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I am drained today. I was up early, and all the driving yesterday seems to left me tired.

Afraid this will be a boring blog. Sorry!

Work was hours and hours of Zoom meetings. I am double, triple, and worst booked and have to pick the meeting I need to attend. I then multi-task and try to cover the issues that are appearing in email or text in Slack. So it is a constant push to get items done. It is odd to get issues from a meeting I cannot attend because I am in meetings about something else—the life of Nike IT.

I overslept until just after 7 but managed to make my first meetings all dressed and ready. I did take a few breaks as I am so tired it is hard to think clearly.

I also had some caregiving this morning, so that added to the chaos.

I did manage to get a break for noon and went to Wendy’s for chili. I got Susie a small one with a small frosty. I brought it home and took a breaking watching some videos on my Mac.

On this coming Sunday, all the players return to Hell for our in-person gaming. Back to Dungeon and Dragons and our campaign in Hell. We had some emails about restarting today, and it is really nice to again ask questions like, “are we 6th level.” We are all vaccinated (except Corwin, who will play the next game after getting his second shot on Friday). I play a tiny gnome wizard who sees dead people (no, really, it is called “haunted” in the rules).

Due to some frustrating back-peddling of leadership on the project, I do not have tomorrow off, and they have declared a required workday. I have to take Corwin to the coast for his second shot. We were going to make a day of it, but now we will have to minimize the day. I will still take a few moments to walk on a beach and maybe find some good seafood for lunch. But another crazy day. I will have my phone, laptop and be available for calls.

Dinner was KFC. Just is one of my favs and it seemed a good fit when I am so tired.

Tonight we had Theology Pub. Before the pandemic, we would discuss important theological issues while drinking and eating at a local pub. Now we Zooming. Our topic today was Brotherhood. We discussed this, and many thought the word is antiquated and maybe sexist. We believe true Brotherhood is a group that has a shared experience and is bound by an outcome. Thus a social meeting is not this. We also discussed that there are elements of supporting members and the need for compassion. We discussed that there is an element of justice that must also be included in Brotherhood.

424 people are recorded to have died today in the USA from Covid-19.

Brother, sister let me serve you seemed a good choice for today.

I am home after seeing my sister, Linda, down in Eugene. She is a contracting RN nurse and is doing testing and related stuff for the NCAA events. She usually has 16 hour days, but today was a bit shorter, so we could meet for dinner.

We headed to Cafe 440, a place I have only read about on the Internet. It was a bit more basic than I expected. Despite offering standard fare, the food was perfectly executed—the nachos with pulled pork was a dream. Linda had a cob salad with bacon slices to die for. I had a small salad and ordered the chocolate chip bread pudding with chocolate chip whipped cream. A new standard, I think, for how good bread pudding can be.

The drive is one hour forty minutes plus or minus a few. I took the afternoon off to be there for an early dinner. Susie and I traveled by Air Volvo down to Eugene, and we had no events other than having to dodge some “alligators” (huge pieces of semi’s tire all over the road when the truck tire fall apart). I hit one on a trip to driving trip on the old champaign colored Volvo (“the Volvo”) years ago and did over two thousand dollars of damage (the air conditioner was partially destroyed in the old S60 Volvo as the heat exchange is near the bumper). I was glad that Air Volvo and I could avoid the huge bits of tread flying all over the highway. The trip back home was uneventful, with one pit stop for a bio-break.

Work, working just in the morning, was highlighted by a presentation that we did for SAP on the migration software we are using and co-developing with SAP. This is one of those amazing things that the pandemic has made possible. We were lead by the SAP Chief Fashion Product Officer in the UK. I was here in Aloha, Oregon. Another person, Rod, was in Portland. Our other three presenters were in India all at separate locations, including our conversion lead Archana, a Nike employee based in India. We also were doing a live demo. It all worked. Actually, the server for the demo return to working minutes before it was needed, but it was there on time! We got good marks, and the SAP folks were happy and excited by how well it went. I am so happy to help folks show the good work we have been doing.

There were meetings and a few crises of the moment, but the presentation was my focus for today and to see my sister.

A good day.

452 peopled were slain by the virus today in the USA.

I picked this rather exciting version of I Wander I Wonder.

The day started with me sleeping a bit over into 7ish. I managed to get ready in time for the first meeting at 8AM. The meetings started and ran most of the morning. I did manage to get free at 11ish to do a bit of clean-up work in the house. I then went for lunch-breakfast at the Reedville Cafe. Again, trying to be brave and have lunch out and get used to the world without lockdown.

Breakfast was good for lunch, and I felt safe the whole time there. The customers and the staff are all being safe. It is interesting to see many folks coming to lunch, mostly older folks, all masked up and happy.

Meetings started up again after lunch. I brought Susie French Toast special (with bacon) for her lunch-breakfast.

I had a few crises of the moment and one that is still running. The upgrade fell over a few times, and BASIS and I found a way forward for the breaks. I will continue to work on this upgrade this week.

More meetings and more crises of the moment. I was done about 5ish today.

Tonight I was in a church Zoom meeting on how to create a good video presentation of the worship experience and to stream the live service. We will continue to talk and try some ideas.

It is hard to bring our church back to live worship and also to keep the video. We need some mix of streaming and produced video. The sound quality seems a nearly intractable issue.

I finished Everyone in Their Place: The Summer of Commissario Ricciardi (The Commissario Ricciardi Mysteries Book 3). I strongly recommend the books in this series. This is my second time reading them, and they are still great. The setting is 1931 Fascist Italy in Naples. The Commissario sees dead people, their ghost at the moment of death with their last statement. He is driven to solve the murder as he can experience the murder. It is a wonderful mix of cops, ghosts, 1931 intrigue, and interesting characters. Again, I recommend them. 

As I wanted a break from murders, I restarted reading the wonderful book on math: e: The Story of a Number. This book walks has been a journey of remembering my math from college–it has been a long time. It covers how infinity was the key that unlocks the revolution of math we call Calculus. The story starts with the Greeks who rejected infinity as impossible to understand while inventing geometry. The story goes on as the concept of instant and tiny and tinier gives way to new thinking. I am about 2/3 through, and we are now into Calculus, and I am happy to report I have managed to remember much of this. The presentation is fun and brings together how things work and why they were discovered, and I am learning and enjoying. I likely read this or was lectured in class on all of this; Eli Maor’s book is really working for me. Need an easy and friendly math refresher on Calculus, try this.

I have been thinking about my desire to teach Calculus (or refresh it) for a small group. I am feeling a bit more confident now. We will see.

I received two copies of the reworking of their board game Midway just released. The game is from Avalanche Press and covers WW2 mid-Pacific battles for the first years of the USA and Imperial Japan. It is a naval-focused game and includes the battle for Wake Island, Pearl Habor Attack (with variants), Midway (with variants), and some battleship alternatives. I bought it (I somehow ordered two copies) as I studied this battle and its predecessor, the Battle of Coral Sea, and I was interested in seeing how this version would play.

I think it has been an interesting day, and again it feels a bit lighter as the pandemic seems less of a threat here. I pray for the rest of the world.

401 people died today in the USA from the virus.

I picked the Navy Hymn for today.

I hate it when I overcook the pork chops. The chops were dried out in the oven again. I can never get this right. I made steamed coins of carrots and rice pilaf from a box—the garlic and herbs version, terrible. So dinner was a near loss. Carrots are all that was good.

I started this failure about 5ish after the last meeting I was attending was done. I spent the afternoon on some status meetings and dealing with one crisis of the moment. I skipped the project meeting today–I learned tonight by email that the main project I work on lost another VP. I think he is number three.

Before this, I had lunch at Burger King drive-thru and ate my whopper with cheese while listening to the radio and reading on my kindle more of Everyone in Their Place: The Summer of Commissario Ricciardi (The Commissario Ricciardi Mysteries Book 3). I really enjoy these books and recommend them.

I was multi-tasking all morning. The practice upgrade had reached SPDD (for those who speak SAP and BASIS), and I had many manual fixes to apply and agree to some automated fixes. It is a critical path task for an upgrade as nothing can go forward until I work out all the fixes. I record all of this in spreadsheets so we can have learnings.

So I was trying to follow along on all the status meetings while making very delicate updates. My attention to the status reporting may have suffered, but nobody asked me a question. I spent the morning fixing items.

I started at 6ish this morning and got Susie off to Zeriada’s at 9ish. Today is Susie’s weekly spa day. She had her fav, but the apples were not there when she opened her Happy Meal.

It was a hard start for me as my sleep was disturbed. I did slip in a 45 min nap this afternoon. I nodded off in my book. I still recommend it!

I managed to get a photo of the tea rose bush flowering before it was dark. This is a bush that is likely 50+ years old. The story is that the previous owner moved it from her mother’s house.

Again, I am pleased that we had a normal boring day: no smoke, murder hornets, and virus threats today.

312 people lost their lives to the virus today in the USA.

I like the Doctor Who version, but I think this will be better today: The Old Rugged Cross.

Today is one of the most boring updates, and maybe in a pandemic, that is the best kind.

Today I put away the huge pile of laundry, clean, that was just thrown on the floor. It is all put away and any rewashing done. This took forever, but it is now done. I did four loads, and I will start another soon. This is for the laundry generated over the weekend.

I also did all the dishes and made myself breakfast of poached eggs on toast. I poach the eggs with just a bit of vinegar and salt in the water. I then put them on plain toast with some nice local salt, Jacobsen Salt Company, and a few drops of Tabasco. Perfect!

I then did all those dishes.

Susie was up, and I made her breakfast-lunch of yogurt and cereal, her goto. I drove in the cold, barely above 68F today, grayish day to the hobby shop and got some more flat Mr. Clean clear spray, some more expensive but-it-always-works Tamiya masking tape, 18mm. Plus, the model-making magazine that I dream over, Fine Scale Modeler.

It is not quite model porn, but the second page is a two-page advertisement of a five-foot sized model of the Bismark with lightning, power, and guns electronically controlled. Ready for remote control. Hmmm. The painting instructions and build overviews are what gets most of my attention, no, really.

Escaping the hobby shop for under fifty bucks, I got home and started on dinner. I made Tagine-styled chicken with preserved lemons and olives. I chop up a few onions, peel carrots, cut the carrots in chunks, chop celery, and add garlic and ginger cooked in hot butter with the onions in my dutch oven. Throw it all in with the slightly cooked onions, garlic, lemons cut up, and ginger with Tagine spices from Zamouri and chicken thighs, boneless and no skin, and stir a bit. I then put it all in for an hour, stirring at 40 mins, in the oven at 350F.

I made couscous to go under the Tagine stew.

I served that up.

I did all the dishes and washed all the pans.

My new oilcloth came today. I cleared off my work table, not that easy, and replaced the torn and worn-out vinyl cover I have had since the pandemic started. I bought a replacement to celebrate the unlocking, and the old one was worn out. It feels nice to no longer have my arms over worn-out bits. Just another task checked off my list.

As this is the weekend, I will end there.