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I stayed up late painting Richard’s figures. I had to paint window frames on the figures, and that requires quiet and pure concentration. I can get that about midnight or so. So I made coffee last night and stayed up to about 1:30 painting.

I was back at it this morning and was finishing up the next set of figures until about noon. I then took a shower and started my chores.

My red tea roses, with lots of aphids, are almost ready to bloom.

I picked up prescriptions, put gas in the car, got the car run thru the car wash, and bought groceries. I also picked up Susie, her fav, a Happy Meal with apples, and burger king for me. There is likely a crime to eat a Whopper while in a McDonald’s drive-thru.

Back home, I put away the groceries and got Susie her Happy Meal. I started on the next and last Anachrony mech figures for Richard. I also watched a video on how to play the game. I figure I should know more about this game after spending so much time painting the miniatures.

I learned from watching a video that Anachrony is a typical SciFi worker placement and resource management board game. The first one I have seen with a time travel feature that lets you borrow resources now that you will produce in the future. If you fail to do that, you will have to pay a paradox cost. It is an older game, and so some of the features I am familiar with were new when this game was created. We plan to play the game in a few weekends with all the painted mech figures.

I did some laundry, and Corwin agreed to warm up the ribs I bought for dinner for Susie and him. I headed to Portland.

I reached Richard’s house to play games at 6PM. Just Richard and I.

We gave A War of Whispers a try. I have the collector’s edition from a Kickstarter and wanted to see what Richard thought. I lost by 2 points, and I think he liked it. This is an unusual board game where the players are advisors to kings in a world that looks like Game of Thrones. The players are secretly randomly aligned to some kingdoms, some kingdoms the players are uninterested in, and one is an enemy. The players then compete to have control of the kingdoms and then run the kingdoms. Yes, even the ones that are your secret enemy! This means you are often crashing armies into meaningless and wasteful battles to support your goals. This while trying to guess what are the goals of the other players and hamper their plans–unless their plans seem to align with your goals, hmmm. There are action cards that suddenly let you have more armies or move armies. Or a plague hits. Then an invasion from nowhere! To get these cards, you have to be given them by a kingdom, and for that to happen, you have to have that advising position that gets cards. It is a war of whispers and suspicion. It is crazy and fun. I am still learning how to play.

Richard managed to take the one city I needed to hold to win as the last battle in the game. Next time!

We then tried the 7 Wonders Duel two-person game. In the game, you build a city that produces good and abilities that lets you build four of the 7 Wonders of the World. You do this by buying cards that become part of your city. This will increase your resources and abilities. Also, some buildings are free if you have the right symbol. For example, I built the theater and could then build a theater building for free. Plus, you can also buy into a technology that will give you some power advantages. I invested in War and was trying to put Richard’s city to the touch and win. He built up his military and stopped me.

As I said, you have four of the 7 Wonders to build. I managed to have enough resources to build three. These give you more interesting abilities.

It was a fast and easy-to-understand game once you get it. I did not understand the resourcing and soon was behind and stayed that way. I would recommend it as a fast two-person game. It has multiple ways to victory and focus. For a simple and not a very expensive game, it covers a lot of gaming territory.

I had a crash on WordPress so I will stop here.

 

For the summer, I work until noon on Fridays. This is a Nike WHQ thing. Today was the first time. Usually, I work until noon at the Evergreen Buildings, my home building which is not on the WHQ campus, and then head to the amazing cafe, The Paint, and have lunch until 1ish. This allows me to support the cafe, get lunch, and give anyone an extra hour to find me.

Working from home means just stopping. I stopped at noonish. I then drove to Old Chicago Pizza for lunch. I used to eat there a lot 14 months ago. Usually, once a week getting a Stromboli with a salad and iced tea. Today I return, again trying to lose my fear, for lunch. I had my usual, and I felt safe.

I returned home and went back to painting this afternoon, hoping to finish more of Richard’s miniatures for Anachrony this holiday. I am painting the blue faction that looks like a cross of a giant squid and a mole crab. I am painting it mostly shades of blue and metal with a gray base shade. I tried to put a decal on the figure, but the surfaces are too curved to do this easily.

I hope to finish these in the morning on Saturday. Just one more, the purple faction to go.

Mariah came over and did laundry, and then we got some paperwork done for her traveling on Sunday. Corwin, Mariah, and I had dinner at Matzatlon Mexican Food nearby. We brought back Susie’s dinner.

Back to painting!

I should finish this story. I fixed the other fob for Air Volvo today. If you remember, the car stopped starting, as you must have the fob near the car to start it. If the fob’s battery is dead, the fob does not work. I replaced the battery, and one fob still did not work! Also, both fobs were dead at the same time.

This has happened to me before. I remember a batch of desktop computers in the 1980s all failing in the same week when the battery backing up the CMOS definition in the old IBM PCs died. The computers were all purchased together, and they all failed within a week. The life expectancy of the batteries was very predictable!

I ordered new coin cell batteries, 2032, a fav of hardware hackers like me. I replaced the battery, again, in the unworking fob and popped out the new battery that failed. I noticed that it had a sticker you need to remove that was still on it. I may have then made comments that are best not repeated here. There was a safety label with a baby image saying not to give this battery to young children that I overlooked. I removed it and reassembled the fob. It works now.

The china made 2032s I just got are very cheap in 50 battery purchases, do not have safety labels. Only USA-bought ones have these stickers.

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

Lift Every Voice and Sing was on my mind as we try to lose the fear of these last two years.

I managed to get going at 7AM this morning. I did sleep in about an hour. The morning started with me seeing that all of my items had not moved forward and read my email and text Slack messages. I then sent out requests for updates for status on the items I had requested and got ready for the day.

I was ready for the first Zoom meeting and was surprised that I had actual items to cover and status to give. I was reading the new items, emails were sent of these mysterious tasks appearing assigned to me when my name was called at the stand-up meeting. I stumbled through it. I updated the status verbally and learned I have deliverables that are being tracked by the project. Have to pay more attention now!

After doing some more work and emails, I headed out for lunch at the Reedville Cafe. I had a table for one and ate a normal lunch, trying to pretend that the pandemic is ending. To find normal again, I believe you have to go search for it. Instead of staying at the house and making lunch or ordering GrubHub, I went out and did my usual lunch break. I had my mask and all safety steps were in place at Reedville Cafe. I felt safe, ate my tuna fish melt, used my Apple to read emails and some online articles. What I would do in my pre-Covid-19 life.

Returning to working from home, I managed to get some attention from folks working for the shoe company, and we fixed one of the outstanding issues. I officially unblocked my task (that I only learned about today). Blocked tasks are escalated to various meetings, and thus the problem was resolved today (TCI OSS note application is not without challenges, for those who speak SAP). My other issue cleared today.

I also wrote just a few code lines and created a PowerPoint for a meeting with SAP customers about data conversions. PowerPoints always take longer than you expect, and this one took the afternoon.

I rallied Susie to head t.o BJ. Brewhouse to meet with Rev.Dr. Wayne and Rev. Anne Weldmartin for dinner. We had a nice dinner together. Susie got a dessert to go. We will see them on Monday at 5PM for pizza, beer, and some games for Memorial Day.

Sorry, it is a short story as it was as normal a day as I could make today. I am reaching out for normal or at least try to lose some of the fear and stress. Let it go! song for those who want to sing along–just dumping the fear, not the safety, and finding the future.

630 people in the USA passed away from Covid-19 today.

This is My Father’s World seemed to fit today. I found this virtual chorus version arranged by one of the members.

 

I started the morning, as usual, at 6ish, and, as usual, I then went back to sleep for 30 minutes or an hour when there were no meetings in the early morning. I was back at it 6:30ish as I could not sleep anymore.

I started into my emails and missed text in Slack. I was caught up quickly, making breakfast as I read and then eating it.

Another busy, crazy morning of status meetings, but no progress on some pressing emergencies. I send out a few requests for updates and start back into the coding I was doing again. I am trying to restart the work I left back in February.

Instead of walking in the pollen-enriched air, I cleaned up some more stuff in the house for 30 minutes. I am slowly getting my working spaces back to the normal before Covid-19 look.

I make soup for lunch, veggie beef from a can, as I am trying to reduce expenses—much less GrubHub in the future and more sandwiches made at home. Before, I felt I needed to help as I was working, and many others were not working. But now, it looks like a lot of money that I could use. Again, trying to find the normal.

I managed a walk in the grass today, and some more roses are out. One more is now starting to bloom.

 

So far, two roses are yet to bloom. One is, I believe, 50+ years old red tea roses and came with the house. The legend is that the previous owner’s mom’s rose bush was transplanted here in the 1980s. The other rose that is yet to bloom is Mr. Lincoln, and it is the newest and looks like a stick with some sickly leaves. It may require some intervention.

Work went on for a bit. I was coding new scripts. Switching from the programming languages Groovy to BASH and back. I then run the revised and new scripts using the open tool called Jenkins.

I was working up to the moment I needed to leave for the Dentist.

The car would not start!

Air Volvo uses a fob and has no ignition key. A live working fob is needed to use Ait Volov.

The fobs’ batteries are 2032 coin cells. They are dead, both at the same time. I walk to the dentist for my cleaning. It is a mile.

The cleaning goes well, and there is no need for extra work. Another escape! I then walk back.

I take the fobs apart and replace the batteries. One is working now. Volvo wants me to bring the car in and check the fobs. If I can get the other one working, I will not need to visit them! I will take the one that is not working apart again and find another battery. I use the 2032 coin cell for electronic hacking. It is possible I just used a dead 2032 as I only had one in the packaging. That one now works.

For a moment, I had visions of having to have Air Volvo towed to the mothership. One fob is working well now, so I think I will avoid the mothership. Air Volvo had been to the Volvo Spa just a few months ago to do the scheduled 40,000-mile items.

The walk back, the pollen, dentist, and having to make dinner have left me tired.

Dinner was pork chops from Safeway, 1/2 thick and a nice size, that I prepare the same way I usually make chops. I fry them in a large pan with oil and sprinkle them with salt a spice, Herbs de Provence, and brown them just slightly on both sides. I finish the pork chops in a 350F oven remembering never to grab the pan’s handle.

I had some nice bread that I sliced. I made green beans from Schwann’s also the usual way. I put them in the microwave. I cook on the stove almond slices and salt in butter. I add the beans when done and finish them on the stove.

Around dinner time, I spoke to Cory, and we will play the board game Wingspan on Sunday night. He bought a copy about a year before the pandemic but never got a game in. Now that we are all vaccinated, I can do a teaching game on Sunday night. Exciting, more normal!

I am dragging tonight.

607 people in the USA died today from the virus.

I decided to go with a favorite, In The Garden, as I thought about flowers often today.

I have to admit I awoke after just lying down to read for a few minutes about 4:30ish and really woke up with a start at 6PM! I was more tired than I thought. I had interrupted sleep all night, but I thought I could keep going. I did manage to make it to 4ish for the shoe company.

I slept into 7ish, but I woke at 6ish and was very tired and dizzy, so I slept another hour.

I was on my first status meeting at 8. I made breakfast while listen and left on the video. I think everyone wanted breakfast after that, a bagel with cream cheese and a banana, all with coffee.

This meeting was followed by meetings all morning on Zoom. The lack of sleep started to get to me a few times as some of the discussions were long on talk. I tried to pay attention and help. I also had some trailing emergency of the moment that seemed to be restarting from the previous day. I tried again to put them away.

I had some vendor patches to apply, but that broke as I need special authority. That was not forthcoming. I decided instead of lunch. I split my lunch with Corwin, Massaman Cury. Today is Corwin’s birthday. He went to the beach with a huge load of firewood for a great fire on the beach tonight. Today is an epic blood moon. I suspect, if the clouds are less, I will get quite a picture from Corwin about 1:30 Thursday morning.

I tried to do some coding of scripts for installing software today. I went back and reviewed what I had built in February. There may be a need for it soon.

And then Chrome took our my Nike laptop. It totally locked up, and nothing could fix it. I powered it off. It recovered the Chrome sessions and totally locked again. I then powered it down hard and restarted it again. Finally, Chrome detected a failure and offered to restart. I said, “No!” and my laptop lives again. Ugly!

Schwann’s came, that is why I woke up–the doorbell, and I got some cheese and bacon, potatoes skins for dinner, and other items for later. I made dinner and opened a can of peaches to share to go with the skins.

Susie and I ate dinner while watching the BBC news on PBS and then some of News Hour. We watched the news in the Middle East and the USA trying to deal with the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death. Already a year has passed.

I went back to painting tonight. Richard’s next faction I am painting is the squids. Not sure what they mean in the game, but they are nautical.

Washington Country, Oregon, where we live, is at a 55% vaccination rate.

It was reported that 669 people in the USA died from the virus today. Four of those people died here in Oregon.

After flipping through the Methodist Hymnal, I decided on I’m Gonna Sing When the Spirit Says Sing. I found this nice 2021 version.