Today 6Jan2023: Friday

It is my first Friday of 2023 and the first one in a few weeks working from home. I feel a bit off as I try to work, see Susie, and run my household. It all feels a bit overwhelming this new year.

The office in the house, the back bedroom, and the window let me watch the backyard. Some of my favorite birds, Flickers, showed up today after the cats patrolled the backyard. A large grey squirrel was also in the back, jumping into the air and chasing some bugs. Mike, a local, removed all the leaves and gunk from my eaves, and now the water is making a lot of noise. I had forgotten that sound.

I start a bit later in the morning as I work from home and do not have to rush to the office. My foot hurt and woke me in the night–I take the usual painkillers, and soon I can sleep again. I skip my stretches and excesses as I am not supposed to hurt.

During the day, I order my emergency inhaler via the online pharmacy. It will still take a few days to get here, but at least it is now on its way. I also sent a note to my new doc, and they quickly replied that they had approved the refill. So, finally, it is on its way.

Why not the local pharmacy, the worn RiteAide a few miles away? I have found that they have a three-day or more backlog. Sometimes they reject my prescriptions without an explanation that I can understand. Lastly, they fill my prescription at a central location and then mail them to the local RiteAide, thus the backlog. To fill an urgent need, I would likely have to use Beaverton Pharmacy, a locally owned store, now as RiteAide and the other corporate places are overwhelmed when the same companies close so-called excess pharmacies.

I started the morning, as I said, a bit later. I attended five hours, yes all morning, Zoom meetings. I am covering a few items for the master data engineering group I have worked with for years. They are short-staffed from the usual things of family events, visa updates, and the holidays. I try to help.

I called US Bank and talked to the Anti-Fraud division. I saw in my reports in Quicken of doubling of Paypal transfers from my USB checking to Paypal, and my Paypal account was not showing a matching receipt. We reviewed it and found that the double transactions are NOT in my transactions. Somehow Quicken, or me, had doubled the transactions. It got pretty light-hearted as I discovered I had hacked myself and the Anti-Fraud expert was happy and laughing with me. It was fun to hang out with the Anti-Fraud for a bit, and after letting Anit-Fraud go, I deleted the mistaken transactions. I will watch for them to learn what I am doing wrong in Quicken!

The mail came, and my new solo board game was dropped off (three days early): 414 BC: Seige of Syracuse. I paid one of Susie’s medical bills; Susie has about $200 in over-the-counter items and about $200 in prescriptions a month. I opened the game, and it was nicely made. I read a bit of the rule. More to come on that later.

As it is Friday, I make lunch by baking a premade frozen Chicken Cordon Blu from Schwann’s, frozen corn, Schwann’s, and instant mashed potatoes. I am using things I have at the house. Everything was good, but unlike when you use a restaurant, the kitchen is now full of dishes to do. Hmmm.

Before cooking, I did the dishes and reassembled the glassware and covers that Gene and Glenda got me. It packs small to larger, so it only takes the space of the largest pieces, three containers for which I have to find a place. Sort of Russian Dolls of the cookware.

I follow along and even do a Zoom meeting while cooking. I get a load of laundry done. I take a short break while eating. More status and review meetings pop up, unusual for the official no-meeting Friday, but by 3PM, I have finished all the meetings planned for Friday. The traffic of emails and Slack messages diminishes in the mid-afternoon, finally.

Dressing between meetings, I leave in Air Volvo to Susie’s. The trip across Beaverton was in a surprising amount of traffic. Folks drive very slowly, and traffic backs up to the next traffic light. It takes me thirty minutes for my usual twenty-minute trip.

Susie looks tired and is watching Golden Girls in her recliner in the living room. We tried to call Leta, Susie’s mother but got no response. Next, Barb, Susie’s sister, calls, and they are having dinner with Leta at Cracker Barrel. We chatted on my iPhone using FaceTime for a while, and their food arrived. We get to see dinner: Country Fried steak for Leta, and Barb and Caleb, Barb’s son, have the Chicken and Dumplins.

Susie is sad to have me leave so soon, it is a work day, and I am worried that another thing will pop up on this unusually busy Friday. So I go with a kiss and promise to be back on Saturday.

The trip home hits an early rush hour traffic jam in Beaverton. I am stuck on Murphy Road for ten minutes. Air Volvo reaches the Volvo Cave after nearly an hour of travel; ugh. I check in at work, and nothing has been sent in my direction, but I see messages from folks working all afternoon, and the software is working so far. Nothing for me.

I read a bit of The Last Magician and have cheese and crackers for dinner. Dondrea had supplied me with a basket for Christmas, and I should start to use that up.

I spent some time on my electronics and became frustrated as my Gemma M0s were not working well with my Apple. The one I planned to reuse seemed unstable.

I switched to my Dell Windows laptop as my M1-based Apple laptop is still having issues with the dynamic disk mounting the Gemma use. You plug the Gemma in with a USB mini-A cable (I have four types of lines for this kind of work) to an Apple, Linux, or Windows 7 (or better) computer. The cable will mount the memory of the Gemma as an alternative disk drive, much like a memory stick, and there you can change the code that runs the Gemma.

You can also set the Gemma into boot mode by pressing the reset button twice fast. This allows you to replace the software with a newer version or re-image a bricked Gemma. For example, I found a Gemma in the original package in my collection of hardware, and I loaded the current software on its boot.

The device survived, and I returned it to normal mode, mounted it, and discovered it was empty. I found a copy of the demo code and loaded that. It failed. I then got new supportive libraries for MicroPython supplied by AdaFruit in NYC–they make the Gemma. Next, it failed as there was a bug in the keyboard software. I noticed that the device, the size of a US quarter, did not have a keyboard and commented out that code. Back to working.

It had been hours. I was done with Gemma for today! My radio also started stopping when I stood up in the chair again. I believe the breakout board for the radio chip connection is unstable, and the right vibration will cause it to shut down the radio. Something to fix with electrical tape. Some other day.

Next, I watched the election of the USA Speaker of the House election. I was less interested in politics as theater, but in hearing the initial speech of the speaker. McCarthy’s speech did contain a few conciliatory words, but I was not surprised when it became laced with anti-spending, anti-China, and conspiracy theory statements. However, the delivery and back and forth from near-rabid attacks to calls for all Americans to work together was well done. He even made some wisecracks that got me to laugh. While I do not like the latest political theater from the right, at least the speaker can make me smile. He is an excellent choice for the Republicans; well done.

I read and finally went to sleep after midnight. I woke up a few times and started late on Saturday.

Thank you for reading.