Blog

I grew up in the midwest, and I love a cold morning. I got up at 6ish, an all-employee meeting this morning for two hours @ 7AM, and put on my robe. It was winter-like cold. Corwin had made a mistake on the AC when he could not sleep and changed it. It was set to 60F, and it is likely that the bathroom, the tiles freezing, may have reached that setting. I turned the AC off at 64F! It felt like I was back in the midwest with the dry cold air!

Later, I had to open the front door after sitting through almost five hours of Zoom meetings freezing, to get some warm air in the house. I had shoes on, and still, I had to open the doors to get some heat!

I walked out and drank coffee in the hot sun a few times this morning.

I took a pic of my roses while getting warm.

Corwin apologized for freezing us.

The meetings are best not described here. The status meetings and alignment meetings went on for a long time. I was dual-tasking while the meetings seemed to go on and on via Zoom.

I went out for hot chili for lunch from Wendy’s. I decided again to try to give up some of the fear and actually had a sit-down lunch at Wendy’s. I had a taco salad and a diet coke and read news and interesting articles on the Internet via my Apple. I got Susie a small chili and frosty and brought them to her.

The afternoon was still full of more alignment meetings, and I tried to do some multi-tasking. I could not make much progress today.

Once I was done with work (working from home), I decided to take Susie to dinner at Reedville Cafe. Susie has been there twice this year. She had a chicken caesar salad, and we split German Black Forest Cake (with ice cream) for dessert. I had beef stroganoff that tasted unfinished to me. The tomato paste was missing, and the mushrooms were not cooked down at all—one of the first misses I have had there.

We finished dinner, and we then went for a drive and looked at the new houses going up just a mile away. All the farm fields are now becoming new streets and homes. It is the way of things.

It was strangely freeing, even with the masks and all the care, to have dinner out!

Another 572 people died today in the USA from Covid-19.

Wayfaring Stranger seemed a lovely song to select today.

 

 

I made dinner tonight again on the stovetop. I defrosted some Schwann’s bone-in pork chops and then dusted them with flour, dipped them in egg, and then dipped them in panko breadcrumbs and fried them in 1/4 inch of oil. I made mac and cheese to go with it. Not too hot as I needed to cook the chops all the way thru. I had some nice artisan bread from the Safeway bakery to go with that. Beer as the drink. Susie loved it.

I discovered as I was contemplating making dinner that we were on our last roll of toilet paper. Totally shocking that I am no longer hoarding the paper product. So I popped off-line and went grocery shopping. Picked up a moderate supply of paper products and some other basics, including the really nice bread for dinner.

I resisted again going out much; it is hot out there. It is another crazy sunny day in June. Oregon usually has the wettest and unpleasant Junes I have ever lived through. Not true for the last few years.

The fires are not here yet. We usually get the smoke and fires in July and August. We are not looking forward to that. I have some N95 masks ready for that.

We are living by AC today. We have no fans, and if you don’t stand in the kitchen (where the frig resides pumping out heat as it cools inside), it is delightful. My decision to put in AC in 2018 looks now like a very perceptive move. The AC cleared the house of smoke back in 2020.

Work started at 7ish after I rolled back over. I was tired again. I managed to stay awake today. The status meetings and process meetings continued for hours.

I slipped out at 11:20ish and drove Air Volvo to Subway and there ordered a tuna fish sub. Susie is allergic to fish, and tuna fish is a no-no in the house. The gentleman who made me the sub was curious about my transportation. He has the older, larger XC90 model. We talked about how the new version of the XC90 seating is terrible (I had one as a loaner when Air Volvo had maintenance at the mothership). He is thinking of switching to the smaller XC60, which I drive. I told him about how the car turns off instead of idling and that the steering will correct when you are not in the lane. Yes, it steers you back to the lane. Also, the low-speed collision prevention system means that you really cannot rear-end anyone at low speeds. The car will brake for you. I think my sandwich maker will be looking for a used newish XC60–he loved all the extras.

The sandwich I ate in the car listening to our local PBS radio was wonderful. The sandwich has so many veggies that make it like a salad and a sandwich.

I brought Susie back a McDonald’s happy meal with apples. I also got her an apple pie. I might have had one too. Susie was sleeping again when I left and got back.

Susie, this morning had a problem. She felt terrible and said she was turned inside-out. That she was all covered in water. Susie was visibly upset. There was nothing wrong that I could detect. I told her to get up, and she did. I got her a scone, coffee, had her drink water, and to take her meds.

Susie seemed to snap out of the confusion with the food, two scones, and moving around. I have been watchful and only was out when Corwin was up. I made dinner of comfort foods. It seemed to work.

To less serious things…When irony goes too far, China announced a new policy of more friendly communication. China officials are ordering their people to be more humble and less confrontational. The BBC news show on PBS spent ten minutes (yes, that long) on some of the best (worst) moments for China and the new “be nice policy.”

Apparently, the “Wolf Warrior” propaganda film is the name given for the previous policy by the west: Wolf Warrior. An anti-west aggressive announcer was called a Wolf Warrior by the western diplomats and press. Corwin and I now have to find this movie. Popcorn! Beer! China super soldiers saving China by blowing up evil westerners. Excellent!

And Iran lost its largest naval vessel today to a fire, and it sank. A supply ship. We are sorry about the fire and pray for the sailors. But the USA sends multiple aircraft carriers and all their support ships to protect the gulf. Iran has a cargo ship. The irony is out of control today–yes, I know that Iran has some dangerous ships, but it was still their largest ship was a supply ship!

I thought it best to end before any more irony surfaces. Too late. A majority of the Knesset in Isreal came to a historical agreement today; anything is better than Netanyahu. Yes, the impossible has happened. Arab, conservative, and moderates politicians all agreed on one thing, Netanyahu has to go. They have done the impossible and joined forces to form a government of people who before would not likely even talk to each other are now in the same government. Irony should just stop.

But the Mad Magazine moments keep coming. President Biden gave a speech today in which free beer will be given out for taking the vaccine. The Anheuser-Busch company is buying a round of beer for the country for July 4th.

512 people in the USA lost their lives to the pandemic today.

I picked How Great is Our God for Israel and for those we have lost to the pandemic.

This the new blog of my daily thoughts and events. I am trying to keep this interesting. I suspect that the simple details have comforted people through the pandemic, so I will not completely dispense with them.

To that end…

The morning started with pollen. That is, my head is stuffed, and my eyes are red. The coughing is the dry-unproductive-hollow-empty type that seems such a waste. This means asthma is uncontrolled, and the pollen is just a trigger for all the normal asthma stuff. My lungs are locked down by asthma.

I suspect the real problem was lack of sleep. Susie has not slept through a night all weekend and the holiday. I started at 6ish.

Work was the normal compressed day after a holiday. Monday and Tuesday are now running over the top of each other. Monday is usually status, and Tuesday is usual progress. Many of the discussions were that issues had to be fixed as an emergency as there is not enough time this week to run the normal process. Many voices, while not raised, had that direct edge, and a lot of directors were given marching orders.

I spent the morning listening to the status-progress meetings while working out issues in an SAP system upgrade I am doing now. The system I am upgrading is a copy of a development system and has broken development in it. I had to spend the morning and afternoon fixing those items.

I had reheated pizza; it was already 90F outside, and I kept the house cool by not opening any doors.

I took a break, the coughing was just non-stop, and I fell completely asleep.

I was awoken by Susie’s return. She had a delayed Spa day with Zerida today. Her driver picked her up at 11ish. Susie had trouble starting this morning. I was running around doing caregiving while also on Zoom status calls and progress calls. It was a bit chaotic this mid-morning.

I helped Susie get settled and then returned to email and status and progress. Nothing was happening, so I went to read again.

I am now on the third book of a series I partially read years ago. I recommend all the books. I am on Everyone in Their Place: The Summer of Commissario Ricciardi (The Commissario Ricciardi Mysteries Book 3). Set in 1931 Naples, Italy, and about the Commissario solving murders. The detective is cursed to see the last moment of the dead making it a ghost story too. These are large 1-inch thick meaty translations from the original Italian with only a few typos that fit the translation better. 

Susie needed a nap too. So we both nodded off. It was 6ish when I awoke! The coughing is mostly gone. Lack of sleep was the real cause for asthma, as I suspected, and caused the overreaction to pollen (my eyes are still a bit sticky, so I know the pollen is still there). I also turned up the AC when I went to lie down, and the good filter would have grabbed any of the pollen in the air, so that too helped. In American AC, the cold air return recycles the same air.

I thought about ordering out, it is too hot to cook, but I found some frozen (!?) Schwann’s mashed potatoes and brats ready to eat in the frig. Bangers and Mash! We have Mexican beer! Thus a truly international and easy to make dinner! It also is just a stovetop, so no oven.

I slipped out in the early evening, now in the 80s, to get a few pics of the roses.

The tea rose bloomed!

Here are some of the other bushes in the backyard.

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

I picked Psalm 50 for today’s music to remember who we have lost.

 

Today is the end of my Covid-19 blog.

I will blog daily for a while as we wrap up the pandemic, but I plan to switch to a weekly blog in the future. Today is the 444th-day blog (of 443 blogs–missing one when Susie had a stroke). It is a good number to stop counting.

Thus this is now my daily blog. This first trying-to-live-without-fear day of my blog started with me waking a few times and refusing to start my day early. I finally got started on 9:30ish and microwaving last night’s coffee. I then read emails and news articles. Next, I did the dishes and made scones and fresh coffee.

I had not made scones in months. I decided that today, the first new day of my wrap for the pandemic life, should start with making King Arthur Almond Cherry scones. I cut in the cold butter with a pastry knife. It was obvious I had not this for a while as it was hard work. I added the milk and egg, got the mix well mixed, and made little lumps on a baking sheet on parchment. I buy parchment paper that fits my baking sheet also from King Arthur.

They are good.

My suggestion: Give up the fear, be careful and wear your mask when you should and when you need to to feel comfortable, and bake something!

I then went on a trip to practice giving up my fear; I drove Air Volvo for lunch. On the way, I stopped by Rainy Day Games to get a bottle of paint; I am nearly out of gunmetal paint for miniatures. It is a fav of mine as I like the dark shine. Silver is just too bright for weapons and armors and machines.

Lunch: I then went to Pastini for Italian. I wanted a glass of wine and some food without much hassle. The manager sat me at a table for one, and Michael, my waiter, and I found a nice wine, and I had the carbonara pasta with caesar salad. I finished with some ice cream and got a to-go tiramisu for Susie.

While Pastini is a chain, this one at Cedar Mills always seems one step above, and I like their food. They have some extra zing that makes things better. Or it is just the wine.

I was reading the Jupiter Disco drink book while waiting. They are closed for the pandemic and also far away in NYC. I saw they were trying to raise money to keep going on Kickstarter at the start of the pandemic and made a pledge. I got a cool t-shirt, took them a year, and an edgy book that is mostly about bar life and drink recipes. Susie will be confused someday when I say, let’s go to an NYC disco, “I have a t-shirt and drinks I want to try out.”

Returning to lunch, my food and service were good. I saw folks without masks at their tables and folks like me who only remove the mask when drinks or food show. I put it back on when I am done. I felt safe, and the fear is receding.

I returned home, a hero, with tiramisu for Sue (it should be a song lyric).

I ordered pizzas a few hours later, taking wine and a food-induced nap, to have dinner with Dr.Rev. Wayne Weldmartin and his wife, Rev. Anne Weldmwartin. We had the New York pizza from Papa Murphy’s Take-and-Bake pizza. Susie’s fav with pepperoni and sausage. This was with beer.

We had a nice dinner and chatted. We finished dinner with watermelon.

I then taught and played a two-person board game of Wingspan. Susie and I one team and the Weldmartins on the other. The bird cards and the resources were enjoyed. Anne likes birdwatching. I had not managed to teach the mechanics, but that is the hard part of this game. It is a worthy game to learn, but it takes more than one game to get all the working parts. We will play again; Anne seemed to like it.

I am home now writing.

Today’s music is A Folk Song.

Today started at 4AM! I had to pick up Mariah and take her to Portland International Airport, PDX; we call the airport by the airport’s call letters, not by another person’s name–just PDX. I was there on time, and we had no events other than an on-time arrival at the gate.

I stopped by PDX after dropping off Mariah. I parked the car on the 7th floor of the car park. It was just minutes after sunrise, and Mount Hood was clearly visible.

I was sad when I saw that everything is still locked down. No breakfast there. I know that Powell’s PDX is gone for good, but it still hurt a bit to see that loss of the little PDX mall. Someday, maybe, we will see it again. PDX was voted the best Airport in the USA for the years before Covid-19. I want it back!

One of the reasons for the positive outlook towards PDX is the view.

I returned the way I came, remembering to drive slow as it is Memorial Weekend, and the police are giving out reminders to go slower. A costly reminder.

I had breakfast at Tom’s Pancake House. I had the Eggs Benedict, and hashbrowns. It is wonderful. Not many people are there before 7 on a Sunday. I felt safe the whole time, and everyone was kind. The staff was masked, and folks put on masks when they left their tables.

I made it home and then painted a bit of the next faction for Richard’s Anachrony game. The last one. I have a basic coloring done on one figure. I will then repeated the colors on the remaining five.

I was tired and took a couple of naps. Evan came over at about 10:45. We had coffee and then a beer at Wildwood Taphouse; Insomnia Coffee is next door. There Brook, the bartender, greeted us and gave us permission to play a board game. It being a taphouse where you bring your own food, even coffee and muffins are welcome on a Sunday morning, they were happy to accommodate us.

Evan was proud to beat me in a very short game of Vindication. The end-of-game triggers hit on early. They are randomly assigned, and we had barely started before the game ended. We had some chips with salsa and talked for a bit after the game.

I got back about 2ish, and Evan headed to a movie. I got Susie water, coffee, and some breakfast. I then enjoyed another short nap.

The pollen is just killing me today. I cannot stop coughing.

We then packed up and headed over to Cory’s house to play a board game, Wingspan. We have not been back inside there, Cory and Jennifer’s place, since Covid-19. We are all vaccinated. We had brats, hot dogs, chips, fruit salad, drinks, and I taught the game.

Everyone loved the game. I had the high score for the Wingspan, but I know how to play. The game plays well once the players learned the mechanics. Wingspan has some unique processes that take a bit to understand; the game becomes a quest to make the best board (bird sanctuary) once the basics are working for you. Laying eggs, there are tiny eggs that come with the game, and the cards’ artwork and information on the birds represented in the game, are high quality.

After more than a year, it was so nice to be back at Cory’s and Jeniffer’s place and play a few games and have some food together. Susie used Cory’s lifts to get to the second floor. So we got to use the dinner table and be near the kitchen. It felt like a party!

Deaths fell to only 124 today in the USA for Covid-19. It may be a reporting issue from the holiday.

I picked The Old Rugged Cross for this Memorial Day Weekend.