Blog

I made dinner tonight again on the stovetop. I defrosted some Schwann’s bone-in pork chops and then dusted them with flour, dipped them in egg, and then dipped them in panko breadcrumbs and fried them in 1/4 inch of oil. I made mac and cheese to go with it. Not too hot as I needed to cook the chops all the way thru. I had some nice artisan bread from the Safeway bakery to go with that. Beer as the drink. Susie loved it.

I discovered as I was contemplating making dinner that we were on our last roll of toilet paper. Totally shocking that I am no longer hoarding the paper product. So I popped off-line and went grocery shopping. Picked up a moderate supply of paper products and some other basics, including the really nice bread for dinner.

I resisted again going out much; it is hot out there. It is another crazy sunny day in June. Oregon usually has the wettest and unpleasant Junes I have ever lived through. Not true for the last few years.

The fires are not here yet. We usually get the smoke and fires in July and August. We are not looking forward to that. I have some N95 masks ready for that.

We are living by AC today. We have no fans, and if you don’t stand in the kitchen (where the frig resides pumping out heat as it cools inside), it is delightful. My decision to put in AC in 2018 looks now like a very perceptive move. The AC cleared the house of smoke back in 2020.

Work started at 7ish after I rolled back over. I was tired again. I managed to stay awake today. The status meetings and process meetings continued for hours.

I slipped out at 11:20ish and drove Air Volvo to Subway and there ordered a tuna fish sub. Susie is allergic to fish, and tuna fish is a no-no in the house. The gentleman who made me the sub was curious about my transportation. He has the older, larger XC90 model. We talked about how the new version of the XC90 seating is terrible (I had one as a loaner when Air Volvo had maintenance at the mothership). He is thinking of switching to the smaller XC60, which I drive. I told him about how the car turns off instead of idling and that the steering will correct when you are not in the lane. Yes, it steers you back to the lane. Also, the low-speed collision prevention system means that you really cannot rear-end anyone at low speeds. The car will brake for you. I think my sandwich maker will be looking for a used newish XC60–he loved all the extras.

The sandwich I ate in the car listening to our local PBS radio was wonderful. The sandwich has so many veggies that make it like a salad and a sandwich.

I brought Susie back a McDonald’s happy meal with apples. I also got her an apple pie. I might have had one too. Susie was sleeping again when I left and got back.

Susie, this morning had a problem. She felt terrible and said she was turned inside-out. That she was all covered in water. Susie was visibly upset. There was nothing wrong that I could detect. I told her to get up, and she did. I got her a scone, coffee, had her drink water, and to take her meds.

Susie seemed to snap out of the confusion with the food, two scones, and moving around. I have been watchful and only was out when Corwin was up. I made dinner of comfort foods. It seemed to work.

To less serious things…When irony goes too far, China announced a new policy of more friendly communication. China officials are ordering their people to be more humble and less confrontational. The BBC news show on PBS spent ten minutes (yes, that long) on some of the best (worst) moments for China and the new “be nice policy.”

Apparently, the “Wolf Warrior” propaganda film is the name given for the previous policy by the west: Wolf Warrior. An anti-west aggressive announcer was called a Wolf Warrior by the western diplomats and press. Corwin and I now have to find this movie. Popcorn! Beer! China super soldiers saving China by blowing up evil westerners. Excellent!

And Iran lost its largest naval vessel today to a fire, and it sank. A supply ship. We are sorry about the fire and pray for the sailors. But the USA sends multiple aircraft carriers and all their support ships to protect the gulf. Iran has a cargo ship. The irony is out of control today–yes, I know that Iran has some dangerous ships, but it was still their largest ship was a supply ship!

I thought it best to end before any more irony surfaces. Too late. A majority of the Knesset in Isreal came to a historical agreement today; anything is better than Netanyahu. Yes, the impossible has happened. Arab, conservative, and moderates politicians all agreed on one thing, Netanyahu has to go. They have done the impossible and joined forces to form a government of people who before would not likely even talk to each other are now in the same government. Irony should just stop.

But the Mad Magazine moments keep coming. President Biden gave a speech today in which free beer will be given out for taking the vaccine. The Anheuser-Busch company is buying a round of beer for the country for July 4th.

512 people in the USA lost their lives to the pandemic today.

I picked How Great is Our God for Israel and for those we have lost to the pandemic.

This the new blog of my daily thoughts and events. I am trying to keep this interesting. I suspect that the simple details have comforted people through the pandemic, so I will not completely dispense with them.

To that end…

The morning started with pollen. That is, my head is stuffed, and my eyes are red. The coughing is the dry-unproductive-hollow-empty type that seems such a waste. This means asthma is uncontrolled, and the pollen is just a trigger for all the normal asthma stuff. My lungs are locked down by asthma.

I suspect the real problem was lack of sleep. Susie has not slept through a night all weekend and the holiday. I started at 6ish.

Work was the normal compressed day after a holiday. Monday and Tuesday are now running over the top of each other. Monday is usually status, and Tuesday is usual progress. Many of the discussions were that issues had to be fixed as an emergency as there is not enough time this week to run the normal process. Many voices, while not raised, had that direct edge, and a lot of directors were given marching orders.

I spent the morning listening to the status-progress meetings while working out issues in an SAP system upgrade I am doing now. The system I am upgrading is a copy of a development system and has broken development in it. I had to spend the morning and afternoon fixing those items.

I had reheated pizza; it was already 90F outside, and I kept the house cool by not opening any doors.

I took a break, the coughing was just non-stop, and I fell completely asleep.

I was awoken by Susie’s return. She had a delayed Spa day with Zerida today. Her driver picked her up at 11ish. Susie had trouble starting this morning. I was running around doing caregiving while also on Zoom status calls and progress calls. It was a bit chaotic this mid-morning.

I helped Susie get settled and then returned to email and status and progress. Nothing was happening, so I went to read again.

I am now on the third book of a series I partially read years ago. I recommend all the books. I am on Everyone in Their Place: The Summer of Commissario Ricciardi (The Commissario Ricciardi Mysteries Book 3). Set in 1931 Naples, Italy, and about the Commissario solving murders. The detective is cursed to see the last moment of the dead making it a ghost story too. These are large 1-inch thick meaty translations from the original Italian with only a few typos that fit the translation better. 

Susie needed a nap too. So we both nodded off. It was 6ish when I awoke! The coughing is mostly gone. Lack of sleep was the real cause for asthma, as I suspected, and caused the overreaction to pollen (my eyes are still a bit sticky, so I know the pollen is still there). I also turned up the AC when I went to lie down, and the good filter would have grabbed any of the pollen in the air, so that too helped. In American AC, the cold air return recycles the same air.

I thought about ordering out, it is too hot to cook, but I found some frozen (!?) Schwann’s mashed potatoes and brats ready to eat in the frig. Bangers and Mash! We have Mexican beer! Thus a truly international and easy to make dinner! It also is just a stovetop, so no oven.

I slipped out in the early evening, now in the 80s, to get a few pics of the roses.

The tea rose bloomed!

Here are some of the other bushes in the backyard.

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

I picked Psalm 50 for today’s music to remember who we have lost.

 

Today is the end of my Covid-19 blog.

I will blog daily for a while as we wrap up the pandemic, but I plan to switch to a weekly blog in the future. Today is the 444th-day blog (of 443 blogs–missing one when Susie had a stroke). It is a good number to stop counting.

Thus this is now my daily blog. This first trying-to-live-without-fear day of my blog started with me waking a few times and refusing to start my day early. I finally got started on 9:30ish and microwaving last night’s coffee. I then read emails and news articles. Next, I did the dishes and made scones and fresh coffee.

I had not made scones in months. I decided that today, the first new day of my wrap for the pandemic life, should start with making King Arthur Almond Cherry scones. I cut in the cold butter with a pastry knife. It was obvious I had not this for a while as it was hard work. I added the milk and egg, got the mix well mixed, and made little lumps on a baking sheet on parchment. I buy parchment paper that fits my baking sheet also from King Arthur.

They are good.

My suggestion: Give up the fear, be careful and wear your mask when you should and when you need to to feel comfortable, and bake something!

I then went on a trip to practice giving up my fear; I drove Air Volvo for lunch. On the way, I stopped by Rainy Day Games to get a bottle of paint; I am nearly out of gunmetal paint for miniatures. It is a fav of mine as I like the dark shine. Silver is just too bright for weapons and armors and machines.

Lunch: I then went to Pastini for Italian. I wanted a glass of wine and some food without much hassle. The manager sat me at a table for one, and Michael, my waiter, and I found a nice wine, and I had the carbonara pasta with caesar salad. I finished with some ice cream and got a to-go tiramisu for Susie.

While Pastini is a chain, this one at Cedar Mills always seems one step above, and I like their food. They have some extra zing that makes things better. Or it is just the wine.

I was reading the Jupiter Disco drink book while waiting. They are closed for the pandemic and also far away in NYC. I saw they were trying to raise money to keep going on Kickstarter at the start of the pandemic and made a pledge. I got a cool t-shirt, took them a year, and an edgy book that is mostly about bar life and drink recipes. Susie will be confused someday when I say, let’s go to an NYC disco, “I have a t-shirt and drinks I want to try out.”

Returning to lunch, my food and service were good. I saw folks without masks at their tables and folks like me who only remove the mask when drinks or food show. I put it back on when I am done. I felt safe, and the fear is receding.

I returned home, a hero, with tiramisu for Sue (it should be a song lyric).

I ordered pizzas a few hours later, taking wine and a food-induced nap, to have dinner with Dr.Rev. Wayne Weldmartin and his wife, Rev. Anne Weldmwartin. We had the New York pizza from Papa Murphy’s Take-and-Bake pizza. Susie’s fav with pepperoni and sausage. This was with beer.

We had a nice dinner and chatted. We finished dinner with watermelon.

I then taught and played a two-person board game of Wingspan. Susie and I one team and the Weldmartins on the other. The bird cards and the resources were enjoyed. Anne likes birdwatching. I had not managed to teach the mechanics, but that is the hard part of this game. It is a worthy game to learn, but it takes more than one game to get all the working parts. We will play again; Anne seemed to like it.

I am home now writing.

Today’s music is A Folk Song.

Today started at 4AM! I had to pick up Mariah and take her to Portland International Airport, PDX; we call the airport by the airport’s call letters, not by another person’s name–just PDX. I was there on time, and we had no events other than an on-time arrival at the gate.

I stopped by PDX after dropping off Mariah. I parked the car on the 7th floor of the car park. It was just minutes after sunrise, and Mount Hood was clearly visible.

I was sad when I saw that everything is still locked down. No breakfast there. I know that Powell’s PDX is gone for good, but it still hurt a bit to see that loss of the little PDX mall. Someday, maybe, we will see it again. PDX was voted the best Airport in the USA for the years before Covid-19. I want it back!

One of the reasons for the positive outlook towards PDX is the view.

I returned the way I came, remembering to drive slow as it is Memorial Weekend, and the police are giving out reminders to go slower. A costly reminder.

I had breakfast at Tom’s Pancake House. I had the Eggs Benedict, and hashbrowns. It is wonderful. Not many people are there before 7 on a Sunday. I felt safe the whole time, and everyone was kind. The staff was masked, and folks put on masks when they left their tables.

I made it home and then painted a bit of the next faction for Richard’s Anachrony game. The last one. I have a basic coloring done on one figure. I will then repeated the colors on the remaining five.

I was tired and took a couple of naps. Evan came over at about 10:45. We had coffee and then a beer at Wildwood Taphouse; Insomnia Coffee is next door. There Brook, the bartender, greeted us and gave us permission to play a board game. It being a taphouse where you bring your own food, even coffee and muffins are welcome on a Sunday morning, they were happy to accommodate us.

Evan was proud to beat me in a very short game of Vindication. The end-of-game triggers hit on early. They are randomly assigned, and we had barely started before the game ended. We had some chips with salsa and talked for a bit after the game.

I got back about 2ish, and Evan headed to a movie. I got Susie water, coffee, and some breakfast. I then enjoyed another short nap.

The pollen is just killing me today. I cannot stop coughing.

We then packed up and headed over to Cory’s house to play a board game, Wingspan. We have not been back inside there, Cory and Jennifer’s place, since Covid-19. We are all vaccinated. We had brats, hot dogs, chips, fruit salad, drinks, and I taught the game.

Everyone loved the game. I had the high score for the Wingspan, but I know how to play. The game plays well once the players learned the mechanics. Wingspan has some unique processes that take a bit to understand; the game becomes a quest to make the best board (bird sanctuary) once the basics are working for you. Laying eggs, there are tiny eggs that come with the game, and the cards’ artwork and information on the birds represented in the game, are high quality.

After more than a year, it was so nice to be back at Cory’s and Jeniffer’s place and play a few games and have some food together. Susie used Cory’s lifts to get to the second floor. So we got to use the dinner table and be near the kitchen. It felt like a party!

Deaths fell to only 124 today in the USA for Covid-19. It may be a reporting issue from the holiday.

I picked The Old Rugged Cross for this Memorial Day Weekend.

 

 

I stayed up late painting Richard’s figures. I had to paint window frames on the figures, and that requires quiet and pure concentration. I can get that about midnight or so. So I made coffee last night and stayed up to about 1:30 painting.

I was back at it this morning and was finishing up the next set of figures until about noon. I then took a shower and started my chores.

My red tea roses, with lots of aphids, are almost ready to bloom.

I picked up prescriptions, put gas in the car, got the car run thru the car wash, and bought groceries. I also picked up Susie, her fav, a Happy Meal with apples, and burger king for me. There is likely a crime to eat a Whopper while in a McDonald’s drive-thru.

Back home, I put away the groceries and got Susie her Happy Meal. I started on the next and last Anachrony mech figures for Richard. I also watched a video on how to play the game. I figure I should know more about this game after spending so much time painting the miniatures.

I learned from watching a video that Anachrony is a typical SciFi worker placement and resource management board game. The first one I have seen with a time travel feature that lets you borrow resources now that you will produce in the future. If you fail to do that, you will have to pay a paradox cost. It is an older game, and so some of the features I am familiar with were new when this game was created. We plan to play the game in a few weekends with all the painted mech figures.

I did some laundry, and Corwin agreed to warm up the ribs I bought for dinner for Susie and him. I headed to Portland.

I reached Richard’s house to play games at 6PM. Just Richard and I.

We gave A War of Whispers a try. I have the collector’s edition from a Kickstarter and wanted to see what Richard thought. I lost by 2 points, and I think he liked it. This is an unusual board game where the players are advisors to kings in a world that looks like Game of Thrones. The players are secretly randomly aligned to some kingdoms, some kingdoms the players are uninterested in, and one is an enemy. The players then compete to have control of the kingdoms and then run the kingdoms. Yes, even the ones that are your secret enemy! This means you are often crashing armies into meaningless and wasteful battles to support your goals. This while trying to guess what are the goals of the other players and hamper their plans–unless their plans seem to align with your goals, hmmm. There are action cards that suddenly let you have more armies or move armies. Or a plague hits. Then an invasion from nowhere! To get these cards, you have to be given them by a kingdom, and for that to happen, you have to have that advising position that gets cards. It is a war of whispers and suspicion. It is crazy and fun. I am still learning how to play.

Richard managed to take the one city I needed to hold to win as the last battle in the game. Next time!

We then tried the 7 Wonders Duel two-person game. In the game, you build a city that produces good and abilities that lets you build four of the 7 Wonders of the World. You do this by buying cards that become part of your city. This will increase your resources and abilities. Also, some buildings are free if you have the right symbol. For example, I built the theater and could then build a theater building for free. Plus, you can also buy into a technology that will give you some power advantages. I invested in War and was trying to put Richard’s city to the touch and win. He built up his military and stopped me.

As I said, you have four of the 7 Wonders to build. I managed to have enough resources to build three. These give you more interesting abilities.

It was a fast and easy-to-understand game once you get it. I did not understand the resourcing and soon was behind and stayed that way. I would recommend it as a fast two-person game. It has multiple ways to victory and focus. For a simple and not a very expensive game, it covers a lot of gaming territory.

I had a crash on WordPress so I will stop here.