It is always strange to have just a normal day, and that is what we had today.

Susie was up before noon, and we had chicken noodle soup together from a can for lunch. Corwin is going for a hike and will be back tomorrow. It is just Susie and me tonight.

Today, May 1, Oregon opens up dentist offices.  Other states are opening in various ways, and some have reversed the opening after seeing their numbers.

The USA does not celebrate May Day. Years ago Susie’s sister, Barb, went to the Soviet Union and bought a poster, here it is for May Day:

(the image is split into three signs–these are the best–hanging in the third bedroom)

Dinner was late as I was tired again and took a nap that lasted too late. I made tacos but promised Susie pancakes and bacon for Saturday (we are out of bacon).

Today we reached the last paper towel roll. I had bought a set each time we had groceries delivered before it was fashionable to buy too much paper towel. I also worked from home each time I had a cough or sneezes (from allergies) before that was required. I guess I am style-leader, who would think that?

Returning to today’s story, I spoke to Dan Gray about an issue at the church today. To set the stage, you need to know that Dan and I replace the Gay Pride flag that flies from the side of the church when someone needs it. We try not to overly attach it to the church as then there is often no damage to repair when the flag vanishes. When that happens, Dan or I just install the next one–I think we have replaced it more than six times. Occasionally one of the other church people decides to replace and firmly attach the flag to the church without talking to us. Last time the people who took the flag had to work at it and broke the pole, took the flag and busted the pole holding rig. Thus we had to buy a new flag, pole, and pole holding rig and put all back together again. We do place a little bolt in the pole to stop the weather from blowing the pole out of the platform. We recovered one flag from a weather event!

Today we have a new experience. We still have the flag. The pole is broken. The rig may be broken–Dan will check. But the church door has graffiti. That is new. Dan, and I agree,  thinks this is not another attack on our Gay Pride statement with the flag, but just kids stuff.

I have gone to Amazon (still confused about how Amazon could miss their earnings with all the business I am giving them–Amazon reported earning yesterday) and ordered new flags, poles, and a new rig.  I also found a cool security camera. Dan and I have been thinking about putting security coverage on the door and flag, so we can let those who needed our flags explain that need clearly to law officials. We have resisted so far. It was less threatening to just buy a new flag (we are in the forgiveness business), but graffiti has pushed us a bit further. The cool camera has a four-month battery, so we just recharge it every few months. It is on the way. I can always use it here at the house if we think it is still over-kill for a Methodist Church with a Gay Pride Flag in downtown Beaverton.

The stock market continued to sink. Mr. Musk could not resist making headlines and said that the stock in his company Tesla is over-priced. Tesla’s stock price is now not as over-priced. Apple’s refusal to give guidance for the year now thas the market is a bit spooked.

The reports, on this May Day and when some restrictions are being lifted in some states, are that more than one-thousand eight-hundred people died from the virus in the USA. It was also reported that certain political cronies are trying to have Florida underreport deaths from the virus. It makes one remember the scene in the movie Jaws when the local politicians prevent the sheriff from closing the beaches. This makes the choice of the hymn easy today, Trust and Obey.

 

 

Again, a short story today.

Today was a mostly regular day at home working from home. I went out to get the mail and got hailed-on while the sun was out. Yes, Oregon’s weather is back to normal.

While at the virtual workday, the crisis of the moment happened or, as happens more often now, was declared not ready, and the meeting is delayed–within hours or often minutes of the scheduled meeting. I was able, as many of my fellow workers undoubtedly also do, to ignore the video conferences and do the work during the discussions. So I slipped in some actual work today.

After working online all day, I was unusually tired (still am). I managed to make dinner of baked chicken and rice with canned peaches instead of a cooked veggie of some sort. I have discovered a fantastic canned product of peaches: DelMonte Freestone Sliced Peaches. The story is that as the emergency began and online delivery failed, I had to buy groceries in person and saw the peaches and grabbed a lot from the shelves of Safeway. Various other fruit was sold-out, but the slightly more expensive peaches were plentiful. When we opened a canned later, we discovered peach heaven in heavy syrup (most of the syrup is poured down the drain).  We now have at least one can in the frig. I like my peaches cold.

This reminds me that today we had a unique lunch experience, lost lunch. I went on Grubhub while in a video conference and ordered a couple of burgers from RedRobin around 10AM. As lunchtime approached, the food did not approach. I received updates that my lunch was delayed. Grubhub has a screen that lets you track the progress of delivery on a map. I saw the driver icon drive towards Portland on highway 26–that is not picking up the food, nor will you reach my house that way. I went to the help screens which took me back to the map where my driver was now in the West Hills nearing Portland–not my definition of “help.” I tried “help” again and discovered I was expected to text or call the driver. Apparently, food delivery is my problem. Grubhub just supplies the website and the connections for a driver, a lunch provider, and the purchaser of lunch. So I texted the driver after finding the driver’s contact information on the map screen. No response after ten minutes.

I found the chat option after I picked the “Other” issue for my food not being delivered in “help.” I was at first the 52nd in the queue. I watched the number tick-down in ten minutes and finally, Isabella said “hello” via chat. I suspected that she was a chatbot. She informed me that she could not reach the driver, and Isabella then canceled my lunch with a full refund. When she asked me what more she could do, I was suspecting she was not real and said I needed nothing more just like the nothing lunch I received. This statement was my attempt to confuse the chatbot. Instead, I got sad emojis and an apology. I thanked her for her help and told her it was not her fault. Isabella is human and works to get people’s food to them.

Where ever you are Isabella of Grubhub–thanks for helping us!

I bravely re-ordered by “express” the exact same order that arrived thirty minutes later.

Aside: Here is Eric H. Cline’s lecture for those who have an hour for this amazing chance to learn: 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Eric Cline, PhD).

My sister Linda received the gift I sent to her today. One of those super battery starters that you plug into the wall. My mother’s car batteries went out and I thought Linda, living in Michigan with hot summer and real winters, could use this. A late Easter gift.

GOOLOO 800A Peak 18000mAh SuperSafe Car Jump Starter with USB Quick Charge 3.0 (Up to 7.0L Gas or 5.5L Diesel Engine), 12V Portable Power Pack Auto Battery Booster Phone Charger Built-in LED Light

It was on special last week, twenty bucks off, so I just ordered it and had it delivered by Amazon to Linda in Michigan.

I also learned from Linda that the wild unsigned birthday card I received was from her. It is a super pop-up card of a birthday cake with a yellow submarine ala the Beatles.

So today was like another birthday for me and another Easter for my sister.

Turning to the reports, I managed to watch a bit of Bloomberg while working. I keep Bloomberg TV running on my Apple while I do Nike work on the supplied Nike laptop. The market gave back most of its gains today that it had yesterday. Earnings came in today. Amazon, despite all my help, missed their earnings targets (how they could miss as they are just about the only shopping left running in the USA, shows how badly Amazon is executing). Apple is fine. Others were a mixed bag as expected. Oil is going up as somehow they finally found a way to cut production with consumption at new lows. Air pollution and also at a new low. That does make one think. Many experts are surprised that people are gobbling-up cheap stock. They applaud the purchase at “the dip,” showing that the regular investor seems to understand “buy-low-sell-high,” but mused that the ordinary investor may not be ready if this is not the bottom.

One of the commercials on Bloomberg, they have many, shows an antique auction and the typical strange characters and goings-on. Then the next item is a bowl of dip in the sale. The text or lead for the commercial is “Helping you buy the dip” I was laughing out loud on that one. Nice to see someone out there with my kind of humor. I will have to get some dip.

The reports are not much of an improvement in the USA, more than another two-thousand two-hundred more folks passed away from the virus this Thursday. Today’s hymn is one I can sing, God Will Take Care of You.

 

 

 

A short story today.

By lunch, I was too tired to go on and sent an email to my boss and other colleagues it was time to stop and rest.

Before this, I had a few video conferences and managed also to apply some fixes to the software I upgraded last week. There are always fixes. Various crises of the moment kept me busy until I found that I was dizzy and tired. Decided to stop and rest.

I went for a mile walk to try to shake off the poor feelings. I put on my mask and my helmet.

(that is my palm tree in front of the house behind me)

Also, during today’s work Zoom conference calls, I use a moving beach scene background. I have my pith helmet and put that on. It makes it look like I am really somewhere lovely. I ordered some little paper umbrellas and party cups on Amazon, they will be here next week. Yes, if I am going to do this for another month, I need props!

Lunch was delivered from Red Robin; instead of the salad I usually have, I have to admit I had a burger. It was a Smoke and Pepper burger that includes bacon. Decadent!

I made a small dinner of a bagel, one of the Einstein’s Bagels from Monday–now nearly solid, as the burger from Red Robin was a lot and I spent the afternoon napping and reading. I finished  Digging Up Armageddon: The Search for the Lost City of Solomon by Eric H. Cline. I have added the book to my prop collection for writing horror adventures for Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. I enjoyed the text as it clearly described what a dig was like in the 1920s into the start of World War 2.

I reworked a bit of one of my Howard’s SciFi stories. It is getting a bit better. I am working on the flow and completeness of the descriptions in the text. This is my last step in my process.

This morning I watched the head of The Fed call. Mr. Powell, in the call, was clear that they are working to prevent permanent damage to the ability of the USA to do business. There was also positive news on some treatments for the virus. The stock market flew-up more than two percent today on all the good feelings.

The reports are nearly the same total as yesterday. Today two-thousand three-hundred people were taken by the virus in the USA. I went with this new take on How Firm A Foundation to remember these people and the nurses and doctors and friends and family impacted by their loss.

 

 

Today started with 6AM coming too soon. Susie had her normal issues getting to bed before midnight last night, and I was still reading Digging Up Armageddon: The Search for the Lost City of Solomon by Eric H. Cline and was not ready for sleep too. This made 6AM a hard starting time for me, and this was made harder by the first-ever All Nike Employee Meeting on Zoom at 7AM. Dressed and ready for my workday online an hour early.

John Donahue, the new CEO of Nike, gave a good talk on Zoom with just a few words from others to expand a few points. He made it clear that Nike has a plan on how to handle the restart and expects to be stronger after the emergencies. He explained that this plan was already used in China and he especially thanked China for their help. He also asked everyone to take care of themselves. With the hours I had been working, this rang a bit false for me–but I am tired. I decided to take him up on his suggestion and I went for a walk in the afternoon and slowed down a bit in the afternoon. I feel a bit better.

During my walk, I saw my neighbors, they had a ladder out and a poor lost baby jay. They were trying to return it to a nest. Heartbreaking to see baby birds lost. On a more cheerful moment, the geese have their babies, and they looked happy.

(walking on the driveway across the street)

I ordered lunch from La Providence, a tuna melt.  I had a French onion soup with it that is still waiting for Susie (she will have it tomorrow). The sandwich is more like dinner-sized, and as I had one of yesterday’s bagels for breakfast, I could only eat the first half. Corwin was happy after he got up to finish the other half.

Here is the song for the day: Here Comes the Sun.

The Schwan’s truck came today, and we got more pork tenderloins wrapped in bacon. We grilled them while we made mac and cheese and fire-roasted veggies (also from Schwan’s). Susie approved of dinner!

I read more of Eric H. Cline’s book and read that the Oriental Institute, the organization hosting the dig at Megiddo, had made a film of all their main digs in 1932 include Megiddo. I watched the movie on YouTube for its entire hour today. Again, my interest is both to enjoy another book by Eric H. Cline and to read about archeology during the main period covered in the role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. While the film is obviously slightly racist and thus a product of its time, it was one of the first docu-dramas made: The Human Adventure. Still, it was amazing to see the people I am reading about and the places in the book. I was in Megiddo with Susie in 1996, but it was still interesting to see it freshly dug in 1932. I might be able to show part of the film in one of my next adventures for Call of Cthulhu.

I sent the link for “The Human Adventure” to a fellow Call of Cthulhu player, Matt Vincent, and posted it on the Call of Cthulhu Facebook page.

I also learned about the archeology publications for the area in the 1930s and went on-line to look at them. Again for Call of Cthulhu, I collect original archeology paper reports and found one, not on Megiddo. The hardcover was for sale on a collector site for big bucks, while I found the cheap paper version, made for poor students, for under ten dollars, volume 1, on eBay–purchased. I was surprised to see other official reports are also available online as PDFs for no charge. More material for props!

As usual, I watched the stock market reporting for a while today. I leave Bloomberg channel on while I work and look up once in a while when they say something interesting–there are many commercials. The stock market went up and down and settled on about where it started. I listened to the interviews, and it seems that folks are buying the shares now while they are down about ten percent. I also increased my contribution to my 401K to buy more. This is surprising the experts as earnings are down–way down, stock-buy-back is a dirty word now, and dividends are much more optional these days. I could explain it to the experts, but they don’t call me for advice (I was up 27% last year, and I am only down 7% now). From what I see, the companies we are buying into today are still the same. The emergency is new. The companies will survive, as will most of us if we can get this over with while not dong anything stupid (i.e., using the cleaner for cleaning).

The reports are showing that for today more than two-thousand four-hundred people lost their fight with the virus and passed away. The radio report said we still have over forty people on ventilators and more than two-hundred people hospitalized here in Oregon fighting the infection. I found a new song that I liked for today: Mansions of the Lord.

 

I was online ordering dinner at 6:35 from Stir Crazy Kitchen when I saw that I had missed a call from Cory. It then dawned on me that it was Monday and I play, and DM Dungeons and Dragons on Roll20 on Mondays @ 6:30PM PDT. Or five minutes ago! I had just woken from rest. I had worked all night from Sunday into Monday late morning. I then took a short nap and then another set of work updates and emails that I can find nothing happy to say about. I went back to sleep and totally spaced that it was Monday and I had gaming scheduled.

And it is The Tomb of Horrors, the wicked tomb hunt that in many ways inspired the creation of Laura Croft and some of the traps that Indiana Jones faced, that we are to play tonight. This requires a certain level of sharpness from the gamers, including the hosting Dungeon Master. I got going ten minutes late and accept their condolences for my work schedule. When work becomes so crazy that you miss a game session, that gets true sympathy from the other gamers.

My players forgave me for being a bit muddled, but we did have a few surprises and my players avoided some horrific deaths and solved some diabolical trap-puzzles. So far just close calls. We enjoyed the content and the game!

(here is the start screen in Roll20)

The day is a blur as I was working all night. I spoke to India, Singapore, and locally through the night-morning-day that was Sunday-Mondy. At about three in the morning, I ordered bagels to be delivered at 7:30 from Einstein Bagels via DoorDash. I had a lox bagel. I had half a dozen and garden smear provided for Susie and Corwin. After a short nap, I another bagel for late lunch with garden smear.

The work is finally done, and I can return to regular hours after this Sunday-Monday non-stop day.

I saw that the stock market in the USA is going up again. There are a small collection of companies that are showing windfalls. Toilet paper, aspirin, home-based entertainment, and like obvious highly sought after products during the emergency are showing rising sales and profits. While oil prices are at best confused as we just have too much oil and the oil producers are well producing (pun in there, I think). Oddly, large companies have managed to scoop-up most of the money for small companies from the Washington DC stimulus package. Maybe that is not that odd; free money is very attractive.  From what I see in the reporting, there is no liquidity problem now. JC Penny, it is reported, is looking at its options. With the amount of support from Central Banks and The Fed, the reports I saw on Bloomberg suggest that JC Penny might not have to go bankrupt, and if it does, the debt is backed by the vast liquidity now available so it might get true restructuring options. It is not hard for me to conclude the virus might be good for brick-and-mortar after all.

I will likely put in for some days off soon. I have robot things I want to do, civil war armies to build, Howard stories to finish-up and start (Like, “Howard in Lockdown”), figures to pain, and Python to code. So many cool things to do–need some sleep and a few open days (week?).

Recently I found a new figure company: Black Army Games. They are the first to offer a Tesla that is not overly steam-punked.

:

Today the reports show that more than one-thousand three-hundred Americans were lost to the virus this Monday. Everyone one of those people we lost today had nurses and doctors that felt the loss. I picked this Crown Him With Many Crowns as it is Prince Albert Hall, which holds more than 5,000 people. We have lost the equivalent of ten Prince Albert Halls of people so far in the USA alone.