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I managed to get going as late as 8:30ish. I had some disturbed sleep, but I felt better. I found that my lungs and legs hurt a bit. Pollen is at a stupid level, and my legs hurt all night. The pain stopped about mid-morning.

I started the last Star War movie, The Rise of Skywalker. I like this one better. It is more logical to me, and the acting works for me. I love the lightsaber battles in the ruins of the Death Star in a boiling ocean. I managed to get about 1/3 way while waiting for the laundry.

I baked frozen croissants from Whole Food, but I think they needed longer in the oven as they were mushy still. Next time! I had made coffee and ate my less than stellar croissant with a banana and an apple. I then finished the laundry I started last night. I then could get dressed!

Susan was up in time for lunch-breakfast and had a poor croissant that I then replaced with a different baked good I picked up from Whole Food. She made it clear that she preferred my scones, and I should return to cooking those and other of my homemade baked goods, not buying from Whole Foods. I shall obey.

I also received a gift card yesterday for my birthday from L.L.Bean from mom Wild, and today my sister sent me two boxes of fortune cookies she made for me with custom fortunes. I had given her a kit for Christmas. She and a friend made cookies for me and sent them. My first fortune is “Keep Calm. And Party On.”

Evan showed after I was dressed, and the laundry was done but not yet fully put away. We have started playing games at Wildwood Taphouse, so we headed from home to the bar. There we ordered some brewed products and set up the game.

The Lost Ruins of Arnak is one of the new well-rated 2020 board games. It is a worker placement game and resource management sticking to the Euro model of limited player interaction. The game combines a few elements from other games, such as deck-building and using the deck for actions. I was able to explain most of the game to Evan in thirty minutes or less. He started to get the game about 1/2 way and managed a score just three points below mine. He was disappointed to not win, but his score was great.

The game has you place to archeologist in digs. You may take a known dig and receive known resources. You can also, Indiana Jones or Laura Croft style, find a new ruin to explore. This requires considerable resources investment, and much like the game Concordia or Architects of the West Kingdom, you need to take actions to gain the resources first and then invest. You need to plan. A new site will grant you new resources, a relic, and be guarded by some horror. If you do not deal with the guardian, you will get fear cards. Evan defeated a pile of monsters and nearly took the game from me. I was paying gold to get new items which are more cards for your hand with all sorts of special abilities and worth points at the end. I also bought artifacts with compasses (representing directions and maps and the like), worth points at the end. I remembered Richard beating me in my first game on the research track. I invested there and pulled ahead. The game has only five rounds, and neither Evan nor I quite got our hands of cards working efficiently to move up far on research.

I managed to face two monsters and defeat neither as, while Evan drew easy monsters, I seemed to get ones that I could not defeat. I got fear cards! I managed to exile two of the four cards from rewards in the research track. At the last round, I sent my archeologist meeple to try one more time and explore a new site. I managed to get a guardian monster that I could take. Again, I did not have the resources, but I had a card that I bought that let me get resources from any site, and there was one site that supplied what I needed. This got me a five-point monster and to draw a card. That gave me enough to improve my research position and win by a tiny three points.

The Lost Ruins of Arnak board game is a good mix of various game mechanics with a good theme that is a bit immersive; I wore my pith helmet while playing! You are not pushing around cubes but have cardboard representations of guardians, relics, and so on. You hire assistants in the research track that give you even more things to do. I like the options and go-your-own-way available in this game. You can also mix and match actions that you complete over multiple turns. It feels a bit like well running a dig in a 1930s setting, a Hollywood version. Evan thought he would place it in the middle of games to play.

When we finished the one game, we headed to BJ’s Brewhouse for lunch (or early dinner). We also got an order of ribs for Susie and Corwin for dinner. I had my fav brewed product there and their jambalaya. Evan had the Phill Steak sandwich and their excellent clam chowder.

We came home after that, and Evan slept in the chair for a bit. He was up early, too early, for a sporting event. He headed home before it was late.

I finished the oil paint shading on the figures for Richard. They need to dry overnight, and then I will do any last-minute touch-ups and then spray them with a protective dull coat. I can then get them back in their box and have more room for the next sets. I am 1/3 done when I put these away.

Susie and Corwin loved the ribs.

27,738 people in Oregon were vaccinated yesterday. This number will likely increase as it takes a few days to get the final counts. Oregon has finished vaccinating 1/4 of the state’s people.

738 people died today in the USA from the virus.

Tonight I went with Whirling Dervish from Syria (this is from a show in Germany).

Working backward, I talked to the Smiths on my birthday about various topics for about an hour. The sunset while I was talking to the Smiths, and I saw the bats come out. I did not hear the owls, but I believe they are out too. The bats and owls live in the big pines in our area.

Susie had taken a nap, and I saw from the open window that she was up now. I did not know that nobody got her dinner. So I warmed up a sweet potato with brown sugar and sliced the ribeye steak Corwin grilled for her. Corwin made dinner tonight, and Mariah dropped by and left a birthday cake, yellow cake with chocolate frosting, for my birthday dinner.

We watch the rest of The Last Jedi while eating dinner. Susie was then napping. I forgot that the movie ending makes up for most of its sins. I still have trouble with the movie’s logic, but the parts with Luke in it make up for the head-scratching about why anyone would do some of the things portrayed.

It was a near-perfect day, except for the pollen here in Oregon. Sunny and over eighty. We opened all the doors and windows! I found many excuses to be outside, and I read and fell asleep with all the light coming in with the fresh (pollen-filled!) air. It is one of my favorite things to be lying in bed reading and then fall asleep in the bright sun and fresh air. That made my day very special.

We are short of everything. So that was my excuse to drive Air Volvo and go shopping. I picked up the streaks and sweat potatoes for tonight. I also picked up most of what we need. Somehow I forgot bread.

Before all of this, I was painting Richard’s figures. I finally finished the initial painting of the first faction. The six figures took about three hours each to paint. The other figures are easier; I should finish them faster. I will then use oil paints to shade them, spray them with a protective spray, and be done.

I made lunch-breakfast for Susie as the previous breakfast was mostly in Corwin and me. I made her scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese and some steamed ham. Yes, still some Easter Ham left. It was perfect.

Still working backward, as it was my birthday, I took break sausages and put them in the oven to bake. I made Irish oatmeal from scratch. Breakfast as freshly made oatmeal with sausages on top. I wanted that for my birthday. I selected my H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival bowling shirt for today.

I got started at about 8:15ish. I decided on a low-stress day for my 57th birthday.

28,146 people were vaccinated in Oregon yesterday. The infection rate is climbing in Washington County, where I live, and Governor Brown may lock us down again. Washington County has a 35% vaccination rate.

887 people died today in the USA from Covid-19.

Eternal Father Strong To Save (The Naval Hymn) seems a good hymn for today as my birthday is one day after the anniversary of the RMS Titanic sinking. They sing the song in the movie for Sunday Service.

I stayed up too late last night reading Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta series. I am on the second book, and it was hard to down. I actually finished it last night around 1:30ish.

I will get this published. There may be typos as it had taken a while to write.

That made my 6AM alarm seem too soon, but I managed to get going and even made coffee. I had to make an 8:10 appointment to get my expired Oregon driving license replaced. It expires on your birthday, in my case, last year’s April and when no Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) was open, and the police agreed to ignore recently expired licenses. The DMV open late last year, and I finally decided I need to get legal in February. April this week was the first appointment time then! So I scheduled it and collected the vast paperwork they require now.

BTW (I usually keep the politics out of the blog–but this is a special annoying case): The American poor’s repression from voting has expanded now into driver licenses. The fee is $70 for a driver’s license now and includes a special surcharge ($40) for the Federal Government’s RealID, now required for airports and other federal functions. President Trump and his allies finally forced the program through after many years of delay. The RealID standard requires proof of citizenship and various other documents. I brought them all–not all people can get all this together; it takes hours. The documents are then scanned, and I can only hope that they are protected better than the previous “secure” systems that Feds and states have used. Your name, sex, and birthday must match the birth certificate provided. Now in some states, this information then has to be hand-written into a voter’s registration form. The state officials then retype it into a state voter system. If there are discrepancies, the person cannot vote. Except, in Oregon, the act of having a driver’s license will register you to vote if you provide citizenship information, and the voter rolls will, by default, always match your state-supplied ID card or driver’s license. This, combined with an excellent mail-in-voting system, gets us a very high turnout for voting and almost no fraud as it is all matched and in sync.

I drove to Sherwood, thirteen miles away, to get this done as that is the closest appointment in my area. I stopped by McDonald’s and got breakfast and drove to the DMV, in an industrial park with a tiny sign, and finished breakfast and waited, as clearly stated in the documents I printed off from the state, to get in line ten minutes before my appointment. Being Oregon, there was a warning to have proper clothing to stand outside (rain gear or a hat for the sun in the summer) in the written instructions. I had a sweater.

I stood in a line, each person 6′ apart and waiting. There were a lot of younger folks getting a driving test. I was hoping to avoid that. I was quickly sent in, and the clerk, a nice gal behind a lot of glass, took my driver’s license and looked at me, and I said, “I know.” If I had waited just one more day–more than a year expired, I would have to start all over at the state and do driver tests and prove it all over again–but I was still good. I gave her a certified birth certificate and a bank statement that is still mailed and had our address in my name as proof of address.

The process was going well until the eye test; people over 55 must take an eye test. It took four tries. I even steamed up the glass and had to try again. She knew I was nervous and you have to put your head in right for you to read the letters. I finally got it right. Money, a stunning $70, and I was now going to receive the voter suppressing RealID soon.

I drove home so happy to have passed, albeit after four tries on the eye test, and did not try to think about men-in-black “eye tests,” my documents now available to hackers, and a driver’s license that was also an approved federal ID but not recognized by any other country. I had to get it done today or face more expense and crazy. It upsets me to align to a policy of voter suppression but needed to be legal to drive Air Volvo.

More paperwork this morning, and again, I need a replacement for my Social Security Card. The only options are to mail your driver’s license (no, really–they want you to give up driving while you wait), your other IDs (military or school–again, this would seem problematic), or a passport or passport card. Mailing your passport to the government just seems so silly and again prevents people without passports to suffer. In some states, they want a SS card for ID for voters. Funny how hard it is to get a replacement!

You have to pay $39 at the federal website to get a package. You have to have a printer to print it out–I still have one. I then signed the form and corrected my race to “white.” Again, I am annoyed with these questions on a form to get a replacement card! I stuffed the form with my very expensive to replace passport into a padded mailer and drove Air Volvo, legally, to the post office. I stood in line and handed the package, with the prepaid sticker carefully taped to the front and even with a handwritten return address, to the mail person. The mail person then checked it in with great care and saw the address and smiled; it was literally going across the street. I have a tracking number (eye roll–it is officially in transit).

The paperwork is done, and I have enjoyed a morning dedicated to aligning to processes clearly design to make it hard.

I drove home and checked on Susie. I was now free of paperwork!

I drove, legally, to get lunch and get some new games at the local gaming store, Rainy Day Games. I decided to get a Subway Tunafish full-sized toasted meal. I walked in, and there was a line, and a guy, with lots of stuff, walked in behind me.

He did not have a mask and was told to get one or leave. He did not have one, so I happened to have an N95 in my pocket, a backup if my mask broke at the DMV (I was not that nervous but today had to go right), and I gave it to him. He then explained that the black helicopters were tacking us, and he showed me photos on his phone. I asked him to keep his distance. He complied, but he was apprehensive about the helicopters. He then, trying to keep his distance, showed me odd sound file displays and played them for me. He had managed to record the strange sounds he was now hearing in his head on the phone. I told him I was sorry he had the sounds in his head, and he played them for me. They were hard to hear as it was loud in Subway.

I then ordered a sub while he tried to contact people on his phone about the sounds. He looked a bit stressed out. I left and saw him in the back of the building, relieving himself. I just ate my sub in the car and hoped that at least the mask would help.

I was unsure what to do as usually crazy people do not have expensive phones and complex recordings. I felt like any moment, Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to appear and say, “If you want to live, come with me.” Or my Howard from my SciFi stories would show up, help the guy, and then lead us to the Alister’s Taco truck.

I then picked up a Happy Meal with apples (they missed the apples the first time, but I asked them to check) for Susie.

I went to the gaming store and picked up two new games.

The card game Gloom has been on my list to have for years. Today, for my birthday, I picked up a basic copy. Rainy Day Games made their own extra card for the game. Excellent, so I have that card included in my small basic set. This made it an exceptional purchase!

Gloom’s unique system uses transparent cards allowing you to see all the layers and overlay a previous layer with a new card. Only the visible parts are in play. Gloom is well gloomy. Your goal is to make the worst possible life for one of your family and then kill them—only the dead family members count. While you do that, you can also play transparent cards on other player’s families to make them happy and feel loved, ruining them for a horrid death. While playing, you make up stories of what is happening. It, while gloomy, is fun and the system of overlays allows for complex strategies.

I played a practice game against myself to get the rules down again. It took no time to relearn and start being gloomy!

I also bought a copy of The Lost Ruins of Arnak. I have played it once with Richard, and it was fantastic. I wanted a copy for my birthday. This game is an Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider marriage to a Euro resource and worker placement game with an excellent deck-building component (much like Concordia). The theme stands out still; you are working as an archeologist to understand the ruins of Arnak, recently re-discovered. There are monsters and fear to overcome. You must also collect writings to progress your search.

A nap, trying to catch up on some sleep, for part of the afternoon. It felt so good to just melt away for a bit…

Dinner was tamales, pork. I bought them yesterday from a gal selling them at The Wildwood Taphouse. They were still warm and ready to eat yesterday. Today, I reheated them for 35 minutes and put Mexican-styled stewed tomatoes on the tamales. Susie and Corwin liked it. I also opened a can of peaches that Susie and I shared.

I received my new leather bag Leta and Susie paid for my birthday (Leta sent me a card, and I used it to pick out something I wanted–Susie covered the rest of the price).

I painted some more today while waiting for the tamales. I have not got a far as I hoped by now on Richard’s figures. I will paint some more Friday morning now that I have no more doctor or paperwork appointments. Or dark helicopters. Or strange sounds.

Sorry, this is so long today, but it was an oddly exciting day.

29,455 people we vaccinated in Oregon yesterday, and no Johnson and Johnson vaccine was used. The numbers may increase as it takes some time to get all the numbers updated.

895 people died from the infection today in the USA.

I saw the crescent moon today and found a call to prayer recorded in Istanbul. It makes me want to go back again.

 

 

So I had to start my morning a bit early as I had a check-up this morning, about 10:20ish. I was early, about 7:30ish, and just read emails and was lazy. I finally got dressed and went to see the doc. It was almost lunchtime when I got home.

Evan came over to play a game. We packed the board Vindication in Air Volvo and headed out. We discovered that The 649 Taphouse opens at 3PM. That would not work, but there is a good Mexican place there, Tapatio; since we were in the area, we had lunch. You can find both places in the Farmington Village strip mall near the end of 185th in Aloha. The food was good.

We then headed to Wildwood Taphouse to play games; we knew they were open. As usual, I opened a tab and asked permission to play a board game. They were not very busy; the newish bartender was interested in Vindication. We explain some of the game’s features to her.

Evan tried a new power we had not seen before. He pulled one of the new relics from the recent changes and used it to eliminate game-end triggers! Something I have never noticed before, and it made for a strange ride. The longest Vindication game ever!

I managed to pull all the cool traits, and, remembering many losses to Evan, I kept added traits. The traits added more and more powers to my character.

Both of us Vindicated, and Evan dropped that game end trigger! I just kept adding on more and more and more cards. I lost two people to the Monsters! I have never lost two in a row! Evan got the evil doppelganger trait that let him replace my control of regions but only gain one honor point instead of two. Soon I had to get them back. We traded some regions three or four times!

Evan and I both agree that Evan should have let the game end sooner. I just racked up 50+ more points than he did from the long run, but he did get a stunning 32 points for region control.

Had I not gone on a binge of trait buying and picked up the Vision proficiency tile and increased my speed to max (getting that secret quest filled), I would not have stopped him. It was an excellent plan to run the game long. I just kept running my engines in traits to keep ahead. The monsters also gave me the courage mastery, but I still bought the proficiency to stop him sliding in on me. Again, I was playing a lot of defense.

We have never run Vindication this long or this hard in a two-person game. I have never had so many companions and other cards. The game held up; we did not see any funky rules issues. It played well, and we were both happy with the game. I was happy I managed to be defense enough.

Also, at Wildwood Taphouse, I saw Jim Vander Velden and his wife. He likes the beer and the people there, and we bumped elbows and were happy to see each other. Jim retired from Nike more years ago than we would want to admit and has been fully retired for seven years.

We paid the bill and headed back after playing a few rounds of the game Skull. An easy-to-learn bluffing game Will taught me, and I always have in the car. Recommended!

I then returned home, picked up Susie, and we drove to Sherwood. I have an early DMV appointment there, and I wanted to find it today. It was a good idea as it is behind some buildings and quite small. We then drove to a small park to see where the Pickle Ball courts are located. Evan plays.

We saw that the Spaghetti Factory had opened in Sherwood as we were driving. Thus dinner was in the bar of the newly opened (only open for two weeks) restaurant. We had drinks and dinner. It was lovely. Our bartender seemed quite taken with us and very helpful. It was a great time.

Susie finally got a properly made Southern Comfort Manhattan on the rocks with a cherry. I think it is the first one since 2019!

24,097 people were vaccinated yesterday in Oregon. Hopefully, these numbers will increase as it takes time to post the final counts.

915 people died today from Covid-19 in the USA.

I picked the Russian version of We Will Meet Again. We have done it before, but it seemed a good fit for today.

I started the morning at about 7:30ish and did not dress until 11:30 this morning. Susie had her driver picking her up at 9 to take her to Zerida for hair, nails, toes, and so on. I got Susie rallying at 8ish, and she was ready and off without incident.

I spent the morning not doing very much and reading more Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s War books. I could not put the last one done and finished it about 1AM last night. I read the next one, I read it years ago, and I still like it. More characters are entering the story who were in the background before. It is hard to put down.

Nobody joined me for lunch, so I decided to try a sit-down lunch at BJ’s Brewhouse. I sat at a small table in the bar with my Mac. I had not been back in the bar since 2019! I ordered my fav red ale and peanut chicken soba noodles.

Soccer was on the screen—the USA Women’s team against France. I watched two goals! Rapinoe and Morgan got a goal each, both heroes of the Olympics. Suddenly, it felt like the world was back. I was watching amazing USA soccer in a bar! I nearly cried… I was so happy. France scored no goals.

I picked up a full rack of ribs to go. Susie and Corwin split that for dinner tonight. I used to visit BJ’s on Saturday and watch soccer and get a to-go order of ribs.

Everyone had lunch when I got back. Corwin was making baked eggs with ham, and Susie had her fav of McDonald’s Happy Meal with apples.

I went back to reading and then, when I hit my face with the Kindle, decided to take a nap. I was back up in an hour or so.

Schwann’s Stephanie showed today, and I restock the freezer. Also, my lawn service is on Tuesday. I appreciate the new look, but then my allergies are out of control, which could not have helped!

I ordered a nice leather Samsomsite bag with the gift card from Leta, Susie’s mother, sent me for my birthday this Friday. I always wanted a nice leather bag for my laptop and books. Thanks, Leta!

I was reading the next story in the series in Vatta’s War. I find them hard to put down.

I reheated the Chinese Food from yesterday while Susie and Corwin had ribs. I asked for just one to try. Corwin sent me the official recipe for their sauce.

19,831 people were vaccinated yesterday in Oregon. This number may increase as the counts are revised upward.

819 people died from the virus in the USA today.

There is an amazing crescent moon tonight here in Oregon. Just a sliver of a moon. It is Ramadan. So we will do the call to prayer for tonight for our Islamic friends waiting for sunset each night.