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Susie had a nightmare and woke me up, and I had disturbed sleep. Thusly, 6:30 came unwelcome this morning. However, my first meeting was at 7:30, and thus I had to start early; no sneaking in 30 more minutes and rushing. I was showered and shiny clean and had my camera on for the 7:30 meeting.

My first meeting was with my old team that is developing the shoe company’s main accounting and fulfillment system. I am now doing integration, data, and data conversions, which gets me into enough trouble without returning to my old haunts. But, since I was invited, I helped the architects and business folks work out the issue. So, I was welcomed back much like an honored guest. It was nice to see I could still handle the shipping side of the software. All on Zoom as usual.

After that, I had hours of status meetings, again in Zoom. I had breakfast through those meetings and took all my medications. That is quite a process now, but I am careful to follow the same flow each time.

New problems arose in my health. My legs gave out, and I caught myself on the table. A very nasty surprise! This happened three times this morning and then stopped. I had unhappy visions of needing a walker or cane!

I remembered later that the pushing of Susie seated on the walker means I have to push while leaning a bit. I put a kink in my thighs. I need to be more careful. I had pushed Susie a lot on Monday and Saturday. Got to stretch that out!

My other health issues are a bit better. But, the disturbed sleep left me tired. I took 1/2 of a Benadryl tablet (a whole one will put me out) as my allergies are running harsh. This made me very relaxed, and I had trouble paying attention to the often really boring status details. I took a break when the morning status meetings finally ended at 10:15 and was out like a light!

I reawoke at lunchtime, feeling much better; the allergies impacts had retreated. I made chili dogs for lunch and made enough for Corwin when he got going around 2ish. Susie was up late too and had oatmeal for breakfast/lunch.

During lunch, I watched videos on how to play my new game Ankh. This game is mostly a worker placement game, but I also think there are some Euro-styled engine building. One of the videos I watch was a play-through of a whole two-person game. I could only enjoy about 1/2 of it. I caught their mistakes and misplays on the video; I think I have the basics down.

I returned to work, more status and emails. I slipped out to drive Corwin to work and then stopped by Rainy Day Games, our local gaming store. I picked up some desert yellow spray paint. This is an Army Painter product and can be used as an undercoat too. I decided to paint a few basic items in Ankh already.

Mariah sent a text that she wanted to meet for a beer and more. So we decided on the Wood Fired Rock Pizza. Susie decided to go, and we met there.

I sent a note that I would miss the last status meeting.

We enjoyed some food and beers. An early start. We watched shift change as we were early and headed out while the night was still young. The staff is wearing masks, and masks are worn when headed to and from tables by the customers. I feel safe still.

I returned home and cleaned out Air Volvo of our stuff and some trash. I deliver the vehicle to the mothership tomorrow for a two-day fix and clean treatment. Once a year, I have our car checked, everything fixed and detailed to the max. Due to the strangeness of the times, they have no loaner car (unless I wanted to wait another three weeks) for me. I will have to rely on Uber and friends for two days.

I then painted the plastic 3D action markers for Ankh and washing the tiny camel pieces that I will paint soon. The action markers are not painted in the set, and they need to match the color to be useful. The cardboard versions are colorful, and I am trying to match them. It was the first thing I saw I needed to improve. I have already decided to paint the set. The desert yellow undercoat is already in use!

I am still tired, but I will try to paint a bit more. I hope you enjoy the blog. Thanks for reading!

The morning was here too soon. I managed to get going about 7ish and was dressed and cleaned up for my first Zoom meeting at 8. Unfortunately cUnfortunately, coffee was not enough this morning, and I took a break around 10ish.

Moving to the end of the day and going backwards, Safeway delivered my groceries at 8PM. A couple of items were out-of-stock. I did manage to drop the eggs and lost three; I picked up the plastic bag, and the eggs just seemed to flip out of the bag. The rest of the items I managed to put away without mishaps.

Before this, I was reading the rules to a new Kickstarter game finally delivered after waiting two years, Ankh. This is a dudes-on-a-board style board game from the same designer of Blood Rage and Rising Sun. It is stuffed with amazing figures cast in hard plastic, all ancient Egyptian themes. Like all of these games, it is a visual feast.

I am still just reading the rules and trying to remember how to play. I watched videos a long time ago. We might play it this weekend. I also have Empire of the Stars that arrived this week. So many games; so happy! I have already decided to start painting this game. I never painted my copy of Rising Sun. All of Blood Rage is painted. I will start with the base game.

We meet Mariah at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. We watched football, preseason, and had wings and things. We discovered that Duvel is on tap there and enjoyed the fine Belgium ale. A fav beer for me.

Everyone was masked at BWW and being careful. The only strange item is that while waiting in line for a table, folks do not do social distancing. I have seen this before.

Work ended about 5ish with more status meetings. I spent the day following the progress and helping with three or four crises of the moment that happened. I did even have a meeting with my boss, Zooming, about some of the unpleasant events of the weekend. He is concerned and doing what he can.

I am tired, and I will stop there. Thanks again for reading.

It is Monday at I am dragging and on hours of Zoom meetings. I mixed the weekend with watching and helping the data conversions and attending twice-a-day status meetings and once-a-day defect review meetings. The project’s leadership decided to attend the meetings creating a strange moment when leadership gets to see “how the sausage is made” and had to get used to the gritty details of data conversions.

On Saturday, I was still showing health issues, and some problems have returned. I am tired and resting a lot. I am taking all the meds and all the med side-effect preventing stuff. So far, I am doing OK.

Susie and I watched a few Disney movies on Disney+ to just hang out as I had to keep checking email and had one call to help with an issue.

I slipped out to get a picture of my roses. Still, a bit washed out by the hot sun, but always nice looking.

I made sandwiches for dinner and then headed off to Richard’s house in Portland to join him and Kathleen in learning the Through the Ages, the newer version, board game.

We had to learn the game, and then the game is a bit of a struggle to finish. All the cards have to be played, and there are a lot of cards. While very well done, the game does remind me of a manual video game. It also had all of us having to remind others that they missed important steps: it is not intuitive like, say, Scythe. We started at 6:30 and finished just before 2AM. Not my usual Saturday night!

The game Through the Ages is a highly regarded board game, and it and Civilvation are the two top games of this style. In this game, you start with a civilization that you are trying to improve more efficiently than the other players. This is mostly done by buying cards on a track and implementing them using resources. Some of the cards provide resources instead. So as in all good games, the choices are all important. Do you build the science building and get more science to build even more, or do you buy the card that will let you finish that high scoring? Are examples of choices that come up. Also, if you create too many resources, you will have to pay some back as corruption or support your population. Cards cannot be discarded usually, so only buy what you can use.

There is also a political and military sub-system where you can even declare and fight a war against your opponents. Except for some aggression from Richard, we did not fight. It was a learning game, and it was hard enough to learn without war! The politics also allowed for an impressive end-of-game scoring that moved Richard to almost overtake Kathleen, and he did surpass me. Not surprisingly, I scored last against Richard and Kathleen in an engine building and resource management game!

My learnings were that my abandonment of military power, I was the leader of military power for a bit, and not building science was a poor choice. I should have built the military up, forcing Richard and Kathleen to do the same, and used it. Plus, not investing in science was a weakness I did not recover from. Kathleen, while winning, had a thought time when she overproduced food. She had heavily invested in it and ended up having to pay for using lots of resources.

It is a longish game, and you can end up with long turns while you try to find the best choices. Start it early. Three players seemed the best game. Four, the max, would play long. As games go, I am looking forward to another game. I have a copy of Lisboa, and I think I might still like it better, but more play is needed before I can say that.

As you can imagine, I was home late, and the 8 Zoom call was hard to get up for. But I did manage an hour of Zoom calls.

I was too tired to head to church. I also was on call; it was best to stay home.

I took a nap and then started on the laundry, cleaning, and making lunch and dinner.

There was another Zoom call at 4:30. I was watching online, but there was nothing I was needed for.

I then headed to play Dungeons and Dragons at Cory’s house that evening. We are playing a published adventure in Hell, fighting to free a lost city from being consumed by infernal forces. This is not a Dante version, but a mix of Mad Max meets Mephistopheles re-imagined by Dungeons Dragons and lawyers. We started out with Corwin losing his fighter character and then having to guard a hut. We were attacked and nearly wiped out. Hell is well hellish. It was a good game, and Corwin was ready with a new character and got back into it.

I was home too late to write, and I still tire easily and was exhausted by then.

I think I will stop there. Just a summary of the interesting parts.

Working backward, we just got home, Susie and I, from the Spaghetti Factory. After watching the real fun and even intellectually interesting movie Free Guy at our local Regal Theater, we went there for dinner. I was not expecting Susie to like the movie, and I had to describe some of the ScfFi artificial intelligence called out in the movie to Susie over dinner. Machine Learning is a current hobby for me.

Before this, I was reading and checking in off and on with the data conversions at the shoe company. I helped get some clarity that we have already lost two days in the schedule. So So I cannot comment much more here other than to say that the obvious is often missed. I am frustrated.

I did slip out for an hour to Powell’s Book to get Susie’s book, Vortex. We ordered it and had a copy of Ms. Coulter’s newest book sent to Cedar Hills Crossing Powell’s location there for pick-up. While there, I also found a nice history book by one of my fav authors, Ross King. This new book, The Bookseller of Florence, had me with just the title. These are my fav type of stories. I was shocked at the $30 price, but I like to read the footnote and references and I cannot do that on a Kindle version (which is likely on a few buck cheaper too), so I payed the going rate. The bookseller saw my shock, I usually find used copies, and explained to me that new books are in this price range now. For those who love history, I recommend a used copy of Brunelleschi’s Dome by the same author. It is a masterful telling of the history.

I started Friday with the french toast cassrole that I made last night getting put in the oven. I also made some links. Both in a hot oven. I had it backed and ready before 7:30ish and so was showered and shiny for my first meeting.

The hours of Zoom status is started again at 8 now for the new data conversions.

On Thursday night I went to bed after making the french toast cassrole. It was just above average and needs some rework.

Still going backward, we met Mariah at the pizza place. We were the only gray-haired folks there. As we were there late, dinner at 7ish, we found ourselves in the bar with lots and lots of young unmasked and well dressed, if not scantily glad, folks. Social distancing was being a bit ignored, but as Susie and I counted as old folks in this crowd they avoided getting too close. Less afraid of catching Covid-19 than getting scolded by their elders.

The staff, the usual folks, had not seen us in a while and all but gave us hugs (very strange to be touched by someone in a N95 mask). We had dinner with Susie having chips and dip (she had a late lunch because I forgot to make her something until she reminded me), me a hamburger, and Mariah a pizza.

Our waiter told us to limit any complexity on our orders as the cooking staff was still learning how to make a burger or a sandwich. We had noticed, like many local places, that the menu was reduced. My burger was good and well prepared even with a bit extra pink. I had been warned. All the rest of the food and drinks were well done.

Before this I was working at home, as usual, on-line in hours of Zoom calls. More status calls and alignment calls. I did have to take a few breaks and rest. I tire easily.

I started the day about 6:30ish. I started on all my new pills and processes.

Well I am running late again. I think I will stop there. I hope you enjoy the story.

 

 

My doctor has new prescriptions and plans and told me not to panic. I am dizzy and tire easily, and my labs match this. There are simple treatments and side effects to be mitigated. I wrote a message to my doc, and he replied today. We agreed in the last appointment to operate this way, by message.

Returning to today, I started at 6:30ish as usual and was very tired and got the coffee going. I read the initial emails and Slack messages to get a feel for the day.

I was clean and shiny for my first meeting at 8, a stand-up. This was followed by a status meeting and then a planning meeting.

The planning meeting started with the leaders of the meeting thanking everyone for all the hard work and acknowledging that it was not getting easier. Our work is harder, and there is more and more while we live through re-orgs and the pandemic. So it was really nice that someone said that and said, in fact, we know it is hard, and we will keep going; we have to.

More meetings and lab results. I ordered lunch in including all red meat in my lunch to help.

Susie got going, and I got her started with breakfast and coffee.

I was dizzy and tired by the afternoon. Eating is now hard work. I read a bit and sleep a bit. My phone is with me and will wake me if anyone needs anything. I check it every hour or more often anyway.

A few more status and alignment meetings. Many the same subject over and over. The last meeting was chaotic as we are now starting the real work of data conversions after getting the systems built. It is always a strange moment when the work goes from being something you have planned for months to the actual execution. I am excited to see it start again. Slack channels are burning up with updates!

I finished the last meeting at about 5ish. I made Schwann’s Porkchop (with bone) with little red potatoes and the last of the frozen Schwann corn niblets. I boiled the taters for about 30+ minutes and then added them to the pan I fried the Porkchops in. I cooked the chops in butter with herbs. I then put the pan with the red potatoes into a 350F oven for 15 mins. I should have stopped there. I put them back in for 5 more mins after salting the taters. I should have salted the taters and stuck to the 8-10 mins. Next time!

After the cooking and cleaning up, and serving, I was exhausted, and the house temp rose to above 75 (AC is off). I was dizzy and falling down tired. I need to be more careful!

Lastly, I put out the trash and found the ants had located the trash. And there was the biggest silver dollar-sized (including the tiny legs) spider apparently pick-off the ants. Not my fav type of ant control. I let her, Charlotte–yes, we have a name for the giant spiders that appear in our garage, alone as I did not want to chase her while dizzy.

I plan to clean the garage, but I wait until the rains start. Unfortunately, I usually find two or more Charlotte spiders when I do that. So I try to get them outside alive.

I will pick up my meds on Thursday and start the recovery process and side effect management. I have also ordered more groceries delivered. I am cutting my exposure to crowds again.

That is about all the time I can give for this today. Thanks for reading.