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I will try another way to write this today; I will cover important events in the day and assemble the rest of the day in that narrative. So let’s see if that works for this Wednesday, shall we?

I was a bit late to see Susie and arrived in Air Volvo at Humming Bird House at 11ish, avoiding any collision with the local drivers and having no police entanglements. Susie had stayed in her wheelchair waiting for me–she wanted to go outside with me and enjoy the lovely day (a high of 92F was still yet to be reached with the temperature still comfortable when we went for a walk). So instead of the park, I wheeled Susie through part of the neighborhood. There are no sidewalks, so we took to the road; the streets were not busy.

A magnolia tree, still flowering, seemed an excellent place to stop for a bit. There was some grass, so I could park the wheelchair off the road. We called Susie’s mother, Leta, on my iPhone, and they could see each other on FaceTime. Leta saw the magnolia tree in the background on the iPhone and was surprised to see it in bloom. Our summer is delayed by the rains. After they finished the call, we traveled some more in the area, and Susie loved the magnolia tree. It was a nice healthy one.

We returned to hummingbird House, and I was out of time, so I had a kiss goodbye and left Susie in Jennifer’s hands. Jennifer is the nurse today. I reached the office without issue, but I saw Beaverton’s Finest handing out tickets on 26. Today, Wednesday, lunch was from a truck and free. I had the Chop Chop Chicken Sundae from the truck with the same name. It was a rice bowl with chicken, cheese, veggies, and gravy.

Earlier I had my annual review with my boss. I cannot cover most of this here, but I can say that he and Nike seem to want me for another year. I do not now plan to retire early with Susie in Adult Foster Care and having bills of $8,000 a month. Thus my review was fine, and I received the usual raise, below the inflation rate. I read the policy, discussed it with my boss, and read the information on social media.

Aside: Again, I will not do a rant here, but I will point out that corporate profits are running more than 2% above inflation so far in 2022, while the cost-of-labor is up only 1.5% in the first quarter of 2022 (far below inflation of over 8%) for the USA.

I headed home at about 3PM after following along with the project and doing some AI experiments on my servers. I was getting sleepy, the AC could not keep up in our area, and I had started at 5:30AM this morning to make the 7AM meeting. So I had a rushed breakfast of a banana and yogurt. I had a small sample of the breakfast in the command center–it just smelled too good not to try it.

I have not slept well for the past three days, and it is hard to do much more today.

We did have an All-Employee meeting at Nike today in the late afternoon, which is always fun. John Donahue, Nike CEO, did a live presentation from Korea, which covered much of the direct-to-consumer process in Korea now in use by Nike. The production was not just speeches and covering agenda topics but included the cool Nike videos (some only seen internally and some exciting externally directed videos too–all flashy and fun) and some interviews. It was a good show as always.

I made pasta with sauce from a jar and sweet Italian sausage. I had too much, but the rest I will put in bags for dinner over the next couple of days.

As I said, I am short of sleep and will stop here. Thanks for reading.

Today I am running late, and tomorrow I have no time to write, so this will be a rushed blog. Sorry for the typos!

It is easier for me to rush going backward…so here is today, Tuesday’s story from now to the morning.

I am home looking at my Dell Inspiron 3000 laptop, a Windows system I bought last year on special (BTW, it is still the same price), but my power adapter is missing. I ordered a new one on Amazon, which will be here on Thursday. I remember Mariah’s Apple is failing, and Mariah is looking at Windows systems. She can try mine and see if the specifications are enough for her and then find a new one. She is looking at a tablet-style.

Before this, I drove back from Forest Grove, where I met Mariah for a light dinner, beer, and dessert. The Grand Lodge, a repurposed early 1900 Masonic Home, is one of my favorite restaurants. We sat outside and had salads and drinks. We chatted about writing and computers and work. It was in the 80s (26.7C) when we got there, but like the desert, the temperature crashed after sunset and was soon in the 60s (15.5C).

Mariah did not take her muscle car to the Grand Lodge but instead took her electric scooter. Mariah has an orange helmet to use with her scooter, which she said allows her to be seen better, and she told me with a wry smile that it also matches the color of her car. The rechargeable scooter goes as fast as 20MPH and has lights for the night. She lives a few miles from the Lodge, and with the lights, she was not concerned about traveling home. I took Air Volvo home without incident.

Before that, I played with my new iPad, a gift from the shoe company for all the hard work we did on the big project. The iPad has the project name and log painted on the back. I have not had one before, and I connected to my network and set it up. It is superb. 

I reached home from work after a party to celebrate the go-live of our new software. Nike’s COO, CDIO, and the project leadership were there and gave short speeches thanking us for all our hard, nearly impossible work to get a new major software system installed in the middle of a pandemic (I have been working on this project for about five years I think). I had munchie food at the party, a diet coke, and a sip of bubbly to celebrate. I did manage to get into the official photo (wearing my mask while crowded into a picture!).

Before that, I had a few items to follow up with and helped investigate an issue in the data conversion, but none of my ideas for causes have any evidence in the logs. So far, no smoke-gun for why specific data was converted wrong.

Lunch was a The Rock, Wood Fired Pizza which had a $10 pizza and salad special. I love their pizza, but I could only eat 2/3 of a personal pizza, and with today’s temperatures of 92F (33.3C), I ended up throwing out the leftovers (Air Volvo needs a frig). The Ceasar salad was great, and their iced tea was plain tea. Excellent.

I was at work for a short while after I left Hummingbird House and returned to the office via Air Volvo (without any incidents, but I braked for the police who were looking for folks to give tickets to on highway 26).

There I saw Susie was in her wheelchair when I got there. An RN was checking out Susie, and she had a shower. Susie felt a bit out of sorts with all the change to her usual slow schedule but soon relaxed as I wheeled her out into the Park; it was still in the high 70s (25.5C) then and thus comfortable.

We connected for a few minutes with Susan’s mother, Leta, who was having her hair done. I then called Susan’s aunt, Glenda, who helped me pick Hummingbird House for Susie earlier in the year. After that, we chatted on FaceTime while sitting in Metzger Park in the shade near a picnic table.

Soon, as usual, my time is up, and Susie is sorry I have to leave so soon. So I get her back to the house and, with a kiss, go in Air Volvo.

Before this, I was at work early for the first meeting at 8ish. I spent a few hours in meetings and looking at data.

I was rushed in the morning as I had to leave by 7:15 to be early for the meeting. I had a banana and yogurt for breakfast. I have a lot of yogurt (FYI: Grammarly strongly suggests that yogurt can have a plural–but I refused that) as I did not understand that the pictures on the Safeway were for 32 oz of yogurt and ordered three of them (lucky they only had two) instead of the small cups of single-serving yogurt I usually get. I think this is better in the long run, and I could use the containers, but one does need to be careful when ordering online!

I slept until 5ish when one of the Amazon devices went nuts and was doing an alarm. I told it to stop, and it did. So I went back to sleep after that. It was hard to get started this morning. “Alexa, WTF, stop” was not what I said, but I thought it.

Aside: The bourbon rose bush faded from the heat, and the bloom, my first, was wilted. I will keep watering it daily now that we are in the hot summer to keep it going. Maybe we can get more blooms.

The morning started too early for me, with the light being unwelcome, but as I did not explode into flames or melt into ash (turning to ash being the cheaper special effect on vampire movies), I got going, unsure which fate was worse. I made french press coffee and then saw I had a 7AM meeting, ugh, which was now. I was late, but apparently, the required folks, likely having slept in, did not make the meeting, and it is rescheduled to another 7AM later in the week. I may turn to ash later in the week–if I am in the vampire movie, it must be low budget.

Next was a status meeting, and after that, I rushed into the shower and got most of my dressing done before the next workshop meeting. Then, I took a break from the meeting and finished shaving and all that jazz.

Once the meetings stopped, I cut a few roses to take to Susie at Hummingbird House and quickly dead-headed the roses in the backyard and a few in the front yard. Finally, despite the heat damage, my newest roses bloomed this week, Souvenir du President Lincoln. This is my first bourbon rose to survive to bloom. I have not seen many of these roses in Portland; the heat on some days might be too much for them. I hope it can stay–it is a lovely flower.

Next, I headed to Hummingbird House to see Susie. The trip from the house was a bit longer than the one from my office, but Air Volvo got me there in twenty minutes, and the local drivers were more restrained and did not do any imaginative driving; thus, no incidents.

Jennifer was on today as a nurse at Hummingbird House, and Susie was in her recliner in the living room watching her fav Blue Bloods reruns. I had limited time on a working day, and Susie looked comfortable, so I just sat with her for twenty minutes. We did call her mother, Leta, who was home car-less. Her car had a flat tire, and the dealership, it is a leased car, did not have a tire for her, so she had to wait for another day to get her car back. Leta is unpleased about that.

Soon I had to leave; Susie seemed to be doing better and had a chat with her mother that was clearer than last week, and she was not worried when I said I had to leave. So I took Air Volvo back to the house and had the last of the Indian food leftovers for lunch. It was good reheated.

Work went on for a while, and I followed along all day. I started making tacos at 5ish when the last status meeting for the day was running. I ate some, but I will keep some more shells and meat for a taco salad later this week.

I finished my OcCre cabinet today and will move on to the next project soon. I have a few models to repair before I start on a new one. And then there are all those figures to paint. Maybe pictures later in the week.

I have a meeting with my oncologist on Thursday late. I don’t expect any surprises, so I plan for more tests around Christmas to ensure nothing is returned. Christmas cookie flavored bowel prep–here we come.

I did turn on the AC today; it was over 90F (32C) at the Volvo Cave.

Bug man sprayed the house today, slightly evaporating in the heat, making the house smell a bit chemical. I am sure I will be fine as I am not a bug.

Thanks for reading.

I slept in a bit on Sunday, getting up at 7ish and putting around a bit until my first call at 8AM. I was in bed only at 2AM, so it was not enough sleep, so I am running a bit slow. I check on my OcCre cabinet that I left the glue to fully dry before I work on it. I removed the masking tape; it was applying some pressure to a few points while the glue was able to lock in. While it is not perfect, I had an issue with the final pieces being aligned; it looks good.

I also ordered my newly refreshed 3D printer to print an old file. I want to see if it prints better than last time. I hope it will work well, and I can use the cool crystal blue I bought some time ago. That should make some exciting figures! I also have some new, less toxic liquid to try out. It cleans up with water, not 99% pure alcohol!

I did have a few crises of the moment for work and even approved a change ticket, something I had done for important items since October when I went out on medical leave and what was supposed to be my sabbatical. I was glad I still had access and remembered how to update the Service Now ticket with my approval.

I wrote the blog in the morning. It took all morning, and I was late for the church service as I won’t leave for church in Air Volvo until the blog was done. Once done, I headed for Air Volvo. I found a robin egg that appears to have been stolen and consumed by the local thieves (crows) and then dropped on Air Volvo. Later, I called Mariah and asked her to consider some target practice, thus becoming the Anti-Aircraft battery for Air Volvo! It was terrible when the crows dropped snails on cars from the telephone wires and when they pooed on my vehicle. Dropping eggs on my car is too much! Maybe I will have to get out the drones!

I managed to get to Beaverton’s First United Methodist Church after 11. Rev. Anne Weld-Martin was finishing her sermon when I got there. She finished with a story about a family that let political and religious differences destroy their love for each other. Anne begged folks to not let this happen to them but to share love, even when disagreeing over important issues.

I met Anne and Wayne Weld-Marton at Sherri’s for lunch after the church service. Wayne was having health issues and could barely eat but appreciated the opportunity to eat and share a meal.

I headed over to see Susie. I planned a movie, John Wick 3, but Rachel had Murder on the Nile playing on the big screen. She played the 4K version of the film, which was so sharp you could see the grain in the wood! It was better than what I saw in the theater, a digital theater! This version of Murder on the Nile, I think, is better than the book, I know an Agatha Christie fan just fainted, but the updates to the story are good. The screenwriters combined a few characters and replaced some, making smoother storytelling for the big screen. But they did keep you guessing, and even when I watch it and know who did it, it still is surprising. So I recommend the new movie, especially if you have the 4K version with an excellent huge screen.

Susie was OK with just sitting in her recliner and watching in the living room. We did call her mother, Leta, for an update, and they chatted for a bit. Susie fell asleep a few times, holding my hand. I might have nodded off, too, for a moment.

Evan had dropped by for his lunch hour and then returned when work was over for him. I then kissed Susie goodbye, Rachel (who I kept calling Rebecca) time was up, and Vanessa was taking over, so I left Susie with Vanessa.

I met Evan, and we took separate cars as Evan was off to grab a bite while I set up one of my older, entirely hand-painted games, Blood Rage. This is a dudes-on-a-board game with action points plus card superpowers, all in a Viking theme. It is also the second big Kickstarter game I tried and is one of the few games I have painted all the figures I have for it and have most of the add-ons. I missed a few add-ons in a third Kickstarter for an online version I was not interested in and can only be purchased at a premium price if you can find it. It is a fun game, less with two people.

Evan had mostly forgotten how to play, and he did not have much luck, so I lapped him, scoring more than 100 points beyond him. This is not unusual in a two-person game; Corwin has done that to me. The game designer, Eric Lang, is clear it is possible to have a lucky player just run away with the game. But, he said, I am paraphrasing, it is a Viking game, and sometimes the gods are on your side! So just go with it and remember when you are celebrating in Valhalla–it was a good day!

We played at the Central Taphouse in Beaverton near the city hall. We had a few beers while playing and then headed to the Thai place nearby. We stopped by Mingos, a fusion joint– Asian and Italian (a fav fusion type of mine), but they offered close seating in the bar (no way!) or waiting an hour (even when half the tables are empty). So no, the Thai place was good, and we got a lovely table outside, not near anyone else.

The waiter, Levi, recommended the Levi special (a sort of sweet and sour chicken Thai styled)–Apparently his creation. I had that and Tom Kha soup too. Evan ordered a shrimp with salad and something else I missed the name for.

We had a nice dinner with drinks outside in the sun and heat, about 84F (29C) with low humidity. We then head to separate homes. I arrived at the Volvo Cave with no incidents.

 

Going backward, I was in bed about 2AM after putting around the house for a few minutes after returning from Portland. I was in Portland at Richard’s home playing board games until midnight, and then we chatted for a bit. I took the Fremont Bridge on the way back, the tallest and longest of Portland’s bridges. The on-ramp to the bridge is taller than the bride deck at its highest! I call it the “space shuttle” drive. None of it is see-thru, so I don’t find it very scary.

We played two games at Richard’s, with Shawn joining us. We first played a simple and speedy game that Shawn and I had to learn: Notre Dome. This was a worker placement and resource management game set in Paris. It is a bit abstract, and the components show it is an older game as the parts are smallish with repeating tiny art. Newer games have nicer components and brighter art, but the game played well (it has been reprinted and has expansions we did not use), and I enjoyed it.

Aside: The game is from 2007 and is out of print. Often reprinted games are pretty good as they were good enough to reprint and are frequently revised to improve a few misses.

We next played another game of Through the Ages: New Story. This is the new version of this card and resource management game with a civilization-building theme. I enjoy this game, but it is easy to make mistakes and fall behind. I was holding my own, as usual, but then slowed and watched as Richard built engines and started having longer and longer turns. In the end, in the third age of the game, I resigned, as did Shawn giving Richard the game again. Someday I will get the balance right! I did play better.

Before reaching Richard’s, I drove to Portland in Air Volvo with just a bit of traffic. I stopped by Guardian Games across the river in the old industrial area. I am always a bit nervous there as that is where I lost the car’s back window and various laptops were stolen. Actually just two blocks away from the location of the incident. And some street theater was going on with a fight between intoxicated homeless folks not far from where I parked. So I would not be in the store for long!

At the store, I found and purchased a copy of the newest add-on for the board game Root and a book from The Lamentations of the Flame Princess (lotfp–lowercase, please) role-playing game (RPG) that is all drawings of 1600s-styled buildings, ships, and maps slight adjusted to the world of the RPG. Fantastic detail and usable in any fantasy setting! Focusing now on the RPG, the lotfp setting uses a cut-down form of the old Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (OSRIC) but set on Earth where magic is sorcery and demons and devils are the source of well evil. The books are all in English but published out of Finland. OSRIC is adjusted to include a horror mechanic and magic to raise the dead, and other OSRIC-centered spells and monsters are gone. I like this new system except for rolling dice to create characters; I like to use an array system to allow players to have exceptional characters.

Aside: OSRIC was re-released in 2013, so I did buy yet another copy of the rules in a soft cover.

Before heading to Portland, I spent a few moments at home and watched my email, text, and Slack channels. I am on call without specific responsibilities; thus, I worked on my model building cabinet from OcCre for a few minutes. I also repaired my 3D printer. For the repair, I replaced the film at the bottom of the tank. It was scratched and stretched out in one area. I had bought the film, shipped from China, before Susie’s stroke in October and planned to fix the printer, but instead, I was in the hospital with Susie in New York City for almost five weeks. So the repair was something I could fit in between events today.

The tank bottom is highly transparent, high-temperature, and no-stick film. I had to take the tank apart. First, all the screws (a lot) come out to release the film holder from the tank. Next, a huge amount of small screws that hold the film tight in a frame are removed, remove the old film, and wash everything with rubbing alcohol to remove the toxic residues from the epoxy used for 3D printing. After that, you take a new sheet (I now have many of them), peel off the protective sheets, lay it in the framework, and reverse the process. The screws have to puncture the film, and they pull the film over the tank’s bottom edge to make it water-tight–you have to cut the film extra off when you have it in the framework. It is a lot of careful work with Allen wretches that you need to not scratch the film with! I managed to not damage the new film–you have to go slow. It is also, like putting a car wheel back on, essential to tighten opposing screws and not to do them in a line. You have to evenly pull that film over the tank edge.

With that done, I put the 3D printer back to work. I had it print a few Cylons busts I gave Richard for a Battlestar Galactica board game.

Before getting home and getting all crafty, I was with Susie. I was able to get there in the morning around 11ish. Vanessa was the nurse in the morning, and then it changed to Hana in the late morning. Susie was asleep in her recliner in the living room when I got there. Vanessa was pleased that Susie had eaten a large breakfast. Excellent! There are no signs of the TIA or stroke that we thought she had–most excellent!

Susie was when Vanessa was free as everyone wanted breakfast or to get up at the same time, placed in her wheelchair, and we took a spin in the park, Metzger Park. We went four-wheeling into the grass. Always going slow, so I don’t dump Susie in the grass with a sudden stop. The picnics were just starting in the park with families grabbing the best spots, a table in the shade, while their kids tried all the swings and the park’s various kid facilities–somehow, the kids were everywhere at once. There are no biting or stinging insects (at least none have shown up so far), so the park is good for just sitting and watching the butterflies and dragonflies swoosh by.

We returned to the Hummingbird House, and Vanessa placed Susie in the spare recliner in the activity room (an extra bedroom, actually), and Susie and I enjoyed John Wick 2 movie. It is hard to describe how violent this movie is. Still, I love it, and the evil assassin hotel theme continues and is even expanded in this movie until it becomes a significant plot device. There is a branch of the assassin hotel, The Continental, in Rome (of course there is). Susie fell asleep a few times (between explosions and gunshots), but she seemed to enjoy it.

With Susie falling asleep, Hana took charge of Susie, and I left with a kiss. I had a glass of water during the movie for Susie. She seemed a bit dehydrated, and the water seemed to help. I think Susie might need to drink more water–I will mention that to the nursing folks on Sunday’s visit.

I stopped by Arby’s on the way back to the house after leaving Susie. I wanted a chicken salad sandwich, but they had dropped that from their menu (It was delicious). So instead, I had a poorly tasting Rueben sandwich–I won’t be back.

I started my day at 7ish and then at 8:05 status meetings. I had a bagel and a banana for breakfast.