On Sunday, the day before my flight, for breakfast we had Egg Fritatta made in part with leftovers from Thursday’s stir fry, including a few shrimp.
Egg Fritatta 1Egg Fritatta 2
Around lunchtime, we headed downstairs once more to finish off the chicken soup with rice. There was also some leftover cous-cous to be polished off and slices of the loaf bread from the other night.
To drink, I had the light and aromatic lemon ginger tea.
Chicken Soup and ToastButtered toastChicken Soup with cous-cous
Upstairs my father prepared a dish of oven baked Black Cod with potatoes and lightly fried garden vegetables.
DinnerYukon Gold PotatoesBroccoli and Red Peppers Oven baked Black Cod (bone in)
For dessert we had a lovely chocolate tiramisu from the co-op paired with sliced pears from the orchard. I cut the pear into thirds and served them with the tiramisu.
The cake was utterly soft and creamy, like biting into a cloud.
Chocolate TiramisuSide view of the cakeNice layers to the cake
I heard Eileen is touring Japan soon, so I put on an episode of Begin Japanology. It’s a great program from NHK.
We went down to Eileen’s home for dinner. The roasted chicken from Wednesday, was turned into chicken soup.
Chicken soup with rice
Eileen baked a loaf of bread to accompany the meal. We spread butter across thick slabs of steaming bread. The crust was nice and crispy and the center soft and light.
Oven fresh baked bread
I split a bottle of PT Stout with Eileen while papa drank pinot grigio.
PT StoutWoodbridge Pinot Grigio
Between the good soup and pleasant conversation the evening went by in good spirits. I cleaned my plate down to the last grain of rice.
I should mention, we first filled our bowls with as much cooked rice as we wanted and then ladled the piping hot soup on top.
After dinner we had brownies. I inquired about the preparation and Eileen graciously provided me with her mothers recipe and some of her own refinements she had made.
Homemade Brownies
Eileen’s Brownie recipe:
5 Eggs
3 cups of Sugar
1 Cup of Butter
8 oz of Bakers Chocolate
1 1/2 Cups of Flour
1 Tbs Vanilla
2 cups of Walnuts (optional)
Beat the eggs and sugar throughly to fold in air. The more air the smoother the brownies will turn out. Add the vanilla during this step.
Melt the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler or a ceramic bowl suspended in a pot of hot water.
When your eggs are nice and fluffy, add the flour and the melted chocolate.
I had a couple of Zoom meetings this morning at NC time (-4 UTC). So I woke up at 5:50 and logged in for those. They ran for just under 3 hours.
Afterwards I ate a light breakfast of granola and banana slices in yogurt. I added some hazelnut milk to balance it out.
Around eleven a friend of my mother’s, Julia, came and picked me up and we went downtown to Tommy Knockers for brunch with another friend of my mother, Ruby.
Scotch Egg at Tommy Knockers, PTCross section of scotch eggReceipt: $30.20 for eggs and drink
I had the Scotch Egg, a hard boiled egg wrapped in ground bacon and spices, topped with mustard and paprika. The eggs lay on a bed of garden greens quite stylishly.
To drink I ordered the tap cider, Alpenfire. I didn’t care for the cider, it was a bit like light beer. It didn’t have much body or depth of flavor. It was maybe like a semisweet apple juice.
Alpenfire Cider at Tommy Knockers, PT
It was a very nice opportunity to meet up with old family friends. Ruby’s son, Cedar, was my best friend growing up. I still consider him my best friend, that’s a position that could never be replaced.
Julia’s daughter, Nina, was another young friend. I can remember playing together with dolls and LEGOs. Her father raised stick insects and had games on his computer.
The Powerpuff Girls (1998)
I recall watching the premiere of Powerpuff Girls at Julia’s house. They had a special event running on Cartoon Network with some prize giveaway you had to call in for.
Fond memories. I got a chance to inquire about the other children I had interactions with. Kali lives in Tennessee, Cherese is in Florida, and Becky is in Oklahoma. Rebekah is still local and something of a sports prodigy.
Rebekah
After the meal we must have chatted for an hour and a half. All sorts of topics. Quite pleasant.
I was able to get a phone number of another friend’s sister, Lily, and I left her a voicemail inquiring about her brother, Lang. Hopefully we can meet before my flight home on Monday.
During the drive back to my father’s house we stopped at Laurel Groves, the cemetery, and I had a chance to pay my respects to my best friend, Cedar. He was just a year younger than I. It’s been 13 years since he passed. I wish I had kept in contact with him more.
There are many people I have lost contact with. I recall my first email was a Hotmail address. I lost the password sometime around going to Job Corps on February 5th, 2005.
At the center I had a Yahoo address and I was introduced to MySpace. I recall connecting with mostly students at the center and maybe someone from Port Townsend.
Sometime in 2006 the kids around me started talking about moving to Facebook. I remember logging in to MySpace and someone snorting and saying, “you still use that?”
I’ve always been regarded by others as being good with computers, but I’ve never been good with keeping up with trends. I expected Social Media to be a fad that would eventually go away.
Anyways, Facebook was quite effective. I was able to put in my schooling history and it brought up the profiles of several friends. That was quite impressive compared to MySpace.
I used the Yahoo email until I moved to NC. At some point the account became inundated with spam and I made an Outlook account. I initially try recovering my Hotmail, but I couldn’t quite remember how it was spelled, Aquila13 or something.
I still use the Outlook account these days. I tried getting back into the Yahoo, but it’s totally gone. I think Yahoo went away at some point. Been sold off or something. But the email address wasn’t recoverable.
So, unfortunately, I was never able to copy my contact lists over between any of the accounts. Additionally, I had multiple technology scares that led me to purging my social media accounts time and again over the years. Now I don’t use it at all.
Now with all the AI stuff going around I just don’t feel like I understand computers anymore. The last technology hurdle I successfully passed was Bitcoin. I chased the mining game from 2013-2020.
I should have just held with the HODL crowd. If you count all the Bitcoin and Litecoin I ever bought, I would have a multimillionaire by now. Thousands of coins to pay for GPUs and then ASIC mining rigs that were soon obsolete.
My last mistake was liquidating my last coins to cover the EIDL loans and other bills. I did it two months before Bitcoin hit $10k. I could have paid my debts and had plenty of cash left over.
As I mentioned in, Grilled Cheese and Pears, Tuesday’s at Rosewind are potluck dinner days. I didn’t join I the festivities being tired from the trip.
Dinner that evening was a two part repast of Potato leak soup followed with a cut of poached Black Cod with a side of fried potatoes. A garden salad rounded out the meal and added some needed fiber and vitamins.
The first coursePotato leak soupFresh garden saladPoached Black Cod with fried taters
To drink, my father provided a Guinness Extra Stout and a Lemon San Pellegrino. The Stout was nice and bitter and paired perfectly with the Black Cod.
Guinness Extra StoutLimonata San Pellegrino
The ingredients were all sourced, other than the fish, from the local community garden here at Rosewind.
During my walk on Thursday I came across and spoke with some community members. Cathy, Oma, and Dan.
Actually, when I was still a child, my mother rented a blue house from Oma on the corner of F & Fir. That was while I was still attending OPEPO at Mt View, before our brief relocation to Everett.
On Thursday afternoon we ate lunch with my fathers downstairs neighbor, Eileen.
She prepared oven toasted slices of bread topped with our choice of cheese. I went with the pepper jack. I ate two slices and then a pear from the community garden was sliced open and shared.
Grilled Pepper Jack on Toast
To drink, we had a pot of lemon ginger tea. Very fragrant but light in color. It warmed the insides and went down easy.
Lovely teapotLemon Ginger Tea
It was explained to me that the members here take turns preparing meals each week. Each person has a particular day of the week they have to make lunch and dinner.
It’s a nice social custom and adds some structure to the retirement lifestyle.
After the ferry boat ride we stopped in at Town & Country Market for some lunch and coffee.
I purchased the Maka Special which was a sushi dish of Yellowfin Tuna and Sockeye Salmon with some rice rolls topped with flavorful sauce and some crunchy bits.
I also grabbed a Power Green Salad; edamame, chick peas, quinoa, rainbow kale, and bulgar. A tasty assortment I must say.
Prices are certainly higher on the west coast. I spent $26.04 on my lunch. Back home that would be enough for dinner for a family of three.
Although, you’d never get such premium fish at such a price in NC. The sushi at Publix is half the size and often you’d be given the cheaper cuts and variety of fish or it would just be topped with Indonesian shrimp.
For coffee, I ordered an 8oz Mocha with a single shot of espresso. I was surprised how fast the drinks were ready. I must have gotten used to long lines at the Starbucks drive thru back home.
After lunch we had a slow drive up north through Bainbridge and along wooded roads off the main drag.
I didn’t realize it initially, but I later heard from my father that we had crossed a bridge to the Kitsap peninsula and then crossed the Hood Canal bridge.
Clearwater CasinoBainbridge Island Hood Canal Bridge Mount ?Bainbridge Island
I had been expecting a ferry ride across to Port Townsend, but that turned out to be unnecessary with the rout we took. The detour also allowed my father to show me the slip where his sailboat Cornelia is moored.
After visiting the slip we drove through Hadlock and into Irondale an then we took a more scenic route into Port Townsend.
I got to see the old spots where I and my mother used to live back in the woods in a trailer. I also saw homes and properties where schoolmates once lived.
We passed by Discovery Bay and Cape George. I had friend from Cub Scouts who lived in the private community at Cape George. I recall his mom was our Den mother before we graduated to Boy Scouts.
Fat Wallet Refugee 