Story 25Aug2022

The workday morning is always a rush to get to the office early. I made it about 7:30ish this time. This was done by jumping up with the alarm and hopping into the shower. Playing loud music–I am the only one in the house now.

By the way, we pay a monthly fee for music from Alexa that allows Susie and me to play most music through the devices. Through the device, Susie gets her tunes, and anything else she or the nursing aides want at hummingbird house–I share the account. We have changed the listening word to echo and not Alexa for all the obvious reasons.

After the shower and getting dressed, I discovered in the kitchen that I had forgotten to run the dishwasher. The French Press was still in the dishwasher, so I made a pot of coffee using the old coffee pot. I used liberal coffee, Fair Trade, that I have drunk every morning since Trump was elected to remember that the small things matter. Vigilance is the price of freedom!

Aside: While that is a political statement–liberal coffee–this blog is about my experiences, not politics. Trump is part of my world, and my reaction to the world is recorded here. For me, this is my memory of these odd years. As for Trump, I see him as a sincere player (I did not say he did not lie a lot) in that his actions were true to his nature as a disrupting force. He brought forth the vaccine that saved so many. He also cut taxes and, as he promised, slammed us in states with high or highish local taxes–trying to drive us to cut taxes in the regional states–by cutting or limiting deductions for local taxes (called SALT) and thus raising our federal taxes. He stacked the courts and government with supporters. We saw the same thing in the 1970s, massive disruption, with Jimmy Carter, and both were single-term presidents. They were elected as outsiders and brought in a non-professional staff into the White House that soured the American people, and also both presidents faced, yes, let’s use it, unprecedented events. Carter had uncontrolled inflation and Iran Hostage Afair, while Trump had 2020, the year of disasters. Both now, as ex-presidents, are making waves and changing things.

Returning to the narrative, I made my fav muffins after finishing the blog on Thursday, lemon poppy from King Arthur Flour mix. I had a few of those with my coffee while rushing to finish reading my emails and checking for any crisis of the moment that I needed to react to ASAP. None.

Air Volvo got me to work, as I said, early. I then had a parade of meetings, all Zoom and one in-person (unusual even when we are sitting in the office), plus Zoom. I also read about some technology showing up more on my space, Node.js.

I left work at about 11:15ish and arrived early at hummingbird house. Susie had breakfast and was sitting in her recliner. I headed to her room, and I assembled her peddle elliptical machine. It was much larger than I expected and heavy. It even came with a screwdriver!

I brought Zoraida’s gift for Susie, a handmade shaw. Susie loved it, and it is on her bed, so she can use it in the mornings.

Aside: We send our best to Zoraida, who helped us for years. With the unexpected passing of her husband, Zoraida decided to shut down her business and move to Texas to be closer to her family. For years and even during the pandemic, Susie would have a spa day with Zoraida on Mondays. A driver would pick her up and return her to the house. Hair, skin, nails, and so on, plus often Zoraida’s homemade soup. These weekly visits kept Susie going for years. Thanks, Zoraida, for everything, and best wishes in Texas!

Susie had blood on her blanket, and Jennifer said that when she cleaned Susie’s mouth, there were signs of bleeding. Susie’s gums are bleeding again–this was an ER trip at Forest Grove earlier this year when it could not be stopped. Susie is on high-quality blood thinners to prevent a new stroke. Jennifer and the staff will monitor for bleeding at night and chat with the RN about actions to take.

Tracy, the physical therapy person, was ten minutes late. Her session with Susie ran over and was intense. We tried to use the new machine, but Susie’s wheelchair was narrow and tall, and the elliptical pedals hit the chair. Tracy finally got an arrangement that worked, sort of, and Susie got to work out. Next, Susie got to practice standing while being carefully guarded by Tracy. Susie was able to stand much better today.

After that, I headed out with a kiss from Susie. Then, Susie headed for a snack and a nap.

On the way back to the office, I stopped by Carl Jr’s and had a Western Burger with fries and a diet drink. It was not very good. Back at the office, a few issues returned, and a few new ones surfaced. Brad, my boss, surprised me by not being at a desk but at the tire place–his tires were shredded by some rubble on our local roads, ugh.

I left the office at 4PM and headed to the house office to enjoy the 5:05 status meeting. I had already done my out-of-office message, timesheet, and other rituals to be off for a day. I had a muffin for dinner and a bowl of chicken soup from a can. I ate this while that status meeting went on to just before 6PM.

I was tired and feeling down. The chaos that is my life with the endless medical expenses and the short-sighted career goals was depressing me. I like to travel, learn new things, and be in the middle of software development–now, I am shuffled to the side. But, that is right for me, and frankly for Nike, as I am a recovering cancer survivor and experiencing a medical disaster with my wife.

I see the world like a horse fighting against the ropes and gates of ignorance, war, Covid-19 real risks, greed, and constraint against using the new cutting-edge computer technology. The world wants, like a young horse, to run and discover how fast it can run and how far it can go, but it is stuck in a halter of racism, unfair practices, insane tax policies, and just old-fashioned human stupidity. I want to release this. But, I wait.

Back to the narrative, I found one of the new things in the world, The Sandman, on Netflicks. An amazing SciFi story from a writer that I sort of like, Neil Gaiman, who also did a bizarre Doctor Who and does a mix of horror and SciFi. I could not stop watching it. I watched five or six episodes on Thursday night. I use my Amazon Fire for this, which should still work after the new cable is installed. My boss, Brad, suggests just a rabbit ears antenna for local news–no need for cable for local news.

While watching The Sandman, I did not initially recognize Jenna Coleman, also from Doctor Who, who plays an exciting part. The show has collected the best folks from Doctor Who and Games of Thrones. The special effects, acting, and writing is good and does not turn away from complex subjects. Recommended!

I stayed up late talking to Archana in India. She is one of my fellow employees at the shoe company and got to present to leadership for a few minutes. Archana wanted to share that and get my perspective on what we will be doing next. Our data conversions are out in the future, a best. I asked her to hook up with the MDG team in India working on the upgrade–it is unusual and exciting work. Even software upgrades are now cutting edge.

It was nearing 1AM when I went to bed, I was feeling better, and it is always good to chat with Archana.

I hope that the blog is interesting. Thanks for reading.