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When you get out of your car in the parking garage and notice that no wallet is in your pocket and your wallet is not sitting in the car, there is a moment of just unbelievable shame. How could I be that distracted to get in the car and drive to Portland and park the car without any money, ID, or credit cards? Yup, completely empty. Back in the car, out of the garage, $0.00, and back home. I was not that upset, just totally surprised.

That is the middle of my day. I decided that I should at least enjoy the ride back. I turn up the music and take Burnside back over the hill instead of the highway and tunnel. It is a wonderful day.

I see the traffic out of Beaverton on TV highway. It is so backed-up on this lovely Friday that lanes are full all the way to the traffic lights. It is likely an hour or more to get through Beaverton headed to Portland. My direction, the opposite, is mostly clear and, with few exceptions, are running 10 over the speed limit–never happens.

I stop by the house to get my wallet. I get lunch at Taco Bell. The car line is long. I connect to wifi and do my email while I wait and read the news. Very relaxing wait and I order my favorite listening to public radio stories. I park in the lot and eat, listen, and use my laptop. I look over and there are multiple cars filled with folks enjoying tacos. We all wave to each other.

I drive to Hillsboro and park easy. I walk over to the local gaming store, Rune and Board, and now with my wallet and discover a physically smaller copy of some rules I always wanted, are only $20. I get that, Starfinder.

I then walked over to Insomnia Coffee. There I purchased a coffee and write for a few hours. I worked on my “Howard’s Lockdown” story and finally find an ending for the story that worked. I also purchased a cinnamon roll that I had split and brought Susie the other half.

So a nice relaxing afternoon. I took a nap, got up, made tacos, and started some more writing revising my work from the afternoon.

Writing the blog now.

Returning to the very morning, I started at 6ish and immediately found India based folks looking for me. I worked then on upgrades all morning. I barely had time to take a shower and dress. I had a few meetings that I did while working on all the issues that started popping up. Some very frustrating.

I also had to scare away a huge raccoon in the backyard.

I was happy with the morning finishing and decided to head to Portland to see the new gaming store Mox Board House. I forgot my wallet.

I did not watch the market again.

More than fourteen-hundred people in American died from the virus today.

I went with this hymn as it is from 1544, Christain People, Raise Your Song, Methodist Hymnal # 636, sorry only instrumental versions showed today.

I have a headache this evening. It just started—time to stop soon.

Working backward, I was just re-reading the Strategy and Tactics Quarterly magazine on The American Revolution. Someone might want to read it, so I was just looking at it again and reading a bit.

I made dinner tonight of couscous, green beans with butter and almonds, and chicken Cordon Blu from frozen from Schwan’s. This is one of Susie’s favorite dinners and is simple to make and to eat.

I was watching some more of Nova’s “Making North American” series I purchase to watch on my Apple computer while cooking and cleaning. I usually find something to watch while cooking and cleaning in the kitchen. Again, this show makes you want to get out a shovel and see what is under the house!

As I started cooking, Corwin’s business partner left. He played me in two games of the board game Vindication before he left, I lost both. It was nice to play this game again, even with Evan taking me both times!

Before that, I received a text from Casey, one of the other gamers I never win against, that Twilight Imperium 4 board game just had an expansion released. After some trouble, I have ordered the new parts. The GenCon gaming convention is the once a year event where expansions and new games are launched. It is an online convention this year.

Work ended mid-afternoon. I spent the day rushing from a Zoom call to the next. I was out ill yesterday, and so it was a catch-up day thick with politics and a bit of fear. Layoffs and project deadlines are hitting at the same time. Add lockdown-virus, riots, and Black-Live-matters, and you have some serious mixed-up people at Nike.

Today started with me just waking without pain. No migraine today. Susie was also good.

I had no time for the stock market again. It went down from what I saw.

More than fourteen-hundred American deaths were reported today.

I think I did this one before but is good for a repeat, Methodist Hymn #159, Lift High the Cross.

 

I awoke this morning with a continuation of the migraine I had started on Tuesday night.

Susie then asked me if she was dying. I was concerned as you can imagine. Susie was dreaming that her family was all here and she thought it was because she was so ill. The dream faded, and she was OK.

That put me in a very strange place emotionally with the migraine burning in my head and vision and Susie scaring me. I decided that I would take the day off as my emotions were in the wrong place.

I also received an email that suggested that our solution for converting data had been abandoned and that leadership wanted another miracle. My emotions were no place for that.

I got up and did all the electronic paperwork to take a day of paid-time-off (PTO). It was already too bright for me. Oregon is no longer gray but burning desert bright, but I could use just a few more days of gray, please. I put the out-of-office notice on and closed the laptop. I will not open it until after 9PM for a meeting set in India.

I returned to my staple for illness. I do not watch that many programs, but Deadliest Catch is one I follow. I watched all the episodes I missed. Crab fishing is fun to watch, and they are local heroes here in the Pacific Northwest (PNW). I play board games, and role-playing games (RPG) with a former captain of the fishing boats, and his family is still involved in fishing. It is cheering for the PNW and Alaska teams!

Nobody was up today. I decided to try a new place for lunch. I don’t cook Mexican style and was missing Mexican food. Victorico’s was delivered via GrubHub, beef tamales, rice, beans, and an extra beef crunching taco. It was more food than I usually order, and it was good. So Victorico’s is added to the possible lunch deliveries.

I then got Susie going and went to read. My head still hurts, but reading did not hurt. I think it distracts me from the pain.

I have a subscription to Strategy and Tactics Quarterly (STQ) that publish a single subject by a single author such as this one’s title, “Whirlwind: Kursk to Berlin,” about the Soviet and Fascist eastern front. More than a hundred pages, with few ads, of color maps and descriptions of battle after battle. Not everyone’s cup of tea, I understand, but STQ and their books are a detail that historians and gamer love. This publication includes notes of new sources and where the author has doubts. If you want to know everything about the Soviet-Nazi-Romanian-Bulgarian-Finland-Hungry-Yugoslavia front, that is the current scholarship and at the level that most wargamers and historians need, this is it.

If you want the American Revolutionary War details, that was the last issue–you can borrow mine. Their books on WWI, American Civil War, and Custer are treasured by me.

Corwin made dinner. Grilled chicken with alfredo sauce on the gas grill. We also ordered new parts for the grill after looking at it.

My head hurts still, but I helped a little with dinner. I watched the news while eating and tried to relax a bit.

Susie started her shows, I then watched the PBS show “Making of North America: Life” on my Apple. I would say it does for geology was Cosmos did for astronomy, wow! Just want to get out there and find a rock!

Which made me miss the first 15 of a late meeting for work. I managed my apologies and I think was able to help my Nike colleague Archana based in Bangalore India.

Archana called me back and we talked about the call and then we wandered-off topic and discussed our favorite topic: food! Dosa was the topic as it is one of my favorites. She makes the batter from scratch! I would always have some in India when I visit. Always fun to talk about culture!

Due to my migraine, I ignore the stock market.

The death rate in the used states increased to more than thirteen-hundred today.

I have never sung this song and I found this homey version online, Methodist Hymnal #411, Dear Lord, Lead Me Day by Day. This is a melody from the Philippines.

Work started at 6AM with a 7AM all-employee meeting hosted by Nike’s CEO, John Donahoe. The re-organization and layoffs were covered in the meeting. It always depresses me no matter how well done.

After that, the Zoom meetings started and consumed the rest of the day. I had little time to do more than deal with a few crises of the moment. I notice that there is now a stronger sense of urgency, almost fear, to get things done on time or to cut scope to ensure timely completion. Combine that with the Covid-19, Black-lives-matter, and layoffs, and we have a serious bunch of stressed-out people now at Nike.

Susie was up a bit early today, so I made her a chicken salad sandwich for lunch. I had one just before she was up.

Corwin and his business partner, Evan, had macaroni and cheese with peppers and Italian sausage for a late lunch and then left-overs for dinner. Susie and I had roast beef sandwiches for dinner. I had a salad as a snack later. Susie had ice cream.

Before snacking, Evan and I played one of my favorite games, Vindication. It was a learning game as Evan had not played it before, and I had not played it for quite some time. Once we got going, it played well and is never that repetitive.  I was involved in a little way of designing the game and know the game designer. I supported it in Kickstarter.

Evan discovered that he had the monster slayer and started to rack-up points and nearly caught me. I won with only 13 points ahead!

That is about it today. I did walk to the end of the street and back as it was only in the eighties today. I also did some research on Python-based machine learning during lunch–closing the Nike laptop for an hour.

Sorry for a short story today, but it was mostly boring stuff today.

I also had another migraine headache today that sort of made it a bit hard to write today.

I did not watch the market much. From what little I saw, the reports are about the dollar weakening is the big story. I am planning on hard-times and hoping I am wrong.

More than one-thousand two-hundred Americans are reported to have died from the virus today.

I found this hymn that I have never heard, Methodist Hymnal #728, and by Duke Ellington: Come Sunday.

Back to work again about 6ish. Monday is now mostly status meetings and checking up on tasks for me. I can get little work done as Zoom meetings are all day. I managed a few items by email, and we did get some planning done for our up-coming data conversions. The day ran until about 6PM. I did manage to take a break in the afternoon, but it is too hot, 95F+, for a walk, so I just read and relaxed.

I made a chicken salad last night. In the 15 minutes I had for lunch, I made a chicken salad sandwich and ate it while a meeting was going on. We had a lunchtime meeting on how to be an ally on race issues. These are meetings where I listen and try to grasp what I need to do.

I received an order from eBay today. I ordered binoculars, and they finally arrived from the company that makes them, Oberwerk. I had looked up the best for general use, and stargazing and these 8×42 binoculars were recommended. I tried them out, and they do very well. The weight gets heavy after a while, but it is not impossible to hold them up for long periods. I am now ready for the next sky event!

As work finished, I contacted a friend, and Susie and I meet her at the Golden Valley Brewery for dinner of burgers and beer. It is a hot night, but burgers and beer make it a bit better.

While writing this, I have been slipping outside looking at the stars and the moon with my new binoculars. We have a lot of light pollution in Aloha, but still, I could see many stars. Neowise is too low for me to see it tonight.

The market went up and down with the dollar sinking, and I believe I heard quiet worried talk about inflation starting soon. Gold is flying up as doubts emerge about the future of the US dollar. There were also chats about the moral peril of supporting airlines and other industries that could face a long downside. Nobody is talking about the dreaded ‘W’ recovery, yet. 

** Today’s chart from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us

Today almost six-hundred Americans are reported slain by the virus. The death rate is increasing.

I found this name by flipping through the Methodist Hymnal, and I think I have sung it once at church–the name is so odd I remember being startled when I was told to turn to “Number 150: God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens.”