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Monday is not usually so crazy, and then I decided to watch the old movie Willow as Disney+ is starting a new series. I am writing the blog on Tuesday morning as I have the day off. I have a Physical Therapy appointment today and could not imagine mixing that with work and seeing Susie, so I took the day off from work.

Going backward, I finished Willow after 11PM and went to bed. I woke at 4ish and had some trouble sleeping, but I slept into 7ish and feel OK this morning.

Before watching the show, I was in Portland. Mariah texted me she had changed her mind and would meet me at Von Ebert’s in Portland. I was at Wildwood having a dark beer and did not see the text until 6:15ish. I paid my bill, having only finished 3/4 of a small glass of a dark beer (thinking it wrong to chug it and then take Air Volvo), so I left it unfinished.

I reached Von Ebert’s in Portland’s Pearl District in light traffic and parked on the road next to the bar. I brought Mariah a Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company catalog; I had ordered an extra one for her. It is the ultimate in heirloom gardening annual book–I love flipping through it, and this year’s catalog is an inch thick!

We had some beer and smoked chicken wings, mine with a mild sauce. Mariah recommends the Korean-style sauce. The wings were better today. We chatted about work and various topics. As a new homeowner, Mariah is learning why we joke about having your paycheck directly deposited to Home Depot. Luckily, she has a cousin in Portland, a fix-it gal, who has been helping Mariah experience all the fixes. Mariah is proud that she replaced a doorknob without knowing how until she did it.

Before this, I was at Wildwood and ordered Cyber Monday stuff online from AdaFruit with another 22% and 15% discounts. The sale seems to be going well, as AdaFruit stock in certain microcontrollers is exhausted, but I was able to order some things I could use and picked up the cool stuff on Black Friday.

Aside: I love to program in microPython that AdaFruit developed for their boards. The board, Adafruit Feather M0 Express, is cheap and tiny but can control many devices. It has a built-in plug for a lithium ion polymer battery and recharging circuit.

I saw Jim V, now retired for almost 10 years, at Wildwood. He used to be one of my directors at Nike IT. I could not believe how many years have gone by now. It seems not that long ago that I first met Jim V in Laakdal, Belgium, where he worked on the shoe company’s warehouse software.

Aside: It is snowing here in Reedville on Tuesday morning. It will last for just a bit as it is warming up.

Before getting a beer, seeing friends, ordering stuff, and then rushing off, I was at the house. I had some meetings today, working from home, that frustrated me, and I stopped for a bit to recenter myself. Work was just going to meetings that were a bit disjointed (yes, I went back and deleted what I wrote). Folks obviously still had their heads in the holidays and not at work (additional unhelpful comments removed). I do not usually comment on work here, but I do comment on how things affect me.

My neighbor, apparently with some leftover fireworks and nothing better to do, started launching mortars into the sky. It was wet, so there was no risk of fire. I stopped by, chatted for a few minutes, and he moved the stuff out of the street so I could drive to Wildwood, thinking I needed a beer, and Mariah had canceled (only to un-cancel later) dinner in Portland.

As I pulled out, a motorcycle speeded down our street. I just stopped to let it do its thing. It was being followed by an SUV. Yes, Washington County Sheriff Patrol had noticed the fireworks. And as it was not a holiday and nobody else was doing fireworks. Thus they quickly tracked the illegal fireworks. I drove by as a uniformed guy with a flashlight was lighting up the box of fireworks.

Before this, I managed to see Susie today at the hummingbird house. It took me three tries to remember all the items, and last time I had to go back for my phone. I, too, was having issues getting organized today! The traffic was light; I headed out at about 11AM. The weather was damp, but the skies were showing some blue and some sunlight, and it did not seem that cold.

Susie was happy to see me, and I handed over the remains of the cinnamon rolls I had made the previous night. I also brought Susie’s Christmas Peanuts set that played music, danced, and lit up. It plays short Peanuts-styled versions of Christmas music. Jennifer, the live-in nursing aide, will find a place for it. I also gave Jennifer my turkey baster, shaped like a turkey–they did not have one at the hummingbird house.

I opened a package from Barb, Susie’s sister, hand-warming mittens you put in the microwave to heat. Susie’s hands are always cold and Barb, who visited just a week ago, wanted to help Susie stay comfortable. Thanks, Barb!

It was only a short visit, as I was working on Monday, but we connected with Leta, Susie’s mother, on FaceTime, and she and Susie chatted for a while. I sat with Susie for a while, but my time was soon over. I left with a kiss and returned without incident to the Volvo Cave with a stopover for some chicken from popeyes.

I ate the chicken while watching videos on YouTube. My fav naval history channel has a new presentation on the legendary Greek Fire, the historical records of its use, and lighting off some test batches from possible recipes. If you are interested, I would suggest the video here.

Before this, I sat through more Zoom meetings, which helped us refocus on work. I was up at 7ish and had two cinnamon rolls and a banana with liberal coffee.

Aside: snow is slowly turning to rain on Tuesday morning.

Thanks for reading.

 

The morning started with me waking after a whole night’s sleep. Something hard to come by of late. I started writing the blog at about 7ish and finished writing a long blog, as Saturdays are always busy. It always seems that I try to fit a whole weekend into one single day. I managed to finish at about 9ish and then shower and all of that. I had a yogurt and a banana with liberal coffee. I even slipped in a few minutes in the morning of working on my Dungeons and Dragons adventure, which is starting to fit together with the story encounters I wrote.

Air Volvo was buried in leaves. The garage is stuffed, so Air Volvo lives outdoors and ages a bit from that. My gutters are stuffed too. Only one tree has let go, more like a leaf explosion. The other tree is usually two weeks later. My lawn service appreciates that the trees don’t bury me all at once, but the extended leaf clearing crushes them every Oct-Nov. I remember clearing the leaves for Halloween for trick-or-treating before, so that gives you an idea of how much time the season has changed: three weeks.

Once I cleared the windshield, I could take Air Volvo to see Susie at the hummingbird house. Trees everywhere are letting go now, and the sidewalks are lost in a pile of browns, yellows, and reds. I reached Susie, and Anessa, the weekend nursing aide, got Susie ready. I did the lift to put Susie in the car, and Susie turned into a pile of noodles in my lift of Susie, and I had to adjust her in her seat. I was ready for noodles the second time after church.

We arrived at church, and I unloaded Susie with no issues from Air Volvo. Everyone was happy to see us, and there were more folks there, as is usual, after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. We had found Williams Sonoma Chili Lime Tequila Brittle at the mall and brought some for Dondrea. She loved it.

Aside: It is only available in stores!

Pastor Ken Wytsma’s sermon covered Matthew’s chapter six famous section on the evil of wealth. The pastor suggested that it is not so much wealth as letting the pursuit of advancement, money, and power that can separate someone from the things he/she/they needs to focus on. Too often, religious leaders and people concentrate on chasing wealth and losing what matters most. There is a reason why money is mentioned so often in the New Testament.

We called Leta after most of the coffee hour had broken up after church. Leta was happy to see Susie at church, and I showed Leta, using the iPhone, all the familiar decorations. Leta has been to First United Methodist Church in Beaverton for a few Christmases and recognized the usual setup.

Soon, Susie was tired, so I took her back by Air Volvo and got her safely loaded and unloaded. Anessa was happy to see Susie back and safe. I left with a kiss while Anessa and Susie worked out if lunch would be before or after a nap.

I returned home and had leftovers (somewhere Glenda is smiling when reading this) reheated in the glassware I received from Glenda and Gene. My reheated porkchop, green bean casserole, and mac and cheese were excellent. I ate some of this while chatting with Joan G on our after-church Zoom meeting, a leftover from the Covid-19 days. It was just us, and we chatted for a while.

After that, I wrote some more of my Dungeons and Dragons adventure and worked on a special figure I made for the adventure. I have more to make if I can get the 3D printers working (growl). After that, I rested a bit and read some more Mind MGMT comics, which are pretty good. I have a new board game by the same artist that uses the same name. It is a hidden movement game where you try to capture the agent player by using clues to their location. I have the game Fury of Dracula, which operates some of the same mechanics and is a favorite.

I headed out to BJ’s Brewhouse for a salad and a beer. I wrote a little and ordered some gifts for a recovering friend–something unusual (are you not surprised) and handmade on Esty. I hope the items some intact and soon. I love shopping there as they have so many cool things, but you must be aware of travel and manufacturing times as some items take months to get.

I got home and started on some cinnamon rolls, but the dough is not rising so far. So, while waiting, I wrote this blog and cleaned up.

 

Going backward, I managed to get to bed just after 11PM. I was still tired from Thursday’s nearly sleepless night. I wrote for thirty minutes on my Dungeons and Dragons adventure for play on 4Dec2022. I had some cheese dip and Triscuits as my pills are best with food and were starting to bother me. The food fixed that. I also took some painkillers as the pain in my right leg is back, and I woke the previous night in pain, but not tonight. I managed to sleep through the night, finally.

Before this, I was at Richard’s and played the new board game Weathermaker with Richard and Shana. Unfortunately, I did much worse in this play as I struggled with the rules and mechanics. I had suggested the game, and by the end, I was sure I did not want a copy of the game; I could play Richard’s copy, but it is intriguing, and I want to try again. The game has you playing in different sections to receive various benefits, themed as weather control machines and research. After coming in at a distance bottom score, with Richard and Shauna surprising me by gobbling up two areas of research in the first three plays (!), I still wish to try again. The rules are endless, the mechanics easy to make a mistake, and the iconography arcane, but I still like it. I might buy yet.

Often we would play more than one game on Saturday night, but I was tired, and the struggle in Weathermaker had left me fatigued. So just one game last night.

Before this, I was at The 649 Taphouse in Aloha, Oregon. Evan and I met there after spending the early afternoon with Susie. We had a drink, and I later had a sandwich that was sort of a shredded meat version of a Cubano. We played the board game Concordia, my favorite. This time we played the Corsica map which worked for two players, and used the Forum add-on, which gives players random super-powers each time they retrieve their cards with a Tribune personality card.

Evan had some trouble getting into the mechanics and tried ending the game early. However, I had already purchased plenty of valuable cards for final scoring, and I had an Architect personality card still in my hand and the resources to build on my last turn. I won by a considerable margin as I always get my colonists out, which grants them more movement and more points at the end of the game. Next time, I will put the Architects of the West Kingdom in Air Volvo. Evan has mastered that one, and I still struggle with it. I have all the add-ons and bling, and we have some optional setups, so I really should get it out more often.

I met Jane and Gary at The 649 after finishing the game. I have not seen them in years. We took photos, exchanged addresses, and caught up a bit. Hopefully, we will meet up again.

Before playing at The 649, I picked Susie up at the hummingbird house and took her to the Washington Square Mall. Evan met us there later. We did some shopping with Susie picking out flowers to take back with her. We got a gift and just enjoyed all the bright colors and energy. The line for Santa was just a bit longer than the line to get into the Apple store, but the line for coffee seemed the longest, so Pacific Northwest!

We found a Christmas tree in Nordstrom for $1,300!

We did not get one.

The belt you see is to move Susie. I leave it on if I have to move Susie.

We found some ice cream for Susie, a hot dog (excellent) for me, and a chicken sandwich for Evan at the food court. I had a beer in the beer garden and saw some of the Civil War game (Ducks vs. Beavers, both Oregon teams).

After the shopping and touring, Susie was getting tired, and I took her back. Anessa, the weekend nurse aide, took over, and Susie wanted a nap. I said goodbye with a kiss. Evan headed to the before-mentioned 649.

Moving to the morning, I started at 7ish with some sleep–I still woke up a few times–from the night before. Then, I wrote the blog while having a banana and yogurt. Then, I dressed a few minutes late, having a bagel in the car with cream cheese.

I have a physical therapy visit on Tuesday (they called while I was driving and scheduled it). I am feeling better.

Aside: I acquired a used copy of the Mind MGMT comic book collection volume 1. I started to read it a bit. I have a board game by the same name and the same artist. I was curious about the source of such an unusual board game. More to follow.

Thanks for reading.

The most challenging days have two features: asthma and exhaustion. These days disappoint as I usually have plans and things to complete on those days that will not happen. Friday was such a day. I had little that I had to do that day and wanted to write, but with the breathing issues and the lack of sleep, that would not happen.

Instead, I struggled from 4:30AM trying to find an incantation and potion to let me sleep. I tried to capture sleep, but Morpheus escaped me. So at 5ish, I was up and took some Cetirizine Hydrochloride 10 mg (Zyrtec), and this cleared the coughing, sneezing, and congestion but made me profoundly sleepy. It works for me, and I recommend it to folks who suddenly can’t stop coughing and have asthma but be ready to be fatigued.

It was Black Friday, and I was up early, so I checked for my usual additions online for discounts. The Game Steward did have some specials, but I did not see anything I wanted for prices I could not imagine I would see again. Sparkfun was closed (but would do discounting an hour later after I looked). AdaFruit got my attention, 22% off of Feather microcontrollers. These are fun to work with about three US Quarters-sized fully functional microcontrollers. They have built-in recharge circuits for a LiPo battery via USB. The USB connection allows you to program them like an Arduino or micro-Python. So I bought a supply of new Feather boards with LoRa radios (A new tech I have not tried with a 10-kilometer line-of-sight range for slow speeds communication) and various add-on boards. All with free shipping and a discount.

Next, I wrote the blog; I think I did, as the exhaustion made yesterday a blur. I went back to sleep some more and managed to sleep, but the nightmares came as I struggled still, even in my dreams. I was wandering lost, and things will looking for me, unfriendly horrors. I needed to keep moving, but the dream setting kept getting darker and more gothic with each cycle of moving. It was going to be bad when the scary things found me–I made myself wake up. Finally, I said, “enough of that,” out loud to help brush off the webs of horror as I went out to the kitchen to get more coffee. It was decided now that I would push through the ruins of Friday.

I dressed and talked to Jennifer, the nursing aide for today, and learned that nobody was up and coming at 1PM or so would be fine. Apparently, I was not the only person tired today, but I expected it was the food and the change of schedules that tired out everyone there. So, without a hurry, I showered and dressed.

I turned on soccer on Fox Sports and burned out my free hour watching the USA and England play to a draw. I reheated the remains of my purchased Thanksgiving Dinner and found the salad I had made (I usually chop twice my needs and put a baggy in the frig with the extra for a quick salad later) and ate that while watching the game. My temporary access ended before the game, but I decided I was not signing up this time.

The exhaustion started, and I was dizzy and not feeling like lunch was settled. I rested and soon was deep asleep. I awoke from a blessedly dreamless sleep and felt better. Afterward, I headed to the hummingbird house across from very busy Beaverton. My commute to Tigard is usually twenty minutes and as fast as fifteen. Today it was forty-five minutes. Jennifer and Susie thought maybe I had called and then fallen asleep before leaving!

The traffic I was in was also the mall traffic; the Washington Square Mall is just five minutes away (or twenty today) from Susie’s place. The traffic lines were longer than the spaces between the traffic lights, so it took three or four rounds of lights to get through. The shenanigans of various drivers trying to cheat the wait kept me alert. Once past the mall entrance and Target, I was free.

I arrived late, and Susie was just out of bed and in her recliner in the living room. I had just missed the Christmas movie Elf, and the terrible but all-star Fred Claus movie was running. We called Leta, Susie’s mother, and chatted with her via FaceTime.

I pulled up a wooden table chair, held Susie’s hand, and just sat. Soon I was asleep with Susie, not noticing I was sleeping (she might have been too). This happened a few times, and Jennifer suggested I get a more comfortable chair, but I demurred. Somehow we got to the end of the terrible movie, and another started. It was nearly 4:30, so I headed out with a kiss. Susie was sorry to see me leave and looked sad. It is always hard to leave.

I managed to cross Beaverton without issue and decided, still tired, to head home. There I got the smoked pork chops and heated them in butter in a hot pan. I added herbs and water to steam them hot. Next, I made green bean casserole, adding some mayo and powdered mustard to the usual mix. This was just a hint and added some extra flavor besides the onions. Next, I microwaved a potato, small one to add starch. I find that I am hungry later if I skip the starch. I did overcook the potato, so it looked like a raisin. It was hard to cut, but I added butter and some sour cream, which was good enough. I did have extra green beans.

I watched some more of Matt Smith’s Doctor while eating. This is my new binge. It is just as good as I remember it. It is on HBOMAX, and pick season five to start on the binge. I just did the episode where Jenna Coleman appears for the first time as ‘souffle girl.’ Jenna will be a regular on the show later. 

I was struggling to stay awake, but I did manage to find the focus to work on my Dungeons and Dragons adventure and do some revisions. I have to play it 4Dec2022 and wanted to prepare it for more play. So I managed to make a few edits and some additional writing.

I went to bed early, woke at 1AM, and took my pills, having woken to do that and falling asleep while getting up. I work at 2:30 with pain in my right leg, which had not happened for weeks, and I had to take painkillers to sleep. I finally slept well and felt better on Saturday.

Well, a tough day, but I pushed through. Thanks for reading.

 

Thanksgiving started with me starting at about 7ish. I had finished the blog the night before and had an easy start. I had slept well (I was up on Friday at 4:30AM with congestion from allergies–I took an allergy pill, and now that is reducing, but I have that old familiar fall-asleep feeling from the med). Instead, I worked on a paper copy (yes, going old-school) of my Dungeons and Dragons adventure, which has reached the point where I align the text and remove the fluff I write when I am guessing the storyline. I usually drift from the original thoughts as I write the encounters. I wrote all over the paper copy and got about 1/2 way with a lot of ink, deletes, and a few adds.

Aside: In my first assignments at the shoe company, we wrote huge documents quickly and revised them as the ideas changed. I remember working with Michelle V and Jim V in Belgium in the 1990s, fighting jet lag and a macro-virus while turning out piles of documents covered with ink, red, and then revised. I remember also learning the source of the virus, reading its code, and removing it from my machine and documents. Unfortunately, the virus-infected templates, and if you printed an infected document after 5PM, the virus would destroy the media it was using by overwriting the disk’s first sector. Nasty.

I watched some more Doctor Who season six (Matt Smith’s second season) and then headed out. In almost non-existent traffic, Air Volvo was quickly at the hummingbird house. Susie was in her recliner in the shared living room watching Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. Susie was delighted to see me.

We called Barb, Susie’s sister, and managed to reach her and Susie’s extended family at Barb’s just as they sat down to eat. Everyone quickly waved or said ‘Hello’ on FaceTime. Next, we reached Susie’s Aunt Joyce and had a friendly chat with Joyce recounting Thanksgiving Parades in the past when Susie and her extended family showed up one year.

After the calls, we watched the parade while Jennifer, the live-in nurse aide, and her family prepared a Thanksgiving dinner. We supplied a pumpkin pie I made and the stuff for yams with marshmallows that Susie always looks for at Thanksgiving. I headed out before dinner started with a kiss and headed across Beaverton.

I picked up a dinner for one at Golden Valley Brewery, my usual source of holiday food. Air Volvo got me to the Volvo Cave, and I then had the salad and about 1/2 of my dinner while relaxing and enjoying more season six of Doctor Who. I just tasted the pumpkin pie-style cheesecake.

I then logged into the Internet and Gethsemani Farms and ordered, for my usual victims, fruitcakes (and just fudge for one family) and added a few new ones. I also ordered more tools from OcCre in Spain for building wooden ship models. I was hoping for a Black Friday Deal, but that was available only on more kits–one is good for me, but shipping was only $10 from Spain (reduced for Black Friday, I believe), and I thought I could live with that!

I switched to my blue dress shirt and took Air Volvo, and soon arrived at Richard’s in Portland at 6PM–no traffic. I brought two bottles of local Oregon wine, the pie (as I mentioned), and some chocolate-covered pretzels from the Girl Scouts (Susie’s nieces hit me up again this year).

I joined into a word game, not my favorite, and then we played an exciting light game called The Green Team Wins. You pick several questions from a random deck and write your answer in secret on an erasable board; if it matches the majority, you score. The high score wins (not me) when the questions run out. It was a fun party game, and I recommend it. It was a new game in Richard’s collection (he opened it and punched it). We played quite a few rounds.

Dinner was with Richard’s kids (I had not met them before), Shana, Casey, who brought Arial (Casey introduced me to Richard in the ancient pre-Covid days), and me. Dinner was late, 8PM, as Richard’s daughter was working late–that is why I could join in. Dinner was traditional, with a few special items like bacon-wrapped asparagus., and the turkey was nearly perfect. Bravo!

My pie was a hit. It is hard to beat as it uses condensed sweetened milk (which, when cooked, becomes caramel). I also used Vietnamese cinnamon, which brightened all the spices (powdered ginger, nutmeg, and salt), and it was, I thought, one of my best.

Soon it was late, and folks were headed to the early Black Friday sales, so I headed home in the fog. It was thick, and while I had no issues, I nearly missed my exit. Air Volvo arrived without further events at the Volvo Cave and finished watching a Doctor Who episode, and went to bed.

I was awake at 4:30AM, as I said, and so I ordered some more Black Friday Deal items from AdaFruit in New York City (22% off of Feathers, a powerful miniature microcontroller, and 10% off other items). I tried to sleep and managed to have nightmares (ugh!), so Friday will be an exhausting day for me. I will push through and hope for sleep later.

I did order more fruit cakes, too. Hee Hee.