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I rose early on Saturday, after 6, found my French Press, made coffee, grabbed a banana, located yogurt in the frig, and started on a short blog (Friday was not a busy day). Read the news (f**k, are we liberals in trouble after the debates), did the dishes to feel like I have something I can control in this world, and finished the blog before around 9. I cleaned up and dressed (I returned to showers at night to prevent pollen from being carried into my bed; I woke on Saturday feeling much better). My bandage showed only a small amount of blood. Just one little bit needs to heal. I finished my antibiotics. I am feeling more like myself.

The anesthetic issues are fading. I still have some issues with basic mathematics, but I am slowly getting that back, and I can use my phone calculator, so it is not an issue. I could not calculate 20% of 80 yesterday, for example (I can now–it comes and goes), but it was listed on the bill. I can code C for Arduino again. My language issues are gone–I am using the correct words when speaking. My writing has not been impacted. Some existing health issues are improving with the weight loss (234 pounds again) and increased exercise. I did just short of 5,000 steps on Saturday!

I contacted Dan at about 9:30 and checked that he could meet in Vancouver, Washington (not Canada), just across the Columbia River. He thought that would work out, and I was soon on my way. And took about an hour to reach him with light traffic on Saturday morning, but many roads were shut down for construction in Portland. I got the address in a text about 1/2 way and used navigation in Air Volvo.

I parked at what I learned was the back door, and Dan gave me a tour of the 24-hour service retirement facility. Like many I have heard about, Dan told me this facility was a set of similar-capability retirement homes created by a family. The family discovered there were no facilities that would work for their family members, so they created one and then went into the business of building more. I have friends from work who have done the same thing for their family members. They rebuild their home into a medical facility, hire staff, and collect payments from the state, federal government, and provide excellent care. I looked into this for Susie, but I was working full-time for Nike at the time and could not manage it. It was the middle of the pandemic, and medical stuff was insane then. I was blessed to find the hummingbird house, and I had the financial resources to afford it. Dan’s new place was an excellent facility; it was clean (no urine smell) and looked comfortable.

Janet was still getting ready, and Dan was free; we headed to downtown Vancouver in Air Volvo. The farmer’s market parking was full (wow)! I had to park about three blocks away in a public park for a few bucks. I had to download the app and then set up the car and purchase a two-hour stay. I would overstay that, but there were no consequences so far from that.

Dan and I followed our phone maps to the farmer’s market (three long blocks away), which was quite expanded since I was last there and included much more food ready to eat. We walked the whole thing looking at everything to eat and buy. I had left my bags in Air Volvo, so I would limit my purchases to just some veggies to make a salad I was taking to Dondrea and Z on Sunday (our church service is canceled on Sunday as the church building is surrounded by the Pride Parade and events and no consideration was made for a church service by the City of Beaverton or the parade organizers).

It was lunchtime, and while the food was interesting, Dan and I were thinking of a drink with lunch, so we walked out of the farmer’s market and stopped at the first restaurant that looked like it was sit-down and likely had drinks: The Sedgwick. It was a plush place priced at the hipster level. I had a beer, and Dan got a glass of wine. I ordered Duck Fat cooked steak fries, which was a thing created from a John Wick movie (see it here). Dan was not that impressed. I had brie cheese melted with bread and shared that with Dan. Dan tried the most excellent soup, and we split it. The bill was a stunning NYC-does-not-charge-this-much $80 for three appetizers and wine and beer drinks. Yikes! I bought.

Dan stayed with the veggies while I walked back to get Air Volvo. I was able to quickly negotiate the streets and crowd without any missteps, dizziness, or drifting to one side. The crowd was a mix of older folks, often walking a dog (and wondering, I imagine, where all these new folks came from), and the young, tightly dressed, and sexy who had recently moved to the area, some with dogs of various sizes. The younger folks often had food or bags of recently purchased produce. It was a good day for the vendors! I paid a premium for my two small bags.

As I said above, Air Volvo was not noticed when I overran the two-hour parking I purchased. Air Volvo soon negotiated Vancouver’s confusing streets and found Dan. We took the highway back to the facility, and I dropped Dan off. I managed to return to Beaverton and found that 205-84-5-405-26-217-8 would get me back without hitting any significant traffic issues. I called Dan, who would drive to Beaverton on Sunday morning to give him the magic combination of highways and streets.

I put the precious veggies away, rested, and read briefly. I did have some crackers and cheese as a snack before heading out again. Air Volvo drove a bit insane today as it enjoyed the traffic to Richard’s place in Portland, mostly caused by drivers reading the warning about road closings this weekend (and Monday?!).

Today, five people and another train game, Railway of the World. This is not the dreaded 18xx but an engine-building and resource management game closer to Brass than A Ticket to Ride. This is an Eagle-Gryphon Games game. They are the same folks who brought us Lisboa and other insanely complex games. This one is complex and can be mean, but we mostly enjoyed it. I never led the pack, I did catch Richard (who won by just a few points) at first, but he and Chris blew us away by twenty points at the end–Chris led for much of the game. At the very end, Kathleen caught me for third place–I picked the wrong end-of-game condition. Loren was having my usual new game experience and finished last–I felt for her (she took on too much debt at the start; I did, too). Lighter rules and kinder than Brass, and easy to learn, I would recommend it for a friendly group. Chris and Kathleen’s strategy of slow growth by building small, easy railroads was excellent. Chris crossed the mountains, built long lines, and collected huge points. Richard ran his railroads in the US south. I would recommend Railway of the World over Brass as simply more fun.

We played a card game, No Thanks, and Kathleen won; I fought hard but did not win a single hand. I like it and recommend it as a quick, easy game. We use these to decompress from the harder games. Air Volvo delivered Kathleen to her home. We had not seen each other for months, but we caught up. We will meet for some Wyrmspan games on Fridays. We will try Lucky Labrador Brew Pub off of Hawthorn and see if it works. I am retired, and I have only a few plans.

Air Volvo took the more messy roads back to 26 from Milwaukee, Oregon, to avoid construction and closed roads. Air Volvo faced fast, light traffic, with the frustrating 26 traffic flying over 70 and then slowing to 50s without warning or apparent cause.

The weather had changed from high clouds and hot sun in the morning to Oregon mist in the late afternoon and rain in some areas. Air Volvo arrived without issues, even with slick roads. I heated some pasta and had a late dinner, showered, changed my bandage (still a tiny bleed), and went to bed after remaking my bed. I had washed my bedding before I left for Portland. I soon slept.

Thanks for reading.

I woke early and was up at about 6 writing the blog. I could not sleep after sunrise today. I had liberal coffee made in the French press, yogurt, and a banana. I was strangely hungry all day and snacked a few times. I finished the antibiotics, and the bleeding in my belly incision is now just a single dot of blood. I was in my PJs until noon as I had no plans and was not going out.

I did remember on Thursday to put out the trash and the recycling, so I did not have to rush out in my robe when I heard the trucks. I was right that it was recycling week. My neighbors had out the lawn waste, but I was sure (based on my full recycling bin) that it was a recycling week. |

I found the leftover beef-based goulash had not been consumed, so I heated it for lunch. I was careful to chew and not choke while watching recent YouTube Battleship New Jersey and ShipHappens releases. I had choked before when eating too fast while multitasking, so I was careful and aware. Battleship New Jersey is back at its dock and will soon reopen to the public after dry docking. The video covered why New Jersey is the lightest of the Iowa-class Battleships (less armor)–definitely a Battleship geek fest. ShipHappens has reached the point where they are about to rebuild the deck on their WW2 wooden ship (it was at D-Day). After my naval geek-out, I showered, dressed, and prepared for the rest of my day.

My allergies are harsh. I sneezed for five minutes and had a coughing attack when I went to bed. Today, it was cold and overcast, but there was no pollen-removing rain. The impact is less as I take Montelukast at night, a generic of Singulair. I have been taking it for over a year, and it helps, especially in our winter, which is often full of mold. I no longer cough all the time.

The afternoon was spent picking up the house, doing laundry, and the dishes. Dondrea and I agreed to meet for lunch and the board games on Sunday for Birdie (Dondrea’s nickname), pizza, and salad. Z and I will teach Birdie how to play Wyrmespan. It is an excellent game, and we have played it over and over.

With no plans for Friday, I made dinner. I boiled salted water, found pasta sauce in a jar, cooked sweet Italian-style sausage, and cooked pasta in the water. The sausage was from Trader Joe’s and not bad. I fried all the links in a non-stock pan (thanks, Steve) and got them brown on two sides. I then added water that turned quickly to steam. I covered it and let the hot steam cook the sausage and also render out some of the fat. I then cut each in half, now cooked, and sliced them up. This is tricky as they are literally steaming hot. I managed to get it done and then browned the bits in the same pan. The water cooked away, and soon it was browning. I heated the pasta sauce in a pan and then poured that into the frying pan (my father would have removed the fat, but I don’t) and let it cook with the sausage. The pasta was cooked the usual way. I take a measuring cup and grab a cup of the starchy and salted water. I add this to the pasta sauce in the frying pan. I strain out the pasta using the usual way and then combine the now thicker pasta sauce with the pasta. I had a few bowls but never a full bowl. It was good; my tastes slowly returned as the impact of thrush was fading.

I read for a while and started clearing my table of figure painting items. I plan to start on my mini-submarine project, but I need some unclustered space. I also tried to make the Arduino Alvik that arrived a few days ago. I was disappointed as the device requires complex Unix-based updates (Apples are Unix/Linux-based machines, so I can do it on my Apple) that are only partially explained, so I gave up for now. There is an install.sh that needs to be run from somewhere, but it is unclear where (the name is popular, and I have many of these on my Apple). Arduino Alvik is Python-based, and I hoped to demo it at the Hillsboro Python and Machine Learning Meetup. Maybe they will update the instructions, or I will decide to invest the time to work out what is needed and do it. More to come, but I put the device in the garage; I was frustrated that the device was not better supported–I moved on.

Having seldom left the house and resting, Friday came to a close. Friday, I changed back to my revised practice of showering before going to bed to reduce the pollen in my sheets. This reduces the coughing. My bandage, as I said, showed only a tiny spot. Better.

I received my last paycheck from Nike. It included 102 hours of paid time off and my unused stock purchase money being returned to me. About 1.5 months of pay. I called HR and learned that the settlement of 48 weeks’ pay will be paid out in July. I am officially no longer part of Nike today. I was sent COBRA information, strong suggestions not to use it and to find my own insurance (no surprise there), and information on how to file for unemployment. The Oregon Insurance marketplace does not provide dental or vision care, so paying COBRA for 16 months makes sense to me now. More to follow.

A short blog today for a quiet day. Thanks for reading.

I was up too early because I could not sleep, so I started the blog and breakfast early. I had an NYC bagel (thanks, Joyce) and liberal coffee made in my French Press. I ordered more a few days ago, and it arrived on time. I wrote until about 9 and started my laundry after putting Corwin’s laundry, still in The Machine, in a chair.

I forgot to include in Wednesday’s blog that Subha called me and visited. She was calling and texting my old number (503 277-3705 is not my number anymore–that was Nike’s phone), and she contacted Brad Jones and got my new number. We had a nice chat, and I again offered to take her daughter driving when she was ready.

Returning to Thursday, I dressed and was happy to discover that my bandage showed just one spot of blood and not much of that. The weeping has stopped. My antibiotics run out on Friday, so the timing is good. I should be healed soon. My Bell’s palsy is still freezing part of my face, but it is hard to spot. My left eye still does not close well, and I must take eye drops often. I use a night gel for sleeping as my left eye likely does not stay closed all the way when sleeping. I wear eye protection (when I remember) outdoors and in facilities as my blinking to avoid dust is also not working as well as it should. The pain in my legs and lower back requires some painkillers. I assume this is from more activity and will pass soon. My weight went up four pounds to 234 again.

While Bell’s palsy and bleeding are annoying, I am doing well and gaining strength. I can drive, and I drove Air Volvo to Portland and back. I should be able to walk and start at a gym next month (that is next week).

Lunch was reheating the gnocchi from Wednesday’s dinner. I could only eat about half of it. My stomach has been all acid lately, and eating something like gnocchi in a tomato meat sauce has not improved things. Eventually, I had a bit of bicarbonate in water to cool things off. This is likely the impact of almost two weeks of heavy antibiotics. I felt better after the bicarbonate. I am sneezing and coughing from allergies; it has not rained for a week, and the tree pollen is harsh. My eyes are burning.

I decided to get some supplies from the local hobby store and then buy groceries at Trader Joe’s nearby in Beaverton Town Center. I talked to the train guy (also the model guy), but they did not have the brass parts I was looking for, so I left empty-handed.

But I did not leave Trader Joe’s empty-handed. As Corwin moved out on July 1st, I restocked my fresh veggies and various frozen food items, albeit at a slightly lower rate. Five bags and $150 later, I had to unload from the cargo hold of Air Volvo on my return to the Volvo Cave. For me, this is a major exercise as it includes lifting and moving items (my weight limit is 25 pounds at the moment). Trader Joe’s sells nothing plastic (I asked), so zip-lock storage bags and plastic wrap will have to wait until a trip to Safeway.

After unloading, I found the five chicken quarters frozen and started to defrost them. I prepared garlic bread from some bread machine made white bread by cooking garlic in butter with salt (I use unsalted butter). I let that cool as I waited for the chicken. I finally got the chicken defrosted enough to bake, covered it in salt and pepper with some paprika, and baked it in The Oven number 2 oven. When it was almost done, I baked the bread slices with garlic butter and a little cheese in The Oven number 1 oven. I cooked fresh green beans (with the ends broken off and broke, not cut, in half) on the burner and added more butter, almond slices, and, yes, more garlic. Everything was done at about the same time and was good. The chicken tastes mostly like chicken and not spices. Sometimes, I just like chicken to be chicken.

I watched the last episode of the Acolyte available on Disney+ and thought it was good. Again, it was entertaining, surprising, and very dark. Again, I’m not sure about all the complaints about not following Cannon, the poor ratings, or that it ruins Star Wars somehow; I thought it was interesting and shocking. Again, it was like Star Wars meets John Wick and The Expanse. With the warning that it is harsh, I recommend it.

I returned to reading and not working on any projects. Piper Kerman’s Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison was hard to put down. I am now in the Prison part after her wild life of crime and her surprising turn to having a boyfriend, which then follows with her guilty plea and eventual imprisonment. I learned that letters, money in an account, and sending books to someone in prison were excellent support for people in prison. Of course, visits are the most important, but there is a limit to visitors, and they must be on a list.

I learned that there is a NetFlix version of the book. I think I will just read it. Lately, I have been able to watch only fantasy items.

Aside: I watched a few minutes of the debates. It appeared to me that Biden was mostly lost, and Trump was his usual self, making up one-liners. Not what I hoped for.

I haven’t done rose pictures in a while, and after the debate, here are some nice flower pictures.

This is Heaven’s Scent from Dondrea and Z to remember Susie.

This is a painted rose that is no longer available from Heritage Roses, Picasso.

This is David Austin’s Wedgwood from the plant that was poisoned by the floods. It is coming back this summer.

This is an impossible-to-find David Austin Rose, The Herbalist.

I went to bed, changed my bandage with just a spot of blood, and fell asleep after 11. Thanks for reading.

A second night of pain as I woke at 6 from the pain. My left leg and some dental pain on my left side kept me awake, and I could not go back to sleep. I did take some painkillers when I went to bed and then they wore off. If the problem continues to reoccur, I will contact the doctors. I switched chairs while writing.

I woke at 4 on Wednesday with some pain but managed to fall back to sleep and rose around 8m; this is late for me. I  wrote the blog until 10 with a few interruptions. Among the interruptions, I set my Quicken numbers to match my investments. These do not update automatically, and I manually adjust them at the month’s end. I had forgotten to do May. Now, my net worth statement is correct for May 2024.

I dressed and headed to McMenamins Cedar Hills to meet Dr. Ernest, who runs the Hillsboro Python and Machine Learning Meet-up. We both were on time, and Dr. Ernest soon confused our waiter because he talked so fast. He switched to Spanish, and all was good. We talked about my adventures for the past couple of months and my recovery. We also talked about Ernest’s proposal, which I will consider. No details here as this is Dr. Ernest’s proposal.

After lunch, I headed to Powell’s, and that turned out to be expensive, as it often is. I found a new book, Nuclear War: A Scenario, that covers a scenario of a nuclear war happening today. I paid $30, knowing it was cheaper elsewhere, but I thought I would read it today, so I splurged. I also found a used book, Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, by Piper Kerman, which I also started today. It is well-written and hard to put down; the author is an excellent storyteller.

Air Volvo returned me to the Volvo Cave, and I started to read Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen. I could not put it down. It starts with the nuclear destruction of the Pentagon, Washington D.C., and the nearby areas (where I used to live and work). The book then describes the creation of nuclear weapons and the spies that gave the technology to the Soviet Union. It is heavily footnoted, and the author interviewed many people, and their comments fill in the story. I am tempted to order copies of some of the original documents to read the US rationale for the creation of nuclear weapons. It is quoted in the book. I just love the footnotes.

The scenario is possible, set in today’s world, and, according to the author, could happen today. The book covers the US government and military operations second by second and minute by minute, with the first nuclear attack, the Pentagon, in 33 minutes from lunch in North Korea to exploding a 1-megaton bomb. The details the author is able to provide, quoting and footnoting her sources, have updated my understanding of the current nuclear threat and capability (most of my memory is Cold War news reports and books like Fail-Safe and, of course, the movie Dr. Strangelove).

Corwin was surprised to see me reading the whole day away. I could not put down the first 100 pages. The next part includes speculation and storytelling and fewer facts. In this story, the President of the United States does not make it to safety, as I have seen in many movies. The Russian officials will not listen because the President is not available and assume the counterattack the US launches against North Korea is an attack on Russia, and the story spins into the end of the world.

What was interesting to me was the fact that the Russian Federation’s nuclear attack detection is flawed and may provide misleading information. Annie Jacobsen backs this up with various sources. It is quite possible that Putin and friends would misread a counter-attack on North Korea as directed at Russia. For example, the US ICBM range is too short and cannot reach North Korea without overflying Russia. This is the book’s end of the world story; Russian officials believe it is being blamed for the US attacks, the USA has launched a counter-attack on Russia, Russia has only minutes to respond, and the end is nigh. I put the book down at this point as it is now more speculative and storytelling. The damage, loss, targets, and other parts, I am sure, will be footnoted and based on documents and expert interviews. It reads more SciFi than history, but I will finish it.

With my reading, I did not make dinner. Corwin is available for dinner, so Air Volvo takes us to a favorite, Nonna Emilia Ristorante Italiano. I had the gnocchi, and Corwin, remembering that Susie always ordered the veil, had Veil Parmigiana. We both felt like we missed Susie at dinner. I took half of mine home. I cannot eat large potions anymore. Corwin took a side of spaghetti home.

Corwin was again surprised that I returned to the book and read until 9 when I hit the Russian attack and the US launching a full attack in response. While speculative, the author points out that Biden and Putin get only about six minutes to respond to an attack, and the pressure to respond is high. The US and Russian military doctrine is there must be a nuclear response to a nuclear attack, an overwhelming response. The author wants the reader to understand that this was true before President Reagan in the 1980s (who publically complained that six minutes is too short), and the risk is still real, and nuclear war could start today.

I needed a break from nuclear war and went to read Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison by Piper Kerman. This is the story of a gal who graduates from Smith College and finds it exciting to connect with some shady characters (what I have read so far) and goes to prison. So far, she is an excellent storyteller, and I had trouble putting the book down. Nice to have two books from Powell’s that are easy to read.

I changed my dressing and was happy to see just a dot of blood this time. Better! Two more days of antibiotics and a week of dressing (or less, hopefully) to go. I sleep until 1AM when the bedroom lights come on. I order them out, and they come back on and then brighten to full power. I kill them at the switch and go to sleep. As I said, I woke up in some pain and rose too early on Thursday. I changed chairs this morning and am sitting on a pillow.

Thanks for reading!

I woke a few times, and the sunrise woke me, but I rolled over and did not rise until nearly 8. I rose, put on my slippers, and started my morning. I read my emails and looked at a few news items. I downloaded all the transactions into Quicken.

I wrote the blog with many distractions because I was not in a hurry. I finished it at about 11, which was very late for me. My lunch appointment was canceled, so I was not rushed. For breakfast, I had a banana and coffee.

I showered, shaved, replaced my bandage (still weeping), and so on. I used the microwave to heat a Trader Joe’s frozen Cuban-style rice bowl. I got reflux issues from it all day–f**k. I went through my electronics to find some existing parts for the miniature submarine I am thinking about building. The design I am basing this on uses an ESP VROOM without a connecting board. Not something I really want to do. I found I have an Adafruit Feather with the same hardware and would use Arduino IDE to program–better, but this will use more power and require a separate battery. Hmm. I also found a breadboard that I broke when plugging in another board with too long pins (It went thru the breadboard and ruined the connections–f**k). I found more batteries, jumpers, and another board (still loaded with stuff to read light levels for an Arduino sketch). While I spent some time looking through my supplies, I spent much of the time thinking of how to assemble a working test version on a breadboard.

I did the dishes and put more and more things away in the kitchen. I am starting to find the countertop! I am slowly putting away things, recycling items, and trying to get the house in order. It is a long-haul project!

I decided that I needed to clear the table with all my paints on it and make it ready for electronic work. This will require a lot of work, as well as finding places for paints, figures, and so on. That is the goal for the week: Get the table ready for electronic and modeling work (I want to return to my model building soon).

PT showed up at 3, and we went over my status. I graduated from home care (yay!) as I am not homebound but can care for myself. I have workout items to keep building strength and as the wounds heal (heal, damn it!) I will expand my workout. The joining of a workout place with a pool PT thought a good idea. PT and I discussed my experience on the MAX, and PT suggested some of my issues may have been balance-related. PT warned me about the Portland Street Car as they bounce more, and folks have fallen there when they have no issues on MAX or when walking on uneven surfaces. Boats and cruises maybe even worse. Generally, I should be careful and not surprised that I may get motion sickness more easily, which is too bad as I already had issues with it. PT checked my blood pressure, which was back to normal (110/70).

I saw PT out and was happy about my four to five weeks of services.

I did more reading and looked into basic tests for the hardware for the mini-submarine. Power and control, always complex and even harder at this scale, look like the main issues. I think the video part will be easy, as there are good examples, and that just requires copying from others who have this working. Video is writing live video to an SD card and then live serving that out via a web server. This is outside my experience, but I think I can do it.

I decided to take a break and try the Disney+ Acolyte show, which has a terrible rating. I had read that Disney haters had used social media to attack any new shows and that the ratings were wrong. So I turned it on and found a dark and interesting show set in the Star Wars universe, but 100 years before the movies. The assassination attempt (giving nothing away) in the first episode was surprising and extremely violent; Star Wars meets John Wick. While many people complain that the show is running against the accepted stories of Star Wars, I judge it on my interest and surprise level. I thought it was good and watched four episodes in a row. I will be back for more.

I made dinner, which took a while, and my back and legs hurt after that (I also did my exercises), so I found myself using painkillers to sleep. I made goulash from the German cookbook Michael G’s father gave me one Christmas. I added potatoes and carrots to the mix instead of making pasta. I chopped all the onions I had (some were bad and got tossed—I might stop buying them from Safeway, as this has happened twice now). I cook lots of beef stew meat and then add all the onions and garlic and let that cook. Next, I add all the spices, wine, tomato paste, and veggies and let it all cook on the stove for about an hour on something higher than low settings.

Corwin loved it, and I might have had a few bowls. I fill my bowls about 1/2-way now. Corwin agreed to do the dishes and put away the leftovers. I read some more, but I was cold and went to bed early. I read and took painkillers, as I said, and finally slept.

Not a very exciting day, but thanks for reading!