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We left the Christmas Wreath on the door as it smelled so lovely. Walking through the door, you get a nice smell of pine, but now we have a flapping. Yes, the sparrows built a nest behind the wreath even with little eggs. They fly away when someone uses the door. It is well protected and, except for a few humans who use their nest as a door, completely safe from predators. So now it is a Spring Wreath.

(the nest lodged between the reef and the screen on the door, the eggs are tiny)

Susie and Corwin got colorful and fuzzy Easter-themed bags filled with candy and even PEZ dispensers from the Easter Bunny.

My sister and I texted pictures for Easter.

As it is Easter, let’s go with this happy Easter song from seven years ago. Someday the UK will be able to again fill Albert Hall and sing Ode to Joy.

Rev. Anne Weld-Martin had a short small group meeting for Easter at 10:30, and then Susie and I joined Joan Goldhammer for our meeting at 2PM. We watched the service before that on-line. Our Bishop Elaine Stanovsky gave the sermon about being apart and together at the same time.

We then had a face-time group of Susie family for Easter. Susie got to see, small on my iPhone, her mother and aunts and uncles, and her sister for Easter.

Corwin and a friend made dinner and we played Architects of the West Kingdom. Susie was reading while we played a three-person game. We opened one Bottle of Purple Cow Vinyard Durif wine to go with dinner. It was excellent.

The wine required a short nap from me. The day is already gone. Easter always seems to be over before you are getting started. So today just a short story.

It was reported that on this Easter 2020, more than five-thousand people passed away from the virus in the world. More than fifteen-hundred Americans are included in that total. I went with a Houston Church’s version with the old-style organ: We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nation.

I smell of vinegar. That does sound like a line from Monty Python. As this Easter seems so disjointed by the social distancing and well mostly no social anything, I have dyed eggs with Susie to try to find some Easter spirit–well the bunny kind. We enjoyed it, and it did bring back a little bunny-like feeling.

I had to admit that I looked up the instructions for hard boiling eggs; I do not make them very often. I had it right, but the thought of half-cooked dyed eggs made me check myself.  I managed to break three eggs still. Dropping ice on them to cool them was poorly thought out.

Additional issues happened when I punched out the eggs drying spots in the box that came with the little copper loops for dipping the eggs and the dye in nine shades (that is a lot of choices). The directions were on the box–‘were’ being the operative word there. The punching removed most of the instructive words. I did read them once before I punched them away, so I got out the vinegar and warm water. These we “marble” colors, so you add some oil to produce a marbling look.

Susie had trouble balancing the eggs on the silly wire loops. We managed to not dye ourselves or crack-up any eggs. We have a beautiful collection of colored eggs, marbled. I cleaned up and managed to get the dye in the sink without changing the color of the floor, but I did pick-up the odor as if I were pickled.

Before all of these events, I helped the Easter Bunny and went to RiteAid. There the dye and various candies and PEZ dispensers were acquired. There was also toilet paper and paper towel! Easter baskets will be there for Corwin and Susie in the morning from the Easter Bunny.

They had terrific orchids near the toilet paper–I tried not to draw a conclusion from that. I went for the orchid for Susie, miniature phalaenopsis orchids. We still have a week’s supply of toilet paper left.

Even before my trip to RiteAid, I started Saturday about 8ish and made a pound cake. This time I got it right. I missed the direction to put in the flour (stop laughing). I had waited until 1AM to finish baking a pound cake last night only to find a strange sugar and egg custard in my pan. Yuck! This morning I did it all over and got it right. This is a “one bowl” recipe from the New York Times. It is much easier (when you put the flour in it) than most recipes I have done, and Susie declared it good. Remember, she is a retired professional food service manager! So good is great praise.

I also wandered off to the former Cash and Carry store to pick up something for Easter dinner. I found a case of frozen restaurant-quality ribeye steaks. Most folks had masks on and were keeping their distance. Actually, a gal nearly crashed into the coffee syrups to avoid getting too close. A masked store manager helped her before a disaster happened.

The Giessner family dropped off some wine, they pick-up my wine from Purple Cow Vinyards for me, and they included three cloth masks. Most kind!

Rev. Anne Weld-Martin’s computer is back to life. I helped her find her way again on Zoom. The Google results for Zoom was returning her to the sales screen and not the account screen for Zoom. This is much like Apple’s spelling correction that picks the wrong word. Google is sending her to the sales screen as they are paid for that one. If you key “zoom.us “, you will avoid this. Notice the space at the end. That space stops google from adding on to “zoom.us” to get the sales screen.

It was another sunny warm day in Oregon in April. Usually, it is so wet that flowers rot of the plants in April!

I made steaks that we have had in the freezer for dinner–we need to get some room in the fridge. I fried them and then finished them in the oven. They are small thin steaks, but very tender. I made baked potatoes and green beans too. Susie has been looking for sour cream on a potato, and finally, I had it.

I have completed 55 American Civil War 28mm soldiers. I will have most of the confederates done soon. I have to do some drummers and flag holding infantry.

Today the numbers are better, but a lot of people are dying every day. The report is that more than one-thousand eight-hundred people passed today just before Easter in the USA. The story for the world is more than six-thousand people fell to the virus today.

For those we lost today: In the Garden.

Just a short note today.

The shoe company is open on Good Friday, and so I worked from home, as is the usual now. The chaos is still running at work, but the project keeps moving forward. I am now being tasked with new items for the next milestone. I am happy it is the weekend.

I lost count of the emails and video conferences at work.

No finance news as it is Good Friday.

We went for breakfast for lunch. Eggs Benedict delivered from Tom Pancake House. Corwin had the french toast special. It was good and still mostly hot when delivered. Again, trying to help our local driver and restaurants.

I left work a bit early as it was Good Friday, and my issues were still not being addressed. Definitely, time for the weekend to start!

Finished the short book Gentlemen Prefer Blonds and started the second book But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes published together in one book.This is more of my 1920s research. The book at first started out slow and the book purports to be dairy of a flapper. Her escapades are recorded as she moves from a gentleman to another gentleman.  The grammar and spelling are all wrong. I was laughing out loud when reading.

Rev. Anne Weld-Martin called. Her computer broke. I drove over, and yup, it is dead. I do not have the restart disks, and all of that to recover Windows 10. She will have to get it fixed from their expert. If she cannot get it fixed in time, I will provide my Apple for her to run her church Zoom group on Easter.

It was so warm, and summy Susie read a book on the deck for most of the afternoon.

I told a friend of mine that I was stuffing plastic eggs for an Easter Egg Hunt with toilet paper. Anyone can get candy, Toilet paper is hard to get! Ok, that is a joke.

I started on my American Civil War army again. I am still assembling the troops. I built 15 more today.

I love being allowed to pick the hats and how they hold their guns. I am building them charging with their weapons.  I have 45 assembled, about one-third of the way through. I have to paint them. I have fences and buildings to make. I have calvary to build too, and artillery and all the men at the gun. It will really look cool. It is always hard to start, as there is so much to do.

Here are some I made a few years ago. These are leftovers from a Civil War chess set I built. I had bought a small set of infantry from Perry Miniatures.

Speaking of leftovers, we had leftover pizza with beer for dinner.

Changing to the new, I saw reports of mass burials in New York. The reports included that more than two-thousand people died in the USA today, Good Friday 2020, from the virus. I found Johnny Cash singing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.

I will skip over working from home. Work was so chaotic it is hard to describe. But my friends got their software installed, and that was a significant achievement.

Lunch, yes, moving to lunch topic that fast was ordered from BJ Brewhouse today. Sorba noodles and chicken for me. I ordered Susie’s favorite, potatoes skins with cheese and bacon, but I forgot to drop the green onions. I was able to de-onion most of them. I was forced to consume the failures. Again delivered and thus helping the local businesses and drivers.

Today is Theology Pub. We would meet at the Cascade Brewing‘s bar to discuss weighty theological issues while enjoying various adult beverages and often their good dinner fare. This was our first meeting after the crisis. Zoom now. Susie and I sat on our deck outside, a sunny day 70F+, and drank beer and had pizza. A lot of others were drinking their usual or what is available on their couch. We discussed why bad things happen and how are attitude can make it worse. We did talk a lot about the virus and how things are changing and how to bring normality back, if possible.

It was excellent to have the Theology Pub again.

This is not what Theology Pub is like, but it cames to mind: Major General.

As I said above, dinner was take-and-bake pizza with beer. I went out with a mask on and acquired the consumables.

My sister, a nurse in Michigan, texted me that she lost some patients to the virus today. I sent her a summer-ish picture of my backyard. It was all I could think to do. Some pretty and calm.

So we hope for a calm and kind voyage for all. Today the report is that nearly two-thousand people, including over a hundred in Michigan, including some folks at Linda’s hospital, passed away from the virus. It is Passover so a psalm seems a good choice: Psalm 104.

It was a long day working from home. I was on-line from 6:30AM until about 6:00PM today. I had a video conference hosted by SAP, Nike, and Goodyear at 7AM to enable folks on the East Coast to attend. It went well. Again, work was a mix of trying to deliver and pressure to reach the next milestone. That is how IT goes.

My troubles from yesterday continued and others were facing many of the same challenges from the same issues I faced. It left me tired and thinking about taking Friday off (and Monday and Tuesday and…).

Lunch was from Gyro House, and Susie got baklava too.

I managed to take a walk between meetings once everything calmed down for a bit. I was triple booked once! The school is providing food baskets now.

I also saw that the Presbyterians have a new prayer box and a table set-out not far from the “HOPE” sign.

Our streets are usually packed when I was walking. Parents rushing to get kids and then get them to the next thing. Not anymore.

(this is 209th and 209th and Johnson)

Work went on, and the install of software for the project halted. Last I saw they had tried to restart the automated processes.

I finished the book Windjamming to Fiji published in 1929 and written about a trip two gals do as crew on a Windjammer. The story as we left it last time the ship was stuck in the doldrums. That finally changed, and the gals experienced a massive storm. The author makes the mistake of falling asleep in a hammock on the deck as a storm begins. She is thrown in the air by the sudden waves that bounce her in and out of the hammock as if it the hammock turned into a trampoline. The ship heels over, and she is forced to walk on a deck that is more wall than the floor. She is battered and smashed but survives. From my readings about Windjammers, they are built to run in storms. The hull and masts are iron.

The storm leaves the captain unsure of their location, and they come upon a reef. The local pilot gets them into Fiji’s harbor Suva. Thus they find Fiji, and it is a paradise. 

The gals trade all the items they brought for locally made items. The author is offered to be the chief’s wife and live in Fiji.  The call for the sea and the desire to finish their tour on the old ship is too much. She turns down the offer.

They sail the ship into New Caledonia, where the vessel is disassembled into a barge-warehouse. The story ends with the captain taking the wind vane from the old ship and packing it away with a tear. He promised it to the pilot in Fiji, where it was to be placed on top of the flag pole. A sad but honest ending to the book.

I found the author’s obituary in the New York Times, 1951. Ms. Cooper returned to New York City and was a literary agent. This is her only book. She did help co-write another about being a medical working in the South Pacific during World War 2. 

I think I will keep this book. I can see Ms. Cooper’s smile in the slightly faded black and white pictures. I will read this again. I feel like I met her.

My music choice for the book is this: Son of a Sailor.

I made dinner tonight. We had some thinly sliced pork chops that I pan-fried and served with Stovetop stuffing (which was terrible).

I have now Volvo Valet on my phone. I have scheduled a pick-up and service for the Volvo on April 13th. The SUV gets a trip to the spa for the 30K service. The dealership is looking for keeping their staff working so they emailed me and called. I am willing to help the local shop and the car needed the service. It is not really doing anything now.

I spent the early evening working on Roll20, getting all of the characters ready for the new adventure: Tomb of Horrors, Aloha Oregon Branch. I uploaded the characters used in the previous adventure and then exported them to the new content. I then looked them over and made a few improvements. As the players defeated the Evil Elemental Princes they now can do extra damage and their magic is more effective on elementals. Most of the successful characters will continue on to glory or death in the tomb. Excelsior!

I purchased more moving parts in Roll20. I hate re-buying books that I already have, but to get the computer content, that is what you have to do: Monster Manual and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. A birthday present for myself; April 16th is coming up.

The stock market continues to climb, and my 401K is now showing only an 11% loss for the year. I have no comment on this, I will just take the money.

It is difficult to read the reports showing that nearly two-thousand American passed away today from the virus. I found this from Brooklyn: Psalm 34.