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Well, today I think I will skip anything about working today. I did start at 6ish and finish in the early evening online with video conferences. I did have the migraine headache late this afternoon and had to take a short nap to stop the visual effects. Only a dark room and sleep will stop it.

At 11:00AM this morning I was at our church, First United Methodist Church. I have not driven into Beaverton since the lockdown. Strange to see Beaverton so empty and everything closed. Dan Gray was not able to meet me there, so I just replaced the Gay Pride Flag. I also looked at the small amount of graffiti the door had acquired. They look like gang work and the local youth group is already planning to remove it.

I did get a complaint that I put the flag back as it was and did not move the flag higher to put it out of reach. I did not have a ladder, and I prefer not making it a challenge to steal the flag. I can always buy more (I have replaced more than five flags). I find it a version of the turn-the-other-cheek lesson for us and whoever takes the flag. I bought the pole about a year ago when the last one was stolen, and I have a spare flag. I will order a new pole soon to be ready for the next time. I also have a back-up flag holder too.

The flags I buy are well made in the USA. Oddly, the pole is imported from Indonesia (!?). I don’t mind replacing them.

I have a USA flag on my house using the same set-up. One of my USA flags was stolen. One was lost when bad weather sucked it out of the holder and dropped it on the roof. I found it six months later when it finally fell off the roof. We had the same thing happen at the church and recovered the flag on the other side of the church. We extra tighten the screw on the holder to hold the flag in.

I am not political about this. I just like the look of flags. To me, flags are so old school and yet seem to create an emotional reaction still. Put merely, flags are cool!

I went to Giovanni’s in Beaverton for lunch, pick-up. I used my Apple device to just call them and gave my order. I waited in the car listening to the radio and calling friends while waiting for them to make it. I then, following all social distancing process and wearing a mask, went in to pay for my lunch. They make great chicken parmesan, and I ordered chicken alfredo fettuccini for Susie, both with salads and garlic bread. Giovanni’s was full, all the marks for standing six-feet apart were full when I left. We hope they make it through the emergency and at least lunch was busy for them–I like their food, and they are local.

The weather turned nice, and the rains got most of our roses to bloom. Here are my roses, and I have linked them to descriptions in case you have to have one.

This is my first successful Mister Lincoln’s rose. I planted this in the fall, and it is struggling a bit, but I finally get the first rose.

David Austin’s Herbalist rose is one of my most magnificent roses. It flowers early and late and continues throughout the summer. I read it got its name as it looks much like the old rose The Apothecary Rose, a gallica rose that blooms only once a year–mine died a few years ago.

Just behind this rose, and I suspect an unkillable rose (it is ignored and mistreated) is a Moss Rose. It blooms with a beautiful scent and thus is near the master bedroom window. It blooms heavy and then just once in a while after that. It will bloom fully this weekend and next week. I will have the window open!

The once bloom rose is in the backyard as it spends most of the year just being thorny sticks. But it has started to flower and is one of my favorites. This is an old rose and is named for the villain in the Three Muskateers: Cardinal Richelieu. The rose bloom is getting old and has turned pink. The blooms start out purple.

My only Rugosa rose is also blooming. It will repeat bloom. I have few roses that are later than these, and China Rose is in flower, but a bit faded now. It will burst out again soon.

Leaving the flowers, I also received a new game today. I have never done the crazy train board games that simulate the 1800s stock market and robber baron railroad building. Scott Peterson published a simplified version, 18Chesapeake, on Kickstarter, and today I received my copy. I read the rules and am excited to try out a new style of game. There are far more complex and very long 18xx games that include short selling and take-overs, 1817 being the monster version. I will see if I want to dive in that deep after playing 18Chesapeake. Scott Peterson, until now, hand made 18xx train games to order, which were very expensive with long lead times. He is now mass-producing them and sells them on this website.

The stock market was up and down today. JC Penny’s finally went bankrupt today. My losses did increase in my retirement 401K account to -7.5% for the year. Oil futures are back up to $30 plus a barrel.

Following the news, more than one-thousand five-hundred people died from the virus today. The infection reports have increased, sadly. The curve is back on a positive slope. This is one of the new works from the lockdown and from Asia, I think: The Lord Bless You and Keep You (John Rutter).

 

 

 

 

It is day sixty. The lockdown seems both longer and shorter than forever. Many discussions are not about how we look forward to the end of the lockdown, but now about how everything has changed. Some of the changes are improvements. The air is better. The reports I read say that the majority of the USA’s electricity is now from renewable sources. I read that coal plants are being taken off-line sooner than originally planned and most scrapped. We might never return to coal being an important fuel for electricity in the USA. I have heard people tell me and I too think the animals look healthy and happy outside. There are more of them. The grass seems greener and the flowers brighter this year. Of course, we see this from inside or just in our own backyard or while we are on a walk.

The lesson that is appearing all over the world is that the planet can do great without us. A tough learning I think. It seems the earth can be saved by just locking up the humans.

Being more positive, the lesson might be kinder than that. Maybe a better finding is that the enviroment we live in would be better if we minimized our pollution by changing our approach from ownership to being stewards of the land. Stewards do not own the asset (in this case, the environment). Instead, they manage the asset, trying to increase the value of the asset, planning for the future use of the asset, and finally to return the asset to the true owner improved. For some of us, this true owner is God and for other The Land or Our Father’s Land or The Future. I think the true lesson from these terrible events is that we must become good stewards of our environment.

One can be bold and even say the lack of stewardship produced the virus and turned it into a pandemic. Reminding me of that dark statement from a favorite movie (paraphrasing): “You are the disease and we are the cure.”

Leaving the musing, today started early, and I did more than six hours of video conferencing. I had to fix some computer items while doing the conferencing. It was a chaotic day.

I had to slip out of all the calls for work to get Susie’s prescription–it ran out. I was surprised to see all the police. The car that has been on our street for quite a few number of months that we thought was yet-another-abandoned car was actually stolen. In our defense, over the years, we have had more than four abandoned cars and car “projects” removed from in front of our house. The police, with just a tiny hint of “are you people stupid” in his voice, told me to report cars that are suspicious to the police. He politely pointed out that Honda and Toyotas, the stolen car is a Honda, are prime targets so if I see another one just show up on my street again, please ask the police to look into it. The car was hauled away.

I did more meetings and more discussions. I went out to get the mail and saw my neighbor. I told her about the car that was being hauled away. She then pointed out that the van on the street was flagged to be hauled away as it was too close to a mailbox. It was her son’s, and she needed to move it. It had a dead battery.

I drove the Volvo over and got the cables out and jumped the van. No good. So I returned to my video conferences with my car running on the street with the cables charing the van’s battery. My neighbor was worried that someone would steal my car now running on the road with the hood open and wires running out of it. “I would just get a new one,” was all I said–believing irony would not make an example out of me today.

More meetings and with a few stressed moments. And then out to the car and the van started and moved. Back to more meetings and two phone calls.

Again, Corwin made dinner as I was late starting it. I went to read and fell asleep to wake after seven.

Today is Theology Pub at 7PM. I was late. We spend one evening drinking and eating with a small group discussing theological topics from a Christian perspective (mostly). Now, this is a drink and eat at home and attend a Zoom video conference. Out theme was Humility, and I was humbled by being thirty minutes late.

We spoke about the topic and also about each other and how we are all doing. Susie and I got a beer from the frig and spaghetti that Corwin made. Corwin joined in a few times.

The baby birds on the nest on my front door in the wreath flew away today. We took care to not hurt them. We can see the babies still. They are flying, poorly, in the backyard.

Susie is still riding her bike. It is in the living room almost in the way of the TV. It cannot be avoided.

Back to the musing, to paraphrase the late comedian George Carlin, we cannot save the planet–but the earth does not really need us. I believe we all need to be better stewards.

The US stock market went down and then back-up and recovered some of the losses from yesterday’s 500 hundred point crash.

More than one-thousand seven-hundred Americans passed away from the virus today. The infection rate still appears to have peaked in the USA. The hymn took some searching to find. This is from 1906 and Methodist Hymn 522: Leave It There.

 

I had my meeting at 7AM for a council I help run for software development in the USA. That is a chance to do the Powerpoint presentation and work with my very talented friends from SAP, Peter Keller, and Goodyear Tire’s Todd Lutz. We talked about test data–are you still awake reading this? I then had endless video conferences in the afternoon, but before those started, I had two more hours of video conferences on mostly status. I managed to actually get work done while the status conferences were running. I had a short break and slipped out to do some grocery shopping (I used up the coffee today).

Safeway had new challenges. Meat is becoming expensive, and only two packages are allowed for purchase per customer. There was toilet paper (we have not yet exhausted our supply) and I picked up a double set of paper towels (we have exhausted our paper towel supply). Back months ago, I bought toilet paper in each of my three orders online to Safeway before the lockdown. This was when the virus was beginning to hit in Oregon (the first cases were here in Washington County). Then, I just repeated much of the order not even noticing I was starting a trend on toilet paper purchases. Safeway online stopped having delivery windows and I have not been back to the online website, but we were full by then.

I picked up some ribs, Korean Cut (as I call it) across the bone. I got milk, eggs, butter, and so on.

Lunch was from BJ’s Brewhouse. Sorba noodles with chicken for me. Potato skins with cheese and bacon (I removed the green onions before Susie saw I forgot to exclude them, again). It was delivered on-time and without error.

The meeting and video conferences ran over until almost 6PM. The last was ninety minutes on a discussion (argument) about interfacing data. I had a beer after the workday ended. I will be checking my retirement balances again.

Corwin did the teriyaki soak and broiled the ribs. He had to start dinner as I was stuck in the argument and could not start dinner. I had to put the arguments on mute a couple of times to talk to Corwin about making dinner. I do not think anyone noticed.

Susie was happy with dinner. It was quite good.

Corwin discovered Olympic Provision‘s subscription service after we had our first delivery yesterday and convinced me to put it in a larger order. I agreed to invest some of my grocery money into their website to have more food sent. Corwin thinks we can have a couple of dinners from the package. It is a good experiment for the times. We may eat very well, it appears not to be that expensive.

I did put away Blitzkrieg in the West today. Here is a summary of my solo game.

I managed to get through two turns. The Allies’ counter-attack after the initial Axis attack had not done much. The German Army crushed the Belgium Army, and the armor and mech units encircled the French that had reached the front, and much of the French 2nd Army was destroyed. The Luftwaffe owned the skies. The unprotected Allies’ airbases were destroyed by airborne units and special forces. There was a four-kilometer hole in the Allies’ front. The last of active resistance ended in Holland, too, with the encircling and crushing of the Dutch forces. 

And then luck turned on the Germans. The French heavy infantry reached the front with the light armor. The combined arms blew out the German best infantry. Feeble attacks performed miracles and sent the German units flying out of Belgium and back to Germany! The German forces were on the run!

And there I stopped. Germany would be not break-out as the deployment was just wrong from the start. It would be a slugfest with France attacking everywhere in two turns to find the weaknesses in the German lines.

(the die still shows the five that is the number of hexes to retreat the German stack of armor)

My conclusions follow.

The game was hard to learn, but the turns play fast. The rules begin to make some sense to me after a few practice turns. The combat tables require 3-1 and 4-1 odds to have a great result. The result that has you roll a die and retreat that far is rather shocking and undoubtedly unrealistic. Units do not retreat twenty kilometers through a forest! The stacking rules are too crazy, and I just set a two-unit limit except for minimal units that could be added in. Encircling is required to crush the other army.

Every unit lost is a shock point, two for armor and mech. Losing cities and fortresses are more shock points. With the loss of cities and army Belgium would fold. I think the Dutch would also fold (collapse in the game turns). I learned a lot about running the 1940 front. The shock rules are an exciting new idea.

But, the set-up is long, and I still do not know how to deploy the armies. The rules are very complicated, but that is the nature of this type of simulation wargame. Not sure I could find anyone to make the investment to learn and play the game. I have better games, but nothing that is such a good simulation of WW2. Hummmm…

The stock market crashed more than 500 points today. The Fed said more needed to be done. Yup!

The reports have more than one-thousand seven-hundred Americans killed today by the virus. The charts are still showing a reduction in infections and deaths.

The song I picked is from the Sacred Harp and is from Charles Wesley. This is a very old style singing with shaped notes and not for everyone: Sacred Harp Singers – Idumea (with lyrics).

 

Just a short story today.

So today was another workday at home. I had a couple of breaks but I did not get out of the house today. I was working until about 7PM with a few breaks. The big project I am on had an announcement that they are changing some leadership and processes and goals. Much of the information was too high-level to follow. We will get more detailed information later.

I called Nike support in India about 9:30PM and asked for some more help with an issue. I then made some changes so they could finish their work. I think it is fixed now. The world is flat for me. I am where my laptop and phone are.

Returning to this morning, I ordered lunch from Gyro House. I had a Lamb Gyro, Corwin had an Iskandar Plate, and Susie had soup and baklava. It was delivered without issue today.

Dinner is from Olympic Provisions. I ordered a subscription to their meats. Yes, you can get a subscription and have them sent every other week! We get a chef’s board every two weeks. So today I got out crackers and cut up sausage and other meats and that is dinner. Snacks!

I played more Blitzkrieg in the West today once I could get work to stop. I had to figure out the air combat and bombardment rules! Oh my, that is a lot of rules and complexity. It is also abstract. Once I had the air missions set, I could start the Axis turn. They get “Sneak attack” and other harsh starts to the war for the Allies. I managed to bomb Belgium with some success. I managed to do nothing bombing Holland, which I invaded (it was optional). In my first attacks, I did destroy half the Belgium Army (I had some tanks in one place) and an infantry unit from Holland. My airstrikes eliminated already 20% of the Allies’ air support.

I have learned as I play that the German Army deployment is wrong. I needed to keep the armor and mech units together, and my airstrikes made no sense. The German Army is not breaking through Belgium as fast as I expected. The combat tables want a 4-1 or better to get good results for the attacker. I did not again have the armor and heavy infantry in the right place to get that. I had some “attacker withdraw” results!

(there is a lot less orange on the board now)

The Allies counter-attack will be tomorrow. The French and British west forces (not marked as entrenched) will move into Belgium to stop the German advance. I might play one more turn. I think after that, I will put it away as the set-up is long and without more direction from the game designer requires too much-specialized knowledge to play. I have already learned much from the game on the details of the battle. I might get it out again someday; the detail work impresses me.

But don’t lose heart readers, I have another game that is less complex on WW2 to try out from the same publishers. A lot fewer rules! It is the whole war in Europe in hours of play.

The stock market when up and down today. Nike stock was down today. I read reports that the New York State Pension Fund sold all its holdings of the shoe company. I think I read that the pension fund used the proceeds to buy Über and Lyft shares.

The reports are that more than one-thousand six-hundred Americans died from the virus today. This spiked from the previous days and these numbers are following the same pattern for the last three weeks. Thankfully, the totals are below the previous week’s numbers. The total cases graph has developed a negative slope suggesting we may have passed the peak.

Something bright and fun to celebrate that maybe the USA peak was today: YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND performed by the worldwide cast of BEAUTIFUL (in quarantine) for The Actors Fund. It may not be the peak, but I will take any chance to celebrate!

One of my favorite psalms: Psalm 121. We need to remember the millions ill and slain and all the medical workers who are their witnesses. And not to forget the pain of the families suffering from the infections and its aftermath.

It is a strange day. I took off two days and then the weekend and, otherwise than buy groceries, went nowhere. I then got up early today to not go anywhere and go to work.

This scenario begins when I start with the alarm that I wake up just before it goes off, usually; I wake one hour before the alarm and then awake one minute before it goes off, or it wakes me (this Monday it woke me). I put on a robe and stagger out, trying not to wake Susie. I check the settings of the heat/AC as I pass it in the hallway. Next, I clean-up the previous coffee and make new coffee.

I sit down at the computer and check my email. Get breakfast and the first cup of coffee for the day. Before the emergency, I would write a bit and then stop to shower and then head-out in the car. But now I just grab the Nike computer and read the email there and start work too. I work until I find a point to break and then head to the shower and then return to my spot. I noticed this today more as I had been on vacation for a long weekend.

I have two planned stops. I order lunch or make it and eat it. I try to take a walk and rest a few minutes before returning to the emails, texts, and video meetings with the crisis of the moment. I try to stop at about 5PM.

Today I had to catch-up as I was out for two days and did not work the weekend. I am almost caught-up as I worked through some of the video conferences.

I felt tired and a bit ill all day. It was Monday, and I had stayed up late all weekend. It is hard to switch back to 6AM mornings. I was going to have a salad but instead ordered burgers from Red Robin for Susie and me. I find a burger helps chase away the Monday blues. It was delivered on time and was perfect. I felt much better.

More robot parts came in from Digi-Key. Digi-Key is covering AdaFruit while the focus on helping their home city of New York. I read on AdaFruit’s website that they just got in more plastic to make more face shields!

I also received a new book from the US Naval Institute: Fighting the Great War At Sea: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology. It was referred to in the other WW1 naval books I recently read. It is a giant book with pictures. I was looking for more technical writing, but we will see.

Susie had the second half of her burger for dinner. I made myself Chicken Soup from a can and a grilled cheese sandwich. The cheddar was almost beyond saving, so it was an excellent time to finish it.

I liked this song and was listening to it today. Hope you like it: The Shape of My Heart.

I completed the deployment of the armies on my board game, Blitzkrieg in the West, that I am playing against myself. Usually, I play online on Monday nights. I put off online Dungeons and Dragons for a week. I wanted to get this wargame done, and I have not taken the time for the roleplaying game to get ready as we are starting a new module. On Blitzkrieg set-up, I stopped at the deployment as I tired tonight and did not finish up the deployment until 8PM. But today, I did finish re-reading all the rules and checked a few things and made a few corrections in the deployment and order of battle (such as the strategic reserves were deployed by  Germany too early).

(this is from Germany looking France–blue troops)

My initial impression is that the German Army is smallish for the job. The Luftwaffe is five-time the size of the allies’ airforce. That will have an impact! The Germans also have specialized units to break the fortresses in Belgium (the Belgium fortresses quickly fell to these special forces in the actual war and are relegated to footnotes on the war). I have tank,s and motorized infantry pointed at Belgium. I will begin tomorrow and see how it goes. The French are entrenched on the East. I am interested to see how this simulation goes.

The stock market went up and down. The technology stocks are up. The experts are looking for another dip. My 401K recovered to now less than -6% loss for the year. I am expecting to do more than break even this year. I am just below, I believe, the maximum contribution. Obviously, I like long positions and enjoy dips. I like buying low.

The reports are following the same pattern for the last month. This Monday was higher than Sunday, with just over a thousand deaths in the USA from the infection. Here is a huge pipe organ version of Come Thou Almighty King arr. Samuel Metzger.