Monday. I'd been warned the restaurant wouldn't open for breakfast until seven-thirty instead of seven this morning and so, awakening at five-thirty (having turned the lights out last night at half past nine), I dawdled as best I was able to take my time getting ready while listening to Democracy Now! on the radio and not setting out until ten minutes after seven. Arrived at seven-twenty, but the restaurant was open, thankfully, as it was cold and smoky and I wasn't looking forward to waiting for someone to arrive.

Ordered the single pork chop, scrambled eggs, country potatoes, toast, fruit up and coffee for breakfast because that's what came out of my mouth, delving into the papers to finish up just before nine.

Definitely smoke in the air, although I really couldn't smell it as such until I got home and its odor lingered in the nose. A bright hazy sun while walking, taking the usual set of pictures, although I still need to change the focusing points to a single point if I'm going to keep the focus at the point I'm after. No excuses here. Another selfie in the lobby, focusing with the adjustable screen tilted up and then looking up from the camera to take the picture, the wall behind me in focus instead of me. Deedle-dee-dee.

Have no idea what to do with the rest of the day. Probably shouldn't go out in that smoke for very long, but I do get a little stir crazy sitting here. It occurs to me I have a train to catch to Portland this coming Friday evening and I need to make preparations. What to pack? The laptop? When's the last time I fired it up?

Later. Broke down and ordered a box of face masks for the smoke, the pollution index running consistently between one-fifty and two hundred, the various news programs saying that's not good for people with healthy lungs, let alone youngsters and people with respiratory problems. They're coming Friday, the day I'm leaving for Portland, and so they'll be here if they're needed in the future.

There is stuff to do to prepare for Portland (actually Lake Oswego, just south of Portland) and so we'll get as much as we can done today and maybe surprise ourself. Need a haircut, we'll arrange it tomorrow. Batteries to charge and laundry to do, newspaper and mail deliveries to stop while we're away. We'll do them now.

Right.

No, really. We will. I will.

Evening. Surprised myself and got more done than I was thinking I might. Yes indeed. Energy and more energy. Embarrassing that I'm not able to so this more often. Even got the laptop up and running and downloaded most of the software I'll need on the trip. It's slow and so we'll finish loading it tomorrow to find out whether or not it's going to be useful to bring it along on the trip.