Monday, April 12   Deaths  2,441 (+1)   New cases  294

Another grocery shopping day. E walked to the Co-op (4,500 steps!) and then called M to come and pick her up. E did Yoga later, and also got some new socks via Fedex. E’s feet are very particular about socks. These socks appear to be just right. They came from Walmart online and turned out to be made in Turkey. Güzel! 

For TV we watched an episode of 20 Minutes (Yermi Dakika). A startling development! It’s about Raven and no, it’s not her new white leather coat. Her dad, Cat the burglar, has given her a car, and not just any car, a vintage Mustang convertible! It’s shiny red and has dual exhausts. The top is a little ragged but otherwise it looks good. And either it still sounds really great or else the producers cared enough to find a great soundtrack for it. 

Tuesday, April 13   Deaths  2,446 (+5)   New cases  567

Speaking of red vehicles, M got his truck today. We went up to the CarMax Superstore in Salem and there it was, looking very pretty, all freshly detailed in the bright sunshine. M took a long look, figuring it looked better today than it ever would again. And sure enough, when he got it home, there were bug splatters all over the windshield and the front grill. CarMax has a seven-day free return policy, so he was thinking maybe he should take this one back and demand a truck that will stay clean. 

CarMax also has a 30-day money-back guarantee, which would seem to make the seven-day return policy somewhat redundant, but never mind. They also give a fix-it-for-free warranty for 90 days or 4,000 miles. But the factory warranty from Nissan is good until September of 2022, so never mind that either. Anyway, it took a long time to go through all this stuff, so M had to spend about an hour at the superstore even though he had already chosen the vehicle and agreed to the no-haggle price. E went on the test drive with him, but later drove off to get us some lunch from a Thai restaurant whilst M dealt with the paperwork. 

So what do we think of the CarMax buying experience? The whole process was pleasant and painless. Having a good Thai place nearby was a plus.

How was the price? M’s research suggests that the no-haggle prices charged by CarMax, Vroom and Carvana are generally lower than the asking prices at traditional dealerships. But traditional dealerships are often willing to come down from their asking prices and a good negotiator will be able to match the price of the no-haggle stores. But who wants to spend time negotiating? Not M. Knowledge is power and in the old days car dealers had extensive knowledge and buyers had very little. Nowadays the balance of information is roughly equal. Besides, says E, the CarMax Superstore had a really nice restroom with a special foot pedal attached to the door for no-touch opening.

Why didn’t M get a Toyota Tacoma instead of a Nissan Frontier? Don’t Toyotas have a better reputation? Yes they do. And the result is that used Tacomas cost many thousands of dollars more that comparable Frontiers. A Nissan will suffice for M. 

If a used vehicle spent its first years of life as a rental vehicle, does that affect its current price? Oh yeah. If the vehicle is a Nissan Frontier, it seems to knock off between $5,000 and $8,000 of value. Is it easy to find out if a vehicle was once a rental? Yes! Or if it has ever been in an accident? Yes, that too! And it’s very easy to find out how much  other dealers are asking for a virtually identical vehicles. M says this is a golden age for car buying.

Wednesday, April 14   Deaths  2,449 (+3)   New cases  816

The CDC has announced a “pause” in the approval of the Johnson and Johnson one-dose COVID vaccine. The reason for the pause is that after 6.8 million J&J shots, blood clots have been found in six women, one of whom died. Fine, you say, they’re being careful. Okay, but it’s still a little strange. If they applied this standard to other medicines, we wouldn’t have very many medicines left. Birth control pills, for example, are associated with blood clots in one out of every thousand users, making birth control pills 1,000 times more dangerous than J&J’s vaccine. Will we be seeing a pause there? Probably not. 

Thursday, April 15   Deaths  2,455 (+6)   New cases  733

Tertulia today, again live and in person! J and R are almost ready for their trip to St. George, Utah. Andrea and Andy have already bought their tickets for the East coast in August. J is on her way to New York City next week to see her daughter who is about to have a baby. Life goes on.

M got a long needed haircut today and then took the truck out for a spin in the Coast Range, going out Highway 20 and returning via Siletz, Logdsen, and Summit. Part of the route parallels the old railroad line that runs between Corvallis and the coast.

Friday, April 16   Deaths  2,457 (+2   New cases  704

We took E to Salem for an MRI of her foot this morning. She survived the experience but she does not recommend it. In the middle of the day we had lunch on the patio and did a little watering. M also took some pictures.

Later she turned around and baked a pie. Soon after that, M went to the store to get ice cream and then turned around and microwaved two Amy’s frozen dinners. And the party began. The pie was very good, but E was not satisfied. Our garden rhubarb, she believes, is just not up to snuff.

On TV we watched Episode 13 of 45 RPM. Good ending. Next we’ll have to get back to Melek. 

Saturday, April 17  Deaths  2,460 (+3)   New cases  888

Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, said today that people will “likely” need a third dose of their vaccine within twelve months. After that, it might possibly be required every year. In recent weeks it has become clear that a sizable percentage of Americans do not intend to get vaccinated. We might think that would be bad news for Pfizer, since this will lower demand for vaccines. But that would be simplistic thinking. There is no scenario in which Pfizer does not come out golden.

Around here it was hot today, somewhere in the eighties. M started up one segment of sprinklers and found two big leaks in the feed line. (We don’t much like watering in April. Should be raining more.) Apparently, someone has been messing around poking shovels and sticks and things into the ground and puncturing things. Does M think he knows who that someone was? Of course he does. It was him. Making the repairs required a visit to Home Depot for fittings. Man, was it crowded. While M was there experiencing a Home Depot Saturday in all its glory, E was at Stonybrook visiting her friend S and dog Pepper. After lunch she had a visit with her seamstress to pick up some alterations. A young woman was there trying on a wedding dress, which E says was very lovely with pearls everywhere. Also very low necked and with a slit up one side almost as high as Denver. 

Dinner was take-out from Ba’s followed by rhubarb pie. Delicious. TV was two episodes of 20 Minutes. Lovesick Ozan has told Melek that Ali is having an affair with Raven. He showed her a picture of the two of them lying on a bed. They were fully clothed in winter jackets and not touching, but still. Melek is worried sick. The prison break is scheduled for nine days from now.

Sunday, April 18   Deaths  2,460 (0)   New cases  628

For breakfast M made Fanny Farmer biscuits and E produced a treasured jar of maple butter. A wonderful beginning to another hot day. In the morning M worked in the yard while E went for a walk on campus and said hello to the horses at the Vet School pasture. In the afternoon we made plans for a trip to the coast next week. We’re getting a kitchenette unit at the Best Western in Bandon and planning a hike to some falls on the Illinois River.  Yes, the Illinois River is in Oregon. One wonders if Illinois has an Oregon River?

We checked in again with Melek and Ali. Seems to be lots of confusion going around. Trust no one! Ali has shot a would be blackmailer, but not in any vital spot. The prison doctor who has been helping Melek has been taken in for interrogation. The prison break has been moved up to tomorrow. From Melek in Turkey we passed on to Princess Martha of Norway in Atlantic Crossing. Today was the episode in which she completes the eponymous journey, arriving in New York and then going off to stay for a while in the White House at the invitation of FDR. Missy LeHand does not seem pleased with this arrangement.

Monday, April 5   Deaths  2,394 (+2)   New cases  248

A beautiful morning to go touring around Winco. There were some other humans there, not enough to make the aisles crowded, but sufficient to overload the two open check-out lines. Several people were buying truly vast quantities of stuff. Are the end times closer than we thought?

E went out and brought Pepper home for a while, just to give S a break. The three of us went for a walk up to the neighborhood natural area, where Pepper found much of interest. Then it was time for M to bop over to Safeway for his second COVID shot. He came back home vaccinated and also carrying a Pepperidge Farm Coconut Cake and a pair of limes. E took Pepper home before preparing our Monday repast. 

Tuesday, April 6   Deaths  2427 (+33)   New cases  544

Yikes. Thirty-three COVID-related deaths reported in Oregon today. Positive test rates are also up a little to 3.93%, the highest since March 9th.

M’s reaction to yesterday’s second shot is extreme tiredness. Other than that he feels okay. He did a few errands today, but he also did a lot of lying down, which he says is quite wonderful.

For the last two nights we’ve been watching a Ken Burns series on PBS, the one about Ernest Hemingway. It’s absorbing and follows more the less the line of who was the myth and who was the man. Hemingway makes for an interesting subject. However, the tone is so very earnest (sorry, but that’s exactly the word) and the pace is so very, very slow. We defy anyone to watch two hours of this without glancing at the clock at least twice, wondering when it will ever end.

Wednesday, April 7   Deaths  2,434 (+7)   New cases  470

M woke up feeling more or less normal and joined E for a walk around the neighborhood. Later he worked on making a garden map and list of plant names so as not to lose track of what they all are. E had a medical appointment in Salem in the afternoon. This being her night to cook, she prepared her bread and cheese bake before she left and stuck it in the fridge for later baking. M put his newest plant in the ground (salal, a native!) and then watched two episodes of Dickinson on AppleTV+. It’s a comedy series about a young Emily Dickinson. It’s set in 19th century Amherst, Massachusetts, just before the Civil War, but it is enlivened by a generous sprinkling of 21st century attitudes, language, and music. It is not very earnest and is sometimes just silly, but it is young and alive.

After dinner we finally checked up on poor Melek, locked in a room with a psycho woman that the other inmates have nicknamed Scorpion. We saw Scorpion move swiftly to the attack when she thought Melek was sleeping. But Melek was expecting just such a move and managed to wrest away the deadly shiv despite having one of her arms handcuffed to an iron bedstead. But then the corrupt guards came in and took the shiv away from Melek and secretly gave Scorpion another weapon. So this long night isn’t over. Outside the prison Ali discovers strong evidence that Melek was having a passionate affair with her supposed victim in the weeks before he died. Now his world is really falling apart. Desperate for any way out of this horror, Ali violently accosts a man that he knows to have been a friend of the victim and demands the truth. And the truth is…that the new evidence is totally bogus! This is good news, but poor Ali, to be buffeted hither and yon in such a way. And what is even worse for him, a key member of the viewing audience, someone right here in our own house, has called him a dud character. You light the fuse, you hear that hissing sound and then after a pause there’s this little smoosh and then…listen as you might…it’s only crickets. Ooh that’s harsh.

Thursday, April 8   Deaths  2,439 (+5)   New cases  667

Our regular Thursday tertulia with J and R had a major change of venue today as we cast FaceTime aside and officially resumed in person meetings. We sat under a heat lamp in the big white tent at Coffee Culture on King’s Blvd. We had botanero rolls and coffee cake just like the old days. We had to hurry home though because E had her Zoom exercise class at 9:00. M went to the store to get fresh pizza dough. Later in the morning E walked to a medical appointment at the Corvallis Clinic and when she was done called M to come and fetch her and take her to lunch. 

In the afternoon E went to BiMart to pick up a prescription that wasn’t ready, which was quite annoying except that while she was there she found a shelf full of low sugar recipe pectin, a product that mysteriously disappeared when the pandemic began and which she sorely missed last summer. Then she went to her Zoom laughter yoga class where the idea is to laugh at things whether they are funny or not because even fake laughing is good for you. One thing that sounds sort of funny is that one of the participants had a hard time unmuting herself so no one heard what she was saying during the first half hour or so. M spent the afternoon writing a memoir of his time in Czechoslovakia in the mid seventies. Here’s something he heard while he was there. Q: Why do security police go around in groups of three? A: There has to be one who can read, one who can write, and one to keep an eye on the two dangerous intellectuals.

After a home-made pizza dinner (made by M, rated 5 stars by E), we watched an episode of 45 Revolutions. No dud characters here; everyone is hissing and popping and throwing sparks all over. Robert plays a concert in his hometown of Alicante and is confronted by his estranged father who only drops by remind him how truly disgusting it is that he has chosen to be a rock star when he could be working in the kitchen of the family restaurant where he belongs. Robert says he is sorry to be such a disappointment, but hey, hard cheese, and walks away. He’s so upset by this encounter, however, that he has a big fight with the beautiful and venal movie star that the studios have been making him pretend to be in love with and walks away from her too. As soon as he tells this to Maribel, she gives him a thousand watt smile and they start pulling each other’s clothes off. One thing to be said for this show, it’s not slow.

Friday, April 9   Deaths  2,440 (+1)   New cases  570

M did garden work today, something involving compost. E went flower hunting in the forest. M says that his new compost is beautiful, but he has not provided any evidence of that. E, on the other hand, says that wildflowers are extraordinarily profuse this year and has brought back photos.

We watched a bit of 20 Minutes and can happily report that Melek has survived the latest attempt on her life and has been returned to her regular cell at the prison. AND she is wearing yet another gorgeous new sweater, this one a brilliant deep red cable knit. We had already admired the same sweater in blue that she wore in the last episode. Melek and her cellmates have been wearing a succession of lovely and expensive looking sweaters. As mentioned, we’ve never visited any Turkish prisons, so we’re not sure if this is completely realistic. But would TV producers lie to us? Ali and his mentor The Cat also get to have nice sweaters, though they get more subdued colors and patterns, with a lot of those off-white tones of undyed natural fabrics. Cat’s daughter, Raven, and her buddy, the now suspended Detective Ozan, are rarely seen in sweaters, but they do get to wear lots of black leather outfits, which are also quite nice in their way. The costumes in this show partly–but only partly–make up for the fact that the cars are mostly crap.   

Saturday, April 10   Deaths  2,440 (+0)   New cases  761

E again delivered chocolate croissants, slipping off to Le Patissier early in the morning in a light rain, while M stayed home and made coffee. The croissants were awfully good. Some might think we only like them because they’re chocolate, but connoisseurs know that the flavorings or fillings of a croissant–beautiful as they may be–are essentially superfluous. It is the pastry that matters. Let us enjoy it while we still live.

And speaking of death, today is the 380th day of Pandemic Diary record keeping. Time for another chart. The last ten days have not been as good as we might have hoped. After having fallen to 2 per day in the last part of March, deaths per day in the first part of April averaged 5.7.

Sunday, April 11   Deaths  2,440 (+0)   New cases  499

A quiet day of not doing much. Take-and-bake bread for breakfast, a little yard work and in the afternoon a walk in an older Corvallis neighborhood across town where many of the houses date from before WW2. There are a few large homes, but also lots of cottages, close together and close to the street, with no driveways or garages. The houses are well maintained and many have beautiful front gardens, so it’s a pleasant place to walk around on a brisk spring day.

Dinner was leftover pizza provided by M and a green salad with mandaquats provided by E. For TV we watched another episode of Atlantic Crossing, taking a break from those voluble Mediterranean countries and testing the colder waters of the north. Kyle MacLachlan is doing a great job playing FDR, who has just sent a ship to Finland to rescue Martha and her children.

Finally, it is with great sadness that we announce the untimely death of a chocolate Easter Bunny due to a motorcycle accident.

Monday, March 29   Deaths  2,375 (+0)   New cases  217

Another busy Monday. We both did our respective grocery shopping; then M worked in the yard a little while E did Zoom yoga. E then went out for errands and came back with copier paper, map pins, some rather beautiful Year of the Ox postage stamps, and one very clean Turkish blanket. As a reward, she got a treat in the mail: date bread from the China Ranch Date Farm. China Ranch is just a few miles outside of Tecopa, CA. We have fond memories of some date bread that we got the last (and only) time we were in Tecopa, a town which is within striking distance of the middle of nowhere, down around Death Valley. We’ll cut into this loaf for breakfast tomorrow. Meanwhile, here are some photos of the Tecopa area.

Putting date farms and date bread aside for the moment, what is this talk of map pins? What are map pins and why did E buy them? All will be revealed in time. 

Tuesday, March 30   Deaths  2,381 (+6)   New cases  415

As planned, we had China Ranch date bread for breakfast. Wonderful stuff. After that, E did a Zoom exercise class and then walked to her dentist’s office where the exact contours of her mouth and throat were measured and recorded by some kind of digital imaging device. It was not painful, but neither was it pleasant. She walked back home and arrived just at noon. After a lavish luncheon of salad and half a piece of bread, she went out to the back yard. She had been assigned to find an answer to the question of just what M does when he goes out to “work in the yard.” As soon as she arrived, it all became clear. 

Eventually M woke up and it was determined that E needed a reward for undergoing such an ordeal at the dentist. We put ourselves into the little blue car and headed downtown in search of those special mini-cupcakes that the dentist used to provide (another casualty of the Pandemic). We were hoping that we could find them at Tried and True and sure enough, there they were. We got a couple of decaf cortados to go with them and went down to the river where we could park in the sun.

In the evening it was back to 20 Dakika. Ali, who is working as a cleaner in the staff wing of the prison, has worked out a way to communicate with Melek. This depends on the fact that the boiler room of the staff wing is quite near the laundry room of the prison. So Ali can get into a room that is directly under the prison laundry. And of course there are some disused plastic pipes that extend from the boiler room up into the laundry room and he has broken a hole into one of them, using his trusty hammer which he carries in a green canvas shoulder bag. At the appointed time he starts talking into the hole in the pipe calling Melek’s name. Turns out she’s late because she’s having a crisis of conscience about something or other. In fact, she decides not to come. But then, twenty minutes later, she changes her mind and rushes down to the laundry room by means of a not very clever ruse and a plunge down a laundry chute. Once in the laundry area she finds the pipes, but doesn’t know what to do next. She calls Ali’s name, but he can’t hear her. Thinking quickly, she grabs a large crescent wrench, which is a standard feature of all Turkish prison laundry rooms, and breaks a hole in exactly the right pipe. At last, they can talk. What an emotional moment! Especially when she confesses that in fact she was acquainted with the murder victim long before the day of the incident, something which she has previously denied. Poor Ali can only stare dumbly into the jagged hole in his part of the pipe. How could she have lied to him? We just don’t know. 

Wednesday, March 31  Deaths  2,383 (+2)   New cases  441

During the most recent ten-day period, the COVID death toll in Oregon was just two per day. This rate is lower than it has been since the beginning of July. It is comparable to the levels of the early months of the pandemic. 

The table below shows the data from which the chart was derived. The numbers in the left column are the average deaths per day in each ten-day period. The dates in the right column are the end dates of each period. The colors show what could be seen as three phases of seriousness during the first year of the pandemic in Oregon.

Now, as for those map pins. A while back Andrea gave us a map of the world that was specially made to track which countries a person has visited. The idea was simple, just stick a pin in every country we’d been to. The kit came with pins, but not very many. And when we ran out, we put the project aside. After a time, maybe a year or two, E was on her way to Office Depot to get printer paper and we had the idea of getting more map pins. The project is now more or less finished. Here’s a part of it. There are pins in Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile.

Thursday, April 1   Deaths  2,385 (+2)   New cases  521

Had the usual FaceTime tertulia with J and R this morning. We told them about taking B and B out to Ankeny, where there were coots and wood ducks on the water and hundreds of Canada geese in the air. J and R, fully vaccinated, are planning a trip to southern Utah in May when their son is participating in the St. George Ironman.

E had a busy day, what with tertulia at 8:00, exercise class at 9:00, a visit to S and Pepper at 11:00, a meeting with her seamstress in the afternoon, and a Laughter Yoga session at the end of the day. M spent an hour or so in the yard and then spent several hours searching online for a pickup truck, something he has been doing quite a bit of lately. Finally, at about 3:00 in the afternoon–after E had seen the photos and approved of the color and general appearance of the truck–he bought one. Or to be more accurate, he has entered into an agreement to buy a 2019 Nissan Frontier from CarMax, a fixed price seller whose business is mostly online. 

The truck is in Renton, Washington, near Seattle, so the next part of the process is to ship it to Oregon for final approval. CarMax is charging $99 to get it down here, which should take about a week. At that point M can look it over and test drive it. If he decides not buy at that point, he can just walk away; but the $99 is non-refundable. 

Friday, April 2   Deaths  2,385 (+0)   New cases  499

We visited the plant store this morning, succumbing to a combination of good weather and a $20 coupon. We ended up with a rather heterogenous group of plants. We got as many natives and near natives as we could, but then we grabbed a few other plants just because they seemed like they might fit in where we need things. Did we then rush home and put them all in the ground? Surely you jest. We were exhausted and hungry. 

For M lunch was humus, flatbread, pickles and cheese. For E it was a small, house-made sandwich of tomato, cucumber and peanut butter along with a piece of Co-op falafel. After lunch we planted an aster, two checker mallows and a flowering currant, at which point E had to go in and do her yoga class and M was tired. Nine pots remain to be dealt with tomorrow.

Saturday, April 3   Deaths  2,391 (+6)   New cases  476

More planting today. In the back yard, M stayed mostly in line with our native plant agenda, adding a mahonia (Oregon grape), a snowball bush, and a penstemon. Alas, M has a hard time maintaining his focus. So we also have three plugs of black mondo grass, which is not really grass and is definitely not native. 

In the front E put in a bellflower fuschia and pulled out a ton of weeds, mostly unwanted grass. She then determined that since her desired natives were unavailable she would have to go traditional, at least a little. Off we went to Bi-Mart for alyssum and pansies. 

In the evening we got take-out Korean food from Koriander. Did we then tune in to Istanbul to check on Melek, who is locked in a room with a pyscho who has been hired to kill her? Or did we instead check on Maribel in Madrid, who seems to gotten pregnant from her impulsive romp with Diego? Neither one. We skipped TV and just let them suffer. We ourselves did not suffer; we had Magnum ice cream. 

Sunday, April 4   Deaths  2,392 (+1)   New cases 404

In the morning, more garden work. All the new plants are planted and a few old ones moved from one spot to another. Maybe now we can have a break from this garden mania, at least for a while. At 4:00 we had a Zoom meeting with brothers J and J, during which E got a FaceTime call from Andrea. Resourceful as always, E held her phone up to the camera on our computer and the Andees were able to join in. Nice. 

After a semi-special Easter supper overlooking the garden, we watched some TV. First we looked in on 45 Revolutions, where it turns out that Maribel, while nauseous and two weeks late, is not pregnant at all. Whew, saved by the writers again. Then we watched Episode 1 of Atlantic Crossing on PBS, which is a WW2 drama, this one a focusing on Crown Princess Martha of Norway, who fled to Sweden and then to the U.S. after the Nazis invaded her country in 1940. What a contrast between these two shows, both in subject matter and in cultural milieu.

Monday, March 22   Deaths  2,365 (+2)   New cases  178

M shopped at Safeway this morning so he could use his ten percent off coupon. The Safeway nearest us is a big store and it took him a long time to find everything. The store was a little eerie at 8:30 on a Monday, its long aisles mostly empty of customers, very quiet. It was nothing at all like the scene at a store called Kings Soopers in Boulder, Colorado just a few hours later. Ten people were killed there this afternoon. A suspect is in custody. 

E also survived her trip to the Co-op, so we are once again supplied with foodstuffs. She then did Zoom yoga and some reading. It was raining early, but just before lunch the sun came out and M went out to attach the legs onto our new outdoor table. After lunch, he broke ground for his newest hardscape project. Oh boy. Elsewhere in the backyard, our forsythia are starting to bloom and there is even an early tulip on Hummock #1. In the front yard, two fully open hyacinths have been neatly bitten off two inches above the round. Fie on the front yard. 

For dinner E made spinach and gorgonzola pasta and a green salad. M supplied a cheap French red from TJ’s. Budapest is almost finished. We have only the buildings left to add. Wonder how the original builders would feel about that?

Tuesday, March 23   Deaths  2,367 (+2)   New cases  316

A beautiful sunny day, with temps in the fifties. Dog Pepper spent some time with us in the morning, a lot of it bouncing around the backyard. E noticed that Pepper has the herding dog’s attitude toward playing with a ball. If the ball is moving, he’s very interested. But once it stops, it no longer merits his attention. The concept of fetching is not a part of his world. 

We returned Pepper to his owner just before noon. Shortly afterward, as we were driving along, we saw our old neighbor B out for a walk. We lived near B and his wife for 17 years out in the forest, before they moved into the Stonybrook area, where Pepper and his owner now also dwell. Had a nice talk. Good to see him out and around.  

From there we proceeded immediately to the The Vietnamese Baguette for a couple of sandwiches. We ate them sitting on a bench in the sun beside the river. Then it was back home to change cars and give the Porsche some exercise. We did a loop down south that took us through farmland and forest on mostly empty roads. On the way home we stopped for coffee at Randy’s Main Street Cafe in Brownsville. They had a very inviting greeting painted on their window, “You don’t have to go home. You can stay here with us.” So we stayed. As we sat in the sun with our lattes, we noticed that they had an old cookstove as part of their outdoor décor. The stove is mostly metal but the oven door and a few other bits are white ceramic. In the middle of the oven door there is a gauge labelled “Heat Indicator.” Behind the indicator needle there is a cautionary note: Temperature of oven varies with quantity and kind of fuel, flue, and atmospheric conditions. Words to live by, we’d say, a metaphor for pretty much everything. 

Randy’s Cafe is in the main part of town just across the street from a newish building that houses the Brownsville City Hall, the Brownsville Fire Department, and an art gallery. You don’t see that combination much. The photo below shows just the City Hall part.

Wednesday, March 24   Deaths  2,368 (+1)   New cases  879

The rain is back and we’re staying mostly inside. E spent her day working on her SMART project. SMART’s in-school reading program has been cancelled for this year, but the program has asked for volunteers to make videos to fill the gap, reading a book aloud and turning the pages just as they would in person. E foolishly offered to do this and SMART sent her a book called Jabari Salta, a book about a young boy’s jumping and diving adventures. So today she did lots of practice reading and then enlisted M’s help in figuring out just how to video the performance. After a few failed attempts and much head scratching, we set up an ad hoc camera stand and finally made what we hope will be an acceptable video. 

The plan for dinner was to eat Cirello’s pizza while watching a Zoom talk about dirt. The last talk we heard about dirt was really good, so we were excited. But no. Technical difficulties of some kind caused the dirt talk to be cancelled. The bright side is that we were able to give our full attention to the pizza. 

The Budapest puzzle is finished–at least as far as we’re going to finish it. We’ve done everything except push the buildings down into their foundations. Here ‘tis:

Thursday, March 25   Deaths  2,370 (+2)   New cases  422

FaceTime Tertulia this morning, then more work E’s video project. We had a good enough video, but we also had an idea for better sound and a little more efficiency in page turning. So we set up our studio again and produced an improved version..

Later on M went outside and occupied himself pulling cartloads of dirt from project to prairie and cartloads of gravel from prairie to project. An hour or so was enough of that.

After lunch we went for a forest walk in search of wildflowers. It’s early days yet, but yellow violets (yellows?) and early trilliums were making themselves available. It seems, in fact, to be a great year for trilliums; they’re popping up all over.

After the forest walk, we did some errands and rested a bit. Then we uploaded E’s video to Google Drive as instructed. Whew. 

Then, fools that we are, we watched more of 20 Minutes. Is Melek still in prison? Yes. Is Ali trying frantically to get her out? Yes. Is he facing impossible odds? Well, this is Episode 22 and we know there are a total of 59. So his chances of finding a happy ending in the next 36 episodes are virtually nil. The worst thing that he faces right now is that he is beginning to doubt Melek’s innocence! Ouch. Also, the bad guys have bugged his house, he owes 13,000 Turkish Lira to a loan shark, his daughter Duru is keeping something from him, and Özgür has disappeared, having likely been abducted by the bad guys. Özgür, of course, was Melek’s assistant in her cake shop. He is a pleasant young man who became a family friend and he has been keeping Melek’s business going while she’s away. (Stop me if you know this already…)

Friday, March 26   Deaths  2,373 (+3)   New cases 505

We learned recently from an alert reader that chef Didier, the patissier himself, is back in action! The shop is open three days a week: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Today, by felicitous synchronicity, our favorite courier service also resumed operations. Eve returned from her early morning walk promptly at 8:12, carrying four croissants–two chocolate and two almond paste. The espresso was finished just a half a minute later. All was well. Soon, only two croissants remained, safely stored away for Sunday.

It was also a beautiful sunny day. M went outside to finish making his base stations for the Adirondack chairs. Eve went out again, by car this time, and brought home a pineapple and some Veggie Birdnests. These are frozen tempura things with soy dipping sauce. It seems we’ve been invited to supper on Sunday at J and B’s and we’re contributing bird nests. The plan is to eat outside in the folly. E then went downtown to obtain several other necessities, including a couple of books she’d ordered, a new silk jacket, and some bird food. 

In the afternoon E did Zoom yoga and ran some errands to help her friend S. M took advantage of the dry conditions to mow the back lawn, certain parts of which seem to be growing with way too much enthusiasm these days. 

Later we watched a bit of 20 Minutes. It was a busy episode, but the high point for us was a brief scene of Melek sleeping in her prison cell. She was nestled comfortably under a traditional Turkish style wool blanket, very similar to the one we dragged back with us from Turkey eleven years ago and which still smells of lanolin every time we use it. In fact, E suddenly remembered, hadn’t she taken ours to the cleaners almost two weeks ago? Probably time to go pick it up…

Melek’s prison cell, by the way, is pretty nice. It’s quite spacious, with a small table and three chairs plus two double tier beds. Melek has only two cellmates, so one of the bunks is unoccupied. The cell has its own attached private half bath. Plus, we can attest to the fact that those wool blankets are really warm. Presumably all Turkish prisons have these amenities; but we cannot confirm this as we were never imprisoned while we were there. 

Saturday, March 27   Deaths  2,375 (+2)   New cases  428

We meant to pick up that blanket today. Didn’t make it. Did take a walk, though, up Garryanna and down Rolling Green, the steepest walk in the neighborhood. Then M went out to work in the yard while E did chores of one kind or another. E got another call from S and made a quick trip to Bi-Mart to get her what she needed. After lunch we were both outside for a while. It was very sunny and warm. Dinner was take-out from Sky High Brewery. It was good, but they didn’t get our orders quite right. Eve ordered a Ceasar salad was especially looking forward to their homemade croutons. When we opened up the salad, what did we find? Croutons yok! Mafeesh! Arimasen! None! We nearly had a riot on our hands. When he opened his order, M found that they have given him a side salad instead of french fries. Now that’s a disappointment. M took it philosophically, however, saying that there was no way he actually needed a big pile of french fries at this particular point in time.

We had been thinking about Ba’s Vietnamese, but it seems they are closed for a couple of weeks making preparations for resuming inside dining and also adding an outdoor seating area. That sounds kind of exciting. The place was always on the small side. 

Decided to skip 20 Minutes today. Instead we watched an episode of Tokyo Diner and then checked back in with 45 RPM to see what they were up to. Who are they, you ask? Robert is a Spanish rock and roll singer, very talented but also suffering from an incurable disease. Guillermo is the passionate maverick record producer who believes in Robert. Maribel is Guillermo’s bright young P.A. who is torn between a career in the music business and marriage to Diego, a handsome banker. Zabala is nominally Guillermo’s supervisor at the record company and is a man who despises rock and roll. His wife and Guillermo were once a couple. Clara is Rober’s twin sister, who has come to Madrid after their parents back in Alicante threw her out of the house for having become involved with a married man. Rober can’t bring himself to tell her that he is dying. But his first single has been released and appears to be a hit…

Sunday, March 28   Deaths  2,375 (+0)   New cases  253

COVID deaths in Oregon have been low this week, a pattern that we hope will continue. One million people in Oregon have been either fully or partly vaccinated, including large numbers of older people who had vaccine priority. Since is it usually older people who die from COVID, it seems reasonable to expect fewer deaths even if overall case numbers remain high.

M was attacked by pollen allergies Saturday night and did not sleep well. In the morning E recommended a dose of chocolate croissant and coffee, which helped. He worked a little in the garden, then spent much of the day sleeping. (Just what is he doing out there in the yard? PD needs to investigate.)

E combined her morning walk with grocery shopping and came home with milk and other necessities. At four we got down to business and wrote out our weekly meal plan and our respective shopping lists for tomorrow. Then we prepared some food to take with us to B and J’s place where were we had been invited for a light supper out in the folly. 

We arrived at 5:30, just as the weather turned really nasty with blustery winds and showers. But there was a fire in the pizza oven and the folly had its winter siding up to protect us from the wind. It turned out to be a Trader’s Joe’s feast, as J had heated up a TJ’s vegetarian pizza and E had heated up some TJ’s vegetarian Bird Nests. This latter dish, we have to say, wasn’t very good. For dessert, M had carved up a TJ’s organic pineapple to which E had added some sliced strawberries. Those were better.

(Bu hafta, türkce versiyonu yok. Türkce versiyon yazarımız sinirli bir çiğdem tarafından saldırıya uğradı ve klavye kullanamıyor. Rahatsızlıktan dolayı özür deleriz.)

Monday, March 15   Deaths  2,324 (+2)   New cases  178

For obvious reasons, the search for the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has taken a back seat to the search for effective vaccines and treatments. But how the virus came to be is a matter of interest and it is being addressed. At this point, three possibilities have been discussed. Some have suggested that it was deliberately released by the Chinese in order to weaken or destroy their enemies. Although not impossible, this theory doesn’t make very much sense. What exactly did they expect to gain? Why would they have released it in that particular way? It’s a stretch. Another possibility is that a virus that was present in animals became dangerous to humans via natural mutation. There is no direct evidence for this, but we know that it has happened before with other diseases. We also know that there is a disease that affects bats which is caused by a virus that is in some ways similar to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But there are a few technical factors that have muddied the waters concerning a natural origin in this particular case. The final possibility is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was created in a lab–possibly as a potential weapon but more likely as part of legitimate medical research aimed at preventing epidemics–and that at some point it escaped from that lab due to an accident. Listed below are some information sources. 

An open letter from scientists that notes the many limitations of the World Health Organization investigation and describes what a full investigation would look like.

A recent Politico story by Josh Rogin. The article details some of the reasons why the accidental escape theory is so compelling. Rogin also points out the barriers that stand in the way of a full investigation. 

An article by Nicholson Baker in New York Magazine. I have linked to this before. It is a long piece, but take my word for it, the history of virus research in the last decade has been really fascinating. Baker makes it clear that the case for the accidental release of an engineered virus is all circumstantial; but what a set of circumstances they are!

Tuesday, March 16   Deaths  2,346 (+22)   New cases  267

E did her exercise class and listened to a Zoom talk on how to talk to Alzheimer’s patients, which had a number of very good suggestions. E has the slides if anyone is interested. Otherwise we spent the morning packing for another trip to Bend. We got on the road by 1:30. Before we left, though, we had a visitor out front.

In Bend we stayed at a Marriot Residence Inn in a room with a small kitchen. Quite a come-down from those deluxe view condos that we stayed in previously, but nice. Did you know that in a Marriot you’re not supposed to hang anything from the ceiling sprinklers? When we first noticed it, we could see the ‘no hanger’ symbol easily, but it was almost impossible to make out the text without a ladder. There should be another sticker next to the first: Caution: Do Not Stand on Bed to Read This.

We had take-out dinner from Joolz: seared haloumi with capers, sun dried tomatoes, arugula, and red onions; dukka with bread; and Moroccan Forbidden Black Rice Chicken. All wonderful. Nothing like this back home.

For TV, we watched National Velvet on TCM. This film, of course, features Elizabeth Taylor when she was twelve, young enough that Mickey Rooney was noticeably taller than she was.

Wednesday, March 17   Deaths  2,349 (+3)   New cases  239

We went back to Dutchman’s Flat for skiing. It was a nice sunny day. Spring on the mountain means that the days are warm enough in the afternoon that the snow starts to melt. It the night it freezes again. We got our skis on and started out at 10:30 in the morning. The surface was quite icy, which was not bad on level ground, so we zipped right along. But even slight inclines were tricky, either in the up direction or the down. At 11:30, we came to a long downhill section of the trail that would have been great fun on a normal day, but was just plain crazy on the ice, especially for oldsters. We solved this by going off piste and zigzagging across the main slope. That was fun too, but required lots of calculation and concentration. Surviving that, we reached our destination, a thing called The Water Tower, and had lunch there. The temperature was steadily rising and by the time we sat down to eat, it was relatively balmy. On the way back we found that the surface had softened and was well into the melting phase. Much easier for us to deal with.

In the evening we had dinner from Bethlyn’s Asian Fusion and watched a 1965 movie about the Irish playwright Sean O’Casey, screened in honor of St. Patrick’s day. It was called Young Cassidy, and featured Rod Taylor as well as two young up and coming actresses: Julie Christie and Maggie Smith.

Thursday, March 18   Deaths  2,353 (+4)   New cases  393

Just a few minutes from the Residence Inn, there’s a shop called Ginger’s Kitchenware. We stopped there in search of small sauté pan. Found just the right thing. Nice. Corvallis lacks a really good kitchen shop. Ginger also stocks something we’d never seen before: a large bulk section of infused olive oils and infused vinegars. There were only about ten olive oil infusions on display, but there were lots of vinegars. We were very tempted to get all ten of the olive oils and about fourteen vinegars. That way we could have had a different vinegar and oil combination every single night for almost five months! Wow. But then we thought, naw, that’d be a lot of trouble. 

Instead we went back home to Corvallis and unpacked. For dinner, M set out some leftover dukka and made a shrimp cocktail. After dinner, we worked on our puzzle. The first layer of 4D Budapest is now finished, which takes us up to 1884. At that time, the city is just a narrow band along the river; the rest of the area was farmland. 

Friday, March 19   Deaths  2,357 (+4)   New cases  381

Back here in valley, we had wind and rain in the morning. Not very pleasant. But eventually the day improved–less wind, less rain, a patch of sun here and there. M worked in the garden while E managed correspondence. In the afternoon E went back to the football stadium to get her second shot of the Pfizer vaccine. Again everything went well. And again it was a little cold out there.

In the evening we started the second level of the Budapest puzzle, then watched an episode of 20 Minutes. Melek’s husband Ali has a plan to break her out of prison. He’s getting advice from a crafty ex-con named The Cat, and also a bit of help from Cat’s grown daughter, Raven, who is played by Turkish actor Müjde Uzman. Ali has managed to get himself hired as a cleaner in the staff housing wing of the prison. But the prison blueprints that he and The Cat used in their planning are out of date, and Ali finds a wall where he expected a door! Rats. Now, he’ll have to improvise. Tension!

Saturday, March 20   Deaths  2,362 (+5)   New cases  339

Our old outdoor table is gone, the one that Eve got while she lived on Estaview Circle almost 30 years ago. It was a rustic, wooden thing that had served us well. We had tightened its bolts two or three times over the years and restained it often. It was still solid but the top pieces were warped a little and it was too big for the spot under the apple tree where a table is needed these days. So today we put it out by the curb along with two old flower pots and a ‘Free’ sign. Within hours, only the sign remained. 

E felt pretty lousy for much of the day, probably as a reaction to yesterday’s shot, but was still very active. She went downtown for a hair appointment and then went around town picking up a few things she’s been needing. For dinner we got tacos and virgin margaritas from Tacovore and matched them with our own taco sauce and tequila. After dinner we worked more on Budapest. 

Sunday, March 21   Deaths  2,363 (+1)   New cases  224

Today is the 360th day of Pandemic Diary record-keeping. Time for another chart of the Oregon death toll. In the period ending March 21st, the average death rate was less than five per day. As you see, this is a steep decline from the previous period. The rate of positive tests in the last ten days has been under 2.5%. 

Today we needed to get some fish for dinner and a few other things at the grocery store. We decided to walk so as to get some exercise and took along M’s cheapo backpack to carry stuff. It was a very dull day, cool and overcast. But it was mostly rainless, so walking was pleasant enough. 

We’re excited to be making travel plans, thinking about a trip to New York in August. At this point, brother J is helping us to possibly find a place to stay at Lake George. 

We’ve been doing some more work on the modern map of Budapest, which fits over the top of the 1884 one. Now it looks like this.

Monday, February 22    Deaths 2,155 (+0)  New cases  324

E had a nap in the afternoon today, which meant that she stayed up kind of late, which meant that she checked her email at 10:00 p.m., which meant that she was able to schedule a COVID shot for Friday. Consequently, she has moderated her criticism of the state and local public health authorities. The lesson here, we suppose, is that taking a nap can yield health dividends.  

Tuesday, February 23   Deaths  2.162 (+8)   New cases  528

Planning for E’s birthday is proceeding. We are meeting Andrea in Salem on Saturday. We’ll pay a visit to the clock shop, walk along the river, and, hopefully, have a piece of cake. 

Wednesday, February 24   Deaths  2,2194 (+32)   New cases  437

Packed up again and headed off to Bend. Got a take-out dinner from Hola at the Old Mill: lomo saltado, portobello quesadilla. 

Thursday, February 25   Deaths  2,2204 (+10)   New cases  553

Cross-country skiing today, a four-mile loop at Swampy Lakes. Kind of crazy weather, low clouds alternating with bright sun. Lots of strong swirling wind, including a few gusts powerful enough to push a person around. At one point, M was standing on his skis, motionless, admiring the scene, when suddenly he a got a hefty push from behind and found himself on the way down the hill. Yikes. 

Take-out dinner from Bethlyn’s Asian Fusion on Newport Avenue. Bibimbap and Thai green curry. Yum, great discovery. 

Friday, February 26   Deaths  2,206 (+2)   New cases  336

Up early so as to make it back to Corvallis in time for E’s vaccination appointment. Woke to heavy snow, which was a little worrisome, but once we got on the road conditions improved. Lots of snow in the passes, but little ice. Beautiful. Got home in plenty of time. 

So E got a shot of the Pfizer vaccine today and has an appointment in three weeks for another.  She said the process was all very organized and moved fast, with lots of volunteers and a very upbeat atmosphere. She still finds it a little difficult to believe that it has finally happened. 

Saturday, February 27   Deaths  2,208 (+2)   New cases  465

Birthday! Birthday! Birthday! We met Andrea and her giant insect balloon at the Salem Clock Shop. After locking the insect in the car, we went into the shop and walked around listening to clocks chiming. They have hundreds of wonderful clocks, including dozens of grandfathers and scores of cuckoos, both new fangled and old. E picked out something more moderate. 

When we were done clock shopping, we had a picnic lunch at the riverfront park and then walked over the slough into the Minto-Brown Natural Area. Then it was back into our cars for a short hop over to Gerry Frank’s Konditorei.

Eve started feeling a little icky later that night. Was it from yesterday’s vaccination? Or was it the Barney’s Blackout? 

Sunday, February 28   Deaths  2,208 (+0)   New cases  292

MORE BIRTHDAY!

A day after Eve’s birthday, her brother celebrated his. It was one of those birthdays ending in a zero, so the family had to do something a bit special. So there was a Zoom conference with more than a dozen attendees including one aunt and two siblings, various children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews plus cousins of all sorts. It was a chance to share stories and try to express our appreciation for his kindness and sterling character. Also shared were some wonderful old photos. Here is E’s contribution. Birthday boy is the one wearing the Hopalong Cassidy outfit. E, of course, has somehow managed to be placed in the center of things.