This Sunday in July...
... as I review the week behind me, I'm satisfied with the amount of work I accomplished. Some days were longer and busier than I'd have liked, but I made it through them all without making any blunders and, to the best of my knowledge, without breaking anything and without irritating anyone important.
Chess-wise, I lost one game and won another. My current game load is 12 active correspondence games more or less equally spread among four different server based chess clubs. That seems to be a pretty good number for me given my current age, health and station in life. When I was younger I could comfortably carry two or three dozen games at a time while working full-time and involving myself in other activities. Damn! There's no way I could do that now.
The only disappointment this week has been the difficulty in keeping up with my reading. The compound cataracts and glaucoma in both eyes made it hard to do much reading at all. I'm tempted to go the audio book route. I've tried that before but for one reason or another never kept it up. Maybe this is a good time to give it a go again. Maybe.
The week ahead looks to be another busy one but I'm making a serious effort to move things along at a slower pace now. We'll see how that approach works.
And the adventure continues.
Published on 26 July 2020, ~21:45 CDT, this is my post number 48/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.
#100DaysToOffload #chess #SeniorLiving
by Roscoe
A Win with White
After two months and two days of correspondence chess play and 54 moves, Black resigned this game today giving me the win with the White pieces.
He was certainly right to do this. Depending on his next move I could capture his h-pawn with either my Rook or Bishop. Then it would be a simple matter of forcing checkmate after squeezing his King against an edge of the board with my remaining major pieces.
The screenshot above shows our board at game's end and the full move record is below.
- d4 d5 2. Nb1c3 e6 3. a3 c5 4. dxc5 Bf8xc5 5. e3 Ng8f6 6. Nc3a4 Bc5e7 7. g3 Bc8d7 8. Na4c3 Nb8c6 9. Ng1f3 a6 10. Bf1g2 O-O 11. O-O Qd8c7 12. Nf3d2 b5 13. b4 a5 14. Bc1b2 axb4 15. Nc3xb5 Qc7b8 16. a4 Nc6e5 17. Rf1e1 Bd7xb5 18. axb5 Ne5d7 19. e4 Qb8xb5 20. Nd2b3 Be7d6 21. exd5 exd5 22. Bg2f1 Qb5b6 23. Bb2d4 Qb6c7 24. Ra1xa8 Rf8xa8 25. Qd1c1 h5 26. h4 Nf6e4 27. Qc1e3 Qc7xc2 28. Re1e2 Qc2c7 29. Qe3d3 f5 30. Qd3c2 Qc7xc2 31. Re2xc2 Ra8a3 32. Nb3d2 Bd6xg3 33. fxg3 Ne4xg3 34. Bf1b5 Ng3e2 35. Bb5xe2 b3 36. Rc2c8 Nd7f8 37. Bd4c5 Ra3a2 38. Rc8xf8 Kg8h7 39. Bc5b4 b2 40. Rf8e8 Ra2a1 41. Kg1f2 g6 42. Be2d3 Kh7g7 43. Bb4c3 Kg7f7 44. Re8b8 Ra1a3 45. Nd2b1 d4 46. Bd3c4 Kf7g7 47. Nb1xa3 dxc3 48. Kf2e3 g5 49. hxg5 Kg7g6 50. Ke3f4 h4 51. Bc4d5 c2 52. Na3xc2 h3 53. Rb8xb2 h2 54. Nc2e3 1-0
I'm going to count the screenshot at the top of this post as a photograph and name it as an entry in my too often neglected Seven Two Project.
And the adventure continues.
Published on 24 July 2020, ~18:00 CDT, this is my post number 47/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.
#100DaysToOffload #chess #SevenTwoProject
by Roscoe
Bringing the task lists back under control
As the rest of the world (at least those parts of it with which I'm involved) continues to adapt to the new conditions forced on us by the 2020 lockdowns/shutdowns, and resumes operation under often new forms, my daily and weekly task lists have grown to sizes not seen since before my retirement. Too many organizations and people are pulling me back into work that I have long since stepped away from. They're trying to, anyway. And their efforts have really ballooned during the past month. But enough is enough, and too much is too much.
In order to return to the more sensible pace of a happy retired life, I'm saying NO! to many of those new/old calls. And I'm bringing my task lists back to levels I can more comfortably handle.
And the adventure continues.
Published on 23 July 2020, ~20:00 CDT, this is my post number 46/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.
#100DaysToOffload #SeniorLiving #RetiredLife
by Roscoe
Ah, postcards
A few days ago jetgirl wrote about her fascination with postcards on her blog. Reading her delightful post brought back fond memories of years ago when I used to send and receive them on a regular basis.
I am a Correspondence Chess (CC) player you see, and have been for longer than most Fosstodon folks have been alive. Before the advent of personal computers, most of us mailed our moves back and forth to each other on postal correspondence cards. At the top of this post are pictured the front and back of one such card. (Yes, I still have a small stash of them.)
It was common practice for us then to have two games in progress at the same time with reversed colors with each opponent. In Game “A” for example I may play the White pieces, and in Game “B” I'd be Black. You'll notice on the front side of each card there is a small board diagram. When preparing to send a card we'd fill the diagram with the board position of one of our games, usually using red ink to denote each White Piece and Black ink for the Black.
On the back of each card you'll see there's ample room to list the three most recent moves in algebraic notation for each game.
Now we all use the Internet, most often via server-based chess clubs, to play our CC games. But I do miss using the postal cards... sometimes.
And the adventure continues.
Published on 17 July 2020, ~20:30 CDT, this is my post number 45/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.
#100DaysToOffload #postcards #Postalchess #SevenTwoProject
by Roscoe
Tonight's Zoom meeting went well.
It would have been nice if more members had attended, but there were enough to conduct a successful business meeting. And I'm reasonably confident that more will be with us next month.
Adjusting to a time when when face to face meetings have to be replaced by tele-conferencing will be challenging. There are so many folks unable to adapt, and that's rather sad because life and business must go on... with or without them.
It will be interesting to see how things develop.
And so the adventure continues.
Published on 13 July 2020, ~21:30 CDT, this is my post number 45/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.
#100DaysToOffload #technology #adaptation
by Roscoe
A week of good habits
Old guys have old habits. And as an old guy I do have mine. Reviewing my recorded activities on a nightly, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis is one of my better habits.
Doing my weekly review tonight of those activities I record on my HabitShare app, my daily prayers and my exercising, I find another pretty ordinary week completed.
The prayers and Bible reading are very important to me and, given my station in life – being fully retired, are things I can easily incorporate into my daily schedule. And though it would be nice if I could exercise more often, given my age, I don't feel bad at all about having a rest day (or two) after every day of exercise.
All things considered, I'm satisfied with this ordinary week.
And the adventure continues.
Published on 11 July 2020, ~21:00 CDT, this is my post number 44/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.
#100DaysToOffload #habits
by Roscoe
It took me two months and a day, but...
... I finally caught the White King in a Rook-Rook-pawn combination checkmate on my 36th black move of this server-based correspondence chess game.
The picture above shows our board as seen from my Black side of the (virtual) table after the final move. And the full game record is below:
1. e4 d6 2. Bc4 e6 3. Bf1 Nf6 4. Bc4 Nxe4 5. d3 Ng5 6. Qg4 Be7 7. Qe2 O-O 8. Qe3 d5 9. Qd2 dxc4 10. dxc4 Bc5 11. h4 Ne4 12. Qe2 Bxf2+ 13. Kf1 Ng3+ 14. Kxf2 Nxh1+ 15. Ke3 Ng3 16. Qg4 Nf5+ 17. Kf4 g6 18. h5 Nh6 19. Qe2 Qd4+ 20. Qe4 Qxe4+ 21. Kxe4 c5 22. Bxh6 Rd8 23. Bg5 Rd4+ 24. Ke3 Rg4 25. Nf3 Nd7 26. h6 Rxg2 27. Nbd2 b6 28. b3 e5 29. Ne4 Ba6 30. Nf6+ Nxf6 31. Bxf6 Re8 32. Nxe5 Rh2 33. Ke4 Bb7+ 34. Kf4 Rxh6 35. Ng4 Re4+ 36. Kg5 Rh5# 0-1
We were playing with a five-days-per move clock (I DO like that time control) and neither one of us were ever in any kind of time trouble.
And the adventure continues.
Published on 08 July 2020, this is my post number 43/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.
#100DaysToOffload #chess
by Roscoe
A New Prayer Project
Given my advanced age and my health conditions, I am obliged to hold myself under strict self-quarantine until a safe and effective vaccine against the current Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Flu is available. Now if I was younger and healthier I'd be out and about and active as all younger, healthy folks should be. But since I fall within that tiny segment of the population to which the CCP Flu is particularly fatal, I choose to remain hunkered down.
That being the case, I welcome the Let Freedom Ring prayer project that begins today. I've participated in long novenas promoted by Fr. Heilman in the past and have found them to be beneficial and VERY time consuming. Since I have a lot of free time these days, I welcome this new 40-day project. It will help fill the hours of the days from now through mid-August.
And the adventure continues.
Published on 07 July 2020, this is my post number 42/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.
#100DaysToOffload #Catholic #Prayer #Project
by Roscoe
Happy Birthday, USA!
From my front porch to where ever you are, I wish you a safe and happy American Independence Day.
The adventure continues.
Published on 04 July 2020, this is my post number 41/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.
#100DaysToOffload #SevenTwoProject #photograph #flag #holiday #IndependenceDay
by Roscoe
Hey, Dummy! Lose the stupid hat and put on a shirt!
Reaching back into the archive of old photos recently provided by my sister, I find... me. Very long ago and far away.
I'm guessing this picture was taken in 1965, more or less. Sometime in the mid 60s anyway, when I was in high school. I can vaguely remember making that hat by taking an old felt fedora, wetting it repeatedly, and slowly stretching it over... a big bottle of some kind, I think. Have no idea about the pins, buttons, or doodads decorating it.
The photo was taken of me standing in the front yard of the big family house in the small town neighborhood where I grew up.
And now the adventure continues.
Published on 02 July 2020, this is my post number 40/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.
#100DaysToOffload #SevenTwoProject #photograph #ThrowbackThursday
by Roscoe