It was a long day working from home. I was on-line from 6:30AM until about 6:00PM today. I had a video conference hosted by SAP, Nike, and Goodyear at 7AM to enable folks on the East Coast to attend. It went well. Again, work was a mix of trying to deliver and pressure to reach the next milestone. That is how IT goes.
My troubles from yesterday continued and others were facing many of the same challenges from the same issues I faced. It left me tired and thinking about taking Friday off (and Monday and Tuesday and…).
Lunch was from Gyro House, and Susie got baklava too.
I managed to take a walk between meetings once everything calmed down for a bit. I was triple booked once! The school is providing food baskets now.
I also saw that the Presbyterians have a new prayer box and a table set-out not far from the “HOPE” sign.
Our streets are usually packed when I was walking. Parents rushing to get kids and then get them to the next thing. Not anymore.
(this is 209th and 209th and Johnson)
Work went on, and the install of software for the project halted. Last I saw they had tried to restart the automated processes.
I finished the book Windjamming to Fiji published in 1929 and written about a trip two gals do as crew on a Windjammer. The story as we left it last time the ship was stuck in the doldrums. That finally changed, and the gals experienced a massive storm. The author makes the mistake of falling asleep in a hammock on the deck as a storm begins. She is thrown in the air by the sudden waves that bounce her in and out of the hammock as if it the hammock turned into a trampoline. The ship heels over, and she is forced to walk on a deck that is more wall than the floor. She is battered and smashed but survives. From my readings about Windjammers, they are built to run in storms. The hull and masts are iron.
The storm leaves the captain unsure of their location, and they come upon a reef. The local pilot gets them into Fiji’s harbor Suva. Thus they find Fiji, and it is a paradise.
The gals trade all the items they brought for locally made items. The author is offered to be the chief’s wife and live in Fiji. The call for the sea and the desire to finish their tour on the old ship is too much. She turns down the offer.
They sail the ship into New Caledonia, where the vessel is disassembled into a barge-warehouse. The story ends with the captain taking the wind vane from the old ship and packing it away with a tear. He promised it to the pilot in Fiji, where it was to be placed on top of the flag pole. A sad but honest ending to the book.
I found the author’s obituary in the New York Times, 1951. Ms. Cooper returned to New York City and was a literary agent. This is her only book. She did help co-write another about being a medical working in the South Pacific during World War 2.
I think I will keep this book. I can see Ms. Cooper’s smile in the slightly faded black and white pictures. I will read this again. I feel like I met her.
My music choice for the book is this: Son of a Sailor.
I made dinner tonight. We had some thinly sliced pork chops that I pan-fried and served with Stovetop stuffing (which was terrible).
I have now Volvo Valet on my phone. I have scheduled a pick-up and service for the Volvo on April 13th. The SUV gets a trip to the spa for the 30K service. The dealership is looking for keeping their staff working so they emailed me and called. I am willing to help the local shop and the car needed the service. It is not really doing anything now.
I spent the early evening working on Roll20, getting all of the characters ready for the new adventure: Tomb of Horrors, Aloha Oregon Branch. I uploaded the characters used in the previous adventure and then exported them to the new content. I then looked them over and made a few improvements. As the players defeated the Evil Elemental Princes they now can do extra damage and their magic is more effective on elementals. Most of the successful characters will continue on to glory or death in the tomb. Excelsior!
I purchased more moving parts in Roll20. I hate re-buying books that I already have, but to get the computer content, that is what you have to do: Monster Manual and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. A birthday present for myself; April 16th is coming up.
The stock market continues to climb, and my 401K is now showing only an 11% loss for the year. I have no comment on this, I will just take the money.
It is difficult to read the reports showing that nearly two-thousand American passed away today from the virus. I found this from Brooklyn: Psalm 34.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 