Today I started about 7ish with endless status calls until about 10:30, all on Zoom. The coffee and breakfast did not help, and I was fatigued and had trouble following the conversations. I had trouble with asthma this weekend, likely the dry, sunny days are full of pollen, and I am just worn-out.
I made a can of chili for lunch and got Susie out the door at 9ish for her appointment. She, too, looked pale and seemed a bit worn-out. I wish that we had had the party that went with the hang-over! Susie’s driver got her to Zerida, and Susie had hair, nails, etc., done. Susie picked up a McDonald’s Happy Meal with McNuggets, her fav.
I tried to get Susie an appointment for the Covid-19 shot. So far, I have not managed it. I suspect I will land one soon. Maybe Johnson and Johnson will make this easier.
I sent an email out that I was too tired to keep up with the status meetings and took off the afternoon. I went to bed, read for a while, and then woke about 4:30ish. Susie took a nap. I returned to email and work. I was going to just close-out Monday, but then I saw that the data conversion was running at 5PM and would run until midnight.
I could not miss this. I got back online for work, and then on my own Apple computer, I sent out an email to cancel the Roll20 Dungeons and Dragon game for this Monday. I listened and watched more of the time. This is data conversion, and I mostly watch the team.
So I am still watching while updating this blog. I am tired and had a headache. I will take some allergy meds tonight.
6,169 people were vaccinated in Oregon yesterday on a Sunday. This number will likely increase slightly, but the Sunday numbers have been low for the previous months.
One thousand four-hundred thirty-nine people died today from the virus in the USA.
Today’s story will be more about events than a retelling of the day. I thought this would be more interesting, and today was exciting for me, but I suspect it is less so for others.
Today was the last day of February 2021, and my deadlines, self-imposed for taxes. I spent the whole morning doing tax work with TurboTax online version. Others may fear using a cloud version, but I have found the experience very secure and much better than using a local version.
I also cooked oatmeal from scratch and nearly burned it while concentrating on tax stuff and not the bubbling pot of goo on the stovetop. I managed to pour cold water from the faucet on the bottom of the pan to reduce the energy release from stirring. This saved it (and can save rice too).
I had a couple of bowls of freshly cooked oatmeal with just a sprinkle of brown sugar. The unconsumed portion turned to glue in the pan and is soaking to get off the pan now. It was messy, and I will buy more instant!
I finally printed off the Fidelity tax documents, I was looking at the year-end statement in error, and blessedly the corrected cost bases for all the stock transactions were thusly available. I could then supply all the mysterious data TurboTax did not get when it supposedly uploaded the same data. I performed the usual rituals of clicking forever to finally accept the tax information.
I then paid the slightly discounted fee because I finished in February and sent in my taxes to the Feds and Oregon. I owe a lot. I had also paid early when I did some stock transactions. Hate to piss-off Uncle Sam; he got some $ early.
I was surprised to learn that the taxes run so differently now. Oregon is still using taxes as if 1040 was still the same before Trump’s tax cuts. This meant that while the tax changes prevent me from using itemized deductions on 1040, they do seem to work on Oregon 40. I am so glad I entered our charitable giving. I want to record our giving even if I am forced to use the standard deduction. It reduced my Oregon taxes, at least.
By noon I had pushed all the buttons, and the Fed and State of Oregon had my taxes. My checks will follow in April for the bill. I never pay early.
Nobody was up; I went on a celebration of my own. Sushi has not been on the menu the whole lockdown. I believe part of the Sushi’s enjoyment is sitting in a bar or restaurant and ordering and delivering it to you at the bar or table. The presentation on plates or on bamboo is part of the meal to me. It is not a GrubHub item for me. I also like cold draft Japanese beer with it.
It has been more than a year since I visited Wasabi in our area. Their website is hacked (it route you to a viagra website), so no link, but their food is good, and the bartender was the same guy I had a year ago. I ordered the small combo sushi plate and a beer. It was wonderful, and small is not a word I would associate with it.
My laptop was with me, and even the Internet password still worked. Again, it feels like I was there just last week and not a whole year ago. Again, everyone looked happy to be there, it was a bit busy, but there was that tiny hint of fear that this may go away again.
I went home from there and got Susie going. After pills, food, and getting dressed, Susie walked down our street with her walker. It is one of her exercises. She was tired after the walk, but we got in the car and drove places.
We stopped by Cory’s house, and I gave his wife Jenifer a copy of the Wingspan learning set. The board game Wingspan, a unique game where you create a bird sanctuary and manage it–a resource management game based on real science and good game design, can be hard to learn, and this kit, I bought two, so I gave Cory and Jenifer another one, helps teach the game. I have not been to Cory and Jenifer’s house since March 2020, our Sunday gaming group’s last Dungeons and Dragons game. We hope to play again in the summer!
We dropped off a jar of King Arthur Floor’s Vietnamese cinnamon for Dondrea. This spice is a bit sharper than my usual cinnamon and made delicious cinnamon rolls. I ordered some more items from King Arthur, and I ordered an extra jar to give away. I recommend this product.
We got home, and I made dinner (not interesting), and we watched the Pixar movie The Incredibles 2.
I returned to work in India afternoon time, 10:30PM PST.
Completing my taxes and closing 2020 has given me a hopeful feeling. I feel that 2020 is fading away, and 2021 will be better.
19,513 people were vaccinated yesterday in Oregon. These numbers will likely increase as it takes 72 hours to collect all the data.
1,253 people died in the USA from the virus today.
No working this weekend, so I was up at 8ish and slowly found my way this morning. I did manage to fail in making coffee. I put too much coffee in the drip coffee maker, and it blocked and overflowed back into the back of the coffee maker. A mess!
Breakfast was a bagel and banana while Susie slept. I started on my taxes and got all of the forms loaded for all my transactions and have only a few hours to go on that. I will try to find some time on Sunday morning, time to “give up to Ceasar what is Ceasar’s.”
As often happens, I was out of time and rushes to make the noon opening for Mox Board House for food and gaming. I managed to get out the door and load a few games in the car by 11:30ish.
I was surprised that I had traffic in Beaverton and that highway 26 to Portland was slow and crawling on a Saturday morning. It was a sort of sunny day, well sunny for us in the Pacific NorthWest–meaning not pouring rain and so gray that it makes moss look emerald, and thus everyone was out on the roads driving with politeness. A lane was also closed on 26 for no real reason I could see. I was only a few minutes past noon when I parked the car in the garage under Mox and other residential and retail spaces next to Providence Park.
The store, Mox, was just the way I remember it, and they remembered me. Megan, the manager, was happy to see me, and “we can now talk instead of chatting online.” After about Thanksgiving, the lockdown happened again in Portland, and I had not back to the store except on their Facebook page. Actually, their game selection is better, and the little items, like a dice tray, selection is great, and I did pick-up a few hard-to-find items. I have a folding dice tray, paint tops for Citadel styled paint bottles, and a light tan color I ran out–“mummy robes.”
Tim, whom I remember from before the lockdown, was serving today. I ordered a beer, and Evan joined me a bit at 12:30ish and had a mocha coffee. I had walked back to the car in the garage, using the elevator, to get some games. I asked permission to play as I did not know the new Covid-19 rules. Megan was happy to tell me to play some games. Someday, Megan said she will get to play her first game of Scythe someday, and as usual, I offered, after Covid-19 fades, to teach her.
We all felt like the last 100 days of lockdown fade away and that it seemed like we had been playing every weekend and seeing each other most weekends. But, the USA’s death rate reached more than 5,000 souls lost a day during this last lockdown. You could see in everyone’s eyes how much they were happy to be back and how scared we all were, and how fearful we are now that the lockdown will come again. All greetings are muted but heartfelt.
Evan inaugurated our return to gaming at Mox by reaching an almost 50 lead in two-person Vindication. The board game was mercifully fast. Evan gave me advice on playing better, showing how far Evan has come from learning the game from me to using me for a virtual footstool in the game.
We had a smaller white table as Mox was a bit busy and certainly busier than I saw it when it first opened at the beginning of the Pandemic. I did not get a long table as those went to larger groups. We made it work. Folks put on masks and were very careful.
Lunch for me was Mushroom Bourguignon with a beer. Evan had the NW Duck and Mushroom mix burger. No complaints. Evan started on the new cocktails.
Mushroom Bourguignon
After lunch, it was time to play the Concordia board game. I picked a new board to play that includes just part of Britain, France, Spain and Portugal, and Belgium that we had not played before. It was a bit tighter map with fewer cities. We did include the Forum from the Concordia Salsa add-on. Evan was aggressively building trading posts in cities. I instead focused on buy cards and building my point multipliers. I remember Will, who taught me the game and that buying cards often decides the winner, not the building of trading posts.
I enjoy this game and often plan my turn two to three moves ahead. When Evan tripped the end of the game, gaining seven points for that, I was unsure of the score. Concordia does scoring at the end. I managed a ten-point lead by my investment in cards, and last-minute trading post builds the turn before Evan ended the game.
We paid our bill so that Tim could get his tip and then opened a new bill with Tatiana and Marlyn, who had the evening shift. I always try to pay two bills, so each team gets paid.
Tatiana was my first bartender at Mox, and Marlyn was my first evening bartender at Mox. I got them to pose for a new picture for this first re-opened weekend.
We had dessert and coffee, and then we paid the bill and let our friends at Mox get on with the night customers.
Susie was missing me already, and I made her a grilled cheese for dinner when I got home. Susie then watched the movies Henry V and High Society.
Oregon had a record day for vaccinations this week and almost 25,000 shots yesterday. The number is updated over three days and shows great promise.
One thousand five-hundred fifty-four people died today from the infection.
I am happy and sad to say I have sold some stock. SPACE (Virgin Galatic) at +250% increase and F (Ford) at 10% increase. I enjoyed the ride, but taxes are coming due soon, and the play money has to be put to work and pay the tax bill for last year. I am both relieved to get off the roller coaster ride of both companies, and a little sad to no longer have that thrill of watching both stocks rise and fall with the tides of random investor emotion.
Since we are talking about money, my 401K is at the moment experiencing flat growth for the year, +0.23%. The markets appear confused by the stimulus package, a tiny jump in rates, and falling death and infection rates. The markets are uncertain as they have been the only investment for the last year. Increasing rates and a sudden full-running economy seem to be spooking the investors as it may move money from the markets to bonds and real estate. I continue to leave my 401K alone.
Continuing with the theme of money, I am trying to make the self-imposed deadlines of Feb 28th to finish my taxes. You also get a discount from Turbo Tax if you finish by then. I have uploaded all the documents and have a few hours of annotating certain stock transactions to finish up. I will likely make my date. I will pay the taxes on the deadline; I do not pay the government early.
Returning to the house’s story, Susie slipped off the bed while dressing for bed tonight and landed on the floor in a heap. She is not hurt, and sliding off the bed I do not think should count as a full fall. It was just a silly mistake.
Susie, Mariah, and I met for pizza and drinks at The Rock Wood Fired Pizza for dinner. Mariah got us a table in the bar. We were stopped at the door and told they were at maximum capacity and would have to wait. I then got a text from Mariah that we already had a table, and in we went. The parking lot was full, and the place was kicking. And that meant really we should have skipped it–too much risk. But, the customers were all being safe, and masks were used in the waiting area and when people got up. So I did not feel unsafe–I think we have finally engrained social distancing and masks in the bar scene, at least in Beaverton, Oregon.
Before dinner, I finished work and rested a bit, and took an unplanned nap that I suddenly awoke from. I am reading a delightful book on the history of math, The Story of a Number, and I have to admit that I might slip away from the story to dreamland when tired. It is a good story, and it is good to recall all the math I have forgotten.
We were celebrating a bit. Susie graduated from Physical Therapy In-home services. Michelle, our visiting PT, came at 2:30ish with a graduation certificate for Susie and lists of exercises for Susie in the future. I had made a carrot cake from scratch and frosted it today between meetings. Michelle could not take off her mask; she got a piece to take home. Susie did walk down the street with Michelle and did some exercises too. It is now up to Susie and me to keep this up.
Susie had yogurt with cereal, and I had soup from a can for lunch. I frosted the cake at lunchtime.
We had an emergency this morning at the shoe company that is still ongoing, and we are working the weekend. The India time work is put on hold as the emergency needs to be resolved before doing the other work. So the morning was about working on the problems and solving many crises of the moment that need my attention today.
This morning I had a chance to eat my bagel and banana while all my computers, my Apple, and Nike’s Windows machine, decided to reboot. It was strange to see both of them down at the same time!
I started the morning at 7ish as the early meetings are canceled, for the moment. Susie managed to sleep the night, so I managed some short by uninterrupted sleep today.
22,353 people were vaccinated yesterday in Oregon. The numbers take 72 hours to be complete, and the previous day has also been increased. It is reassuring to see the rate back to over 20,000 a day. Oregon has vaccinated 14% of the population of the state.
2,246 people died from the virus today in the USA.
I will skip over much of the morning as it was status meetings while fixing a few crises of the moment and coding Groovy and Jenkins config. I was trying to get an install script to work. I worked all morning and afternoon on this while listening to status meetings after status meetings.
Susie had ordered some St. Patrick gifts for her family, and I had to send them to Michigan. I slipped out at 10ish and went to the UPS store and sent the gifts on. They should be there before March 17th.
For lunch, I decided to order out. Ma-Now Thai food, Pad Thai with Shrimp. It was delivered about noon. I ate it while I sat through more meetings and some new emergency meetings. We had some new software issues, and we started to work out what to do.
I continued to work on my Groovy stuff and got very close. Just one error left. I stopped at 3ish.
I slipped out and went grocery shopping at Whole Foods. I needed more eggs and cream cheese for the frosting for Susie’s cake. I got a few items we are getting low on and some nice beer.
I also tried to get a Covid-19 shot for Susie today–Walgreen had some openings. But, I had to create an account on Walgreens, and by the time I was done, the appointments were full. I will keep trying for both of us.
I took a short nap and started on dinner, pork chops. These are Schwann’s bone-in that cook well if pan-fried and finished, in the pan, in the oven. I made corn niblets (Schwann’s) and garlic bread–Whole Foods has great garlic bread.
I watched the news with Susie while we ate dinner. I watch PBS BBC News and about 1/2 of the News Hours.
I then returned to work. India morning this time at 9 IST or 7:30PM here. We had more issues to talk about.
I stopped at about 8:30ish as I have to make Susie a cake. She is graduating from Physical Therapy at home tomorrow. She wants a carrot cake. I shredded carrots and used the same recipe she loved last time from King Arthur Flour. So the kitchen looks like it exploded. There are bits of carrot here and there. I will frost it late tonight, I think.
15,684 received a vaccination yesterday in Oregon. This number will likely increase as it takes three days to collect all the data.
Two thousand four-hundred fourteen people died from the infection today in the USA.
Eternal Father hymn came to me today. This is the navy hymn.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 