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The morning started with me waking up alone in the house (Corwin moved out and spent his first night at this new place) at about 7ish. It was, as predicted, an overcast day, with temperatures in the 60Fs (15.5Cs) until the later afternoon. Breakfast was yogurt and liberal Free-Trade coffee (I am about 1/2 thru my locally sold case of coffee).

On going through the holiday weekend, work started again at 8 with status meetings. Nothing for me so far but to watch. I did get asked to approve something as an emergency, but my good friend Mariana did the approval and kindly sent me an email and a text that the issue was handled.

I wrote Friday’s blog, often interrupted by Zoom meetings, following along on Slack channels for important messages, and getting showered and dressed. It took me until 10:30 to get the blog posted. I was rushing to see Susie, getting there nearer to 11 than the 10 I had hoped for.

Arriving, skipping the 20MPH section of Beaverton using Allan Road instead, at Hummingbird House without incident, Susie was just finishing her breakfast of oatmeal and milk (slightly thickened and the oatmeal blender’d). Soon Vanessa, the nurse today, had Susie in the spare recliner in the activity room. I set up the screen I keep in Susie’s closet and the Apple laptop to play the next movie: Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. Susie has not seen it before.

Susie called her mother on my iPhone, and uses FaceTime to see each other. We try to do this every day. First, they chat for a while. Next, after the call, we start the movie. Susie falls asleep holding my hand, watching the movie a few times. She is tired and also happy to be there with me holding her hand and just falls into a restful sleep. I am rushed for time, so I stopped the movie at 1/3 at noon; Susie was falling asleep anyway. We will continue it on Sunday afternoon (unless there are other crises of the moment at the shoe company).

I head home, stop by Walgreens (our Rite Aid is closing, so it is time to use the close-by Walgreens), and get some wrapping paper. I wrapped my copy of the Scooby-Doo Haunted House game, including a Hot Wheels Mystery Machine Van, and painted figures for the whole gang with the addition of my spare H.P. Lovecraft figure I just finished as the villain. Matt (M@) is having his First Retirement Party, and I thought he would love this as a retirement gift (he can now say as an old guy, “It would have worked, except for those meddling kids!”). He loved it and was happy to receive my punched copy. I have only played it once with Susie. Events have prevented Susie from playing again.

Aside: The whole gang and Scooby-Doo are available at Hassle-Free Miniatures, in metal, in the UK. Freddie is missing his neck scarf (I added it), and the girls are a bit curvier than drawn in the animation but look good. The Mystery Machine can be found online as a Hot Wheel collectible. The van is 1/2 scale compared to the minis but fits on the game board. Hassle-Free also offers a post-apocalypse version of the gang.

I made it to M@ party with the gift and masked only 15 minutes late. I was the only one masked, and soon, I was drinking various adult beverages and eating various snacks, so the masked came off. For the first time, I was comfortable not wearing a mask in a crowd. I was happy to see everyone. Many I have played Dungeons and Dragons at M@ house and have not seen, due to the pandemic, for three years. It was the first time I had seen Niki, M@’s wife, since the last party at M@’s house before the pandemic.

“We made it,” was the comment I heard a few times. Everyone was happy to have the pandemic receding, and lives were being put back together. However, I did notice that all of us are grayer and have new lines on our faces. There was also the slightly haunted look of survivors that I have seen everywhere. Yes, indeed, we made it.

As I mentioned, I had at the party one item from work, but Mariana handled it. I was checking the Slack channels and my email all through the party. Soon, it was 4ish, and I needed to go and call into the next Zoom status meeting. I hugged my gamer friends, so happy to see them, and took Air Volvo home without incident.

The status called soon over, nothing for me, and I was doing laundry and doing the dishes. I had a ham sandwich before heading to M@’s, and there, I also had a burger–it was soooo good. After that, I was not looking for dinner. Later I had some cottage cheese and some canned peaches. I saved the other 1/2 of the canned peaches for breakfast.

I returned to assembling the game insert and organizer for the game Root. Now, in just my limited copy, three boxes and a vinal rolled matt, I wanted to use the insert to maybe get rid of one box. This is a lot of gluing and assembly. So I stopped and started through the night.

I folded and put away the laundry. Then, I ran the clean cycle on the oven. I am not that happy with the self-cleaning features of this Maytag oven. I cannot get the window clean.

I missed a message from The Smiths at 9:45 to watch Obi-one Kenobi together. Instead, I watched my DVD copy of The Ninth Gate. This is an old fav of mine and I like the book: The Club Dumas. This is by a favorite author: Arturo Pérez Reverte. I got about 1/2 and then went to bed about 10:45ish with my phone on loud. I read The Law of Root (the rule book). No calls. I was asleep before midnight.

 

This will be a concise blog as I spent most of the day online working on issues.

I started at about 6:45ish and was online reading emails, work emails, Slack messages, and texts. The status meetings and updates had no tasks for me. But, I waited for the corrections to our part of the data conversions to run, and this did not happen until later in the afternoon. I had a banana with yogurt and liberal coffee for breakfast. I was going to have cereal for breakfast, but the tiny sugar ants had found them, ugh! The ants have ignored the ant baits. I will send a note to my pest service to come out and commit insecticide!

While waiting, I updated Quicken and now am in July with my books and enjoyed over $11,000 in expenses for medical in June. This includes some remaining charges from Forest Grove. July will have a few more lagging items, including an ambulance ride for Susie after insurance is over $300, but soon I should have a new baseline for expenses.

I also canceled the last of Susie’s credit cards to remove any more charges. All the donations should be running through the bank now. Anything else is things likely that need to be stopped. I need to conserve my resources.

Aside: I am now feeling well enough to start handling finances. Before, I would just get exhausted.

My sister’s case of chicken soup arrived in Michigan. Linda Wild is not feeling well, so I sent her chicken soup from Amazon. No shipping (but don’t be fooled; it is worked into the price) and arrived the next day. Linda was surprised and happy to receive a little long-distance TLC.

I finally decided to head to see Susie at Hummingbird House; there was no time for a movie today, and of course, things got going at work after I headed out. Just like the previous day! Air Volvo delivered me to Susie’s place without incident while I listened along on the phone. I left the call when I reached Susie.

It was approaching dinner time, but Susie was happy to finally see me. We called Susie’s mother, Leta, while Susie sat in her recliner chair. They chatted for a while. Vanessa, the nurse on Friday, then moved Susie to her wheelchair, and I rolled her out to the park–extending my visit as I felt terrible that the issues for the shoe company had shortened my stays. We enjoyed a warm and sunny day (not the forecast) and watched the yellow butterflies fluttering. Susie was OK with me leaving and enjoyed the extra time.

After a kiss, I got back into Air Volvo and headed to Forest Grove. Mariah had been ill, so it was our first chance to have dinner again. Back to the Black Dog for beers and food. Of course, I reconnected with the shoe company to hear what was happening. I connected to the call I was given (the wrong one) and did hear some of the work.

The fix was done about when I arrived in Forest Grove and met Mariah for dinner. I had a BLT forgoing the extra charge for avocado (making it a BLAT–who wants to eat a sandwich called “blat”). Mariah had some mystery take on a Cubano that I would not recommend. We also shared a deviled eggs appetizer with buffalo sauce (meaning hot sauce after something invented in Buffalo, New York, and has nothing to do with the furry animals in the western USA).

After we send our goodbyes after dinner, I retraced the well-known path of Forest Grove to Aloha (Reedville) and the Volvo Cave. There Corwin was completing his move out. He did leave a few items, including a suit of armor (Susie called it George), to get on Saturday or Sunday. Corwin went out with his friend Andrew with a few more items and no longer lives here; a nine-year adventure ends here, and a new adventure starts for Corwin in his apartment. We all wish him success!

I followed along at work, but nothing broke. I cleaned up a few places and then started building an insert for the game Root. The insert, made from foam board, helps to organize and possibly compress Root into fewer boxes; it takes three so far. I bought it just before I was down with chemotherapy, so it is something I want to get done and is on the backlog of little projects.

I went to bed at about 11ish and read. Finally, sleeping after midnight. I slept well.

It was a hard day of ups and downs. At the shoe company, we had a break in data conversions, so the day was focused on work items. This will be a concise blog as the whole day was about work which I don’t blog about–well maybe not that concise.

I started the day early, and there was no hint of a break at first. I was up at 7ish and attended that status meetings, and then, having no issues, I got dressed and headed to see Susie at Hummingbird House.

I stayed a bit longer as yesterday’s visit was cut short. Susie was feeling better. Jennifer told me she had a tummy issue Wednesday night, but it had resolved, and she slept the night. Susie’s speech was more challenging for me to understand today, but that could be me as I have been under some stress at work, so I will just see what others say.

We called Leta, Susie’s mother, and chatted with her for some time. Leta then asked me about some items that I will follow up with. Leta, being far away, always feels guilty about not being there to help and often reminds me of things I need to check on. Will be checking on them soon!

Susie is wearing one of the sweaters I brought her for her vast collection still at the Volvo Cave. This is a fav of mine–it is also dry clean only, and Jennifer is ensuring it does not end up in the laundry!

It was cloudy and overcast as usual for June in the Pacific Northwest, with a temperature of only 64F (18C), so there was no quick trip to the park. Soon it was time for me to go, which made Susie sad as I knew she would like to do more that day, but it was a work day for me, so I had to get going. It is always heartbreaking for me, I have tears in my eyes even as I write this, but work pays the bills and provides health insurance. Thus, I must head to the office.

When I get there, I enter a s**t storm, but as an IT professional, I get out my virtual s**t storm goggles and smile and figure out how to help without adding to the stress levels of others. My job as a computer architect is often to be supportive and only join in when asked. If a bunch of folks have a problem and are managing, my job is to be a cheerleader and help others accept and wait. It is so easy to virtually grab the steering wheel and try to drive a solution, but that is not my job unless needed. Thus I helped by being calm and following up on the few items I could help with.

I cannot place any work details here as that is inappropriate, but my emotions can be described. It was hard to do the right thing and just endure the s**t storm (still going on Friday) and be helpful and calm.

I got free lunch at the trucks, a salad with cornbread. It was good, but I hardly tasted it. Again, hard to enjoy an excellent lunch when you are in a swirl of issues. I sat in the command center for the afternoon and early evening and joined various status calls.

When it became clear that we would wait, I went home. Corwin was home and packing–he moves out on Friday and over the holiday weekend. I ordered some favs from Gyro House for us to recognize this important day for him. I got a lamb gyro with a side of tabbouleh. Corwin and I shared some eggplant dip (baba ghanouj) with Corwin enjoying an Iskender plate from Gyro House for his dinner.

The night continued with various update meetings, but around 10ish, it was clear that I could just get some sleep and either be called or wake in the morning. So I read for a bit. Then remembered it was trash and recycling–somehow, it was almost Friday (trash pickups are on Friday with recycling every other week). So the waste and recycling tasks were done with me in my slippers, taking multiple trips as I found more and more to trash or recycle. After that, I was ready to sleep with my phone set on loud. It did not ring, and that closed a tough work day.

Thank you for reading.

The morning started too soon as I was up until almost 2AM. I managed to get going again by now 6:30ish. The software installation continued over the night, I read all the notes on that, and I had hours of status meetings in the morning.

Breakfast was yogurt and a scone with liberal coffee. I ate it while participating in various Zoom meetings.

Work has quite a few crises at the moment. I was drinking a lot of coffee to keep going. I had multiple meetings and made lunch while talking to one person on my laptop using Zoom, who saw me make mac and cheese for lunch with kielbasa sausage cut into squares mixed in while discussing data lakes.

In the afternoon, a long-running process let me slip out and take Air Volvo to Humminbird House and see Susie. Susie had finished lunch and was in her recliner. Susie had slept poorly the night before, Jennifer, the live-in nurse, explained. Susie was happy to see me, and we quickly called her mother, Leta, on my cell phone. Susie was unhappy that I had to leave so soon, it being a work day. With a kiss, I went and returned home via Air Volvo without events.

After getting home, we experienced a few issues with our software and data conversions, so I was busy all afternoon and evening. I ordered Indian food for lunch delivered by GrubHub. I ate that while on status and working sessions online via Zoom. After that, I took a few nap breaks.

We had a break in the software and then had multiple working sessions to work on the break while our team continued the data conversions. Finally, at 2:30AM, after taking a nap, our part of the conversions was over (100% success with a minor issue that can be worked after go-live). I went to bed at 2:30.

Sorry that this is more of an outline than a story. It was a full day and night of work for the shoe company. I also had to squeeze in writing this while working issues all yesterday.

 

I finally went to sleep at about 1:40ish. We had worked all day and into the evening with the data conversions. There were many crises of the moment, and some are still ongoing.

Details of the work I will leave out. I can say that our teams across the globe did a superb job.

Going backward and skipping the working night, dinner was a chef salad (no egg) that I made from lunch meat and cheese. I chopped the carrot and celery. It was good after my larger breakfast and lunch.

Breakfast was a large helping of cottage cheese and half a can of peaches (the previous half being dessert for yesterday’s dinner). Lunch was reheated jambalaya I made yesterday.

I also continued with the quest to keep Quicken up-to-date, downloaded all the transactions, and aligned them. It is a permanent job, but it provides you with a clear view of expenses and income. With our medical bills and Susie’s room cost at Humminbird House totaling over $8,000 each month, I need to reduce expenses and generate income (mainly from the sale of stock options and stock). I would recommend this process, and I used to have this all running and manage all our expenses and income.

While listening to one of the status meetings, I made scones from a box. This requires quite some time cutting in cold butter with a pastry cutter. I then add milk and an egg. This is a box from King Arthur Flour, and I bought a case of these during the pandemic. All delicious and recommended. I had scones as a snack at 8PM. I then had popcorn later.

Before all of this, I made the classic mistake, seeing that the next task was 2-hours out, I got in my car to head to Hummingbird House, but the tasks started just as I got into Air Volvo. I am primarily a tourist for this process, but still, I find listening on my phone a lot less attractive than being online and participating. I did pull over and listened as the first big install from our team began. I was in the Arby’s parking lot–they were not open yet. When I had a short break, I drove to Humminbird House.

I was slowly pulling onto TV Highway, which was good, as a speeding older pickup ran the light. Had I made my left, using the green arrow light as my guide, I would be looking for a new car today. There is a strange intensity with some drivers out there.

Susie had just finished breakfast. I gave her my phone, and she and Leta, her mother, chatted briefly. As I had very little time, it was a short call, and then, with a kiss, I left and took Air Volvo back home.

I started the morning with a status meeting starting at 7:30, with more status meetings going on for some hours. I dressed and headed to Susie’s place after the initial status meetings.

While waiting between calls, I checked on the roses. Again, the watering helped, and even the new one, showing some heat stress, was recovering.

The Cardinal Richelieu is still going, and while stressed, it is still flowering.

The new roses Wedgwood from David Austin is a climber, and canes are flaying on the ground, but the flowers are lovely.

Sorry, this is short, but most of yesterday was data conversions and strange data issues that can not be discussed here. Also, it is rather dull to those not involved.