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Going backward, I am rushing through the blog as it is already beyond 9:30 at night. I played games with Z tonight while Dondrea and the praise band and choir practiced. Howard’s playing and singing were strong and wonderful, while Z and I went back and forth on board games–Howard is the Choir director and organist at First United Methodist Church and is simply amazing.

Z and I started playing just after 6PM when Z and Dondrea arrived. I felt we should play something less complex than Scythe, so we agreed on Wingspan. Z plays fast, and we played two games in just over an hour. We walked in the park and then played a few rounds of Azul using our more straightforward scoring process.

I won the two Windspan games, but both of us had not managed to get a strong engine going, so both games were low scoring. Z had the game down cold, and I did not have to help her. Each time we were not more than ten points away–anyone’s game.

Wingspan is a game where you fill your bird sanctuary with birds (represented on cards), and your birds lay eggs, or you raid the bird feeder for the right foods to attract the birds, or you collect more potential birds (more cards, not played yet). The birds can be activated, and they then provide various superpowers. Also, each round of play has goals for extra points. It is a delightful game and very positive and has limited player interaction. I recommend the Europe/Asia add-on, as it seems to remove some random luck from the game. The game takes a few plays to understand it and more plays to get good at it. Z is starting to get good–I had to play well to beat her.

Azul is a tile-laying pattern game that we love. We use a more straightforward alternative scoring method that I like better than the original one. No matter how you play it, it is recommended. Z and I had a great time and could have played all night, but it was getting late, and it was a school night for Z. Yes, Z is twelve and plays well!

Before this, I found dinner at the Shack Shack a guilty pleasure and ordered from the same gal who took my order last time, and we agreed I should do the Shroom. I did not know there was no meat. Interesting and not bad at all. Fries are excellent and old-school, at least. Funny, the food delivery guy asked me my name, it was spelled WYOT instead of Wild, and apparently, there was a bet that it was WILD. Often younger folks cannot get my name right as they really can’t believe that there is someone named Wild and so hear Wyot, Wild, Wolt, and other variations. Seeing them betting on my name was funny, and later I waved to the person that took my order–I was not offended. “Just plain Wild, no ‘e,’ like Wild and Crazy, W.I.L.D.,” I often explain.

Preceding this, I finished my afternoon with another status meeting, and I must admit I left it early as I was tired and a bit grumpy, and losing my calm. Details cannot go here, but a fix was needed, and the process was not followed. Growl.

Moving the story further back to the morning, I was able to leave the office in the later morning after the status meetings and doing some research. I am working on my next tasks. I headed to see Susie 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 waiting in her chair and decided she could do 68F (20C) in the park with a cool breeze–Susie got to wear her coat again this spring/summer.

The park was full of middle-aged kids, pre-teens, and there was pizza and lots of them running all over. Apparently an end-of-school party. I found a bench in the park, still in the sun, parked with Susie to watch the chaos and call Leta, Susie’s mother. Leta could hear all the screaming kids over the phone, and we chatted for a while. Susie looked cold, so we rang off and then circled around the park once, having to dodge kids, parents, and plenty of friendly dogs. It was a short visit as I had to return to the office today. I left with a kiss and a promise to return on Thursday afternoon.

I found lunch at Chipotle, getting a rice bowl with pork and guacamole. I eat pork and guacamole on corn chips; I don’t eat much rice or beans as I fill up on the chips and dip.

Before this, I started the work-from-office day rushing at 6:30. I could not start at 6, just too tired and out of it, and reset to 6:30 and was fully asleep when the alarm woke me at 6:30. I stumbled into the kitchen, found a banana, and made coffee, liberal Fair Exchange, in my French Press. I somehow read emails, Slack channel updates, and the news without being late in the shower and dressed and out the door at 7:30. I reached the office on time, even after meeting two school buses on the road.

Sorry for the rushed blog, but it is already getting late. Thanks for reading.

 

Today I was sensing a change in the world. I notice these sometimes and start to move to the following items to work on. It makes me hopeful as this means there is a future, and exciting work is coming. I was busier today as I began to start new work. I am playing Philp Glass’s Akhnaten opera and saw more strange winds; it is being broadcasted next month (the 2019 production I saw live in the theaters). I think I will make a virtual show at the Met next month, July 26th.

The day is like many, and I hate to keep writing about getting up and making breakfast like it is incredible that I made it to the afternoon and bore people with the mundane. But, I heard today on public radio that the anti-cancer drug (the one that put me in the ER) is now in critically low supply, and folks are having to forego treatment or try a more dangerous or less effective drug. I am so blessed that none of this happened to me in the middle of the f**king pandemic, and I managed to avoid Covid-19. So it may be best if I remember the day.

So the morning started with me waking before my 6AM alarm and figuring out why I was up so early. I managed to find the kitchen, it appears to be in the same place–but I had doubts for a moment. There, I located an NYC bagel (thanks, Joyce), heated it for a bit in the microwave (it was frozen) to allow me to quickly slice the bagel and not turn it into a bread ball, toasted it, and smeared cream cheese on it and sprinkled it with capers. I improved my meal by adding a mug of freshly made liberal coffee (I have drunk it since Trump won his election as a reminder to be vigilant). I took this all into the office (formally Corwin’s room) and read all my emails (both the shoe company’s and mine), reviewed the updates in the Slack channels, and read the news. While the news was embarrassingly stuffed with articles about Trump, I was more interested in the Consumer Price Index, which was surprisingly better and may mean a soft landing for the economy.

I then showered, which included washing my grown-out hair, which is more than I have had in a long time. I towel it dry, but it is still damp when I leave and reach work. I am still trying to understand how to manage long hair. On shaving, I did order the Dollar Shaving Club new blades (they changed their base product again!) and changed my blade today. Interestingly, the cheaper blades have no way to clean them, while the more expensive DSC ones easily wash out and are not dull after a week (I did change after a week and noticed little change in the performance). I may take the suggestion to switch to a new shaving supply company that is not a zombie version of a brand now animated by multi-nations like Unilever.

I dressed not in a dress shirt, a Nike Tiger Woods’ short leave shirt, and boarded Air Volvo. I did encounter a school bus, but only for a moment, and I arrived in time for my first meeting at 8AM. Today it is knowledge transfer meetings from our software vendor. I was fascinated by the code and process (I suspect most people would be nodding off) and asked questions.

I was unhappy with the code as it made database requests without wrapping the request in an error recovery (Try…Except style code) process. Anyone can code a request, but a real commercial-grade program checks for failures and then returns those failures to the caller. Instead, this program is written with the hope to not fail, and if it does, it just sends a generic error  (swallowing the exceptions). This is the worst type of code–I was not happy. Worse, the program was slow as it did not Fork some tasks and wait for the results, thus only waiting the maximum time of one process. Instead, the code adds together all the time by running the processes back to back without exception handling. I did not know what to say as the program was already live. Worse, the presenter said the program already has tickets against it for running too slowly. Ugh!

After that, I did status meetings and put in all my vacation requests for July, August, and one day in October (H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland). Barb, Susie’s sister, is coming in mid-July, and I can get some time free then (I may have to do some security requests and help with a go-live at that time, but I should get free from most work items).

I headed out to see Susie after 11AM. Susie was sitting in her chair. Susie was delighted to have a visitor, and we soon called Leta, Susie’s mother, and talked about our day and Leta’s hopes for her tomato plants. Soon, I had to find lunch and get back to work. I kissed Susie goodbye and promised to return on Wednesday.

Next, I traveled on the highways without seeing Beaverton’s Finest handing out speeding tickets. I stopped by Burger King on the way back to work, had a Whopper with cheese, and listened to public radio while I enjoyed my burger and fries. The burger seemed really good today.

On the radio was a gal, Matika Wilbur, who did a photo album of every sovereign Tribal Nation in North America, 562. It took her years and is called Project 562 and the book’s name. The author was a teacher and could not find any appropriate pictures of Native Americans to show her students in a Native American School, so she went on an odyssey to fix this by photographing people from all 562 nations. 

I was sitting in my car and looked over, and Gary, another IT person I have worked with for years, was eating his lunch and reading his phone. We chatted and then headed out.

The rest of the afternoon was a few crises of the moment and me starting on some new work. The afternoon disappeared, and soon I was done with status reports and driving home. I reached home, looked for something to make, found the Jambalaya mix, and headed back to Safeway. I bought various types of meat for Jambalaya (not seafood) and other items for breakfast. I saw my Iraqui friend, Ise, checking, and we greeted each other with a smile and a handshake. He looked well and happy.

I cut up the sausage: Portuguese spiced links, cajan sausage, and plain kielbasa. I cut it lengthwise and then again. Finally, chopping into blocks (no coins). I heat these in a pan (no oil) and cut up a fresh green pepper to cook in the hot meat (which creates its own fat). I stir in the rice and seasoning from a box of Zatarain’s mix (21 cents an ounce if bought in a 12-box on Amazon) and heat until things start to stick. I then add a can of Mexican-style stewed tomatoes plus two more cans of water and scrape the pan bottom with a wooden spoon to release the goodies. Next, heat to a boil and simmer on low for 25 minutes, tightly covered. Do not stir. When reaching time, if still sloppy, then that is good. If not, then take it to sink and pour, using care, cold water on the bottom of the pan. Now it is safe to stir–hot rice will burn when stirred (the heat released from stirring instantly burns the rice to the bottom of the pan). 

I watched the rest of the newest Doctor Strange movie while cooking and eating. I have yet to do the dishes and get back to the laundry. Instead, I wrote this blog. Remembering how lucky I am to have all these boring things happen to me. I pray for the folks who cannot get their anti-cancer drugs and may not be doing boring stuff in a year. That was not the headline today. CPI and Trump were the headlines.

I remembered. I cried. I pray. I write.

Thanks for reading.

Instead of being home cleaning or putting away my laundry (which is undoubtedly too wrinkled to wear now). I am in Portland’s Pearl District, eating and drinking at Von Eberts. Mariah had a limited window, but we could do the early evening for dinner and beers if I could get there about 5:15. I managed 5:20 and Mariah a bit later. We were surprised to see the wings were off the menu (sold out), so instead, we ordered the chicken platter (one wing attached to 1/2 a smallish chicken)–still excellent. We both got one wing and let’s call it pulled chicken with it. Excellent.

Mariah and I ate and chatted about life and how things were going. We both find life tasks getting in the way of writing. We both wish we were writing more, but we are managing to keep the wheels on in our lives. We both want to travel, but that is not in the cards for various reasons, so we at least can share a beer and sigh together; we are making it work, missing NYC or Europe or other places.

I was working at home before the “situation is serious but not desperate” dinner. The afternoon was boring as our data conversion not only went well, we were ahead of schedule–something we have not experienced before. There were no serious issues, and the afternoon allowed me to rest. My breathing and coughing issues were back, and I needed to rest for a while. The short rest worked. I was feeling better by 4PM and did the last status meeting.

Moving back further, I visited Susie in the morning. I left at about 11ish in Air Volvo 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. I made good progress until I was near Susie’s; they were back to repaving Hall Boulevard as it was Monday, and I had trouble coming and going as they cut the traffic to one lane.

Susie had just finished lunch when I got there, and Susie was still in her wheelchair and delighted to see me. We headed out to the park. It is sunny and about 80F (27C) at noon with a nice warm breeze. The park was full of families with small children. School here is on for another two weeks. We enjoyed the park and watched the butterflies dance (four Oregon Swallowtails). The park manager spoke to us about the hot weather and the cedars’ stress. They expect to lose two more this summer–unfortunate. A young man had smashed his beer and was sternly reminded to pick up all the pieces by the park manager–We can’t have little kids cut their feet on broken beer bottles! The message was politely received, and the clean-up was done.

I could only make it a short visit, but Susie was pleased to get outside.

Before this was the familiar story of a bagel for breakfast with liberal coffee. I started at 7ish, as it was a work-from-home Monday. I slept until 6:30 and lollygagged in my bed until just before 7PM. My breathing woke me–the pollen was hard on me. I worked from home until 11ish. I did our status meetings and my time sheets now that we have the FY24 project code to charge our time.

Thank you for reading.

 

The day started with me rising at about 7:45 and having no shift today. I had done the 4PM-1AM shift, so I was free on Sunday. Of course, I checked the status and followed along. Breakfast was an NYC bagel; I still have a few left in the freezer from Joyce (thanks!) with cream cheese and capers, along with liberal coffee made in my French Press. I then wrote the blog for Saturday on Sunday morning (Sunday being the day I usually write two blogs). That took a few hours. I found I was tired. I had two production issues within a few days, and working a second shift (instead of my regular first shift) left me exhausted and a bit fuzzy. I read some more of the famous Foundation books by Isaac Asimov, and I still find the series to be a page-turner. Still, tobacco use in his future is shocking, and the positive writing on atomic power and radiation disconcerting. I scrubbed the toilets, did the dishes, cleaned up, and dressed.

I made a lunch of the salad left over from yesterday. I warmed some leftover bread to go with it in the microwave for twenty seconds. I watched more videos on YouTube while I ate the salad with the dregs of the coffee from this morning. Battleship New Jersey channel discussed counter flooding and showed the valves to do that on the USS New Jersey. I also watched a video on navigation on the RMS Titanic and its three compasses. This one was from Oceanliner Designs, and I recommend their stuff.

I headed to see Susie after I again toured my roses and cut more fresh blooms to take to Susie. I also spent some time dead-heading the bushes. I will have to clean up the cutting I left under the roses or leave that for my lawn service (tempting). When boarding Air Volvo, I took my cuttings, carefully wrapped in a paper towel, and set them in the seat next to me. I headed in little traffic 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. It was a warm sunny day, headed to over 80F (27C).

Susie was waiting for me when I arrived without incident, and there was no traffic on Sunday. Susie was in her wheelchair and a heavy sweatshirt for outside. It was lovely outside, and the light breeze was warm. The shade was still cool, so the extra shirt was a blessing.

We reached a bench partially in the sun on Metzger Park (next door to the hummingbird house), and there called Leta, Susie’s mother and chatted for a while. Next, we followed the butterflies (there were at least three) further into the park and then took the trail out of the park on the street.

A couple is living in their car next to the park, and Bo (I learned his name today) was cleaning the car while his gal was napping in a blanket among the English daisies in the park. I gave him $20 as we have seen them many times, and I am sure he could use some gas money. Bo was embarrassed to take the money at first but then thanked me, asked out names, and shared his. I hope it helps, and I am so glad I am not living in my car living on the edge of a park.

Susie and I continued along the roads and visited the magnolia tree and saw that it was one white bloom way up. We enjoyed all the roses in so many yards. Finally, we returned to the hummingbird house.

Anassa, the weekend nursing aide, got Susie in her bed, and I sat in the overstuffed chair next to the bed. We put on Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Arc, and we both really enjoyed it again. Susie stayed awake for the whole thing (I nodded off quite a few times). Soon I had to leave, and Susie gave me a kiss goodbye after I had M.A.S.H. running on her TV.

I stopped by McMenamins for a bowl of soup and iced tea for dinner. I then headed to Cory’s house to play our every two-week game of Dungeons and Dragons 5E. We are sixth-level characters, and Matt is DMing a Spell Jammer new campaign. I built some models for use to use, and we used one today.

While I can’t give away this story, we had a combat-rich game today, and us playing fighters (Karyn and me), took some risks and did some stunts. It is interesting to mix swords and sorcery with Space Opera, steampunk, and some light SciFi horror. D&D 5E is not a flexible system, and it is surprising to be fighting space Vampirates (yes, that is a thing) and finding it to work (as a holy paladin in 5E, I am very effective against undead, even space undead, I learned today). Now that our characters are less fragile, the mix is starting to be more fun. So I would recommend advancing quickly to the 6th level in this mix. It was a fun night, and we advanced to 7th level (even more superpowers).

After that, I took Air Volvo home, made some tea–my new order for tea from Upton Tea game in today–and wrote the blog.

I am tired, and I need to finish this (it is already 11PM). Thank you for reading!

Saturday was a lot less exciting or busy than my usual day. I was working the night shift, so I could not take the time to play any games. Also, the shoe company emergencies in yesterday’s blog settled into normal processes and are resolved.

Starting from the morning, I managed to sleep until 7:30 and then made Fair Exchange coffee in my French Press and reheated the remains of the quiche from Whole Foods for breakfast. Next, I wrote the blog for a few hours. I finished the laundry while writing and managed to ignore the dishes for a bit longer. I put away all the laundry as I feel better–no piles on the floor near the dryer.

I paid the bills, updated Quicken, the desktop version, and reviewed and corrected some transactions in June. I pay Susie’s bills within a day. I pay bills for my medical stuff slower as I get rebilled by Legacy and other medical offices with items I believe I have remitted (they take my co-pay and then bill me again for it later). It is very messy. I then get a check later to reimburse me for my overpayment. This will make a hash of my taxes as I have enough medical bills to write off the expenses. Growl.

I cleaned up and dressed. I went then and toured my roses and cut a set of Susie. I mistakenly cut off the flowers (ala the Addam family) twice when removing the leaves. I had to cut more roses. I removed many of the thorns from the roses (careful not to remove the flower and not to stab myself with thorns). I skipped the Herbalist rose as it has impossibly sharp and hidden thorns. Soon I had a nice collection.

I traveled in Air Volvo through light traffic and the strange construction traffic–there are no construction workers on the weekend, so all the cones, sticks, barrels, and other traffic control items were neatly stacked on the roadsides. Oregon drivers, apparently having construction flashbacks, still drove slowly and ignored open lanes often closed by construction workers. You can’t roll your eyes constantly and drive Air Volvo at the same time.

Surviving the non-construction caused slowing, I arrived without incident 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. When I arrived, Susie was not at breakfast (having managed to get there just before noon), and Anassa, the nursing aide for weekend days, said Susie was exhausted and could not eat much and just wanted to rest in her bed. I retired to Susie’s room to find Susie deeply asleep under a light blanket. After waking Susie, I pushed the crash pad back under the bed and moved the overstuffed chair next to her.

Susie said no to a movie or going outside. She had black circles under her eyes and was pale. We then agreed on Elton John. I picked, and Alexia played Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Susie’s first album she ever bought), and Susie slept through much of the music. We did call Leta, Susie’s mother, on my iPhone and used FaceTime to see each other. Leta was up late and was not feeling well, too. Susie and Leta chatted for a while until Susie started to nod off. We then rang off. Susie then returned to a comfortable sleep with me next to her (reading news and work items on my phone), sitting in a chair.

Evan surprised me by stopping by and spending some time with us. We all chatted briefly, and Susie stayed awake now that she had more company. At 2PM, we headed out to let Susie sleep better, and Susie gave me a goodbye kiss.

Evan suggested a new place for lunch, and we found Broder Soder Beavert. This is Nordic food at a Nordic cultural center just a few minutes from Susie’s place. They are open from 8 to 3PM (breakfast food). I had the meatballs, and they were excellent. Evan had great eggs. We shared some Nordic-style pancakes in round balls with lemon curd and lingonberry jam. I had lots of coffee (I can’t drink beer before my shift as I will fall asleep or accidentally tell people what I am thinking in a status meeting), an excellent Nordic solid blend served with heated cream to lighten my coffee.

After finishing breakfast/lunch, I returned home and was able to read emails and Slack channel updates to be ready for my shift. The production issues were mostly resolved, and the next data conversion was long-running (two to three days) and frankly boring as hell.

Once everything had settled down and the status meeting was done, I returned to my radio project during the quiet moments. I soldered wires to the new nob, assembled the radio, including its speakers, and unattached the lights as I needed to replace the leads to be longer. I was happy to hear the music through the new speakers now connected to the mainframe, but the nob did nothing. I also could not get the push buttons to work. I drilled and broke the wood plate. I will be connecting the new modern buttons and new nob through this plate, but I was able to fix the wood. The break won’t show as I plan to cover it with veneer (like the rest of the radio) and use excellent brass screws to make it look original or fit the Steampunk theme.

I gave up on the radio after discovering nothing was working. I will pick that up again later and rework how to make the switches on a test Arduino built into a breadboard. It is handy, powered, and accessed by a B USB, but it is 5V, not the new standard of 3.3V. I am used to switching back and forth from 5V to 3.3V and even have special hardware to let me build a dual-voltage circuit (even switching a complex signal to higher or lower voltages as needed). More on that next week when I will have time again.

I ordered dinner delivered from Nonna Emilia Ristorante Italiano by GrubHub. I had the handmade beef ravioli in a meat sauce. I ordered too much garlic bread and a large ceasar styled salad with freshly made creamy pesto dressing. I had too much bread with it. The portions were not huge, and I ate all the ravioli as I was hungry. The leftover bread and salad will be for lunch on Sunday.

I then went over my Quicken stuff and printed out the reports for May 2023–Everything needs to be paper for accountants, CPAs, and IRS. However, I realized I did not have a notebook for this quarter. So that plan of doing boring hole punching and filing was also a bust. Also, the project panicked at 10:30, stopping me from having to clean something (my last task available).

The data loads had slowed, but it was decided the data set was causing the slowness. It is extra comprehensive data and would take more time as it generates many more updates than previous runs. BASIS and other system checks came back with our systems being fine. Just a fire drill.

I was getting tired, so I got a cup of tea made, Darjeeling tea, added a slice of lemon, and got a few German Chocolate cupcakes with pecan and coconut frosting. That got me back, and then I read some more of the famous Foundation books by Isaac Asimov. While showing its age (tobacco survives into his version of the future, for example), it is still a page-turner. I read that while waiting for the shift to end and the 12:30 status meeting. There were no more events.

The 12:30 status meeting was short, and I handed over a dull day to India. It is good to be bored when doing data conversions!

I had trouble sleeping as I proved my hydration too early in the morning, but after that, I slept until Sunrise and still managed to roll over a few times. No headache.

A few more notes…

During the day, I spotted a new role-playing game (RPG) adventure for Call of Cthulu (CoC), set in New Orleans. I have an excellent New Orleans setting book for CoC, and adding more material for a more extended play would be nice. I also found a 1926 map of New Orleans for less than $20 on eBay. I ordered both.

Paypal fell over, and I cannot work out if I actually ordered the map or just paid for it. Paypal shows, now that it is working again, that I made a payment. Fingers crossed.

I also bought a practice kit for building a plank-built ship model. I have a huge model that uses this–I have never done it before. So I ordered the kit from the Nautical Research Guild, which is a collection of folks that do build nautical models. I just joined NRG, and so far, I am pretty pleased.

I also renewed my Naval Institute membership (for the discount on the books) and Naval History Magazine (I just read the articles). I also ordered a new book (heavily discounted as my membership is still running): Leadership in Dangerous Situations, Second Edition. I thought this would be an interesting read, and it is good enough to make it to the second edition. That is always a good sign.

Thanks for reading.