Meandering on the Way — June 26 to July 2, 2023

Monday, June 26

We went up to Salem today, about forty miles away. We had a couple of things in mind, one them being that there is a good Hyundai dealer in Salem and we’ve been wanting to take a look at the Hyundai Ioniq 5. E loves her current Mazda CX-5, but she has been thinking a lot about getting either an EV or a hybrid for environmental reasons. Mazda has just started making a very good new CX hybrid, but it is only available in Europe and Asia.

So we decided to at least take a look at an all electric car. The Ioniq 5 has gotten rave reviews: for fast charging, for its 300 mile range, and for a lot of convenience and safety features. It’s about the size of a CX-5, which is exactly the size E likes. So. There we were taking a test drive in a brand new one, and guess what? It was awesome. Tons of interior space, more than sufficient power, great handling, nice styling. Lots of reviewers say that it is clearly superior to the comparably sized Tesla, not that we have any plans to ever drive a Tesla, cuz we don’t.

Anyway, the Ioniq 5 is wonderful, and not super expensive. So are we going to buy one? Hmm. Probably not. It is impressive, but we both find that it lacks personality. Maybe an EV is just too different, too much for us to get used to. We’ll have to keep thinking.

Another thing that has been on our minds lately is cake. We thought we might have a piece of cake to celebrate Becca’s birthday. Becca is amazing, still just 22 years old even though she was born 48 years ago. That’s a while back, but people still remember her and people still reach out to E at this time of year, for which we are very grateful. So our excuse for going to Salem was to look at a car, but our actual reason for going to Salem was to have a little ceremony at the Konditorei, one of E’s favorite places in the world. She had a piece of lemon cream cake; M had German chocolate. Neither of us could eat it all, had to take some home.

Tuesday, June 27

We went walking today on the Meadow Edge Loop near the top of Mary’s Peak. We started out just after noon and made our first stop at the Vietnamese Baguette to procure some sandwiches. Man they were busy! On the way out of town we stopped for a roadside picnic at Starker Arts Park. Then we went out Highway 34 and turned off onto the road that leads up the mountain. The weather at the top was sunny and pleasant; it was considerably cooler at 3,400 feet than it was in lowland Corvallis.

We have also been talking a bit more about what we would like to have in the way of cars…

Wednesday, June 28

E had lunch with her THEPAJ group at Gathering Together Farms. She had a teensy cup of carrot soup, two small pieces of bread, and a glass of water with no ice. (Now some people might be of the opinion that her actual meal was not of sufficient quantity to justify the use of the word lunch. But we are casual about such things, so we’ll let it go. Especially since she did buy 2 GTF chocolate covered spud nuts to be eaten later.–Ed.)

M, meanwhile, went back up to Salem. Hmm. What was he up to? Whatever it was, he was gone half the day.

Thursday, June 29

E had a Better Bones and Balance class today and it was not via Zoom. M dropped her off at at the community college at 11:00. It was her first in-person exercise class since the pandemic and she liked it a lot. The teacher was excellent, but alas, she was just a sub and E won’t meet the real teacher until next week.

M picked E up after class and they headed off to Salem. As planned, M had brought small sandwiches and juice so that they could have lunch along the way. The sandwiches had to be small because we planned to visit Baskin-Robbins. While the Baskin-Robbins in Corvallis closed down during the pandemic and was replaced by a COVID test center in the same location, Salem has not just one, but four(!) active B-R’s.

But before we could get the ice cream, we had a more onerous errand to perform. We had to pick up the Jaguar. And once that was done, we had to choose which of the Salem B-R’s we were going to, get its address into our respective phones, and drive to it separately. By time we got there, we were sure we deserved a reward.

Friday, June 30

Lots of chores today related to the car: bluetooth pairing to M’s phone, driving position memory settings for both of us, radio presets for both, and the most challenging problem, the process for teaching the car about the codes for the garage door opener. When that was done, we rolled up our Afghani wool runner and threw it in the trunk. M got the rug in Yemen thirty years ago and by now it really needed fringe end repair. E decided we needed to take it to the Atiyeh Brothers rug shop in Eugene. (What a nice place that turned out to be!) So off we went in the new car, first to the rug place and then to dinner at a Thai place called Blu Mist Restaurant & Bar that E had tried once but M never had. It was wonderful.

M drove the forty miles down to Eugene; E drove us back home, her first time behind the wheel of the F-Type. E had really liked riding in M’s previous car, the blue Porsche, but she hadn’t enjoyed driving it very much because it had a manual transmission. She is a lot happier with the F-Type’s automatic.

Saturday, July 1

Eve went to see our friend Jo, who is recovering from shoulder surgery and cannot yet drive. They did some errands and took a walk in Willamette Park. While they were out, E looked for a birthday card for our neighbor who is turning 90 tomorrow. She wanted a “Happy 90th” card but had to settle for one 40th and one 50th. These she has cleverly combined into one card and has added a plus sign and an equals sign. Since the recipient is a retired math teacher, she is fairly confident that he will figure it out.

Sunday, July 2

We walked a bit this morning, before the heat. We went to a place we hadn’t been to before in an obscure corner of the OSU Arboretum. We walked a quarter mile nature trail and also visited a memorial to nine Oregon firefighters who died fighting a wild fire in Colorado almost exactly twenty-nine years ago. Lately someone has pinned poems to some of the wooden beams of the structure. The poems all deal with nature in one way or another and include works by William Stafford and Mary Oliver. They were a treat.

In the afternoon we went to the aforementioned birthday party for our 90 year old neighbor and had a piece of cake. Wonderful way to spend a Sunday.