Author: alohawild

Going backward, I was at the house after Air Volvo crossed the small mountains of Bald Peek and Chehalem range just before midnight. I crossed by connecting Bald Peak Road to 210, a longer but safer trip. Next, I wrote the bill for Susie’s expenses at the hummingbird house and got that in the mailbox. I was soon in bed and fell into a deep sleep; I woke only once and then slept the rest of the night.

I crossed the low mountains from the Smiths plus Jason at Michelle’s and David’s house on Bald Peek on the Newberg side. There David made a dinner of grilled sandwiches on pumpkin bread. I played the board game The Architects of the West Kingdom with Michelle, Cat, Tasha, and Jason (Tasha’s husband) after covering the rules and the new rules for Tasha, Jason, and Cat, who played before but not with all the add-ons. I had the latest incarnation of the game from the publisher in New Zealand. We did not finish the game as we ate dinner, and Tasha and Jason needed to head to their hotel to prepare for an early flight. Tasha and Jason were victims of canceled flights (not Southwest which melted down this holiday) and had a crazy flight back to the San Francisco area via Seattle from Portland (!) at 6ish (!).

Back to gameplay, Tasha did build one of the great works in the game, and it was the first time I saw the gold statue on the game board.

The revised game is now higher rated–the add-ons are recommended as they improve the game instead of just adding more rules and complexity (a failure often seen in follow-up Kickstarters of an existing game). This is a resource management and worker placement game. This game is my favorite type, where the turns are simple, but the strategy is challenging. Vindication and Concordia are also built using the same simple turn structure. These games often play well for any player count, and we did five players for Architects without too much hardship. I would recommend this game for higher player counts.

Also, we exchanged some simple gifts for Christmas. A book for me and candy for the Smiths. I also brought a comic book, Lamp Black, for folks to see. I am mailing Cat a copy to her NYC address. It was a lovely time and the first time, I think, we were together since the Pandemic. I sent gifts directly to Jason and Tasha in California, where Dr. Tasha is in a residency program.

Before this, I had to reach the Smith home on Bald Peek. Unfortunately, the recent wind storm (which, according to the press, killed five people who hit fallen trees while driving) had closed Bald Peek Road and the top of the mountain by the same name. I had to take an alternative longer drive. I connected to Mountain Top Road, not blocked, and let navigation help me. Nav sent me to the end of Bald Peek road. I called and got corrections from David and headed back up Bald Peek from the Newberg side, where the road was usable.

The clouds were resting on the mountain, so my visibility was ten to twenty feet at best. I found myself on a dirt road; the lack of visibility had me take the wrong turn (I could not find the paved road!), and I asked for help from another driver. I got turned around. I then found my way and arrived at the Smiths. I parked on their steep driveway (later, David turned Air Volvo around for me).

Before this, I was at Susie’s place. I took Susie to a movie in the nearby Tigard Regal Theater for Puss in Boots. This is a short animated feature by the same folks who created Shrek. Antonio Banderas was the cat, and the movie was fun but not fabulous. It also made many swipes at Disney that I thought did not improve the show. But, again, it was fun.

Susie did fall dead asleep for the slightly dull center of the movie. Susie often falls asleep now, even on the phone. However, Susie woke up, watched the rest of the action, and enjoyed the movie.

Susie shared a diet Pepsi with me after I added three packets of Thick-It to the drink. She also carefully had some popcorn. Overall it was a successful trip. Evan joined us at the movie and had to leave at the end.

Susie was hard to do lifts as she was not standing for me. I had to make the whole move and was surprised and had Susie worried for a moment as I had to reach into Air Volvo and move her fully into her chair. I managed the subsequent lifts better now that I was ready for Susie to return to a wet-noodles type of movement.

Before this, I arrived at the hummingbird house in Air Volvo, dodging all the tree limbs, mostly pine, in the streets. I did have one close call when a pickup decided to change lanes into Air Volvo. It was a close call as I had to hard brake (lucky nobody was behind me), and Air Volvo slammed the seatbelt tight–it thought we would collide. Apparently oblivious to the danger, the pickup driver changed lanes about six inches from Air Volvo. The rest of the driving was safe.

I was up late and wrote the blog in the morning. I had a banana for breakfast with coffee. I had slept well.

Thanks for reading.

Feel free to call, send cards, or even visit. Susie resides at:

Allegiance Senior Care

Adult Foster Care Home

9925 SW 82nd. Ave.

Portland, Oregon 97223

Today I have my laptop (my Apple M1 13″) back. A friend told me that we misunderstand Artificial Intelligence (AI) and that it is not the model we see in SciFi, HAL 9000, from the movies. He believed that the incorporation of technology into our lives was what defined us and was the creation of AI. He reasoned, “When you lose your phone, do you not feel more stupid”? I felt broken without my usual laptop, but I soon recovered my abilities on my Dell and actually wrote the blog with Grammarly. The most significant loss was the familiar interfaces. But yes, I agree that AI is the enhancement we get now from technology–we are already there. We are AI.

I use a high-quality solid-state drive connected to my Apple when I plug into the landing station; it backs up all the changes on the machine. It is automatic and uses TimeCapsle from Apple. I had lost hard drives before and restored my laptops without any data loss. It covers me until Dec 2021! I used to also make a manual copy of the working directories and put that in the car monthly–something I will, after this little adventure, return to. Others use services online, but I found nothing as good as Apple’s TimeCapsle for restoring a working system in about twelve hours. It even works when upgrading the laptop.

I have also retrieved an old version of an MS Word document with TimeCapsle. It allows you to retrieve documents, emails, and files without much trouble. You just request it to be brought forward and if you want to replace the existing copy (if there is one).

When the hard drive fails, and it will someday, I buy a replacement at Other World Computer (OWC). It can be delivered in a day, for extra money, and is guaranteed to work in my system. In addition, they have a kit and instructions for taking apart the laptop and tools for a small extra price. OWC supplied my landing station, backup drive, and excellent aluminum case. I usually buy a case for the old failed drive so that I can try to use it–sometimes the failure is partial, and I can still see the data, and I then have a spare copy.

So had I not recovered my laptop, I would have purchased a new system, likely at Best Buy, as they have some stock (unlike the Apple Store, which takes nearly two weeks to get a new system sent directly from the plant in China). I would have followed Apple’s process to rebuild from TimeCapsle, and in twelve hours (or less), I would have my computer back with no data loss. I would buy a new backup drive from OWC and put the old one aside for a year, just in case.

Starting with the narrative, I did not sleep the night before and was up at 4ish, got dressed, and drove to Portland. I was a bit jagged but competent. The off-ramp for 405 was flooded, but I managed (without traffic) to slam a lane change and avoid turning Air Volvo into SS Volvo. Arriving safely, I parked across from the Starbucks (opening at 5:30) and discovered parking is free until 7AM on my app, Parking Kitty. Portland uses Parking Kitty to pay for parking, and it meows when your time is running out.

Some days, I have stayed up all night as I sometimes like to have an impossibly long day and wait for sunrise. As the architect for Nike’s SAP central accounting and fulfillment system, I sometimes organized an all-nighter to look for performance issues. I found that if you “sweep” the system on a good night, you can find some problems and solve them before they impact essential deliverables. So staying up all night is fun for me.

At Starbucks, as they unlocked the doors, they found my laptop! It was at security at the Financial M building across the street, and they open at 8ish. I was relieved and had coffee and a breakfast sandwich (puffy and microwaved–awful). I sat there for a bit and read stuff on the tiny screen of my iPhone from Nike.

I moved to my car and tried to sleep in Air Volvo. The city is full of sounds and lights. I love cities and their sounds and felt privileged to experience them in Air Volvo. Two homeless guys were having a loud conversation with Portland. A truck parked behind me and unloaded supplies for the day. A surprisingly large number of folks went to Starbucks before sunrise. My alarm went off at 7AM, and I must have been asleep as it woke me. I did not remember falling asleep to the music of the streets, a strange lullaby.

I stepped out, and the wind blew my hat off, but I caught it in time. The promised “dangerous high winds” were here. I got the location number for parking and followed the ritual of legalizing my parking with money via Parking Kitty. I returned to my car and tried to rest. The trains started to run, and the traffic increased; I did not sleep again. The winds would shake the car, and I had to start it a few times as the wind stole the heat from the vehicle; it was cold!

I walked into the M building, and there was some drama at the front desk. I stood in the background as the construction folks talked to the desk folks and talked about some water damage. The fire alarm was also ongoing and caused by the vibration of the winds or the water leak–it was unclear, but there was no fire. Portland’s Fire Department arrived with all the appropriate loudness. I was ignored and tried to be invisible while the adventure continued. No need to add to the chaos.

Once the construction folks were given access and the Portland Fire Department was waved off, I asked for help. The desk folks gave me a double take as I had been there all that time; apparently, I was invisible or at least well disguised with my worn Carhartt coat, cowboy hat, and blank expression.

They were happy to return my bag with my laptop. I then went to Starbucks and thanked them again. They were all happy and all but cheered. A merry Christmas miracle.

The trip back via Air Volvo was scary. The winds had broken trees all over. At one intersection, I did not see that the lights were out; I have been out-of-practice traveling in Portland since the pandemic. I drove through it and nearly connected with another brave driver. I passed trees completely broken apart on the 26 to 217 ramp. And there was still water everywhere. So Air Volvo dodged deep puddles, and the roads were covered with broken pine branches. It was like Christmas melted and then exploded. A tree was entirely down on 209 within a block of my house.

As I drove in, I could not see my trees. I was worried. But I did not recognize them without leaves. Apparently, all the brown leaves were now somewhere else, and the bare branches were fine. My lawn was mostly leaf free now.

I returned my laptop to power, and it backed up. The wind was now joined with heavy rain and was raining sideways. The water in the back corner, which sits as part of the slightly slow French Drain, was not deep and the most I have ever seen back there. We had over three inches of rain in twenty-four hours. We added another inch with the wind. I was amused to see waves on the water that was now just reaching my roses (roses do not like “wet feet”) and may have dampened the newly planted tulips.

Happy to have my laptop back; I took a shower and started laundry before the power failed, likely in a wind storm. I managed to do the laundry and shower with the power on. The laptop and network all have an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) that is good for about 160 minutes. Even the desk light is covered (It is hard to use a computer without light). It measured one event.

I had Physical Therapy (PT) at 11AM, and while getting a bit more jagged, I was able to make it work. I called Leta to know what was happening as if the storm impact increased, I would be out of contact–it did not get worse. So I drove to Bethany, avoided the road Christmas display, and managed four dead lights at intersections. Michael, the PT guy, was happy to see me without the bad cold.

We reviewed the exercises again; I had done some in Air Volvo’s gym facilities (also known as sitting in the front seat). We covered a few complex ones. I could not do one of the new as my knees gave out–this is a new condition and has to be diagnosed by Colin, who I will see on Thursday.

Aside: Next year is a new set of deductibles for health insurance which is covered by my withholding for medical expenses, which is now maxed out for the new year as advised by my new CPA. Thus, if my PT continues into 2023, I will likely have to pay over $200 a session until I reach the max again. I am ready for more expenses.

Toward the end, I called a halt as I was getting dizzy from a new exercise that involved moving my head down to stretch my back. No time to put my head down. I left feeling a bit more jagged and forgot my scarf; they called me to come and get it, and I retrieved it.

I headed to Bethany Public House for lunch, reasoning that I might be hungry (when I sleep deprived, I am not hungry), and quickly enjoyed a bowl of their chili and two diet sodas. The bubbly cold drinks cleared my head.

Next, I risked 26 and 217 to reach the hummingbird house, the winds were worse, and the wind had been spreading Christmas tree parts all over. Susie was asleep in her chair when I got there, and I woke her. She was delighted to see me, but she could see that something was wrong, and I told her I had not slept but had my laptop back.

We called Leta, Susie’s mother, and they chatted for a while. Susie seemed to space out for a bit (maybe sleeping with her eyes open–something I know she does), but Susie could chat with her mother once she got back into it. I soon left after the call with Susie telling me to go home and rest.

I returned by crossing Beaverton and avoided most puddles and unplanned Christmas tree parts on the road. My street was still looking safe when I reached the Volvo Cave. I climbed into bed and blinked, and it was 5:30, and I awoke not sure what 5:30 it was and what happened. I was asleep that fast; I was not aware I was sleeping. It was still Tuesday.

I was feeling quite refreshed; after just a few hours of deep sleep, I recovered and was soon back to normal without any jagged feelings. I had the last Christmas dinner (I still have plenty of ham). I was feeling much better.

Evan wanted to meet as he was nearby–he was going to the enemy’s (Columbia Sports) employee store on a pass but discovered it closed without power. Columbia’s headquarters is also in the Beaverton area, and they have many former Nike IT folks there, including one of my former bosses, and I have to admit we used to share our upgrade notes for SAP systems with them.

I met Evan at Wildwood Taphouse (off of Cornel) for beers and board games. We got some happy beers (a hazy IPA for me) and played the uplifting board game Vindication (Evan’s favorite). This game, with unique resource management, and a light engine building style, was designed here in the greater Portland area. I know the designer and even played an earlier version; according to Marc, the designer, some of my ideas are included in the final version. It is a game where you explore and improve yourself as you get more followers, become vindicated, and fulfill your full potential (literally).

We played a mid-length two-person game, and I could see Evan starting his engine building and causing the game to end. I was too late, and Evan pulled off a one-point victory. Evan had just managed to grab a last-minute resource and cancel my advantage. Evan thought I should have played two more rounds to win. Next time!

I got a small glass of a dark beer tasting of smoke, I thought–nice. This went well with the next game, Brass: Lancashire. Set at the start of the industrial revolution in the UK, where coal is king. Evan was less sure of this game as he had only played it once. I had my new poker chips for the game and wanted to try them out. It made the game much more fun and easier to play (Richard has the kinder version of Brass and poker chips–I wanted to try it with my meaner version). Brass has you balance resources, raising cash by loans (they just lower your income as they represent a stock/bond offering), building networks of boats and then rail, and building, of course, the industry of the 1700s and 1800s kind (iron forges, boats, docks, and coal minds). The game is mean, as each action you take (other than loans) removes options for your opponents. But, on the other hand, it is competitive and a brain burner as you have to plan multiple turns ahead while calculating what your opponent could do.

Evan, still new to the game, struggled a bit and the score differences were high, but I enjoyed the brain stretch and the theme. I like the feeling of building my industrial empire. While rule-heavy and you often undo your turn when you discover that your grand plan is missing some vital resource, I enjoy Brass.

After that, I headed home. I read a new brain cookie: Nameless Serenade (The Commissario Ricciardi Mysteries). I recommend this series. Set in 1930-40s Italy and a police and ghost story. 

I slept a broken dream-filled sleep, often waking as my rest was off.

Thanks for reading.

Feel free to call, send cards, or even visit. Susie resides at:

Allegiance Senior Care

Adult Foster Care Home

9925 SW 82nd. Ave.

Portland, Oregon 97223

 

The day started with me waking late after ignoring my alarm at 8:30, writing the blog, and having breakfast. The ants are everywhere, and I will get traps on Tuesday (at least, that is the plan). I have ham and yogurt with liberal coffee. The time seems to run away from me, and soon I am rushing to make it to Susie’s, at least in the morning.

The rain is light (Later, I have minor flooding at the house, with the garage floor showing some flooding as the rains turn heavy later), and I have no trouble reaching the hummingbird house. However, I do witness some creative lane changes and sudden stops.

Susie had just finished breakfast, and we headed to her room to watch TV. First, we put on Willow, the new show on Disney+, and we watch the next two episodes. We are now at the last available one. The episode seems to focus on the young people’s love interests, and just as that is about to resolve, the bad guy attack. Next, we put on Winnie the Pooh’s new animated series. Susie, now in bed, fell asleep, and soon I left with a kiss. Susie was sad to have me go.

I headed to Ebert’s in Portland’s Pearl District, and they had no wings left. I did manage to order dinner instead with a 1/2 chicken with sides. More food than I wanted, but I came for smoked chicken, and I got some. This was the last time I used my laptop before I lost it.

I walked over to Powell’s Bookstore, the giant one in Portland, and it was so busy I put on a mask. I looked for something and then saw that the cash-out lines were so long that they had a gal with a sign on the post saying this was “The End of the Line.” I found another gal with a like sign, and she laughed when I told her she could tell folks, “The End is Near.” I found the other gal later, her line was shorter, and I said I found a different “ending”; she ignored me. She was straightening books and other tasks as cash-wrap and pointed out that “The End” was superfluous as the lines were shorter now.

After getting a mint mocha and a slice of lemon cake, I went to Starbucks across from Powells and left my laptop in a bag. I remember now walking out with just my coffee. Damn it!

Next, oblivious to my missing laptop, I went to Guardian Games across the river. A train went for twenty minutes blocking traffic. I pulled off the road as the intersection was already full. I watched as folks drove up and were confused about what to do. Some found a place like mine and pulled over so traffic could flow. A wrecker pulled up and just sat blocking traffic, and cars then drove around it, going the wrong way on the part of the road. It being Portland, it was all done slowly and politely. Finally, the trains were done, and traffic flowed.

At the gaming store, I looked for something I needed. I found a fun rule book for $25 on flying battleships. I read that for a while in the car. I crossed Portland to Richard’s house.

Shana, Richard’s partner, Richard, and I tried The Halls of the Mountain King board game. The game has you play a clan of trolls rebuilding the halls after a raid by gnomes ruined the halls. The game uses resource management and a worker placement system with a unique pyramid building of workers. While I scored in the basement, I enjoyed the game.

Shana left us, and Richard and I tried my new board game Ostia. This is also a resource management and worker placement using a circular device you find in many Euro games. This game has you manage a port, Ostia, being ancient Rome’s port to generate resources and to select your action. This can be a brain-burner as you have to mange the action is moving stuff around to determine you action. Tricky. There is also a larger map where you travel and collect rewards for exploring trade routes. You also can buy victory conditions to fill (something I forgot) and also you should select the trade routes that will pay off the most for your resourcing (something I forgot). Richard understood the things I forgot and crushed me. We played the game in an hour and it played well for a short game. I think we like it.

I headed home after that. The rain was heavy and local flooding was surprising drivers. The four-story ramp unto Freemont Bridge had standing water as it connected to the bridge proper! The water around the Volvo Cave is the most I have seen.

I then discovered that I had lost my laptop and could not sleep at all.

I read and finished The Red Scholar’s Wake and really loved this short novel. I recommend it. I used it as a distraction.

I stayed up all night worrying and hoping to get my laptop back in the morning.

Thanks for reading.

I am challenged to use a Window machine and Grammarly does not work well in the new editor for WordPress. I have managed to activate much on the Dell Laptop. So not all is lost. Sorry if I missed any typos.

I have lost my Apple laptop, and I am using my Dell backup laptop.

I can’t sleep as this is a disaster for me. I do have a current backup and have experience restoring a crashed system. So I have not a total loss.

I left the laptop in a bag on a seat in the Starbucks near Powell’s Books. They may have it. They open at 5:30 and so I will head there this early morning and see if I can retrieve it.

If that fails, I will send a signal to destroy it, call insurance, and buy a replacement at Best Buy. They have some good ones in stock. An order from Apple will have to be shipped from China and takes more than a week.

I will try to a blog somehow. It is hard to use this and I am very upset.

It was a quiet Christmas, and I started very slowly. I spent much of the morning writing a blog; I did some paperwork, finally showered, dressed, and headed to hummingbird house. Breakfast was an NYC bagel (one of the bagels sent from NYC from the Smiths), a banana, and liberal coffee. I later had ham for a snack for an early lunch.

I was running later than planned, and Susie’s sister called her while I was on my way as folks had other plans and needed to connect soon. So I was soon there, and we connected to Barb, Susie’s sister, to do a FaceTime call while Barb was rushing to get on her way for the next Christmas party. Susie was in her wheelchair; Anassa was on today and got Susie in her chair–Anassa makes those transfers look easy.

We opened Susie’s presents, including a lighted skater with her name on it from Joan Goldhammer, a painting of an owl, and glass owls to put on Susie’s window both from Barb and family, and I got Susie four miniature bottles of Wild Turkey.

Susie and I then watched more episodes of the Disney+ show Willow, and this show was scarier and more complex than the previous ones. An improvement over the last, with all the relationship stuff put aside for danger and scary stuff. Special effects were over the top, with scenes from the movie reworked into ghostly projects. Spooky and fun.

Susie was getting uncomfortable and sleepy. Jenifer had taken over for Anassa, who went home early for Christmas with her family and took over. I kissed Susie goodbye and returned to the Volvo Cave. There was little traffic, and the ice and snow were mostly a memory after a night of warm rains.

I quickly made a pumpkin set of pies. I had the requirements to make two pies, and so I did. I had called Rev. Anne Weld-Martin and would carry over my leftovers from Friday (I made an early Christmas dinner that could have fed six and packed in a way in the frig) and have Christmas dinner with Anne. Her husband, Dr.Rev. Wayne Weld-Martin, was in the hospital and could use a break and dinner.

The pies were done and still warm when I packed one away. Next, I baked smallish potatoes as they don’t microwave well. I put them, just washed, in the oven with the pies. When cooked about an hour later, I retrieved them, put them in tin foil, added some butter, and put them back in the oven. I was trying to recreate Dad’s way of cooking. They were good. I used my insulated Zabar bag from NYC.

I did some electronics as I was trying to remember how to light up strips of lights with Express Python for AdaFruit in NYC. I managed to get a test to work.

I packed up everything and headed to Anne’s house, a few minutes away. We unpacked it and warmed up some in Anne’s microwave. We then enjoyed a fine repast for Christmas. Anne supplied a great salad and the plates we used, Anne’s mother’s mother’s china, to remember the past.

After dinner and dessert of my still-warm pie, I taught Anne the game Skull, a simple bluffing game that I will recommend. I learned the game from Will, who said always to keep the small box in the car as it is fun and easy to understand. It plays better with more than two people, but I thought she would like it, and she did.

Anne was headed back to the hospital, room 663 at St. V, to see Wayne. So I packed up and headed home. I quickly put everything away in the excellent glass containers that Glenda and Gene got me. Glenda should be smiling somewhere.

I did more electronic work, got out the new hardware I purchased from AdaFruit, and got the strips of lights to work. I am using my micro-clips and jumper wires to make this all work until I decide to solder it into something more permanent.

Aside: I discovered that my Apple M1 Laptop has a problem in the Finder and cannot copy files to the boot to update the software on some of the hardware. Apparently, it is a known issue in Apples and Raspberry Pis. You must copy at the command line and skip all the lovely screens. Ventura (13.0.1) has the same problem for mac OS.

Time just slipped away, and soon it was late, and I went to bed.

Thanks for reading. And, while Advent is done, here is a song that fits the current conditions: Olaf’s Summer.

Feel free to call, send cards, or even visit. Susie resides at:

Allegiance Senior Care

Adult Foster Care Home

9925 SW 82nd. Ave.

Portland, Oregon 97223

The house phone number: (503) 246-4116