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I finally received my signed copy of the SciFi book Ready Player Two. Mariah pointed out that Powell’s, our local bookstore that sells new and used copies on the same shelf, has a virtual meeting-and-greet with the author, Ernest Cline, next week. I have “tickets” to it, a pin that matches the book design, and, as I said, a signed copy. Mariah picked hers up at the local Powell’s and has been reading it already.

Today started at 6:15, and I was dragging. Susie has been going to bed late, and I am averaging five hours of sleep during workdays. I had to rush as we had a meeting with Front-line at 7. These are the folks who get the support calls–the front-line of support, to start the turnover of our system to support our go-live this December 27th. Yes, when you finally get done, you give it away to support. That is how IT works!

BTW: Nike’s front-line folks are cool under pressure and hard to upset. They have already done most disasters. I remember a car accident in Beaverton, knocking over a telephone pole and ending all connection to Nike’s computers except in the computer room. That is a bad day for them—”a serious outage.” A bug in a program is nothing; they can create a ticket and get it fixed and install the fix without getting even flustered.

Returning to today’s story, I was really too tired, but I had a few more items to read and another status meeting. After that, I then just followed along on email. I slipped out for a walk before the last status meeting.

I managed to remember my mask and my scarf for this cold morning. Frost was still on the roofs and grass. I also managed to make it all the way to my marker. I made my full walk today. I was breathing very hard at the end and wheezing, but I feel a bit better today. No coughing. No wheezing when I lay down. 

My marker is the crazy man-hole cover that is unique to the Greater Portland Area. Is it strange to have a fav man-hole cover? Not in the Pacific Northwest!

Lunch was taco salad. I heated some taco shells and then broke them into bits. I put that over lettuce and cheese and then pour on chili from a can. A dollop of sour cream makes it really nice. 

This is how Susie thinks of me cooking in the kitchen (ever since we saw this): The Little Mermaid – Les Poisson.

I followed along a bit at work, but I took a nap as I was too tired to think straight.

Susie had her physical therapy today. Another new PT person, Victoria; they are having trouble meeting all their appointments and keeping safe. They are sorry to keep changing people on us. It is difficult to do PT in the community with Covid-19. Susie practiced walking with her walker and standing and sitting. Victoria also Susie try some new exercises. Susie was tired after this and took a nap.

I used the Instant Pot to make dinner. I found a recipe for an Asian-styled Honey Garlic Chicken. I undercooked the rice when I let it boiled over by mistake. I then had not added enough water back in and got the water back to a boil before cooking on low. Next time! The chicken, made from rock-solid frozen raw chicken, was good. 

I also started on the dwarf figures for Heroes of Air, Land, and Sea today. The bases are painted red. The red did not cover; I will repainting it tonight. I also did the dry brushing of white to bring forward the details. This is my new painting process for game quality painting with dark shading.

I managed to start Ready Player Two, as I said, even falling asleep once, but I already like it. It is light reading, and the book is almost a kids’ book, but I liked the zaniness in the first book, and it looks like the author is headed back that way. Looking forward to reading it.

The death rate from Covid-19 is still high: 1,270+.

I like this version of Oh Holy Night. 

This is the recovered text. The save and publish functions failed in WordPress for me yesterday. I have returned to their “classic editor.” I was on chat until past midnight trying to recover the rest of this article. It was finished, edited, and ready to publish. 

Talked to mom today as it is her birthday—another 29th birthday for her (80+). My sister took her out to get her hair done and all that. Michigan is also locked down. There are limited choices for celebrations. I sent Barb Wild an Olympia Provisions cookbook. Mom gets an Olympia Provision salami with it, and they signed the book.

I also finished my orcs today. The oil paint dried, and I cleaned off any black spillage on the base and then prayed them with a mat clean coat. I am headed to paint the dwarves next. They get dry brushing of white to bring out some detail, and their bases are painted rust red. This is their faction color in the game: Heroes of Air, Land, and Sea.

Returning to the beginning, I started today at 6:30ish and had to rush as I forgot I had a 7:00 weekly meeting with one of my teams. So I rushed this morning and found my way in time to be all clean and shiny on Zoom at 7. I had meetings run right into lunch today. I made smoky beans from a can with ham that I shared with Susie. A piece of buttered bread too. Very basic but not a bad lunch.

I had more status meetings and crises of the moments for the afternoon. I did slip-out to buy some paint for figures at the hobby store in Beaverton: Tammies Hobbies. They had the Chaos Black spray paint I like to use. They did not have the Mr. Super Clean UV protecting flat clear. It is like its name, very clear. I picked up something else and hope it will work. I have Mr. Super Clear coming from Amazon, but I was hoping to get a can from the local folks.

A few more meetings and a few crises of the moment after my return. I also slipped out for a longer walk. I am trying to get back to my mile walks every day. I was breathing hard, and I feel better even with the wheezing. I believe it is use-it-or-lose for my lungs at 56+.

I received my order from Olympia Provisions today. I bought a lot of sausage and pickles and even some bread. I cooked some brats and kielbasa on the grill and cut up cheese and salamis of various dinner complexities. More of a tapas dinner today. We had some pickles from Olympia Provisions too.

Mariah visited with her little dog. We agreed with the mess now that we would all wear masks except when eating or drinking. Mariah and I both had a porter. We watch the NFL, and it was not the game we expected. Today was Kansan City versus Tampa Bay, and the regular game was delayed because of Covid-19. Some of the team members had tested positive.

Today we reached a new record for deaths from the virus. 2,910+.

I found this song yesterday, and it was lost by the WordPress crash: On This Day Earth Shall Ring. This is a very old song. 

Gov. Brown of Oregon declared our area to be in extreme danger from the virus, and we will continue with the lockdown for at least two more weeks. Susie and I are being even more careful than before as the hospital rates and deaths spike here. Oregon is running about 85% ICU beds in use with a close match for regular beds too. California appears to be headed to having no beds left. I have heard that Oregon is hosting the Idaho folks that need hospitalization.

The UK is getting the vaccine now. The USA will approve the same vaccine on the 10th. The Russian vaccine began general use today.

I finished the orcs painting today for the board game Heroes of Air, Land, and Sea. The oil paint for the shading is drying now overnight. I use the oil paint as it dries without a color change and can be whipped off or even removed with thinner without impact the color underneath (I applied a non-glossy transparent spray to protect the initial painting).

Twenty figures is a lot to finish. I finally finished the three personality figures that are unique. They look better shaded but not much darker. The shading brings their faces forward.

The morning started at 6:30 as I was tired this morning. It always feels better to sleep-in those extra minutes!

I had meetings this morning that were mostly status meetings and crises of the moment that needed to be resolved. Some issues have been brought up many times before–I was a bit surprised how little was resolved when I was out for three weeks caring for Susie.

I managed to find a break, I was late for the next meeting, and took a short walk further than yesterday. I usually try to make each day’s walk longer than the day before until I reach about a mile.

Carie from PT came a bit late this noon and worked with Susie for 30 minutes. We wanted to keep it a bit light as Susie fell after maybe overdoing it last time. Susie is to keep doing her standing and sitting exercises. We also went over how to better turn the walker as that was what caused the fall.

I had to stop and leave two meetings as I had calls from the medical people. We arranged for Susie to have physical therapy today at about noon and then again on Friday at about 2:15.

I had the leftovers of Yellow Curry Chicken Thai I made in the Instant Pot yesterday for my lunch. It was terrific a second time. Susie had yogurt and cereal.

Work ended with discussing options on how to flow data out of an SAP ERP to other platforms. This discussion has also been on-going.

I made a more comfort-food dinner for Susie, putting aside all the exotic cooking today. I made chicken cordon bleu from frozen. I made Hollandaise Sauce from scratch to pour over the chicken cordon bleu. I have a whale-shaped egg separator that helps. Adding freshly made Hollandaise really dresses up the generic chicken cordon bleu from the freezer. Next, I made green beans from a frozen microwave pack, but I heated butter and toasted sliced almonds, from a bag, with salt in a frying pan and then dumped the hot-from-the-microwave green beans on top and combined it. This greatly improves the green beans to wilt them a bit in butter with almonds. Dinner was well received.

I then, as I covered above, started back to painting. I found a lid of a pasta sauce jar–I save them; I set it down in my painting area to use it as a little basin. I smear a bit of dark “Starship Filth” oil paint from a tube and pour a bit of “Odourless thinner” in the cap. I have oil paintbrushes–cheap ones, and I use them to brush to shading colors on a figure. I just want enough shading to fill in the lines and get the 3-D looks back to one color area.

BTY: I seldom paint eyes on 28mm figures as I think it a waste of time–a figure with painted eyes looks, to me, like a doll then. Plus, you cannot see the eyes on the gaming table–the eyes are too tiny to see when using the figures. Also, the human habit of seeing faces in random pictures known as pareidolia means I only need to suggest where the eyes go, and most people will see the eyes I did not paint!

I have already primed the dwarves. Next, I will start work on them.

The US stock market was going up and down. It still below’s it high. There are some bets that inflation or interest rate would increase. These bets appear to have failed, and some losses are being realized now that we are at the year and quarter-end; some window-dressing is ongoing on Wall Street. Elon Musk made some new inflammatory remarks about the Tesla company failing despite the 23% gross profit last quarter.

Today the USA had the highest daily rate of death so far from the virus. More than two-thousand eight-hundred thirty people died from it today.

I will go with the fav of O Come, All Ye Faithful with a modern take.

Today was a more normal day at work. Tuesday, I usually have a 7AM meeting, but it was canceled this week, so I had an easy start at 6AM. I also had a meeting with European folks today at 8:30. We try to connect to the European developers every couple of weeks. We make a special effort to make them feel more connected to WHQ by meeting by Zoom every couple of weeks.

After the call with Europe, there were various status meetings, and I had a pile of designs to read. I had a few objections and then agreed to them.

I put a note that I am not approving which was misunderstood, they are approved by others, I just agree that the design is not a risk for Nike. I got a Zoom meeting to explain that I agree.

Lunch was a lamb gyro from Gyro House delivered. I wanted something good for lunch as yesterday was so hard. I could barely finish it.

I did manage a thirty-minute walk today between meetings. My legs are cramping terribly at night; relief may be getting some walking in. I walked a short distant fast. I hope to get another walk in tomorrow and try to get back to the habit.

The last meeting surprised me, I have been out for three weeks on leave to care for Susie, and I believe the issue is at the same place as before.

I could not finish the meeting as Susie had a care issue, and I had to do some caregiving. We got to use the new shower design: no doors now and just a shower curtain. The suction based handholds also work. I check them every morning and remount them if they come loose. Susie’s shower went well, and I managed only to be damp and not fully soaked.

I made Thai Yellow Curry Chicken in the Instant Pot. The new toy to make quick dinners. I cut-up three carrots in large pieces, 1/2 onion chopped, a green pepper cut in large pieces, a handful of fingerling potatoes, spices, and coconut milk. I cooked rice in a normal pot. The chicken was rock frozen chicken breast tenders from a bag in the freezer. I bought these from Smart Foodservice (formally Cash and Carry). I set the Instant Pot to 14 for poultry.

It was just Susie and me for dinner, so I made a smallish dinner and rice. It was tasty, but I had held back on the hot spices as Susie cannot eat them anymore. It was good, but next time I will add some ginger.

Susie and I watched the news on PBS and then I returned to figure painting.

I am finishing up Orcs for the board game Heroes of Air, Land, and Sea. The personality figures needed to have the base painting finished. I had an issue with one figure, the red robe looked like a red x-ray. The red color was in the low areas and the high areas were darker. I have had this problem with the red paint before. I went back to basic painting and painted pure red on the high spots and edges to correct the look. The figure looks better now. The other figures just had some basic fixes and a few missed bits that I had to finish. I will spray paint a clear varnish tomorrow. I will then finish them with oil paints to shade the dark bits. This restores a few details by having them show up better. I will then finish, after oil paints dry, with a last clear varnish. I use oil paints as they shading does not fade when it dries and I can, unlike inks or varnish dips, can just wipe it off and try again.

I have started on the next faction, dwarves. The priming is done.

The market went up a bit today. The market is about where it was last week. Nike stock is at $135 or so.

Today the deaths rose in the USA to the second-worst day so far this year, Two-thousand six-hundred fourteen.

I found this Carol of the Bells.

Today started at 6ish with me getting started on work email and getting time sheets and other details settled. My first meeting was not until 8 so I had time to read emails and get organized. I had breakfast and then slipped in a shower at 7ish.

I spent most of the day trying to remember what issues I still had remaining from three weeks ago, very few. I also was welcomed back and tried to help with some of the crises of the moment.

I will not go into details as work is not that interesting to most folks. The project has spent the three weeks getting closer to its milestones. I have been out ill for weeks and find when I return that nothing seemed to change. Instead, this time real work was done and real progress made by my teams.

Susie started up about 10ish. We had a nurse we thought was coming to review Susie’s meds. Instead, it was a call from the health insurance about alternatives to Susie’s more expensive meds. I was not impressed.

I made a salad for lunch with some ham and cheese and olives. I made Susie a grilled ham and swiss an hour later when she was hungry.

Between meetings, I drove over to the restaurant supply store (formally Cash and Carry) and got chicken and beef for upcoming meals. It was about 1/2 price of what I pay at Safeway.com. We have the fixing but not much meat.

For dinner, I made chicken thighs Italian style in the Instant Pot. I made some pasta and opened a can of sauce. It was light and welcomed for dinner.

Tonight is Dungeons and Dragons with all six players on Roll20. We started were we left off with the missing players being popped back into the fight by the Mad Mage. Down on the tenth level full of evil spider elves (known as Drow) the players are searching for glory. The managed to defeat the stone golem spider statue and an a horror of a Drow transformed into a partial scorpion. We played for two hours with just a few technical issues. The Roll20 software handles all the dice rolling and present the players with a 2D view of the complex with dynamic lighting.

I am tired and a bit dizzy as it has been a clear day, and the pollen is still getting to me. I will get some rest. It was hard to get back to work, still care for the house, and ensure Susie is OK.

Today the market took back some of the increases. The lack of a stimulus plan and the increasing infection rate in the USA has the market worried. My 401K is showing just under a positive 16% return for the year.

Today the reports are that more than twelve-hundred thirty people died in the USA of the infection.

I went with a fav of mine and I like the dark singing in this versions: We Three Kings.