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Susie had surgery to remove some pre-cancerous and cancerous skin cells today. We slept in just a bit and then headed to Portland to make the 10:30 appointment. We know the routine, and I sat in the car while Susie had the procedures. They called me when she was done.

We then stopped by McDonald’s to get Susie’s fav of a Chicken McNugget in Portland. I had two cheeseburger meal. We then headed home.

Susie then rested. Blood leaked from the wounds. We did not know that the doctors did not dress the wounds. Blood everywhere. Not what we expected. I had to dress the wounds and clean up the blood.

That done, Susie rested, and I checked in every hour. I did not notice that the ankle was bleeding too. Soon a pool would look good in a horror movie. I then dressed that wound too and cleaned, the floor, carpet, bedding, and clothing.

I made Susie a late dinner of chicken soup. I am doing laundry and ready to replace bandages.

It is a tough day. I will stop here as I have to recheck bandages.

Michael R Wild

It is day 298 of lockdown here in Oregon in Washington County by my count. Here was the first incident in Oregon for Covid-19 last year. We have been in lockdown for less time than the virus has been here as it took time to decide to lockdown. We also unlocked for a while and then had to lockdown again.

Today, we can only eat outside in the cold in the rain with masks at a restaurant–we are in extreme danger, that is our rating for Washington County from the Governor’s office. I have eaten in the rain just a few times to get free of the house. It is frigid and wet.

I worked from home longer than 298 days as I had a bad cough back in January 2020 and started working from home about a week before Nike closed up.

So this day 298, I was exhausted. Susie had issues getting to sleep yesterday and the day before. This happens some nights. I had little sleep for the last three days. I managed to start at 6ish and managed email and meetings. I think I drank half the coffee pot by 9ish. It is bad when you can’t feel the coffee.

I know what to do when I am too tired to think; I stopped.

I went to the bedroom and went to sleep, yes, even with coffee burning in me. When coffee wakes you up enough to sleep, you know you have gone too far! I stole sleep from 10ish to 12ish. Not a lot, but I was no longer faltering.

Masked in the car–so I do not forget to not touch my face. I drove to Popeye’s for a chicken sandwich, spicy. I picked up paper towels from RiteAid. I brought Susie back a box of chocolates in the shape of a heart. Her physical therapy appointment was canceled. Clare was ill (not with Covid). Susie was ready for the appointment on time today without my nagging–an improvement too. Susie loved the chocolates!

Back to work and email and Zoom meetings. I managed to open a problem ticket for the vendor, SAP, that supplies the software I work with. I collected all the information and built a “high” issue as requested. This is about the last thing I managed for work today.

I then went to rest some more. I had to take some Benadryl as I was coughing too much (allergies). This put me out for a while.

Mariah texted me–the phone vibrating waking me, and I met her for a beer outside on the partially covered patio in the cold at Golden Valley Brewery not far from here. I had a salad and one beer. I got a pretzel to go for Susie. Susie, smarter than her husband, does not sit outside for a beer and food in Oregon’s winter. I overheard the waiter explain that the wind had earlier blown the rain side-ways and soaked everyone under the small roof on the patio.

I made Susie scrambled eggs with cheese for dinner, her fav. The pretzel is a snack. Cooking scrambled eggs is quick and easy to do, even when you are tired. I made more coffee and drank two more cups.

3,499 people in the USA died from Covid-19 today. The surge of deaths may reflect the holiday travel for Christmas and New Years’.

I went with Where He Leads Me today. It is a hymn I can sing, and the words are easy to remember.

Monday, as usual, got here too soon. An hour or two of more sleep would have been nice. I was online last night, setting up the days off for Susie’s next Mohs surgery. We are ready for Wednesday’s surgery.

I managed to start at 6:15ish. My 7AM meetings had been canceled, so I slept in 15 minutes. As it was a holiday weekend, there was not much email and meetings to handle this morning.

Susie had a 10ish appointment with Zerida today for hair, nails, toes, and so on. Her driver picked her up. She was ready and gone on time today.

I had a few crises of the moment at work, but I could get most items done. One did lag, and I sent a reply this evening, late.

Lunch was from Gyro House, lamb gyro. Susie picked up a Chicken McNugget Happy Meal on her way home from Zerida’s.

My new Kickstarter game arrived today: A War of Whispers. The game is a special edition and includes updates (the Dark Agents expansion) to the original version; I have waited a year to get my copy. It is only an hour-long playing and two to four player game. In this game, five empires are fighting for control in a Games of Thrones like setting–the map is a close match to Games of Thrones. Instead of directly controlling these empires like a standard board game (there is already a Game of Thrones board game that provides this), this game has you represent a secret faction trying to support some of the empires and try to stop others. You can even change alliances, but this does give away your plans to an extend.

At the start of a game of A War of Whispers, the players’ alignment with the five empires is random and secret. You then try to select actions to support or undermine the empires while trying to not give away everything you are trying to pull off. There are only four rounds of actions, and then each player is only measured on how well, or not, that their selected empires did at the end. A game built on your decisions that include trying to hide your plans while trying to thwart the other players; I am looking forward to trying this one out.

I also received a copy of the Decision Games’ Folio Game: River Plate & Denmark Strait. I have been searching for a rules-light battleship game that can be used with miniatures. I want to cover WW1 and just a bit of WW2. I have 2400 1/2 inch Bismark and Hood that I want to use someday. I just have not found a rules system that is simple enough and expandable. I think these might work. The scale is wrong (1/2 inch a nautical mile, instead of 1 inch a nautical mile), but that is easy to fix with a ruler and a turning wheel. I am excited to finally find eight pages of rules that are easy to use. More to come.

I finished today the book The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. It is a great book, and the ending, I was worried it would end strange, was well put together and made me cry, perfect. I recommend it to my SciFi reading friends, and it hints at horror, so it fits there too. V.E. Schwab, the author, has written some series that I did not like as much, but I could not put them down.  This book is the best book I have read in a while. Please enjoy!

I am running around a lot tonight getting dinner for folks. It is a bit chaotic here.

We played Roll20 Dungeons and Dragons for about two hours today; I ran the adventure as the Dungeon Master. Our adventurers managed to cut their way through the evil elves (Drow to you who know D&D) to the Mad Mage’s Dungeon’s next level. They at once point chased down an evil Drow priestess and thought they had brought her to a quick end. Her pleas to her goddess, the Spider-Queen, were heard; she made them in the Spider-Queen own temple. Shadows in the temple came to life, as did the dead priestess’s own shadow, and fought the adventures as revenge. Luckily the brave adventures were not taken by surprise, and the adventures survived the backlash. We will continue the adventure next Monday. The adventurers offered the next Drow a chance to let them pass and received a “pass” to enter the evil elves’ areas without attack. Or so they were told, we will see what happens next week!

I had KFC delivered for dinner. The gravy is even worse–how? The chicken was fresh, a bit salty, but tasty.

1,987 people in the USA died from the virus today.

I turned right to Go Down, Moses and I opened the Methodist Hymnal, #448.

Working backward today, I am just starting my taxes today and collecting my stock trades and interest statements. I logged onto TurboTax earlier today and started my taxes and stopped and saved at the personal information was set. As I told Dondrea today, the federal and states are addicted to my money like a drug. I have to work hard to not have them harvest too much. Even as a tax-loving democrat liberal, I only like to supply what I should. I do not give the government extra; it is just not good for the government to get extra of my money. I have had to be very careful after the Trump tax cut as the so-called cuts increased my taxes by 20% percent. Trump paid for the tax cuts by forcing the standard deduction on upper-middle-class and just above. I now have to be careful that all the paperwork is perfect and still not get any credit for giving, taxes paid, or interests paid. It is a lot of work to pay 20% more.

Susie went to bed early today. I replaced her bandage on her back. It is still healing and looks better. It still bothers her a bit.

I ordered out for Chinese style food from our local Stir Crazy Kitchen delivered. I did not want to cook tonight. The food is just OK; I have much better in Portland with my friend Will when he picks the place. I miss my gamer friends and having dinner or lunch with them once and a while in Portland.

Returning to dinner, I ordered Moo Shu Pork as I wanted to put together the little rolls with plum sauce. I had not done that in so long. Something different for this order.

I turned on Mulan on Disney+, the new version. The food was not planned to go with the show–at least not intentionally. Susie was shocked to see me on the floor after putting the show on pauce after making a second Moo Shu pancake. I had set my plate on the chair arm, and unlike Mulan on the TV, I was clumsy. I hit the plate with my arm when I sat down and spun the plate in the air, and it landed on the floor, now empty. Susie was watching Mulan and did not see my total fail. Susie watched me pick all the food out of the carpet, yes carpet, and then vacuum all that remains. I then made a new plate, started the show, and tried not to think about it.

Mulan was a different story in details from the animated one. It had evil women witch that did not work for me. The rest of the story and action did work. I would say it was average.

Before I ordered dinner, I had to pick up the prescriptions and some supplies for Susie. RiteAid was surrounded by police SUVs, not the usual escort for me. There also were two police cars by the trash for Safeway. It appears some local drama was in progress. I went in anyway. There were no flashing lights, which usually means it is safe. I asked the store clerk if it was OK to come in. She was emphatic that it was safe, now. I did not raise an eyebrow but smiled and went in. I picked up the stuff and, seeing lots of police, thanked them. I was balancing my good, and the cops offered to help. They also liked my hat. I demurred.

I learned that there was some small theft, a local drama.

Before all of this, I made soup from a can with some homemade bread for lunch. I had some canned peaches to go with it. Susie had toast from the same homemade bread with jam, a banana, and the rest of the canned peaches for breakfast-lunch.

I started a bit late, 930ish; Susie was up three times last night. I had about four hours of sleep.

I edited some Howard stories on and off all day. I have moved to the first long stories I wrote.

1,387 people died today from the virus in the USA. The infection chart shows an increasing infection rate again.

I went with Morning has Broken today as it is a fav of ours. It was even a song at our wedding. I found a good new version.

I was up a bit late this morning, 9:30ish. I did the dishes and cleaned-up last night and did not get to bed until 1ish. I like the sink to be empty when I start my morning.

So the sink was empty, and I made coffee and started, not even dressed yet, to write Python code.

Yes, a cup of coffee, toast, and a banana while coding a bit of Python. My friend Dan Gray asked me to take the code he sent me to convert temperatures, an entry-level exercise I often see as an example and make it more interesting. I used my standard headers and practices and then rework the code. I produce a version 0.0.1 and then send a 0.0.2 after thinking about it some more. I made it the program do Kelvin too. It was fun to do the basic coding again. I find it always fun to code in the morning.

I then cleaned a toilet and vacuumed some of the carpet. Susie has a physical therapy appointment, and I can’t have the house looking well-used when we have guests. I got the laundry started and the dishwasher going too. This warms up the house a bit.

Susie was ready when Clare from PT got here. I had to leave as I have a hair cut today. I was there to ensure we scheduled Susie’s new PT days for next week. We all prefer two days a week for Susie. I made sure Susie had water, coffee, and toast with jam when I left.

My haircut was with Zerida, and she follows all those procedures to keep us all safe.

I drove back without stopping. I texted with Evan, and he came over later to play a few board games.

Dinner was not fav but easy. I got the large pack from Taco Bell–making another quick trip. The food was not that great. Too salty this time. I am afraid that Taco Bell went off the list for dinner.

Evan and I played a crazy board game that I had not even punched and put together. Evan got to help assemble castles, towers, flying machines, and boats for Heroes of Air, Land, and Sea. I have painted many of the figures, 60+, but had never played my copy. I decided that today, 2021 January, would be time to try out a two-person game using my copy. It took a while to start. Evan was learning the game, and I was trying to remember how to play. Heroes of Air, and, and Sea is a 4x (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, & eXterminate) game and requires you to crush your fellow players while building your empire. Evan made a few mistakes as he was learning the game, the same mistakes I made when the game was first introduced to me, and we ended without scoring–it was a learning game. I am sure he is ready to crush me in the next game. If you play 4x, it is crush or be crushed.

Again, I wanted to play something fun for 2021 that I have not played for a while. The Star Trek Panic game is one of the best visual board games, I think. You do missions on the Enterprise from the 1960s version of the TV show, and the ship is overlayed with explosions and destruction. It looks so right, and the mechanics feel a bit like you are in the original 1960s series. No game for me is as immersive and also unthreatening. There are some other timed immersive games, but I won’t play timed games. Sorry, they feel like work to me and not a game. This game is cooperative and still feels rushing without the timer. Players work together, but your turn is when you get to drive, literally. Again, Evan had never played this before, so we played the introduction version, and then we played a few more missions after resetting and playing new characters. I played Scotty in the first try and then Jame T. Kirk for the next play. I think Evan liked this one too. It is simple, but there is a strategy and planning to make it work–that is not to destroy the Enterprise with you in it!

We had some wine for the last game, and the Taco Bell pack was finished off.

2,107 folks are reported to have died today of Covid-19 in the USA.

I turned to There Is a Balm in Gilead in the Methodist Hymnal today, # 375.