Meandering on the Way — May 7 to 14

Tuesday, May 7th

A new electricity generation facility opened in Corvallis today and we got to attend the opening ceremony. There wasn’t too much of crowd. In fact, except for the installer, we were the only ones there. It was pretty exciting though. It’s a small system with just nine 410 watt panels, giving it a nominal rating of 3,800 watts.

Besides the panels themselves, there are three other parts to the system.

Wednesday, May 8th

It was a day for medical appointments. In the morning M had a pre-op meeting with the eye surgeon and in the afternoon the Ioniq 5 got a checkup and software upgrade at the Hyundai dealer in Salem. (Why, one might ask, did we take the Ioniq to Salem for its upgrade instead of going to the Hyundai dealer in Albany, which is much nearer? We don’t know. Probably, you know, senility.)

While we were in Salem, just by chance we dropped in to the Konditorei to see if they might possibly have any good cake there. They did. E got a piece of her favorite Barney’s Blackout and M got a piece of German chocolate cheesecake. Their pieces were big, big enough to last us a couple of days.

Thursday, May 9th

Another beautiful spring day, sunny with temps in the seventies. M put on sunscreen and worked in the yard all day. E was in and out, what with her exercise class, a coffee date with a friend, and then Laughter Yoga. While they’re busy doing all that, here’s a leftover photo from M’s Nevada/Oregon road trip, taken when he visited the gravesite of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, the son of Sacajawea and Toussaint Charbonneau. The grave is in one of the emptiest parts of Oregon. Charbonneau contracted pneumonia there while on his way from California to Montana.

And on a simpler note, here’s a sparkling little watercourse in a dry looking place called Glen Dun Canyon, located in the hills southwest of Winnemucca, NV.

Friday, May 10th

E started the day by getting her toes painted, then came home and mixed up a dinner to put into the slow cooker. After that she was off to a luncheon meeting of her THEPAJ group, which she had to leave a bit early in order to get to her SMART reader work at Lincoln School later in the afternoon. Whew.

M has been watching to see how our new solar system is working. Our system’s “nominal” output is 3,800 watts. But a solar panel’s nominal rating is based on its maximum possible performance in a controlled test environment. Well that’s no help; all it means is that our panels will never produce anything close to 3,800 watts. So how can we see how much they actually do produce? There are several ways; but since the inverter is connected to our home internet, the easiest way is to use a computer or phone. Here’s part of what we see:

This screenshot is from 9:45 A.M. on a sunny day and shows that the system was producing 2,023 watts when last sampled. In the lower right, it also shows how much electricity the system has produced since it was first turned on. After three days of life, mostly sunny ones, it is at 59.30 kilowatt hours.

Here’s another sample, this one from the same sunny day but taken at 1:30 P.M., when the sun was shining more directly onto the panels. This is probably close to the maximum production rate that we will ever see. The cumulative total is up to 69 kilowatt hours.

Saturday, May 11th

E has been invited up to Vancouver to celebrate Mother’s Day with Andrea and Andy. She went up today on the afternoon train and Andrea picked her up at Portland station. E’s train–contrary to all expectation–was not late. It was thirty minutes early! No one has ever even heard of that. It’s a little eerie. E was happy though. She read a Masie Dobbs novel in the waiting room. Andrea, meanwhile, had a good excuse to leave her volunteer work early, given that her mother was by herself at a station located in what is one of the worst parts of Portland.

Soon E was safely transported to the Andees’ place across the river. She reports that the food and accommodation there were quite fine. She got a wonderful dinner complete with homemade cookies.

Sunday, May 12th

The day’s main activity was to participate in the 11th Annual Reigning Roses Walk, a benefit for Rose Haven, a day shelter and community center for women. The event began with a pre-party at 10:00, which featured food, mimosas, a raffle, and live entertainment. At 11:00 the walk began. The route went through a section of NW Portland’s Alphabet District and included stops at a number of businesses which were supporting the event.

After the walk, there was a brief respite back home and then it was time for a late lunch. And wouldn’t you know it, right on cue, that’s when M showed up, having sailed the Ioniq 5 up from Corvallis. That made four for lunch at Grassa on the Vancouver riverfront. What a nice place that is. Then, after a stroll along the waterfront, it was time to say goodbye. The sad parting was assuaged by the fact that A gave us a box of cookies for the road.

Monday, May 13th

Another busy day. While M did chores inside and out, E went for a forest walk with her friend S. E and S met back in the old(ish) days when a teenage S babysat for young mother E’s children. Today they went to Peavy and walked up to the lake where they sat down and had some coffee. Later E had Zoom yoga.

In the evening we watched the last episode of Season 9 of Seaside Hotel. It’s a lovely series with great characters and well-made plot lines. Very dramatic but never really too awful. It streams from PBS.

At 9:30 in the evening M checked on the solar panel system, which was totally dead in the water. Useless. We should probably get some lunar panels.

Tuesday, May 14th

We worked in the garden in the early morning, with E fighting the mite wars and M weeding the struggling strawberries. E then went off to exercise class and did a bunch of errands, ending her day with a trip to the Co-op to buy rhubarb and other supplies. M, meanwhile, finished building a little dike in the garage.

We’ve been getting summery weather here lately, sunny and almost hot for days and days. The first roses are out. E is thrilled to have some in the house again.