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I decided to work from home today, Tuesday, as I had too many things to mail and take to GoodWill. I also had to get ready to replace the washer and dryer with an expensive LG gizmo that can do both. I am looking forward to having the space back and to a more efficient appliance.

I woke just before my alarm from my dreams filled with forgotten vistas and events. I cannot recall a moment of the dreams, but I did have a nightmare. I woke at 1AM and then went back to sleep. Too much coffee before bed! I did sleep well the rest of the night. I cannot remember the nightmare, but it woke me, and it took me a moment to know who I was and where I was. Nasty. But someone who writes Dungeons and Dragons and horror stories can dream something unpleasant!

I finally rose just before my alarm. I sat on the edge of the bed, looking at my slippers. I must have fallen asleep sitting as my alarm brought me back to the task at hand. Oh my, that’s not the way to start. “F**k” was my first word for this day.

I attended a few meetings, and missed one as it was added to my calendar after I stepped out. I made a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast (thanks, Joyce), as I have quite a supply available. I made liberal coffee in the French Press, my usual drink in the morning, lots and lots of coffee.

I had assembled the boxes of stuff for Susie’s Concert the day before, plus a duplicate cookbook to send back. All this was to be done at the US Post Office. I loaded it in an Air Volvo. My pants are too loose now, and I struggle to carry the boxes without losing them. I managed to succeed without any unplanned exposure, making two trips. I have clean and stripped underwear under my pants–for you wondering.

I stood in line and brought up my stack of boxes forward (I stacked them in the back of the room while I stood in line), which overwhelmed the mail clerk momentarily. Still, we worked it all out, and she was happy to help when I said I was having a second memorial for my wife in Michigan where other family members could attend. While the ice skates cost more than $900, I insured each box for $500 as that does not require a signature. Barb, Susie’s sister, should get all these on Monday.

Next, again, with the pants issues, I took some more clothing and other items to Goodwill. I also finally took Susie’s brown hat off the hook (the last one I have in the house and her backup hat) and put it in the closet. I am slowly starting to put things away.

I opened some boxes from Ben’s house that had not been opened since we sent them here–Ben was Susie’s dad and had been gone many years now. I tossed the things that were just not meaningful; I will take some of the more commercial items to Goodwill. I found all of Ben’s photos we kept. I may send them soon to Barb. I also have his WW2 metals and every letter Susie sent him. Not sure what to do yet. I found our wedding program in Ben’s stuff and some saved napkins. It made me cry; he had kept it and taken it back to Alaska and kept it with Susie’s letters.

I found a box of our stuff from Maryland that has not been looked into since we moved here. More photos and a few strange items like my Employee of the Month award as a consultant in Baltimore. I will have to dig in more on that one.

I stopped with the closet archeology and made lunch. I found a can of tuna, chopped celery, and onion and added stuff to make a good tuna fish salad. I spread that on another NYC bagel, toasted it, and covered it with cheese slices. Next, I broiled all of this. It was hot and cooked on the bagel. Sadly, I flipped it on the plate by accident and made a mess of it. Nonetheless, it was a good lunch.

I continued to follow along at work. It was a quiet day. I did the dishes, washed everything I could in the existing laundry machines, and put it away. I cleaned off the shelf above the laundry machines of old stuff and made room for the replacement.

I found the steaks (ribeyes) I bought last week and partially defrosted them just enough to separate them. I also made a Caesar salad from a bag and corn muffins from a box. Due to making dinner, I cleaned the kitchen a third time today. Laundy, doing dishes, and putting things in recycling, trash, or away seems constant today.

The recycling bin is stuffed, and the trash is stuffed—five glass things are in the bin. Yes, lots of stuff is getting done.

I held the last Zoom meeting for Nike on Tuesday on the deck, and everyone liked it. I had just finished grilling the steaks, which were beyond medium rare but not yet overdone. It’s my favorite way to cook a big steak. I imagine my neighbors, none of whom were out grilling on a perfect sunny April afternoon with me, smelling those steaks cooking. They need to get to grilling!

I eat while I rewatch the last Mission Impossible movie. I like this one. The driving chase stuff in Rome is fun. The food was great, but too much.

I put away my current SMS Derfflinger 1/700 work and carefully organized the table. I do not like to put away the model, but I want it out of harm’s way when they move the appliance on Wednesday. The model is now back in the box and in the office. Next, I slide in one of the extensions and push the table away from the laundry. Next, I fold and put away all my laundry and towels. Corwin’s clean clothing and towels are piled in a chair. There is now plenty of space to pull the laundry.

Corwin also made a path in the garage of his stuff so the new stuff could come through the garage. I wash the pans and let them dry. I finally finished everything I needed to do. I am tired tonight. I have worked non-stop.

I got a couple of items delivered today. I had to sign for one from the mailman. I purchased stickers for the board game piece of Stroganov, one of my newest games. It is an excellent improvement. I also got my new scalpels for model work. I bought 100 blades already. These came from the UK, and from what I have read, they are a pleasure to use. They are balanced and well-made. I will use them when I can get back to my models like SMS Derfflinger.

And that is when I collected the computers, moved to the office, and wrote this blog. I hope it was not too long or disorganized.

Covering some other thoughts…

A Kickstarter was delivered today, too. It contains maps of London and nearby areas in great detail, set in 1879, for the role-playing game of the same name: 1879. These maps are not sci-fi or historical fiction but an effort to redraw the London area in maps for 1879. I got a spare copy for a friend. They look great.

I still call Leta every day I can. We talked on Facetime, and Leta got to wave at the mailman. I also showed her the maps mentioned above. She loved them.

Thanks for reading.

It is 116 days since I was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and I will face surgery to remove it on 20 May 2024. It is benign and slow-growing but must be removed. I have lost and will not recover my hearing or balance on my left side.

I woke just before my 6:30AM alarm on Monday morning. I had woken up a few times to vivid dreams that I cannot recall. Being Monday, I did feel more like a vampire rising than a human, starting another thrilling work week. I was not singing, “Everything is AWESOME.” I made coffee after locating the French Press disassembled in the dishwasher. Corwin thought it a good idea to wash it but did not run the dishwasher. I cleaned it, reassembled it, and summoned liberal coffee into existence by following the usual rituals. I was surprised my brain and hands could work so well together to perform these complex processes and rituals. I am a liberal cultist.

I read my usual emails (both my own and those supplied by the shoe company), read the Slack channel updates, and tried to absorb the latest news. It’s no surprise that Trump continues to dominate the news, but today, he was second to the eclipse. While I am a liberal and do not agree with his policies, the show he puts on certainly fascinates people. I enjoy reading all the legal decisions–Trump is like a legal class in obscure excuses.

I cleaned up and shaved with Harry’s blades (thanks, Steve). I was soon dressed and ready to board Air Volvo. My ride to work was uneventful, with no Flat-Earther blocking the roads and protesting the conspiracy that there was an eclipse. I was wondering if that would happen–Rep. Greene did say the eclipse was a sign from God about His displeasure with homosexuality (or something like that). So I was expecting more crazy.

Instead, all the European folks came to our building, Swift, and could not get in because their badges and passes were not working. That is right; they could not swiftly get into our building named after a product to make you go faster. Irony was going for sudtle today.

Most of my usual meetings have ended as we wait for the go-live to get closer. I am not working with the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) team this week, but I did get to say “hello” to old friends from the Laakdal warehouse, where I used to write software as a logistic coder. It was a quiet day. I researched how the SAP HANA database uses memory as it keeps surfacing in discussions.

At about 11:20, the eclipse reached 24% in our area, and the parking lot and building lights were re-lit. However, it was a grey and wet day, so we could not see the sun at all. A pin camera might have worked, but there was little light because of the clouds. Also, our eyes adjusted, so it was likely a dark time, but it was just another grey morning in Oregon to us. Again, the only hint was the parking lot and building lights restarting.

I returned in Air Volvo to the Volvo Cave to wait for some deliveries. They were there when I got there. A Kickstarter for the new board game Inventions arrived. Also, another load of NYC bagels from Joyce came; thanks!

Next, I looked at the food supplies at the house and discovered I had everything to make a good jambalaya. So I started on the trinity (onions, celery, and green pepper in equal portions) and then blessed the pan with the Pope (garlic). I left it to sweat in the pan while I cut up sausage, some spicy, and ham and raided the yet-to-bake Easter ham to get some bacon off the back. This may be an Orthodox Easter ham, and it will wait until May 8 to bake.

Once everything started to stick to the bottom of the pan, I added the out-of-the-box spices and rice. I cooked that in the oils and remaining water to get it all spicy. I added water, boiling hot from the electric kettle, and then simmered for 25 minutes to finish the rice and mix up the dried spices. I had two bowls—excellent and the closest yet to NOLA versions. It is a quest to get to an NOLA-acceptable level.

I did a few more meetings and then rested. I had nothing on for work, and I was tired, so a food coma took over. I woke at 5 and started back to work on Susie’s Concert. I packed much of what we used here for the service, except the fragile items and large stuffed animals. It was three boxes, one somewhat heavy. I will mail that to Barb, Susie’s sister, soon. I also packed a duplicate cookbook to return–Susie had arranged for it to appear every year, but I, too, ordered one, oops. Next year, I will wait for her copy to appear.

I reworked the flyer, bulletin, and instructions for the service to match the new location and new pastor.

I sent all of that out. I decided I had enough and headed to The 649 to write and have a drink. Avery was the bartender, and she got me a bourbon and ginger (they did not have Southern Comfort) to remember Susie today. I had a hummus platter after the drink (I can’t do that many hard drinks without food). Later, Avery bought me bread pudding to remember Susie and for my birthday.

With tears and happiness simultaneously, that brings me to now. Thanks for reading.

Going backward, I just started writing today’s blog after returning from Matt V’s place, where we play Dungeons and Dragons twice a month. Or lately, when we can. Matt and our players are all busy, and getting a Sunday night free for role-playing is hard. We have met for over a decade, maybe two for some of us. Matt grills beef and no-meat burgers, or nothing in the case of our vegan players who eat at home. We have a meal and play 5E, the current version of Dungeons and Dragons. There are rumors of a new version, One D&D, but it appears to be more of an extension than a replacement.

We are playing the add-on Spell Jamming, which is Fantasy mixed with Sci-Fi and involves flying ships into space in an impossible bubble of air and gravity. Tonight, we fought a new threat to our space from void space. I play the evil lawful (often known as Lawful Effective) and help blast and fight our way through a massive collection of lycanthropes. I did have to use the Remove Curse spell to prevent my cleric from joining the lycanthropes! It was a fun game, and one of us was temporarily changed into a T-Rex!

It was a fun night of gaming. We will likely get one more game before I face brain surgery on 20 May. We discussed what I was facing, and help was offered. Let’s plan for a positive outcome.

Before this, I had a late lunch with Corwin at BJ’s. The bartender, Jillian, whom I have known for years, was our waiter and bartender. I had noodles, and Corwin, my suggestion, had the prime rib. I did have a beer and a few bites of Corwin’s dessert. I took Corwin back to the Volvo Cave and rested until 4:30 when I needed to head toward Matt’s place.

Before lunch, I was at Best Buy. There, I bought an expensive laundry appliance. LG makes a washer and dryer combo. There is only one door, and it does the whole thing in a few hours. Getting rid of an appliance forever and LG’s product and lower power consumption seems a total win. The new appliance costs more than replacing the washer and dryer, installing, and hauling away. It seems the right thing to do. Neal, the sales guy, and I managed to get that ordered, and it will be delivered and installed on 10 April.

I was disappointed when I tried to replace the stove (I am unhappy with the current one, which never stays clean) as none of the ones I liked could be delivered before mid-May. Neal and I looked again, and I found a GE two-oven stove for much less that fit all my requirements. I am still not going with induction, but I am going with a smooth top and convection. I also looked at dishwashers. I looked at one, but Neal suggested an LG, and I picked one out that was also 1/2 the price I was looking at.

In the end, the lesser stove and dishwasher could be delivered and installed on 15 April, and even with haul away, it was thousands cheaper. Neal was happy to write that up.

I put extended service on the laundry, but I am unsure of that item.

Before this, I was at First United Methodist Church, and our pastor gave a lecture as chairperson for an NGO that is trying to stop human trafficking in the East on what he saw and the terrible story of human trafficking in Asia on his last trip. It was a departure as it was more of a real-world and social ill, but I think the appalling human cost he described was worth the investment. He did the slides and storytelling and showed me how to avoid scam calls. The human trafficking was for call centers, scam centers as he called them, that are stealing vast amounts of money. People are forced into crime and calling. A terrible story.

Before this, and it seems to pale against Pastor Ken’s talk, I was driving on TV Highway and saw the donut shop, made a U-turn as there was little traffic on Sunday morning, and got a donut and fifty donut holes to bring to church. Z and others were happy when I put them out before the service (even Ken had a few).

You will find Ken’s story here in our recording of the service. Recommended.

I rose at 7:30 and wrote all morning long. I was able to clean up and dress in time to get donuts. I did have a banana and liberal coffee while writing.

I slept well.

Thanks for reading!

I am writing this on Sunday morning. I am up early to try to write before church. It is a dry morning with some fog.

Saturday started with me sleeping until about 7:30 and getting started writing the blog for Friday. I wrote until late in the morning. I also did my usual download of transactions using Quicken and assigned anything that needed manual intervention, but most things still needed manual work. I closely follow all my active accounts. I update the 401K, IRA, and deferred compensation at the end of months or quarters. I tried to log on to the IRA and discovered it is somehow connected to a strange email account. I will have to call customer service and get it fixed. Ugh!

Taking a pause from writing, I made breakfast: a NYC Zabar’s Everything bagel with cream cheese and Equal Exchange French Roast liberal coffee. There is nothing like the taste of liberal in the morning.

I returned to my 1/700 scale (small going on tiny) model of the WWI SMS Derfflinger. The jewelry cement worked, and the model hull is now looking better. I practiced painting the black strip at the bottom of the model. This is a waterline model, meaning, for you non-modelers, that it shows only the parts that sit on the sea–there is no bottom. I have some of the dark grey and black now on one side; it looks good. Next, I mixed up some epoxy clay (two parts you combine to make it harden), just a small amount, and filled in an opening on the end of the model where the deck was not fitting well. I also filled the crack at the very ends of the hull from gluing the two pieces together. The bow needs to be smooth and impressive. The treated areas dried in an hour, and I took out sanding sticks and carefully smoothed the areas. It looks good. I will have to paint them primer using a brush.

I found the practice etched practice set and my cigar box of folding tools. I then went through the practice of folding a box and a tube. I need to remember how to do this and get the skills back. It is very intense and tiny work. I use my safety glasses with the 3X bifocals with a very bright light. I learned that the etched brass will fly and disappear. There are little tabs that hold a piece to a sheet; you cut these with a good heavy hobby knife. I cleaned off these tabs, and one piece flew off the table after the cut. I forgot to hold it with a transparent tool as the force can flip the tiny piece like tiddywink. More practice is needed before I start on the ship parts!

It was time for lunch. I called Leta while I was driving; I still try to call her every day. She mentioned that the strawberry poppy seed dressing salad was at Panera Bread again, so I decided that worked for me. I arrived there safely in Air Volvo without witnessing any local driver shenanigans. I connected to my account on their touchscreen ordering system and soon had a cup of hot tea and a salad to enjoy. The salad was perfectly made, and this particular store looked cleaner and more organized than the last time I visited. Excellent.

I had some time, and I was meeting Evan at The 649, so I headed to Best Buy. My appliances are all looking sad, and my washer leaks. Neal, the sales guy, explained the new super one-door washer and dryer combo. The one he was pushing required me to rewire the circuit for 30 amps—almost the same as the stove! There was a European model from LG that required only a regular wall plug and did the same thing in a smaller physical footprint. Now, that got my attention. All these are over $2,000, but it would reduce the total laundry footprint.

Neal also told me I could probably fix the leak issue by checking the filter he showed me. I had spaced that there was a filter. He suggested cleaning that and suspects the leak will go away. He said he would still like the sale, but he was an honest guy. Good move, Neal. I come from a long family of salespeople. Trust gets you the big bucks.

Next, without Neal, I looked at the stoves and dishwashers. LG has a special sale for $100 off for each additional item you buy. I liked their dishwasher, and they have a nice stove with two ovens. It’s time to upgrade, I think, but as usual, I will see what I think on Sunday (it is a pile of money). Sleep on it.

With dreams of new appliances, Air Volvo gets me to The 649, which is already busy. Evan is waiting for me. There is a political rally there at 4PM, and we are told to use a round table. Crystal and Stephen are bartenders and opened. That surprises me, as they were on Friday night, too. Natalia joins them later in the afternoon as the place packs with the political folks. I noticed that the dress style of the bartenders was comfortable today as they would be working with a large, distracted crowd.

Evan was thrilled to beat me by three points in the board game Concordia using the Cyprus map. He rushed to build the last of his outposts, thinking he was further ahead than he was. I was just one city from winning when he ended the game. I had missed the Farmer and Metal cards to Evan, so I purchased a pile of other cards and started building brick cities as I had the Mason card. I also got out all my colonists, which awarded me many points. Evan played very well and deserved the win.

We tried to play the basic two-person Furance using only the base rules (excluding all the new cards except for the one fixed card). I got lucky and landed a huge pile of resources, which allowed me to make money each round. I purchased a few cards but made money from the resources I collected from missing out on purchases. I scored high and won as we were squeezed out by the rally. We packed up and left. I had to return and find my hat and laptop, and I was on a chair that had wandered a bit.

I spoke to the manager, Kareem, and he is happy to see us come and play our games. He shared that his wife especially likes to see all the colorful games when she is working and likes it when we explain them to her. We are quite welcome there. Nice!

I headed to Richards and arrived in moderate traffic. People were making the usual lane changes without reason, but I managed to avoid any lost paint. I was early, and Richard had me come in early. He had spent hours preparing for today’s game. I, too, had read and watched videos on social media about today’s game: Inventions.

This is a massive board game and a brain-burner. It uses a chain process that allows you to take extra actions on your turn. You also stack actions. Thus, you start one, leading to another; you complete the new one and then return to the original. You almost need a notepad or a memory marker. The magic to the game is to find a mix of actions that leads you to chains of what you really want to do. It took us an hour to teach; Chris was new to the game. We then spent under four hours, with some turns taking a long time as the player searched for a magic combination. Richard won, Chris was not far behind, and I was far behind as I could not find the combinations and stayed in the Stone Age too long. While we need more plays, it is a good game for monster-sized brain burners and follows board games Lisboa and Weather Maker, which are all designed by Vital Lacerda. I

I returned home via Air Volvo, traveling in the Oregon mist and through local flooding (the usual for Oregon in March). The mail, which arrived on Saturday, included my refund from the City of Portland. It was over $700 and covers 2022-2023 taxes, yes, two years. My adjusted income following Oregon and not the new SALT-reduced federal (Trump administration tax increases) rules meant the city needed to return most of the tax to me. Which covers the Earthquake insurance bill that was delivered on Saturday, which was $611. I will point out that the optional insurance cost has not increased while the required insurance on the house has doubled. Allstate and other insurance companies all explain that their costs are higher, yet optional policies are still unchanged. Hmm.

I had a late shower and went to bed.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

It is now Saturday morning when I write this, and I do not particularly like Friday, yesterday. I am not excited about decanting that day and drinking it again. I will be very selective and void the bitter bits. Mostly, I had a few meetings on Zoom for work with folks who were so me-focused that it was impossible to understand the problem statement, and people were talking cross-purposes to the point it was like having three meetings simultaneously. Terrible. I later had to take painkillers as my jaw was so locked that I hurt. A very unhealthy meeting for me. Lastly, none of these topics can be discussed here on social media.

But let’s start with Friday and skip the painful bits altogether (the dental pain from locking my jaw returned just writing the above). I rose at 6:30 on Friday, even though it is a work-from-home day—Nike WHQ is in the office Monday through Thursday. My first Zoom meeting was at 7, but I got coffee made in time to drink it during our group’s meeting. After that, I made a NYC bagel with cream cheese. The sink was full of dishes and the dishwasher clean, but it had sat closed too long. I added the dirty to the clean and ran it. I also started my laundry; I like to wash my clothes on Friday and put them away between meetings.

The nice coffee from Uganda (Thanks, Kramers) ran out, and I am back at the liberal Equal Exchange French Roast. Something dark and bitter—much like the image Fox News shows of us woke folks—I enjoy the liberal taste that I have made since President Trump was elected. Yes, every bitter cup reminds me of those four years (sorry if that sounds political and not funny—it is meant to be true and yet funny).

The status and process meetings continue. Somewhere in a break between Zoom meetings, I clean up and dress. I moved the laptop to the kitchen and left the video and sound off while I made a nice lunch. I listened and often stopped and argued with folks who would prefer that I keep silent. After a while, I did. I sent texts to individuals who validated my understanding and then let the spinning and verbal dancing continue. I kept hearing we need to “understand” something–I created it, but since someone else was updating and sharing it, they assumed I knew nothing about it. I decided to remain silent on that point, too, as it would just add to the cross-purposes. Instead, I made pasta, heated spicy sauce from a bottle, split chicken breasts when still frozen to make it easier, and finished defrosting chicken breasts in water. I managed to get the chicken in the oven as the meeting ran over.

Lunch was great, with the flat chicken spiced up by the pasta and sauce. I cooked all the chicken so I could use it in other things. I also replied to a production issue, saying that this is how it works. I received an email reply that was in agreement with that. I was going to recommend a fix, but I realized I should let the data owners work this out (I don’t want to add to the noise).

Frustrated from the meetings, Friday afternoon began with the usual quiet. I worked on my death papers as that was more fun than work (!) and needed to get done. I bought a workbook, “I’m Dead, Now What,” with spaces to fill in for all the information needed if I cash in on 20 May 2024. It is very detailed and covers items I would have missed. It is also very depressing. I also have some Word docs that answer the questions in the workbook on accounts instead of trying to handwrite all those numbers (instead of copying and pasting them). It is sad to write notes on your own funeral and final arrangements.

I also watched a how-to video on my new board game, Inventors, which is coming on Monday. I will play Richard’s copy (how does he get his first?). It was a very long play-through, and I watched it between meetings and reacted to emails, Slack messages, and so on. I also finished my laundry but failed to put it away.

I received my new jewelry glue today. This is wicked, as it is a resin diluted in a smelly chemical. But it is clear, dries very slowly, can be adjusted until it hardens, and can be removed with acetate. I usually use a welding product for plastic to plastic, but today, I tried this on the SMS Defflinger model’s decks and hull. It was perfect—a surprise. Knowing this product, I let the ship rest for the rest of the night. It looks better. I will finish the hull with this glue.

I decided that the pain, the work issues, and allergies would not make my folding of tiny brass parts a success—I should revel in the model’s hull looking good. I rested and took a short nap. I could have slept until Saturday, but I could not do that. I could have had more pasta and chicken, but I decided to drink beer and eat bar food instead. I grabbed my Apple laptop and headed to The 649. Parking was complex, and I got a bartop seat near the window (the bar has no seating), a leftover from the pandemic and still the only location from which to order.

Avery, Stephen, and later Crystal were the bartenders for Friday. Food and exotic drinks are offered. I stick to beer and appetizers. The 649 often misdelivers food, and Avery had to chase people who kept changing tables, which did not improve the situation. The bar was filled almost to capacity with people vaporing in coats outside.

I smiled, did not ogle the women bartenders (who do wear tight clothing, de rigueur for the exotic mixologist bars—and I am old enough that they would be my grandchildren), and was always polite. When Crystal told me she messed up my order for nachos, I told her to take her time and not to worry. I am always treated as a most welcome customer.

I wrote while drinking and eating, one of my favorite relaxations. I found Grammarly and could agree with most of the changes to the 2009 writing I was updating. The changes are mostly syntax, as the writing is just above the stream of consciousness. This is my 4E Dungeons and Dragons adventure that now needs to be revised to 5E. I plan to play this story, Finding a Broken Sword, and republish the revision. The old version is still visible on Amazon. I am headed to just a PDF version on a gaming website.

The story’s bones and rules have already been revised, and I was just editing. I am using the standard monsters for the start of the story. I love to write adventures; it is like writing a science fiction novel, except this one is played. I try to write it so another group, unknown to me, can play it. I have received little feedback, but my groups seem to like my stories and adherence to a pro-player writing style.

Aside: Imagine in another setting where Moriarty had sharpshooters take out Holmes and Watson as they left 21B Baker Street. While perfectly reasonable (and would be what I would do), it certainly does not make a good story. In a pro-player style, our heroes, Holmes and Watson, would likely have had his Baker Streer Irregulars spot the assassins and then have a good chance of driving the sharpshooters away. Or, in more Holmes over-confidence style, somehow Holmes knows that this type of shooter uses a specific bullet and always shoots the chest as a better target than the head. Holmes wears a new-fangled bullet-prove shirt, his own creation, and thus is shot but not hurt when he heads out without Watson (telling Watson to not go outside), and hence assumed dead, Holmes can track the assassin to Moriarty. Moriarty kills the assassin for leading Holmes to him and escapes in some improbable way, of course. Watson later complains that Holmes would be dead if the assassin changed methods. All of this makes a good story (and is tempting to write with the release of Holmes, Watson, and Moriarty into the public domain).

Back to the story, I revised the adventure’s first section and started on the second section. It was about 9ish when the pain required attention, and I was growing too comfortable–sleepy.

I returned home, glued more on the SMS Derfflinger model, showered, and went to bed. I felt much better about the world and soon dreamed of traveling to some now misty place and enjoying more food and drinks. It was not a bad way to end a Friday I could have done without.

Thanks for reading.