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We left the house in Air Volvo at 7:45ish for Lincoln City on the Oregon Coast. Corwin had an appointment in the parking garage for the Chinook Winds Casino. Siletz Tribe put on a Moderna party at the Casino. There are now many places to get the vaccine, but when Corwin signed up, there were few, and so we ended headed to a nice weekend at the coast.

We got to the coast about 9:30ish, follow a familiar route I have not used since Michael Geissner got married. I had not realized it had been that many years.

We had breakfast at McDonald’s with Susie enjoying an apple fritter, a fav, while Corwin and I had a more normal McDonald’s standard breakfast fare.

We then drove the Casino, and the still organizing people managed to get us through the process. Corwin had his first shot, and we will return on 11June2021 at the Casino for his second.

We parked at The End park and beach, and Corwin and I walked the wonderful low tide beach. I found a few shells. Susie stayed warm in the car; it was windy and cold (56F).

Stopped next to the Hotel, and the rooms were not ready. We headed to Pigs in a Blanket and had more lunch. The food was nice, and service was welcomed.

We then drove around a bit as we had time to kill. We made it to some antique place and the Candy Store. I picked up a bottle of homemade veggies in a bottle that was very pretty. Corwin found antique-ish chess set for a friend’s birthday. Popcorn, fudge, and taffy were also acquired.

After that, we got our rooms and waited for Mariah to show. Just a short rest. When Mariah arrived, we opened a bottle of wine and had a few Pringles with the wine. We then headed to the Casino. I was tired from the drive and so kept to one glass of wine and only Diet drinks at the Casino.

We had a few drinks and then the hotel called. Mariah’s dog was barking. Mariah and I headed back and then moved Ramon to our room. We suspect there is another dog in another room barking. We let the hotel know we had checked everything out and moved the dog. They were delighted that we took the problem seriously and that we had moved the dog. We had no more calls.

We found Susie and Corwin, and I was disappointed that we were not wealthy. Apparently, this casino is excellent at removing your wealth. We looked for dinner.

After many false steps, including a really nice looking fish and chips joint that told us they cannot promise that they did not fry the chicken wings in the same oil as the fish–we were pleased they told us that, we ended up at Autobahn 101.

This a German place, and I did order 1/2 liter of German Beer and Jagerschnitzel. Susie had a sausage, and Mariah and Corwin had a nice dinner too. Corwin had a liter.

Susie bought a glass and Cowin got a t-shirt.

I am now fatigued, but it was not a had Friday.

Another 733 people died today from Covid-19 in the USA.

Susie is sleeping so I will pass on the music tonight.

As often happens on a day before taking time off, the day has just blown by. I have not packed or written my blog, and it is 10PM already. So much some of my plans. I will just make due.

I started the morning about 7ish after getting up at 6ish and finding I had no meetings until 8AM. I read emails and found my way in the morning. All the work was running on the tracks, unusual, and planning was starting on the next round of system building and testing for the big project. A strange time of chaos and restarting.

I often listened today and tried to give some direction; much fell on deaf ears, but I suspect when I am out on Friday, all the words will suddenly trip questions, and I suspect I will be on calls on my day off. But just maybe those can wait until Monday. I noticed my Friday meetings were light. I am not missing much for being on leave for Friday.

Lunch was booked over, I made a cold ham and cheese sandwich, and many meetings were double and sometimes tripled booked. I picked the meetings I think I could provide the most input. I avoid leadership meetings open discussion meetings–I will leave that with no comment.

The afternoon was much of the same. I did have a couple exploration meetings where a team is trying to understand how Nike translates prices and costs into US dollars. This quest continues as we are now moving to the next group of people who can cover these processes for the shoe company purchasing. Maybe not some most folks would find interesting, but how money works in a multi-national company is an excellent thing to know. For those who need a reminder: Other People’s Money.

I took a break and then was back online at work a few times more. I suspect most folks at work are already in weekend mode.

I have almost finished Maisie Dobbs book 16. It has the right mix of darkness and storytelling that I love from these books. Recommended. I will finish the book today. Yes, I read it, pushing through as I love these stories in just a few days.

Dinner was Schwann’s Chicken Cordon Blu (frozen); I made pasta and then fried it with butter and a bit of bacon to go with it. I also peeled some aging carrots from the frig and steamed them almost to mushiness (I started them too soon).

I served Susie as I was starting on the Zoom church meeting, Theology Pub. A meeting, previously held in a pub, about church topics and often theology. We were talking about leadership and how to be servant leaders. We often dwelled on our leaders, national and church, failure to lead and to inspire.

We did think that leaders create the fruits often of people doing things and discovering things about themselves that they were not prepared to do. And they liked it.

Our final thought was that we, the First United Methodist Church leaders, may want to lead by inviting other group leaders to share with us their experience. We can learn from them. That might help us manage up to our Methodist leadership.

I have yet to pack, clean up the kitchen and put a few extras in the Air Volvo we might need. We will be spending the night on the coast on Friday.

My Pink Moss rose is now opening up, and the scent is strong. It is planted just outside of my bedroom window. This is an old-style rose.

762 people died in the USA today from Covid-19, including fourteen from Oregon.

I went with That Old Time Religion thinking it sort of fit today.

 

Dinner tonight was at BJ’s Brewhouse. Mariah had texted me and wanted to have a drink this sunny May in Oregon. It is never nice in May in Oregon, except the last few years. I had a red ale and spaghetti and meatballs. Susie had her favorite baked potato skins with cheese and bacon (no green onions!) with her favorite drink, a Southern Comfort Manhattan on the rocks with two cherries. Mariah had an Old Fashioned with a huge pork chop. It was a dinner I have not had for more than a year, and for a moment, the world seemed to be better.

Before dinner, I had meetings on and off all day. Zooming for Nike. I also had a few crises for the moment and a few alignment meetings. It was a busy afternoon.

I did take a few breaks to read and relax. I am still fatigued and slept poorly again. Last night I managed to enjoy leg cramps that were quite terrible, and Susie was scared as I called out and howled from the pain. I was left shaken and exhausted at 1ish when the cramps finally stopped after I walked them out. Not a very fun process.

While resting, I started the 16th book from the Maisie Dobbs series, the newest one, The Consequences of Fear. I forgot how much I love these books and each read feels like a warm, familiar blanket when reading. I recommend them, start with number 1, Maisie Dobbs.

I made a sandwich for lunch from deli meats I got last grocery shopping.

The morning was Zooming and trying to find my way—most of it alignment and status. I researched one issue and put in a vendor fix (OSS note for those who speak SAP) to fix a performance issue.

My roses are flowering more. I had little time today to look at them today.

 

I will try to get some rest. I took Friday off. Taking Corwin to his appointment for his first vaccine shot. I had to turn down another game with Richard as I am out of town on Friday.

Got an email from Matt Vincent that we are going to start back to playing Dungeons and Dragons again soon. The rule is that you must be vaccinated to play.

841 people died today from the infection in the USA.

I found this version of the Lord’s Prayer today. I hope you like it and it will bring peace to those we lost.

 

I am fatigued tonight, so this will likely be a short update.

I started the morning at about 6:30ish as I had a 7:30 meeting. I rushed a bit this morning. We had a meeting with the Chief Digital Information Officer on Zoom for the main project I am working on. Ratnakar Lavu talked about how the pandemic is affecting him; his parents have Covid-19, and that he can not travel to help them. Ratnakar found a hotel that offers medical assistance for them. He set up a Slack channel to share ideas on how to help people in India and anywhere. It was hard to hear how hard things are in India.

Work was hours and hours of Zoom meetings. Today we had the workshop that means multiple two-plus hours stints on one subject. It is funny, but before the pandemic and lockdown, we would often have maybe three people in a conference room all watching Zoom together. We have at Nike, in many conference rooms, a video system that would zoom in on the person talking so those on the phone call could see who was talking. It’s funny how things have changed; now you know who is speaking because you see it flagged on Zoom. It works a bit better.

Nike also had a new policy back before 2020 that people should use video conferences instead of driving to meetings. Before the push to use video conferences, many of us would spend 1/4 or more of our time commuting to meetings in different buildings. We, before the pandemic, were already in endless video conferences. We have “hotel” rooms in the office that are just largest for one or two people,closet-sized, with a hard-wired phone and a nice monitor. These allowed you to do those hours of calls without some poor people having to listen to you. Headphones were also distributed by the shoe company, so you could not hear the person next to you, if unlucky to be at a desk, that was doing a call. You would listen to your tunes when not on a call. I am not sure I really want to go back to the office. We have only lockers and open seating to return to.

The pollen is terrible today. It is a wonderful sunny warm 80F+ day in May in Oregon. The coughing and the caregiving, and the long meeting are wearing on me.

I had the workshops run into lunch; I made a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. I made Susie breakfast when she got going this late morning.

I had a few crises of the moment, but mostly I listened and tried to clarify a few items in the workshop.

I finished a wonderful book today once the meetings stopped. I managed to not nod off this time. I would recommend The Children of Time. The book by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a hopeful dystopian (if you can say that) novel of deep space travel, sci-fi. The earth is lost to us. The last humans are in an arc space ship searching for a home while a terraformed planet brings rise to different children of earth, spiders. A virus reprograms the spiders to be larger and smarter, and social, but they are spiders. I really liked the mix of SciFi and epic storytelling from two person’s points of view, a human from earth who studied old earth and a spider that keeps being reborn with many of the same memories. It is a dark retelling of some events in human history relived by spiders and a dystopian arc ship of humans trying to find a home. I loved it.

I went to McDonald’s for dinner as I was too tired to cook or paint figures. I brought it back. Susie had her fav of a McDonald’s Happy Meal. This one comes with a tiny pather toy that Susie loves. I had two cheeseburgers with fries and a chocolate shake—Dad’s fav. I was thinking of dad today, and so I got his fav for lunch. I like the cheap small burgers with cheese.

Susie and I watched 1/2 of The Addams Family episode, the old black and white version, while eating our bounty from McDonald’s for dinner. I think Susie thought it was silly, but it made me laugh as the jokes are often unexpected. I just love John Astin as Gomez. We then watched the very depressing 1/2 hour of BBC news.

My other roses are beginning to flower. I have a few pictures of them starting up.

 

That is all I was thinking about today.

743 people in the USA died of Covid-19 today.

I am tempted to list the Addam Family’s theme, but instead, I picked Lean on Me.

 

 

 

I received a bill for $990 for a magazine subscription con that Susie has been a victim of for years. I have asked Susie to not speak to the people again as they are con and cons are easy to fall for. Susie claims she only talked to them to cancel the subscription, but I sure the con persons have a recording of Susie agreeing to everything. I do not know if they tricked Susie or just edited the recording to say what they wanted. It does not matter as I once again have to try to fix this. The last two times, I ended up paying the bill.

I wrote the subscription people a letter saying that Susie believed she had canceled the subscriptions. I believe they will tell me, like the last two times, that my wife had agreed to a new subscription, and once the subscriptions exist, there is no way to cancel, and I must pay.

I took the bill, a copy of the letter I wrote to cancel, copies of our passport photo page, and a nice letter to the FBI and sent them to the Portland FBI in a large envelope. Susie has already received and forgotten requests from the FBI in the mail. They contacted her as a potential victim of the magazine subscription con. This time I will help her fill them out and send them in.

I started this rather sad day with an emergency call at 5:55 from the shoe company. In my robe, I was online at 6:00 with India. The vendor wanted me to reverse the 60 or so vendor patches as the code was not right. Somewhere in the last month, we had done one or more of the manual patches in the wrong order. Their solution was to spend the next two hours removing every patch (OSS notes to those who speak SAP). I reversed out everything they asked. It took until past 8AM.

In India, the vendor will try to re-apply all the changes and fix the software.

That left me drained. I was online with the same folks at 10PM the night before for the initial review. I was tired now.

I did get Susie ready in time for her driver to take her to Zeriada’s by 9ish. Today was nails, hair, and so on.

I was busy taking my shower when I would normally take my walk. It was a tough start for a week! Lunch was a spicy chicken sandwich and mashed potatoes from Popeye’s. Corwin joined me for lunch in Air Volvo. We park and eat in the car for a Covid-19 world.

I participated in a few more status meetings. I then was tired; I found my electronic reader, read for a bit, and nodded off.

I got going again and picked up some prescriptions and supplies from RiteAid. They are now giving vaccination for Covid-19. I was out just for a few minutes.

I got the mail, and that is when I received the bill from the magazine subscription people. I wrote the letters and drove to the post office to mail a large envelope of the information to the FBI. That is really all I can do for now.

I had one more unscheduled alignment discussion. We will try to get folks together to solve the issue on Tuesday.

I read a bit more, trying to get my frustration back under control. It is not really Susie’s fault; these are crooks. I just hate having another thing to deal with, and the FBI is not something I want to deal with being from the Pacific Northwest. It nodded off while reading again; exhaustion is setting in.

I made tacos for dinner—my fav. I remember when mom and dad Wild while would make them as a treat. I still think of them as a treat—something to make the day a bit brighter.

Sorry, it was a downer blog, but it is good, I think, to be honest.

We have a meeting about India’s situation with the Chief Digital Information Officer, our boss, Tuesday early. We have many co-workers and partners will with Covid-19 in India.

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

I went with Many Gift, One Spirit as it seemed to fit.