Meandering on the Way

Monday, May 24   Deaths  2,624 (+2)   New cases 284

After more than a year of the pandemic our charts are getting crowded with too many data points. It’s time to simplify, time to focus on the overall trend of the pandemic. So, rather than reporting at ten-day intervals, the Pandemic Diary will henceforth publish monthly COVID severity charts. We hope this change will make it easier to see the big picture. The first of these charts is below. It shows data collected through April 30. Our next chart will come at the end of May.

Tuesday, May 25   Deaths  2,628 (+4)   New cases 424

It seemed like just another ordinary day: exercise class and infusion for E, garage/yard chores for M. Then more errands. Later on, though, our attention turned to matters anniversarial. Were there gifts? Cards? Dinner out? At a good restaurant? Inside with table service? Was there cake? Taittinger? There may well have been.

Wednesday, May 26   Deaths  2,639 (+11)   New cases 399

E went for her infusion and M set up his new streaming box. Then H dropped by and brought us a cheesecake! Was it the goopity kind with the sweet toppings and the cutesy crust, the restauranty kind of cheesecake? Nope. H makes the real stuff and it’s really tasty. In other news, we both took long naps. E provided Cirello’s pizza and green salad for dinner.

In COVID news, there is renewed interest in the possibility that the virus was produced in a lab and was then accidentally released into the wild. CNN did a feature on it and Biden has just asked the CIA to investigate it. Donald McNeil, a former NYT science reporter who initially resisted the idea, has published an interesting piece on why he has changed his mind. As McNeil puts it:

We still do not know the source of this awful pandemic. We may never know. But the argument that it could have leaked out of the Wuhan Institute of Virology or a sister lab in Wuhan has become considerably stronger than it was a year ago, when the screaming was so loud that it drowned out serious discussion.

One thing McNeil mentions is that early scientific dismissals of the lab leak possibility were based on the idea that genetic engineering of this type always leaves a particular tell-tale mark in the genetic structure of the new product. Since this COVID virus did not have the tell-tale, it must have been of natural origin. It turns out, however, that this argument was based on obsolete science. In recent years papers have been published that describe new techniques that do not leave such a tell-tale.

Thursday, May 27   Deaths  2,660 (+21)   New cases 433

Tertulia at Coffee Culture. It was raining a bit, but J and R got there early enough to get an outside table beneath the eaves. E brought our four sit-upons to make the cold metal chairs more tolerable. The rain soon faded away. We still wore our masks to go inside and order, then took them off outside. Everything is so much more relaxed than it was.

Friday, May 28   Deaths  2,665 (+5)   New cases 433

E is counting down her remaining infusion sessions. She has just six more to go. In the afternoon she did her usual Zoom yoga, which was slightly marred by audio difficulties. M is in the mood to get rid of unnecessary stuff. He has disposed of some stereo components and the old Apple TV via Craig’s List. (A pair of “vintage speakers” fetched $50.) This morning he put several items out by the sidewalk with a Free sign, and all but one of them are gone. (Nobody seems to want an eleven foot long length of garden hose. What’s wrong with people?) And he’s about to mail his old laptop to some buyback outfit in Cincinnati, who have offered him $118 for it despite it’s warped case and iffy battery. 

In the afternoon we had a nice visit with P. She came over at 4:00 and we sat at the patio table and had margarita wine cocktails, spanakopita, olives, and slivers of cheesecake. The weather was breezy but not too cold. A pleasure to see P, who is always gracious. 

In the evening we started watching a Spanish language series called Well Hidden Secret (Secreto Bien Guardado). The series is divided into ten 25-minute episodes. We were interested enough to watch three of them. In Argentina in 1940, a young Jewish girl and youngish Nazi lawyer fall in love. Oh boy. 

Saturday, May 29   Deaths  2,666 (+1)   New cases 376

The Pandemic Diary is excited to report that sometime this morning M’s offer of a free eleven-foot garden hose was finally accepted. That stuff is gone. And, just before lunch, a new thing arrived, an accent chest from India. It is part of the Global Archives Collection from Jofran, Inc. which is headquartered in Massachusetts. But it was shipped from California in its original Indian cardboard and is being sold through Wayfair via Kelley Clarkson Home. So we know it must be good. 

E went downtown in the afternoon, primarily for the purpose of a 15-minute consultation with a potential hair stylist, but then also to be able to look around all over the place for a bunch of things she needs for her multitude of projects. She didn’t find much to her liking, though. After three and a half hours, all she brought back was a tiger. What does E need with a tiger? you might ask. And how did she manage to get it into her car?

Sunday, May 30   Deaths  2,668 (+2)   New cases 257

E went straight to work watering the front yard this morning, while M made waffles. Not too long afterward, E was off to her infusion appointment and M worked on downloading some forest maps and an app to read them off-line. Before lunch E had a Skype call with her friend M in Madrid. M and her husband, the other M, are planning to go out and celebrate because it has been two weeks since their second vaccine doses. 

Later on we worked on summer vacation plans. We looked at car rental and E spoke to Mrs. H and MB about some things she wants to do as part of our trip to the northeast in August. Then we made holiday plans for Memorial Day, mainly focusing on potato salad(!) and hot dogs. Then it was time for a walk, followed by a dinner of leftover pizza and salad on the back patio. The temperature was in the eighties today, dropping into the seventies just in time for dinner. The back yard looks just ridiculous these days–peonies, poppies, iris, yarrow, upright phlox, plus roses all over the place. One of our milkweed plants is doing especially well. 

After dinner we finished watching Well Kept Secret. Was it deep? No, uh-uh, wouldn’t call it deep; wouldn’t call it believable either; might call it contrived. It moved right along though and it had its own unique style. Plus, the cars and the clothes were very good. M noticed the patina on the hubcap of the period correct Chrysler. E admired the spunky character and elegance of the main actress. Plus, the show was well-meaning in its way. It was earnest, kind of sweet. And, as such series go, mercifully short.

Monday, May 17   Deaths  2,590 (+3)   New cases 310

At the beginning of March, the rate at which people in Oregon tested positive for COVID was fairly low, about 3%. At the end of March, though, the rate started to creep up. It April it rose to more than 5% and this rate continued into the first week of May. It is interesting to see that in the middle of that period the daily death rate also began rising. So, first came a rise in the positive test rate and then, a little later, came the rise in deaths. If we look at the present time, we see that deaths are still a little high, but the positive test rate is falling. Hopefully that’s a good sign.

Today E had not one, not two, not three, but four visits to various medical facilities. That’s a first for her, a new personal best you might say. Or you might not. But all told, the news is good, so we are not complaining. And between appointments, E bought a new pair of shoes. We also thought about ice cream, but, alas, did not eat any. We had a good dinner though. Leftover boeuf bourguignon.

On 20 Minutes, Melek is definitely dead. Dead and buried. Sad.

Tuesday, May 18   Deaths  2,594 (+4)   New cases 484

Just one medical appointment today for E. How dull. No challenge to that. After her infusion we went to the Vietnamese Baguette to get some sandwiches. We get the same sandwiches there every time, a number seven and a number ten. What a rut we’re in! And happy to be in it! We took the sandwiches to Avery Park and had our lunch at a picnic table near the rose garden. There weren’t many roses blooming. The roses there are in a sunny but exposed location, which may explain why our backyard roses are blooming sooner.

In the late afternoon E attended a meeting of the Lemon Meringue Pie Society. The full membership was in attendance. Over the past year the Society’s meeting schedule has been irregular due to the pandemic, so there was a lot to catch up on, especially pie eating. 

On 20 Minutes, Melek is very much alive. It was all a trick! (Or maybe she is dead and these scenes of a living Melek are just dreams from which Ali will wake. It’s hard to be sure.) M has been pondering about the difference between an actor pretending to be a character who is sad and an actor pretending to be a character who is pretending to be sad. M may include a chapter about it in his next book, “Reality III.”

Wednesday, May 19   Deaths  2,601 (+7)   New cases 394

We had some rain today, not much but very welcome. E had a fairly quiet day with no Zoom classes and only one medical appointment. She used this free time to prepare a rather complicated vegetarian meal involving sauerkraut, potatoes, tempeh, meatless sausage, and juniper berries. M worked outside for a little while, then spent much of the day reading an Ivan Doig novel. In the afternoon E did some sewing and M made refrigerator pickles. 

In the evening we watched the last episodes of 20 Minutes. The ending was good. And of course the plot was not resolved until the final seven minutes of this 59-episode show. In both of these last two episodes things moved so fast that we didn’t have time to pay too much attention to the many, many details that made no sense whatever. And besides, there was no point in chasing plausibility at this point. That critter went extinct 50 episodes back. No, the main thing you want after watching a show like this is an ending that is emotionally satisfying. And they got that right. As usual, a couple of secondary good characters had to die. But the main characters survived, the younger lovers found each other, and the main villains all went down in very appropriate ways. The very last scene began at the graves of the two good characters who had died. Their graves were on a verdant hillside above a beautiful and secluded beach. Down on the beach Ali, Melek, and the kids were laughing and chasing each other around, with Melek and Duru both wearing two-piece(!) swimsuits. Where was this scene? A private island maybe? Or maybe it was heaven and it only happened after the whole family died? It was kind of ridiculous, but also…just right.

Thursday, May 20   Deaths  2,606 (+5)   New cases 603

It’s the 420th day of pandemic record keeping. About a month ago the Oregon COVID fatality rate fell to its lowest point since July of last year. Since then, however, it has been rising again. Here’s the new chart.

Tertulia today in the morning sunshine at Coffee Culture. Construction has begun on J & R’s house addition. During preliminary excavations, workers accidentally severed an underground cable, leading to J & R being left without wireless internet. A repair person from the cable company has promised to come sometime today. To get that arranged, of course, was a major triumph. Nothing is ever easy when dealing with the cable company.

In the morning M did some work on the edging for Hummock #3, breaking off when it started to rain. E had her exercise class and then went for her infusion. During these infusion sessions, the staff at the center usually offer her a juice or some tea. Yesterday, she was disappointed to have been offered nothing. But today? Today she got an egg salad sandwich! Life is good.

We’re having H over for dinner tonight. E and H have long had the custom of taking each other out to dinner for their birthdays and H’s birthday is imminent. Since going out to eat is not so pleasant these days, we’re dining here and getting take-out from one of her favorite restaurants.

M has been transported back to his childhood by a passage in the novel he’s reading. There’s a long section that describes haying as it was done back in the 1930’s. One of the jobs at harvest time was to drive the team that pulled the horse-drawn scatter rake. M is much too young to have seen a horse-drawn hay rake in action, but on the farm where he lived when he was ten, there was a long obsolete example rusting away in one corner of the barnyard. It looked pretty much like the one in the photo below. M used to spend hours sitting on the comfortable iron seat, occasionally trying to work the rust-bound control lever. What exactly he was imagining all that time we do not know. 

Friday, May 21   Deaths  2,613  (+7)   New cases 504

A certain amount of living room rearranging went on today, after which we both napped. Thus refreshed, we proceeded to do some late afternoon anniversary present shopping at the jewelry store. Perked us right up. Apparently some kind of geegaw was purchased. For the next few days M’s job is to keep the package hidden and E’s job is to try and forget what’s in it so that she can be pleasantly surprised on Tuesday.

Saturday, May 22   Deaths  2,618 (+5)   New cases 509

Something of an unusual Saturday. We started with a very light breakfast before E’s 9 AM infusion appointment. M did something in the yard while she was gone. But he didn’t stay out for long because when E returned she was carrying chocolate croissants so that we could have a real breakfast. Very sensible. A while later M went out the grocery store to buy some salmon and asparagus for supper. Normally Saturday is take-out day, but we just had a big Indian meal with H and we are planning to actually go out and eat in a restaurant on Tuesday. So. Let’s do something simple at home. E’s project for the day was to clean her car, inside and out. First she went to the car wash to use their vacuum and to rinse off the bark dust. Bark dust? Well, it seems that while she was parked at one of the many lots in the sprawling medical complex that her infusers call home, the bark mulch unit arrived to spread a new layer on all the flowerbeds. The bark mulch is applied via a giant air hose that spews tons of the stuff, some of which drifts off into the air and covers any vehicles who happen to be near. So that was one reason for the cleaning, and that part of the process was done at the car wash. Another issue, was that the interior hadn’t been thoroughly cleaned since last fall. E attacked that aspect here in the driveway in front of the garage. It was a long process and when it was done, the car looked beautiful. But it wouldn’t start. Deadsville. E scrubbed it so hard she killed it. 

Or…it could have been more or less coincidental. The battery had already shown some signs that it was wearing out. Today turned out the be the first day of actual failure. Well. What to do? E was counting on having the car to get to tomorrow’s 9 AM appointment. Could we get it fixed today? Let’s see, it’s 5:30 now, how late is the parts store open? Till six? No, actually till 10:00. Okay then.

M removed the old battery, put it in the back of the truck, and went off to AutoZone to trade it for a new one. When M returned, we stopped for dinner, which was pretty good, and then M skipped dessert and went out to install the new battery. E offered to help and when her assistance was declined, she had some maple sugar candy instead.

Sunday, May 23   Deaths  2,622 (+4)   New cases 334

After an early morning infusion in an mostly deserted medical facility, E did weekly chores at home and went card shopping. M went into the woods again–into the Coast Range where it rains a lot. Today, for example, it rained for fifteen minutes in Corvallis where E was, but it rained for about three hours where M was, just 35 miles west. M saw mostly just trees and got lost twice; all he really found was a old Ford log truck.

When M got back to town, his own truck was in a such a state that it required a visit to the car wash before it could return to the driveway. A little later on we had a Zoom meeting with E’s brothers. We discussed plans for the summer at the lake and were invited to drop in for ice cream any time. The suggestion was well-received. 

On TV we watched episode 8 of Templanza, a Spanish series set in the Jerez wine country in the late 1800’s. More on that later. We also finished up Atlantic Crossing.

Monday, May 10   Deaths  2,533 (+3)   New cases 388

It’s the 410th day of Pandemic Diary record keeping and time for another chart.

The Oregon Health Authority reported today that 1,467,659 people have been fully vaccinated and that another 514,824 have received first doses and are awaiting a second. The total population of Oregon is about 4,240,000. Speaking of vaccinations, there was interesting news today from Buffalo, N.Y., where Erie County is partnering with a microbrewery to encourage vaccinations. Anyone who gets a shot of the Moderna vaccine gets a voucher for a free drink at the brewery. When they come back for a second shot (of the vaccine) they get another free beer.

The plants have been left mostly unsupervised for a few days. They seem to be getting along anyway.

Tuesday, May 11   Deaths  2,549 (+16)   New cases 660

M has been thinking that the Porsche needed some proper exercise. The best Porsche roads are many miles away. But it couldn’t be put off any longer. So this morning M packed himself a lunch and an overnight bag, extricated the Porsche from the garage, and drove off.

E had her exercise class and then went off for her daily infusion. She spent the afternoon preparing a complicated vegetarian meal and ate it by herself. Either that or she went to Pastini’s with H. One of those.

It took M two hours to get to the other side of the Cascades and and another hour and a half to get across the boring flatlands that came next. In the mirror there’s a snowcapped peak slowly disappearing far behind.  

M ate his lunch at a park in the town of Silver Lake. It was quiet in Silver Lake and there was an awful lot of space in all directions. 

Past Silver Lake Oregon Highway 31 stops being straight and flat and the drive gets more interesting. M’s route led him to the end of 31, where it meets U.S. 395 near the south end of Lake Abert. At the junction M turned north. The highway follows the east shore of the long, mostly dry lake. It’s a wonderful driving road: smooth pavement, excellent visibility, very little traffic, lots of sweeping curves. The Porsche is magic here. 

Wednesday, May 12   Deaths  2,558 (+9)   New cases 616

M woke up at about 7:00 in a motel in Burns, Oregon. After a pretty bad hotel breakfast, he was on the road again, this time going farther north on another very fine segment of U.S. 395. It’s lovely country and the road has some places where you could go pretty fast if you wanted to. It’s also where you find the Silvies Ranch. It’s a 400,000-acre working cattle ranch and also a destination resort with a golf course and spa. It’s a fly-in kind of place, so the highway stays empty.

When he reached John Day, M finally turned west toward home. For a while his route took him down the John Day river canyon on U.S. Highway 26. Here’s where 26 enters the canyon.

M got home around 4:00. He was tired and the car was a horror show of splattered insects. Seven hundred miles total.

Thursday, May 13   Deaths  2,572 (+14)   New cases 733

M got up early and washed the Porsche. Once it was presentable, we took it to tertulia with J&R sans R. The two of them had just returned from a trip to St. George, Utah. J said they did some lovely slot canyon hikes, avoiding the big national parks in the area and finding more out of the way things. Their son had some problems in the cycling segment of his Iron Man, and so had a disappointing finish. 

In the early afternoon, we once more found ourselves in a nursery buying plants. Is there no way out of this nightmare? When we got home, we took naps. Then E did laughter yoga. Finally M made dinner and all was well.

Friday, May 14   Deaths  2,582 (+10)   New cases 713

Busy day. In the morning E planted another Lewisia and then went off for an infusion. M spent a couple of hours doing more planting..  

After lunch E did Zoom yoga and then went to visit with her friend S, who is leaving town soon to be close to her family in Nebraska. E is trying to plan a farewell get together in the next few days.

For dinner M made beef bourguignon. (E is thinking that she needs extra protein for healing.)

Saturday, May 15   Deaths  2,585 (+3)   New cases 751

More yard work. E did more planting. M mowed. E also wrote a letter to a friend, a real letter, in long hand. Yes. We mailed it on the way to MofC to get sushi for dinner.

We’re nearing the end of our Turkish TV series and things are really hopping. Ali and the Cat have succeeded in helping Melek break out of custody. They did it by intercepting the prison van in which she was being transferred from a prison in Istanbul to a prison somewhere in the back of beyond. But she was wounded in the process and died of her wounds! But wait, Melek can’t die! Melek is innocent and good; we knew that she could never have actually had an affair with that awful jerk and we were sure it was someone else who stabbed him eight or ten times, which should have killed him but unfortunately did not. At least, we thought we knew those things. But then we learned that Melek is not really Melek! She is Mevre and Melek was her younger sister. And now we learn that she is not really innocent either. She didn’t have an affair with the awful jerk, but she did try to kill him. He was actually stalking her and she recognized him as the man who raped her younger sister fifteen years ago, the younger sister who then committed suicide and whose name her sister Mevre took for herself. So whoever she is, this M woman is kind of interesting. And the series is not over. So did she really die? She was taken to the morgue and Ali sure thinks she’s dead. He’s mad with grief. But only Özan and Mirel know for sure. Either way, that jerk Kerim is going to make trouble. Fully recovered from his stabbing-induced coma–you know how that is–he seems primed to take over his father’s evil empire of thugs and torturers. 

Sunday, May 16   Deaths  2,587(+2)   New cases 507

M went four wheeling in the mountains and was frustrated at every turn. E, on the other hand, besides getting infused, hosted a farewell party for S. Several of S’s former Yoga students came by to offer best wishes. They all gathered at long outdoor table. E provided cherry tomatoes, lemon cookies, Tazo teas, and a bouquet of iris and lilies from our garden. S was in good spirits and all was well.

M had planned well for his tour, noting exactly which roads would take him up one side and down the other. But did this planning do him any good? Nicht! Did he go up one side and end up coming down the same side? Alas yes. He tried Road 1509 southwest–snow. He tried Road 1509 southeast–snow. He then tried Road 2024 northeast but he took a wrong turn and came to dead end, but then he found the correct turn only to be thwarted by…snow. What is snow even doing there when the temperature is in the seventies? Ninety-nine point nine percent of the road is dry dusty gravel. Well, it’s just in a few of the deepest shady places on north facing slopes, but that was enough. 

Monday, May 3   Deaths  2,502 (+1)   New cases 540

M went out early and got three fat rainbow trout. Wow! There was a momentary difficulty when the assistant in the meat department had a little trouble wrapping them securely, but otherwise it was pretty easy. E then went and picked out a bunch of fruits and vegetables from the Co-op. So did we have deluxe fish dinner? No. The fish are marinating (drinking red wine) for tomorrow; we had leftover spinach lasagna and it was great.

E is not happy with the condition of her foot, but has agreed to accept the advice of a podiatrist, an MRI clinic, and an infectious disease specialist. Nobody knows for certain, but the MRI seems to indicate a bone infection in the great toe. The remedy is to undergo daily infusions of antibiotics for 4-6 weeks. Whew! With much trepidation, she had her first infusion today and was relieved to find it not nearly as bad as she had expected. A lot of her relief was due to the cheerful and caring nurses and the view from the window at the infusion center.

In other news, we have rearranged the living room and we don’t think we like it. Still, we were able to watch TV with the new arrangement. We learned that Melek’s real name is Mevre and that she apparently used to meet with Kerim Solmaz every Friday in the months before he was attacked. It certainly looks like they were lovers, but something tells us that eventually we will find that there is an innocent explanation for these meetings.

Tuesday, May 4   Deaths  2,508 (+6)   New cases 748

Eve had her second infusion today, but before that we made a return to Rittner Creek Park. We took a picnic lunch and enjoyed seeing the place in a different season. 

B and B came to dinner to help with the trout. It was good to catch up with them. They’re leaving tomorrow for a trip down to California to see family. 

Wednesday, May 5   Deaths  2,509 (+1)   New cases 808

E had her PICC insertion today, a long drawn-out affair as it happened. It took a long time because the first attempt was off target, so the procedure had to be redone. Ugh. Also, the computer in the treatment room was an in-patient specialist and got very grumpy when expected to deal with the fact that E was an out-patient. At that point another medical device in the room began flashing a ‘low battery’ warning, perhaps out of sympathy. E did survive, however, and is behaving normally–if you can call it that.

Thursday, May 6   Deaths  2,514 (+5)   New cases 763

Another day, another infusion. The PICC, as unpleasant as it was to have fitted, is doing its job well. It makes the infusion process easier and E says it is amazingly comfortable all things considered. Scheduling the daily sessions remains an issue.

M spent the morning futzing with his Rube Goldberg irrigation system and then went out and bought some all terrain tires for the truck along with a roast chicken for dinner. No, it was not a chicken he ran over with his new tires, but one from the M.o.C. deli.

And somewhere along the way, we found a place to hang our Turkish oil painting. It had been on the floor leaning against a wall ever since the TV was mounted in the space where it used to hang. Its one of our favorite souvenirs, a moon so bright it’s blinding.

Friday, May 7   Deaths  2,522 (+8)   New cases 844

E had a Zoom appointment with her doctor today, short and easy. The doctor said to carry on with the infusion treatments. It seems like there’s not much else she could say at this point. E then had to go to a real appointment to get the day’s infusion. M stayed home and set up his new HomePod so he can tell Siri to play things in stereo. 

After her medical morning, E was well enough to go to the Patissier and get breakfast treats for tomorrow. Then the two of us took a load of things to the Humane Society Thrift Shop and got some lattes on the way home. Then it was time for travel plans. We now have tickets for our trip east next August. Whew. Dinner was falafel sandwiches with tahini sauce, cucumbers, tomato, and lettuce. Gin on the side. 

For TV we watched more of 20 Minutes. We’re up to Episode 49 of 59 and things are moving a lot faster lately–not necessarily getting anywhere, but at least moving faster. For one thing, Kerim is out of his coma and is able to engage in communication of a frustratingly cryptic kind. For another, Melek’s husband Ali had sex with Raven, who has long been smitten with him. Ali had been resisting, but when he became convinced that Melek had been having an affair with Kerim, one thing led to another. And now Ali is really mad at Raven. How could she have done it, slept with a married man? Raven finds this a little peculiar. Don’t we all. And the next day when Raven was kidnapped by the bad guys and the Cat asked Ali to help rescue her, Ali refused. What a dud character he is. We in the audience, fortunately, are more on top of things than Ali. We know that Melek and Kerim share a terrible secret and that the secret is not that they were having an affair. They’re both acting like it’s much worse than that.   

Saturday, May 8   Deaths  2,528 (+7)   New cases 833

A quiet and uneventful day. Nice croissant breakfast, then after a bit E went for her infusion. While she sat there, a talkative nurse told her stories about goings on in the hospital during the COVID crisis. Apparently there was a certain amount of tension stemming from disagreements about the best ways of coping with the pandemic. Resignations ensued. 

E also went shopping and came back with a couple of spring blouses with sleeves loose enough to go around the plumbing connection on her upper arm. M puttered, cleaning out a drawer and finishing a Jacqueline Winspear novel that E finished last week. In that novel, which is set in 1939, the murder weapon is a handgun called the Ruby. The Ruby was a real gun. It was based on an American model–the FN Browning 1905 Vest Pocket semi-automatic. Although real Vest Pockets were made in the U.S., several other versions were manufactured in Europe under license. These were  given the name Ruby and were used by many European armies in both world wars. Winspear mentions that in England the Ruby was sometimes referred to as a “Browning” because it was a Browning design. All well and good. Winspear had done some research. But every time she mentions the Ruby, she calls it a revolver. The Ruby was/is not a revolver. We are not saying that Winspear had to call it an semi-automatic; she could have used a general word like pistol or handgun; but calling it a revolver is a terrible sin for the writer of a mystery novel. Where was her editor?! This novel had about ten references to a ‘Ruby revolver’ and by the seventh or eighth M was bordering on hysterical rage. (Nothing odd about that, eh?) You might wonder how M even knows anything about this. Well, as it happens, he has a minor interest in John Browning because Browning spent most of his life in Ogden, Utah. The FN Browning 1905 Vest Pocket was almost certainly designed in his workshop there, as were many of the most famous guns of the last century.

Sunday, May 9   Deaths  2,530 (+2)   New cases 610

We went to up to Portland for Mothers Day. Andrea had invited us to brunch. (Andrea knows that E loves the whole idea of holiday celebration by means of a nice brunch.) We went to a place called The Hammond Kitchen and Craft Bar. They specialize in exotic cocktails and E had a creamy sweet one. She thinks it probably had a huge number of calories, but not too much alcohol, which was about right. The food was very fine. E had quinoa yam cakes with roasted red pepper sauce and vegetables, some deviled eggs, and for dessert a bit of shared rhubarb strawberry tart. Before we left E got to open several nice very gifts. From there, we all went down to sit by the river for a while. Beautiful weather. All in all, E was very pleased.

Monday, April 19   Deaths  2,460 (+0)   New cases  473

This is the second day in a row of zero reported COVID deaths in Oregon. We will be making a new chart tomorrow. We’re expecting that it will show an improvement over the previous one. But the positive test ratio is creeping up lately. After having been fairly steady at around 3% for a long time, it has been over 5% three times in the past week. 

Not too much grocery shopping today as we are planning to be away for a few days. But some worrisome medical news is casting a pall on things. The radiologist says that the MRI of E’s foot has raised an issue. So we’ll have to deal with that as soon as we get back, perhaps returning a day early. 

The weather is very nice today. M watered the blueberries. It seems very early in the year to be doing that. 

Tuesday, April 20   Deaths  2,460 (+0)   New cases  580

Eve talked to her doctor and was reassured to learn that the issue is not as urgent as she had feared. She gets to take a week off from medical work.

Our plan is to spend three nights in Bandon, on Oregon’s south central coast. We’ve booked a kitchenette room and plan to cook one supper there. We also plan to go to Alloro’s wine bar for a meal. (Hopefully it’s still there. We haven’t actually checked.) This morning we packed up the Mazda and left home at 11:00 or so. Our first stop was the Vietnamese Baguette to get a couple of sandwiches for the road. Then we headed down 99 to Monroe, took the old Applegate Trail route to Cheshire, and then followed 36 and 126 to the coast. We stopped for a picnic lunch at the boat ramp in Triangle Lake. Nice weather for it. We got into our motel room around 4:00. 

When we thought about cooking our dinner…oops, kuçuk problem varda. Strange kitchen. There was a stove and a fridge; and there were two saucepans, four settings of really cheap flatware, four plates, four bowls and a spatula. But that was all. Tava yoktu. Paring knife yoktu. Cutting board yoktu. And no cups or glassware either. We’d kind been counting on having those things. It turns out that the motel’s response to COVID had been to remove most–but not all–of the kitchen utensils from the kitchen units so as to “minimize touch points”. An odd choice, it seemed to us, and very annoying of them not to have mentioned it on their booking site.

While pondering all this, we happened to check to see if Alloro still existed. Indeed they did and were open that very day. Also, they were not open on Wednesday. Hm. Off we went to get take-out from Alloro. We could always cook our own stuff tomorrow. We got Cacciuco fish stew for E and flat noodle Bolognese for M. They were both really, really good. 

Today is the 390th day of Pandemic Diary record keeping, and thus time for another chart. Over the last ten days, the Oregon COVID death rate was just two per day, down from almost six in the previous period.

Wednesday, April 21  Deaths  2,466 (+6)   New cases  989

Got the free grab and go motel breakfast: granola bar, Otis Spunkmeyer banana muffin, orange juice, small yoplait, and a fruit cup thingy. We made our own espresso. After breakfast, M made sandwiches for our lunch and then we headed back north up 101. We were aiming for the southern arm of Coos Bay, which is known locally as the South Slough. The South Slough Reserve is one of 29 areas in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System. 

We started at the interpretive center, which was closed, and hiked down the North Creek Trail, a beautiful walk which descends 300 feet through very steep coastal rain forest. 

Down at sea level you can see what the Estuarine Reserve is all about. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, hundreds of estuary salt marshes were converted to agricultural use by building dikes to wall them off from the sea. This area was farmland for about 100 years. Fortunately, dikes can be breached, and natural habitat can be restored. In the South Slough Reserve, restoration work began in 1975.

The two photos above and the video below were taken from a trail that leads across an old dike. The photographer was on a bridge that spans a fifty-foot long breach in the dike, which was created as part of the restoration project. The video below begins with the view inland and then pans around to show the view toward the sea. In the middle of the video you can see how the trail goes across the top of the remaining part of the dike.

We ate our lunch on an observation deck overlooking the main body of the South Slough. The hike back up to our car included a one-third mile section called the Tunnel Trail.

For dinner we cooked and ate our things brought from home. The front desk was able to provide us with a skillet (tava), which was our most pressing need. So we managed. The biggest challenge was slicing the tomato without a paring knife. E managed that part, even though it was M’s night to cook. 

Thursday, April 22   Deaths  2,467 (+1)   New cases  993

We went out to the Bandon North Jetty this morning, which was fairly complicated since the town of Bandon is on the south side of the Coquille River and the North Jetty is not. There is a U.S. 101 bridge over the Coquille, but it’s several miles from town, so it’s a long roundabout trip. Anyway, the north jetty is pretty awesome. There was a cold wind, of course, as there so often is here, but otherwise the day was fine. The surf was noisy and there were several sorts of birds to be watched. 

After hiking around a bit, we went back to our little room for a lunch of whatever we could find in the fridge or in our food box. That included a little bit of leftover Cacciuco. Was it still good? Oh yeah.

In the afternoon we visited the Ni-les’tun Marsh Restoration area. It is quite near Bandon, on the east side of U.S. Highway 101, just upstream from the mouth of the Coquille river. In the photo below, the river runs along the far end of the marsh just in front of the forested hill. In the upper right, you may be able to distinguish the 101 bridge, with its two old towers for raising the drawbridge section. Much of the marsh is inundated twice a day at high tide and all of the marsh is inundated during spring tides, which occur twice per lunar month. This is only a portion of the marsh; there is more off to the left for a total size is 400 acres.  

For most of the twentieth century there was a large dairy operation down on the level area just beyond the trees in the center of the photo. Restoration of the marsh began in 2009 and involved removing one and a quarter miles of dike and filling in fourteen miles of drainage ditches. Why is this important, you may ask. For one thing, the estuary is vital habitat for salmon and other sea creatures. Turns out salmon need an estuary to make the transition from fresh water, where they hatch, to salt water, where they will spend the adult phase of their lives. In the hundreds or thousands of years before the diking and draining began, there were 5,000 acres of marshland in the Coquille basin. Today, there are about 500 acres. The remainder is still in agricultural use, mainly as pasture.

Dinner this day was at another notable Bandon eatery: Pablo’s Corner. It’s difficult to describe just what Pablo’s Corner is like. This was our first visit. If we live long enough, we will surely go back. 

Friday, April 23   Deaths  2,476 (+9)   New cases  1,020

Time to head for home. We were on the road by ten, heading not up the coast on 101, but rather going roughly east,  to meet up with I-5 at Roseburg. Remember that 4,500 acres of unrestored marsh that are still in use as pasture? We saw a good portion of it this morning as we drove through the Coquille basin.

You might say we were taking the back way home. (You know, that’s when home is 200 miles due north and you start your day by driving 40 miles southeast.) But it was worth it because I-5, once you get there, has its advantages. It’s a lot faster and straighter than 101, plus it goes directly to the hamlet of Rice Hill. It is possible that some people don’t understand the significance of Rice Hill, perhaps because they have never been there, or perhaps because they have no interest in ice cream. For the rest of us, Rice Hill means a stop at the K & R Drive In for some Umpqua ice cream. With E at the wheel, we found the place easily, just in time for lunch.

We got back to Corvallis at around 3:30 and got a start at unpacking and sorting through the junk mail. After a simple supper, we took a walk around the neighborhood and felt a few tiny drops of rain, the beginnings, we hoped, of more serious moisture to come.

Saturday, April 24   Deaths  2,484 (+8)   New cases  830

Some rain last night and today, which should be good for the new plantings. We visited our friend H today. She’s rearranging things around her house to prepare for some changes ahead. It seems that her soon to be unemployed deadbeat daughter plans to move back home. Okay, okay. I guess we have to add that the daughter is actually a very successful pediatrician who is getting ready to retire, so the phrase “unemployed deadbeat” may not be strictly accurate in the technical sense. It was fun to type, though. In any case, H needs to make room by getting rid of a few pieces of furniture. First we helped her dismantle a bed and move the pieces to the garage. Then we helped her move a large sectional couch out of her TV room and onto the patio. The patio will make a good transfer point for the people who will haul it away.

Dinner was take-out from Tacovore. TV was the first episode of The Vineyard, a Spanish series set in the late 1800’s. The first episode was somewhat disjointed, but it looks promising. We are letting poor Melek languish for a while. We’ve watched 36 of her 59 episodes and we need a break. This afternoon it happened that both E and M had on fairly nice sweaters. Our house looked like a Turkish prison.

Sunday, April 25   Deaths  2,485 (+1)   New cases  780

It was cloudy and cool this morning, with a bit of rain in the afternoon. M went off in the truck to explore the upper reaches of the Luckiamute River. He went onto gravel at Hoskins and got back onto pavement in Falls City. That wasn’t exactly where he intended to come out, but hey, there are a surprising number of unmarked roads out there in the forest and he was using a forty-year-old map. While he was out, he stopped at a self-service yard décor depot for some bits of wood and stone. With no staff available to help him, he was limited to items small enough for him to lift. More on that once the items are installed.

TV tonight was more of The Vineyard and more also of Atlantic Crossing. In the former, Soledad and Mauro still haven’t met, but certain wheels are in motion. In the latter, Princess Martha is busy making enemies in the White House, but FDR is not among them.

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.