Author: alohawild

An early end to Friday, with me back in my hotel room around 8:30, but then I watched some YouTube stuff on history and ship model building, including a build video of a new kit of the USA’s CV-1, USS Langley, “The Covered Wagon.” I tried to read, but I just fell asleep.

I also, after I remembered this after I finished the blog, looked at my Social Security Benefits and applied for SS this month! And the amount has gone up. I learned from the check sheet to get the start and end dates for my employment at Nike (the layoff process has a complex end date, and I will get the official one from Nike, Inc.). I left work on April 20, 2024, but was paid until the end of May, I think. 

Before this, we had dinner with the Wagners (plus Deborah, Chris, and me) and some grandkids. We had elected for Mexican food, though Slo’s was across the street (we could not get one table to fit nine at Slo’s) in Birmingham, Michigan. I made my own combo and had a medium house Margritta (delivered in a beer glass).

We talked a lot about Dungeons & Dragons. Jim Wagner played in my original group of players back in the AD&D days. We discussed our favorite character classes in the 5E version. My hearing problems made some conversations hard for me to hear, and I am sure I missed much, especially from the kids. Something I have faced before, and understand that lack of hearing and depression are connected.

Before this, we met at the Cranbrook Science Institute. They had a show on Permian Monsters, the epoch that preceded the dinosaurs on the giant Pangaea landmass more than 250 million years ago (the end of the epoch is exactly known from the remains of the eruptions that brought the worst extinction event known, 252 million years ago). Milo, lead us into the displays, including some automated full-sized models of the ‘monsters.’ There were also many full-sized copies of skeletons (the staff told us that the bones require considerable protection, so copies are displayed instead). Still, many of the smaller items are originals.

It was an interesting display of various successful Permian versions of creatures, some quite strange. Large, but not massive, insects were present in the Permian. The strange shark-like animal, Helicoprion, was included in the display with its new look, though we have very little information beyond circles of teeth (cartilage does not usually fossilize).

(From the mail display, as this was not in the Permian, T. Rex)

The extinction event claimed 70%, and thus, few moved on to the next epoch, but a small furry creature made it, the ancestor to mammals. It was interesting to see the recreation and fossils (even copies) from this time. It felt like a time machine in some ways.

Before this, Deborah and I were at Original Pancake House for a giant pancake lunch. The food was excellent, and the staff were friendly. Recommended.

I rose before my 6:30 alarm. I dressed and was soon out before the sun, in the IHG lobby, having the complimentary breakfast and coffee from their machines. While I often call it industrial or corporate, it is complementary, and that is a good flavor. Yes, free (though some would argue the price is in the room cost), tastes wonderful. And I find that IHG is not more expensive than its competitors without breakfast (at the same reasonably priced hotel range).

And that completes the day! Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

I rose late, as many do on the first day of a new year. I did my usual things, including reading my email (which mainly consists of deleting), doom-scrolling the news (Outrages to cover for crimes and control the news cycle), and downloading my transactions in Quicken (to ensure everything is safe and sensible). Then, I showered, dressed, and all that to get to the industrial breakfast at my IHG hotel’s lobby before it closed. Kurt (I mistakenly called him Keith) wished me a happy New Year as I helped myself to the bounty he prepared for us.

The coffee is from machines that produce not-quite-awful coffee, but not great. I have the potatoes every morning, red-skinned with rosemary, and even when coming from a frozen pack and baked, they are still good with some ketchup. I often go for a bagel-like bread product, toasted, and with cream cheese. Other days I have yogurt.

I wrote the blog in the lobby, and we have gone for quieter days for a while during the holiday, so it is shorter, and I am done quickly. I am back in my room before 10, and the cleaning crew arrives. Deborah finds me in the lobby waiting for the room to be ready.

For lunch, Deborah and I go for simple and healthy: Panera Bread. We have the ‘pick two’ option, and except for the soup, we match. We looked, and we could have saved a few dollars by sharing a whole sandwich and ordering an extra soup. Next time.

Next, we head out, with a coffee for Deborah and bring a hot chai for Danni, Deborah’s father (he married her mother). Danni is happy to have guests and has stayed out of the snow and cold. He was doing some experimental baking when we arrived.

We talked about some travel, but mostly about my years in international trade and how different countries manage their transactions. He also asked me how AI software handles new NVIDIA hardware, since he sees large purchases of the latest gear in the news. He wondered how AI absorbs the changes.

I have done some basic coding on this and know that we use a series of libraries (called CUDA) to detect the hardware and take advantage of the powerful in-chip technologies when available; otherwise, when they are not present, it simulates them (or ignores them, if too new or faulty). NVIDIA, having early knowledge of the new features it is releasing, updates its libraries to incorporate the latest features and (usually) makes them backwards compatible. This revised code contains checks and runs the legacy code when it detects legacy hardware. This means that existing AI software, for example, will now run and soon incorporate new features as hardware is updated. Often, new features are first enabled by setting a ‘switch’, as there are frequently mistakes in the initial software, and it is best to let tested and working code continue to run as-is. No surprises!

Though I did not cover this, I have written code on Arduino and other small-footprint machines, such as Raspberry Pi, that check their location and hardware. For example, Europe and Asia often use different frequencies and standards for radio signals, and for available hardware (GPS hardware is detected before I try to use it). Internally, some Arduinos (a user-friendly DIY hand-wired device that is used for education) do not have real-number math built in (!?), so it must be simulated, which slows the code. The math libraries have built-in detection, so I can use the same code without changes, though I often have to recompile it with new settings.

We left Danni with New Year’s good wishes and headed to Deborah’s house. Donovan was there. We decided to get some chicken from the local chain Chicken Shack. Deborah and I got in her mini (covered with some ice, salt, and snow from a Michigan winter) and tried the local place for a to-go dinner. Twenty minutes later, we had a load of food that smelled wonderful in the mini and returned to Deborah’s house. We shared this chicken heaven with Donovan and then watched more of Elsbeth Season 2 (Deborah has seen all of this, but is enjoying rewatching them with me).

It was nice to just do the homebody thing and relax and watch a show. The cold (in the teens, -8C), snow, and darkness made us sleepy, and it was nice to just pet the dogs and watch shows. My TRIPIT app says I have traveled more than 51,000 miles in 2025, and my status is Silver or Gold in many of my other apps. A little relaxation is good.

Deborah, in her mini, got me back to my hotel at 9ish, and I was asleep by 10ish, but I did wake often and rose early, before my 6:30 alarm. I did dream of AI and coding solutions for ancient languages to English. Most of the dreams have faded to only a hint, and there were some tears on Friday for those who did not join us in 2026, but it is good to be here in 2026, with Deborah, and well, Chicken Shack was good!

I wonder where we (including Deborah when she can join me) will go this year! How far will we go together, dear reader, and will I keep or improve on those Silver and Gold ratings? Will I need that platinum AMEX to get those extra miles and status? I apply for Social Security soon. How will that go? Like the Dr. Seuss book title “Oh, The Places You’ll Go,” I look forward to the future. Deborah was looking at Costco travel to Ireland, Scotland, and other various ‘lands.’ Excellent!

Ignoring President Chaos-Battlship, I am already enjoying 2026.

Thanks for reading!

I write this in the new year. It is cold (teens or -8C) and clear skies, with about 2 inches of powdery snow. Deborah and I stayed at her house and had a quiet New Year’s.

Starting from the beginning of the last day of 2025 for me, I rose later and just had coffee as we had breakfast with Deborah’s friend Carol in Clawson, Michigan. I did not finish the blog as I had not risen early enough.

I had also popped over to Kaggle.com and looked at the contests and options. I will take the courses for programming (free) just to get my skills sharpened, though I often discover that my skills now do not fade, be it programming or figure painting, and usually are better after a break. Still, it would be good to get credit for taking classes and to see if anything new has come up that I have missed. My Notebook work is a bit weak, too.

One contest involves solving math problems, the annual AI Mathematical Olympiad, which was won by NVIDIA‘s team last year, with a prize of millions of dollars, and already 10,000+ teams are working on it. Another, less well-financed and with fewer teams, is to translate Akkadian into English, which also got my attention. Any solution will involve language handling (the math problems are in LaTeX, and the Akkadian uses obscure Unicode characters), but with limited examples and deep complexity. Just applying an existing Large Language Model is not going to get you there.

The math problem supplies extra powerful servers, which get my attention, too. Love to get my virtual hands on those (for free!). Dear reader, these problems are the edge of technology and fascinate me. Assuming success, having a math problem solver for non-trivial challenges will improve our existing AI, and real-time Akkadian would help us understand the past.

Back to the story, it was still snowing slowly and had been dropping a pretty powder all morning (and would continue until the evening). The traffic is lighter for the holidays (most folks in the car industry and education have the holidays off), and we arrive without issue in Deborah’s mini.

We had a nice chat and breakfast with Carol, though her vegan choices are limited. I had the hash, and Deborah had Eggs Florentine with grits that I regretted missing on the menu, but I had plenty. Carol and Deborah got caught up on various theater items. Carol is still doing local theater.

Next, after Deborah and I said goodbye to Carol, we headed back to Deborah’s house and watched some more shows, and were a bit sleepy from all the breakfast. We luxuriated on Deborah’s couch, watched shows, petted the dogs, and had too much caramel corn (thanks, Kathy and Martin!). Sometimes it feels good to relax and watch the snow fall between binging something on Paramount+ (Elsbeth in this case).

For New Year’s Eve, we headed out after Liam (Deborah’s younger son) had left for a day or so. Donovan (the older son) had a later local party, and we said our “Happy New Year’s” as Deborah and I headed out to find Spanish Coffee.

We found a bar open, and they made a good hot drink, but without whipped cream (which, with the amount of sugar this holiday, was fine). The bar was full of noise from too many screens with the volume on.

We escaped the noise and spent some time together before returning to Deborah’s house, where the dogs were happy to see us. We watched and cried a lot while watching the musical Hamilton (Deborah had not seen it before) on Disney+. Recommended (especially with CC on). I had forgotten how hard the ending of a musical is with its truth-telling.

We kissed, as most folks do, to bring in the New Year. We are excited to be together in 2026.

Back at the hotel after Deborah braved the roads after midnight, I read for a while in 2026, but soon sleep found me (I am still running late as I cannot get used to this time zone).

Thanks for reading! Welcome to 2026!

We kept our plans simple on Tuesday, and I rose late at the hotel and had to rush to get breakfast. Deborah has an appointment, and I was fine writing the blog, eating a fine, if not industrial, breakfast at the IHG hotel, and then editing my Dungeons & Dragons adventure I used in New Hampshire, with plans to post it on DriveThruRPG as a pay-what-you-want (including $0) item. Deborah’s appointment ran over, but I was fine editing and rewriting.

Deborah then picked me up in her mini, and we headed, slightly rushed, directly to the movie theater. Wicked 2 was selling out, and we had to buy tickets the night before for 1:15. Tuesday is the cheap movie day with free popcorn for members. The lines for food were long but moved fast. Emagine has a pizza oven and makes what I would call an authentic pizza, not an industrial frozen reheat, and they deliver to your seats. Armed with non-cost popcorn, coffee for Deborah (from their full-service bar ready to serve you various cocktails named for the holidays), and water in cups, we headed to our seats: Full recliners with heat.

We scarfed pizza while Wicked: For Good played on a vast screen with excellent sound. The movie was superb, and all the actors sang and acted well, making the fantasy feel so real. The camera work, CGI, and actors interacted seamlessly, reminding me of the later LOTR films. We cried through one song, and that showed how well the movie worked; it seemed so real.

I have not read the books; someone waved me away from them, but Deborah says they are good. I will take them up in 2026 (though that is the same as saying Thursday, it will be later in 2026). We headed to Deborah’s house to let the dogs out and to feed them.

We were hungry and headed to Lucky’s for a prime rib dinner. Deborah’s sons were not hungry and declined to join us. We waited 20 minutes for a table (plus/minus), and our 16 oz slices were likely 120% of that, and we did not get near to reducing them by half. We planned on reheating prime rib for a quiet New Year’s at Deborah’s. It was a nice crowd there, and everyone was friendly. But our waiter made some mistakes, and when Deborah asked for water, she told us we would have to wait until they had some clean glasses. Water came a bit later. It was busy and chaotic, and our waiter was doing a long shift. Still, it was great, and our leftovers were heavy. Liam, Deborah’s son, sent in a request by text for a sandwich to go, which Deborah got. It was Deborah’s treat today (pizza and prime rib); thanks!

Soon I was back at the hotel after dropping off the sandwich and back to watching the BBC Documentary on the recent conclave with on Cardinal explaining a few misses in the movie by the same name. I read some news, emails, and soon in bed and quickly slept, a surprise to me.

Thanks for reading!

 

Deborah had some chores, and I wrote the blog on Monday morning. I had overslept a bit, but managed to make breakfast in the lobby before it closed. There, I spoke to Kurt, the staff member responsible for the food on weekdays, and wrote the blog in the lobby. Somehow I missed until later to post it on Facebook.

Deborah picked me up at the hotel in her blue mini, and we headed north to Lansing to see Mom Wild. Leta has a cold, and we may work out another day, after she feels better, to see her. It is cold and with significant winds (there are warnings on the signs on the highways about high winds and slow blowing). Deborah is skilled at winter driving in her mini and has good winter tires.

The conditions get worse as we travel, and the air is full of white a few times. Nothing that phases Deborah, she has seen (and driven) in worse, but we go slower than we planned. There is a jack-knifed semi and various cars in the shallow ditch and in the wide medians of Michigan’s highways. We switch from northbound to westbound highways without issue, but the snow obscures much of the view.

I texted Linda with updates and learned that Jessie, Meg, and Linda are joining us, and they decided to pick up Mom Wild at Haslette Point Senior Living, as we are running slower. We arrive actually at the planned time of noon, having started early. We meet everyone at The Olive Garden, a mile from the facility.

I had $200 in gift cards from Delta Airlines to spend from giving up my seat on an overbooked flight (I have a $500 credit for a flight too). We had lunch (and some dinner) and chatted. Linda gave Deborah and me our presents. We just enjoyed lunch together.

After a couple of hours and a few rounds of soup, salad, and breadsticks for some of us, we left after I paid, following a somewhat confusing but workable process to scan each QR code for the digital cards. The on-table paying prints a ticket for each card used. I used three with some value left on one.

Deborah and I met Jesse and Mom Wild at Haslette Pointe (Mom is in room A-9). If you, dear reader, want to send a card, here is her address:

Haslett Pointe Senior Living
C/O Barbara Wild Room A-9
5346 Marsh Road
Haslett, Michigan 48840

We sat in chairs and chatted for another ninety minutes. Deborah and I stayed with Mom until about 4, as the weather did not improve or degrade much. We said our tearful goodbye and then headed east. We had dinner with Barb C and family at 5:30.

Irene’s in Grand Blanc serves European-style food, including goulash and similar dishes. The service is slow and confused, and the drinks were awful (stick to beers or soft drinks). The food, late, was hot and delicious, and much was soon forgiven. The price tag was at home in Portland, still excellent, and I would do it again.

Barb C (Susie’s sister), Emma (daughter), and Gordon (husband) shared with Deborah and me their experiences in Ireland and other travels. We covered some of our experiences in Iceland, our big trip this year, and then we talked about their trip to Italy some time ago. They visited the crash site of Ben’s WW2 plane (Barb C’s and Susie’s father).  Gordon covered what we know about the crash and how the plane did not release its bomb (destroying the village) and instead crashed with the bombs unexploded in the mountain, killing the pilot and co-pilot. The town had a monument to the plane and its crew (including Ben) that refused to bomb them. They met people who witnessed the plane crash, visited the site, and Emma found bits of the plane. Gordon is still in contact with folks from the village.

Barb and Gordon’s plans are unsettled, like ours, for 2026, but we might overlap and meet somewhere.

Emma will be visiting me in Oregon soon. She is headed to graduate school in Oregon and may need a room, or at least a nearby relative, to help. More to come on that.

With smiles and photos, we headed out in separate ways, and only once did a terrible driver get too close to Deborah’s mini on the snowy roads. I was dropped off at the hotel and soon fell asleep after watching more videos on the epochs before the Dinosaurs.

Thanks for reading!