I return to my weekend pattern, to some degree, by writing this blog for Friday on Saturday morning. The Pineapple Express is sending the “river of water,” and my gutters are overflowing as the leaves are falling and filling them. It is a grey boiling sky that will remain with us until next year’s summer. The sun is gone. Or, a typical day in November here in the Portland Greater Area and the Pacific Northwest. We grumble and secretly smile as we welcome the rains and the wettest month of the year. If you live here, you actually like rain.
I am feeling a bit better about Susie’s passing as the pain has gone from sharp emotional pain like a broken bone or the endless pulsing pain like a dental issue to more like sore muscles and muscle aches of the flu. I cry three or four times a day, but now just slow tears. I have made no progress on the obituary or the celebration of Susie’s life. It takes all I have to pretend it is a usual day.
But let’s, dear reader, move to the narrative. The truth is in the story, not my musings about the day.
Friday was another work-from-home day at Nike WHQ. In January, Monday will be a work-from-office day, expanding us to a 4-in-the-office work week. Also, the rumors are that all the folks who moved away are being told to return to their department–I have no official correspondence on this issue, so it is just rumors. I do not plan to run away or to demand to work from home, even though the COVID-19 numbers are rising and there are few masks at WHQ. But, nobody comes to work sick or exposed–so at least we have that. Also, you can see the conversations are still at six feet in the hallways. Again, it is something.
I climbed out of bed at 7AM, found the kitchen, and it was cold. The economic settings are 66F (19C) for the house. I advanced it to 70F, wincing at the extra carbon from my natural gas (but reasonably efficient furnace), but since the chemotherapy, I take a chill. I wear one last time the worn-out slippers that Linda, my sister, gave me when she worried about me in chemotherapy. New slippers are on their way to me. The floors are cold, and I am cold.
I make coffee, not my usual brand, but the NYC-based Zabar’s grind, and I taste the fantastic, never-sleeping city. Across my tongue are the flavors of Broadway shows, walks in Central Park, the efficient greed of Wall Street (which I love and hate at the same time), a thousand places to eat that are better than anything here, memories of dinners and games with Cat and Tasha and Jason in Manhattan, Susie (now a sad flavor with tears) loving every moment in NYC, and the insane taste of subways (the people, the new and old subway lines, and ease of travel) and I love every drop. I draw out an NYC bagel, also Zabar’s, and prepare it with cream cheese (thanks, Smiths and Joyce, for the vast collection). I head to the home office, sad and happy, with my best breakfast. I added some yogurt to finish it.
Work is the usual meetings, but since it was Friday, I have skipped the usual defect meeting and instead attended a staff meeting for master data with Rajani and our whole team for the project, followed by more status and process meetings. This is a happy meeting and a chance to see, virtually, the entire staff. This is followed by the usual boring status meetings–it is always good when these meetings are boring.
I slip into the shower in a break between meetings, and thus, refreshed, I continue on more meetings in my home office via Zoom. Lunch is a salad that I chop veggies for. My celery, while having seen better days, is still good enough. I chop one giant carrot and some ham from Sunday, still in the frig, and make a chef salad. I watch on the new laptop, which I worked out the last kinks, and working excellently, the next part of the newest Indiana Jones while I make my salad. I then take the food and laptop back to the office. I reorganized the cables, and now the landing dock is working–the last thing. Instead of watching much YouTube, my usual, I instead enjoy the US Department of State websites. I collect my passport book, which expires in seven months, and fill out the forms to renew it. It is $220 to rush this, but it will likely take months as Congress continues to start and stop the government for reasons best not explored here. I then get in Air Volvo, remove the leaves trying to bury it, and head to FedEx’s office less than a mile away. Another poor photo later, I added it to the smallish envelope with the form and passport book and took Air Volvo to the Post Office. There, I invested another $5 or so to get a tracking number and send my hopefully correctly filled out form and acceptable photos to the State Department to get my next passport.
I refueled Air Volvo. Gas, while below $5, is still too high, but at least it is slowly declining in price.
I return in time for more Zoom meetings at the Volvo Cave and my home office. At 3PM, I completed all my meetings and reviews and approvals. I read more on the Cassandra database (more of a data storage and indexing system than a real database, I think) and commend it to you data geeks reading this–I am intrigued.
I get texting Dondrea, and we exchanged our favorite Christmas tunes. Dondrea is not a fan of the newish All I Want For Christmas, but I like it (and it was Susie’s fav as she loved the movie. Love Actually), and my favorite version is here, recommended if you need some injection of Christmas spirit. White Christmas is more Dondrea’s style.
Besides exchanging commentary about Christmas tunes (my favorites are here: We Three Kings and Mary, Did You Know), we planned to meet at the taphouse The 649 in Aloha. I had the games loaded in the cargo hold of Air Volvo, but we picked Istanbul as it is easy to master and is more fun than the strict economics of the board game Furance, which Dondrea knows and mastered in just one play (yikes!). Barely knowing what she was doing, Dondrea crushed us as Z, and I gave her excellent advice. We enjoyed finger foods and some drinks. Z got a no-alcohol but excellent watermelon drink, and Dondrea had a cider while I had a beer. Z won the second game as she concentrated on money and buying items. Z also wandered the other side of the board while Dondrea and I plundered our side and started tripping over us. Z was happy; she had never beaten me in Istanbul before. Sadly, I saw it come five turns ahead and was less efficient than Z in this game. Next time!
I paid the bill and headed home. There, I finished the laundry I started, as usual, on Friday during the meetings. I remade the bed and decided, again, that the laundry looked nice by the dryer. I finished my previous book,
I read until I started to dream the story of the murder mystery, falling asleep while holding my Kindle still. It used to make Susie giggle to see me hit in the face by the Kindle.
Thank you for reading.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 