Day 340: Tuesday Working

I see the first year of this daily blog approaching. I never expected to write for a year, and I was hoping, a failed hope, that we would have vaccines and would be free of this at the start of 2021. I never believed that people would take the normal precautions for infection to be a political statement and that I would be looking at Year 2 of my blog and still not seeing the end of lockdown.

And 2021 has now had the largest power failures in Oregon history. Yes, the world has gone for another first. The USA faces the complete collapse of power grids in Texas and other western states while an arctic blast hits deep into the county’s south. My friend Violet Blue in San Francisco, we only meet online, said she finds it strange that California is not the center of yet-another-natural-disaster with total power grid fails. Another unexpected but totally predictable event. It has been cold before.

It does feel like Monty Python, Douglas Adams, or SNL is writing our script!

I might have to write another Howard story about the continuation of unexpected but completely predictable events.

I guess the only good news is that any murder hornets-filled trees broke-up from the ice storm, exposing the wasps to the elements. I suspect they are gone or greatly reduced.

The snow is mostly gone today, the water levels are coming down, and the mail and packages even were delivered. The trash and recycling are still not picked-up. I suspect we will see them on Friday, our normal day. Waste Management charges for each extra bag on the curb. I suspect the bad weather will be a windfall for them–irony and pun all in the same statement.

The morning started on Tuesdays as normal, 7AM Zoom calls with India and the USA. That is followed by four hours of status meetings, all on Zoom. I did write some Groovy code trying to make some progress on one of my tasks. I also had to look up how some data is sourced and what it means for another team. I helped write the old software, so I often find the answers they need or headed them towards them.

Much of today, including a few crises of the moment, was routine, and I was still tired. Focus came and went, but at least I did get some of my focus back a few times.

I went outside for a walk but saw my neighbor and a chance for us, socially distanced, to just chat, so I skipped the walk to just chew-the-fat with Chris. It was polite, and we do get along. I am still polite even when he told me that the QAnaon shaman guy from 6Jan2021 was actually an employee of Nancy Pelosi–not. He is good to his family and did my air conditioning for a good price. I am sure he thinks I am a crazy liberal.

Lunch for me was a can of New England Clam Chowder. I still remember having it in Massachusettes when I lived there as a little kid, and it is still a thrill to have some. Seafood, to me, is a pile of steamer clams. And taking the shells home to paint and play with. I remember still having a few even left when I was in college in a box.

Susie had Eggo Waffles with peanut butter.

Work went on with some more meetings, mostly status all on Zoom. We also had an alignment meeting that went well.

I stopped about 3ish as I was getting tired again. I did check emails while I read. I took a short 30-minute nap, unplanned.

Returning to the kitchen, I made tacos for dinner—boxed taco shells and spice packet, old school. I put the cheese in the shells before I heat them in the oven. I ate a lot of tacos–I love these. Susie had a few and split a bottle of Mexican beer with me.

This evening, I read the German Report on the Battle of Jutland that the British found in a partially scuttled German battleship and published the translation in 1918. I had never read this before; I have only seen quotes from it. It is in the back of a book of communication and reports published after World War One by the British Navy. It includes even the flags used in the battle. I order a print-on-demand copy of the book from India bound in leather. It is a scanned copy in the public domain, so it is not perfect, but it is good enough to read.

To me, it is amazing to read these reports. We are still learning about this 100-year-old battle.

I am back to working on India time tonight.

5,281 people were vaccinated yesterday in Oregon. Again, the rates are way down, and the state website says there is not enough vaccine now.

1,787 people died in the USA today from the Covid-19.

I have not sung this before, but I learned from cartoons: Nobody Knows the Trouble I Seen–Methodist Hymnal 520.