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Starting from the previous blog, Deborah picked me up in her blue mini (with the sticker, “Life is too short to drive a boring car!”) at the Detroit airport, and we enjoyed a hot and sunny (and humid) day. I looked out the window as Detriot went by. I do like this city with its strange mix of lovely old-style houses and buildings next to empty lots and boarded (and often burned-out) matching buildings. It is like the people of Detroit, having lost one-third of the houses and old buildings, have said, ‘We have had enough. We like it here, and we will make it work.’ Easter Market, Slo’s BBQ, Michigan Central, Pewabic pottery, and all the museums have been fabulous. I recommend Detroit and its greater area!

Back closer to Deborah’s place, we have breakfast at Paul’s, which is not air-conditioned, with doors open (Deborah says it was AC’d), and I get to get used to the humidity that is typical of Michigan in July. I have corned beef hash, eggs, and an English muffin while Deborah gets her favorite. I drink lots of water and coffee. Without much sleep, my memory is foggy, and I struggle to recall what happened on Sunday. This will be a short blog.

(Deborah suggests my mind was playing tricks on me, and it was AC’d, and the doors were closed).

We headed to Deborah’s place, and her dogs, Trixie and Zelda, demanded petting, so I soon found myself nodding off with the dogs. Deborah’s boys are home, and Donvan and Liam are soon having breakfast. I wake, and lunch for Deborah and me is planned at Kruse’s Paint Creek Tavern. Back into the mini, and soon Deborah survives some parking challenges without getting any paint marred on the mini. We wait for a table outside (it is now approaching 90°F, or 32°C, plus humidity, but the tables are in the shade). I picked the perch sandwich, wanting something from Michigan, and Deborah has a massive plate of fish and chips (much is destined for a box).

Fed (and heated), I check into my Holiday Inn, the same one I have used over and over. Deborah heads out to visit some family while I struggle to stay awake long enough to finish the blog in my hotel room. I nod off at my desk while proofreading. I manage to shower, change into shorts and a T-shirt (typical July Michigan wear), and then sleep until Deborah wakes me later, after five (17:00).

Later, we get some happy hour food next door at the Grand Tavern (a local chain). With a few boxes of more leftovers, Deborah returns home, and I return to room 107 and soon sleep. I wake at midnight, remember to take my meds, and return to a deep, dream-filled (all forgotten) sleep for another six hours. I recall being concerned that I would not sleep. I managed to get more than ten hours of sleep on Sunday-Monday, the most sleep I have had in weeks. Better!

Thanks for reading!

And sorry for a short blog.

I arrived in Michigan at about 6AM after flying all night. Deborah picked me up at baggage claim, and my bag was waiting for me under number 4, but everything indicated it was on 3. Hmmm.

(Sunrise in Michigan as we start to land)

Before this, I spent almost six hours on an Airbus from Portland, Oregon, to Detroit. I had seat 28A, which meant I had a window. While I could see the wing (it is always reassuring to see it still connected to the plane, especially after we had plane parts falling into Beaverton), it was far enough back that I had a good view. The Airbus, unlike some of the 737s wall, was less rounded, so I was not crushed against the wall in the window seat.

This plane also features an entertainment system for each passenger, and I can scan the QR code, sign in, and access my settings using my Delta SkyMiles membership. But it was all in Spanish. I plugged in my usual noise-canceling wired earbuds. I soon rewatched the movie The Amateur, and somehow, four hours disappeared. I suspect I slept when I paused the movie. The story is about a math and code-breaking geek who loses his wife and demands to be trained as an assassin. Soon, you learn the geek is also the designer for all the encryption and hacking tools for the USA intelligence agencies, which resembles the NSA. I like the movie, but it is fantasy and the grief scenes are familiar to me.

Next, I watched “Beat Bobby Flay.” These are without commercials and appear edited to run faster. I liked them. I managed to get through three before the plane landed.

Returning to the story on Saturday evening, Joan S picked me up around 8 and took me to the airport. The traffic was light, and we chatted about her work and investments. We were soon at PDX.

I was able to check my bag without misplacing anything, like leaving my iPhone in the scanning machine. You must be cautious during transitions when traveling. That is when things get lost, stolen, or errors are made (like walking to C11 instead of D11, which I almost did).

My security wait was short, I am General as I have never invested in TSA PreCheck. I did see that the line tripled behind me, as there were only two agents clearing people for all the D and E gates! I am not sure if this is more political revenge (TSA not supplying enough agents in liberal blue-of-blue Portland). It is hard to distinguish between errors, incompetence, and political revenge these days in the USA!

My carry-on red bag went to the search lane. It was then just handed to me. I was happy not to have to remove my shoes this time. With that done, I stopped at the Deschutes Brewery bar on the D concourse. I had their porter and chatted with the bartenders.

I paid for my drink, found some PDX socks to bring to Deborah (at 50% off), and a snack of fruit, crackers, and some cheese. I would eat this after takeoff. My gate was busy, and the plane was full. I did not wait long until my group was called. My seatmates wanted to sleep, and so they just faded without talking to me. I did cause all of them to get up once, and then they decided that was a good idea.

Returning to my day before the airport and travel, I was up at 7. I had no blog to write and soon was packing and cleaning. I collected the soiled clothing for the laundry mat trip. I ran two small loads ($3.75 each), ran the dryer for an hour on all the laundry ($ 2.00), and soon had everything clean and ready to pack.

Lunch was at Gyro House (and I picked up some cash for the trip from US Bank), and I had ground lamb in a tomato sauce over pita bread with some cream sauce. I finished with coffee and baklava. I ordered too much and took them apart on the plane, so I had them before I arrived in Detroit.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

I have been busy and got my days and memories mixed up.

Thursday is nearly forgotten now. I will just include a few missed thoughts and not post this far. Sorry!

I had to wait for the repairman to arrive. He was early and took apart The Machine. I had time to shower and finish the blog as I woke with pain in my legs as the sun rose. Morning was gloriously sunny but not too hot.

The repairman spoke poor English and used a translator app. I did not mind. He had no parts, unlike the promise I had from LG. The Machine had self-diagnosed, but that was ignored. He would need to return with the parts, and then was surprised that I could not make that work until after the 20th. He took a note for July 23rd return (my sister’s birthday and the day after my MRI, the check now that I am a year out of brain tumor surgery).

I had hoped to do my laundry today, as it is a single part (I have now seen it). Nope. I learned that the main processor board operates at 5V, which means it utilizes a familiar microcontroller. I could hack and program my laundry! But I prefer it to work as designed. With the repairman gone and The Machine not fully reassembled, I collect my clothing, sheets, towels, and other laundry supplies, as well as any other necessary items, and head to the laundry mat at 185th and TV Highway.

It is another odyssey of folks like me, exiled from using their own machines, those paid to do laundry, and people washing rags and other small bits of cloth in huge piles. I use two smaller machines, but I could have used the cheap ($3.75) small ones; I realized that after I got started.

I am working on church paperwork and getting lunch at a Chinese-style place, and I have a less-than-average Happy Family for $20. I ate in Air VW the Gray. The facility is getting its cement entrance removed, and 1/2 of it is now new material. This is loud. It is not a hot day, and the place is not uncomfortable.

I get the sheets and towels and load them into their own dryer. Shirts, pants, and underwear are put in one machine and then another dryer. Next, the dry cleaning stuff was loaded into the cargo area and returned to the house. I unload.

My memory of Thursday fades here. I believe I watched the first episode of the new season of The Sandman. I may have nodded off, too. I continued to work on church paperwork and my travel plans. I discovered that my AWS account still works. Excellent!

I also spoke to Deborah often on Thursday. I am missing her after being with her in Orange County for two weeks.

Dinner was at BJ’s Brewhouse. Eric, my usual waiter, brought me my favorite red ale, and I had the flatbread for dinner.

Sorry, I have mostly forgotten Thursday. Thanks for reading!

 

This is actually what happened on Friday. I got my days mixed up. I published it as Thursday.

I am focused on leaving on Saturday night, and writing this blog has become secondary to getting through Friday and getting ready for my trip. I tried to rise at 6:30 but rolled over and started my day a little later. I had a game at Richard’s house and spaced it was July 4th! I wrote a card from Mom Wild and put it in the mailbox, forgetting that there was no mail on July 4th. I managed to get the basic tasks done and chatted with Deborah for a while in the morning. I had time to make and drink some coffee.

I jumped in the shower, managed to get showered, and so on. I then headed to Air VW the Gray before 8:45 and headed to Portland. There was light traffic, and I soon reached Richard’s home.

I was time-boxed, and we played a new resource and worker placement game, Merchant’s Cove. This is another $200-300 maxed-out Kickstarter game. I have sworn off most game buying, especially those with maxed-out Kickstarter campaigns. I have bought too many that are just not that interesting to me or are too hard to play; I have never even unwrapped my copy after playing Richard’s.

This is an asynchronous game, meaning each player is playing a completely different game. I was playing the Captain, fishing for resources, and discovering buried treasure. There is also a master map, and we all interact with that map. Laura was growing mushrooms in a simulated fantasy garden with soil, insects, and spores to control. Richard was running a fantasy mechanical bakery with gears, dough, and frosting. We sold the goods that we built on a shared central market. I had a 60-point lead at the start of the last round, but still came in last. I did not produce enough goods on the final turn to win. Lauren had held on to her goods throughout the game and sold most of them for huge points in the last play. She won. Richard was only a few points ahead of me (not bad for my first play).

Asynchronous games are challenging to learn and understand their balance; they are like mini-games that can be learned within a larger setting. Additionally, the game requires distinct components and rules for each setup. This pushes the cost up. However, the base game is only about $60 (although there are over $150 in add-ons), and I might consider adding it to my collection. I liked the idea and enjoyed it. The designers attempted to have each player play a different style of board game. With add-ons, there are nine options!

I was out of time and headed out, wishing Richard and Laura a happy July 4th. Air VW the Gray then had a soft break. The computer crashed on the dashboard with a wait screen. It drove weirdly. I pulled over and waited. On the second try, the EV screens worked, but it said I was a ‘Guest.’ I was able to drive it, and it was running normally now. I reached Beaverton and parked at the Safeway. I got some snacks and watermelon radishes. The EV, this time, offered me users, and I changed back to me, and suddenly everything (including Kink.FM) was back the way I liked it. Hmmm. My guess is a software update (I checked, and there is none outstanding, meaning I might have loaded one).

With the radishes in the car, I headed to Matt and Nicky’s place for their 4th of July Party. Matt cooked (and burned on request) burgers and hot dogs, while a variety of food was also brought by others. Matt supplied ‘miracle berries’ that change your tastes from sour to sweet. I tried them, and it made a lemon taste more like an Orange. Wow! Radishes now were a sweet burn.

I chatted with my gamer friends, and maybe we’ll connect for some games. It was great to see many of the folks I have played with over the years. We shared notes on our new characters and how we did in various adventures. Matt plays three groups playing the same adventure.

I got a note that there were some events at First United Methodist Church, and the pride flag was gone. Somebody needed it. I thanked Matt and gave a few hugs to friends and headed out. I stopped at the house, grabbed a flag and pole. I replaced them without issue at the church. Back to the usual now.

I returned home with all the fireworks going and started on finally writing this blog. Sorry, it is rushed. Thanks for reading!

Wednesday was not an exciting day full of new adventures, and there are no photos (I found one).

I woke up with leg pains (which also troubled me on Thursday morning), which is a new development. I did not have this in Orange County or before I left on what turned out to be a five-state odyssey over the last four weeks, with three hotels, one of which was unplanned and free. I woke at sunrise, 5ish, had a drink of water, took some painkillers, and the pain faded. I got a few more hours of sleep.

Rising at 7ish, I found the coffee already made (I had set it up the night before) and soon started on my usual morning routine. Back to WordPress, Grammarly, and composing the events and story of the previous day. Trying to remember the events and sequences. It is always a surprise when the day vanishes from my mind, and I then have to think for more than a minute to find the thread that restores my memory. I often remember something important towards the end of writing and add that back in. The thread appears as I assemble another memory into a story. I believe that folks with memory issues cannot lay down a thread and later trace it back. I am always thrilled that the memory is there. It is just jumbled, and then it pops into my mind. Someday it might not work.

I try to look forward and find the fun in even mundane tasks. I revel in those stupid things that happen; they are sticky. I know that to make that thread of memory connect, it must have emotion. We remember when we react. For example, I know I made the bed last week, but I cannot tell you much about it, as it has no emotional significance. However, I did add a blanket yesterday, and I recall making the bed with the extra blanket — I prefer not to be cold. Also, nearly cutting my hand by holding the knife wrong while chopping a green pepper yesterday, now that I can remember. I make a point of enjoying my day and try to recall it (How was the traffic? Did any crazy drivers do something? What can I remember from today’s drive?) even as it unfolds.

Back to the memory-story, a brief one of Wednesday (actually not). The blog, although not short, was completed by 9:00 and was ready to publish. I started to re-read it as I saw some Grammarly edits. F**k, I had not noticed that Grammarly not only fixed my commas and plurals, but it had also changed everything into present tense. I rewrote the text in the past tense and corrected various simplifications introduced by the AI tool that did not accurately fit the context or purpose. Grammarly often goes sentence by sentence and makes a disjointed paragraph. Ugh! Another thirty minutes of rework and soon I had it published.

I dressed and all that and boarded Air VW the Gray and headed to Great Clips to get a haircut. There was no significant wait, and the person who cut my hair said they had been busy. By the time I had my usual biz off the ears cut, there was a line.

I met Scott W at the Peppermill Pub, where we moved the meeting to Wednesday (my repair for The Machine was rescheduled to the last available slot on Thursday) and to Aloha, as Scott W was giving tours at Jenson Estate that day. I was hungry and ordered the fish and chips (which were only average), and Scott had a sandwich. We discussed our investments and how Trump had made the markets, for us, chaotic and difficult to follow. We both had moved to a more defensive approach in our investments. Our returns were excellent.

We talked about our surprise, both of us lean liberal, that the policies of Trump and their deficit spending could be a positive. There is a school of thought that if you dump cash into the wealthy, they will spend it and build something that generates even more money (a version of Reagan’s trickle-down theory, but with a fire hose this time). This aligns with Amazon, Google, PayPal, and, to a lesser extent (due to physical manufacturing), Tesla. These were built with massive debt and negative returns for years. Could the expansion of the economy and the tariffs cover this and swing the markets into overdrive? The markets are up. Hmmm. Thus, is the Trump and MAGA plan a version of Amazon but used by a sovereign? I will think about this and watch.

For my readers, I am not discounting the terrible cost of cutting off food to children, trashing education, the CDC being destroyed, and all the other horrible things Trump and his bill are and will do. For Scott W and me, we are trying to understand why our investments are performing well and why the markets are rising so rapidly.

After lunch, I headed to the church in Beaverton. The police have signs out that they are enforcing sidewalk crossing, and I managed to pass that without Beaverton’s Finest offering me a chance to fund the traffic court. I talk to Pastor Ken. We discuss the refresh of the church’s entranceway and fireside room, as well as the church’s civil rights trip to the Southern USA in November. I am directing (self-appointed) a pre- and post-trip to enjoy New Orleans, Georgia’s Civil War sites, and the Carter Library. All is starting to come together.

I head home and watch more Murderbot on Apple+, enjoying this retelling of a favorite book series. I skipped dinner because I am still full. I head back to the church by Best Buy. There I find a 70W plug for my Apple laptop with a replaceable plug to allow it to use the international plugs (which I found at the house on Thursday). I also got a cover for my iPad, but it does not fit, and I will have to return it and try again. I was thinking of using the iPad to watch movies on the plane, but it would mean more things to manage. I will likely just stick to the iPhone and laptop.

At the church, Z and J were playing. We learned the board game Welcome to Your Perfect Home. A gift from James to play at the church. Unplayed. J won the first game as Z and I were still getting the rules clear in our heads. Z won the next game. We managed to play two games and a teach in about an hour. Fun and fast game.

This is a paper-and-pencil game where each player gets the same resource choices and writes them on their version of the house development. The houses are built, but they must be numbered in order, and each build offers extras. The mix of house placement, extra use, and alignment to city plans that give points for that alignment are your choices. But it is the same for everyone, creating a variation of push-your-luck and resource placement that is quite fun and all up to you, as the other players are all playing their own game. Scoring is done when all the plans are filled, houses are packed on one player’s sheet, or a player fails to fill a house four times. It is all up to you to create the perfect housing development!

This is the Kickstarter version with marker boards, but with 100 sheets, it is unlikely we will run out. Z and J enjoyed it. I headed home after saying goodbyes to Z and Dondrea, whom I will see again after I get back.

At the house, I made a ham, green peppers (no bleeding), onions (no crying), and potato hash with scrambled eggs and cheese on the side for a late dinner. I finished Murderbot (that is, I am caught up and am waiting for the next episode). I then watched The Sandman and watched a bonus episode based on the previous season. The new season starts on Thursday and will be the last one. I am sorry the show only gets one more season, as I liked it, the acting, and the fantasy setting. I watched the first episode of season 1.

Bed follows, and the pain returns, and pain killers work until 4AM, and sleep is difficult, as I said. Thanks for reading!