Blog

Today I did back up all the text of my blogs to a file on my laptop–I want to ensure I may access my own words. I use WordPress for my website to retain ownership of my writing and photos. I am unsure of the ownership and fate of my entries on Facebook and Twitter. I use WordPress and their original editor, which works with my other technology, Grammarly. Grammarly helps me get all those silly commas in their correct place (and forces me to use the Oxford comma-Bah!) and finds all the mistakes I can never find. See, I discovered that I have dyslexia, undiagnosed and that many of my challenging ways of doing things are just normal survival skills for someone like me. For example, I still add numbers by counting how close to fives–a dyslexia survival skill. I also drop negative signs in complex math, which I love, but seldom do now. Often shocking my friends with my B’s in high math–even when I know the subject better than the A students. Someday I will return to Calculus and Modern Algebra (which I never learned). I did graduate from Central Michigan with honors in mathematics, even with dyslexia!

Aside: Deborah Hills, I still owe you a tour of how I do this blog. Maybe a Zoom meeting someday?

Returning to the story, but beware, I am in a mood for going sideways in my writing. It must be re-reading the book The Club Dumas; that book makes my mind wander. Recommended!

Again trying to return today’s story, I started at 6:15 with me awaking before my alarm, just a few minutes. Then, I fell utterly and profoundly asleep, and the alarm went off and scared me. Not very nice. I sat up, fell asleep again, and was woken when I nearly fell out of bed. Not good.

Coffee was more First Aid than a drink of choice and enthusiastically applied. Breakfast was the last of the large containers of strawberry yogurt. I will not comment that a large container looks precisely the same, to me, on the Safeway website as a small one-serving container–but I was happy that my buyer found only two of the five I ordered! I have only one more large one left now. I had this with some fruit I had leftover.

I eyed the cupcakes. After I finished the blog last night, I baked cupcakes: German Chocolate Duncan Hines (old fashion) mix. I frosted them with pecan and coconut frosting (premade and Duncan Hines). They are delicious.

I also started making replacement masts for the 1/1200 (four-inch long) RMS Titanic model I built years ago for a class I taught on Machine Learning. It was damaged last year, and I need to replace the plastic masts. I made new masts from brass tubing and wire. I managed to fix everything else. It is a neat little model and helps visualize the disaster. The original build was fun; It took one weekend, unrushed.

Back to the story–yes, I keep making side trips; I was rushed as this was Tuesday and was the first back-to-the-office day of the week. My first meeting is at 8:05, and I like to be a bit early to clean the desk. I wear a mask at work, except when eating or drinking. I do not want Covid-19, colds, or the flu.

Air Volvo got me to Nike’s Clubhouse building, just off the WHQ campus, without incident. I was early, and I was busy all morning. I had a few crises of the moment and meetings on some work. The first time I felt very busy in a while as work starts to heat up.

I was late to see Susie, so I called ahead, and Jennifer, the nurse for today, agreed that she would have Susie ready in a wheelchair when I got there if Susie wanted a spin outside. So Susie was waiting by the door in her wheelchair when I arrived.

Susie was tired, and her eyes were red from allergies. So we headed out, getting some tissues from Air Volvo on the way to Metzger Park. We spun around the park and even did a bit of cross-country through the grass to reach a bench for me.

We called Leta, Susie’s mother, and had a friendly chat. Susie is having therapy coming on Friday, and we also chatted about that. Susie was getting sleepy in the sun in the just reaching 80F (26.67C) heat.

I headed back to work after a kiss goodbye. Jennifer was setting Susie in her recliner when I left. Lunch was in an hour for Susie.

I had a 1 and 3 meeting this afternoon and thus needed to get a fast lunch. After mistakingly missing Jimmy Johns and other good sandwich places, I ended up in Burger King and, despite swearing I would not be back, I had another average burger there. It was just OK.

I was only a few minutes late for my 1PM meeting in a small room, and on Zoom–I projected onto the larger screen. It is sometimes maddening that we come to the office to spend every meeting on Zoom. Even in a conference room still on Zoom with few in the conference room.

More Zooming, and then I headed home about 4ish and then to Zoom for the 5:05 status meeting at home. I make and eat dinner during this meeting. So today, after the burger, I had cottage cheese with olives and peaches from a can (no sugar added). I like cottage cheese with pepper, sea salt, and smoked paprika, and the olive fits this mix, just four as olives are full of oil. I did have some cake.

After the meeting, I sat around the house and read some more. I did fall asleep and managed to restart at 7:45. A cupcake might have been sacrificed to get me going again. So good!

I will work on the RMS Titanic some more after publishing the blog. I am also thinking about republishing the blog as a book of my experiences in the pandemic, Cancer, and my adventures in New York City.

I am also thinking about publishing my Howard stories.

I also have a church story on my mind, but that will have to wait.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my blog today and that my side trips did not feel like a maze or Alice-like. Thanks for reading!

Is that a “eat me” note on that cupcake…

Monday started with a cold (65F 18.3C), an overcast morning in the greater Portland area. I was not rushed as this was a work-from-home day (Monday and Friday). I had yogurt and a banana for breakfast, which went well with the French press liberal coffee. Next, I read the emails, text, and Slack messages to prepare for the first meeting at 8:05.

I received a request to help with a crisis of the moment and was busy with the extended crises all day. Nevertheless, I managed, once briefed and after attending a few meetings, to head to Susie’s place at 11ish in Air Volvo, the hummingbird house.

Susie resides at:

Allegiance Senior Care
Adult Foster Care Home
9925 SW 82nd. Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97223

The house phone number: 503 246-4116

The auto-braking system of Air Volvo triggered twice today, once there and once on the way back, with my fellow drivers suddenly slowing. I do not know if the sudden change to cold or the depression that having Summer ended after three sunny days (it is coming back on Tuesday) caused all the slow driving. The traffic was heavy and slow, with me taking three times to get through some traffic lights!

Without scratching the paint on Air Volvo, I finally reached Allegiance Senior Care’s home in Tigard (a Portland address). It is one of two homes run by Allegiance, and the one on 82nd is called the hummingbird house, with its feeder well stocked for the local birds.

Aside: Here in Oregon, there is a healthy population of hummingbirds, with at least two regularly in my backyard.

When I entered, Susie was in her recliner and looked quite tired. Her eyes were red from pollen that was slowly poisoning everyone in Oregon today. We did call her mother on the iPhone using FaceTime. They chatted for a while.

Sorry, I forgot again to take pics!

I stayed for a while holding her hand; it was too cool to head to the park on Monday. I left with a kiss, and Susie was sad to see me go so soon. I spend an hour on travel and visiting Susie on work days. I visit every day.

Back at the Volvo Cave, I had leftover Jambalaya for lunch, reheating it in the microwave. The crises of the moment went on until about 7ish. I attended more working meetings and status meetings during the afternoon.

I microwaved two moderate-sized potatoes for dinner while listening to a status meeting. I added two slices of bacon, cheese, butter, sour cream, and some olives (remembering the potato bars in Instanbul). I read The Club Dumas on my Kindle for a bit and fell asleep and was awoken suddenly with the Kindle falling out of my hand and hitting me. I got going again at 8PM.

I paid some bills using physical checks but entered the checks into Quicken. I am still updating Quicken with all the transactions. I am tracking every dollar. Another $170 to yet another pharmacy for Susie and $90 for her life insurance policy’s annual cost. Her monthly expenses run about $8,000 (including room and board).

The Home Health people finally called and will start working with Susie on Friday. I had asked Susie’s doc in our last video conference to get Susie some therapy to help with transfers. I would love to get her strong enough to transfer to Air Volvo. I could then take her to church and maybe some short drives. Let’s hope for a positive result.

I wrote the blog this afternoon a bit early.

Thank you for reading.

 

 

Today was warm, overcast, and muggy–humid for us. But, it was not raining, just warm and sticky.

Sunday morning is a strange rush for me. I need to write the blog for Saturday, a 1600+ word blog. That is a few hours of work. My church is at 10:30, so I should be time-boxed. But, I am late for church instead of cutting the blog short.

I started writing while eating breakfast cereal with sliced fresh banana with French press coffee and continued the writing through the 8:05 shoe company status meeting. I must stop writing for some of the meetings’ discussions and listen and interact, especially the more detailed descriptions of ongoing issues.

The meeting is over at 9ish (having run over), and I am about 1/2 through the writing. Nevertheless, I push on and finish at about 10AM. I rush dressing and soon am headed to church, only a few minutes late.

Dondrea is giving the sermon today, “Why Am I Still Here” is her title for her sermon. She asks why we still associate with a church when the religious right has highjacked and redefined Christianity in terms that are not acceptable to us. Folks believe now that Christians are white supremacists and anti-gay. Also, anti-women rights and anti-immigration. None of these things are true of our local church, she points out, and that historically the United Methodist Church (UMC) has worked for social justice. Dondrea identifies that the UMC has the only non-government building on Capital Hill in Washington DC. The build was built to help bring UMC’s focus on Social Justice to the US government. Dondrea says it is our mission to say no to those who would redefine Christianity away from seeking social justice and let your actions speak. Dondrea quotes Saint Francis, who may have said, “Preach the gospels, use words if you have to.” Or something like that (Aside: If he did not say that, he could have). Why are we here–the world needs us.

After church, I spoke to Howard, the organist at church, about chess artificial intelligence programs and studying how music is played. I wondered if the organ could record how Howard played and play it back–not the sound but how he physically played. He told me our organ could record the playing but could not play it back. I was wondering if we could study the way the keys are played on different pieces to see how the player interprets the music. I am always interested in how to find the truth in music and art. That extra layer is the difference between just mathematical adherence to the notes and timings and the human filter that creates something more. Also, how would Howard, for example, play Bach differently than a composer like Handel, for example? Both composers are from a like time in music development, but would they create different reactions in a player, different emotions? We see some of this now being developed in chess-playing software. Do you want older-styled gameplay or cutting-edge reactions based on Nunn’s Chess Openings mammoth work of opening lines? Do you want exchanges to happen more often and suddenly reach the end game? Chess is looking into this. Howard knows chess, and so I hope he found it fascinating. I am just thinking about AI while he played a few times and the truth in the music.

After church and chatting, I headed to Panera for a chicken salad sandwich. After discovering Arby’s had stopped selling them, I was on a quest for a good sandwich. So I ordered at the kiosk, there was a long line, and then grabbed my lunch when it was ready. I had French Onion Soup with 1/2 an almond chicken salad sandwich. The bread, lettuce, and tomato were good. The bread was especially lovely, and the crust chewy. The sandwich had only a few tablespoons of finely chopped chicken salad. Almonds may have been there. I decided not to complain (I did not want to make things worse in a pandemic and low staffing) and enjoyed my abbreviated sandwich and soup. I had an apple with it. I will try again and see if I get a better sandwich.

I went to Powell’s at Cedar Mills, just across the parking lot from Panera, and bought a copy of The Worst Case Survival book. At Dungeons and Dragons, we wrote in the book about the death of some of our characters (or close to death) in a section that sort of matched the events. This was Matt’s, our DM, birthday, and I thought this would be a good gift. We had some cake and fruit. Matt is on a special diet, so he had just a bit of food.

Next, I headed to the hummingbird house to see Susie.

Susie resides at:

Allegiance Senior Care
Adult Foster Care Home
9925 SW 82nd. Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97223

The house phone number: 503 246-4116

Susie looked tired, and her eyes were red from allergies. Susie did not want a movie. So we headed out for an extended walk. We toured the local area, stopped under a magnolia tree, and called Susan’s mother, Leta. They chatted for a while

We then headed to the park next to the house, Metzger Park. It was overcast, but it was warm, so the park was busy with kids, folks walking one or more dogs, and baby carriages being pushed. We sat and just watched them for a while. I then pushed Susie through the park again, returning one stray tennis ball to the courts with a toss.

We then sat on the porch of the hummingbird house for a while. Next, I called Susan’s Aunt Glenda and Uncle Gene in North Carolina. We talked for a while. Glenda had helped me by flying out and assisting in selecting Allegiance and their hummingbird house. Gene and Glenda were happy to see and hear from Susie on FaceTIme.

After that, I turned Susie over to Vanessa and headed out. Susie was sad to see me leave but was tired and was going to nap in her recliner.

After arriving without incident, I took Air Volvo home and changed out of my dress shirt and tie. I rested for a bit and napped only for a few minutes. I needed a short recharge and reset that a short 30-minute break brings.

I then reheated some leftover pasta and sausage I made a few days ago in the microwave for dinner. After eating that, I packed up the car with gaming stuff and headed to Cory’s house.

We play at Cory’s house as Cory lost his legs to events, and it is still too challenging to play elsewhere. It has worked out well for us, and while Matt has to carry some stuff with him, it has not been a terrible burden for anyone. We are still playing the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons 5e version (D&D 5e).

We played from 5:30 to 9 at Corry’s. My drunken master character, a monk, did take a lot of damage in this game. Mostly from bad rolls of the dice than anything else (failed saving throws for those who know D&D 5e). I play a combat-centric Jackie Chan-styled character, so I take damage (and give it back too), and so my character was drunken stumbling all over the battle. It was fun.

I was home after that and writing the blog for the rest of the night.

Sorry, I forgot to take photos today. Thank you for reading.

Susie was a bit tired and looked sad when I left, but she was feeling OK. Her allergies are in full swing, like the rest of us.

Starting in the morning, I was up at 7ish on Saturday. I had slept well and had not stayed up very late on Friday night; thus, I felt more rested. The mouth sores have not been repeated; my self-care seems to work. I made cereal with milk and 1/2 a sliced banana for breakfast. I got the coffee press out of the dishwasher (now all shinny) and made liberal Fair Trade coffee to go with the cereal.

I read my emails, the shoe company emails, the various text, and Slack channel messages to be prepared for the 8:05 status meeting. While I have a small role in the current go-live at Nike, I like to understand what is happening. I also check this throughout the day and part of the night to ensure I am up-to-date on the project. I did have to update a ticket last weekend to change its settings so a fix could move to production.

Aside: My Internet connection broke on Friday in the middle of the 8:05 status meeting, but it started working by 9ish. I canceled the service call after it stayed working for the morning.

The status meeting was the regular updates and the issue list informative. Many on the project are working through the weekend to fix issues before China’s biz day starts at 5PM Sunday. I put away the dishes while listening.

I got dressed after the meeting and cut a few roses and rosemary for Susie, and I thought the Hummingbird House might like some fresh rosemary from my bush. I have grown rosemary for years. The greeks thought rosemary helped with memory with its distinctive pleasant odor, awakening lost or forgotten memories.

When I stepped outside, I was surprised we had precipitation, light mist, and rain. Usually, we don’t have any showers once the hot days start in July. However, it was pleasant and will prevent some forest fires, so it was welcome.

With the rain and mist, the park was out today. Susie does not like wet and damp, and a wheelchair is not so good with a raincoat. Soon, you will be sitting in a puddle.

Instead, Vanessa, the nurse on for today, had Susie in a recliner in the activity room, a spare bedroom with chairs and a card table for family meetings and card games, etc. Susie and I watched Mama Mia (the movie version), and Susie often softly sang along.

Few people love this movie as much as Susie and I do. It is just fun for me. I even like Pierce Bronson’s terrible singing as it fits in my mind with the story. His character struggles in the story, and I like that his singing is so hard for him, but he pushes through anyway. To me, it is part of his character’s story.

This is my favorite song from the movie; it is a sad and hopeful song, unlike most ABBA songs: I Have a Dream.

Susie slept through a bit of the movie while holding my hand. Susie, as I said, looked sad or tired today. So she let me go when the movie ended, but I could see she wanted me to stay longer, but she was falling asleep and needed a nap. I did cry a bit in the car after I left.

Some days are harder than others.

I met Evan at the food carts in Beaverton near the city hall. From what I could tell, all the carts were open, and the place was full of people, none masked–but it was outside. After walking through, Evan selected the crepe cart, and we had savory versions. As is my habit, I asked the gal at the window which stuffing she liked, “fig.” So I had the ham and fig crepe–it was delicious. Evan enjoyed his pesto version.

We did get a table as the lunch crowd began to thin.

After we finished our lunch, which was a bit light for me, we headed to Central Tap House, just a block away from the carts. They had some open tables, so I presented a credit card to open a tab and then walked back to my car. Air Volvo was parked in the parking garage, which would charge $1 an hour for parking (!), except it was free parking for this weekend. So I got the board game Vindication that I put in the car when I left for Susie’s and walked back an entire block as the only doors are on the other side of the building.

With my excise walking a block carrying a not-light board game, I got a beer, and Evan had ordered me some bar mix. Next, Evan started to set up the game. We played two games as the end-of-game trigger ended both games early. Vindication was designed in the Pacific Northwest in Vancouver, Washington, and I even had input on some of the game processes. It has gone through three Kickstarters with me supporting and participating in them. Finally, I have the “swanky” version with all the promo add-ons and should get the last update in the next couple of months from the last Kickstarter. This is a resource management game with light player interactions. It plays fast once you get the structures down. It is a recent game; it is bright and colorful with high-quality production. It is a fav.

Evan and I both had a second beer for the second game. Evan almost won the last game, but I managed to pull just enough of the proficiencies to stay ahead at the end. Evan plays to build a repeated point-generating engine, and I pick up the points at the start and usually win if I can get the game to stop early. One of the suggestions I had in the design was to have random ending conditions, and that is how the game works now. I got lucky in both plays today: The game-ending conditions were easy to reach.

After that, I took Air Volvo to Portland. I stopped by Guardian Games; there, I constantly worried about leaving Air Volvo parked in the same area where the car was broken into, but it being daytime, it should be OK–it was. I found a few items for Dungeons and Dragon games and a pamphlet that looked interesting. However, I resisted buying a copy of the board game Notre Dome which we played last Saturday, which I liked, and thought was unavailable. Resist!

Shawna and Richard played two games with me this evening. Shawn, our usually third, not being able to make it. Also, Kathleen has been traveling in her native German and will be back next Saturday. We played two enjoyable games: my copy of The Grand Austrian Hotel and Richard’s Suburbia. The hotel game is complex, almost insanely difficult for the size of the game: “The best hotels select their guests” is one of the themes.

Aside: I forgot to take a pic of the games at Richard’s house, sorry!

Even though I was teaching the game, I did come in last place, with Richard lapping me twice! My copy has a 3D-printed cake, strudel, coffee, bottles of wine, and other upgrades that I have made, purchased, or came with the last Kickstarter revision. I love the visual of a cup of coffee and little slices of cake.

This is effectively the 2nd edition, and as I have said often in my previous blogs, a 2nd edition version of a game on Kickstarter is usually an excellent game, and this is, but it is very complex. The turns in the game Hotel are simple, but what you do with resources (cake, strudel, coffee, wine, and money) and how you hire staff and use them (yes, you get staff), ready and fill rooms with guests is up to you, and there are lots of choices. I like it. We played the base game. I have the add-ons for waltzing and named hotels and many more rules for an already complex game. Soon!

The next board game, Suburbia, always surprises me. The game ends abruptly, and you are building engines the whole time by building up your city–it is a race. Most of these engine-building games are longer. I supplied Richard with 3D-printed markers last year to make this game more visual–it helps. It was fun to print and paint them.

Shawna loves the game, and she pulled ahead and stayed there despite Richard’s usual expertise in creating engines. I like the gaming experience, but like Hotel, money matters, and I struggled with cash the whole time in Suburbia. I watched Richard and Shawna had plenty of money, so I must have misplayed. Next time!

After that, we chatted briefly, and then I drove back home. I had to take the “space shuttle” on-ramp to the bridge, which is as tall as the bridge roadway itself! I do not like heights.

I made it home and had some cottage cheese and a few beets from a can, pickled, as a snack to go with my meds. They can be a problem without food. So I was to bed about 1AM and asleep soon.

The rose Souvenir du President Lincoln is on its second flower but is now showing powdery mildew. This is my first bourbon rose and is not as resistant as my other roses. I will have to get some treatments for it.

The newly planted Wedgwood is still flowering, but the heat stress has, as it does, shrunk the flowers.

The apple tree, likely one of the Johny Appleseed trees in Oregon, fell over a few years ago, but we managed to trim it back into a usable and survival form. It is now in its fourth year since falling and resting quite comfortably on the ground.

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Going backward, I just finished watching the first episode of the second season of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and was shocked how terrible it was. I did like the books years ago, but the T.V. version is not working for me, but I will try a few more and see if it was just an unlucky choice. Before this, I drove to a few Tap Rooms in the area, but the bars had standing room only tonight, the unmasked crowd did not allow me to feel safe, and since I wanted to play a game of a solo boardgame, Nemo’s War, which needed a table for a few hours, that did not work out. So I went home and tried out an old T.V. show.

Before that, I listened to the 5:05PM status meeting and made dinner. I pay attention while I get dinner going. The meeting was a slow process of reviewing and getting action plans for every severe error in our software.

While the Zoom meeting went on, I chopped up some thin-cut ham, precooked Cajun style andouille sausage, and a bit of kielbasa. I cut the sausage length-wise to make cube-like cuts, not coins. I heat this in a large pan. Once browned a bit, I add a can of fire-roasted tomatoes and two cans of water. I get that to boil, add a box of Zatarain’s Jambalaya rice and seasoning from a box, and cook covered on low heat for 25 minutes. I had a few bowls, then let the Jambalaya cool and put it in bags to have as leftovers in the frig.

Previously, I continued to re-reading The Club Dumas on my Kindle. I read it a year ago and mentioned it in the blog then. This book was restructured into the movie The Ninth Gate, also a favorite. I forgot much of the book, and the reading still gets a laugh from me here and there. I like the ending better in the book than in the movie. Recommended.

I was at Hummingbird House with Susie this afternoon, and we watched a movie in the late afternoon. John Wick 3 continues directly from the previous movie, starting the story only minutes after the last film’s end. In this story, we expand the evil hotel now to the wicked High Table. Halle Berry and Angelica Houston join the cast. It keeps up with the shootouts with Halle Berry’s character, Sophia, showing the same skills and high body count as the anti-hero John Wick. Susan enjoyed it and stayed awake for all of it.

When I got to HummingBird House, I found Susie in her recliner watching a soap opera on T.V. She was ready to head out to the park. It was just getting hot, so I found a bench near the shade and let Susie enjoy the Sun. We managed to contact Susie’s mother, Leta, on the iPhone, and they chatted on FaceTime for a bit.

The park was filled with kids, dogs being walked, and picnics. There is no rain in the forecast for two weeks, so we are finally into our rain-free summer months. The temperatures will climb next week into the 90s. Because of the cold and damp spring and early summer, the fires are delayed. Let’s hope the forest and grass fires will remain small and contained this year!

Before taking Air Volvo, without issue, to Hummingbird House, I was working as usual for a Friday at home. I was attending Zoom meetings and reading lots of statuses. Zoom, email, and texts were flying fast. It was a busy morning.

I did the dishes and ran a load of laundry–all put away. All of this while following along and enjoying Zoom meetings.

I managed to start at 7ish, sleeping in just 30 minutes more. I managed to sleep well.