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I started today at 6ish and had to rush as I had a meeting with SAP leadership about some presentations. A group of us met on Zoom and we have a meeting with other SAP customers on Zoom coming up. This is the planning meeting for that. It was a nice change.

My morning was fighting the chaos and following along on endless Zoom status meetings. This is not usually this hard but I count only about 12 hours of sleep in four days so I am dragging. I had to run nonstop this morning.

I did manage to get breakfast of oatmeal and a banana with coffee. I slipped out at 11, my first break, to get Susie’s prescription. I could not get them yesterday as I worked from 7ish in the morning to midnight. Susie had breakfast lunch after her pills.

I had two breakfast sandwiches that I microwaved for lunch. These are from Jimmy Dean and are frozen. I microwave them once, let them spread out the heat, and then microwave them again.  I don’t mind them a bit crunchy from overcooking, but still cold is unedible.

The meetings went on and I was trying to put in some vendor patches I started yesterday when all of our systems at the shoe company went down. There was a storm in the cloud, as we say. The storm passed and systems in the cloud were available.

I had a few crises of the moment. A good friend asked me while I was still “piano catching,” how he describes all the crises I am handling, and could I not find easier things to do for Nike. That was a good question.

I was still juggling falling pianos into the evening. I am very tired and decided to stop tonight and start back up maybe with smaller pianos in the morning!

We are working into the weekend and so I had to back out of my first big board game event now that we are vaccinated. I am disappointed. I suspect I will have to play some solo board games like Pax Paramir and The Lost Ruins of Arnak this weekend.

870 people died in the USA today from the virus.

Our heart goes out for India.

I finally found something that worked for me tonight: Blest Be the Tie That Binds.

 

It is another evening with India at the shoe company. We are still working on data conversions on India time. So I am on a Zoom call with folks here and in India.

I also was happy to have leadership switch their minds and align with our working solution. So that was nice too. It was a bit unexpected.

Dinner was complex today. We were going to have sausages on the grill. These are pre-cooked from Olympia Provisions, a local company in Portland, and Corwin lost control of them and puff.

We ordered out for Mexican.

I had more status and alignment meetings this afternoon. I also took a break and finished my last Vatta’s War book. The last one in the series was hard to put down. I have not gone to the Vatta’s Peace series. I ordered another series, the Cold Fire series. I read these years ago. This is a grand fantasy story much like Space Opera. I read them years ago and never finished the series—time to try it out again.

Lunch was Mexican; had I known about the carbonization of dinner, I would have ordered something else. I had my usual sent by Grubhub from Don Chilitos Mexican Grill.

I spent the morning on multiple Zoom calls and sometimes being triple booked or worse.

I slept until 7:30ish as I was working with India last night until midnight.

379,469 people were infected today in India. Our hearts go out to India.

The USA and Oregon continue to vaccinate at a fast rate. It is likely we will reach 50% soon.

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

I tried to find Santos! Santos! Santos!. This is the best one I could find.

I am writing this while also on Zoom with India tonight. We are running data conversions for the local shoe company.

I have to admit I could have started earlier on the blog, but I am on the last Vatta’s War novel, and it is just so good. I spent the evening reading. I should have been painting figures or doing cool Python programming, or working on some electrical/robot stuff. Instead, I am enjoying the story, and I needed a bit of a distraction. I am feeling much better now.

Before this reading, Susie and I met Mariah at The Rock Wood Fired Pizza for beer and an early dinner. I had just a chopped salad and a red ale. Susie had mac and cheese with bacon. Mariah had a burger.

The staff knows us and even our usual choices. Mariah ordered a mixed drink instead of a beer and shocked them. Then Susie did not order pizza, and I ordered, as I said, a salad. I think they were surprised!

The outside was closed. I think the new lockdown rules have reduced the number of folks in the pizza place. We got the low table in the bar–perfect for Susie. Everyone was being safe.

Before we headed out, I spent the afternoon trying to keep my perspective as I disagree with management on how to write something. It was trying to be my penguin, “smile and wave,” self. It was frustrating.

Before this, I slipped out in Air Volvo to get lunch at the drive-thru Burger King and got Susie a plain cheeseburger and a whopper with cheese for me. I really love their burgers and the veggies on the burger. We got mozzarella sticks instead of fries.

The morning was the discussions that frustrated me and status meetings—hours and hours of Zooming for Nike. I was also reading some documents and, of course, emails.

I slept in this morning until about 7:30 as all the early meetings were canceled.

Another huge number of infections were reported today in India. Please pray for India!

16,907 people in Oregon received a vaccination yesterday. This number will likely increase as more counts are added over the next three days.

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

I liked this version of The Lord Bless You and Keep You. I have done it before, but I liked it.

Just a short story today as it is a busy workday.

I started at 6ish and started right in. Logged in and started to read emails and find my way.  I had to fix some issues in the vendor patches, OSS notes to those who speak SAP, and spend the morning listening to status meetings on Zoom while trying to fix issues in the code and data structures.

I forgot about the time, and it was past 9 when I remembered that Susie had Zerida and a spa day. Her driver arrived while she was getting dressed. We managed to get ready and be only ten minutes late—a new record for Susie. Not the kind of start for a week I would want, but we got it handled.

Returning to work, I managed to find the issues and resolve them in the patches and listen to more status. It was a pleasure to get my walk at 10ish and make the short walk. It hurt as I walk as fast as I can without running. My legs and back hurt by the time I was home. But no coughing. It is cold and wet–Oregon is back to normal spring! Use it or lose it!

I ordered lamb kabobs for lunch from Gyro House, delivered by GrubHub. I was not feeling right yesterday and wanted to get some protein into me. It was perfect, and I suddenly felt better.

Susie was back about 1ish and had her fav, McDonald Happy Meal with apples.

Status meetings went on for the afternoon, and an emergency meeting at 4ish ended the day for me. It being Monday, I rested for a bit after ordering KFC delivered. Kentucky Fried Chicken was all I could manage as we kept having fixes and emergency meetings.

I managed dinner, and then, it being Monday, I logged on to Roll20. My camera did not work! I switched to the old Opera browser, and everything worked actually worked a bit better than Google Chrome.

We played Roll20 from 6:30 to 9ish. We went over as we started a battle at 8:15, and it was a close one. I managed to scare the players good. Without giving away spoilers, the other major encounters were single dangerous creatures. Often a bad roll or the concerted actions of the players just overwhelm a powerful single bad-guy in Dungeons and Dragons 5E. When I build my own encounters, I try to have many creatures to counter the players’ four to six characters. Tonight four highly armored with huge hit point count scared the players good. The super wizard did not even make them blink, but four bad guys took a while to bring down!

They did meet a bad guy in her lair and with plenty of allies. They sweet-talked her, and she let them go on. She even gave them directions! But Bill did get critical success on persuading.

So a busy Monday.

319,415 people are reported infected with Covid-19 today in India. Pray for India!

Oregon is over 40% vaccinated and continuing to push forward.

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

I picked Be Thou My Vision for today.

My sleep was disturbed by something. I awoke with all the classic heart racing and fear. I could not recall a dream nor any reason for the sudden awakening. I fell back to sleep after a few moments and did not truly reawake until after 9ish. Way late for me.

Later I found a kindle and book I had under my pillow on the floor by the bed. I suspect the crash of them hitting the carpet was what woke me.

I started slowly as I felt a bit off. I read my email. I read the news. I went slow. I did not, and will regret this all day, have breakfast—just coffee.

I finally took my meds and dressed. I watched another episode of Game of Thrones, the first season. It is a very sexy show, and I slowly understand the different characters. So far, the storyline has been very predictable.

I met Evan here, and we drove to BJ’s for lunch at about 1ish. We were surprised to be put on a waiting list. We waited maybe five minutes, and soon Lacy, our waiter, was getting me a drink, and we waited for Mariah to join us. Susie stayed home as she had just got going. I got her breakfast and had some cold streak, a Susie fav, on a plate in the frig for her that she found later. I remember to move my big chair out of the way when I am away.

I had Sorba noodles and just felt more off. I think I did not take my meds at the same time on weekdays and without breakfast, and this messed me up. I will pay attention to Monday and see if the problem just goes away.

We chatted and Evan and Mariah have finally met.

Mariah headed out, and Evan and I went to Wildwood Tap, and only a small table was available outside. We managed to just fit the board game The Lost Ruins of Arnak on the table. We played a fast two-person game, freezing at the last part. It was just too cold to sit outside and play board games under a tent!

The Lost Ruins of Arnak is a deck-building and working placement game with strong resources management systems. I also find the Indiana Jones or Lara Croft elements a bit immersive. I hummed the Indiana Jones theme after I purchased the card “hat” that looked like something I wear. I sort of daydream about my actions while playing. “Of course, I need three compasses (representing means to get to the lost ruins sites),” I think as I move to investigate a new site.

I lost by four points. Evan managed to suddenly run up the research track. I bought a lot of cards. My last action was to tie up the guardians’ overcome count–we both did two. This was a mistake. I should have advanced the research track. Buying cards and doing the research are the most points. I did at least free myself of fear cards and most of my no-value cards. As I said, I was short one arrowhead and finished with too many resources still on my board. I had enough stuff to move up three rows or more if I had the arrowhead (which I burned to overcome a guardian!).

Evan has played two games to my three. He scored better than I did this game and played in the last round three turns after I passed. I had done that to him in the first rounds.

We both like the game, and the game mechanics are making sense. But, you have to be very careful with the deck-building as you can ruin your game by mistakingly shuffling all your cards together! We were careful to follow the procedure printed on the aid card. We had no mishaps.

We paid the bill, just one beer, and headed home. We stopped by Gyro House to get some dessert. I got Susie coffee to go with her’s and made Turkish coffee for Evan and me.

There is a Harry Potter marathon that Susie was watching and we watched for a bit and then switch over to the Oscars. So far, I have not won.

354,341 more people are reported to be infected today in India.

273 people are reported to have died from Covid-19 in the USA today.

I was really expecting a pop-sounding version of Lift High the Cross.