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Today is the 5th of November and Guy Fawkes Day in some places. It was also a time change day. I had forgotten and was up at 6AM when I could not sleep, instead of 7AM like I thought. I wrote the blog with a bagel, a NYC bagel from the Smiths and Joyce, after correcting the few clocks that don’t automatically adjust. I was tired and not feeling well, and I found the blog more of a burden than a chance to remember the previous day (Aside–I hope it was not too wooden). I managed to get my inhalers and some food, and I was feeling better. The depression and the darkness of the Pacific Northwest Fall-Winter-Spring season (one seemingly endless grey rain storm) can sneak up on you, and I just want to stay home and do nothing. Nope!

I wrote the blog trying to force some color into my writing, and then I found my new golden vest after showering. I dressed in my blue suit but with a golden vest, matching (sort of) tie, and my golden (cheap) pocket watch. To this, I added black leather shoes and my black homburg hat. I was bright and felt better. Gandi wrote you are to be the future you want, but I suspect he did not mean sparkly vests, but I was what I wanted–bright and cheerful. I am being the future I want!

And while you may think I am connecting with my inner Drag Queen, I am thinking more Wild Wild West (which is a reference most folks won’t know, so see here) and adventurers (i.e., Extraordinary Gentlemen). I also like to look cool–and the vest fits, so it all works. I found these bits at HISTORICAL EMPORIUM online.

Bright and ready to do church, I took Air Volvo in the grey morning and arrived without issue. The world seemed still sleepy when I arrived. It is the observation of All Saints Day, and Susie and Dad Wild are on the list to be called out as a saint, and a chime would be played. I cried through the songs and the calling out of the saints. I missed Susie and Dad today and felt the hole in my life that they once filled. For years, I spent Sundays with Susie in hospital rooms, facilities, and finally, at the hummingbird house. We tried church a few times in Beaverton at First United Methodist, but Susie would fall asleep and nearly fall out of her wheelchair. It was too much for her, so I stopped taking her, but instead, I spent the afternoon with her often until 5PM. Also, I used to call Dad on Sundays and Grandma and Grandpa, too. Now they are all gone. It is hard not to be overwhelmed–I cried a lot in the church service today.

Dondrea gave the sermon today, and she focused on how the first big issue, found in Acts, of the early church was solved by asking folks to take over the issue, a ministry of small things. Dondrea reminded us that we all can serve, which is a blessing for all. It may not be the sermon, but maybe something small you may be called to do. This small thing will be a blessing for all.

After the service, I was told that most of Susie’s clothing had been sent to the local schools. I heard that the church gals found a younger girl to help them, and she directed what outfits would work for young people, and those have been delivered. There are still a few bags left to find a home, but they are working on it. Excellent–a grand message on All Saints Day. Another small but vital mission. I also managed not to cry when I was told this–I am crying now while writing this. Finality is hard.

I wanted to wear my cool vest and clothes longer and headed to Red Robin for lunch. Next door was a new store, Humble Pie, and I bought a pecan pie and a small beef pocket pie from them. They have just opened, and I put my goodies in Air Volvo’s cargo hold for later use.

If you are feeling down, pecan pie is a good answer. I had a slice and felt better.

I sat at the bar and called Leta (we had missed each other on Saturday). I also connected with Barb and her family, but Barb was driving, and it was best to keep that discussion short. I talked to Leta for a while, and we caught up. The bartender, who told me I would have to wait, was doing too many tables, so I told her to take her time–I was not in a hurry. I rang off, happy to have connected with Leta, who loved the golden vest. The bartender was friendly once I told her I would wait, and it was fine. I then ordered my usual Ensalada Plater with two chicken breasts. I also ordered a Stella, Susie’s favorite, to raise a glass to Susie on this All Saints Day.

I had to ask for a knife and for salsa for my meal. Apparently, the wait staff did not know the menu as well as I did. I did not hold it against them; I was happy with the excellent food.

I finished lunch and used the machine to check out; I left without giving more work to the bartender. She seemed happy that I was going, but she wished me well, and we both look forward to another day when we can see each other again. It was pleasant.

Air Volvo was dry as the rains seemed gone for a short while, and I soon arrived home at the Volvo Cave. I put away the suit and various items in the closet and rested for a bit–the lack of sleep was hitting. I managed to rest for an hour. I then got up and arranged all of the paperwork for October into a binder. I reviewed and corrected the transactions in October, finding some mismatches and misassigned items. It was surprisingly bad and showed how hard it was for me to think clearly after Susie’s death on 13Oct2023. I untangled the numbers in Quicken, printed out the corrected summaries, added in some account statements that had since come in, and thereby closed the month. I started putting November’s first papers in the binder, too.

After that, I started to look at travel; I wanted to look at historical ships, so I decided to focus on the American Civil War (ACW) wrecks and surviving artifacts. I discovered that there are more partially intact wrecks in museums than I thought–there are more since the 1990s when I lived in Maryland. Georgia, the Carolines, and Virginia would be a pleasant visit to focus on ACW ships. I would also like to reach Washington DC’s Navy Museum. One complexity is that many important displays are only open on the weekends. So, I think in the winter, I will need to spend a week and two weekends viewing artifacts of the ACW in the American South.

I did look at some European options, but I thought I should try the USA ones first. I am passing, for now, on WW2 ships and Cold War items. For example, the USS Nautilus is in Annapolis, Maryland, the world’s first nuclear sub. There are some Spanish-American ships and fragments of Maine to find (the masts of the USS Maine are in Virginia and Maryland), and I might add that to the trip. It is so far a dream, but it looks like fun to do. More to follow, and I will be near many folks if I do this, so I may have folks meet me at specific locations as I do my tour. I wonder about popping up to NYC, or maybe Cat can come down–again, more to follow.

Next, I had Dungeons and Dragons on Sunday at 5:30. This was the first game without Cory, who passed away and had played with us for years (he died the same week as Susie, and they were good friends). Tonight, we returned to Matt V’s house to play at his usual gaming table. Matt made us burgers and salad for dinner. We played until 9:15, and we added Sean to our regular group of Scott, Karyn, and Mackers, plus me. We are playing Spell Jammers–Dungeons and Dragons in space, and our group is still hunting pirates. We are down to the two strongest ones on the list–We have a physical Letter of Marque to hunt pirates–so neat!

Tonight, my character, a Lawful Evil Cleric of War unimaginably named War, was hit by a catapult stone, two giant arrows from siege weapons, nearly disintegrated, and finally knocked unconscious from a fireball. In other words, great! I did get to turn the undead–all undead cursed pirates for this battle–twice, and that worked well. That made me a target, and I was worried I was going to need, again, a new character. But, as it was getting close, we finished off the bad guy and won.

I drove home in the now pouring rain–we have a massive storm of another river of rain–and finally got home. I have been writing for hours. It is getting late.

Thanks for reading.

 

I am up too early as I spaced that it was Fall-Back day, and I was having trouble sleeping today. I remember taking Air Volvo down Burnside last night in Portland and seeing all the beautiful people out in the clubs, which were packed–they got an extra hour of dancing last night–and it should have reminded me. My mind instead was focusing on the massive traffic snarl last night, I-84 was closed by a crash (all lanes), and Air Volvo was rerouted through Portland, making my usual thirty minutes or less into a slow tour of Portland for over an hour. I was flustered and tired when I was home.

Saturday night, I had two cups of coffee while playing the massive board game VoidFall at Richard’s, and I usually can sleep still, but not tonight. I was asleep after 2:30 and had trouble with my asthma. I woke up and could not fall back to sleep. My clock was not set correctly, and soon I was up and discovered that I was up an hour earlier than I thought. Ugh!

Going back to the previous night. As I said above, I-84 was closed, and Air Volvo hit that mess on my way back from dropping off Kathleen. She, Richard, Chris, and I spent the evening playing one long and complex board game, VoidFall. This board game is a strange economic game set in a SciFi story with a peculiar colonial direction. You have to conquer to win the game, as the other players are making colonial conquests and expanding their economies. I tried to resist this colonial bent but soon scored at the bottom. The two most aggressive players, Richard and Kathleen, had the highest scores–Richard reaching twice my score! Chris was ahead of me the whole game, too. I still like VoidFall as it is fun and a premium game experience–using metal instead of wooden pieces. The game is massive and expensive. I will play Richard’s copy.

Before Richard’s games, I was at the Lucky Labrador off Hawthorn in Portland with Evan. I like the place; they have peanuts and an excellent BLT sandwich. Their beer selection is good, and they have many tables that fit games well. It is also about 50% cheaper.

I crossed Beaverton and Portland in easy traffic to reach Lucky. There, Evan and I played two games, Ruins of Arnak with the add-ons and an original base version game of Furnace; we eschewed the new cards and rules. It seems to me that the new rules for Furance make the game less attractive, as you have to focus on too many things. What makes this game great is the simplicity of the base game.

We use the new leaders’ add-on in Arnak, and I selected one of the new replacement tracks for research. With the new superpowers of the leaders and the crushing brutality of the new research track, it was pretty fun to play. Evan and I played different approaches, and Evan was sure he crushed me but was surprised to discover it to be a tie game with Evan, having reached the temple first, winning by tie-breaker. I did not know that was a tie-breaker, and next time, I will rush faster. I played by buying more cards and running my book piece to the top space (worth 13 more points!).

I managed a sixty-point score in a basic Furnace game with two players and the third non-player (from the base rules) and won that. I liked playing the base game as it went faster, and there was no strange sequencing from the new rules. I had a BLT for dinner. I made chicken noodle soup from a can for lunch at the Volvo Cave.

Moving to the start of the day, I was up late, 8ish, and felt off. Maybe a cold was trying to start, but my breathing and coughing receded once I used my rescue inhaler. I think the illness is stress from Susie’s passing and that my usual, very ordered days are gone (I had to visit Susie every day and write the blog, which created two events that pinned my whole day). Depression is also slinking in and making not want to do anything. I did dishes, did some work on Quicken, and putted around the house, and soon, the whole day seemed to vanish. I headed out to Portland at 1ish.

My mom called and wished me a happy birthday. It is not my birthday. Mom was shocked that she no longer knew my birthday (she was there). It was hard on Mom Wild to learn she got that wrong.

Thanks for reading.

 

I return to my weekend pattern, to some degree, by writing this blog for Friday on Saturday morning. The Pineapple Express is sending the “river of water,” and my gutters are overflowing as the leaves are falling and filling them. It is a grey boiling sky that will remain with us until next year’s summer. The sun is gone. Or, a typical day in November here in the Portland Greater Area and the Pacific Northwest. We grumble and secretly smile as we welcome the rains and the wettest month of the year. If you live here, you actually like rain.

I am feeling a bit better about Susie’s passing as the pain has gone from sharp emotional pain like a broken bone or the endless pulsing pain like a dental issue to more like sore muscles and muscle aches of the flu. I cry three or four times a day, but now just slow tears. I have made no progress on the obituary or the celebration of Susie’s life. It takes all I have to pretend it is a usual day.

But let’s, dear reader, move to the narrative. The truth is in the story, not my musings about the day.

Friday was another work-from-home day at Nike WHQ. In January, Monday will be a work-from-office day, expanding us to a 4-in-the-office work week. Also, the rumors are that all the folks who moved away are being told to return to their department–I have no official correspondence on this issue, so it is just rumors. I do not plan to run away or to demand to work from home, even though the COVID-19 numbers are rising and there are few masks at WHQ. But, nobody comes to work sick or exposed–so at least we have that. Also, you can see the conversations are still at six feet in the hallways. Again, it is something.

I climbed out of bed at 7AM, found the kitchen, and it was cold. The economic settings are 66F (19C) for the house. I advanced it to 70F, wincing at the extra carbon from my natural gas (but reasonably efficient furnace), but since the chemotherapy, I take a chill. I wear one last time the worn-out slippers that Linda, my sister, gave me when she worried about me in chemotherapy. New slippers are on their way to me. The floors are cold, and I am cold.

I make coffee, not my usual brand, but the NYC-based Zabar’s grind, and I taste the fantastic, never-sleeping city. Across my tongue are the flavors of Broadway shows, walks in Central Park, the efficient greed of Wall Street (which I love and hate at the same time), a thousand places to eat that are better than anything here, memories of dinners and games with Cat and Tasha and Jason in Manhattan, Susie (now a sad flavor with tears) loving every moment in NYC, and the insane taste of subways (the people, the new and old subway lines, and ease of travel) and I love every drop. I draw out an NYC bagel, also Zabar’s, and prepare it with cream cheese (thanks, Smiths and Joyce, for the vast collection). I head to the home office, sad and happy, with my best breakfast. I added some yogurt to finish it.

Work is the usual meetings, but since it was Friday, I have skipped the usual defect meeting and instead attended a staff meeting for master data with Rajani and our whole team for the project, followed by more status and process meetings. This is a happy meeting and a chance to see, virtually, the entire staff. This is followed by the usual boring status meetings–it is always good when these meetings are boring.

I slip into the shower in a break between meetings, and thus, refreshed, I continue on more meetings in my home office via Zoom. Lunch is a salad that I chop veggies for. My celery, while having seen better days, is still good enough. I chop one giant carrot and some ham from Sunday, still in the frig, and make a chef salad. I watch on the new laptop, which I worked out the last kinks, and working excellently, the next part of the newest Indiana Jones while I make my salad. I then take the food and laptop back to the office. I reorganized the cables, and now the landing dock is working–the last thing. Instead of watching much YouTube, my usual, I instead enjoy the US Department of State websites. I collect my passport book, which expires in seven months, and fill out the forms to renew it. It is $220 to rush this, but it will likely take months as Congress continues to start and stop the government for reasons best not explored here. I then get in Air Volvo, remove the leaves trying to bury it, and head to FedEx’s office less than a mile away. Another poor photo later, I added it to the smallish envelope with the form and passport book and took Air Volvo to the Post Office. There, I invested another $5 or so to get a tracking number and send my hopefully correctly filled out form and acceptable photos to the State Department to get my next passport.

I refueled Air Volvo. Gas, while below $5, is still too high, but at least it is slowly declining in price.

I return in time for more Zoom meetings at the Volvo Cave and my home office. At 3PM, I completed all my meetings and reviews and approvals. I read more on the Cassandra database (more of a data storage and indexing system than a real database, I think) and commend it to you data geeks reading this–I am intrigued.

I get texting Dondrea, and we exchanged our favorite Christmas tunes. Dondrea is not a fan of the newish All I Want For Christmas, but I like it (and it was Susie’s fav as she loved the movie. Love Actually), and my favorite version is here, recommended if you need some injection of Christmas spirit. White Christmas is more Dondrea’s style.

Besides exchanging commentary about Christmas tunes (my favorites are here: We Three Kings and Mary, Did You Know), we planned to meet at the taphouse The 649 in Aloha. I had the games loaded in the cargo hold of Air Volvo, but we picked Istanbul as it is easy to master and is more fun than the strict economics of the board game Furance, which Dondrea knows and mastered in just one play (yikes!). Barely knowing what she was doing, Dondrea crushed us as Z, and I gave her excellent advice. We enjoyed finger foods and some drinks. Z got a no-alcohol but excellent watermelon drink, and Dondrea had a cider while I had a beer. Z won the second game as she concentrated on money and buying items. Z also wandered the other side of the board while Dondrea and I plundered our side and started tripping over us. Z was happy; she had never beaten me in Istanbul before. Sadly, I saw it come five turns ahead and was less efficient than Z in this game. Next time!

I paid the bill and headed home. There, I finished the laundry I started, as usual, on Friday during the meetings. I remade the bed and decided, again, that the laundry looked nice by the dryer. I finished my previous book, A Fire Born of Exile: A Xuya Universe Romance (Xuya Universe Romances). I started the newest (and slightly expensive on my Kindle) Tom Mead murder mystery: The Murder Wheel: A Locked-Room Mystery. Both are recommended; the first is Love in a Space Opera, set in a space Vietnam Empire (really), and the other is a 1930s London retired magician solving impossible crimes–so me. 

I read until I started to dream the story of the murder mystery, falling asleep while holding my Kindle still. It used to make Susie giggle to see me hit in the face by the Kindle.

Thank you for reading.

Last night, I found a candle, printed out a picture of Dad Wild and Susie together, and put Susie’s skates next to it. I lighted the candle and let it burn (on a safe plate) all night for the Day of the Dead. It is not my culture, and I did not stay up; I don’t mean to appropriate someone’s culture, but it seemed the right thing to do. After sunrise, I put out the candle. I did not realize it was a unique candle scented with Old Barrel Whiskey–definitely Susie’s style.

I slept in until 7AM as I was working from home today to wait for a package. Nike WHQ had a network outage that played havoc with the testing of our new software and running our systems. I could reach my items on VPN and start my meetings without connection issues, but the meetings were disheveled as we did not have access to the defect and tracking systems. Yes, a defect for the defect software–the irony was lost on nobody.

I had the last banana, and I had some more yogurt for breakfast. I had more NYC Zabar’s grind coffee from the Smiths and could almost hear the five dozen bagels calling me in the freezer. Don’t worry, I will get to them. The meetings were the usual, and I was in the shower at 10AM and dressed after that. I had a few reviews to do and approved quite a few changes. So I was busy in the morning.

I reheated the chicken stew I had left and sliced some homemade bread with the new wickedly sharp bread knife–I think it could cut the bread by just waving it. I had dainty, thinly sliced bread with butter with my stew. I let the stew cool down this time–no need to burn my mouth.

I watch YouTube Battleship New Jersey and ShipHappens new episodes while eating lunch. The Battleship channel discussed how long it takes to make a WW1 and WW2 battleship. The school of thought was four years, but the facts are that US Battleships took about two years and change, and most WW2 battleships took three years or less to build. ShipHappens was installing new beams for their deck, and it was the completion of months of work to get this far. All excellent shows.

After that, I returned to meetings in Zoom for Nike and read and approved items. I got quiet at 3PM.

And it was good that it got quiet as my new Apple, a black-as-night Airbook 15″ M2, was delivered. I then started it up, attached my backup, and restored a copy–Time Capsule–of my 13″ MacBook Pro M1 onto the new systems. I always move the image to the next machine. By 3ish, I was back with my image restored. I had issues with Quicken, which rebuilt to last week’s version (not sure how), and I had to reauthorize iTunes. I reconnected Grammarly by reinstalling the add-on to Chrome. I redid all the Quicken updates–remembering most of them. Back! Everything is good from what I can tell.

I discovered that the keyboard is slightly larger than my previous Apple, making typing challenging. The screen is really bigger–surprising to me. It is a lot easier to read. The sound seems about the same lack of quality but with more bass. The silly bar is gone, and the F keys are back. The command key moved again (F**k), and that is driving me a bit mad. This toy is maxed out with 24G memory, an M2 chip, and 2T of super fast solid state storage with a price tag with full coverage, north of $2,500, but well below the $4,000 folks are paying for MacBook Pro M2 super-something. I am delighted with my slightly cheaper MacBook Air 15″, M2, 2023.

My previous Apple is spoken for and is on a shelf for a week until this one burns in. I will then take it to Apple to have the microphone repaired and the keyboard cleaned or fixed.

Yes, I was locked out of my eTrade account again. Apparently, it was Quicken that was causing the lockout. Because of the amounts, I was treated as a VIP account and needed a VIP token device, but they did not send me one. So I keep getting locked. There is now, and I am so proud, a ticket to fix the issue, as I should not need a VIP device unless I have one–a day of irony.

I am moving some more money to US Bank, and I managed to transfer money inside eTrade and hope to acquire a three-month treasury bill. Fingers crossed.

Dinner was a frozen Chicken Cordon Blu with corn and over microwaved potatoes with butter and sour cream. It was all good and something I used to make for Susie and Corwin all the time. Again, seemed fitting for The Day of the Dead. I started the latest Indiana Jones to test the sound and screen. Oh my, the screen is excellent. It also, because it is larger, fits the movie on the top half of the screen in perfect color. I managed about the first 1/3 of the movie.

I also did the dishes and hauled the trash out. The recycling is overflowing from Matt’s cleanup and will be good to get emptied this Friday morning.

I decided to go drinking again at Wildwood. I wanted to test the laptop in other places and see how it carries. I ordered another book-like case for it–I liked the one for the 13″.

I finally ordered new slippers. My sister, reading my blog back a year ago, got me something to keep me warm during the chemo. I have worn them almost every day since. They are almost gone.

Time to buy something new. They are on their way but late. I hate to send these on their way, but they are falling apart and tripping me now. They served me well.

Thank you for reading on this Day of the Dead 2023.

I was tired and was startled awake at 6AM by my phone. “How could it be six already,” was all I thought. I debated calling in sick and managed to stand and get started. Ugh! I went to the kitchen and started the hot water in the electric kettle. I found a yogurt and a banana to go with the Zabar’s Grind from NYC. I washed the Zabar cup–“I should use that for coffee,” I thought. I trudge all of this to the office in the house. Thanks, Smiths, for the coffee again, NYC coffee!

I started, after coughing and blowing my nose multiple times, an email to take the day off, but then decided to fight my way through it–I could always give up later. I went into eTrade and tried to transfer 1/2 the remaining money into USB, no longer trusting eTrade. I read emails, Slack updates, and the news to prepare for my day. I ran over a bit but rushed my shower and dressing to be ready to board Air Volvo near 7:30. I loaded up the board games as I planned to play with Z during Wednesday choir practice at First United Methodist Church. I made my first meetings and even had a second breakfast supplied by our program for the tester and folks like me who support testing.

Z has a cold, so no games today.

I drank so much coffee, and I was so tired my hand was shaking. I then talked to folks about my other work and offered to help another team that may be overwhelmed by the upcoming go-live. I used to do product support for the legendary system, and I am sure I could help with the new software besides the master data. We will see, but I did offer.

I had lunch–supplied to us testing folks, chicken breast with Mexican-styled veggies and rice, at my desk. I started to read about some technology that has been on my mind. It has been showing up here and there. It was pretty interesting–part of my job is to know tech, so it’s time to learn something. I did the last couple of hours of meetings and left at 4PM

Aside: I was wondering how these high-concurrency databases worked. Basically, you can have consistency, high concurrency, or high scalability. Pick two. Very interesting. So yes, this tech has low consistency–an interesting choice.

I also called eTrade, which locked my account again and blocked my transfer. F**k. I called them and got it unlocked again, and sent it again. Ugh! But they are paying me interest on the money, at least.

At the house, after traveling to the Volvo Cave in Air Volvo, I got a note from Mariah to meet her for dinner at Von Eberts. So after getting the mail and some packages (including more fresh bagels from NYC–Thanks, Joyce), I headed in slow traffic to Von Eberts. It took me forty minutes to get there and park. I got there just after Mariah sat down at table 13. We had beers and were shocked by terrible wings. No longer are the wings smoked, and the wings are no longer so good that the chickens volunteer. This was more prison chicken wings, ugh; now they serve emaciated and over-salted and sugared deep-fried culinary accidents. We will not be back for that. The beer was good still, and the help was more friendly (trying to make up for the lousy food, I thought).

Two beers left me dizzy, and I walked to Powell’s and walked through the giant bookstore until I felt normal. I managed to resist the cookbooks and a book on shipwrecks. I then found Air Volvo and headed home after paying the parking bill.

It is wet, and my pumpkins are still lit by the coin cells and LEDs. I wrote the blog, still lamenting the loss of such great wings.

Thanks for reading.