Day 57: Quiet Friday

It is Saturday morning while I write this. My COVID-19 test is running. I have had no symptoms I would attribute to the infection. I have mostly isolated myself and put all the weekend gaming on hold. Friday, by necessity, was a quiet day.

Yay! The test is negative. “What does not kill you makes you stronger,” Conan said.

I will isolate myself until Sunday afternoon- five days.

Yesterday, Friday, started with me waking at about 6:00 and rising without my usual “WTF, it is morning already” moment. Friday at the shoe company is still a work-from-home day at Nike WHQ, but I have heard some managers/directors are now coming to work on Fridays. I have been told that many managers and directors find comfort in seeing people and sitting at their desks and offices. During the pandemic, many were in basement spare bedrooms as make-shift offices, which were unpleasant and lonely.

We have moved the weekly meeting for our master data group to 6:30AM on Fridays to allow the folks from India to make this important meeting more efficient. I managed to perform the coffee process using my French Press and expending some excellent Mexican coffee (thanks, Kramers); thus, I had coffee and a banana during the meeting. The folks from Bangalore are bright, while we in the USA are markedly slower. It was a good meeting, and we in the USA were mostly awake throughout most of it.

The morning was mostly spent following along and approving a few changes; there was nothing I should share here. All this was done via email, Slack channel updates, and Zoom meetings.

My title is now Principal Software Engineer, but previously, I was a software architect, and thus, I am still invited to the weekly SAP software architect meeting. This is a weekly hour-long meeting where we discuss issues and share designs, important software-related decisions, and how-to notes. Problems and challenges are raised and discussed. I try to participate, and my past positions give me the history to help me clarify many items.

Lunch is soup from a can. I add some extra egg noodles to the industrial product, Cambell’s. I have this while listening to the architects’ meeting and follow it with a cup of apple sauce (470 calories). Breakfast was just coffee and a banana (187 calories). I have cut out unneeded carbohydrates. I am not going Keto, but trying to get my A1C back to a good value. I would prefer to give up medication MetForman for all the obvious reasons, but I need to get this back under control before my Doctor will free me. My blood pressure is controlled with medications.

With Susie’s last illness, I just did not have the mind space or the physical strength to try to lose weight and exercise. Just getting through the day was my goal. I was out to dinner often, eating what would make me feel better. One f**king day after another f**king disaster day. As the preacher said, there is a time for everything, and now I am picking up those things that must be done. Diabetes is harsh. It is time.

To that end, I am using the MyFitnessPal app on my phone. I am recording all my food, and it connects to the iPhone to count my steps. It has many features, but these are the ones I was looking for. I paid for an annual premium membership. Again, I am not sure if it was the best or if it will work for me in the end. So far, it does what I want.

My old-fashioned scale was delivered for too much money (Jack was right; I should have found one at Good Will). I used it and discovered I had lost a few pounds, or the scale was out of adjustment. I recorded the new weights in the app.

I do one more Zoom change control meeting. The project has two meetings on change control every day, and I approve some changes for master data, help with the process, and ensure we adhere to the process. It was not an exciting meeting, but failure to follow these processes will harm production and could cause us to fail an audit. The Nike board of directors is informed when that happens–not something you want to have your name on!

I get cleaned up and dressed sometime in the morning, put on my Air Force Ones, and head outside for a walk to the little creek. It is colder than I expected, and I am walking about when school lets out, so many folks are walking with children. I keep my distance. I have no back pain during this walk, and I am not as winded as before. Better! This demonstrates, “Use it or lose it.”

I returned, and work was quiet as the project was still not restarted. I start to make an early dinner. Porcupine Meatballs, second try, was what I planned for today. I have the kitchen to myself as Corwin is headed out to dinner with friends and then a work-out.

I cooked the rice and mixed it in a long grain this time, but it was still wrong. I checked, and other recipes have it added uncooked. Hmm. The balls fall apart again and stick to the Dutch Oven when cooked over heat. Next time, I will use uncooked rice and a non-stick pan to cook them.

The sauce is a harlot sauce (at least that is what I have heard it called) of just tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, and some brown sugar mixed in the oil and brown bits left over from the frying. This is baked with the meatballs (the meatballs were filled with onions and garlic that also flavor the sauce as they cook), and while not perfect, it was delicious. Through just willpower, I have only a bowl and maybe a little extra. No pasta or noodles. MyFitnessPal has, to my surprise, contains numbers for porcupine meatballs (407 calories).

I need a distraction while cooking and find that Tom Baker (The Fourth Doctor in Doctor Who) has done more audio shows recreating his Doctor in new 1970s-style Doctor Who audio-only episodes. While not inexpensive, over $35 for two long episodes, I purchase them and listen to the first one while cooking and eating. The writing reproduces the playfulness of Tom’s time as the doctor. The sound effects and voices are cheesy but fit the terrible special effects of the show in the 1970s. It feels like a lost episode that could have easily fit into the canon. I could, in my mind, see the show with all its cheap sets–I enjoyed it. While costly and an acquired taste, if you miss Tom’s Doctor and the 1970s Doctor Who, this is recommended.

I spent the evening doing dishes, laundry, and reading. I am enjoying my NOLA history book Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans, which I bought at the Frenchman’s Arts & Books just outside of the French Quarter (Frenchman being the street name) in New Orleans. It was recommended by the proprietor. I am on page 203 (halfway), and the story is about the loss of rights and the suppression of some appalling behavior. The establishment of Jim Crow in New Orleans came late but started to lock in 1907 and, according to the author, was a tool to suppress vice and interracial mixing. Folks do not understand that it took years to crush the rights of blacks, immigrants, mixed-race people, and women after the seperate-but-equal ruling. Jim Crow is really a twelfth-century creation. It is sad to read.

I had a snack of toast and jam (reduced sugar) to go with my meds. I am still on antibiotics for the ear infection. I shower and crawl into newly laundered sheets. I read for a while and fell asleep. I put the book away before nodding off and having the book hit me.

Thanks for reading.