibility (despite the cold) of funnel clouds–I did experience heavy sideways rain in Air Volvo later in the day. I then returned to my radio project. I managed to make the nod wiring work on an Arduino. I have a StemTerra version that is a 5V original Arduino built into a breadboard. This allows me, for 5V items and components that run in 3.3V and 5V, to be easily tested. I soon found that I had everything correct for the nob and then looked at the code again for the radio. Then I remembered I had wired the nob on my original radio backward by mistake and fixed it in the code. I then realigned the code to match the correctly installed nob.

Later in the evening, I picked back up the radio work. I will cover it now. I started to connect wires to all the face buttons and made some mistakes. My rule is that it is time to stop after two significant mistakes. What happens is that your head must not be in the work, or you are tired–sometimes you don’t realize you need to stop–thus the rule. I shorted the nob (ugh!), and I connected the push switches correctly, but the wires would not fit in the front of the radio when I tried to position the wooden plate on the radio box. Puke! I will have to try again on Monday morning. Thus I stopped.

I put pictures of Bob Wild and Ben Guild for Father’s Day on Facebook; they have both been gone for a long time. I found a picture of Dad (Bob Wild) from his visits to Oregon that I had not published before.

Returning to narrative flow after working on the radio, I then paid some bills, caught up on the Quicken transactions, and cleaned up and dressed. I finished the laundry and dishes and cleaned the microwave. I also cleaned the toilets. Next, I reheated some of the Jambalaya I made a few days ago. I watched some YouTube videos (Ship Happens) while eating. Time started to disappear, and I was headed out in Air Volvo to see Susie at her place at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116.

Susie was napping in her recliner in the shared living room when I arrived. Anassa, the weekend nursing aide, moved Susie to her rocking chair in her room. We continued with our Indiana Jones movies; the Temple of Doom was next. I had forgotten how action-packed the movie was, and I enjoyed it. We stopped the film to call Leta, Susie’s mother, at Susie’s sister’s (Barb) house. We got to talk to Emma (Barb’s daughter) for a while, and Emma and I spoke about some Dungeons and Dragons playing and our current characters (she is playing a Drow with a vitamin D deficiency–that is a D&D joke). It was a friendly chat. We rang off and finished the movie.

Susie became uncomfortable and had to be laid in her bed on her side. I stayed for another thirty minutes and then left with a kiss. Susie wanted me to stay all night, but that was not possible, and Susie was falling asleep (as I would soon be sleeping, too), so I left with a few more kisses, and Susie was already falling asleep as I went.

I headed to BJ’s Brewhouse and had a slice of prime rib with a potato and a Ceasar salad for dinner. I had Brussels sprouts with it, which we undercooked and tasted like bitter cold cabbage (maybe that is how they are supposed to be served–I have not ordered them in years). My waiter, Moe, ensured everything was perfect and insisted I have ice cream for dessert. She had known me for years and told me she had worked the whole Father’s Day shift and was smiling (it is a lot of money for a waiter to get an entire shift on Father’s Day). By the way, it was the most enormous slab of prime rib I have ever seen!

After that, I returned home and, there is no surprise here, rested and napped a bit. It was still early, so I returned to the office and, as I have described, messed up my radio project. Once I stopped, I read some more. I went to bed early and slept well.

Thanks for reading!