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I finally went to sleep at about 1:40ish. We had worked all day and into the evening with the data conversions. There were many crises of the moment, and some are still ongoing.

Details of the work I will leave out. I can say that our teams across the globe did a superb job.

Going backward and skipping the working night, dinner was a chef salad (no egg) that I made from lunch meat and cheese. I chopped the carrot and celery. It was good after my larger breakfast and lunch.

Breakfast was a large helping of cottage cheese and half a can of peaches (the previous half being dessert for yesterday’s dinner). Lunch was reheated jambalaya I made yesterday.

I also continued with the quest to keep Quicken up-to-date, downloaded all the transactions, and aligned them. It is a permanent job, but it provides you with a clear view of expenses and income. With our medical bills and Susie’s room cost at Humminbird House totaling over $8,000 each month, I need to reduce expenses and generate income (mainly from the sale of stock options and stock). I would recommend this process, and I used to have this all running and manage all our expenses and income.

While listening to one of the status meetings, I made scones from a box. This requires quite some time cutting in cold butter with a pastry cutter. I then add milk and an egg. This is a box from King Arthur Flour, and I bought a case of these during the pandemic. All delicious and recommended. I had scones as a snack at 8PM. I then had popcorn later.

Before all of this, I made the classic mistake, seeing that the next task was 2-hours out, I got in my car to head to Hummingbird House, but the tasks started just as I got into Air Volvo. I am primarily a tourist for this process, but still, I find listening on my phone a lot less attractive than being online and participating. I did pull over and listened as the first big install from our team began. I was in the Arby’s parking lot–they were not open yet. When I had a short break, I drove to Humminbird House.

I was slowly pulling onto TV Highway, which was good, as a speeding older pickup ran the light. Had I made my left, using the green arrow light as my guide, I would be looking for a new car today. There is a strange intensity with some drivers out there.

Susie had just finished breakfast. I gave her my phone, and she and Leta, her mother, chatted briefly. As I had very little time, it was a short call, and then, with a kiss, I left and took Air Volvo back home.

I started the morning with a status meeting starting at 7:30, with more status meetings going on for some hours. I dressed and headed to Susie’s place after the initial status meetings.

While waiting between calls, I checked on the roses. Again, the watering helped, and even the new one, showing some heat stress, was recovering.

The Cardinal Richelieu is still going, and while stressed, it is still flowering.

The new roses Wedgwood from David Austin is a climber, and canes are flaying on the ground, but the flowers are lovely.

Sorry, this is short, but most of yesterday was data conversions and strange data issues that can not be discussed here. Also, it is rather dull to those not involved.

Monday was plagued with fatigue, which I diagnosed as an allergy med over the counter, leaving me dopy all day. It finally started to wear off (it is 24 hours, of course) this evening. So I moved to Wildwood Taphouse to write with a sour beer. The change of location, the bright light, and the noise woke me up.

Starting in the morning, I was OK at 6:15, waking before my alarm with the sunrise, rolling over, and just waiting for the alarm. However, my nose was stuffed up, and my eyes were red from allergies. Thusly, made an error and took an allergy med in the morning.

It was a work-from-home day, and I decided to get dressed later. So I had breakfast cereal with sliced fresh banana and freshly made liberal coffee. I took my meds, including the allergy mentioned above, and followed along on ninety minutes of meetings: Status and planning meetings.

A shower and dressing were next. I managed that without issue, but I did feel a bit off now. I cut some roses and took them with me in Air Volvo.

It was a break between meetings, so I headed to see Susie. I did remember to avoid central Beaverton 20MPH sections by taking Allen Road. I was there at Hummingbird House soon enough. No issues on my trip there.

Susie was just finishing breakfast. I handed Jennifer the cut roses. Jennifer is the nurse for today, and she lives there with her family on the second floor. I also brought Susie her summer wear, a straw Panama Jack hat. Jennifer arranged the flowers in a vase.

Susie talked to her mother for a while on my iPhone after finishing breakfast, oatmeal. Susie holds the phone, and Leta and Susie can see each other using FaceTime.

I decided to stay a bit longer as Susie was not feeling well on Sunday, and we just sat together for a while on Sunday. I rolled Susie in her wheelchair out to the park at Jennifer’s suggestion. The day was still cool, and the park primarily had kids and folks with dogs; there were many dogs. We took a short trip; Susie wanted a different path, so we stopped at a table by some trees and sat for a while. The air was warm but not hot yet–nearly perfect. The butterflies and dragonflies were out.

Soon my time was over, and I returned Susie to Hummingbird House, and Jennifer moved Susie to her comfortable recliner. A kiss and a goodbye and I was in Air Volvo headed back, having taken a bottle of water from Jennifer.

I forgot and drove through the speed traps of Beaverton with care. I will try to remember when I head to the Volvo Cave to use Alan Road to avoid the 20MPH area. I arrived at the Volvo Cave without incident.

Today I made a chili-based salad for lunch. I usually get the salad at Wendy’s, but last time Wendy’s chili was terrible, so I went with the do-it-yourself version. I opened a can of chili, Stagg’s Silverado, and heated that on the stove. Baked two broken taco shells from a box, and I put the rest back. Next, I chopped carrots and celery and tore and washed some lettuce. I added olives and cottage cheese (instead of sour cream). Broke up the taco shells and poured the hot chili into the salad. It was better than anything I got from Wendy’s.

As I went on, the fatigue got terrible. I walked outside and made tea. I took a 15-minute nap. Nope, nothing is working.

More meetings wake me up a bit, and I start to make dinner as I listen to the status meeting. Moving around seems to help, and I make jambalaya for dinner. I cut up some kielbasa and cooked some split chicken breasts from the freezer. I add frozen cooked shrimp also from the freezer. I add a can of Mexican-styled stewed tomatoes, the jambalaya mix from a box, and water. I heat and cook the rice for 25 minutes. Dinner is ready right after the last status meeting. Good!

I watch some terrible YouTube videos on naval battles while eating. Trafalgar, the most significant fighting sale battle in the Napoleonic Wars, was much more complex than they let on in the video, I am sorry to say. This internet version of history seems to try to boil down this battle to simple facts while ignoring that 130-gun Spanish ship, the most significant fighting sale built, and the point that, on paper, Nelson charged into 3x his firepower and crushed his opponents.

After that, I tried to rest again, which did not work. So I am both tired and awake, ugly.

I decided then it was the allergy med, no more, and headed to the bar to write. That seems to have worked.

Thanks for reading.

It is hot. I just watered the new roses at 8:30PM. The latest rose was wilting, so I will water it more often. The humidity is at a dry 59%.

Temperatures, depending on how and what, measured from 95 to 107F here. Air Volvo, which is wildly inaccurate, measured 110. On Monday, the high is supposed to be 95F, but we will see; usually, the temperatures stay high once we get there here in the Tualatin Valley (yes, the TV even has a website).

The morning started at 7ish and was about 68F, which quickly rose to 72 while I wrote yesterday’s blog. It was over eighty when I left the house at 10:45ish.

I had a hectic day on Saturday, and the blog took more than two hours to write. I also had to attend an hour of status meetings starting at 8AM while trying to write. I ate ceral with fresh-cut bananas and lots (and lots) of coffee. I finally finished most of the blog at 10:20 and then jumped into the shower and dressed. I managed to get into Air Volvo at 10:40 to hit traffic on a Sunday (!?) into Beaverton and outages of traffic lights.

I did see one rusty pick-up in Beaverton decide to use some extra-legal driving. Pulling out in front of me and other cars, taking two lanes, and ignoring all the braking vehicles. The pick-up then went for a timing issue by changing lanes and then signaling after in the new lane. I was laughing as I watched the antics and wondered what products the driver was using that enabled he/she/they to ignore space and time.

I forgot it is Pride Sunday, and there is no parking left. As a church member, the police let me into the area, and the police point out some commercial parking not in use that I use. Not something I would usually do, as that is how you get your car towed. I make it to church to hear the end of Joy’s sermon and see everyone.

I then meet Rev.Dr. Waynet and Rev. Anne Weld-Marton at the Reedville Cafe. One of the few surviving local food joints once was the Crab-Hut on TV Highway. I get there first and grab a table, and then I help walk Wayne in as Anne parks their car near the front after someone leaves her a perfect parking space.

I have the club sandwich; toast with freshly cooked crisp bacon, turkey, ham, swiss, lettuce, sliced tomatoes, and mayo. Nearly perfect, but it is hard to fit in your mouth! Wayne goes for seafood, battered shrimp, and clam chowder. Anne also struggles with a club sandwich with tater tots. I had a diet coke while the Weld-Martins had adult beverages. I left early at 1:30ish as I wished to get to Susie by 2PM–I had called the Hummingbird House and told them I was delayed.

I managed to remember the Pride Day and took Allen Road around the festivities, but still, the traffic was a bit heavy for a Sunday. I got to Humminbird House finally at 2PM. Susie was in her recliner, and she looked tired. She had little sleep again.

She decided to pass on the movie and was just sleepy. While the AC was working, it was about 78F in the facility, and Susie was a bit listless with the lack of sleep. So I just sat with her for ninety minutes and left in time to make my next meeting without rushing.

Evan had stopped by during his lunch hour (he works the weekends), so Susie did have two visits today.

Susie was sleepy and grumpy. I helped her eat a snake of pudding. It was decided to let Susie nap in her bed during the shift change at 3:30. Thus, I got a kiss and headed out.

On the way back in Air Volvo, I forgot about the Pride event and had to detour around it being directed by Beaverton’s Finest. I managed to avoid any events or alarms on Air Volvo.

I stopped by Rainy Day Games to see if they had anything left from yesterday’s event: Free RPG Day. I had the CT scan and data conversions on the same day and did not make it there. Nope, all gone. Next year! I did attend the one in the full-blown pandemic with vax cards and a limited number of people in the store. You were not allowed to pick up anything without help (they then whipped it down or took it to the register for you). I try to support the local gaming store.

I made it home in time to enjoy another status call for the shoe company on Zoom. Nothing for me, but a lot going on. China’s Monday starts on our Sunday at 5PM; Our big conversion runs on Tuesday local PDT time.

I then rested the rest of the day. Corwin ordered Chinese food delivered, enough for two, so I had that for dinner. I was not that hungry so I had just a bit of the fried rice and a few shrimp and many veggies from Kung Po Shrimp.

I did slip out to McDonald’s to enjoy the sunset and a hot fudge sundae.

Going backward, I arrived from Portland in Air Volvo before midnight without incident. Of course, the traffic was not light at 11ish, but there was no slowing, and there were many fast fliers out on the roads, which you must watch as Oregon has very liberal drug laws, and we are known for our beer-guzzling and fine wines.

The house is cold as I have finally turned on the Air Conditioning (AC). The house stays cool usually, but once it heats up inside, it takes hours to cool down at night. That meant I would open all the windows and leave for a 10PM or later movie on hot nights. Now the AC works to keep the house cool in the afternoon. The AC unit is a few years old now, but it is 150% of what is needed for the house. Thus it runs less, is more efficient, and is never stressed.

I also have two large gum trees that shade the house for part of the day. These keep the house cool in the summer but prevent me from using solar panels on the roof–I had the study done, and nope, no panels for me. The amount of shade makes it a waste to use solar panels here. I am one of those liberals your conservative friends warned you about and paid extra for my electricity to come from green sources.

Returning to the narrative, I was at Richard’s house in Portland playing board games before returning to the Volvo Cave. We played a Japanese worker placement and resource management game made in 2016, Yokohama. Richard had upgraded the game with new wooden pieces, which mostly fit but did improve the play. I like these games, but Shawn and Richard (Shawn joined us again on Saturday night) are much better at these games than I. This explains my last-place finish, but I did enjoy the game and scored over 100. Unfortunately, it took me a while to understand the worker placement part of the game. I did try hard to get to second place, but in the end game scoring, my usual fail, I was weak and slipped behind Shawn.

Next, we played a game. I brought War of Whispers, a newish Kickstarter game. The bling that the Kickstarter brought to the reprint of the game, the deluxe version, mainly was what new games would start with, plastic pieces instead of cubes and cardboard and a new rule book with the 3D pieces shown. I decided to back the Kickstarter after seeing the positive review on the Shut Up and Sit Down YouTube channel (I was shocked that the review was two years ago).

This is a rather unique design based loosely on Game of Thrones, but instead of focusing on the battles, the game is based on taking control of the various factions (again, loosely the Kingdoms in GoT) and helping or hurting them. Each player has five chits, and they get a bonus or penalties after four rounds of running the factions for each city controlled by a faction. Thus, the Cult of the Rat, played by one of the players, might want the north to be winning and the south to be losing, but another player, The Raven, might what the opposite. This is not shared and is secret.

Thus the game in this game, you are trying to guess your opponents’ wishes while keeping your plans hidden. We had some trouble with the rules at first; Shawn found an infinite loop, but we got a handle on them by the second round; only three rounds are making the game a race to get the GoT factions to do your bidding while obstructing your fellow players.

Unusually, I won a game at Richard’s house. My plans were a super-set of Richards and Shawns, so I squeaked by with one point, with our scores numbering 36,35,34. I had noticed that we all seemed to be doing the same main goal, so I focused on my secondary goals and slid into a victory.

Before the games, I drove Air Volvo from the house. I had an emergency meeting for the shoe company and a status meeting before that at 4:30, which became the emergency meeting. This made me a few minutes late for the games.

I rested a bit in the afternoon and cleared more Quicken transactions, new and older incorrectly classified transactions. I will continue to fix this as I go forward. It is a lot of work, and it is best to just do the past transactions over time. I added my 401K (manually, which means I will update the balance monthly by hand) and my deferred compensation (online connection) to get a more complete picture of my retirement. Next, I will get the market price of the house, the house loan, and the vale of Air Volvo to complete the finances. Again, some items will be manual and only need to be updated once a month or even less often.

Before this, I had lunch with Evan at Pepitas. I had a beer and the Chili Colorado with tortillas, I had my CT scan in the morning, and the results were available, and there was no sign of any cancer. Excellent.

Before this, I was at Hummingbird House in the morning. When I got there, Susie was finishing her breakfast. Apparently, the yogurt did not appeal to her, and Vanessa, the nurse for Saturday, made oatmeal for Susie, which was acceptable.

Once breakfast was done, I told Susie not to rush, and we set up the activity room for more movies. Evan, who I was expecting, showed, and we watched the next film in the second Wizarding World movie: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. 

This movie is the first of these movies in which the screen, while dark, is not too black, which is a significant improvement. The film features the return of the characters from the previous movie in the series and is set in 1926. This is the same period I used for the role-playing game Call of Cthulu; I loved the overlap and observation of period-centric images and technology. The computer graphic view of London and Paris is terrific.

Susie and Evan fell asleep for part of the movie. This was only the second time I had seen it; I last watched it at a theater when it was released. I liked it much better this time, but I do agree that the story lacks some logic as you can’t understand, until nearly the end of the movie, why Dumbledore sent such misfits to handle such a dangerous problem. Overall, I liked it better, and when the film focused on creatures and the main characters, it worked. Much of this story did not work for me–but I love the 1920s, so it still is good.

We did stop a few times in the movie as I had some issues. As the CY scan said, I was constipated at the time of the scan, and, without details, now I was not. Also, we called Susie’s mom, Leta, and let her get caught up with Susie. Barb, Susie’s sister, was with her mom, so we got to say hello to Barb too.

Before the movie, Evan came as I was setting up, and we took Susie for a wheelchair ride through the local park, Metzger Park. It was still cool, over 90F later on Saturday, and lots of folks were in the park enjoying the cool morning.

Evan pushed, and we went to the end of the paved trail, then onto a street and back. About halfway, the wind, blowing hot air, unloaded all the stuff in the pine trees, and we were pelted for a bit with tiny tree bits. Susie’s hat blew off; the wind was a sudden surprise!

The wheelchair ride and the movie left Susie sleepy, and I went with a kiss and a wave.

Before taking Air Volvo to the Hummingbird house, I was at Tom’s Pancake House in Beaverton. I sat at the counter, nobody near me, and enjoyed their no-carbs breakfast, which was a cholesterol disaster but good: cheese omelet, bacon, and sausages. While enjoying my repast and wondering if my next blood test will have bacon floating in it, I got a message. Emergency meeting called by the boss.

We learned that the data conversion for Monday somehow moved up to well now. So I finished, got into Air Volvo, started the car, turned the AC to the max, and called in. There, all unplanned and done on Zoom, we completed our first conversion. It was one of the easy ones. It took five years of work to get here; I am happy.

Before this, I was getting a CT scan in Portland; yes, I drove in and out of Portland twice on Saturday. I was early for my appointment, getting up and rushing. No traffic and I was there more than thirty minutes early, 7:25. The scan was done, it requires an IV, and was over in three minutes; I was done before my original appointment time of 8!

They pump you full of dye and this causes your ears and the rest of you next to get warm from the inside. It is a bizarre feeling. As I said, a few hours later, the results found nothing wrong aside from commenting on the fact I was constipated. Something that was unpleasant all day.

I started at 6. I got some sleep.

Aside: I saw some ants, huge ones, in Susie’s bathroom. They will be putting out some traps for them.

 

 

Friday started with me sleeping in a bit to 6:45. As usual, I woke before my alarm, fell back to sleep, and then was startled awake at 6:45. After that, I was up but not in a hurry, as today was a work-from-home day. Breakfast was a banana and a bowl of Muesli cereal with milk, plus a cup of fresh-made liberal coffee.

As expected, the US Supreme Court overturned abortion rights in the USA on Friday morning. This and other rulings have thrown the US further into an us-versus-them place. I will not focus on this too much as it is too stressful. I had more liberal coffee.

I did receive my copy of the 1619 Project book from Amazon. I read the original publication in the New York Times and found it well-written, as you expect from the NY Times, and I look forward to rereading it in a book form (with footnotes). I did order the large print version. This is back to my reaction to the US Supreme Court rules; I intend to learn more and read more liberal publications.

Returning to work, the meetings went on for about an hour, all Zoom. There were some follow-ups here and there, but I was able to head to follow along. I had lunch while working, two hotdogs with mustard and freshly chopped onions, plus store-bought potato salad.

I headed out for the Hummingbird House at 1ish. Susie was waiting for me in her recliner, watching TV. We agreed to delay her lunch until after a movie. I set up, and Jennifer got Susie comfortable in the activity room.

Today’s movie is The Accountant. I recommend the story of an assassin-accountant if you like shot ’em up stories from Hollywood. Susie liked it.

We did stop halfway through the movie and call Leta, Susie’s mother, in Michigan. Susie and Leta chatted for a bit. We then finished the film.

It was a sunny hot day in the 80Fs, so I pushed Susie through the park next door. I am always happy to see the butterflies and dragonflies. Oregon is still a bit damp, but we are starting to dry out after so many record rainy days and months.

I was tired from having only four hours of sleep last night, so I called it a day. A kiss form Susie, and I was back in Air Volvo, headed home.

Our local pharmacy, Rite Aid on TV, is closing. I stopped by for some health items and to learn when they are all done, and there I realized this is the last weekend for a prescription. The rest of the store shut down a few weeks later. There is a Wallgreens within a block, so I can get my prescription within walking distance, but I am sad to see the pharmacy go; it was here when I bought the house in 1996. We needed, when Susie could walk, to have groceries and a pharmacy within walking distance.

I got home and read a bit and rested. Mariah was thinking about dinner together but is ill. So it was more hotdogs for dinner.

I did more work on Quicken and got American Express and Paypal connected. I have matched up many of the transactions from both. I still have a few more hours of matching transactions to get May’s transactions aligned, but I can start to get clarity for my expenses and income. It is beginning to be helpful!

I paid some bills, ordered checks–almost out, and then read some more. After that, I skipped the news as I was too stressed to watch it. Self-care means not watching the news, sad.

I decided to write the blog a bit early as I am tired tonight. Thanks for reading. Please understand that the comments on Roe are not meant to be political, but I like to record my experiences in this blog, and my strong adverse reaction to Supreme Court is impacting me.