Day 157: Wednesday Powells!

Yes, 157 days of lockdown.

Today I slipped out of work about 4ish and headed to the hobby store, I needed a golden shade of yellow for my next set of figures to paint, and to hopefully enter Powell’s Cedar Hills Bookstore.

Before this, today started at 6ish with me waking before my alarm and starting the day with emails and Zoom meetings. I had some pressing issues and crises of the moment at Nike; it is a bit confused and scary now at work. Folks are stressed. With the murder-hornets found close by and the new forest fires, I think the plagues of Pharaoh have begun! I have adopted a friendly “smile and wave” persona I learned from the Madagascar penguins.

I also found a few minutes between meetings to finish up the Scythe mech figures for the base set. This is just cleaning off the masking and wiping off the base and those little fixes you see after you have done all the work. There is always something. Here are all of them together. I think they look great (I painted the characters last year during the holidays)! It was good to take a short break.

I have two more factions from the add-on, “Invaders from Afar,” to the base Scythe board game to finish. Japan (purple) is nearing completion. Scotts (green) is just started.

After getting my paint at Tammy’s Hobbies, I headed to Powell’s in Beaverton. The staff at Tammy’s did not have their masks on all the time, and some did not cover their noses. I was really disappointed this time with the folks at Tammy’s Hobbies. I will not likely be back to Tammy’s.

Last time I tried to enter Powell’s, there was a line and a Disney like wait. This time I could walk in. I could see that some of the items were more spaced out, and the crowd was smaller than usual.

It was so lovely to be in our local books store again. I forgot how much I missed the shelves with all the handwritten notes suggesting this book. The stocking is a bit low, but there are used books at lower prices in science fiction and some new titles.

And there is the strange Portland area humor that we get here. The passive-aggressive actions that are just so here. All the statues and dummies have masks.

I bought travel guides, Rick Steves Guide to Rome, and a more general guide to Eastern Europe, trying to be positive for next year. I wish to travel next year.

Returning back to food. My lunch was lost for a while. I had to contact the chat line on GrubHub as my lunch was going towards Portland. It seems that a software glitch had sent the poor driver in circles. Lunch arrived intact and still warm fifteen minutes late. I gave the poor man an additional five-dollar cash tip as thanks for not giving up. My lunch gets him only about $2.50 to deliver it.

Returning to this evening, after getting back with all my treasures from Powell’s and some paint from Tammy’s, I made dinner. Pork chops fried in butter and Herbs de Provence and then baked in the frypan in the oven to finish them–learned from Blue Apron. Couscous made from almond slivers cooked in butter with cinnamon and a touch of cardamon, and then the couscous stirred in and toasted just for a moment. Before this, beef broth microwaved until it is hot and then poured into the pan and the pan removed from heat. This with steamed and peeled carrots with butter, that is more butter, with just a hint of salt.

Aside: Don’t burn yourself by grabbing the pan’s handle, put on oven mittens, and then put one over the handle when you get it out of the oven, so you don’t forget that the handle is hot (trust me you want to do this).

After this, I started on the last mechs for Scythe the board game.

Today the US stock market bubble grew, and Nike stock fell back to a still high value of $108 a share. Even the non-financial news is commenting on the strength of the markets. I am watching my 401K climb at over five percent for the year!

Over twelve-hundred people expired from the virus today in the USA.

I found this old movie clip of Go Down Moses, which seemed to me to fit today: Go Down Moses Movie Clip.