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Working backward, my guests and I returned from Portland in the early evening and rested for a bit. I also made popcorn and turned on House of Dragons, episode 3, and we enjoyed the romp of the bloodthirsty and power-crazed medieval-like plot (without the dirt and disease). We also opened one of the bottles of wine from yesterday. After that, my guests rested, and I wrote some more SciFi for a Naval Institute story contest. If I understand the directions, three-thousand words of fiction based on technology in the future or that past. I thought I would try out for it. I have to 15Sept to submit the story, so it is a bit rushed.

To leave the Pearl, I parked Air Volvo in my usual parking garage in the Pearl near Powell’s Books and had to descend and get the car. We were stuck in a huge line of cars on the way out, breathing car fumes. Next time I may pick an above-ground parking option!

I then popped us over for a short visit to Guardian Games to check out some new stuff. There is no Spelljammer single book for sale for players–my role-play gaming group is considering using Spelljammer for Dungeons and Dragons 5E, which was just released. I could be a space hamster! Also, they did not have the solo version of Concordia, a fav board game, and thus I left empty-handed. My guests were surprised by the size and depth of the Guardian Games store. This is not some hole-in-the-wall store–it is impressive.

Before getting Air Volvo, I sat on many benches while my guests toured the Art in the Pearl show in the park off of, as you might guess, Park Street in Portland. My back is more brittle since the chemotherapy, and I can stand about an hour before I get uncomfortable, but sitting stops and resets the discomfort. At the show, I bought one print that fit my horror writing, and I just wanted to remember the artist’s name if it came up again: Tai, so I got a print. I have a print of “I’m Not Strange, I’m Just Not Normal.” The color one is nice, but I got a small (cheap) black and white print.

The Art in the Pearl covered two small blocks with folks with stop signs to halt traffic as needed. The artists had a tent and usually a chair with all their goods well displayed. The quality of the items was a surprise to me, and folks were buying from what I could tell. There was plenty of live music, and food was available. The crowd was older and looked like they could afford the art. The artists were often younger with the more craft-looking items. The glass, jewelry, and more expensive pieces were older artists who seemed to have a following and nicer tents and displays.

I had to sit a few times and did miss a bit of the show. Only the art of Tai spoke to me, but there were a few really nice glass and pottery items that were beautiful and expensive. I managed to resist.

We were at Von Ebert before our walk of four Portland-sized blocks (short blocks in New York City) downhill. This is the replacement for Fatheads that failed. The food is now less complex and less huge and strange midwestern-styled food (brisket sandwich with cheese and a fried egg called “heart attack” has vanished). The beer selection is still vast and much made there. I had an excellent ale and the smoked chicken wings and shared a rather industrial-looking hummus plate, but the hummus was fresh, covered in some olive oil, and the pita was baked in the pizza oven, making it crisp and less chewy. My guests had pizza and shared some of my hummus.

I did not share my two huge chicken wings. There was once a sign, I remember, that suggested, “Chickens stood in line to be part of the wings here–they are that good.” The wings are smoked, brushed with a sauce of your choice, and baked again. The best I have had, and the size of the wings are twice what you sometimes get at lessor establishments.

For those who have eaten at Fatheads with me, we have the Pacific Northwest remake of Fatheads impacted by the pandemic. No menu. You order on an app that knows your table number and opens a tab by supplying a credit card number. Next,  order beer and food on your phone. No waiters. You can get a sample of a beer from the bartender. Sort of disconcerting at first, but it works.

Before lodging the car at the Pearl and finding the best wings, we were at the other side of the river near OMSI. Cargo is a store that the now-defunct Pier One always tried to be. I was looking for a shirt for Susie; their stock changes often, but nothing worked today. There are trinkets, toys, kites, paper lamps, Japanese items of all sorts, and even food. Here you could, in the past, buy a saint candle dedicated to Ruth Ginsburg and Robert Muller. Tarot readings were available, and I passed.

We went to see Susie before heading to Portland. Without experiencing any events, we took Air Volvo across Beaverton, paying close attention to the speed limits that constantly rise and fall without much warning. It was a perfect September day–Oregon is best in September and October, with the rains graying us in November.

Susie was pleased to see my guests and to visit Metzger Park. Rachel, the nurse aide for Sunday mornings, got Susie ready and in her wheelchair. We then took her to her favorite bench, the cedars, and chatted for about an hour with a call to her mother, Leta, included in that time. Metzger Park was busy with dogs and kids with their families. Tiny butterflies were close to the ground, and dragon and damsel flies were buzzing higher up. Crows were calling out at the tree tops. We did not see any rabbits or hummingbirds today.

Susie was thrilled to see us but was sad that she could not head to Cargo and Portland with us. “I am trying,” she always says. Susie tried to hold more of a conversation today, but the words were garbled, and she could not find the words she wanted. It is hard for her to not be able to communicate her thoughts and to be able to leave the hummingbird house. We have more physical therapy for her on Tuesday afternoon. There is hope for more choices in the future.

Before we visited Susie, we stopped at the food trucks and got some waffle sandwiches for breakfast. The carts were starting to open, but the waffle place was going strong.

After getting started, we opened up the crate with the 3D-Printer. It seems intact. I will test it on Wednesday.

Before heading out in Air Volvo, I started the day at 6:45ish and made liberal coffee and a bagel. Then, I wrote the blog and got ready to face the day. I need to take food with my meds, so technically, I had two breakfasts.

Grammarly says I have been writing for 191 weeks straight (since before the pandemic) for those keeping scores. It also rates my grammar which has improved to be 55% better than most (improving from sad but not unexpected 35%). My other numbers are very high, but most are because I write much more than most folks. Pumping out usually a thousand words or more a day.

I use WordPress, the advanced but not business license, for my very basic website, alohawild.me, and it updates the blog when I push the Publish button. I use their legacy editor (the Java-based one fails too often for me) after working with WordPress tech support (they all but begged me to use the legacy one). I have the paid-for license for Grammarly, and it thus edits some style items. Usually, I let it push me, and I accept the Oxford comma (wincing often).

I am delighted (previously ‘happy’ but Grammarly thought ‘delighted better…hmmm) with my setup but wish the download and upload for WordPress was not another $200 a year for a business account. I manage with just the editor. I hear that there is better stuff out there to replace WordPress, but nothing so far works as well as Grammarly. It plugs into Word, too, and in the same license. It is strongly recommended, but only if you can take the ego-bruising updates.

Thanks for reading.

Yesterday (I am writing this on Sunday), we made the big loop of Beaverton to Lincoln City on the coast, going south on the coast, watching whales on the shore with binoculars in Depot Bay, and finishing with a fantastic dinner in Newport.

I got going at 6:15 and made potato pancakes from a King Arthur mix, adding only finely chopped onions and cooking in neutral oil (next time, butter!). The non-stick pan was a must. I had a bit of apple sauce and plenty of sour cream to put on them. The cakes were hot and well received. I recommend the mix–you do have to wait twenty minutes when mixing it, so it takes planning.

I returned the safety equipment, tools, winter coat, and first aid medical kits to the car. I had taken them out when the car went to the Volvo Spa but would not feel comfortable without them traveling in Oregon. There are many sections of Oregon we would travel to, and there is no cell service and nothing for miles. So the basics are back in the car.

We took the near direct angle through McMinnville and wine country to reach the coast. We passed the Evergreen Museum and water park that many folks love, and we visited with the family years ago. Yes, the one with the 747 on the roof that you jump out of and slide into a pool. Someday I will find the time to return there.

We reached the coast about noon and found Mo’s in Lincoln City, and I had the cannonball, local clam chowder in a bread bowl, while my guests had other seafood items. Next, we then headed to the beaches near Spanish Head.

There is a small river that opens into a saltwater march there. We walked about a mile to the ocean with the sea lions on the other side. Folks were spending the last Saturday of summer fishing in the sand. Crab traps were widespread, with one folk catching a huge legal Dungeness crab. Others were digging clams.

We reached the Pacific Ocean, and it was crashing three to four feet of waves on the beach. The tide was way out when we got there; there is a three-four foot tide there, and it started to come.

I was tired and sat on a log and watched the whales way out using the binoculars. I purchased them to look at the star and planets and night, so they are very strong and light. I could see the whales blow (I watched the whale-watching boats, and when they stopped, I knew I could see a whale as I focused my search in their area).

I called Susie from the beach, and she was happy to hear from me and that I was thinking of her at the beach. Susie loved our trips to the coast, but the sand was not something she could do anymore. I did push her on her walker for a bit on one beach. She loved the sights and the shops and watching the ocean from the warm and safe Air Volvo.

Next, we returned to driving, and after some planning (driving the wrong way), we managed to head south and stopped at Depot Bay. But before reaching Depot Bay, we stopped at the Devil’s Punchbowl, which is less impressive in a calm sea. I dropped off my guests and had to find parking. The area is the place for surfing, and folks in wet suits carrying boards were coming and going. I had to trudge with them up the hill. I saw about 3/4 of the way to a winery and entered. There, at The Flying Dutchman Winery, I had samples and bought two bottles of wine. I then found my guests, and they returned with me to the wine bar and had samples and were invited to drink samples in their garden with a few of the ocean.

A Depot Bay, we found a perfect parking spot, and my guest gawked, with everyone else, at the easy-to-see spouts and the backs and tails of whales. Again the boats hinted at the place to look. The whales spout and then drive back down for another five minutes to eat in the shallows (usually less than 50 feet). You usually see two spouts, with the last one usually including the must-take photo of the tail flip as the whale dives.

I stepped out of whale watching for the coast to the taffy place and got some to go. They do not have mixed bags, and I was a bit shocked to be grabbing them with my hands; I cleaned my hands with hand sanitizer to get the candy into a bag. So not a pandemic style, but still very good taffy. I then sat in the Air Volvo, AC on, and watched the whales eating taffy.

The day was hot for the coast, 72F (22.2C), and soon we had no coats on. The sun was out, and the sea sparkled at Depot Bay like a movie set. The sea was almost calm in the bay, not usual. The rolling seas are an interesting trip in a boat with the whale watchers often returning the recently enjoyed clam chowder to the sea!

We drove the lovely drive from Depot Bay to Newport, where highway 101 follows the beaches for a few miles. We found a parking spot in Newport by the tuna boats–not neat the tour section. The sea lions were there on a dock, barking and making a perfect tourist photo and annoying the local boat owners. The seals and sea lions are watchful as the waters are deep and murky in the harbor and can hide Jaws.

We do have Orcas out in the deeper waters, but the white sharks are the primary threat on the coast. Unlike on the East Coast, there is no tagging and buoy monitoring of sharks here. Knowing how many, where they travel, and sightings do not happen here on the Oregon Coast.

We discovered a top-quality restaurant across from the car, Local Ocean, and decided that we should just go with that. We were lucky and timed our request and got a table on the second floor in the corner looking over the harbor–perfect. The drinks were great. The food was perfect, and some of the best I and my guests have ever eaten. It was not inexpensive but top-notch.

I then drove home, forcing the nav to take us the more direct route of Philomath instead of reversing our course and crawling in the last weekend of summer coast traffic. We stopped at Philomatch to gas up and then drove home in the speeding traffic. Often being passed when flying Air Volvo at 75 mph! The extra-legal lane changes and folks seemly overly trusting pulling into traffic amazed my guests.

We arrived to find a crate delivered to the house upside down (the fragile makings were reversed). My guests and I carefully returned the create to proper alignment and placed it in the garage. My new 3-D printer from China has arrived! It may even be intact. I will open it on Sunday when I have a break from being a host.

I managed to get to bed at about 11ish and slept until Sunrise.

Thank you for reading. Again, my guests do not want to appear on the blog, so there are no pictures and little information about them.

The day started with me sleeping in until 6:45 and then getting going. In the morning, I had to pick up my guests at our airport in Portland, PDX. So I got going with a few cleaning items and headed to the airport in Air Volvo. The traffic was not too bad for a Friday, and soon Air Volvo had me in the short-term parking garage at PDX. I usually go to the top deck, but it was being painted, so it was closed–I love the view from up there. You can see the river, the planes, and the mountains from up there. But, I was stuck on the 5th floor–boring.

I took the elevator to the tunnel and into baggage claim. It is simpler to schlep the luggage from baggage claim to the parking garage than to try to handle the chaos of picking people up in front of the terminal. So I waited for my guests there.

I met them, and we were a bit early for lunch, so we drove through Portland, looking at the town, and back to Washington state to the restaurant Beaches on the Columbia River. We had a wonderful lunch; I love their salad and always order it. We were sitting outside watching the boats on the river.

The sky was gray with smoke. We could make out the hills, but none of the mountains were visible. The smoke is blowing directly north to us with fires in the south of the valley. Portland and the Beaverton area are in a low spot, and the smoke has settled there. Our air quality is yellow, 51, and my throat is irritated. You could smell the smoke.

Aside: The winds are back this evening, blowing the smoke and other pollutants out of the area. We have healthy air now.

Next, we headed to see Susie at the hummingbird house. We made it there without incident, but my guests were surprised by the extra-legal lane changes they saw on the way into the Beaverton and Tigard area. One driver changed their mind on the exit they were already in, then changed lanes across three lanes and took another exit. Impressive!

Susie was excited to have so many visitors, and we headed into the park. The skies are nearly smoke-free in Tigard and Metzger Park as it is closer to the gorge, and the wind pushes back the smoke. So we were comfortable hanging out with Susie in the peaceful and sunny park.

After about forty-five minutes and calling Susie’s mother, Leta, Susie was getting tired, we left the park, and we left Susie in Jennifer’s hands, the nurse aide for today, and Susie was headed for a nap. It was also agreed that I will hold off on the new Lord of the Rings (LotR) series until I can watch them with Susie. Susie wants to share them. Excellent! The series was released yesterday.

Aside: I am not quite a Tolkien nut, but I know most of the mythos and can tell you the canon version while explaining the differences in the version shown in the movies. I have read most of the follow-up items by Christopher Tolkien and everything from J.R.R. Tolkien. I have also written, I am sure you are not surprised, adventures to play a special version of Dungeons and Dragons set in Tolkien’s world in the Third Age. We played my reworking of some of the materials a few years back. I have most of the books on D&D for LotR.

My guests and I reached the Volvo Cave and rested a bit. We picked up some bits later at Target and headed to Beaverton Center. We did the food carts, and everyone found a different dinner. Next, we headed to my haunt of Central Taps and played the board game Azul. I had to teach the game, but soon they were doing fine, and I lost the second game. It was the last call; somehow, it was 11PM!

We had a lovely time and headed home. Soon everyone will be asleep.

Sorry if the text seems rushed and imprecise. My guests do not want to appear in the blog, so II need to leave the narrative at a high level. Thank you for reading!

 

My guest’s plane is early (!?), so I will have to rush this entry, sorry. This is Thursday’s blog…oh, my.

So the highlights:

I started the day at 6:15, and it was a rushed morning as I had an 8:00 meeting I had waited more than a week for. I have a new task, and this is my first time meeting with the developers and security on this task. So I rushed and ate the end of the cereal for breakfast, but no fruit, and I never made any liberal coffee. I was in the office of the shoe company in the clubhouse building and had my meeting.

This was followed by many more meetings, but no crises surfaced today. I was able to slip out and see Susie at 10:30ish. The trip to hummingbird house was uneventful, but I have learned that the offramp from 217 to Hall Boulevard will be closing. Soon I will have to find another route.

Susie was in her recliner and was happy to see me. Jennifer, the nurse aide for today, was making breakfast for folks, soon had Susie in her wheelchair, and we headed out into the park. Metzger Park was its usual peaceful and friendly place with kids, dogs, and various adults chasing or watching the same.

I have observed that medium-sized dogs are not in much demand. It is either a small pug or another dinky dog type or a huge proud dog we see. Most dogs are well-behaved at the park, and you seldom hear a bark.

Susie and I sat in the park. I found a bench to sit on, placing the wheelchair next to me. We called Susie’s mom, Leta, and they and I chatted for a bit. I watched the butterflies–no swallowtails but small, fast-moving ones.

Soon Susie was back at hummingbird house, happy to have gotten outside, and with a kiss, was headed back to work.

Work was a lunch meeting and then a meeting in a new building. I decided to drive to the remodeled Victory building (formerly known as Edo), and there met some old friends I had not seen since the pandemic, except on Zoom calls. The meeting was technical and internal–no details will be provided here.

I returned home after the meeting and started to clean up some more. I vacuumed and put something in better places. Took out the trash and lawn debris for Friday pickup. I was not hungry, so I skipped dinner.

I found some items as I was putting away things from Michelle V to help with the chemo. I had forgotten them, and so I again want to thank Michelle V and Nike for all the help and kindness they gave me during my illness (Auto-correction made that silliness–and that got a smile. Apple does not usually make jokes).

I headed in Air Volvo and went to Central Taps and had a few beers while playing the single-person (solo) board game Nemo’s War. You play Captain Nemo of movie and book fame and try to survive and complete follow your goals. I was exploring. The board game relies heavily on devices you see in cooperative games that create more and more pressure and simulates an escalating collapse. It uses a card system you see in the popular Pandemic series of board games (which, oddly, have become more popular in the last years).

Playing solo can be lonely, so I play these types of games in public spaces. I got to explain the game quite a few times. Folks watched me play a turn, me explaining the whole time. I did forget my phone, so there are no pictures.

I survived, barely, and scored well, my best so far. I received “Notable.” There is a text that describes what happens after, and I, being Nemo, did fine and lived to tell my story.

Sorry that is all, and I don’t have time to re-read–please forgive the typos. According to Grammarly, there are ten remaining errors/improvements.

The morning started with me waking a few hours before my alarm and proving hydration. I kept waking up and going to sleep for the next two hours. Finally, the alarm on the iPhone brought an end to this cycle. I had to take Air Volvo to the mother ship today–it had a tire alarm, and a service light was demanding a visit to the mother ship. So I had scheduled this before my weekend visitors were coming–today.

I logged on to the shoe company and my own accounts and read the email and Slack messages. I was busy in the morning. While doing this, I had a bagel and some of yesterday’s coffee–I had made some late last night to help when I was too tired. The coffee is Fair Trade coffee from Equal Exchange and promised to help the farmers who grew the coffee by paying them a decent exchange for the coffee. Yes, liberal coffee and every cup makes the world just a little bit better.

I dressed and started my Zoom meetings with the camera showing my office with Lenin looking down. My new office is really working out for me. I feel much happier working in my own space.

It was a planning day, so I joined the department Zoom meeting, chatted with some folks, and then listened to the overall agenda for planning. We plan the work for the next set of sprints (a sprint in our group is two weeks, and we often do seven in a row before making the next plan) and then vote to accept the plan. It is a fantastic process with folks hooking up to figure out what they need from each other to finish work. Further work is the planned development and needs to be sequenced and spread across the sprints to balance the workload to the resource (people and systems).

It may sound silly, but we do this to know what we should be doing and who we need to work with. There is so much that always needs to be done, so something cannot be done, or we need to solve a critical path of resourcing. It can be a geek-fest of mixed properties. One vote against the plan sinks the plan, so it is vital that everyone believes in the plan and understands it. As you can imagine, I have been that one vote.

Next, headed out in Air Volvo to Herzog Meiers Volvo (the mothership) and turned over the vehicle for scheduled maintenance and anything else they could find. I added an alignment if the tires were intact despite the warning light. I wanted them to check everything and do the 45,000 updates and clean-up.

I had a Lyft back to the house from the mothership. The driver and I chatted about the world and how everything is scary, but after reading about World War Two recently, I told him that we do not seem to be so stupid as to return to a World War, but he was less convinced. He pointed out the crazies like Putin and Kim in North Korea, and I had to say they certainly matched the template for certain twentieth-century leaders. I wished the driver well and thanked him for the friendly chat. I also noticed that he was careful and drove within the speed limits, and I gave him five stars later.

I returned to work and then ordered lunch through GrubHub from Gyro House. I had the ground beef and lamb Gyro with extra spice sauce and feta. It is not as good as New York City (see Greek Kitchen), but pretty good. The pickles are delicious.

I did some work and organized the guest bedroom between things. I managed to change my 401K to 10%, and I will increase other before-tax items to decrease my salary so I can get some tax efficiencies. This is part of the plan to cover the over $8,000 a month in medical expenses I have now. That is after insurance. This year I will have paid over $120,000 in medical costs. I will try to get some tax efficiencies by claiming that while reducing my salary to increase the amount I can write off.

On the subject of spending money, Volvo called and sent me a Lyft, a very untalkative guy, and soon I was paying $1200+ for maintenance. That is a lot of money, but this was the fuel injector cleaning and all of that, which adds $600. I was happy that the car did not need any service and the tires were good. The brakes and tires will likely need to be replaced next year, but they are suitable. Excellent! The super detailing is next month, making it feel like a new car. Instead of buying a new one, I just have Air Volvo super detailed (Detailed is an American term that means cleaned, polished, and renewed–every detail is checked).

As I was already halfway to hummingbird house, I left the mothership and took the cleaner and better handling (I was noticing a slight loss of power before) Air Volvo towards Metzger Park and Susie’s place.

Susie was happy to see me. She threw off the blanket in the recliner and wanted to head to the park. She twice asked to head to the park when I first stopped on the porch–fearing it was too hot. Nope. Susie wanted to enjoy the trees and see all the folks in the park. We chatted with some folks and waved at lots of little people who were too young to be in school or at least too young to be in school all day.

We called Leta and reached her. She and Susie chatted for a while. I noticed while they talked that the trees in short distances were becoming grey and, to some degree, indistinct. You can’t see this smoke, but it is dissolved in the air and makes the air less clear. So you see it in distances as a greying and loss of detail. The fires are in the south, and the bad air is still not here, but the smoke is starting.

The forecast is for medium-quality air in the valley on Thursday and later this week. The air quality at the park and near Susie is green and was good when I was there.

We are the blue dot. We are tonight already in the yellow.

Soon, I needed to be home to clean and finish work. I said goodbye to Susie, who wanted to go home with me, but agreed that the hummingbird house would be safe for her. I took Air Volvo back to the Volvo Cave.

Back in my office and signed into work, I worked on a few crises of the moment and saw one de-escalate, finally.

Next, I headed out with some games in the car. I had to reload them as I took them out when sending Air Volvo to the mothership. I met the choir folks at the hot church and played board games with Zophia while they practiced.

I won the games. Zophia almost caught me in our fav of Azul. We are still getting the scoring right, but we like the game. Zophia, this time got caught with many more dropped tiles in these games. Azul is a game of pattern matching and themed on little tiles–It is highly recommended.

We played a rough game of chess next with my silicone pieces. Rough in that neither of us was playing that well. I took Zophia pieces, but then I would get going too fast and lose mine in exchange. I still managed the end-game and marched a pawn to become a queen, and the two queens finally caught Zophia’s white king. I then set my king on the table, and Zophia threw the pawns at it until it was knocked down–something you can do with a silicone set!

Howard, our music director, is back from a holiday in the UK. He had a great time and showed me some pictures, and recommended the fish and chips. He also, seeing all the games we play, showed me how he plays Othello (the board game) on his phone. It was great to have Howard back!

The choir practice was done, I returned the games to Air Volvo, and I headed home. I then cleaned the shower in the main bathroom. It is clean now. I will clean the 1/2 bath, the one I use attached to the master bedroom, on Thursday.

I finally wrote the blog. Thank you for reading.