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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.

 

Going backward, I just arrived at the house tired and in some pain. I also noticed some unsteadiness that I sometimes get from the blood pressure meds. I overdid it a few times today. But, some water and sitting in my Ikea chair at my Ikea desk with Alexa playing music are making it easier now.

I have just left Swaggart Indian Cuisine for dinner with the Smiths and Mariah. Cat was still here with David and Michelle until this Saturday, when she will return to New York City, so this was a chance for us all to meet again. I had the Lamb Vindaloo that I shared with everyone. There were many other items at the table and plenty of bread. I managed to avoid rice which is just bad for me (type 2 diabetes controlled by, hmm, diet and exercise), and stick to naan and roti. We were all happy to meet again, eat, and we all got to look at Mariah’s growling Hemi-powered muscle car.

Cat trying out the muscle car and starting it.

Mariah and I waiting for the Smiths (only 15 minutes late). Mariah tried the whiskey, and I had the White Lotus (a chai version of a Spanish Coffee).

Before this, I was mopping the floor at the Volvo Cave. I have guests coming this weekend, and the blog will be limited to not include them at their request. I have to clean the shower tomorrow, dust, vacuum, and get organized over the next two days.

I also was resting a bit as I am still brittle from the chemotherapy, and I did something to my back and legs when helping Susie during physical therapy (PT). I left work early and took some Ibuprofen and Tylenol (the chemo painkiller combo) and laid flat and napped. It helped. I then made coffee! I could have slept all night without pain and nightmares. I was, oh joy, able to mop then.

Before this, I had lunch at Burger King as I was out of time, but as I said, I was unsteady, and my go-to for that is a burger or steak when feeling wrong. I picked this up in the drive-thru and ate it in the parking lot as the temperatures started to soar to over 95F (35C). It was 100F by 5PM, and Oregon in August is always hot.

Previously, I was at hummingbird house working with the PT person, Tracy, to help Susie use her new peddle device. It is just too large to fit even under the transfer wheelchair. I had to get out the stuff, and I think that lifting and helping Susie got me. I need to be more of an observer.

Susie was able to stand a few times with lots of help. It is hurting a bit for her as she is stretching out her legs for the first time in a long time. It seems to be easier for her each time Tracy or Rick comes for PT. I am moderately hopeful.

Tracy arrived while Susie and I were returning from Metzger Park. When I arrived there, leaving just before the planned Fire Alarm Drill at the Clubhouse office building, Susie was in her recliner but waiting to go out. She actually threw her blanket and pointed at the outside when I got there.

Moving to the morning, I managed to cover a few crises of the moment and provided some training. I attended various team and status meetings at Clubhouse–all Zoom or Zoom including meetings. Yes, I go to the office to sit in Zoom meetings.

I had to rush to work as it was an office day. I awoke before my alarm and ended a nightmare of returning to college and trying to find my way to my classes. Yes, I still get those nightmares. I went back to sleep and managed to continue the dream; ugh!

Thanks for reading again.

I have guests coming this weekend, so I know the house is not ready to receive. I started at 6:15 with this knowledge, and also I am working long term goals, and I am making changes to align with these goals. It is Monday, so I am not rushing to the office and can afford not to dress until needed. My meetings in the morning required nothing from me but to listen. I finally dressed at 8ish and made the 8:30 meeting without issue.

I made coffee using the French press and enjoyed liberal coffee all morning. I had some canned peaches and a bowl of cereal for breakfast.

I also called Comcast and closed my account as of today–just before the month-end; perfect. I packed up the equipment. I had to use needlenose plyers to loosen the cable and was amused that whatever made the Internet slow at the house was not the cables. They were new and well-mounted. The TV box, router, and remote were all in the bag.

I loaded up Air Volvo and made it to the Xfinity store just as it opened. There was a line to get in! I gave the equipment to someone with a name tag, and that was all I needed to do. I am free of Xfinity now!

I stopped by Einstein’s Bagels and got the Monday special of a slightly cheaper bagel-like product. I got some shmear to go with the bagels, plain and onion with chives. While their bagels are more bread-like than I like, they are fresh and toast well.

I stopped next at Safeway and got some cleaner–Pine-Sol, mop, and flowers for Susie. I got two bunches, one summer and another fall colors. After that, rushing the whole time, I went to the Volvo Cave, unloaded, and then headed to the hummingbird house.

There was no traffic other than construction popping up on the local roads like the fairy circles on my lawn in the summer. Being careful to not hit an orange cone, I made it to the hummingbird house. Susie was happy to see me. She had already finished breakfast and was waiting for me. After talking with her mother, Leta, on my iPhone using FaceTime to see each other, Susie threw off her blanket–she was in her recliner and was ready to get out of there. Jennifer got Susie in her unusual wheelchair–Susie showed some impatience that Jennifer just smiled at.

It was still in the low 80s (26.7C), but the day would bake in the late afternoon, reaching 94F (34.4C) at the Volvo Cave. The park was busy with dogs, runners, walkers, and small kids who were not in school yet. Everyone wants to get the park in before the heat, and the rains start in forty-five days (with highs then of only 65F/18.3C and one in three days being wet). Susie loves the cedars and just watches and is part of the park. The staff sees us as regulars and waves and ensures we are OK.

I stayed longer than usual as Susie was so happy to see me and hang out in the park. But, soon, I had to return to the Volvo Cave and leave with a kiss. Susie looked happy when I left–excellent.

There was no issue on my return, and I found the last of the pizza I bought a few days ago. So, yes, I had leftovers! While reading my email and getting caught up. I had an ad hoc meeting with the upgrade team lead, and we discussed the process. I then followed along as they proceeded through the process.

I took the two overlapping meetings at 5PM and finished with the status meeting.

Once done with work, I got out the old bucket I used to mop with. I found it this morning thrown off the deck and lying in the ivy. I got it and poured water from the hose into it, adding dish soap to help clean it. This brought the wildlife out of it–the slugs had claimed it. Now slugless (don’t ask), I dumped the soapy water on the yellow jackets who so far had resisted my efforts to kill-evict their nest near the deck.

I had to clean the bucket more in the kitchen, but finally, it was now not dirty or infested, and I loaded it with hot water and Pine-Sol. I had my workout; I mopped the kitchen. The floor was dirty. I dumped that water on, you can guess, on very disagreeable wasps.

Next, I cleaned the vanity in the main bathroom and removed much of the flotsam jetsam from Corwin leaving and not cleaning. I had to clean even the walls and toss some old candles from Susie’s long-lost fascination with Candlelight parties.

After a break, I mopped the bathroom floor. Even with it being hot today, I have all the windows open to help dry the mopped floors. I dumped that too on the local pests and made another mix of hot water and Pine-Sol. Next, I mopped the entrance from the front door and the garage entrance. The water was nearly black when I was done. It was dark when I finished.

Moving backward, I stopped for a bit and got gas for Air Volvo for $4.89; I next visited Aloha Teriyaki and got some prawns, chicken, and rice. This was one of Susie’s fav, and I always think of her when I stop there. Susie would get the chicken bowl and chat with the owner. Tonight the owner’s husband went to take my order, and his wife returned and told him to give her the pen, and she named my usual order and put it in. The husband smiled like a naughty child caught with a cookie and went to the back and got back to wrapping plasticware. She was smiling; she was a bit stern and all business, but tonight she gave my meal to me with a thank you and a huge smile. I think they are happy to see the old customers survived Covid-19 and time.

I ate my dinner while watching the second episode of House of Dragons, which started going full Game of Thrones with marriages and family troubles (plus dragons). It felt more like a later GOT episode than a new show. The actors are starting to find their roles, with Matt Smith, formally The Doctor, continuing his role as a troublemaker. The ending was a surprise and, like I said, very GOT.

Aside: Folks have firm opinions on GOT and the last season. I liked it–an aberration, I understand from GOT purists. I also like this new show.

More: I managed to find the remote for the TV and the Amazon Fire so I can still use the TV. I returned the do-everything Comcast remote. I did have a moment when nothing worked but using my twenty years of computer and networking experience, I turned it off and then turned it on. Now it works.

I then did the mopping I mentioned and feel like I got my exercise too.

I also chatted with the Smiths with Cat here for another week. Cat is working NYC hours–we will try to have dinner together on Tuesday. We are looking forward to Indian Food together.