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Friday started with me rising to make coffee. I forgot to assemble it the night before. I was soon with coffee from Kalamazoo, Michigan (thanks, Jeanne). As we come to the end of January, I ensure there is enough cash in the checking account (it is interest-free, so I keep its balance low) to cover the mortgage. The insurance for the Air VW the Gray (over $500 for six months), and my health care is paid (over $1200 a month now that I am using ObamaCare). I am selling my stock once the dividends are paid to cover my monthly expenses (see my financial mentor here). This is cash I placed in reasonably stable stocks that pay dividends and one that just interested me (Ford-F, Index on Gov Sec-SGOV, JP Morgan Preferred-JPM-D, and 3LHaris-LHX). They are all fine stocks, and I will miss my 100 shares of Ford and its 4.3% yield–free money! I also have a treasury that will not roll over. All good.

My plan was that 2025 would be a hard year, as I would get no income for a whole year. I also traveled about 1/4 of the year and did the Southern Trip with the church. I expected to be here financially. I have submitted my application to the Social Security Administration and will begin receiving income in May. About the value of a better-than-average part-time job. I am three years from MediCare. I plan to travel now, while I am well and young enough to enjoy it.

The morning had me start the blog but not finish it. I showered, dressed, and headed to a dermatology appointment. Apparently, my rash was not that interesting, and I saw the doctors for a few minutes. Prescriptions were sent, and Walgreens surprised me by tracking them and sending progress updates via text; I had the ointments by 3. Applied, and on Saturday, there are signs of improvement. Yes, a boring skin issue, but I will be soooooo happpppy when gone.

I also stripped the bed and started the laundry. I forgot about it; I was still struggling to focus and didn’t finish it until late. I never folded it.

I took the leftover polenta I had made earlier (cooking the grain in water, milk, and salt) and placed it in a container in the fridge. It is now loosely formed and cooked in a drizzle of bacon grease in the nonstick pan I used to cook bacon in. I had bacon and polenta. I also heated some apple juice with some spiced cider I had left over and added slices of an orange. I had this as a drink (but regretted the sugar content). It was delicious.

I would be proud if, at this point, I did anything other than just sit in a chair and watch YouTube videos on History and Naval information, but that was the afternoon. I had miscommunicated to Deborah that I had lunch with Z and Dondrea, and we did connect later. We could not watch a show because I had dinner plans (not lunch).

Saying a “Hey Girls” from Deborah, I met Z and Dondrea for Mexican food at Pepita’s Mexican Restaurant. We had a good meal, Chili Colorado for me, and talked about the Cold War with Z, who is now studying that in high school. Dondrea and I walked through the history of U.S. presidents who set the tone of the war in my memory and in what I have read. Truman, Eisenhour, and JFK before my memories, and President Johnson, a faded child memory. Dondrea will try to find Doctor Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb for Z, and I recommend Fail-Safe if one is ready for a terrible ending. I recommend checking out the book and reading it, but the movie manages to reproduce the stark lack of choices that is the book’s center. In the movie, a young Larry Hagman (I Dream of Jeannie and JR) plays a central role as the translator.

Aside: the song “We’ll Meet Again” by Vera Lynn (here) still gives me chills. The song ends the movie with images of mushroom cloud explosions as World War 3 begins.

I returned home, cleaned up a few things, and even edited my Dungeons & Dragons adventure. I assembled the coffee, but failed to push the button. I returned to Eric Cline’s book on Amarna texts. I managed to finish and start a chapter before I realized I was asleep, inventing a text I wasn’t reading. I closed the book, wondering how I’d gotten to Python code from Cline’s words, and why I would dream in Python!

Dreams happened. One was a group of people I did not know talking to me, but my hearing got worse and worse, and I could hear less and less. I struggled to get closer, yet I still could not hear them. I wanted to be polite, hear what they had to say, and be friends, but they kept getting quieter and quieter. Later, I dreamed that Deborah and I visited a dream tourist version of Egypt, with a rebuilt Amarna to enjoy. I bored her with text, but she enjoyed the walk in the ruins and reconstructed Amarna. I talked less and walked more.

I woke, proved I was hydrated, and was delighted to find I was not uncomfortable from the rash. Better! I was able to fall back to sleep. I woke after sunrise, just a few minutes past.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

I cannot, as you can tell, dear reader, if you have been enjoying these blogs for a while, to let a day go by without filling it with something. Thursday was filled with naps, not feeling well, and I feel I failed the day. Here is Thursday.

Thursday started well with me rising early, before 7, making coffee (I forgot to assemble the coffee the night before). This coffee was a gift from Michigan and is Kalamazoo coffee (I do not remember who to thank). I did not eat anything (a mistake, I believe), had coffee, and wrote the blog. I managed, to my surprise, to find the focus to finish it and publish it before I was time-boxed by a medical test.

I showered and cleaned up, shaved, and all that. I was in Air VW the Gray, 60% charged, and headed to Portland. I arrived early at Good Sam Hospital, and my new insurance, despite claims, does let me use their second-floor imaging. I sat in my car, parked in a regular spot, because I didn’t want to wedge my EV into a free spot in the garage. It cost me $11 (I could have paid less, but I mangled the Parking Kitty process in their app, which first offered the all-day charge and then let me reduce it), and I decided to enjoy my paid-for spot and read for thirty minutes.

Good Sam, having endured shootings and other terrors, now has security in bulletproof vests and a metal detector. My suspenders got me wanded. I headed directly to the second floor. A woman behind the left-over Covid-19 glass was very direct, but my smile and offers of an insurance card and a driver’s licence, already out, got her to lighten up. She actually granted me a smile back. I was relieved that the insurance was holding.

Rebecca was my ultrasound person, and she soon found the mass in my neck and took excellent views of it. A fluid (icky stuff) filled area that seems to be an infection of some sort. Not a hard irregular mass of cancer cells. Prayers answered, relief granted, and my stay on this earth will not be shortened by this. Just yet-another-medical-issue (YAMI) to deal with. With the YAMI defined, I returned to my car and read for a while before enjoying the light traffic back to Beaverton.

I parked at McMenamins Cedar Hills Pub and read more. I finished the story and the series, The Regicide Report (Laundry Files Book 14), and I am sad that this is the last Bob and the Laundry story. I will miss this unique mix of hacking, computer science, and Lovecraft horrors.

I might have to write another Howard story to get my own mix of Sci-Fi, the present day, and Lovecraftian horror. I usually wrote about my work experiences and things on trips. Letting the bleakness we deny when working for a multinational corporation on another business trip, color my writing with just a hint of despair. Retirement has been too great to again mine that source of darkness, irony, and ridiculousness. But the current politics and Trump administration certainly are granting me new sources, and a near-overwhelming source. Hmmmm.

Aside: Howard stories are here, with pay-what-you-want pricing (including $0). I recommend “Howard’s Lockdown.” If you want my Sherlock Holmes story, it is here for $4.99, which 2600 could use (vive la Hackers!).

Scott pulls up in his jeep, and we find a booth and order beers and a burger for me. We talk about my health and my happy revelation that my newest issue is not cancer and a YAMI. We talk about stocks, bonds, and the markets. It is messy out there, and we are both running very conservative investments. Scott is not following the diving into AI investment we see in the market (I am not sure the waters are deep) and is directing his investments toward a more EU-focused plan. I have seen that my small-cap investments are still tanking, and those are US-based. We talk of my disappointment in my investigation of AI in my challenge to translate Akkaidain to English. It seems the high-scoring attempts are using a pre-made model/thing and just feeding data. It seems, again, to be an orchestration problem. Worse, my brain-dead sledgehammer approach scored 6.7 with the high score still not breaking 40; yikes! Where AI is going is to build, from what I can tell, average to bad intelligence–you might ask your cat for help before relying on this stuff; a personal opinion there.

I ordered a tummy-bomb of a Captain Neon Burger (bacon, blue cheese, and burger) with fries, which I will regret later. We talk about travel and family, and again, about how the chaos is at a level where it is hard to know what to do. We agree to keep meeting, maybe a walk on Wednesdays too; Scott does tours of the Jenkin Estate nearby my home.

I return home, and I nap and rise, and then I am ill. My meds and tummy, I think, rebelled about the caloric intake. I was done, read, and slept.

Results came in on my scan, and a request for a CT scan followed. According to Deborah’s research, it is an unusual infection, and the request is for better imaging. That is scheduled for Sunday, too early. More to come. I  suspect there is a connection to the brain surgery, but I wait for more information.

I was feeling better. I made a tomato-and-pepper soup from a Trader Joe’s box and a ham-and-cheese sandwich, heated in butter and steamed to stay warm throughout. I could not finish either and saved it for Saturday’s lunch.

I read Make Magazine while I couldn’t sleep. I started to get sleepy and soon nodded off. I entered a dark, near-empty sleep, but I do remember wandering somewhere in a dream, in the Pacific Northwest with Deborah, and enjoying the view together.

Thanks for reading!

I rose without an alarm on Wednesday around 7ish and found the coffee waiting for me. The end of the Sleep Monk coffee from Christmas (thanks, AJ, Steve, and Nikki). I took my meds, grabbed a slice of Irish-style ginger molasses cake and a banana, and headed to the office. The sky was gray, and the sunrise was shades of gray. No blue. The Oregon winter is back with Oregon Mist returning us to our usual damp, but not too damp days and nights.

The blog came easily to me, and I soon recalled Tuesday and created a story of the day. Deborah teaches on Tuesday, and I spoke to her later. We get just a few texts exchanged while she works on Tuesday.

Most of my day was spent reading, enjoying Charles Stross’s latest Laundry book, number 14. Also, the TTRPG (TableTop Role Playing Game) version of Laundry should be published in a few months (it is more than a year late). I have the previously published version, which I have used a few times and enjoyed.

I continue to write all morning, and soon it will be published. There are a few distractions. I planned to write some Dungeons & Dragons and start looking into launching a Roll20 campaign. But I never get that focused.

I fry some bacon. I want some cooked bacon to add to salads and maybe put in a sandwich. I also discovered an ant invasion of the kitchen, and I managed to spray that without ruining the bacon (which ends up in the fridge once cooked and later bagged to be ready to use). I spray the bathroom, vent in the office, and the pests are gone. Ick!

I reheat the leftover gnocchi in a meat sauce and make a salad, taking my last slightly faded carrot and using the peeler to add carrot strips to the salad. The last of the Olive Pit green olives, picked up in Corning, California, last year, when I was driving back from LA in the EV. I add my sliced, flavored, and toasted baguette to the salad. I read while I am eating instead of watching YouTube. I can see the story of Bob in the Laundry in my mind. I read faster and faster as the story heats up. I missed the protagonist Bob and Mo, who have not appeared in books as the main characters for years.

I start doing laundry in the morning. I have only one load of mixed items.

I dress and soon decide I need to do something besides eat and read, though I am not sure that is true. I board Air VW the Gray, which seems pleased with itself now that it has received an expensive realignment. It is likely that I am imagining that the EV exudes smugness since the dealership.

It seems a long drive to Hillsboro, and there is easy parking on Main Street today. I bought some sign letters at an antique store to see if they are the right size for the church sign. If so, I will be back. I walk through the town and see that the Axe Throwing Bar (alcohol and axes seem a strangely unsafe mix to me, and certainly not what I think of when I hear ‘AA’) has smoked chicken wings, and that has my attention. The usual salt-sugar twice-fried version I am not interested in much, but large smoked wings are something else. I manage 2,500 steps, which, while not great, is something.

I visited the giant sequoia redwoods in Hillsboro. They are only 150 years old, planted by a pioneer, and already massive. The area has been updated with a bench and water passing through paving.

I return to the house, get out the thin New York Strip I ordered from Whole Foods in my grocery order, salt it, and set it out (should have salted it yesterday and set it in the fridge). I read. I then make polenta with milk and water. I seldom order it and have never made it before. It is cooked cornmeal. The steak is baked at 200°F (a smoker is recommended, but I have only a stove) for 45 minutes, until it reaches an internal temperature of 120°F. I then heat a cast-iron pan to very hot, but with too much avocado oil, and brown the steak on both sides. This is Alton Brown’s receipt. He uses an even hotter pan with lots of smoke.

Dinner is delicious (I slice it with a sharp knife and eat the slices with a fork). The book plays a movie in my mind while I enjoy my dinner. I have apple sauce as a dessert and even a small slice of Irish-style bread.

I read and then dress for bed. I did not finish the book, but started to nod off and dream of other adventures with Bob and Mo. I turn off the light and sleep before it gets late.

I have an ultrasound of a mass in my neck on Thursday morning in Portland, if insurance works.

Thanks for reading.

 

Tuesday was full of disappointments. The first being my alarm at 6:30, and that I needed to rise (no rolling over) to make it to gaming at Richard’s house in Portland. Air VW the Gray is at the spa, aka the dealership (when they charge $580 for a realignment, it must be a spa). At $270 a month lease and $556 for insurance for six months (with a perfect driving record), and spa trips, public transit is beginning to look much better. Air VW the Gray has less than 12 months left on its lease, and I have an overage of about 2,000 miles. But this year, it may make up for it if I don’t drive it to LA again (2,000 miles for that trip alone). Oregon will charge a tax of 2.3 cents per mile for EVs starting in 2027.

Hmmm, that is $4,524 a year plus maintenance (spa treatments) and about $20 a month in electricity, or more when charging on a trip ($35 per fast charge). Public transit, renting a car for longer trips, and Uber are looking economical!

Aside: Grammarly is out of its AI mind again and often mixes in a strange, illogical change with its spelling corrections. I am watching for them. My apologies in advance if I let that slip in.

I rose, showered, and dressed, and soon had my book on my Kindle (which did not work as it had not downloaded the new book) and my iPhone (I have the Kindle app). It was after sunrise when I headed out at 8 and waved to Chris and Harper, her daughter (who turned 9 yesterday), as they headed out in Chris’s huge black SUV. It should be useful should a dystopian future arise.

I walked to Tualatin Valley Highway (TV Highway), waiting a long few minutes for the walk signals, and waited only a few minutes for TriMet’s 57 bus to arrive. The sunrise was wonderful with light clouds and Mount Hood stealing the show.

I managed 4500 steps on Tuesday (good), though Monday (and my legs complained; better) was 5000+ steps.

I boarded and scanned in without issue, then rode behind a silent older man with a dog wearing a vest that said it was a service animal. Without any drama (everyone was quiet and seemed to be headed to work or appointments), we arrived at Beaverton Transit Center, and I boarded the Max train to Portland. Another quiet trip, and I read my book.

I missed my stop as the book, The Regicide Report (Laundry Files Book 14), was getting interesting. I hopped off, rescanned my virtual ticket in the Hop app on my phone, and rode a train back to the park south of the failing Lloyd Center Mall (you can now use a credit card). Richard picked me up a few minutes later.

At Richard’s, we finished the setup for the board game Trainted Grail by undoing the manual save process. This is an app-driven cooperative board game with a role playing game (RPG) feel based on a mix of Arthurian post-apocalyptic story freely mixing SciFi and Lovecraftian horror. James bought the game second-hand and with the figures painted dark and scary (an excellent painting job using Object Light Source (OLS) techniques with an airbrush). James is also a completest; he has acquired every add-on and promo for the game, but we are playing the 2.0 rules (and app) without the extras.

I was hopeful we would find our way to chapter 8 today, but alas, we just slowly wandered the areas, some new, others we have not seen since we first started the game. We collected many new things, to our surprise, and the big-bad, with us now reading the rules again, hit us hard and will be back—a timer of sorts.

Richard suggested returning to the other side of the board, and we had learned that there was a way to jump to the other side before. We executed that, and the game did a reset and moved us to the extreme East. Wow! And we will start there next week. We did the manual save process for the game.

Richard and I argued about politics. I apologized as the Minneapolis stuff has me on edge, but Richard was not offended. He dropped me off at the Max, and I took that back to Beaverton. Reading my book. I was still upset, and that made me cold. I arrived in Beaverton, skipped past the Beaverton TC, jumped off a few stops later, and walked a few cold blocks (with poor sidewalks and sometimes no sidewalks) to get to VW. I was very cold.

I paid the fine for owning a VW at the dealership, over $600. I used my debit card to save an additional 3% charge for using credit. The spa does not miss a trick. The EV drove well and, though I think I imagined it, seemed to drive better. All the batteries and other things that could go wrong in an EV (and covered still by warranty) were good.

Home, I put on a sweater, and Corwin shows up. Nonna Emilia Ristorante Italiano is open at 4 on a Tuesday (closed on Mondays), and we decided on a late lunch, early dinner (I had no lunch) there. The food seemed a bit less finished today, and the prices were high. The check, about $100, had a $10 error, but still with tip for two, this is not a $100 place for two. Corwin agreed, and frankly, the food was not better than Olive Garden, and the salad was not $4 for a small plate. $10 for a scoop of ice cream, which is free at The Old Spaghetti Factory, was shocking. Back to The Old Spaghetti Factory for me. Portion sizes are still huge, and I brought back 1/2 my dinner, which reduces my shock. Sadly, I will not likely return.

Disappointed, we headed back, and Corwin was wondering out loud how he could afford to take a girl out with these insane prices. Corwin left, and I read and watched some more, musing on the Battleship President Trump has proposed on the Battleship New Jersey YouTube Channel. Ryan, the curator of the Battleship New Jersey,  explained why a Battleship use case suggests a conventional power plant. It was interesting as it considered topics I did not know. The projected cost, even with conventional power, is as high as $22 billion, with a Ford Carrier cost at $13 billion. Likely, the cost will be less. Ryan reminds the watcher that, with the exception of carriers, the US Navy has not built a larger ship in over 70 years (yes, WW2 and early Cold War cruisers were the last). Ryan is skeptical that these Defiant Class ships will come to fruition. He also commented that the pictures show an underarmed ship (the equivalent of 1.5 destroyers). But, in my thinking, maybe in these times of missiles and drones, a larger ship with plenty of space and power has a mission in the US Navy. Makes me want to get out my rules for the old Cold War tabletop game, Harpoon, and create a new ship to add to the excitement. Though I think the USS Trump/Defiant would be a more likely target for incoming ordnance and wouldn’t last too long. Even with present tech, it is hard to hide 800 feet of steel.

I read, as I said, and tried to get further in the incredible world of Charles Stross. I was soon nodding off and soon fell asleep. I am sure, though the dreams are forgotten, of avoiding the maze traps of The Dark Pharoh by never plotting against it. I woke early, before sunrise, and started this blog.

Thanks for reading!

Aside: The brain surgeon’s office called. We are still having trouble finding a place for my MRI, but we agreed that Good Sam’s in Portland should work. Still looking for a peek at the brain tumor site to check that it is not starting again. Last year’s picture left questions.

I rose at 7ish and watched the darkness fade. I had no plans but maybe to meet Joan S and take TriMet into Portland. Maybe a visit to the museums (though the Portland Art Museum, PAM, is closed on Mondays again). While I was enjoying coffee, Irish-style ginger molasses cake, and writing the blog, the imagining folks called. I have a mass in my neck on the left side by the jaw joint, and it needs to be checked out. I scheduled a Thursday mid-morning ultrasound at Good Samaritan in Portland. They take my insurance.

I continued writing, finished the blog before 11, and dressed. Joan S and I agreed that she would pick me up, and then we would enter TriMet’s Max at Quatama Station. Soon Joan S picked me up (my car is at the mothership), and we boarded a train after a short wait towards Portland. We both had heavier coats as it is cold.

We arrived at Library Station in Portland. We then walked up the hill to PAM and learned that it was closed on Mondays. We crossed the park on Park Street, then paid for admission to the Oregon Historical Museum and enjoyed their third-floor display. There I saw sandals made by indigenous people back in 7500 BCE, and items carried by the Lewis and Clark folks. There were models of ships, but I did not see a picture or model of one of the 50 “jeep” carriers built in the area during WW2 (none were preserved as museum ships). Still, it was a fun display, and I learned a few things.

We broke for lunch, but did not get back to the museum. We headed to a favorite haunt of mine, Southpark Seafood. There, Joan S and I split two boards: one with cheese and the other with local fish. Their bread and butter is excellent too. A two-inch thick soft Focaccia served with garlic butter. This would be lunch/dinner with a snack later of more Irish-style cake.

We took Max back, and Joan S dropped me back at my house. A good day and lots of walking. I got a note that Charles Stross’s new book, The Regicide Report (Laundry Files Book 14), was released on Kindle. I had pre-ordered it, downloaded it, and started reading.

Stross’s Laundry Files is one of my favorite stories, and it often, with an American spin and less dark, colors my own hero, Howard, and some of my Call of Cthulhu TTRPG (i.e., Table Top Role Playing Game) adventures. I was happy to spend the rest of the evening reading.

Deborah was on a snow day. I spoke to her on and off during the day. We finished her day together. We have a little more than two weeks before we see each other again.

I went to bed early as I had to take TriMet again on Tuesday. Richard offered to pick me up at the nearby Max station. We play at 9:30 with James, the cooperative board game with hints of RP Tainted Grail.

I soon slept, and the morning game came sooner than I liked at 6:30. I remember no dreams.

Thanks for reading.