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Today I took Paid-Time-Off (PTO) and tried to sleep in. I had tea yesterday to help wake up, and instead, I was nervous and exhausted at the same time, meaning sleep came after 1:30AM. So I stayed in bed until 9ish and did not have to rush or do much. I kept things simple and made liberal coffee in my French Press with cheese, crackers, and kielbasa slices for a European breakfast.

I then cleaned up the pile, a huge mess of books, magazines, and gaming stuff spilled and piled next to the bed in the master bedroom. I recycled most of the magazines, some only looked through, as I understand I won’t find the time to reread them–Being realistic. I also will send most of the non-history or reference books (SciFi, classics, etc.) to Goodwill. I retained the gaming stuff, put some rules back in the games, put some games away, and put some quarterly magazines on the gaming shelf. I still get Decisions Game‘s quarterly history publication. Their write-up on the Soviet-Nazi tank battles was excellent, and I could not put it down.

I was coughing and sneezing from the cloud of dust. I reheated some of the leftover Chinese food from yesterday for lunch–doing dishes, cleaning up the mess, and Quicken took up the morning. I got tickets for Indiana Jones last night. I water the roses and plants; the new tree is still doing well–the redwood I planted.

After cleaning up and getting dressed, I took the new Echo Show (the video version for about $90) in Air Volvo. With no real traffic, Air Volvo got me soon to Susie’s place at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. Susie was still resting in her bed and deeply asleep. I dropped something twice in her room, and that woke her. With some finagling, I got the device to connect and sign into my Amazon account for music. You must approve the connection via an email and text sent to your phone and account email. I did and played music for Susie. The new speakers are supposed to sound better, and this one did (the base is clear). I then deleted the old device from my account and gave it to Jennifer for use on their account. I don’t need a spare one!

That done, it was time to head out. Jennifer got Susie ready while her son ran around with the new (my former one) Echo Dot. I then took Susie to Air Volvo and managed to lift her into the co-pilot spot, load the wheelchair into the cargo bay, and head to the Regal Evergreen Theater. After a short trip on 217 and 26, I arrived and unloaded Susie and rolled her into the RPX theater (one step below IMAX) for Indiana Jones and the Dail of Destiny. We got popcorn, no butter, and a frozen ICEE Cherry Coke-like product nearly glowing orange-pink.

We loved the seats (D1-D2 for wheelchair and campaign) and the theater. The movie was a great version of an upgraded Indiana Jones movie, and I recommend it. Susie loved it. No spoilers.

After that, I took Susie back; she looked exhausted but happy. It was time for dinner, and I quickly kissed Susie goodbye while Louis (Jeniffer’s husband) got dinner going.

I headed back by highways instead of crossing Beaverton, retracing my steps. Instead of the movie theaters, I headed to Mod Pizza for a pizza and a large salad. I was shocked by the $35 price tag, but I had enough food for two dinners–I packed up half.

Next, I went to the Men’s Warehouse and bought three suits, dark gray, black, and dark blue, with vests, black leather shoes, and suspenders. I got vests, too, going old school. The grey is for Linda’s wedding on 10Sept2023 which I might make. My sales associate was Alex, a 5′ tiny gal in combat boots, tight jeans, and a silk blouse (no longer are suit salespersons, male, in a suit, and boring). Alex was friendly, a GenZ or younger, and happy to sell me three suits–I have twenty-sided dice older than her. Linda, my sister, wanted darker grey for the wedding, I wanted black for those events that call for that, and a blue suit for more formal items. Alex was thrilled to sell me three suits plus all the extras. She seemed surprised when I kept adding on–I was trying to get it over with and adding everything I might need.

Alex has been selling suits for four months and has had to get some help with some modifications. She seemed thrilled to help me–again, someone who pops in and says let’s get three (over $2000 sales) and makes it easy is not likely a typical event. Also, my pants fell down once, and nobody commented on it. I had new stripped underwear on–I had bought new underwear this week. My approach to suits is to buy what they have, modify as little as required, and let Alex work it out. They had to order some of it as my request for a second pair of paints and vests could not be filled tonight. Done! They will contact me when the modifications are ready and when the ordered items come in.

With that done, I headed home, grabbed my laptop and a board game, and headed to Wildwood Taphouse to write this blog and relax. I also brought the boardgame Furnace, hoping to play a game with me playing both players.

It is the early evening, and I do not plan to do much more than write and do a little housework. I am somehow more tired than yesterday. Going back a bit, I left work and returned to the house after seeing Susie as I was just not feeling well; I was fatigued. I ordered dinner delivered, Chinese, going with salt and pepper calamari and chicken and cashews with hot and sour soup and crab puffs. I plan to eat this over a few days. I rested a few times and finally picked up all the magazines in the bedroom from the past months and recycled them. I am not going to get back to read them or reread them.

Going back further, I had lunch from the food trucks at the Nike building called Clubhouse–our home for years now. The project supplies lunch and coffee in the morning for this weekend’s go-live. I had some BBQ chicken with some wonderful potato salad and slaw. Again sitting with Michelle V and some team members for master data while we consumed our bounty. Michelle was happy to meet some of our team, and we talked about rock and roll (Michelle’s daughter is a Swifty, and her husband likes the Doors) and concerts we have attended. It was a nice lunch.

Afterward, I packed up my laptop and headed to Susie at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. There was not much traffic, and the forest fire smoke stayed away (this year, the rains have been heavy, so the fire season is yet to start for us), so we have a hot and bright and clear skies day. Susie was asleep in her recliner in the shared living room. Jennifer, the nursing aide for the weekday, had trouble getting Susie going this morning. Susie was too tired to eat, so Jennifer helped her–Susie barely spoke during my visit and to Leta, her mother, on the phone. I am worried that Susie is fading. It is hard to know what to do, but we will keep going–it is what we do.

Susie agreed to head outside. Jennifer quickly popped Susie into her wheelchair; we headed outside, and it was warm with a cool breeze, nearly perfect. I pushed her wheelchair, and I was tired, and it seemed more challenging than usual. We got to my favorite shady bench near the redwoods and cedar. We called Susie’s mother there, and Leta told us she was staying inside as it was still smoky in Lansing, Michigan. The fires in Canada are filling the Midwest and the Eastern US skies with smoke. Leta skipped the Taco Tuesday the night before at her church as it was outside–Leta has asthma.

In Metzger Park, we saw the usual collection of younger kids and dogs of various ages and sizes. One butterfly remains fluttering here and everywhere. The crows called out to us as we crossed back onto the road. I yelled back and seemed to surprise them. Soon, it was a short visit, I was back at hummingbird house, and Louis was filling in for Jenifer, who had an errand to run. Susie was sad to have me leave so soon, but Louis momentarily distracted her as he placed her back in the recliner. I went with a kiss and a promise to return on Thursday afternoon. Indiana Jones, the newest and last one, is released in theaters on Thursday–I have tickets already for the 3PM show.

My trip across Beaverton back to the Volvo cave was without events, and Hall Boulevard is still open, making the trip uncomplex–no detours. I was dead tired when I arrived at the Volvo cave.

Moving back to the start of the day, I woke early and rolled over, and only seconds later, it was 6AM and time to start. I had a 7:30 status meeting at the office, so I had to start early and rush. Yes, in the strange logic of IT, I drive in to do a Zoom meeting in the office at 7:30. I do a few hours of status meetings, and we identify an issue that was declared a crisis, and for a moment, it was. We cleared the issue in a few hours–it was already being resolved. I also had to explain to a smaller group that when we have unworking critical data loads, it is best to fix it, even if that too is a risk–it is bad to have a break, but it is worse to not fix them. Leadership may want to delay the fix implementation to reduce the risk and noise in the current go-live, but we must have the fix done and ready. I seem to be teaching a new group of folks how to do production support–but at least they listen.

Well, readers, that was my day. I struggled with fatigue the whole day, but I have the next two days off, and the weekend work appears to be minimal too. We work Monday on the shifts and will likely work the next weekend.

I am not going out to get a beer or anything like that tonight. I will do the dishes, relax more tonight, and stay home. I will sleep in, sort of, on Thursday.

Aside: I am still paying over $8,000 in monthly health expenses after insurance. I am starting to burn through the cash I borrowed from my 401K ($50,000). Nike bonuses are paid in August, and I have $30,000 in Nike stock (from the stock purchase program) and other liquid investments. This should be enough for any surprises to reach the end of 2023. My financial plan is to not sell assets for this year if I can avoid it, so I can get a considerable tax refund to help cover next year. I have increased my 401K and deferred compensation to reduce my taxable pay to enable this. I also plan to cash in Susie’s IRA for next year as Susie is over 59 1/2, and that will likely cover any expenses and surprises when added to the tax refunds. For 2025, I am ready to cash out stock options as needed (hoping they are still above water) or refinance the house to cover another year, but that is out too far to plan more than a penciled-in plan. I can cover the high medical costs for the next couple of years and see that I will be OK even in the misty future.

Thank you for reading.

 

It is 9PM on Tuesday evening, and I have rested all evening as I thought it better than trying to do all the impossible things I need to do. I instead binged watched the latter half of Netflix’s Wednesday series. It was beautiful, and I liked it a second time. I am feeling better too, and it seems to be the right thing to adopt a more paced life this week. I have taken Thursday and Friday off. I reached 168 hours of Paid-Time-Off (PTO), so it was time to take some time; I have tried to keep my PTO number between 140 and 160, thinking this is about the time that a medical leave took to be approved for the last two times. Thus, I try to keep three to four weeks available.

I made dinner today; I found one of the bagel-like bread products locally produced in the freezer, toasted it and made a curry tuna fish salad melt for dinner. I found some celery and scallions on their last legs that were perfect for mixing with the tuna fish and roasting in a broiler. It was delicious.

I must go shopping and get various items to cook the frozen chicken in the freezer. I could use some fresh produce. I might do that on my day off.

I left the office, Nike’s Clubhouse building, not on the WHQ campus, after the last Zoom status meeting at 4:30. Today was the start of working from the office, and there was free lunch and free Starbucks until 10AM. I am sure, dear reader, that you are not surprised that we have our own baristas in Clubhouse serving Starbucks. Coffee and other like products are made in plastic glasses; later, these glasses are collected and washed, and reused. We also have free kombucha served cold from beer-like dispensers–excellent.

In the afternoon, I had status meetings and discussions about some post-go-live fixes (and some ASAP fixes). This was after visiting Susie at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. Susie was happy to see me after lunch (both her’s and mine), and we quickly toured Metzger Park. I was dragging, and the heat was getting to me–I was exhausted. We found the shady bench off the path in the redwoods and cedars. These are not the giant redwoods; one, our favorite, loses its leaves, a Dawn Redwood. I have planted one, which has doubled in size, four inches now.

There we watched the kids and folks walking their dogs (some of the dogs seemed to be walking their humans). I saw fewer butterflies, only one instead of three. Oregon Swallowtails live only a few weeks.

We called Leta, Susie’s mother, and talked to her for a while. Michigan was overcast and damp. We talked for a while.

Soon, I was fading, and I returned Susie to the hummingbird house and Jennifer’s care (the weekday nursing aide) and kissed her goodbye. I returned to work without issue.

Going backward, I had lunch from the trucks and had a Cubano sandwich that came with a free nap. It was good, but I regretted that as I was dragging after eating it. I sat with Michelle V while we ate our lunches, who was my first boss at Nike, and we have been working together for years now on Nike’s SAP software. Michelle V and I chatted for a while–it was nice to catch up. After I ate the sandwich, sleepy now, I headed to Susie’s, as I described, and had no issues, and Hall Boulevard was no longer closed.

Before this, I woke at 6AM and then put off starting until 6:30, which seemed to be five minutes later! I had cereal with milk with liberal coffee made in my French Press (reassembled after running through the dishwasher). I read emails, Slack updates, and news reports to prepare for my day. I showered, dressed, collected my Nike computer, and boarded Air Volvo. There are no school buses as school is out, and the traffic is lighter as parents are no longer driving helter-skelter to get their kids to school. I arrived on time and started my status meetings at 8AM.

I also had some knowledge transfer sessions with our software vendor. I asked some hard questions, and the developers admitted, which is good, that they did not know the answers to my questions. I emailed the leads that we need to review the interfaces later and consider how we could harden them. The code I saw was not resilient, restartable, and had weak exception handling. This is not unusual as this is a new group writing code for a new system, and I am not sure they know how to produce code at the quality I expect. Adding resilience later is not unusual; you often need to run the software for a while to learn where the weaknesses are.

I spent the morning reviewing designs and code and attending meetings.

I was tired and put in for a few days off after checking if we expected a quiet few days before the cutover this weekend. It was going to calm down, so I took the days off.

Aside: I refueled Air Volvo and was unhappy that the oil companies decided they needed more money. Gas is $4.75 now. We continue to believe this is a fair market. Gas is priced differently by area, not national rates, like gold, grain, or crude oil. Instead, the refineries charge the most they can in the local areas.

Thanks for reading.

Today I am sad. It is hard to get the feeling of wanting to cry all the time to go away. I have had it now for a few days. I am considering taking off Thursday and Friday to see if I can visit the art museum or just work on the radio project to find myself again.

It is Monday, a work-from-home day, so I rise at 7AM with my alarm. It is more like a summoning from dark dreams. I dreamed of moving to a new house, and I could not finish as I was alone and had so much stuff to pack and move. As I moved from room to room in my dream, I would find more things that I could not pack and move. As the dream went on, I felt more and more sad to lose so much and overwhelmed. Not an easy dream to shake off!

I work from the back bedroom as my office, and it is already bright when I log on to the Nike network and my computers. During the pandemic, I used to have the Nike laptop on my right, my Apple in the middle, and Bloomberg playing on a secondary screen from my Apple with the sound off and the CC on. Now I just use the two, as Bloomberg would have to be purchased.

My first status meeting is at 7:30, ugh, and there are multiple review requests from India’s day. I listen to the defects in the status meeting while updating the documents with perfunctory reviews to clear as much paperwork for our team as possible. This was followed by hours of more status meetings, all done on Zoom.

I took a break from these mind-numbing tasks and revised my 500-word horror story–It is much improved but still needs work. Every word needs to be essential and add to the work; no word can just stand for one use or meaning. After an hour of work, it is a better story.

I spotted the large foot-long turtle on my neighbor’s lawn laying eggs. The turtle is an invasive species (it has a red stripe on its neck, meaning it is not local), but I cannot kill it–it is too cute and big. It was someone’s pet that they illegally let loose in the local waterways, and it has thrived. I have never seen the eggs hatch, but I assume they must hatch, and the tiny turtles must reach water or be lost to predation.

I returned to the meetings until lunchtime. I finished the jambalaya I made a few days ago after reheating it in the microwave for lunch and watched some more of Netflick’s Wednesday show. I am on episode 4; this is my second time through it. It is good the second time, but I still fail to catch all of the character Wednesday’s quiet statements. Paraphrase: Nobody tortures my brother (followed by and said quietly) except me. My failing hearing may force me to use captions soon.

I head out before 1PM to see Susie at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. Hall Boulevard is still closed, but the detour is faster this time–Next time, I will avoid Hall Boulevard. When I arrive, Susie is asleep in her recliner in the shared living room. Jennifer, the weekday day nursing aide, says Susie ate well but was tired again. Susie was sleeping through Harry Potter, her favorite.

I used Susie’s room for a meeting, and then we woke Susie and moved her to her bed so she could be more comfortable, and I could work from Susie’s room with a table, laptops, and the overstuffed chair. I picked the original Mary Poppins, which made Susie happy–she was singing along. We paused the movie when we called Leta, Susie’s mother, to chat and for a few meetings I had to attend at Nike.

As I said, Susie loves Mary Poppins, and she stays awake for the whole thing. I admit I might have absentmindedly sung along while working on a Powerpoint presentation. With the movie done and all my meetings for Monday completed, the night nursing aide put Susie in her wheelchair, and we went for a tour of Metzger Park.

It was warmer outside than in the AC in the hummingbird house and quite comfortable. It was after 5PM, and the warm sunlight did not strike you. We saw older kids and young adults in the park as it was past working hours and school was out for the summer. It was a pleasant walk. There were many dogs out for the evening walk after work.

Soon, I was back at the hummingbird house and kissing Susie goodbye. She was trying to be brave but upset to be left. My heart broke as I went. I headed to Portland to have dinner with Mariah trying to find my happy place–I could not find it. Mariah changed our met to Hopworks off of Powell in Portland while I was driving in, but I could change the navigation to get that to work and arrived only ten minutes late. I had a beer and a Rocket Burger in the bar, and we talked about life and writing. We both agree that many writers need to write as if they only get 500 words!

After dinner, I headed to Wildwood Taphouse and tried to finish the blog there. I had another beer and then chatted more than wrote. I started to feel the sadness fade. I stayed until the last call and closed the place at 10PM.

I then drove home and, there in my office, finally finished the blog.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

I am just home at 10:20PM and tired, so this will be more of a briefing than a blog.

As I usually try, I spent the afternoon with Susie at the hummingbird house in Portland (Tigard) at Allegiance Senior Care LLC, 9925 SW 82nd. Ave. Portland (Tigard), OR 97223; phone (503) 246-4116. The traffic was light, but Hall Boulevard had closed again, and I spaced that until I was too close to try another route. I spend an extra ten minutes in a lovely industrial park again–I am beginning to recognize the buildings now. Susie was happy to see me; Anassa had put her in bed as Susie was tired and sad today. Susie managed to eat breakfast but soon fell asleep in her recliner in the shared living room. Anassa thought Susie would be more comfortable in her bed. Susie still looked sad and tired when I got there but was delighted to have a visitor.

We changed this around a bit so that Susie could see the TV in her room better and I could be closer to her. Anassa brought one of the coffee drinks I got for Susie. I poured it into a cup, and Susie liked it and drank half of it. I finished the other half, drinking from the bottle. We both could use some mocha coffee. We watched the fourth Indiana Jones movie, The Crystal Skull, and I liked it better this time. Susie stayed awake for the whole film. We paused it once, called Leta, Susie’s mother, and chatted for a while.

I started Elton John’s recorded live concert after the movie was completed and stayed until after 4:15. Susie loves this version. I kissed her goodbye once it was going, and Susie looked comfortable. She was also a bit happier, so the longish visit, the movie, the coffee drink, and now Elton John must have helped Susie find herself.

The pizza protectors we retain and then use for flying figures. My paladin of death is before the creature wearing a metal helmet and wielding a sword.

After I left Susie’s place, I headed to the Oak Hills McMenamins, and there I had soup, Lentil Curry, and an iced tea for dinner. It is on the way to Cory’s house, so it is an excellent place to get a quick bite before going to Cory’s to play Dungeons and Dragons, 5E, for the evening. After my quick lunch, I drove to Cory’s place and was just a few minutes early for 5:30 D&D. It was a busy game to 9PM with us role-playing arena combat and a fait accompli that means the next time we play, we will need to rescue one of our player characters! It was a good night of gaming, and my character, a paladin of death, nearly experienced death.

You can see the arena with us fighters up against a hulking creature.

I had cereal with milk (plus liberal coffee) for breakfast. I reheated some spicy Popeye chicken for lunch and had that with a pickle and potato salad (finishing both).

Well, I am getting exhausted. I will not retrace starting the morning (I was awake too early), the Zoom meetings (just one), and getting ready–it was the same as most days.

Sorry for the brief blog! Thanks for reading!