Blog

It is a rushed Sunday morning when I write this. I could not fall asleep again on Saturday night. This new thing has been going on for a few weeks. I feel sad and unsettled on Saturdays now. So I am up at 7ish (having ignored my 6:30 alarm) trying to make Sunday work.

Saturday started with me sleeping into a late 7:15 and making breakfast. I cooked a batch of linked sausages for breakfast and for later. I had an NYC bagel (I have only a few left frozen) with the sausages. Next, I made Equal Exchange brand coffee; the taste of liberal and helping others for me everyone morning using my French Press. While I enjoy other coffee, there is also a subtle taste of exploitation in Starbucks and other coffee. I look for Fair Trade in my imported products.

I spent the morning writing the blog and then working on my second ship model. I painted over the primer in three coats without heavy sanding, which was a mistake. The primer has gunked up here and there and removed the smooth surface I was looking for. But it does not look like plywood anymore, so I will take that as a win. I picked Star Wars colors of shades of gray, black, and red supports (like in Star Trek). I managed to not get much paint on the lovely wooden decks and managed to sand any that slipped on. Next, I made the wheel holder and the base for the control levers making this time more like the levers on the laser cut look.

The Dungeons and Dragons game was canceled on Sunday evening as Matt V., enjoying a cruise with his wife and friends, was exposed to a respiratory issue. We have folks with compromised immunity (like myself), so it is best to be conservative and move the game to later. It appears that 12 Feb 2023 will be the next game. I have some more time now to finish my model.

I managed to board Air Volvo near 11AM and reached Susie’s place a little later, at 11:30, without incident. The predicted snow and ice did not happen–the forecast was revised to rain later and in warmer temperatures. The cold weather, in the twenties (-6.67C to -1.67C), was delayed until Sunday night, and with the winds drying the roads before, the freeze was not a threat now. My door on my fence did bang a bit, but I slept through that and only heard it in the morning make much noise.

Arriving there, I found Susie in her wheelchair and her coat on. It was damper in Tigard, the rains were just over, and there was some mist still. Leta called, and ice skating was on NBC, but I spent twenty minutes and could not find local TV on the cable. I will have to get a local antenna for that.

I brought Susie some flowers. Safeway again had good bouquets of flowers for sale yesterday, and I picked one up for Susie. Susie was delighted to see me and the flowers.

While it was not cold or windy, 45F (7.2C) is not Susie’s favorite temperature–she likes a warm sun of 75F+ (24C). So we bundled up and headed outside for Mezger park, next door, where you can watch the basketball courts from Susie’s room. The park was damp and looked sleepy and waiting for Summer (remember, it rains all through Spring here), but it was nice to be back.

We called Leta, Susie’s mother, from the park, and Susie and she chatted for a while. Then, Susie looked like she was cold, so I took the short loop to the cedar trees, a favorite spot in the summer, and headed back to the warmth of the hummingbird house.

Anassa, the nursing aide for the weekend, helped on our return, and soon Susie was comfy in her rocking chair in her room. Not able to get NBC local for ice skating, I put on the newish Disney animated feature, Enchanto, which includes the hit song We Don’t Talk About Bruno and is one of my favorites. We saw it with the Smiths, and I thought of Cat when we watched the animation.

Susie nodded off and was deeply asleep for the boring part. She woke when I was laughing at the part where Bruno was introduced. Evan also came in about the same time; he had some chores and ran late. Susie liked the musical, not remembering it from a few years ago.

Susie was ready for lunch, and it was time, after 2PM, for me to leave. I spend about three hours with Susie on Susie until she gets lunch or falls asleep. Susie was asking for a nap, but some warm lunch first. Susie was sad when I left, and I must admit that I cried in Air Volvo. Some days are hard.

My emotions are close to the surface. I find one song, the sad story in Enchanto, that can make me cry; find it here. Recommended. With Susie’s decline (very slow, and it may stop), potential re-org (layoffs) at Nike, and other challenges, it is hard to keep grounded.

Evan and I headed to the local taphouse, The 649, and the Mexican place across the parking lot for lunch. We usually can find a parking spot, but we had to park a bit away and walk to the restaurant this time. They were busy, and the staff was pleased, running from table to table. They were thrilled to see us; it had been a few months since I wandered to Portland and Beaverton, looking for other places to play board games. I had a sizeable Mexican beer with a chicken enchilada and a Chili Relleno. Evan had a drink and something new with shrimp in it.

We played, moving to The 649, which also was busy, the board game Terraforming Mars, which was new to Evan. I blew the rules and limited us to only two actions, an epoch and not a turn (oops), making the game easier to play and play longer. As often with these engine-building and resource-management games, time went by without even noticing, and soon we were approaching the end at 6PM! I finally, near the end, worked out what I had done wrong, and we agreed to stop. I did enjoy teaching (even when I was wrong) the game, and it was interesting this time.

Terraforming Mars (TM) came out in 2016 and is the 6th greatest game on the Board Game Geeks chart. Its design, not its production, which is cheap and weak, is foundational, and many games after 2016 are children of this game. The game has endless expansions and practical organization offerings to improve the embarrassingly cheap implementation of the initial game. The game has you collect patients to create something or cause an event that will grant resources, the ability to generate resources, or cause an event (like crash something like a comet full of water into the simulated mars) to continue the process of terraforming. Cards that let you bring in animals, microbes, and so on allow you to build engines. You can connect the various items into chains of point and/or resource-generating engines. You can even have your animals eat the other players’ animals for points. Build cities, flood areas into oceans, plant forests, and have space colonies to get more points.

Arc Nova, a new hit game, is a re-work of Terraforming Mars–I like it better. Other games borrow the iconography and processes here and there. The base game for TM, which has appalling bad cards for tracking resources (one bump and the game is gone), sells for about $50. The better Big Box is about $120 and can be brought under control with a $75 laser-cut organizer, but the provided trays will work, so the buy-in cost is about $120. Expansions (there are a lot of them) are purchased separately and run $20 to $50 each.

I recommend learning and playing TM as it is the foundation for many new board games.

We headed home at 6ish, Evan, back to Portland, and I made dinner of the last of the bourbon chicken and cheesy grits. I watched more Vox Machina, enjoying three or four episodes of season two. I like better, and this season reminds me more of some of my Dungeons and Dragons games (the show is a retelling of a D&D campaign). The bit of seriousness matches my experience as your characters gain levels, and the game takes on a more organized style that I see in the animation.

I could not sleep, so I worked on my model some more. The painting is getting the look I wanted, but the clean lines are gone from issues with the undercoat–next time, only one coat and possibly a spray-on painting if I paint the wood anyway BEFORE assembly!

I still could not sleep, so I went back to coding on my Kaggle Project. I have to 6 Feb 2023 to produce an early syntax-correct result. I could not get Groupby to work in the data frame in my Pandas-based Python. It would not give me a working data frame. I tried everything I could find online. I finally wrote the table in CSV format, and after setting a few parameters, the results were perfect. Well, puke, I can write it out but not access it on the data frame. What the h**l? I wrote it out to a scratch file and then read it back in as I wanted it, perfect. Cost me two seconds of run time (who cares!). I went back to sleep and could finally fall asleep.

Now I am late for Susie. So I have to just push this out. Sorry for the typos.

I did not take pictures today, sorry. However, Dondrea sent me one of Zophia (see below).

Going backward, I finally went to bed after midnight. I was coding in Python (I am not sure Python thought my code was Pythonic), but I was having issues with Pandas syntax and was not doing something right. I am coding on the site Kaggle which has contests (for real money) to solve computer problems using various Artificial Intelligence techniques. My program, running on the environments supplied by Kaggle, could read the enormous amount of data and progress through the directory of multiple files. Still, I was trying to reduce data into a summary using cool Pandas GroupBy and seemed to have created a time series, not a data frame of the reduction. Finally, at about midnight, I understood I needed to change an index to get the helpful data frame. I still do not know how to fix it–soon!

The contest has a bonus for supplying test results by 6 Feb 2023, so I am motivated to get something working that just at least sends in a syntactically correct answer. I am taking on the Ice Cube contest. My Python skills have faded over the last five years, and the tools have improved. My math goes back to college in the 1980s. I will try and see if I can re-ignite my passion for coding and math–should not take more than a spark–I love this stuff.

Before disappearing into my own mind and Python coding, I worked on my next spelljammer model. This is the second one. I have the deck planked, shaped, and sanded. The Turb Dork metallic paint has made the SciFi ring look not like laser-cut plywood. It takes four coats over white (some darker metallic paints want a black undercoat) to get the look. The plywood has stigels cut into it with the laser that the light coats of primer and paint have left (but no longer black from the burning). I will paint them by hand later to stand out. I have primed all the wood underneath with three coats of primer. I also coated the SciFi Ring holding stuff and did not deck that section. I will paint the areas in Star Wars colors of grays, blacks, and red–the usual color for equipment in that universe. Only the decking will look like wood.

Moving back in time, I was at Zophia’s play at Whitford Middle School. She was Suiter #3 and part of Scylia (the monster that munches on Odysseus’ crew) in The SoussOdyssey. They had the usual problems with sound, both from equipment and the younger cast, but the forty-five-minute work was well done. Replacing the translations of the Greek (seldom lyrical), the story is told in Doctor Souss’s style, and they “dropped the boring parts.” While I missed the trip to the underworld (the dropping of it wisely avoiding some controversy and boring bits there) and Kirk Douglass (1954 version), having it back in some rhyme seemed to bring it back to life for me. I would recommend it even for classic lovers.

(Zophia as Suiter #3)

Zophia is shot in the eye (somewhat comedically) when Odysseus is revealed, making her the worst of the suiters, as in the story, Odysseus kills the worst first. It was also fun that all the crew members were numbered (they all die in the story), and there was a countdown through the play as crew members fell. It was great fun, and there were various allusions to the 1990s and other things that I sometimes understood.

Before this, I was at dinner with Mariah at Golden Valley Brewery; I was supposed to be at BJ’s. Unfortunately, I went to the wrong place, but Mariah made it work. There I had a beer, some Moroccan-styled sweet potato fries that were quite nice, a small salad, and an appetizer version of their fried oysters. Mariah and I caught up and talked some about plans and things. Mariah is reworking her ride as she is less pleased with her current vehicle. The place was loud, so we moved to a booth on the restaurant side.

Before this, I had finished working from home today (Mondays and Fridays are working-from-home days). The day ended after a lot of frustrating discussions about some mistakes made. Elementary mistakes were made, and that requires, it seems, more emails and meetings. Details do not belong here.

I called Rev. Anne Weld-Martin and asked her if January was a month of stress or stupidity or where folks just do crazy things. With the pandemic and all the months seeming to be the same, I was unsure about my previous experiences. Yes, was the answer that January-February is the high point for deaths in the USA in her experience (she is also a local Chaplain for the EMT services in the area). So it is a month of abnormal stress, and this January is following the trend, if not setting a new high (low).

I will not describe much about work, I was swamped in the morning and had a few crises of the moment to resolve and some to continue to work on. It was quieter in the afternoon, as usual for Fridays (I do not support production, so I don’t get the notorious 4PM Friday SL1/SL2 production issues; service level 1 is for a total loss of functionality, and 2 is for a critical loss of service–both are 7/24 fire fighting at Nike). I took a few questions in the later afternoon and closed my Nike laptop for the weekend (I hope).

Lunch was two hot dogs, trying to use up the Olympic Provisions’ local meat products, with sour kraut. Always good, and the dessert was a Girl Scout cookie (peanut butter–I got two of those boxes and gave one to Susie). I try to avoid cookies, but I make an exception for these cookies. So good!

I started the day at 7:15, having started before my alarm. I made a breakfast of a banana with yogurt and liberal coffee, Equal Trade brand, made in my French Press. I skipped my exercises and dressed in the late morning, as is my habit on Friday.

Bouncing back–in the middle of the day, I visited Susie at the hummingbird house. There was no traffic, and I had a momentary break in the chaos that was January-stressed-out-stupid-crazy-s***t work today. Susie was delighted to see me; she was in her recliner in the shared living room. Susie was comfy in her new blanket. We held hands for a bit; Susie looked like she was a bit confused today and was happy to see me, and just holding her hand helped ground her. I am sure that waking in a new bed and a new place every morning is disconcerting–we lived twenty-five years at the Volvo Cave.

We called her mother, Leta, and talked for a while. Leta and Susie use my iPhone and FaceTime to see each other. This visual connection is essential to the two of them. It is important to me to visit, even for short workday trips, to see Susie. I can also provide the connection for Susie and Leta (Leta will call Susie on the phone if I am delayed or prevented from visiting).

Susie seemed alert and more responsive today. Someday I can see her struggle with falling asleep while taking or understanding (her eyes show her confusion). Today was a better day–it is good to have another good day.

That is a wrap for Friday; thank you for reading. I will try to remember to take more pictures.

The day started out with me waking at 6:07 without an alarm. No alarm set. I managed to rise and get started only a few minutes late. I started the water to heat and set out a breakfast of a banana and yogurt. Then, I went to the living room and did my stretches and exercises for twenty minutes. It was Thursday, so I only did some of the exercises, which worked with the slightly reduced time.

I soon was reading emails (both mine and work) and reviewing slack messages. I ate my breakfast as I tried to catch up on emails, messages, and the news. Soon it was 7ish, and I was in the shower, and by 7:35, I was in Air Volvo headed to the office, the Clubhouse building, not on Nike WHQ. Rumors are that we will (will not) move to the WHQ campus.

My lunch was canceled at WHQ today. I started my ninety minutes of Zoom meetings at 8:00 in a small conference room. My hearing issues make head phone uncomfortable, so I get a room. I also don’t want to be that guy talking loudly to my laptop while other people in the room try to ignore it. It is rude, but many folks do it.

I find coffee with my team and try the stairs. I try them once a day. I am getting better at them. My legs are moving with the same timing, which is an improvement. I still have to pull myself up with my arm on the way up, but it is less needed now. My legs are lifting enough now to not hit my toe on the step and fall forward/backward, which is why I still use the elevator. It is getting better.

Around 11AM, I headed in Air Volvo to the hummingbird house. I arrived twenty minutes later using 26 to 217 without traffic or events. Susie was using her new blanket in her recliner in the shared living room. I brought cookies from her nieces–Girl Scout cookies mailed to the house. Jennifer will find a way for Susie to enjoy her favorite peanut butter cookies. Next, we called Leta, Susie’s mother, and she showed us her partially removed porch. She is replacing it with a deck, which will allow some repairs. Squirrels are enjoying her attic! We learned Barb, Susie’s sister, was on another snow day (she works as the school secretary in Grand Ledge, Michigan) from Leta. We called Barb next. We chatted for a while.

Already I was out of time. I left with a kiss and a promise to return on Friday. I then headed around Tigard, trying to find a bell. We wanted a front desk like a bell for work. None at Target. I headed back towards the office, stopped by Michael’s, and found one. I was also able to pick up a few craft items I needed. Perfect.

I stopped next at Burger King and had a good burger and average fries. I rushed my lunch and headed back to work. My boss, Brad, was enchanted with the bell, and we have a new thing when you solve a software issue (a defect), ring the bell. Rajani got the first ring. At the end of the day, I put the bell in the cupboard with appropriate solemnity.

I finished the day working on a few issues and waiting for more test results. I was not happy, as usual, with our decisions on important issues. But, again, details do not belong here, and also, I know that over longer horizons, we will get this fixed. So I am not very upset.

My return home was after 5PM, and while dark, there was no rain or traffic and, happily, no imaginative application of driving traditions tonight from my fellow drivers. Thus, I arrived with all the paint still on the Volvo. I found my Olympic Provision order at the front door (it was cold enough to not be an issue) and was happy to get some of their small hams and other meat goodies. They deliver here as if it was Portland (I called during the pandemic, and they agreed that 97003 is in Portland). I put that away (resisting making a sandwich with that perfect ham), but instead boiled water with some hot dogs from my previous grill selection–delivered last week with buns and sour kraut. I made hot dogs dressed with sour kraut for dinner. Nothing like this locally-made meat and fermented products!

I watched a few episodes of Vox Machina while eating. I am into the second season, and there is a change in the writing and characters that I am not sure I enjoy as much as the first season. More watching is required.

I then started back on my boat model, the second one, and drove back to Rainy Day Games and bought a bottle of Dork Paint–metallic paints. I glued down the second half of the main deck decking. I will finish the decking on Friday. I will make a junk-styled sail for this model from red felt. Going for a different look than the first model. I am inspired by some work I saw online that I liked. I will keep the rigging minimum for the second one. More SciFi and Fantasy than the more practical rigging in the first model.

I am writing the blog while the paint and glue dry on the model. Zophia is in a play this week, so there was no game yesterday. I hope to see her and the play on Friday.

Thank you for reading.

‘How are you?’ is a question I am getting. Let me spend some time on it. Again, I write here to remember this and my answer.

Regarding my health, I had to put off the colonoscopy until March due to a respiratory infection, which is now gone. That is the test to prove that there is nothing they missed. All the scans and other tests show that the cancer is gone. It is more of a medical formality. My physical therapy is from damage from the chemotherapy, the pandemic, and the stress of everything. The folks at Bethany have solved the pain in my legs and have me working on strength exercises to even the strength in my legs. I am getting better and will increase my exercise and start working on weight loss.

While I am deeply concerned about layoffs, debt limits, the war in Europe, and covering all the expenses for Susie and myself, I am OK. I like to list my fears and concerns in the blog because they are on my mind, and I want to record my thoughts and feelings. I don’t wish to draw conclusions, and I am sorry if I am whining a bit.

Regarding finances, I have done everything I can to secure enough funds without again taking on enormous tax consequences (like 2022) by selling assets. I am borrowing against my 401K, and should I need suddenly to pay it back, it would just mean selling stock (and taking that tax consequence). Thus, I have hired a CPA and am making adjustments to be more tax efficient this year. My CPA agrees with my plan, and I hope to get something back for last year’s blockbuster expense year. Selling of assets and withdrawals are put off until needed, likely in 2025 (if I retire).

Susie is safe and well cared for at the hummingbird house, Michelle Nixon and her staff make Susie feel loved, and she likes it there. Jennifer, the live-in nurse aide, has a friendly relationship with Susie. Bringing Susie her rocking chair a few weeks ago really made her happy. She loves to watch a show with me sitting next to her in her rocking chair as she nods off safely and wakes to sing some more Disney music. I can only be there for twenty and sometimes a few minutes longer on work days. I try to spend three hours on Saturday, and depending on how Susie is feeling, I may stay longer on Sundays (if she is worn out, which happens some days, I will leave as Susie is headed to sleep for the afternoon).

Susie is still on anti-stroke drugs and some other helpful items. Susie seems to be getting more sleepy as the months go by, which hurts a bit to witness, but that is part of the process. There is still a chance that Susie will rally, she has many times, but she and I are happy for every day we get together.

Like a man on a boat in a river and no oars, I must accept that I cannot control the boat and must endure the good and the bad on this unplanned trip. It is a journey I would not have agreed to take but must take. My boat is not coming near the shore for some time; there is no getting off.

‘What can I do to help?’ is also something I hear often.

Just be there. I know you are there. The true challenge to this journey is to never plan more than a few days and live with uncertainty. I will ask for help as I need it. I enjoy the board games I play with friends, I play Dungeons and Dragons, and I work with my hands. I build models and paint figures. I learn how to improve my craft and share my learnings sometimes. It is a privilege to use such good products to produce beautiful work–I could never, when I was small, believe I could paint a figure and look actually like Gandalf from a movie. I am also sliding back into writing. I was published in 2600 next issue, and my AI programming and electronics are all starting back as my ability to work for hours and hours is returning (anemia sucks, and I had that for a year from cancer). I know you are there, and you can keep asking. I keep busy, and there are some much exciting things to do.

Thank you all for the love you have given Susie and me and the help you have offered and given. It matters, and I thank you. Excellent!

And now, back to the blog, a bit short during work days. I do not detail my work for Nike for all the obvious reasons (i.e., my work is owned by Nike, and most folks would find it arcane at best–boring at worst).

The morning started again with me waking a few times and finally being awoken by my alarm from a deep sleep. I moved to the kitchen in my robe and my slippers that my sister got me for the cold sensitivity from the chemotherapy (I have a small hole worn in the bottom). The house is 66F (19C), as I have the heat set low in the evening and on days when I am not working from home (a programmable thermostat but not a smart one). I start the water heating and organize a breakfast of a banana and yogurt.

I lay down in the living room with Alexa playing some motivating Rock and Roll. I then do the whole set of stretches and exercises. This includes sliding my feet with a rubber strap tied around my ankles to provide resistance (so many jokes), holding on to the sink, and doing squats (more jokes). On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I do the complete set.

Next, I pour the hot water over the coffee grounds in the glass and metal French Press to make coffee. Liberal coffee is all I drink at home.

I am delighted that Fidelity has released my tax records (I received an email), and I print them and add them to the envelope of tax information for the CPA. W-2 has arrived. Yearend statements arrived for Susie’s IRA (Pax Fund). I update Quicken with all the transactions and update any that are not automatically assigned categories. At month end, I manually revise the 401K balance to avoid any wishes to time the market (an unwise plan with retirement.

After reading emails (both Nike and mine), reviewing updates on Slack channels, and catching up on the news (more mass shootings), I shower and dress. I am out the door by 7:35 and just early enough to avoid the school buses. I arrive before 8 and start my Zoom meetings and spend ninety minutes on a stand-up (we use the Agile software development process using a ‘Train’ and includes the ceremony of a stand-up) and various update and status meetings.

I am also helping to design some performant software processes. I spent much of the day discussing the details. Many are the same items I worked on before at Nike in SAP software. I also help with a few familiar crises of the moment. I closed the day applying vendor fixes (SAP notes to those who speak SAP) after my previous patches failed, and the software is now dumping (not very nice).

In the middle of the day (sort of going backward), I headed to Susie. I was late and decided first to have lunch. I saw Chipotle on the way, I have not tried that since they had been called out for poisoning customers, and I decided to try them. I had the steak rice bowl, chips, a coke, and guacamole on the side. Itprettyquite good, better than an unnamed Mexican place nearby, and costs $19. Interesting. I think I like the $22 at Red Robin burger better–and it seems a better deal, but it was an excellent meal, and I will return now to Chipotle.

Susie was delighted when I finally arrived, nearing 2PM. Susie had a package. Susie had just finished lunch and was still in her wheelchair, so we headed to the social activity. Jennifer was happy with Susie’s eating today–I think Susie had more breakfast than I did!

Susie’s sister sent Susie a new blanket. Barb thought Susie could use another colorful, warm blanket. Susie was thrilled with the color and another blanket. We called Susie’s mother, Leta, on the iPhone. Leta and Susie chat for a while. Next, I called Barb, and Susie showed her the blanket and thanked her. Barb was making dinner of chicken chili with pumpkin and curry spices. I manage to spend 30 minutes with Susie.

I got an item from work at Susie’s that I could handle when I got back. Susie let me leave with a kiss after I promised to return on Thursday. Traffic was light, and I noticed that the police were not out with radar guns in the winter. It was not raining, but I guess Beaveton’s Finest likes warm weather.

I left work after 6PM, and the traffic was not light, but folks followed more normal traffic processes. I arrived at the Volvo Cave without incident. I got out the bourbon chicken and cheezy grits leftovers and reheated it on a plate in the microwave. It was great, and the grits were good (even reheated) and extra creamy–excellent. I watched five Vox Machina episodes, liking the show even more. It is animated series that is profane and based on Dungeons and Dragons, and it does remind me of some gaming sessions I have played.

Finally, a bit later than I should have, I started on the blog and decided to cover a few extra items at the beginning.

Thanks for reading this extra-long version.

The morning started at 6:00, with the alarm waking me. I had woken every hour since 2ish, but I did manage to be deeply asleep when the alarm startled me out of bed. Not very nice.

I found the kitchen–it was where I had left it. I started the coffee and then identified the new printout of my exercises and stretches from PT in Bethany, limiting myself to those specified daily. I did not want to cause any pain or stiffness. So I completed those, made coffee, and had the last muffin with a banana. The coffee, liberal, is the Equal Exchange brand.

The next moments were spent reading emails (work and personal), reading Slack messages, and catching up with the news. More murders. So many mass shootings I can’t keep up. I have Susie’s guns, and none are loaded. Actually, I don’t know how to load the flintlock. The ammo for the 1898 design rifle is nowhere near the gun. So while I am moderate towards control, I ensure I am not part of the problem.

I boarded Air Volvo after dressing. I then headed to Humminbird house, and then, realizing what I had done, I turned on 185, now headed to work at the office building called Clubhouse. I had instinctively headed to see Susie.

I arrived at work in time for the status meetings at 8:00, despite the detour, and did ninety minutes of meetings. I was also still working on some leftover crises of the moment from yesterday. I managed to head out at 11ish to see Susie. I was time boxed at 1PM. I also had some chores, which made everything very busy. I reached Susie’s place, the hummingbird house, in Tigard without incident.

I forgot to take a picture today. Susie was cute in her penguin sweater and sitting in her recliner in the shared living room. Jennifer, the live-in nursing aide, said Susie had eaten her breakfast but had refused dinner last night. Jenniffer wants Susie to eat dinner as Susie needs the food. Susie promised to eat dinner tonight.

We called Susie’s mother, Leta, on my iPhone using FaceTime. Leta and Susie chatted for a while, but Susie started to fall asleep. This is a new thing, and I try to accept that Susie has trouble staying focused and awake for more than a short time. She remains awake. However, she stays awake if she is engaged, like singing the songs in Sleeping Beauty from Disney.

I stayed for thirty minutes, the most I could while working, and headed out. I had some chores to do that got done, and I found a Western Burger at Carl Jrs. for lunch, a guilty pleasure.

I was back to work and had hours of meetings and more crisis management. I also discussed options for a new issue at the shoe company (sorry, no details can be in the blog) and then had a 5ish call for another set of issues and solution discussions.

We had an all-project meeting, and two HR folks talked about their experiences at Nike and gave career advice. Their focus was that you are responsible for your career at Nike and that it is essential to expand your friends and supporters at the shoe company, expect change, and get feedback from your allies. Folks ask me how to be successful, I am still going after 26 years, and I tell, primarily young folks (they ask), to find allies, strong allies. That is the secret–you need to cheer for folks, and they will cheer for you.

Air Volvo left at 6PM, and I arrived at the Volvo Cave after 6:20, with me experiencing light traffic without the usual creative and extra-legal driving often seen on our streets in the greater Beaverton-Area. At home, I decided to heat up the jambalaya (no seafood) I made a few nights ago. I watched the Dungeons and Dragon based animation series VoX Machina on Prime. I like it more on the second viewing. The food was good a second time.

I then headed to Wildwood to write the blog and enjoy brewed products. A friend from Nike was at Wildwood and was happy to see me. We worked at Nike together for years until he retired. He has had some recent health issues, and we were thrilled to see each other. Still going!

I paid $3 for a bowl of cheese crackers and started writing the blog.

Thank you for reading!