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Some days I just want to hide from the world and write, code, build, and read. I don’t want to see anyone, and I don’t want to write the blog–I want to write some SciFi or a fantastic adventure for Dungeons and Dragons or take one I have already written and rewrite it to 5E or improve it enough to publish it. I want to get on a plane with a pile of books, chargers, and laptops and write from some exotic location sitting at a bar eating only appetizers and drinking Cuba Libries.

But feeling passes, and I do want I am supposed to do–being a responsible adult can suck. Also, getting older and having trouble hearing people (me all day), having to read larger print, and trying to do some building requires me to use bifocals safety glasses (yes, I have 3x bifocals on my eye protection) sucks. I am trying to find focus and not hop the next plane to Paris (the flight leaves PDX at 10:30AM–I checked, and is only $2500 tomorrow).

Putting the complaining aside, I started the morning just before 8AM. I woke a few times before my alarm, but I just rolled over and slept a little and then woke; repeat. I made liberal coffee, peeled some hard-boiled eggs, and heated some links I made a few days ago for breakfast. I enjoyed an hour of status and defect meetings, including sending my teammates a request for an update on one issue. After that, I am just following along. I wrote the blog until after 10AM.

Next, I started on my radio project again. I repaired and rewired the mistakes I made yesterday. I then cut a veneer piece to cover the basswood (white without much grain). I also drilled the basswood after mounting it on the front of the radio box. I drilled into the box to mount pretty brass screws to hold the plate.

But the veneer moved, unknown to me when I pressed it between some books–puke! That ruined it; I tried to soak the wood to remove the veneer, but the white glue was locked in. I made a new face plate, veneered it first, and then started drilling. That is working better and might look better in the end, as I have not had to beat it up as much as the first piece.

After making some progress on the radio project, I got a lunch of pasta I made a few days ago with Italian sausage. I finished watching one video on YouTube (ShipHappens) and some more tours of the inside of the USS Texas (Drachinifel), which included some exciting (for warship geeks) views of armor plates that have rusted and now breaking bulkheads as the rust expands. The WW1-style doors, open connection electrical controls (knife switches), and other unique items like the torpedo room (yes, WW1 battleships had underwater torpedo tubes) were fascinating.

I finished lunch and then took my meds (I missed them in the morning), and yikes, I was nauseous and had to rest. I am unsure if it was my lunch or poor timing with my meds. I finally could move around without tossing my cookies and headed out in Air Volvo.

I stopped by McDonald’s to get a shake and fries–my comfort food. I was in the drive-in and watched a car hop a curb and leave. When I got to the window, I paid and saw it was not my order. My hearing missed the question of whether I was “Joe” and got that order. It took five or more minutes, and two people decided to just ignore this (I paid less for Joe’s order) and was given my order.

I sipped my shake and ate my fries as Air Volvo took me in low traffic (it is a holiday) to see Susie at her 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. The weather was damp and grey, typical June, and the streets again showed local light flooding–back to normal.

Susie in her kids Just Do It with Bugs Bunny–a nearly impossible-to-find Nike shirt (I paid full price).

Susie was happy to see me, and the 55F (13C) and sideways rain discouraged us from visiting the park–I was damp just from exposure to the rain from Air Volvo to the front door. Instead, Susie was set up in her bed by Jennifer (the weekday nursing aide), and I sat in the over-stuffed chair next to Susie. Susie is again having painful constipation.

Aside: passing stool is hard lying in a bed. Susie cannot sit safely on a toilet and let gravity work for her. Instead, it is all up to her. This is a common problem I read about when we were in NYC’s Mount Sinai West. Their policy was to get folks on the toilet ASAP to prevent these problems–letting gravity work.

In her room, we watched the third Indiana Jones movie, The Last Crusade. Again, I forgot how fun these movies can be. After that, Susie was now on her side to help with the passing, we listened to Elton John, and I managed to fall completely asleep in the chair. After 5PM, I left with a kiss. Susie was falling asleep again, but I put M.A.S.H. on her TV for her–Susie has HULU and gets M.A.S.H. without commercials and in order.

I stopped on the way back at Red Robin in Beaverton. I was surprised that our original bartender, Chen, who cared for Susie for years when she used to walk all over Beaverton and ride the buses. Back then, she got lunch there from Chen. He got me an Ensalada platter with two chicken breasts, a regular-sized Stella (beer), and a side of fries. The salad had a wedge of core (I hate that), and the chicken was different than what I got at another Red Robin; it seemed to taste better. I decided not to stay and write there, and I paid and left after finishing my dinner. Chen wished me well and hoped to see me again soon–he sent his best to Susie.

I reached the Volvo Cave splashing through the now large puddles on the roads. I started the laundry, made a pot of tea, and started back on the radio (I made a new plate and tested it fitted to the radio box–tight but works) and then started on the blog. The new plate is ready for the drilling, which hopefully will not break it, and I have to make the third one!

Thanks for reading!

 

The morning started with me sleeping in until 7:45, mostly rolling over, sleeping for fifteen minutes, and waking again. I made cereal with sliced banana for breakfast, pouring milk on it and eating it as I listened to the status meeting at 8:30 on Sunday. The crises are mostly resolved (we are still loading data related to Foobar, but that should end soon). The meeting was perfunctory, but we know that unless you have a daily status meeting at the shoe company, things tend to drift in a fog of miscommunication and missed dates. The status meetings reinforce the plan and strategy to complete the thousands of tasks needed for the complex software installation, data conversions, and processing.

While I listened to the meeting, I started to write the long Saturday blog, 1,400+ words, and finished it just after 10AM. It was cold and rainy–our typical June weather. Later in the day, we got warnings for sudden heavy rains and the possibility (despite the cold) of funnel clouds–I did experience heavy sideways rain in Air Volvo later in the day. I then returned to my radio project. I managed to make the nod wiring work on an Arduino. I have a StemTerra version that is a 5V original Arduino built into a breadboard. This allows me, for 5V items and components that run in 3.3V and 5V, to be easily tested. I soon found that I had everything correct for the nob and then looked at the code again for the radio. Then I remembered I had wired the nob on my original radio backward by mistake and fixed it in the code. I then realigned the code to match the correctly installed nob.

Later in the evening, I picked back up the radio work. I will cover it now. I started to connect wires to all the face buttons and made some mistakes. My rule is that it is time to stop after two significant mistakes. What happens is that your head must not be in the work, or you are tired–sometimes you don’t realize you need to stop–thus the rule. I shorted the nob (ugh!), and I connected the push switches correctly, but the wires would not fit in the front of the radio when I tried to position the wooden plate on the radio box. Puke! I will have to try again on Monday morning. Thus I stopped.

I put pictures of Bob Wild and Ben Guild for Father’s Day on Facebook; they have both been gone for a long time. I found a picture of Dad (Bob Wild) from his visits to Oregon that I had not published before.

Returning to narrative flow after working on the radio, I then paid some bills, caught up on the Quicken transactions, and cleaned up and dressed. I finished the laundry and dishes and cleaned the microwave. I also cleaned the toilets. Next, I reheated some of the Jambalaya I made a few days ago. I watched some YouTube videos (Ship Happens) while eating. Time started to disappear, and I was headed out in Air Volvo to see Susie at her 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 was napping in her recliner in the shared living room when I arrived. Anassa, the weekend nursing aide, moved Susie to her rocking chair in her room. We continued with our Indiana Jones movies; the Temple of Doom was next. I had forgotten how action-packed the movie was, and I enjoyed it. We stopped the film to call Leta, Susie’s mother, at Susie’s sister’s (Barb) house. We got to talk to Emma (Barb’s daughter) for a while, and Emma and I spoke about some Dungeons and Dragons playing and our current characters (she is playing a Drow with a vitamin D deficiency–that is a D&D joke). It was a friendly chat. We rang off and finished the movie.

Susie became uncomfortable and had to be laid in her bed on her side. I stayed for another thirty minutes and then left with a kiss. Susie wanted me to stay all night, but that was not possible, and Susie was falling asleep (as I would soon be sleeping, too), so I left with a few more kisses, and Susie was already falling asleep as I went.

I headed to BJ’s Brewhouse and had a slice of prime rib with a potato and a Ceasar salad for dinner. I had Brussels sprouts with it, which we undercooked and tasted like bitter cold cabbage (maybe that is how they are supposed to be served–I have not ordered them in years). My waiter, Moe, ensured everything was perfect and insisted I have ice cream for dessert. She had known me for years and told me she had worked the whole Father’s Day shift and was smiling (it is a lot of money for a waiter to get an entire shift on Father’s Day). By the way, it was the most enormous slab of prime rib I have ever seen!

After that, I returned home and, there is no surprise here, rested and napped a bit. It was still early, so I returned to the office and, as I have described, messed up my radio project. Once I stopped, I read some more. I went to bed early and slept well.

Thanks for reading!

The day started with me sleeping into about 7:30 and then heading into the office to start my shift with an 8:30 status call. I had procured from the kitchen breakfast links and two hard-boiled eggs, peeled the eggs (destroying one), and eaten all cold with a banana. Add to that French press-made liberal coffee. The status meeting was long as the run times of the data conversions were running short, and then some ran long, causing the plans to have to be rewritten on the fly, which was not always successful. Also, a foobar moment happened, and we are now catching up on the production support updates for master data too. This added to our efficiency woes as we had to leave enough processing power to run the usual processes, do the data conversions, and catch up on the foobar-caused missing updates in production. Everything was well in hand, but it meant lots of active management.

The meeting and the day shift were just about running data into the systems, and that happened all day. I watched events at home and then from my iPhone on my Slack app, which lets me watch the channels where updates, statuses, and issues are tracked.

Returning to the narrative, in the morning, I wrote the Friday blog, which reached over 1,100 words and had a few pictures. I post that on my site, here, on Facebook, and send out an email. Corporations are blocking my email as my blog goes on for years, and the automated corporate threat detections try to scan the whole history of the blog and runs out of memory, crashes the scanner, and the email is then blocked. I then get all the return codes sent to me and see the crashed scanner. I have dropped sending those emails, but learning the types of scanning was interesting–not sure corporate security is aware of the information being sent out. Anyway, folks can subscribe to my blog and get an update when I update it each day, but it requires them to create an account, which is annoying.

Once that task was completed (using Grammarly to get the blog beyond first-draft editing), I cleaned up and dressed in a t-shirt today. Air Volvo took me to see Susie at her 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. It being a holiday weekend, drivers seemed a bit stressed, and a semi with a large trailer turning on Hall Boulevard took lots of lanes upsetting many folks who thought you should stay in your lane (like me). I arrived safely in Air Volvo, and no paint was lost, nor any of Beaveton’s Finest decided I had to make a non-voluntary donation to the City’s budget.

Susie was in her wheelchair when I arrived, with Susie’s feet in soft wraps to prevent any skin issues. Susie’s feet were having problems if left in shoes all day. Next, Anassa, the weekend day nursing aide, moved Susie to her rocking chair, and I, taking thirty minutes, finally found a version of Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. I bought the film on Amazon so we could avoid commercials. Life is too short to wait for commercials, and you are never sure if they edited the film then. Evan joined us about 3/4 through the movie. Susie was singing along to some songs and stayed awake for the whole show.

We stayed in as it was cool (62F, 17C) and grey. One of the residents told Anassa that the clocks must be wrong, as it was too dark outside to be lunchtime. Yes, our typical June weather was back.

At the end of the movie (I think the ending is too abrupt, and the film should have gone on with views of Charlie’s experience running the factory and family looking happy and maybe one more song), I left with a kiss with Susie watching M.A.S.H. Evan, and I headed to Portland.

The traffic to Portland was sluggish but moving. Again, folks were traveling for a holiday and seemed scared of the crazy ramps and bridges that make up a Portland crossing. I got off the highways and ramps to find a long train blocking all the streets in the industrial area that contains our goal, Rogue Brewery. I drove along the river until I reached the overpass that was not blocked, MLK Street, and took that back into the industrial area (passing over the train). Next, I got to try out my parallel parking with Air Volvo, as parking was a bit harder today. We were a bit later than our usual Saturday.

I was hungry and found a table inside Rogue and ordered a Ruben, fries, and a Dead Guy Ale. I set up the board game Vindication while eating. Finally escaping the train, Evan showed up, got a drink and a snack, and deviled eggs.

For this play, we removed the Academy and replaced that with the Sacred Quest tile. I pulled a set of Strength (Fort), Knowledge (Library), and Inspiration (Holy Spires) tiles and instead added the two Loot and the Pet tiles and added those cards to our game. I don’t like the Wishes Well and Infused Crystals as they seem to distract from winning–just more noise. My version of Vindication has all the Treachery cards and all the bonus cards, so blinding drawing a card could saddle you with a cursed item or at least one that does not count for final scoring.

I was leading our first game, so I could afford the experiment and got a loot item. It allowed me to roll for a random attribute twice and pick one. Loot was helpful.

In the first game, I led the whole game, and Evan had trouble finding his groove while I stacked up a lead of over ten points that I kept. I had an easy start and made no mistakes. In the second game, Evan got a lead and then used the easy end-of-game trigger to end the game before I got my groove going. I started with a Strength focus and explored but did not get the tiles I wanted (tiles are blindly drawn from the Scum Bag), and had just stared at my point-generating steps when Evan ended the game. You can get a short lead and lock in the win by finishing an easy end-of-game trigger in Vindication. A win is a win.

I paid the bill, and we parted ways, each with a win, and I headed to Richard’s house. Tonight we have five players for Saturday night games. Richard suggested Western Legends. Which is a beguiling board game where you play an Old West legend; I play Eyatt Erp on Saturday. You can be an outlaw or a marshal. You can gamble by playing poker, buy excellent goods (like the Hat), and hunt bad guys. The game is played on a board that resembles an Old West town. The play is engine building (using panning for gold, gambling, or hunting bad guys as the engine) set in a sandbox, so strongly themed your planning merges with the setting. The theme makes the game exciting and fun.

In our game, nobody turned outlaw (most of us had a goal to reach a mid-point in the Marshal Table, so outlaw was literally not in the cards for most of us), and the final scores for most were within a few points. One player was frustrated as her cards were consistently low (they are playing cards with extra abilities listed).

Kathleen, her first game, surprised us by gambling and spending her way to win by tie-breaker against Richard (who mined his way to second place). Shawn improved his scoring at the end but took too many wounds, giving me third place (one point behind Kathleen and Richard). Claudia did better than my first game but was disappointed.

We played one more game, a horse racing betting game; Richard played the announcer, and so did not bet. We bet on the dice-driven Horses. Quite fun and easy. I have bet on horses before, and Monte Carlo AI’s are a favorite of mine. I won after five races, having gone with reasonable risks on Place and Show to generate the most revenue with the least risk–very AI.

Kathleen had a car this week, so I could drive straight home and arrive home before midnight. I did take the huge ramp onto the bridge I call the Space Shuttle Launch, but it was not wet or windy; thus, it was less stressful. On the highways in Portland, I did see cars flying by Air Volvo at speeds I thought showed some relativistic shifting. Yes, the extra-legal drag racing, I think that was what that was, is back in Portland.

It took me a while to sleep. I bid on a few cheap stamps on Hipstamps.com. Finally, I got sleepy.

Thank you for reading.

 

It is Saturday morning when I write this. Our weather has returned to our usual June grey and rain. We have some sprinkles Friday night, and Sunday, according to the forecast, is a usual June Oregon hose-down. The rain will leave after that and will not likely be back, except for a thunderstorm, until September, and the rains will not be back until October/November. We hope (and pray) the smoke and the 120+ temperatures will stay away this summer.

Going backward, I was back at the Volvo Cave before midnight. Air Volvo got me from Dondrea’s and Z’s house after we all returned from Portland. We had seen A Midsummer’s Night Dream at the Armory in the Pearl District in Portland. This is one of my favorite Shakespeare play (The Tempest and Macbeth being my other favs–I like the fantastical plays), and the pre-play discussion described how this play is unique; the story and structure do not appear to be based on any existing works (much of Shakespeare’s plays have an origin in other works). The play inside a play makes this very approachable.

The Portland Center Stage at the Armory group reduced the cast to just nine people, and they switched roles and costumes, with some of the leads taking secondary positions. In contrast, others played almost the same character in both versions (the Duke, Theseus, and Oberon being the same actor). It was fun to see the actors taking different roles all night, and the costume changes helped to direct the adaptation for us, the audience. The play switched to slapstick and physical comedy a few times while the actors shouted Shakespearean insults at each other. It worked. Dondrea, Z, and I enjoyed the play and were laughing through much of it. Recommended if you can fit it in (closes on 3July2023).

We visited Powell’s City of Books before the play, we had an hour to kill, and there found On a Pale Horse for Z. This is the first book in the old incarnations series by Piers Anthony, and we could not find the second book, on time, but Z was happy with something new to read. I resisted Powell’s stacks of board games and did not visit role-playing games (RPG) as there is always something there I want.

We ate at Van Eberts before heading to the books store and the play. Dondrea and Z joined me in consuming the best wings I have ever had. These are smoked before recooked with your choice of excellently made sauces. Mine, Korean-style, was almost black with the sauce brushed on and then broiled–cooked twice. The rumors are that the wings are so good the chicken volunteer. Dondrea and Z had their sauce on the side and loved their wings. Dondea tried a cider, I had the Volatile Substance IPA (their award-winning IPA), and Z had a Shirly Temple with a bitter cherry (an Oregon cherry) that Z did not like.

Moving backward, Dondrea picked up Z at school, and we headed directly into the back roads and Highway 26 to reach Portland. The traffic was moderate, and we were not rushed. I had left Air Volvo at Dondrea’s house after coming from 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.

Being a work-from-home day, I completed my afternoon working online from Susie’s room. Susie listened to Emmerson, Lake, and Palmer while I did various Zoom meetings and followed along with work via Slack channel updates, texts, and emails. The current crises of the moment were going to run all weekend, so all of us on the team must check in all weekend, and I will attend the morning status meetings. Susie was happy to have me hang out with her and was not upset when I left at about 3:20. She looked sleepy.

When reaching the hummingbird house, Susie agreed to head out to the park. I had only twenty minutes before my next meeting. We rushed out and found a bench. Susie loved the still-warm weather, and the park was quieter today; apparently, all the kids were back in their respective schools and not visiting the park today. The butterflies, Oregon Swallowtails, three doing circles together, were out and enjoying having the park almost to themselves.

We called Leta, Susan’s mother, and chatted for a while. Leta was working on getting her car repaired (she has a scrape on it, which is a leased car, so she needs to fix it) and had some blood work done. Leta is still unhappy that the local deer enjoyed her best flowers. We could only chat briefly, and soon I had Susie back in her room (Jennifer popped Susie into her bed for the afternoon).

Moving back to the start of Friday, I got going at 7:30ish and did not feel like an animated undead creature rising, but more human. I put some breakfast links into a glass dish and baked them in the oven. I put six eggs in a pan to hard boil and headed to the in-house office. I try to make homemade breakfast on Fridays with leftovers for Saturdays. I then started the usual Zoom meetings on status and defects that go from 8AM thru 9AM. I cooled the cooked eggs in ice while the meetings went on, and I was relieved that no new crises of the moment surfaced like a terrible iceberg ready to sink the weekend. I had my breakfast of links, eggs, a banana, and liberal coffee (my next two months’ supply arrived on Friday). I found a break in my meeting, slipped into the shower, and dressed in a dress shirt.

The last morning meeting at the shoe company was a discussion and lecture on encryption options and processes to be used by Nike IT–and nothing that can even be summarised here! Next, we had an excellent presentation and discussion on tax-efficient approaches for foreign trade for the shoe company; the next version. Again, indeed, nothing to be discussed here in my blog. Michael G presented, and it was his usual nearly perfect delivery of a complex subject. Always a pleasure to attend the software architect forum, which I will be taking over for the summer as Subha is on sabbatical.

My last thing in the morning was to open a can of peaches, spoon them next to cottage cheese, and eat that for lunch while watching a few videos on YouTube. Drachinifel channel had a new video on the inside of the USS Texas battleship, a pre-WW1 Dreadnought, that is currently in dry dock being made safe to survive another fifty or more decades.

I did not finish the video (it is a long one Drachinifel videos are best taken in smaller bites), but instead cut a pile of roses to bring to Susie and the hummingbird house. My Wedgwood roses canes are nearly breaking under the weight of the blooms. I also did a bit of deadheading of my other roses. I arrived at Susie’s with a pile of roses after 1PM.

Well, that was Friday! Thanks for reading.

The morning started with me again resetting my alarm to 6:30 and waking again, not knowing how the thirty minutes could be over in a blink or shutting my eyes. I found myself in the kitchen and had an out-of-body experience as I watched myself find a banana and make coffee, liberal coffee, in a French Press. Slowly, I become myself as I reassemble in my office with breakfast and read emails, Slack channel updates, and some news. The current emergency was solved, but a new one has been discovered, and the various recovery and defect process has begun. Nothing for me.

I shower, dress, and board Air Volvo with the rest of the coffee in a travel cup. The pollen level, while high, has me not coughing but sneezing all day. The drip-drip and the cough-cough have stopped, and the sneezing is only outside or in Air Volvo before the high-quality air filters restore normal air to the interior. When I get so many miles on Air Volvo, I purchase the standard fixes and updates, and the air filters are also replaced–it is always best for Air Volvo to return to the mothership for maintenance.

There were two school buses before me (there are only four school days left for Beaverton) on my trip to the office–usually, there are none, and I was not late. I think the school drivers are going slower, and more kids are likely getting on the buses for the last few days. I arrived before 8AM at work for my shift.

My day was meeting and Zoom rich. I also had a tummy issue, likely caused by my small breakfast and my pills. A bagel-like product at the breakfast table for testers (we qualify for the food, too) and more coffee got me back to normal. Today, I travel to Nike WHQ, which is lovely on a sunny clear day like today. I parked on the third floor of the NYC Garage (plenty of parking) and then walked across the Nike WHQ campus.

Serena Williams Building has a beautiful cafeteria with a great salad bar, and there I met Scott for lunch. Scott and I made our usual salad lunch and discussed software development and how Scott could get data to run reports for his biz. There (Nike IT mostly has returned to campus), we saw an old friend, Don, who usually works remotely from Florida–the world has permanently changed (he moved there to care for his late mother) from the pandemic, especially for IT. Don was visiting for a while and was working from WHQ.

It was a lovely lunch; the bright sun had us eating outside and enjoying the warm June.

Ms. Williams’s outfits and trophies on display in the lobby of her building.

After lunch, I returned to Air Volvo, rushing a bit and reaching Target not far from Susie’s place when it was time for my next meeting. I sat in Air Volvo, parked, and did the Zoom meeting on my iPhone. The meeting was about another data conversion with a late-discovered issue that must be resolved soon. The conference ran over a bit.

Yes, the fire extinguishers signs have swooshes, and the Nike WHQ NYC Garage wall panels have Morse Code “Just Do It” cut into them.

I drove a few minutes from Target’s parking lot 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. Susie was in her recliner in the shared living room, sleeping. She was waiting for me and had fallen asleep–she smiled when I gently woke her.

Jennifer, the weekday nursing aide, popped Susie into the wheelchair, and we headed to Susie’s room. We looked at the new hats that Barb, Susie’s sister, had sent her. One was a wool hat Barb picked out in Ireland, and another a straw summer hat. There was a note in a large script, so Susie could read it, from Barb suggesting new hats for summer and winter for Susie. Susie tried them on; they are adjustable, and we fitted the sun hat. We called Barb and sent her photos of Susie wearing the hats.

You can see the Moose Cross sign that Barb sent too.

Susie then sat and listened with me to my 2PM meeting, a change control meeting that happens twice a day. The questions are all about process and testing and having proper documentation to prove to any auditor that the software (initial install, fix, or enhancement) is adequately tested. While tedious, Susie did not mind just holding my hand and sitting together for thirty minutes.

Next, adorned with the new hat, Susie agreed to try out Metzger Park next door. It was filled, again, with kids, these older than yesterday but not high school age, and there was lots of running around and fewer parents. We found one unoccupied bench, and I sat there and called Leta, Susie’s mother, and we had a friendly chat on FaceTime. We use FaceTime to see each other. Leta approved of the new hat.

We did the full park tour and saw Bo, who lives in his car near the park. We said hello. We then toured the local streets looking at the flowers and trees. The magnolia tree had not yet bloomed.

The kids seem to have a Blair Witch theme!

I got Susie back to the hummingbird house, and Susie was now ready for a nap. I kissed Susie goodbye as Jennifer took Susie to her room. Susie had a good day.

I enjoyed in Air Volvo the extra, almost end-of-school massive Beaverton traffic. Finally, I arrived at the Volvo Cave, got the mail, picked-out dinner, and did the last 4:30 status meeting from my home office. At the end of my shift, I purchased the old Hammer Studios version of The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) on iTunes and watched the old, almost horror movie while making dinner. This one is with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee with the horror music soundtrack and the same sets you see in all the 1950-1960 horror pictures, ala Grindhouse. I loved the movie.

I used a new sauce from a jar, Puttanesca: Olive & Capers, from Seggaiano. It contained olive oil stuck to the pasta and mixed well with the Italian sausage I fried until just before it burned in a non-stick pan. I recommend this sauce and will repurchase it. I made Orecchiette boiling it until it was a bit overdone (sometimes it is too chewy for me). I mixed it all while watching the Hammer Studios film turned Sherlock Holmes into a series of horror set pieces. Fun. I had many bowls of pasta, meat, and sauce.

Having overeaten, I collapsed into a food coma, napped until 8ish, got some tea, and started writing this blog.

Thanks for reading.