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I was up late last night. I painted some figures and read until 11ish. I have some new figures from Etsy.com for the 1920s 28mm gaming, including a realistic H.P. Lovecraft figure. I was also following along with the data conversions that were running at work.

I started the day at 5:45, and while I did not have to rush, I could not go slow as I needed to be at the office near 7:30. It is about a 15-20 minute commute to the shoe company Clubhouse office building. So I made coffee, had breakfast of yogurt and a banana, and took all my meds. Next, I quickly showered and dressed. Previously I had collected some roses for Susie and put them in a bag to take with me.

Soon, Air Volvo had me at the office. I did an hour of meetings. I did head downstairs to get a Star Bucks coffee, still free, from the barista–just coffee with cream. I was again mostly following along.

I headed out at 10ish to see Susie at Humming Bird House. The traffic on 217 was the usual mix of aggressive and talentless drivers, sometimes the same drive. Nevertheless, I reached Susie’s place without suffering any damage or setting off any collision alarms.

Susie was up and eating breakfast: Scrambled eggs, pureed breakfast potatoes, apple source, and milk (slightly thickened). Susie paused her consumption to call her mother on my iPhone. Today, Leta was able to answer. Susie and Leta chatted for about ten minutes. Time is short for me on work days, a 15-20 minute trip allows for about a 20-minute visit, and soon I was saying goodbye with a kiss. Jennifer will arrange the roses. I did warn her; the thorns are wicked on this bunch of flowers from my roses.

I managed the trip back without incident, but I did see some extra-legal lane changes. Also, I thought a pickup would make me a witness to a grave mistake, but somehow the pickup truck violated the physics of time and space and did not crash into the car. It cut off. A true wizard of driving.

Back to monitoring and reading some items on neural networks.

I went to get coffee and fell partially on the stairs. I managed to grab the rail, hold on, and stop gravity from demonstrating why I should use the elevator. It was a close call near the top of the stairs (a ten-foot or more fall with the possibility of going over the edge and falling the whole story). I will use the elevator. Jim, our department head, was having coffee, and he joined me for the trip back up by showing him where the elevator was. I also showed him the footprints on the wall:  Nike sneaker prints. Somebody literally was going up the wall.

Aside: I twisted my back in the near-disaster and had to take some painkillers tonight.

My day continued until the last status meeting. Then, I returned home and had left-over goulash two nights ago. I heated it up in the microwave. Then, I logged back into work, followed along, and occasionally commented.

I took a break, read, and painted more of the H.P. Lovecraft figures (I have two to paint).

 

Of course, Howard is in the suit (two figures) and is surrounded by the gang, undoubtedly saying, “I would have summoned an Eldar God if it was not for you meddling kids!” I will be touching up HP soon and then adding some shading. His suit is in Dark Grey (Tamiya XF-24) and thus can be shaded with black. I will not put painting metal buttons on his vest as he was a poor writer.

Aside: I often use German Grey (Tamiya XF-63) instead of black paint on figures as it allows for shading, and at the 28mm scale, black just consumes the detail. For example, In the figure above, the hair is black and thus shows no details. I made the vest Desert Yellow to add more drama to the figure. Another good idea to make the figure stand out more is to use an Ash Grey instead on the pants and then heavily shade with black, but I wanted a more traditional look of matching coat and pants. I checked, and I need to add a bit of paint for a pocket square. I have a reproduction of a Sear’s Catalog from 1927 to check this stuff.

Well, that is about all, dear reader. I will try to finish Howard after my 9PM meeting. Zooming!

 

I was up at 5:45 to make a meeting at 7:30 in the office. I was not rushed, but I could not slow down and just drink coffee. So I was in Air Volvo before 7 and at the office just after 7–I had to turn on the lights in our section; I was the first in.

As usually happens, the meeting I came for was canceled. I saw that at 11:30PM on Monday night, it was decided not to do the early morning meeting. C’est la vie. I then followed along on the hour of meetings starting at 8. Next, as we were still waiting to start the big process, I slipped out to see Susie. With more traffic now, Air Volvo passed through 217 traffic (known to some as the Devil’s Bowling Ally); I reached the Humming Bird house without incident.

I got there, and Jennifer was surprised to see me at 9ish (I am usually 10:15ish), and Susie was not ready. Also, Jennifer was training a new gal, so it was taking longer than usual for Susie to appear. So I just waited, but I had only twenty minutes.

Soon, Susie was ready, but most of my time was gone, but I decided to stay a bit longer as the big project stuff seemed to be running late at the shoe company. So I stayed with Susie for a while and tried to reach her mother on the phone, but Leta missed the call. So I just stayed with Susie for a bit while she ate.

Susie is always unhappy when I leave. Today, Susie had slept poorly–getting to bed about 2AM the night before and was a bit grumpy. Susie said she would be OK but did not want me to leave. I understood; soon, she relented, gave me a kiss, and I headed out.

Evan stopped by later to say hello too. So Susie had two visitors today!

Air Volvo and I were dodging dump trucks and flying rocks from these trucks on the way back. Nevertheless, I managed to avoid any damage while on the narrow passage that is 217 in heavy traffic. I was soon back in the office.

We are still getting free Star Bucks coffee from the coffee stand, and two lunch trucks provide free food. I stayed with the Twisted truck that makes a great pita Mediterranean-style lunch. I had the Greek Gyro. I always ask what the recommended, and today it was Greek, the lamb. Wonderful.

We waited as more tasks were running late, and finally, we started on our big tasks. I am primarily a tourist, but it has been five years of work to get here. Brad, my boss, had me put in one of the trouble tickets for one of our data issues. I had to remember how to use the defect creation process; I have not used it since I was out in October 2021! It took me a while, but it is always fun to learn something and, in this case, to remember something.

More runs and more meetings. I left after the last status meeting of the evening. Air Volvo seemed to drive itself home. Soon I was back online and following along. I am tired, so I order Chinese food delivered. There will be leftovers, so it works out for dinner on Wednesday.

I cut some roses for Susie. Unfortunately, these have wicked thorns, and I did not escape without being perforated. However, I did notice that the strange weather has affected the roses. The bushes have gone giant long canes and then fall or break. I have never seen my roses grow this fast before. The thorns are huge and sharp too!

Between checking the progress of things online, I am painting primer on some figures–back to painting! Last night, after finishing the blog, I worked on drilling and pinning two broken figures–3D printed 28mm Dungeons and Dragon scale figures are fragile and easily break.

This repair is tiny work, and I was relieved that my hands, eyes, and mind could still handle the delicate repairs. I was not sure until now if I had recovered my skills. I used my pin vice, tiny carbon drill bits, my bifocal safety glasses (yes, they make those), and my hands to do the work. The repairs were perfect. Painting next!

I read some more of Eric Stross, and the pages fly by. I am back online often to follow along. There is a meeting to hand over to India at 9PM. Archana takes over. I am online chatting with the system support as the process seems slow. There is no detected issue–it is just slow.

I am writing the blog while following along on my work laptop. Dual tasking.

Thanks for reading!

 

Despite the day’s unlucky number, thirteen, the day started normally with me getting going without rushing. This is a work-from-home day, Monday and Friday, so I did not have to commute to work or get dressed early. I also could do laundry and cook dinner while listening to meetings. So the first two hours were meetings, getting cleaned up, and off in Air Volvo to see Susie.

The trip was uneventful but always seemed longer when passing through Beaverton. Jennifer is back this Monday and training a new person. Susie was just getting started on breakfast when I got there.

Susie feeds herself and can now lift a small cup and drink from it. But, today, her hand was not quite working for her. Jennifer thought Susie was tired from the weekend, two movies with me.

We called Leta, Susie’s mother, and Susie and Leta chatted for a while. After the call, she went back to eating. I could only stay about twenty minutes, so I was soon headed out with a kiss. Susie was sad to see me leave so soon, but it was a work day.

I drove Air Volvo directly home and made a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. I spent the afternoon following along with the shoe company and recommending a few things, no crises for this Monday.

I listened to the status meeting while defrosting some beef for dinner. Dinner tonight is goulash beef from a recipe in a German cookbook Michael G’s parents gave me years ago–in English with American measuring. I added cut-up potatoes to the recipe.

I also made scones as a snack. I have a few aging boxes of holiday flavors, so I baked one of those, gingerbread. It has been a while since I have felt strong enough to make dinner and bake a treat. Excellent (and did the dishes and a load of laundry plus putting it away).

Corwin and I talked and agreed it was time for him to move out. He is now looking for a place to live. I will also donate some spare furniture (in the garage) if he needs that. It is a friendly process and not rushed.

I watched some of the news while eating the goulash. As it was BBC news, it had the usual focus on UK issues. Apparently, the strange Brexit Ireland and Northern Ireland agreement for Ireland being in the EU and Northern Ireland sort of in the EU is having problems. The cost of living in Northern Ireland includes some kind of EU taxes and is upsetting the folks there. It was all interesting, sort of.

The stock market continues to tank. There is a panic about a possible recession. I am ignoring this.

I finished the blog early tonight, so I can do some figure painting work. Likely I will just be getting more organized, but it is nice to get back to some familiar and happy items.

Also on familiar things, my friends, Brian and Gwen, are getting their Horror film festivals going this year here in Portland and Rhode Island. I am looking forward to the October H.P. Lovecraft Portland Film Festival. I have already been thinking of a 500-word story to write this year.

That is about it dear reader, thanks for following along!

Going backward, I went to bed a bit early, at 10:30ish. I was tired from the busy day. I was on the phone just before going to bed with David and Michelle Smith. We used the group watching feature of Disney+ to watch together the next episode of Obi-wan Kenobi (which I had to learn to spell). This episode is the classic good versus evil rescue mission that we love in Star Wars, and they get it right. It has movie-quality special effects and sound. This was the second time I have seen this episode, and like all good Star Wars stuff, it was good the second time. Recommended.

I was reading before this. I have finished A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan Book 2), a space opera story. I found it a bit hard to follow, and it jumped from one account to another with glee as if written on a trampoline. But, this feeling may be from my current recovery status and not the book, as I feel like life is a trampoline (sudden up and down and a loss of control, but strangely still fun). Thus I would still recommend for Space Opera lovers the Teixcalaan series. 

I have started Eric Stross’s newest Laundry Files book, Quantum of Nightmares. He has published two books centered on the Laundry with Quantum of Nightmares covering a continuation of the story of Imp’s friends and family in the UK ruled by the Lovecraft’s Dark Pharaoh in a sort of blending of Lovecraft-Delta Green-Douglas Adams. Eric mixes references to Cthulhu myths, concrete mathematics (a particular branch of mathematics based on computers), computer hacking, cryptography, and basic electronics in a very dark comedy–all topics that touch on things I enjoy. In the next book, Escape from Yokia Land, the author is finally returning to his previous main character and narrator, Bob, and my favorite of his characters. I am happy Eric Stross found his way back to Bob. The pages fly by when I read these.

Returning to the story, before this, I was at Cory’s house playing Dungeons and Dragons 5E. Cory is an old friend that has played games with us for over ten years. He is a retired sea captain and, as I met him, a retired Nike security person (physical security and not computer stuff). Cory lost his legs in battles with illness, so we play at his house to make it easier on him. We stopped playing during much of the Covid-19 lockdown.

In the game of D&D 5E, I am playing a drunken master monk, an all-combat character, with a style of play that would is more Jackie Chan than current over-the-top wire-fu shows. I don’t usually play combat characters, but monks, with all their mythical abilities in D&D, appeal to me.

No spoilers here, but I can say that at one moment, I had used up all my cool monk powers and had only a few hit points left. A D&D battle where you are titering on defeat is always the best. Thanks to our DM, Matt (or M@), for a great game and all the other players for making it work.

We also got to use the ballon model I made for the game. M@ will use it at the other games he hosts at his house. Excellent.

Before heading to Cory’s place (just across 26 just outside of Beaverton), I stopped by Burger King and ordered a burger meal. I had a salad for lunch and a quick breakfast, so I needed some protein and calories. I parked the car and ate it in the car before the game.

I came from Susie’s place, Humming Bird 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

Susie and I had just enough time this Sunday afternoon (I was rushing all day) to watch a shorter movie. So I played An American in Paris (1 hour 54 minutes) instead of another Harry Potter Wizarding World movie (2 hours 14 minutes). This is a movie from the Golden Age of Movies, as they say. It is singing and dancing and, in this case, uses modern music (from the 1950s) based loosely on music by George Gershwin. The dancing is terrific, and the storyline is weak. It also, like a later film by Gene Kelly, SInging in the Rain, ends abruptly with a forced Hollywood happy ending, but as it is one of the films that define Hollywood’s happy endings, that is forgiven. Susie said, “it was wonderful.” I had to kiss and run once the movie stopped. I had to get to Cory’s in less than an hour.

Before getting to Susie’s place, I had lunch with Wayne and Anne Weld-Martin at Sherry’s off of 185th (not near Susie’s place). Unfortunately, I also forgot my Dungeons and Dragons book (and other items that remained left behind this time), so I had to leave lunch early to fly Air Volvo to the house, grab the books, and drive all the way back to Beaverton and to Susie’s place. It was crazy.

Lunch was after Wayne preached, and Anne did the prayers and pastor sections of the worship service. Dondrea and her daughter Zophia ran the soundboard and other items for an online experience. Dondrea was running back and force as she was also leading worship and working with our choir director and organist, Howard, to get the music right. Somehow it all came together and worked (even when Wayne switched out a hymn).

As I said, I had a salad, Sherry’s did not have the wontons for my Asian Salad, but it was still good. Wayne had breakfast, some of the first food he had had in days. Wayne has been unwell for most of the week. Wayne gave a more Baptist-styled sermon today, even tired, and it was well-received by the Methodists.

Before church, I dressed and got ready after sleeping in until 7ish. I slept better on Saturday night even after taking Saturday slow.

I slept in a bit this morning. I was up and moving about 7ish. I made liberal Fair Trade coffee and had a plain locally made bagel with chives and onion smear and capers from a jar. Now, I was feeling better and more like myself.

Using two laptops, I logged into work and looked at my personal stuff (on my Mac) and my work stuff (on my Windows machine from Nike). This has been my usual setup since the lockdown. Sometimes I would even put up a third screen and have the Bloomberg news running on it. Today just two screens.

After catching up with the news and work items, nothing really critical on either, I attend two back-to-back Zoom status meetings. Yes, even on a Saturday–the data conversions for the project are going on 7/24, so I keep an eye on it. So far, I am not needed; I am usually required for emergencies and disasters. So far, everything is running to plan or better. Boring is good.

My plans are to take Saturday slow and easily. I would love to head to Portland and see the DD-1001, USS Michael Monsoor, that is visiting Portland, but I can’t risk the flu, cold, or Covid variants that are out there now. The ship is a unique destroyer that was an attempt to build the cruiser of the future–it was not a complete success, but I am a fan. Moving to why I can’t head to the Rose Festival, I would likely experience a severe case if I were to get ill. Chemotherapy has messed with my immune system, and I am still generally weak. Worse, Susie would not be able to have me visit for an extended time. That would be unacceptable, so I will stay away from crowds still.

I head to see Susie after dressing at about 10ish, not in a hurry as this is the weekend. The nurse, Vanessa, has Susie up and ready, knowing I would likely appear in the morning for a movie. Susie and I use the activity room, and I set up the next Harry Potter movie. This new movie is from the following series: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Before we started the movie, we called Leta, Susie’s mother. They had a short chat.

I have not seen this movie in a few years, and once again, it is very dark, and Susie, I can see, is unhappy with the black screen. It is pretty dark for me too. However, I like the acting and the muggle baker in the story. He is the most believable character, and we get to see the Wizarding World through his discoveries.

The amount of computer graphics, CG, is a bit much, but they have retained the feel of the last Harry Potter movies. Magic casting is more visceral, and the results are smoky. The goblins and house elves are much more American and gangster-like. A nice touch. I also like the American piano music playing when Jacob Kowalski, the muggle baker, is the focus. Generally, I like the movie, but it is a departure from the previous film and introduces so many characters that it seems like a directory, not a story. Recommended with reservation.

At first, Susie was not too excited to do this movie but seemed very happy to have seen it again. I am unsure how much she remembers of it as we saw it when Susie started having memory issues. But I think she is pretty satisfied with it today.

Vanessa put Susie back in her wheelchair. Susie is in a recliner when watching the movie to be more comfortable. Vanessa got Susie her lunch.

I left Susie with a kiss. She was sad to have me go, but I have chores, and sitting for hours is nothing I need to do more of. So Susie put on a brave face and said, “I will be fine.”

I drove home. Next door, for $585,000, is for sale now. I expected it to go up for sale, but seeing the for-sale sign go up is always a shock.

I went inside and made bratwursts for a late lunch. I bake them in the oven as that is easy. I found a can of baked beans to go with it. I added some of the bacon we had frozen to the beans. It was good. I left half of it for Corwin, who was back at about 3:30.

I folded the laundry and put it away. I also unloaded and loaded the dishwasher. Lastly, I also started clearing off some items on my work table. I want to start painting figures, which needs a much more organized workspace.

I finished the ballon model, so I am putting away the rigging and various supplies I bought for that project. That should give me much of my space back. I am also putting away the robot parts until I return to that project.

I visited the realtor next door and told him, Stan, to contact me with anything I could help with. I want my neighbors to get a reasonable price as they have only had it for a year and will likely barely break even.

I read and rested a bit. I get going again and drive to the local Ace Hardware and get some potting soil, traps for ants, and some yellow jacket traps (for the summer, which will come someday). I next stopped by Rainy Day Games and got some paint; I used up my bottles of Leather Brown and Desert Yellow paints. I also saw a new edgy role-playing game, MOTHERSHIP, and bought the module, A Pound of Flesh. I will see if this is anything I am interested in. I often buy an adventure of a SciFi RPG before I buy the rules to see if I like the play material (rules are less telling). I chat with the staff–we are all waiting for Covid to stop so we can play again at the store. Someday! I saw a few tempting games but resisted everything except the $15 paper book. I got off cheap today!

When I return to the house, I order some sauces and other items from Caputos.com that we use for North African flavors. If you can find Les Moulins Mahjoub, Tibar Sauce, it is recommended. I have to order it online.

I then made tacos for dinner, using the ground beef in the freezer. After that, I started to watch the new version of Dune again, but it is long, and I have to write this blog and get more done in the house.