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I have a headache, so I will not be re-reading; please forgive any misses from Grammarly improving the text or if I miss wording something. I often use a word that sounds the same.

Somedays, the hours just run away from you. Getting up late, after 8AM, made the morning disappear from me. I also wrote Saturday’s blog today after doing the first Zoom meeting. Rajani asked me to take the day off, Sunday, and enjoy the sun after working late on Saturday. But the Zoom meeting, too, seemed to drink the shallow waters of the morning until nothing remained. I did manage to do some work on the radio project with the hot glue gun. But I nearly burned myself by discovering that I best let everything cool down before I start back on the radio. The faceplate needs only to be glued in place now (and some wires cut and replaced with longer wires) to start the final assembly. It is always strange to reach the final steps.  You want it over, but also, you want to add just a few more touches here and there and not have the project ever end.

I dressed and headed out in Air Volvo. Paris Baguette was my target to get more tiramisu for Susie. I also found lunch at the Shake Shack and had a Smoked Shack Burger and fries. It burger was smallish and greasy but in a wonderful way for cheeseburgers; excellent. After getting lunch, having had to park in the reserve, I walked to the Bakery (the same one I used in NYC) and acquired two cup versions of tiramisu for Susie to take to the hummingbird house. Air Volvo then took highways 26 and then 217 to reach Susie, found at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. The Sunday traffic was light.

Susie was happy to see me, and Jennifer, filling in for Anassa, who is the usual weekend nursing aide, popped Susie into the wheelchair. We just stayed on the porch today as it was already hot. There we made a three-way FaceTime call to Leta, Susie’s mother, and Barb, Susie’s sister, and us. Leta’s bruises from her fall have spread, pouring down her face, but she said she is fine. We also saw Caleb, Barb’s son, and had a nice chat. Next, the Smiths contacted us on another three-way call. Cat was calling in from NYC for a short while, and then we chatted with Michelle and David from their beach house on the Oregon Coast. Susie, while getting a bit sleepy from the warm air, was happy to have so many people to chat with.

Next, We retired to Susie’s room and watched M.A.S.H. for a few hours. I did nod off a few times, as did Susie, I am sure. But it was good for both of us to slow down for a while. Some of the episodes I barely remember as we are in year three before the changes of characters. Today included the episode with the nutty General Steele, which first introduces Harry Morgan (later, Col. Potter) to the show.

At 5:15, waking up in the over-stuffed chair, I woke up, kissed Susie goodbye, and headed out after talking about the special dessert for Susie for tonight. Louis, the evening nursing aide (and Jennifer’s husband), wanted to clarify my expectations–Susie should get some tonight.

Air Volvo took me to El Senior’s to meet Dondrea and Z for dinner. We had a nice dinner planning our Opera adventure this coming Wednesday. We are going to catch the Philip Glass Akhnaten replay of the Met version at theaters. The Met reshows its best opera recording in the summer. Z and Dondrea have not seen this or any Met shows, so this should be fun. The lavish presentation matched the crazy repeating nature of the score and the use of singing ancient Egyptian words in some places. I am happy to see it again and share it with Dondrea and Z.

The food was good, and I had a large beer. We all decided on soups. It was a nice break for all of us. Dondrea had me explain Akhenaten’s history and how he potentially fits into the bible (not likely). I also covered a bit of Moses and the Twelve Ceasars. It was a nice time.

I returned after dinner to the Volvo Cave via Air Volvo. It was still bright outside, but I wanted to relax a bit more and read the book I picked up at Powell’s–a physical book. Zoo Station by David Downing started sad and slow, but now it is a boiling spy novel set in Hitler’s Berlin. Hard to put down, and I had to finish it to learn what happened to everyone and if the main character John Russel makes it all work. It is a Soho Crime novel, and those are usually good, and this one, after a sad start, manages to be great. Recommended. I will get the next ones on my Kindle I think.

After that, I finally started on this blog. Somehow Monday is tomorrow. I just had to sign back into work and approve another design document. The weekend, just one day for me, was very short.

Thanks for reading!

I am writing this on Sunday morning–my sister’s birthday. She is somewhere in Michigan catching fish to celebrate. Happy Birthday Linda!

Returning to Saturday morning, we will even move back into Friday. After I finished the Friday blog, I decided that I was feeling restless and went to the 10PM showing of the next Mission Impossible movie, number seven, and joined the chaos at Movies on TV. One girl was a perfect Barbie, including the high heels (I suspect her heel does not touch the floor). The late showing of the ramping down MI7 was attended by another family; otherwise, it was empty. The movie was a blast, and I was laughing at the over-the-top stunts and a plot that disappeared into the poof of amazing chase scenes and even more completely unneeded stunts–perfect. Tom Crusie’s character smashes a tiny Fiat into a wall after starting it and apologizes that sometimes it takes him a while to figure out a car–not sure that was in the script. Still, it was so unexpected it was hilarious. If you need to escape, and they do many times in the movie, this one is for you.

Air Volvo was ready to deliver me to the Volvo Cave at 1AM. I managed to sleep sometime before 2AM. That made Saturday morning a more challenging prospect. In the morning, I managed to ignore the shoe company, make an NYC bagel, and write the blog with my French Press delivering coffee. I tried to start on the radio project, noticing an issue and breaking the replacement plastic window out. I reglued it in place, and that ended that plan.

I boarded Air Volvo in the early afternoon and faced low traffic; hole installation had stopped for the weekend. I soon arrived at Susie’s at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. Susie was just finishing breakfast, and we headed to the park to enjoy the day before it was hot again (another 90F+ day with no rain–32C). I took the paved trail that led through the tennis courts to skip the crushed stone that rattles Susie and can suddenly stop the wheelchair (the loose rock buries a front wheel and halts the forward motion). The park was busy with humans being walked by various-sized dogs. Small children were with their parents on the swings or other devices for child happiness. The butterflies were meeting in columns of light between the trees, doing spirals together, and then parting and dancing across the park: Definitely showing off.

We found my favorite shady bench and did a three-way call to Barb, Susie’s sister, and Leta, Susie’s mother, and us. Barb, oddly, could not see or hear Leta on the call (how do you do that?!), but everyone else was okay. Leta’s face is red and purple with bruises from her fall, and she is tired and resting more. We played a strange game of telephone with Barb as we repeated what Leta said, but it was a good call on FaceTime so we could see everyone.

We finished the usual tour and returned to Susie’s room. I found the movie Bohemian Rhapsody on the cable, and Susie sang along for this Queen biopic. We spent the next two hours watching the story of Freddy Mercury and the band, with Evan showing at the movie’s finish. Susie had an Ensure while we watched the show. Once the film was completed, I promised to return soon after grabbing a fast lunch. Evan and I did a sub sandwich and then dropped off a copy of 2600 for Dondrea (signed by me on page 57). We returned soon to the hummingbird house, and Susie was having lunch. Evan headed out, and I stayed with Susie for ninety minutes watching M.A.S.H. I had to return to the home office by 4PM to start my shift.

I was just on time with traffic returning and running slow. I logged into my shoe company laptop and started an hour of status meetings, plus a bonus Zoom meeting, as there was a crisis of the moment. I spent the evening following along and monitoring the current crises. I reheated the jambalaya from a few days ago for dinner. Later, being a bit bored, I made scones from a box (cranberry and orange), King Arthur Flour brand–recommended. I watched an episode of The Avengers (1966) after seeing a fan work on Mrs. Peele (Diana Riggs). Returning to the shift, I stayed until 1AM to update folks on the crises I watched.

I finally slept after 3AM, making Sunday morning harder.

Thanks for reading!

I am having dinner at the GVB alone; Mariah could not join me this Friday night. I spent most of the afternoon with Susie. We watched the Disney animated movie Moana while I was logged into work, reviewing documents and designs and helping with a few crises of the moment. The emoji of the team today was the animated facepalm. I could not finish the last status meeting as I was becoming impatient with folks on the project–best to log out before I say something. It is good to have a beer and dinner–prime rib is the special on Friday–sinfully good.

Susie was sad when I left, near tears, but she understood I would be back and kissed me goodbye, three times and held my hand. I set the TV in her room to M.A.S.H., the second season; she likes the earlier seasons, and they are not often on the reruns on regular TV. We use Hulu for this.

Susie was weighed today and is still only 68 pounds. Her weight is stable, but it is still not improving. I will get more desserts!

Right after I arrived, we managed to head out to Metzger Park next door. The park manager was out and had a chainsaw. He thought I could use a haircut, but I good naturally demurred. Next, the manager got on the tractor and cleared the logs from the fallen trees. It is hot and dry this summer and not time to have stacks of dried wood in the light forest of the park!

We found our favorite bench in the shade with redwoods, cedars, and butterflies. We did a three-way call to connect to Leta, Susie’s mother, Barb, her sister, and us on FaceTime and could see and hear each other. Leta, sporting new bruises, had fallen in her garage, and, according to her, it looked worse than it was. Barb was less convinced. Susie was delighted to have a call with all of them and to see them. Barb had mostly recovered from her trip back to Michigan from here. She did, she said, sleep until noon today–but looked awake. We connected with Barb while she was grocery shopping. We talked for ten minutes, and everyone was happy to reconnect today.

Before this, I was at the house doing my usual work-from-home Friday. I slept in, finally getting started at 7AM, and then made breakfast–an NYC bagel with a veggie smear (thanks, Joyce), yogurt (plus fruit and Organic), and liberal coffee made in my French Press. I was online reading stuff and getting ready for the hours of status meetings. After managing to listen and send updates to my team for any issues identified for us (just one minor thing which unfortunately did cause a faceplant emoji from the team), I found time to shower and dress. Next, I hosted an hour session with the software architects and engineers on how Nike is redesigning its processes and the impact that would have on our systems (existing and future). No details can go here, of course. I reheated some jambalaya I made the day before for lunch while I did the session–I used an Avatar instead of a live camera image.

My boss sent me my official bonus. It was the expected amount and is over 20% of my annual pay–a good year at Nike. I also ran the numbers for my retirement, with the results suggesting I should retire soon. The numbers show we will be OK. For various economic reasons (and tax reasons), I will be putting this off for a while.

I packed up the computers, my Nike and my Apple, and boarded Air Volvo. I headed to Susie’s at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. The traffic was light, and I had no issues or police entanglements.

And that takes me full circle. The person doing the local writer’s anthology has not returned my emails. Looks like my Howard story has no home. I have not heard any new complaints or compliments on my 2600 AI story.

Thanks for reading.

The morning started with me awakening before my 6:30 alarm and debating if I could just have thirty more minutes of sleep; nope, I had to get going to make the 8:00 status meeting in the office. I dragged myself from the bed, made coffee, liberal in the French Press. I also ran water and vinegar through the coffee pot after dumping the grounds so I could safely turn it off in the future. Just hot, slightly acidic water to clean it and make it safe to leave off until someday. Yogurt (with Organic fruit) joined peanut butter toast for breakfast. The coffee took longer, now using the water kettle to boil the water, but it was still good. I also found a thermal cup to take the remains to the office.

While eating breakfast, I explored the emails, Slack channel updates, and the news. I had been out a week, so I only went back to Wednesday for emails. I believe if something is noteworthy, someone will send it again. I finished at about 7AM, jumped in the shower, dressed, and boarded Air Volvo.

I was in the office in time for the hours of status meetings and then read various design documents to approve. By 10:40, I was ready to head out and see Susie. I boarded Air Volvo and kept my promise that I would see Susie at 11:00AM. Susie was waiting at Susie’s place at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116.

Susie had just finished her breakfast of scrambled eggs, ham, and cheese–Susie’s favorite. Plus, some Ensure to add even more goodness. It was not hot yet, and we headed outside. Metzger Park was not busy, and we got the usual shady bench. I did a three-way call to Leta, Susie’s mother, Glenda and Gene (Susie’s aunt and uncle) using FaceTime on my iPhone. That worked well, and everyone was happy to see each other. Once that call closed, Susie wanted to finish the park, so I pushed her around the paved path, onto the street, and back to the hummingbird house, making a large circle. After that, I had to return to work (and find some lunch) after a goodbye kiss and a promise to return on Friday.

I stopped by Carl’s Jr for a Western Burger, a guilty pleasure, and listened to the radio while enjoying my bacon-laden burger. Oregon Public Broadcasting Fresh Air described the dispute in the crab finishing industry and the lawsuit that the crab processors are actually a monopoly and are price fixes. It was quite an interesting and very local story.

I returned to work and continued to do status meetings and headed out at 3:30 and did an hour of status meetings again starting at 4PM from my kitchen. I made jambalaya without seafood for dinner while listening to the meetings. I cut the sausage into cubes and added a can of stewed tomatoes and green pepper, seeded, cut into 1/2″ pieces. I cook the sausages first, get the oils from the sausage to fill the pan, and cook the peppers and, later, the tomatoes (not strained) in the oil; I add a box mix and water and bring to a boil and then let simmer for 25 minutes. The box mix has seasonings and rice.

I ate this while watching the newest episode of ShipHappens on YouTube.

At 7PM, we had the Zoom meeting for the church group, Theology Pub. This time it was about Unconditi0nal Love and balancing that. We also talked about how wars start, about caring for people who are dying, and other complex examples of unconditional love and balancing the realities of love and responsibilities. It was less political discussion and more about life’s journey and the tragedies in one’s life. There were a few tears. It was a good meeting.

Thanks for reading! Sorry, I forgot to take a photo today!

For those who want to read my article, “Turning’s Battle,” in 2600, here is the digital link:

Summer 2023 Digital Edition (PDF or EPUB3)

Today the day started at 7 with me waking to prove hydration twice at night and the sunrise waking me. I rolled over a few times and woke with the alarm. I stumbled out of bed and made liberal coffee. Breakfast was an NYC bagel (thanks, Joyce) with a veggie smear and yogurt (purporting to be Organic which I think describes yogurt anyway) with fruit (which I guess is really the Organic part) that I took to the office and started writing Tuesday’s story in WordPress.com. I also use Grammarly to correct and help with the perfection of the text. So far, the new Artificial Intelligence improvements have tried to rewrite some of the blog’s sentences into simple sentences–I resist AI that does not improve the text. I already deal with Grammarly putting and then removing the same comma and missing plurals for complex nouns.

Barb was showered, packed, and ready to head out by 9ish. We said our goodbyes, and she headed to Susie’s place to say goodbye to Susie.

Barb would arrive with plenty of time as her flights all changed, and she did not leave until after 7PM and will be arriving in Chicago at 1AM local time and getting a car to drive home to Michigan. Barb enjoyed PDX all day, reading her book and finding adult beverages to pass the time. She was offered more complex flights over two days but decided that Chicago worked for her.

I left the house after doing various chores like stripping the beds and starting laundry. Air Volvo crossed Beaverton without issue, and I was soon headed to Susie’s place at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. Mariah contacted me and was in the area for some medical stuff and suggested a late lunch. I continued the hummingbird house and arrived to find Susie napping in her recliner in the shared living room. Her favorite show, Blue Bloods, was running, and we completed an episode.

After that, Jennifer (the weekday nursing aide) popped Susie into her wheelchair, and we headed outside before it got too hot (it reached 92F today–33C). My black Star Wars t-shirt burned with the clear sunlight, a poor choice. We headed into Metzger Park and met Joan and Bud Goldhammer, who were also using a shady bench. They were happy to see us, and we chatted for a bit. Before that, we had called Leta and Barb, a three-way call (Barb was stuck at PDX). Leta and Susie enjoyed seeing everyone in one call. Later we called Joyce, Leta’s sister in North Carolina (and Susie’s aunt, of course), and talked for a bit too. Had I been thinking, I could have done a four-way call. Susie was happy talking to so many people, which removed some of the sadness from Barb’s leaving.

I returned Susie to Jennifer’s care and used Nav to reach Ancestry Brewing to meet Mariah; I was only a few minutes late. We both had adult beverages, just one for me as I had to return to Susie. The red ale was fantastic, and the burgers, we both had one, were excellent. We talked about writing and other items. I headed back and got back to Susie’s at 3:20ish.

Susie was resting in her bed, listening to music. I just sat in the overstuffed chair and sat next to her. We talked a bit, and Susie seemed confused about where she was and if she could go home with me. Susie was very tired from everything we did and missing her sister.

I left at 5PM, and she wanted to know when I would return and asked me to repeat it twice. She kissed me goodbye and looked like she would rest before dinner. I could see she was still a bit confused, but was mostly tired.

I headed home in Air Volvo, arrived at the Volvo Cave, grabbed my laptop, and headed to Wildwood Taphouse to write. There I had a few beers and slowly wrote this blog. Will, the barkeep, asked me questions about AI which I tried to answer and explain.

Thanks for reading!