Sunday AUGUST 22nd 2021
Leanna and I had a nice lunch in the hospital recreation room with big windows overlooking the park. We had time to play cards and the SJG castle game we helped playtest eleven years ago.
I didn’t work that day.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, August 23, 2021 - 04:16 pm: Edit

Monday AUGUST 23rd 2021
Leanna continues to improve and was scheduled for release on Tuesday.
I worked on Combined Ops and on Tactical Ops.
I sent Simone the stuff for the newsletter, asked people to do things for the next newsletter, did covers for R4J so it can be released in print form.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - 11:33 pm: Edit

Tuesday AUGUST 24th 2021
I worked on CO and TO then went to lunch then to the hospital. I had been told she would be ready to leave at 2 (I was told that Monday) and at 1pm (told that Tuesday morning). I got there at noon and was told "she is free to go" so we went home and both of us basically crashed the rest of the day. My (damaged last year) right knee was giving me fits but Leanna cannot get to the bathroom without help so I soldiered through.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - 11:37 pm: Edit

Wednesday AUGUST 25th 2021
I helped Leanna in the morning.
At 11:30 the home health nurse showed up, filled out a report, and signed up for Leanna to get physical therapy at home twice a week and a nurse visit once a week.
I asked a neighbor to come sit with Leanna while I ran to town for two hours to check email, sign some paper work, and have a meeting. Then I got home and took care of Leanna, fetching a nice Chicken Express supper in the evening.
My knee remains a problem and I had to take a high end pain killer (one of those with about six warnings of potential addiction) in order to function at all. Leanna is also taking the same pain killer to deal with serious pain in her back and legs, but she is a little stronger every time she gets up.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, August 27, 2021 - 12:55 am: Edit

Thursday AUGUST 26th 2021
Things improved today. Leanna is stronger every day and can mostly get around on her own, although I don't allow her to do that due to the risk. I move into position to help her get up and move from the chair to the walker or wheelchair. The temporary nerve damage that affected her right foot has gone away as the doctor predicted. There is not much pain from the actual surgery site but lots of pain in her legs from the awkward way she has to lever herself up and back down. She has a very positive attitude and is going to get through this just fine.

The opioids I was forced to take for the damage (aggravated over the last week but it started a year ago) to my right knee did nothing, but plain old tylenol actually worked and did a lot to improve my spirits.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, August 27, 2021 - 05:22 pm: Edit

Friday AUGUST 27th 2021
I think we turned a corner. Leanna is over the pain (so am I, my knee having healed after a few days of minimal walking). She can get around quite well if she just takes things slowly. They physical therapy guy came by to sign her up for two exercise sessions a week.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, September 02, 2021 - 04:29 pm: Edit

Saturday AUGUST 28th 2021
Leanna continues to improve, gaining strength and mobility while the pain steadily diminishes.
I came to the office to check email and work on Combined Operations. Jean checked all of the fixes for the first 31 pages and I had to make a few more fixes to those pages.
I wrote some ship descriptions for Shapeways and approved a ship.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, September 02, 2021 - 04:29 pm: Edit

Sunday AUGUST 29th 2021
I worked on TacOps at the house while Leanna continued to improve.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, September 02, 2021 - 04:29 pm: Edit

Monday AUGUST 30thth 2021
Leanna continued to improve.
I finished the fixes to Combined Operations during my two hours in the office.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, September 02, 2021 - 04:30 pm: Edit

Tuesday AUGUST 31st 2021
Leanna got better, but I came down with a miserable cold and my plans to go to the office collapsed.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, September 02, 2021 - 04:30 pm: Edit

Wednesday SEPTEMBER 1st 2021
I got almost over the cold. Leanna got better. We went to Arby’s for dinner, the first outing for her in over two weeks.
Jean released ships on Shapeways.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, September 02, 2021 - 04:30 pm: Edit

Thursday SEPTEMBER 2nd 2021
Leanna shows steady improvement.
I got to the office and finished COMBINED OPERATIONS 21 and gave the PDF to Jean.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, September 11, 2021 - 05:37 pm: Edit

SEPTEMBER 3-11
=====================
Saturday SEPTEMBER 11th 2021
Leanna shows steady improvement. My dental pain having subsided I made it to the office to complete the fixes to TACTICAL OPERATIONS so that Jean can start proofreading it.
I sent Simone the stuff for the newsletter which is late due to my illness.
=======================
Friday SEPTEMBER 10th 2021
Hit with severe dental pain, I could not make it to work.
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Thursday SEPTEMBER 9th 2021
Misca Cole Bengal went to the rainbow bridge at 9:17am. Devastated, I took the day off.
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Wednesday SEPTEMBER 8th 2021
I took the day to transport Leanna to various doctor appointments. She is still unable to drive and can only get around with a walker. Pain comes and goes.
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Tuesday SEPTEMBER 7th 2021
Leanna shows steady improvement.
I got to the office and worked on TACTICAL OPERATIONS. Ryan sent new OB documents for the Vudar and LDR which I sent to Simone for upload.
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Monday SEPTEMBER 6th 2021
Leanna shows steady improvement. I stayed home to take care of her.
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Sunday SEPTEMBER 5th 2021
Leanna shows steady improvement. I stayed home to take care of her.
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Saturday SEPTEMBER 4th 2021
Leanna shows steady improvement.
I got to the office and worked on TACTICAL OPERATIONS.
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Friday SEPTEMBER 3rd 2021
Leanna shows steady improvement.
I got to the office and worked on TACTICAL OPERATIONS.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, September 28, 2021 - 06:00 pm: Edit

September 12-28 2021
===================
Tuesday SEPTEMBER 28th 2021
I had most of a day in the office. I worked on the plans to release the first of the M-Traveller books but no specific release date was set (in the next few months). I finished the last changes to Tactical Operations but Jean hasn’t revealed a release date (in about a week). I did quality control on the last box of F&E countersheet L. Jean and I discussed an interesting plan but aren’t ready to announce it.
=======================
Monday SEPTEMBER 27th 2021
I had almost a full day in the office, working on TacOps, Advanced Ops, contracts, inventory issues, and future products. Leanna was able to see a concert at the civic center but it exhausted her and left her unable to do much on the next day.
=======================
Sunday SEPTEMBER 26th 2021
I stayed home to rest and take care of Leanna.
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Saturday SEPTEMBER 25th 2021
I spent a full day in the office. I worked on Tactical Operations and on getting ready to start the Mongoose-Traveller project.
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Friday SEPTEMBER 24th 2021
I stayed home with Leanna who was trying to learn to walk without equipment and needed extra looking after, and I did all of my errands for the week.
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Thursday SEPTEMBER 23rd 2021
Leanna stayed home to rest giving me my first full day in the office since the middle of August. I did a lot of admin stuff that had stacked up.
I did descriptions for armored vehicles for Shapeways. This led to a page of CL55 explaining the various types of Federation armored vehicles from the M1 truck to the M10 toxic atmosphere vehicle with an airlock.
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Wednesday SEPTEMBER 22nd 2021
I made it to the office briefly but mostly I spent the day taking Leanna to appointments. She is starting to walk without help but cannot manage stairs.
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Tuesday SEPTEMBER 21st 2021
Leanna and I made it to lunch and to the office. Leanna helped Jean with some accounting issues. I dealt with and finally resolved the contact issue. I worked on fixes to TacOps. We set a secret release date in the first part of October for TACTICAL OPERATIONS. The date will be officially revealed at a later time. I directed our Code Lady to start working on an Android APP for ACTASF.
=======================
Monday SEPTEMBER 20th 2021
I dealt successfully with a copyright violation and a contract issue.
Leanna continued to gain strength and was able to walk the length of the house unassisted.
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Sunday SEPTEMBER 19th 2021
I took the day off to rest and do things around the house.
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Saturday SEPTEMBER 18th 2021
Leanna and I went to a social function with some friends of hers and played bingo.
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Friday SEPTEMBER 17th 2021
Our 44th anniversary, Leanna and I took the day for ourselves. We went to see some Bengal boy kittens we might adopt about 1 November.
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Thursday SEPTEMBER 16th 2021
I spent the morning at Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary and drove home, getting there about 10pm. Due to exhaustion I had to stop and take naps twice on the road as it wasn’t safe to drive otherwise.
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Wednesday SEPTEMBER 15th 2021
I picked up 250 pounds of meat at 8am and drove to Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary where the people and the wolves were happy to see me.
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Tuesday SEPTEMBER 14th 2021
Leanna is steadily gaining strength. She moved from her walker to a cane, and made it to lunch and briefly to the office.
I did everything for the newsletter (two new ships) and dealt with some contract stuff.
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Monday SEPTEMBER 13th 2021
Leanna is steadily gaining strength.
I made it to the office for a few hours to handle items I could not do from home. One was a formal reply to Mongoose regarding the marketing for ACTASF. One was some updates to the ACTASF page. I could not do the newsletter as I had not received a scenario from the guy who said he would send one.
=======================

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, October 09, 2021 - 05:06 pm: Edit

Sept 29 thru Oct 9
================
Saturday OCTOBER 9th 2021
I spent two hours doing quality control on F&E counters, mostly M and FOUR.
I made all of the rules fixes to AO (so it can go to Jean for proofreading) but the entire staff failed to respond to the request for final line items for 617 so I sent them the memo again.
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Friday OCTOBER 8th 2021
Major staff meeting discussed the need to get the 10 October newsletter out sometime between 11-15 October including the release of TacOps (waiting right now on the cover) and the special event for October.
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Thursday OCTOBER 7th 2021
Worked on AO, newsletter (I did the FC ship and asked Al to do a PD weapon), Mongoose Traveller.
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Wednesday OCTOBER 6th 2021
Worked on AO, newsletter, Mongoose Traveller.
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Tuesday OCTOBER 5th 2021
Discussion with Al and Jean about the Mongoose Traveller project.
I made all of the changes to Advanced Operations and sent it to the staff and gave it to Jean for demonic proofreading.
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Monday OCTOBER 4th 2021 I was scheduled to work but had a minor health issue and stayed home to deal with it and some special issues with Leanna’s recovery.
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Sunday OCTOBER 3rd 2021 I took the day off to rest.
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Saturday OCTOBER 2nd 2021 I took the day off to rest.
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Friday OCTOBER 1st 2021
Spent much of the day reviewing plans and alternative plans for the Mongoose Traveller PD project. Took at look at the Christmas FC pack for this year but nobody could think of another Christmas ship. Maybe a carrier or X-ship?
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Thursday SEPTEMBER 30th 2021
Spent much of the day reviewing plans and alternative plans for the Mongoose Traveller PD project.
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Wednesday SEPTEMBER 29th 2021
I did not get much time in the office due to taking Leanna to appointments.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, October 18, 2021 - 07:16 pm: Edit

Oct 10-19 2021
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Monday OCTOBER 19th 2021
Simone got the TacOps cover done so it can go to press and on the PDF stores. The newsletter will be a day or two later as we want to include links to tacOps. Ordered a replacement computer for Steve Petrick.
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Sunday OCTOBER 18th 2021 I stayed home to rest.
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Saturday OCTOBER 17th 2021 Leanna and I attended a social function for her ladies’ club.
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Friday OCTOBER 15th 2021 I worked on F&E stuff, the newsletter, and FedComm stuff. Jean worked on the Trick or Treat sale. Steve Petrick worked on R1M but could not start revising R6 because his computer needed repairs.
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Thursday OCTOBER 14th 2021 I worked on F&E stuff, the newsletter, and FedComm stuff. Jean worked on the Trick or Treat sale. Steve Petrick worked on R1M.
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Wednesday OCTOBER 13th 2021 I worked on F&E stuff, the newsletter, and FedComm stuff. Jean worked on the Trick or Treat sale. Steve Petrick worked on R1M.
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Tuesday OCTOBER 12th 2021 I was out most of the day with doctor appointments.
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Monday OCTOBER 11th 2021
The staff didn’t finish the updates for 617 and 675 which derailed the releases of SO and AO.
I worked on quality checks for countersheets.
I finished TacOps after removing a scenario that the staff wanted to include because it required 45 counters that are not in the game.
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Sunday OCTOBER 10th 2021 I stayed home to rest.
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By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, November 04, 2021 - 03:30 pm: Edit

Oct 20-31 2021
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Sunday OCTOBER 31st 2021 I took the day off to rest.
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Saturday OCTOBER 30th 2021 I took the day off to rest.
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Friday OCTOBER 29th 2021 Leanna and I both woke up so sick and in so much pain we had to cancel the trip and return to Amarillo.
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Thursday OCTOBER 28th 2021 I picked up 200 pounds or raw organ meat and drove (with Leanna) to Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary.
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Wednesday OCTOBER 27th 2021 I got a bunch of work done in the office.
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Tuesday OCTOBER 26th 2021 I made it to the office and got some work done including the final update for TacOps-21.
We got the sad news that Art Trotman (a staffer who wrote FC scenarios) had passed away.
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Monday OCTOBER 25th 2021 I worked on TacOps-21 and did what I thought was the final update but I was wrong about that.
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Sunday OCTOBER 24th 2021 I took the day off to rest.
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Saturday OCTOBER 23rd 2021 I took the day off to rest.
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Friday OCTOBER 22nd 2021 I got some work done on F&E stuff.
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Thursday OCTOBER 21st 2021 The damaged ligament in my right knee is not any worse.
I did the quick update to the few TacOps issues people found on the PDFs.
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Wednesday OCTOBER 20th 2021 The damaged ligament in my right knee is becoming increasingly problematic (and the danger that I might break it entirely is growing). It limits my ability to move and work and puts me in a lot of pain all the time.
Discussed the empire-specific generic unit SSD books with Steve Petrick who pointed out that most of the SSDs already exist (some of them for 29 years) and that it’s against company policy to do new SSD books including SSDs already published in products. That does in theory leave the idea of a book of stellar fortress, sector base, and mobile base SSDs and a book of all six bases for empires R14-R19 that don’t already have such things (most of them do exist).
Discussion with F&E Staff about 617 and 675.
Staff meeting discussed future plans, current schedules, work on R1M(SSB), R6 revision, TR revision, and other things.
Took the TacOps cover to the printing company (ZipPrint).
=======================

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, November 04, 2021 - 03:32 pm: Edit

Monday NOVEMBER 1st 2021 I had an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon who told me that the problem with my knee is extreme arthritis, not a strained ligament, and that I will be having knee replacement surgery on the 30th. This will take me out of the office for two weeks, then on a walker for two more weeks, then limited activity for two months, then I can go back to the gym but I will never be allowed to run/jog again. (I can’t do that now due to the pain.)
Al and I met earlier that day to discuss Traveller.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, November 04, 2021 - 03:32 pm: Edit

Tuesday NOVEMBER 2nd 2021 I had a dental appointment which involved drilling, filling, and hurting, but the excellent dentist made it survivable.
Leanna and I officially adopted two Bengal boys: Thor and Odin.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, November 08, 2021 - 04:57 pm: Edit

Wednesday NOVEMBER 3rd 2021 I stayed home to bond with Thor and Odin. They got comfortable with us and the house and slept most of the day in Leanna’s lap.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, November 08, 2021 - 04:57 pm: Edit

Thursday NOVEMBER 4th 2021
Thor and Odin woke me up with their calls for food and were happy to accept it from me. ("Just put it down right here. No need to take it to the other end of the house. That will be fine.")
I made it to the office after my so-called vacation and worked on Strategic Operations.
Staff meeting to discuss reorganizations, projects, and the future.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, November 08, 2021 - 04:57 pm: Edit

Friday NOVEMBER 5th 2021
I had a conference call with some business people.
Before I could get any work done I got a call that Leanna had been in a traffic accident. She was taken to the hospital for tests (I joined here there while Al took care of getting the wrecked car towed) and she was released a few hours later.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, November 08, 2021 - 04:57 pm: Edit

Sunday NOVEMBER 7th 2021
I stayed home to rest and to take care of Leanna.
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Saturday NOVEMBER 6th 2021
I stayed home to rest and to take care of Leanna.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, November 07, 2022 - 01:02 am: Edit

Good Golly, it's been a year since I posted here. Well, it's been a crazy year. Right after that year ago post, I had my right knee replaced, which took me out of the office for all of December. When I was finally cleared by the doctor to go back to work, Steve Petrick had a stroke and for about 3 months I didn't do anything but take care of him. Then that situation started to boil down to a low roar as Steve got better and could do more for himself. Then in May the doctors decided Leanna needed more spine surgery, which is now scheduled for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

As far as actually work, I did finish the revision of Strategic Ops and Advanced Ops is struggling through Jean's proofreading torture chamber. I have done the newsletter stuff (almost never on schedule). We missed October so we'll do a double issue in November. For October you will get the Gourd Destroyer to compliment last year's Pumpkin Cruiser (along with a new SFB scenario), but for November you get the very real Romulan Turkey for SFB and FC. (Jean says you get the Turkey-Vulture, also real, in April.)

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, December 22, 2022 - 11:57 am: Edit

22 DECEMBER 2022

It's 1 degree F outside with a howling wind and ADB is closed. Everybody stayed home today and plans to stay home tomorrow. A four-day Christmas weekend will do us all a world of good.

We did get the hard copy of STRAT OPS and the PDF of ADVANCED OPS released. I am currently working on FC GUNBOATS ATTACK.