Kevin's Hetero MFM Poly-Fi V

2:08 p.m., Monday the 7th

I've come down with a bug. It came on very suddenly yesterday. My throat was itchy and scratchy, and started to hurt, especially when I coughed. Luckily things improved overnight, my throat no longer hurts. But I still have a persistent cough. And a minor headache. And I'm very tired. I think I'm going to lie down for awhile.

Snowbunny might give me a Covid test later on, I hope it comes up negative. On the other hand, the tests don't seem to be very accurate.
 
12:32 p.m., Tuesday the 8th

So I tested negative for Covid. But I don't know, SB was thinking about testing me again.

The coughing got really bad last night, like, really bad. SB was considering getting me some more Nyquil. But then I tried something kind of odd, I turned over and laid on the other side. Miraculously, that fixed the problem (or at least most of it). I don't know what that means. That one of my lungs has fluid in it and the other one doesn't?
 
1:29 p.m., Wednesday the 9th

I got caught up on everything yesterday, and did a bot game. It was me as Black versus the same 1500-point bot as last time. It was a very difficult game, and I reached a low point where I lost a rook. Miraculously, I was able to crawl my way back to a material advantage, got my one remaining pawn promoted, and ended up with a queen and king versus his king. My success was guaranteed. Until like a knife in my back, the game abruptly ended in a draw -- stalemate. You know, it's not just frustrating. It's depressing. I put a lot of work into that game, and now I feel like I wasted my time. Yes, I'm sure the practice is worth something, but I don't feel that way. I feel like I wish I didn't need that particular kind of practice.

Then I attempted to go to bed and sleep through the night. What a joke. I coughed almost nonstop the entire time. Hard, relentless coughing, no matter which way I turned. There were maybe a few intervals where I managed to sleep -- like one or two hours each. By the time I finally gave up and got up, my throat was hurting and my stomach muscles were aching. When I cough now, those muscles get a stabbing pain. I feel like ten stalemates would be better than this. And to make things worse, I can't go anywhere with SB, I have to stay home all day, and am confined to my room most of the time. I'm missing out on a lot of trips and errands today. And apparently tonight I have to sleep with a humidifier. Bleah.
 
1:41 p.m., Thursday the 10th

I guess the humidifier wasn't so bad, it's actually a tiny little unit, about the size of a large soft drink. Not like the huge thing I was used to as a kid, that thing had to be at least four gallons in size.

So I did another bot game yesterday, same bot and I played again as Black -- and this time I won. It was still really difficult, but not as hard as the one the day before. I got lucky. I lost a knight at one point, but I managed to inch my way back to a material advantage. And in the endgame, I had multiple pawns to promote, so I made it easy on myself and got two queens. I am very comfortable with that kind of ending. Stalemate can be avoided by keeping the opposing king constantly in check, which is easy to do with two queens. Meantime, you move the queens in for the kill, first one queen and then the other. Very easy. I know I won't always be able rely on that luxury, but I'm going to take it when I can get it. I do feel better now that I've won a bot game, but I still dread the next bot game. I have only played once against the next bot, and I lost that game.

During the night, I was actually able to sleep. The cough has transitioned into a much more forgiving stage. It's still bad enough, but it's not so relentless and rib-breaking. It's even started to become more productive, which certainly feels like a good sign. I hope the situation continues to improve.
 
11:13 a.m., Saturday the 12th

Later on Thursday, I played (as White) versus the next bot ("Wendy"). I lost, which makes two out of two for this particular bot. For me it was a complicated game, and I'm not sure why I lost. Positional reasons, probably. Although Wendy was a point ahead of me on material for most of the game. Certainly I lost on position at the end, when I marched my king into a land mine. Checkmate.

My cold (or whatever it is) seems to be hovering at one level, neither improving nor worsening. I'm still confined to my room, but SB did take me out walking Eddie, yesterday and the day before. I mean I'm glad it's not as bad as what I reported on Wednesday the 9th, but anytime it wants to go away would be just fine.
 
2:29 p.m., Sunday the 13th

I played another bot game yesterday, me as White versus "Anthony" (the one other 1500-point bot I've played). I won, but I probably shouldn't have. I made some costly mistakes. On the other hand, I did end up with my king plus a queen versus just Anthony's king, and I managed to piece together checkmate without drawing the game (stalemate). Thank gods!

I may be doing slightly better with respect to being sick, I am still coughing but with slightly better endings. I'm just depressed because Brother-Husband and Snowbunny went out to run errands, while I had to stay home. Getting out is a big deal to me.
 
3:14 p.m., Monday the 14th

So yesterday I played against Anthony again, but this time I played as Black, and I lost. I guess I might be starting to get used to losing, it certainly doesn't feel great, but I'm starting to resign myself to the fact that 1500 points is about my limit, and will probably be my limit for a long time. And it makes sense to say that I have to play at my limit in order to improve. I'm going to have to lose, and if I lose about half the time, that is reasonable.

I'm about the same amount sick as I was yesterday, the difference is that now SB is starting to get sick. She is coughing, suffering from a clogged throat, and maybe having other symptoms, I don't know. I consider this to be bad news. I hope BH isn't getting sick as well, I can't remember if he said he was.
 
4:50 p.m., Tuesday the 15th

I lost another bot game. Pretty much the whole game went badly for me, I lost a rook early on and things just went downhill from there. I did try something unconventional in the opening, I used my c and f pawns, instead of my knights, to protect my center pawns. That actually might have been where my problems started, I probably won't try that idea again in the future.

No news really on being sick. I suppose I should mention that SB bought a bigger humidifier. She says it helps, I guess I'm indifferent on that point.
 
12:28 p.m., Wednesday the 16th

I'm coughing a little now, but for a few glorious moments when I first woke up today, I had no coughs saved up, and no urge to cough whatsoever. I am hoping this is an indicator that I am on the tail end of this thing. And maybe even that SB will be on the tail end of it soon.
 
3:41 p.m., Thursday the 17th

Regarding my latest post in "What is spirituality?" I guess I am thinking I might be coming across as a little defensive, and I am asking myself, why am I taking such an adamant stance about not being spiritual? and I admit I often look down the nose at people who, well, believe in spirits. (The only spirits I believe in, are the ones I can drink.)

It's a complicated question and I may never know the answer. But my first guess is, that I am somewhat mortified to recall that I myself used to be a believer. I was a sucker. I was a chump. Of course, I was also a kid, who assumed I could trust the adults, so when they testified that spirits exist, of course I believed them. It's just that I adhered to that belief until I was about forty years old. Why did it take me so long? although I could just as easily ask: Why are most of my childhood friends staunch believers (and active churchmembers) today? and the answer to that question, believe or not, is, "Because they're also staunch Republicans."

And it angers me that people pawn their beliefs off onto their children; I think what people should teach the kids is how to figure out for themselves what to believe. It's too easy to waste a huge chunk of this life, when one believes in an afterlife. The whole scene of spirituality -- most of it at any rate -- is ugly and repugnant, and in sore need of elimination. I don't want to associate with it; I want to distance myself from it as much as possible. And I guess I even wish that others would do the same.

Not a very satisfying answer, but it's the best I can do for the moment.
 
4:03 p.m., Friday the 18th

On (this last) Wednesday, I played a bot game and won. I won't say it was easy per se but it was easier than the few bot games previous; the bot (the Chess engine) made quite a few helpful mistakes (mostly bad trades), and for me it was a clean game. Of course, this was the Chess engine set at 1400 (not 1500) points.

No real progress on the sickness front, recovering from this thing is a damn slow process. I'm still confined to my room for the most part.
 
2:44 p.m., Saturday the 19th

SB said it was her intent to take me out somewhere this weekend. I am crossing my fingers, I hope she'll follow through on that. There's not a lot going on today. Earlier, BH and SB went out to, I think get labs done for SB, and maybe to look at some neighborhoods. They got back a little after 1:00. While they were gone, I snuck Rainee (and Eddie) some shredded cheese. That's all I can really think of to tell you.
 
12:14 p.m., Sunday the 20th

Yesterday, SB and I went and got some groceries from Target.

BH and SB are with a friend of BH's right now, going on a road trip. SB took pity on me today and left me with some alcohol; namely, Solerno blood orange liqueur. It's pretty strong, 80 proof. I have drank some of it. It's pretty smooth.

They took Eddie with them; I gave Rainee some shredded cheese. That's all I have to tell you for the moment.
 
11:31 a.m., Monday the 21st

I got up early this morning (early for me), but I'm tired, I don't know if I'll end up lying down for a while. I'm still slightly sick, it is slow as molasses about leaving.
 
11:45 a.m., Tuesday the 22nd

Last night was the first time in a long time that I was allowed to eat dinner in the dining room. I hardly coughed at all yesterday, and I haven't coughed much today. The sickness is slowly leaving -- very slowly.

I decided not to lie down yesterday; instead, I caught up on everything, and played a bot game. Unfortunately, I lost. I was doing well at the end, when the bot pulled a surprise checkmate on me. I'm still scratching my head about how it happened. A combination of things, the positions of the bot's rook, king, and a pawn, plus the fact that my king was on the edge of the board, and limited by some of my own pawns. It was actually quite a brilliant checkmate. It happened right after I promoted a pawn to a queen. I thought I was doing so well, I thought I had it made. So how do I stop that from happening in future games? I'm not sure, and that uncertainty bothers me. I did have an opportunity earlier to trade rooks, it's just that I would have lost a pawn in the exchange. I now wonder if I should have made that trade.
 
11:07 a.m., Wednesday the 23rd

It looks like we got some snow overnight, but it is already quickly melting. As for my cold (or whatever it is), SB is planning to take me (and Eddie) to a mall tonight (where Eddie and some other dogs will be walking around, they are training to be service dogs). So I must not be too sick. I've almost completely stopped coughing.

I played another bot game (this time as White, but against the same bot -- the Chess engine set at 1400), and won. It was a pretty nerve-racking game though. At one point, I foolishly lined up my king and one of my rooks on the same diagonal, so that my opponent's bishop could easily skewer them, and take my rook. It's amazing I could go on from there to win, but, even though things ended up so I just had a king and some pawns, while my opponent had that plus that bishop, it seems that a single bishop isn't that strong of an advantage, especially if I mostly stuck to the light squares, and the computer tends to play rather poorly in the endgame. I was finally able to promote two pawns, and from there pick off my opponent's bishop and pawns, and then easily get checkmate.
 
3:46 p.m., Thursday the 24th

Change of plans, I did not get to go out. Instead, BH and SB went with the realtor lady (they picked her up in SB's car -- the realtor lady was nervous about Covid, so they tried to limit how many people were in the car) to look at a house in Los Lunas. From what I saw and heard, it was a pretty sweet house, and we decided to make an offer. Well as it turns out, our offer was the highest made (we offered $320,000.00, the most we could afford, versus the base price of $295,000.00), but someone else made a cash offer, and that was the one the owners picked. So I guess we're not moving yet, which is a good thing for me. But it's also too bad we missed out on that house. I know BH and SB both had their hopes up that we would get it.

I played another bot game yesterday, which certainly made me nervous, but I have to say, it was a ridiculously easy game. I actually suspect that there was some kind of computer malfunction, or maybe I put the Chess engine on the wrong setting. I could have sworn I set it to 1400. But check this out, in the opening, the Chess engine let one of my pawns march through its army, leaving a trail of destruction. I had gained eight points of material when that smoke cleared, almost the value of a queen. Then, later in the game, the opportunity arose for me to trade queens and I took it -- and the bot did not recapture! so then I captured a rook with my queen as well. I had gained 14 points of material when that smoke cleared. And that bot made other big mistakes. Don't get me wrong, it was a pleasant surprise getting all those sweet opportunities. I don't mean to look a gift horse in the mouth. But wow, what happened?
 
3:13 p.m., Friday the 25th

Today, tomorrow, and Sunday are a formal Barn Hunt competition, at our local venue. SB had today off, and was there at the Barn Hunt with Eddie from about 8:00 a.m. until about 1:30 p.m. ... Eddie just needs one more Q (qualifying run) to level up, and he did not get that today. I guess he signaled in a place where there was no rat. Hopefully he will try again tomorrow (and Sunday).

Needless to say, Rainee got some shredded cheese today. And right now, I am having some beer, Cerveza Modelo Especial. "Golden, full-flavored pilsner-style lager with a clean, crisp finish." BH picked it out for himself, but then he didn't like the crumbly, half-glued-on foil on top (which I'll grant him is a pain). I'm pretty sure he'll be glad I drank the last bottle.
 
1:56 p.m., Saturday the 26th

It's a little embarrassing to admit it, but I'm hoping I won't have time today for a bot game. I'm looking for ways to excuse myself out of it. No way in Hell will I have it as easy on my next bot game as I did on my last bot game. In fact I will be playing against the first 1500-point bot. My odds of winning are estimated at about 50%. I prefer it when I have better odds than that.

Someone at BH's work called in sick yesterday and today, and so BH is at work today even though it's a Saturday. Meanwhile, SB is with Eddie at the Barn Hunt competition. Eddie will get two chances to get a Q today, and two chances tomorrow. Surely out of four chances he can do it?

Alas, I have no drinky-drink today.
 
10:43 a.m., Sunday the 27th

Last night, SB took me shopping. At an Albertson's. They have a really good drinky-drink section. I was able to pick out some Jäger, and I am having some today. BH and SB (and Eddie) are both at the Barn Hunt trial/competition today.

Eddie did not get his next Q yesterday. It seems that he has gotten somewhat bored of Barn Hunt. Soon, he will begin to practice at agility sports. As for today, BH will probably be Eddie's human companion, and sometimes Eddie signals better for BH.

I probably won't be able to excuse myself out of a bot game today, but who knows.

Last night, before shopping, BH and SB went with the realtor lady to check out another house -- technically a condo, but referred to as a townhouse. It was nice, and less expensive than the previous house. They posted this one at $229,000.00 ... something like that. We offered something like $235,000.00 ... I don't know when the owners will decide who gets it. My point is, we could be moving soon after all.
 
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