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The air was supposed to get better, but we are still over 300 hundred on the air quality index.

Today started at 6:30ish, with me wanting an extra thirty minutes. Sadly, Tuesday has a 7ish meeting, so no additional sleeping tomorrow. I was reminded by the various warning that my password would expire on the Nike internal network. I reset it and then spent forty-five minutes restarting my laptop, forcing my phone to update with new certificates, and passing various two-factor security to reestablish that it was me again. I try not to change the password on Friday, as I always find nothing works on Monday.

Today I had nearly non-stop Zoom calls, many with the same people. It started getting funny in the late afternoon when we all found us on another call with the same people. Towards the late afternoon, the bad air began to get to me as it seemed harder to talk and concentrate.

Lunch was reheated beef barley and veggie soup. I was shocked when I went to serve myself from the saucepan that I had used to reheated some of the soup; no meat was in the pan–How I managed that is unknown to me. I had simply missed any meat, so I enjoyed carrots and taters and barley for lunch. I had some pretzels later when I got hungry.

I had many outstanding tasks from last week; I had taken off Friday because of the bad air. I started to catch-up on my tasks in the afternoon. I worked them while listening to some of the status styled meetings on Zoom.

I finished at about 5:30.

Tonight was our next Roll20 game of Dungeons and Dragons, 5e. We played a few weeks ago and then had to take a break as one of our players had some conflicts. Corwin missed tonight. Our new player, Sean, played and so we had enough players to play.

It was fun, Sean having issues with his browser but worked it out, and the players managed to get to the next level, two, of the gigantic Maze of the Mad Mage. The players are having a great time as their characters are too high of character level for the adventure starting level, so everything is crunch-splat. They change one of the characters into a T-Rex if anything looks dangerous–serious crunch-splat! I also managed to blow almost every roll for running the adventure, rolling a zero once (hard to do), and rolling well once to only be shown-up by nearly all the players rolling super well.

The players also missed just about every roll for insight and history. This made the adventure somewhat opaque to the players. They did not have much information on what was happening and where the risks were. But they had a T-Rex, so that did not really matter.

When the players reached the next level, there they encountered a goblin market, and after a fireball, the goblins were very helpful–those not a pile of ash. The goblins suggested that the other gang in the complex would be a better source of treasure (the treasure of the goblins was equivalent to finding chests filled with pennies and nickels). We called it for the night when the adventures found a beholder zombie guarding another section of the complex. That is where we will start next Monday.

Aside: Beholder is copyrighted content from the original 1970s release of Dungeons and Dragons. It is a levitating giant single eye in a round body with a vast cruel mouth. The top of the body is covered with eyes on stalks, which all can move. Each eye can shoot a deadly magical ray attack. It was something you, as a player, avoided; a full-powered Beholder is very difficult to defeat in its lair. It is considered a classic to players of D& and designed to stop over-powered players in their tracks (often having only their boot left where they were standing after experiencing the disintegration ray).

Before playing, I made chicken Cordon Blu from frozen, mac and cheese (Kraft Deluxe), and canned peaches for dinner. I again was trying to use up some food–we have a lot of food.

The reports show four-hundred eighty people were slain by the infection today in the USA.

I found this new song made for these times: Go Light Your World.

This will be a short note this evening. Not much happened today as I wanted to keep it a bit quiet.

I started 9ish on a smoking and foggy morning. The sky was not yellow or orange this morning. The air still smelled of smoke, but it was damp. The house was cold as the air condition could not heat the house. The air outside was “very unhealthy.”

WW2 Deluxe: War in Europe board game was set for a 1943 scenario on my table from last night. I wanted to try it with slightly more complex challenges. I played it here and there all day. I was feeling tired, and it was hard to focus on it. I did manage to mess up a full turn and take Italy for the Allies and capture Vichy France also for the Allies. I then realized I did not include the impact of attacking a unit in the mountains on the combat charts. I undid the damage by sending Romel’s army to Vichy to smash the weak forces–even in the mountains! On the next turn, the Axis side can get Romel back to the north to face D-Day. The errors in Italy was easy to reverse. Something to get right next play!

I put the game away this evening as I need the table for work on Monday. I will try to work on Monday with the bad air.

I made another quiche for Susie this morning, and she finally got going very late today and enjoyed it.

Just as I finished the quiche, Mariah asked me if I wanted to risk lunch out in the bad air. We selected the Golden Valley Brewery as they have extreme attention to anti-virus procedures, and the customer seems to comply with care to masks and social distancing.

The quiche needed to cool before being put away, so that would work. I left a piece cut for Susie and headed off.

Mariah and I lunch with beers. I had a mushroom burger, and she had a sandwich, she took half of it home. We chatted about writing as Mariah is starting a Zine with a friend.

I returned home and took it slow.

I reheated leftovers for my dinner.

Corwin returned tonight from the fires. He spent the last few days helping the firefighters by delivering supplies to them.

I watched the “Lovecraft County” TV series on HBO, and it got a bit more gory and scary. Still recommended, but it is a full-blown Hollywood horror series now. You have been warned.

Reports show that more than three-hundred ninety people in the USA died from Corvid-19 today.

This is a hymn I can sing, and I like, but I did not know its name: I Know Whom I Have Believed.

The valley is full of smoke. The visibility is less than 1/2 a mile. I went out to get the mail, put the trash bins away, and felt a bit dizzy and tired. Nope, not going out there again. The air quality number is between 319 and 344 now–alarming.

Susie and I watched the horror-adventure film Constantine tonight. It is funny how it matches some later stories and movies like Angels and Demons a few years later. Constantine is actually a comic book character, and there is some noise that another film will include the main character. Like DC needs another dark character–imagine eye roll for those who follow these things.

Susie likes action films and Reeves. So this was a good one for a smoking end-of-earth look that is visiting the area.

(It looks like the movie image is Portland or California)

As the air is thick, I have kept to a slow day. I slept until 10! Some additional groceries were delivered this afternoon by Safeway.com.

I made lunch by reheating the quiche from yesterday. It was still delicious. I ordered barley and stew beef for homemade beef barley soup. I cooked the meat, next time I will make it smaller, and the barley. I added carrots, celery, onion (cooked with the beef to create a lighter flavor for onions), beef broth, and potatoes. It is a bit bland but still hit-the-spot. I figure soup, homemade, is what you make in a smoke and fire emergency. The news stations are all reporting that people should stay at home and not go outside. That sounds like time for soup!

Today is the first Friday-Saturday that I did not drive into Portland to play and eat at Mox Boarding House. I would have loved another game of Scythe there with Evan or even more folks. But smoke and fire is nothing to ignore.

Instead, I tried one at home: WW2 Deluxe: European Theater. I decided to play the most straightforward set-up and shortest game, the Wacht Am Rhein scenario. I am just playing against myself, and I wanted to get a feel for the game. Funny, the game lasted two turns instead of three.

(set-up for Wacht Am Rhien)

This game, WW2 Deluxe: European Theater, is the third recent game I have owned for the same exact theme, and I have a Third Reich from the old Avalon Hill somewhere (that would be number four). So far, I have been disappointed by Columbia’s hidden block version of the same topic, and I gave away my Axis and Allies version too. I purchased this game as part of a Kickstarter and hoped that the designer, Jon Compton, would produce a shorter game that did not lose the themes and something better.

Aside: Jon Compton is a wargame designer for the US military and a board game designer!

So my short play did have the feel of an old Avalon Hill game, but the number of moving parts was significantly reduced. Moving a single unit, now an army, felt like an important decision. In the other games that handle WW2 Europe, you would need to move three or four or ten or twenty units for the same change. Dice rolling and detailed moves would take an hour or more. Jon Compton’s moving to the army level has you make the same decision without the insane level of moving paper items and spending an hour trying to execute the same effect.

I liked the game so far. I think the navy rules, while not very interesting to a part-time naval historian like myself, clearly represent how much the navy choices impacted the land war in Europe, nearly none at all. The bombing rules force defenses against bombing. Again, not the details of air-combat are recreated, but the decisions are. Planes are used for bombing, stopping other aircraft, and supporting troops.

This is a two-person game. I do not have many chances to play just two-person, but it works for me for solo play, and this is a better game for this theme and fast. I will keep it. For you, Axis and Allies lovers, it still is one of the better multiplayer games for the same theme.

(US and British take Berlin, the German units have poor rolls, while the Soviet are held back by fantastic lousy luck)

I am happy to finally find a WW2 fast play but still a workable board game. I will try a more significant scenario.

We will continue with a lock-in all Sunday as air quality is expected to enter 400+ soon. The two close-by fires are being brought under control–we are at no risk for a fire at this time.

Just over seven-hundred people died from the virus in the USA today.

I found this beautiful video for today: Prayer for World Peace.

First, it is day 180 by my count of the lockdown. Dr. Fauci is saying we have to hunker-down as this disaster will continue into 2021. When I now understand that this will go on for longer than I imagined, my head does not quite explode, but there was leakage! Ugh!

I was talking on the phone with my friend Mariah who writes and publishes. We talked about the possibilities the current trials have in a short story. I have already written a story about my hero of horror stories, Howard, already locked-down in Portland. I had added some rioting to my version of Dream Portland that is ruled over by the horror known as the Yellow King. I had not thought of fires and smoke chocking Howard in Portland, and thusly my horror-filled virtual evil Portland is not as bad as the current conditions!

While talking about writing, Mariah liked my idea of time travelers trying to survive in 2020 Portland as a bet. You could imagine a contest where the time travelers are sent into Portland 2020 in February and, without using any futuristic technology, must succeed at tasks or be disqualified (at best). The contestants would have to try to acquire toilet paper. Somehow earn local currency by some hourly job or hack the IRS to get the $1200 or even somehow get unemployment, then avoid being infected, manage to eat and live, and survive the fires and smoke this week. A sort of Marathon or Ironman triathlon for time travelers 2020. I am tempted to write that. Maybe I could go with a Doctor Who Fan Story with the previous Doctor and Missy as the contestants.

Yes, I feel like Poe and Dickens would love to tell a story about these times in Portland. If H.P. Lovecraft was here, he would be on the wrong side of everything. In my story about the lockdown, Alister Crowley moves to Portland, has a food truck, and embraces the disasters. It does feel like we summoned him or other crazies.

I started work at 7ish and saw the air quality numbers and just put in for time off. I am not going to talk and try to think about software design with smoke everywhere. Interestingly, my boss suggested that he too should throw in the towel and drive somewhere safer. He sent an email later that he was in very bad air as he crossed into the high desert in Oregon. He should be safe now and in clear air.

I decided this late morning to make quiche for breakfast-lunch. I made coffee and started cooking the bacon. I cooled the bacon and broke it up and then mixed in the eggs, shallots cooked in bacon grease, cheese, slices of tomato, cream, and a pastry shell (frozen). I baked it, and Susie started about noon and was excited that I made quiche, her favorite, cheese with bacon.

I also cleaned off my work table and put away the paints. I am not going outside to spray paint primer during the air quality emergency! I have an unbuilt 3D filament printer, Folger 2020 i3. So I retrieved it from the box from the garage and brought it in. I went through the instructions to build it and printed a set, and got ready to make it for the weekend. I need calipers; mine are missing. I spent some time looking for them, but it was unwise to spend much time in the garage.

I then had a choice to order cheap ones or professional ones. I think I remember the cheaper ones breaking–that is likely why I don’t have them. I finally ordered good ones from Arrow.com. I actually ordered AdaFruit’s best set, but in the strange world we are in, AdaFruit asks you to order from someone else as they are helping to fight Corvid-19 in their hometown of New York, New York. Yes, twisting-logic to now order from Arrow.com to get AdaFruit’s professional calipers. And they charged me an additional $12 to cover the Trump-China Tarif. Yes, I feel like I am in SciFi or Horror story.

I will start back on the 3D printer later this month.

I bought the printer kit a few years ago. The parts are also the same parts I would use for a robot. The printer was much cheaper than buying the pieces–I could use it for a robot or as a printer. I have not been back to robots in the last few years, so it has just sat in its box. Board games, figure painting, and Python with Machine Learning have been my focus these last two years (plus lots of travel in 2019). I also picked up a resin 3D printer in 2019 that is excellent and easy to use. So I just have not been back to this printer in a few years.

I have seen a few larger items that my resin printer cannot handle. The price difference for a larger area resin printer and the toxicity of larger resin prints give me pause to proceed in that direction. I would like to try a filament printer for these larger items and so back to the one I own, still in its bags waiting to be assembled.

Turning to dinner, I made goulash of a sort today. I reduced the number of onions and added in carrots, celery, and potatoes; a stewish goulash. I had to freeze a bit of the pork rib meat, I use pork boneless rib meat, and not all of it would fit in the pot! It takes about two hours to cook down. We had it a bit late tonight, which was fine as the quiche this morning was served as a late lunch.

Changing to sad subjects, to celebrate the life of Dame Diane Riggs, I have ordered, and I am watching her first season on “The Avengers” TV show. I also gifted Lord Rev. Wolff a copy (I also gave Steve a Lordship from Sealand recently. Lord Wolff is also a Time Lord). Mrs. Peel, Diane Rigg’s character, is one of the arch types in my thinking in role-playing adventure design and writing. What would Mrs. Peel do in this situation? I will always think of Dame Riggs drinking champagne as Mrs. Peel getting a note saying, “We are needed.”

At this moment, more than 10% of the Oregonians are evacuated as a results of forest fires. Air quality is predicted to be dangerous from smoke and low winds in the valley for the next two days. We are staying inside. A few towns are now gone, Oregon will lose more. It is terrible. 

Today more than one thousand people in the USA died from the virus, according to reports on the Internet.

As it is September Eleventh, the nineteenth one since we started counting them, I thought a requiem, Mozart Requiem – Lacrimosa, was the right choice. And because it is a day to remember who we are here in the USA, I found this arrangement of the USA National Anthem that is a little different but well done.

 

 

Today the air quality in Beaverton is rated at over 250 (higher is worse), and Hillsboro is rated over 130. We are somewhere in between. Everything is more challenging today. I move slower and painfully and have to make an effort to keep going. The can of mead (yes, mead) I had during Theology Pub, a church group that discusses theology over food and drinks now on Zoom, has turned being slowed into a broken synchronization of movements. No more mead!

Returning to awaking in the strange yellow light of smoke-filled skies, today started in 88 air quality in Beaverton at about 6ish. I had a 7AM Zoom meeting, so I did my initial emails and checks and rushed to a shower and then, dressed, started my day in earnest.

Hours of Zoom calls, emails, and crises of the moment followed. The light grew more yellow, and the sun was missing, email and meetings and phone calls continued in vail to try to resolve issues. It was frustrating. Lunch came.

I took Corwin to enjoy Burger King. I was going to make lunch, burgers, but I was so unhappy that I could not focus on the task and so I blew $20 on burgers to-go. They are good, and I did not have to clean-up; maybe it was worth it.

I watered the grass while doing meetings in the afternoon. I also have been escalated on, so I have more meetings on Friday for not aligning to another team’s shortcuts. Again, it was not a very happy day.

The sun reappeared, a pale dot, but it at least returned.

I made dinner for two. Corn on the cob, locally grown from my local veggie box delivered last week, and Chicken Cordon Blu frozen from Schwans. I put a dent, small, in all the food we have.

Corwin won’t be joining us as he is headed to help a friend’s family rescue their possessions from the fire and possible looting. I took out the emergency equipment in Air Volvo and sent it with him to help. I keep a toolbox, huge first aid kit, compass, money, jackknife, and so on in Air Volvo–all sent with him to help. He expects to return on Sunday.

After dinner, I had a mead; I saw them on Facebook and orders some, not that recommended. Sort of a cross between soda pop and a beer. I then entered one more Zoom meeting, the Theology Pub meeting. We have been meeting for over five years and have covered the seven deadly sins, and today’s theme was kindness.

Dondrea leads the discussion, and, after a few hours, we were not sure that kindness can be done by an institution as it seemed to involve a personal choice. We were confident that kindness is a basis for most religions. We all agreed that kindness was good for the giver and the recipient and it seemed very important to be kind. We are all worried about the fires and the smoke. We signed-off after about 90 mins.

I filled a bucket of water for the animals that might need a drink and left it in the dark on the deck.

The market fell almost at the same rate as it climbed yesterday. Bonds sold well, which does suggest that some believe inflation will not happen.

The deaths from the virus today in the USA grew to over a thousand. The rate appears to be increasing.

This song worked for me today: Whom Shall I Fear (The God of Angel Armies). It is interesting to see him sing all parts this back in 2013.