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It is hard to imagine that we would be into this lockdown now 218 days. From what I can tell, we are now at the half-way point. The virus death-rate is lower–likely from younger and healthy people catching it and medical procedures now better understood to help the seriously ill with Covid-19. Still, there is no significant improvement for older people and those with reduced immune systems. A vaccine is still months away in a large and safe, and effective application to the USA and European populations.

Today started as do most Mondays at 6ish with me trying to find my way and catching up with the emails and other communications. Despite that the world is round and that many folks sent emails on the other side of the earth when I am still sleeping, I had a pile of issues from India and some leftovers from the weekend. The world runs non-stop, even before Covid-19.

I spent the morning drinking a lot of coffee and trying to untangle items left over from the previous week. We managed to find our way, and I get some things started. I read emails on one screen and watched Zoom and documents on another screen; I had my two screens running. One is email and Slack channels, and the other is for Zoom and composing. I have a third screen using my personal laptop; I watch the news and my personal email.

Lunch was New England Clam Chowder from a can. While I was having lunch, Susie was off getting hair, nails, etc. done by Zerida. This is every Monday morning. Her driver was a few minutes late, but she got going and had Chicken McNugget fav for lunch.

Susie finished her ballet today and they all went out with today’s mail.

Susie had a dentist appointment today, so I had to stop the Zoom and emails and text and Slack channels early. Susie has an appointment to return on Thursday for a filling fix.

Tonight we returned to playing Roll20 with six players now, the perfect number. We had to skip last week as I had a computer conference, virtual, on Monday night. We stopped in the middle of combat. Thus we picked up combat there. Matt Vincent joined us as a dwarf war cleric. We added him as a survivor from another party of explorers. In my story, he was driven to the lower levels by the confusion effect from the umber hulks (think if a cross between a beetle and an ogre) that broken in and rediscovered the “lost level.” The adventurers finally made short work of the invisible stalkers that attacked them. Matt’s cleric O’Mi was being stalked by some evil dwarves, and he joined the other players who then helped bring an end to the evil stalkers.

Aside: We are running the massive Mad Mage adventure available in book form from your local gaming store or in the electronic version on Roll20.

In the applications, they explored a bit more and found a huge room filled with more evil dwarves who hailed them and eventually got the players to trip the defenses for the altar. There were literally flattened remains of some evil dwarves near the altar, think something from Indian Jones movies. When the players tripped the trap, the altar unfolded into a clay monster (golem). Still, the players put it down–they had expected it and managed to cast dispel magic on it to slow down its transformation (I went with the idea that dispel magic spell in 5e rules can remove a magic ability for one round), giving them two full sets of attacks.

In Roll20, all the evil dwarves and their allies attacked when they saw the golem was destroyed. As the Dungeon Master, I decided that. The bad guys were driven off by the adventurers.

The last of our story from today is that the grand doors to the treasury did not open when they pushed them, and a giant incorporeal hand is now trying to crush them. We will pick-up the story next week in Roll20.

I did have some issues with the Roll20 software. I had to go out and come back in once. That cleared all the issues. I had to wait a few times for the information to appear. I used two screens again. I put the text items on one screen and the map and controls on another screen. This works best for me.

After the game, I learned that Susie has a vision problem tonight. She has gone partially blind in one eye. She has a larger “floater” in the good eye. We will contact the eye folks in the morning. Often they clear-up in a few weeks, but you always want them checked.

We really did not need a new problem. We will, avoiding Covid-19, deal with it.

I received my Open Enrollment papers from Nike today. Nothing has changed. That is not bad; Nike has decided to absorb the additional cost for health insurance next year and offer the same insurance. Something nice from 2020.

The stock market had a large loss when the stimulus package again did not materialize.

The reports are that more than four-hundred forty people in the USA died today from the infection. The charts are also showing a third wave starting here and in the world.

I decided to go with something to make us all feel better, Puff The Magic Dragon. It is sort of a hymn.

I managed to spend the whole morning in my robe. Not never happens. I did not do the dishes or laundry and just read email and read about board games on the Internet. I also watched Expedition Unknown reality (sort-of) show on lost pirate treasure–a favorite for these shows. This one, The Buzzard, has a famous lost treasure, a cipher, has been represented in black and white pirate movies, and his grave thought to give you magical powers. Again, most of this is made-up and cipher discovered in the 1930s, but it is a fun story.

I had reheated quiche from yesterday. Always good the next day.

After enjoying The Buzzard story, I met Mariah for beers and food at The Rock Pizza place. The bar is well-spaced out, with no customers within ten feet of each other, and the staff very caring. Masks are in place and put back on when leaving the table. So we feel safe there, and the food is good. I had a meatball sandwich and fries; pizza places have good meatballs. Mariah had a quasi-Mediterranean salad that resembled more of a chef salad.

We received some of the personal protection equipment I have ordered for Halloween. We have the face shields. I already have gloves and masks, and the gowns are in order. We will be splattered with fake blood and giving out candy well protected and protecting the kids. I think we will get some fake vampire teeth and maybe some other items. The neighbors are setting up tubes to drop candy through.

The rest of the day I read and rested a bit. I made Pork Vindaloo for dinner a bit late as everyone had late lunches. The Vindaloo is the same recipe I make and it comes out perfect. It is from Cook’s but requires a membership or to buy the magazine to get it.

I am doing the laundry and reading. I am trying to finish the very dark murder mystery book, In the Woods by Tana French, set in Ireland that I find well written and engaging. It is about the murder of a child, and the narrator is not that sympathetic to me, one of the detectives. I can’t put it down, but I can’t recommend it. I like the more polite English deaths and saw that Maisie Dobbs has her 16th book coming out in March. I always recommend her stories–the stories are often dark, but the narrator is sympathetic.

While writing this the liquid laundry soap was vibrated off the shelf and crashed to the floor leaving a huge puddle of soap. Corwin and I cleaned up the puddle with towels that we then rinsed out in the bathtub. I am now washing them. It is a huge mess!

So I will stop a bit now as it is now late after getting the mess mostly cleaned-up.

Update: The amount of suds in the washer suggests we did not get as much rinsed out and may have to run the towels a second time. But, the washer did not burst with suds so we made it past that!

In excess of four-hundred forty people in the USA are reported to have died from Covid-19.

As we had our own little flood here, I was thinking of many songs, and I found Peter and Paul and Mary This Land Is My Land, and it worked for me. It is a good election song.

I still remember my first time doing the mail-in only voting in Oregon. We received a list of things and people to vote for. We then were given a punch card and instructions to bend a paperclip to make a punch to knock-out the holes in the card. Yes, we had to match the ballet to numbers on this weird card and then punch out the right hole to vote. We all noticed that some of the punches were left, and we all dutifully removed them. It required careful attention to detail to vote that year!

Then there was the famous election where Florida made a mess of counting the vote. We learned, and I remember my fellow Oregonians commenting on it, “Those are called chads.” Yes, we in Oregon had the same voting cards like those used in Florida, and we did not get voting booths, and we had to make our own punch. We also had to pay for postage or hand deliver it if we waited until the last minute. In Oregon, we were unimpressed by various complaints in Florida that it was too confusing to vote, and they should get a Mulligan.

I mailed my ballot in that election. I was in Europe in Laakdal, Belgium, when the non-results was announced. The locals thought it was hilarious that the USA could not handle a simple election. They gave me pencils for next time, “This is how we do it here.”

Today our ballets came, and you may use black or blue ink to fill in the bubbles. I did look up the candidates for Oregon lesser offices but voted pretty much Democrat. I was not happy with the Democrat for state Treasurer–I am for a big infrastructure project–he is against it, but I was even less enchanted with the other candidates. He got my vote. I also looked up come county officials and found enough to feel that I picked those I would want.

This year, and maybe the previous years–I never noticed before, we have a prepaid envelope to mail our ballets. I put a Scooby-Doo stamp on it anyway. I am happy to invest a stamp, and I can still hear Mike Pence say, “And we would have got away with it except for those meddling kids!”.

I did use the optional secrecy sleeve. Not sure how it works, but it gave me that 007 feeling and so I used it. I am sure the Oregon version of Q branch would not have been happy if I had not included it. I signed it on the back with my best biz signature–it matches my driver license John Hancock.

Today, reliving the morning started with a crushing headache and getting up in time to intercept the grocery delivery from Safeway.com. Coffee, food, and turn off some lights got the pain under control. Safeway was on time. The screen door caught my foot and cut my ankle. Not very deep but a bit messy. Usually, the door is just in the way.

Susie was not up. I made her a ham and cheddar cheese quiche using a frozen pie crust. I cut a piece out for her and put the rest in the refrigerator on a mitt as it was still a bit warm. Later, when I called her, she said it was wonderful. I tried a small slice, and it was good before I left.

I met Evan to play games. He has an acting gig tonight, a 72-hour under-the-gun film, so we could only play for a few hours. I brought the board game Concordia. After my first game, I bought it and the add-on Concordia Salsa (all of which is now combined into the better and slightly cheaper Concordia Venus). I enjoy playing this game and would always slide a game in when I can. You can find a review and explanation of this game here.

We had a great time, and I almost blew my lead and lost! I also slipped, and Evan got a farmer and vintner card that counts for a lot at the end of the game. I also let him get seven points by causing the game end–If only I had bought one more bricks! It was a good play, and we did not have to undo any mistakes.

We saw our friends at Mox again, and they were happy to serve us some adult beverages and lunch. Evan tried the duck, and it looked wonderful–he said it was excellent.

I dropped by another gaming store in Portland–Guardian Games, and the staff was happy to see me. Before Covid-19, I would be there many nights renting a room, trying out the newest games, and giving them reports on how the new game or add-on played. We talked about some games, and I bought a deck of event cards, Lovecraft horror style, called Sidequest Decks. These are much more useful than I expected. A connection, a plot, and a resolution on every card with the back being the map of the area. I added them to the wood crate I use to hold Call of Cthulhu stuff. I found the crate in a local antique store; it has “American Embalming Fluid” stamped on the side. Bringing that to a horror game gets some attention!

Dinner was at Mazatlan for Mexican with the Weld-Martins. I called them as I was driving back from Portland, and they were planning for Mexican, and we agreed to meet them.

I got home and Susie got ready and we met Wayne and Ann for dinner. We had a nice dinner and masks and care were taken by Mazatlan’s staff to keep us safe. I felt safe there.

After that I voted and started to write this blog. I run a bit late on Saturdays.

More than six-hundred thirty people in the USA died from Covid-19 today.

I turned again to a hymn in the Methodist Hymnal (#369) and decided that one will do and found a nice version of it: Blessed Assurance.

Not a very long or interesting blog tonight. Sorry it was a quiet day.

I slept into 6:30ish before starting my day at work from home—zoom call after Zoom call starting about 8 and ending at 3:30. The last event being a virtual baby shower for one of our folks at Nike, Molly. We played a few trivia like games on-line to celebrate, and it was nice to see our friends if only their picture in a Zoom call. Some of my co-workers I have only seen on Zoom a few times this year. Usually, I would see them when I would be meeting in their building or passing in the halls. It was nice to hang-out for a bit, even virtually.

Molly had a baby shower wish list I was able to use at Amazon. I bought things to fix baby issues to be delivered to Molly’s home. That is what I do, I fix things at Nike, so I thought I should stick with what I know! The items will be delivered tomorrow in plenty of time for their go-live.

At the baby shower, we were to provide baby pictures of ourselves as our virtual background. I had to look through the pictures I have scanned for a baby photo of me. I saw a young Dad, Grandpa, and even Great Grandpa in some of the images. In one picture, I am just a newborn with a very young dad holding me. Grandpa, about my age, and Great Grand Dad at the age of about where Dad would be are in the photo. It is so odd to see them so young, and I missed them today.

Work was filled with a few crises of the moment that are all cleared up or delayed until next week. I changed Susie’s bandages from her skin biopsies. The original bandages were starting to itch–she is allergenic to the tape. I slipped that in between meetings.

I also made hamburgers from frozen patties adding cheese between meetings for lunch. Susie had scones and had her hamburger for dinner later. I was going to have potato salad with my burger, but I could not find any. I did not spot the potato salad container in the butter dish area in the refrigerator until later today when looking for butter. I moved the potato salad back to a shelf and the butter back to the butter dish. Hmmm.

I ordered groceries from Safeway.com while listening to a status meeting. I usually have a fill-in order for a few weeks and a large order once a month. The freezer is full, so I have to a bit careful. I did not order butter or potato salad–we have enough.

I took a short nap–that is how I change gears now, a short nap. I then got up and served Susie her hamburger, and I had warmed up the spaghetti from last night.

Our ballets still have not shown up. Should see them on Saturday or Monday.

More than nine-hundred twenty people fell to the virus today in the USA.

I opened and turned right to Great Is Thy Faithfulness in the Methodist Hymnal (#140) today and that just worked for me.

Today started at 6ish. I managed to sleep most of the night; I was ready to start. My morning and part of the afternoon were back-to-back Zoom meetings.

Susie was up early today. She took her Thursday pill, and then I made her oatmeal for breakfast while listening to my meetings. Susie is still covered with the bandages from the skin biopsies on her head, back, and arms. She no longer needs Tylenol to sleep.

I skipped the Presidential non-debates and my former Methodist church’s charge conference for mostly the same reason. I did not need new sources of stress and unhappiness in my life. From what I read, the President managed to flash his white supremacists’ credentials, and the former Vice President did not deny that he will pack the Supreme Court if the majority of Democrats are in the Senate in 2021. The Methodist Church continues trying to deny that it denies rights to gay people. Yes, no reason to show up for any of that.

Our ballets should arrive tomorrow. I have the Scooby-Doo stamps ready.

Lunch for me was Mexican from Victorico’s Mexican Food (Tanasborne); I had it delivered. It tasted better, this time. I was not sure I would get lunch; GrubHub had to switch drivers for my lunch. Apparently, the initial driver did not get the request. I called her as requested by GrubHub and said she had no order. My lunch arrived 30 mins late with another driver, but it was still good.

Today I was reading and replying to emails from yesterday; I was off yesterday taking Susie to the skin doctor. I managed to catch-up as we had changed work increments, and thus I had nothing pending. I did not get through everything until lunchtime.

I took a walk after I cleared the last meeting today. I am stiff, and my legs are not working right. I find if I walk every day, it is less painful and less weird. I still stagger once in a while like a drunk, but I at least don’t fall. I am not dizzy; I just can’t seem to have things move the way I want. Again, I think sitting in this chair for six months is the main cause. Use-it-or-lose-it.

I made dinner today of spaghetti and meatballs—sauce from a jar. Frozen meatballs baked in the oven until good and hot. It was good, but a bit plain.

I finished Journey to the Center of the Earth today. My verdict is to skip the book and watch the movie. The book has aged poorly, and none of the characters are sympathetic–the old movie is campy, dated and predictable, and still better than the book. I do like the devices and events in the book–they are better done in the movie! Returning to the book, I can see that this might be where H.P. Lovecraft got some ideas. I noticed how the narrative matches a bit to Imprisoned with the Pharaohs–a light horror story I would recommend by Lovecraft and Harry Houdini. I could also imagine Lovecraft’s overly long syntax-pushing sentences could be a reaction to the brevity of the translated Jules Verne sentences. I might have to write a Howard story about an underground journey after reading this.

I also bought on the AbeBooks.com website an 1893 guide to the Chicago Fair. I have read about it, The Devil in the White City: A Saga of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed America, and I wanted to know more. The original guide book was a bit expensive, but it was recommended by the author I just read as a source to learn more about the fair. This is my second purchase; I found another guide for about $40 on eBay that is on its way too. I might have to write a story about Howard visiting the fair or a Call of Cthulhu adventure set in a part of the 1893 Chicago Fair.

We are switching out board games on Saturday. Concordia will now be on the “play-list.” This is a worker placement and engine building game with a deck-building component. It is elegant and plays well with two players, as well as with higher numbers. The game is set in the Pax Roma, and you are running a clan trying to get rich and richer than everyone else. Pronouncing the Roman names is part of the fun of the game. You have to get trade goods and build up. Trade goods can be purchased and sold. You can also improve your options by acquiring more cards to use. This takes trade goods or good timing or special cards that you must acquire. Like all good board games, every turn has decisions to be made, and as a good Euro game, you are always short of resources or options. When the game ends, the cards are grouped, and those groups multiply your wealth (points). The game is interesting and every ever so slightly competitive. I am looking forward to playing it at Mox this weekend.

I went back over the event in Tulsa in 1921 today–reading the history. Tulsa 1921 was the subject of the last episode of Lovecraft Country and made me cry. It is hard to see a full-on special effects recreation. The attempt to find the slaughtered’s mass-grave was in the news today–the archeologists have not found it yet.

Another eight-hundred seventy-four people are reported to have died today in the USA from the virus.

I have done this exact video many times. With all that is going on today, I was thinking of this as the song I would want: Lift Up Every Voice And Sing. Sorry to repeat it again, but it was in my mind all night.

And if the things are getting you down then watch this: You Have A Friend. Also a repeat, but it is still good.