Blog

I started the day with me, as often happens, falling to sleep after waking up just before my alarm, a deep, comfortable sleep, and then blasting awake to my iPhone alarm–I was laughing this time. I did not even know I had fallen asleep at 5:55. It took a moment to reconfigure to Thursday, and then I checked there were no incidents at the shoe company or with Susie. All clear. I headed into the kitchen, started the water heating, identified a banana, and took my pills. Next, in the living room, I ordered the lights on via Alexa (called ‘Echo’ in my house for all the obvious reasons) and Paul Simon music while I ran through the light day stretches and exercises. Thursday is a light day with full scope done on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and one more day. This takes twenty minutes, and then I make coffee, liberal Exqual Exchange in my French Press, and take a cup and the banana to the office. I am starting to reduce my food intake as my body begins to react (gain weight) instead of using the food to recover from cancer and chemotherapy (I am better).

I reviewed the emails (both mine and those from Nike) and the endless, so it seemed, traffic on Slack for all the work done in the previous two shifts. I read more news on CNN, BBC, and New York Times. So depressing as the death count from the earthquake in the near East has risen to over 20,000 people killed. I saw some Fox News complaints that the China balloon was not shot down and crashed into people in Montana. I will just continue with the eye-rolling. I am waiting for Weird Al to redo China Doll by David Bowie.

Soon it was time to get ready, 7ish, and I showered, dressed, and boarded Air Volo with my Nike laptop. It is a tradition to stick stickers on your laptop like an old backpack. I have a Pride sticker, a few project stickers, a special sticker for our building (Clubhouse–yes, we have a brand), and one that says, “Third Party Data is Nike data that needs a hug,”  with a pair of teddy bears hugging. With my sticker-bearing laptop, I reached Clubhouse before 8 and began my hours of meetings. I worked on various crises of the moment and carry-over crises while listening to the status meetings. The progress was good last night, and while there were many issues, none required my attention or even to speak for the status meetings.

I did have one meeting that I had to contribute to, and then more carry-over crises kept me busy most of the morning. I also found my lunch bookended and canceled my lunch with Scott on the Nike WHQ. I did not have the time to travel and make my meetings.

I could slip out at 10:30 and make my Physical Therapy appointment in Bethany. Michael from PT went over things, and I did another set of workouts with more folks. About 45 minutes of talking and working out. No new items, and they were happy with how I was doing. Slow and sure and painless (except for some muscle use). Next, I stopped by Bethany Public House and had a quick bowl of chili with a Diet Coke, sitting in the sun at the bar.

Why yes, I wrote ‘sun.’ It was sunny with blue skies and 62F (16.7C) today. Dry. Unexpected, dare we say unprecedented.

Next, I met with my boss Brad for the mid-year review. This one does not count towards your final rating; more of a dry-run for your annual review. From what I heard, I seem to be the warm blanket for the new folks, and they were pleased to have me work with them and help where I could provide expertise. Nike hired some of the world’s experts (one wrote the book on the software), so I can only give some direction. It is a great team to work with.

After that, I was finally free to head out to see Susie. Thursday traffic for Beaverton was lighter than I expected, and I believe the sun and blue skies caused the local drivers to put away their suicidal driving styles and actually try to make it home safely so they could enjoy the nice weather. Soon I was at the hummingbird house.

Jennifer informed me that Susie was still in her chair, holding out from taking a nap; she was waiting for me. Jennifer got Susie in the wheelchair, and I tried to help with getting Susie a coat, but it mostly made things worse. Finally, we were out the door in fine weather. Susie was as amazed as I was to be enjoying a spring day in February in the Greater Portland Area.

We were not alone. Metzger Park, next to the hummingbird house, was full of kids, dogs, and folks enjoying the park. The benches were dry, and even the grass was not wet. The ground was still muddy. Susie let me push her to the end of the park and back. It is still colder than Susie likes, but we found a sunny spot and a bench, going across the grass to get there, and we called Leta, Susie’s mother. We talked for a while, but Susie kept pulling up the blankets to get warm. The sun helped a bit, but Susie was cold. Soon I got Susie back inside after ringing off and said goodbye with a kiss. It was a short visit as I had to return to work (online).

I found more traffic on the way back to the Volvo Cave. I was soon home and on the next Zoom status meeting. This time I put on the video and did spins in my chair to Queen–the project testing cycle has a theme song. This was my last meeting, and I also continued working on crises that carried over. I sent out updates and then decided to stop.

I made tacos by browning some ground beef from the freezer and items from the pantry. It was so good. I use the standard packet (low salt) and a can of flame-roasted tomatoes. Maybe a bit too sweet for some, but I like it.

I watched Nova (I bought the season) and how they built the new subway under London. It took 14 years, 25 Billion dollars (in today’s dollars), and put 70,000 people to work, and they expect it to last at least 125 years. It always amazes me how little things cost compared to the nearly trillion-dollar defense bill for the USA (all borrowed money) every year. The USA farm support budget is $600 billion (all borrowed). It hurts me to see what can be done considering long horizons.

Next, we had a Theology Pub Zoom meeting which left me disquieted. However, I will not dwell on that here.

I started the blog before the Theology Pub meeting and finished it after the meeting.

The morning starts at 6AM with my alarm and this time I woke a few times at night and was a bit tired when I started. But I was not exhausted like a few days ago; I just thought 6AM was f**king early. I started the coffee water and then did all my exercises (after checking that there was no emergency at work) and stretches. I was reading emails (mine and the shoe company’s), Slack messages, and the news. The loss of life in Turkey is beyond imagination–7,000+ killed and uncounted folks homeless in the winter (due to poor adherence to construction standards despite having revised them after the last disastrous earthquake). I mostly ignored the love/hate news about President Biden’s speech. I soon was out of time and showered and dressed. I had coffee and a banana for breakfast and took the rest of the coffee to work in my thermal mug.

I left at 7:30AM in Air Volvo but still managed to play connect the school bus a few times. So I did arrive before eight and started my ninety minutes of status and update meetings. During the meetings, I would multi-task, read emails and Slack messages, and make updates. It is a hectic time.

I managed to slip near 11 to see Susie. Susie was delighted to see me after a short trip on the highway. The exit before mine on 217 was blocked by an unmoving truck. Folks were trapped in their cars on the off-ramp that was more a bridge than a road. I was happy to reach Susie without incident as I had a meeting with my boss at 1PM. We managed to call Susie’s mother, Leta, and talk to her for a while. We also reached Dr. Peter Koper, our former English professor from CMU, and had a lovely brief chat with him. Soon, I needed to leave. Susie did not want me to go but understood it was a workday, and I had appointments to keep. I stopped at Chipotle and had a rice bowl. It tasted fresh, and I enjoyed it. I think I would rather have lettuce than rice. I had chips and a Diet Coke.

I rushed back, and my boss was ready for me; not my planned meeting, but a crisis to resolve. I spent the afternoon communicating with folks and trying to find resolutions for the various issues. I was busy all afternoon on this issue. I had to also keep covering the other crises that were popping up. So I was going non-stop all afternoon.

I left near 5PM and enjoyed slow rush-hour Beaverton traffic. I stopped at Dave’s Hot Chicken as it was on my way, and wanted to try it. The portions are enormous, and the medium is a fried chicken strip of white meat encased in a tar-like spice crust which was interesting. I can’t say I did not like it. It was more than I wanted to eat, and I had to throw some out. I had a chocolate shake with it, and that was quite good. So I am unsure about the place; mild is on for next time, and just one chicken strip. I can’t decide if I hate it or if it is unique and I should like it.

After the dinner experiment with spice-encased fried chicken strips, I headed to First United Methodist Church in Beaverton, just beyond Old Town. I met Zophia to play games while her mother, Dondrea, practiced in the church band. Tonight Zophia first struggled to learn Wingspan, a new game. It takes about three plays to get it all down, as there are a lot of concepts to take in. Wingspan is an elegant competitive game where each player builds a bird sanctuary. Birds, represented by cards, are collected and assigned a place in the player board (the sanctuary) by providing food. The sanctuary is executed and brings in new resources with bird cards providing superpowers when played, activated as part of an action, or tripped by events. Unlike my favorite types of board games with easy turns, Wingspan (and Terraforming Mars) have complex turns that run engines built by the players. Therefore, you need to plan your turns out to be efficient.

Aside: On Facebook Dave’s Hot Chicken is not an allowed place name. I was trying to post a pic of my food and could not place it at Dave’s. Unexpected. I then tried to create a place and got a message that the name was not allowed–weird. No post from me.

Wingspan plays fast, and we managed to play two games even with all the stops and starts. Zophia started to get it in the second game and was only a few points behind me. The game comes with little plastic eggs, and Zophia’s cards (birds) were covered with eggs (each a point at the end of the game). She said she liked it and was happy to learn a new game.

We played cut-throat Azul after that until it was time to leave. We split, with me winning one and Zophia winning one. We score differently than most, giving one point for a pair, zero for a single tile, and the rest as usual. We don’t score easy stuff. We would often also play one extra round.

With the games done for tonight, Zophia is tasked with picking a game for her birthday:

Architects of the West Kingdom (with subsequent holidays and events to get the various add-ons).

Brass: Lancashire (gaming chips to follow at another event)

Windspan

Vindication (it should be on shelves again soon)

Scythe (base game with holidays for add-ons)

Terraforming Mars (base game with a few add-ons to improve the base game, which is too cheap to play) **Not played yet**

Concordia (with more maps and add-ons available for more events and holidays)

Chess set

War of Whispers

The day started at 6AM, with me waking with my alarm. I had fallen asleep from exhaustion the night before and had to get up at 1:30AM to finish getting ready for bed. I was happy that I was not dragging when I started on Tuesday morning. The lack of sleep seems to be causing my breathing issues.

I did my stretches and exercises, excluding those not done daily, and then read emails and Slack channel updates. I was busy until 7ish, when I showered and got dressed. I boarded Air Volvo and arrived before 8AM at the Clubhouse office building for the shoe company and home of our project.

The project was finishing important critical path tasks, and at 1PM was the determination to move to the next step. I was voting this time as I was filling in for my co-worker Rajani who was doing family things in India–we wish them all well and a great time in India (wish we were there to help and enjoy the events).

I had multiple crises of the moment and some vendor patches that did not work, and I had to send a message to the vendor to fix their stuff (SAP Incident on SAP notes, for you who speak SAP). I received some suggestions from the vendor, applied more patches, and then returned the message as that, too, failed. We also had a severe break and other issues. I was busy.

Everything quieted for a moment, and I headed out to see Susie. I arrived at the hummingbird house in Air Volvo without incident or enjoying imaginative driving from my fellow drivers. The grey wet seemed to slow everyone and drain them of any imagination. But I love it–it is an Oregon thing. “Look at that grey; wow, it is dark!” is something only an Oregonian would say with a smile.

Susie was still eating when I arrived at 11. I stood by and read a letter from Eva to Susie while she ate–Thank you, Eva. Susie ate until 11:15, finishing her Ensure, strawberry flavor. Susie and I then headed to the social activity room and called Leta, her mother. Leta called us back when she was in her house; she was returning from Bible Study when we called. For St. Valentine’s Day, I ordered fruitcake and fudge from the monks for Leta–she loved it. Leta and Susie chatted for a while. I stayed longer than my usual short stay on a work day. I thought Susie need a bit more time and she seemed relieved when I stayed a bit longer. But I had issues showing on my iPhone from the project and questions I needed to answer. So I left Susie with a kiss and she was OK with me leaving today. No tears for me today.

Work went on with a few more crises and then suddenly slowed, the usual afternoon change of shift slowdown. I stay past my shift and start before it so I can prevent any botched handovers. I am not sure I can keep that up, but for the moment it works.

I did the pre-sale of Expeditions from Stonemaier Games picking the maxed-out version, of course. This is the same company that made the board game Scythe and this new game is based on the same steampunk themes. I have a totally bling’d version of Scythe and there was no thought of not buying this new game.

I also read that Vindication, another fav game, is finally delivering the last Kickstarter in the USA. I also read that there is a fix package, free, for all the corrections (like the last time) that have been discovered. A special Penitence card pack is also being provided for free as a special for us supporters. Yes, the game was designed here in the Greater Portland Area, overly polite, and over-caffeinated.

Well, it will be a short blog. Not much to share–just lots of work at work. I did order through the app from Olive Garden and picked up dinner. Spaghetti with meatballs, two breadsticks (they changed to only two breadsticks years ago), and a great salad. I ate that and watched the Vox Machina episodes I missed these last few weeks. This is a profane animated series based on a Dungeons and Dragon campaign–I am liking the second season.

Thanks for reading.

It being Monday, a work-from-home day, I slept in until after 7:30 but woke up a lot. I have felt like I have breathing issues and have been tired all day. However, there is no coughing or loss of smell or taste, so there is no reason to believe it is Covid-19. I just need a weekend from my weekend!

As I said, I luxuriated in bed until I had to get started. I was online at night with the start of the next testing cycle for the project at the shoe company. While in bed, I checked for any issues and finally got going and made coffee in the kitchen. Breakfast was light; I had a late dinner on Sunday of oven-baked clam strips with tartar sauce and canned peaches. Breakfast was peanut butter toast and some more canned peaches. I wrote the blog last night and was falling asleep as I was writing it–a theme for today too.

I started my day by reading emails from the shoe company and my own, Slack channel updates (lots of these), and CNN to get a handle on what was happening. I was feeling OK but a bit dizzy as the morning went on. I did the first couple hours of meetings and then took a break to do my exercises and stretches. I managed to complete them as a distraction for the re-org meeting.

Yes, time for another re-org, effective immediately. Our director is now moved to the project director and will continue to exist after the project (yes, a concern mostly not spoken of). The legacy systems remain in the old structure for the time being. Thus, I survived another re-org–it is The Way of corporate IT.

Now that that was done, I headed out to see Susie. But I was feeling off, so I had a ham and cheese sandwich before leaving, slicing the ham from an Olympic Provision ham. So good. I sliced a bit more than needed and had a stacked sandwich. I think that made me sleepy and maybe caused some breathing issues, which I believe are primarily mental (I get tired and just want to sleep, and the breathing issues slow me). I know that all checks of my oxygen levels always come back good.

So tired, I headed to Susie’s without issue or any observations of extra-legal driving. I stop by Safeway and get some fresh flowers (Susie’s flowers in her room are fading) and some bananas for breakfast). Susie was delighted to see me; she resting in her recliner in the shared living room, watching the news. It was depressing with an earthquake in Eastern Türkiye (Turkey) that also impacted Syria, thousands dead. The China Ballon crisis continues into absurdity. The reports that the Trump administration let the balloons in, claimed to be fake news by the former president, were actually fake news. Worse, our very expensive military had not noticed them before (ugh). Instead of focusing on that, we called Leta, Susie’s mother, and they chatted for a while. We use my iPhone and FaceTime so Susie and Leta can see each other. Susie gets to practice holding the phone, and this keeps Susie from falling asleep (but today, she seemed very awake).

I was in a rush and feeling off, so I did not stay long; my regular visit is about twenty minutes on a working day (twenty minutes there, stay for 20, and then travel back twenty minutes again). The travel back was easy traffic, but my inhaler was not helping as much as I had hoped, and I felt like I could not breathe. Not a very happy drive. Once back at the house, I felt better.

The afternoon was full of crises of the moment as we headed to the 4:30 status meeting,g where I had to give some updates. Mostly, things were fine. I followed along, getting some rest a few times to improve my breathing. A short 15 min absolves the problem–yes,s it is in my head.

I head to BJ’s around 6 and have appetizers for dinner. Chips and flatbread with the waiter, a new one, suggesting something that I thought was not as good as my usual, but it is good to try things. I finish with coffee and a shot of Amaretto to sip with the coffee.

I am tired and have been watching, on my iPhone, all the events at the shoe company.

That is a wrap! Thanks, for reading!

I started the morning by waking before my alarm at 7:30, was up around 7, and started on the blog and my second ship model. We are playing dungeons and dragons today, so I wanted to finish it; and also have other things I want to do (Kaggle contest), so I needed the ship to finish.

I did not rush the blog, which is the Sunday morning blog; there was a lot to cover for my busy Saturday. I also glued the strip to the ship’s edges to finish it. The challenge is not to break something when making some of the final fixes. I knocked the ship wheel loose and used ca glue to fix the wheel stand to the deck. I used white glue before, which will hold unless pressure snaps the adhesion. White glue can be cleaned up with water and shrinks as it dries. That was the only failure. I let the glue dry while I wrote the blog.

I finished the blog at about 9:20 and removed the masking tape, and then reglued a few areas that had not held and taped them. I then got dressed and headed to see Susie. This Sunday, we would not do church as ice skating was on in the morning.

I managed to get to the hummingbird house without incident in the light Sunday morning traffic. Beaverton’s Finest was out and giving tickets this morning. I was careful and legal and did not draw the police’s attention.

Susie was in her recliner when I arrived and was delighted to see me. I discussed it with her, and it was “yes” for ice skating. I then spent forty minutes trying to make Peacock work. I finally had to set up NBC streaming on my Apple laptop, which worked. Susie could watch most of the European competitions on my laptop in a recliner in the social activity room. I left for lunch, and the connection failed. Susie was disappointed and had lunch. I returned and took another ten minutes to reconnect. I am unsure what caused the issue (it had worked for an hour while I was there).

I had lunch at Red Robin just down the street from Susie’s place. I had their Ensalda Plater and a Diet Coke. I sat at the bar, and my usual bartender took care of me. It was a nice break, but I rushed.

Peacock and NBC’s schedule for steaming does not match. I learned this when looking at schedules. Susie can only see some ice skating on Peacock, despite the sales pitch, as Peacock only selectively steams NBC Sports. Growl. Thus the European Championship and the US National Exhibition were not on Peacock.

We managed to watch most of it today from 1 to 3PM. I stayed with Susie and read my email on my iPhone. On my iPhone, we also connected with Barb, Susie’s sister, and wished Kaleb a happy birthday (Barb’s son). I had to head out a 3PM to get ready to play Dungeons and Dragons. I had to finish the ship, get a character, and get everything in the Air Volvo.

My printer stopped printing. This after Air Volvo got me home in light traffic, sanding and painting a clear satin finish on the ship’s wood–it made it look nice, creating a character and recording it in a PDF of the Dungeons and Dragons character sheet. After I unplugged the printer, did it finally work?

I then headed to Cory’s house, and we played a fun start of a new six-month to a year-long campaign of 5E Dungeons and Dragons Spelljamming–Swords and Sorcery in space. It is always exciting to start over, and everyone adopts new roles. This time we went with a combat-centric group of characters. For the first time in a very long time, I am playing a paladin, a holy fighter. The story is that we have signed up for an academy to learn spelljamming, much of it following a Star Trek model. We are cadets.

We also used the new ship models, all finished and ready for use, and that made me smile.

We ended a bit early at 8:45 (starting at 5:30) and I drove home and then made clam strips for a late dinner/snack. I was very tired as I have been going non-stop for two days.

I had a Slack message during the game and replied. The 7/24 project started running full-out today at 9AM IST Monday (7:30 Portland Sunday evening). I had to watch some of that while playing.

I am tired and starting to fall asleep while writing. Time to stop and thank you for reading.