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I have no games booked this weekend or Friday night. So I am doing those projects I have stacked up, literally, to get them done and get some space back.

So this evening, once work stopped about 4ish, I started to build a barn. A 28-23mm scale model made from laser-cut fiberboard. It also has an interior built out. The roof can be removed.

I then moved on to some models for a Salem witchcraft roleplaying game. These are amazingly well laser-cut models that even have window panes. The interior is only partially built out, but it is still impressive with a roof that pops off too.

I ordered dinner from PizzaHut, delivered. This is our first PizzaHut delivery ever at this address. We had two pan pizzas, pasta, and breadsticks, all in a family box. The food was good.

Work started at 7ish with me rolling over when it was 6ish. The meetings went on, and I had some crises discovering the obvious and then having to pay the cost of that discovery. I had to write some very basic text and emails today.

The teams had hours of review meetings too. We are starting to wrap up the project to take it to live use in October. The panic and late discoveries are beginning. The trade-off discussions are beginning. It is always a bit stressful.

I stepped out to get Susie and my lunch from Aloha Teriyaki. A bento box for me and a chicken bowl for Susie. I also took a photo of the Cardinal Richelieu rose. This is an old rose and blooms only once. It is not a good cut flower as it loses its pedals too fast. I still love to see it flower every year.

If you want this rose, you will have to get a clipping from mine and grow it. It is tough to find this rose. I checked, and I can find none for sale on the Internet. I might have to do some cutting myself and give them as gifts.

Covid-19 claimed another 657 lives today in the USA.

I went with this version of A Mighty Fortress is My God.

Tonight we had one of my fav dinners, Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC. Oddly, KFC is important to Japan as it is a holiday meal there.

I am always disappointed by the gravy. I remember from my childhood that the gravy was better. I understand the recipe was changed, but there is still one place left that makes the original, Claudia Sanders Dinning House. Someday I will make the pilgrimage.

I slept in a bit today; Susie had some issues late last night and did some caregiving until 12:30AM. I made my first meeting at 8:30 and started then into 90 minutes of Zooming for Nike IT. I also had a few crises of the moment that kept going non-stop to about 10.

I made breakfast while listening to Zoom meetings.

I stopped at 10ish to pick up the house. I have exchanged my walk in the pollen-filled air for a chance to clean up and straighten the house. I try to spend 30 minutes at that every morning now. I was also more crisis of the moment again, and I had to keep checking email and my Slack texts.

I slipped out about 10:45ish and drove to Jan’s Paperbacks and traded in a pile of books I put aside last year for donating. I would not risk Covid-19 to clear out some old books, but now I figure I need to start returning to my pre-Lockdown habits. Jan’s Paperbacks took the SciFi. I put the rest in the garage as I have not found a home for them. Goodwill is likely the next choice.

I made a sandwich, ham, and cheese, for lunch with Reese’s potato salad.

Susie got going about the same time, and I got her some breakfast.

I continued on with more ad hoc meetings and crises of the moment. These crazy unplanned events consumed the whole working week for me. It does mean that the project is finally switching into high gear.

Next Friday, not tomorrow, starts the summer hours at Nike, with work stopping about noon at Nike, even with remote working. I will be returning to a movie-watching afternoon on Fridays and driving to Portland to play board games.

I finished the Duel in the Dark, and it was too predictable for me, and I thought the novel too military-styled for me. The characters were also too much like archtypes for me. I like space opera a bit more political and with love stories and spiced with treason. This was the story of military people in a life-and-death struggle in space. I was surprised by the “This is the way” theme that I first saw in the Disney hit show The Mandalorian. I checked this book predates the TV show. If you like military-like stories, this series would be great.

The best space opera has been The Interdependency series by John Scalzi. This has the right mix of things I like. It has that slight hint of Douglas Adams in it. The Vatta’s War series by Elizabeth Moon is also a winner for me, but more on the military side, and maybe a hint of C.S. Forester.

I plan to reread some 1930s themed murder stories with ghosts set in Naples, Italy: I Will Have Revenge. I am also considering teaching online Sunday School. More on that later if I decide to return to teaching the Bible again.

Another 659 people in the USA lost their battle with Covid-19 today.

I went with the 1935 version of Do Lord Remember Me.

This evening I am using a fresh new Internet connection. I am now paying a few bucks less and have doubled my download speeds. My Apple laptop is almost snappy accessing the Internet. And, again, it is slightly cheaper.

Over the last year, I noticed that the Internet was less than fast, and my Zoom meetings at work were having some issues. The problem was intermittent at first but was getting worse. I decided to live with it with the pandemic, then in total lockdown and death rates looking like something from a horror movie. With the pressure being off and lockdown slowly unlocking, I contacted them and had them fix the issues.

Their tech told me there was a signal problem on the poles. I watched the Comcast guy climb a pole, our slightly broken one secured with a small cable with another pole. I was worried and stayed with him while he was using a latter to climb it. I do not know why it was not fully removed when it broke at the base. He found issues with the signal and called in for more help. It bounced a bit while he climbed it.

Comcast had to make some repairs on the pole, and now the signal is good, if not great. There was nothing wrong at the house. We did rent a replacement modem; a necessity to get the speed above 600 Mbps. With WiFI, we can get over 750 Mbps now, just under a 50% improvement.

I previously bought an expensive cable modem and dropped the $14 a month charge, but this time I needed a high speed, voice, and WiFi router box. That looked a bit complex to acquire; thusly I decided to take theirs and rent it. My bill was still lower.

I had the tech align the new Internet connection to the same name and password, and I managed to just reconnect everything without issues. Neat!

I also turned in a second TV box that had been next to the coffee maker. It was brown now, and the bottom was covered with coffee. When I drove it to the Comcast office this morning, I was told that I had delivered the grubbiest parts they ever received. We have not used it for a long time, but again we are in a pandemic, and until today I did think it worth risking getting rid of this.

Aside: Last night, I stayed up and watched the first episode of the Witcher. We get Netflix for free without new cable, no extra cost.

Returning to the start of the day, I got going at 7ish this morning. My first meetings started at 8AM. I had time to get breakfast and get all the overnight emails and Slack texts handled. I was showered and dressed in time for the first meeting. The meetings were all status meetings. I did get some surprise alignment meetings, again on more vendor patches (SAP notes to those who speak SAP).

I managed, after three times, to get my Nike 25 year sabbatical approved. I now have booked 25Oct through 30Nov for my sabbatical. I am trying to work out plans for this time. A New Orleans short trip is in the works.

As I said above, I slipped out at about 10ish to return some equipment to stop the monthly maintenance charges. The trip should have been simple and quick. Instead, the Max cross signals were stuck. The overly polite Oregonians just sat there waiting for it to fix itself by magic. And then, like magic, a Max car with flashing lights came and lighted a torch and waved the cars through the other side. I turned around and started everyone to leave. I took another road that goes under the Max.

But wait, there is more. A telephone pole, yes, another telephone pole, was being replaced on a major street. Air Volvo was driving next to a pole connected to a crane with only one connection. Like an insane seesaw. No guiding ropes. I thought that I was about to experience an Allstate or Farmer’s Insurance commercial. “I am a telephone pole in Oregon without any guidelines…Wind hits…Wow…crash…Mayhem like me,” yes, I was saying the potential commercial out loud as I passed the pole with some speed.

I managed to get there and back without more adventures. I did drive back over Max tracks. The crossing signal was broken again, and there were four cars on the other side waiting for the crossing guards to rise. Again, waiting for a miracle. I used my eyes, looked both ways, and got home safe.

Work went on for a while, but I then had a two-hour break while I watched Comcast fix my now cheaper but better connections. I managed a few more meetings and then took a break. I had one more meeting.

Once I was done, I took Susie to dinner at the local Mexican place. They are happy to see us. We are all so hopeful for the unlocking.

I have started to pick up the mess that is the house. We have a lot of stuff everywhere. I am starting to try to get things back to a familiar state of disorganization. I am doing a little each day.

636 people died today in the USA from Covid-19.

Today is Lord I am Coming in Welsh.

I started the day at 6ish, with meetings starting at 6:30. There was a lot of email and details to attend to, so I did not have time to dress. This meeting, scheduled for 30 minutes, went on for 90 minutes, and it took us three tries to get the vendor patches to load (OSS notes for those who speak SAP). This sent me into hours of more meetings. I dressed as I would look better on camera as I prefer to be on video when speaking.

I finally get to shower and dress at 10ish. The meetings finally break, but the email and Slack text are ongoing. I did walk out and look at the roses. We have a few more blooms to share.

 

I met the new neighbors today, Mark, that bought the house at the end of the street. Our local turtle had dug a nest in his grass, and he was unsure what to do. We both hope we will see little turtles in the late summer. It was nice to meet him and welcome his family to the street. Our local large turtle already welcomed them.

Today is “Code of Conduct” day at Nike. Certain employees must re-read the newest Code of Conduct and acknowledge they have read it and understood it. I spent lunchtime reading and acknowledging the process. I also did a few other year-end tasks that are time-critical. Lunch was paperwork.

For lunch, as I was feeling off these couple of days, was lamb kabobs from Gyro House. A bit extravagant, but the protean and the flavor get me going. I try to put a message in the “special instructions” that I miss them. They often send back a message.

Yes, here in the Pacific Northwest, we get notes on our GrubHub delivered lunch!

In the afternoon, I was in a few surprise meetings and tried to help with more issues with the vendor patches. These patches are about 90 days of fixes, and we are thrilled to finally get them in quality assurance.

I took a short break as I was getting slow and fuzzy-thinking. I read Duel in the Dark by Jay Allen. This is another space opera book. The book changes back and forth from various experiences of different characters in the book. I do not like that much, and the themes are all military. Politics and economics, and even technology seem in the background. I am not sure I will move to the next book in the series. Maybe it will pick up and get more interesting as the conflicts begin.

Back at it, about 5:15ish. Surprise meetings and slack discussion with my boss Brad. I do not usually get meetings this late in the day. Another set of vendor patches are needed. I learn this after receiving very cryptic emails and sent a surprise meeting that goes on to 7:15ish. I put in changes, and processes are then followed to make this an official change for the release.

While this is going on, I also have a Slack discussion with my boss, and we move, without complaint, my sabbatical for my 25th anniversary at Nike to mid-October. This allows me to overlap Thanksgiving. Not a bad deal.

Dinner was impossible, so Susie and I got in Air Volvo, now with more Crow artwork, and headed to Burger King. We then drove to a local park and parked and hard our fast food. There was a local softball game going on that we watched—a nice relaxing break.

I called Comcast. I hate to do that. I had them reset to the modem and still saw some slowing. They are sending out humans to visit on Wednesday. Now that we are all thru at least our first shot of the vaccine, I am willing to deal with the crazies of Comcast.

As usual, when I called the agent back, I was still slow; they noticed that I could change packages, get a faster connection, and more items, and still pay less. This happens every time I call. I tell them to make the changes this time. During the past year, I was unwilling to have them change anything. I just took what I could get in a pandemic. I would like it back to having good speeds.

As usual, all checks of speeds are slower now. I suspect I will be calling them again. But first, the truck should check things.

So I am running out of night now—time to finish this up.

733 people died in the USA from Covid-19.

I went with Angles Heard on High as I liked the arrangement, and it sounds so happy. So Happy Christmas 2021, in May!

I did feel that the seasons and the world are changing this week. It is the beginning of the end of the pandemic and the start of reconnecting.

Susie had her appointment with Zerida today. She was ready and left with her driver at 9ish.

The morning started with a challenge. Susie woke me at 5ish, and I had some caregiving. Susie is better now, but I lost an hour of sleep. This made 7ish a difficult start. I had tried to get an hour of sleep, but it did not improve things.

My first status meetings were at 8AM, so I was able to get dressed in time and rally Susie. I had many crises of the moment today—typical on a Monday; leftovers from the previous week.

My two groups are starting to see their work come together and bear fruit. It has been four or more years for some of us. I nearly cry in relief in the status meetings when the reports are that the software and systems are beginning to gel.

I am exhausted by the afternoon from a Monday with a hard start.

About 4:30ish, I agree with Corwin to make dinner and rest a bit more. I like to lay down and read to change gears.

I cook orecchiette pasta with vodka sauce (from a jar). I bake some Johnson’s sweat Italian sausage to about half cooked. I carefully slice the hot sausage into 1/2 slices and finish them in a frypan. I brown them good, almost too good. I spoon the sausage into the sauce and then pour it over the drained pasta (I finished it a bit early, so I rinsed the pasta in cold water to stop the cooking–otherwise, it will turn to glue-mass). That was dinner, and it was not bad.

Johnson’s sausage is not too spicy for Susie. Olympia Provisions sausage is too sharp for her.

Today was Monday, and it is a bit of nervous gaming for me. I have some off-the-cuff adventures to offer today online for our Roll20 Dungeons and Dragon campaign. Another change. I managed to get the adventure started with polite railroading of the players into reading a book that sort of curses their characters. A cheap plot element. They had to role play traveling to the fictional city of Bard’s Gate to learn a cure for their affliction. They manage to find some of the story and a path forward.

They are ambushed by three dark fey vampires. They defeat them and capture one. They learn more of their challenge from the vampire, and they cut a deal to stop the attacks if they bring the adventure to a conclusion that they and the vampire’s mistress will find profitable.

The adventurers reached the complex where the mysterious curse can be lifted, and there we will start next Monday again. Matt will be leaving us after that as he is restarting in-person play for Dungeons and Dragons 5E–He has three groups. Some of us are one group. We agreed, seeing that in-person gaming is possible, that we will suspend online gaming for a bit after Memorial Day. Bill is the only remote guy, but he plays local games in Minnesota and has a new plane to fly. He will be fine for now.

Another change. Today was a day of changes and moving forward into the future. It felt good.

Yesterday I took this photo of a manhole cover. In Oregon, they have the image of a fish on them to remind you not to pour crap into our sewers and rainwater systems.

369 people in the USA died of Covid-19 today.

I selected It Is Well With My Soul. I like singing it in Methodist Church. There seems to be something about the hymn that wakes up everyone, and it always sounds great.