- Quarantine Day 42 (A true "quarantine"!)
- S.F. Bay Area Health Departments issued a press release that the shelter-at-home order will be extended through May with some easing, which is what I expected we'd hear. Details to come later in week.
- The Congressional Budget Office released a report last week with economic projections:
- Federal deficit for 2020 fiscal year: $3.7 trillion.
- Federal debt will exceed 100% GDP by end of year.
- Unemployment expected to exceed 9% until 2022.
- 10-year Treasury bond yields expected to remain below 1% until 2022.
- Livermore cases: 35
- Alameda County: cases: 1,451; deaths: 51
- U.S. cases: 957,000+; deaths: 53,900+
On Saturday we played through my first custom quest of a continuing campaign in Dragon Strike. I made some rule modifications that will allow Heather and Jess to have characters that level up at the end of each quest. So it's a little more continuous and interesting. But it also means I have to come up with quests. Which is a fair bit of work.
I don't pretend to be any master story teller, so I'm shamelessly borrowing heavily from any source I can come up with. The first quest was "The Plague of Bree" (yes, "Bree" is from LoTR). In the prologue our heroes awaken at home in Bree and need to get bread from the bakery. On their way through town they find villagers fallen ill and in need of help. The apothecary asks for their help in obtaining the herb Athelas (yes, from LoTR) from the forest to heal the townspeople. The baker gives them bread which heals 2 HP when eaten.
The main quest takes place in the forest where the heroes have to search for Athelas while avoiding or defeating enemies. A friendly Ranger explains to them where to look for the herb and helps protect them.
Our heroes Ivy (Heather) and Beryl (Jess) found a Ring of Protection in a chest at the bottom of the river, defeated 3 monsters, retrieved the Athelas and saved the townspeople. Where will they go next week?
--
On Sunday I repaired the TV/Receiver remote by taking it apart and, after cleaning, applying some conductive paint to the backs of the buttons that weren't working properly. Good as new now.
I made another batch of pizza dough. Two for the freezer and 1 for dinner.
Tonight I used up my last packet of Taco Bell fire sauce. Sad day.
Some states have started easing suppression measures. With no federal leadership everyone is pretty much making it up as they go along. So there's a ton of variety in rules and processes. It will be interesting to see over the next 6 weeks how things start to shake out from place to place.
