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Wednesday started with me sleeping past 8. I was catching up on my sleep after staying up late to help with a friend. I also had my flu and COVID-19 shot the day before, which may have slowed my start. As I suggested, it was a sluggish effort to make a NYC bagel (thanks, Joyce) with liberal coffee and a banana. I got all that together and looked outside to the gray and dampness. It is raining! Finally, we leave the high 90s (36C) and return to wet low 70s (22C). We had massive downpours, not the usual Oregon Mist, but we should return to normal. Air Quality is improving, but I cough and use my inhalers often. The rain should improve once the pollen and irritants from the forest fire smoke are washed out of the air.

Earning interest for my cash is working, but not as hard as I would like. After the US Bank changed the rates, I am earning only 2% on my high-interest, high-balance requirement savings account (I did not know they could do that), and the CD is making more than twice that, 4.6%, but I am unwilling to lock in more money for seven months. My small amount of stock is still crashing with the general instability of the current equities market, but my recent purchases are breaking even and paying dividends at over 4%. I am tempted to buy more Ford (F) and JP Morgan Preferred shares (JPM-D). Unfortunately, the bank’s shares are callable, and I expect when the rate cuts start (soon), the bank will call the shares after the second or third cut. Other boring companies that make good dividends that are cheap in the current instability may attract me. More to come, but I am in a buying mood with so many low prices and planning for medium to long-term horizons on these investments.

I wrote the blog for the morning and began getting updates from Dondrea about my need to play taxi. Our friend in OHSU got a room after spending the night on a gurney in the hallway of the Emergency Department (ED, but the ER to me). The plan was for a 2-ish release from the hospital, but Dondrea thought it would be later. I finished the blog just before noon, cleaned up, and dressed. I was going to have sushi, but I got a text from Dondrea, and I headed to Portland, getting a Whopper Jr with cheese for lunch in a drive-through. After facing some traffic, Air Volvo arrived in Portland, climbed the hill to reach OHSU, and headed to patient parking this time. There was no parking, and a security person explained that to me and sent me to Physician’s Parking. I found a spot open that said it was virtual permit-only parking, but I was already frustrated after twenty minutes of searching and decided f**k it and took the parking spot. I then found the entrance to the Shriner’s Children’s Hospital and asked for help. Where am I? Where is OHSU?

I learned I was a short walk from OHSU hospital and that my parking was correct (really?). I walked out of the Shriner’s area and up the hill, and there was a set of confusing signs, poorly arranged walkways (this is a drive to the hospital setting), and a tiny sign for OHSU. I found the Portland Tram (yes, we have one) that connects OHSU here on the hill with the building on the river. I was tempted to take it. But that was not OHSU on the end of that. I climbed more hills, walked in the street, climbed steps, and found myself in a lobby that showed signs that it might be a hospital. I asked the greeter why, yes, this is OHSU hospital. There being a gift shop should have convinced me.

I took a tour and did not know I was on the 9th floor at the entrance (yes, that is right). I took a down elevator and got to see the depths of the place. Then I reached the 10th, asked for help, found 10A, used the intercom to get the entrance, and there was our friend ready to leave. We then located the Rx place (another hill) and filled that. We then carefully walked back to Air Volvo. My friend wanted to get some fresh air and move a bit.

Air Volvo returned to Beaverton, and I delivered our friend to her home. It took only a few minutes for Air Volvo to reach home, and soon, I was packing and organizing for my trip. I also looked deeply into the Python code and was confused by how to get the Unicode chess characters to display.

Next, I texted Deborah and shared plans for the weekend in Chicago starting on Friday. We have a sketch of a plan. We plan to see The Book of Morman on Friday night and go to good pizza afterward. I fly all night and arrive too early on Friday. Deborah is trying to get a train. I will try the Art Institute near the hotel until we connect. All is hopeful that trains, taxis, and planes will all work.

Next, Corwin arrives, and we board Air Volvo to head to Portland to meet Mariah. I offer Corwin work to break down my old garden and restore the lawn. I also plan a small tree in the same area and will want a hole and tree installed later. Corwin will also eliminate the fallen and broken cement birdbath (it came with the house). A price for services rendered is accepted.

Traffic is still heavy even at the later hour, and Air Volvo misses the exit and drives through SE to reach Hopsworks on SE Powell, which is only a few minutes late. Corwin, Mariah, and I chat; the beer is good, and my sandwich, a Muffuletta, made cold, spicy, and huge, was fantastic. I give Corwin the other half for later.

Air Volvo gets us back; I am out of sorts after the chat in Portland. Corwin heads home after a chat about role-playing rules at The Volvo Cave, and I return to Python as more of a distraction from my unease. Corwin will mist the orchids for me once and refill their water trays.

I found the code for turning a virtual chess board into a print string online. I can now see how the internals of Python Chess are organized, and that helps. My Python is slowly returning to me, but I need examples of how to use this stuff.

Feeling more balanced, I shower and try to rest. Coughing and the coffee (I have a coffee after a beer if driving in the dark and rain–you need to be alert here) keep me up. I return to Louise Penny’s murder and crime novels set in French Canada and soon find myself dreaming up new text when holding my Kindle. It is time to sleep.

I wake often and sleep is hard. I finally enter deep sleep nearing 2. I wake at 5 and rise at 6. It is a travel day and it is always hard to sleep (the excitement).

Thanks for reading. Thurday includes an all-night flight so it will likely an early blog will be delivered from PDX before the flight. Friday and flying all night will likely be written on Saturday late.

As I wrote in Monday’s blog, Tuesday started as a continuation of Monday with only a few fitful hours of sleep. I was with a friend in the OHSU ER on the big hill in Portland at 6ish. We remained there until about 10AM as the hospital put a gurney in the hallway in the ER (called the Emergency Department or ED). Before this, I chatted with my friend, relieving Dondrea at 6, and found comfort in the vending machine. My friend got some cold, bubbly Sprite, cheesy popcorn, and strawberry pop-tarts (I had one of the two provided). The machine allowed you to tap with your credit card. The water was sold out.

When my friend was napping, often head dropped in a chair in the lobby, I would write part of the blog. This stop-and-start did not improve my writing, and there were many typos (most missed by Grammarly). By the end of the morning, I had most of Monday in story form in a blog yet to be posted.

With my friend safe, breakfast served, and resting, I headed out and found Air Volvo as I left it in Portland in a parking garage (street parking for Air Volvo has not always been successful). I soon returned to Beaverton. Air Volvo reached the edge of Beaverton to discover that the pharmacy address now entered into NAV was in mod-Beaverton, and I headed back into Beaverton. It was not a precisely efficient trip.

Five Guy Burgers was on the strip mall, and I decided that a burger was a good answer after no meaningful sleep for the night. I ordered their cheese and bacon burger (what the hell) but racked up $18 for lunch. Hmmm, it was a double patty, and I did not finish it. It was dressed up with fresh onions, lettuce, tomato, etc. The small fries were freshly cut and cooked in peanut oil. Perfect. The place offers free peanuts, salted, in the shell. A favorite.

While enjoying my repast, I wrote more of the blog. I finished lunch, left 1/3 of the burger unfinished, and walked across the parking lot to Walgreens. There, I discovered that vaccine appointments were just the time when to arrive, and there was another hour or more to wait. F**k. I found a chair and watched as the line of mostly grey-haired folks who thought lunchtime would be a great time for a shot slowly reduced. I found the complaint site for Oregon pharmacy licensing on my phone, but it was an hour wait and, while annoying, was not worthy of a full complaint.

With my insurance, I had a flu shot in my left arm and Moderna’s newest COVID-19 (number 8) in my right arm at zero cost. The flu arm was painful already. I took Air Volvo home to The Volvo Cave. My neighbor’s cat was once again enjoying the cool cement of my driveway, and I drove around the cat. It is scared of people and slowly rises and walks away when I de-Air Volvo.

A shower and new clothing make me feel more normal. I have some items on my list for today. I try to stop by my friend’s house, but her spouse is on the phone and does not hear the bell. I decided to return and try again later. I cross Beaverton and reach Cornell Farm, an excellent garden store and nursery. I managed to get 4,000+ steps by walking a few times through the stores and nursery. I am tempted by a brilliant orchid display. I looked at some exotic plants and trees, but with my trip to Chicago this week, I resisted getting anything that would require digging a hole. I got Dondrea a birthday present and a card.

I was reluctant to leave such a peaceful place, so I got coffee and a pastry. After 3, the baked goods were 1/2 off, and then the barista decided I should get two, doubling the deal. I heard a call for “Emily” for more goodies. I thought about showing up and claiming I was Emily. I seem to channel Monty Python after all the Python programming (The programming language Python is not named for the snake but for the show). While I didn’t do this, I mentioned it to the barista, who laughed quite hard, and Emily (who could hear the discussion) thought it quite funny.

I finally posted the blog while enjoying the quiet near a massive Monkey Puzzle tree. The sea captains would bring these Asain trees home, sell them, or give them to friends. You see them all over the area, as they are now a popular tree with nurseries, but some of the large Monkey Puzzle trees came from the old sea captains.

I took an indirect route home and stopped at The Laughing Planet for dinner. While not fast, it is always good. I had a Sante Fe, but as a bowl, not a burrito. I also had their mushroom soup, which came with corn chips. I updated some typos in the blog that Grammary missed (growl). I watched the start of the debates without sound and could not stand it after a few minutes. I enjoyed my dinner, thinking Laughing Planet was ironic for a debate night, more Monty Python thinking.

Back in Air Volvo, I stopped by and was granted access, but my task was unnecessary as word of the accident had spread to the people I was to contact. I wish folks well and return to The Volvo Cave.

Somewhere, I ordered my tickets for the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland on Kickstarter. I picked the Call of Cthulhu game add-on and VIP pass. I enjoyed it last time.

I showered (again) and headed to bed because I was tired and my thinking was fogging. It’s not time to cut code! I am not sure if it was the lack of sleep, exhaustion, vaccines, or just the continued impact of the surgery only 110 days ago. The answer is ‘Yes,’ I am sure. I read and finished one book and returned to Canadian murder mysteries. Navigational Entanglements is another Viet Nam Empire Space Opera (no, really) by Aliette de Bodard. It is not part of her other universes, but the setting is familiar with Vietnamese space culture and Space Opera themes. I enjoyed it, and it was short. I was happy to return to Canada-based crime with The Long Way Home: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel (A Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery Book 10) last night. I read this on my Kindle to avoid cluttering the house with non-technical, one-time-read books. I mean to use the local library, but I still have not taken the time to learn that. Soon!

I send a ‘good night’ text after getting the latest updates from Dondrea.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

It is Tuesday morning, and I am in the ER with a friend who was in a car accident. Many readers would know this person, but that story is for the friend to tell. Dondrea called me Monday night, and I stayed up and online with her while she helped in the ER. I put on my PJs at 2ish and slept for a few hours. At 5, I rose as Dondrea needed me to take over, staying with our friend until 6. I drove in after making liberal coffee, had a few sips, took my meds, and found where I was going on Nav. I was across Beaverton and climbed the hills in Air Volvo to OHSU emergency. I was there about 6 and took over from Dondrea helping out.

I’m sorry, there were no pictures on Monday; I forgot. Also, it took all day to get this out, as I was busy. 

With apologies for being so late…Monday follows.

Going backward, I watched another season, season two, of Slow Horses on Apple+ while waiting to see if I needed to help. Dondrea texted me with updates while I enjoyed season two. I finished the season and thought it better, in some ways, than the first season. Recommended!

Before that, I had a Zoom call with the Hillsboro Python Machine Learning group on Meetup. Today, we continued our study of biomedical Python and the use of DNA data to train and build models. Ernest ran the meeting and the presentation. He wrote a lot of code and ran most of it for us. The first was “classical,” which produced good results with my favorite AI classifier, Random Forest of Binary Trees. Ernest followed this with a neural network solution, Long Short-Term Memory, which trained quickly and produced good results, but not materially better than the “classic.” The newest method was slow and needed more work to understand. It claims to work for very large data sets, possibly identifying subtleties missed by “classic” and other familiar methods like neural networks. We need more work/information on this one. Ernest’s point was never to give up a classic for the newest trend in AI. FOMO should be ignored!

Ernest let me demo my Cloud9 setup for Python Chess development. I wanted to check and recommend the Python version it used (3.9.16). This version seems stable and well-supported. I suspect 3.10 may be good, but AWS picked this, and I saw it as a version often required as the minimum. Thus, Developers are building for it. In one of these meetings, I will do a full demo and how-to document for AWS Python Unix development.

Before the meeting, I made a BT sandwich. I am still out of lettuce, but I have bread from the freezer (toast it to defrost) and yesterday’s leftover sliced tomato and bacon. Excellent! While eating my sandwich (with organic mayo), I wrote more Python and added a few extra functions. I also discovered that the chess piece characters are supported in the editor for Cloud9, so I can put them in the code to print. I would like that better than the letters displayed in the default board print.

Going back towards noon, I met Steve in Hillsboro, running late as I rose late and wrote the blog for a while. We had lunch and drinks at Amelia’s with José as our waiter. We had smaller margaritas as it was lunch, and we both had things to get done. There was some hesitancy in that decision as partying in Hillsboro had some appeal. We caught up, and Steve listed his responses to various blog items over the past months. Sort of strange, we both thought, to do this asynchronously. We vowed to meet more often here and on the Oregon Coast, where Steve and his spouse, AJ, reside, thus avoiding asynchronistic issues (you know, dear reader, I wrote that to impress Grammarly and see if it would mess with it, nope). As the British would say, “That was over-egging the pudding.”

Before this, I rose late and wrote Sunday’s blog post. I also wrote a note to the mail folks to halt the mail while I was on my trip and then to deliver it all on my return. I did this as a memo to my local mail carrier and put it in the mailbox. I did this in my robe and got whistled at by my neighbor. I yelled back, “This is what retired looks like!” I finished the blog and posted it.

I also read all the church Staff-Parish Relations Committee (think church HR) notes sent to me. I have two presentations to do for the church on two Sundays, and these emails came all day.

I rose late, around 8. I found the kitchen (it is still in the same place), made liberal coffee, and witnessed the orchids look unharmed by the lack of cold nights. To complete my breakfast, I added a slice of Celtic black gingerbread and a banana. I read emails; many were useless, updated my Quicken transactions, and read the news.

And that brings me full circle.

Thanks for reading!

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!