Yesterday, while busy, it was also wet and windy, and branches were falling everywhere. The water in the back corner of my backyard was a small lake a few inches deep, as the water rose everywhere but did not overflow. Still, we faced more water last year, and on Tuesday, the storm will end, and we will gasp. Soon, we will see 60F (15C) and sun!

But I rose at 7ish after waking a few times last night and having trouble sleeping until midnight. I soon was writing the blog, texted Deborah, and did the usual news. The news is overflowing with political news. Liberal coffee sipped while reading the mess that is the US news helped to remind me that the storm will pass and Justice with Compassion will return. The Love of Community will return.

I wrote the blog all morning and did not finish until later in the morning. I was having trouble focusing and finding my words. While I wrote, the winds rose as the storm hit. A thunderstorm warning was announced from Alexa, and the puddle in the backyard became a small lake. My street, Clarion Street, was covered in small pine branches broken loose by the high winds.

Breakfast was coffee and a banana. I was not that hungry. I soon showered, dressed, and was back at my Apple. I was determined to finish my paperwork for my taxes and 2024 updates in Quicken. This is a monotonous and detailed process. I went to reports selection in Quicken, ran the transactions by category for last year, and read every event recorded in Quicken. Many were miscatalogued, and I updated them. Transfers were not linked, but at least they showed ins and outs, keeping the balances correct. I found one mangled transaction that I decided to leave alone. I was reminded that for 2025, I really need to get back to running this at the month’s end. Three hours of updating quicken and a brief cold lunch of ham with some dill pickles was the entirety of my early afternoon.

I abandoned reclassifying Amazon purchases over six months (all under $100) as they were already in shopping. It would not be that meaningful to look up every item on Amazon, decide what was purchased, and assign a more detailed shopping account (i.e., book, household, and so on). All large income and expenditures were properly aligned.

I reviewed the Quicken list of charities and discovered an item for which I did not have a receipt for over $100; I found the email and included it in my letter to my accountant about charity giving. I logged on to the IRS website, was happy to see it still working, and took a PDF of my payments. I repeated this for my Oregon payments. All this was put in an envelope that included all the 1099s and other forms mailed to me by various institutions in alignment with the IRS requirements. I reviewed the content, eliminated duplicates, and paperclipped multi-paged items. All good.

I put on my shoes and took Air VW the Gray to Hillsboro. It was gray outside, too, with darker skies headed this way (the aforementioned thunderstorm). It is a short trip with many streets littered with branches. I was happy to get a parking spot a short walk from my accountant, Cornerstone Tax Preparation, and soon, I had a young gal with green hair efficiently looking over my papers. She asked for my work form, and I explained I dropped it off earlier. She found it. I was then given a new ethnicity form from Oregon to fill out.

I usually comply with tax forms, but I could opt out. There were three levels of coding and a page of codes. After hours and hours of Quicken, I was not in the mood to understand yet another tax form. I checked ‘opt-out’ and returned it. Done, and my forms were accepted by my CPA folks! I thought about lunch there to celebrate, but the storm clouds convinced me to head home.

At home, I read, did laundry (it never seems to end), and folded and put away the pile of clean clothing. Later, I would fold the last of the laundry and rejoice (for a moment) with all the laundry done and put away. I removed the frozen steak from the freezer, defrosted it, and made dinner. I soaked it in teriyaki sauce for an hour. Next, I fried it in a cast-iron skillet with freshly chopped onions and then finished it (a bit too long) in the oven. I steamed fresh asparagus.  I reheated the leftover pasta to go with it. It was an excellent dinner and I ate all of it; I was hungry. The steak was chuck and cut like a NY strip, so I sliced it thin with a good knife as it would be tough. It was good with the onions and sauce.

For those who can’t do onions, chopped celery with fresh garlic would have been great, too.

I talked to Deborah late in her time. She is still having some time zone confusion and stayed up with me until she was sleepy. She misses me in the morning as she now waits for me to wake late in the Eastern Time Zone. Soon, she rings off to sleep.

I decided to do some church paperwork and some dessert to celebrate the tax work and get things settled for 2024. I have decided to forgo the notebooks by month and just stuff the papers for 2024 in a folder. I will try to do better in 2025. I head to The 649 Taphouse. Natalia is bartending tonight and is happy to see me. We caught up, and she was sorry to miss Deborah’s visit to The 649. She was off on Thursdays when we came.

I write up my plan for Sunday School while enjoying a red ale—if any book of the Bible requires beer, it is this one—after-church class on Revelations. I plan seven classes to match the seven letters and then cover three H’s: history, Hollywood (the images and social impact over the years), and Greek translation and textual issues (Greek is spelled with an H in Greek) for a more extensive section of the text. I send this to the church leadership for review and get back issues for timing. Hmmm.

Before I get the ‘maybe’ back, I read some of the oldest fragments in Greek (just a word or two). I start recalling my Textual Criticism words. I review the structure of Revelations and the textual issues, but mostly, I am, as usual, chasing down Internet rabbit holes on fragments. I ignore most religious scholarship (more Hollywood than truth to me; many feel the book is a map of history, and I try not to scoff) and focus on the words (both the underlying Greek and translations).

With my class likely rescheduled into April (yikes!), I return to mundane topics, and Natalia brings me a coffee, a shot of Amaretto, and bread pudding. It is the perfect ending to reading Revelations, textual criticism, and Greek two-thousand-year-old fragments.

The rain is back and sideways, and the flooding is already receding. I return home, read, and soon am in bed. Kolchak is not that scary, and I love this book’s style, which seems designed to be quotable. Nothing scares me in the book, though vampire stories at night make me feel the darkness a bit. I finally sleep after midnight with a 6AM alarm. I have a busy Tuesday.

My breadmaker produces a wonderful loaf of Basic Milk Bread. I have the end as a snack.

Thanks for reading.

Once again, I am alone at the house. While I enjoy my home and my silence, I miss having Deborah here. However, there are only twenty-three days until we reunite in California for a business conference, and I will be Deborah’s +1. This is a role I have not done before. So Long Beach next month!

I rose for a 7 a.m. alarm and made Equal Exchange coffee using their ground French Roast beans. Its dark color and bitterness remind me that we liberals have so much more to do. But Hope is in there, too, and I know that someday, Justice with Compassion and the Love of Community will rise. With Hope–coffee–I have a banana and some fruit-filled yogurt for breakfast.

I do “doom scrolling,” as we liberals now call reading the news, which is drenched in politics. I update Quicken with my transactions and balances. I get WordPress going using their older editor, which works better and Grammarly can usually interface with.

Deborah reminded me that ‘hers’ and not ‘her’s’ is correct, which leaked into the blog yesterday. I remember fighting with Grammarly about replacing the word for something nonsensical, but I missed the grammar error. Grammarly did flag it in the quotes above this time. Hmmm.

I finished the blog, chatted with Deborah, and soon showered and dressed. I am back to showering in the morning, as the pollen is not bad now. I usually shower in the evening in the summer/spring/fall, meaning I take no pollen into the bed. I find I am healthier that way. I put on the tie Deborah sent me, butterflies, with a green sweater vest and a white dress shirt. I wear black humburg to keep my look more colorful. It is gray and wet; you sometimes have to bring your own brightness to the Pacific Northwest.

The service is the usual, but Michael R, not Pastor Ken, gave the sermon titled “The City is Ripe.” Ken does get into a homily-like moment as he covers an event at George Fox University across the low mountains in the Willamette Valley. Michael R says that Jesus covers water and living water with the Samaritans. The story, John 4, includes the apostles missing the point and Jesus pointing at the crowd from the Samaritans and saying that the fields are ripe. Michael R points out that Jesus met the Samaritan woman and the people who came when she told her story where they were. In the story, Jesus was not judgemental of their mistakes or the terrible history of the places at Jacob’s well. Instead, Jesus told the apostles to connect with these new believers. Michael R concludes that cities are places where we can meet people where they are and help and connect with them, never judgemental or expecting anything in return. Just help and friendship.

After services, I stopped by the house and picked up my laptop; the EV was still charged from last night. I did not charge at the library stations near the church (I did notice that all but one of the level 2 chargers were in use on a wet Sunday morning) as I had a 98% charge.

I headed to BJ’s Brewhouse. Our local one has better food than others I have tried. The water was higher, but despite the warnings and puddles, it was not much water for us. I saw the creeks were not filled as I crossed the small bridges on the way to lunch. At the church, I noticed someone had marred Air VW the Gray driver’s door. It must have happened in the parking garage. I have also seen some aggressiveness towards EVs by other drivers, mostly muscle cars and oversized pickup trucks. Being older, wealthier, and better insured (to quote Bette Midler), I drive my usual friendly, ‘but this is my lane’ style. I, therefore, parked the EV away from all the other cars again.

I sat at the bar and talked to a guy named Adam, who also plays Dungeons and Dragons, while I ordered their excellent red ale and the weekend-only double-bone pork chop—the best pork chop I have found. I gave him my business card but have not heard from him. BJ’s has 1/2 off pizza to go on Sunday, so he was getting dinner and had beer while waiting for his pizza.

After a nice dinner and having a dessert I did not need but was excellent, I took the EV home, parked it in the garage, and with a 90% charge, did not bother to charge it. I ran more laundry, stripped the bed, and remade it with other sheets. I took a chance and ran the sheet overnight in The Machine. No water leak! Good!

I was tired and dizzy. I was also feeling sad, as Deborah’s absence and grief over Susie combined to make it a difficult day. The mix turned me to my usual solace: reading Canadian murder mysteries and crime novels. I spent most of the day reading and napping. I finished the book while the rain poured. I cooked some bacon, chopped it, and combined it with frozen veggies fried in the bacon grease and pasta I picked up at Pike Place Market in Seattle.

Deborah, now in the Eastern Time Zone, had trouble sleeping. We talked until late, her time. She rang off as she started to get sleepy.

I finished my book and started a new book, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, from a Kickstarter. This book became a TV movie by the same name and was well-received. A second movie followed, and the short-lived TV series came next. Fans work brought Jeff Rice’s original book into existence in a new edition via Kickstarter, and it was re-edited to include some missing text. So far, the book has been fun as it is in the first person, and the words align with Darren McGavin’s take on Kolchak telling the story. Kolchak now exists with Darren McGavin’s image as a comic book character.

I rose, did some laundry, and felt better. I put on my PJs and read more in bed. With Kolchak’s voice still in my head, I fell asleep. I do not remember my dreams, but I do remember a vague dream of exploring somewhere.

Thanks for reading!

 

Going backward, I arrived after 11 in heavy rains, with local flooding blocking roads all over the area. Air VW the Gray had slipped here and there, and traffic was slow-moving. The rain had filled the highways with a quarter-inch of water in places, making a faster pace dangerous. It was a brutal drive from Kathleen’s home to my house on the edge of Beaverton and Hillsboro, once known as Reedville and Aloha.

Kathleen, Chris, and I joined Richard at his house to play one of Richard’s newest Kickstarter games: Trailblazer: The Arizona Trail. Once we were done, I drove Kathleen home across Portland. The EV Nav found a different way to connect to I-84, which surprised us. I did pull over to ensure we had the correct address for Kathleen’s home. We did not use Google Maps, but the built-in VW-supplied Nav. It worked, but it was a slow drive as traffic was slow and heavy, and visibility was low.

I had not seen Chris for a while, but it was nice to play with him again. He had played the game before and shot out like a rocket once it started. Chris did come in third, but he had the lead for most of the game. Trailblazer uses two scoring totals and subtracts them like other heavy resource and worker placement games, like Arc Nova. My only goal was to get a positive score, and my 22 points for my first play were good for me in this game style.

I enjoyed the game more than Arc Nova, and I could see the designer had learned from other games and tried to create a constraint-free, randomly generated board of cards to purchase that granted various rewards. There are also two tracks to move forward to unlock more options and accelerate your resource collection and gameplay. Instead of hand management or deck-building mechanisms, this game used piece placement to build a mural on your own board with various shapes and sizes purchased with resources gained elsewhere, and that awards moving up on a track with rewards–an excellent mix of two game mechanisms. This is a popular mechanism, and I found I liked it. We all completed our board, meaning the game is not a limited resource.

The game has many goals and intermediate means to get more points and resources (split between two scoring totals). Overall, I initially did not like the game (I all but rolled my eyes when I saw it’s set up as a yet-another-brain-burning resource and worker management game). Still, I began to like it once I understood the various mechanisms. Your turn is easy to understand, and you naturally climb multiple tracks. Items that score extra points are collected without making sacrifices that leave your play constrained. I did not find myself starving for resources (though short a few times) or fighting with game constraints. The game designers did an excellent job!

Going back in time, my drive to Richard’s house in Air VW the Gray took more than an hour of slow, wet driving. Traffic was heavy for a Saturday, but there was an event at Moda Center, and I am sure that added to the mess. The EV was at about 80% as I did not bother to charge it after my earlier trip.

Before leaving, I spent the afternoon doing laundry and dishes. For lunch, I had cold ham and a reheated leftover potato with butter and sour cream. I read and napped. I followed Deborah’s trip back to Michigan on TripIt and texted back and forth. We called and talked, too. It was so strange to be back to texting and calling Deborah after spending a week together here at the house and in Seattle. I skipped dinner, having just crackers at the house, some nuts at Richards (he has snacks for gamers), and toast with marmalade when I got home.

We rose at 6 to get ready to take Deborah to PDX. We had cereal for breakfast and more locally roasted and ground coffee. There were tears as we enjoyed our bubble of time and local travel that was now ending. In our happy bubble, we avoided news, work, and even laundry for a week. We loved being together for a week, enjoyed seeing the Pacific Northwest together, gaming in Portland and Beaverton, and drinking and eating. Deborah is a fan of coffee drinks, and Spanish Coffee is a newly learned passion of her’s now.

We reached PDX too soon. It was sad, but we were so happy to get our week bubble of time together. Deborah will be back! We next meet in California in mid-March at Long Beach for a biz conference for Deborah. I am her +1, and then we stay for a week after. I plan to drive the EV there. After that, I hope to spend a long weekend in Toronto with Deborah in April and see folks in Michigan.

Thanks for reading!

I’m sorry, but I did not get the blog written in the morning. I decided to catch up with Deborah on her way back to Michigan on Saturday. Thursday and Friday were slower, with less sightseeing and more game playing.

Thursday

We got going later, as we had an easy day. Breakfast was coffee from the local store in Hillsboro, Costco cereal, and milk. We finally got out around noon and headed in Air Volvo to Hillsboro.

It was a short trip that barely moved the battery number below 98%. We found a helpful parking spot and then walked through the old town. We had no temptation to stop at the axe-throwing bar. Somehow, I never associated axe usage with alcohol consumption. And while I heard that axe-throwing bars were on near the top list of romantic activities for the recently passed Valentine’s Day, we went with the more traditional dinner of prime rib with champagne.

Later, we would return to the local coffee and other food supplies store: Bennett Urban Farm Store. We got some coffee there, India Karnataka Peaberry, which they ground for us. That was our coffee for the following day. We also got some hazelnuts in a set of chocolate and salted. Deborah found packets of the same to take home. She also got a pound of some excellent Hawaii coffee to take home.

Before this, we walked to the courthouse, where the sequoia redwoods grow. The giant trees were planted in 1880 and now are the tallest thing in Hillsboro. Deborah was amazed, and I always enjoyed visiting them. There are some sequoia plants here and there, including one in Portland I know about. They need not sun but rain; they grow on the wet coastal hills and mountains.

We went to lunch at Amelia’s Rustic Mexican Restaurant. We had drinks and excellent food. With lunch in our stomachs, we headed back home.

We headed to The 649 with Abducktion (plus expansion included) to play. Crystal and Stephen, the bartenders for The 649, were happy to meet Deborah. We also met Joan S and talked for a while there. We caught up on her adventures on her remodel and refreshes at her house. Joan, who lives Northwest of Beaverton and Hillsboro, and I are tempted by the new homes, but the price tag of the new construction conveniences us to update what we have. Instead, we live with the surprises that older homes have and do a few updates every few years.

Joan headed out, and Deborah and I got some food and focused on our game playing. Abducktion is a card management and pattern-matching game with plenty of options to mess with your opponents. You have tiny plastic ducks that can be rearranged/replaced based on the cards you get. There are also cards for points that are formation you need to create to get the card and the points. Deborah slipped in after messing with my ducks and got one. It is a fun game, but it may be too cutthroat for two players. I managed to win by getting the last card by about ten points.

We were ready to head home after the game, drinks, and food. We soon were sleeping.

Friday

We woke knowing Friday was our last full day together. We spent the morning together, enjoying coffee and cereal for breakfast. Air VW the Gray was fully charged, and soon we were amazing Deborah with the driving style found on our Portland-headed roads. We parked in a regular space as the charge was still over 90% for the EV. It was already past lunchtime and a Friday, so there was no wait at Deschutes Brewhouse in the Pearl District. Deborah was interested in the elk burger, and the pastrami on rye with sauerkraut also looked good. We ordered one each and then split them when they arrived. The elk, while good, was dry and needed the melted cheese and grilled mushrooms it came with, and Deborah added mayo. It was good.

We had done Powell’s before, but it is just down the street, and I wanted to look through the recently moved SciFi and Mystery section. Deborah had a call and then met me on the second floor. I looked for a Middle Earth map book, but there was only a full-priced second edition (I was looking for the old one). I considered another Christopher Tolkien book, likely the last one, but I passed.

I headed to the computer section and looked at some Python books, but I did not find anything new that interested me. Corwin was texting me as he had installed Python and wanted to write a game. He later sent me updates he had pygame running and liked the results. It is an interesting gaming system, and I have coded a few things for it. I will see about returning to coding. We will see about that later.

Deborah and I headed to the rare book room, where we ogled the $25,000 Lewis and Clark book. Then we saw the note that the $300,000 book was not on display. Wow! I found a few books for about $100 that interested me, but I resisted (a first-edition Hornblower book and a magic book). Deborah bought a Powell’s t-shirt to wear on the plane back on Saturday.

We next took Air VW the Gray from the parking garage to street parking by the Lucky Labrador in Hawthorn. There, we got drinks with Deborah, trying a currant cider and a bowl of peanuts. We played Panic: Star Trek with Deborah catching on after a couple missions. This is from a game from the Panic series, which includes visual damage to a fortress or spaceship, in our case, while cooperatively trying to complete missions. They are fun and very visual. We played four missions before quitting and finding some food.

(Deborah is playing Scotty and the Enterprise–TOS most shields are down, and almost every hull section is damaged).

We shared a Gobbler Sandwich (turkey, cheese, and other goodies) while I taught, and then we played Azure. Deborah caught on fast, and I taught the usual (not the Z and Michael preferred) scoring. Deborah soon pulled ahead and stayed there.

We returned home with the drinks gone (mostly), food inside us, and games done. Once home, I arranged the Date Night kit that Dondrea and Z gave me for Christmas. We had a fire pot, sticks, marshmallows, gram crackers, and chocolate to make smores. We lit it (did not quite wait twenty minutes) and soon had smores hot from the fire. I managed to burn mine twice. Deborah was able to toast hers.

We tried the sparkling wine, salmon, and cheese supplied. All was good. It was a good date night!

We watched two more episodes of Silo (only one left for season two). From what I read, Apple TV+ will complete the next two seasons and the story arc. It was hard to watch some of it. But the story was riveting.

We have to rise early to get Deborah on her way on Saturday, so we headed to bed.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

The morning started with some speed, as we planned to traverse the Coastal Mountain Range in the electric vehicle and wanted to get to the Pacific Ocean beaches with plenty of time to enjoy them (and the possible need to recharge). This was the most extended and boldest trip with Air VW the Gray I had tried. We got a 100% charge (93% once we hit the highways), which meant an over 200-mile range. The trip to Astoria was 83 miles one way, giving me more than enough range for there and back and some sightseeing.

We had breakfast before heading out. We had bagels with Nova Lox (smoked salmon) and cream cheese. We also brought trail mix-like snacks. I put my boots in the car, as it is always good to be ready when traveling the passes. I had newly purchased socks (traction devices) in the EV. Like the Volvo, the VW can do socks or snow tires, not chains. It being Wednesday, there was some traffic, but once we started into the forests and hills, the traffic was light. As always, it is a lovely drive, and the moss in the trees gets heavier closer to the coast. There was light snow at the highest elevation, about 1600 feet (487m), but nothing on the road, and the temperatures were never near freezing.

We arrive at Seaside, Oregon, in just over an hour. On my navigation, using the one that comes with the EV (not Maps), we can see some chargers on the map, but none are near beaches and are long walks from anything interesting. We find parking near the main tourist drag and walk to the beaches by way of a coffee place.

We walk on the beach and look for sand dollars, but mostly, we find 1/2 broken ones, which we call half-dollars. Over the years, I have found one whole sand dollar, which I have at home. We had one sneaker wave that we had to run away. It threw water fifty feet further than any other wave, and we managed to run before getting our shoes soaked. It was not large enough to knock us down, but it was a strong reminder to always keep one eye on the ocean on Oregon beaches, especially in the winter.

Once we had spent a long time and were quite cold, we walked down the street with a fine collection of shells and looked at a few stores. Salt-water taffy was acquired for Z. I always get Z a bag.

We next took the EV to Astoria and saw an excellent charger, but again, it was a walk, this time up and down the large hill in Astoria! Nope. We parked in the old town, walked, and enjoyed the area. Deborah commented on the upscale feel compared to the primary t-shirts, candy, and usual tourist junk for sale at Seaside. We went to the Supper Club for lunch and had excellent salads with meat, steak for Deborah, and crunchy chicken for me. The food was outstanding. I had a Diet Coke as I had to drive, and I was feeling off just a bit (too much coffee).

We stopped at Godfather Books (mostly new with some used bookstores), and I found Graham Kerr’s book there for $12. He was one of the first chefs on TV and was famous for all the wine he drank while cooking. His show was The Galloping Gourmet.

The trip home was by Nav, which sent us to Highway 202, Nehalem Highway, which was twisty and full of sunken grades. It was not a fast-driving route but more direct and fun. Air VW the Gray handled very well. When we were close to Jewel (sort of a town in the Coastal Mountains), there were elk herd preserves. We stopped to take photos of a large herd, like all good tourists, but there were places to do this; thus, we did not block the roads or do a dangerous pull-off.

On the Nehalem Highway, there were guardrails here and there, as well as babbling brooks, creeks, and even rivers next to the road along the passes. The snow was a few inches deep in the forest as we crested some pass on 202. The speed signs for the turns were not suggestions but often the highest survival speed. And sometimes there were no signs like they just got tired of repeating themselves. The sign could have been, “Again.” Or if you are still with us, you will likely make it and don’t need signs.

Once 202 became 103 and then 26 (also known as the Sunset Highway), we were back on the familiar roads. We reached the house with a thirty-five percent charge. Plenty! It was just dark. We reheated the prime rib from a few nights ago. I also made some asparagus in the new veggie steamer (my old one broke), and I microwaved some potatoes and fried some ham while the beef heated in the oven (Best to bake to get it back to normal, if you have the time; microwave would be less effective).  We watched a few episodes of Silo together while we enjoyed our leftovers and my extras.

With the walking, travel, and food, we soon were sleepy. A good day!

Thanks for reading.