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The morning started with me getting up an hour late. I was supposed to be at church at 7:45 and not 8:20, that I managed. I also had told Corwin the wrong time, so he was not ready, of course, when I left.

Zophia, my young helper, was also late, but we, the Methodist Men (including Zophia), managed to get it all together in time, cook pancakes, sausage, and scrambled eggs for Mother’s Day, serve by 9ish. We had fifteen or so customers, including us cooks.

I helped clean up after 9ish and was at church at 10:30. Today, the service had Howard, our organist, keyboard player, and solo running around a bit. Rev. Anne Weld-Martin gave a sermon including longish bible quotes on women you might have missed. Including Peter the Apostle’s mother-in-law, who, when healed of fever, then served what I assume was a nice dinner.

After church, I put the grills and various items in the Air Volvo and headed home. At the Volvo Cave, I switched from a tie and white shirt under a sweater to a tie-dyed t-shirt and had a ham and cheese for lunch. Once that was finished, I headed to the Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center at 3900 Pacific Highway, Room 44A, to see Susie.

I brought a dessert, but Susie had just finished her lunch, and the nursing aide brought over ice cream for Susie. So I helped her eat that. We also called Leta for a quick call as Leta, Susie’s mother, was out with Susie’s sister Barb’s family for Mother’s Day brunch.

Susie and I then watched shorts on YouTube, including Susie singing along to the movie Gigi and various old rock videos. Susie, me, and the nursing aide were doing the YMCA hand movements! We ended with”You can’t stop the beat” from Hair Spray, and some of the facility staff started to dance too!

I left after singing with Susie when she was getting tired and had enough ice cream. It was getting to 3PM, and I was fatigued from the morning pancake breakfast workout. So I drove back in the rain to the Volvo Cave.

I rested for an hour. I then got up and made dinner. Pasta with a bottle of sauce and some local sweet Italian sausage. I also made a salad. Corwin and I ate this watching El Cid episodes in Spanish with subtitles on Amazon. My Spanish is not that good, but I could catch some words, and the subtitles matched the swear words–somehow, I know how to swear in Spanish.

After watching the last season of El Cid, I never saw the other seasons, but I know the story, so it was fun to watch. I love a medieval siege. I was thrilled when I said to Corwin, “where is the boiling oil,” and the next scene was that. Excellent.

I rested a bit and then got up and finally started back on the balloon and basket model I was making. It uses Dungeon and Dragon physics and scale. Thus the balloon will be about 1/5 of the size that would be needed to lift the basket and folks but will fit on the gaming table. I started finishing the rigging of the balloon. I will work on the basket soon.

There is a magnet on the top of the balloon that I will use to make it hang from a framework I have yet to build.

I got my mother, Linda, and Leta a car starting battery for Mother’s Day. Flowers were not working this year, so I returned to unusual but valuable gifts (I sent excellent hammers one year). Barb, Susie’s sister, likely can use Leta’s, so I sent her a gift card.

 

 

I slept in just a bit as I was up late driving back from board games, as usual, on Friday. I also had to write the blog as I was too late to write it on Friday (I was not home before Saturday started). So I slept in just before 7ish and started another rainy Oregon May morning.

I noticed I was covered with mud last night. My car mats I also saw later were dirty with the mud too. Kathleen, who I gave a lift home, and I must have stepped in some mud in the dark when getting into AIr Volvo. So clean pants for today, already clean and hanging up in the closet.

I managed more chia seed pudding, still soupy, for breakfast with a tiny bit of cream cheese swirl brioche from WholeFoods with liberal coffee. Yes, I am still drinking fair-trade coffee and have tried to drink liberal coffee every morning since President Trump was sworn in. It is a reminder that I must be vigilant every day as the nuts are out there now trying to strip folks of their ability to vote and remove our explicit and implied rights.

I collected the flower, which was also purchased at WholeFoods, and the excellent Bluetooth speakers. I brought bowls and popcorn. Then, I headed to the Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center at 3900 Pacific Highway, Room 44A in Air Volvo (with the mud from last night still showing). It was still a wet trip, and I managed to only trip the collision alarm; it sounds like a polite trolly bell, once; it was uneventful.

Susie and Terry, Susie’s roommate, were in bed, and I had to awaken Susie. I replaced the flowers with the new flowers and started the Opera party. I paid for Turandot, the 2019 telecast version, from the Metropolitan Opera (New York City) website. We could not see the version that Leta, Susie’s mother, Barb (sister), and Emma (neese) were watching in the theater. The Met was presenting the opera worldwide simultaneously in movie houses. We could not do the movie house, but we could at least watch it and hear the same Opera from 2019’s telecast. I also had popcorn!

So I paid the rent (4.99 plus a $5 donation) for the newest version (2019) and turned on the Bluetooth speakers. Soon we were enjoying the start of Turandot. Susie was able to have popcorn which she ate with due care. Terry had some too. I also brought some small table cloths for the small tables to be more formal. They loved that.

Turandot is less than three hours long when you don’t have to wait for the stage changes. I was sitting on a metal chair next to Susie and was just getting uncomfortable when the opera finished. We, of course, clapped at all the appropriate places.

A gal in a wheelchair stopped by, and we stopped the play. The older gal wanted to let us know how happy she was to see Susie’s husband with her watching an opera. She also said that her husband passed away so long ago, and he is not here to meet with her; she misses him still. She pointed out how suddenly your life can change–her knee just recently failed, and now she cannot walk or stand, so she is now in the Forest Grove facility. Indeed, a wise yet sad statement. We thanked her, and Susie will likely see her for dinner.

Susie’s lunch was ready, and it was time for me to head out; I was getting tired. I drove back in Air Volvo without incident, started laundry, and took a short nap. I connected with Evan, who had the day off–he works weekends, and we would meet for dinner.

I picked a local Italian place. I did not think the food was worth the price, so I will not give its name as it might have been an off night. I had eggplant parmesan, and it was just OK. The wine came in a can, no, really. Evan’s food was not great either. However, the ice cream, spumoni, was good.

We then found a new tap house in the new Beaverton commerce center to play board games, Central Station Taps. I had a beer, and so did Evan. We played the board game Vindication, an old fav that I helped design years ago and made here in the Greater Portland Area. Evan smoked me with more than a twenty-point lead at the end! He managed to suddenly get three trips to the monsters, losing two companions, but still getting monsters that gave him a pile of end-of-game points.

It is a beautiful board game, and I forgot how much, even when I am crushed, how much I like to play the game.

After that drumming, I headed home. Evan also returning to his digs in Portland. I started the blog and continued on with the laundry I started. Now I am strong enough to put it all away. It is so lovely to have chemotherapy in the rearview mirror now!

 

Friday was a busy day with me starting at 6:15 and working from home in the morning. It was a surprise to me that Nike started summer hours on a very wet Friday–it certainly does not feel like summer! I was busy the morning reading email and following along. After that, I had hours of meetings. I also had to remember how to do a timesheet again using software called Relay. I seemed to have lost all my links in my browser to all the software products I needed. I managed to get the link from Marianna at Nike. Thanks!

I had chia seed pudding, a bit runny, with fruit with coffee for breakfast. I am trying to improve my breakfast to more healthy foods; thanks, Scott, for reminding me. I also have a massive container of chia foods–I need to eat them.

I took a shower and got dressed between meetings. I stopped at noon as I should respect the summer hours. I made lunch of yet-another-box of mac and cheese; my church decided that I should get a food box when doing my chemotherapy, and now I have an ample supply of mac and cheese. I added our local sausage, Olympia Provisions’ smoked chorizo, to the pan to make lunch more interesting. I first cooked it after cutting it into cubes, having started making smaller bits when I ordered some food at a food joint, and I liked this better than coins and frying the meat until brown. It makes its own oil. I drown that in the water for the pasta and cook the pasta in the same pan; all the grease goes into the sink when I drain the pasta. I then add the cheese powder (!) with butter and milk. It was great, but it was a bit more orange than natural, yikes.

That was done before noon, and I was off to see Susie at noonish. The rain was going sideways, and the Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center trip included no dodging extra-legal driving that my fellow drivers seemed to like so much on the way to Forest Grove. I soon arrived at 3900 Pacific Highway and Room 44A.

I had to awaken Susie; she was quite asleep. Susie has been unusually tired these last few days. But, the trip to ER on Tuesday and the bleeding would, I expect, use up her energy reserves. Also, they have Susie in Rehab, intense rehab, every day–sometimes twice a day. So her being worn out is possible. But, her vitals are unchanged, and she has had no repeat of the uncontrolled bleeding in her gums–she seems OK.

We managed to call Leta, Susie’s mother, and Susie almost fell asleep on the call. It was a short visit; I had my weekly chores on Friday and soon was steering Air Volvo through the rain and the traffic. I headed to WholeFoods.

There I picked up a few items and new flowers for Susie. I got some more food for breakfast and some things to help make a few dinners from food already in the freezer or the pantry.

I floated in the wet Air Volvo home, so it seemed with all the rain. I unpacked my items and then rested for a short moment.

I headed out early to Portland in Air Volvo, daring highway 26 inbound-to-Portland early on a Friday, and finding the roads busy but not clogged. I reached Guardian Games within 30 minutes, looked around, and even bought a small book (Tips for running games to celebrate the 40th of Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game). I plan to meet folks there for games again in the near future. I was checking out the facilities, and I know the folks there, and they were happy to see me.

Aside: Cthulhu is in my spell-checking for Grammarly; I am sure you, dear reader, knew that.

I lost my iPhone at the gaming store, but they found it–I left it on a shelf, and they returned it to me. Unfortunately, it is not the first time I seem to get mesmerized by all the gaming goodness and lose my phone there. So I was relieved to get it back.

Next, I was a few minutes early for the game at Richard’s house after finding my way through Portland to his street. We played upstairs as Richard had the game out already, and it was just the three of us; Kathleen joined us. Tonight Richard introduced us to Arc Nova, a card tag and engine game, much like Terraforming Mars but revised to be building zoos. It was a beautiful game, but it is impossible to learn, I think, from videos as you need to tie all the cards together with the tags on the cards; that is hard to see on a video.

Once Kathleen and I got the mechanics straight, we could play it without mistakes–nice. Kathleen nearly caught Richard and scored a positive score for her first game. Towards the end of the game, Richard built up his engines and soon ran away with it–usual for these games on our first plays against Richard. I managed a negative 15 score, which Richard said was a decent first-time score. I am never worried about coming in last when playing Richard and Kathleen. They eat these engine-building card tagging games. While it is unlikely I can build the beautiful engines they find in these games, I do play well enough that I will catch them unless they are perfect–they are often perfect!

After we played one more game, I drove Kathleen home, its name I missed. It is a quick game of building shapes. It was better than I thought, and again I scored last–no surprise there. I got home after midnight. I stopped by McDonald’s for fries and a shake, which took forty minutes! Never again–I do not need that at night anymore.

Today started with me getting going at 6:15 and reading email, and having a breakfast of just coffee. I am out of bananas, and I forgot to make chia seed pudding for breakfast last night. I will try to have that ready for Friday.

I got an email for one of the mandatory classes at work and decided to finish at home. It took about 30-45 minutes to complete. It is the corporate ethics and law course that is required every year.

I cleaned up after the class and made it to my office before nine. I got a coffee there, and there were enough leftover bagels from yesterday, so I managed a simple breakfast. After that, I discovered another mandatory class, and I took that one too.

Next, I slipped out and drove to Allegiance Senior Care, an adult foster care home at 9925 SW 82nd. Ave., Portland, Oregon 97223. I brought a check to cover the rest of May for Susie to live there. There I surprised Jenifer, who lives there and runs cares for the residents, and gave her the check. I also checked out Susie’s room which is still mostly empty. I will bring some blankets, pillows, and familiar items for Susie so she will feel more at home there. The facility is only 15 minutes away from my office and about twenty minutes, depending on traffic from the Volvo Cave.

After that, I returned to the office. I had a few work meetings and a free lunch. Nike is buying us lunch as a treat for coming back to the office. There are two food trucks in the parking lot. Today it was drizzling, but the Korean and Mexican Fusion truck had a long wait. My chicken with kimchee burrito was a 15 minutes wait. It was wonderful.

I read some more information on the upcoming upgrades, and then we had some more meetings. Leadership for our project is changing again.

I slipped out at 3PM to Forest Grove. I took the Sunset Highway, 26, headed west. I connect by back roads to the facility, but instead of going directly there, I stopped at the Pink Spoon first and got three cups of gelato for Susie, Terry (Susie’s roommate), and myself. I also bought some bagged movie-style popcorn for Saturday. These I brought back with me.

Susie and Terry had ice cream before dinner. I fed Susie while getting some for myself. Susie was in bed as both she and Terry had a workout in the gym earlier, and according to Terry, Susie stood for an extended time. Wonderful!

I had to return home and connect back to Nike. There are meetings after 6PM to match China’s Friday morning. I soon was back home and resting for 45 minutes. I can be utterly asleep in ten minutes and wake back up in thirty minutes. With the rest, I was able to start dinner and watch the Nike email and then the late meeting. Pork chops from Schwann’s again. I made corn, also from Schwann’s, and mac and cheese this time. I am going with Glenda’s suggestion to eat the food we have.

After dinner, I decided to see the new Doctor Strange movie. I loved the movie, I paid for the 3D version–excellent. It was never predictable and was more complex emotionally than I expected. Recommended! I was not expecting Bruce Cambell in the movie! There were other surprises too, but no more spoilers.

I put out the trash and recycling, again following Glenda’s suggestions on recycling.

No emergencies and surprises on Wednesday, and for that, we are grateful.

Working backward just to make this more interesting, I think; I just finished watching the close of the season for Moon Knight. I called David and Michelle, and we arranged to watch the show together on Disney+. Again, the show was crazy, and I really liked the last episode as it started assembling all the stories from the previous five shows. Moon Knight is not your typical Marvel show, and closer fits Dr. Strange, but with too much coffee!

Before this, I took a short nap, thirty minutes sometimes works, after eating dinner. I made a dinner of a french toast and a pound of breakfast sausages from WholeFoods, and I baked the links for about an hour. Corwin finished off dinner while I was napping.

Continuing with the reverse story, I returned to the Volvo Cave from Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center at 3900 Highway, Room 44A, having headed there from work in the afternoon. I had no more meetings, so I thought it a good idea to slip out and then work from home for the rest of the day. I did stop off to get ice cream on the way back at Jim’s. I got the coffee ice cream as I failed to get any coffee, even free coffee, at work today. I also called Mihir on the way back to discuss a timing issue in the pre-upgrade OSS note, a type of vendor patch in SAP systems, we will need to handle for the upgrade we want to put in this summer. So, yes, back to technical work, and the team is happy to get me back as I have done more upgrades than I can count (only possibly Michael Giessner has done more than me at Nike).

Susie was tired and grumpy when I saw her in Forest Grove. She skipped lunch and just slept. Susie is two days out from her ER trip, and I know it usually takes two or more days to get her strength back. The rehab people had Susie up in the afternoon and had me wait while they worked with her. They got her to stand! They had to help, but it was the first time she had stood since last year and before the previous set of devasting strokes! A miracle. I cannot tell you how hopeful that makes me.

Susie was now tired out, and we did a quick call for her mother, Leta. Leta and Susie’s sister, Barb, and Barb’s daughter, Emma, will watch the Met Live broadcast of Turandot this Saturday at the local movie theater. Susie would like to do that, and while we cannot get to the theater, I can play the previous telecast on my Apple. So we will try to have Opera Day on Saturday for Susie. I will try to bring some popcorn; Opera with popcorn–nothing better!

Before this, I was at work in the office. I am still trying to get used to working in an office. I had a 7:30 meeting that I did from home as it was a Zoom meeting and then drove in. I started at 6:15 and slipped my shower in before the 7:30 meeting.

I called into an SAP user group at noon for a Zoom meeting. I am trying to reconnect to everything I did before my cancer and my wife’s strokes interrupted my usual working plan. It is strange to think about supporting 7/24 now as I keep trying to find my way every day.

Aside from cancer:

I got a note from Scott. He wanted me to comment on the cause of cancer. This one is easy; my grandfather had the same type of cancer. It is a family thing. I had completely spaced that Eugene Wild, now passed, had colon cancer. Had I remembered, it would have had a colonoscopy earlier, but from what I understand, the tumor was undetected in CT scans that were done earlier. So I would have likely had the same experience as an early colonoscopy would not have seen cancer.

My father, mother, and sister did not have colon cancer. It skipped a generation.

I had stage three cancer with two nodes showing the cancer spreading. Had the Covid-19 and Susie’s stokes not delayed my surgery by almost 1/2 a year, it is likely I would have had stage two and avoided the chemotherapy. But, I am grateful to have now a shared experience of chemotherapy with so many cancer survivors.

Also, I suffered from near life-threatening anemia from the tumor for ten months–the bleeding could have killed me in November had it gotten worse. I have been on iron for a year, and I am still anemic but improving. I had a new will made in November as I was running out of time, and I knew it. So, surgery on 21Dec2021 was welcome.

So from what I learned, blood tests and CT scans are essential. They tell the docs what they need to do–get them done. I am also extremely slow to anger when it involves medical stuff. It is, by nature, unpredictable and a very personal experience. So I listened more than I spoke. Others with more experience with illness had much to say, and I learned much from them. Understand, I never believed I was qualified to make any medical decisions. So instead, I went with what was recommended by those folks who have done this before me and what the docs, nurses, and pharmacists suggested.

Cancer was a voyage for me. I did not want the trip, but once it was clear that I would have to pass through this experience, I accepted it and tried to honor it. The horror, illness, pain, and tears were all part of the voyage, and I am greatly honored to have done it and had so many excellent people help me. Nevertheless, I am unworthy of the excellence I experienced and thankful that I survived it.