Monday, June 19 Deaths 2,826 (+9) New cases 777
M spent the morning on a tour of local businesses including Home Depot, Kaddy carwash, the Cork and Bottle Shoppe, Market of Choice, and Trader Joe’s. Was he satisfied with all this purchasing? No. When he got home he went online and ordered himself a Chef’n FreshForce Lime Juicer. Chef’n? Really? What kind of word is that? Maybe a cute way of verbifying the noun “chef?” As in “What’s Tyler doing these days; is he still chef’n?”
Tuesday, July 20 Deaths 2,832 (+6) New cases 595
E harvested a lot of rhubarb today, enough for two pies. Half of it has gone into the freezer, but not the other half. She has plans.
Wednesday, July 21 Deaths 2,833 (+1) New cases 421
Made a trip to Eugene today. Went to REI and then had a Thai lunch at the 5th Street Market. It had been a long time since we’d seen that old place. It’s doing well.
A pie has materialized in our kitchen. Oh boy. We plan to have either a light supper followed by pie or else a light supper consisting of pie.
Thursday, July 22 Deaths 2,834 (+1) New cases 539
COVID new case numbers are rising in Oregon, as is the percentage of positive COVID tests. We suppose this is natural, given that almost all restrictions have been lifted and people are reverting to pre-pandemic habits. The death rate has not increased lately, but neither has it continued its previous declining trend.
In the news today there is a report that U.S. life expectancy has dropped significantly in the last year and a half. COVID has played a major role, but so has the opioid epidemic. Another factor is the increase in the number of murders, with many involving young people. (Deaths of young people have a relatively large effect on life expectancy calculations.)
It’s M’s birthday today and he started it off with a chocolate hazelnut scone at the coffee shop with J and R. Heard a memorable story from R about his family moving house in the wintertime back when he was a child in Australia. Afterwards, E went immediately into high gear, first doing her Zoom exercise class, then shopping for birthday balloons, then making a salad for later, then meeting with the seamstress, and finally getting back home in time for laughter yoga.
M continued his celebration by going outside and trimming away a ton or so of out-of-control squash runners and then watering some things that seemed to need it. He noticed that the blackberries are coming along nicely.
Then came the installation the shade cloth roll-up blind on our westward facing window. That took some time. Getting a translucent blind was E’s idea, and she likes it pretty well so far.
In the evening we went to dinner at B and B’s place in North Albany. One of the B’s made margaritas, which were just the thing on such a warm day. Dinner was also wonderful, out on their new deck with its big blue shade.
Friday, July 23 Deaths 2,836 (+2) New cases 613
Watched an episode of Ted Lasso. Can’t say it really grabbed us. E got some rest though, which gave her the strength to stay up and read more of The Spy Wore Red.
Saturday, July 24
Had some friends over for dinner in the back yard. We were lucky in that it wasn’t too hot and that the evening breeze was gentle–sometimes it’s a gale back there. The difficulty was in finding consistent shade. There was a lot of good food. E, for example, provided enchiladas, which she says were made following recipes used by La Rockita, one of our favorite local restaurants. It was nice to see some people we hadn’t seen in quite a while. After our guests had gone and we had cleaned up a little, we sat outside and watched the full moon rising in the east.
Sunday, July 25
Sibling Zoom meeting with J and J. Despite some technical difficulties, it was a good long talk. We’re looking forward to being at the lake again. It won’t be long.
M left in the middle to go to a baseball game in Eugene. It was the Eugene Emeralds vs. the Hillsboro Hops. The Emeralds are an SF farm club; the Hops are part of the Arizona Diamondbacks system. The visitors jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of second. Yikes. The Ems stayed with their starter, which paid off when he held the Hops scoreless for the next three innings. The Em’s got two runs in the fifth on back-to-back homers by their number 8 and number 9 hitters. You don’t see that too often. After eight innings the score was Hops 5 and Ems 4. The Hops number 2, 3, and 4 batters were scheduled for the top of the ninth. The Ems brought in their best reliever, who quickly retired the side with two strikeouts and a pop-up. That seemed to give the Ems’ batters some momentum. In the bottom of the ninth the Hops’ reliever gave up a walk and a double with one out. Then, with runners on second and third, the next batter also doubled and that’s all she wrote. Ems win, 6-5. Pretty good game.