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Sundays are not usually so crazy, but it was packed today. I was up at 6:30 to be ready for the tech coming at 8ish to fix the slow Internet. Ziply Fiber was running at best 180mbs with losses down to 45mbs at some points. Not good.

I did manage to start the laundry and do some dishes before Ajmal from Ziply texted me and appeared 30 minutes later. He went to work and worked closely with me as we defined the source of the issue. Ajmal verified that we had 1G coming to the house, so the cables on the pole appeared good. We were still slow, meaning that the issue was not intermittent, which was a relief.

My Mac is not the most convenient system as it does not have a direct connection to Ethernet. So I switched to my Dell Windows laptop computer I purchased to do robot work. It is a nice i5 with plenty of memory (16G) and speed. We were able to use it to test the speeds and talk to the router.

The conclusion is that the router was bad after less than twelve hours of use. Not something I have seen before. We replaced the router, and the speed is back to 800-900mbs again.

It was 10:30 when Ajmal left, and I had working fast Internet. I did manage to listen to 1/2 of the sermon at church today as it was transmitted on YouTube.

During the time I was working on the network or house items, Providence called. Rick was coming by on a Sunday, and we agreed to 2:30.

Breakfast was coffee and muffins. I had reheated pizza from BJ’s Brewhouse for lunch. Then, I swept the floors and started washing blankets and stuff from the spare bedroom. After that, I watched some videos on the battleship Bismarck and the RMS Olympic. I knew the story about RMS Olympic, but it was well done. The Bismarck information was covering the erroneous statements about the wreck on Wikipedia. It was all fascinating to me–I did not know there was a book on the wreck and that it was being misquoted. How strange!

While cleaning, I found the bag I used for chemo with some pills I don’t need anymore. I put the drugs in a cabinet and threw away the bag with glee. I don’t need that now!

I drove to Susie’s place, hummingbird house, after eating and doing a bit of housework. I reached the area without incident, but the police were out even on a Sunday. I brought the red transfer wheelchair with me. Susie ate lunch while we waited for Rick.

Susie finished, and we called her mother, Leta, and they spoke for a while using FaceTime.

We were on the porch when Rick got here. He decided to do some of the work on the patio. So I got the pedals and the transfer wheelchair on the porch. Susie underwent some stretching with Rick that was not without its discomfort–I am sorry to report. Rick transferred Susie to the other wheelchair. The pedals fit under it, unlike her usual wheelchair, and she could peddle a bit. Unfortunately, the pedals are too low still and will have to be raised up about an inch to make it more comfortable for her. Susie got some peddling done.

We moved inside and Susie, still in the transfer wheelchair, did standing practices. The transfer wheelchair is lower, so Susie had to work extra hard to get out of it and stand. That got a complaint from Susie. Susie got one excellent stand done. Rick left, and Vanessa, the nurse aide for today, got Susie back in her recliner, and I got a kiss and left. Susie was tired now.

I left and returned home. I updated my Dungeons and Dragons 5E character as we were playing tonight. I also rushed to make dinner. Chili from a can with broken taco shells and cheese. I heated the shells in the oven and the chili in the microwave. I ate it as I recreated the printer on the network. To stop connection issues, I hardcoded the printer’s address on the Comcast network. I deleted that printer and recreated it to print my character sheet. I may have to assign it an address on the new network.

I managed to get ready for the game, and the Internet speeds were still good. I took Air Volvo to Corry’s house, and we played our usual 5:30 to 9ish. I struggled with being tired, but I still had a good time. We did our usual crazy and took out a bad guy, and, not being a combat-centric bunch, we ran after finding the good stuff.

We got out the balloon model I made for this adventure. My character got to do a Mary Poppins, jump off a building with a magical parasol, and float down to the ground, taking minimal damage. Never done that before in D&D!

We are planning, so far, to play the adventure I am writing in late 2022 or early 2023.

I am tired while writing tonight. I hope it is not too rushed. Thank you for reading.

Saturday was a day that disappeared in my efforts to do a whole weekend in one day. Time just seemed to run through my fingers like sand. It all started with me waking to my alarm…

The morning came after I had to get up around 2ish to prove that I was adequately hydrated and then, once back in bed, rolled over and went back to sleep. My kidneys are on a mission to ensure that I don’t develop any sleeping issues. Saturday was another day off; yes, working for Nike IT does not mean you are free on weekends, so I slept until 7:30.

I got out the red bag of Fair Trade-certified coffee from Equal Exchange and my recently washed French Press and made a few cups of liberal coffee. I imagine that when you sip that cup of union-loving coffee, all the conspiracy theories fade away like phantoms exposed to light, and suddenly you are ready to do a fair day’s labor for fair pay. With new clarity, you remember that this is a country of laws, not of privilege, and even politicians and businesspeople are held accountable. I do love a good cup of coffee.

Aside: For those who wonder what is liberal, the liberal agenda can be simply defined as the Four Freedoms as a focus for the future. Recently, the Four Freedoms were cut into stone in Washington DC: Here. They were even on US postage stamps three times! The Four Freedoms are the freedom of speech, religion, from want, and from fear.

I finished writing the Friday blog on Saturday as I felt out-of-sorts on Friday. The blog is not about what is right or wrong but what I am experiencing. So I wrote about being down, having trouble finding my way, and the stress getting to me.

It is hard when you feel like crying all the time from stress and sadness, but you must instead try to work out a tax efficiency system to help you cover your wife’s health expenses (running $8,000 a month after insurance). But, like the songs say, I will overcome and know that the God of our silent tears is there.

Putting aside all the writer fluff and returning to our story, I was finishing the blog I managed to start the night before, so it was soon done. Except, the Internet access was slow. Speed test results had collapsed to 50 mbs again, so with an eye roll and resisting other ironies, I call Ziply Fiber and enjoy an irony-rich morning.

Imagine a tech on the phone with such a bad connection they fade in and out and can’t even get your account number. Yes, my new Internet provider cannot provide clear lines for their helpdesk. The gal from West Virginia goes over all the obvious stuff, and we unplug stuff, restart, and set some things back to manufacture settings. As the hardware still had a new equipment smell and had not smoked, it is very unlikely to be that. The yellow data light on the modem hints that the problem is in the cable or pole, not the house. Finally, after a pleasant hour (using a voice connection that fades in and out at random), I end up with a tech scheduled to continue the summoning ritual at the house on Sunday morning.

This all fits my expectation. All networking equipment and cool gadgets require an excellent cable. Throwing one on a pole and then wrapping it around my house is pretty basic, and it might take one or more tries to get it to work. Clear glass-laser connections ain’t easy on legacy settings like the Volvo Cave. The wires in the area are on wooden poles–think about it (just like when back two hundred years ago with telegraphs).

I finished the blog with slow Internet, got dressed, and headed to the hummingbird house two hours late. Susie was a bit grumpy this morning when Air Volvo delivered me, but we soon walked into the park; Evan showed up too. Before this, Susie talked to her mother from her recliner in the living room. This is a shared space with a giant TV.

The park was lovely as usual, and we also walked some of the streets and stopped by the magnolia tree to spot a bloom. Evan found one of the plums of another tree intact on the ground and found it to be good.

Susie did not want to watch a movie and was yawning a bit. It was likely time for a nap for her. I kissed her goodbye and headed out. Vanessa, the nurse aide, immediately started to talk to Susie and asked her about a snack and what Susie wanted to do–it helped distract Susie and made the pain of leaving less for her. I sincerely appreciate this.

Mariah wanted to meet for lunch too. So we all headed to the Golden Valley Brewery, and Jennifer was our waiter (it was her last few days there after six years working for GVB, having graduated from college and starting to work for UPS soon). Jennifer remembered me and knows Mariah.

I had a few glasses of wine–wanting to mellow my Saturday and had a steak salad. Evan had the Hatch Chili burger. Fresh chillis are imported from the New Mexico desert and roasted. It is always a bit of a celebration in the Pacific Northwest when the fresh hatch chilis arrive.

After lunch, Mariah got into her Hemi-engined orange car, growled through the parking lot, and headed off for the rest of her day. As usual, Evan and I met at Central Taps after parking in the free lot. I brought the board game favorite of mine, Concordia, and we got a table and beers–running a tab.

We played Concordia with the Hispania board from Salsa without the salt add-on but using forum cards (you will have to see the particular set-up in the rules for the board not to use salt). This was the first time I played this board. The game is a resource management and worker placement game, one of the best. Usually, you are struggling with having resources–not with Hispania without salt and only two players. Our end-of-game scores were each over a hundred showing we were not starved for resources. That made the game much more fun. We will be back to this board, but only with two players.

Aside: Concordia is a newish board game with the usual bright colors and decent components you see in the new productions. The rules are simple, and your turn is easy to understand, but your strategy is complex. My favorite type of game. The opposite of the Terraforming Mars board game and like engine building games with complex turns. We were using the add-on Salsa expansion, which I do recommend for the boards and forum addition, but not for the salt add-on. There is a reworking called Concordia Venus that purports to be a more loving version (thus the name), I have a copy, but I like the original. The full copy of Venus includes the original base game.

Evan showing the first salt ever used in my copy.

I won the first game with twenty points which were not that many points in this game and could be counted as one card, Weaver, that I had at the end of the game.

We enjoyed it so much that we got more beer and played again with salt. Evan was playing to build a salt-producing trading post while I played a usual game. I did not have the wine to build the salt-producing trading post (unlike all the other trading posts, these took wine and tools to make and five money–a huge expense). I actually never built even a wine trading post!

It was a run-away game for me. Evan found the salt was not as useful as promised, and the cities’ costs were too high. Also, reducing three cities from the map to do salt reduced the abundance, and the Hispania board lost much of its charm. Evan used the salt mostly to buy cards, but in the end, the cost of the cities prevented him from buying as many cards as I did. My score was insane, and we stopped counting it.

We found salt was not something we would want to use again. We still like forum and loved the board it came with.

Next, time was running away as it was eight-ish, and we headed to the carts after paying the tab at Cental Taps, which surprised me that they were still open. We had waffle sandwiches again. Excellent. Evan headed back to Portland while I went home in Air Volvo.

There was no Saturday night game with Richard, so I was done gaming. Evan asked to play Scythe next time. I did a little writing and some paperwork. I went to bed around 11PM as time seemed to run fast today.

Thanks for reading!

This is an attempt to write this late at night as I had no intention of writing it tonight, but I prefer staying up late to getting going early and trying to remember the day. So please forgive me if it gets a bit wooden. (I could not finish it until Saturday morning, and then I had to be on a call with Ziply Fiber for an hour; I have tried to edit it better with the extra time).

Let’s go backward, and start with me just disabling the old WiFi after reprogramming the two Echo Dots (Amazon Alexa) to use the new Ziply Fiber WiFi. I have also updated the printer with the new BetterWild Wifi. I think I can shut down Xfinity now–everything seems to be working at the house now (this may be premature).

Before this, I changed the Amazon Fire device to use Ziply Fiber for its connection and powered off the Comcast TV box. I watched an episode of The Sandman using the new setup without issues. I connected the Philips bridge device to the Ziply Fiber router by Cat5, and the lights are again controllable by Alexa. You can now buy Amazon light bulbs, but when I set this up, only Philips was available, and you needed to bridge the connection with yet-another-device.

The Mac is set to use the new Wifi, and the OWC device is hard connected to the router, so access is fast with or without WiFi. My speeds are around 800mbs, far better than anything I have had before.

Previous to all the configuring and testing, I was having dinner alone at BJ Brewhouse. My waiter was Mo, a black gal with dreadlocks and huge dangly golden heart earrings–pretty and in her 30s or early 40s. She remembered me from my previous visits. She recommended BJ’s pizza with meat and veggies, which was a good choice. I ordered the large pan pizza, so I took half of it home. I had a beer and 1/2 a beer (I ordered a smaller beer, and I got a breakfast glass with beer. Mo did suggest a pint twice–should have listened).

I kept offering her a piece of pizza, but she did not eat carbs. Always funny when the waiter does not eat the food they serve.

Before this, I was home, and Victory finally showed up to install the fiber network to the house. I was surprised, as was Victor, to find a fiber cable all ready to use. Apparently, another group had installed the fiber from the phone lines. Victor drilled holes and made the final connection at the house. He then attacked the fiber model and a router. He then called Ziply and was put on hold for ten minutes, but finally reached a tech, and they enabled the landline. I was then able to call it, and it worked–503 848-4089 is the house phone number. I had untangled the phone from Comcast and had it ready in my new office.

I see good speed, the fiber runs into the house, and the modem is in my new office. The new network is named BetterWild instead of the older name WildWifi. The router, which I am renting, is connected to another powered box and translates the fiber to Ethernet–the modem, and plugs into the router via a standard CAT5. The equipment is Arris, and you could buy the router and repeaters in any store or from Amazon. I rented the equipment as this was a new connection and wanted to have Ziply Fiber own it all and be responsible for making it work.

Aside: The speed collapsed on the Ziply Fiber to worse than Comcast this Saturday morning. There agent’s phone connection was so bad it was difficult to run through all the test procedures. A tech is coming on Sunday morning to try to fix the issue, which appears to be an issue with fiber to the house. Speeds are slow. It fits with my expectation as the usual problem is that it is hard to make things as good as the glossy brochure!

Before this, I was tired of the yellow jacket nest by the deck and the increasing number of wasps near me when on the deck. I had read that pouring boiling water on the nest was a solution. I also doused the area with dawn dish soap. I used two loads of boiling water, about 3 liters total of boiling water from the electric kettle, to kill the nest. I later washed the area with lots of water from the hose and foamed up the soap. I will repeat this treatment as needed.

I did the dishes and laundry. I washed the toilets. I also watched some more of The Sandman, I really like the show on Netflicks, but I am likely less as it goes on. There seems to be a focus on gods now as I am beyond the tenth episode that I am not sure works for me.

Before all of the housework and cable stuff, I was at hummingbird house. I was on paid time off for Friday so I could see Susie and deal with the cable install (the unsuccessful install) this Friday. Susie was finishing breakfast when I arrived in the morning. She was a bit quiet this morning, and we headed out to the park and enjoyed a wonderful late summer day in Oregon.

The park was full of younger kids and families. We did not see any picnics starting as it was a school day and a workday. Families have after-school sports and activities that fill their evenings and weekends now. Only the pre-school and 1/2 day kids will now be in the park. When the endless rains start, usually in October, the park will be empty again. It is the way of things in Oregon.

We called Susie’s mother, Leta, and Susie and her mother used FaceTime to see each other and to share. Susie was distracted by all the kids and dogs. I forgot to get a pic.

Also, the butterfly is missing at the park. I have not seen the swallowtail for three visits now. Summer is late, and fall is nearly here. The bugs are rushing now.

Before this, I wrote the Thursday blog and started my day in my new office. Comcast was slow again, and I was looking forward to the possible improvements (trying not to sound ironic). The drive in Air Volvo was without incident or even heavy traffic–yes, school is back, and we will be seeing the usual jam-ups at noon and five in the evening now.

I wanted to dream and visit Morpheus more, but there are only so many days in my life, and I want to use them up and wring every moment I can while I can; thus, I started most of my day in a rush. I learned the lesson from my father as his life began to end in sickness. He told me there are only so many sunrises left, “I get up and watch each one.” I do not get up that early, but you will see me distracted by a sunset–I am grateful for it.

 

 

 

 

The workday morning is always a rush to get to the office early. I made it about 7:30ish this time. This was done by jumping up with the alarm and hopping into the shower. Playing loud music–I am the only one in the house now.

By the way, we pay a monthly fee for music from Alexa that allows Susie and me to play most music through the devices. Through the device, Susie gets her tunes, and anything else she or the nursing aides want at hummingbird house–I share the account. We have changed the listening word to echo and not Alexa for all the obvious reasons.

After the shower and getting dressed, I discovered in the kitchen that I had forgotten to run the dishwasher. The French Press was still in the dishwasher, so I made a pot of coffee using the old coffee pot. I used liberal coffee, Fair Trade, that I have drunk every morning since Trump was elected to remember that the small things matter. Vigilance is the price of freedom!

Aside: While that is a political statement–liberal coffee–this blog is about my experiences, not politics. Trump is part of my world, and my reaction to the world is recorded here. For me, this is my memory of these odd years. As for Trump, I see him as a sincere player (I did not say he did not lie a lot) in that his actions were true to his nature as a disrupting force. He brought forth the vaccine that saved so many. He also cut taxes and, as he promised, slammed us in states with high or highish local taxes–trying to drive us to cut taxes in the regional states–by cutting or limiting deductions for local taxes (called SALT) and thus raising our federal taxes. He stacked the courts and government with supporters. We saw the same thing in the 1970s, massive disruption, with Jimmy Carter, and both were single-term presidents. They were elected as outsiders and brought in a non-professional staff into the White House that soured the American people, and also both presidents faced, yes, let’s use it, unprecedented events. Carter had uncontrolled inflation and Iran Hostage Afair, while Trump had 2020, the year of disasters. Both now, as ex-presidents, are making waves and changing things.

Returning to the narrative, I made my fav muffins after finishing the blog on Thursday, lemon poppy from King Arthur Flour mix. I had a few of those with my coffee while rushing to finish reading my emails and checking for any crisis of the moment that I needed to react to ASAP. None.

Air Volvo got me to work, as I said, early. I then had a parade of meetings, all Zoom and one in-person (unusual even when we are sitting in the office), plus Zoom. I also read about some technology showing up more on my space, Node.js.

I left work at about 11:15ish and arrived early at hummingbird house. Susie had breakfast and was sitting in her recliner. I headed to her room, and I assembled her peddle elliptical machine. It was much larger than I expected and heavy. It even came with a screwdriver!

I brought Zoraida’s gift for Susie, a handmade shaw. Susie loved it, and it is on her bed, so she can use it in the mornings.

Aside: We send our best to Zoraida, who helped us for years. With the unexpected passing of her husband, Zoraida decided to shut down her business and move to Texas to be closer to her family. For years and even during the pandemic, Susie would have a spa day with Zoraida on Mondays. A driver would pick her up and return her to the house. Hair, skin, nails, and so on, plus often Zoraida’s homemade soup. These weekly visits kept Susie going for years. Thanks, Zoraida, for everything, and best wishes in Texas!

Susie had blood on her blanket, and Jennifer said that when she cleaned Susie’s mouth, there were signs of bleeding. Susie’s gums are bleeding again–this was an ER trip at Forest Grove earlier this year when it could not be stopped. Susie is on high-quality blood thinners to prevent a new stroke. Jennifer and the staff will monitor for bleeding at night and chat with the RN about actions to take.

Tracy, the physical therapy person, was ten minutes late. Her session with Susie ran over and was intense. We tried to use the new machine, but Susie’s wheelchair was narrow and tall, and the elliptical pedals hit the chair. Tracy finally got an arrangement that worked, sort of, and Susie got to work out. Next, Susie got to practice standing while being carefully guarded by Tracy. Susie was able to stand much better today.

After that, I headed out with a kiss from Susie. Then, Susie headed for a snack and a nap.

On the way back to the office, I stopped by Carl Jr’s and had a Western Burger with fries and a diet drink. It was not very good. Back at the office, a few issues returned, and a few new ones surfaced. Brad, my boss, surprised me by not being at a desk but at the tire place–his tires were shredded by some rubble on our local roads, ugh.

I left the office at 4PM and headed to the house office to enjoy the 5:05 status meeting. I had already done my out-of-office message, timesheet, and other rituals to be off for a day. I had a muffin for dinner and a bowl of chicken soup from a can. I ate this while that status meeting went on to just before 6PM.

I was tired and feeling down. The chaos that is my life with the endless medical expenses and the short-sighted career goals was depressing me. I like to travel, learn new things, and be in the middle of software development–now, I am shuffled to the side. But, that is right for me, and frankly for Nike, as I am a recovering cancer survivor and experiencing a medical disaster with my wife.

I see the world like a horse fighting against the ropes and gates of ignorance, war, Covid-19 real risks, greed, and constraint against using the new cutting-edge computer technology. The world wants, like a young horse, to run and discover how fast it can run and how far it can go, but it is stuck in a halter of racism, unfair practices, insane tax policies, and just old-fashioned human stupidity. I want to release this. But, I wait.

Back to the narrative, I found one of the new things in the world, The Sandman, on Netflicks. An amazing SciFi story from a writer that I sort of like, Neil Gaiman, who also did a bizarre Doctor Who and does a mix of horror and SciFi. I could not stop watching it. I watched five or six episodes on Thursday night. I use my Amazon Fire for this, which should still work after the new cable is installed. My boss, Brad, suggests just a rabbit ears antenna for local news–no need for cable for local news.

While watching The Sandman, I did not initially recognize Jenna Coleman, also from Doctor Who, who plays an exciting part. The show has collected the best folks from Doctor Who and Games of Thrones. The special effects, acting, and writing is good and does not turn away from complex subjects. Recommended!

I stayed up late talking to Archana in India. She is one of my fellow employees at the shoe company and got to present to leadership for a few minutes. Archana wanted to share that and get my perspective on what we will be doing next. Our data conversions are out in the future, a best. I asked her to hook up with the MDG team in India working on the upgrade–it is unusual and exciting work. Even software upgrades are now cutting edge.

It was nearing 1AM when I went to bed, I was feeling better, and it is always good to chat with Archana.

I hope that the blog is interesting. Thanks for reading.

 

Going backward, I just called hummingbird house and left a message that Tracy from Physical Therapy (PT) will be there on Thursday at 12:30. Tracy texted me at 8:45PM with the time. I had her penciled in for 1PM, so that still works.

Before that, I played board games with Zophia, Dondrea’s girl, while the choir practice/jam session went on at First United Methodist Church in Beaverton. I taught Zophia the board game Vindication. It is a lot to take in, but she was starting to get it at the end. She smoked me. Next, we played the tile game, Azul, and I had my revenge as I slowly built up points and won. Last, we went for the cooperative game Forbidden Island–a fav. We survived it.

That is Vindication with Zophia in mid-arm-pump for winning.

Before that, I was at the house having leftover sausage I had grilled a few days ago with the end of the potato and macaroni salad. I ate this while participating in the 5:05 status meeting. I was surprised when I disconnected from the meeting, and my Xfinity Internet went out at the house. Ziply Fiber is coming on Friday to install–it could not be too soon!

I had to hard boot the modem to have lousy Internet again.

I left the office after 4ish and took Air Volvo home to Clarion Street. I like to make a quick dinner on Wednesdays just before the meeting at 5:05 and eat it during the meeting. Choir practice starts at 6PM. Unfortunately, the ants are back, and I will have to commit insecticide in the kitchen soon. I kept them out of dinner, almost microwaving one ant that reached my sausages–ick!

Even earlier, I was at work for most of the day. I had some crises of the moment and had to help out on a few items. No details should be shared here, but I was busy.

Going back more, I reached the hummingbird house after 10ish, stayed until 11ish, and got lunch on the way back at Burger King. I love their burger with cheese, and this time it was not too salty, back to normal.

I managed to take Susie for a short trip in her wheelchair through Metzger Park and a short chat with her mother, Leta, on FaceTime.

It was a rushed visit as usual for a work day.

Before that, I worked on a few existing items.

Starting the day, I was rushed as usual for the morning working from the office day. It is strange to have to leave and drive to work to mostly be online talking to people on Zoom, especially after just working from home for more than two years. But, I understand that the shoe company values the interpersonal relationships that develop in person, which is why I have to drive in.

I was again awake before my alarm and fell deep asleep fifteen minutes before it blasted me out of bed.

Thanks for reading, and sorry if it seems rushed.