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With church starting later, at 11, I luxuriated in bed until 8. For the last time, I found the house cold (I set the AC to 68 at night now). After putting on my slippers, I found the kitchen (it is still where I expect it to be) and made liberal coffee in the French press. I located the last pumpkin spice bread and added that to my repass and a banana. I read my emails, some news (primarily political, ranging from sure Harris will win to the polls are wrong, and Trump wins by a few points in each purple state), and update my Quicken with the latest transactions. I then tried to recall the unstructured Saturday.

I finished the blog at about 10 and then cleaned up and dressed. I also got a reminder from Walgreens that I have an appointment for the 8th COVID-19 shot, yet another flu shot, and the RSV vaccine on Tuesday. Dear reader, there will be many COVID-19 and flu cases this year, as there is every year, and the cheapest and safest protection is vaccination. Please consider this.

Today, Emmaus Church is sharing our facilities with them, having an earlier service at 9:30. I decided to dress colorfully for church, picking out the gold vest for my blue suit and a Pride tie. This assembly takes some time (suspenders under the vest), but soon, I board Air Volvo and arrive at First United Methodist Church near Old Town Beaverton.

In our church everyone is dressed in the Oregon come-as-you-are slightly higher-end for church. Only Dan is in a suit. Paster Ken is in a shirt with a pattern, shorts, and sandals sporting the summer. To put it mildly, I stand out, but I don’t care. Previously, I saw one of the pastors for Emmaus Church as I reached the facilities, shook his hand, and congratulated him on their first service at our church. I am introduced to many young folks from their congregation dressed in Oregon come-as-you-are look, all young enough to be my kids or grandkids and all smiling and excited. Excellent.

Our service is an older Methodist crew’s usual slow and peaceful event. I was surprised to see some of the hymns I suggested to Dondrea (she texted me about trying to match Exodus and the Ten Commandments to music) in the list for today. I suggested picking a theme if you can’t match the scripture. I was happy to sing “We’ll Understand It Better By And By” and “And Standing in the Need of Prayer.” We sang it a bit slow and sleepy, and I thought Elvis would go faster: here. Still, they were good songs to belt out today.

My singing was as terrible as usual, with me off-key and ahead or behind on the verses, but I did sing loud enough that I could hear my words, which, with my hearing, might be louder than I think. Nobody turned to me or moved away, so I guess I must not have been too loud (though I bet Barb, Susie’s sister, would doubt that after going to church with me for a few years back in Maryland in the 1990s).

Ken’s sermon focused on one of the Ten Commandments, which included an explanation and implementation: the sabbath commandment. It was listed before the usual list called out by folks. This is the call to respect the sabbath day and to rest. Ken says he is terrible at this one, as most of us are in our modern world. While Methodists generally don’t do guilt at church, Ken was suggesting we need, as a culture, to find a means to respect and follow this commandment, which is the one that comes with more words and instructions from God than all the other ones. Ken also said he is working on this and has no idea how to make it happen. Sunday is always the catch-up day, he identified. More guilt.

I thought Ken found some of his answers when he talks about Sunday not being about production, and I see that as the best option in the modern world. Try to take a break from production and creating value for a day, and instead, find those things that bring you closer to family and friends and your connection to God or nature (if you are not religious). In my opinion, it does not have to be all day or include complex rules; just try to connect. Thus, cooking a special family dinner on Sunday fits my idea of taking a break as long as it is fun and relaxing. To me, stuffing some laundry in the machines and then going to something fun seems OK. My thoughts are to avoid guilt, as it is a poor solution to remembering God and connecting, and try to make what you can work. Methodists are always about moving toward perfection (it is a grace thing); we ain’t there yet.

After church, I chatted with folks for a while. I will miss the following Sunday as I travel to Chicago. My next sabbath will be on board U-505 in the Industrial Arts Museum.

Feeling that I needed to wear the bright outfit a bit longer, I headed to The 649 Taphouse. Natalia opened today and was dressed in a Little Black Dress and make-up as if it was a night for dancing (with practical boots for working as a bartender). We thought we should get a picture together.

I ordered a lighter ale and nachos because I felt like finger foods while working. I planned to write more code. I brought up my server in AWS and ran Cloud9 and was surprised at how much better it is working now. Yesterday, I updated the instance type to T2.small, which is not free but dirt cheap (2 cents an hour). The runs of Python were without slow updates to the source code I changed, as I have seen before, forcing me to use a command-line run. I updated how I handle ‘main’ to be more standard and added more moving parts.

Time flies, and hours have gone by. I get lots of positive comments on my outfit. Coding is like this; days disappear while you live in your mind and fingers as you run and adjust repeatedly. I am just about to start adding basic logic to play a game when I see my time is up. I have to update my Dungeons and Dragons character and then head to Matt’s to play D&D. I bring my new D&D 2024 books (we have agreed on this name instead of the 50th-anniversary name).

I arrived fifteen minutes early, and Matt and I talked about D&D 2024. We mostly did not like it. We enjoyed 5.0, which replaced the seldom-lamented 4E version. Matt did add some revisions from D&D 2024 to our game that improve hiding, invisibility, and the polymorph spell. We all sit in the kitchen area to eat. Matt makes burgers for dinner for us on his grill. Scott arrives later and has already eaten.

We are in the vampire Ravenloft setting on a quest. This is D&D gone gothic. The setting is part of the tour of the setting, which is this pre-made material. Matt was able to purchase the maps for this area separately. He is forgoing purchasing the prepared material as it is not worth the expense, in his opinion, and he has most of the stuff already. I have DM’d this setting often, including the original AD&D version and the 5E Roll20 online version during the pandemic. This is my first time as a player.

The setting is like an old black-and-white Dracula movie; the religion in the area is a TV movie version of Christianity or the worship of the ruling vampire. My cleric knows this religion and manages to fake it and perform strange rites, including communion, to reassure the locals that we are OK. We avoid the pitchforks and torches riot of the locals, a regular occurrence in this setting.

We are not coming against the usual bad guys, but new bad guys (and level-appropriate for us–challenging). I follow my usual plan of stopping loss by using up my spells before the final battle, leaving the other characters to finish the boss. I saved one spell for the final boss and was happy to finally use one of those super spells in D&D and destroy all the minions for the final battle in one word. We stopped there with the main boss appearing.

I head home and watch more of the second season of Slow Houses, and to my surprise, it is even better. I head to bed after showering and getting in my PJs. The house is not an icebox this time, and I will soon sleep. I leave ‘Music to Sleep By’ running on Echo, and someone thinks a sudden loud noise in the music is good. After being blasted awake, I order Echo to stop and return to sleep, not waking except for a text, and soon sleep again.

Thanks for reading.

I rose before 7. The sun was out, and the light was the slickly yellow of smoke-filled skies. I stayed inside today as the smoke was moderate. I had multiple attacks of sneezing from something in the air that had leaked into the Volvo Cave. The house was cold, as the pro-orchid 64F AC setting continued to freeze me in the morning. I changed it to 68. Next week, the orchids will have to suffer a week without misting as I will be in Chicago.

As usual, I made liberal coffee using my French press and my newly delivered restock of Equal Exchange Organic French Roast from, and there is no surprise here, their Portland warehouse. I wrote the blog most of the morning; this time, I remembered to post it on Facebook and email. I had a slice of pumpkin spice bread with a banana. I added dried fruit from King Author Flour to the box mix and used melted butter instead of oil. It is pretty nice.

I feel my weight has increased as I have been walking in the smoke a little. It is untrue, but I feel strange not getting at least 3,000 steps. I did add Apple+ to my cable offerings (free for three months), and on Saturday, I binge-watched the first season of Slow Horses. This is an excellent British action spy show. It is like Smiley spy story that is over-caffeinated, drunk, and apologizes for too much action.  I love it. Recommended, but it is hard to not binge!

Besides being a binge-supporting activity, lunch was reheated pasta from a few days ago. It is still good, and I had a single bowl warmed in the large measuring cup and then, just because, to a bowl. I finished the nectarines from the 185th and TV Highway fruit and veggie stand. I was nervous all day and ate often. I now see that walking fills multiple needs as it puts a framework for my day and gets me away from food.

I decided that I was enjoying model building. It feels like a struggle, and the tiny parts are not fun. I put SMS Derfflinger 1916 in its box and returned all the special brass bending tools to their boxes. I seem happier without the self-inflicted pressure to make progress on the model.

I am returning to my Python coding. I am behind on versions and have forgotten much of my cool AI coding. But first, I need a place to code. I could do the work on my Apple and pay monthly for the full version of PyCharm on my MacBook Air 2023 with 24G memory and an M2, but instead, I want to use cloud-based development.

First, I have to find access to Amazon for my servers. I have an account at a lower level but the same as that of major multinationals. I pay about $2 a month for my current storage and instances. I get access to the same classes, tools, and much of the same tooling as a corporation. It takes me a while to find an MS Word document with my account information on my growing pile of documents on my Apple. After two tries, I get to my administrator account (my root account is seldom used) and feel the return of mental muscle memory.

An aside: Amazon is not just an online store but also a cloud computing supplier, unimaginatively called AWS. I have two accounts, one for stuff and another for extraordinary unlimited processing power in AWS if I pay for it. I don’t need to buy a giant desktop stuffed full of graphic cards to break certain cryptological items; I just start one, build my LINUX environment, run my stuff, collect my answer, and then shut down. I only pay for storage and run time (all my servers shut down after 30 minutes of no use). It will run about $20 to break something usually impossible. Imagine what a sovereign could do!

Amazon supplies tooling for developers, with each developer getting their own server. Next, I have a new Cloud9-style tooling running. I also use the free level; it is free. An existing server is broken (soon to be deleted). I began to recall the updates I needed to make, disconnect the storage from my server, increase it to 40G, and restart the server. The tooling adjusted the file system to include the extra storage, saving me from having to perform that task in my mostly forgotten LINUX commands. My rebooted server is happy, and soon I run Python3 and find the 3.9 version there. This is behind the cutting-edge (bleeding-edge?) 3.12 version of Python, but it is stable and supports most versions. The usual Amazon Linux choice of the most conservative starting points.

There is a smile while I am doing what some would consider work. Six years ago, I discovered an excellent library for building chess programs that use all the logic, like valid move lists, and I am delighted to see that it has moved to be generally supported. It is called, without the usual Python letters, ‘chess.’ I installed it in my Cloud9 with the typical ‘pip install chess‘ command, which is much easier than the last time I installed this!

I took part of the dated PyCharm project code on my Apple, copied it in part to the IDE in Cloud9, and started running it. It ran! I am smiling more and almost unable to focus, as it was much easier than expected. But Cloud9 repeatedly warned me that I was running my server out of memory. Well, f**k.

I am back to AWS screens and trying to find instructions to revise my instance type to something with enough memory. It takes me a while to remember that I must disable the server, and then I can replace the instance type with something more useful. Small is suitable for 2 cents an hour. I am no longer free, but Cloud9 images, like mine, automatically shut down after thirty minutes of no use (or now a penny).

I’m back to coding now with my much nicer server. It’s shiny with 2G memory and 40G storage but runs at 1/10 of my Apple’s power. As this is a single-threaded process running on a bare-bones LINUX box with no connections (no email, texting, or other processes), it is fast. Soon, I have a chessboard running in my code in Cloud9. I am doing my highly commended code and usual start-up code. I remember my Python and am happy with 3.9. I am delighted.

I returned to reheating leftovers, the last ribs that needed to be eaten soon, and some store-bought potato salad. I had two large helpings of the potato salad and about four ribs left. I completed the first season of Slow Horses, except for the last ten minutes. I noticed it was later than I thought and rushed to Air Volvo.

I arrive twenty minutes late to Richard’s place after suffering heavy Saturday night traffic inbound to Portland from Beaverton (!?). It’s a fifty-minute trip, and I cut through SE to get off the highways. Lauren is getting the teach from Kathleen, an expert on the board game Terraforming Mars, and Richard helps with the setup. We include the prelude cards (Richard has every add-on and box and board in neoprene) and play on the basic (paper!) board. This is a learning game for Lauren, and I have not played it in years. Kathleen and Richard play it online.

This is a tableau card game with a theme of terraforming the planet Mars for human life. It enables engine building, resource management, and investing. Working placement is not part of the game. It is longish (even the base game), and we take until 11:30 to complete with stops and start to remember a few things and to cover details for Lauren. I play too conservatively, remembering stalling and being bored when I could not do anything for an hour, but I generally enjoy the play. It is mostly about playing your own stuff and being efficient in winning. Richard lands all the milestones (a first for him) and wins by twenty points. I am behind Kathleen by twenty points, but it was an excellent showing, with Lauren almost catching me. I ate pretzels the whole time, something I don’t usually do.

It is late; this is the latest I have driven home in almost a year. I got Kathleen home and crossed over Portland and Beaverton in Air Volvo without events. I finish Slow Horses, even after midnight, and have carrot sticks and veggies while I do that. I took a shower and hit the bed, falling immediately to sleep and not waking until my alarm at 7:30, which rang for ten minutes until I woke.

I noticed that my hearing was off again. There is a hiss on my left side, which is hard to ignore and permanent. I need to concentrate on understanding people and likely miss some words. I expect a hearing aid in my future, but I need to let things settle before heading down that road.

Thanks for reading!

While not as hot as Thursday, the air pollution from smoke increased on Friday. I rose before 8. I planned to fry up some bacon, but I sliced another bit of pumpkin spice bread and peeled a banana for breakfast. I made liberal coffee in the French press; I am to my last bag. More is on its way—the warehouse is in Portland, Oregon. I am sure you are not surprised, dear reader.

I wrote the blog and finished it early. I was so surprised I was done early that I forgot to publish it! In the late afternoon, I noticed it was missing and corrected that. I also updated my base page, and that change went poorly, and I ended up creating the page. I used a newer photo of myself. The initial page was created back in 2019 as I learned how to use WordPress and tried out Grammarly. I learned from other sites that WordPress’s provided content is basic, and its page models are not designed to attract Google and other scanners. You have to properly tag to attract the scanner, and the tooling for tags, while there, is more of an add-on than a focus. Still, I like it, and it does what I want, to post a daily blog with all the content mine and under my control and ownership.

I got out the non-stick OXO pan (thanks, Steve), cooked six slices of bacon, and stuffed the rest of the slab I bought into a large ziplock bag. More bacon to come! I was talking to my sister, Linda, on the phone and told her I should take the pan outside, set it on fire, and fill the already smoky neighborhood with bacon smoke—something different from the burned pine smell we have enjoyed all week. But I resisted my ironic urges and instead sliced some fresh tomato. I was out of lettuce, which I should have bought when I got the tomato at the 185th and TV Highway Corner veggie and fruit stand. My good bread was green; I, like most IT professionals, had a backup loaf in the freezer and toasted the frozen slices. A little mayo and the bacon slices, cooked to just starting to crisp, were layered between two thin slices of tomato. Excellent.

I returned to the last Matrix movie on my laptop while I enjoyed my BT sandwich. I sliced it in half to make it easier to bite and handle. There is no sign of sadness with the colors leaving the world showing in my thinking this morning, and bacon makes everyone happy. I put away the remaining bacon (three more pieces) and the remaining tomato in ziplock bags and will return to another sandwich soon (or a salad once lettuce is reacquired).

I wonder about my reading and check what is on my Kindle online. I find my Kindle and charge it. While I can use my iPhone to read, I like the Kindle better. It is back-lighted (without causing a headache) at night, so I do not need a light to read. I have forgotten the book I started, Navigational Entanglements, by Aliette de Bodard, who writes space opera set in a SciFi world of Imperial Viet Nam culture (no, really). I will return to the book as I liked it.

I returned to the “Lord of the Rings, Rings of Power” series for the next episode. This episode was too dark to see clearly—a foolish mistake for such an expensive production. The storyline with the elves went sideways and was inexplicable. The hobbit story got some eye-rolling. Overall, it was unforgivingly predictable, physically too dark, and greatly disappointed me.

I had spent the whole day indoors and decided that The 649 would be an excellent place to finish my day. I got some writing done on my Dungeons and Dragons adventure but could not find much focus. Air Volvo had me there soon. The smoke, while hard to see in the air, made the trees look two-dimensional, and the hills before the Coastal Mountains were grey. All the mountains disappeared into the grey smoke.

I had to park in Safeway’s parking lot, but a space was open as I walked in. The 649 was busy, and I found a chair along the windows with just enough space for my laptop and food. I got two red ales. Stephen opened and would soon be done. Taylor had just started. Kera (Avery’s sister, and I am not sure I have the name right) was also finishing up. Natalia, wearing a mask after a nasty illness, showed up later to help close on a Friday. The energy and noise of the place seemed to help, and soon, I was writing and making progress. I noticed some remaining 4E notations that are meaningless in the new 5E and 5.50 versions. I deleted the notation and made a few updates.

I found some more interesting writing, including a friendly vampire exchanging magic items for blood, which I had forgotten. Instead of giving the items in a lost treasure that somehow only the players find or facing the magic items used by their enemies, they can negotiate for them with a powerful undead who has his own reasons for the exchange. How much damage they will take is part of the challenge instead of combat. It gives the Dungeon Master a chance to role-play, and deadly yet helpful undead is a perfect foil for a DM.

I also reorganized my 401K and moved the piles of money to be less protected by bonds. I had received a note in the mail that the 2025 retirement fund would close, so I bumped all the money to be the exact breakdown, but I set 5 years in the future. This seemed the most straightforward and least risky choice.

I explored traveling to New Orleans in mid-October, staying at the same hotel as last time, Le Richelieu, and taking a cheap flight. I will likely order the flights and hotel when I am in Chicago once I determine how I fared on that trip. The cost, mostly the hotel, was not too high. It would be the same room as last time, too. This trip will have fewer museums and graveyards, more jazz, and visiting locations now forgotten. I have read more about the history of New Orleans, and there are places to see that are not on the usual tourist paths.

I continued to revise the document until after 8 and ordered dessert: coffee, bread pudding, and a shot of amaretto (Taylor suggested I have my usual finish of coffee and amaretto). With the noise, my reduced hearing, and my concentration on writing about the undead, Taylor startled me with the coffee and then again with the rest. I enjoyed my dessert and put away the writing. Natalia and Taylor wished me well after paying the bill and heading towards Air Volvo.

I do the dishes watching ShipHappens on YouTube, and soon head to bed after a shower. I read until late and manage to sleep without waking until 5ish.

Thanks for reading.

Thursday was a terrible day with smoke and heat in the valley. We broke 100F (38C), and there was smoke from the fires. However, it was not a dangerous level of air pollution, and the usual allergens were not present, so I was not coughing and sneezing all the time. There was an additional warning of a red flag fire condition; Thursday would experience low humidity with wind, making fires quickly uncontrollable. Don’t even spark near dry grass or a forest!

I decided that I would not let it slow me down today. I rose before 8, and the house was cold, 65F (18C); I hope the orchids are happy! I soon enjoyed liberal coffee made in my French press with pumpkin spice bread and a banana. There is nothing like the taste of liberal coffee in the morning to remind you of all the possibilities.

Some colors ran out of the world while I wrote this morning. The heat and smoke limited what I could do, and that, with no plans, seemed to bring forward a deep sadness. I believe this is depression, and it really sucks. I pushed through the feelings and decided I would follow through with my plans.

I packed up large slices of the Celtic cake I made and boarded Air Volvo. The smoke made the trees look 2-D, meaning there was more smoke than I saw (your eyes correct for smoke). Mount Hood was a grey blur. The coastal mountains were now white-colored hills, and the mountains disappeared into the grey. It was terrible, but we have seen worse.

I take the back roads over Cooper’s Mountain to reach the other side of Beaverton. It is a pretty drive, but I am dodging so many construction barrels that it seems like a terrible idea for a video game, Furious Urban Construction Traffic. You get points for arriving faster but not speeding in a school zone and avoiding hitting a barrel or another car. You also get extra points for texting and not being caught by Beaverton’s Finest.

I find my groove again while driving, and the colors return, though many are grey from the smoke to the world. I arrive not knowing what to expect at the Portland Running Company of Scholls Ferry Road, and a grey-haired and retired Nike employee finds me some new Brooks shoes for walking. They feel excellent, and I was told they improved for walking than the Air Force Ones I usually wore. They offered to recycle my worn-out AF1s, and I was out and about in new shoes.

I headed by Dondrea’s house, dropped off the cake, and headed home across Beaverton. No walking in lousy air; this restriction sends me back to the house. Lunch is forgotten–I can’t remember if I ate lunch. I try to focus on something after Air Volvo delivers me, but the colors run out of the day, and soon, I am sad. I read and watched a new show on Apple TV (I just ordered the three-month trial as there are some exciting shows there); Slow Horses gets my attention as I like spy shows.

I wrote a few words in my Dungeons and Dragons adventure, which I am revising. It is approaching 4, and I turn off the AC and fan and leave only the orchid light on. PGE, our power company, asks us liberal and kind folks to reduce our electrical use at critical times to prevent PGE from having to buy or create power on demand, often from high-carbon methods, by cutting our use. We get a small payment in kind. I see that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 2024 is playing now nearby and at 4:30. Perfect. I wish the orchids well and hope they enjoy the higher heat; I give them a misting. I board Air Volvo in the 100F+ heat and smoke and am at Movies on TV Regal minutes later.

Popcorn and a complimentary tiny kid glass of water (it is my limit for two hours and often finds me still running to the restroom after the show). The movie, while not terrible, ain’t great. While I laugh frequently, it drags and gets lost in a four-way story. All the actors, even those not there (one of the four strange intersecting stories), do well and are believable. The movie just does not come together nicely and seems disjointed. I would say that the film failed in the cutting room and should have been reshot and organized, but still, it was icy AC on a 100F day with no smoke, and I was using electricity that would be used if I was there. I was living being liberal while eating my popcorn!

I stopped by Carl’s Jr. and committed a dietary sin: a Western Burger with fries and a Diet Coke. Air Volvo and I arrived after 7, and I could resume AC and power use; the house was 78F, and the orchids did not look impressed. They were looking for the 80s. The food worked, and I felt more like myself again. Between the movie, popcorn, and burger, my groove was back, and soon, I was writing until 10:30 and making improvements. The original is for D&D 4E, nothing like 5E (or 3.5 or D20), and the editing includes rewriting. I have enough done that I can now plan to play it. I will be looking for players soon.

I head to bed after a shower and hope to sleep tonight. The sadness does not reappear, and I soon sleep happy, knowing I have done some D&D stuff. I do not wake up until after 6.

Thanks for reading.

Update: I had lunch with Scott yesterday, and we had a great discussion about politics, Nike, and investing. I’m not sure why I keep missing that. Sorry, Scott! But Thursday lunch usually involves meeting Scott and chatting.

Often, it takes a moment to recall the previous day, but I am having trouble recalling Wednesday this Thursday morning. The morning started with me rising before 8. I am having trouble sleeping, and it was hard to get started on Wednesday morning. I am not tired when I lie down. I think I will stay up now and write or do other tasks. I saw 2 approaching on my clock! I found liberal coffee and made that in the French Press. There is still pumpkin spice bread left, and I had a slice of that for breakfast. I add a banana to that.

I have played through my music multiple times for multiple days and now am listening via the Internet to Kink.FM while writing. The commercials are annoying, but the music is changing, unlike listening to my collection. I suspect it is loud, but I am alone and have no way to measure it, and I find myself sitting with my right side slightly tilted to the Apple. There is no sound for me on the left side. I mourn that loss often, and I am starting to notice it more often.

I wrote a 1400+ word summary on Tuesday, and when I finished about 10. I dressed after cleaning up and soon headed to Hillsboro. I walked the town twice until finding lunch. I spoke to Rev. Steve, and we will meet there the following Monday or Wednesday. I tried a new place, La Mixteca Oaxaca, and had their margarita, mostly booze, with their spicy wet burrito for $28 for lunch–outside of my spending limits as I am retired! I am leaving Amelia’s, a favorite, for lunch with Rev. Steve next week.

I resisted antiques and buying local coffee but did not resist a cup of coffee and pastry at Insomnia Coffee (more appropriately named for me). There, finding a padded chair, I opened my Apple laptop (it is too hot to leave it in the car, and I carried it when I walked Hillsboro) and started back editing and converting one of my old Dungeons and Dragons adventures for the older version of D&D, the unlamented 4E. In years past, I wrote an adventure for the new version of a role-playing game to learn and teach the new system. I thought I would like to start some games and need something for new players, so I decided to republish Finding a Broken Sword for 5E. The older version is still for sale, and I even got paid recently when someone bought a complete set of my 4E writings, but it is time to update it. The monsters available in 4E and the licensing are pretty different in 5E, and the rules present additional issues. This makes this a rewrite and not an update. The adventure is 50 pages and over 20,000 words. It is a lot of work.

I see that school closing time is approaching; it’s time to go. I board Air Volvo and return to the Volvo before Beaverton goes into gridlock. I do the dishes and make a salad for dinner, adding some roast beef to the salad along with the freshly chopped carrots and celery. I return to the long-forgotten series Space 1999 and watch an amazingly poorly executed episode. It had empty scenes that were clearly filler and actors going through the motions. It is a wonder the show was not canceled the day this trashy episode was released. I do like the theme song. I was wrong; there was a second season, but my favorite character was not there (he quit the show).

I head to The 649, and their parking lot is full, but the taphouse is not busy. I have to park at Safeway and walk in. Stephen is bartending with Taylor (who has changed her look, and I was not sure it was her). I get a red ale and write more D&D stuff. Taylor closes, and I order coffee and a shot of amaretto from her while I write. I plan to write until closing.

Corwin calls, and I offer him a sandwich at the house and a chance to browse the new 5.50 version of Dungeons and Dragons. I finish my coffee and shot without rushing. I pay my bill and make it to the house after Corwin arrives. I make grilled beef and cheddar in butter, adding water and covering the pan to steam cook the meat and cheese between the bread slices. I cut it into squares (not triangles!) and served it to Corwin. We talk D&D, and Corwin reminds me about my other 4E adventures and thinks I should convert those. He remembers one that is a dream-themed adventure, and I will look for its source.

Corwin heads out, and soon, I am showered and in bed, reading D&D books and learning more about 5.50. I try to sleep, but I do not sleep before 2 a.m.

Thanks for reading.