Day 78: Bad Cough

The day started with me with a light cough. It began to get worse and worse. It was a reaction to the tree pollen, as some anti-allergy meds have helped. I could not sleep last night as I was coughing and tried to sleep in a chair to keep the dranage out of my lungs, but that did not work that well. I canceled my gaming and will stay home and do the needful.

Kathleen and I met yesterday and went to her favorite theater, Clackamas Century, to watch Dune 2 (Sorry Jack, I had plans made up ahead of time–but I will think about you and others for another movie soon). While it was a well-made movie, and the acting was good, it was hard to love the characters and the speed at which the movie went through events made it all feel rushed. The final battle seemed particularly rushed when compared to the 40-year-old classic.

Following Kathleen’s lead, we got food at the Chinese-style place in the Mall food court near the theater and got that to go. We got popcorn and bottled water and soon found our seats. We then chatted through the commercials and previews while eating dinner. We did see a few previews that got us interested to see a few new movies.

The theater was comfortable, except for my coughing, which I tried to limit to times of loud noises. I would try to hold back the cough until some exploded or the music was loud. By the end of the movie, I could barely talk. I was surprised at how bad my nose was impacting my asthma.

We chatted about the movie until 10ish. We both sort of liked it. I think, but I would not pay to see it again.

Moving backward (typing this between coughing jags), I got to read about 3:30 and left to cross Portland to the Clackamas Mall area (Happy Valley). The traffic was slow, and it took me an hour to reach Kathleen’s house. I saw some creative lane changes, but today, I witnessed no extra-legal driving. Nav took me over the Ross Island Bridge, which I thought was a bit strange; I returned home by the highways after dropping Kathleen at her home.

Starting in the morning. My alarm went off at 6:30 and woke me. “How could it be 6:30 already?” Thoughts went through my mind as I found my slippers and robe. I then remembered that it was Friday, and I had a 6:30 meeting, so I was a few minutes late, but I got connected. We then did our staff meeting, which was timed to allow India to join on the early evening of their Friday. We had more meetings and a more sober all-hands for our project. I felt our leadership got it; a week after layoffs is not a time to cheer.

Friday is a work-from-home day still at Nike WHQ.

I made a NYC bagel for breakfast with cream cheese, and Kramer’s coffee showed up, so we are drinking some exotic fair-trade coffee this morning. After an hour of meetings, I got all this together and enjoyed it while I did various change control meetings and processes for the shoe company.

We had an hour-long meeting with the SAP experts. Raj, our Senior Director of Engineering, explained the changes he expects. Victor detailed another change that took the rest of the hour. There were many questions and items discussed. It would be best not to write them here.

I made chicken soup, hoping it would stop the coughing that was starting to get annoying. It did. I thought I was in the clear (until I got going towards Clackamas when the coughing returned). I dressed, cleaned up, soon headed out to do a few chores, and then left to see Kathleen and Dune 2.

Thanks for (cough cough) for reading. I am trying to rest today. I am getting a little better after getting a lot worse. The usual, in other words.