Blog

I am changing the name of these stories to Today as that makes more sense to me.

I am cold this evening and had reheated pizza and the rest of the chicken caesar salad for dinner. I watched a shipwreck finder show on Disney+ while eating dinner, but I thought it was terrible–so no name.

The day started with me waking twenty minutes before my alarm. I had just fallen asleep when it went off. I laugh when that happens (it is that or scream, “Nooooo,” and turn to dust like Dracula). The morning was rushed as it was a work-from-office day, and I quickly got my breakfast of cereal with milk and liberal coffee made in a French Press. I am trying to reduce my caffeine intake, so this coffee was all I had today as I did not get any of the free Starbucks coffee at work. However, I did take a coffee cup full of coffee to work to finish it.

I read my email and tried to get up-to-date on the news. I read the work emails and reviewed any updates in various Slack channels, which are starting to reproduce like mushrooms. Everyone wants you to watch their texts. I have to admit I created a new channel today too.

I was soon dressed and remembered the flowers I bought yesterday at Safeway for Susie. I reached work without incident in Air Volvo and was just ahead of the school buses. It is gray on gray with a bit of rain.

At my shared space, but always the same one, I was quickly researching and thinking about some new items we could be working on now. It was Tuesday, so the morning was full of Zoom meetings, but at least some were in conference rooms. Once that stopped, I headed to see Susie.

Susie was going slow (she had trouble sleeping last night) and was still eating breakfast when I arrived. I spent an hour with Susie and her eating breakfast. We briefly chatted with Susie’s mother, Leta, who was still at a church bible study in Lansing, Michigan. Susie loved the flowers, and she is getting serious about eating (she lost twenty pounds in the last four months), and there is a slight improvement already (she is also drinking Ensure–three bottles a day). Susie was finished, and I was out of time. She was sorry to see me leave, but I left with a kiss and a promise to return on Wednesday.

I stopped on the way back at Carl’s Jr. and had a guilty pleasure: A Western Burger. It is the last fast food I eat. After that, I returned to work and talked to some folks about some new ideas. It is time to start thinking about new cool things to do. I also did some reading and research on options.

I left work at about 4:30PM feeling tired again. I missed that afternoon coffee! I got home, plugged in my Nike laptop, and had a connection error. Puke! I went out to the kitchen and started making an early dinner.

After dinner and the show on shipwrecks, I returned and got my laptop to work when I remembered to hard plug it into my network. Yup, password sync issue–got me last time at the house. My laptop and network password are out of sync, which can be fixed by hard plugging into my network or using Nike’s network at the office. Wifi logins are not likely possible. That may explain some of the issues in MS Office. I will chat with the Performance Bar on Wednesday.

I spoke to Susie’s niece Emma. I sent her a copy of the Herbalist’s Primer book from a Kickstarter–I support many book projects and usually order a spare copy to give away. It is a Dungeons and Dragon book on the magical use of plants. She has not received it yet but is recovering from Covid-19, and the idea behind the book intrigued her. We talked about gaming things. Emma and I used to play chess, and she has played Dungeons and Dragons for years. I am glad she is getting better.

Thanks for reading.

 

Tonight, so far, I have one tricker-or-treater. I have my mad scientist look with my eyeball and lighted top hat. I managed to find a few decorations, one spooky–a yelling mini-skeleton that jumps up and shakes the cage, and a light that projects bats and a haunted house on the white paint of the Volvo Cave. I am happy to manage a bit of decoration, have candy ready, and being dressed up–it is a lot for me to pull off. Last year, Susie was in the hospital in New York City, and I had dinner with Kat at Tash and Jason’s place. Later I road back on the subways and had an exciting experience on Halloween in NYC.

I chatted with my neighbors for a while before the night fell. It was nice to just hang out a bit. I walked the street to see how many houses were giving out candy; most of the street was dark this year. Sad.

I watched a bad Vincent Price movie, The Twice-Told Tales–I have never seen the whole thing before. It is based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s stories. I did this while waiting for tricker-treaters with the door open, so I could hear them. By the way, I never liked Hawthorne (yes, I will say it…he never got an ‘A’ from me), and the movie was not that good, but it fit the day.

I had a Papa Murphy’s take-and-bake pizza, a stuffed Chicago style. This, with a chicken caesar salad from Papa Murphy’s, is one of my favorites for dinner. I used to get a pizza and give out candy with Susie excited to see all the little kids in their costumes. I wanted to give out candy for the first time in years. Just one customer, but it is a start. I miss Susie tonight.

I picked up the pizza while sliding out to get some groceries on the way back from the hummingbird house. I was running out of soap, toilet paper, and other needed items. So I rushed through Safeway (only a few folks with masks–I did not wear one). Brittney Spears made my pizza with a cowgirl. Ms. Spears had a badge with her name on it at Papa Murphy’s!

Before this, I slipped out of work to head to Susie in Air Volvo. I crossed Beaverton without issue. Susie was ready for Halloween with her witch’s hat and Boo shirt on. We called Leta and Barb Wild, our mothers, and chatted a little. I had to head out after staying for a bit longer. We even went out on the porch, but it was too cold for Susie. Susie was sad that I was leaving but said it was OK and that she would be OK. It is heartbreaking when Susie asks to go with me, and I can’t make that work.

Before this and after, I followed along at work and worked on software ideas.

I was up at 7ish as it was a work-from-home day. I had cereal with milk for breakfast and a bagel-like local bread product with cream cheese and canned peaches. I knew it was a pizza night, so I kept breakfast and lunch light.

Thanks for reading.

I am tired and planted the tulips by digging two large holes between the rains today. It stopped raining about 5PM, so I got out the spade and dug in the softish hard clay that is the dirt here. I believe you could just make a pot out of it if you fired it. I planted my Woodenshoe Company (yes, not the other one) bulbs, and I am sure some squirrels are already planning a feast on this exotic dutch treat. But with some hope, I will get some nice ones next year.

I had to wash all the clay off my Air Force Ones, having recycled the old shoes I usually use for this, which are in the dryer forever. Unfortunately, the clay stuck to them like glue, and I had to use lots of water, soap, and a cleaning brush to get them back.

Starting from the beginning, I was up at 7AM and had breakfast cereal with milk and liberal coffee made in a French Press. I then wrote the long blog for Saturday. With Susie in the car for a long drive, Saturday was a busy day.

We went to church on Sunday, so I had to rush. The blog took, as happens, longer than I had planned, and I was late leaving, 9:45ish. I had on my tie and sweater for church. Oregon is a come-as-you-are state, and our new pastor is in a cotton shirt, jeans, and sandals. I learned Methodist on the East Coast and always feel that a white shirt and tie are the default choices for men.

The weather is still gray until June or July, with the light Oregon mist painting everything shiny and clean. The traffic was light and fits a Sunday morning. I was fifteen minutes late when I dared to cross Beaverton (skipping Old Town). Susie was dressed in yoga pants (from a pre-Covid Christmas from the Giessners) and a red plaid shirt which I then added (Susie was panicking she would be cold in church–she froze last week) a long warm sweater, and I had a winter-themed blanket for her in Air Volvo.

I managed the lift on my own and got Susie, with some of her help, into Air Volvo. The trip to Beaverton was fine. Anassa, the nurse aide on for today, told me that Susie was tired. So we were just a few minutes late for church. The church was warm (Dan told me they had set the heat to start at 6:30AM–it takes four hours to heat the sanctuary with those huge ceilings and only radiant heat along the walls). Susie was comfortable, and I was a bit warm.

The service worked; I felt it was our first genuine post-Covid service. It felt normal and ran well. The pastor’s sermon, Pastor Ken gave the sermon, was about the Sermon on the Mount. Ken said that Jesus was there to refocus and realign the historical Jewish folks not from the law but to better understand the law. Jesus wanted the focus on money and position to be replaced with a concern for the meek, poor, and undervalued people of the times. Jesus wanted us to throw away greed and power and find better ways to live.

The service was closed, with Howard playing a gothic organ piece. It was perfect. I recorded some of it and put it on Facebook.

As Anassa warned me, Susie was falling asleep (the sermon and music were good) and leaning to the right–the stroke devastated her side. Susie was having a rough day, and I have seen these before, so I was vigilant the whole time. If Susie is tired or sleepy, she leans to the right and will fall right out of bed, in a wheelchair, or right onto you. Attention is required to be safe.

Susie had a few sips of coffee and a few nibbles of some spice cake–likely the ubiquitous pumpkin or season spice. We called Susie’s mother while at the church as coffee hour was breaking. Leta, Susan’s mother, was happy to virtually join the church and was pleased to chat with the Weld-Martins too.

Next, I had to load her into the car, and she was eighty pounds of wet noodles, and her head flopped and bumped the padded interior of Air Volvo–that had not happened before. So I will watch out for that next time Susie is leaning to the right!

Aside: I have detected that Grammarly spell-checking is not working. Sorry if I miss something. Another software update, I believe. Later: I found the issue. They have a problem with updates. If I resave the document, the checks will work again. 

I managed to get Susie back to the hummingbird house without incident and managed to swing her out of the car with a bit of her help. Anassa was ready for Susie, and I left with a kiss, and Susie was headed to get some rest.

I drove, with care, through Old Town Beaverton, dodging Trick-or-Treaters as Beaverton was holding a less damp Halloween celebration on Sunday afternoon. It was sad that our church missed out and did not join in. I reached the food cart park near City Hall and got a waffle sandwich, their version of a Monte Carlo sandwich. I collected John Company, a new board game delivered yesterday and headed to Central Taps.

There was an event for the Chamber Music group in Beaverton, but they offered me a table anyway. I then ate my food and started learning the setup. Wehrlegig Games instructions, while well written, have few pictures and not the simple example setup you see with other games. It is a slugfest. I spent three hours learning what the components do, where they go, and how they function. I still have a few mystery pieces; I am not sure what they are used for. I am still reading through the rules tonight to understand better.

Central Taps had a massive load of pumpkins you could just carve and take. Like sixty uncarved pumpkins. They had lots of tools and tables to carve at. Really nice.

I spent the restful afternoon just trying to play an insanely detailed game. It has a solo version, but I was not ready to start that setup when I was learning the components. The metal coins really kick up the immersion in the game.

I had two excellent beers, a dark porter that was not too sweet and Red Zepplin, an amazing red ale. I watched a lot of pumpkin carving while I read the rules and understood what I had got in this new game: John Company.

I collected my stuff, headed home, planted the tulips, started laundry, made dinner of chicken Cordon Blu (frozen) and leftover green beans (reheated in the microwave oven), and made pearl couscous I recently purchased cheaply on Amazon. Not sure I like the pearl version, which is more like a noodle.

I watched a cute episode of Netflix’s Lucifer when the demon Maze heads to Canada. “They will just ‘polite’ them to death,” was the demon’s complaint. I was laughing through much of it. I am at the start of season three.

My shoes are almost dry. More laundry to dry. Dishes to put away. Everything hurts from a weekend of lifts, moving heavy wheelchairs, and planting tulips. I am going to need a weekend from my weekend!

Thanks for reading, and Happy Halloween 2022.

Today was a bit stressful as I had a busy schedule and was stressed about being late. So just everyday stress for me. No pain that I noticed in my right leg. No other health surprises. So a good day, if busy.

I started by sleeping just a bit until 7something and writing the blog. I don’t write the blog on Friday and Saturday nights, but I have to write twice on Sunday. So I was busy Saturday morning writing. I had cereal with milk and liberal coffee to drink for breakfast–I am out of bananas (is that not a song?).

The blog did not take that long as Friday was a work day, so it did not have much to write about–work details are not included in the blog. First, IT work on German software will not seem that exciting to many folks, and second, sharing the details of the function of Nike’s main accounting software and the process would require Nike to approve the blog, which is not likely. So just the outline of my work day, at most, dear readers.

I was dressed, and the blog was written and sent out with an hour to spare. I put a blanket in Air Volvo for Susie and headed through Beaverton in the Oregon mist (it was a gray day with low clouds), skipping, as usual, Old Town with its 20 mph parts. The traffic was slow and thick for a Saturday morning. I saw folks suddenly change lanes and then slam their brakes on the wet roads when the traffic just stalled. There is no fast today in Beaverton.

On the way, I got some gas for Air Volvo at $5.29, which is the lowest local price. I saw 4.99 in Troutdale and regretted not filling up there. I bought Halloween candy and other items at the Rite Aide; the Halloween items were 50% off. Excellent. I got Susie a New Orleans-style witch hat, a soft Snoopy that plays the Peanuts theme with a bit of scary added, and a Woodstock stuffed animal that matched. I got a smaller bag of different candies to give to Jennifer and Humminbird house’s use.

Aside: I opened the big bag of Halloween candy I got for the Volvo Cave and had the gas jockeys grab what they wanted. They are the first customers I told them. Happy Halloween, early.

I reached the hummingbird house without issue or increasing the crime rate in Beaverton. I saw the photo ticket system flash for some of my fellow drivers who just ran the lights. I avoided that, I think. Susie was already ready in her wheelchair, and Jennifer followed me to Air Volvo with Susie to ensure we were safe. With some encouragement from Jennifer, Susie managed to stand today and help me. Better. I managed to get Susie in the leather seat without rearranging it after the lift. The fine Volvo leather seats help as Susie just slides into place. I then folded the wheelchair, which I managed to lift without starting new pains in my back and legs. It is pretty heavy.

I then went to Vista House in the Columbia Gorge. This means traveling through Portland, and I got my directions wrong in my head and drove to Vancouver, Washington, which is not on the way to the Columbia Gorge. But, there, the traffic was less, and it is a pleasant drive when the traffic is light. Once we started back to Oregon, we hit heavy and slow traffic by the airport, PDX. Again, I was surprised by the high traffic volumes for a Saturday early afternoon.

We stop at the truck stop at Troutdale before the gorge to get some water for Susie. It is hard for her to get water from a bottle. I will put a cup in Air Volvo next time. I already have a roll of paper towels and a very sharp jackknife in the glove compartment never leaves the car for cutting things.

Fog. There is no wind, and my cough tells us that the air has not been freshened by a breeze, and the mist, fog, and some smog are thick. Air Volvo climbs the 10% grade to reach Vista House. The climb is extra slow as I can only see a hundred feet or less in the clouds–the low clouds are not swallowing the top of the gorge. The drive is indirect and has many tricky turns and curves with even a speed limit as you pass through a village to reach the tourist stop.

Vista House was a ghost in the fog. The vista was missing, as all you could see was gray. Susie decided it was cold and wet, and there was nothing to see stayed in the car while I took pictures of the missing vista. Yes, Vista House with no vista. We decided on ice cream in Beaverton and drove a more direct way back.

I watched, astounded, when folks would make four-lane lane changes to reach an exit that they missed. Some would abort a lane change and then swing back into the fast lane, more lane changes, and then back out again like a dragonfly or a Star Wars pod racier. All of this on rain-slickened roads, headlights on, and fog and mist everywhere.

We arrived safely at a traffic-stalled Beaverton. It took me twenty minutes to reach Salt and Straw in Beaverton. I got Susie their bubblegum-flavored coconut cream ice cream, one scoop in a cup. I got the same size but coffee and praline flavored.

As I had deliveries spun around, we then flew in traffic to the Volvo Cave. Susie was a bit overwhelmed by being at the house for the first time in under a year (the devastating strokes started on 6Nov2022, to my memory). However, we were there just long enough for me to put the packages away. Next, we traveled in slightly improving traffic to the hummingbird house.

I left Susie with Jennifer with a kiss and then headed to meet Evan in Portland. Back into the traffic mess, but Air Volvo navigation sent me not to the parking lot, formally known as Highway 26 and 217, but to Highway 5, which was not that busy. Soon I was across bridges in SE Portland and driving local roads to Threshold Brewery. Evan thought they had food.

They had a boiled peanut special food today, and Evan wanted to try that and their Polish specials. I like peanuts, but boiled ones are just messy, and I did understand the attraction to this Southern American food. I had a sample and did not return for more. Instead, I had an overpriced charcuterie board and a delicious dark beer. Evan had a sandwich that he said they were well-rated for and thought it was good; I demurred after the other items did not impress.

We played the board game Vindication, and I did not bother with the score; Evan crushed me as the game went on long. He picked up quite a few masteries and kept ahead of me on those. I was running late, another reason to not score it, and rushed off to pick up Casey and his girlfriend (whose name I do not know how to spell) on the other side of Portland. So I traveled again across Portland and picked them up at work.

Off to Richard’s for games; while I brought Cthulhu Wars, Casey’s girlfriend is a newbie to gaming, so Richard picked lighter games. First, we played Modern Art, a bidding game, and Casey gave me a good deal on some art, too good, and I won with the most money. Modern Art is a fast board game and easy to learn, but the strategy is cut-throat, and hate drawing is possible. The game design is flawed as a mistake or overbidding can just hand the game to a player. Next, we played an excellent put-together game, new to me, Cellphone, where you sell phones. The game is a worker-placement and resource-managing game. Casey’s girlfriend figured this out and won, with Richard just sliding in front of me in the last of the scoring to take second. While the subject sounds uninteresting, the game was interesting, and I want to play it again. Lastly, we played a cinematic game, Horrified, where you are working together to stop some Hollywood black-and-white monsters. We were chased by Dracula, Wolfman, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon and barely managed to “cure” them. It was cute and had plastic monster figures that matched the old movie creatures I admired, but I was not happy with it. Just OK–but a light game, and it fits a Halloween weekend. I will have to play it again and see if I like it better. I never judge a game until I have played it a few times if I don’t like it the first time.

Aside: I found Halloween pretzels in little gift bags. We had that while playing. They are cute. I bought a big bag, like the candy, that you open to get smaller bags, perfect.

I drove Casey and his girlfriend back to their part of Portland, popped on the now-clear Highway 26, and reached home without incident. I stopped by Popeyes and finally had dinner and lunch–fried chicken with mashed. I ordered coleslaw as a second side and was shocked to pay $3.99 for a cup of slaw! I tried to watch the new show The Devil’s Hour while eating, but scary shows alone in my house and late–nope.

I had more packages at the Volvo Cave. John Company, the board game, finally did arrive today. I punched it and tried to read some of the small print rules. I will try to play it solo soon to learn how to set it up. This is a mad game with a play time of a few hours and teaching videos that are four hours long!

I went to bed after midnight and slept well.

Thanks for reading.

At 12:30AM, I could not fall asleep and deactivated my Twitter account. There is a significant exodus from Twitter for all the obvious reasons, and I found an invitation to join a new friend’s Discord server, so I did. I will be on Discord now, which I believe is the future. Not necessarily the company but the idea you can put up your own server and connect with friends on various shared servers. I like that idea, and thus, I will leave Twitter and start a more vital server and service-based identity in social media. Exciting.

The morning started with me not rushing as Friday is a work-from-home day at the shoe company, with the corporate folks wanting folks at WHQ Tues-Thursday. I spent much of my interactions in Zoom in the office which I think is quite strange, but I do get to talk to folks in my immediate groups as they are all physically present Tues-Thur in the office. Free coffee is available until 10AM, and there are many parties with food and drink to help us better reconnect. Using an older term, our project manager was visiting from Bend this week (it is the first time meeting her in person), so we had our first in-person meetings with her. We may see her in November, unless the snow comes early, and then again in the Spring. All strange to me.

I had only a few meetings on Friday, but our messages on Slack were non-stop, as was the email traffic. There were a few breaks and a spectacular production mistake that cannot be discussed here. Folks were busy, and emotions were starting to run a bit high. A Friday like I used to have in the old days. Most of this, while annoying, will likely clear in a few hours. An After Action Review will be slightly unpleasant for such avoidable mistakes, but that is how some folks learn. I deleted the folksy saying here as it seemed disingenuous about learning the hard way.

I managed to visit Susie in the hummingbird house in the late morning. To get there, I took Air Volvo through Beaverton in the rain, skipping Old Town. I had to avoid splashing folks waiting for the bus–there was a lot of standing water.

It has been raining for days, and we have showers until June or July. I am looking for a break in the rain to plant my tulips. It is 50F (10C) and wet most of the time now.

Susie was happy to see me; I brought her her “Boo” sweatshirt. I also brought a talking spooky candy dish with an animated eye for the hummingbird house to use. We chatted for a bit, and Susie was disappointed not to go out to the park, but it was nasty out there. We did call Susie’s mother, Leta, and chatted for a while.

I left with a kiss and headed back to the Volvo Cave. Despite the rain and construction, the slow driving did not include any overly imaginative driving from my fellow Oregonians. I took the less construction-filled Division back and crossed through Aloha, an unincorporated city–just a name on a map–without issue.

I continued with work until 5PM with a few breaks as my colon decided to demand attention, and the drive home included more concentration than usual, but all was well. I rested for a bit as I tried to slow down.

Next, I made dinner after learning that Mariah was too tired for a visit from me in Portland. First, a pork chop from the freezer fried in butter and coated with Five-Spice Powder and some salt. Wonderful. Next, green beans (frozen) wilted in more butter with almond slices and garlic (powder was all I had)–a fav. Lastly, I boiled dry Geman noodles from the German Deli, but they were just average with butter and Herbs de Provence.

I tried the highly-rated show, The White Lotus, on HBOMAX. Nope. The only thing I liked was when the gal that married a spoiled rich guy always looked plain, took off her bathing covers, and was a perfect thin model walking into a pool, and the mean girls were left with mouths open–that was a good moment. But I won’t be back.

I headed out and reached Wildwood Taphouse in the early evening. There, I reorganized the solo board game Nemo’s War which got partially dumped in the car. It was just mixed up inside, and nothing was lost. I then worked on getting my Discord accounts working. I seem to have two accounts and learned that my @me.com and @mac.com are on two different accounts, one two-years-old and one going back to 2017. I have them defined now in one instance of Discord. Finally, I had a few beers, wrote more Dungeons and Dragons adventure text, and posted here and there on Discord, my new home. I never got to playing Nemo’s War which I wanted to try again.

Aside: The new chess computer, a Raspberry Pi 4G based machine, is now available to replace the controlling unit for my chess machine. So tempting to spend money on that, but chess is on the back burner for now. Resist! It is just under a thousand dollars–good is not cheap.

I went home and read and had trouble sleeping. Too much tea, I think. Thanks for reading.