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I managed to start work at 6 again this morning here at home. More and more video conferences and the crisis of the moment. Wednesday, being mid-week, always is full of status meetings and focus meetings and meetings about meetings.

I managed to order an Ensalada Plater and a Bonsia Burger for Susie from Red Robin. 

I continued the day with more status and more crisis of the moment and explaining over and over different things that I have told before. The stress of the emergency and from working from home has had an impact on people. I see a bit more panic and less organization on the part of many of my co-workers. The focus is weak and the ability to see beyond the immediate deliverables missing for many. I took Friday off to find my focus!

Today Sparkfun’s next package arrived. Two more radios: RFM69. I also have some new motors with gears and encoders. Encoders allow you to know the exact position of a motor. It makes controlling them much more exact. All good and perfect for a small robot ship.

So I took my radio build and added in the LCD. This build will be the monitor for all the radio communication. The LCD will display the messages flowing. I also added a battery connector for it to make it more independent. I will cut windows in the box for the LCD soon and have a cool monitor in a box.

The other radio will be attached to the robot controller and robot. It is slowly coming together. Another reason to take Friday off.

I also received the security camera for the church and a Raspberry Pi Zero W from Amazon today. More things to do.

Dinner for Susie was the other half of her burger. Corwin and I had reheated pizza.

The stock market went up and down, and I finally turned off Bloomberg after the third expert said the market was unpredictable. Yes, we know. My 401K is down 7.5% for this year. I am still up 7% for the last 12 months. I hope for a 10% return and plan for 8%, so I am not far away from being on plan.

The reports show another increase in the number of deaths from the virus. More than two-thousand five-hundred lives ended today in the USA because of the infection. Today’s hymn is also one I can sing, but this version is from the Welsh, and the last verse of the song is sung in the native language! Please enjoy Guide Me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah from Cardiff, and remember who we lost today.

 

Today I had another mostly sleepless night. We had a meeting with the developers in India in their afternoon about 2:30 Portland time in the morning. This has left me, again, a bit messed-up. The migraine headache later in the day was unwelcomed.

I have taken a couple of naps, and that helps just a little while. So this will be a short update.

Work started with my iPhone waking me at 2:15AM. I then had a phone conference, no video for me just woken-up, a few minutes later. We spent the hour getting aligned on how to build a process to update an automated data conversion.

Back to sleep. Back at 6AM via another iPhone alarm. Dressed and all that. Next video conference at 7AM. More emails and more videos. Finally, at 10AM, back to a nap. Alarm set. Up for lunch. Lunch was Ivar’s Clam Chowder with Bacon. Funny, it tasted of clam juice and smoky bacon. The potatoes and onions were not funny cooked. I checked instructions again, just heat. Last time for that product!

More video conferences at the end of the day. How I always get one at 4:30-5:00 I do not know.

I did take a walk this afternoon to get rid of some of the stiffness and then drove the car to get rid of its stiffness too. The parking brakes had a moment where they would not let go. It is a Volvo and can’t help be too safe and locks the parking brakes for you. Another week of braking, and I am not sure it would not be headed back to the mothership for work.

Once I and the Volvo XC60 were working again, I grabbed a Chicken McNuggets Happy Meal for Susie (her favorite) and a chocolate shake for me driving just for twenty minutes to get the car back in condition, driving very Portland polite, of course (why do they go so slow in the left lane).

We have a joke here, the Tesla Oregon self driving car switches to the left lane and then goes slow.

Dinner was Domino’s Pizza. I had a free pizza, and so I ordered another pizza, pasta dishes, salad, and diet coke. Delivered contactless. They actually have a special box they stack the boxes on that is marked “CONTACTLESS DELIVERY.” The delivery person has a mask and gloves, but they literally deliver a box with the words–how clever. How American legalistic! I did talk to the delivery person, observing social distancing, as he stacked everything on the sidewalk for me on the “PIZZA PEDESTAL” and said their sales are now up to twenty percent (last time they were very happy for the business).

(I might keep this as a memory of our times. I have a Dr. Fauci bobble-head coming too–a fundraiser).

The headache started then. I made some coffee, and that helped my problem a bit. I watched some TV (unusual for me, Expedition Unknown) after that I then took another nap when the pain returned.

I dreamed.  The dream was about assisting people in moving out of a house. It seemed there was more and more stuff to move. It appeared to never end, and we were running out of time. My father and grandparents (all long gone) were there and happy to see me and to help. They were glad to talk and move anything. I was, as the logic of dreams is impossible to understand, unaware that they were gone, but I was happy to see them. No virus. No social distancing. No masks. Just folks working together and trying to plan trips to other parts of Oregon after we finish the work. Dad, grandma Wild, and Grandpa Wild all looking like they did in the eighties, were happy, and discussing what they want to see next. I woke and was feeling much better about everything.

Wednesday seems to be coming faster than I like.

I watched the market bounce up again on Bloomberg TV. Oil is headed up. Bonds are up. Stocks are up. Interest rates are down. Norwegian Cruise Line stock lost bigtime after it said it might not survive the emergency. To me, the obvious was going on all day.

The reports follow the same pattern of the last few weeks, and the counts of deaths from the virus increased by a thousand from yesterday: Two-thousand three-hundred-fifty. Unfortunately, the number of deaths is not decreasing yet. I think I have not done this one before, and even I can sing this one (this version has an Organ solo!): For All The Saints.

 

 

 

Today we played the classic Dungeons and Dragon adventure called “The Tomb of Horrors” initially published in the 1970s online. “The Tomb of Horrors” was designed as a convention adventure that was later published to be used with the newly published revised version of the game, then known as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. These rules are now open and available as OSRIC rules, Old School Reference and Index Compilation.

Today we played online in Roll20 with new color art, maps with automatic lighting effect, video chat, and automatic rolling and descriptions of spells cast. The new online version of the same adventure. The last battle was still hard on the players. One player’s character was knocked out. But the evil undead Acererak, the villain in the story, was destroyed with the players gaining vast treasure and powerful magic as they finished looting Acererak’s tomb. It was a romp!

I played this in the original rules in 1979, I think, with the old rules. I still remember it.

Today work started with video conferences and emails at home at about 6:30AM. I woke at 6:00 with my alarm and then rolled over for just a second. It was 6:30 when I woke again. The day ended with a meeting of the directors that work for my boss for a staff meeting at about 5:30. I am scheduled for a meeting with India at 2:30AM Tuesday morning.

Corwin made dinner, baked spaghetti with Italian sausage. It was good and I had to eat while running the game as we start at 6:30PM every Monday. Lunch was from Gyro House, a Lamb Gyro. Lentil soup and baklava for Susie.

I can’t believe we are hit the fiftieth day.  We are hearing that California is starting to release the lockdown a tiny bit on Friday. Oregon will likely align with California and Washington rules. There is a thought that we will be allowed to return to church on Pentecost Sunday. We discussed in the staff meeting all the people we don’t see anymore. We are working in just the small circle of people we need to get tasks done. No seeing all the other folks we would just see and talk to. I miss the desk staff and the baristas in the morning.

The stock market was up just a bit today. The president is talking about a trade war with China. Today the story was a bit not too terrible and not so good–the market just swayed back and forth. The markets did hear from Warren Buffet today, and he is not happy. He sold his airline stocks and has a pile of money, but no cheap stocks to buy. Remember, interest rates are near zero. The Fed and Central Banks are pouring in liquidity into the economy, there are no bargains on good companies. That was why they did it–to keep the companies alive through the emergency. But some weaker companies are at risk; J Crew declared bankruptcy today. Neiman Marcus is showing signs of going the same way.

The reports are that the virus killed more than one-thousand three-hundred Americans today, a slight increase over yesterday. I found this song to remember all the people we lost today, I do not know, but I liked it: Raise Me Up.

Tonight we replaced the cornbread muffins that I made from scratch with the most excellent Famous Dave’s brand from a box. Perfect! Dinner was my reworking of Susie’s dietetic meatloaf recipe. Bread crumbs, apple sauce, one egg, Worcestershire Sauce, a pound of 80% lean ground beef, and because we are Americans and Susie and I are both from the Midwest, stuffed with cheddar cheese–Oregon Tillamook cheese! Susie usually uses oats in place of the breadcrumbs (did not have them). It was acceptable to Susie.

Lunch was made by Corwin. He took the leftover kielbasa and other meats and added to the Kraft Deluxe Mac and Cheese. Yes, we have been cheesy all day. I had the rest of the Jambalaya leftovers, but I did try the lunch. Cheesy!

I suspect our cholesterol levels will reach new highs. I suspect we will have to find some fruits and veggies to live off for a month to fix that. Oh my!

I received my little umbrellas from Amazon today for my meetings at Nike. I thought it was time to start having little umbrellas in my drinks, usually water (no really!), while in the meetings. Last week I changed my background to tropical and put on my pith helmet for Zoom meetings. Now I have the little umbrellas to put my glass during the meetings. I am ready for next week’s video-a-thons.

I have been working on electronics much of the day between chores. I have not built that much as put away the last six-month or more of new gadgets and other cool items. It took most of the day. I have a large tool cabinet now full of more cool stuff.

I also tried again to make my lightning detector well detect. So far, no luck. I have a device that simulates a lightning strike, but it is not being detected. I don’t know if the detectors are faulty or my generator is faulty. So that project is on the back-burner now. I am still working on the radios, and that is working. I ordered more from Sparkfun as the two I have are just enough to test. I need one to put in the robot and one to put in the controller. So I am short at least one.

Corwin has suggested for years that I should build some props out of all the cool stuff. Today I started on that plan. I have an excellent encoder you can control the LEDs that light it and is on a break-out that makes it all software control. I have some old fashioned needle meters. I have piles of NeoPixels I would connect up. So I have started by painting a box black, yes, a “black-box.” I have some Expresses from AdaFruit I wanted to use for something. They can control speakers. So I think I have a place to start.

Turning to the news, the reports are that the American death’s from the virus fell to just over one-thousand one-hundred-fifty this Sunday. I went with an old Church of England hymn: Just as I Am. We remember all those who came before us and those we lost today.

Today was a typical rainy day here in the Portland area. One of Susie’s doctors called and asked me how she was and rescheduled her eye appointments. The doctor offices are coming out of lock-down now, and they are calling to work out what to do. Susie is well, so the doctor has put off her next appointment until July.

I made lunch and dinner. We just had pancakes and bacon for lunch-dinner. I had a few cornbread muffins for breakfast. They are terrible–I bought mixes for next time, Famous Dave’s. Susie also had a late snack of Eggos.

I can smell the solder on me. When I was a little kid, dad was always working on electronics, and the smell of solder is something that makes me happy. I was working on my robot projects today. More parts came from Sparkfun today!

My RFM69 transceivers are here. These are neat newish hardware that replaces all the underperforming versions I have worked with before. These are good for 300 meters, are low power, and have excellent support with breakouts made for these by both Sparkfun and Adafruit.

I built one test platform and put headers on the matching transceivers so I could use my usual jumpers on it. I was able to get them to pass data between each other (once I got the network and node numbers correct). I am using something newish. There is a new 3.3V Arduino Pro that I have soldered into the test platform. Interestingly these Arduino Pro also works in Python, but I had trouble making that work, so I returned to C++. I am am very comfortable in C++, but there is so much cool available in Python. I prefer it now.

(This is the test platform all soldered together)

(This is the Arduino Pro with headers connect to the RFM69 by jumpers)

The Arduino Pro is stripped down, and so I use a serial-to-USB device to upload programs and to read the serial communication. The output of serial I/O is copied to the port so I can monitor what is happening on the device. It is incredible how far these devices have come from the original Italian device made for a class on microprocessors. And how can I not love a device named after an Italian bar? These are best for single-threaded work: the ATmega328 based device is not fast, but the blue-smoke Gini has never appeared for me.

I had a few snacks for dinner. I was just enjoying getting a few bits working on my robot stuff and skipped making dinner.

I called my friend Michelle Smith and she was baking. She got a recipe from the British Baking Show and was making special cinnamon rolls. She sent me pictures. Excellent! I think the whole USA is baking.

The reports are that the virus has taken over one-thousand six-hundred Americans today. I picked one of my favorites that I can sing to remember these people, their medical workers who are witnesses to their deaths, and their friends and family: It Is Well With My Soul.