Blog

Today started again with early meetings. I was up at 6ish and in my first Zoom meeting by 7:30. This was more data flow discussion. The workday was full of crises of the moment and Zoom meetings. The end of the day was another team meeting on racism and how we are all trying to understand the issues our country is facing. It left me sad and depressed, but I am happy to see our immediate leadership trying to help.

But as usual, lunch was the highlight of the day for me. Susie was dressed and ready by 1ish and so we drove over to the Golden Valley Brewery (GVB) and had lunch. Yes, lunch and beer with waiters and all that.

Actually, seeing people who we did not know and having food I did not have delivered or made ourselves was a treat!

So we had a nice lunch at the GVB, with me having fish and chips and meatloaf for Susie. Steve was our waiter, and he was at the car wash if you remember from the very beginning of the blogs on lockdown, which was the last time I was there with the wait staff. GVB raised more than $2000 to help its staff at the car wash. I have picked up some beer a few times there and have received their email that they were reopening this week.

Our first lunch in eighty days!

The stock market went up some and down some. The discussion on Bloomberg, I watch Bloomberg while working from home, was just as confused as the market. The NASDAQ has already recovered and is in new record territory (sinking about 67 points today after yesterday breaking a record).

Yes, my 401K is now positive for the year. My prediction that I would break-even by June was off by a few days. I will try to do better (laughing) next time.

Today the country said goodbye Mr. Floyd today. The Oregonian reported tonight the statement “We do not have justice, so we do not have peace,” from a person in the crowd of the protesters in Portland. “We can be non-violent, but we cannot be peaceful.”

Dinner was lasagna. I made it from scratch. I used the no-boil very thin pasta. I do not like thick pasta for lasagna. I often make the pasta from scratch, but this very thin no-boil pasta works perfectly for me.

We finished the Moulin Rouge movie today while having some Purple Cow wine and having the lasagna.

The reports show more than one-thousand people were slain by the virus today in the USA. The active infection curve continues to point down. I thought it would be good to pick something old for today and the Morman Tabernacle Choir did a nice version: Faith of Our Fathers.

Today the riots cooled a bit into protests. Work began again at 6AM, which I was more ready for. I did drink almost a pot of coffee to get through the morning working from home still. The work was mostly status meetings, discussion on how data flows in the existing systems, and a few conversations about getting things built in the testing systems.

The day ended with a discussion with our team about how folks are doing. It ended with me sad and tears in my eyes. I am greatly saddened by how hard the racism still present in the USA is hurting my co-workers from around the world. I am heartbroken.

I had chicken noodle soup from a can for lunch. Corwin and I made Jambalaya from a box mix for dinner with sausage from Olympia Provisions that we still have. No seafood as Susie is allergic to fish. It is comfort food.

The stock market ignoring the virus, the battles in our cities, the racism exposed, and unemployment of 1 in 4 went up so fast it must have made a sonic boom! Nike stock reached more than $104 a share today. The stock market is showing a V-shaped recovery, while other indicators are showing a checkmark-shaped recovery.

We watched about half of the movie Moulin Rouge as I like the music–this is the new version of the story. I am sticking to musicals for a while. They seem to help me re-focus.

We had a request for this song: Alaska Hymn.

The reported infection rate, as measured by active cases, finally went down in the USA.

More than one-thousand people were reported to have died from the virus today in the USA. Here is a song to remember our loss today from St. John Methodist in Alaska: St. John UMC Virtual Choir “Take Root In My Heart”.

Work started with me sleeping too late and being quite late for my first meeting. I then had a crisis of the moment and a few more items. Mostly it was a day of trying to finish up loose ends on our recent delivery of software and getting ready to start the planning for the next quarter of work. The migraine headache did not help.

The news is full of the cologne of chaos, the smell of black powder, and odor of tear gas. I am very angry, but I will not dwell on the obvious here.

While all this was ongoing, total chaos, Susie had her first day out in more than 78 days for nails, hair, face, and so on. The state has unlocked stylists and off Susie went. Also, her driver Muhammad is back to take her. So we finally have Susie back to her normal schedule!

I made lunch from some hot dogs, sauerkraut, pickled beets, and pickled carrots. Most of these are leftovers from our previous orders. Susie had Eggos for breakfast-lunch.

I picked out this song for Susie’s first big day: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). I hope you will play it–it is just fun.

The headache is not terrible, so I was able to watch the stock market ignore the virus, the perfume of chaos in our cities in the USA, and the unemployment number that suggests one-quarter of the country is out of work and shoot up like a rocket. My 401K losses are now reduced to -1.1 percent for the year. My thought to break even by June failed, but I think by the end of June I will be in the black for the year. My investment plan is simple, belief in the USA economy and continuously buy the markets.

I made Pork Vindaloo again for dinner. Corwin thought it excellent.

I wish I could make this more interesting, but I am tired, and the light hurts my eyes.

The deaths from the virus reported is over one-thousand, one-hundred today. The current infection number still appears to be coming down. I picked a prayer for today, Prayer of St. Francis,(Make Me A Channel of Your Peace) sung by Angelina, EWTN, as it seemed to be something we need today.

And you are not the only one that I sent this prayer too, I sent a wall plaque from Amazon to President Trump with this prayer on it. I hope it will help him find peace.

If he just read that prayer on TV I sent him, imagine the good that might happen!

Look for us here in Aloha, Oregon, where the smell of chaos has not yet reached, trying to find peace and a means to share it!

 

 

We did 77 days in lockdown. It is now day 1 of working from home under Phase 1 of the re-opening plan. I have started a new count.

My wife was surprised to see me working from home as I told her the lockdown ended, it has, but I will continue to work from home. Susie was expecting me to drive to work today. Nike has some people back in the offices, but we are not even planned to return this quarter, after September 2020, if then.

I could not sleep last night, so I finished my novel, Maisie Dobbs book #4. I worked the weekend and had only a few hours of sleep and fell deep asleep on Sunday about 5PM after we delivered the big demo–I could not then fall back to sleep. I have my nights and days a bit mixed up. 6AM was hard today, but the afternoon was harder!

I was excited that the rules came in the mail from Pulp Alley today. I also bought the Fortune Cards and a book of scenarios–everything needed to play. This game system does not use a Game Master to run the game like most role-playing tabletop games do. Pulp Alley uses random cards and activation rules to run the game. A player is appointed the Director who runs the scenario and then is replaced as another play succeeds at a goal. The Director can stack the action to his or her advantage so it is also an advantage to be directing. I think the game will be an excellent role-playing experience–focusing on the play and less the mechanic. Also, you get two more characters to play in your “league.” This is something we use to do in old Dungeons and Dragons. It allows you more options than just playing one character all the time.

The writers seem to have harvested the best of Savage Worlds and Frost Grave with a bit of original Dungeons and Dragon simplicity I have not seen in a while. I will try to play some this week. It plays well for 1-4 players. I have found that four or more players do not work that well without a player running the game. These automated adventures become crowded and hard to manage with more than four players and four can be difficult. I did not buy the Solo deck and might regret that.

I first downloaded and printed out the start-up version with hand cut-out cards to try it.  I recommend trying that before making the investment; it is a bit expensive as it is not mass-produced. All the items are of high quality. And if you play, like I do, Call of Cthulhu you already have a bunch of 1920-1930 figures ready to be heroic. Those Darlek figures and The Doctor figures could be fun too.

I had Beefaroni for lunch with peaches. We still have a lot of canned pasta meals left from the emergency–Susie likes Beefaroni. It was not as terrible as the canned spaghetti and meatballs, and I added cheese. I still have a few cans left of the delicious peaches, DelMonte Freestone Peaches. A good and quick lunch.

Work became hard as meetings went on and on while I was starting to get very sleepy. I made it to 4PM.

I got a short 15 min. nap in to change gears and then made dinner. Porkchops, corn, and Stovetop stuffing from a box. I browned the chops in a pan and then put the pan in the oven to finish. It turned out a bit plain but good. Comfort food.

Safeway delivered the groceries tonight. At first we thought we had lost half the order to stocking issues at Safeway, but despite an email and a receipt that said half the order was lost–it was all there. I checked and I paid the whole amount too. I stopped shopping even with a mask and hand sanitizer when the virus started to show again in our area with higher infection rates. Also, wearing a mask has become a political statement and I am not willing to get involved with arguments with folks. I continue to wear a mask and be very careful.

We had a catch-up on our group that plays on-line Dungeons and Dragons using Roll20 on Mondays. We had folks traveling, and some could only come late, and I was not that well prepared yet, so this was just a quick meet-up online. I managed to get everyone’s characters transferred from the previous adventure and into the new experience: Dungeon of the Mad Mage. This is a vast adventure that has been translated into the electronic content in Roll20. We are continuing our campaign in this setting. Today was just to get everyone signed-in to the new game, each adventure is a new game in Roll20, and show the great reward they had earned from completing their last quest. One of the items I was proud of–I made it myself, a battle-ax that is self-aware and heals the welder and his/her/its allies when they do lots of damage. We will play our first actual game in the new setting next Monday. We had everyone fight a few monsters to check that everything was working.

For you who play Dungeons and Dragons, there is a new group headed down the Tavern Yawning Portal’s entrance the Mad Mage’s complex. Bets are being taken. 2-1, they will return. 3-1, they will never be heard from again. 4-1 they will return and bring great riches back with them and buy everyone a drink. Get your character’s bets in with your local DM!

The stock market was mostly up. President Trump tear-gassed the peaceful protesters after the market closed; we will see what will happen to the market with a new emergency. The experts think the investors have priced-in the risk of the virus to the economy and are now moving to post-virus thinking. Many of the experts believe this may be too risky. I did not make my goal today, my 401K improved to -1.86% loss for the year. I thought I would break even by June, close.

I watched the news and the riots. I am very unhappy with the tagging and breakage–just like everyone else. I angry with police and politicians trying to crush rights and killing people by direct violence or the violence of neglect. Also, I looked up the 1807 laws and know where we may be going. Soon I may be on the streets too.

Corwin was right, I should have gotten those high quality rebreathing masks. Originally for spray painting, but now I might need them for other uses.

The reports show the infection curve in the USA is falling. More than seven-hundred people died from the virus today in the USA. I found a very interesting version of this hymn today: Child So Lovely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I was online working all day. Our team had to deliver a data conversion today. We had to actually do a demonstration of the conversion. It took all day to get ready, and we had the software working within minutes of the deadline, but we did it at 4PM today and were accepted.

I spent most of the day online working with the team helping where I could.

Between work times, I was reading about the riots and protests all over the USA. I read the anarchist websites to understand how they protect themselves. I gave money to their bail-out fund (go-fund-me) and I could be targeted. The president declared the group terrorists and I willingly gave support.

Now before you email me about my poor choices, let me admit I likely do not agree with the folks I am helping to bailing-out, but I am willing to protect people’s right to protest this weekend. I am trying to act with compassion. When there is a fund for the damages, I will donate to it too.

I had lunch delivered, this last time–I plan to try lunch at a restaurant on Monday, from The Gyro House. I had an extra spicy lamb Gyro and ordered Susie a kid’s kabob lamb with fries. She had pizza instead. I had the lamb for dinner.

I have managed to start the next Howard story. Susie reviewed the Howard in Amsterdam and did not care for it. I did not explain the eldritch powers in the story, and so she was lost. I will consider adding a section with an educational film on the arcane horrors. Susie said the writing was good and clear.

Susie and I watched the news. She has been so disconnected that she did not know about the riots. We watched all the coverage of the riots, local and national, while she munch pizza, and I finished the lamb.

I then took a nap and am slept a bit long. The protests are continuing tonight. Susie is watching them now on TV.

It is reported that more than six-hundred people died from the virus here in the USA this Sunday. The national infection rate has also developed a strong negative slope–there is hope the limit has been reached and the rate will decline. So I went with the music for today from a Nobel Peace Prize Concert as it seemed to be needed: Queen Latifah “I know where I’ve been” 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Concert.