I started at 6ish as I had a 7:10 Zoom meeting with leadership here and India for our data conversions. I had trouble getting to sleep last night. The pain in my legs and joints was finally brought under control by some old-fashioned aspirin. I was tired, but I managed to start another workday.
I had status and alignment meetings all morning. Coffee helped, but I was not guzzling it at least. A bagel and banana to start also.
I experienced many crises of the moment that I was able to handle. The morning was a blur of email coming at me like I was driving on the autobahn going the wrong way–some form of controlled chaos that all you can do is try to not make a mistake. I survived this chaos finding a figurative off-ramp about noon and had lunch.
I ordered Chicken Tikka Massala from Biryani Corner delivered by GrubHub. It was actually not spicy. It helped me get through the day, remember all the cooking I have done, making this for more than a hundred people, and all my trips to India. Mine is better.
I had another two hours of Zoom meetings. Many included frustration as many folks send the next group the problems instead of accepting a solution that may mean more work, but it would be over. I try to practice my smile and wave at these moments.
I took a break as I was running down. I managed to get back around 5:30ish to apply a requested vendor fix (an OSS note to those who speak SAP) and put off another patch that is more of a journey until tomorrow morning. I don’t like to start those so late as it can easily turn into an all-night process.
After little thought, I decided to drive and pick-up Olive Garden. Kids-sized chicken alfredo for Susie and a Tour of Italy for me. I got a huge salad. That is the only reason I do Olive Garden. Well, then there is Tiramisu too.
I drove on the wonderful sunny day and then waited in the pick-up area in the cool breeze. I was 25 minutes early; who cares! I called them, and they came out and told me it would be a while, and I told them to take their time.
The manager brought out a bag of food. I drove hit home. I drove by my church, and the Pride flag is still on the building. Often Spring Break and Holy Week are times when someone takes the flag. We always assume positive intent–they needed the flag. I have a spare one ready. I buy them in pairs. When the last one is put up, I order new poles and flags. They keep needing the flags, so I keep supplying them.
I called Governor Brown’s office today, Oregon’s governor. I left feedback that I was unhappy with the declining rate of vaccination in the state. You just leave a recorded message.
Mrs. Wild (mom) is doing well after her Covid-19 vaccination yesterday.
10,845 people were vaccinated yesterday in Oregon. This is a low number and let us hope it is soon increased as the rest of the counts are applied to the total over the next 72 hours.
936 people are reported in the USA today to have died from Covid-19.
I picked one song I miss as this is really a group project: All The Saints.
Today I started just after 6ish and made coffee and said to myself, “Nope, this is not happening.” I then wrote an email that I was too ill to continue and performed all the rituals of being out suddenly for a day.
I got breakfast and made coffee, and got breakfast ready for Susie. She had her spa appointment with Zerida today. She was ready and was happy that I was still able to keep going to get her out. Her driver picked her up.
I spent most of the day sleeping and reading.
Today I finished and believed I would have to say goodbye to my favorite Inspector: The Cook of the Halcyon (An Inspector Montalbano Mystery Book 27). The author passed away last year, Andrea Camilleri. I believe I have read all 27 books. If you need a crime novel to relax, you could try Voice of the Violin (#4). There is one more being published after the author’s death; one more story with Montalbano.
I heard an interview of Charles M. Blow on the radio. He wrote a book that the Great Migration needs to be reversed. He wants black people to move back to the south. His book, The Devil You Know: A Black Manifesto, is now on my kindle, and I like his writing, he writes for the New York Times, and I like his directness. The book makes me want to move to Atlanta and help even as an old white guy! I recommend this book for its excellent writing and message.
I managed to get going again at 4ish in the afternoon. I am still tired, and the pain in all my limbs is something. I made bratwursts for dinner, baked for 50 minutes in a 350F oven. Set a timer for 35 minutes and flip and bake for 15 mins. These are from Whole Foods and are wonderful.
I made mac and cheese from a box to go with it.
I then played Roll20 Dungeons and Dragons and managed to stay focused on the game. I will not describe it as content for a purchased game, and spoilers would be required. Instead, I will say that the players were surprised and their plans went side-ways. We spent 45 minutes in one battle, and it felt close to the players. Their paladin took all the damage and knocked-out. They managed to finally defeat the boss just in time.
This part of the adventure used one of my favorite techniques, suspend some rules. This allows for a temporary increase in tension and requires the players to suddenly change tactics; hack-and-slash might not work and find another way to win. You cannot use this technique often in an adventure, but it can create some interesting possibilities when used with care. I once put everyone in a dream world in which I suspended death. I created a monster that was near impossible to kill. They kept dying but finally noticed certain behaviors and overcame it. Monsters as puzzles was now possible.
I am tired again, so I think I will stop there.
Mrs. Wild (mom) got her Covid-19 shot today!
14,422 people were vaccinated in Oregon yesterday.
Six hundred sixty-six people died today in the USA from the virus.
In the morning, I felt fine, but I became tired and nauseated as the day went on. Many folks are suggesting a delayed impact of the Covid-19 vaccination. I think it is the new blood pressure and other drugs. I am tired, but I am sharper than I was. It does make you wonder if you want to be a bit dulled and feel better or be more connected and feel unwell all the time. I am hopeful that I will get better soon. It could also be the hours I am working.
I was awake at 7 and then blinked, and it was beyond 10. I never wish to sleep beyond 9; the morning seems too short. I skipped food, which might be part of the cause of the issues later in the day, and had only one cup or so of coffee. Evan connected me, and we agreed to meet at Mox in Portland to play board games.
Mox PDX bar with long tables to host games.
I brought Wingspan and Blood Rage and few others we did not get to.
The bartender, Charles, is a Dungeon and Dragon writer, like me, and even works for Roll20 to build and edit some of the content we use on our Monday games! I gave him my email and cell, and we will see if this will take us anywhere.
Returning to Mox, I ordered a beer, as did Evan, and I had an appetizer too–I had the tea sandwiches. We then started into Wingspan. This is an excellent game to learn, but it does take a while to understand all the mechanics–I have lost many games. The theme is you setting up a bird sanctuary by attracting birds to your set-up–represented by a board you use in the game. You also can use the birds’ abilities to get more resources, gain points by consuming cards and resources, and have events on even other player’s turns. For example, and a bit gruesome, when your Eagle catches and eats a bird, someone else’s vulture might get to gain a resource.
The game mechanics are fun, and once you get them down, you can then explore the birds and attract the best birds to get you the most points at the end of the game. For example, I am always happy getting a few owls and some grackles!
I just managed to win. It was a very close game. Evan had more valuable birds, huge ones, and I had smallish ones that gained resources, so I made up for it.
We then ordered lunch as we put away the game. The menu is still a bit sparse. It took us a bit.
I had a chicken buffalo sandwich, but nausea and exhaustion started, and I was even tired to eat. I only ate half the sandwich. I brought it back, and Corwin thought it good, except the chicken is ground and mixed with grains and reformed into a patty. He thinks it would be killer as a fried chicken breast instead. Evan liked his burger, duck, and bacon.
We brought out Blood Rage. This is a dudes-on-a-board game with resources management and combat. It is a Viking theme, with pillaging the main way to improve your resources. Cards are added to the game that allows you to upgrade your Vikings, improve your combat values, mess with other people in combat, have quests, call forth legendary monsters and powers, and call in mystics to aid your cause. The cards are attached to various Viking gods. For example, Evan used Loki’s powers by playing a card in combat to slip away some of my honor and add it to his if I won.
My version of the game has most of the bling as it was the full Kickstarter version. I have also painted every figure. I have six different tribes of fully painted Vikings; today, I played the women-only Snake tribe. This is one of my best paint jobs of the Viking clans. All the legendary monsters are also fully painted. It is one of my best-looking games.
We also used for the first time the 3D printed pillage tokens. I bought them online already printed but had to do a lot of work to make them usable. They worked well today, at least better than cardboard punch markers.
Evan started to get the hang of the game in the second and certainly in the third age. At the first age, you score no more than twenty points of honor. In the final age, I added sixty points to my score. The first age is mostly for practice and trying to be ready for the second age.
In the final age, I managed to deploy the dread frost giant. Only to have it sent to Valhalla by Evan a moment later. Lucky, I had a quest to kill lots of my Vikings and legendary creatures. Evan was quite willing to aid me on that quest and nearly cleared my Vikings from the board. I played the Odin upgrade to double my quest values, which helped me tie Evan for the final score. He has done more pillaging than me and nearly beat me.
I finished out at Mox with the cheesecake.
I drove home after saying goodby to the evening bartenders, Tatyana and Marlyn. They are now on the night team, and we were happy to see them–they were there with me before the first re-lockdown. Tayana is finding more gigs, and this is making her happy and helping her make her bills. She and Marlyn both feel that Portland is starting to recover. Everyone wants a shot to get this thing over!
I got home feeling much worse. I made Susie scrambled eggs with cheddar, her fav. We have brown eggs, they were cheaper at Whole Foods, and they have a deep orange-colored yoke. Susie said the eggs were good.
I then went back to work after resting for a bit. I skipped dinner as I am still not thinking food is something I want. Our 9:30AM India time meeting fell off our calendars (9PM PDT), but I spoke to our expert there, Archana, and she is working on getting the project going. I will not share the details, but we are both happy to see some progress. I will be back online for the shoe company for India evening and Beaverton Morning 6-7ish.
14,149 people received vaccinations yesterday in Oregon. This number will likely increase as it takes three days to get all the counts and update the website.
Four-hundred fifty-five people were lost to the virus today in the USA.
It is soon the second Passover and Easter of lockdown. I went with a Hebrew singing of Psalm 121 as it is a Psalm of Ascents. These are specially called out as a group in the Hebrew, and some have suggested they would be sung as you approach the Temple in Jerusalem. I read them as I was headed, on a tour bus, to the temple mount in Israel in 1990. I recommend reading them in numeric order if you want a little inspiration for these shared religious events.
I awoke about 7ish with allergy symptoms and was going to get up. I blink, and it was 9:30ish. I got going, but I had nothing but a haircut at 2PM, so I just went slow. I had a bagel and took my medications.
I finished watching the second half of the old Stargate movie.
I got ready, and Corwin came in, and we headed to lunch. Susie was still resting. I decided on sushi at our local Wasabi restaurant. Their food is not cheap, but the medium combo late is almost large enough for three. I ordered the deviled eggs too. We could have just gone with the medium combo plate! I have a beer from Japan.
This is the second time I have had sushi since the emergency started. Susie can’t eat fish; this is usually a treat on a Saturday lunch when Susie sleeps in.
Aside: Today is the second year of not having Game Storm. I have already paid. I called Matt V and told him I was missing playing games with him and others in Portland this year for Game Storm 2021. Matt V and I talked and maybe we will restart in June with Dungeons and Dragons and other board games.
Returning to today’s story, I drove back, dropped Corwin off at home, and headed to my haircut with Zerida and was late; there were many more cars on the road in Beaverton than on recent trips. Almost the level of traffic before the pandemic. I will have to leave earlier next time.
I returned home after the haircut and finished watching the new recut of The Justice League DC comic movie. The original movie was a bit of a fail. The original movie did now flow well. I watch the four-hour movie stop and start today and would say it is better than the original. It is still not great.
Susie and I went to our usual drive-thru of Taco Bell for dinner. Susie had tacos, and I tried, still missing the Mexican pizza, the chicken quesadilla with a taco. We ate them in the parking lot, watching the rainbows form in the normal gray skies and side-ways rain of March Oregon.
I found the old movie Star Trek movie, Voyage Home, on HBOMax or Prime. It was fun to see the save the whales Star Trek again. Susie remembered some of the stories, and there are some hilarious gag lines in there. I need brain cookies today and this fits the bill.
I would like to say I did some robot work or read something meaningful or painted something or played some games, nope. I just took it slow.
22,630 people were vaccinated yesterday in Oregon. This number may increase as it takes 72 hours to collect and post all the counts. Our county, Washington, has reached 20% of the population have been vaccinated.
792 people are reported today to have died from Covid-19.
I turned right to Be Thou My Vision today in the Methodist Hymnal and found this well-produced version.
I was up at 7ish this morning after being up almost to 1ish working. It was hard to get going again.
My first meeting was with the American SAP User Group (ASUG). This meeting is a forum for customers of SAP software to meet and discuss how to influence the design of the Fashion solution, the version of SAP used by Nike. It was good to see our friends and talk to other customers. We might help with a presentation soon.
Soon I was in endless Zoom meetings, emails, and Slack channel updates. I applied vendor patches (SAP notes to those who speak SAP) while listening and following along. I was multi-tasking and chatting online all at the same time.
I made coffee and had a bagel while multitasking, jumping about every 15 mins. It was a crazy Friday morning.
Susie got going late morning, and I got her breakfast-lunch. I drove to Burger King and got a Whopper Meal with onion rings, remembering how bad their fries are, using the drive-thru with a mask, and talked to Dondrea on the phone while I ate lunch in a parking lot. I don’t know if it just the lettuce, onions, and the big tomato in the burger, but it always so good. The onion rings will be skipped next time–just not quite good.
After that, I returned home and had a spare Diet Coke for Susie and back to the endless meetings. I had a few architectural discussions and alignment meetings. Some I was a bit direct. I apologized for being grumpy, but I did not get overly direct.
At about this time, my chair broke, and I was face down on the floor. My ribs are bruised, and my arm hurts. The wooden folding chair had got a bit creeky, but I was still surprised. I got my roller new chair back and am back to work.
I had some back issues and had changed to a straight-back folding wooden chair. I had been sitting in it for about six months. I put the broken chain in the garage on top of the last one that broke. The folding chairs break, but not usually quite so violently.
I made dinner today of baked chicken breasts, defrosted from Schwann’s, green beans finished in a pan with butter, also from Schwann’s, and couscous with almonds, raisins, and spices. This is my standard couscous of frying cinnamon, cardamom, almonds, and salt in butter. I microwaved some veggie broth from a box while I cooked this on the stove. I stirred in two cups of couscous and toasted it with the butter and all the goodness. I then add the broth; it boils a bit from the heat, and then I get the pan off the heat. It was a bit dry tonight. Next time three cups of broth!
As usual, the chicken breast is a bit plain but still good.
I watched the news while serving Susie, who liked dinner.
I then took a nap and woke up on time to join the Saturday morning India time meeting. One more night this week.
23,038 people were vaccinated yesterday in Oregon. This number may still increase as it takes 72 hours to collect all the counts and apply them.
1,268 people are reported to have died from Covid-19 today.
I went with This is the Day for today. I remember singing this every morning with Susie in 1990 on our trip to Isreal with my old church in Maryland. The Jewish tour guide would get us all going each day with this song before covering where we were going that day. So I always think of the pilgrim site of Israel when I hear it.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 