Today was not very interesting, and so I will not try to make it more than it was.

I slept into 9ish. I did the dishes and the laundry in the morning. I got lunch from Burger King (I wanted a hamburger but did not want to pay twenty bucks for one) and a Chicken McNugget (six-piece) for Susie.

I did not attend any virtual church.

I managed to paint the Titanic model and to shape a few parts that I started last night. I have filled in a few bits that need more work. As usual, the prep works continues to go on and on. The new red paint really looks better than the brown-red. I will keep working and someday I will get this one done.

(I put the model over some of the books that are published just for model builders. Notice the light pass through the portholes that will be lighted.)

I attended our church’s Charge Conference as Pastor Jefferson has been promoted to an appointed position at our church, and a Charge Conference, A Methodist thing, must be called to change is pay to match his new job. I was able to answer some technical questions on social security taxes, as a former Treasurer, while the current Treasurer looked up the budget numbers to answer another question. I was happy to be more than a witness to the meeting. The pay package passed.

By the way, I am not a member so I could not vote–I resigned my membership to protest the vote against gay rights by the church. The virus has halted the splitting of the United Methodist Church over this issue. I do try to help with specific items like cooking lunch or breakfast, replacing the gay pride flag when it is stolen, and other non-financial and non-membership things.

I then took Susie for a long drive. We had corn chips with us as a snack. We drove the length of Cornelius Pass to the Columbia River and then headed to Portland and completed the circle in Beaverton. Mariah called, and we picked her up and headed out to the Rock Creek Tavern. This is a funky, very Oregon brewpub in the middle of nowhere off, ironically, Cornelius Pass, a bigger circle.

There we sat outside as it seems safer. The staff had masks, and most customers had masks on when entering, but it is a brewpub, so most folks were seated drinking and unmasked. McMenamins, the local company that owns so many places to me, is always an experience in bad or great service–sometimes at the same time. Our waiter was helpful, attentive, and got us our drinks with dispatch. Our food too ninety minutes to arrive. The waiter knowing we must have been to a McMenamins before did not bother to explain, and we were not surprised. When the burgers and tater tots arrived, we were happy they were correct, and good or even great quality, and I paid the bill, not change for being slow, and left satisfied that our experience was not worse. I really like the beer and the atmosphere of Rock Creek, and the “food marathon” is always fun to run.

I took a nap and read some more Maisie Dobbs. I am reading book seven in the series.

I talked to a few friends on the phone. We miss each other, and we wish the infection rate was not rising again! And finally got to write this little summary.

Today the reports show the infection rate in the USA is steady on the seven-day average (it is increasing in Oregon), and more than three hundred thirty people died from the virus today. I remember crying back in March when the death rate reached this level and am saddened to be relieved to see it again to fall to less than a thousand death a day in the USA. I picked Hymn 65 from the Methodist Hymnal ¡Santo! ¡Santo! ¡Santo! (English is on the opposite page, Hymn 64).

 

Sometimes it is a good writing practice to start now and go backward.

I just about finished the 6th Maisie Dodds novel–how can be six already. I bought it just a few days on my Amazon reader. I will get the next one and keep going. I enjoy the stories with their mix of the 1930s, flash-back to the Great War, and some mysticism. The last one was in near real-time as it was to stop what we would call a terrorist attack from poison gas from a man driven mad by isolation caused by his injuries. Highly recommended, but read in order.

Before reading for a bit, I served Susie, a bowl of my version of Moroccan chicken. I had some Tagine spices, so I combined some chicken thighs (boneless) and olives, carrots, celery, lemon juice, chicken stock, garlic, and what else I had. I first cooked the garlic and then threw it all in a dutch oven and cooked it for an hour. It was good, and I had two bowls. Corwin was headed over to his friend’s house and so did not get any. I have a bowl waiting for him in the frig.

It took some time to do all of that, but it left me waiting a bit. I picked up the RMS Titanic model today. More prep! It always seems like you do weeks of prep, and then suddenly, the model is done. I have some filling to do tonight, so I used my light modeling paste to fill. Often I would use modeling filler, but it is hard and heavy. This is a tiny 1/700 scale model, so I used the paste I used for landscaping bases for figure bases (28mm figures are also tiny). It filled the holes where I removed staircases, and other adjustments called for the etched-brass and wood decks add-ons I have for this model. All of that is drying now, and I will then adjust, sand, cut, and finish on Sunday.

I took pictures of the hull of the model. The pieces are colored plastic to reduce painting, but the model has black on red for the hull! I attached the propeller shafts, black in color, to the hull, red in color, and had to cut and sand the hull to make it all work. Not sure why red plastic was not used on the propeller shafts and so I have to paint the hull red!

You can also see I have moved to sanding sticks. They work better than anything else I have used before. I can polish the plastic after I sand it a bit. My other secret is Tamiya Extra Thin Cement for plastic models. It welds the plastic together and avoids gluing me to the model!

Aside: I learned today that the tiny bit of hull between the middle propeller and rudder (visible on the model) had pitted and broke on the Olympic (being the only long-lasting ship of the three built: Olympic, Titanic, and Britannic) multiple times because of the interaction, electrolysis, of the different metals of the propeller and the steel hull in saltwater. 

Before I got back to the Titanic model, I made scrambled eggs with cheese and ham for lunch. Susie and Corwin enjoyed them. They were up just after twelve, early for them.

I made cupcakes this morning after reading email and checking that shoe company did not need me. I have the Cake Bible cookbook, and there is a chocolate cake recipe that uses mayonnaise, and I have wanted to try it for weeks.  I made them from scratch using the cookbook recipe, and they turned out great. Susie and Corwin love them–a bit chewy and soft. I will make them again! Breakfast was coffee and a banana about 9ish.

I did spend time on Facebook, hiding what I would call race-baiting and white-folk explainer posts. I am not interested in that. Show me your baking and cat videos instead! I also stopped following a blogger today when he went that way too—nothing I want to follow.

Today it was reported that more than seven-hundred people lost their lives to the virus here in the USA. The active infection rate is increasing in the USA. These reports show California, the most populous American state, has the highest number of new infections. Still, Louisiana, Arizona, and North Carlina have considerable increases in the rate of infections and numbers of new cases. I found this new song that I did not know: Wind Who Makes All Winds That Blow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today is also the 89th day of working from home and lockdown. Work was 1/2 day of working from home, consisting of Zoom meetings, MS Team calls, and email. This continued into the evening even during drinks and appetizers and dessert at the Bargarden. I am watching for any more help needed this weekend.

I sent a letter about an email I received from the NRA today to the Attorney General of New York. It mentions her, and I thought she could use a copy of it. Yes, I am a member of the NRA, ignoring its politics, and like their magazine’s articles on guns.

A friend wanted to get some beer this afternoon, a boot of beer. This means the German styled place in Beaverton: Bargarden (spelled I guess for Americans and they serve booze too).

We had fondu with sausage and bread. I finished with apple strudel and coffee, Susie with a pretzel, and our friend with another smaller beer.

I have to admit we drove home, and a nap followed after taking care of a few items from work that came up while I was re-booting in the Bargarden.

The stock market went up mostly. The NASDAQ went down. I heard no explanation for the gyrations on Bloomberg. Monday may be exciting.

More than seven-hundred eighty people died from the virus today in the USA including two deaths in Oregon. I found this, Bach!, and thought it would work for tonight: Celtic Woman – Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring (live).

I have to admit that today I wanted to read and just fall asleep and forget everything for a while. I am tired as sleep has been hard of late.

Work was a bit better as I think the conflict I had yesterday, which could be described as demanding integrity, seemed to have produced some fruit. At least I thought folks were working towards goals better—no more demands for partial solutions.

I took Susie for a short trip to pick up a prescription, get the bird poop washed off the Volvo at the carwash, and then picking up a few pizzas for dinner. It was good to drive the car and just do something today.

I had lunch today for the first time since January at Old Chicago. They had masks and on-line menus. It looks like finally, the idea of the paper menu is moving into history. You can get a paper one, but you are encouraged to use the Internet to see the menu.

It is funny how comforting it was to sit in the bar and eat the same salad and drink the same iced tea and follow this with a stromboli. I know it is silly, but just doing something I have not done for more than ninety days that I use to do once a week was relaxing.

Today I decided, after reading so much Pro-Confederate flag posts on Facebook, that I know what to say: Life Every Voice and Sing.

Here in Oregon, the largest county, it includes Portland, attempt to reopen is on hold. The virus rate is increasing, and thus it cannot open—prayers for Portland and Multnomah County.

Today we had a Zoom meeting of Theology Pub. We have met for years in a pub drinking and eating while discussing Theology. Justice was the discussion today. Many of us agreed that this quote fits well: “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public” from Cornel West.

I sent these thoughts to our leader of Theology Pub, maybe you will find them of use:

I was thinking of something like Justice for the topic on Thursday, but something more came to my mind. Divine education….

I have learned so much this year about how wrong my assumptions are. This is looking for an example, the order from the major of Portland to limit the use of tear gas to last resort use—I did not know that we needed a policy change on tear gas–I always thought it was last resort.

Another one, there was a new ruling on the 10-2 convictions in Oregon and Louisiana by the Supreme Court (the lack of unanimity for conviction in these states). I did not know this was a Jim Crow law and that my rights in Oregon were reduced by allowing convictions that are 10-2. I was surprised to see the conservative and liberal justices all lined up on protecting rights to a jury with Gorsuch and RGB agreeing. I would have worked to eliminate that in the Oregon Constitution, had I truly understood it. I also did not know that the 14th Amendment was theoretically limited to only some rights in the 40-year ago initial ruling on this. That with the new decision, the 14th Amendment is not limited; all rights given by the federal constitution now fully apply to the states. Again, I learned all of this.

On the painful side, we learned that training, policies, and organization of police and their use of violence appears to be inconsistent with our expectations. I learned how to kill cold viruses and how they spread in great detail. I have learned how the world’s leaders could not handle an emergency that had unpopular solutions (lockdown). I have seen that lack of transparency could create an apparent Federal Constitution violation by a president by “clearing” protestors. All of this has been a unique experience to me in my life—I have never learned about how much is wrong so fast and how wrong I was about the world—I thought we were better than this.

So my writing mind sees us as a new Job, and we are learning all the things we have wrong. We are complaining, “where was God.” God’s answer this time (and Satan’s) is that that it was you, not us, that the virus was created by the same process that created the last virus emergencies—a human failing. The explosion of a pandemic was caused by a lack of testing and hand washing. “It was not me,” I can see Satan saying to God. “Tear gassing was not our angles pouring out tribulations, but you all doing this to each other,” says God. I can see God and Satan saying, “humans, you are discovering” what you need to do and “stop doing tribulations to yourselves!”

Just some thoughts of my thinking: ”a movie running in my head.”

The stock market crashed today 5%. The reality of The Fed message and the increasing infection rate has thrown some cold water on the market. We will see how it handles this tomorrow.

The deaths reported were over eight-hundred people in the USA today, including two from Oregon. The infection rate is increasing. Here is a hymn I remembering singing: Are Ye Able.

I also found this fantastic hymn summary: Evolution of Worship Music – A Cappella Medley.

Work was interesting in an unusual way, I am very unhappy with the day, and many options are working through my mind that I cannot write here. I can say that integrity is essential to me both in the personal way that most people understand, but also very much in how computer systems are put together that I am involved in. I always remind folks of the famous quote:

“Once you give up your integrity, the rest is a piece of cake.”― J.R. Ewing

I would not take J.R.’s direction for life or computer systems!

Lunch was reheated lasagna as I had meetings through lunch. This was the baked pasta dish I made last week. I cut out quite a few pieces and carefully wrapped them and froze them. I reheat them in the microwave (defrost and then reheat to get it very hot). When hot, the meal is wonderful.

In the middle of total frustration at work, I received a gift from Rev. John in India: The video of my good friend’s funeral. The Bishop Rev.Dr. Yesu was called home last year and I still miss him. I have trouble imagining India without my friend waiting for me there: Bishop Yesu.

(back in April 2010 near Kakinada, A.P., the Bishop helping me with the local customs)

Returning to today, I stopped working on my Nike computer and took a short walk. I noticed that the Reedville Presbyterians had changed their sign. Previously it said “HOPE,” except for the day the ‘P’ fell down after a windy storm, and this allowed for some interpretation of what the local Presbyterians were trying to say. I put the ‘P’ back up when I saw that my from my house that I could read “HO E.” I like the new sign, recycling a few letters.

Dinner was going out to the Golden Valley Brewery as Susie and Corwin had enough of my cooking, and well their’s too. We were more than happy to get a table in the bar area, and most folks had masks and most graced us by following social distancing norms (can we call it that). Dinner and beer were excellent. Susie feels safe there.

We drove back and waved at many more protestors in our area than there was yesterday. We have demonstrators displaying “Black Lives Matter” signs at 185th Street and Baseline. We smiled and waved, trying to be supportive.

Which reminds me, the president found new ways today to inflame the fires of divisiveness–it is aw-inspiring how Mr. Trump can find something to say or texted that I never thought of to piss-off and divide people. It is like a superpower for him. I try not to make political statements here, but truly I was surprised today, again.

The stock market was up and down all day. The Fed did not raise or lower rates today. The current rise in the market was discussed on Bloomberg and how retail investors (someone like me) appear to have timed the market, and the big names are now admitting they were on the sidelines and missed the V-Recovery.

The voting in Georgia yesterday was reported to be a shambles.

The reports show that over nine-hundred eighty people in the USA lost their lives to the virus. I found this hymn, I remember singing it a few years ago, and I think it also is good for Georgia that needs some prayers: Sweet, Sweet Spirit.