Monday, December 7 Deaths 1,045 (+12) New cases 1,331
Early on a Monday morning the Mother of Markets was almost empty. We went there together. We know you’re not supposed to do that. But it’s a big airy place and E is getting tired of the Co-op, with its low ceilings and narrow aisles. We split up to do much of the shopping, so we were in and out fairly quickly. We spent a lot of money, though; there’s nothing cheap about Mother of Markets. The good news today was that our grapefruit shipment arrived from Pittman-Davis in Texas. Otherwise, just the normal stuff, a Zoom class, some puttering around outside, naps in the afternoon, and a long walk after dinner to see the Christmas lights in a nearby neighborhood.
Tuesday, December 8 Deaths 1,080 (+35) New cases 1,341
Grapefruit for breakfast. Harika! After that, we had to attack our Turkish homework to prep for tomorrow’s lesson. We had a couple of vocabulary worksheets focusing on more or less common adjectives. Go ahead, ask either of us how to say “soft cotton” or “slow turtle” in Turkish. You could even ask us to say “soft turtle” and “fast cotton” if you wanted to. We could do it. Of course you’d have to ask us to do that pretty soon, because, at our age, we don’t know how long we’re going to remember these words. We also had to prepare short oral presentations. E’s is about a dog; M’s is about a car. This took all morning; it was past noon when we knocked off for lunch. In the afternoon we went for a walk in the forest. The weather was nice, partly cloudy with temps in the high forties.
The Turkish word for forest is orman. The word for in is da and in Turkish it comes after the noun instead of before. So ormanda means in the forest . The word for walk is yürü and and the past tense first person plural verb ending is dük. So yürüdük means we walked. Therefore, We walked in the forest would be Yürüdük ormanda. Except it isn’t. In Turkish the verb and all its endings come at the end of the sentence. Hence: Ormanda yürüdük. All this stuff is really easy once you get used to it. We know this from personal experience, not because we personally are used to it because we’re not, but we have personally listened to Turks speaking Turkish. You should hear them when they get going. None of it bothers them at all. Little kids even…
After our walk M found time to wrap two presents and waste some time online. E found time to continue to support local clothing stores in their time of trouble. This time she didn’t want to go inside the store, which is a bit cramped. She found, however, that they have put much of their inventory onto a website. So she used that to make her selection and to pay. Then she called and made arrangements to go downtown and have the sweater brought out to her rather than shipped.
Watched another episode of The Crown. The Duke of Windsor has died. Charles has fallen for Camilla. Good acting and writing. Nice cars. But it’s a swindle, this mingling of fact and fiction. It’s just another kind of reality TV.
Wednesday, December 9 Deaths 1,110 (+30) New cases 1,205
Turkish class. Walk up the hill. Wrap presents. Prepare xmas letter. Random reviews via Zoom. Country Strings via Zoom. The guest on Country Strings was David Alvin. David and Phil Alvin came to some prominence in the 80’s in a band called The Blasters. David’s musical inspiration, then and now, was roots music, especially blues, about which his knowledge seems vast. In the Zoom session from his home in California, Alvin played some of his own songs that featured wonderful acoustic blues guitar. Awesome. American Strings is a local university-sponsored free concert series, and since it is now on Zoom, it is available to all. We don’t know the line-up for 2021, but past guests have included Noel Paul Stookey, Tom Paxton, Sarah Jarosz, Roseanne Cash, Country Joe McDonald, Carlene Carter, and Bill Frisell. The format is half an hour of music talk followed by a half an hour of live performance.
After posting last week’s Pandemic Diary, we have had an outpouring of support for our Christmas tree. We have been urged to be more mindful of its feelings when we report about it and we are taking this advice to heart. However, honesty compels us to report that the tree has developed a drinking problem. The tree’s caregivers have noted an extraordinarily high level of liquid intake. This is not meant as a criticism, merely a matter of concern at this point. The tree’s behavior has been placid and uncomplaining with no sign of wobbling or other instability, at least so far…
Thursday, December 10 Deaths 1,123 (+13) New cases 1,286
FaceTime tertulia with J and R this morning, then E went right into Zoom Better Bones and Balance while M noodled around on the computer. Dull weather today, thick morning fog giving way to a featureless gray sky. Cold rain showers in the late afternoon. With not a breath of wind, the raindrops fall straight down, thousands of perfectly parallel vectors.
E’s hair stylist is retiring at the end of the month; they had their last appointment today. E’s hair looks great. But what will she do now?
Friday, December 11 Deaths 1,138 (+15) New cases 1,610
It’s the 260th day of the pandemic and the Oregon death rate continues to rise steeply. The number of deaths per 100,000 residents has reached 26.5.
Saturday, December 12 Deaths 1,149 (+11) New cases 1,440
Lovely day, not too cold, cloudy with periods of sun. E went out to the country again to take dog Pepper for a walk. Around midday, both of us worked outside doing fall chores, including pruning our respective roses. M pruned the ones in the back, a motley assortment inherited from the previous owners. E pruned the miniatures that we brought from our old house. They’re in large pots and are nice enough to go in front of the house.
In the afternoon M ventured out to the liquor store. Business was booming and the store was enforcing a limit of five customers in the store at any one time. At the checkout counter the store was still using a credit card reader that required a signature on a touchscreen. That seemed primitive at a time when other stores have moved to no-touch credit card readers. Ah but wait. As soon as M removed his card and the signing screen popped up, the clerk pulled the reader back, made a quick X on his behalf and wished him a nice day. Very sensible.
Thus resupplied, we had a lot of fun doing a Zoom happy hour with B and B. For a Zoom background we used a photo from the last time the four of us went snowshoeing.
Dinner was take-out from Pastinis. We ordered online, which we have done before, but this time the process failed. We received our confirmation email as usual, but when we arrived at the appointed time, the staff at the restaurant had never heard of us. Sigh. We reordered right then and waited in the car. It didn’t take too long, but it is not good to have such problems when one is hungry. As best we can tell, the transaction failed as soon as it was made, but despite the failure, the system (TableUp) sent us a confirmation anyway. TableUp baka desu. TableUp çok aptal. TableUp es estúpido.
Sunday, December 13 Deaths 1,155 (+6) New cases 1,048
A day of rest. After we read the paper, M did the crossword and finished a mystery novel. E had a Zoom get-together with some old friends. We opened a shipment of new cotton/rayon towels, cabernet for M and raspberry for E. They are made in Turkey of course, because that’s where we became towel snobs. What a treat it was to buy towels there! Bur never mind the history. These new ones are lovely and feel very nice. As for how they perform, we shall see.
We’re trying out the idea of online grocery ordering and curbside pickup at the Co-op. E has submitted her list and the Co-op site tells us that they will call us when our order is ready, promising that this will be either Monday or Tuesday. We’ll pay on the phone and then go pick it up.
But the big news today is that we are having a houseguest. Pepper’s owner is having cataract surgery on Monday and won’t be able to care for him properly for a few days. E will go out and pick him up today just before dark. M will stay home and make spaghetti.
We continue to hatewatch The Crown. Hopefully, we’ll be done soon.