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I slept a bit better, but I woke up a few times. The morning started at about 7ish with me working on my Dungeons and Dragons adventure. I completed the Tuesday blog, so I had to work on my other writing projects all morning. I spent most of the time reviewing all the error mining from Grammarly. Unfortunately, I did not manage to add much to the story. However, I checked everything, felt more in touch with the story, and planned to write on Thanksgiving morning.

I also did the dishes, did laundry, and made my lunch. Breakfast was a cup of strawberry yogurt with a banana and liberal coffee. I later had a bagel-like bread product with chives and cream cheese. After all that food, lunch was just a salad with some hard-boiled eggs.

Before I made lunch, I made two pumpkin pies using the recipe my mother once used. It is my favorite pie, and I make them every year. Today I made two at once by doubling the recipe, but I used Vietnamese cinnamon instead of the more generic version I usually use. I just made the old familiar pies using store-bought pie crusts.

Once I had lunch and the chores done, I showered, dressed, collected the items to take with me, and headed to the hummingbird house. I brought the flowers I bought at Safeway that I forgot to take the day before, the laptop, and a pie to share with the residents and staff of the facility.

The pie, they have four other pumpkin pies, will be tried tonight. Susie was happy to see me and was in her recliner in the living room. We called Leta, Susie’s mother, and Susie and Leta chatted for a while.

Susie got a plant for her birthday from her Aunt Joyce, plus the cut flowers I brought her.

Susie moved to her bed, and we watched Perry Mason on her TV for a while. Susie nodded off. This was the very first episode from 1957, The Case of Restless Redhead, and I actually liked it and had never seen it before. Susie was napping, and at 4ish, I got a kiss goodbye and headed out. I am always sad to leave.

I traveled across Beaverton to Powell’s and bought a new book and the current Analog magazine. The Song of The Cell is written by the same author as my favorite, The Emperor of all Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee. His previous book on cancer won a Pulitzer, and just a few pages I have managed today to read have me convinced this is another winner.

I had lunch and read at Panera. I had my usual almond chicken 1/2 sandwich with a bowl of French Onion and an apple. The almond chicken was too cold today (I could have let it warm up), but other than that, it was good.

I did get a call from the Golden Valley Brewery that my dinner for tomorrow would be ready at 1:45PM. They had me down for a four-person dinner, and I wanted just one. They could accommodate me (again) and make me a one-person dinner.

Next, I headed to First United Methodist and Zophia and took on a small island map in the board game Concordia. We play games while the band and choir practice. Concordia is my favorite board game, and today we added the Forum rules and a smaller map: Corsica. Zophia likes Concordia and has most of the rules down, but the smaller map is less forgiving, and she misplayed a few times. I ran away with the game. Next time I will have to look out.

Revenge was quicker than I expected, as we had time for one game of Azul, and she crushed me. Zophia had a plus 100+ score, and, well, I did not. She thought I had been easy on her; no, she won that one. Next time!

I headed next to Central Taps in Beaverton Central by City Hall to write the blog. I had a dark beer and stayed late to finish the blog.

Thanks for reading.

Feel free to call or send cards. Susie resides at:

Allegiance Senior Care

Adult Foster Care Home

9925 SW 82nd. Ave.

Portland, Oregon 97223

The house phone number: (503) 246-4116

 

I slept poorly, leaving me not feeling like myself most of the day. I was kind of missing things and having trouble remembering all day. I will try to get some sleep tonight.

I was up and down for some of the night. I got up at 3AM, drank water, and read emails. I managed to sleep after that, but I still woke before my alarm at 6-something. So I reset that to 7ish and was dead asleep when it went off.

I managed to get going and write the blog for Monday. Unfortunately, I could not have coffee or food as Susie and I both had blood draws, fasting ones, at 10:45 and 11:00. I had worked it out with Jennifer, the nurse aide at the hummingbird house, that Susie would sleep late, and we would just get her ready before leaving. All that worked, and I loaded Susie in Air Volvo at 10:15ishn after having a non-eventful trip across Beaverton.

Our trip to the lab was slow, and we were not there until 10:40. We hit every light and train! I unloaded Susie, and we waited twenty minutes. Finally, we got a separate person, and they did us simultaneously. The guy working with Susie was good and hit on the first time. Soon, we were done and back in Air Volvo. Susie got some Ensure as Jennifer ensured (is that a pun) that Susie had food immediately after the blood draw. We called Leta, Susie’s mother, in Michigan, and they chatted for a while. Leta was cold and turning up her heat (laughing that it was just her, so she could do that).

Susie reading a birthday card from the Weis family.

We drove back, and Jennifer took over and got Susie lunch and out of her coat. I headed to a local Mexican place and had average food (no name supplied). I returned and found Susie napping in her recliner in the living room. I hung out with her for a while, but she needed a nap. So I kissed her goodbye and headed home. I arrived without issue and got the mail. I received the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Catalog and looked through that until I nodded off. Then, I took a short rest.

I got back up, went to Fred Myers, and bought a folding table and hooks. I want to start on some models in the office instead of having the stuff all over the house. I also want to build a Spell Jammer for Dungeons and Dragons. I also bought brass hooks to put into the house to hang the lights I have.

The table is in the office now. I will see when I have time to start on the projects.

I did pay more medical bills, and I keep Quicken up-to-date with every last dollar.

The medical test results are just coming in as I write this. I will include that in the next blog.

I had leftover pasta and sausage for dinner and watched Doctor Who session 6, one of the scariest and best seasons performed by Matt Smith. It includes President Richard Nixon in his first term before the shenanigans.

I left the house and headed and had a beer at Wildwood Taphouse.

I started the morning by not writing the blog but taking Barb, Susie’s sister, to the airport (PDX). She was doing the weekend visit for Susie’s 60th birthday on Sunday, coming in on Friday and leaving Monday. We made no mistakes, and while there was some traffic, it was forty minute trip to PDX. Barb made connections and was back in Michigan in their evening (three-hour time difference).

I flew in Air Volvo from PDX without incident (watching two cars nearly change lanes into each other). I arrived at Tom’s Pancake House in Beaverton and sat at the counter. I barely fit (which explains why only I and younger and thinner folks sit there) as the seats are bolted to the floor and come from a distant time when folks were smaller. Tom’s is a local non-chain joint open for breakfast and lunch.

I had poached eggs, some ham, and hashbrowns with toast. I should have skipped the hashbrowns, but they were so good. Also, I got to put just one packet of orange marmalade on my toast.

While drinking their coffee, I wrote the blog for Sunday and Susie’s birthday. While always rushing food and coffee all over for folks, they had tables open and no line–so nobody minded me staying and finishing the blog. It was an electric atmosphere to write in.

I headed home in Air Volvo; I rested a bit and read the end of A Master of Djinn. I would recommend this Islamic steampunk and magic queer adventure/detective novel. I was sorry that there is no second novel yet, it is the first novel, but there is a short book, a novella, set in the same world. I might read that later. I picked another book, a novella, And What Can We Offer You Tonight, to try. More on that later–so far, I don’t like it.

I headed to the hummingbird house. Susie was resting in her bed when I got there. She was exhausted from her busy weekend. She loved the way her room looks now, she told me. Susie, while still hard for me to understand, was often talking and could not fall back to sleep while I was there. I left with a kiss mid-afternoon after sitting with Susie for an hour or so.

I had chores to do. I bought groceries at Safeway, including the necessary items for making a few pumpkin pies. I don’t do pie crust. So I had bread again and more bagel-like bread products. I also picked up some Boost for Susie (strawberry flavor was only available in Boost and not Ensure at Safeway). I also bought a can of sweet potatoes and marshmallows (yuk!) to give to Jennifer for Susie’s fav at Thanksgiving. Just heat in the syrup until bubbling, add marshmallows, and heat to brown.

I unloaded and put away the stuff and then read some more. I next headed out to get gas for Air Volvo. Now down $4.89 for the chain gas stations. After that, I did the car wash to get the windshield clean. We have sunny days in the winter, not our usual weather, so I need to keep the glass clear. We see rain starting every few days (our typical September weather), but we have had frosts from the clear skies–early October for us. It feels like we are a month off on our climate.

I enjoyed Portland traffic again but stopped in the Pearl District. Monday night is always quiet, and I even got a parking spot on the street next to Van Eberts Brewing. Parking Kitty, our parking app in Portland, took my money and let me know that a twenty-cent tax is added to my parking now. The app meows when your time runs out. As pay parking ends at 7PM, I only paid to that point, so I would not have any meowing today.

I went to Powell’s as I was early for dinner with Mariah; we often meet on Mondays and found a reasonably priced computer book on Machine Learning that was only a few years out and from MIT. Excellent. I had trouble with my asthma and pushed on the stairs to the top floor and back without incident. I felt better after doing that. I need to keep moving and enjoy deep breathing.

Mariah found me later at Van Eberts, having reviewed the partial differential equations in the new purchase. Exciting–I can barely remember my math for these as this stuff has not surfaced since college. Something to relearn! Instead of math, we focused on events and beer and smoked chicken wings, so good that the chickens are rumored to volunteer. I had a smoked beer that was like a beer at a campfire and a refreshing pilsner. We ordered, primarily curious, the Korean-styled tatter tots and would not recommend them–messy.

After paying, Van Ebert’s menu and ordering were online, and we headed out. There are no waiters. It is a strange feeling, but the wings are excellent. The pizzas look good; I have not had one.

I drove home and read How to Lose the Time War, another book I am trying to like. I then went to bed early and had trouble sleeping. I finally slept better after 3PM.

Thank you for reading. Over the holiday week, I will likely be writing in the morning.

 

I did not write the blog last night as we left Susie after 8PM. I could not write it this early morning as I just dropped Barb, Susie’s sister, at PDX (our airport) to return home in Michigan.

Going backward, I went to bed at about 11PM after reading for a while. I am enjoying A Master of Djinn and would recommend it, but it keeps me up. The story is about a queer devout Muslim woman agent in a modern-thinking Egypt in a world where magic and Djinn have returned and made Cario the center of magic. The story is set in a steampunk post-modern 1920s world (without WWI), where folks are healthier and happier. The author laughs at the story sometimes, once with a comment, “here comes a Villian monologue,” just as the villain, now revealed, is monologuing. But I like it, and the setting, a very positive view of steampunk Islam, is refreshing and new to me. Recommended!

Barb and I returned to the house and had a late dinner. I discovered that all my bread, except for three bagel-like bread products, were furry (how did that happen?) and soon joined the trash. So I toasted the bagels, cooked them in butter like I was making a sandwich, and added ham and cheddar between the bread when hot and toasty. I then covered, pressing the bagels a bit, adding water to a hot pan, and steaming the sandwiches hot. I did this three times, as bagels are thick, and flipped them once. My ham and cheese bagel sandwiches were good.

Before returning to the Volvo Cave, we spent the late afternoon with Susie at the hummingbird house. Barb assembled the new bookcase we picked out yesterday, finally agreeing to use the drill to drive the screws. We also hung some pictures and other items on the wall (the heavy pic fell later, so we will need a nail or other fastener to hold it).

We opened all of Susie’s gifts from my Aunt Kathy, Susie’s sister, and Susie’s mother. Susie loves to get new things. Then mostly, Barb decorated Susie’s room now that we had new places to put things. This included adding many new owls to the light tree and various new shelves.

I set up the screen I keep there, and we watched the old movie and musical Paint Your Wagon with Clint Eastwood singing and playing the kind-hearted (!) love interest in the story. Lee Marvin plays the defacto twisted leader of the mining camp and steals the show; his melancholy song is one of the best.

Once the movie finished, Susie had a late dinner of chicken soup and some apple sauce. She was tired out but happy to have spent so much time with her sister, Barb. Susie had a wonderful 60th Birthday.

Moving back to the morning, Barb and I got ready after rising early with me writing the Saturday blog for more than an hour. We then headed to the hummingbird house and collected Susie for her Birthday visits.

We made it into the church just as the service started. Joan Goldhammer gave the sermon focusing on Jesus’s hard saying about hypocrites but pointed out that some of the folks called out were also those that preserved the oral traditions later. That Jesus was calling out the extreme faults of his day, not against groups or beliefs. From what I summarise, we need to remember to not play at being good but actually try it.

Susie had two birthday cakes, and we sang Happy Birthday to Susie at church. One cake was chocolate and the other vanilla (perfect, and thanks to Dondrea and others who made this possible). The cakes said, “Happy 60th Birthday Susie,” and I managed to eat a ‘0’ from the white cake and then a ‘6’ from the chocolate cake.

We next headed to BJ’s Brewhouse, where Barb and I got lunch, and Susie had a few bites to eat. Unfortunately, service was a bit confusing, and BJ’s was backed-up, so our food took some time, but it was not a problem for us. Next, we headed back to the hummingbird house.

We later got the residents together and had ice cream to celebrate Susie’s birthday with them. We had four pints of Salt and Straw ice cream, and everyone got some, some multiple types.

We continued to stay with Susie, as I said, until 8ish. It was a good day.

Thanks for reading.

The day started with me up early and writing the blog. I was not rushed, but we had to be at Susie’s at about 10:30, so I had to be efficient with my time. Barb is staying at the house–Susie’s sister. So I made a pot of liberal coffee for Barb and me and had a banana for breakfast.

I dressed after finishing the story, and then, the irony being what it was, we were running early and decided to stop by Target to get some items, so we took Air Volvo on Saturday morning across Beaverton, skipping Old Town. The traffic was surprisingly heavy. At Target, we got various supplies to decorate Susie’s room and hanging supplies. We discovered small shelves that just stick to the wall, excellent, and remote control for power plugs; perfect, we can use that for Susie’s light tree.

We were only a few minutes from the hummingbird house and only a few minutes late. Susie was ready and in her chair as we got there. She had breakfast and was warmly dressed. It would be nearly freezing in Portland. Barb got to experience me putting Susie in Air Volvo and helped put the wheelchair in the cargo area.

More traffic; I should have taken I-5 and not 26, but we were soon in Portland, and I drove to parking near the Portland Saturday Market, just across from Voodoo Donuts, with a huge line already for weird-themed donuts (we skipped this). Parking was $8 for the day (growl) as I was not using the more fair Parking Kitty I so adore for its ability to automatically increase as needed, but overpriced Parking City that had one option. The app meows at you when you are running out of parking time–you pay thru the app.

The area was full of just-waking street folks, and I had to use a manual pay machine. One gal had to move to let me pay for parking. I did not think, unlike a night parking where Air Volvo windows were smashed by the locals, that it was unsafe. I felt the vehicle would be safe in the bright light across from the donut shop. I would not have parked there at night, however.

I unloaded Susie into the wheelchair I retrieved from Air Volvo Cargo and headed into the reduced market. Covid-19 had not been kind to Portland, and the protesting had set folks on edge; the market was smaller now. The count of food carts was much reduced, and I noticed some stands were gone, the weird kitchen tools and coin cutters being the ones I missed. Nonetheless, it was still busy, and soon I thought I should put on a mask as folks started being packed in. But it was a windy day, and folks are still socially distancing (a habit likely to stay in place long after the pandemic is just a memory). I felt safe the whole time.

Barb bought gloves at almost the first stand. The Coho Wind was colder than the air temperature, but the buildings and stands blocked most of it–the sun was warm. I bought some Portland playing cards for gifts for the holidays. Susie said she was warm, so we continued touring the market.

The market is a mix of artists and crafts. The amount of clothing and t-shirts for sale seemed to be increased from what I remember (being there last time three years ago). The expensive art had increased. Some long-term shops-tents, like the playing card shop, I was happy to see again.

Kathmandu got more of our business: A permanent shop in the Skidmore Area. Barb bought Susie a coat of many colors and some clothing for herself. The cold started seeping in, so we decided to continue with the lunch plans.

Kells Irish Pub is only a block away and was not busy. The place has not changed, well maybe a bit cleaner, and we got a table away from the door. There is a fireplace close to the door that keeps the cold draft away in the winter.

The place was not busy, and we got drinks (Susie having an Irish Coffee) and waited a bit on food. Mariah texted me, and she was coming to join us. Unfortunately, she was much delayed by heavy cross-Portland traffic (she lives in SE Portland; we were in Skidmore just across the river in SW Portland). We ordered after waiting a bit; Susie had her usual sausage roll, which we cut very small and helped her eat, Barb tried the Shepard’s Pie, and I dove into the Corned Beef platter.

Mariah finally parked and arrived as we were finishing lunch, but desserts were ordered. We had a few beers, and Susie finished 1/2 her drink and one slice of her lunch–good for her. We chatted and had a lovely time just hanging out at the Irish Pub.

Once more, we braved the cold as we said goodbye to Mariah, found Air Volvo without incident, and reboarded. Again, Barb got to see me load Susie without incident. I use a belt to move her as I am not as good as the nurse aides and RNs, who seem to levitate Susie into the next location. Susie helps by standing and is no longer like moving a sack of wet noodles.

We returned to the hummingbird house in light traffic and with no incidents, and Barb and Susie began some improvements to Susie’s room. Susie looked tired, but she stayed with it for another couple of hours as we stuck things on Susie’s walls and lightened up the blank walls. As it approached dinner, Susie had an Ensure shake to increase her intake, and we headed out with promises to return for church on Sunday.

Barb and I then collected four pints of ice cream for Sunday at Salt and Straw. We purchased, Barb ordering from her phone, a large collection of balloons for Susie’s Birthday and realized that it would be good to get them to Susie’s place tonight. So one more late visit and we delivered the ice cream and balloons. Anassa took all the interruptions with grace.

We headed home, and soon the hours and food accumulated on Barb and me. Barb went to bed early (but not early on her still East Coast timing), and I read for a while. I had a few colon and medication issues that did not agree with the dessert, but I managed without any nasty surprises. I finally went to bed and had trouble sleeping at first. I finally slept at about 1ish.

Thanks for reading.