Day 308: Friday Sunny

Today started in a rush. I closed my eyes for just seconds, and it was one minute to 7AM! I managed to join the 7AM meeting, but no video this morning! I was happy it was booked for an hour, so when it ended early, I rushed and showered and got dressed in time for the next meeting.

This was an international Zoom call hosted by the company SAP about the software we are installing. I volunteered one of my teams to present in the future on how we are using SAP’s tool to do some data conversions, and I think we can share that.

I had a few more status meetings and a few crises of the moment to work through. I managed to slip out and take a long walk today, use-it-or-lose-it. My breathing and legs are not working quite right. I need to get out more.

I received the price list from the Biltmore Estate today, and they can fit us in on Wednesday 11Aug2021 for a 30th-anniversary party in North Carolina. The price is well what you would expect from Biltmore Estate! It is not that far out of line, about $100 a guest plus some set-up fees. No discounts were offered. This is in the lightest of pencil for now.

I took a couple more breaks and read some more of John Brooks’ book The Battle of Jutland. Jutland is the only great battleship battle and happened in 1916 in the North Sea. I also received from India a printed and leatherbound copy of the Battle of Jutland: Offical Dispatches book (OD). The original was scanned and can now be purchased for about $35 from India, bound with free shipping. The original was published in 1920, and all copyrights (if any) have expired. Many obscure military works can be found now as print-on-demand books, and India has always bound books. The copy of OD has some flaws on some of the maps, but if I need a copy of those, I can ask a library in England to photocopy them and send me the copy. I ordered the book when I read that John was relying on it.

I did not know that the OD has every last order, including flags, signal light, and wireless radio-issued orders. It also includes the time received, if received, and notes on how the order was executed. John uses the OD and other German sources to reconstruct the battle order-by-order. I have never read this kind of detail before. I have often wondered about certain events and problems, and now this new book from John Brooks covers everything. I am now trying to absorb all this new information and reading the actual orders in the OD.

The first expensive book I owned was a monogram on the HMS Invincible-class ships that famously exploded in the battle. I read about the battle and the famous HMS Invincible in an old book about WW1 when I was a kid and tried to learn more about the ship. Finally, I even had to buy a book about it. This is before the Internet. Here is the link about the ship with the dramatic photos of the end of HMS Invincible.

Would I recommend this book, Brooks’ book? Oh no! This is specialist work and not a narrative. The narrative book I would recommend to anyone is Jutland 1916: Death in the Gray Wastes. If you like your history as a story with details, this is one for you. The best book on WW1 is, I think, The Guns of August.

Returning to print-on-demand, I do have the manual for artillery used in the American Civil War (ACW) that is quite interesting. I found a cheap reprint on the Internet for that. If you are an ACW nut, like me, you need one of these. I have a lot more respect for gun crews and engineers in the war after reading some (horse maintenance got skipped) of this book.

I also tonight set-up the most complex board game (not wargame–WW1 Storm of Steel takes that dubious honor in my collection and comes with spreadsheets to download), Lisboa. It has a solo version that I have always wanted to play. I also ordered the queen variant and coins for the game from the manufacturer to upgrade the game a bit. It seemed time to try it. It took me 90 minutes to set it up for just me and solo set-up.

I will play it tomorrow; I have to re-read the 23 paged and very colorful rule book.

It was a warmish sunny day. Not our usual here in January.

The state of Oregon upgraded its vaccination rate two days ago to 13,100, and yesterday’s is starting at 10,618 and will likely be increased as the data takes 72 hours to be complete. My home county, Washinton, is at just under a 3% vaccination rate.

3,805 people in the USA died from Covid-19 today.

I went with Here I am Lord for today. This is one of the few hymns I can actually belt-out.