Today is crazy, and I am still online at work. This will be a short blog.
I stayed in bed until about 7ish. I was working until about 11PM-ish last night. I am online again at 10:45PM at work. We have some hard deadlines and lots of folks working late. I am on multiple teams with issues. I seem to be on early and late and all the times between 😉
I got up and was ready for my first meeting at 7:30ish. I had not brushed my hair well and got some comments on the Zoom meeting. But nobody was on video at 7:30!
I had about four hours of Zoom meetings until I got a break.
I managed a short walk today between Zoom meetings. I made a sandwich, cold roast beef and cheddar cheese, that I ate while in Zoom meetings. Susie was up early, and I got her breakfast while having non-stop Zoom calls.
The rest of the day was a rush of status meetings and crises. We have hard deadlines, and data conversions are going a bit side-ways. I was needed to help here and there. I was in a meeting all later afternoon into the evening—all Zoom. I was called in as the “wizard” for performance fixes.
In the mail, Mom Wild sent Susie a penguin stuffed animal. The purchase of the stuffed animal supports penguins in the wild. Susie has been tired and a bit down. She really brightened up when she saw the penguin! It is nearly full-sized!
I made chicken soup from a can and Kraft Delux mac and cheese. I also cooked up some bacon to dressing up the food for dinner. Everything is better with bacon!
I actually did the dishes with folks online with the mic turned off. They could see me watching a pan and filling the dishwasher while we worked on the problems.
So a very crazy day today.
11,516 people were vaccinated yesterday in Oregon. These numbers should increase as it takes 72 hours to get all the data. Our county, Washington, is at 7.6% vaccinated.
3,523 people in the USA lost their lives to the virus today.
I went with the hymn I turned to when I opened the Methodist Hymnal, It Is Well With My Soul.
Wednesday started as most of my workday at 6ish, but I decided to take that extra 15 minutes. So I made coffee, read emails, looked at the daily news, and then hurried to the shower and dressing to make the 7ish meeting. This was the All-Employee Monthly meeting. I will not share most of the content here, but it was much better done this time and only overran by ten minutes with the CEO telling us to stay for the finish. It was not bad after that status meetings started again and some small reviews. I also got a few emergency requests today. So it was a rushing day.
I took a short walk today. I am stiff, and my legs have some pain. I might have overdone it or slept funny last night. I took it easy today.
I decided to order out for lunch from Ma-Now, Mussaman Curry. I was having more breathing issues, so I wanted something nice. Thai food always seems to make me feel better, and breathing gets easier from the spices.
I started looking at how to do change control processes on a new platform for Nike. I was mostly reading and talking to folks about how to set up the processes. I will have to code some of it too in a programming language called Groovy. I spent the afternoon reading and getting ready for this work.
We had a problem when Susie decided that it was the Publishing Clearing House prize team on the phone. They had us drive to meet people. It was obviously a con when they asked for us to pay them $300 tax for Oregon on the prizes. It at least got Susie a nice drive.
We picked up KFC on the way back to the house.
Mariah came over to visit and chatted with Susie while I had some more meetings on data conversions. Masks on.
Mariah and I dueled over Jeopardy while enjoying KFC. Mariah got almost every answer in the first round. I managed to get some of the high-value obscure ones right in double Jeopardy. I also knew the final answer about French kings; I remembered the “Sun King” and got the answer. We did OK.
Wheel of Fortune was a total fail for me. Not my kind of game, letter games. Mariah was also having some trouble. We had the chocolate cake from KFC during Wheel of Fortune. We will need more practice!
I rarely do TV, and Susie is usually watching Mash. It was nice to watch Jeopardy today.
I had another meeting tonight, still ongoing, as we try to start the data conversions. I am writing this while we have Zoom on, hoping to get a fix for an issue so we can finish tonight.
While I write this, there was a thump; Susie fell. Somehow she leaned too far over to get her coat and just kept going. Being an ice skater, she landed between her bike and the chair next to it. Perfectly safe and only need to be helped up.
A crazy day!
12,167 people were vaccinated in Oregon yesterday. This number will be revised upward as it takes 72 hours for the data to be collected. Our county, Washington, has reached 7.4% vaccinated.
The first meeting was 7ish, of course, so I was rushed in the morning. Status meetings and issue meetings all morning. I had to pick them as I was often double or even triple-booked for meeting today.
The day was full of meetings until lunchtime. I met with my boss and have a new assignment. A more technical challenge that I think I will enjoy.
I slipped in a full walk today. It was a nice morning with sun breaks. I saw the crows, a murder of crows, all in a staff meeting a few streets down. I do not know what the subject was, but it was loud.
I remembered to take a picture of the creek I walk to on the full walk. Two ducks enjoy the creek on the other side, and I thought it would be a nice photo. The ducks objected to my attention and started to swim away.
The local elementary school, Reedville School, posted a message that they miss everyone. It seemed a bit sad to me. It was a good walk, sunny, ducks, crows, and sad schools.
Returning to work, I also had some solutions to review and point-of-view to give. It was a busy morning. It ended with a one-on-one meeting with my boss and a new assignment for me. We also did my review for the last six months. It was fine.
Lunch was reheated chili and a cornbread muffin. I also have to admit that the girl scout cookies were too close to me and have gone missing. It is not likely the last three cookies will be missed, I hope.
I had already blocked my calendar as I had to do some head-down work. It is unusual for me to do that of late, but the work I have now is very detailed and requires close attention. The new assignment will also require the same heads-down and likely headphones–it is very technical.
I got started just in time for Clare to get here. This is possibly Susie’s last Physical Therapy appointment. Another month just flew by. Susie is doing much better, and we hope we can continue. Clare and Susie went over a lot of exercises, and Susie was quite tired after Clare left.
Clare was ill and missed the last appointment. Apparently, the second dose of the vaccine gets a strong response. You are miserable. Clare is now fully vaccinated.
After PT was done, I went back to work and sent my finding to the wider group; we meet again to review soon. I signed off.
I made dinner; it is a repeat of last week. Steak from Schwann’s, thawed mostly, with baked potatoes (put in the oven at 400F for an hour this time per Mariah) and corn steamed on the stovetop also from Schwann’s. The steaks are cooked on the stovetop in a hot pan with just a bit of butter to get them a bit brown and then finished in the same pan in the hot oven. I, remembering to cover the metal handle with an oven mitt, make a quick pan gravy with butter, water, and corn starch. Slice steaks thin and cover with a bit of gravy.
I watched the BBC news on our local PBS channel with Susie while we had dinner. No sitdown dinner in this house. We eat in the living room, watching the news or other shows.
I then set up a new board game, The King Is Dead, Second Edition, that I purchased this weekend. I saw a review of it on youtube that gave it top marks, so I wanted to try it–one of the best games of 2020. It was not expensive and smallish–I can slide it into a spot on the shelves. So little guilt for buying just one more game…
The King is Dead, Second Edition is set in medieval Britain (gold) and Scotland (blue), and Wales (red), plus a bit of France (black). You are trying to have the most support for the new King, either a British, Welsh, or Scottish king, or the widest base of supporters if the French invade. You have eight cards, just eight, that allow you to take only eight actions for the whole game! You can use the cards to manipulate the supporters or the order of power struggle. Once you and your opponent, who also is trying to win, have stopped the manipulating, a power struggle for a province happens. The province supporters throw their support behind one of the would-be kings, either British, Welsh, or Scott, or they cannot decide and are marked as undecided–black–(you just count them; they are different colors). If three provinces go undecided, the game ends with a French invasion. Assuming the French stay away, the manipulation starts again–plots are hatched and ruined. Once this stops again, more power struggles. This is repeated through eight providences or until the French invade.
French invasion!
I gave it a try playing against myself, and it plays fast, and I have no idea what to do. I will need to do more videos on How-to-Play. It seems that you need to plan and plot and find combinations. All this would be easier, but most of the supporters are assigned randomly, including your first two! Each game then is unique. Also, the order of power struggles is random, but you can manipulate that, but only once in a game! It seems fast and hard not to shoot-your-wad or hold out too long for that perfect play and face the French. I think I like it.
10,712 people received the vaccine in Oregon Yesterday, and this number will likely increase as the data takes 72 hours to collect. Our county, Washington, is now at 7.2% vaccinated.
3,633 people in the USA today lost their lives to Covid-19.
As usual, Monday morning at 6ish seemed to get here too soon. I was asleep about midnight. I had a request from work, and so I finished that about 11:30PM Sunday night. I fell asleep unusually fast, so it was a little easier Monday morning than my normal hard-to-fall-asleep Sunday-morning resulting in there-is-not-enough-coffee-for-today experience.
Work was a rush of requests and Zoom meetings. I handled email and some requests and then rushed to shower and dress, managing to not be late for my first meeting. The morning was Zoom meetings from 7 until 11. There were the usual suspects of some crises of the moment and lots of status reports like most Mondays. There were lots of action during the weekend; I worked Saturday morning and followed along on Sunday. Thus today’s status reports were actual useful information (status reports on Friday and Monday when there is no work on a weekend are usually exactly the same).
Monday is Susie’s day with Zerida for hair, nails, toes, and so on. I rallied Susie at 8:30, the last possible minute, and she ready for her driver at 9ish. Susie returned about 2PM with a Chicken McNugget Happy Meal, her fav.
I managed to get a walk at 11ish but just a short one. It is very wet today. My coat was quite wet when I got home.
I reheated quiche from the weekend. I made it on Sunday, and it is good reheated.
I had more status and more requests after breaking for lunch. I have Roll20 today, so I spent lunchtime reading the adventure text I was hosting this evening. I had read it a month ago, but I needed to refresh my memory. The players were headed into the minotaur den in the online Dungeons and Dragons adventure. The two hours of play would likely be unrelenting combat in the maze of the Mad Mage.
In my reading, I saw that the 5E version of the minotaur would be a push-over for the players. But there were lots of them. So it looks like an interesting night coming up at 6:30.
I had a few more Zoom meetings in the afternoon. I met with a new group that I am helping to understand some of the data. This is my newest task.
I finally finished about 4ish and read and relaxed a bit.
I grilled some hamburgers and added cheese. These are frozen, and that stops me from burning the burgers! I cannot get them right unless they are frozen. I added cheese to the burgers and some water to the hot pan and cover it to let the steam do the rest of the cooking. I opened a can of baked beans and warmed them in a pan. Dinner was ready. I have the game at 6:30; I need to rush.
I read more of the text. We have everyone on time, and we get going. Minotaurs attack, and the small squad is quickly wiped out–yup, pushovers. The adventurers explore the maze and discover the minotaurs’ unholy temple where the chanting beasts are trying to raise some horrific power. The players decide they can take’em and attack the temple with surprise. Three lighting bolts destroy four minotaurs before they even get to react. Another falls from weapon attacks.
The minotaur leader blows his magical horn, and ten berserkers in minotaur form are summoned and join the battle against the adventures.
The battle consumes the remaining gaming time; we get about two hours a week on Monday: 6:30-8:30 PST. The minotaurs and summoned berserkers are just overwhelmed by the blasting and weapon attacks. But, the temple is full of evil power, and the paladin and druid are having too good of a time. The evil energy has filled them with blood lust. They are no longer believe their fellow adventures are on their side and actually believe they should kill them too!
The druid releases a lightning bolt on his fellow adventures. The paladin, lucky for his fellow adventurers, is surrounded by berserkers who cheer on the now insane paladin to kill them and kill everything! “You understand now,” they say to him.
The cleric and dwarf casts a major heal spell on the paladin and cures him of his madness before he starts trying to kill his friends. The paladin then heals the blood-lusting druid before he can act and cause more blasting of his allies.
The evening ends with the characters searching for treasure, finding some, and sanctifying the area with a barbeque (!).
That is about it for today. Susie read her book while I played on Roll20.
The mail contained mostly tax items.
10,208 people received the vaccine yesterday in Oregon. The number will likely increase as it takes 72 hours to get all the data. Just short of 7% of the people in our county, Washington, have been vaccinated as of Sunday.
I slept in today. I was going about 9ish today. I stayed up late making cornbread muffins and writing.
Susan’s mother, Leta, called and reminded us that ice skating was on TV. Susie got started and watched the skating all morning. We both munched on cornbread and drank coffee.
I wrote on and off all day. I am re-writing an adventure I wrote for Dungeons and Dragons back in 2004. I am revising it for publication and to the new version of D&D called 5E.
Susie read her book all day.
I needed to get outside, so I went for a walk after driving to the close by city of Hillsboro. Hillsboro sits at the end of the MAX line, our light rail that goes to Portland, and even out to PDX, our international airport. I was masked and with gloves and a coat and my hat, an Indiana Jones hat. I walked from the business section to the courthouse; Hillsboro is the Washington county seat. I then walked back to the car. I managed to resist the coffee shop and the hobby store. Most stores were closed for Sunday. Many, including the US Bank branch, are gone with for rent signs.
The courthouse is a fav walk as there are full-sized redwoods there. There is even a sign that tells you who planted them and when. I love to look at them. You can see them for miles, but they look like other trees until you see how tall the trees are and how wide the trunks are!
They are ten stories tall!
The courthouse has that crazy federal period look for such a small building. The lions on the roofline have no connection to Oregon!
I drove over to the gaming store, locally owned; I had not been there in months. I stopped my shopping when the Covid-19 rate exploded. This is the Rune and Board just off of the Max line. I talked to the owner, and he said the store was doing well and that, despite everything, 2020 was a good year for sales. We talked about some games that have come out and one I bought from him. He found a unique figure for me on their discount pile from 2020. It is a pile of toilet paper with a face full of teeth. In D&D, we have a mimic monster, called a mockingbeast on this figure to avoid the copyright, that changes its shape to look like a treasure chest. In 2020, the figure’s treasure was an unguarded pile of TP! I will paint it to remember 2020, the year with no gaming!
I also picked up a new game, it was a smaller one and not very expensive, The King Is Dead, 2nd Edition. I watched an excellent video on this game; they loved it. It is fast and simple. I wanted to support my local game company, and so I picked up something I always wanted. I purchased Brass: Lancashire from the same store a few months ago. The owner always has something I want! I look forward to learning The King Is Dead board game.
I stopped by Safeway and picked up makings for chili that Susie did not like. I made something extra for her. Looks like I will be freezing it and eating it for lunch alone.
I forgot in yesterday’s story that Evan and I tried out the battleship figures and started WW2 Bismarck’s duel versus the Hood. We only got a few rounds in, already the British battleship Prince of Wales was on fire, and guns not working! Lucky for me, Evan had a dinner engagement that saved the POW and the Hood! Yes, the Bismarck steamed off to get Sushi.
It is fun to get out the painted figures of these famous WW2 ships. I need to work out some better rules. I am freely mixing rules I purchased and the use of figures. The scale is not quite right, but with battleships, the ranges are so huge you could be playing in the living room and having the shells falling in the garage if you use truer scales. It is thus necessary to push everything together.
12,366 people were vaccinated yesterday, a new record for a Saturday in Oregon. This number will likely go up as it takes 72 hours to get all the data. It will likely be another two weeks before the state will include Susie and me on the list to be vaccinated. Oregon’s plan, not without controversy, is to vaccinated teachers before medically fragile people and their caregivers.
1,886 people died today in the USA from the virus.
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