Author: alohawild

I was saddened not to see the elk statue in Portland today on top of the fountain. I remember when I took the job with the move to here more than twenty years ago, I read about the fountain in a guide book I purchased about Portland. The elk was put up in 1900 and had a strange look. The neck is long and the fountain a bit small for it. I remember seeing it for the first time, and I agreed it is a bit silly looking. Over the years, I always look at it and all but shake my head, it looks terrible.

I missed it today. The protestors burned a bond fire in the fountain and ruined the fountain rim and weakened the stand for the elk. The bronze elk statue was removed to prevent it from falling, possibly hurting or even killing someone. I missed it today as I drove through Portland.

(hard to take a picture and drive around the broken fountain)

The day started for me late at 9 AM. I awoke with a headache and a cough. Pollen is everywhere and thick. I just read emails and played on Facebook for most of the morning. I called and talked to friends. It is Friday, and I took paid-time-off for today and the coming Monday, a long weekend.

Next, I drove through Beaverton onto 205 and then to I-5 to get to my haircut. My second hair cut this year! I have to call ahead to get in. Zerida was happy to see me, and my grays were shortened and corrected quickly.

On the way back home, I decided on something simple, Taco Bell, near my home. I got in the drive-through and soon reached to pay, “The car before you paid for your lunch, sir.” Portland area! Yes, someone, I do not think I know bought my lunch.

I got home, and I saw to Susie getting breakfast and getting started. I then decided to check out Mox Boarding House. It was just opening in Portland. Mox is a board gaming and pub founded up in Seattle and Bellevue and now newly opened in Portland. Today they opened. My friends asked me to check it out.

I was surprised to experience traffic on the way into Portland. The lockdown had made all my previous trips uneventful. It was light traffic, but I got off 26 and headed to Burnside on this side of the river.

(the miniature gaming tables are ready for Warhammer 2000)

It was a short trip. Mox is in the block next to the soccer stadium in Portland, Providence Park. I parked in the garage, and the elevator took me right to Mox. I talked to their gaming people and then had a beer and some drumsticks. It is an excellent place with the bright light you need to play games. The floors are hardwood so that you can find that dropped meeple—everything heavy wood. The few rooms to rent are Costly; I often rent a room at Guardian Games in Portland with the Foyer being our favorite (and the cheapest too) to ensure we have a place to play. Otherwise, we have to have someone come early and jump on a table when it becomes available as the places fill-up. At $50 an hour, I do not expect to rent one at Mox (I am hoping for coupons or deals on rent). I also noticed that the place did not echo like other places.

(these are the food and gaming tables)

Some day when the virus is gone, I imagine playing at Mox. They do not plan to open for games until August 2020. More bright light than you see in most pubs and a chandler; it is like a cross between a gaming store and the John Wick Movie Continental Hotel. I am expecting Winston, the hotel manager in the John Wick movies, to appear at my table to point out that “No business may be conducted on Mox grounds.” I was also looking for the “tasting room” like they have in the Continential. Yes, Mox looks like a gamer Continental Hotel, but sadly no hotel rooms.

I look forward to playing there!

After that, I bought some paint brushes, got my parking validated, and left. I drove to Guardian Games. On the way, I saw all the damage to Portland from the protests and looting and riots. There are a lot of boarded-up windows. It was less destructive than I expected and more extensive than I thought reported. A lot of windows are covered.

Guardian Games has no tables available, they have put them away until we get to a later opening phase in Portland, and I was welcomed in by the staff at the door and asked to follow social distancing at all times and retain my mask on. I know all the people at the store as I am often there on any given Friday to playing games, before the emergency. We were happy to see each other. I looked at the new games and picked up a unique one, Thousand Year Old Vampire, a solo role-playing game. With you using the book to build a vampire and then to write the story of the vampire, sort of a horror generating story from a single book. I have not yet played it–but I have read the reviews and was excited to see it for sale and picked it up immediately. I asked one of the staff, and he had already made multiple vampires! You need two dice and paper or a word processing app. It is replayable. Here is the review which I suggest you watch as this is just so interesting to create a game like this: Review Sit Down and Shut Up.

I drove back, and then I did not see the Elk statue. I am still sad about that. I made cheese and crackers for a dinner-snack.

Today, as I would expect, the stock market reversed and went up and finished the week slightly up. I am still holding on during this crazy ride. I talked to a friend about the market. I am even more directed to equities than bonds. It is just my nature. Right now, that is likely not a great choice, but I understand equities (stocks in companies) better than complex debt instruments (bonds).

The news on the virus is dreadful while I read on Facebook people saying there is no real danger to the virus–I am very frustrated by the lies people are reporting. Today, the virus slew more than eight-hundred forty real people in the USA, including two in Oregon, who would have lived a least a longer life without the infection.

I thought communion of some sort is needed to stop this virus: One Bread, One Body.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, the stats on my blog say I am down to eleven readers (now 23 readers–revised Thursday late). Welcome one of the few, and I hope you will be interested today. It is not easy to post every day and keep it interesting. But, dear reader, I will try!

The morning came as usual well before I was really ready for it. I rolled over, but I knew today was nine hours of Zoom meetings (A few moved and canceled, so I was down to seven hours of Zoom), so I was up before 6:30AM appeared on the clock. I made coffee, Mexican Free Trade, as I like the taste of liberal border-crossing coffee in the morning. I take my coffee black with no sugar since I became diabetic (my numbers improved to perfect BTW).

I took my prescriptions, as I do every day, with due care–I decided I would like to make it to sixty reasonably healthy.

I found myself explaining a lot today. We have new people added to the project. I was happy to do my last ordinary meeting at 4:30PM. I have one more with India at 10:30 tonight. I did not want Archana in Bangalore to stay up and talk to me. I will be up anyway, so we will talk in the morning–India time.

I have taken time off. I have Friday and then Monday off, and I am happy after an all-day Zoom-a-thon to be free for a long weekend. 

I did notice that my small belt and disk sander I use the sander for miniature model building was on the deck outside near where we set up the forge. Corwin has used it, setting the belt on fire a few times, to polish his first blade from the new forge. I have used it before and it does take some getting used to. It is small and well a bit wicked. I have sanded my fingernails straight a few times.

I carried the sander inside only ten minutes before the clouds in Oregon gifted us with a sudden heavy downpour. This could have been disappointing to me in many ways as the sander was plugged in and is not designed to be rained on. I did discuss with Corwin that he needs to remember the impact clouds have on electrical equipment.

I then took a nap and Corwin cooked dinner: baked spaghetti, and meatballs.

We had Theology Pub tonight. For over five years a group of us meet to talk about theological issues and concepts. We used to meet in a bar and drinks and food were purchased and consumed while discussions of various weighty topics were done. The food and drink made the discussion flow. Today’s topic was Fortitude.

Most folks on the Zoom call were enjoying various beverages. In our discussions, we thought Fortitude was hard to learn except through experience. Some of us believed that mentoring helped folks and that much fortitude was formed by groups reinforcing it. Nobody wants to fail, and a group made it easier to keep going.

We were happy to see each other and we talked for ninety minutes!

Changing to gaming, today I got the add-on for a board game, March of the Ants. It includes wooden ants! Before we used square cubes. It really looks better. This is an easy to learn board game from the Pacific North West that has the players take turns, but you have things to do on other player’s turn so there is no waiting. It makes it a much more interesting game. It was one of the first new styled games I learned. I was happy to learn it from the game designers at a convention and have a signed rule book! You will find March of the Ants in your local game stores, they let you in with a mask here in PNW.

I have learned that Mox Boarding House is opening in Portland soon. With Covid-19 it is not likely I will be there soon except to eye-ball it. This is a bar and board gaming location with excellent light, games, and reputation in Seattle. Another reason to wish this virus thing gone. So far my fantasy ability to make a Wish spell has not worked.

The stock market went down a lot.

Today nine-hundred sixty people lost their lives to the virus including six people from Oregon and nine people from Michigan.

Today I went with the Hymn of Promise to try to bring in some hope with the rates of infection exploding. It is hard not to fall into despair.

Today the 6AM start and 7AM first meeting came too soon. I completed the coding for the vendor patches while listening to meetings on Zoom.

I took off Friday and Monday. Looking at tomorrow, my Thursday has 30 minutes not booked at this time–ugly, which includes starting at 8AM and ending at 5PM with lunch being booked with an “optional” meeting. Many times I am double-booked.

Returning today, lunch was busy, so I made chili pie. I got a can of Stag Chili from a can and warmed it in a pan. I got corn taco shells and heated them. I put the chili over broken taco shells and covered with cheese: Chili pie. It was easy to do while listening to Zoom meetings.

I am on book 13 of the Maisie Dobbs series. I found book 11 an overly dark story, but I liked 12, Journey to Munich. I really liked books 2-10, book one being just OK.

I was not feeling that well so I laid down for a bit. My right knee is painful. The pain is slowly going away.

Dinner was KFC delivered. I played The Grand Austria Hotel with Corwin’s business partner Evan while Corwin worked on his new forge.

The gameplay was a bit rough as I had to remember all the rules and Evan had never played it before. I remember some criticism I read about The Grand Hotel Austria saying the game has too much going on to learn quickly and it is easy to forget a rule. We had to do a few catch-ups on scoring. I still like the game, but it is hard for new players.

The stock market went up and down today. Again, there seems little logic to its moves.

The reports are that eight-hundred ninety Americans were slain by the virus today including four people from Oregon and eleven from Michigan. The infection rate in the USA is explosive.

I found this song, many don’t like the use of ‘war’ in the song, but I like this friendly version: Onward, Christian Soldiers. I remember it being fun to sing.

Today I was a bit slow and got going online for Nike about 7AM. The day I spent mostly apply software changes by hand. It is always a strange feeling to be coding again, even when it is just to follow directions in a PDF. I am now an architect for computer systems and should not be coding, but it is still satisfying to return to your roots and code something.

Today was coding and getting some basics corrected here and there at work. It seemed like a clean-up day as I try to listen to Zoom meetings, code, and help get some clean-up on some processes done. So a more regular day.

Susie was up before noon today, so I took her out to lunch. Masked, we joined a few people at BJ Brewhouse. We had tried it before, and they seem to take safety very seriously there. I had the soba noodles with chicken, slightly spicy, and simple, but almonds and broccoli florets and shredded carrot take it to a higher level. Susie ordered a whole rack of ribs and put the second half in a box to bring home.

So later today, we set up Corwin’s forge on the deck. It is a small brick forge that costs only about a hundred bucks and made in Michigan, my home state. I have been looking for a low-end buy-in to blacksmithing for Corwin as he wants to be a bladesmith. Finally, found one: Sarqit Outdoor Living School. Sarqit makes a propane heated forge for blade work. It is made of some fire bricks and a propane torch.

We set it up on the deck, and after the first torch failed to work, we got another one. We got it running on small bottles of propane, and Corwin spent hours banging on metal. Over the years, we have acquired some items such as a test supply of steel, metal worker gloves, railroad anvil (old railroad railing cut in about a foot section bolted to a wooden log), and a few other smaller items. Today Corwin brought them all together and started heating the metal and using the railroad anvil.

(Corwin’s new forge, simple but working).

While I heard the hammering, I defrosted some pork chops.  Simple again for dinner, just fry pork chops in the pan with butter and Herbes de Provence. Pan then lifted and put in 350F oven to finish. I made couscous again, we have a case, with almonds, raisins, dried cranberries, and a hint of cinnamon and cardamon. Corn from frozen steamed added a veggie to our dinner. Susie thought it was good.

So Corwin was hammering and doing what he has always wanted to do today, Susie got to have ribs and a short trip, and I was coding at work. Not a bad day.

Today I also received my technology from Adafruit in New York City. I have a new HalloWing M4 Express. This has a little screen and is shaped like a skull but runs on an M4 in Python (“Excellent,” I would say in my best Mr. Burns voice). I have a convex glass lens to put on the screen to make the eye look 3-D. It comes with software to project an eye looking around-creepy. It is for Halloween. I hope we will be able to do the trick and treat things then!  I also picked up a Grand Central M4 with headers for more proto-typing work–My goto for robots.

The stock market gave back much of the explosive growth of Monday, volatility continues. I am just holding on to what I have.

I find it so sad to report that the expected increase in the deaths has happened with just under a thousand Americans losing their battle with Covid-19 today. This rate is the highest number in three weeks–the experts predicted that the death rate will follow the increase in infections by three to four weeks. We are there now. Reports are that they are running out of ICU beds in Florida. Here in Oregon, the infection rate has doubled in the last month. I am keeping mostly locked down with just a few trips for lunch to keep our sanity!

I went with the song that came to me when trying to find something to fit the increasing death and infection rates and the lack of ICU beds: Are Ye Able.

 

 

 

Well, 6AMish came rather soon this morning. I was back at it and working today from home. I decided the best thing to do was, after seeing my paid-time-off balance was still over 120 hours that I need more time off! So I took off Friday and Mondy.

I worked all morning and started to do some coding. This is applying vendor patches (OSS notes to you SAP folks), but these are manual, and you have to code them. So I was writing code while listening to meetings and attending Zoom calls.

I ordered Pho for lunch that was delivered while I was on yet another Zoom call.

I had Corwin chop a red onion for me and run three pounds of most excellent boneless and skinless chicken thighs. Again, I would not want to meet the chicken that had thighs like those in a dark ally, huge!

My meetings went to 6PM. I then helped finish dinner. I cut the large chicken parts in half and covered them with the onion in a dutch oven pot. I added three tablespoons of  Zamouri Tagine Moroccan Chicken Spices and just a dribble of olive oil. Bake for 40 minutes at 350F. Cut up a preserved lemon and remove seeds. Get a handful of green or better olives. Add that and back for another 25 minutes.

I made couscous to go with it. Two cups of chicken broth heat up–just warm is good. While that is heating throw three teaspoons of butter in a skillet and get it warm–not too hot. Add about 1/2 cup of almond slices and cut them a bit. Add about a cup of yellow raisins. Sprinkle with cinnamon and a light dash of cardamon (careful it has a strong flavor). Then I dump in a box of coucous (1 1/3 cup) into the pan and toast it. I stop before it browns. When you see brown, stop and lift the pan off the burner! Pour the almonds, raisins, and couscous into the warm chicken broth without making a mess, likely the warm broth with boil when the hot grain hit it. Stir, and it will be done. No more heat!

The broth from the chicken is poured over the couscous side, chicken pieces and olives and lemon bits on top.

Susie and Corwin loved it.

The stock market flew out of control. Records are breaking, and my 401K is again back to positive earnings.

Today I learned that Federal Marshals are arresting protestors in Portland, Oregon. The President made good his threats. Portland groups are working to help folks in the virtually unknown process for federal charges on protesting and bailing people. I have no other statement to give on this.

I am breaking out in hives today. So this will be short.

The reports are that more than two-hundred-fifty Americans were lost to the infection today. The infection rate is explosive in some states, and the military has more than three-thousand four hundred new infections reported today–pray for our military! I thought a Psalm would work for today, Psalm 91.