Monday, April 27
Statewide: 92 deaths, 2,354 cases, 51,198 tested (Deaths: +1) (Cases: +43)
E did her restorative yoga class today via Zoom. M sat in–well out of camera range–and tried to follow along. It wasn’t pretty. And besides that, Elif is still in a filthy jail cell being pressured to make a false confession and Sami has been exiled to the obscurity in the provinces. Ömer is near despair, but his mother tells him never to give up hope. Back in the real world, we got some happy news friends in Colorado.
Tuesday, April 28
Statewide: 99 deaths, 3,385 cases, 52,242 tested (Deaths: +7) (Cases: +31)
A week or so back, E went to the bookstore–you can’t go in, but they’ll bring things out to you–and bought a book of Molly Gloss short stories. This book of stories is called Unforeseen. Some of Gloss’s novels, like Hearts of Horses, have specific historical settings. The settings here, though, are different, sometimes contemporary and sometimes speculative. Most of them focus on lives that involve close relations with–and close observation of–the natural world. The stories tend to be immediately engrossing. Using seemingly simple materials, Gloss very quietly builds sharper and sharper tensions, which in the end are only partially resolved. (But the Tao says that the partial and the whole are one…)
We made a trip to Ankeny Wildlife Refuge today. In one part of the refuge, there is a small wetland forest where big ash trees grow. You can see them in the background below. In the spring the trunks push up through two or three feet of water. It’s perfect habitat for wood ducks, of which we saw many. There’s a boardwalk through the deepest part and a big octagonal blind. Had lunch sitting in the grass on the bank of an old dyke southeast of the ponds. Rode home with the top down.
Wednesday, April 29
Statewide: 101 deaths, 2,446 cases, 54,472 tested (Deaths: +2) (Cases: +61)
Oregon’s total deaths have now reached 0.0235 per thousand by method of calculation that I have used previously. I’ve noticed recently that some official sources have begun reporting COVID results in terms of deaths per one hundred thousand. It seems to me that those numbers are easier to understand, so I will be using the 100,000 method from now on. In those terms, the Oregon number as of today is 2.35 deaths per every 100,000 inhabitants. This number will inevitably rise as more deaths occur. Two weeks ago, for example, it was 1.49 per 100,000.
For those of you who are naturally worried about what’s happening to Elif and Ömer, I can report that although Elif is still in jail, she has been moved to a nicer cell.
Thursday, April 30
Statewide: 103 deaths, 2,510 cases, 56,032 tested (Deaths: +2) (Cases: +64)
Another normal day for these times. Zoom BBB for Eve. Then a trip to Garland for plants, then some lunch, then some planting. And finally…quiet time, a.k.a. nap.Then it was M’s night to cook. The menu was Indian chickpeas, Indian saag lentils, and green salad. The larder is emptying, so a grocery store visit is planned for tomorrow.
Elon Musk said that lockdowns are ‘fascist’ and is now being called insane and dangerous. Technically, Musk is right; the crisis response has been dictatorial and has overridden certain rights that normally we take for granted. In a real crisis, that’s what happens. And rightly so. Group survival depends on firm and timely measures even if some people disagree with them.
But is this a real crisis? The virus is real, of course, and the virus deaths are real; but the crisis level is less clear. Is COVID truly an existential threat? Is our response to it proportional to our response to other threats? So far this year in Oregon, 104 people have died of the virus, most of them older people who were already in poor health. Also so far this year, 385 people in Oregon have died by suicide, quite a number of them young people who might have had many years of life before them. To deal with the virus, we are willing to turn our world upside down, causing hardships and life disruption to thousands of citizens and incurring financial losses in the billions of dollars. Fine. But what are we doing to prevent suicide, which is taking three and half times as many lives? In comparison, not very much. Automobile accidents this year in Oregon have cost perhaps twenty times as many lives as the virus. And thirty years ago, when cars were less safe, the highway death toll per capita was much higher. But has any governor, then or now, ever decreed a moratorium on cars? We also hear seemingly credible claims that the lockdown measures themselves are contributing to a large number of extra non-virus deaths. The COVID crisis is real all right, but it’s peculiar. It’s no wonder we have disagreement about what we’re doing in the name of fighting it.
Friday, May 1
Statewide: 104 deaths, 2,579 cases, 58,176 tested (Deaths: +1) (Cases: +69)
Successful grocery outing this morning. For a hour or two after we got home there was a mound of fresh vegetables sitting on our counter, freshly washed and waiting to be put away. And then, E once again braved the potential hazards of the French bakery. Pain au chocolat for lunch. Also, we note that emergency dental care is still functioning. M spoke to a friend who had root canal yesterday to prove it. At 5:00 we had a Zoom social hour with several old friends just before dinner.
But best of all, my mother got her $1200 stimulus check today. Frankly, we had not expected this. We thought it might be a mistake. Don’t they realize that she passed away a year and a half ago? But no, never let it be said that our government’s records are inaccurate. The check is written to Patricia A Petrich, DECD
Saturday, May 2
Statewide: 109 deaths, 2,635 cases, 60,136 tested (Deaths: +5) (Cases: +56)
A quiet day, rainy in the morning. We did some gardening with rain jackets on. Then later the weather turned fine. Saturday has become take-out dinner day! We did Pastini’s.
Sunday, May 3
Statewide: 109 deaths, 2,680 cases, 62,054 tested (Deaths: +0) (Cases: +45)
Lovely breakfast of almond paste croissants from E’s venture to the bakery on Friday. After breakfast she did a Zoom call with Suzanne and Mrs. Hopper, then talked to both brother John and daughter Andrea. M weeded for a couple of hours and got himself all stove up. E had to go for her walk alone, so she was able to go for a long one through the OSU campus with all the magnificent old rhododendrons. Their flowers are out now and it’s amazing to see towers of blossoms climbing up to the third story of some older buildings. In the evening we watched Call the Midwife and forewent the Turkish soap.
