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The morning started with me rising, as usual, around 7 and getting coffee. I had assembled the coffee the night before, and it was brewing when I got a cup. I returned to my office and started on my usual tasks, sipping my bitter coffee from Equal Exchange. The darkness reminds me of all the work liberals like me still have to do to help the world discover Justice with Compassion. Doom scrolling (what liberals call reading the news), I gulp the better beverage, there is so much work to do! We have moved a convicted pedophile to a nicer prison, and we (we are Democracy, and so it is ‘we’) sent more nuclear submarines towards Russia. Then we fired the person whose economic numbers made us look bad. The stock market crashes, and there is a new possibility of the market staying down while interest rates also crash; a nightmare situation for retired people like me. There is not enough bitter coffee for this news, and my brain freezes into WTF-mode.

Instead of predicting doom and nuclear war, I write the blog and hurry. I plan to have the air conditioning and furnace checked, cleaned, and ready for late August (sizzling here) and winter (cold in February here). I completed the blog, but forgot to publish it to Facebook and sending out the usual email, shower, and all of that.

I retrieve Air VW the Gray from the landing bay (or garage, to some) and move it to the street. The tech arrived early and began dismantling and cleaning the furnace. It was a bit dirty, I was told, but in perfect working order. The AC compressor (the spinning thing in the backyard) was good except that it is on the north side and collecting some moss (I thought it was just trees that had moss on the north side, though here in the Pacific Northwest, it is more like heavier moss than just on the north side). He hosed that off and checked everything. I learned that there are 30A breakers outside in a small box on the side of the house. The cooling was excellent, better than he usually sees. I bought 150% of the requirement to keep the costs (and repairs) lower.

There was a sonic sound, which was why I had them check it out. What I learned was that the cold air return grill was vibrating and creating the sound. That was a surprise. I thought I had a fan issue. No, just need to bend the metal grill until it stops. The vent cover has ‘tuned’ to the vibration. If it gets loud, I just hit the grill with something, like a cane. I put on my grumpy-old-man mode when I do that, “Stop that, you infernal machine!”

With my new grill-tuning process, I paid the bill, $395, and they will return in a year with two visits, one for the AC and one for the furnace. Feeling much like a responsible adult and homeowner, I was now ready for the sizzle coming and the more distant freeze. All set!

I found the frozen pizza that I acquired at The Market of Choice grocery store. I like meatballs on my pizza, and they had the Screaming Sicilian version of that. I roast it in my oven, the top one, and retrieve a meatball that fell off and was sizzling on the bottom. I did not sing the song about my meatball rolling away.

The pizza, or allergies, or just too much reading, triggered a migraine. This one was strange, as I did not have the headache, but I did experience the vision flashes, sensitivity to light, and sudden sleepiness. I rested, slept, and woke with it still in place. Usually, relaxing, sleeping, and waking were enough to relax the muscle cramps that cause the problem.

I made dinner of reheated pasta and Italian-style sweet sausage. That, oddly, seemed to start the changes that heralded the exit of the migraine! Yay!

I soon was ready to take Air VW the Gray, down to 59% charge, to Movies on TV, our local Regal theater, to see F1. I was meeting Joan S for the movie. I drove through the new strip mall and some new housing in Reed Crossing. It is lovely, though the houses are packed in close. So far, there is no panic selling due to the layoffs and Trump’s policies. Houses with four bedrooms, squeezed into 2,000 sqft and two stories, go for $650K.

Joan met me at the movies, and we bought our tickets separately. Soon, we were chatting, waiting for the movie, Formula One (F1) to start. It was a glorious movie with complex characters and various subplots and keeping you interested the whole time. Highly recommended.

We chatted outside after the movie until sunset, and I was ecstatic that the vision issues and migraine effects were gone. I had taken painkillers, relaxed during the movie, and the problem faded away. Excellent.

Returning home, I had a piece of the cake I had made the night before with a cup of tea to relax. I managed to write a paragraph of my SciFi novel. Tiny, but something. I beat the cold air return with a cane, “Infernal machine,” and went to bed and soon slept. I don’t remember my dreams, but it seemed like only seconds had passed since I fell asleep until sunrise started, and I woke. I managed to roll over a few times and sleep.

Thanks for reading!

I had plans on Thursday. I had lunch with Scott W and dinner with Z and Dondrea on Thursday. A busy day for me. But first, I had to write the blog and get started. I woke up feeling uncomfortable, cold, and congested. I had woken for just as the sunrise would start, but rolled over and slept poorly for the next couple of hours. Crawling out of bed at 7, I found the coffee already running in the timed coffee pot. I had the last not totally black banana with a Keto English Muffin (I bought Keto by mistake) with marmalade to add to the coffee.

I get going on the blog and stop, and first write a card to Mom Wild. I then walk it out to ensure that it makes it to the mailbox, me in my robe and slippers, before the mail is delivered. I want a different card to arrive at Mom Wild’s place every morning. Something to look forward to for her.

Aside: Mariah wrote a blog entry about her recent trip. Please enjoy it here.

The blog just flows, and I manage to finish it before I have to dress to make the 11:45 lunch with Scott. I read more about Assyrian history and approach the interaction between the Ancient kings of Israel and Judah. In the Hebrew scriptures, the Assyrians are the bad guys. Later that evening, I began to read about the connection, specifically that in the 800s BCE, the Assyrians created an image of King Jehu, the only surviving one found so far (here). I am teaching Sunday School in September for the new member class and want to spend time on the connection to archaeological finds, hard dates that we know, and the impact on our understanding of the Old Testament.

I met Scott W at the McMenamins Cedar Hills location. We have both been traveling, and we will miss most of August as Scott has to take a trip that bookends my trip to Queens, NY. We catch up on travels and our adventures. Scott is thinking that Iceland might be a good intermediate stop on his next European trip. I recommend the Golden Circle bus tour with Sky Lagoon and our hotel (here), Hotel Reykjavik Centru (careful, there are others with like names, Aðalstræti 16, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland).

Scott W and I talk about money and our concerns. We are not seeing a positive impact of Trump policies; we had hoped (even as liberals) that Trump was right and things would be good, but instead see clouds starting. Layoffs, chaos, and falling interest rates will not improve things. The loss of numerous government jobs, the reduction of services, and the failure of infrastructure to aid in emergencies (the local Texas response to the flood is appalling, and FEMA appears to be a no-show). We are staying in defensive positions, but we did notice Nike’s stock price is slowly increasing (we have options that are underwater or have weak payoffs that could become valuable if Nike’s stock takes off).

After lunch, I went home, napped a bit, read more, and did a little. Retired.

Rising, I drove to the Food Carts at Beaverton Central and met Z and Dondrea for dinner. Z had poke and Dondrea had Étouffée. I had Raman-style noodles with lots of extras. My usual place is gone; this happens in the world of cart food, and I found a new excellent provider of Raman-style noodles. It was hot, but once we had food done, Dondrea had a cider and I a Red Zepplin beer, we tried Ticket to Ride: London. This is a simplified version of the Euro game and was fun and fast. Dondrea won with me not getting enough tickets and Z getting too many that she could not complete (causing negative points). It is a light train game (though it uses buses) with some diminishing resources, but generally a race to complete the routes before a player runs out of buses.

After we played that, I headed home, read more, and then made a bundt cake from a box mix from King Arthur Flour. I cleaned the kitchen and then read more, purchased a newish book listing all the dynasties of Egypt (the Internet was just referring to the book), and read more about the artifacts found that connect to the stories in the Bible. I was saddened to learn that a museum featuring replicas of some of these famous findings on a Christian college campus had closed. I would have driven down to Salem to see them.

I went to bed, read, and then slept. I have no memory of dreams. No wandering in dream versions of Ancient Israel, or Assyria, or Indian Jones moments, finding the latest text proving Solomon and his Mines exists (and a map, of course), only to have someone steal it from me. No memory at all.

Thanks for reading!

Wednesday was a tough morning. I woke up with a bad cough, feeling like something had sat on my chest (like an old engraving of a nightmare sitting on you) and might still be there. Not a pleasant start!

Deborah, who often calls after I send a text of ‘good morning’ to start our remote day together, noticed the cough. I went for the works: inhailer, ibpropen, and Tylnon. This often can stop the inflammation, which is the real cause of the cough.

I write the blog, but I find it a bit of a struggle to finish. I am tired too. All I want to do is curl up with a blanket. I do remember to write Mom Wild a card, the last of the cards I bought at the Portland Art Museum; I will need to get new ones. I walked it, in my robe and slippers, out to the mailbox. My neighbors no longer harass me for being in a robe in slippers in the morning; nothing says ‘retired’ like a robe and slippers in the late morning!

The blog is finally published. It was hard to finish it. The exhaustion is worse. I also discovered that the English Muffins that I purchased at The Market of Choice are the Keto version. They are weird. I have one with marmalade anyway. I remember that I found them away from the bakery. Oops.

I log on to TreasuryDirect and try to change my bank settings (I did not notice that the account number needed to be updated after US Bank changed my savings to a plain savings account). I locked the account due to my missing a security question, then called the help desk. They resolved the issue except for the bank account. I then corrected the problem and ordered another T-Bill purchase. I am waiting for it to complete before doing another.

Thinking the warm water from a shower might help my lungs, I shower, shave, and soon am dressed. I am still exhausted, but it seemed to help. I decide, F**K It!, and make lunch from scratch. I fried a nice pork chop and made mac and cheese from a Portland-based pasta company (both from Market of Choice), but I put too much milk and somehow undercooked the pasta. Yikes, I should be able to make mac and cheese! The pork chop, with some Cajun-style seasoning, was terrific, making up for the disaster of mac and cheese.

I stumbled upon an old spy movie, Funeral in Berlin (1966), for about $9, and I ended up purchasing and watching it while cooking and eating lunch. It is also a book, yet unread, from a favorite writer, Len Deighton (though I only like the dramatizations). I did not know that Michael Caine did a set of these films, most based on Deighton books. I will start looking for them. 

I enjoyed the 1960s filming of Berlin and the view of the airport, the Wall, the clothing, and the cars. The story is full of betrayals, murders, and cynicism, which makes these old stories so interesting to me. No Hollywood happy ending here, just more of the Cold War burning on. It is an acquired taste; not recommended except for the images and the surprising betrayals. Some of these movies/stories have been redone as series. I will try to find the 1960s movies with Michael Caine.

Corwin stopped by after I had had lunch, and we headed to The 649. I was feeling much better from the painkillers, cooking, and eating my lunch. Crystal was bartending with Hana. I had the bread pudding dessert with coffee while Corwin had a large lunch. Cystal was happy to see some of the photos from Iceland and hear about Deborah and my trip.

Corwin headed out, and I stopped by McDonald’s and got a dietary sin of a small chocolate shake and large fries on the way to First United Methodist Church, Beaverton in Air VW the Gray. I arrived early, consumed my wicked but delicious repast, and soon joined Z in a two-person board game of Concordia on one of the smallest maps, Balearica. This map also has only ships for placement. Land-based colonists are placed only by the Colonist card, but this board is for two players (maybe three, but that would be really messy, and there are more fun choices for three). We had to end early (as the choir finished early), and I only won by four points, which could have been made up by one turn of Z’s.

The game is too close to call, with the score being stopped. But it was fun. We played with Forum, but not the fish market. I will have to learn the exceptional rules for the Rome and other maps. It would be fun to add a few more moving parts, as Z and I know this game well. There is also a solo and automated version to create a third player. More fun to come.

I returned home, finished the spy movie, read, wrote more of my SciFi novel (just a paragraph), and went to bed. I was falling asleep in the middle of Assyrian history again. I had good dreams, all of which are nearly forgotten in detail, but I recall they were about traveling. I was surprised to find that my dream travels were not about being lost and trying to find my way back; instead, I was enjoying the journey.

Thanks for reading!

Tuesday is my day to travel to Portland to Richard’s house for an early board game. These are cooperative board games with storylines. James brings the game from his collection, and now we are playing, with an app to control the play, Tainted Grail. This is a cooperative team game with a dark theme of SciFi and Fantasy set in a re-write of the Arthur legends. We had not played for a month as I had travel, The Machine repairs, and then some summer breaks from Richard.

Air VW the Gray is ready to take me to Portland after I clean up and dress. The blog was just started, and I saved it. I take my Apple with me. I left early at 8:25 and managed to reach Richard’s early, the first time in a while. The driving was slow, but once off Highway 26, it went fast. I will try to start by 8:30 now.

(Yes, I play the Druid Maggot).

We had some trouble remembering the rules, but my usual DM thinking, years of running games, helped me recall the play, unwind the previous session in my mind, and explain some points. We soon were back into the game, though I did tell some stories of my travel in Iceland, and that led to James remembering some hiking in California. We spent the morning and into the afternoon finding our way in this dark simulation of a haunted and magical land. My character took a beating. Richard had built up his character with many items and was now quite powerful, able to handle many battles by himself. I joined in a few and managed to help a few times. This gave me more experience, which is the currency to increase your character, but not any new items. I need six experience markers to establish an ability that is constantly appearing on combat cards; until then, I have many actions I cannot take in battles.

We explored the world, and we were of two minds (mine and Richard’s). I believed we needed to move East and re-establish our starting location. Richard thought we should explore, fight, and strengthen our characters, and learn new secrets of this world. Both ideas do overlap, and I do explore and fight when I can. While the game is slow going for my taste (few think of D&D as fast, but compared to these board game RPGs, my play and DM-ing is rocket fast). We reached the end of the turn, and it was 2PM, and that was enough for me. We packed it up (there is a ‘save’ process for the physical game).

I parked on the street in Air VW the Gray, and walked over. I was happy that folks in Portland were now honoring the crosswalk (I remember having to walk out and halt traffic for Susie before). I found a table at The Broadway Grill and ordered a meatball-including calzone, The Spicy East Coast. This was great with their heavy Mr. Toad’s Wild Red beer. This is a favorite of mine, but I did get a bit dizzy as I got the beer before the food. I finished the blog and talked to Deborah a few times. The food was great, and soon I was headed home in end-of-day traffic.

Once home without any challenges or missing paint on the EV, I reviewed my financial items, cleaned up some transfers, and added my new Delta Amex to Quicken. I also tried to buy a Treasure Bill, but later learned that my account number had changed at US Bank for my savings account. I forgot they had changed it after my bait-and-switch rate expired, which made me unhappy. Oops. It was the end of the auction, so there was no way to correct it. On Wednesday morning, I connected with the TreasuryDirect help desk and got some things corrected, but that will be in the next blog.

Linda sent me pictures of her frig pickles. She has a large harvest of cucumbers, and I suggested she peek at Joshua Weissman’s cookbook (I gave a copy to Meg for a questionable choice of texts for a then twelve-year-old). She followed the recipe and process and produced an excellent-looking set of pickles. She did question my aging and brownish now pickles (they are great).

There was an earthquake, and I called and texted family and Deborah to let them know that the resulting tsunami would hit here, but I was not near the coast and would not head there. Hawaii had chaos as they had no idea how bad the waves would be; the waves did little damage and caused flooding, and I watched online as the waves hit. I went to bed when the event was not too bad (the waves were about a meter tall).

I choked on a glass of water and inhaled some of it. This caused me to start coughing, which seemed to stay with me. It was hard to sleep. I had another terrible dream where I was trapped, crawling through narrow locations and suffocating. I wake, and I am drowning in the air. I get up, find my emergency inhaler, have some water, and take some ibuprofen to reduce any swelling. I am wheezing now. Ugh!

I sit in the living room chair and try to nap, which I manage to do, and then I get a text from Deborah. No problems from the tsunami this far inland. At sunrise, always thinking of Dad Wild when I see another sunrise, I head back to bed, manage to not think about wheezing, drowning, or breathing, and sleep until 8! I wake with a cough, but it is an irritation and lack-of-sleep cough. Not COVID-19 or a cold.

Thanks for reading. I am glad to see another day and a sunrise.

Since the end of my working life on the morning of 20 April 2024, Mondays have stood out not as the start of the work week, but as a free, quiet morning. What Saturdays were like when I was a kid, rushing to watch the cartoons, with no plans. Later, at noon, I would play Dungeons & Dragons, starting on Saturday until 1 or 2 in the morning.  I remember “Elric” listing off all the monsters we defeated, magic items taken, and treasure counts, and David W looking up the experience points late at night for the monsters. We would then discover if our characters had gone up any levels and grumble or rejoice. Back in the 1980s, Saturday was a glorious day, and now so is Monday for me.

My friends and family with jobs are back to work, and the rush that is the weekend is over. Now I do not have to rush through all my tasks and fun in just two days, like others do. I do laundry on Mondays and Fridays, but with The Machine still broken and the wash done Saturday morning, that was off the list. I wrote and finished the blog covering Sunday, and then read. I dressed, wrote a card for Mom Wild to mail on Monday, and soon I was ready to tackle the rest of my free day.

I headed to Happy Panda for a Chinese-style lunch. I like their food, though it is American creations. The little bowl of hot and sour soup, a veggie spring roll, and chicken with cashews full of chopped water chestnuts seems to appeal to me. I looked at world cruises, having spoken to Deborah about them earlier. Although it is hard to imagine spending 100+ days on a cruise ship (for $50K for two via Cunard with a balcony), the experience still appeals to me as incredible. I suspect I would start helping out with waiting on tables, cooking, and cleaning to find something new to do between stops. Start on my captain’s license and all that. Just daydreaming while eating my excellent lunch and searching on my laptop.

I returned home and discovered an email from Fidelity that my 401K balance was too low for them to keep, as I was no longer employed by Nike. Hmmmm. I had transferred this already. I called and waited ten minutes to talk to Trent, and he explained that a residual amount generated by my previous holding had been added to my previously zero balance. With little effort, this will be sent as yet another check for US Bank Wealth Management to add to their holding for me in my IRA.

I had a headache, and the food helped, and the IRA stuff, getting something fixed, brightened my day. I also talked to Sam at US Bank, who manages my IRA, and he is happy to meet and take the check. I headed to Market of Choice to get some supplies, including toilet paper, which was down to one last roll! I drove the few minutes to the new store in the new strip mall in Reed’s Crossing. It is a fantastic store, though not as cheap as some, and I managed to get overpriced Italian-style sweet sausage and cheap porkchops (for another day). I also found boxes of dried pasta made in Portland (I love to get local stuff). Paul Newman’s Sock-it-to-me sauce was on special, and I got a jar.

Corwin was at the house when I returned. He was using my tools to repair his phone. He had dropped it. Lucky for him, he was able to reseat the SIM card, and the phone was back. He headed out.

Kenneth Branagh does an excellent Hercule Poirot and is willing to make some good updates to the stories and characters. I purchased the online version of Murder on the Orient Express, which was a fun update of the book. I then ran that on the laptop while I did the dishes, and then started heating the sauce from a bottle, fried the sausage to a nice brown, and boiled the pasta. I also had garlic bread that I forgot, and it was dark and crispy when I finally remembered it. It was still good.

I had too many bowls of pasta and slices of bread while the re-worked and slightly too Hollywood version of the tale spun out. I would recommend the 1974 version as closer to the book, but this version by Kenneth Branagh is a fantastic spectacle of the current movie style. Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Nile is, in my opinion, his best reworking and recreation of the 1920s-30s story, with significant rewrites of entire sections. A Haunting in Venice rewrites and changes the setting of an excellent story–Recommended.

I look forward to his next Hercule Poirot in 2027!

Stuffed, I did all the dishes and rested for a bit. It was not late. While cooking, I discovered there was wine left, which may help explain why I forgot about the garlic bread. It was a 90-rated red wine! I did say good night to Deborah as she was already in bed. We also learned a new word from my new history book: irenic. Meaning aimed at peace. It was used to describe the first Assyrian times.

I managed to add a paragraph to my SciFi story and read more Assyrian history until I was nodding off and confusing the names of the kings, cities, and sites.

I quickly fell asleep once in my PJs and under the covers and had taken my pills. I woke up in the morning to find the AC set to low, freezing me for the first time. Hmm.

Thanks for reading!