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I awoke with a headache this morning and slept in until ten-ish. Unusual for me to sleep so late, but I did stay up late on Friday and the headache had me rolling over and going back to sleep.

I nearly finished the painting of figures of Norse gods for the game Bloodrage last night. So I got up and took my medications, hoping the headache was blood pressure–it was not, and had some breakfast and finished the figures. The head got better with food and something to do. It did come back with bright light. I put on my Nike sunglasses to drive, of course.

I also started to assemble another set of figures, the original Star Trek crew. I purchased the set for half-off last year and want to get them added to Star Trek: Panic boardgame. These figures are cast plastic or epoxy and need to be assembled. I managed to not glue myself to any of them. I will finish on Sunday, I think. I will include pictures later.

I made myself lunch from the chili from the last weekend, before it gets too old to eat. Nobody was up. I received an email from Golden Valley Brewery that they had a car wash to help their wait staff. The money collected going to the wait staff. I headed over and gave them a donation and discovered a 10+ car wait. Excellent. While waiting, you can order food and beer to-go. I got that six-pack I wanted for St. Patrick’s Day (a power failure closed them early so I could not get the beer in time), their Dundee Porter. Car washed and beer!

It is 66F+ and sunny. Somehow we seem to be having California weather. Here is some music for today and the car wash: All I Want to Do.

I then discovered that the hobby store was open–they sent me an email with a coupon. I am almost out of one of my favorite colors: Tamiya XF-63 German Grey. This is a very dark grey that looks like black. You can shade it still with pure black. For example, Loki’s (the figure in red above) hair is not black but XF-63 so I can shade it–this makes “black” more three-dimensional at the 28mm scale. One of my tricks. Usually, I use Army Painter Paints, but for black, it often German Grey instead of black.

So off to see them. When I got there, I could see that the social distancing was not well followed in Tammies Hobbies by their customer. I had to be careful. One older man, with a broken RC car, had a mask on at least. I told them I was happy to see them and thanked them for being open. They had the boardgame Jaws for sale–it is based on the movie. Why not, I wanted to play it. So I found the paint and the game and a magazine and supported my local hobby store.

BTW, there are many how-to-play videos for the board game Jaws, many quite thematic and silly.

I see that the game store, Raining Day Games, is still open while driving back. I wanted some paintbrushes before everything closes down and thus another place to stop by. Here they have taken social distancing seriously. A game you want to handle will be given to you; don’t take them off the shelf. I talk to the owner and share our concerns about the expected shutdown of Oregon on Monday. I have known them for years, and they were happy I came in to support the local gaming store!

I return home, wash my hands, and made Susie and myself a sandwich for dinner. We have plenty of lunch meats from my last visit to Safeway.

I then primed the Star Trek figures and played a practice game of Jaws against myself. The shark had two points left with it sank The Orca and won. It seems a very balanced game. I shall try to get Susie to play on Sunday. It plays 2-4 players. One person is the shark.

And you have to add this video: Bigger Boat.

(Chief Broady, represented by the black meeple, is in the water with the shark as The Orca is being smashed by the shark).

Returning to the virus news, we hear that Oregon will lockdown soon, and hundreds of people are laid-off. A song that was written for another war that risked everything seems the best for today, it is a more American taste, but I think it fits the sacrifices:  Battle Hymn of the Republic

This morning a little after six, I sent a note to my boss and friends at work that I was headed to the ER with Susie. I woke from my alarm, and then Susie told me that she was in pain, 9-out-of-10 pain. I went off to make coffee and get a bit more organized before we headed to the emergency room. A few minutes later, I returned to Susie, and Susie was recovered and had no pain. Likely this was gas or something from last night, we had homemade bean and chicken soup. It is funny now, but then it was a shock. The ER is about the last place you want to be now.

I sent out a reversal email, and my boss Brad and friends were all relieved that the episode was over and that the ER was avoided. I logged on to work here at the house and began reading and sending emails.

To celebrate our near escape, a silly video: U Can’t Touch This.

Today was like a conga-dance of video conference after another video conference. Much progress was made on the planning and design. It is a bit of blur now.

Off to the pharmacy for Susie, a drug had run out. I was there just after the pharmacy opened. No toilet paper, but there was kleenex. I left it for the next guy, we have some. I thanked the staff for working today.

I ordered lunch early from Happy Panada and for delivery. I had meetings spaced out all morning, so it would be better if they could deliver, and I wanted to see how that worked out. It arrived on time, but no tracking email or text was supplied, so I was worried it was not coming. We got two Orange Chickens in error. I paid for it and gave the driver a cash tip. It was a familiar style and flavor. Happy to support our local folks!

The workday ended with a massive Zoom meeting for the huge project I am working on. Never been on a 400+ person video call before. Zoom was used as it could handle the size. The status of the project was reviewed and how to work. Also, except for a few folks, everyone is to take Spring Break (next week) off as paid time off. As you already guessed, I am one of the people who is needed to work next week.

Another it can’t-be-Oregon-because-it-is-not-raining day. I took Susie was a short walk. We visited the newly planted telephone pole again.

Dinner was just cheese and crackers as we had such a large lunch.

My gaming friends have me trying an on-line board game site: Game Board Arena. I was invited to play with them, but I had to learn the rules of Kingdomino, and the game started without me. I was tired from all the events from today, so I took a nap instead of playing online games. Next time!

My jam arrived. I have all these scones mixes, and I had no jam. In the chaos that is the world now, I ordered from the source, Smuckers, and they arrived perfectly wrapped. I washed my hands after getting them. Most excellent. I will be making scones as soon as I finish publishing this!

My mother-and-law, Leta, lived alone in Lansing, Michigan, and was getting a bit tired of winter in Michigan. I got the Spring catalog from the monks in Kentucky that makes fruitcakes: www.gethsemanifarms.org. I sent her chocolate fudge and fruit cake to celebrate Spring and Easter. I called her, and she was thrilled to be now watching the mail for fruitcake and fudge from Kentucky!

Today the death rate of the USA went down a bit. It may be a fluke of reporting, forty-seven deaths were reported today. More than eleven thousand so far for the world. Here is a hymn for today: Amazing Grace.

 

Today was a bit less frustrating as I worked for another day from home. Some of the discussions made some issues more apparent. My blood pressure was not spiked today.

I spent hours and hours on video conferences. It is odd to start up the first part of a major software project with almost everyone remotely connecting. We start major testing and conversions next week, all remote.

I noticed much more video usage today. Folks I think are getting more comfortable with the being on camera and the view of each working space is interesting. I am sitting in front of a wall of board games, and that did get some comments. With all the social distancing, folks are getting more social!

I called PG&E, our electric company, after my first meeting to check if they are still replacing a telephone pole and that I will get to enjoy four hours disconnected (i.e., no power). Their call center is also now folks working from home. The gal checked with the leader and, “yes, they are coming.” And just before my second set of meetings started, poof–no power.

I walked down to the worksite and thank the PG&E folks for working today. I did notice that you can’t exactly do social distancing in the bucket. It took them four hours to replace the pole.

During this time I used my iPhone BlueJeans app, the software is called Bluejeans that Nike uses for video conferencing, to participate in the meetings. The tiny screen was hard to use for some of the displays. But I could expand the items to read them, and I stayed outside and enjoyed the nearly perfect weather we should not be happening in Oregon in March. When I speak, I turn on the video on the iPhone, and they could see me with my cowboy hat on walking outside. Sometimes the sun would flash behind me, giving me a halo. That drew some comments.

Today is the first day of spring, and usually, here in Oregon, this day is just rain and more rain and no different than the previous grey days and the next three months of grey days.  I should not have been outside enjoying the sun. Climate change is pronounced in Oregon this year–the weather is excellent! Hard to not like global warming here.

With the power out, I then headed to Safeway to pick up some groceries. I had no meetings for a bit. There was no toilet paper to be purchased still, and other items are now gone. I told someone that this was not the end-of-the-world because there are bagels. She replied, “the end-of-the-world will not happen when there are muffins.” I found these–Susie’s favorites, carrot cake muffins!

Indeed, the end-of-the-world is not today.

I thanked the Safeway folks for working today. I washed the cart handle and then washed my hand with a cleaning towel they supply. I told the cashier that I had cleaned my hands before I had handled anything. She was much relieved.

I returned to more online video meetings for work with the power restored and a new pole in place. I started cooking dinner too. Bean soup with chicken. We had soaked the beans overnight and part of the morning. Added chicken stock and started the beans cooking. I also baked chicken thighs (with skin and bone) during the meetings. I slipped the chicken into the oven between meetings. I like to use shredded baked chicken in soups.

The stock market recovered. As usual, my own Apple computer was playing the financial news. I and others were expecting that this week the market would normalize. Today it started. I received notification that Nike was increasing my 401K contributions as I had requested. I want a bit more while the stocks are cheap. Here is my retirement song: Bob Roberts Society Band. “They don’t play loud…”.

Work finished. I returned to the chicken–it was baked and cooled. I removed the one bone for the chicken thighs and then cut them up and added them to the soup. It was perfect. Susie liked it.

My prescription was delivered today. Happy to see that my 90-day items can still be filled.

After dinner, I worked on re-learning another board game today: War of the Worlds, The New Wave. This is a new game using a deck-building mechanic and figures on a game board. I was in the Kickstarter for the game and have the premium version. While relearning the game, I discovered a rule I got wrong before and played myself. It is a two-person game, but I like it enough to play both sides. The human side survived this time.

Today I remembered that there is a Doctor Who episode where folks are trapped in cars (flying) that are now homes. They all sing a song each day to help each other make it through another day trapped in their cars. Sound familiar? Here is the singing part Old Rugged Cross (Doctor Who version).

The death count for the virus passed ten thousand today. So another hymn to help us go on: Here I Am Lord.

Today was another day working from home.

Just a short report. Work was mostly meetings today; some included some frustration. This seemed to bother me more than usual. My emotions are too close to the surface today.

Lunch was from Red Robin again. This time I spoke to a pleasant gal from Oklahoma when calling to put in my order. Still, a call center answers the calls for food for Red Robin that is now running from people’s home. The gal had a slight accent and used “y’all.” I had to wait about ten minutes to reach someone to take the order. Apparently, lots of folks are ordering from Red Robin.

I drove to Red Robin. Again, it was nice to get out of the house and drive. This time my lunch was not ready. I filled out a waiting list with my name and the color of my car and was told to wait in my vehicle. They would bring me the food. Forty-five minutes later, I finally was given my lunch. They had a catering order and apologized for taking so long.

There were plenty of parking spaces, as you can imagine, and I parked halfway between two parking spots to give the catering order waiting next to me social distance. Another driver then complained that I did not know how to park. I reminded them about social distance; I was polite.

My Apple computer I used to watch the news while working on my Nike laptop for working from home. The stock market tanked again. A flight-to-cash seemed to be the cause. Even the bond market, bonds usually go up when stocks go down, was flat. This may mean that folks were not buying bonds as a move-to-quality is the typical flight but are really scared and want cash. This is often done to remove any more loss. The vast debt the USA and other governments are generating as support for the economy may have also spooked people from treasuries.

My reaction to all the market falling was to increase my contribution to my 401K. I want to buy more cheap stocks. And that makes me think about this song, a different styled version: Bohemian Rhapsody – Pentatonix. I never go with the crowd when investing.

I made spaghetti and meatballs in a vodka sauce using what we have. The sauce was from a jar. The meatballs are frozen and reheated. Everyday food but it still tastes good.

Corwin is soaking beans overnight to make chicken and bean soup for Thursday.

Forty-one people in the USA died today from the virus. It is also reported that 475 people died from the infection in Italy just today. A song to try to find peace: How Great Thou Art.

Today was like many days, except I did not go to work. My commute was connecting to the Nike VPN. And today had many remote meetings. Unlike yesterday, the video was used more and more. It seems to me that folks were happy to see each other and be seen. We have many critical path items for an important project: The deadlines are unchanged despite the virus issues (not the computer type). A lot of talking, texting, emailing, updates to virtual team rooms all day.

Besides the work items, I was able to boil the St. Patrick’s Day corned beef brisket. I started it at about 11:15 in the morning. I then called Red Robin in Beaverton and ordered burgers for Susie and Corwin and a salad and chicken breast for myself (the Ensalada Plater). It was an excuse to see how our old haunt was holding together and to get out and drive somewhere. There are notes on the door of Red Robin in Beaverton that they are closed except for take-out. Only the foyer is open, the hall to the bar is blocked by chairs. I picked up my food and the bartender took my card at the front–I knew it was the bartender because I would usually sit at the bar and eat on the weekends. When I told her to thank everyone for being there, and I finally got a smile. “Sam Adams,” she asked. I agreed. She did remember me.

Back to more calls and videos. This time with charts and discussions and double booking. I actually left one video meeting that over-ran went to another meeting at the same time, and returned to that meeting.

Once we finally finished I took Susie for a walk outside. She was feeling unwell and unhappy. The walk got her smiling again. We walked to the end of the street in the surprisingly sunny Oregon. It is a bit up-hill. Susie had trouble with downhill so I pushed her back home. We both got a bit of exercise.

I watched the news again on my Apple laptop while working on my Nike PC. More poo in the fan, but new problems. The central bank, The Fed to Americans, did a ten billion dollar rescue to the short term liquidity markets today. America ran out of money. The Fed bought all the short-term debt to put the money back and keep the USA running. I suspect President Trump, like many of his predecessors, is dreaming of the days when only the Washington Post or New York Times was the only thing to worry about.

Returning to things I can actually do something about, I missed that I was running out of an important drug. I needed to get a prescription filled. This is a 90-supply one. So I called the insurance company and talked to a pleasant gal in California. Apparently, technology allows call centers to be remote from home now. Somehow routing calls to folks working from home. She was working from home, like me. As this was an insurance call, she knew I worked from Nike, so I answered some tourist-like questions about Nike for her. The drug will be here in two days–excellent.

Everyone is a bit scared and also friendly and wanting to talk.

Returning to St. Patrick’s Day, Corwin finished up the cooking by boiling and baking. It was great. We drank the dark beers we purchased yesterday and had corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and carrots.

I took a short beer-induced nap.

Tonight I tried to learn the artificial intelligence part of a boardgame, Pax Pamir. This is a fantastic game that recreates the political situation in the 1880s Afganistan and has a particular AI to create another tribe to play against. The board is a small carpet that is a map of Afganistan. My gaming friends want to play it, and we want to add the AI in for the full experience. I spent a few hours learning how to play again and how to use the AI.

(This is a card part of the play. The coins are metal. The game is available in the secondary market–expensive. A new Kickstarter is running: Pax Pamir Kickstarter)

The kitchen looks like the Galloping Gourmet had a bad day. We will have to clean-up soon.

Glad I could write again and that things happened that I think are valuable to record.

Word today is that the death rate for the virus is over six thousand for the world. Here is a song for the world: This Is My Song.