April 1, 2025 to April 3, 2025
Keeping on task
We’ve finally arrived. We’ve once again reached that point where departure suddenly feels imminent but there are still many urgent tasks that need completion. And for better or worse, the weather isn’t as cooperative as we’d expected. For a while it looked like all of these last days would be rainouts that would make it easy for us to methodically keep grinding out the tasks. They all end up with a reasonable break wide enough to consider a ride or walk somewhere, giving us each a chance to take a last spin on the bikes or for Rachael to walk somewhere or for me to fit in one last birding run. Anything to avoid the gym, but also anything to avoid finding us once more in a last minute crisis that imperils our planned departure.
We both compulsively monitor lists: hers on the calendar and mine on notes on the iPad that I check and recheck to see what can or must be knocked off in the next 24 hours and which upcoming tasks have the greatest urgency. And in parallel I find myself checking out eBird to see if I should be fitting in one last run to Tabor or Kelly Point or Sauvie Island.
So the days are all splits: cram in all the tasks we can while fitting in some sort of outdoor exercise. We’ve snapped into project mode, our days beginning with standup sessions convened first thing in the morning, in the few minutes between when Rachael has downed her first cup and turns communicative and I head out the door to the nearby coffee shop. We compare our lists, remind each other of what’s up today and what has priority, and plan out the day’s agenda. It’s much like our professional careers, really.
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 4 | Link |
And then I’m out the door once Rachael’s reminded me of what I need to take with me depending on the day’s plan: glasses, wallet, phone, iPad, car keys, fob to our condo, fob to Elizabeth’s condo, the Canon, the recycling? She’ll frisk me, ask to see evidence, and on a good day there will be no need for me to return immediately for some forgotten essential item. Days like that are infrequent but do happen.
Before going there though, here’s a photo from yesterday I forgot to include from yesterday but should be remembered: my first NA wine. I’d heard these were coming and have been watching menus hoping to check one out. Long on the nose, with a hint of twig, dung beetle and camellia. Like!
Tuesday
Keeping on task here, so we’re keeping it brief. With possible breaks in the weather ahead, fixing Roddy’s flat has priority. Also there’s a first pass at the income taxes, a lingering issue with the fraud charges, the cancellation of our car insurance, the return of the second pair of unusable brake levers, the second attempt to pick up my new Umpqua bank card, a Zoom session with our new financial adviser to attend, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Let’s just say the day doesn’t go as planned, with funny/maddening issues that prevent fixing the flat and picking up the new debit card; and the end of the day finds us back at Nuestra Cucina wondering how both of our lists are longer than when the day began.
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 1 | Link |
On a different subject, why is HEDDA on the billboard? I thought she “left the planet”, circa 1960’s..Maybe she has another column to write?
1 week ago
Wednesday
More or less a mirror image of yesterday: Rachael gets her miles in: seven or so miles up into Washington park plus several more on local errand runs bring her up to standard. A few old tasks get checked off: attend today’s Zoom session, return the new tire, which unfortunately doesn’t fit (folks who know the arcana of both bike tire specs and the effects of prednisone will understand how a 78 year old guy who’s biked most of his life could make such a rookie mistake), pills get counted, bike suitcases get retrieved from storage. New tasks get accreted: order Scott’s blood thinner prescription, attend another Zoom session, schedule a phone call with a friend, pick up the mail from Elizabeth before she leaves for Seattle and respond to a late-night call from her about another health crisis in the family. That’s about it.
Thursday
We’re hopefully hitting the maximum stress point as still more time-critical tasks get added and few get removed. We’re sinking! Just a few things worth our remembering, but you can laugh along too.
- I can’t fill the prescription for my blood thinner. It’s on my med list and available for refill but needs an approval. It takes multiple calls and an age hanging up on a phone tree before I reach my pharmacy and can ask what the issue is. They think they need approval from the prescriber (my cardiologist) and will initiate a request. They’re wrong though. The real issue is that Kaiser doesn’t own the prescription any more. They faxed it down to Tucson last spring after I needed it refilled locally. It’’s a controlled prescription though and now a CVS In Tucson owns it because they never sent it back. We’re bleeding here, folks.
- I was luckier than I knew when I got that flat out on Leif Erickson Drive. Lucky that I wasn’t further away, but also lucky I didn’t flatten earlier, dropping down a pass far away in some remote spot where I might not be found (and bleeding out!). In Tucson for example, dropping off Gates Pass or up on Mount Lemmon. Because as it turns out, the tire that flattened this week was the good tire. The front one is much worse condition actually. This fiasco though I do blame on my condition - the prednisone that affects my state of mind, my elation at discovering I can still bike at all, but also the vision thing that keeps me concentrating on the mirrors and the road ahead among other things. Looking down at the tires just doesn’t occur to me.
- So I need two new tires and I might as well replace the leaky tube rather than patching it. I decide to take the bike down to our old friend West End Bikes because I’m running out of time and the work doesn’t fit. First though I have to replace the rear wheel, which is a perplexing, frustrating challenge. Something has happened with either my self or the Rodriguez, but I have a terrible time trying to get the rear wheel to drop back into the forks now. After much cursing and consternation it suddenly drops into place, and I finally flip the bike upright and roll it toward the door. As I’m walking down the hall toward the elevator I’m thinking through the issues ahead: getting the bike into the back of the car (requires removing the front wheel); finding a parking spot at the LBS; parking, and replacing the front wheel; awkwardly and carefully rolling the bike down to and into the bike shop’s door from wherever I found a parking spot. Awkward because there’s no tire on the rear wheel and I don’t want to damage the exposed rim.
- I’m just about to open the elevator when the bulb finally lights up. They don’t want to see my frame. They just want the wheels, you dope. I turn back to the apartment, flip the bike over again, remove both wheels, and head back to the car. Much easier.
Chris welcomes me in, says the bike should be ready by end of day, so now we’ve got a plan. Rachael will get her walk in, I won’t, and with luck the bike will be ready in time for us when we drive over to Gallo Nero for a last meal at our favorite restaurant in town.
The bike is ready, and it’s a good deal because the shop is sadly shuttering in a few weeks. Everything but labor is on sale, and I’m buying two bike tires for the price of one . The meal is excellent as always, we enjoy chatting with Brahim again, and as we leave we chat some more with the owner (an immigrant from Tuscany and his American wife), speculating on what impact the new tariffs will have on their business. Will they still be able to import Italian wines and olive oil? He’s concerned of course, but is philosophical. Growing up with Berlusconi has given him perspective and a wait and see attitude..
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 1 | Link |
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 8 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 1 |
2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
1 week ago