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Going backward, it is the early evening on Friday, and I have been sleeping since 4ish. I am tired today. I tried to read and just fell asleep a few times. I finally got going at 7ish. I finished the chicken Ceasar salad I brought for lunch from Papa Murphy’s Take and Bake Pizza. I bought an uncooked NYC-style pizza for lunch, baked it, and ate it during another meeting on a crisis of the moment. I followed along, but that was my last Friday event at the shoe company.

When I had a moment, I finished the Spelljammer ship by tying down the last of the rigging–it took only a few minutes but must be done with care and perfection. Last night I made a fife rail (I had to look up the name as I have not worked on sailing ship models in a while) with the premade belaying pins that I purchased some time ago. I attached that to the deck on one side of the mast. Next, I used the fife rail’s belaying pins to tie down the running rigging. Finally, I glued the SciFi ring under the skiff’s deck and glued one more piece of thin mahogany to hide the hole for the mast. The sewing of the mast last night was stressful as I had to manage it without breaking anything. The usual problem with these rigged models is not breaking the previous work while finishing something difficult. The model could use more rigging to be more functional looking, but for a model for tabletop gaming, it will more than do.

The see-thru mast and sail, I think, correctly mix the old-school rigging and wood with the idea of Swords and Sorcery in space that is the Spelljamming. Years ago, I bought a partially finished and mostly wrecked wood kit on eBay–it has been languishing in the garage. I kitbashed it for some of the wood–all that nice mahogany strips. Over the last few months, I got new tools, wood stains, and some extra parts from OcCre, a newish supplier of wood model kits in Spain. I have been collecting little bits here and there for the ballon model I built last year that helped with this model. I also have a source of very nice stuff in the Czech Republic: HIS. They made the laser-cut decking. I was inspired by Alex’s model’s channel on YouTube: Here. His Albatross build videos have me back into wood!

Before this, I visited Susie but could only stay a short time; I had a 1PM meeting and needed to find some food still. So I drove across Beaverton in Friday traffic which, while not heavy, did include some very imaginative lane changes by my fellow drivers. I am not sure why, but folks have to change lanes when the traffic is slow and slams their brakes. I got there at about 11:30 and left with a kiss at just past noon, yes, a brief visit.

We called Susie’s mother, Leta, and reached her home. Susie, Leta, and I chatted for about twenty minutes. Leta has a hole in her roof where animals have come in, and she needs that to be repaired. A red squirrel seems to have moved into the spacious area, for a squirrel, in the ceiling of Leta’s house. Barb, Susie’s sister, and Gordon (her husband) will be having a look at the squirrel invasion issue this weekend.

Smith’s (plus Jason’s) flowers continue to bloom.

I left, and after facing the paint-risking lane-changing crazy Beaverton traffic, I stopped by Papa Murphy’s and had enough time to bake the pizza before the 1PM meeting via Zoom at the Volvo Cave.

Somewhere in the morning, I found twenty minutes for stretching and exercises. The back pain is less, and my legs were more stable today. My knee hurts less, so I will stay away from the knee stretches for another day.

Before this, I was online starting late at 7:30ish; I made liberal coffee and had a banana for breakfast during the weekly staff meeting. I then spent another hour or so in Zoom meetings on status, the usual fair for meeting on Friday. I applied vendor patches while listening to the meetings (OSS notes for those who speak SAP). I then requested testing of the performance fixes to the process we assign products to a store in the accounting systems (SAP HANA with Fashion for those, again, who speak SAP software jargon).

I have been attending meetings, doing Jira updates (Jira is an excellent software package to track building software by using Agile), applying vendor patches, and doing some engineering while the Master Data Governance Engineering team, one team I work with, is understaffed. It is a privilege to fill in on all of these things. Like a tour of the software Agile development process at the shoe company on SAP systems. So fun.

Starting the day, I woke tired and stayed that way. I struggled to push through Friday. There were a few extra days in the last two weeks, I believe. It is good that it is finally Friday!

I did think of dad a lot these couple of weeks. I remember he found January-March to be a challenging few months to get through. He had a bell on the door for the old Wild’s Furniture and Appliance. I think to wake him up on some days–it was none too busy in the freezing winter in Laingsburg, Michigan. I remember when dad, Bob Wild, would call me after school and tell me about the movies on channel 8, The Four-A-Clock Movie. Yes, a busy day at the store when dad is calling with movie suggestions! While I am busy, I notice that everyone is trying to find their way after the holidays. I missed sharing stories with dad these couple of weeks.

2013, my last photo of Bob Wild.

(I deleted a section here about the economy and my thoughts on layoffs. While this is on my mind, it can’t be here in a public space. I have strong feelings about this, and I am concerned for the USA economy and layoffs, but I can’t publish those–those words do exist in a revision should I think I should return them–this would be something I would talk to dad about)

This blog is about my experiences living day-by-day and should not draw conclusions.

On the more pleasant news at work, our greater department is moving back to Nike WHQ, and there are rumors that even we in the project may move to WHQ. That would be nice.

Thus, I am resting. Trying to ignore the layoffs and economic chaos and doing good work. Thanks for reading.

We are finally making it to almost the end of the workweek, Thursday. I woke by my alarm, knowing it could not be 6AM already; it was. I had gone to bed at 10ish as I was not feeling great on Wednesday, but I still woke to wonder how the night could be so short. I decided then, my back was complaining, not to do my excises. I felt more Belz Lugosi as I rose, but I decided to get it over with and did most of my stretches and excises anyway, leaving the standing knee stuff for another day.

It is a work-from-office day (WFO), so I was rushed to complete everything necessary. I made peanut butter toast with my banana and liberal coffee made in my trusty French press. This leaves me with enough coffee to fill my thermal cup for the ride in and for the first set of status meetings.

I spent the morning reading emails, texts, Slack messages, and my own email. I also check CNN for essential news. Ever since the September 11th attack, I check the information every morning, hoping for no more attacks. Unfortunately, I had not checked the news on 11Sept morning and learned in my car as I drove in to work at the shoe company that the twin towers were no more in New York City. At first, I did not believe it and thought I had misheard the news.

Air Volvo was headed to the office, the Clubhouse office building not on Nike WHQ campus, by 8:30 and arrived around 8ish and started my first meetings at the new time of 8:05. Meetings at the shoe company are now not to start on the hour and half-hour, but to give five-minute breaks. This allows, and it is, so silly to do this for bathroom breaks and to give folks the time to walk to the next conference room and/or to connect via Zoom. Too many folks were getting back-to-back meetings and could not even get time to use the restroom. My friend Michael G, who got no lunch multiple times a week, threatened to wave a cardboard sign in the meetings to bystanders that said, “I will come to your meeting for food.”

I spent the morning on meetings and then had a crisis of the moment as some software needed to be installed, now. I worked with the release manager and got this done. I got a few more crises and worked them too. The morning was refreshingly busy instead of the usual status-filled slog.

I headed next to Susie at the hummingbird house (I forgot to take pictures, sorry). The travel was through light traffic, with me patiently watching as my fellow drivers switched lanes with little concern for Air Volvo’s paint. I arrived, intact, from my travel from Highway 26 to 217 (Highway 217 called, with no love, “The Devil’s Bowling Ally”).

I waited for Susie to finish her breakfast. The Comcast cable was down in the area all night and into the day. Jennifer, the live-in nurse aide, has selected her personal copy of the musical/movie Hair Spray (2007), and Susie was not eating. Instead, she was watching one of her favorites and singing along. Jennifer and I had to remind Susie to eat. Here is one of my favorite songs: Timeless. Susie, distracted, finally finished her breakfast.

We called her mother, Leta, and surprised her by being early. My lunch meeting was off this Thursday, so I was running early on Thursday. Leta and Susie chatted for a bit, and I filled in here and there. It was a pleasant time with Susie wheeled into the social activity room–I did not need a mask there as long as I was just with Susie.

Soon, as often happens on work days, I needed to say goodbye with a kiss. Susie was back to watching Hair Spray (Timeless was playing when I left). Here is the best song, I think, from the movie: I Know Where I Have Been. I went to Carl’s Jr. and had a Western Burger for lunch. I needed a coffee later as I was getting sleepy from the burger and fries. I was feeling better.

I applied a few more vendor patches that were requested. I will, working on the crises of the moment, apply a pile of those to development on Friday morning (while listening to the endless status meeting) and hope to promote them to the release soon after. I drove home at 3:40ish and then logged back on from home and answered some more questions.

At 5PMish, I closed my laptop and rested a bit. I then got up and headed to BJ’s for dinner. I had a small steak, baked potato, asparagus, and my favorite beer. I wrote the blog at the same time. Eric was my waiter, and Mel, my other waiter, said hello (she liked the show I recommended, Wednesday, from the Addams Family).

So I am drinking my after-steak dinner coffee and writing.

Thanks for reading.

Going backward, I am home writing the blog. I met Zophia and her mother, Dondrea, at First United Methodist in Beaverton to play board games. I taught a new one to Zophia, War of Whispers, a hidden goal game slightly based on Game of Thrones. Instead of running the kingdoms (called factions in this game), there is a game for that (called Game of Thrones, and I have played it a few times), you are spies, and you have hidden goals to support and destroy empires. You place your agents to advise the leaders of the factions. There are multiple advisors, and unfilled slots are given to the agents in place. This is just a fun game of messing with kingdoms and ruining your enemy agent’s plans while trying to bring your plans to fruition before they discover them. Zophia managed to scrape by me by one point–I helped her to destroy her enemy kingdom, but mine still held one city, which counted against my score–one point. Next time!

While War of Whispers is fun, it is not easy and not an easy game to learn. Zophia did not get it until the second round. It plays better with three, but a two-person game is exciting because you can control many agents. So while a unique game and a Kickstarter I supported, it does not get that much play. Maybe we will play it more now.

Before heading to the church, I was home after work and had a ham and cheese sandwich for dinner. I also had some more colon issues. Oh my! No accidents.

Before this, I was at work in the afternoon, helping with multiple crises of the moment and completing some year-end paperwork for various managers. As a result, I was pretty busy and missed a few status meetings today as I had more pressing issues.

Moving further back in the day, I was at my physical therapy (I have one session left), and they worked on my leg strength. I am having pain in my right knee that does allow me to bend it fully with weight–it flashes pain and then suddenly releases (yikes!). The lift for Susie makes this worse. They may extend the PT to cover this issue if it does not improve by next week.

Before PT, I was at lunch. I did not have that much time, so I chose a tuna fish sandwich at Subway in Bethany for lunch. Susie is allergic to tuna fish, so I never make it (even now, it is just a habit to never buy tuna). Subway toast it on fresh bread and stuff the sandwich with veggies–perfect. I had the sub with a small bag of baked chips and a diet drink. It was great, but the place was cold. Actually, I froze all day.

Before lunch, I was at Susie’s place. I left work after 11ish and arrived in Air Volvo at the hummingbird house as Susie finished her breakfast. I was not rushed as I had lunch and PT to follow and no work meetings (but I did seem to have many crises when I got back). We called Susie’s mother, Leta, from the social activity room. Leta had just got home when we called–she was back from grocery shopping. Susie and Leta chatted for a bit. Susie said she was feeling good and seemed happy. I stayed for about thirty minutes and then left with a kiss as Susie headed to her recliner in the shared living room.

(flowers from Smiths + Jason)

Before this, I was at work at 8 and did the stand-up to monitor our work. I found myself helping to execute the ceremony as our usual leader was out. I had to remember my Jira skills fast. Luckily, I had coffee!

I was up at 6 and did my stretches and exercises, skipping those that involved my knees. Breakfast was a banana and liberal coffee.

Thank you for reading!

The morning started too early. I could not sleep and did not finish yesterday’s blog until nearly 1AM. Susie had a doctor’s video appointment at 9AM, so I had to rush a bit when starting at 7AM. I had just a banana for breakfast with some liberal coffee that I also put in a thermal cup and drank while taking Air Volvo to Susie’s place. I remembered to log on to work and put my out-of-office message on my email; my calendar was already blocked, and various other updates were done to ensure folks knew I was out today. I took paid time off (PTO) using my floating holiday for 2023 (I always use it first to remember to take it).

Traffic was heavy and slow-moving, and some folks, impatient with the slow speed, enjoyed the attention of Beaverton’s Finest motorcycle cups in a 20 mph school zone. I was attentive to school zones and drew no attention from the local police.

I was called by the doc’s office while still in slow traffic on Hall Boulevard. They wanted to review Susie’s meds. So I called them back after arriving at the hummingbird house, and Jennifer, the nurse aide on for today, had written them out for me (I called her from the car after the doctor’s office call–using Air Volvo voice hands-free option and thereby not breaking any laws). So I did not have much to do going ten miles an hour for a while.

I had the laptop ready, but we did have a sound issue that took me a few minutes to fix, and soon the cardiologist was happy to see us. We were pleased to meet her (she is also my cardiologist, and I saw her last in 2018) as Susie’s newest doc. Doc C had reviewed Susie’s history, even the Mount Sinia West events, and clearing understood what was happening. She was pleased when Susie’s speech today was understandable, and Susie’s vitals were good. Susie had gained twenty pounds since November.

Doc C agrees to continue the heart meds and blood thinners, believing that the strokes were caused by heart issues; the drugs prevent another stroke. We will meet Doc C in May 2023 and do a new echocardiogram and labs. The drugs are powerful, and side effects need to be monitored. Doc C said Susie was doing well and was happy to reconnect with us. Doc C reviewed my (Michael’s) chart too.

After we finished the call and Susie was happy with the good news, I connected Susie’s TV to Hulu (M.A.S.H is on Hulu), ESPN, and Disney+ without ads (We already had Disney and got credit for that). Next, we spent the morning watching the 8th Season of M.A.S.H. (When the writers reduce the jokes and tell more stories, and Radar leaves the show); Susie has seen the first couple of years of M.A.S.H. over and over and was pleased to see these episodes.

The movies Breakfast Club and Pearl Harbor were playing on the TV in the central area. Susie was happy with M.A.S.H. in her room, resting in her bed with a blanket. Susie stayed awake for most of the M.A.S.H. in the morning.

Susie headed to lunch at 1PMish, and I drove to the nearby Red Robin for a burger and diet coke. I was feeling a bit off and had some colon issues later. Likely the result of not getting enough sleep. I returned to the hummingbird house and spent a few more hours with Susie and more M.A.S.H. Susie liked the 8th season (one of the best with more emotion and fewer jokes). At 3:30ish, I headed out with a kiss back to the house. I was tired now, and everything was hurting- a sign to rest.

When I got home, I had a package waiting for me. Darkest Dungeon, the board game version, was delivered after a three-year plus late Kickstarter. I supported the original video game as I liked the art and theme, and when a board game version with all the art turned into 28-32mm Dungeons and Dragon-sized miniatures showed up on Kickstarter, how could I not sign-up? But, the Kickstarter project is a legendary failure–only 2/3 of the promised content has been delivered so far (that is what is in the boxes). I also had to pay an add-on of $50 for shipping after already spending hundreds of dollars and shipping. Few, if any, Kickstarters have 20,000 comments, most negative, and I have to use their Discord to communicate with the supplier–there are too many responses to get an answer now. Still, I loved the miniatures and the game, while interesting, is less interesting to me than the art.

Despite being tired and in pain as every muscle and joint hurts, I opened all the boxes of Darkest Dungeon and looked inside. So cool looking and got out the rules and started reading. It plays much like the video game with a 3D structure now added (the video game, well-loved as so retro, is 2d primarily).

I rested. I read. I opened the boxes a few times to look at more parts. I updated Discord with a picture of the boxes and got jealous comments. All good.

I reheated the Orange Chicken leftover and made more fresh rice to go with it. I ate that while watching Battleship New Jersey videos done by the curating team on the museum ship. They discussed today if the damage done to a cruiser in the Falkland Conflict would sink NJ. Yes and no was the answer. If three modern torpedoes hit NJ, they would expect it to be lost. However, the torpedos in the Falkland Conflict were WW2 designed and would do minimal damage to NJ (the curator said that NJ was expected to take up to six WW2 torpedos).

I rested more and finally wrote the blog. I am being careful tonight as I seem out of sorts. I did not work on my model today as I did not want to make mistakes because I am tired today. It is just a few hours of work.

Thank you for reading!

The morning started with me sleeping into 8:15ish and trying not to rush anything. It is my day off and MLK Day in the USA. MLK weekend includes the first days I get off in a yearend go-live–we did not have one for this year. In previous years I often worked through the holidays (Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year) and sometimes all the weekends too. In those hard-charging years, I would work with the team to deliver for the new calendar year.

I did not have to write the blog Monday morning; I wrote it Sunday night. I work on my model for Dungeons and Dragons and paperwork. Laundry and dishes are quickly started, and soon I am ready to travel to see Susie. Breakfast was toast with peanut butter and liberal coffee made in my French press. I run Quicken and update all my transactions. I check, and none of the documents for taxes are yet ready from the trading houses (growl).

After boarding Air Volvo, I cross Beaverton and stop at Basics, the new supermarket, and get some bananas, a croissant for my second breakfast, and flowers for Susie. They have only winter bunches, and I pick one with thistles as that is different. The flowers at Basic are not as lovely as Safeway’s.

I reach Susie, and it is sunny with even some blue skies, so Jennifer, the live-in nurse aide that works the weekdays, gets Susie in the wheelchair, and we bundle Susie up, there is little wind, but it is still 50F (10C). I take her to the park next door, Metzger Park, and it is actually busy with little kids with their parents taking them to a damp park. One little girl tries to climb the wet and slippery ladder, and dad catches her as she falls–he is ready. There are lots of folks walking their dogs. The dogs seem very interested in new folks, as if the isolation of the rainy winters has caused them to want more contact.

We call Susie’s mother, Leta, from a sunny spot off the trails (the dogs pass by and even whine when Susie does not pet them); we have a friendly, quick chat as Susie gets cold. I quickly push Susie through the park and then up the road. We are both cold when we arrive at the hummingbird house.

We set up in Susie’s room. Susie is in her rocking chair, and I am in a chair from the social room. We watch The Rock’s newest movie, Black Adam. Susie likes it, and it is my second time watching it; I liked it better this time. It is an action film, and while it has the usual DC Comic darkness and dystopian, this one works better, I think. I thought it was an entertaining movie.

Susie falls asleep a few times. This is a new state for Susie. Susie will sleep after sitting for twenty minutes or so. Susie becomes exhausted from just traveling. I am concerned, but Susie is safe, stable, and well cared for (loved, actually) at the hummingbird house.

After the big finish in the movie (no spoilers), Susie is looking for lunch (as I am), and I leave with a kiss. Traffic is heavy even without the school buses. I stop at the Aloha strip mall within walking distance of the house and have lunch at Stir Crazy. I have a cup of hot and sour soup that requires me to drink a glass of water to finish–very hot and spicy (perfect). I order Orange Chicken, and as it is no longer lunch, I get a huge plate. I put more than 1/2 in a box to take home. While not exactly authentic, and their version is more than corn syrup, oranges, and soy sauce you find in some places, I like it. They have dried orange peel and a more smoky flavored sauce–better.

Soon I am back home and working on my ship model. I managed to install the mast after drilling an even larger hole for the mast, only to discover I had the wrong mast and made the hole too large now. I managed to make a wood holder for the mast that looks nice and looks like I planned it that way. I mixed the epoxy glue (the mast is transparent plastic) and nearly made a worse mess than the drilling did. I installed metal loops for the mast and discovered I had put two in the wrong place and filled those holes, and moved the loops. Better. I did drill into the mast correctly, and the brass loops look good mounted in the mast.

Mariah wants a late dinner, so I read while the glue dries and then make the masts that hold the sail. Those are from smaller rods, and I make rope loops to hold them to the main mast. They look great (something finally goes to plan). I make a sail from transparent report holders, and that looks good. I repaired a bit more of the drilling damage (not too bad) and am ready to finish. Of course, then it is time to head to Portland.

It is a wet and dark night. The drive into Portland’s Hopwork Taphouse is uneventful. Unfortunately, Hopworks is only open for another hour. We managed to have a beer, food (a bacon jam and grilled cheese sandwich for me), and chat for a bit. We both have much more to share; another dinner, maybe Thursday, is planned.

Back to the Volvo Cave, India, Nike has some work for me tonight. An early afternoon meeting in India is 10PM for us in Pacific Northwest. I spend an hour helping out after Air Volvo gets me home safe (accidentally enjoying 75 mph with the light fast moving traffic on Highway 26).

Finally, I get to this blog. Sorry if it feels rushed; it is. I am getting tired, despite the coffee I had at Hopworks to help me pilot Air Volvo in the dark and rain. Thanks for reading.

My fav of MLK’s writings: Letters from a Birmingham Jail.