Roscoe's Story

Thursday

Expect me to be offline...

Broken Fiber

... for significant periods of time from now until 18 December.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post a City of San Antonio road crew is in the process of tearing up, then resurfacing the street in front of my house.

Many of us who live along my street access the Internet via Google Fiber. And the Google Fiber comes to us via underground cables that are buried under the street. The crew tearing up the street are making no provision to protect those cables. They break the cables and we loose our connection to the Internet until the cable guys can come along behind them and fix what's been broken.

Yesterday's outage for me was two and a half hours in the early afternoon. Today's outage for me was three hours in the evening. I spoke briefly to the guys fixing my cable tonight and was told that I could expect similar outages on a daily basis until the City crew was done with their work. That's expected to be 18 December.

So... long story short: don't expect to see me online very often until their work is done. And if I'm not replying to you during that time, it's probably because I've been knocked offline.

And so the adventure continues.


Posted 03/Dec/2020 ~ 20:40 Central Time #RoscoeEllis #blog #SeniorLiving #Thursday #Internet #offline


by Roscoe

Virtual Thanksgiving Day 2020

Thanksgiving 2020

Thank God for technology, and for big turkeys, too.

Sylvia and I spent a happy hour this morning video chatting with family a thousand miles away. None of us are able to travel due to Covid restrictions, but we were able to visit virtually. Watching the great grandkids play was so much fun, and it was nice to see everyone again.

Later today she and I will be sharing that scrumptuous turkey seen in the collage above. And this afternoon I'll be enjoying a footbal double-header. It WAS going to be a triple-header but the night game has had to be postponed until Sunday... due to Covid.

And the adventure continues.


Published on 26 November 2020, ~ 11:30 Central Time.

#RoscoeEllis #blog #SeniorLiving #Thursday #Thanksgiving


by Roscoe

White wins quickly

White wins

This Correspondence Chess game started in mid-October when I pushed my White Queen's pawn to the d4 square and ended today with my win as Black resigned.

Position of pieces at game's end can be seen in the graphic that leads this blog post, and our full move record is below.

1. d4 d6 2. Ng1f3 Ng8f6 3. g3 Nb8d7 4. Bf1g2 e5 5. dxe5 dxe5 6. Nb1c3 c6 7. O-O h6 8. Rf1e1 Bf8b4 9. a3 Bb4xc3 10. bxc3 Qd8c7 11. c4 e4 12. Nf3h4 Qc7e5 13. Ra1b1 g5 14. Nh4f3 exf3 15. exf3 Qe5xe1 16. Qd1xe1 1-0

The adventure continues.


Published on 19 November 2020, ~11:50 Central Time.

#RoscoeEllis #blog #SeniorLiving #Thursday #chess


by Roscoe

It is discovered that...

Hot cocoa

... that the great-grandbabies love hot cocoa!

And thank God that children and grandchildren post pictures on the Internet so that grandparents and great-grandparents who live far away can share in the joy and happiness of such moments!

That means SO MUCH to us, especially in these times of forced lockdown and separation!

And the adventure continues.


Published on 12 November 2020, ~11:00 Central Time.

#RoscoeEllis #blog #SeniorLiving #Thursday #greatgrandbabies


by Roscoe

Social sites?

Social sites

Yeah, I visit a few.

These are the ones saved in a folder of my phone. Some I visit much more regularly than others. Some I visit for different reasons than others.

When we're mostly quarantined under this plandemic we get our socializing from where we can, ya know.

I imagine many of you visit at least some of these places, too.

The chess clubs and websites I belong to are saved in another folder, and I often spend as much time or more with my games there than I do with the social sites pictured above. And honestly, I find the chess-heavy days healthier and more edifying than the days spent largely on the social sites.

And so the adventure continues.


Published on 05 November 2020, ~16:15 Central Time.

#RoscoeEllis #blog #SeniorLiving #Thursday #technology #social


by Roscoe

Not very pretty, but I like it.

Win 05Nov

When I checked my messages this morning I learned that I'd won another Correspondence Chess game. My opponent playing Black resigned from our game with his 56th move, giving me the win by default.

Some say that only wins by checkmate are pretty, and the earlier and more unexpectedly they come, the prettier they are. I don't say that, not at all. A win by late game resignation when a checkmate is inevitable, such as this one, is enjoyed very much.

The position of pieces at game's end is shown in the graphic above, and our full move record is below:

1. d4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Bd7 5. O-O h5 6. Bg5 Be7 7. Ne5 Ne4 8. Bxe7 Qxe7 9. Nc3 Nf6 10. Re1 Nc6 11. Nxc6 Bxc6 12. e3 g5 13. e4 O-O-O 14. exd5 Rxd5 15. Nxd5 Nxd5 16. c4 Nb4 17. d5 Bd7 18. a3 Na6 19. Qd4 Rh6 20. Qxa7 e5 21. Rac1 f6 22. d6 Qxd6 23. Qa8+ Nb8 24. Qxb7+ Kd8 25. Qxb8+ Ke7 26. Qg8 Qe6 27. Bd5 Qxg8 28. Bxg8 Rg6 29. Bh7 Rg7 30. Bb1 Ba4 31. Bc2 Bd7 32. Kg2 Bc6+ 33. f3 g4 34. Be4 Bd7 35. b3 Rg8 36. c5 c6 37. b4 Ra8 38. Ra1 Kd8 39. Rf1 Ra6 40. Bg6 Be6 41. Bxh5 gxf3+ 42. Rxf3 Bd5 43. Rd1 e4 44. Rxf6 e3+ 45. Kg1 Rxa3 46. b5 Rc3 47. Rxc6 Ke7 48. Rxd5 Rc1+ 49. Kg2 Rc2+ 50. Kh3 e2 51. Bxe2 Rxe2 52. Ra6 Re6 53. c6 Rh6+ 54. Kg2 Ke6 55. Rd8 Ke7 56. c7 Rxa6 1-0

And the adventure continues.


Published on 05 November 2020, ~13:00 Central Time.

#RoscoeEllis #microblog #SeniorLiving #Thursday #chess


by Roscoe

Queen-Rook Checkmate

Q-R Mate

It took me 73 moves to checkmate the White King yesterday in a Correspondence Chess game that started over a month ago and involved my opponent and me wiping out almost our entire armies. Finally my Queen and Rook trapped his King in a checkmate against an edge of the board.

The position of pieces at game's end is above, at the top of this post, and our full move record is below.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nf6 3. b3 g6 4. Be3 Nc6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. g3 O-O 7. Bg2 Re8 8. Nxd5 Nxd5 9. Bxd5 Nb4 10. Be4 e5 11. d5 c6 12. a3 Na6 13. Nf3 b5 14. cxb5 Nc7 15. bxc6 Nb5 16. Rc1 Qd6 17. b4 Nxa3 18. c7 Qxb4+ 19. Nd2 Bf8 20. d6 Bd7 21. Bxa8 Rxa8 22. O-O Rc8 23. Ne4 Qxe4 24. Qd3 Qxd3 25. exd3 Bxd6 26. Bxa7 Bxc7 27. Rc3 Nb5 28. Rb3 Nxa7 29. Rb4 Bf5 30. Kg2 Bxd3 31. Rd1 Nc6 32. Rh4 Nb4 33. Rxb4 Rd8 34. Rb7 Ba5 35. Re7 e4 36. h4 Kf8 37. Kh2 Kxe7 38. Kg2 Kf8 39. Ra1 Bc3 40. Rd1 Kg7 41. Kh2 h5 42. Rc1 Bb2 43. Rc7 Bd4 44. Kh3 e3 45. fxe3 Bf5+ 46. Kh2 Bxe3 47. Re7 Rd2+ 48. Kh1 Bc5 49. Re5 Bb6 50. Re7 Bh3 51. g4 Bxg4 52. Re1 Bh3 53. Re2 Rd1+ 54. Kh2 Bg4 55. Kg3 Bc7+ 56. Kf2 Bxe2 57. Kxe2 Rh1 58. Kf2 Rxh4 59. Kg2 f5 60. Kf3 g5 61. Ke3 f4+ 62. Ke4 Kf6 63. Kd5 f3 64. Kc6 f2 65. Kxc7 f1=Q 66. Kd6 Qe1 67. Kd5 Qe6+ 68. Kc5 Rh1 69. Kd4 Rd1+ 70. Kc3 Qc6+ 71. Kb2 Rd8 72. Kb3 Rb8+ 73. Ka3 Qa6# 0-1

And the adventure continues.


Published on 29 October 2020, ~10:15 CDT, this is my post number 98/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #RoscoeEllis #microblog #SeniorLiving #Thursday #chess


by Roscoe