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The sun is just setting this May 2nd. I took a picture of the first roses for 2021. The sunny days and the switching to lengthening days have turned the switch in nature to Spring and Summer. The frogs are singing, and we hear the geese and ducks flying overhead. The sky was clear today; the pollen is killing me. Usually, the rains are so heavy now that the roses melt off the bushes. But the China Rose is always happy and the first roses.

The day started too early with me hearing Evan getting going at 5:30. He was doing the streaming for local sports that start early, and he preferred staying here instead of returning home to Portland and driving twice as far. I got up and made coffee and got him a to-go cup ready.

I tried to return to sleep, but I started coughing and all that jazz from pollen. So I finally was up. I logged onto work and started a Sunday working day before 6ish! I spent the whole morning logged on and working.

I took a few breaks, and I ordered bagels delivered by DoorDash. I had a lox bagel and a baker’s dozen (sliced) delivered to the house with some schmear. It is a fav on the weekend. I immediately put 1/2 a dozen bagels in a freezer bag and put them in the freezer. Bagels all week!

I also continued on the experiencing of Game of Throne’s first season. I am almost to the end of the first season, and the show is much better than the first few episodes. The show has no problem killing off important and well-loved characters. This makes the show much more exciting when you know that anyone could die. So far, I like it, but I am not prepared to commit to season 2. It is a lot of time.

Lunch for me was a quick Popeye’s Spicy Chicken sandwich. I like them these. I was then back to it, Zooming.

I took a break and watched a few Games of Throne’s episodes. Susie got up, and I got her a donut and coffee. She seems to like Games of Thrones, so we watch it for a while. I had to keep stopping and join discussions at work—Zoom meeting lasting for hours to work out issues in the data conversions.

I got a text from Mariah and slipped out to Golden Valley Brewery and sat in the sun outside. Mariah brought her little dog. There were lots of dogs. I had their salad with grilled steak. It is a giant piece of lettuce, grilled and covered with sliced olives, grilled onions, and red peppers in oil plus a small sliced steak. Quite a decadent salad. I had that with a regular-sized gin and tonic. Mariah had the fish and chips, which is quite good too, and a drink also.

The waiter kept up offering me more booze. I kept telling her she would have to drive me home as I was tired if I had another. She thought a nice day for a drive, but we decided I would stick to one drink and thereafter water.

I brought back Susie a nice apple tart with caramel, bacon (!), and ice cream from Golden Valley Brewery. She loved it. Susie was reading and not ready for a dinner out; she did get a hand-delivered dessert.

Back to work. Zooming on Sunday all night again. More data conversions this night.

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

Oregon is starting to lock down in places. Washington Country, where we live, has partially re-locked down.

The First One Ever was a hymn I just turned to. I have sung it before. This version is a bit rough, but I thought it matches the music well.

I watched the old movie TRON today. I bought a copy for my Apple this morning and watched it while tracking text and processes at the shoe company.

My first meeting was at 9 this morning and another one at 3PM. I have kept track of the process and the lack of progress all day. Not a very exciting day.

I managed to paint some figures for a while. These are Richard’s figures I am working on.

I broke away at noonish for Taco Bell and getting the tree stuff washed off of Air Volvo. It has been a cold overcast day here—no rain, but damp, gray, and well normal for us here in the Pacific Northwest.

I made grill ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner and am finishing up the laundry. This while I watch Slack channel updates and emails.

No games played today.

I did buy the electronic version for Roll20 of Candlekeep Mysteries for Dungeons and Dragons 5E. There are three interesting mysteries that we can play with my current players. I can save the rest for other games. I will make a few changes in the Mad Mage adventure, which may end this Monday, so that we can move right into the first mystery.

All day a headache had troubled me. Making reading and painting difficult.

I am reading the first book in the Coldfire series, Black Sun Rising. I like the mix of fantasy and SciFi in these books. Despite the headache, I have read a lot today. Years ago, I read the first two. Kindles make it easy to find these books. I could not locate a copy of the last book when I read them before.

India is suffering. Our prayers and thoughts go out to India.

Oregon was called out in the BBC News as one of the places in the USA that are experiencing a surge of Covid-19 cases.

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

Blessed Assurance with a Bluegrass sound works for me today. I have done this one before, but I like it.

I was tired, so I woke at 6ish and walked in my robe to my Nike laptop and discovered that I had no meetings still until 8:30, so I went back to sleep and awoke feeling much more human. A few mornings, I have arisen than awoken, more undead than alive. There is an image you probably did not need.

Meetings started at 8:30, Zooming status meetings. I also had issues I tried to resolve that just failed. I am still working to resolve them. The data conversions are also going pear-shaped as there are various issues. So the day was me ping-ponging from one issue and system to another.

I had leftover KFC chicken and mash potatoes for lunch. Coffee and a breakfast sandwich, Jimmy Dean’s, microwaved from frozen (2 mins. wait a few mins and then another 30 seconds).

The afternoon was more status meetings and requests for more information. My issue was not resolved, and I have a meeting on Saturday morning to resolve it, I hope.

We are working the weekend to get the data conversion done so testing can start as planned this coming Monday. I had to contact Richard and back out of a Twilight Imperium Game this coming Saturday morning. This is with the Prophecy of Kings add-on I have yet to play. Next time!

I will have time this weekend to paint figures and some other projects as I am grounded from work.

I just got word that our 9PM meeting is canceled tonight–working India hours. So maybe some figure painting tonight.

Got word that a friend from Nike passed away, Felicia Summerfield. She designed much of the purchasing processes at Nike that have run so well for the last twenty years. Felicia was one of the IT people that made it worth coming to work. Her smile and laugh are how I always think of her. We spared over software design and purchasing processes for years; this made the design stronger. Felicia was a woman of strong faith, so I know she is Ok.

I made a quick dinner. Dinner was meatballs add to a stirfry of butter with pasta and veggies. Things in the freezer just needed to be used. It was not that bad.

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

India had another record level of infection.

Oregon is still vaccinating and locking down again.

There was a terrible accident in Israel today; I picked Psalm 104 in Hebrew.

I started today at 6ish and had to rush as I had a meeting with SAP leadership about some presentations. A group of us met on Zoom and we have a meeting with other SAP customers on Zoom coming up. This is the planning meeting for that. It was a nice change.

My morning was fighting the chaos and following along on endless Zoom status meetings. This is not usually this hard but I count only about 12 hours of sleep in four days so I am dragging. I had to run nonstop this morning.

I did manage to get breakfast of oatmeal and a banana with coffee. I slipped out at 11, my first break, to get Susie’s prescription. I could not get them yesterday as I worked from 7ish in the morning to midnight. Susie had breakfast lunch after her pills.

I had two breakfast sandwiches that I microwaved for lunch. These are from Jimmy Dean and are frozen. I microwave them once, let them spread out the heat, and then microwave them again.  I don’t mind them a bit crunchy from overcooking, but still cold is unedible.

The meetings went on and I was trying to put in some vendor patches I started yesterday when all of our systems at the shoe company went down. There was a storm in the cloud, as we say. The storm passed and systems in the cloud were available.

I had a few crises of the moment. A good friend asked me while I was still “piano catching,” how he describes all the crises I am handling, and could I not find easier things to do for Nike. That was a good question.

I was still juggling falling pianos into the evening. I am very tired and decided to stop tonight and start back up maybe with smaller pianos in the morning!

We are working into the weekend and so I had to back out of my first big board game event now that we are vaccinated. I am disappointed. I suspect I will have to play some solo board games like Pax Paramir and The Lost Ruins of Arnak this weekend.

870 people died in the USA today from the virus.

Our heart goes out for India.

I finally found something that worked for me tonight: Blest Be the Tie That Binds.

It is another evening with India at the shoe company. We are still working on data conversions on India time. So I am on a Zoom call with folks here and in India.

I also was happy to have leadership switch their minds and align with our working solution. So that was nice too. It was a bit unexpected.

Dinner was complex today. We were going to have sausages on the grill. These are pre-cooked from Olympia Provisions, a local company in Portland, and Corwin lost control of them and puff.

We ordered out for Mexican.

I had more status and alignment meetings this afternoon. I also took a break and finished my last Vatta’s War book. The last one in the series was hard to put down. I have not gone to the Vatta’s Peace series. I ordered another series, the Cold Fire series. I read these years ago. This is a grand fantasy story much like Space Opera. I read them years ago and never finished the series—time to try it out again.

Lunch was Mexican; had I known about the carbonization of dinner, I would have ordered something else. I had my usual sent by Grubhub from Don Chilitos Mexican Grill.

I spent the morning on multiple Zoom calls and sometimes being triple booked or worse.

I slept until 7:30ish as I was working with India last night until midnight.

379,469 people were infected today in India. Our hearts go out to India.

The USA and Oregon continue to vaccinate at a fast rate. It is likely we will reach 50% soon.

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

I tried to find Santos! Santos! Santos!. This is the best one I could find.