Meandering on the Way — November 5 to 9, 2024

Tuesday, November 5th

M was off into the mountains again, taking a ‘short cut’ from Five Rivers Road to a place on the Alsea River called Missouri Bend. Things were damp and misty over there, but it only rained a little.

Wednesday, November 6th

E went to the OSU Repair Fair last night, with M serving as chauffeur. She took along her old folding camp chair that she purchased at a Greek big-box store in Cyprus in 2003. Over the years some of the fabric had begun to fail, threatening serious structural collapse. In the sewing section of the Fair, E found a young woman willing to take on the job, even though it required hand sewing because the fabric could not be removed from the chair. First she fixed it; then she decorated the mended place. Results below.

In other news, it’s been raining pretty steadily here for a week. It’s about time. Happily, the rains held off during the trick or treating hours on Halloween.

We also note that our readers have not, at least so far, shown any enthusiasm for M’s suggestion that a fine route from Corvallis to Yachats would be to travel via New York, Mumbai, and San Francisco. Yeah…we know; it’s hard to believe. Of course people might have been distracted by other things that were going on in the world in early November…

Thursday, November 7th

The rain has stopped and we’ve taken the opportunity to rake leaves and do other garden chores.

Friday, November 8th

We took a walk in the forest today. Saw a couple of slugs, quite a bit of moss, and many thousands of maple leaves. Also, fungi.

Back at the house, we noticed that the November sun is low in the south even in the middle of the day.

In the evening E accompanied her friend H to a reception given by the OSU Foundation to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a major renovation of the OSU Library. Some of us remember that renovation because in 1999, when it was going on, M, H and E all had offices just across the street from the construction. The building being renovated dated from the 1960’s. It was a large, five-story cube in that infamous sixties block style, so from the outside it was pretty ugly. Indeed, it was almost as ugly as the building just across the street that housed the English Language Institute.

So, back then, despite the construction noise, we were happy to see that the library was getting a remodel. And the result was not disappointing. It was much nicer looking and we no longer got brutal sun glare from its glass paneled southern wall. Even better, they added a full service coffee shop, which we came to enjoy very much. (This is the very shop that came to be the scene of the Barista Décolletage Incident of 2007, but that’s another story.)

H is a long time donor to various OSU departments, which explains her invitation to the day’s event, an invitation that allowed her to bring a guest of her choice. The event included a tour followed by a buffet served in the fourth floor rotunda. There were two separate age groups on hand. The great majority of the donors were seniors, while the OSU hosts and speakers were mostly women similar in age to E’s and H’s daughters. Both H and E were impressed by how well the event was organized–especially in the matter of catering. As E put it, the girls did a great job.