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Susie’s eye doctor said that her issues are not serious and will likely clear-up in time. We spent a few hours, as usual, at the eye doctor. Susie will be rechecked again in December. The dentist is tomorrow. We are waiting to hear on the date for Mohs surgery doctor for the bit of cancer on her head and back. More on that later.

The morning began later than normal at about 715ish. Corwin had not made it back home last night so I got up and made coffee and read my email until the groceries arrived from Safeway.com about 9ish. I carried in the six bags and put them away.

Susie was up on time and we left on time after more coffee.

After the appointment, we drove home and Susie took a rest and I made grilled hamburgers for lunch. Susie had her’s later for dinner.

Susie’s rest was interrupted by the tree doctors next door. Our neighbors had their big pine trimmed, and some of the smaller trees were removed from the fence line. They landed some of the trees in my yard and asked permission to clean-up my backyard–of course, I agreed. It was loud. The tree looks a bit safer now and ready for our windy, wet winter.

I then took a nap too. I was also reading Dead Wake by Erik Larson about the story of the last trip of the Lusitania. He tells it like a story. I enjoyed his other book about the Chicago Fair of 1893, and I am enjoying this one. I have read with some the surprise that the famous film of the Lusitania leaving New York is from that last voyage. There was a film crew for that day.

I had a ham and cheese sandwich with corn chips for dinner.

I am going to try to finish this early. I want to make cup cakes, German Chocolate, tonight. And then David and Michelle Smith called and talked for a while…I will see if I can get those done…

It was a quiet day and non-eventful. The best we could hopeful.

Today it was reported that more than twelve-hundred twenty people in the USA died from Covid-19.

I found this song in the Methodist Hymnal (#655), the words are a bit different–but it so good I had to go with it: Fix Me, Jesus.

Today is hard. Susie developed eye problems yesterday and, while her vision is not getting worse, we need this checked. Susie also learned today that most skin biopsies came back as cancer or pre-cancerous. Susie will need Mohs surgery. We will have been scheduling that soon.

I had to explain the appointments to Susie four times today as she could not remember the call with the eye doctor. Susie is having difficulty with short-term memory today. We will start with the eye doctor tomorrow.

To make matters even harder on Thursday Susie has another dentist appointment. An old filling has failed and they have to redo it. That will be in the afternoon.

So a hard week already and it is just Tuesday.

Work started as a marathon at 6ish, with the Zoom meetings starting at 7. I get up and make coffee and then rush all day. I also had to get Susie going at 8ish, which turned into 9ish, to call the eye doctor. I had emails, text, and reading and agreeing to documents all morning while listening to Zoom meetings.

I made an order from Safeway.com for groceries between meetings. We were running low on eggs, out of milk, and various meat items. I also reloaded the soups and cake mixes. More cupcakes! I did not know I would not be home for the delivery window as I had not heard from the eye doctor. Corwin is committed to taking the order delivered on Wednesday in the range of 8-12PM for me.

Returning to the story, I got Susie some food. She called the eye doctor, and then we waited for their return call. This afternoon we learned we would be there at 11:45AM tomorrow, and I then took off Wednesday from work. Susie can often handle an eye appointment without me, but this is a sudden change in her vision, and Susie has short-term memory issues today. Thus I will drive her there and take the day.

I had chicken noodle soup from a can with a bagel for lunch today. I made Susie some yogurt and Cheerios for breakfast-lunch. She had a scone for a snack later.

I had more meetings. We got the call from the skin doctor and the report of cancer this afternoon.

Dinner was tacos. I make my own spices now. I ate too many. When I am upset, I eat too much. I also love tacos.

I will get some rest tonight and let the shoe company try a day with me away.

We would not ask for these problems; it is not a journey we picked, but I know the journey will be made, and we will face it together.

Today a lot of people passed away from the virus–more than nine-hundred ten.

Today’s song is one that fit: Shall We Gather At The River.

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.