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I could not sleep in this morning. I think it was the breathing issues I sometimes have, but it could be just the stress of working every weekend for three weekends (and nights) still not letting go. I am being careful and using my inhaler.

It snowed on top of the ice last night. My haircut was canceled for 1:30, and Evan could not make it over to play games.

But, Knowledge Mavins met today at 10ish. We are using Discord now. Zoom is so corporate while Discord is so hacker! There were just three of us, but we have presented together for a few years and were happy to just chat. We decided to meet every month and to keep talking. If we can get an interesting hack done, we might call a presentation meeting.

I managed to play the automata for the board game Scythe last night. I stayed up to 1ish to finish the game. I just managed to squeak by the automatic player with a score of 60 to 56 on easy mode! I wanted to learn how to use this; I had known it before, but I could not remember all the rules. I also purchased the consolidated rules that were published and then republished after complaints. I just got the fixed copy, and thus I recycled the faulty copy. I re-reread much of the rules over the last two nights. No surprises in the rules–I am playing by the rules. I did learn that there are a few scenarios that I did not know. There is a cooperative version that looks like fun!

I went online and purchased some additions for Scythe. I am missing a few bonus cards, I learned, and I could get a few more automata decks to run some multiple automatic opponents in the game. That sounds like fun, and Evan and I could then play a four-person game with two automata!

Just an update: The ants are mostly gone. Apparently, the ant baits worked, and I suspect the survivors did not enjoy the 20s weather. I did run into two ants in the kitchen. They will not be returning to warn the tribe.

I did dishes and laundry today. I also cleaned the snow off the car by running it and then removing much of the ice from the now warmed car. I want it ready. I also have some de-icer, and I sprinkled it out on the ice. I then went over to the neighbors and did their walks too. I ordered some more on Petco, which had the lowest price and shipping costs.

Returning to breakfast, I made Susie scrambled eggs with cheese, and I cooked maple sausages for breakfast. I had poached eggs with a bagel with a banana. Susie got some links, and I had to freeze the rest as I enjoyed them too much!

I took it easy and tried to relax. It is still difficult not to be checking email and Slack channels non-stop (If you don’t know what a Slack channel is–be happy in your ignorance). I am practicing being a regular human today.

I made angel hair pasta in the sauce from a jar with rustic meatballs from Safeway’s meat case. I find that Susie can enjoy this if I bake it a bit. So she managed a bowl of pasta and 1.5 meatballs.

I tried to watch the movie, The Dark Tower, a guilty pleasure but started to fall asleep. I then went back to Scythe.

11,783 people were vaccinated in Oregon yesterday. This number will likely increase as it takes 72 hours to collect all the information. Oregon has vaccinated more than 10% of the state now.

2,272 people in the USA died today from Covid-19.

There Is A Balm In Gilead has been on my mind as we continue to see hope in the vaccine. It is hard to wait for us to reach 1B Group 4 in Washington County, Oregon.

It is reported that we have all the snow and ice we get in a year now for this weekend.

The snow and ice started on Thursday afternoon, but it seemed to fizzle-out. This morning the slush was freezing, and the sleet more snow. Air Volvo had some ice in it, but not too bad.

I slept until 6:30ish and then rushed like a madman to make the 7:05 meeting. This was a demo of the software we have worked on for four years to get to this point. Our colleague, a recent hire in the new facility in India, did a brilliant demo and the users, with just a little grumbling about a few bugs we have on a fix list, accepted the software.

Much of the day was paperwork and process to sign-off the software and get it installed. We were all tired as we have worked weekends and India time and Portland time for more than a week.

I did a bit of groovy coding to install some software for a change control process.

Lunch was re-heated German-style goulash with veggies—sort of a stew. Breakfast was a bagel, from the fresh bagels I had delivered from Einstien Brothers earlier this week frozen and then toasted today with coffee. I drank almost the whole pot myself–I am tired from all the long hours these past three weeks.

Susie’s physical therapist came, despite the snow and ice, this afternoon and worked with Susie. Susie did a bit better today. They worked on improving Susie’s posture and strength. Susie still had trouble at first getting up and down from a chair, but she got back to almost normal by the end of the session. So better news this time.

Mariah had texted me, and we would meet for dinner. In the morning, I had started Air Volvo to run the defrost to melt the first ice on it. Just in case I needed the SUV. It was worse now, another 1/4 inch. I had to defrost it for 15 minutes again.

Aside: Just before the Covid-19 mess, I had put some stuff in my garage much that was to be junked. It has stayed there until this Covid-19 is over again. I am not going to risk people’s lives over junking some house items. This means that Air Volvo sleeps outside now and is getting iced this weekend.

Mariah and I both finished work 4ish, and I picked her up; Susie stayed home. I did fishtail once with Air Volvo, and Mariah made it clear that I was not to repeat that. We drove in the snow and ice to The Rock Wood Fired Pizza for beer and pizza. I ordered a large pizza, I brought the rest back to Susie. In Oregon, you can now order mixed alcoholic drinks to-go. Susie would also get a “bucket” of their version of a huge Long Island Iced Tea. Today, we officially move to lower virus risk in Washington county, and we can now eat inside a restaurant again. We are now “dangerous,” not “highly dangerous.” There is something oddly Douglas Adams about this.

Mariah and I talked, and the staff at The Rock remembered us. They asked about Susie and told them we could not get tiny chains for her walker. They thought that funny. We told them we wanted to bring a drink back to Susie with the remaining pizza. They made an excellent drink to-go. It was a lovely time, and I was so happy to see the bartender Eric again, and I think I have had Courtney as a waiter before.

16,877 people were vaccinated in Oregon yesterday. The number will likely increase as it takes 72 hours to get the final numbers.

2,098 people in the USA today died from the virus.

I picked a communion song, Let Us Break Bread Together, an Afro-American spiritual. It is my fav for communion songs, and I sing it to myself once in a while. This is a more political version, but I like it. I was singing along when I played it.

 

 

I started about 7ish. I rolled over at 6 as I was up late again on India time last night.

My four hours of non-stop Zoom meetings started. I was double-booked for some, so I would finish one and be late for another. Mostly the discussion was status. I did have a few technical discussions, which was a nice break from status meetings.

I slipped out for my morning walk for the long walk today. It was twenty minutes of walking as fast as I can without breaking into a run. It was cold and very damp as the snow was not here yet; it was raining. I feel better, but I did have asthma issues this afternoon that required me to use my inhaler. I am trying to keep my breathing from getting worse by walking. Use it or lose it!

Susie was up a bit early, so we went out to Burger King for lunch before the bad weather hits. We had burgers and ate them in the car in the parking lot. We watched the sleet get started.

I had more Zoom meetings. I then finally finished them and started coding. I am writing some install code and change control processes for new technology. I really miss coding, and so it is nice to get back to cutting some code.

I headed-out to Safeway. I usually avoid the grocery store now–the covid-19 rates are too high. I did not want deliveries in a snowstorm; I decided to put on my mask and practice my social distancing in our local store. I picked up quite a few items. I then used the self-service checkout. I think it took me twenty minutes as I kept making mistakes or the item needed an override, and so on. The staff person who was helping told me it gets easier with practice. I am not quite sure I want to get good at check-out.

I got home, checked email for any emergencies, and watch the sleet get heavier. I put out the trash and recycling. The cans were already icing up.

I started dinner, German-style goulash using pork, not beef. I make this once and a while. I cut up three large onions. I cried. I then did carrots, celery, and potatoes. I make it more like a stew. I spice it with ground caraway seeds and Hungarian Paprika. Tomato paste and some wine help to finish it. I then cook it in a pan on the stove for about 90 mins.

While that cooked, my church meeting started. We have an appointment at a bar once a month to talk about theology issues: Theology Pub. Now we meet on Zoom, and usually, folks have a beverage and sometimes food. We talked about the meaning of “Born Again” and how we had experienced this Christian movement.

I left the church meeting and started on India time morning meeting at 9ish. I was online for a short time, 45 mins., and then signed-off.

14,004 people were vaccinated yesterday. This number will likely increase as it takes 72 hours to collect all the information. Just under 9.5% of the people in our county, Washington, have been vaccinated.

3,068 people died from the virus today in the USA.

I went with Beta Yetu today as I found this nice version.

 

 

I slept into 7ish today. It was just too hard to get going a 6ish. I had woke up at 5ish and then woke every ten minutes for a while. So I rolled over and slept a bit.

Work was hours of status meetings with Zoom. I was also trying to work on some tasks, and the interruptions made it impossible to focus. I just did status meetings.

I managed a walk for the full-length today and found that someone had planted crocus at the little stream I stop at for my full walk. The stiffness is much better today, and my lungs are working better. Use it or lose it.

I broke-out of the endless status meetings. I am doing some coding and setting up environments to do software change control. I am writing Groovy code to control the process. I did all of this four or five years ago, so I spent much time today looking at what we did before and what my colleagues changed and improved.

Also, Susie had physical therapy today with Michelle. Susie could not get out of her chair well. The PT folks were surprised to see that Susie seems to have lost or forgotten all the training. They are working on her posture. I will help her exercise on Thursday–I will have to step out of a meeting to do that. We need Susie to find her groove again.

Back to work, I do not get to code often, so it is enjoyable to be back to typing in code. I managed to get the basics to run today. I am coding the basics and plan to run more complex stuff Friday–Thursday is unrelenting meetings scheduled, so the fun stuff will have to wait a day. I logged back on tonight to get even further as I knew I could not do much more on Thursday. I learned some new techniques today, and I can’t wait to try them out. Sorry techie love new stuff!

Dinner was just Susie and me. I made pan-fried pork chops. I got my new cast-iron pan today and wanted to try it out. It worked very well! The chops and the green beans I made were all Schwann’s food. I microwaved the beans, drained them, and cooked them a bit more in butter, almond slivers, butter, and salt. I made corn mush to go with it. I had never made it before. I pulled the chops from the pan and fried the corn mush, already cooked in a saucepan, in the pan.

Susie liked it, even the mush.

I am back to work tonight on India time again.

9,685 people were vaccinated yesterday in Oregon. This number will likely increase as it takes 72 hours for all the counts to get in. Our county, Washington, has reached 9.25% vaccinated.

3,432 people died today in the USA from the infection.

I picked a hymn I do not know: We Utter Our Cry. This is Methodist Hymnal #439 and was published in 1983 according to the hymnal.

I managed to sleep until 6:30 and then a rush to be ready by 7:30AM for the first meetings. It was cold in the house, with the outside cold hitting the house’s floors at 30F this morning. It will be 20Fs on Thursday as cold arctic air be visiting the valley. We have three days of snow coming.

I am tired after working late again last night in India time. I had Zoom meeting after meeting and many crises of the moment. I was online most of the day. I did have a meeting with folks I do not see that often–a planning meeting. It was nice to see them again.

I managed a walk today and walked 3/4 of my long walk today. It was a bit cold, but I wanted to get a walk in before the weather went arctic on me. I saw the crows, a murder of crows as a group of crows are known, in a tree. They were all quiet and bushed out feathers, trying to stay warm while high in a tree.

I also walked by a crushed former container of pot on the street. A terrible loss, I suspect for someone. You can tell it is from a legal state store by the green color and the label. Somebody likely cried over this spilled item.

I made a lunch of Clam Chowder from a can and got Eggo Waffles for Susie at noonish. We thought Susie had physical therapy today, but her regular therapist was ill. We rescheduled with Michelle for Wednesday and Friday.

I had a bunch of questions and more crises of the moment at work. I could not focus on one task as everything is a high priority problem for someone—just a messy day.

I did get Susie to do her exercises as PT was a no-show. I was jumping in front of her while she tried to do her exercises. This was between my Zoom calls. I was doing the “big fig newton” and other stunts to get her going. She got through her exercises, and I managed to not hurt myself.

I took a break at 4ish and rested for a bit. I got going at 5ish, and Mariah called, and I invited her to have some of the jambalaya I was making from a box. I tried to make it not too spicy for Susie, so it just had kielbasa and bacon and added more rice to cool it down a bit.

It was too spicy for Susie, so I got her some cheese and then ice cream. Not a great dinner, but still not bad either. Mariah and I enjoyed the jambalaya.

Mariah is learning chess, so we played a learning game. I explained the rules and a tiny bit on pawn mistakes before we played a game. Somehow I misplaced my queen, and we had to reset a bit–embarrassing. I exchanged out pieces and took her queen, and Mariah gave in. Jeopardy was on.

We watched Jeopardy and Mariah knew many of the answers. I was missing more. I redeemed myself by getting the Final Question. I had lived in Maryland and knew the Chesapeake Bay, which gave the answer right away.

I am rereading Rex Stout‘s Black Orchids. I am still reading Caste and strongly recommend it, but I am worried about reading something that has such an intense subject with all the extra hours and lack of rest. So I am deep in a Nero Wolf’s murder mystery, a brain cookie. It is one of the best detective novels if you like it light, and this one shows the two main characters, Arche and Nero, in a clearer light than you get in some of the other books. I have read it many times and try to spot the murderer, and each time (after a few years), Rex Stout tricks me again. My copy of Too Many Cook is around here somewhere; the best book, I think by Rex Stout, might be next if I keep needing brain cookies. I have the copies with the recipes! Black Orchids and Too Many Cooks are great short detective novels for travel or just to relax.

Note: Nero Wolf and Archie and some of the other main characters never age. The books start in the thirties and end in the seventies. Another author writes a few that continue on. Unlike other mystery writers, his characters do not age. It is a unique and someone refreshing approach to long term characters.

Lastly, we are being swarmed by ants. I have put out the typical plates with ant baits. Soon they will be gone. At least for three or four months. There is an endless supply of ants here. Here is information on ants here.

7,863 people were vaccinated yesterday. A meager number, but these numbers can increase as it takes 72 hours to collect all the data. Our county, Washington, is at 9% vaccinated. The lack of vaccine will delay our chance for a vaccination. It appears we will be waiting months.

3,265 people died in the USA today from Covid-19.

I found a bluegrass version of Blessed Assurance.