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We are approaching the first year of this daily blog. I remember March 2020 as the country, specifically Oregon, began to understand how bad this was and what we were facing: Lockdown. In the old blog from last year, I see we thought we would be back to work in the buildings at Nike in April 2020. We now know that we will not be back in April 2021!

I was reading this nice book published in the 1920s about some girls’ day-by-day experience of sailing an old Windjammer across the pacific just as I started this blog. I enjoyed their book and decided to write my own experiences for the few months, I thought, of lockdown. Now we are a year together, and likely I will continue for most of 2021. What a strange and terrible journey we have had: Covid-19, smoke so bad you could not leave your front door, murder hornets, wind storms, elections, and endless riots.

But, today was a lovely sunny day which never happens in March in Oregon. I felt like the weather or 2021 was apologizing for last year! Today sun made the fears and nightmares fade a bit for me.

I started this morning waking early and then smiling and going back to sleep. No early 6-7ish meetings with India. No status Zoom calls. Nothing to worry about. I also had no breathing issues and no headache. No nightmares of searching and wandering to find my way back. It was just blessed sleep and awakening to a sunny morning in March 2021 (not our normal endless sideways March rains).

I managed to make coffee and just handle email and all of that. I was to meet Evan in Mox in Portland around noonish (actually, I miscommunicated, and Evan was there about 1ish). Susie started at 10ish, and I managed to get her breakfast and a snack. I watched music videos on my Apple, and Susie must have heard the Led Zepplin and decided it was time to start. I did the dishes and laundry to music videos on YouTube today. Dishes and laundry get done faster to Kashmir.

I dressed and loaded up Air Volvo with board games and headed out before noon.

For some odd reason, I had no traffic on my ride into Portland aboard Air Volvo. Last weekend when I made the same trip, I was awash in overly polite slow-moving vehicles with Oregon and Washington state plates. I had to put on my sunglasses (yes, Nike sunglasses) and balance the glasses on my nose to prevent them from fogging-up. No traffic, and it was a perfect day. I managed to reach 50+ on 26 headed into Portland for a brief moment. It was nearly a perfect drive into Portland from the Volvo Cave.

I parked in the parking garage below Mox, carried two games in, and was greeted by all the Mox folks. I got the white table, a smaller table, as we are just two people. I was offered a better table, but we had smallish footprint games. I ordered a beer. I waited about an hour for Evan, but it was a nice day.

Tim, our waiter, brought me tea sandwiches while I waited. It is sort of cheese spread on toast. I like it.

Evan got there and ordered a coffee drink and chips with queso. We then played our first game. Today was Wingspan. One of the best games in 2019 and still a pleasure to play. You run a bird sanctuary and whoever runs the most efficient sanctuary wins. The game was designed by a bird expert and comes from the same team that brought forth Scythe. I also have a few bling items like wooden painted food tokens that improve the immersive feel.

Evan had only played once before. I purchased a training set from Stonemaier Games’ website for Wingspan. We tried it out. It comes with additional bird cards not found in the original set. It helped Evan remember how to play. I also have the new scoring board instead which we used instead of the light cardboard one that comes with the game.

I had not played for a while, and I did get one rule wrong, but we found the mistake fast, and it had no impact on play. I managed to get an engine going; my owls kept eating other birds. I also had picked up a few favs that generate a lot of points.

One of my complaints against Wingspan is that birds are randomly drawn from a huge stack of cards. I managed to get three birds that drove tucked cards, a polite-looking process representing predation, and Evan had none. This gave me an easy winning total. It is a pretty game, and I have slowly learned the names, habits, and look of many North American birds (I have not purchased any additional birds now available). I would recommend it, but with the caution that some games may hinge on luck or lack of luck.

The little eggs are just adorable. I have the purple eggs add-on. This pic is after the game, and my board is partially pulled apart to count the tucked cards. Evan’s board, on the top of the photo, is still correct.

My fellow gamers who are fans of Wingspan would likely say that I should learn to play the game better…

We played Architects of the West Kingdom next. This is a worker placement and resource management game. We had not played it for a while at Mox. I have the stupidly expensive painted meeple replacement that looks fantastic until you see the price. I also have the coins (don’t ask) that are metal. We played with the expansion, Age of Artisans, and the promo card add-ons. Garphill Games, which publish the game, produce add-ons that rework some of the game, and the games then play better with the add-on. This is true with Architects of the West Kingdom, and I heard it is also true with the Viking games–I have not played the Viking raiding games.

Note: I have Raiders of Scythia, another raiding game by Garphill Games, and I have not played it enough to comment on it other than I love the art. And I bought the expensive metal coins for it too.

We skipped the drafting part of the game. With two players, it is not that useful. I ended up with high-value buildings that gave me the game. Again, luck was on my side today. I managed to avoid any mistakes and worked my way through the game to win. I think we will have to use the drafting rules next time. You take a card and then pass the hand to the other player. They have a hand of cards and do the same. This creates a balance—next time as you must pass some good cards on to the other player.

Yes, I played Bertha–yellow.

I had a shot of Amaretto with coffee. Evan had a coffee drink. We then said good night to Mox. I drove home. No traffic and the sun was gone, and we back to grey Oregon.

Corwin and Susie ordered Mexican food delivered, and I shared in the tacos.

It was not a bad day, and I enjoyed writing today as I am not in a hurry or working India hours while writing.

18,943 vaccinations were given in Oregon yesterday, including 1,008 Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccinations. This number will likely increase as it takes 72 hours to collect and post all the counts. We can still not schedule a shot, but I am hopeful that all of this will get easier soon.

Even with the good news, we still have to witness that 1,515 people are reported to have lost their lives to the virus today. Many must die alone as it is not safe for their families to be with them. I cry for them.

I found this jazzy version of How Shall They Hear the Word of God–Methodist Hymnal #649. It includes a prayer. I hope you like it.

 

This evening I got a few items in the mail. I got a mold for resin from China today. It was supposed to arrive here much later, but my very polite posts on Etsy.com seemed to get folks in China to send it early. I am now thinking about mounting a vacuum tube from the old Tesla company in Czechoslovakia that I bought for another art project into some resin and adding some electronics for it to light up. I have resin now, a set of glitter to mix into the resin, gears, and other tiny watch parts from Micromart that could add some mechanical flavor. I think I can make something cool. I will put some Neopixels with the vacuum tube. I have cut a hole in the base to put a light into the base as if it was a running tube. I will see if I can make something nice out of an old Soviet Bloc tube.

I have ordered some induction parts that I can use to make a charging light. That will be a second vacuum tube; I have some Edison vacuum tubes too!. I have ordered that from AdaFruit, one of the world’s best suppliers of DIY electronic and small computers.

I also received a used book from the Curious Book Store in East Lansing. It was just a few more buck to get a copy from my old stomping ground of this used book store on AbeBooks.com. This is a textbook on the solution to Fermat’s Last Theorem. The Curious Book Store inventory is online, and once and a while, it comes up as an option on various web searches for more obscure items; I always try to buy from them when I can.

I also received from Micromart little model windows, but they are too large for the wargaming models I am working on. I will see if I can “steal” some extra windows from the Titanic model I am building currently on the back-burner. Those are etched brass and tiny and might work.

Work started at 7ish. I was able to sleep in a bit. It was still slow going. I managed to get ready in time for the first of a few hours of status meetings on Friday. I could also hear the trash trucks as Friday is trash day for us. I was too tired to go for a walk, so I skipped that today.

I managed to get back to coding my install scripts and undid most of the work I did last night. It was not working. I managed to get everything to work and to clean-up some of the work. I just rewrote most of it.

I went out for lunch; I drove Air Volvo to the gas station (I think it is the first refill this year). I then drove to Wendy’s and brought back Wendy’s chili for lunch. One of my fav. I remember when there was only one Wendy’s in Owosso, Michigan when I was still in high school. It seemed so special to get a burger at Wendy’s that tasted so good. Wendy’s, to me, is a high-class burger.

I had a few more status meetings, and I finished the scripts today. It all seems to be working.

I made dinner after a short nap and doing some Fritz Leiber reading. I am reading that to relax a bit. It is Swords and Sorcery style and my fav. I recommend Fritz Leiber’s world of Nehwon books.

I made scrambled eggs with a bowl of canned peaches for dinner for Susie and me.

I went back to work in the morning India time, 9:30PM, and we had a short alignment meeting. We will get Saturday and most of Sunday off.

22,428 people were vaccinated yesterday. This number will likely increase as the final counts take 72 hours to post. I checked again today, and there were no appointments available for us. We will keep checking.

1,794 people in the USA died today of the virus.

I turned to We’ll Understand It Better By and By and this version is my fav so far–Methodist Hymnal #525.

Today started at 7ish as I could sleep in an extra hour today.

Today I was again in Zoom meetings for hours on status. We also had run one of the conversions, and the data was having issues, which caused some political reactions. We had to explain in detail and research the issues. As we convert what we have with the data and configuration available, we cause others’ issues.

The day was spent on meetings after meetings, all on Zoom.

I missed my walk as the meetings were booked over it. I did make it out at 12ish to drive to Taco Bell in Air Volvo and brought back tacos today. Susie likes plain tacos, and I prefer supreme tacos.

More meetings on data and conversions on Zoom happen all through the afternoon. I finally get to writing Groovy and BASH for the install scripts I need to write.

I try to make Morroco Chicken using the Instant Pot. It was not quite right, and Susie did not eat much.

I was back online at 8PM for India morning. I listened to the data conversion meetings while writing more code and testing. I have it almost working.

So not a very interesting day for my blog, just work. I did the laundry too. Sorry that I had a hectic but not very interesting day.

I spoke to Cory today; he called me to see how we are doing. He is handicapped, lost two legs, and is getting his second shot this weekend. We have played games for years, and I hope we can play again in April or May once we all get shots. I have a new version of Frostgrave, and Cory liked that game. This is a table-top figure game, not a role-playing game. You use little tape measures and laser pointers and run a team of 28mm figures. I have ruins and rubble to fill a map with so you can recreate the ruins of the lost city of Frostgrave on the table. It would be fun to get this going again. I have more ruins coming, some printed resources, and specialized 28mm figures ready and some to assemble and paint.

16,376 people were vaccinated yesterday in Oregon. This number will likely increase as it takes 72 hours to post all the numbers.

1,993 people in the USA died from the virus today. The numbers appear to still be decreasing.

This Is My Land is my fav hymn, and I found this nice version today.

 

When things go wrong in many computers, the data is filled with all ones when something has gone wrong. This is often represented in hexadecimal notation as FF or in Python (and many other computer languages) as 0xFF and $FF in old displays of “hex,” as it is usually called. Tonight my plans to work the India morning were halted when the software control software, literally the software that updates software, failed. Tonight we could not get the changes deployed to our testing environments, and thus no tests. Foobar or FF–legend has it on model train operational play that the clock would show FF when the operational plan failed; that is where computers get Foobar from. The military version has a different meaning altogether.

I was thinking of 255 when I saw the day count.

Thinking I needed a break, we went to The Rock Wood Fired Pizza today for dinner, working backward. We had a few beers, just one small one for me as I believed then I would need to return to work tonight and dinner. I had a meatball sandwich as I remember it was good and it still is!

The bartender and waiter were all happy to see us again. We have been showing up a lot. Their pizza is delicious with the wood flavor in a crunchy crust, and their drinks excellent. They also follow masking and cleaning with care. The customers are also careful to replace masks and keep their distance. I feel safe there.

I rested a bit in the afternoon after writing more groovy code and getting some install processes finally to work. My test program is now working. I was expecting to be up late, and I was tired from two days of working Portland and India hours.

I also got Susie going, and we walked 1/2 way down our street. Susie found it harder today than last week. We need to keep this up. The neighbors waved and were happy to see us out.

Lunch was Burger King today. I had a whopper with cheese with fries (terrible), and Susie had a whopper jr with cheese plain. I will have to remember Wayne’s suggestion to get onion rings instead and skip fries for Susie.

I received a new esoterica book today, Hermetica. This book had a large influence on the thinking of the medieval and Renaissance periods. I wanted to learn more about this. Also, I have acquired some large books, physically huge, on the impact of writings from the Embassy of the Freemind in Amsterdam. This is more of my research for some adventures I would like to write in a fantasy version of Europe. More books; you can never have enough.

I also purchased on eBay some figures I am painting for a friend’s daughter. A young female druid made by Reaper in metal. I would prefer their bones plastic, but I can make this work. We like plastic figures on the table-top as they don’t scratch and break. I will try to work the figure this week and weekend.

I ordered HO and N scale windows used for building model train scale building. Micromark sells a couple random sets; I should find what I need in the set. The train guys have all the best toys! I want to use a few windows to dress up the factory I am painting. I also think I could use these tiny windows on a couple of ship models on the back-burner.

I started the day sleeping into 7ish as my first meeting was at 8. I spent the early morning catching up with what happened during India’s day and getting started for Wednesday.

12,736 people were vaccinated yesterday in Oregon–this is a preliminary number and will increase. Oregon has administered more than a million doses so far, and our county, Washington, has vaccinated more than 13% of the population. We still have not managed an appointment for shots, but I am very optimistic that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine will reduce the logistical problems of two-shot vaccination. We could not get appointments for both shots, so we could not schedule anything. I will try again.

2,350 people died today from Covid-19 in the USA. The death rate is not decreasing now.

I turned to a hymn I did not know, On This Day Earth Shall Ring–Methodist Hymnal #248. This is a 16th-century hymn.

Today started at 6ish as I had status meetings at 7. We were meeting the vendor and Nike in India. It was about our data conversions. That was followed by more status meetings that went on for hours on Zoom.

I did not sleep very well, and my memory of today is a bit fuzzy, so this will be a short blog.

I had a few crises of the moment to resolve before I managed a walk. My coughing was a bit harsh, and I took the shorter walk; use it or lose it! My breathing is better after the walk and using my inhalers.

I ordered lunch from Mazatlan Mexican Restaurant delivered by GrubHub. I got someone’s lunch, but not what I ordered. The mole was sweet and cinnamon; not what I would have selected–interesting.

Susie got going in the afternoon, and I made her oatmeal from instant, two packs. I made oatmeal from scratch yesterday–I am sticking with instant oatmeal (pun!).

We managed to run the conversion jobs, and I have been going on and off all day and the evening.

I did manage to read and take a couple short naps to help. This helps me stay focused, but I am now becoming drained.

I was not able to get a Covid-19 shot appointment for us today. I will keep searching every day.

The Schwann’s truck showed up today, and my driver, Stephene, helped me restock the freezer. She comes by every two weeks and has been running through most of the emergency. I got my ham for Christmas from her. They have good pork products and frozen veggies.

I made grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner today. We had a slice of carrot cake for dessert; this is the last of the carrot cake I made from scratch last week.

Only 3,984 people were vaccinated yesterday in Oregon. These numbers will likely improve as it takes 72 hours to collect all the data.

1,989 people have died from Covid-19 today in the USA.

I found this, and it works today: O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing.