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I started about 7ish. I rolled over at 6 as I was up late again on India time last night.

My four hours of non-stop Zoom meetings started. I was double-booked for some, so I would finish one and be late for another. Mostly the discussion was status. I did have a few technical discussions, which was a nice break from status meetings.

I slipped out for my morning walk for the long walk today. It was twenty minutes of walking as fast as I can without breaking into a run. It was cold and very damp as the snow was not here yet; it was raining. I feel better, but I did have asthma issues this afternoon that required me to use my inhaler. I am trying to keep my breathing from getting worse by walking. Use it or lose it!

Susie was up a bit early, so we went out to Burger King for lunch before the bad weather hits. We had burgers and ate them in the car in the parking lot. We watched the sleet get started.

I had more Zoom meetings. I then finally finished them and started coding. I am writing some install code and change control processes for new technology. I really miss coding, and so it is nice to get back to cutting some code.

I headed-out to Safeway. I usually avoid the grocery store now–the covid-19 rates are too high. I did not want deliveries in a snowstorm; I decided to put on my mask and practice my social distancing in our local store. I picked up quite a few items. I then used the self-service checkout. I think it took me twenty minutes as I kept making mistakes or the item needed an override, and so on. The staff person who was helping told me it gets easier with practice. I am not quite sure I want to get good at check-out.

I got home, checked email for any emergencies, and watch the sleet get heavier. I put out the trash and recycling. The cans were already icing up.

I started dinner, German-style goulash using pork, not beef. I make this once and a while. I cut up three large onions. I cried. I then did carrots, celery, and potatoes. I make it more like a stew. I spice it with ground caraway seeds and Hungarian Paprika. Tomato paste and some wine help to finish it. I then cook it in a pan on the stove for about 90 mins.

While that cooked, my church meeting started. We have an appointment at a bar once a month to talk about theology issues: Theology Pub. Now we meet on Zoom, and usually, folks have a beverage and sometimes food. We talked about the meaning of “Born Again” and how we had experienced this Christian movement.

I left the church meeting and started on India time morning meeting at 9ish. I was online for a short time, 45 mins., and then signed-off.

14,004 people were vaccinated yesterday. This number will likely increase as it takes 72 hours to collect all the information. Just under 9.5% of the people in our county, Washington, have been vaccinated.

3,068 people died from the virus today in the USA.

I went with Beta Yetu today as I found this nice version.

 

 

I slept into 7ish today. It was just too hard to get going a 6ish. I had woke up at 5ish and then woke every ten minutes for a while. So I rolled over and slept a bit.

Work was hours of status meetings with Zoom. I was also trying to work on some tasks, and the interruptions made it impossible to focus. I just did status meetings.

I managed a walk for the full-length today and found that someone had planted crocus at the little stream I stop at for my full walk. The stiffness is much better today, and my lungs are working better. Use it or lose it.

I broke-out of the endless status meetings. I am doing some coding and setting up environments to do software change control. I am writing Groovy code to control the process. I did all of this four or five years ago, so I spent much time today looking at what we did before and what my colleagues changed and improved.

Also, Susie had physical therapy today with Michelle. Susie could not get out of her chair well. The PT folks were surprised to see that Susie seems to have lost or forgotten all the training. They are working on her posture. I will help her exercise on Thursday–I will have to step out of a meeting to do that. We need Susie to find her groove again.

Back to work, I do not get to code often, so it is enjoyable to be back to typing in code. I managed to get the basics to run today. I am coding the basics and plan to run more complex stuff Friday–Thursday is unrelenting meetings scheduled, so the fun stuff will have to wait a day. I logged back on tonight to get even further as I knew I could not do much more on Thursday. I learned some new techniques today, and I can’t wait to try them out. Sorry techie love new stuff!

Dinner was just Susie and me. I made pan-fried pork chops. I got my new cast-iron pan today and wanted to try it out. It worked very well! The chops and the green beans I made were all Schwann’s food. I microwaved the beans, drained them, and cooked them a bit more in butter, almond slivers, butter, and salt. I made corn mush to go with it. I had never made it before. I pulled the chops from the pan and fried the corn mush, already cooked in a saucepan, in the pan.

Susie liked it, even the mush.

I am back to work tonight on India time again.

9,685 people were vaccinated yesterday in Oregon. This number will likely increase as it takes 72 hours for all the counts to get in. Our county, Washington, has reached 9.25% vaccinated.

3,432 people died today in the USA from the infection.

I picked a hymn I do not know: We Utter Our Cry. This is Methodist Hymnal #439 and was published in 1983 according to the hymnal.

I managed to sleep until 6:30 and then a rush to be ready by 7:30AM for the first meetings. It was cold in the house, with the outside cold hitting the house’s floors at 30F this morning. It will be 20Fs on Thursday as cold arctic air be visiting the valley. We have three days of snow coming.

I am tired after working late again last night in India time. I had Zoom meeting after meeting and many crises of the moment. I was online most of the day. I did have a meeting with folks I do not see that often–a planning meeting. It was nice to see them again.

I managed a walk today and walked 3/4 of my long walk today. It was a bit cold, but I wanted to get a walk in before the weather went arctic on me. I saw the crows, a murder of crows as a group of crows are known, in a tree. They were all quiet and bushed out feathers, trying to stay warm while high in a tree.

I also walked by a crushed former container of pot on the street. A terrible loss, I suspect for someone. You can tell it is from a legal state store by the green color and the label. Somebody likely cried over this spilled item.

I made a lunch of Clam Chowder from a can and got Eggo Waffles for Susie at noonish. We thought Susie had physical therapy today, but her regular therapist was ill. We rescheduled with Michelle for Wednesday and Friday.

I had a bunch of questions and more crises of the moment at work. I could not focus on one task as everything is a high priority problem for someone—just a messy day.

I did get Susie to do her exercises as PT was a no-show. I was jumping in front of her while she tried to do her exercises. This was between my Zoom calls. I was doing the “big fig newton” and other stunts to get her going. She got through her exercises, and I managed to not hurt myself.

I took a break at 4ish and rested for a bit. I got going at 5ish, and Mariah called, and I invited her to have some of the jambalaya I was making from a box. I tried to make it not too spicy for Susie, so it just had kielbasa and bacon and added more rice to cool it down a bit.

It was too spicy for Susie, so I got her some cheese and then ice cream. Not a great dinner, but still not bad either. Mariah and I enjoyed the jambalaya.

Mariah is learning chess, so we played a learning game. I explained the rules and a tiny bit on pawn mistakes before we played a game. Somehow I misplaced my queen, and we had to reset a bit–embarrassing. I exchanged out pieces and took her queen, and Mariah gave in. Jeopardy was on.

We watched Jeopardy and Mariah knew many of the answers. I was missing more. I redeemed myself by getting the Final Question. I had lived in Maryland and knew the Chesapeake Bay, which gave the answer right away.

I am rereading Rex Stout‘s Black Orchids. I am still reading Caste and strongly recommend it, but I am worried about reading something that has such an intense subject with all the extra hours and lack of rest. So I am deep in a Nero Wolf’s murder mystery, a brain cookie. It is one of the best detective novels if you like it light, and this one shows the two main characters, Arche and Nero, in a clearer light than you get in some of the other books. I have read it many times and try to spot the murderer, and each time (after a few years), Rex Stout tricks me again. My copy of Too Many Cook is around here somewhere; the best book, I think by Rex Stout, might be next if I keep needing brain cookies. I have the copies with the recipes! Black Orchids and Too Many Cooks are great short detective novels for travel or just to relax.

Note: Nero Wolf and Archie and some of the other main characters never age. The books start in the thirties and end in the seventies. Another author writes a few that continue on. Unlike other mystery writers, his characters do not age. It is a unique and someone refreshing approach to long term characters.

Lastly, we are being swarmed by ants. I have put out the typical plates with ant baits. Soon they will be gone. At least for three or four months. There is an endless supply of ants here. Here is information on ants here.

7,863 people were vaccinated yesterday. A meager number, but these numbers can increase as it takes 72 hours to collect all the data. Our county, Washington, is at 9% vaccinated. The lack of vaccine will delay our chance for a vaccination. It appears we will be waiting months.

3,265 people died in the USA today from Covid-19.

I found a bluegrass version of Blessed Assurance.

Today started too early at 6ish. My first Zoom meeting started at 7AM. So it took great fortitude to get up, make coffee, take my meds, and answer some emails.

I managed to be dressed and ready on time for the meeting. The status meeting was a bit long as it covered the weekend stuff too. I had endless Zoom status.

Susie had an 11AM appointment with Zerida, so I had her rallying at 10ish. I usually go for a walk at 10ish, but today I had to get Susie ready, and I had crises of the moment running simultaneously. I was able to escape for the walk.

I ordered bagels for lunch, including one Nova Lox bagel. I put most of the bagels in a bag and froze them. One bagel, frozen fresh, a morning! Einstein Brothers Bagels are always good, and DoorDash delivered without issues.

I have Dungeons and Dragons tonight, so I spent part of lunch while enjoying my bagel, reading, and preparing for the game at 6:30 today.

Work continued. I managed to get some help on a few items and managed to complete a few tasks. I am setting up automated processes for the new software development we are doing.

I finally finished the day around 4:15ish feeling really tired. I rested a bit. Susie returned about 3ish. She had her fav for lunch, McDonald’s Chicken McNugget Happy Meal, and then took a nap too.

I made dinner of fried cheeseburgers.

I started the Roll20 game of online Dungeons and Dragons at 6:30. One of the players was ill; we had four players tonight and me. The players decided to use a magical gate they found last time and try the deeper level. It has more danger and more reward. They were surprised that they met a mud creature that gave them a tour and introduced them to two different genies, one water, and one earth. Each genie sang a song and demanded the adventurers destroy an evil undead wizard on the next level and bring back his magical heart to the genie to free the genie. We had the words for the song; Bill and Matt sang it for us. Matt also found an official recording–our version was better. The adventurers agreed to bring the heart back after the earth genie “tested” them by having her allies attack them for a few moments. The adventurers are thinking of taking the treasure for both genies!

Before heading down to find this evil undead wizard, the adventures found a slightly wrecked astral ship in the complex. There they fought terrible monsters that at first appeared to be crew members. They were chaos creatures, they could change their shapes, and it was a tough longish battle. The adventurers managed to kill them, and there we ended the evening.

I went back to work at 9ish. I am writing the blog while in a Zoom meeting and listening to work. We are again running on India morning time to get some work done for our India team. We have a lot of items on the critical path for an important project.

10,515 people were given the vaccine yesterday in Oregon. These numbers will increase as it takes 72 hours to collect all the data.

1,489 people died in the USA today from the infection.

I did not know this song; I thought we will go with it tonight: O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright.

 

Today started at about 8:30ish. I was tired and wanted to sleep in just a bit. I have to admit I was dressed for work at 9 and turned off the camera for the meeting. It was a status meeting, and our weekend 37+ hour running job was finished. I had received no updates, so I logged on and looked at the job. I was told that they had fixed it about 6ish. I was happy they did not need me anymore and so went to work in the house.

I did all the dishes and cleaned the counters. Ants have again invaded the house. I will likely clean the ants soon from the inside with a mix of Boric Acid and honey. The bug people should be here next week, but I am tired of seeing them, and it is easy to commit insecticide! I also folded and put away a giant mound of laundry. I ran the cloth washer and dryer all morning, finishing up the remaining dirty laundry.

The main bathroom received a light go-over, and I vacuumed the carpet in the main areas. It is just that the messes have accumulated when I get these all-weekend and all-nighter assignments. Today was the first day I felt I could do some housework in a long time. It all looks better.

I also stood on a chair and pulled out a light fixture in the hallway. It is flashing, and when I tap it, the light seems to strobe. I thought the cause was a loose wire, but I could not find a wiring problem. I pulled it and ordered a replacement from Home Depot to be delivered. I could get one today, but I am willing to pay $5 shipping to avoid any Covid-19 challenges. I will install it once it is here on Wednesday.

I did take a break and watch the next episode of The Expanse. This is a SciFi show that I cannot recommend more. It also willing to kill off an important character, unlike other shows, and so there is a bit of stress as you watch the show. You do not know if it will be OK or not. I love space opera!

Mariah came over about 3ish. I had the food I ordered and picked-up from Golden Vallery Brewery. They had a sale for the Super Bowl. I had chips and stuff with meatballs, buffalo-meat, and pretzels bites with cheese sauce. I reheated it all.

I got to show off a bit. I got out my big bowls, trays, and plates from the plastic china I use at the house. I put the food on a small folding table in the living room.

I also had the wonderful pork roast from Schwann’s to bake. You must let it defrost before you cook it. It takes 100 minutes to cook. So I had it ready to go in the oven once the game started. The oven was still heated from the meatballs, etc. We had pork roast about 5ish, and that was about half-time.

One event that was a surprise, Mariah spilled her wine on the carpet; we had Intrinsic wine. I have a bottle of “Wine Away” spray, and it reacts with the chemistry of wine and turns it clear. A useful product if you like wine! You cannot see the spill on the carpet. The problem was gone in a few minutes. “Better living through chemistry!”

Mariah was visiting, and the food was our little Super Bowl party. My team won, but Kansan City, I think, has a better team. Tampa just put it better together, again, in my opinion.

Mariah left, and I had to be online for India’s morning, 8PM our time. I spent about 45 mins, but I am tired, and they did not need me, so I went and rested for a bit.

17,940 people received the Covid-19 vaccine in Oregon yesterday. The number will increase as it takes 72 hours to collect all the data. Our county, Washington, has reached just short of an 8.5% vaccination rate.

1,340 people died in the USA today from the virus. This is twice the rate on a Sunday of the summer numbers. From the numbers and charts available, we are still moving through a huge spike.

I like and can sing There’s a Song in the Air. I know it is a Christmas song, but nobody really wanted the Christmas season to end this year anyway.