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I started on Friday, wondering why there was music playing so early. Susie was up about 3:20ish, I went back to sleep once she was back in bed, and I thought it was only moments ago, and then I thought it can’t still be a workday. As you can guess, it was my alarm at 6ish to start Friday, it was the last working Friday of 2020, and I had a 7AM status meeting. I sat for a full minute on the edge of the bed wondering how this had happened.

Once I started, I got all the laptops running, read some emails, and tried not to be completely lost. I was on paid-time-off two days this week, and it is always hard to follow what is happening when there are hundreds and hundreds of emails to read. I managed to take my meds, get the coffee started, and then into the shower to be ready for 7.

I managed to be on time for the 7, completely dressed with a coffee, banana, and a bagel with cream cheese. Susie had Clare for physical Therapy at 10AM. I was balancing status meetings and reading and relying on various emails. I also got Susie going with coffee and the last of the cornbread muffins I made a few days ago.

Knowledge transfer sessions were my finish for the morning. Helping production support be ready for our new systems. Clare came, I closed the Nike laptop, and we switched to masks and working on Susie’s physical therapy instead of Nike stuff. Clare gave Susie new exercises to strengthen her abdomen muscles. This may help Susie stand straighter and also improve her balance. Susie was less tired this morning.

I had one more meeting before the next medical adventure, which ended my working part of Friday, eye check for Susie. Susie had some bleeding a few months ago into an eye. The problem resolved itself, but Susie is now checked by the optometrist every six-months.

We traveled to St. Vincent Hospital doctor wing. I was happy to see the vaccination clinic running there. The Covid-19 vaccine is here and being used!

But that does not mean I can be in the waiting room. I sat in the hall while Susie had her appointment.

When we were done, no change and that is good news, we drove back. I stopped by McDonald’s and got Susie her fav, McNuggets, and for me two cheeseburgers. I ate mine in the parking lot. I then drove, Susie was still eating her’s, to get gas for Air Volvo. We also bought a car wash. Air Volvo had been the target of crows for days. It was disgusting—all clean-up now (Crows will likely enjoy the refreshed target).

As it was still a bit early, we watched the animated movie Frozen on Disney+ for the first time. Yes, we are likely the last Disney fans to see Frozen. We really liked it. We will be catching up with the other Frozen films during the holidays.

Returning to projects, I put away the paints, brushes, and other tools for figure painting. I plan to move on to other projects for the rest of the year. I have some writing to finished editing, and I want to play some chess. I put my chess computer back on my table. Time to play again.

Also, I received an email from the manufacture of my chess computer that they have an update. I loaded the update software into the chess computer using a Windows computer (it does not work on the Big Sur version of Mac OS). After the update, after learning the new interface (!?), I then played a game using the new “Normal” setting. I managed to crush the opening and then, using hints here and there, managed to get the computer to resign. This is a new feature and a welcome one–the computer should give up instead of making you play a hopeless game. I have many new expert modes and setting to try. I suspect I will be the one resigning soon!

I plan on writing and coding some chess code soon.

Today 2,794 deaths were reported for Covid-19 in the USA.

I found this version a week ago and it seems to fit tonight: O come, O come, Emmanuel.

Just a short blog today. I have dishes and laundry to do yet.

I finished the night watching the NFL game. The Chargers beat the Raiders in overtime. The Raiders kept getting flags for interfering with the receiver. Both quarterbacks were from Oregon.

Before this, Mariah came over, we wear masks, and we had Wild Buffalo Wings delivered. So we were munching on wings and veggies watching football. I also opened a bottle from Purple Cow Vinyard to go with it.

Mariah is working on publishing a zine and comics. I gave her the vintage comic books I found in Portland this week. The comics cover fifty years and both DC and Marvel heroes. Mariah can use them for inspiration.

Running backward in time, Susie was not feeling well. She is tired and uncomfortable. I had to take off the pressure bandages today and also help her get a shower. It was a crazy morning, and the afternoon was messy too. Susie went to bed early.

Work was busy as I try to find my way again. Nothing really to share. It is hard to stay focused on the shoe company when your wife is ill and having some troubles. I tried to make it work.

I ordered a Banzai Burger from Red Robin for Susie and fish and chips for me. Susie managed to eat half of her burger. She finished it later during the game. She likes it cold.

An aside, I received replacement cards in the mail for my copy of Twilight Imperium 4; the rules for the game were changed and you need to replace some of the cards referred to now as Omega Technology–the game maker does not supply replacements. You print out a copy. I found an article on the Board Game Geek website on how to design and order high-quality new cards that resembled the originals in color and size to incorporate nicely in your own copy of the game. My sample came today and they look great. I ordered the full set with a few spare copies for friends. It is really interesting and fun to create your own cards!

I do not have much more as most of the day was laundry and cleaning, and caregiving. I managed to attend some meetings at Nike and help a bit.

The count of deaths today in the USA is 3,277 from the virus.

Today I went with Great is Thy Faithfulness as I found this great recording.

Susie had Mohs surgery yesterday, so today was a recovery day. Last night I was up with her until 1ish to help with her pain. Susie, as you can imagine, slept poorly.

I slept in until Susie was up a bit, and then she went to bed again. I started about 9ish. I was tired too. I went slow and watched the next episode of The Expanse. I am now caught up on this mix of SciFi and Horror that provides excellent storytelling and never holds back. The show will kill-off anyone and has. Unlike some of the older SciFi where you know that the character will return, you are unsure on this show. Again, I recommend it.

Today, I finished painting the dwarf faction of the board game Heroes of Land, Earth, and Sea. I did the oil painting this morning to just shade and made a few corrections on one figure. I have to let the oil paints dry all day. I put the final coat of Mr. Super Clean UV Protection Flat spray paint to lock in the oil paints (oil paint can rub off) this evening. I use a dark, Spaceship Filth named oil paint to fill in the dark cuts into the figure to bring back the 3-D look.

I try to keep the figure bright with just the shadows now filled in. Hair gets a bit darker, whites turn gray if you are not careful, but reds and light creams get brighter by the contrast, and browns become more complex.

I then put all the figures back in the original tray. I will try to find time to play the solo version of the game this weekend; I can get some pictures of the figures painted on the colorful boards.

Susie got going about noon. She is still exhausted. I got her coffee, water, and breakfast. I had a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. Clare, the physical therapist, was at 2:30ish and ran Susie through some exercises. Susie was having trouble standing straight and moving as well as before. Clare saw how tired both of us are. It was still good to run through everything. Clare will be back on Friday morning for our second day this week.

Susie then watched “Scrooge” on DVD and sang along a bit. Actually, we all sang along a bit as we all know the words, even Corwin. I made dinner a bit early tonight as Susie had a lightish lunch. Spaghetti (angel hair) and meatballs. The meatballs from the meat counter at Safeway. The sauce was from a can from the restaurant supply store, and I believe I have tasted it often at many local pizza places (“Would you like some marinara sauce with that?”). It is quite good, and it is effortless to prepare (open can, heat).

Then “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” was next. The classic one with Boris Karloff as narrator. These shows make Susie feel more like Christmas and put a smile on her face. I like them too.

Returning to my painting, I always am happy to finish one of my projects. Having the painting done allows me to move to other projects. But, those are for another day. I return to working from home tomorrow for my manic Thursdays.

Today is the highest reported death rate for Covid-19 for the USA: 3,486. This excludes the 48 people who are reported to have died in Oregon from the virus.

I picked a fav that I have sung in Israel. Every day that I was on tour back in 1994, we sang this song to get going for our next day of seeing sights and sites on the bus: This Is The Day.

Today was the morning that Susie had Mohs surgery for cancerous and precancerous skin issues on her head. We left for Portland about nine-ish, I got up about 7ish, and arrived a bit early. We cruised around Portland for a few minutes and then parked and checked into the clinic. Everything is different from the last time I was there. There is no wait in the waiting area and no coffee. The patients are put in their separate rooms for the procedure and stay there until done. In the past, the patients were sent out to the waiting room and wait to see if the procedure was enough or if they need more surgery. Susie was there for two hours and had only one surgery for each spot.

Susie headed in for Mohs Surgery.

I waited in the Air Volvo in the parking lot. I was reading, try not to fall asleep, a book on how gunnery for battleships was developed before World War I and how well it worked. I made a few calls and tried to take a nap.

I then went to the comic store across the street. Funny, it is Portland, and all the cars stopped for me to let me cross the road. I was almost embarrassed to stop traffic, but it is Portland and being overly polite while driving is a thing here.

ACME, the store’s name and the name of the supplier of various items for Bugs Bunny and other cartoon folks, is a hole-in-the-wall shop, with just one hallway of items. Only older comics, vintage, are offered with other various related items, most in their original wrappers, of course. Vintage would also describe the store and the layout. It smelled of old paper and maybe glue.

The owner, wearing a mask, was happy to have a new customer. Everything was 50% off. Someone very skilled in plastic models had decorated the store with finely made U-boats, warplanes, Star Trek, and armor suits. The owner explained that a comic artist also made models, and these are his models. I believe he had a model of the ship from The Perfect Storm that got my attention–I want one of those to build. Instead of focusing on the models, I asked him to select a few comic books that represent the art for a friend for Christmas. He picked out some Avengers from 1964 and 2011 and Gotham City Sirens from 2009 as good representations. Unlike most stores I have been in (including Powell’s), he only takes cash. I was surprised and paid him; I let him keep the change, 50% off is nice, but it was a bit much in a pandemic. It was a pleasant distraction.

The doctor’s office called soon after that Susie was done. I pushed her on her walker as she was exhausted and in a bit of pain. She was able to get into Air Volvo. We stopped by McDonald’s, and Susie had her fav, Chicken McNugget Happy Meal, and I had a two-cheese burger meal. My dad used to order that when I visited in Michigan, “Hey, want to get a cheeseburger,” he would say. I think I had three or more trips in a week when I visited. I always think of him when I order one.

Susie went to bed to rest. I had to stop at Powell’s and pick-up the Christmas gifts. So I left for a short time. I picked up my order. There I also found an older copy of Aristophanes in English and Greek, including my fav play, “The Frogs.” I have always wanted one with the Greek, just $11, and now I can see the Greek words being translated. My Greek is mostly basic New Testament Greek for teaching Sunday School, but I always wanted to see how Aristophanes put together his lines.

Susie had an ice-pack on when I returned. This helped with the stinging pain.

I let her rest and watched The Expanse new season. This is one of the best series that is both SciFi and horror. I recommend it. It was picked up by Amazon Prime; they have done the last two seasons, and the show is just excellent.

Dinner was ribeye steaks grilled on the gas grill with just salt and pepper sprinkled with coffee. I found an old package of stuffing and a can of cranberry jelly and so went with last year’s Thanksgiving food. I usually buy two over everything, and the stuffing was just expired (it is stale bread anyway). So steak, stuffing, and cranberry jelly. It worked! Susie managed 1/2 a steak. She got going got dinner and watched some of The Expanse with me.

Oregon suffered its highest death count today from the infection: 53. The USA had 2,976 deaths today from Covid-19. The vaccine was delivered today to Oregon.

I picked, after some searching, The Storm is Passing Over, for today’s story. This is from Detroit in 2009, but it could be today.

 

Today started as usual for Mondays at 6ish, with me wondering how it could already be six! Another rushed morning as I had a 7AM meeting. I managed to read emails and find my way and be ready for the first Zoom meeting, all cleaned-up and shinny.

I remember it was Monday and got Susie going in time to have coffee and a corn muffin before her taxi picked her up at 9ish to see Zeriada for hair, nails, toes, and so on. This is an every Monday morning item.

I had a break in the morning, but I was cold this morning and could not get warm. I put on a sweater and shoes and decided not to walk today. I could use the exercise, but I was just cold.

I had a few crises of the moment and then ordered lunch. I debated about making lunch with myself, it is much cheaper or having some leftovers. I decided to order for Thai to be delivered. My last massaman curry (beef) from Ma-Now Thai Cuisine was fabulous, so I ordered another today. I felt much better after that.

I had a few more meetings and words of encouragement for some issues found in the cutover for Nike’s new system we are installing. It was a very light day on content and heavy on procedures.

The physical therapy folks called. Clare is now scheduled for later in the week: Two days. Susie has Mohs surgery to remove some cancerous and precancerous skin. This is done out-patient. We have done it before. Clare agreed to work around that.

I have some great steaks to cook, but Corwin left, and Susie was tired, so I put them off for a day. I made chicken Cordon Blu from frozen with some “fire-roasted” veggies that I bake from frozen for a side dish. I also had a can of pears to go with it. The “fire-roasted” include potatoes, so it was more starch than a veggie. Susie had her dinner after she was up after 8ish.

We played online Dungeons and Dragons today with five players on the Roll20 website, one player in Minnesota. We continued our adventure that I run, as DM, in the Mad Mage’s Dungeon–this is material you can purchase and run using their software. We are down on the tenth level of this massive complex. We had finished last Monday late with a tough fight. The adventurers, played by our players, need a break and rest.

We agreed to advance the players to the next level of power, the 11th level, at the finish of the last game. But, the evil elves, Drow, are fighting back–this is my plan to make the game interesting. I wanted to give the players a scare; I set up a powerful assault on the players’ characters before they could rest. To do this before the game started, I went to the map in Roll20, copied the bad guys’ tokens, and organized a military-like line-up. When the game restarted today, the players had only a few minutes to rest. I then moved in the attack. Some of the bad guys were also invisible and could cast lightning bolts.

I managed to scare but not crush the players. They managed to stop the attack, kill most of the attackers, and drive off the remaining Drow mages that were blasting them with lightning bolts! The players then had their characters hid and rest for a day of game time to fully recover and get their new spells ready (they get new 6th level spells, game-changing powerful spells).

I had a few problems with the interface, but I managed to keep the game going. My Apple computer is only dual-core and can be slowed down by Internet applications. The other remote players had no serious issues and no disconnects. A replacement Apple is about the price of a short trip to Amsterdam for two!

Returning to the game, having learned some harsh lessons about poison and Drow, the players used magic to be immune to poison and to get extra hit points! They found the main spider goddess temple with the Drow priestess, her consort, her demonic allies, and some ridiculously weak giant spiders and troops. They took one look at it and charged in. They wanted some payback!

This time the attack went better, and their wizard actually disintegrated the consort with one of those new spells. More than 1/2 of the damage was ignored from the Drow and their allies: Poison. The fight was over quickly, with the Drow slain (or disintegrated) and the demonic allies of the Drow running back to their sulfurous planes of existence.

We stopped there as we had reached our end time, two hours. We continue next Monday. Everyone I think had a good time.

After that, I made Susie dinner and put on the move that is a remake of The Saint. It is a fav.

Today it was reported that more than one-thousand six-hundred twenty people died from the virus. It is one of the worst Monday this year.

The vaccine is being distributed today in the USA. Some of the first shots were given in NYC.

I have done this before, but it fits: Morning Has Broken. This is Methodist Hymnal #145.