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This evening my back-up hard drive for my Mac has failed. It is a brand new 5TD drive. I suspect it was damaged when I disconnected it. I am using a USB connection to use it. I am guilty of just disconnecting it. I am not very happy as you can’t have a laptop you can not move. I am trying to erase the hard drive and re-use it. I am making a new back-up.

Return to more interesting topics, I woke at 9:30ish this morning and did my normal email and other tasks. I opened a package of maple syrup breakfast sausage and put them in a glass dish, and baked them at 350 for 30 mins. and then turn the sausages over and cooked for 15 more mins.  These are everyone’s fav. I also heated some water with salt and two caps fulls of vinegar. When the water was hot and just about to boil, I turn down the heat to low. I then carefully break two eggs into the water to poach. Breakfast was two poached eggs, a few sausages, and a bagel with light cream cheese.

Susie had Eggo Waffles with the sausages. Corwin had sausages and a bagel.

It is easy to cover all meals now; dinner tonight was microwaved leftovers. Susie and I finished the Chinese delivered a few days ago. Corwin had some of the leftover Morracoan Chicken I made last night.

I did not get to making Beignets this morning. Instead, I did all the touch-up and fixes on the figures from the board game Heroes of Air, Land, and Sea. The dwarf faction is now painted and touched up. I also have sprayed the initial protective flat clear. I use the fantastic Mr. Super Clean UV flat clear. I have to buy it from Amazon as I cannot get it from our local stores. They cannot get it in.

 

I have yet to apply dark oil paint to do the shading. I use to use inks for this. I even used a bit of ink this time to make the faces and muscles more defined, but I still had to repaint some of it. The ink stains the paint to a darker shade. The inks also dry a different color than when you put them on. Oil paints do not have these problems, and I can wipe them off and try again–no repainting. I use a dark color oil paint, Spaceship Filth, from the company with the strange name of 502 Abteilung. They make oil paints for shading for models and figures.

My friend’s family, Michael Giessner, picked up my wine this weekend and dropped it off. Purple Cow Vineyard includes a free bottle as thanks for continuing to buy in the pandemic. The wine is made about thirty minutes away and is some of the best wine I have tasted.

Back to work on Monday.

It was reported that today in the USA, 1,379 died from the virus today.

I found a hymn I have never heard, and it is from 1653: Jesus, Priceless Treasure. I could only find it sung on the Internet by Lutherans. This hymn is #532 in the Methodist Hymnal.

 

 

 

I managed to sleep in until 8ish this morning with no events to wake me. First time I slept about eight hours in days. I did the dishes. Read emails and painted figures. I ignored the laundry and did not fold it–it did not seem to mind.

I am still using the “Classic Editor” on WordPress and have not had any more crashes. I can also see the back-ups. I would prefer the new editor, but having everything working as expected is a plus. I will remain using classic!

I watched the next Mandalorian episode this morning. I am still impressed by the acting and creativity, but it seems guilty of the same issues I see in Doctor Who. The story cannot progress fast during a week; that is saved for the end-of-season. I liked the TV series The Expanse because I am never sure how important an episode is while watching it–they would kill characters and complete major story arcs anytime. We will see what happens with this show.

I ordered bagels for lunch for everyone. I had an everything lox bagel.

I painted figures for much of the day. I am trying to complete the initial painting of the dwarf faction of the board game Heroes of Air, Land, and Sea. I have completed the initial painting of all twenty figures (it is hard to do twelve figures that are exactly the same), and now I have to do the touch-up and corrections. I have also done the hair by my new dry brushing light colors over plain colors to get the hair to look more realistic. I do not want a blond to look like they are wearing a lemon. This with a dark shading oil paint to restore the 3D shading will make this work.

I should finish tomorrow with these figures.

I also read a new book on gunnery practices in world war one for battleships delivered today–are you bored already? Revisionist historians are now–well, in 2005, after more than a hundred years, looking closer at what happened in one battle for three hours. It was one of the worst moments in history for the modern British Navy, the near defeat of their best fast attack squadron and the destruction of two ships and crew. This near-disaster happened in the “Run South” of the Battle of Jutland 1916. Britain’s ships only managed eleven hits on their opponents (vs. 35+ hits against the British ships) and lost two battlecruisers in horrific explosions. Historians are still trying to understand what happened. The official account from 1916 or so was just published, being suppressed for 100 years! I bought a copy when it was released.

This book on gunnery has no strong narrative to keep you interested, and I did manage to nod-off this afternoon after page 9. I am further now. I am interested in the author’s conclusions about the battle (I have ten or more books on this one battle and related material), which makes me plow through.

Returning to today, I had to slip out, nothing I like to do with the Covid-19 growing infection rates, and buy some goods at the restaurant supply store and a few other Safeway items. I was happy to see everyone is careful and following procedures, and wearing masks. I was surprised to see a new meat counter in Safeway and picked out some nice steaks. Before, the local Safeway had only refrigerated cases, and you picked out what you wanted from the pre-packaged items. Today, for the first time at my local store, I could pick my steaks and have them packaged for me.

It is strange to see my Safeway keep improving during the emergency. The store is cleaner, better organized, and has a better selection now. Not what you would expect in a pandemic!

I made dinner of Morrocan Lemon Chicken with rice. I use tagine spices and preserved lemons for this. There are recipes for something like this are on the Internet. I just two chop onion, cut up celery, peel and cut carrots into largest bits, heat oil and butter in a large dutch oven on the stove, cook garlic and the onions for a bit, add the spices, chicken, cook a bit, and then add the rest. Bake covered for an hour or so at 350F. I made the rice in the Instant Pot.

While we waited, I dug out the Olympia Provision cheeses and meats. Susie made that her dinner. Corwin and I enjoyed the chicken.

I was going to make some beignets today, or at least get the dough started. I will likely try that tomorrow morning. I have always wanted to learn how to make these since I watched Princess and the Frog by Disney. I liked the music too–I have the soundtrack!

I usually get burned-out of painting after doing two factions. I have one initial set left, but I may move on to something else after I finish the dwarf figures (forty figures in a month is a lot for me). I will see how I feel on Sunday.

I would like to get back to writing Howard’s stories–putting painting aside for a while. I was editing Howard in Amsterdam, and I want to add an epilogue to Howard’s Lockdown. I usually write at a coffee house, but Covid-19 prevents that now.

The deaths from Covid-19 in the USA today: 2,309.

Another hymn I miss singing. I can manage to sing this one most days: Many Gifts, One Spirit. Methodist Hymnal #114.

Today I had a mostly slow and easy Friday. Nothing went wrong at the house. No sudden caregiving events today. No huge meltdowns at Nike’s computers. Just a slow status meeting full day. It was nice to have a day like that.

It will not be that interesting of a blog as it was just a normal quiet day.

I started at 6ish and responded to email and tried to get caught up and see what I needed to do. It is Friday. There are usually no emergencies in our program. I am not doing production support. Thus the usual suspects of Fridays’ problems do not belong to me now.

So I just caught up and tried to help here and there. Again, almost everything is working today, and our cut-over for the new system I am helping to start is on Monday morning.

The narrative is already moving to lunch. I ordered a massaman curry (beef) from Ma-Now Thai Cuisine. It was perfect and was delivered on-time. It was too much food, but it was soooo good. I made an Eggo Waffle for Susie with peanut butter. She was running late on Thursday, so we bumped her “Thursday” pill to today. She takes that pill for bone strength, drinks lots of water, and sits for 45 mins without moving or eating.

We have no medical things today.

I had a few more details to do, and then at about 3ish, I called it a weekend. I then rested a bit and did the dishes.

I have been painting the figures each night for a few minutes for the board game Heroes of Air, Land, and Sea. I am using the technique of using washed out paints to create easy shading effects. The look is good enough for gaming figures. The look also works for modern figures that are not SciFi.

 

I created a comparison. The picture has three groups of figures. The Star Trek figures are painted over white primer and use ink to shade. I then correct that with a bit more paint. This is how I use to paint. I do it only now for figures. I want very bright.

The Doctor Who figures on the other side use more shading and a bit dusty looking. I was not that happy with the look, except for military figures, UNIT in this case.

The fantasy figures in the middle use the black primer and light white over the black. The paints are then diluted. For these, I used special inks that were used to bring out the highlights. The paint on these middle figures is a bit dark for me, but they are better than game board quality. These fantasy figures are from Estonia.

Just a few lessons while I was thinking about it.

These figures on the bottom of the tray use oil paints to create shading instead of inks I used before. These are brighter and less work.

I defrosted some ribeye steaks. I grilled the steaks on the gas grill. I did not notice the grill was on when I opened the gas tank valve. I threw a lighted match in–checking that there was no leak and there was a woosh, and it lighted. I do not try to light it so dramatically, most nights. I heated up some rolls, and we had peaches from a can. I am tired of making green beans. The steaks are from Smart Foodservice Warehouse. I do not recommend them, the steaks are cut too thin. I forgot that when I bought them.

Reports are still showing a terrifying death rate for the virus in the USA of 3,031, including 15 from Oregon, for today. Reports I have found show the current USA’s death daily rate is 150% of its previous average, suggesting strongly that Covid-19 is causing more deaths at the rate shown in the reports.

I have done this before, but it is a prayer, and we could use a prayer today.

How can it be 271 days? Last year I was getting ready to travel to Amsterdam for Christmas with Susie and Corwin. This year is much different. My trip to Australia was canceled, and my dreams of visiting some exotic location this fall were now reduced to drive through at Taco Bell. We are trying, like most people in Oregon, to get safe and not go mad.

Work began at 6ish, and I had a meeting at 7 that I was a few minutes late. Susie had some issues that required me to do some caregiving at 630ish. I then had back-to-back Zoom calls for the morning.

It was a hectic but normal day. I was able to cover most items in the morning.

I also slipped out and got a short walk in this morning. Susie went back to sleep and slept late today.

The local church has the three wise men bringing gifts to HOPE. It is an interesting intellectual change for 2020 that I really like.

I also saw our local crows everywhere, and they are quite large now. The animal life in the area, including a hulking raccoon that keeps visiting my backyard and deck, has enjoyed reducing human activity.

Lunch was complex. I went to order from Gyro House, deciding that I needed something special today, and the order went through but never came. They are closed today, and the order is filled for Friday. I canceled the order when it never showed. I thought it was for today.

I went back to GrubHub, both hungry and a bit frustrated, and decided on a nice lunch. I went with French. I selected La Provence Orenco for breakfast delivered now. French Toast With Caramelized Bananas And Walnuts for Susie (Corwin had the other two pieces, Susie could only finish the first two pieces), and for me, the corned beef hash with two poached eggs and a dreamy croissant. It was 1ish before it showed, but it was worth the wait and the trouble (and a bit expensive but so good).

Susie started about 1ish, and I had to serve her lunch while I was Zooming for Nike. I had to listen to the meeting while running out to get Susie food, drink, and so on. It was a bit stressful, but everything worked out.

My 2PM meeting was canceled, which was good as Susie had physical therapy at 2ish. Jonathan reassessed Susie’s progress and determined another four weeks of therapy was worth the investment. He ran Susie through a lot of walking and standing and checking her strength. Susie can stand from a sitting position five times in thirty seconds. Her goal is seven in thirty seconds. Normal is twelve or more, but we will take seven! Susie has a few more items to work on. She was exhausted when he left.

We had masks on the whole time and asked all those questions about exposure, of course.

I had two more meetings after that. One was a crisis of the moment, and so I had to cancel another meeting. I was happy to reach the end of Zooming for Nike.

Dinner was with Chef Boyardee for Susie, comfort food for her. I put some pizza from Tuesday in the microwave, and it was not terrible. After the huge late breakfast for lunch, a few slices were all I needed.

No NFL today as I had Theology Pub, a Zoom church meeting. We had a discussion on Serenity in Religion. Our discussion was often about the mix of trust, trust in God, and how we find serenity. We had a discussion about how to find evil and how to be rid of it. We agreed that being a good example is the best way to fight evil. For our Zoom call, we have folks from Texas, Utah, and local folks. Everyone was in a good mood. The Covid-19 vaccine was approved today in the USA. Many are also happy to see the change of leadership in the USA. That and Christmas has a smile on everyone’s face tonight.

Today the death rate from Covid-19 is one of the highest numbers this year: 2,974.

Despite folks lying in social media about the rate of death, the count is higher than the death rate from car accidents and vastly higher than flu deaths in past years. It is projected that the death count will be higher than the total deaths for the USA for World War 2, all in one year.

Today’s song is one of my favs for Christmas and the version my fav too: Mary Did You Know?

I threw in the towel and told people at Nike I would follow along, but I need some rest. I followed along on email and attended one more status meeting. Most of the day, I rested or did house cleaning and caregiving.

This morning started at 6ish, with me getting ready for early meetings again at 7. I read some emails and did a quick shower, and was on time for the first meeting. Susie then needed some help, so I had to break off another status meeting and do laundry and other caregiving items.

I then blocked my calendar and rested for a bit. I was tired, and a bit overwhelmed. The working from home, caregiving, housework, and getting ready for the holidays was too much. I told folks at Nike I needed a break but would follow along. I rested for a bit. They would text me if they needed me.

I then got up and cleaned and got the laundry done. I felt much better. I think I was sad that I could not keep the house up. I am much better now. Clean carpets can brighten your day.

Changing subjects for a moment, I am now reading Digging Deeper by Eric H. Cline. This little book is a primer on how archaeology is done. I loved Dr. Cline’s other books, and his lectures on YouTube are great. This book is fun as it is a very practical explanation of the practice of archaeology, including what type of trowel one uses (it different if you come from the USA or Europe) just in case you want to get one. I enjoy reading books about how things get done. It has photos and amazing footnotes (directing you to textbooks on digging sites and on the digs he describes); thirty pages of additional information! A good book to distract you and let you virtually check-off that buck-list item, dig at a site. Perfect for planes–someday.

I finished reading Ready Play Two, but I will make no comment other than I was happy with it as you, Dear Reader, might be reading it now or soon.

Returning to today, I checked email at Nike all afternoon until 3ish.

At 3:30, Holly Susie’s Occupational Therapist came and checked us out again. Again, masks were worn, and we both said we had no exposure or symptoms. Holly checked the improvements to the shower and saw we had no clothing on the floors. I had vacuumed and had the laundry under control. Susie was graduated from OT, and Holly wished us well. If we believe we need more OT, we can have our primary care doc order some more. At this time, we will focus on physical therapy, and that is scheduled for tomorrow at 2:30.

I then closed the laptop for Nike and read some more.

I made angel hair pasta with a marinara sauce for dinner. The pasta is bulk, and the sauce from a can all purchased at Smart Foodservice Warehouse (formally Cash and Carry). I cut up Italian sausage from Olympia Provisions and browned the little coins in a frying pan. The sausage is spicy, making it is best to cook everything separately and assemble it in a bowl. Susie ate it, but the sausage was too hot for her, even cut up and browned. Next time I find a more conventional Italian-styled sausage.

The sauce from a can is quite good. The pasta was great. Both remind me of some food I have paid more for at a few pizza places. Hmmm.

I have been receiving calls, emails, and texts from many friends. Thanks for all the support for Susie and me.

My gaming folks have been very supportive too. We talk about games in texts and emails. It is good to be distracted and play gaming once this Covid-19 thing fades.

Canada approved a vaccine today. The USA exception meeting to approve the same vaccine is tomorrow. I asked Holly, and yes, the therapy folks are already getting notifications of preparation to get the vaccine to them.

Today the USA hit a new record for daily deaths from Covid-19, three-thousand two-hundred forty-three.

I wanted to pick a good song for today for those we lost today and for the hope that is the vaccine: A Tribute to All the Nations. This version covers much of the world.