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It is 9PM, and I am tired, so I will cover the good moments and forego my usual story form.

I did not make it to Susie’s place today as Air Volvo was at mothership. This was the full service for 50K miles and a repair of the dog-bone torque arm that supports the motor. It helps to keep the engine still and reduce vibrations. The dealership detected the issue, and I agreed to have them repair it. This is all done online–no phone calls. I received the message and then responded by requesting to fix the issue–all online. I did not get the car back until the late afternoon. The Lift driver who took me back to the Volvo Dealership had decorated his vehicle in Star Wars items and was happy to see I had a Star Wars t-shirt. We talked about films, TV shows, and the animated canon while he took me to the Mothership for Air Volvo. Fun and unexpected, as most Lift drivers are boring.

I felt I got off light with a bill below $1000, and then learned to use my debit card or pay a 2.5% handling fee for credit cards–they don’t take checks–cash would work. US Bank covered it. I had brought my checkbook as I had used that before–not now. They also did not rotate the tires as the front tires were the best–hmm. I suspect new tires for next year.

I returned home as I received a request to approve some software changes in our ticketing systems. I was home, logged on to work, and cleared the issue, but I received further requests and did those, too. Next, I popped out to a barber shop I saw off of 198th; a small one-room addition to a house. For $12, she quickly returned me to my precancer and per-Covid-19 hairstyle–short biz look. It was fun to have long hair, but it was starting to get in the way, and frankly, I was shedding. Ick!

Bouncing out of order, I did make Alexa work and contacted Susie at 1PM for a video call. It worked perfectly, but Susie was not used to it. Soon, she got used to it, and we had a nice short video call. Excellent, I wanted to test that–excellent.

Dinner was with Dondrea and Z at the Mexican on Hall Boulevard place not far from their house. I had to cross Beaverton to reach it, and I loaded the games into Air Volvo (I unloaded when getting serviced). I also took a quick shower after the haircut–I hate the itchy feel after a haircut. Thus, I was clean-cut and clean on reaching the Mexican joint. I had a drink and mole on chicken enchiladas–excellent.

Air Volvo was quieter and seemed to run better. The seals in the back doors were repaired, besides the motor holder. I followed Dondrea and Z to First United Methodist Church after dinner.

Z and I set up Architect of the West Kingdoms, and Z immediately started to execute a plan. She collected all the resources to build the cathedral and then just built every level earning twenty victory points. I built all the levels left and some more buildings, but I could not catch Z. Z got a few more buildings built and crushed me by about ten points.

We were both happy to play the unique resource and worker placement game. We had not played it for a few months. There are so many good games it is hard to get everything on the gaming table.

We waited for the church band to finish their rehearsal sitting outside looking at the fountain. We shared some music videos, and Z liked the “You’ll Be Back” from Hamilton.

I think I will stop there; thank you for reading.

Going backward, I am at Wildwood enjoying a smallish dark beer that is “as dark as my soul.” At least that is what I ask for, with many laughs at the bar. I spent most of the time chatting with JR at the bar. I finally got to the writing at 9 or so. Before this, I was a Powell’s Books in Beaverton and purchased the old Annotated Sherlock Holmes (1967). The new volume is $40 a piece, and there are four–they only had one, but the old one was now $25 for both volumes–perfect. Sherlock Holmes went into the Public Domain this January, so I can write a Mr. Holmes story. I have a few ideas. It should be fun.

Before that, I was at home making dinner. I had Chicken with Mushroom from Trader Joe’s by following the instructions and making naan from frozen, and also from Trader Joe’s, and started watching the first Lord of the Rings movies from 2001 (how can it be so long ago). It was delicious, and I only had a small amount left for leftovers.

Scwann’s showed up, and I got the usual Chicken Cordon Blu from them (also frozen). I usually am not home on Tuesday afternoons, but today they caught me, so I stocked up with some frozen goodies.

Before this, I was online for various status and alignment meetings at the shoe company hosted on Zoom. The usual corporate stuff. I cannot share it (and it is boring). I had returned from Susie’s from across Beaverton without issue. The traffic was lighter than I expected–new patterns start when school starts in Beaverton (today). I also saw no extra-legal driving today.

I headed to see Susie after reheating some of the Beef Hungarian Goulash still in the refrigerator from a few days ago. I made it with potatoes and carrots, more like a thick stew, so there was no need for noodles. Still good, and the spices were a bit more settled after a day of cooling. I arrived at the hummingbird house in light traffic, and I was surprised to see sprinkling rain–the forecast had no rain. It was overcast and cool and looking more like fall–we were happy to see rain clearing the pollen and smoke from the air.

Susie was awake when I got there and had finished breakfast just after 11. Jennifer, the weekday nursing aide, popped Susie into her wheelchair, and we then moved to the porch. It is a comfortable place and protected from the wind. Max, the dog that lives there, was out and wanted to be petted and played with. We managed to pet him once. We also connected with Leta, Susie’s mother, and later with Barb, Susie’s sister, using FaceTime. We had a nice chat and spent some extra time talking.

After the chat, I took Susie back inside and kissed her goodbye. Susie was OK with me leaving today as it was a work day.

I started my day by rising at 7AM and finding my way to the kitchen and then to the Immoble Schwinn. Bloomberg locked up at 15 minutes, and so I listened to the news on Alexa while I managed to not ride 6.4 miles for thirty minutes. Breakfast was an NYC bagel, a banana, and liberal coffee.

On new songs, I like Milky Chance, and this song makes me dance a bit: Living in a Haze. Yes, I should be dancing and a disco boy. A secret passion I did not even know I had.

Thanks for reading.

I forgot that the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival Kickstarter started today, and I almost missed my VIP pass. They have limited numbers. I had to join the Call of Cthulhu game to get a VIP, but that will be great to play that on Friday before the show. I have already blocked the time for work in early October–excited to return to the Hollywood Theater in Portland and do this again.

It was an overcast, cool day with light smoke; the air quality stayed in the green measurement. I could smell smoke and pine today, and my eyes burned, and I sneezed often. My allergies are more impacted; some folks report that the light smoke includes irritants. Today, I woke tired as I had slept lightly–too much tea, and I had vivid dreams, all forgotten. The pain in my shoulder and other muscles impacted by my lifts of Susie to and from Air Volvo was controlled by just one Tylenol and two Advil–the recommended combination for my surgery, and it seems to work for me, still.

I woke before my alarm a few times and finally woke just before my alarm for yet-another-Monday tired from my weekend. I dragged myself out of bed, found my slippers, and located the kitchen. I loaded the electric kettle with water and remembered to turn it on. Next, I found the remote for Amazon Fire and brought Bloomberg to the TV. Interest rates and the impact on investing were mainly covered while I peddled (still in my slippers) for thirty minutes on Immoble Schwinn and did not travel 6.2 miles.

Time flies, and soon, I have only fifteen minutes to prepare a NYC bagel with salmon, cream cheese spread, and a banana. I discovered that our test cycle had ended, and some of my status meetings were gone–exciting! I managed a few meetings that I used to always miss–finally, back to the team meetings I usually miss.

Skipping status and boring things I should not share in this story (and they are boring), I decided to visit Susie today as we both are tired. I usually spend the day with her on Monday, but not today–I will just nod off in the plush chair. Thus, Air Volvo got me there as one fellow driver enjoying my attention to driving when the driver changed lanes without warning while turning left on a light signal–yikes!

Susie was still eating, and I watched while I waited for Susie a strangely amusing Judge Judy episode where the usual stoic bailiff lost it a few times when one witness kept outrageously lying. I waited for Susie to start and finish her breakfast; Jennifer, the weekday nurse aide, said Susie was tired and was up late that day. It was cool, so I warned Susie and one of the residents scoffed that 68F was cold–funny.

The park was lightly visited this Monday, and all the kids we saw were in preschool–School starts today with an in-service, no-student day in Beaverton. We found a bench in what sun remained, and the breeze had Susie soon cold. We called Leta, Susie’s mother, and talked to her for a while (Barb, Susie’s sister, was still working and thus missed the call). Leta used the FaceTime video to share her flower gardens with us.

Soon, Susie was cold, and I was not staying, so I needed to return to the Volvo Cave. Susie, while sad to have me leave so soon, appeared to be tired and was soon to be in her recliner in the shared living room, napping. I crossed through Beaverton to return home–the traffic, now with school starting, was worse in Beaverton. Of note was a jeep with the top off and the tire cover in the back painted with a skeleton climbing out of the tire and making an obscene hand gesture at other drivers. It was a clean, neat vehicle driven by a gal in sunglasses and a hat. I got to stare at the skeleton for half my trip, so it became something I remembered for Monday.

Once home, I followed along at work and rested a bit. I read the Sherlock Holmes story in The Strand magazine, the June 2023 issue. This is written by a new writer, and I learned that Mr. Holmes is now in the public domain. I thought the writer, Mike Adamson, did not get the voices of Watson and Holmes right, and I thought some of the characters’ statements included anachronism. The mystery and the format matched Doyle’s stories, so it was worth reading, I thought. I may have to try one of these; I have read an alternative Holmes and Watson set in the horror settings of H.P. Lovecraft before.

I got out a pork roast, cut it into bits (not quite small enough–next time), browned them, added garlic, ginger, and veggies, and got everything cooked. Next, I added turmeric and curry powder from an old British blend, plus some seeded and chopped dried red peppers. After that cooked some, I added a can of coconut milk and got all that hot. I got a piece of naan from the freezer and heated it in the oven with butter. Dinner was lovely, but I could have used more spices–next time. Still, it was terrific, but I made a lot. I added it to my leftover collection in the glassware from Gene and Glenda (yes, you can smile, Glenda).

I watched the conclusion of the three Swedish movies while cooking and eating: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Extended Edition). This storyline is far from the Hollywood version, works for Sweden, and brings all the darkness to a conclusion. I think it is incredible and recommend all three in Swedish and the extended editions (must be in order). But a warning: the movies (all three) do not hold back on the violence or sex, but it all fits and helps to tell the story.

After all that, I did the dishes and watched more Battleship New Jersey videos on the Battleship New Jersey channel. Finally, I returned to writing a blog about today.

Thanks for reading. Hope you found me retracing my day enjoyable or maybe relaxing. Sometimes, it is reassuring to know someone else out there is trying to make a go of it in the crazy that is 2023.

Be well!

 

 

Today, I will leave the usual blog format and boilerplate items behind. I am late as I was relaxing, cooking, eating dinner, and watching one of my favorite videos: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Extended Edition) in Swedish. I should have been writing the blog, but I love cooking a Hungarian goulash, adding potatoes and carrots instead of making noodles. The show is hard to stop watching–Excellent.

Moving back to essential items, Cat Smith is back from NYC, her home, and spending a month or so with David and Michelle, her parents; she texted me, being from the generation that texts, suggested we meet at the Dahlias show in Canby. This required reshifting my plans and doing lifts of Susie. My right shoulder hurts, but I could pop Susie in and out of Air Volvo’s co-pilot seat. I did lightly bump her head once, but not too bad.

We toured the fields with the Smiths; David and Cat had cameras with impressive lens extensions. In contrast, Michelle had a catalog and her iPhone to identify possible additions to Smith Mountain’s garden (as I call their home on the southern side of Bald Peak). Susie was happy to have a new place to visit and got a bunch of cut Dahlias to share at the hummingbird house.

We took a break; the water in the fields had made the area humid, and it was 90F (32C). Plus, the light was yellow and gray from the smoke. There is a bad fire near Salem and another further south in the Cascade Mountains. We found some shade and got Susie some ice cream as she looked too warm; strawberry was her fav. That helped.

The Smiths helped put away the wheelchair while I successfully loaded a tired Susie into her co-pilot seat without issue or me enjoying too much pain from my shoulder.

Aside: A new bunch of muscles are explaining what they thought of my lifts. Painkillers have been taken.

I returned Susie to the hummingbird house after enjoying the extra just-before-school-starts traffic for Sunday night. It was only twenty-five minutes driving time back (an additional ten minutes there from southbound traffic near Wilsonville, always a choke point). Louis was the Sunday evening nursing aide, and he took over care of Susie from me and took her to rest before dinner. I headed home, thinking I would make dinner and relax a bit.

Just before we headed out to see the Smiths, Dan and Janet Gray visited after church at Susie’s place at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. This is also known informally as the hummingbird house. Dan called while driving to find his way, showing he is from the generation that calls, not texts, and we got them to the correct location together. I was outside and waved them in as the houses all looked the same. Dan and Janet were there to learn how to visit Susie, and they met Anassa, the weekend nurse aide, and were happy to learn the phone number and that they had just show up to see Susie.

We had about thirty minutes to meet and enjoyed the short visit; we established contact information for when I am in Michigan. Dan and Janet will visit Susie while I am at my sister’s wedding on 10 September 2023.

Before this, I managed to find time for a rushed shopping trip to Safeway to refill the necessary groceries and cleaning supplies at the Volvo Cave. I used the only cashier and bagged the groceries for him to get done faster (also, there was a long line behind me). I am unsure if I can afford the extra time to shop at Safeway if they refuse to have checkers–I am not self-checking a load of groceries. I may have to go back to ordering stuff online.

Retracing my day to the morning, I did do yet-another-weekend Zoom meeting for the shoe company at 9AM. We are still working 7/24 through weekends for some of the teams. We are on call as the master data was done weeks ago. We do attend the status meeting in case there are surprises.

I did eat the cold fried chicken from last night for lunch while enjoying Ship Happens on YouTube. I did not have time to finish the new excellent video from Nerd of the Rings on Rohan–soon!

Returning to the start of my day, breakfast was hot instant oatmeal doctored with walnuts and dried cranberries, plus liberal coffee. I enjoyed my repast while the Zoom meeting seemed to go on forever.

Moving to the very start, I found the strength to make thirty minutes on the Immobile Schwinn while watching Bloomberg re-runs for free–Today, it was about a retired NFL star now running a private investment firm and doing well. While I thought the presentation dripped with privilege and all the statements about the personal relationship being the most important thing. This sounds like opaque communication to me. I don’t trust that as a good thing, but still, it was well done. Something to learn while pounding the pedals. I did not go six miles today.

Thanks for reading my events for today.

 

 

With a fire near Salem, Oregon, our air quality has been over 50 (0 is good, 100 not good) for some time; my throat gets sore, and I have my cough back. No smoke-free skies exist until you reach the Blue Mountains in Eastern Oregon. It has slowed me down as suddenly I need my inhaler.

Going backward, I arrived at the Volvo cave near midnight with a box of chicken from Popeye’s (I missed dinner) and ate that before taking my pills. I saved two pieces for lunch today. The chicken was overcooked and thus extra crunchy–I like that.

I had come from Richard’s house via the usual super-tall on-ramp (scary tall) to the bridge in Portland. At least it is not see-through! Previously, we played a four-person board game at Richard’s: Great Western Trails: New Zealand. Yes, it is a resource management game with most of the action related to sheep. The game is a trail through buildings and hazards you manage to get your sheep through. You build buildings, hire folks, agree to objectives, and have money to buy things. You also sail ships to establish a market to sell your sheep. There are bonus tiles out on the islands that are only available once.

The game, new to most of us, took more than three hours to play after an hour teach by Richard. We had only a few rules look-up moments and none that stalled the game. This showed the excellent flow and design of the game. Great Western Trails: New Zealand contained deck-building elements (these are your sheep herds and other items you run through your hand). Shawn crushed us with a 100+ score by collecting most of the bonus in the islands–something none of us understood. Richard was in the 90s, and I followed closely, with Chris almost catching me. Overall, I strongly recommended the game with only the length of play (three hours for our first game), giving me pause to buy it–sorry I did not get a picture of the game.

I had to travel the TV Highway to Highway 26 to 405 to reach Richard’s. As expected, the Saturday early evening traffic was light (and certainly better than the afternoon traffic). I had a few slowing areas and the usual shenanigan near the tunnel with cars suddenly changing lanes. Portland was slightly dull looking with the smoke and the hills fading to light grade in the smoke.

Moving back to the mid-afternoon, Evan and I had lunch at the Tapatio & Mexican Restaurant near the taphouse and wickedly talented drink makers, The 649. I tried to order a salad and did have an iced tea instead of a beer at the Mexican place. The salad was more like sliced pork on a small bed of greens–delicious, but not really a salad. Next time, I will try the taco salad.

Avery and Stephen were out bartenders at The 649. I had a beer, and Evan ordered another well-made cocktail. I ran late all day, so we were short on time and agreed to play a relatively quick board game, The Architects of the West Kingdom. I have all the expansions, and we play with them. I know all the rules, and I did use the Pirate and the Princess to my advantage and also added adornments to my building for a pile of points. Evan was unhappy with the application of the Pirate (every meeple at the Pirate’s location gets arrested at the change moment) and missed the rules that trip movements. I also was terribly lucky with my building plans, and Evan kept arresting my meeples at the moment I needed to pull back my meeples, and thus I found I could get them back easier. Overall, I had an easy time of it, mostly from luck, and won with a high score.

Before moving to a late lunch and gaming, I was with Susie at her place at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. Susie was happy to see me when I arrived around 12:30, and Anassa, the weekend nursing aide, popped Susie into her wheelchair, and then we headed out to the slightly smoking Metzger Park next door.

The smoke did not keep people away, and there were parties here and there. The rec building was in use, as was the shading bench, so we used another one. Leta, Susie’s mother, was safe back in her house; we learned this after I started the three-way FaceTime call. Barb was shopping. Leta’s electricity was back at her home–it was knocked out by severe weather a few days ago. We chatted pleasantly on the bench; Susie seemed to nod off a few times. After we rang off, we went through the park and made our large circle back to the hummingbird house.

Next, Susie decided to stay in her wheelchair for a while. I put on my favorite show, Only Murders in the Building, on Hulu. We are in season two, and Nathan Lane returns as one of the bad guys. It’s always fun to see a comic actor like him place a villain. We are about halfway, and I like how it is written and put together. Everything is obscured by personal relations issues and the usual problems of living in our times, and the murder is likely in plain sight if you can see past the noise. It’s much closer to Sherlock Holmes, but without Sherlock, maybe more Inspector Morse. We managed one episode and then put on M.A.S.H. for Susie and left with a kiss. Susie was sad to have us go–Saturday is a short visit day for Susie–I try to fit a week of stuff into the few hours of Saturday to keep my sanity.

Before all this, I was awake in time to do 20 minutes on the Immoble Schwinn, working myself back to thirty minutes after skipping one day. I then did the morning status meeting; yes, we are working through another weekend. Our director joined me because he needed to speak about some issues. I wrote the blog while following along and continued it after the meeting. It took most of the morning.

I had issues with the 12-inch M1 Apple, 2020, as it is called–The copying of an email sent photos for the blog crashed with the beach-ball-of-death so feared by all Mac users. I had seen issues in Mac TV movies that would not play and other suggestions of a failing hard drive. These super powerful and fast all-memory drives are now just reaching their first-time use by consumers like me. Could the super drives supplied in Apple machines have a limited life expectancy (Not that Apple would use parts that fail just as the warranty ends–April 2024; of course not, they have no history of false obsolescence planning–yes, they do!)?

I have two, yes two, extra super fast and powerful (more powerful than Apple’s drive, in one case) for backups. I use a smaller and faster one for Time Capsule, the Apple backup system. This is plugged by USB-C into the landing station for my M1 in my office. When I plug the laptop to charge and have wired network access, it also connects to the device, and Time Capsule finds everything that has changed and saves it. Time Capsule can restore a system in about 24 hours. Maybe it is faster now, but making it work last time was pretty unpleasant. I had to buy a drive from Other World Computers and their kit to install it and then install iOS on the blank drive to connect to Time Capsule to recover. I lost nothing, but I was sweating it the whole time.

The other 2T (the one I bought when my previous Apple died) is fast and all-memory (about $600 when I bought it). I use this other drive to copy the files from my user ID on the system–just doing it the old-school way: Just copy. I then unplug the drive and put it in a ziplock bag. Next, I put in Air Volvo near the spare tire. I make a copy about every month (but of late, I have been lazy about that). This is the last ditch backup if I take a total loss. With all the storage, I put multiple backups on this drive.

Well, scared, I grabbed the drive from Air Volvo and spent a few hours backing up the data on the M1. I showered while it burned. The drive gets hot when writing so much data, as the thick cover is a heatsink, too. After one issue, I restarted the copy and headed to Susie’s being late. I copied it completed, and I have the drive copy now.

Besides well-learned paranoia about computer storage devices, it was a good and busy day. Thanks for reading.