Today 13June2023

Today I was sensing a change in the world. I notice these sometimes and start to move to the following items to work on. It makes me hopeful as this means there is a future, and exciting work is coming. I was busier today as I began to start new work. I am playing Philp Glass’s Akhnaten opera and saw more strange winds; it is being broadcasted next month (the 2019 production I saw live in the theaters). I think I will make a virtual show at the Met next month, July 26th.

The day is like many, and I hate to keep writing about getting up and making breakfast like it is incredible that I made it to the afternoon and bore people with the mundane. But, I heard today on public radio that the anti-cancer drug (the one that put me in the ER) is now in critically low supply, and folks are having to forego treatment or try a more dangerous or less effective drug. I am so blessed that none of this happened to me in the middle of the f**king pandemic, and I managed to avoid Covid-19. So it may be best if I remember the day.

So the morning started with me waking before my 6AM alarm and figuring out why I was up so early. I managed to find the kitchen, it appears to be in the same place–but I had doubts for a moment. There, I located an NYC bagel (thanks, Joyce), heated it for a bit in the microwave (it was frozen) to allow me to quickly slice the bagel and not turn it into a bread ball, toasted it, and smeared cream cheese on it and sprinkled it with capers. I improved my meal by adding a mug of freshly made liberal coffee (I have drunk it since Trump won his election as a reminder to be vigilant). I took this all into the office (formally Corwin’s room) and read all my emails (both the shoe company’s and mine), reviewed the updates in the Slack channels, and read the news. While the news was embarrassingly stuffed with articles about Trump, I was more interested in the Consumer Price Index, which was surprisingly better and may mean a soft landing for the economy.

I then showered, which included washing my grown-out hair, which is more than I have had in a long time. I towel it dry, but it is still damp when I leave and reach work. I am still trying to understand how to manage long hair. On shaving, I did order the Dollar Shaving Club new blades (they changed their base product again!) and changed my blade today. Interestingly, the cheaper blades have no way to clean them, while the more expensive DSC ones easily wash out and are not dull after a week (I did change after a week and noticed little change in the performance). I may take the suggestion to switch to a new shaving supply company that is not a zombie version of a brand now animated by multi-nations like Unilever.

I dressed not in a dress shirt, a Nike Tiger Woods’ short leave shirt, and boarded Air Volvo. I did encounter a school bus, but only for a moment, and I arrived in time for my first meeting at 8AM. Today it is knowledge transfer meetings from our software vendor. I was fascinated by the code and process (I suspect most people would be nodding off) and asked questions.

I was unhappy with the code as it made database requests without wrapping the request in an error recovery (Try…Except style code) process. Anyone can code a request, but a real commercial-grade program checks for failures and then returns those failures to the caller. Instead, this program is written with the hope to not fail, and if it does, it just sends a generic error  (swallowing the exceptions). This is the worst type of code–I was not happy. Worse, the program was slow as it did not Fork some tasks and wait for the results, thus only waiting the maximum time of one process. Instead, the code adds together all the time by running the processes back to back without exception handling. I did not know what to say as the program was already live. Worse, the presenter said the program already has tickets against it for running too slowly. Ugh!

After that, I did status meetings and put in all my vacation requests for July, August, and one day in October (H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland). Barb, Susie’s sister, is coming in mid-July, and I can get some time free then (I may have to do some security requests and help with a go-live at that time, but I should get free from most work items).

I headed out to see Susie after 11AM. Susie was sitting in her chair. Susie was delighted to have a visitor, and we soon called Leta, Susie’s mother, and talked about our day and Leta’s hopes for her tomato plants. Soon, I had to find lunch and get back to work. I kissed Susie goodbye and promised to return on Wednesday.

Next, I traveled on the highways without seeing Beaverton’s Finest handing out speeding tickets. I stopped by Burger King on the way back to work, had a Whopper with cheese, and listened to public radio while I enjoyed my burger and fries. The burger seemed really good today.

On the radio was a gal, Matika Wilbur, who did a photo album of every sovereign Tribal Nation in North America, 562. It took her years and is called Project 562 and the book’s name. The author was a teacher and could not find any appropriate pictures of Native Americans to show her students in a Native American School, so she went on an odyssey to fix this by photographing people from all 562 nations. 

I was sitting in my car and looked over, and Gary, another IT person I have worked with for years, was eating his lunch and reading his phone. We chatted and then headed out.

The rest of the afternoon was a few crises of the moment and me starting on some new work. The afternoon disappeared, and soon I was done with status reports and driving home. I reached home, looked for something to make, found the Jambalaya mix, and headed back to Safeway. I bought various types of meat for Jambalaya (not seafood) and other items for breakfast. I saw my Iraqui friend, Ise, checking, and we greeted each other with a smile and a handshake. He looked well and happy.

I cut up the sausage: Portuguese spiced links, cajan sausage, and plain kielbasa. I cut it lengthwise and then again. Finally, chopping into blocks (no coins). I heat these in a pan (no oil) and cut up a fresh green pepper to cook in the hot meat (which creates its own fat). I stir in the rice and seasoning from a box of Zatarain’s mix (21 cents an ounce if bought in a 12-box on Amazon) and heat until things start to stick. I then add a can of Mexican-style stewed tomatoes plus two more cans of water and scrape the pan bottom with a wooden spoon to release the goodies. Next, heat to a boil and simmer on low for 25 minutes, tightly covered. Do not stir. When reaching time, if still sloppy, then that is good. If not, then take it to sink and pour, using care, cold water on the bottom of the pan. Now it is safe to stir–hot rice will burn when stirred (the heat released from stirring instantly burns the rice to the bottom of the pan). 

I watched the rest of the newest Doctor Strange movie while cooking and eating. I have yet to do the dishes and get back to the laundry. Instead, I wrote this blog. Remembering how lucky I am to have all these boring things happen to me. I pray for the folks who cannot get their anti-cancer drugs and may not be doing boring stuff in a year. That was not the headline today. CPI and Trump were the headlines.

I remembered. I cried. I pray. I write.

Thanks for reading.