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Today started to get better in the afternoon. The dressing on Susie’s wounds from her skin cancer surgery was no longer bleeding beyond the ability of my dressing to keep it controlled. The simple bandages from the doctor’s office did not contain the blood. Previously, all the dressings took care of this. We were surprised to have to deal with a lot of blood.

I made some trips to RiteAid and purchased more of my go-to for this stuff: Nexcare’s Tegaderm. I often put a pad under the tape-like product. This stuff does not work on burns or infections; that takes you back to old school dressing if you need to do that. For these new dressings, you need all sorts of sizes for this work. I was low on some sizes. Now I back to being ready.

Today, I changed all of Susie’s dressings except one pressure bandage from the doctor’s office. It appears to be working. I also have to use the tape from Nexcare. Susie will get blisters from regular tape or bandages.

Last night, I stayed up and watched and checked in on Susie every hour and replaced dressings and cleaned up any bleeding. I managed to remember some EMT training from college. I took those classes as electives for my degree so many years ago. Years ago, Susie joked it was part of our wedding planning.

I watched the electrical college count between checking on Susie and was very happy to see it completed. I am heartbroken to hear that one of the injured Capital Police passed away. When I lived in the Washington DC area, I loved to visit the Capitol Building. We even did the Capitol Fourth live on the grass there with my parents years ago. I know the US Capitol Building very well, and I am very angry with the hoodlums that smashed their way into and trashed our Capitol Building. I truly love the smiling Capitol Police, who seemed to enjoy their job of watching confused and overwhelmed tourists. The rotunda is awesome. I am not looking for revenge, well, not too much, but I expect the hoodlums to soon understand our criminal justice systems from the inside. Our justice system can be a bit brutal, and taking selfies while committing a serious crime would be recommended by no defense lawyer.

Returning to today’s story, lunch was delivered by GrubHub from Red Robin. I put on Disney+ and watching Finding Nemo while eating fish and chips (Hmmmm). Susie had a Banzai Burger with no veggies as usual. I forgot how much I liked that movie.

After waking from another nap, I did the dishes, laundry and got the trash and recycling out (only to remember that it is lawn debris week). I have redone the paperwork to extend my time off to include Friday as it has been a nap-only two days.

Susie was hungry; I made scrambled eggs and bacon. Added in a little Christmas ham from the freezer.

I then put in my order online for delivery for groceries from Safeway. I have resisted ordering for a while as we had sooooo much in the pantry and freezer. It will show this coming afternoon.

Trying to be safe. The covid-19 vaccine is expected this Spring here in Aloha, Oregon–I asked at RiteAid.

I am hoping for the later ones. It is made, from what I read, from genetically engineered monkey flu. Yup, that just seems a fitting end to the 2020 virus, Shock the Monkey!

4,143 people died in the USA from the virus just today. Yesterday was a slightly lower number.

I do feel like picking the Battle Hymn of the Republic after the disaster in Washington, DC, but instead, I picked Where He Leads seems best for the loss of life. I also picked another as I missed yesterday: It Is Well With My Soul. I actually can sing this last one.

Susie had surgery to remove some pre-cancerous and cancerous skin cells today. We slept in just a bit and then headed to Portland to make the 10:30 appointment. We know the routine, and I sat in the car while Susie had the procedures. They called me when she was done.

We then stopped by McDonald’s to get Susie’s fav of a Chicken McNugget in Portland. I had two cheeseburger meal. We then headed home.

Susie then rested. Blood leaked from the wounds. We did not know that the doctors did not dress the wounds. Blood everywhere. Not what we expected. I had to dress the wounds and clean up the blood.

That done, Susie rested, and I checked in every hour. I did not notice that the ankle was bleeding too. Soon a pool would look good in a horror movie. I then dressed that wound too and cleaned, the floor, carpet, bedding, and clothing.

I made Susie a late dinner of chicken soup. I am doing laundry and ready to replace bandages.

It is a tough day. I will stop here as I have to recheck bandages.

Michael R Wild

It is day 298 of lockdown here in Oregon in Washington County by my count. Here was the first incident in Oregon for Covid-19 last year. We have been in lockdown for less time than the virus has been here as it took time to decide to lockdown. We also unlocked for a while and then had to lockdown again.

Today, we can only eat outside in the cold in the rain with masks at a restaurant–we are in extreme danger, that is our rating for Washington County from the Governor’s office. I have eaten in the rain just a few times to get free of the house. It is frigid and wet.

I worked from home longer than 298 days as I had a bad cough back in January 2020 and started working from home about a week before Nike closed up.

So this day 298, I was exhausted. Susie had issues getting to sleep yesterday and the day before. This happens some nights. I had little sleep for the last three days. I managed to start at 6ish and managed email and meetings. I think I drank half the coffee pot by 9ish. It is bad when you can’t feel the coffee.

I know what to do when I am too tired to think; I stopped.

I went to the bedroom and went to sleep, yes, even with coffee burning in me. When coffee wakes you up enough to sleep, you know you have gone too far! I stole sleep from 10ish to 12ish. Not a lot, but I was no longer faltering.

Masked in the car–so I do not forget to not touch my face. I drove to Popeye’s for a chicken sandwich, spicy. I picked up paper towels from RiteAid. I brought Susie back a box of chocolates in the shape of a heart. Her physical therapy appointment was canceled. Clare was ill (not with Covid). Susie was ready for the appointment on time today without my nagging–an improvement too. Susie loved the chocolates!

Back to work and email and Zoom meetings. I managed to open a problem ticket for the vendor, SAP, that supplies the software I work with. I collected all the information and built a “high” issue as requested. This is about the last thing I managed for work today.

I then went to rest some more. I had to take some Benadryl as I was coughing too much (allergies). This put me out for a while.

Mariah texted me–the phone vibrating waking me, and I met her for a beer outside on the partially covered patio in the cold at Golden Valley Brewery not far from here. I had a salad and one beer. I got a pretzel to go for Susie. Susie, smarter than her husband, does not sit outside for a beer and food in Oregon’s winter. I overheard the waiter explain that the wind had earlier blown the rain side-ways and soaked everyone under the small roof on the patio.

I made Susie scrambled eggs with cheese for dinner, her fav. The pretzel is a snack. Cooking scrambled eggs is quick and easy to do, even when you are tired. I made more coffee and drank two more cups.

3,499 people in the USA died from Covid-19 today. The surge of deaths may reflect the holiday travel for Christmas and New Years’.

I went with Where He Leads Me today. It is a hymn I can sing, and the words are easy to remember.

Monday, as usual, got here too soon. An hour or two of more sleep would have been nice. I was online last night, setting up the days off for Susie’s next Mohs surgery. We are ready for Wednesday’s surgery.

I managed to start at 6:15ish. My 7AM meetings had been canceled, so I slept in 15 minutes. As it was a holiday weekend, there was not much email and meetings to handle this morning.

Susie had a 10ish appointment with Zerida today for hair, nails, toes, and so on. Her driver picked her up. She was ready and gone on time today.

I had a few crises of the moment at work, but I could get most items done. One did lag, and I sent a reply this evening, late.

Lunch was from Gyro House, lamb gyro. Susie picked up a Chicken McNugget Happy Meal on her way home from Zerida’s.

My new Kickstarter game arrived today: A War of Whispers. The game is a special edition and includes updates (the Dark Agents expansion) to the original version; I have waited a year to get my copy. It is only an hour-long playing and two to four player game. In this game, five empires are fighting for control in a Games of Thrones like setting–the map is a close match to Games of Thrones. Instead of directly controlling these empires like a standard board game (there is already a Game of Thrones board game that provides this), this game has you represent a secret faction trying to support some of the empires and try to stop others. You can even change alliances, but this does give away your plans to an extend.

At the start of a game of A War of Whispers, the players’ alignment with the five empires is random and secret. You then try to select actions to support or undermine the empires while trying to not give away everything you are trying to pull off. There are only four rounds of actions, and then each player is only measured on how well, or not, that their selected empires did at the end. A game built on your decisions that include trying to hide your plans while trying to thwart the other players; I am looking forward to trying this one out.

I also received a copy of the Decision Games’ Folio Game: River Plate & Denmark Strait. I have been searching for a rules-light battleship game that can be used with miniatures. I want to cover WW1 and just a bit of WW2. I have 2400 1/2 inch Bismark and Hood that I want to use someday. I just have not found a rules system that is simple enough and expandable. I think these might work. The scale is wrong (1/2 inch a nautical mile, instead of 1 inch a nautical mile), but that is easy to fix with a ruler and a turning wheel. I am excited to finally find eight pages of rules that are easy to use. More to come.

I finished today the book The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. It is a great book, and the ending, I was worried it would end strange, was well put together and made me cry, perfect. I recommend it to my SciFi reading friends, and it hints at horror, so it fits there too. V.E. Schwab, the author, has written some series that I did not like as much, but I could not put them down.  This book is the best book I have read in a while. Please enjoy!

I am running around a lot tonight getting dinner for folks. It is a bit chaotic here.

We played Roll20 Dungeons and Dragons for about two hours today; I ran the adventure as the Dungeon Master. Our adventurers managed to cut their way through the evil elves (Drow to you who know D&D) to the Mad Mage’s Dungeon’s next level. They at once point chased down an evil Drow priestess and thought they had brought her to a quick end. Her pleas to her goddess, the Spider-Queen, were heard; she made them in the Spider-Queen own temple. Shadows in the temple came to life, as did the dead priestess’s own shadow, and fought the adventures as revenge. Luckily the brave adventures were not taken by surprise, and the adventures survived the backlash. We will continue the adventure next Monday. The adventurers offered the next Drow a chance to let them pass and received a “pass” to enter the evil elves’ areas without attack. Or so they were told, we will see what happens next week!

I had KFC delivered for dinner. The gravy is even worse–how? The chicken was fresh, a bit salty, but tasty.

1,987 people in the USA died from the virus today.

I turned right to Go Down, Moses and I opened the Methodist Hymnal, #448.

Working backward today, I am just starting my taxes today and collecting my stock trades and interest statements. I logged onto TurboTax earlier today and started my taxes and stopped and saved at the personal information was set. As I told Dondrea today, the federal and states are addicted to my money like a drug. I have to work hard to not have them harvest too much. Even as a tax-loving democrat liberal, I only like to supply what I should. I do not give the government extra; it is just not good for the government to get extra of my money. I have had to be very careful after the Trump tax cut as the so-called cuts increased my taxes by 20% percent. Trump paid for the tax cuts by forcing the standard deduction on upper-middle-class and just above. I now have to be careful that all the paperwork is perfect and still not get any credit for giving, taxes paid, or interests paid. It is a lot of work to pay 20% more.

Susie went to bed early today. I replaced her bandage on her back. It is still healing and looks better. It still bothers her a bit.

I ordered out for Chinese style food from our local Stir Crazy Kitchen delivered. I did not want to cook tonight. The food is just OK; I have much better in Portland with my friend Will when he picks the place. I miss my gamer friends and having dinner or lunch with them once and a while in Portland.

Returning to dinner, I ordered Moo Shu Pork as I wanted to put together the little rolls with plum sauce. I had not done that in so long. Something different for this order.

I turned on Mulan on Disney+, the new version. The food was not planned to go with the show–at least not intentionally. Susie was shocked to see me on the floor after putting the show on pauce after making a second Moo Shu pancake. I had set my plate on the chair arm, and unlike Mulan on the TV, I was clumsy. I hit the plate with my arm when I sat down and spun the plate in the air, and it landed on the floor, now empty. Susie was watching Mulan and did not see my total fail. Susie watched me pick all the food out of the carpet, yes carpet, and then vacuum all that remains. I then made a new plate, started the show, and tried not to think about it.

Mulan was a different story in details from the animated one. It had evil women witch that did not work for me. The rest of the story and action did work. I would say it was average.

Before I ordered dinner, I had to pick up the prescriptions and some supplies for Susie. RiteAid was surrounded by police SUVs, not the usual escort for me. There also were two police cars by the trash for Safeway. It appears some local drama was in progress. I went in anyway. There were no flashing lights, which usually means it is safe. I asked the store clerk if it was OK to come in. She was emphatic that it was safe, now. I did not raise an eyebrow but smiled and went in. I picked up the stuff and, seeing lots of police, thanked them. I was balancing my good, and the cops offered to help. They also liked my hat. I demurred.

I learned that there was some small theft, a local drama.

Before all of this, I made soup from a can with some homemade bread for lunch. I had some canned peaches to go with it. Susie had toast from the same homemade bread with jam, a banana, and the rest of the canned peaches for breakfast-lunch.

I started a bit late, 930ish; Susie was up three times last night. I had about four hours of sleep.

I edited some Howard stories on and off all day. I have moved to the first long stories I wrote.

1,387 people died today from the virus in the USA. The infection chart shows an increasing infection rate again.

I went with Morning has Broken today as it is a fav of ours. It was even a song at our wedding. I found a good new version.