Blog

I am working on an issue with my data conversions at the shoe company. I am waiting for the technical server and platform people in India and local to give me some options. The software is too slow. We have been chasing this all evening and likely will be all night.

I am doing this blog in between meetings tonight.

The day started at 6:25AM when I woke without my alarm, forgot to put it on, and then had to rush as I had a 7AM call with India and Nike’s folks on designing some data conversions. That was followed by more Zoom calls. We then move to Microsoft teams for calls and sharing of screens and documents. This has been running all day and into the evening with a few breaks.

I got lunch at Wendy’s. I love their chili. Susie had breakfast for lunch.

I made beef tacos and shells from a box for dinner. I made this while being in the meetings call. I almost burned the beef when I had the burner set to high, and the meeting required me for a few minutes.

I received from Seeed two 8G Raspberry Pi 4‘s direct from China in the middle of this emergency. These are the new super fast Linux with good Wifi speed version now with enough memory. Yesterday, I got a new keyboard and trackpad for the Raspberry Pi 4.

This hardware is about the same power as one of my original supercomputers to run Nike’s SAP software.

The stock market in the USA lit a fuse and took off like a rocket. The retail sales numbers were not as terrible as imagined. The Fed chairman and the Dallas Fed warned that it will be a painful recovery. The market shrugged that off.

The reports show that more than eight-hundred forty people lost their lives to the virus in the USA today, including two people from Oregon. The infection rate continues to climb in Oregon and appears to have explosive growth in Texas. I found this church video that reminds me of many church services I have been in God of Ages. It is from a church in Texas, think of them.

 

Today we would play online Dungeon and Dragons, but one of our players is in the hospital, not for the virus. So we are thinking of him and his family.

Work started at 6:30ish as I had trouble sleeping the night before. The Zoom meetings were spaced out about every other hour. Crisis of day happened in those open times. So it was a rushed day.

Susie had a busy day. She had Zerida for nails and a few items left at 9:45AM. Susie got back and then off to the dentist at 4PM. A busy schedule for Susie.

I had chicken soup from a can, Cambell’s chunky, for lunch. Susie picked up a Happy Meal on the way back from Zerida’s.

I made of dinner rigatoni and cheese and meatballs (sliced up, after being baked from a frozen state) with sauce from a jar. All this cooked together. It is all gone–must be good.

I was so tired. I fell asleep watching the news in a chair. Our software was approved, so I signed on to work about 7PM and moved in my part of the fixes into quality for testing. I then went to lay down and read. I woke-up at 9:00PM.

On the gaming front, Litko sent me some replacement parts I purchased for the new edition of the board game Dune and some add-on parts for the Cthulhu version of the Pandemic board game. Litko makes cut plastic replacement parts that are bright colored and laser etched. If you play board games, they have some colorful replacement counters for you.

The stock market fell and then went back-up. Volatility was the watchword on Bloomberg today. The Fed announced that it would buy corporate bonds, and this seemed to calm the markets. I also heard a few stories that bankruptcies are starting, and while bonds appear to be covered to some degree, equity inventors are not protected in bankruptcy.

I made no progress on the Titanic model as I was too tired to do anything on that scale: Tiny!

According to the reports, more than four-hundred people died from the virus in the USA include six who passed away in Oregon. The infection rate is increasing in Oregon, with more than two-hundred forty new infections reported today. Today’s hymn is one I believe I have sung before: For the Beauty of the Earth.

Today was not very interesting, and so I will not try to make it more than it was.

I slept into 9ish. I did the dishes and the laundry in the morning. I got lunch from Burger King (I wanted a hamburger but did not want to pay twenty bucks for one) and a Chicken McNugget (six-piece) for Susie.

I did not attend any virtual church.

I managed to paint the Titanic model and to shape a few parts that I started last night. I have filled in a few bits that need more work. As usual, the prep works continues to go on and on. The new red paint really looks better than the brown-red. I will keep working and someday I will get this one done.

(I put the model over some of the books that are published just for model builders. Notice the light pass through the portholes that will be lighted.)

I attended our church’s Charge Conference as Pastor Jefferson has been promoted to an appointed position at our church, and a Charge Conference, A Methodist thing, must be called to change is pay to match his new job. I was able to answer some technical questions on social security taxes, as a former Treasurer, while the current Treasurer looked up the budget numbers to answer another question. I was happy to be more than a witness to the meeting. The pay package passed.

By the way, I am not a member so I could not vote–I resigned my membership to protest the vote against gay rights by the church. The virus has halted the splitting of the United Methodist Church over this issue. I do try to help with specific items like cooking lunch or breakfast, replacing the gay pride flag when it is stolen, and other non-financial and non-membership things.

I then took Susie for a long drive. We had corn chips with us as a snack. We drove the length of Cornelius Pass to the Columbia River and then headed to Portland and completed the circle in Beaverton. Mariah called, and we picked her up and headed out to the Rock Creek Tavern. This is a funky, very Oregon brewpub in the middle of nowhere off, ironically, Cornelius Pass, a bigger circle.

There we sat outside as it seems safer. The staff had masks, and most customers had masks on when entering, but it is a brewpub, so most folks were seated drinking and unmasked. McMenamins, the local company that owns so many places to me, is always an experience in bad or great service–sometimes at the same time. Our waiter was helpful, attentive, and got us our drinks with dispatch. Our food too ninety minutes to arrive. The waiter knowing we must have been to a McMenamins before did not bother to explain, and we were not surprised. When the burgers and tater tots arrived, we were happy they were correct, and good or even great quality, and I paid the bill, not change for being slow, and left satisfied that our experience was not worse. I really like the beer and the atmosphere of Rock Creek, and the “food marathon” is always fun to run.

I took a nap and read some more Maisie Dobbs. I am reading book seven in the series.

I talked to a few friends on the phone. We miss each other, and we wish the infection rate was not rising again! And finally got to write this little summary.

Today the reports show the infection rate in the USA is steady on the seven-day average (it is increasing in Oregon), and more than three hundred thirty people died from the virus today. I remember crying back in March when the death rate reached this level and am saddened to be relieved to see it again to fall to less than a thousand death a day in the USA. I picked Hymn 65 from the Methodist Hymnal ¡Santo! ¡Santo! ¡Santo! (English is on the opposite page, Hymn 64).

 

Sometimes it is a good writing practice to start now and go backward.

I just about finished the 6th Maisie Dodds novel–how can be six already. I bought it just a few days on my Amazon reader. I will get the next one and keep going. I enjoy the stories with their mix of the 1930s, flash-back to the Great War, and some mysticism. The last one was in near real-time as it was to stop what we would call a terrorist attack from poison gas from a man driven mad by isolation caused by his injuries. Highly recommended, but read in order.

Before reading for a bit, I served Susie, a bowl of my version of Moroccan chicken. I had some Tagine spices, so I combined some chicken thighs (boneless) and olives, carrots, celery, lemon juice, chicken stock, garlic, and what else I had. I first cooked the garlic and then threw it all in a dutch oven and cooked it for an hour. It was good, and I had two bowls. Corwin was headed over to his friend’s house and so did not get any. I have a bowl waiting for him in the frig.

It took some time to do all of that, but it left me waiting a bit. I picked up the RMS Titanic model today. More prep! It always seems like you do weeks of prep, and then suddenly, the model is done. I have some filling to do tonight, so I used my light modeling paste to fill. Often I would use modeling filler, but it is hard and heavy. This is a tiny 1/700 scale model, so I used the paste I used for landscaping bases for figure bases (28mm figures are also tiny). It filled the holes where I removed staircases, and other adjustments called for the etched-brass and wood decks add-ons I have for this model. All of that is drying now, and I will then adjust, sand, cut, and finish on Sunday.

I took pictures of the hull of the model. The pieces are colored plastic to reduce painting, but the model has black on red for the hull! I attached the propeller shafts, black in color, to the hull, red in color, and had to cut and sand the hull to make it all work. Not sure why red plastic was not used on the propeller shafts and so I have to paint the hull red!

You can also see I have moved to sanding sticks. They work better than anything else I have used before. I can polish the plastic after I sand it a bit. My other secret is Tamiya Extra Thin Cement for plastic models. It welds the plastic together and avoids gluing me to the model!

Aside: I learned today that the tiny bit of hull between the middle propeller and rudder (visible on the model) had pitted and broke on the Olympic (being the only long-lasting ship of the three built: Olympic, Titanic, and Britannic) multiple times because of the interaction, electrolysis, of the different metals of the propeller and the steel hull in saltwater. 

Before I got back to the Titanic model, I made scrambled eggs with cheese and ham for lunch. Susie and Corwin enjoyed them. They were up just after twelve, early for them.

I made cupcakes this morning after reading email and checking that shoe company did not need me. I have the Cake Bible cookbook, and there is a chocolate cake recipe that uses mayonnaise, and I have wanted to try it for weeks.  I made them from scratch using the cookbook recipe, and they turned out great. Susie and Corwin love them–a bit chewy and soft. I will make them again! Breakfast was coffee and a banana about 9ish.

I did spend time on Facebook, hiding what I would call race-baiting and white-folk explainer posts. I am not interested in that. Show me your baking and cat videos instead! I also stopped following a blogger today when he went that way too—nothing I want to follow.

Today it was reported that more than seven-hundred people lost their lives to the virus here in the USA. The active infection rate is increasing in the USA. These reports show California, the most populous American state, has the highest number of new infections. Still, Louisiana, Arizona, and North Carlina have considerable increases in the rate of infections and numbers of new cases. I found this new song that I did not know: Wind Who Makes All Winds That Blow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today is also the 89th day of working from home and lockdown. Work was 1/2 day of working from home, consisting of Zoom meetings, MS Team calls, and email. This continued into the evening even during drinks and appetizers and dessert at the Bargarden. I am watching for any more help needed this weekend.

I sent a letter about an email I received from the NRA today to the Attorney General of New York. It mentions her, and I thought she could use a copy of it. Yes, I am a member of the NRA, ignoring its politics, and like their magazine’s articles on guns.

A friend wanted to get some beer this afternoon, a boot of beer. This means the German styled place in Beaverton: Bargarden (spelled I guess for Americans and they serve booze too).

We had fondu with sausage and bread. I finished with apple strudel and coffee, Susie with a pretzel, and our friend with another smaller beer.

I have to admit we drove home, and a nap followed after taking care of a few items from work that came up while I was re-booting in the Bargarden.

The stock market went up mostly. The NASDAQ went down. I heard no explanation for the gyrations on Bloomberg. Monday may be exciting.

More than seven-hundred eighty people died from the virus today in the USA including two deaths in Oregon. I found this, Bach!, and thought it would work for tonight: Celtic Woman – Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring (live).