Month: November 2020

Monday, November 23    Deaths   826 (+6)   Cases  66,333 (+1,163)

Shopping day. M drifted through Market of Choice and purchased a half turkey. Yes, a ten-pound half turkey, which was a twenty-pound whole turkey not too long ago. But let’s not think about that. Now if we can only find a half-oven to cook it in. E again went to the Co-op and bought whole versions of a veggies, fruits and a cheese or two. She then began her serious daily work and made crust for the blackberry pie that she is making for the Andees. After that she sent out twenty-one email notices telling everyone who they’re supposed to be giving to in the Chambers family gift exchange. She also went on two walks, cooked dinner, and finished the blackberry pie. Meanwhile, M went out to the back yard and pruned apple trees with his new toy, a cordless electric chainsaw on a ten foot pole. It worked fine but left him pretty well tuckered out. Did I mention that E also did a Zoom yoga class today?

Tuesday, November 24     Deaths   847 (+21)   Cases  67,333 (+1000)

We drove up to Vancouver WA today and dropped in on Andrea to deliver birthday presents. It’s  Andy’ b-day today and Andrea’s is coming up soon. We were able be in their living room for a bit because Andrea opened the patio door and the entrance door and there was a stiff breeze. We kept our coats on and had a nice visit. Andrea had made cake balls, which we got to see. Didn’t meet Andy, of course, since he was slaving away working long hours for the post office–which is not necessarily a great place to be at this time of year, especially in this particular year. We chose to go up in the middle of the day looking to avoid traffic problems and that worked out well with smooth sailing both ways. We reviewed our latest Turkish homeowork to pass the time. Not much rain while we were on the road, but in the early evening it rained like crazy (deli gibi yağmur yağdı.) By midnight the storm had passed and before going to bed (yatağa gitmeden önce) M spent a few minutes (biraz zaman geçmirdi) watching wisps of cloud float across the bulging moon.

Also in there somewhere, we found time to watch the last two episodes of Winter Sun. It was a very satisfyihg ending. That which had to be resolved, was resolved. And nothing overly ridiculous was required to make it so. We recommend this Turkish soap to all. 

Wednesday, November 25     Deaths   867 (+20)   Cases  68,503 (+1,170)

Turkish lesson today and then a couple of quick shopping things that we missed on Monday. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day is never a good day to shop, of course, but actually Bi-Mart was relatively empty, and for vegetables, we went to Natural Grocers, which is never crowded. 

The Thanksgiving feasting, for us, has already begun. M made a pie crust and E mixed up a pecan filling and baked it. After dinner (akşam yemeği sonra) we had some. It was good. It was very good. We were encouraged in this early start on the goodies by our friends B and B, who are doing exactly the same, except that the pie that they have already cut into is apple. E has also started the cranberries. Tomorrow, of course, is the real thing.

Thursday, November 26     Deaths   882 (+15)   Cases  70,006 (+1,503)

And so there it was. Şukran Günü* in time of COVID. Turkey cooked, potatoes mashed, gravy stirred, wine poured. And then, at about 1:30, some small portion of it all was eaten, along with stuffing, green beans, cranberries, and a small relish tray just right for two. Despite a minor misstep or two, upon which we will not dwell, all was delicious and all was well. We delayed dessert for a few hours, and finally made a very satisfactory supper of pecan pie–Chambers pieces. Could be worse. Could be much, much worse. 

E moved furniture to create a cozy window table. 

*Şukran Günü means Thanksgiving Day. Şukran (from Arabic) means thanks, gün means day and ü is the compound noun marker. Relatedly, güneş means sun, and in the title Kış Güneşi (Winter Sun) the compound noun marker is the final i. 

Friday, November 27     Deaths   885 (+3)   Cases  70,832 (+826)

Zoom meeting with the Chambers brothers. James has made news by being out in his Corvette and having it get away from him for a moment. Whether it was a spin or just a series of fishtails is not clear. The driver reports that the proximate cause was a slick spot in the road with “old gas” being another significant factor. We’ve not heard before of this connection between lack of control and old gas, but of course we are young yet and there is much we do not know. John is enjoying staying in his new lakeside cottage. Normally the Chambers Camp closes up in October, so he is getting to see a very different scene than in years past. The early winter views are lovely and with most of the humans gone, animals have reoccupied the area. Among other wildlife, he reports seeing groups of loons, as many as twelve together. Lacking a Corvette, he is driving a leased Volvo C60 plug-in hybrid, a somewhat better vehicle for a north woods winter. 

Later on we watched an episode of our new Turkish TV show, which Netflix calls Ethos, but which in Turkish is called Bir Başkadır.  Our Turkish teacher recommended it and it reminds us of something a teacher would recommend, i.e., not shallow, not ridiculous, not completely artificial, and not glossing over crucial social issues. It is also completely lacking in beautiful, expensive cars. So what is the point you might ask? Well, it’s still quite a drama, with lots of people angry and unhappy, often in conflict with those around them, and often unaware of how much their own blindness and self-absorption are actually responsible for their problems. And of course it has some scenes in a hospital, which is a box that all TV dramas must check off sooner or later. Another bright spot is that we recognized two of the actors, having seen them before in other series. One is the actor who was Naz’s husband in Intersection, and another is a woman who  played Efruz in Kış Guneşi. In Bir Başadır, she plays a soap opera actress! And one of the themes of the show is how real people spend time watching facile popular dramas in the midst of their own actual crises. So that’s pretty cool.  Our Turkish dictionary does not translate “bir başkadır” as “ethos.” We need to ask our teacher about that one.

Saturday, November 28    Deaths   896 (+11)   Cases  72,506 (+1,669)

E went out to the country to walk Pepper again today. While she was gone M moved an azalea and did some more pruning of the rearmost apple tree. After lunch Eve called The Inkwell and asked them to pick out four greeting card sized advent calendars for her. The clerk went and got them and gave her a little bit of a description, then took her money. The E got some stamps and address labels ready and found a driver to run her downtown, where she called again and had the cards brought out to the car. We sat in the parking lot for a minute, preparing two of the cards that most needed sending, and then cruised by the post office and dropped them in the slot. Slick. 

On the way home we stopped at a Coffee Culture drive-thru to get a couple of lattes and discovered they were having a one day sale, fifteen per cent off almost everything. We didn’t need everything, but we did in fact need some decaf beans, so we stocked up a little. When we got home, a Zappos box was on our porch with some new slippers for E to try. The package happened to arrive on the day that Tony Hsieh passed away, Hsieh being one of original founders of Zappos. 

Sunday, November 29    Deaths  905 (+9)   Cases  74,120 (+1,614)

A quiet Sunday. E and M got up late and sat around reading the paper, then went for a walk up Garryanna and down Rolling Green. What kind of name for a street is Rolling Green? M thought about putting up Xmas lights in the afternoon. He was waiting for a glimpse of the sun, which his weather app had promised. No sun was glimpsed.

However, we did get a surprise visit from H and T. It was nice to see them both again. We had a socially distanced tour of the yard and then sat for a time on the back patio. Was it cold? Yes. The guests, being intelligent people, were well-prepared and came bundled up in many warm layers. The hosts, being slower to grasp the nature of reality, hadn’t put on enough. We all had some hot tea, though, and some good conversation. From T we heard a little about how it is to be a pediatric clinician in these times. She is doing a certain amount of appointments remotely, and lots of those have been cases of childhood depression. Remote medicine keeps her safe, of course, but it’s basically a sedentary lifestyle. She misses the activity and natural exercise of work in the clinic. 

Also today, we finished our jigsaw puzzle, a painting by Robert Bissel. It should be titled A Couple of Bears Looking at the Sunset during a Butterfly Invasion, but the painter has inexplicably chosen to call it The Golden Hour instead.

After dinner, another episode of Bir Başkadır. It’s good, but kind of a downer. Just two more episodes to go. We fear it may not end happily, but of course we must see it through, just to find out.

Monday, November 16     Deaths   765 (+4)   Cases  57,646 (+781)

Grocery shopping, Yoga, revision of the instructional tech article. We’re still pondering the Thanksgiving question. We’re thinking now that eating together with the Andees is just too problematic. Might just meet briefly on the Tuesday before and give them a pie. 

Tuesday, November 17     Deaths   778 (+13)   Cases  58,570 (+935)

Quite a busy morning as we had to get ready for the cleaner, fit in a Zoom exercise class, make corrections to the latest diary posting, and pack a picnic lunch, all of this before 10:00. At ten, we drove out to North Albany to deliver a small birthday cake to the B’s and walk around to see how their greenhouse is coming. Then we went back to town and got shingles shots, for E it was her second, for M his first. Then we stopped at the post office before heading south on Peoria road, searching for the picturesquely named Snag Boat Bend Unit of the Finley National Wildlife Refuge. That’s a long name for a fairly small area, but it is lovely and not much frequented. We had only vague memories of the place and we were pleased to see how nice it was. It was a damp and breezy day with intermittent light rain and temperatures in the fifties.  We hiked along among the backwaters of the Willamette, past a picnic table at the halfway point and all the way to the blind at the end. On the way back we followed a flicker who flashed from tree to tree going our way for a minute or two and then disappeared. We saw some lovely tall slender trees, tops swaying in the wind. Poplars maybe?

Then we had lunch, not out in the wind and rain, but rather back in the car with the heater on. It was leftover Indian food. It was great! Once we got home we got down to the important business of taking naps and then had a cup of tea and studied Turkish for an hour. Then M made dinner while E did mysterious things on her computer. Later, there was an after dinner bon-bon for each of us and an hour or so of Winter Sun. As expected, there’s trouble. Efruz, the bright young doctor, has been fired for faking a death certificate in order to spring her long-lost dad from jail. He’s back in jail now and things look bad for both of them. Efe is jealous of Bora, the new guy in Nisan’s workplace and Nisan is jealous of Efruz, whom Efe seems awfully eager to comfort whenever she’s down. Plus, Seda knows that Nisan has not told Efe that evil Yakup, thought to have drowned, is actually still alive. Seda is plotting how best to use that little tidbit to make both Nisan and Efe as miserable as possible. And now for some vocabulary. First, Nisan means April in Turkish. We’re not sure what Seda means in Turkish, but we know it means silk in Spanish. The name Efe reminds us of the similar Turkish word Efes, which refers to Ephesus, a town on the west coat of Turkey, ancient home of the biblical Ephesians and modern site of some excellent Roman ruins. These days, Efes is also the name of a popular brand of Turkish beer. Good to know, eh? You betcha!

Wednesday, November18     Deaths   788 (+10)   Cases 59,669 (+1099)

Grim COVID news today with a relatively high level of both deaths per day and new cases per day. 

When analyzed by age groups, the statistics continue to show that the infection is much more dangerous for older people than for younger ones. Ninety percent of all deaths have been in the age group of sixty and above. (Eighty years and above: 50%. Sixty to seventy-nine: 40%. Zero to sixty: 10%) 

This does not mean that younger people in Oregon are not getting COVID. On the contrary. People under sixty account for eighty-four percent of all confirmed cases. But when they do get the disease, younger people are less likely to require hospitalization and much less likely to die. 

Thursday, November 19     Deaths   808 (+20)   Cases  60,873 (+1,204)

FaceTime tertulia this morning with J and R. They are both doing well. After discussions with their family, they have decided that the best way for them to celebrate Thanksgiving is to just stay home and not try to sit down with anyone else. Instead, they will be dish sharing with the family and then having remote contact via Zoom. We have been thinking along similar lines , though it will be a bit trickier for us since Andrea and Andy are two hours away. Still, it can be done. E will make a pie for them at least and we will deliver it on the Tuesday before the holiday, when we hope that traffic will be lighter. 

Yesterday E went to Coffee Culture and got us two very tasty sweet rolls. We had them for breakfast today just before our FaceTime tertulia. They were delicious. It reminded us of what we used to do when we could meet J and R in person at the café. After tertulia, M went outside to work in the yard and E had her Zoom exercise class. M raked leaves and did yet more lawn mowing–hopefully for the last time this season. E came out too, to plant her ornamental cabbage plants. It was a splendid fall day, not too cold with a mix of bright sun and light clouds. Just a drop or two of rain. It’s time to get the patio and garden ready for winter. Besides cutting back some dead and drooping stalks here and there, we also put away some hoses and put the cover on the big patio umbrella. 

In the afternoon E went to a HEPAJ meeting. It was held in P’s garage, which she has furnished with a big piece of carpet and strings of lights. Also, of course, the place was neat as a pin. How do people manage that? P had also made cookies, which everyone thought were delicious. She confessed that when she had first tasted them, fresh from the oven, she had found them to be a bit dry. Her remedy was to spread butter on them. Very sensible. 

After that, E still wasn’t done. She got back in time to do her Zoom based Laughter Yoga class. The class is going on right now, actually, as M is writing these notes. The class theme for this week is Australia. What’s so funny, you might ask, about Australia? We shall see.

Tonight’s dinner plan is for M to make Haloumi pita sandwiches. Haloumi is a cheese from Cyprus, where we lived for a couple of years. Cyprus is a bicultural island, part Greek speaking and part Turkish speaking. Haloumi is the Greek name; it’s Helim in Turkish. 

Friday, November 20     Deaths   812 (+4)   Cases  62,175 (+1,302)

Some time ago we sent out four audio cassettes and 1 VHS video to have them digitized. E downloaded the results yesterday and this morning we spent time figuring out how to play and store the results. The cassettes were from Eve and were recorded many years ago. In one of them we hear the voices of both Becca and Andrea. Andrea was mostly incomprehensible. That seems strange for someone who is so articulate now. Of course she was only about six months old at that time.

The video that we sent was from M. It was a compendium of stuff from when he lived in Yemen in the late eighties. Boy did we get a surprise when we went to play that. Instead of an hour and half of Yemen scenes, we got three minutes and forty-nine seconds of a group of twenty contestants rehearsing a group dance segment for a statewide beauty pageant–Miss Minnesota, to be exact. The year wasn’t clear, but appeared to be in the eighties or nineties. The dancers were all enthusiastic and energetic, but somehow M was still a little disappointed. 

After that excitement, we did some garden planning and research. E then called around to some local plant places, but no one had Pearly Everlasting. We ended up ordering seeds from Joyful Butterfly. Besides the Pearly, we went for some Common Milkweed. (Seeds seem pretty cheap at JB.) That done, we rested until lunch. In the afternoon we ran some errands and took an hour-long forest walk on the Calloway Creek Trail north of town. For transportation we took the Porsche, which had been sitting unused for many weeks. We’re going to have to put that car into storage for the winter, especially if we want our garage to be as lovely as the garage that Eve was invited to on Thursday.

The days are short now and by the time we had done a grocery stop and had a rest, the daylight hours were over. Dinner was what E calls the week in review, with a green salad for freshness. Friday is nobody’s night to cook, so we had to cooperate. With two of us hungry, preparation just zoomed along.

After dinner, we watched Turkish TV. (Akşam yemeği sonra Türk televizyonunu izledik.) Burak bought a diamond ring and proposed to Nadide. (Burak bir elmas yüzük aldı ve Nadide’ye evlenme teklif etti.) So they’re very happy. (Yani çok mutlular.) But a lot of people are miserable. (Ama birçok insan mutsuz.) Efe is mad about everything. (Efe her şeye kızıyor.) Kadim and Efruz feel terrible. (Kadim ve Efruz berbat hissediyorlar.) Everyone hates Nisan and now she has leukemia! (Herkes Nisan’dan nefret etiyorlar ve şimdi lösemisi var!) Only Bora is being kind to her. (Sadece Bora ona iyi davranıyor.)

Saturday, November 21     Deaths   819 (+7)   Cases  63,668 (+1,493)

This is the 240th day of the Pandemic Diary curve tracker database. We use the db to generate average death rates per each ten-day period. As can be seen below, the Oregon death rate is continuing a steep rise. There have been 77 deaths in Oregon in the last ten days, for a daily average of 7.7. This has required a change to the scale of the PD chart. On previous charts the vertical scale went from zero to six. On the new chart it goes up to eight.

Our chart maker well remembers the early days, when thirty deaths in ten days seemed like a lot and when the drop down to one death per day at the end of May seemed like a such a hopeful sign. It seemed possible that the pandemic might soon end. Well…that didn’t happen.

Sunday, November 22     Deaths   820 (+1)   Cases  66,170 (+1,502)

So, this person goes into a store and asks ”Are there any eggs?” (Yumurta var mı?) and the person behind the counter answers “Nope, no eggs.” (Hayır, yumurta yok.) Hilarious, right? 

On Winter Sun, Nisan’s leukemia was not responding as well as the doctors had hoped, so she needed to be hospitalized. On her way to check in, however, she got kidnapped. The thugs took her into the woods and locked her into the back room of a charming little hunting lodge. She escaped by breaking a window shutter, but now she’s lost in the forest and the thugs are tracking her with a pair of bloodhounds. They will almost certainly recapture her, because how else could the head bad guy call Efe and make his demands? We shall see. 

Monday, November 9  Deaths   734 (+4)   Cases  51,155 (+707)

We did grocery shopping today. M went to Market of Choice and Eve to the Co-op. We know that some of the items that we buy in both these places are available elsewhere for quite a bit less, but we just don’t feel like chasing around town. Partly this is laziness; partly it is caution.

Partly cloudy today and quite cold, thirties in the morning and forties in the afternoon. M did a little yard work today despite the conditions. E did Zoom yoga and worked on her photo project. She has been planning with Andrea about how to get together on Thanksgiving.

Tuesday, November 10     Deaths  737 (+3)   Cases  52,770 (+754)

Still cleaning up the garage, M made trips to Bottle Drop and Goodwill and then did some raking and lawn mowing. Lawn mowing at this time of year? Bah! E did a dog walk with a friend and had Laughter Yoga in the afternoon. Her photo project is done–500 photos sent off for scanning, six or eight albums emptied. M made stew for dinner and E had a Zoom meeting with what we call the knitting group, a bunch of old friends from work.

After that, we watched another episode and a half of Kış Günesi. Sadly, Efe is now divorced from Nisan and married to Seda. But wait, you might say, how can he get divorced from Nisan if he was never married to her? And is he really married to Seda if he married her under an assumed name? Bilmiyoruz. Farketmez. (We don’t know. Never mind.) Whatever the legal tangle, the emotional tangle is worse. 

Wednesday, November 11    Deaths   742 (+5)   Cases  47,839 (+861)

Tis the 230th day of record keeping here at PD, time for a new chart. The death rate in Oregon has climbed again, up to an average of of 5.1 deaths per day over the last ten days. The latest deaths bring Oregon’s overall death rate to 17.25 per 100,000. The rate for the U.S. as a whole is now 73.26. 

Meanwhile, it is M’s turn to cook today, but he’s not really cooking. He’s getting a pizza and making a salad. (O gerçekten pişirmiyor. Pizza getiriyor ve salata yapıyor.) 

After a long internal debate, E decided to risk her life today by visiting the seamstress. The workshop is a vast, high-ceilinged room in an old bank building downtown and generally there is only one customer in the place at one time. Plus, if you don’t stop to talk too much, a visit can be quite brief. So that’s all good. But it’s also true that, for whatever reason, appointments don’t always go off like clockwork, shall we say. So E had to deal with a bit of overlap with a mom, dad and two children who were there unexpectedly. But the seamstress shooed them away fairly quickly. After the appointment E went to reward herself with a coffee from Tried and True just down the street and on her way came across a young man talking on a cell phone saying “Yes, I’m waiting for you.” Only he didn’t actually say those words but said instead “Evet, seni bekliyorum.” He said it twice and Eve understood it both times. She was excited.

Thursday, November 12     Deaths   746 (+4)   Cases  53,879 (+1,109)

Zoom terutulia today with J and R. Later, E took her friend’s dog Pepper to the vet, a major operation as Pepper lives way out in the country on the opposite side of town from the vet’s. As anyone could see from the energy Pepper exhibited running around our back yard today, the dog is not seriously ill; he just needed some shots. 

Eve’s turn to cook today. She’s making minestrone soup. (Sebzeli italyan çorbası yapıyor.) Delicious.

Last night we watched episode 30 of Kış Gunesi. The situation is grim. Efe and Nissan are both having personal crises related to what they are finding out about their families’ pasts, but they are estranged due to the Seda problem and thus each must face it alone.

Friday, November 13     Deaths   753 (+7)   Cases  54,937 (+1,058)

M worked today on some old work stuff. Long ago, he co-wrote an article about what language program administrators need to know about educational technology. It was published as part of a handbook used for administrator training. A few years ago, the handbook was revised and the article had to be updated. Now, there is the possibility of yet another edition of the handbook and once again the editors have requested an updated version. So there he was this morning, slaving away, thinking about things that he hasn’t thought about in a while. 

In the middle of the day, we went for a visit to the wildlife refuge to see the swans that J and R had told us about at tertulia on Thursday. First we took a rainy stroll on a boardwalk through a wetland ash forest. 

We finished our walk just as the rain eased off and then, while driving farther into the refuge, we came across a herd of about 40 elk, who were happily munching on new grass that often pops out in these parts when the fall rains come. Finally we went off to see the swans. They did not disappoint. 

The temperatures are no lower than they’ve been recently, but the dampness got to us and we felt chilly for most of the afternoon. For dinner we had thoroughly heated leftover stew, which helped. 

Another odd tweet from the President today. In the first sentence he boasted of his administration’s unprecedented success in ensuring that U.S. elections were unriggable and in the next sentence asserted that the most recent U.S. election was rigged. In other news, he has also asserted that the voting results that we now have show show him losing by just the “thinnest of margins.” He did not mention that in the electoral college his losing margin in 2020 was exactly the same as his winning margin in 2016, which he described at that time as “the biggest landslide in history.”

Saturday, November 14     Deaths   759 (+6)   Cases  47,839 (+790)

The COVID situation is worsening in many parts of the country and Oregon is no exception. OHA has reported more than 10,000 new cases per day for three straight days. Test positive rates have averaged more than 10% for the last fourteen days and daily death rates have climbed to near record levels. Governor Brown has announced a two-week freeze to begin next Wednesday. During the freeze restaurants and bars will be limited to take-out service, all indoor recreational and cultural facilities will be closed, church services will be limited to 25 people indoors and 50 people outdoors and the prohibition of indoor visits to long-term care facilities will be re-instated.

Up until this week, we had no personal connection to anyone who had the virus. But now one friend has reported that her daughter and granddaughter have both tested positive. Another friend reports that one of her granddaughters is also affected. 

Our activities today included Eve going out to the country to walk Pepper and Michael collecting leaves from the front lawn and taking them around back to mulch things. Dinner was take-out from an Indian restaurant, not exactly a low calorie meal, but pretty tasty. After dinner we watched TV, another hour or so of our Turkish soap. Big doings there, as Efe/Mete finally revealed to everyone that he is really Efe and that his twin brother Mete was the one who was murdered. Efe’s adoptive mother–the saintly Fatma–is ecstatic; his birth mother, Leyla, is devastated. Leyla has lost her husband (one of the guilty parties) and is also terribly hurt by Efe’s deception. And Seda, who was pregnant with Mete’s child, got so upset that she had a sad but convenient miscarriage. Efe is miserable too. He has succeeded in finding out who killed his father 20 years ago and his brother just recently and it seems that the guilty parties have been punished. But he now sees that this success has come at great cost and he just wishes that none of it had every happened. He just wants everything to get back to normal. We know, however, that this is only episode 34 of 50. There’s not going to be much time for regretting or for normal anything because his troubles aren’t even close to being over.

Sunday, November 15     Deaths   761 (+2)   Cases  56,880 (+862)

Andrea came by in the afternoon today. In the morning, E made an applesauce cake for the occasion. When Andrea arrived the three of us first did an exercise walk around the neighborhood and then we sat down with our cake and tea out on the patio. The rain held off for most of the day and temperature was in the mid 50’s, so being outside was not so bad. We talked about what to do about Thanksgiving. The tentative plan is for us to go up there and have a meal on their back patio, but that’s not ideal, especially if it is stormy. We’ve also thought about doing a meal in our garage, with doors arranged to give lots of ventilation. It’s all plausible, but is it worth the stress factor? Should we just all eat in our own homes and make a Zoom connection instead? Don’t know.

Monday, 11/ 2/20     Deaths   692 (+1)   Cases  45,976 (+549)

Shopping day, M going to one store, E to another. We had fairly short lists today; a lot of edibles were already on the premises. What shall we do with all that Halloween candy? 

M tore down the old cooktop, separating the metal parts from the nonmetal ones. Lots of metal in those old appliances. Simple construction too, easy to take apart with just a screwdriver or two. You get to see how it was made, which is fun. Then you haul the metal off to the recycling center. Just half a grocery bag of non-metal pieces left over for the landfill. 

Bright sunny day. Warm enough to be outside and have coffee with a friend. Met R at 2:30 at Coffee Culture. No free tables on the terrace when we arrived because everyone had the same idea. And then…just when our order was ready, a couple of guys got up and walked away. Had a nice talk remembering our adventures in various foreign parts. R had a new Dodgers hat, celebrating a World Series victory by his favorite team.

We’ve settled on one hour a week for this month’s Turkish lessons, starting Wednesday. Harika!

Tuesday, November 3     Deaths   701 (+9)   Cases  46,460 (+482)

Here we are finally at election day. A scary moment. All kinds of optimism among those hoping to get rid of Trump. Living in a dream world. Why do we have so much faith in polls when we know for sure that polls don’t work, a lesson learned just four years ago? Humans are strange. 

At 8:45 p.m. Pacific Time Biden is leading in the electoral college race 192-114. But all the decider states are leaning red. What would it be like to be in a state where your vote really mattered? Maybe not so good, considering who half your neighbors would be. I read a thing that suggested that most voters are casual voters. They mostly vote party lines and don’t pay a lot attention to the issues, especially if they are complicated. They feel no need or desire to dig out the truth behind the slogans. They don’t much care because the government is mostly not real. The government never actually helps you, they just take your money and tell you all kinds of things that you’re not allowed to do. No wonder people instantly respond to the idea that making the government smaller will make a lot of problems just go away. 

It was another busy day for E and M. E went over to the optician and ordered herself some new glasses, something she’d been meaning to do for a long time. She also got some fabric for our custom made storage rack, which will consist–if we get it finished–of a cloth-covered wooden frame with two shelves. After lunch she went over to H’s house for a visit, walking part of the way there and all the way home. M stayed home working on cleanup and organization of the garage and shed environments. He broke up some stuff, again separating metal from other materials. The metal pieces are now stowed in the back of the car waiting another run to recycling. He then started installing hooks and holders in the shed so as to bring forth order from chaos. Busy hands are happy hands.

At 10:15 it’s Biden 215 to 171, with Trump closing fast, having just won Florida. At 10:30 it’s Biden 219 to 209.

Wednesday, November 4     Deaths   705 (+4)   Cases  47,049 (+589)

We had the first of our new Turkish lessons today and had a great time. We learned how to say “seventy million idiot voters” (seçmenlerin yetmiş milyonu aptal)  and “We want a new country.” After that, to pass the time while waiting on election results, E researched native plants and wrapped a package. M worked on the garden shed (bahçe kulübesi), installing the last of the wall hooks and then giving the place a good sweeping. For lunch we went for a short walk and picnic up in the forest, stopping off at the recycling center on the way. After that we had some Türk Kahvesi and worked on a couple of other projects. 

By 4:00 p.m. both PBS and Fox have Biden up 264 to 214, with four states still in play–Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia.  

One of M’s projects involved wandering through different times and different places. Somewhere or other he ran into this cowgirl. Quite a looker.

Thursday, November 5     Deaths   710 (+5)   Cases  47,839 (+790)

M went in for dental surgery today, part of the implant process. All is going well. Post-op instructions require a diet of (and we quote) “ice cream, pudding, yogurt, milkshakes and cold drinks.” Dutiful patient that he is, M jumped on that train immediately. Another appointment in two weeks, then on to the business of getting the crown. Nine months or so from start to finish. 

Later on M opened up his new iMac up and got it running. Somewhere along the line it had been stored in a place with water on the floor. The bottom two or three inches of both the outer and inner boxes were permeated, the outer one being a little drier. Because of the way it was packed, the dampness never reached any part of the computer. Still, it was disconcerting.

The electoral vote count is unchanged. Sigh. Surely something will happen tomorrow?

Friday, November 6     Deaths   716 (+6)   Cases  48,608 (+769)

Lots of seasonal garden work today–M was raking leaves and E was planting bulbs and seeds that need to winter over. M is mulching the new meadow area in the back with leaves from the neighbor’s tree in the front. It’s a big tree and it’s upwind from our yard. It should provide all the leaves we need before it’s done. M keeps on working despite being forced to survive on a diet of ice cream, chocolate pudding and liquids. Enough is enough, though, and he is planning to eat the food he is cooking for dinner tonight: samosas, sag paneer, and leftover purple cauliflower. 

The election seems to have gone to Biden, but the interminable wait for a final count goes on and on. Meanwhile virus case numbers are rising steeply all over the country, including in Oregon.

Saturday, November 7     Deaths   729 (+13)   Cases  49,587 (+979)

The AP called Pennsylvania for Biden at a little after 9:00 this morning, which put him past the 270 electoral votes that are needed to win the presidential election. E and M heard about this almost as soon as it happened by means of an email from a friend in Chile. Lots of people are celebrating; there is even a certain amount of smiling here at the house on Oak Avenue.

Part of the festivities included a Japanese take-out dinner from Sada. E had vegetable tempura and grilled salmon. M had curry katsu, which he loves, partly because he considers it one of the most ridiculous dishes he has ever run across. For TV, we watched two episodes of Winter Sun (Kış Gunesi). Not much politics there. Who has time? Someone is trying to have Kadim killed while he is in prison, but Kadim is very hard to kill. His long lost wife Farise has finally stirred from her coma. She can’t move but is able to speak, at least enough to tell Efruz about the key to Reşat’s safe deposit box, which contains information that may help Kadim get out of prision. Reşat, a dirty cop who for many years took orders from criminal mastermind Yakup, is dead, having been killed by another of Yakup’s henchmen because he knew too much. Efe and Nisan now have the key and are trying to figure out how to access the box. But Efe has been busy dealing with Seda, who is pregnant with Mete’s child, but who has become Efe’s problem because Mete is actually dead. Efe and Mete are twins and Efe has taken Mete’s place because he thinks that’s the only way to find out who is actually behind all the killing and gun running. (Only E, M, and 300 million other viewers worldwide know that the real bad guy is Yakup, who also happens to be Nisan’s father. And of course Nisan and Efe are becoming friends, so, you know, possible trouble ahead there.)  Anyway, Efe (as Mete) has just promised to divorce Nisan and marry Seda because Seda convinced him that otherwise she’s getting an abortion. Both Efe and Nisan want the baby to be born because it is all that is left of Mete, their childhood friend, who was also Nisan’s husband although they never really clicked. She knows he’s dead and has agreed to help Efe unravel it all, but nobody else knows that except for Kadim and Efe’s best friend Burat. But the point of it all is that Efe and Nisan are living together as husband and wife even though they totally aren’t. Of course they’re not sleeping together or even kissing, but boy are they starting to think about it. 

Sunday, November 8     Deaths   730 (+1)   Cases  50,448 (+861)

We did grocery shopping today. M went to Market of Choice and Eve to the Co-op. We know that some of the items that we buy in both these places are available elsewhere for quite a bit less, but we just don’t feel like chasing around town. Some of this is laziness; some of it is caution.

Partly cloudy today and quite cold, thirties in the morning and forties in the afternoon. M will do a little yard work today despite the conditions. E will do Zoom yoga and work on her photo project. She has been planning with Andrea about how to celebrate Thanksgiving. Possibly, we will be having a meal on their back patio. 

A couple of things about the election come to mind. One is that the margin of victory was much smaller than any of the polls predicted. That makes two elections in a row wherein pollsters seriously underestimated Trump’s appeal. Will poll makers learn from making the same mistake twice in a row? Probably not. Will we all pay really close attention to the polls next time anyway? Oh yeah. There are some arguments against having polls at all. Some countries have laws that prohibit release of polling data in the weeks immediately preceding an election. Which reminds us that 22 countries worldwide, including Australia, have laws that require all citizens to vote. There’s a thought.

Beyond election technicalities, however, there is a larger issue. How do we come to terms with the fact that more than sixty million people would vote for a candidate like Trump? We want to find an underlying cause. Maybe it’s something that could be fixed. But–people being what they are–that probably won’t happen. And you know what they say: You can choose your friends and these days you can even choose your gender, but you can’t choose your species. 

Monday, October 26     Deaths   655 (+2)   Cases  42,436 (+335)

Erken kalktık (We got up early) so as to have a time for a little more study before Turkish class. Class went pretty well. Çarşamba ekimdeki son dersimiz. (Wednesday is our last class in October.) We need to decide in the next day or two whether to continue for another month. We’re conflicted. 

Tuesday, October 27     Deaths   664 (+9)   Cases  42,808 (+372)

Wednesday, October 28     Deaths   671 (+7)   Cases  43,228 (+420)

Beautiful weather this week, very cold nights and mornings but warm afternoons. We decided to seize the day and change tertulia from the breakfast hour to happy hour. J and R brought pastries and we supplied tea and a bottle of Bordeaux on our patio. Nice. 

We had our last Turkish lesson of the month today and talked to the teacher about continuing. We’d like to continue but three hours per week is too much for us. So we’re thinking of maybe changing to just one hour a week if the school can work that out. Today we learned how to say Kendine iyi bak–Take good care of yourself–a useful notion for these times.

Thursday, October 29     Deaths   673 (+2)   Cases  43,793 (+565)

M went for a drive today, taking Highway 22 from Stayton to Santiam Junction. That stretch includes the towns of Mill City, Gates and Detroit Lake, which were all in the path of the Beachie Creek fire. (Video news report here, including an account of how it felt to be evacuating with burning trees on both sides of the road.) Here are some scenes from that area today. This is the town of Detroit Lake.

The fire spread very fast in the 40-50 mph wind. This fire truck was caught in it, perhaps while the crew was trying save this building. The left side of the truck looks fine; the right side, not so much. The sideways lean comes from the fact that the tires on the right side are gone while those on the driver’s side are intact. M felt a little ghoulish taking pictures of all this misfortune. Not that there weren’t plenty of other people there doing the same thing…

About 45 minutes after leaving Detroit Lake, M found somehow found himself 50 miles further east waiting in line outside the Sisters Bakery. So he pretty much had to go in and get something. Fifteen minutes later, he made these notes:

Sisters, Oregon 1:20 P.M.  Chocolate donut? Check. Fritter for tomorrow? Check. Half cup of caffeinated coffee? Check. Full tank of premium gas? Check. Is the Mackenzie Pass highway around here somewhere? Oh yeah.

The last time M went over MacKenzie pass he was in the Jaguar. That car handled the road competently, but it was really too big for the tight, narrow curves. On the other hand, there were no bicyclists on the road that day. This day there were just enough cyclists to make M very cautious. You have to just assume someone’s going to be there every time you go around a blind curve–and all the curves are blind to some degree or other. Doesn’t mean you can’t go a little fast, but you’re constantly recalculating based on angles of vision.

When an exhausted M got home, he found E in the living room doing yet another Zoom class. 

Friday, October 30     Deaths   675 (+2)   Cases  44,349 (+556)

There have been over 1,100 new COVID cases reported over the last two days. The Oregon Department of Education has announced new metrics for school re-openings. Some districts will be able meet standards now, but many more have a long way to go. 

Saturday, October 31     Deaths   689 (+14)   Cases  44,932 (+583)

Fourteen COVID deaths reported today, a new daily record. The youngest victim was 66. All had underlying conditions. 

We did a number of errands today, some of which involved going downtown. The weather was nice and lots of people were out and about. Everyone was masked, but with so many people on the sidewalks, we didn’t feel all that comfortable, even outside. Paranoid maybe, but there it is. We did not linger. 

We learned that the Habitat for Humanity store has reopened on a limited basis and is accepting donations. We have a couple of largish items that we have been saving for them. Donations are accepted by appointment. E made us one for Thursday.

Sunday, November 1     Deaths   691 (+2)   Cases  45,429 (+497) 

This is the 220th day of the Pandemic Diary database. During the last ten days, the daily COVID death rate average was 4.5 per day. This is slightly lower that the previous period, a welcome change after forty straight days of steadily increasing rates.

It got down to 28 degrees last night, but today is sunny and warm. Nov. 1 is the first day of our annual respite from the horror that is Daylight Saving Time. Must enjoy it while we can. M is doing DIY today: mini towel bar in the kitchen, light fixtures for illuminating the new pantry cupboard in the garage, building a lightweight storage rack to go on top of new pantry cupboard. Still to come is the installation of the solar powered light for the interior of the equipment shed plus the assembly and testing of the new cordless pruning gizmo. Project mania. It will pass.

E is doing good again today by taking care of dog Pepper for a few hours while new furniture is being delivered at his owner’s house. The dog is very active, always nervous. E is tired.