Endemic Diary — March 14 to April 3, 2022

Monday, March 14, 2022

Got home from Eugene airport at 2:00 AM this morning. Hmm. Weren’t we up at 2:00 AM Sunday morning also, back there in the SLC train station? Probably best not make a habit of this. Over the course of this day, we did some grocery shopping and some serious resting.

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Went to B and B’s for dinner. There was a cake to help extend the celebration of E’s birthday. Also salmon. We got a nice picture of E and B sitting on a new couch.

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Went for a two-mile walk in the forest today. Nice to be back outside. 

Thursday, March 17, 2022

We visited two different plant nurseries today, and somehow found a few things to buy. The selection of natives at Garland’s was disappointing, so from there we just got a white rose, a bargain shelf tulip, and some pansies. We had better luck at Home Grown Gardens, where we were very happy to find camas, a small Indian plum tree and some interesting looking spirea.   

Friday, March 18, 2022

Going to the plant nursery is one thing–it’s fun and not too strenuous. But if you buy plants…then you have to plant them.

In the afternoon we had PF over for “Tea at Three.” 

Saturday, March 19 2022

We both worked in the garden workday, weeding and planting. The three camas lilies are now in place, along with two yarrow plants and one new, out-of-phase tulip. 

Sunday, March 20, 2022

E tried out one of our four free antigen tests today and came out negative. Then she went off for a dog walk with some friends. There is a new baby in J and B’s family and E is eager to meet her. 

Monday, March 21, 2022

We are headed to the mountains to hopefully do some cross-country skiing. Conditions get iffy in the spring, but we thought we saw a window of opportunity. The weather forecast called for new snow in the night and early morning hours, changing to rain by noon. And so it turned out. We left Corvallis at eight and got onto our skis at 10:00. Lovely conditions: four inches of new snow, light snow still falling, no other humans in sight. 

The skiing surface was really nice and we had a blast for the first hour and a half. At that point we noticed that the light snow was turning into the predicted light rain. That would have been the right time to turn around and head back. But, oh no, we instead decided to push on to the Brandenburg shelter where we could have a nice lunch out of the rain. The ski surface was still nice and we were dressed for rain, so it seemed a plausible idea. We had forgotten that the last mile was the hardest part of the route, a half mile uphill followed by a moderately difficult half mile traverse. We eventually got there and had a nice lunch, but it was a bit of a struggle.  

Afterward, we had a three-mile slog back to our car. Even though the rain continued, the snow surface stayed pretty good, a little soft, but okay. The bad part was that we were getting tired. Around the halfway mark we decided to rest a little. We lay down in the snow and put our feet up. We don’t remember ever having done that before–lying on the snow in the rain. The air temperature was 40ish, so we stayed warm. It was really quite nice–but not nice enough to linger for long. 

Once back at the sno park, we revived ourselves with a thermos of coffee. Then we were off to the town of Sisters where we had reserved a room at the Sisters Inn. The Sisters Inn doesn’t look like much from the outside, but we found that the rooms had been much refurbished since our last visit. A nice surprise. We then had dinner at the Sisters Saloon and Ranch Grill, which is located in a 1912 building that once housed the Hotel Sisters. The decor was interesting; the food was just okay. 

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

We both slept about ten hours and awoke feeling surprisingly good. We decided to get ourselves over to the Sisters Bakery to get breakfast. E suggested that we walk the three quarters of a mile to the bakery; M said that that would be a great idea…for an alien life form on an upside down planet in a galaxy very far away. However you get there, of course, the Sisters Bakery never disappoints. Following breakfast, we zoomed back to Corvallis in time for E to make it to her HEPAJ meeting at 1:00.

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

We were both a little stiffer today than the day before, but it was time to walk. We were rewarded with lots trilliums in bloom. Seems like a big year for them.

In the family news arena, we note that A has been appointed to the Washington State Veterinary Board of Governors.

Thursday, March 24, 2022

Tertulia with J and R this morning. We sat outside in the tent at Coffee Culture. The temperature was 41 degrees or so, not unpleasant. While comparing notes on wildflower sightings we learned that there are two types of trilliums in the forest. One type has flowers on a one or two inch stem; on the other the flowers are lower. It’s the first type that are flowering now.

After tertulia M was off to get his implant (diş implantı, as shown in Fig 2 below). It came with what they call an International Implant Card. One side of the card has information about the date and location of the implant plus also the name and address of the implant maker. The address info includes both their post office box number and their street address, just in case M feels like dropping by. The other side of the card has more information about the particular titanium screw that was used and also has the phrase “dental implant” printed in 26 different languages. 

There’s just no telling how useful this card may turn out to be… 

Saturday, March 26, 2022

Walked around the OSU campus today. Just two miles but maybe too far for M. Back home he was feeling listless and had a mild fever.  

Sunday, March 27, 2022

M slept off and on all day. Fever 102. We are starting to worry. M gave himself a COVID test just in case, and it came out negative. But still, he seems to have something. 

While M is out of action, E mows the back lawn.  

Monday, March 28, 2022

It rained for an hour or so in the middle of the day. It was wonderful, soft and silent. Nice time of year.

M has a bit more energy today but is still feverish. E has decided to postpone the lemon merengue pie party that she had planned for Tuesday. Sad. 

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

The Oregon Health Authority has announced 86 new COVID deaths in the last five days, which sounds pretty serious. But is it? Only 13 of the deaths are from March. Twenty-one of them are from January; and 49 are from February. One is from October and two are from December. 

We have no idea what to do with this information. It appears that if we want to know how many people actually died from COVID so far in March, we’ll need to wait at least till the end of May. That seems pointless. At this point we are planning to create one more of our lovely blue charts and then shut down the PD database.

E went down to Grass Roots today and got us a new jigsaw puzzle. We both like the picture. M says it looks like it’s going to be really hard. But that’s probably just because he’s sick. E thinks it will be easy. But that’s probably because she’s actually from another planet. 

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

M made us some Dr Oetker brand instant flan today. It was pretty good. We were a little curious about finding a Dr Oekter product in our store; the brand is very familiar to us, but mainly from way back when. We remember seeing Dr. Oetker products on grocery shelves in countries in Europe and the Middle East. We started wondering: Where did this brand come from? Was Dr Oekter a real person? Well…of course he was. August Oetker (1862-1918) was the German fellow who invented–or at least perfected–baking powder. A former pharmacist, he started a baking goods business which has since grown into a major multi-national known for things like cake mixes, puddings, and especially pizza. 

August Oetker had one son, Rudolph, who was killed in World War I. Therefore, when August Oetker died soon after, the future of the business was unclear. At some point in the 1920’s, however, Rudolph’s widow, Ida, remarried, this time to a man named Richard Kaselowsky, who raised Rudolph Oekter’s son as his own. This child was named Rudolph August Oetker and was of course the grandson of the founder. During the thirties and early forties while Kaselowsky was running the company, Rudolph August was active in the Waffen SS. The company did a great deal of business with the German military during this period, supplying both pudding mixes and munitions. It has been reported that during the war, some Oetker factories used slave labor. 

Kaselowsky was killed by Allied bombing in 1944. Rudolph August Oetker then took the reins of  the company and ran it very successfully until 1981. The company remains today a family-run business; the current CEO is one of the founder’s great grandsons.

Thursday, March 31, 2022

Still working on the new puzzle. It’s ridiculous.

Friday, April 1, 2022

In honor of April Fool’s day, PD herewith publishes another blue chart. It shows the effects of the Omicron surge, which lasted–in Oregon–from early January to about the middle of February. The chart has no data for March because no reliable data are available. Ah well, it’s time for a break from charts. 

Saturday, April 2, 2022

Nice day. E went walking in the forest with N, who proved to be a good luck charm, as they found lots of flowers.

Still working on that puzzle…

Sunday, April 3, 2022

Finished at last! One piece had to be retrieved from a support platform underneath the table, where it had made its way through a narrow space between two table leaves.