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Going backward, I am writing the blog after another day of paid time off (PTO) from a nasty head cold. The coughing is from the drainage and causes wheezing when I am tired. All of this is starting to fade. I had my usual colon issues from lack of sleep, but as that matches Covid-19 symptoms, I ran a test that was negative–no Covid.

I finished reading the rules for my new Kickstarter board game, Ostia. This is resource management with a race to reach the end-of-game with the best combination of placement and filling orders game. It is a Japanese-based build, and the game comes in English, primarily well-translated, and when finding not-so-good English, the meaning is obvious. There is a Japanese version of all the rules, of course. Like all Kickstarters, this game is lovely, and the pieces are upgraded. No regrets.

The game uses a strange mechanism to determine your next action instead of cards like Concordia or The Lost Ruins of Arnak, and I do not know if I will like it. You have a port that is also an action wheel. Each ship on the section you choose gives you one of the resources (except for the admin action), and then you redistribute the ship markers round-robin, and the last ship marker location determines your action. Oh my, that is a brain-burner. “To do a move action, I will pick the gold segment, as it has three ships which will then get me to the move action as it is three away and I get gold too,” is an example of the inner thinking this requires. “But I need permits to move, and so I will have to take the permit segment and then use the two ships to get to the order action instead and fill an ‘order’ as I have all the grain leftover from the last turn,” is more example of deeper thinking. Yes, really complex game cycle.

I am looking forward to trying Ostia.

I punched it, upgraded it with the wooden parts, and included, to some degree, the add-ons. One add-on does not add many rules, and the upgrade kit already incorporated it–so I left it in. I also received card sleeves and used them; the included organized fit the larger cards with sleeves–definitely a premium Kickstarter product. Again, looking forward to trying it out.

Next, Mariah sent me a note at 4ish that she could do dinner in Beaverton. I concurred that I could use dinner out, and we settled on Golden Valley Brewery (GVB). It was Happy Hour when I arrived, so I had a cheap, locally-made beer. Mariah had a cocktail (off the Happy Hour menu) and a beer product. We both had the meatloaf.

This was my celebration dinner for my story being published (for no money) in 2600 Magazine. My fiction, “Turing’s Battle,” was accepted. Mariah was familiar with Alan Turing, and we talked about how I met one of the code breakers that worked with him on Enigma. My story is about the Turing Test, where a reverse of the test is used to extract intelligence from gamers to create an Artificial Intelligence based assistant to help with real modern naval battles. I originally submitted the story to the Naval Institute, was turned down, and sent it to 2600, which accepted it.

Before this, I visited Susie, careful not to touch her or anything except the minimal things in the hummingbird house. Jennifer followed by cleaning everything I touched later. I was happy to have everyone be careful. There is no reason to share the head cold.

Susie was delighted to see me. I brought the Baby Jesus in the Grotto carved olive wood nativity. I think we bought this in 1994 in Israel near Bethlehem on our first-ever international trip. Susie was happy to have it in her room for the holidays.

We called Susie’s mother, and Susie and Leta could see each other; we used FaceTime on my iPhone. As I was ill for days, this was the first time they could see each other in days. Leta was in the middle of cookie production. She wants to send some to Susie, and I am sure others will receive dividends from the output.

Next, we called Rev. Anne Weld-Martin, and Susie was happy to talk to Anne for a bit. Anne was pleased to hear that I was improving.

Lastly, we reached Dr. Peter Koper, who was happy to catch up with us. We will be seeing a Christmas letter soon with all the family details. Dr. Koper was glad we reached him. He even demonstrated his new technical savvy by using Alexa. We had an excellent talk.

We opened on day 13, the next Advent door. We passed on the candy as I could not safely break off a small piece.

Without a kiss or any close contact, I headed out.

The morning was a sleep-in morning. The first one in days. I was not going until 9:45. I was up at 2-3AM coughing and wheezing and put in another day of PTO. I collapsed with cold/flu meds and slept another seven hours, finally getting a night of good sleep. I am feeling much better now.

Lunch was reheated pizza, and breakfast was a real bagel (thanks, Joyce!) from NYC. I added yogurt and liberal coffee (i.e., Fair Trade certified product branded as Equal Exchange and shipped from Portland).

As I said, I was up a few times but finally just slept through. I have some ginger tea left from the Chemo support package sent by friends, and that helped my throat at 2ish, and I was able to finally sleep with that and cold/flu meds. So I would recommend the tea for colds.

Mariah has suggested Stranger Things as my next binge-watching.

Here is The Twelve Days of Christmas song from our Canadian Friends for the 13th Day of Advent (12 days left).

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

I took the day off from everything. I am still coughing and taking cold/flu over-the-counter (OTC) products to help. I still have breathing issues, and the banshees (wheezing) in my chest are making sleep nearly impossible.

I did feel better in the morning as I got some sleep last night after 1ish.

I started the day at 7ish with coffee, raisin toast from Karen at church, and liberal coffee made in my French Press. I read emails and tried to go slow.

I binged the rest of the Umbrella Academy and called and spoke to Susie at the hummingbird house. She misses me and wants to see me, “I need you.” I am still coughing and a little worse this evening than I expected. I get better and then get worse as I lose sleep. If I am better on Tuesday, I will see her.

Susan’s Aunt Joyce sent me Zebar bagels from New York City, and thus I had a real bagel for my second breakfast, toasted, with cream cheese. I had to slice it–yes, old school. Thanks, Joyce!

I had to head out as I was out of cold/flu meds. When I got to the Wallgreens nearby, the shelf was near empty of OTC cold items! Yes, there is a lot of this out there. I found there were four boxes left of the high blood pressure cold/flu OTC and purchased two of the boxes. I am trying extra strength, and that seems to help.

I got messages from work about a performance issue I was already working on. It is crushing one of our tests. I tried to help a bit with some suggestions that cannot be implemented for the next run–but it is a possible answer. 

Not a very interesting day, and I tried to get more rest, but the noise in my lungs or the coughing kept waking me. I have been here before, and only resting will stop it.

Sorry this is a short blog, but thank you for reading.

Advent day twelve seemed like a good time to go classical: Gloria.

Now, if you need a pick-up from the shopping and political noise: You Can’t Stop the Beat. One of the best things to come from Convid-19 was the videos; this is a fav.

 

 

I spent the whole day at home having pizza delivered for dinner and a gyro for lunch. I have tried to rest and get better, but you cannot will the breathing issues and the wheezing/banshees in my chest to improve. I put in for a sick day for Monday, suspecting that Monday would be worse. The usual pattern is that I am OK for a day, and then it worsens. I seem headed there.

The banshees screaming in my lungs keep me awake, so I took more cold/flu meds and hope that will help. I am up at midnight (Monday morning) writing this.

I slept into 7ish and then got going slow. I called Anassa at the hummingbird house to let Susie sleep in as I would not be there at 10AM to take her to church. I wrote the blog for Saturday. I did the hour of status calls and then rested some more.

I spent the day binge-watching the Umbrella Academy, which I still like, with the third season now starting for me. I would still recommend it, just get through the first two terrible episodes in season one.

I was shocked and surprised to learn that the Hackers’ Quarterly 2600 will publish my SciFi story, “Turing’s Battle,” that the Navy Institure turned down! Yes, another published piece for me. I am excited to be part of 2600, something I have been reading for years, and meaning to write something for them. It does not come with pay or anything helpful like that. I am excited to be published.

I also got bored and worked on my giant scorpion model. I filled in the gaps created by me cutting off the tail and flipping it (it was a plastic model of a full-sized Maine lobster) by planking it with small wood strips like a ship model. Next, I covered them with putty after the CA glue dried. I also cleaned up cuts with the Dremel. I also filled holes and other gaps with more putty. I cut off the face and filled that, too, with putty. I took part of the tail I removed to make a more angled tail, pegged it to the now-threatening tail, and added a barb with wood soaked in CA to make it strong. I will sculpt it into a stinger when everything dries using modeling clay. It was not much work, and I was bored, so I did some more accessible work.

I had another attack of boredom and got my Express (Python-based) devices working and connected to my Apple. I was able to read the code and update it using the Mu editor. Not sure what I am going to do with those, but I plan to return to my hardware hacking during the Christmas break (post my medical tests). I did not do any real work; I just got the connections to work.

Well, the meds are making me sleepy, and the coughing and wheezing have stopped as the congestion stops. So I will try to get some sleep now.

The Hound & The Fox does a lovely What Child Is This/ Child of the Poor combined song that I like. This is Advent Day 11 song.

I did not even get dressed on Saturday as I was coughing and wheezing all day. The moderate to bad air last week increased my breathing issues, and on Friday, it was harder to breathe during my Physical Therapy appointment. A light fever, aches and pains, and wheezing told me I had to stop and stay home.

The morning started with me coughing, my chest burning, and endless nose blowing. My day was full of the screams of banshees in my lungs; I could hear them even when standing. I took some cold/flu pills for folks with high blood pressure. I called the hummingbird house and told them to let Susie sleep in; I would not be coming today. The cold meds, as often happen to me, made me so tired that I slept until 10:40. Unforently, I had a work call at 10:30, so I was late for that one.

I had written the Friday blog, not feeling well, on Friday. Thus, I was free to rest on Saturday. However, I did some writing on my Dungeons and Dragons adventure, shortening it and the storyline to end on the next play. I left the giant scorpion model alone; I had done some work on Friday after I wrote the blog. I added some putty to some areas and attacked the reused segment as the stinger tail. It is starting to come together.

I spent the rest of the day binge-watching The Umbrella Academy reaching season two. I liked season one and found season two slightly struggling to find its storyline. However, I still would recommend it.

I ordered Chinese food from Happy Panda using GrubHub for lunch. The driver texted me that she had deliveries for multiple food orders, and I was number two on her list. She then called me when she was lost. She supplied peppermint paddies chocolates for being a few minutes late after she found our house a few minutes later.

I ate the wonton soup and appetizers in the afternoon and then reheated the roast pork fried rice for dinner. I tried to sleep a few times, but the banshees and all the hot tea, I made a pot of Irish morning tea, made that impossible. So I watched more of the Academy and tried to rest calmly in a chair with an electric blanket.

I had done laundry on Friday, so I was resting on newly cleaned sheets. I did do the dishes. Unfortunately, I have ants all over the kitchen and need to contact ant people to come back and commit insecticide.

I did watch the squirrels in the backyard jump into the old apple tree, pick apples, and then run them up into trees. The squirrels, not being experts in physics, discovered that their jumps are much shorter with an apple in their mouth, but persistence won out. After many more jumps (three to get to the top of my fence using various tree limbs as halfway points), supper was carried away. The more giant apples are lying on the ground and are eaten where they lie until reduced in size to allow safe transversal to higher locals.

The rains allowed for the poaching of apples as the cat patrol (I see three or four cats a day scouting my backyard) and the birds eating the apples do not come in the rains. The squirrels, ignoring the rain, can have all the apple goodness to themselves in the heavy wet that was the “river of rain” we enjoyed a few days ago.

Today, Sunday, when I write this, will be a dull day, and likely, if this cough continues, I will be telling you the lives of slugs and other things in the backyard. Maybe I will cover the cats’ movements or design a LIDAR system to start tracking all the animals and fruit in the backyard. Lets hope I get better soon before I try to create an squirrel based cryto currency.

Thank you for reading.

Here is the unlisted link to see our lights that were requested: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WxB0ngGHVLM

The Hound & The Fox does my favorite new version of We Three Kings, and I would recommend their other Christmas songs.

 

I still am tired and coughing more now. The inhailers are helping, and it is more sinus than anything in my lungs. I also have to use my inhaler more often, but I don’t see any symptoms of Covid or anything else going around. I have been here before in the winter.

I woke before my alarm, and then it blasted me out of bed on this work-from-home Friday when I fell back to sleep for thirty minutes. My first meeting was a team meeting at 7:30 to better include our India team members, so I had enough time to make coffee and start some hard-boiled eggs for breakfast.

The status meetings went on for two hours. I tried to be a positive influence, and now the presentations show how many days behind we are on the testing and data conversions. I would always ask as others wanted to know the same thing.

After the status meetings, I did stretching exercises and rode Susie’s stationary bike for six minutes. I had read the instructions this time and did less of some of the more strenuous exercises. Again, I did not feel any pain, just a few muscles complaining–nothing serious.

I showered and got dressed. I did the dishes. I stripped the bed and washed the blankets (which will go on all day as many blankets take a while to dry). I then grabbed my ladder and replaced the faulty light fixture in the hallway (just like the last one). The new one was an upgrade on the previous models–I saw more capacitors (two in a series) and even a plastic cover over the electronics.

The installation was the usual trying to hold things while attaching them. You need three or four arms to manage. Then, the house wire broke, and I had to strip it. After that, I managed without issue to get the fixture replaced (no zaps). But, in the end, I installed all the wires, and the fixture worked.

The new fixture is slightly brighter than the other one, and when powered off, the LED lights slowly bleed off the capacitors for a moment creating a more pleasing look. This also means the flicker I have faced twice will not likely happen to this version. Next, because they are different models, the likelihood that one of the fixtures will generate an AC current slightly out of phase with the AC in the wall and cause a flicker is near zero. I am hopeful the problem is solved (also, that many capacitors in an AC circuit will likely help suppress any stability from the grid–All good).

Next, I collected Corwin’s mail–just some of it is still coming to the house–and his Christmas present (a small picture of a US historical figure on a small piece of paper in a card) and headed to Hawaiian Kine Bar-B-Q nearby. I gave the mail and card in a large envelope to be given to Corwin, who was working and then ordered Uncle Biggie for lunch which is orange flavored chicken and excellent BBQ chicken. I got a text from Corwin later in the day apologizing for not contacting me sooner. Glad to hear from him!

Next, I crossed Beaverton to see Susie. I was following along on my iPhone with Nike and the testing and data conversions. It is a busy day full of critical paths that, if late, will make us later. I arrived with Air Volvo undamaged after enjoying heavy traffic on Friday at Susie’s place.

Susie was in her recliner sleeping while Blue Bloods was running on the large TV. I awoke her, and she was delighted to see me. I then went to the car and got her some remaining Christmas wear and a few other favorites. One is a tiny poncho that is close to something that Clint Eastwood would wear. Susie likes the outlaw look.

Susie and I opened the next day on her Advent Calendar and were rewarded with another candy–not very good this time. Next, we called Susie’s mother, Leta, and chatted with her for a while. Leta is still planning on making cookies and fudge next week to send to Susie. After we rang off, we called Susie’s sister, Barb, who was happy to be off from work and was grocery shopping. Barb and Susie chatted for a while and exchanged intelligence and logistic information on gifts inflight.

Soon I had to travel and left Susie with a kiss. I was amazed to find a four-car pile-up at the Hall Boulevard intersection. It is only thirty mph, and I am not sure they did that. Seeing that I am very attentive, and when someone in the right lane slammed their brakes and another car suddenly shared my lane, I crossed the yellow line without any cars coming at me to avoid scraping paint.

I stopped next at the hobby store to get some modeling supplies, Tammie’s. I needed some putty for a model I am working on. I also got the latest Fine Modeler magazine; the painting suggestions are invaluable for modeling and figure painting.

Next, it was only thirty minutes to my PT appointment. So I headed to Bethany. I checked the messages and emails at work and then read Fine Modeler for a few minutes. After that, I checked in for my appointment.

My appointment with Michael today was about an hour. Michael decided to keep it mostly to exercises today as I had hurt a bit last week. So they added another exercise to my group of four already. I was tired after that and all of the travel and traffic. So it was a long but careful process today.

While driving back, I saw a house door fall out of a truck on 185th (!?), and cars were making emergency lane changes to avoid smashing into it. So I parked the car with the hazard light on just off of 185th, walked out into the traffic, which stopped for me, dragged the now broken brand new door out of the street, got in Air Volvo, and went home. I plugged in the lights for the evening–they look marvelous.

Back to work online. I rested for a few minutes but got up and made tea to help with the cough and to wake up more. The last meeting was at 4:35 and was a bit gloomy as we had to assign work over the weekend. Meetings will continue with the work on the weekend. But I think we managed to get some clarity, and though folks will work the weekend, it will not be 7/24, and there is room for breaks. So that brightened things a bit.

I heated up the leftover couscous, North African sauce, gnocchi, and some wilted green beans for dinner. Mariah told me to retry The Umbrella Academy on Netflix and wait until the third episode before stopping. The second episode was great, and I look forward to the next one.

While watching this, I got a text from Mariah asking about meeting in the Pearl for dinner and beer. I was tired and had already eaten, so I passed tonight to enjoy

Another Advent day song: I was listening to Sting today, and here is his Christmas song: Here.