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The smoke is worse, and the air quality is sinking. So we are in moderate headed to unhealthy air. I have a headache and a cough, but the beer seems to help. So I will go with that.

The morning started with me sleeping into 7:30ish. The pain in my head and legs and breathing issues all got me going. I was staggering but moving. I put my out-of-office notice on and then closed the work laptop for the day. I read my emails and text and took my time. No reason to hurry this morning as Susie’s appointment was at 12:40.

I was relieved to read a text that morning that Susie had recovered. This is from a text from Michelle; Michelle manages the homes. I also learned that Susan ate dinner last night and was back to her usual self in the early evening of Tuesday. Susie managed to sleep normally Tuesday night. I was worried that we were headed to a stroke or other medical issue–it was likely the bad air too. Susie was okay now.

I loaded up some paperwork for the doc and got in Air Volvo. The sky was white with smoke and mist. Mount Hood was gone, as was the Coastal Mountains. I could barely see more than a few ridges into the smoke. Everything smelled like a campfire.

Apparently, Beaverton Police and Traffic Court have been reading my blog as they have moved the photo radar van and the motorcycle cop to Scholls Ferry Road now–the road I use to avoid them. I do not care for playing hide-and-seek with cops and don’t like them checking folks speed out of rush hours where a slight speeding is likely from moving traffic and hills. But, I was traveling through Beaverton mostly today–tricked ’em.

I reached Susie’s place, hummingbird house, at 11 without events. I was too early, so we called Susie’s mother, Leta, and talked to her for a while. Leta, too, was relieved to see Susie back to herself. We finished, and Jennifer helped and got Susie popped into her wheelchair. Jennifer got Susie a weight: of 80+. This is a loss of 16 pounds since Susie came to hummingbird house and is a bit concerning. Susie did come to hummingbird house just out of hospice care, so we are still recovering. We will chat with the doc about this.

I brought Susie’s fav brown hat. She was very pleased to see it again and put it right on.

I lifted Susie with a little bit of Jennifer’s help to get Susie into the car. We crossed Old-Town Beaverton and traveled to the Legency office in the Cedar Mills Mall. We met the doc for the first time, as our previous doc had retired. Doc C had prepared for the meeting and read some of Susie’s chart, and I was pleased he was following what we needed. I will supply Ensure for Susie to help with the weight loss. In addition, Susie will get prescribed some Occupational Therapy for her writing and hand use. We discussed other medical details not to be included here. But I am happy we have a plan.

We needed a blood draw for the first time in a year, and Susie agreed to it. The gal who did the poke did excellent, and, while a slow bleed, the tiny vein worked–excellent.

After all the medical stuff, establishing a new doc, and getting labs, we headed to ice cream. We descended the elevator and rolled over to Straw and Salt Ice Cream. Susie had a scoop of coconut cream ice cream (soft) that was sort of bubble gum flavored; Susie loved it. I had my usual coffee with pecan ice cream in a waffle cone.

I returned Susie to the hummingbird house after being out for almost four hours. The 3-4PM traffic was thick. While we were stuck in traffic, we called folks, and they were happy to chat with Susie and me while we sat in Air Volvo going 10-15mph. I had loaded Susie and unloaded her and the wheelchair–a lot of exercise for me! I did one more unload at hummingbird house. Susie was tired, and I was not enjoying the poor air, so Jennifer took over and took Susie for a nap. I left with a kiss and a wave.

I tried my luck with Beaverton Old Town again and was back home in a reasonable time. I reheated my Spanish rice dinner I made a few days ago–I made a lot. I ate it while laughing at more episodes of Lucifer on NetFlix.

I decided to head to Beaverton to relax at Central Taps and have a few beers. Unfortunately, the air index is terrible, but I am trying to just get through it.

Thanks for reading. Keep breathing–it ain’t optional.

 

As I have Wednesday off and yesterday was a tough day, I left the blog to be written on Wednesday morning. I also slept in until 7:30ish. I had gone to bed early and fell right to sleep. Unfortunately, I woke a few times, and my right leg hurt all night–the first time that happened.

It was stressful as Susie was not feeling well and did not get up. She worried me as we were in the same months when the previous strokes happened. However, I learned this morning from Michelle, who runs the home, that Susie was back to normal about dinner time on Tuesday.

I will leave the narrative style today and cover the main events on Tuesday. It is good to try different styles.

First, the air was white today with smoke, smog, and mist. We started at moderate and were headed to worse. Rains start on Friday, but these look lighter (in the forecast) than our usual soaking October. It is possible that we will see no rain in some areas!

The day started as usual, and soon I was in the office building Clubhouse for Nike. This is off-campus and, while nice, is not as nice as working at Nike WHQ. I managed to arrive a few minutes early and without dodging school buses–I managed to be just a few minutes before they started collecting the kids and jamming the local traffic.

In Clubhouse, I met two visitors looking for places to sit, we have open seating, and I asked them what group they support; they are production support Infosys folks, and I led them to the seating area of the group they support. While we have open seating, folks do group in areas, and some desks are always picked by the same person–so it is sort of open seating. I told them where to get free coffee, as I am sure they were jetlagged coming from India.

Moving to the next happening, I was contacted a bit later in the morning that Susie was not feeling well and was not getting up. This is concerning, and I soon headed to the hummingbird house. Susie was still in her room and comfortable in bed. She did not feel well and did not want to get up. Susie was terribly thirsty, and I got her some water. She laid back and went back to sleep. I stayed an hour. I was worried it was a stroke, but it could just be an off day. Susie did want to call anyone, so I just took a photo to share of a weak smile and left worried.

I stopped by Jimmy Johns for a sandwich, and they had some vast to-go orders; I was told that they would not take my order for 15 minutes. I waited a bit, but they were truly busy making sandwiches and did not take my order. I left. I found a Western Burger at Carl’s Jr. and ate that in the parking lot listening to the Oregon Public Broadcasting show on local politics. They do local stuff every noon and repeat it at 7PM. I was trying to not worry.

Next, my Microsoft Outlook (email and calendar) is not correctly running on my Nike laptop, so I spent the afternoon with the Performance Bar working with the gal there, trying to fix it. The conclusion is that we need to reinstall it. As I am off on Wednesday, it would not be a good idea to start removing and reinstalling MS Office on Tuesday at 3PM. Until then, I can use Office.com to get the features I need.

Moving to the evening, I ordered dinner from GrubHub as I was stressed and did not know what might happen. It never showed. I finally got it canceled and refunded. I ordered again; it was so late that the original place was closing, and I got some Italian food that arrived at 9ish instead. My original order was all veggie–I went for Italian Sausage and pasta for the replacement–they were still open.

I watched the NetFlix show Lucifer episodes, finished season 2, and laughed throughout the show.

I went to bed early and did no writing as I could not get my focus back.

Again, the morning is smokey, and the air smells of burning forests. Cool nights, 50F or less (10C), and warm evenings with temperatures approaching 80F (26.7C). The desert style is happening, and the temperature crashes when the sun goes down. A light breeze from the high desert is cold and brings smoke from the east. I wear a sweater now.

Rains start on the weekend and will continue until June-July 2023. We all will be happy to see the rain back. But I suspect we will miss the sun by March!

The day started with me working from home as usual on Mondays. The work for the weekend is over, and folks are switching to regular hours again. We used to have a joke, “Thank God it is Monday–we can just work a regular day!” I see a bit of that.

I started at 7ish and was online reading emails, texts, and slack messages to get caught up. Nothing was severe, and I went into the first status meeting without too much concern. The next release has some data issues, as we are in the first extensive tests, and the data relevancy is again an issue. The 70% accuracy for each data type has excluded a consistent set for running the transactional conversions. This happened last time. I heard the same consultants give me the same statements as the last time. So I left the channel a bit early. I returned to things I could control.

After a few more items, I was dressed and went out, and cut roses (this was more productive) after the third try to load some software. Enjoying the extended Sunlight and lack of gray pouring rain this October, my roses are still blooming and growing. I deadheaded, trimmed, and cut roses for Susie. Wedgwood, a David Austin English Rose, was still going strong and covered with pink blooms. My Mister Lincoln was also in bloom. The rose that is older than me that came with the house (having been transplanted from the previous owner’s mother’s house) I cut back and got two good tea roses for Susie. The thorns on Wedgwood are impressively sharp, and I wrapped the flowers for Susie with care in some paper.

I am seeing powdery mildew on the leaves for the first time–the extended lack of rain is likely the cause. Black Spot is also showing, which I seldom see. Unfortunately, the extended dry and sun are also extending some of the usual pests.

I then took the roses and headed over Coopers Mountain. The construction on the roads surprised me, and I took a different way back to avoid the mess. I soon reached the hummingbird house.

It was cool still, as the smoke and mist blocked the sun, so we only visited inside. We called Leta, Susan’s mother, and chatted with her for a while. My sister also called; she returned my call and chatted with us for a bit–Linda has the new non-Covid-19 wicked flu (get those shots). But soon, it was time for me to return home.

As I said, I went back by a different road to avoid trouble (like the wise men). I stopped by the Rite Aide to get my prescription for my upcoming colonoscopy. My prep stuff is lemon flavor (I asked for whiskey or margarita flavor)–December 22 will be party time for that.

The line was six deep, and it took thirty minutes as Rite Aide closed our store, moved us to the old failing Farmington store, and added no staff. I am sure this store is cheaper to run and is run down and that the long-term lease in the failing strip mall was affordable. But, it means they are always behind by days in filling prescriptions. I have switched most of my stuff to mail now. Hummingbird house uses a mail-order pharmacy for Susie that bills me about $250 a month with insurance.

I finally managed to return to the Volvo Cave. I spent the rest of the afternoon helping with a few leftover issues from the weekend and trying to install more software.

I did rest for a bit. I am trying to slow down a bit as I think that is part of my issue–trying to do too much all at once. Not to mention I have a bit of stress.

I also ordered a pizza for my mother in Michigan using GrubHub. My sister has been too sick to ensure Mom Wild has food and stuff. So I supplied a pizza and even a salad. Next, mom asked me about cigarettes. No idea you could order that to be delivered in East Lansing, Michigan, from Oregon. But yes, you can, as long as the credit card name and the delivery name match. So Mom Wild gave me her credit card number over the phone, and I had that delivered too. I even talked to the delivery folks in Lansing, who was happy to help. So food and requirements are done, and Linda, my sister, does not have to take care of that.

Aside: The stock market went up 550+ points today after losing about the same last week. I am shaking my head as folks try to manipulate the markets and public opinion. We have a tremendous over-revving economy right now. Try to enjoy that.

I got one of the smoked 1″ thick pork chops from the Metzger German Deli. I cooked it in butter with some Herbs de Provence and cayenne pepper to give it just a little kick. I added no salt as this is a smoked product. Next, I made corn niblets (frozen) with a steamer basket adding butter, salt, and lots of ground pepper. This plus a salad I made, chopping celery and carrots to go in it.

I again watched the newest episode of the House of Dragons to see what I missed. I did see this time that the gal needlepoint was a spider–she is one of the spies of the unknown spider–look for it. I loved the episode, but not as much as the final episodes of Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power which has finally found its footing in the last four episodes (I am not sure the first three are watchable).

I then decided to head to WildWood Taphouse to write. I am tired of staying home.

 

I sort of gave up resting today and could not do it. I was lying down and reading, and then Mariah chatted with me about her IKEA adventures, and I decided to head to Portland. I stopped at the Pearl District, not getting very far inside Portland, and did Powell’s. My leg, my right leg started to hurt again from standing and looking at books. I could not resist, despite the pain, getting a new cookbook. I used to say it is not how many you have but how many feet of cookbooks you have. After removing the most unused or uninteresting ones, I still have a few feet left. I could not resist An Unapologetic Cookbook by Joshua Weissman with his “Better than Popeyes Chicken Sandwich” recipe.

So I parked Air Volvo in the garage and headed to Powell’s. The crossing to Powells uses a unique diagonal crosswalk–no, really. I walked around, resisting a few exciting SciFi books, but the cookbook was what I took with me. As the pain grew, it was time for other options. Next, I went to Von Eberts and ordered a beer.

There I read the hilarious entrance into the new cookbook and the recipes to make your own pickles, cheese, and sauces (ketchup included). This is based on the author’s belief that you must understand how your food is built to properly understand how and what you want to cook. A premiss that the basics matter is very close to my heart.

The beer was good, but Mariah was busy, so I enjoyed the book and drank a few beers slowly over a few hours. Then, at 6PM or so, I order; all of this is online (the waiters just deliver and take questions). They are the best wings there are (at least, I think so). I had medium, which is still spicy, with a vinegary hot and salty mix that mixes well with the smoked flavor and slight char. Previously, when it was FatHeads, there were signs that chickens lined up to be wings here–they wanted to be the best. I believe it.

I enjoyed my six wings; I was hungry. Four is really enough–they are huge (only strong and large chickens should apply).

Before all of this, I was starting my morning in a rush to write yesterday (Saturday’s blog), dress, eat breakfast, and get to Susie on time. I managed to wake before my alarm and tried to get going, but time just seemed to run faster this morning.

I was dressed and out the door at 9:45 and made the trip without speeding in record time. But I saw that the police were closing down many roads, and it was impossible to reach the church using the regular roads. At least Beaverton’s finest was busy, so I was unlikely to get their attention.

Susie was running behind as my request to be ready had not been heard, and Anessa was rushing with other care items for the other residents. No matter, being late for our church was rather normal for us. I saw some imaginative use of lanes with the pressure of all the traffic being pushed here and there by the street changes.

I managed, once Susie completed breakfast and her teeth were cared for, to get Susie into Air Volvo by pivoting her when she stood and lifting her onto the passenger seat in the front of the SUV. I adjusted her without too much trouble, as the leather seats let her slide easily.

We had to take the highways and reach First United Methodist Church only twenty minutes late. Everyone was happy to see us, and we had some coffee, just sips for Susie, and then headed out to the park near the church.

I resisted the urge to drive through the fountains with Susie in the wheelchair (It was 83F today–28.3C). The library was not open yet, and we headed back to Air Volvo.

I lifted Susie again into the front passenger seat with her helping more, and that required less adjustment–better. We returned to the highway, risking 217 and arriving legally and safely at hummingbird house. I unloaded Susie; no exciting ice skating moves this time, just a stand, pivot, lift, and in-wheelchair move (Air Volvo Death Drop with no revolutions). Anessa took over, and Susie had lunch and a nap in her plans. I left, as usual, with a kiss.

I reached home later, driving around some of the closed roads. I had an excellent ham and cheese sandwich with imported German mustard, locally made potato salad, and red cabbage (all from the German Deli in Metzger). I watched the rest of Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power last episode for the season and really liked it. Recommended. And that is where the story started with me resting…

So that was my day, ending here in the dark in Portland, drinking and eating in the Pearl District. I am still checking my messages, emails, and Slack updates, and so far, I have no issues. However, it is getting desert cold now that the sun is down. Time to head out, I think.

Thanks for reading.

 

Bad air continues in the area; winds came yesterday and helped for a while, but then the winds stopped, and the smoke, pollen, and smog all resettled in the valley. I could not slow down on Saturday as I tried to push a whole weekend into a few hours on Saturday.

Going backward, I went to bed at about 12:45 after putting the sheets in the drier. It could have been sooner, but I forgot to dry them before I left for the day. I got a snack of potato salad and red cabbage salad with a pickle to take my pills–they are unpleasant on an empty stomach and watched 1/3 of the new Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power final episode but grew tired, made the bed with dry sheets, and then went to sleep.

All night and the day, I followed along and sometimes sent out suggestions for the software upgrade that was running. There were no issues, and, as often happens on heavily orchestrated computer events, it ran twelve hours faster than planned, and all the work was done on Saturday instead of being spread out over the weekend. I will not narrate that I was constantly checking and interacting with folks on my iPhone.

The morning started at about 7:30, with my breakfast which consisted of a scone, a banana, and liberal coffee. I wrote the blog for Friday in the morning. After that, I started laundry and then showered and dressed. The pain in my leg and feet was mild, and my breathing was not labored.

I took Air Volvo over Coopers Mountain, and the mist and smog were still heavy, but nothing like yesterday. Today, I was earlier, so there was less mist. The mist burns off by the afternoon, so the air is better if fewer clouds cover the hills. I avoided any police entanglements during my thirty-minute journey and seldom traveled above the speed limit, and I have to admit I slammed a few times to prevent a slightly warm yellow.

I arrived there, and Susie was ready to travel, and I managed to get Susie in the car. She was not helping much, so I had to lift her back inside the car to get her properly in the seat. More practice. We traveled the very short distance to Washington Square Mall and successfully unloaded the wheelchair (heavy) and Susie (light). The parking lot, I don’t have a handicap sign yet, is aging, and Susie bounced a bit in her chair as we crossed over the less-than-perfect surface.

Once inside, we toured the mall, and I walked most of it, pushing Susie. Susie enjoyed all the sights and seeing so many people. It is my first time there since the pandemic, and I noticed that the dress styles were comfortable but expensive jeans and pull over, showing as much skin as possible–mostly younger gals, or expensive soccer wear–primarily men. This trend was also for the clerks in the store. Few masks, but I did notice nobody was close to each other as the habits of social distancing appeared still to be in place.

At noonish, I headed to the Cheese Cake Factory and put in for a table. Evan joined us, waiting a minimum of fifteen minutes (usually thirty) for a table there. Once at the table, we ordered a diet coke for Susie, her request, and some pretzel bites with cheese–some food that tiny bits Susie can manage, just a taste. Evan and I shared an egg roll sampler (not recommended).

I shared a tiramisu cheesecake with Susie. It is a lighter cake with ladyfingers instead of the graham cracker crust and a hint of chocolate. Recommended if you want to avoid the cheese heaviness of the usual cake. Evan had a Boston (!?) version with fruit. We then waited ten minutes for a to-go order for Evan and me for lunch.

Susie enjoyed some tastes of cheesecake and Diet Coke. I took Susie back to the car, had to pull out the car a bit, and then loaded her back into the front seat of Air Volvo with more success this time. I brought her back to hummingbird house without incident, but the traffic was much worse. Apparently, President Biden’s visit had snarled traffic in the wider area, with people flooding the backroads to reach their destinations.

Susie was always sad when it was time for me to go, it had been the longest travel for Susie in months, three hours out and about, and she looked done in. I certainly had my workout. I left with a kiss, and Susie was headed for some more lunch and likely a nap.

I drove, with care, but not traffic, across old-town Beaverton to Central Taps near the Max station and City Hall Beaverton. Evan had trouble finding his car in the parking lot and was there after me. He brought me the famous Cheese Cake Factory’s Oriental Chicken Salad (lunch sized and highly recommended) and had a spicy tuna appetizer for himself.

Next, we played a special version of the board game Concordia, Solitaria, which lets you play two players and an automated opponent. This was a learning game, as we had never tried it before. I messed up the setting using the wrong III cards, but that did not influence the game much. Evan and the machine called Contrarius soon had most of the specialist cards. So I was busy building and filling the Mediterranean (we played the original map of the southern European landmass and the Mediterranean Sea). I then changed tactics and started purchasing cards, combined with running provinces to pay for the cards. I got the 7-point card for buying the last card and ended the game. Evan was disappointed as I had stopped the game before he had built to score better on his specialists, and I had also picked options that would not trip Contrarius from building. I ran away with the game as I had the most cards I have ever had in a game. The larger map, as usual, let me build in a little corner away from everyone else. It was an interesting way to play a two-person version of Concordia. There is a cooperative version closer to Venus Concordia‘s re-creation of Concordia, where the players work together to defeat Contrarius.

After that, and paying for my one low-alcohol beer at Central Taps (more and I would need a nap), I headed to Portland. Richard had scheduled a game at 6PM, but all but me had backed out–so off to play two-person in Portland. I stopped by McDonald’s after passing through light traffic (there are some events in Portland besides the President’s visit) and tried, for the first time in years, chicken McNuggests–on a lark. Chicken bacon was what I thought with BBQ sauce–I had six. Excellent finger food and not a bad appetizer, but on my is that fat infused. I could not finish the french fries I ordered with it. While interesting, I am not likely to return to this chicken product.

A Richards, we looked at Cthulhu Wars that I brought, but it requires three players. We picked Endless Winters, a new game in Richard’s collection. It is another well-made Kickstarter game, with Richard with more premium parts. I had not played the game before and tried to focus on just a few strategies and see if I could make that work. Unlike the board games Scythe and Architects of the West Kingdoms, this game needed you to run a balance of strategies, oops. Interestingly, my focus caused Richard to try some different ideas, and he found them highly successful–he played differently than any other play. I was crushed by a score below 100.

I would recommend Endless Winters; it balances work placement and resource management well. It has three systems running simultaneously: a map, an investment board (monoliths in the game), and deck building. All of this runs smoothly, the play is easy to understand, and the rules were only reviewed for scoring during eclipse turns (a type of intermediate scoring turn). An excellent game that reminded me of Arc Nova in its smooth execution and thematic solid play.

We chatted for a bit, and soon the time had run to 11PM, and I headed back and returned home without issue.

Thank you for reading.