Meandering on the Way

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Monday, January 25   Deaths  1,882 (+2)   New cases  436

Another Monday and again we felt compelled to seek out yet more food items from our local markets. Will this matter of cooking and eating never end? And why–after M got up so early and braved the perils of the supermarket–were there no Little Schoolboy cookies on the shelf? How can that be right? 

We’ve been trying to avoid this next topic, but we can’t stand it anymore. What the heck is going on in the house across the street?

The neighbor who used to live there was a fellow in his forties. He had a nice pickup truck that was usually attached to a box trailer. He went to work everyday and often worked long hours, but often came home at lunch time. He looked to be a builder or carpenter and the trailer was almost surely his toolbox. There was a younger guy, possibly a son, who came by often, sometimes seeming to stay there for days at a time. His pride and joy was a very old VW van that he worked on every weekend. But then, last summer, that tenant moved out. 

Soon after that, there was a period of great activity, lots of pickups and cars, lots of miscellaneous debris being hauled away. The most frequent visitors were a middle-aged couple. They started to spiff things up in hurry. The lawn was cut and edged to perfection. Shrubs were trimmed and the big tree was pruned. The weeds growing from the cracks in the driveway disappeared. Flowers were planted and the roof was swept. The house hadn’t looked bad before, but obviously they thought it needed to look better. Was the house being prepped for the next rental or possible sale? It got a new patio sliding door and all new windows. Interior painters came and went for weeks and weeks. This is a small house, how much paint did it need? Then the work tapered off. The house stood empty for a couple of months, making us curiouser and curiouser. Just before Christmas someone put a Santa on the doorstep and a bunch of lights on the front yard tree. We know that someone was keeping an eye on the house because Santa fell down a couple of times, but was always set up again within a day. The lights on the big tree remained on twenty-four hours a day for three or four weeks. That seemed odd. These days, Santa is gone, but the lights are still there, only now they go off in the daytime and only come on in the evening. Once in a while painter’s van arrives and stays for an hour or two, sometimes late in the evening. About a week ago a mysterious gray car stayed in the driveway all night. We haven’t seen it since. So now we are really curious.

But not so curious as to miss dinner. After a day spent chasing rainbows…

…E cooked trout in a red wine sauce. Trucha a la Navarra is said to be an old recipe from what is now the Navarre Autonomous Community in northern Spain. The sauce includes onions, olive oil and twenty peppercorns. It came with steamed potatoes to soak up the sauce and red cabbage on the side. It was delicious, so good that we decided to follow up with ice cream and Snow’s Mandarin Orange Dark Chocolate Sauce, a more modern recipe from the foothills of the Sierra Madre in California. 

Tuesday, January 26   Deaths  1,904 (+22)   New cases  796

Quite a day today. We planned to drive out into the forests west of town to explore a place called Ritner Creek Park. The park appears on no maps, nor could we find it on google earth, but M remembered seeing a sign for it pointing down a gravel road leading into the timberlands. We knew that snow was forecast for the afternoon, which made it all the more interesting. We packed up a few picnic staples: pineapple juice, two small rations of Swiss chocolate, and a flask of Aberfeldy; and then went and got some oversized sandwiches from the 57th Street Grill. (Which, as we mentioned last year, is not on 57th Street and is not a grill–but that’s another story.) 

Forty-five minutes later we found the sign and headed for the park. Except for having to squeeze past a huge loaded log truck that came barreling toward us and then having to also squeeze past a huge empty gravel truck that also came barreling toward us, the drive to the park was uneventful. It wasn’t very far. Ritner Creek Park turned out to be wonderful, very simple and very lovely. All we could see at first was a parking area, a restroom and a gravel path along the north side of the creek. We parked and got out to explore. The sky was dark and the air was heavy with moisture. Eventually we found a footbridge that led to the south side of the creek. Just as we approached the bridge, the snow started to fall. 

On the far side of the creek we found a longer gravel path and a scattering of picnic spots. The trees were all native maples, some of them ancient. 

 

Lovely as the scene was, our lunch was in the car, so that’s where we went next. Once there, we decided to drive back down Bourbon Road and take Highway 223 to the old Ritner Creek Covered Bridge, just a few miles away. 

We had our lunch there and then started for home. For reasons too complicated to explain, we decided to return to Corvallis via U.S. Highway 20 rather than on the back roads we had taken on the way out. Bad choice. Traffic was snarled. We waited twenty minutes to get onto Highway 20 from 223. After another twenty minutes we had progressed just fifty yards or so from where we got on. Bah. We turned around and retraced our journey back up 223 to King’s Valley, and went home via Airlie and Tampico. It was snowing hard, but the hills weren’t terribly steep, there were few other cars, and M’s foot was gentle on the throttle. Snow is a lovely thing in the forest. When we got back to town, it didn’t look nearly as nice.    

Wednesday, January 27   Deaths  1,924 (+20)   New cases  731

In the morning E walked over snow and ice to WINCO for some groceries and then started making a blackberry pie. Then we had lunch and she went off to Salem for an appointment, making it back in plenty of time to serve dinner: green salad and sardines followed by pie. Yum! What a cook! 

M worked at the computer and also read a few chapters in a William Robbins’ book Hard Times in Paradise, a history of Coos Bay, Oregon. 

In Turkish television land, Havva is walking on air. Despite having been put out of the mansion, she has been able to spend some time with Yusuf, who is clearly smitten. Betül, Yusuf’s old girlfriend, has given up the chase and gone back to Istanbul. The series is filmed on location in Cappadocia, and so–as was inevitable–Yusuf and Havva went for a ride in a hot air balloon. Toprak, on the other hand, stayed home and knitted Yusuf a scarf. 

Thursday, January 28   Deaths  1,930 (+6)   New cases  750

Our tractor has been attacked and overturned by a rogue crocus! Fortunately, no one was injured, although the driver is nowhere in sight. Just another reminder of the power of nature…

It turns out that our insurance policy will not cover any damages. Losses due to crocus attack are specifically excluded unless you opt for the “Small Monocoteyledon Supplement” and pay an additional $4.85 a month premium, which we have not been doing. Oh well. 

Friday, January 29   Deaths  1,938 (+8)   New cases  976

A relatively quiet day, mostly overcast and mostly dry. E attended a meeting of her HEPAJ group at Pat’s Open Air Garage and Tea Room. E was pleased by the chance to socialize over key lime pie and other treats. After the meeting E and P went walking in Martin Luther King Park where they met up with M on the trail. P then took us on a tour of the new housing development on the north side of the park. There’s a lot that she’s thinking of acquiring. It borders the park at just the spot where a donated bench commemorates her late husband.

Saturday, January 30   Deaths  1,957 (+19)   New cases  707

Oregon’s COVID death rate has dropped over the last ten days. In the most recent period, January 21-30, the rate was 12.6 deaths per day, as compared to 22.7 in the previous period. Recent test positive percentages and new case numbers have also been low. 

A total of 407,869 first and second vaccine doses have been administered in Oregon so far. Health care workers have had the highest priority. Beginning Monday, educators will also be eligible. One week later, eligibility will extended to older Oregonians, beginning with those over 80. The Governor Brown has received some criticism for prioritizing educators over seniors. As far as we know, she is the only governor to have done so. She says that it is important to get schools open.

Sunday, January 31   Deaths  NA (+NA)   New cases  NA

Yet another overcast day, with light rain showers every hour or two. In the morning E had a Zoom meeting with her friends S and Mrs. H. while M watched an OSU women’s  basketball. They were playing at Utah, M’s alma mater. It was Beavers over Utes 84-74. 

In the afternoon we went for a long walk in a neighborhood where there are some very interesting houses. We just had to take a photo of this one.  

Later we watched an episode of Love is in the Air. When Havva’s former fiance, Cüneyt, was causing problems, her dad, Remzi the Mad, dealt with it by telling the police about Cüneyt’s drug dealing. Remzi hoped that he could remain anonymous, but now Cüneyt has found out who ratted and has sworn to take vengance. Cüneyt is still in jail for now, but Remzi is nervous. Meanwhile, Havva and her constantly scheming aunt, Sultan, have intercepted a DNA test result letter. The letter is for Yusuf and it confirms that he is not the father of little Rüzgar, whom Toprak has been nursing. This is not the result that Sultan and Havva were hoping for. So Havva has altered the report so that it seems to confirm that Yusuf is the father. E and M were not at all surprised by this. Judging from all the Turkish series we have seen, it is apparent that no one in Turkey has ever received accurate DNA test results. We wonder why people even bother having them done.  Don’t they watch TV?

Pandemi Günlüğü 25-31 Ocak

Pazartesi, 25 Ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,882 (+2)       yeni vakalar: 436

Başka bir pazartesi, başka bir market alışverşi günü. Hiç bitmeyecek mi? M’un Little Schoolboy kurabiyeleri bulamaması dışında alışveriş iyiydi. Bah!

Eve yoğun bir gün geçirdi. Öğleden sonra bir gökkuşağı buldu. Akşam Trucha ala Navarra’yı pişirdi. Sos kırmızı şarap, zeytinyağı, soğan ve yermi karabiber ile yapıldı. Kuzey İspanya’dan eski bir reçetedir. Çok lessetliydi.

Salı, 26 Ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,904 (+22)       yeni vakalar: 796

Bugün pikniğe gittik. Önce biraz yiyecek hazırladık: ananas suyu, İsviçre çıkolatası, ve kuçuk bir şişe Aberfeldy. Sonra Taylor Street Ovens’tan sandviç aldık. Planımız Ritner Creek Park’a getmekti. O park haritada yok. Google Earth’da yok. Amah M otoyolda bir işareti hatırladı. Batıya gittik ve Peedee kasabası yakınlarında doğru yolu bulduk. On dakika sonra parkı bulduk. Park basit ve çok güzeldi. Arabayı derenin kuzey tarafına park ettik. Yaya köprüsü var. Köprüyü geçerken kar yağmaya başladı.

Parktaki ağaçlar akçaağaçlar. Bazıları çok yaşlı.

Parkı keşfettikten sonra eski bir kapalı köprüyü ziyaret etmeye karar verdik. Kapalı köprü 1926’da yapıldı. Öğle yemeğimizi orada arabada yedik. 

Çarşamba, 27 Ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,924 (+20)       yeni vakalar: 731

Sabah E kurabiye ve salata için WINCO’ya yürüdü ve sonra mutfakta çalıştı. Öğle yemeği yedikten sonra o Salem’e gittik. Akşam yemeği servis etmek için tam zamanında geri geldi. Bir büyük yeshil salata ve bir büyük böğürtlenli turta yedik. Nefis. M bilgisayarda çalıştı ve William Robbins’in bir kitabında birkaç bölüm okudu. 

Yemekten sonra  Gök Yer Aşk’in bir bölümünü izledik. Havva çok mutlu çünkü düşmanlarından birini yendi. Yusuf’un eski sevgilisi Betül İstanbul’a geri döndü. Havva’nın annesi meraklıdır. “Gözlerindeki o ışık nedir?” soruyor. Havva cevap vermiyor. Planını sadece babası ve teyzesi biliyor. Dizi Kapadokya’da geçiyor.  Tabii ki balonlarımız olmalı. Havva ve Yusuf birlikte gökyüzüne gittiler. Tatlı küçük Toprak evde kaldı ve Yusuf’a bir fular ördü.    

Perşembe, 28 Ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,930 (+6)       yeni vakalar: 750

Felaket! Traktörümüz çiğdem tarafından devrildi. Doğanın güçünü gösterir. Neyşe ki kimse yarlanmadı. 

Sigortamız hiçbir şey ödemeyecek. Çiğdemlerden korunmak istiyorsak fazladan ödeme yapmamız gerektiğini söylüyorlar.

Cuma, 29 Ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,938 (+8)       yeni vakalar: 976

Sakin bir gün. E arkadaşlarıyla Pat’s Open Air Garage and Tea Room’a gitti. Çok fazla tatlıları olduğunu söylüyor, ama beğendi. Toplantı bittikten sonra E ve P MLK parkında yürüyüşe çıktı. 

M da parka geldi. P bizi yeni konut projesini gezmeye gezdirdi. Orada bir yer satın almayı düşünüyor.

Cumartesi, 30 Ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,957 (+19)       yeni vakalar: 707

Bu salgının 310. günü. Oregon’daki COVID hakkında bazı iyi haberler var. Ölum oranı biraz düştü. İşte grafik.

Yeni vaka oranı da daha düşük. 

Pazar, 31 Ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: (müsait değil) yeni vakalar: (m.d.)

Başka bir bulutlu gün. Aralıklı yağmur. Sabah E arkadaşları S ve Mrs. H ile Zoom görüşmesi yaptı. M bir kadın basketbol maçı izledi. Oregon Eyalet Üniversitesi, Utah Üniverstesi’nde oynadı. Kuduzlar 84-74 kazandı.

Öğle yemeğinden sonra birçok ilginç evin bulunduğu bir mahallede yürüdük. İşte bunlardan girinin fotoğrafı.

Daha sonra Gök Yer Aşk bir bölümünü izledik. Yusuf’a önemli bir mektup geldi. DNA testinin sonuçlarını içerir. Sinsi Sultan, Yusuf görmeden mektubu açtı. Mektup Yusuf’un Rüzgar’ın babası olmadığını bildiriyor. Sultan bundan hiç hoşlanmıdı. Sultan ve Havva mektubu değiştirdi ve şimdi Yusuf babası olduğunu sanıyor. Biz şaşırmadık. Diğer Türk dizilerinden, Türkiye’de hiç kimsenin doğru bir DNA raporu almadığını biliyoruz. 

Monday, January 18   Deaths  1,803 (+3)   New cases  666

It was grocery shopping day. E handled the Co-op and M went to both Market of Choice (for general items) and Trader Joe’s for wine, dried fruit and nuts. E and M may be foolish, but not so foolish as to buy wine at M of C. Also in the morning E finished up her Pandemic Diary entry about the surprise package and last week’s PD got posted. M charged up the battery on the Porsche and took it out for a spin. A beautiful day for it. Now we wait to see if the battery will hold its charge. Knowing that he may have to replace the battery, M took a long look at it. Looks pretty nice, as batteries go. Moll Kamina 80Ah, made in Germany. Lasted ten years so far. Little translucent dollar signs floating all around it… 

Tuesday, January 19   Deaths  1,88 (+5)   New cases  637

We drove down to southwest Corvallis this morning and walked through the Denawi Creek wetlands. It’s just a few acres with development all around it, but it’s quite lovely. On one side it borders on Sunset Park, where there is a playground and two of the city’s best softball fields. M remembers playing ball there many times back in the last century. He hadn’t seen the place since. Back then there were three softball fields at the park. One of them could only be used in late summer because the ground was too soggy to play on–even in June and July. 

Nowadays that third field has vanished, leaving not a trace, and what we see now are seasonal ponds and a lazy stream running though a soggy prairie full of native grasses, sedge, and small riparian trees. We saw ducks who swam over hoping to be fed and some kind of large rodent chomping on some grass just a few feet away. E decided it was a beaver and M decided it was a nutria. 

After lunch E mailed letters and talked for a long time with her friend H. M mowed the back lawn, a ridiculous thing to have to do in January, but what else can you with long shaggy grass on a warm sunny day?

Lately we’ve been watching another Turkish series on TV. Its English title is Love is in the Air and it is set in Cappadocia. It was made about ten years ago and it’s a little different from the other series we have seen, which have been more modern and more urban. It concerns two sisters, Toprak (Earth), who is terribly innocent, and Havva (Eve), a ruthless schemer. Toprak is grieving for her recently deceased baby and is working as a wet nurse for a wealthy family. Havva is bent on snagging the town’s most eligible bachelor, the young heir to the same family, who is named Yusuf. The baby that Toprak is nursing is in fact Yusuf’s son, born out of wedlock to a young woman who died not long after giving birth, hence the need for a wet nurse. Toprak is married, but she is living, for now, at the home of the above mentioned wealthy family, leaving her husband on his own, free to carry on his affair with a floozie named Yasmin, nicknamed Yaso. Meanwhile, Yusuf’s younger sister, Münevver, is secretly in love with Yiğit, the housekeeper’s son, who has just graduated from teacher’s college. The name Yiğit means valiant, but he is not living up to that name, and Münevver (Enlightened) is getting annoyed. 

Wednesday, January 20   Deaths  1,832 (+24)   New cases  674

We watched the inauguration this morning. It was very moving. We loved Biden, and just like the rest of the country, we liked Lady Gaga, J-Lo and Bernie’s mittens. Some of the speeches were a little long. But the main thing was that it happened. Not many countries have ever needed new leadership as bad as we did.

After the swearing in, we went for a walk up in the forest so that E could visit an old friend with whom she has been sharing important moments with since the first Obama victory.

On the way back we saw how our old maple was doing. About five years ago the it was cut as part of a thinning operation, which left nothing but a three foot tall stump. Hard to kill a maple, though, at least in this climate. 

It’s the 300th day of Pandemic Diary record keeping. After twenty days of only moderately high daily deaths, the number this week climbed back up to very high, 21.7 deaths per day. Here’s the chart.

Thursday, January 21   Deaths  1,843 (+11)   New cases  849

Although COVID is still raging in Oregon, there is one mildly hopeful sign: the test positive rate has averaged below five per cent for the past eight days. And on the national scene, masks will now be required at all federal facilities. What a concept. 

A cold damp day around here, no real rain but lots of mist and drizzle. M went to Bi-Mart and got a bag of manure. Why? Because the Extension newsletter says that now is the time to manure one’s rhubarb. We wonder if this recommendation comes from the latest horticultural research or if it is traditional lore that has been passed down by untold generations of rhubarb growers? The article didn’t say. 

E ventured into town and came back with a nightlight. We really need a nightlight because we had to close the shades to keep out the light from the Christmas lights at the house across the street. The lights have been on 24 hours a day since Christmas, even though no one lives there. Ask us if we understand this.

M is cooking tonight–saag lentils, rice, and fried eggs. On Love is in the Air, the secrecy of Münevver and Yiğit’s secret love is beginning to unravel. Both of their mothers now know about it. Yiğit’s mother is deeply concerned–about herself–because she knows she might get fired. Münevver’s mother, Hamiyet, is furious and lays into Yiğit with the old “How could you do this to us after all the nice things we did for you?” She banishes him from the mansion and comes very close to exiling his mother as well. Of course, this is all still women’s stuff. Yusuf and his dad Yilmaz (Undaunted) are still in the dark. Yilmaz continues blithely along, and is nearly finished with his plan for getting Münevver engaged to the provincial governor. Meanwhile, has innocent Toprak’s dunce of a husband rented a house for himself and his floozie? Of course he has. Has Toprak found out about it? Uh-huh. Has the scheming Havva managed to lure handsome good guy Yusuf into her web? Not yet. Fate has dealt her a couple of setbacks. Has she given up? No. She’s a spunky one. When fate slaps her, she slaps right back.

Friday, January 22   Deaths  1,865 (+22)   New cases  877

A walk today at a Benton County Natural Area called Fitton Green. Just a stroll really, about 3500 steps. Nice day for a walk, warmish and partly cloudy. The other major event of the day that a M finished another of his British crosswords. Here’s an excerpt. The clue is Idle socialite, ages out of university, finding way to embrace flower-girl. The answer is a two-word phrase, each word containing six letters. The known letters and blanks are as follows:   _o_n_e    _i_a_d.  If anyone sees this and thinks of the answer immediately, well, that’s good, but you probably shouldn’t mention it to M, because it took him forever. 

Saturday, January 23   Deaths  1,877 (+13)   New cases  775

A mostly sunny day, cold in the morning but mild in the afternoon. E went out to the country to walk Pepper. Pepper was glad to see her, but not happy at all about going for a walk, possibly because it was pretty cold at that time. So E got in only a few steps toward her daily goal of many thousands. After lunch, therefore, she had to take M for a walk around the neighborhood. E also spent time today searching for a new pot for a house plant that is outgrowing its current home. By the time she found one to her liking, it was late in the day and she wisely decided to postpone the actual repotting phase of the project. While she was out searching, M worked on doing a makeover of a little iris bed that was choked with grass. It was so warm that he had to take off his heavy shirt and work in his tee. Weird. 

We’ve been getting information about vaccinations in Oregon. A total of 285,914 doses have been given. The state is averaging 12-15,000 administrations per day. At that rate it will take a while. The state government has released a schedule for when various groups will become eligible. So far only health workers and caregivers have been getting the vaccine. Starting on Monday, teachers, school staff and child care providers will become eligible. Two weeks after that, people 80 and older will become eligible, followed a week later by 75 and older, and a week after than 70 and older, and a week after that 65 and older. So Eve will become eligible sometime around Valentines Day. Because M is in a different group, he will become eligible later. 

But wait, what does “become eligible” actually mean? Not much. Apparently all it means is that you will have permission to put your name on a waiting list somewhere. Where are these lists? No one is saying. How long will you have to wait once your name is on a list? No one knows. Oh boy.

If E does get her shots before M, things could get interesting. According to M, it means that E will have to do all of the grocery shopping for a while. E says that’s right, but M will have to do all the cooking because she’ll be so tired from all that shopping. 

Sunday, January 24   Deaths  1,880 (+3)   New cases  582

No sun today, cold and dreary, light rain most of the time. E braved the weather to repot her giant plant. M helped by making suggestions (mostly useless) and by helping lift the whole deal back in into place once the repotting was done (quite helpful). E says the change will be good in the long run. Meanwhile, the plant seems ungrateful.

E also took a long walk today, in spite of the rain. M took advantage of the weather by staying inside and watching an OSU women’s basketball game. Due to a long series of COVID related postponements and cancelations, it was their first game in over a month. The game went to double overtime, but they lost.

For anyone who didn’t guess it immediately, here’s the answer to Friday’s crossword clue: Idle socialite, ages out of university, finding way to embrace flower-girl. We’re looking for two six-letter words. The semantic clue was ‘idle socialite.’ The anagrammatic clues were very obscure. Let’s go word by word: “ages” = a LONG time; “out of” = on the outside of; and “university” = U. So, we have to put the two parts of LONG–LO and NG–around the outer edges of the U. That gives LOUNG. The ‘way’ is road whose abbreviation is RD. Those two parts–LOUNG and RD– ‘embrace’ the ‘flower-girl’, which is to say that one is on the left side of her and one is on her right. So now we have LOUNG_  _ _ _ _RD with the flower-girl in between. Who, then, is the flower-girl? Think sixties musicals based on British plays.

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Monday, January 11   Deaths  1,613 (+8)   New cases  939

The Pandemic Diary tracks Oregon deaths daily and calculates averages for successive ten-day periods. This is the 290th day of tracking. For the period January 1 to January 10 Oregon recorded an average of 12.8 deaths per day, a very slight decrease from the previous period. Here is the latest curve chart.

Concerning the plague of fascism, Arnold Schwartzenegger has posted a statement concerning events in the nation’s capital. It is very moving and draws upon memories from his early life in post-war Austria. 

Schwartzenegger says that this is America’s Kristalnacht, the night of organized anti-semitic violence that occurred in Germany and Austria in 1938. It seems to M that our recent experience also has things in common with the Beerhall Putsch, the failed Nazi coup attempt that occurred in 1923 in Bavaria. Bad precedents both.

In Corvallis it was another grocery shopping day. Mother of Markets was pretty quiet at eight in the morning, so that was nice. Too bad M forgot some crucial items and had to go back at two in the afternoon. Between the two trips he went to the dentist for a fitting of his implant crown. He found out that the dentist and at least some staff have already had at least a first dose of vaccine. So that was nice. Too bad the assistant who did much of the fitting and spent the most time close to M had declined the vaccine because “I get sick from vaccines.” Hmm. That’s not what M wanted to hear. The correct response from M, of course, was “Oh, that’s too bad. Get another job. I’m leaving.” But M is hardly ever correct, though he does file things away.

E did some critical correspondence in the morning, then after lunch had an hour of Zoom yoga. Later in the afternoon she went with her friend A and A’s dog Pumpkin to hike in the forest. She found yoga and forest walking to be a winning combination. M made some stew for us to pack and take to Bend for tomorrow’s dinner. E made dinner for today. 

We have a reservation for two nights at a resort just outside of Bend, a place that was one of the nicest in the area thirty or forty years ago, so nice that we could rarely afford to stay there. It has been far surpassed since, but it still looks acceptable and is now affordable. 

Bend has some wonderful restaurants and we plan to get take-out for our Wednesday dinner, but we’re taking food with us for all our other meals. It’s a little like camping, but with a complete kitchen. We’ll see how it works out. 

Tuesday, January 12   Deaths  1,667 (+54)   New cases  1,203

Well here we are just outside of Bend Oregon, where we have come to play in the snow. Unfortunately there is no snow, so that may not work out. We’ll go higher up mountain tomorrow and see if we can find some. Tonight we are safely settled into an old rental condo unit in the Seventh Mountain Resort. We’ve just had our evening meal brought from home and we’re fine. The place we’re staying is very much so-so. The kitchen is minimally equipped with a tiny fridge, a tacky little cooktop and a very noisy convention oven / microwave. Of course the unit has been redecorated and repaired many times in its long life. It’s nice enough–spacious, not really shabby anywhere, but a little bit of a hodge-podge. It’s now a Worldmark by Wyndham property and they’re trying hard to push some kind of worldwide time-share and condo scheme. Our check-in was a two step process. First we registered normally at one counter. The friendly woman did everything except give us a key. For that she sent us to another counter where another friendly woman welcomed us again and strongly urged us–for what seemed like hours– to sign up for a sales pitch tomorrow morning, saying we would get a $100 gift card just for attending. Wow! We weren’t real excited by that. Kinda wanted to just get to the room… Anyway, if you like high pressure selling and tired condos, you should definitely come here.

Wednesday, January 13   Deaths  1,708 (+41)   New cases  1,346

Nice sunny day and we did find snow, quite a lot, just twenty miles farther up the road. When we checked the snow surface, we saw that old snow had been rained on and refrozen to an icy crust, then covered with a thin layer of new snow. It promised some fun times on the well-used cross-country ski trails, maybe a little too much fun. We pulled out the snowshoes instead. We ended up going about four and a half miles, which included tromping a few hundred feet upward to the top of a mini-mountain. Here’s what that looked like.

When we got to the top, we were tired. We looked for a place to sit down and have lunch. The place we found had nice décor.

For lunch we had a carrots and celery starter followed by sandwiches and chips. To drink we each had a small can of pineapple juice, chilled on ice at the table. This was followed by hot mocha coffee, a few bites of Swiss chocolate, and a sip of Aberfeldy. Then it was time to strap back in and try to find our way back. 

It was Eve’s night to cook. She got us take-out from Hola, the Peruvian/Mexican place. The interior of the restaurant was off limits, with pick-up taking place at an outside makeshift counter. It felt very safe and the food was excellent. We went to bed early.

Thursday, January 14   Deaths  1,737 (+29)   New cases  1,152

Another sunny morning in Bend. We had our usual tertulia with J and R, who told us about the big storm that struck the Corvallis area just a few hours after we left for Bend. There was lots of rain and a whole lot of wind. Near where E used to live, several homes were cut off when not one but two big fir trees fell across the entrance to their cul-de-sac.

We had a leisurely morning and finally started for home at about 11:30. It was a good day to view the mountain peaks and we stopped at the usual place between Bend and Sisters. 

As we passed through the town of Sisters, we did NOT stop at the Sister’s Bakery. We can’t remember now exactly why we didn’t stop. It might have been because we summoned enough willpower to resist their fatty treats. Or it might have been because they were closed for remodeling. I guess we’ll never know for sure.

When we got home from our trip we found a surprise package on our doorstep. The excitement deepened as E. opened the package to find a bonanza of beautiful cloth bags and masks. Turns out they were a thank you gift from a local seamstress with whom E has shared some stimulus money to compensate for the COVID-induced downturn in business.

Friday, January 15   Deaths  1,758 (+21)   New cases  1,012

COVID rages worse than ever and the whole country is edgy about the inauguration. The only good news today is that Trump’s approval rating did in fact decline after the riots. A miracle. Around our house it was catch up with the chores day. E worked on organizing the pantry cupboard with her new round-n-rounds, then had Zoom yoga, then organized another few hundred photos. M washed and vacuumed the car and swept wind blown tree litter from the patio and driveway. We also went for a morning walk and saw evidence of the storm, at least five big trees down in a nearby neighborhood.

The OHA reports that a total of 146,137 vaccine doses have been administered in Oregon. This includes both first and second doses. We were happy to hear that Andrea got her first dose. She hopes to get her second dose in about thirty days. The OHA also says that a total of 321,425 doses of vaccination have been delivered to Oregon, which means that there are approximately 150,000 doses now available for administration. In recent days the state has been averaging around 12,000 vaccine administrations per day. At this rate, Oregon has only about a 12-day supply. 

Health workers and caregivers of all kinds continue to have first priority. The next priority group would include school teachers, people with chronic illnesses that increase COVID susceptibility, and all people over 65, which would be us. According to one source, vaccinations for the second group could begin as early as January 23. Others say that we should be thinking about April.

E highly recommends a book called Educated by Tara Westover. It’s a memoir about Westover’s childhood and early life. She’s grew up in a survivalist household in eastern Idaho. Her father was a Mormon who had come to believe that the vast majority of Latter Day Saints had been completely corrupted by the devil. Tara Westover and several of her siblings were born at an isolated house in the mountains and their births were not registered. The memoir is essentially the story of her relationships to her parents and brothers and of her struggle to find her way. M is reading it now. Spoiler Alert: Tara has had one tough row to hoe.

Saturday, January 16   Deaths  1,799 (+41)   New cases  1,173

E got up early this morning walked over to Market of Choice to obtain emergency supplies. M stayed home and made coffee. Breakfast was good. Later E went out to the country to walk Pepper and M worked a bit in the garden and then came inside to work on the Turkish version of the PD. Dinner was take-out Italian food. We have enough of it left for another meal. 

Lots of COVID deaths these days, just as Fauci and others had predicted. As measured in terms of deaths per 100,000 residents, the Oregon rate is now 42. Here’s what has been reported for a few other places using that same metric. (World numbers are from the Johns Hopkins. State data is from the Washington Post. We are mindful that these may not be true numbers; true numbers are a dream. These are just the numbers that we have.)

Italy: 135

United Kingdom: 132

United States: 120

Spain: 114

Mexico: 110

Sweden: 101

Switzerland: 101

Brazil:   99

Germany:   55

Canada:   48

Australia:     3.6

Japan:     3.2

New Jersey: 230

New York: 207

Louisiana: 173

Florida: 118

Wyoming:   90

California:   84

Utah:   49

Vermont:   26

Sunday, January 17   Deaths  1,800 (+1)   New cases  799

A lazy morning. The weather is warm, mostly cloudy. The sun, when it’s out, is still far to the south, more than halfway down the sky even at noon. But it warmed us right up when we went for our walk before lunch. 

In the garden there are new shoots starting to poke up–crocuses, hyacinths and daffodils. They’ll be here soon. Right now though, it’s sarcococca time! Sarcococca blooms every year in January, the middle of the winter when there’s nothing else. Its flowers are small and quite unspectacular, but their smell is amazing. We brought a sarcococca from our old house and had the good sense to plant it just beside the front door of our new one. So these days we notice the wonderful smell every time we go in or out. Sarcococca is from the Himalayas, so it conflicts with our current Oregon native plant agenda, but never mind. Moderation in all things.

In the afternoon we talked with E’s brothers on Zoom. Jim is at home in upstate New York while John has ensconced himself in South Carolina where it’s warmer. They seem to be doing well. Alas, our talk was marred again by technical difficulties. E also had a long phone talk with Andrea, who was taking a much deserved day off. We also made a quick run out to B and B’s house to deliver a birthday cake. We wanted to take the little car, but its battery was dead and we were back in the Mazda. Never mind, it was still good to take a drive through the country on this rather nice day.

Later, we plan to watch Part 2 of the new version of All Creatures Great and Small on PBS. E was a little annoyed by Part 1. She has read the original stories several times and she finds that in this production some of her favorite details have been altered or omitted. 

(End of this week’s post. Turkish edition follows.)

Pandemic Günlüğü 11-17 Ocak

pazartesi, 11 ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,613 (+8)       yeni vakalar: 939

Pandemi Günlüğü Oregon’daki ölümleri her gün sayıyor. Her on günde bir ortalama hesaplıyoruz. Bu gün 290. gün. İste yeni grafik.

Faşizm başka bir beladır. Arnold Schwartzenegger bunun Amerika’nın Kristalnacht’ı olduğunu söylüyor. Mesajı çok güçlü.

Corvallis’te alışveriş günüydü. Süpermarket sabahın erken saatlerinde sessizdi. Sabah E Zoom yoga yaptı. Beğendi. Öğleden sonra ormana gitti. Arkadaşı A ve köpeği Pumpkin ile yürüdü. Daha sonra E bugünün akşam yemeğini ve M yarın akşam yemeğini pişirdi. Neden? Yarın iki günlüğüne Bend’e gidiyoruz.

M on birde implanti üzerinde çalışmak için dişçiye gitti. Ofisteki neredeyse herkesin COVID aşısı olduğunu öğrendi. Sadece bir kişiye aşı yapılmadı. Bu kişi M’un ameliyatı sıasında asistandı. Aşılardan hastalandığımı söyledi. M bunu duymak istemedi. Asistanın farklı bir işe ihtiyacı var.

salı, 12 ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,667 (+54)       yeni vakalar: 1,203

Yani şimdi Bend’deyiz. Otelimiz tamam. Çok güzel değil ama pahalı da değil. Karda oynamaya geldik. Maalesef kar yok. Yarın daha yükseğe çıkacağız. 

çarşamba, 13 ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,708 (+41)       yeni vakalar: 1,346

Güzel güneşli gün. Yolda yirmi mil ileredikten sonra çok fazla kar bulduk. Kar ayakkabılarını giydik ve küçük bir dağa çıktı. 

Zirveye çıktığımızda yorgunduk. Güzel bir yer bulduk ve öğle yemeği yemek için oturduk. Kar ayakkabılarını çıkardık ve rahatladık. Dekor zarifti. 

Öğle yemeğinde havuç ve kereviz yedik, sonar sandviç ve çips, sonra çikolata ve kahve. Sonra kar ayakkabımızı giyeriz  ve güzel piknik yerimizden ayrıldık.

perşembe, 14 ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,737 (+29)       yeni vakalar: 1,152

Bend’de bir başka güneşli sabah. Yaklaşık on bir buçukta ayrıldık. Yolda dağları görmek için durduk. Bunlara Üç Kız Kardeş denir. 

cuma, 15 ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,xxx (+29)       yeni vakalar: 1,xxx

COVID durumu çok kötü ve açılıştan herkes endişeli. Tek iyi haber, Trump’ın onay notunun biraz düştüğü. Bir mucize! 

Oregon’da 146.137 COVID aşısı yapıldı. Yaklaşık 150.000 dozumuz kaldı. Bu on iki gün sürecek. Ne zaman daha faslasını alacağımızı.

Educated adlı bir kitapı okuyoruz. Yazar Tara Westover. “Survivalist” bir ailede büyüdü. Hayatı çok zordu. O çok iyi bir yazar. 

cumartesi, 16 ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,799 (+41)       yeni vakalar: 1,173

Bugünlerde çok sayıda COVID ölümü. Oregon oranı artık 100.000’de 42. İşte diğer bazı yerlerin numaraları.

İtalya: 135

Birleşik Krallık: 132

ABD: 120

İspanya: 114

Meksika: 110

İsveç: 101

İsviçre: 101

Brezilya: 99

Almanya:   55

Kanada:   48

Avustralya:     3.6

Japonya:     3.2

New Jersey: 230

New York: 207

Louisiana: 173

Florida: 118

Wyoming:   90

California:   84

Utah:   49

Vermont:   26

pazar, 17 ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,800 (+1)       yeni vakalar: 799

Bu sabah tembeldik. Hava ılık, kısmen bulutlu ve kısmen güneşli. Güney gökyüzünde güneş alçalıyor, ama sıçaklığını hissedebiliyorduk. 

Bahçede bazı yeni yeshil filizler var–çiğdem, nergis ve sümbül. O çiçekler yakında burada olacak. Ama şimdi sarcococca zamanı! Sarcococa çiçekleri küçüktür ve muhteşem değildir, ama harika bir kokuları var. Evimizin ön kapısının yanında bir sarcococca var. Her dışarı çıktığımızda kokusunu alabiliyoruz. Çok hoş.

Öğleden sonra Zoom’dan Eve’in kardeşleriyle konuştuk. Ağabeyi New York’te, küçuk erkek kardeşi Güney Carolina’da. Onlar iyiler. 

Bu akşam PBS’de Büyük ve Küçük Tüm Yaratıklar’ın 2.Bölümünü izleyeceğiz. E kitaplar sevdi ama bu TV programından emin değil.

Monday, January 4   Deaths  1,506 (+6)   New cases  728

The Oregon Health Authority reports that 190,500 doses of vaccine have been delivered to Oregon sites and that 51,275 doses of vaccine have been administered. The most recent daily report shows 5,550 doses administered–5,542 first doses and 8 second doses.

Another grocery shopping day for M and E. M went again to WINCO and Eve filled out an online order with the Co-op. M failed to find any frosted animal-shaped cookies, but otherwise it went okay. Fedex delivered a pair of new shoes for M. He’s afraid to try them on.

Tuesday, January 5   Deaths  1,550 (+44)   New cases  1,059

We went hiking today just west of Corvallis in the foothills of the Coast Range. The trail climbed steeply up Cardwell Hill, giving us this view of the Mary’s River, which is running high these days. 

The trees in the foreground are Oregon White Oaks, Quercas garryana, also called Garry Oaks. White oaks don’t make much of a show in the fall; their leaves just turn medium brown, as can be seen in the upper left above. In winter, however, the trees are quite striking. The light grayish green color is due to a horde of lichen species that cover all their smaller limbs and branches. On a typical dark winter’s day they have a spectral brightness.

White oaks prefer drier soils, so they generally grow on hillsides and plains, where they compete with Douglas Fir. In this competition the fir trees have decided advantages. Fir grow much faster than oak and also grow taller, depriving nearby oaks of sunlight. In the last two hundred years we’ve seen many places where oak forests are steadily shrinking before the relentless advance of the firs. But how did oaks ever compete at all? Why do reports from naturalist David Douglas, who came here 200 years ago, mention seeing vast areas of oak savannah, much more than we see now? The answer, so we are told, is fire. Oaks are more resistant to fire. For thousands of years, as the story goes, the people who lived in these low altitude forests deliberately set fires in order to beat back the fir forest and expand the oak savannah. (In terms of human food value, oak savannah is many times more productive than fir forest.) The coming of the Europeans, however, changed all this. No more fires were set and naturally occurring fires were actively suppressed. The oaks lost their main competitive advantage and began to decline.  

During the thousands of years when oak savannah was prevalent, many species adapted to it. As the savannah declines, those species suffer. But they’re not all gone. We’re not birders, but we think that this here photo contains a genuine Acorn Woodpecker on the side of a genuine oak.

Once we got to the top of the hill, the path descended gently and eventually looped back down toward the river. 

Wednesday, January 6   Deaths  1,558 (+8)   New cases  764

Unquestionably an historic day. First, it appears that Democratic candidates have won both Georgia senate seats. Second, rioters incited by Trump stormed and for a time occupied the Capitol Building before being cleared by police using tear gas, a shameful and traumatic event for the nation. Many Republicans, including McConnell and Pence, have finally broken with the President, but others remain fully supportive. 

It was a cold wet day around here and we spent most of our time indoors. E worked on her photo project. She has had many hundreds of her old photos digitized–about 16 gigabytes–and has been working on giving descriptive file names to a large group of individual photos. By day’s end she was almost finished with this phase. Next, she intends to get some thumb drives and make two copies, one for backup and one to give to Andrea. 

M spent the day mostly on the computer and got excited by an article in New York magazine that addresses the question of the origin of the COVID19 virus. The article, titled “The Lab-Leak Hypothesis,” was written by Nicholson Baker and is available online here. It’s long, but it’s interesting. The main origin question is whether the virus occurred naturally or was created by scientists in a lab. Baker emphasizes that the question is not really answerable at this point. But after doing his research, he does have an opinion. The article opens with this:

What happened was fairly simple, I’ve come to believe. It was an accident. A virus spent some time in a laboratory, and eventually it got out.

The article goes on to provide background about virology and virology research over the past ten years. Although there are some controversial issues around this subject, there are are also some facts that Baker says are not in dispute. 

One of these is that ever since the SARS and MERS epidemics in the early years of this century, large amounts of money have been devoted to virus research, much of it from the US government. The funding went to various researchers in the U.S., but U.S. money also ended up supporting virology work abroad. At a certain point the money flow was reduced on the grounds that some of the research was itself highly dangerous to public health, but this period of concern did not last and the flow soon resumed. 

One avenue of virus research, which has been generously funded, involves the process of taking a naturally occurring Corona virus, one that is not particularly dangerous to humans, and genetically modifying it in ways that make it very dangerous to humans. Hundreds of these new and very infectious viruses have been created and stored in laboratory freezers. The rationale for making them is that they would provide knowledge about how to quickly create vaccines for the next natural virus that jumped from animals to humans. 

It is widely agreed that the natural virus that the COVID19 virus most resembles is called RaTG13. The key difference between the two is that the COVID19 virus has the ability to find and break into human lung cells while RaTG13 does not. Scientists have also been able to find the specific structures within the COVID19 virus that give it this ability. And almost all virologists agree that it is possible that an RaTG13 virus gained these structures by natural mutation, thus creating COVID19. But the structures in question are complicated and for them to have originated naturally would have taken more than one mutation. So that’s slightly iffy. On the other hand, the idea that a scientist could add such structures to a virus is not iffy at all. Any sufficiently proficient virologist could do it. It’s what we’ve been paying them to do for at least the last ten years. 

Anyway, it’s a great article. I’ve summarized only the driest parts. If you haven’t already seen this article, the juicier parts still await you. 

Thursday, January 7  Deaths  1,568 (+10)   New cases  867

We had FaceTime tertulia with J and R and found that we had all been somewhat heartened by a brilliantly colored sunrise. We learned that J and R are soon to celebrate their 50th anniversary. E and M were suitably impressed, though E pointed out that she too has been married for almost exactly 50 years. It’s just that it took her two husbands to get there. (M and E are looking ahead to their 25th this year.)

E went to Office Depot and got her thumb drives, transferred her most recent 500 files, then packed and mailed one of the drives to Andrea. Only this last batch have been processed to give each photo a searchable and descriptive file name. The previous 900 are organized into folders with descriptive names, but have not been individually named. That, she says, will be the next phase of her work. After that, her plan is to continue on with one more box of albums, which she estimates will yield another 500 photos. All this is connected to her main project, which is to radically reorganize the storage space in our garage in order to make space for a bicycle! 

Taking advantage of the sunny day, we took a longer than usual walk, venturing outside our immediate neighborhood. After that M stayed outside and took down the remaining Christmas lights. This allowed him to return all the Xmas boxes to their places and generally tidy up the garage. Did we mention that it has been raining quite a lot lately? M found this out when he was trying to use a small ladder to reach up to unhook some lights. At one point, when he started up the ladder, its legs sank eight inches into the muddy ground, which left him four inches short of what he needed to reach. Christmas is hard. 

Friday, January 8   Deaths  1,575 (+7)   New cases  1,755

What started out as a dull, listless sort of day brightened up considerably in the late afternoon when E took a moment from her garage organizing labors to check the mail. M heard her cries of delight even from deep inside the house. Our care package from the Switzerland had finally arrived.  

Because we are civilized folk, we waited until after dinner to open the package. Before commencing on the chocolate itself, we read the card and letter. Our friends have three children and several grandchildren, all of whom usually come home for Christmas, but this year, like many of us, the grandparents found themselves dining alone at the holidays. Apparently schools and restaurants are both open in Switzerland, but the latter close at 7:00 and multi-family gatherings are severely restricted. We can say with confidence, however, that the quality of Swiss dark chocolate remains high–very high. 

We were also pleased yesterday to receive our copy of The Book of Ruthie, a volume of Eve’s mother’s writings and watercolor paintings that have been collected and made into a book by Ruth’s younger sister and last surviving sibling. It’s very well done and includes a fine preface by Son John, who also handled distribution. 

And, on a much more trivial note, M was pleased today to receive word that a digital version of his Yemen VHS videotape was ready for him to download. (This was supposed to happen a couple of months ago, but on that occasion the files that he was instructed to download were not of Yemen at all but rather from some kind of beauty pageant in Minnesota. So the whole thing had to start over.) Today M finally got what he had paid for, but he was even more delighted by the fact that besides his Yemen footage his download included a special bonus–additional video from Minnesota! In this one, he was able to identify the name of the pageant: the state finals for the title of Mrs. Minnesota America, probably from 1999 or 2000. Looks like quite an event.

The logo for the Mrs. America pageant, by the way, is a drawing of an angel posed in a modestly high-walled clawfoot bathtub painted the colors of the U.S. flag. Pretty cool. If you think we made this up, try googling it. One easy way to do that is to type this phrase into your search box:   4 days left to save $200 on Mrs. Texas  Then click on Images.

Saturday, January 9   Deaths  1,603 (+28)   New cases  1,643

After breakfast E went out to the country to take Pepper for a walk and on her way home stopped at the fabric store to buy some elastic. Remember when everyone was trying to make masks and  there was no elastic anywhere to be found? E says that judging from this fabric store, that shortage is over. E spent several happy hours making alterations to her new pajamas that she had not been able to try on in the store. She is pleased with the results. M spent a few hours reading The River Why and then did some Turkish work. Dinner was take-out chile rellenos from El Palenque. After dinner we watched two episodes of Love is in the Air (Yer Gök Aşk), a Turkish series first shown in 2010. It’s very different from some of the more recent series that we have watched.

Sunday, January 10   Deaths  1,605 (+2)   New cases  1,225

The number of vaccinations in Oregon is getting close to 100,000. That’s nice, but we still have a long way to go. A letter in the paper today had a rant about how poorly this was being managed; the writer had never seen anything so badly bungled. Didn’t mention any specifics though, and didn’t make any suggestions.

But we had homemade chocolate chip scones for breakfast! (Also for a part of M’s lunch.) Wonderful. Later we went for a walk up to our little 13th Street natural area. We both wore new shoes and got them a little muddy. Yes, life goes on. A damp, misty day, but not really raining. 

Later on M finished his Turkish version of last week’s post to the Pandemic Diary and appended it to the bottom of the English one. It’s a sort of primary school version of the real thing. We don’t know why he’s doing it; he said it was either that or watch more YouTube videos. We also spent time today planning a trip to Bend to stay in a nice hotel and have another picnic in the snow.

(Türkce versiyonunu görmek için aşağı kaydırın.)

Monday, December 28   Deaths  1,433 (+6)   New cases  865

COVID deaths in Oregon have dropped somewhat in the last few days. Is this the end of the Thanksgiving surge? Will mid-January bring us a Christmas surge? 

Cold overnight but sunny today. M got groceries at WINCO early. The store was almost empty. Then came a walk in the forest with guest dog Pepper, followed by some garden work. At 2:00 E had a meeting with her HEPAJ group. The group meets in an open garage. While she was there the Co-op called to say that her grocery order was ready, so she picked it up directly after the meeting. While she was gone, M stayed with the dog and watched Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom on Netflix. Quite a show. A powerful story with good performances by Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman.

Tuesday, December 29   Deaths  1,449 (+16)   New cases  713

Another cold clear day. We took Pepper on another long walk, up the hill to the top of Garryana. He loved it. M spent a couple of hours rebuilding our very modest smart home network. It consists of just one Homepod and one smart outlet, but both had gone haywire, resulting in Siri refusing to turn on the Christmas lights. M had to reset both the HomePod and the smart outlet, which is lot like unplugging something and plugging it back in, only with a lot more steps. Ridiculous. For dinner M made stir fry vegetables and rice with cranberry sauce on the side for color. 

Wednesday, December 30   Deaths  1,468 (+19)   New cases  1,052

A normal winter day, sorta cold, sorta wet, the kind of weather that’s unpleasant but is not really trying to kill you. We took Pepper up to the Chip Ross Natural Area. Four thousand steps and twelve stories up and down, said E’s smartwatch. A few years ago the country parks department went through and took down the fir trees. They also removed blackberry and other invasive undergrowth, leaving just the the native oaks and a few native madrones, making it a kind of savannah. In the winter the oaks are bare of course and on a wet day they’re all stark and colorless. With a grey sky, grey branches, faded grass, and the dark gravel trail, it seemed as if the scene had been filmed in black and white. But whenever we passed by a stand of young madrone, the world was colorized again. They’re bursting with health this time of year, showing off their deep green waxy leaves and red branches. They say the madrone population is declining in the Northwest, but the ones we saw today looked fine.

Thursday, December 31   Deaths  1,477 (+9)   New cases  1,682

It’s the 280th day of record keeping here at Pandemic Diary and time to update the chart. After forty days of record breaking increases, the number of reported Oregon daily COVID deaths has finally declined, falling from 21 deaths per day to just 13. 

We had a kind of hectic New Years Eve. We started the day off with tertulia to check in with J and R. They are doing well and their cat is less radioactive every day. It was eight in the morning when we talked to them, but they had already received New Year’s greeting from folks in Australia where the new year had already begun. After that we straightened up the place and packed up our guest dog’s things so that he could be picked up at 11:30. Once Pepper had departed, E was downcast, partly because she missed him already and partly because he had seemed so excited to leave. She started thinking maybe she hadn’t given him enough treats. Nor had she allowed the dog onto the furniture. Plus she had made him take long walks up steep hills. He must have thought he was in boot camp. (But in fact he loves E dearly and very likely misses her too, if M is any judge.)

After that trauma we ventured out, first to get gas for the car, then to the liquor store to get a pint of Southern Comfort. (Why, you might ask, would we do that? More later.) The first liquor store we tried was jammed with young people. The store was limiting the number of customers who could come into the aisles, which was good, but the people who were waiting were merely mobbing together just inside the doorway. Someone was a little unclear on the concept. So off we went to another store where things were easier. Then it was lunchtime. We got sandwiches from the Vietnamese Baguette downtown and ate them in the car parked by the river. 

After that we drove down to Finley Refuge. On the way, E checked in with brother John, who has finally left the north woods was just then arriving in Virginia, on his way to South Carolina, where he intends to spend the coldest part of winter. After a walk in the refuge–where the water levels are pretty high in the ponds and wetlands–we headed back to town and got a couple of lattes to reward ourselves. We saw a very shiny gold Mustang GT in the Coffee Culture parking lot. It was awesome, paint so bright it actually looked like gold. Who knows, maybe it was. 

Then it was time for E’s New Year’s Eve Zoom with S and Mrs. H. M found a Happy New Year Zoom background while E fixed drinks–Southern Comfort Manhattans. This cocktail had been suggested by S to commemorate the days of yore. There was a time, it is said, when the three friends frequently made a meal of SC Manhattans and pizza. M was not acquainted with this dissolute trio at that time. He remembers just one Southern Comfort occasion in his life, an overdose which occurred roughly 55 years ago and which had caused him to avoid that particular beverage ever since.

The meeting, 4:00 to 5:00 Pacific time, 7:00 to 8:00 in the East, was fun for all. No one managed to recreate the storied meal exactly. Mrs. H got a lot of points having dined  this very day on Hart’s pizza–their old favorite. She paired it with some mere wine she had around, but still edged out S, who had a BLT made with veggie bacon and brought a martini to the Zoom party. E hadn’t yet eaten but was looking to have a veggie hot dog with beans both baked and green. No points there. She got significant credit for her Southern Comfort and vermouth but was compelled to confess that it contained no cherry.

After the meeting, M and E had their dinner and then moved on to the next event: a jigsaw puzzle and a bottle of champagne. The puzzle was a present from the Andees, a picture of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Waters house in Pennsylvania. It had only five hundred pieces and would have been fairly easy except that it had an awful lot of green. 

New Year’s Eve is the only night in the year that we are still awake at midnight. Accomplishing this requires both extraordinary motivation and extraordinary fuel. Things worked out pretty well this time. Year 2020 ended with the puzzle lacking only its last 15 pieces and the champagne supply nearly exhausted.

Friday, January 1   Deaths  1,490 (+13)   New cases  1,446

E dreamed last night that we were eating our Christmas tree. So far, the dream has not turned out to be prophecy and our tree is still intact. Instead, E made her New Year’s scalloped potatoes. For many years she has made them to take to the traditional New Year’d Day black-eyed peas gala at A’s house out in the wilds of King’s Valley. There’s no gala this year, but she made the potatoes anyway and decided to take half a pan out to A so as to have a least a socially distanced outdoor chat. We sheltered under the porch roof and had a nice talk, though we had to shout just a little to be heard above a host of very vocal red winged blackbirds. A is an EMT and has learned that she will be getting the COVID19 vaccine next week. She reports that more than 40,000 doses have been administered in Oregon so far. 

Our the way home took us along Tampico Road on the edge of Dunn Forest, so we stopped for a short hike at Road 400, a route we had never explored. Being graveled, logging roads are a nice place to hike on these days of continual intermittent rain. By the time we got back to our car the daylight portion of January 1 was close to ending. Once home, we had our potatoes along with some of A’s black-eyed peas, watched some TV, and went to bed early.

Saturday, January 2   Deaths  1,492 (+2)   New cases  1,010

It was another dark and rainy day, but despite the weather E attended an outdoor retirement party. The time has come for our friend J, youngster that she is, to finally part ways with OSU and cast her lot with PERS. A group of her friends, organized by the indomitable MS, all met up at J’s house to sing her a congratulatory song composed just for the occasion by the Pointless Sisters. The masked performers spaced themselves many feet apart in the front yard. E reports that she kept well back and did not sing. She did, however, hold up a cardboard sign that said Happy Retirement in large letters and provided a gift of a new hiking guide. J accepted this homage while standing on her front porch. When the song was done, J made a brief speech of thanks, and the event concluded.

M, meanwhile, stayed at home and watched an old detective movie called Too Late on Prime. The movie stars John Hawkes, a wonderful actor that he had never seen before and who is–I think we can agree–not conventionally handsome. The movie isn’t conventionally handsome either. It is off kilter–way off kilter–and yet very good, sweet at heart if nowhere else. 

For dinner we treated ourselves to take-out from Sybaris, crab/shrimp Louie for E, chicken tikka masala for M, and key lime pie to share for dessert. Pick up required a long drive over to Albany in the dark and the rain, but it was worth it. After dinner we watched the final two episodes of Bridgerton. That long drama is also sweet at heart–I guess. As for being conventionally handsome (and conventionally ridiculous), it pretty much nails those.

Sunday, January 3   Deaths  1,500 (+8)   New cases  1,421

A nice morning, mostly sunny. It was warm too, around 50. We went for a walk in the neighborhood and found lots of like-minded others. We dodged them all. After that we started dismantling Christmas, first the lights in the back of the house and then the tree. E picked out some décor items that we don’t really need. She put them in a vintage, Christmas-themed, plastic shopping bag from AlphaOmega in Nicosia and set them aside to be donated next October. She’s an optimist. We haven’t yet removed the big light string from the front of the house. Best not to end all the cheer just yet. 

Today’s paper noted the death of Dawn Wells, who played Maryann on Gilligan’s Island. This reminded M that E has never seen Gilligan’s Island, not ever, and has no clue who any of the characters might be. M long ago decided not to be too concerned about this fact, as she seems otherwise fairly normal.

After dinner we watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. The film is set in East Germany during the Cold War era and it is terrible. It’s so bad that we both burst out laughing several times and eventually wondered if we wanted to even finish it. There’s a scene where the two stars walk together up what is supposed to look like a little hill on a university campus in Leipzig. If this little hill set had been created by a class of fifth graders, their parents would surely have been proud. But in the context of a major Hollywood production…we can only hope that the set designer insisted on a pseudonym in the credits. The movie does have some good moments, but basically the story is preposterous and it all moves so slowly that you have plenty of time to notice just how dumb it is. Not one of Hitchcock’s best. 

Pandemi Günlüğü   28 aralık – 3 ocak

pazartesi, 28 aralık Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,433 (+6)       yeni vakalar: 865

Dün gece soğuk ama bu gün güneşli. M WINCO’den bakkaliye aldı. Sabah erken gitti çünkü dükkanlar kalabalık değil. Alışverişten sonra misafirimizle ormanda yürüduk. Ziyaretçimiz bir köpek. Onun adı Pepper. E bir grup arkadaşıyla saat 2:00’de buluştu. Guvenlik için açık bir garajda buluştular. M Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom adlı film izledi. Viola Davis ve Chadwick Boseman filmde. Güçlu bir hikaye.

salı, 29 aralık Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,449 (+16)       yeni vakalar: 713

Soğuk bir gün. Pepper ile uzun bir yürüyüş daha yaptık. M daha sonra akşam yemeği pişirdi: asya sebzeleri ve pilav.

çarşamba, 30 aralık Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,468 (+19)       yeni vakalar: 1,052

Normal bir gün. Biraz soğuk, biraz yağmurlu, fena değil. Chip Ross Natural Area’da yürüdük. Meşe ağaçları ve madrone ağaçları gördük. Meşeler çıplak ve renksizdi. Madronelar çok farklıydı. Bu havayı seviyorlar. Derin yeşil yaprakları ve kırmızı dalları çok güzel. 

perşembe, 31 aralık Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,477 (+9)       yeni vakalar: 1,682

Oregon’daki günlük ölümler biraz azaldı. Bu iyi bir haber çünkü son 40 gün çok kötüydü. İşte yeni grafik. 

Yeni yıl arifesi çok meşguldü. Zoom üzerinde J ve R ile konuştuk. Onlar iyiler. Avustralya’da ailerleri var ve orada yeni yıllar vardı. Sonra Pepper’in eşyalarını topladık. Arkadaşı onu almak için 11:30’te geldi. E köpekleri seviyor ve üzgündü. Öğle yemeğinden sonra Finley Refuge’te yürüdük ve sonra kahve içtik. 

Saat 4:00’te Eve’nin arkadaşlariyla konuştuk. New York’ta yaşiyorlar. Zoom kullandik ve bir saat konuştuk. Genç oldukları zaman hakkında konuştular. Eski zamanlarda en sevdikleri yemek Manhattan kokteylleri ve pizzaydı. Tsk-tsk.

Yemekten sonra yapboz yaptık ve şampanya icidik. Gece yarısına kadar kaldık. İnanılmaz!

cuma, 1 ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,490 (+13)       yeni vakalar: 1,446

Öğleden sonra arkadaşımız April ziyarete gittik. (April Türkce nisan.) Evinin dışında biraz konuştuk. O bir EMT ve bir itfaiyeci. Yanında bir COVID aşisı olacak. Oregon’da 40.000 aşı yapıldığını söylüyor. 

cumartesi, 2 ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,492 (+9)       yeni vakalar: 1,010

Başka bir soğuk ve yağmurlu gün. M Too Late (Çok Ğeç) adlı eski bir dedektif filmini izledi. John Hawkes ana oyuncuydu. O çok ilginç ve film çok güzel.

pazar, 3 ocak Oregon’daki ölümler: 1,500 (+8)       yeni vakalar: 1,421

Sabah güzel, sıcak ve güneşli. Mahallemizde yürüdük ve başka birçok insan gördük. Bugünün gazetesinden Dawn Wells’in öldüğünü biliyoruz. O Gilligan’s Island adlı bir programdan unlu oldu. Amerika’da neredyse herkes Gilligans Island hatırlar. Sadece bir insan hatırlamıyor çünkü onu hiç görmedi. O kişi Eve. Gerçekten. 

Monday, December 21   Deaths  1,347 (+6)   New cases  846

It’s the 270th day of Pandemic Diary record keeping, time for another chart update.

The number of deaths per day in the most recent 10-day period it was 21.1. The trend is still upward, but the increase is noticeably less steep than it was in the previous thirty days. In terms of COVID deaths per 100,000 residents, Oregon’s rate is now 31.3.

Tuesday, December 22   Deaths  1,382 (+35)   New cases  1,282

We packed a lunch and went up into the Cascades today. We didn’t know exactly what we would find, so we thought of it as a hike and/or a snowshoe walk, which is pretty much what it turned out to be. We went to a place called Lost Prairie, which is just the other side of Tombstone Pass. It’s closer to us than other sites, but generally has less snow than the really good places, especially this early in the season. For that reason we hadn’t been there in years. 

Wednesday, December 23   Deaths  1,403 (+21)   New cases  1,000

We had our Turkish lesson today (Christmas Eve Eve) and reviewed what in English would be called gerunds and infinitives in before/after clauses.  The teach gave this example: “After learning grammar, understanding is easy.” “Dilbilgisini oğrendikten sonra anlamak kolay.” I know it sounds like teacher propaganda, but it’s more or less true. Even people who hate and fear grammar and who are convinced that their grammar is terrible–even those people–have in fact learned all of the really important grammar points if only through natural absorption, which they didn’t notice at the time. 

We got another Christmas card with a short letter. Toward the end of the letter our correspondent noted that 

My cat, Bootsy, went to Kitty Heaven last March. 11 years old. He bit  R really bad, tore skin off of wrist and arm. R feared him. Also nipped at 2 friends who were trying to play with him. I miss him, but it was necessary. 

No boasting about great trips and awesome accomplishments, and yet this writer never whines or complains either. A national treasure.

Speaking of treasures, E made chocolate peanut butter squares. She makes them just like chocolate peanut butter balls except that she doesn’t waste time making the silly shapes. Just whips ‘em right up in time for dinner. Yum.

Thursday, December 24   Deaths  1,415 (+12)   New cases  871

Last minute trip to the grocery store to pick up salmon, etc. Yuck. Busy. E went to visit with PF in the afternoon. They sat outside for a bit. P seems to be doing well. M checked air pressure in the tires on the car that we don’t use. Right rear was low, just as the dash warning claimed. Then it was time to make pecan pie. M made a crust, E made the filling, leaving M to monitor doneness. It looks pretty good. M’s night to make dinner: fondue, french bread and a green salad. After dinner we tried to watch the new Dolly Parton movie. Sigh. Good message, but too much singing of too sappy lyrics. 

Friday, December 25   Deaths  1,422 (+7)   New cases  908

Christmas itself is upon us. We breakfasted on scrambled eggs paired with a raspberry coffeecake. And of course we had stockings and presents. E got a couple of maple sugar snowmen and M got a Lego Ferrari. At elevenish we set off for Salem where we met up with the Andees at K and J’s house to exchange presents with them. C and her new beau were also there. They all came out to meet us and we talked for bit in the front yard. It was wonderful to see all of them. M noted later that there was a strong Becca thread running through the gathering–a mother, a sister, and two good friends. After our visit, we took the freeway south and stopped at the Ankeny Wildlife Refuge to walk through the ash wetland. We wondered if it would be crowded or not. (Christmas is national bird counting day.) But as it happened, we had the place all to ourselves–possibly because it was raining and the temperature was around 37 degrees. We walked to the end of the boardwalk and back–at a fairly brisk pace–and then ate our lunch in the car with the heater on. Nice.

Back at home E had a phone call with her brothers and a little later we did a Zoom meeting with the Andees to watch each other open presents. This was followed by a light but very delicious champagne and salmon dinner followed by a very delicious not so light serving of pecan pie. 

Also today, the OHA reported that a total of 17,130 Oregonians have received COVID-19 first vaccinations, all of them hospital workers or people in long-term care facilities. 

OHA also reports daily test numbers and daily new cases confirmed. Results for the past seven days are shown below.

	Daily tests	Daily new cases	Rate
Saturday 12/19	21,708	1,542	7.10%
Sunday 12/20	17,426	1,153	6.62%
Monday 12/21	17,506	846	4.83%
Tuesday 12/22	18,993	1,282	6.75%
Wednesday 12/23	26,459	1,000	3.78%
Thursday 12/24	19,586	871	4.45%
Friday 12/25	25,892	908	3.51%
weekly average	21,081	1,086	5.29%

Saturday, December 26   Deaths  1,422 (+0)   New cases  612

A quiet day on several fronts. No COVID deaths reported, which is a nice Christmas gift. One thing we have to say about this Pandemic Diary idea, it does get depressing when the news is bad. So let’s celebrate for just a moment.

We’re mostly just cleaning up and resting, though E is still doing Christmas related correspondence both on paper and via the great web.

Sunday, December 27   Deaths  1,427 (+5)   New cases  1,416

A sunny day drew M out to work in the yard. The temperature was in the low forties, good conditions for sod turning. E got the house ready for another visit from Pepper, whose owner is going in tomorrow for her second cataract surgery. Then at 3:00 we had a Zoom call with Jim and John, with the Andees dropping in as well. Technical difficulties delayed the start of the meeting slightly, but by 3:40 we were doing pretty good… We ended at 4:00 so as to give E time to go out to the country and pick up the dog before it got dark.

Monday, December 14   Deaths  1,161 (+35)   New cases  1,180

M went shopping at Market of Choice while Eve waited for word from the Co-op about when her order would be ready. Before lunch we took Pepper for a longish walk in the forest, something he doesn’t often get to do. He was happy on the trail and mostly quiet at home all afternoon. 

We’re both working on homework for the Turkish class. There’s a lot to look at this week, including everyday vocabulary like seasons, months, days of the weeks, colors, numbers, and household items. All very useful. In case anyone is curious: Bugün ondört aralık pazartesi. (Today is Monday the fourteenth of December and the days of the week and the names of months are not capitalized in Turkish–I think.)

Eve’s grocery order was ready by around three in the afternoon. She paid over the phone, including the $5 service fee and then went over to the shop to pick it up.

Tuesday, December 15   Deaths  1,214 (+54)   New cases  1,129

A very high number of deaths reported today, but the Oregon Health Authority reports that this is partly due to the fact that there was a sizable backlog of death certificates that needed final processing by the CDC before the results could be announced. The backlog was cleared today.

Speaking of the pandemic, it seems that the Post Office has issued some COVID-19 commemoratives just in time for the holiday season. E got this sheet today when she asked for international forever stamps. 

Wednesday, December 16   Deaths  1,262 (+48)   New cases  1,562

An eventful morning for E, who had to prepare breakfast for both herself and our guest and also take the guest for a walk, all of this before 9:00 when our Zoom Turkish lesson started. M helped by making breakfast for himself and enough coffee for two, but was otherwise mostly useless all day. Pepper was picked up by another member of the care team before lunch, which left us once again dogless–and ready to relax a little. But E went right to work on some Christmas letters and cookie making. 

Rainy, cold, and dark today, typical December. In Turkish today we practiced adjective clauses by saying things like “Is August the month you like the best?” and “No, August is the month I hate the most.” In theory, then, we should be able to say something like “What’s the name of the president that you liked so much?” Actually that pushing things a bit, but let’s try anyway. How about this: O çok sevdiğin başkanın adı ne? (Literally, “He much that you like president’s name what is?) For the grammarians among you, one interesting thing here is that the verb in the clause is not marked for tense as it would be in English. Also, in English, the use of “that” as a clause marker is optional in this kind of clause, whereas in Turkish the “diği” part is required.

And speaking of things that people like or don’t like, we got a card yesterday that included a Christmas letter. Here are the first few lines of the letter:

2020, what a dismal year. China virus, grandchildren not in school, extra-curricular sports cancelled or very limited, shelter in place, travel bans, quarantines, unnecessary political investigations, a vindictive impeachment process, and the radical left will be in the White House.

So yeah, it’s been that kind of year. 

It strikes us that this letter could serve as a template. For that to work, we could just blank out a few words here and there and then people could fill in the blanks according to personal preference:

2020, what a dismal year. _____________ virus, grandchildren not in school, extra-curricular sports cancelled or very limited, shelter in place, travel bans, quarantines, ______________ investigations, a _______________ impeachment process, and the __________________ in the White House.

Thursday, December 17   Deaths  1,2830 (+21)   New cases  1,339

Tertulia today with R and J. We compared notes about Christmas dinner plans. We’re all of us thinking of salmon. J is going to bake hers in phyllo dough with rice and kale. She plans to make a lot so as to have some to share with her kids and their families who all live here in town. Our plans are not fixed, but I suspect our salmon will be simpler. 

We drove over to the coast today, a lovely hour or so featuring periods of bright sun with lots of clouds and showers in between. We stopped in Newport for a coffee and then went south to Ona Beach. We walked across the bridge and onto the wide, flat beach that was littered with foam. It was windy and cold out there, but it was nice to see the far horizon away beyond the chaotic breakers. Just a few minutes after we turned back toward the parking lot, the rains came. We stayed comfortable in our hooded coats with the wind at our backs. When we arrived back in Corvallis a little after 4:30, it was already early evening. It made us remember that the winter solstice is not so far away.

Friday, December 18   Deaths  1,304 (+21)   New cases  1,390

The sun is low on the horizon these days, but at least it was shining today all morning and into the afternoon. That was long enough to dry off our outdoor table–the last thing left for us to winterize. We’re leaving it out again this year, so it just needed to be covered. M gave it two layers, inner green and outer beige. The only question now is how soon they will blow loose. As if on cue, the rain came back strong in the early evening. The table was fine, but we got kind of wet on our before dinner walk.

Saturday, December 19   Deaths  1,340 (+36)   New cases  1,542

More rain is expected today and tomorrow, lots of it apparently, as we’ve been getting flood warnings. They expect the rivers to rise. Well, that happens a lot here this time of year.

We’ve been planning for Christmas. Looks like we’ll see the Andees at least briefly to exchange gifts and greetings on Christmas day. Before that we’re hoping to get in a snowshoe trip on Monday or Tuesday. And we have been thinking, just a little, now and again, about food: salmon, coffee cake, chocolate pecan pie, things like that. Dinner today is take-out from Ba’s Vietnamese, large portions that we can stretch to make two meals.

COVID vaccine is now being administered to local health care workers. There is some confusion about how many doses will be available and how soon, but at least it has begun. The bad news is that the death rate is higher than ever and still growing. Oregon marked its 1,000th COVID death on December 4, about nine months after the pandemic began. Since then there have been 340 additional deaths in just 15 days. 

Sunday, December 20  Deaths  1,341 (+1)   New cases  1,153

We made an emergency trip to the grocery store this morning. Just had to buy some jam for cookie making. Was this really essential? Hard to say. It was relatively quick and painless. We walked over to MofC, then E went in while M hung around outside sheltering from the rain in the doorway of frozen yogurt place, which happened to be closed. Lots of rain these days with temps pushing 50. 

E organized a Zoom birthday celebration in the early afternoon. Beside the two of us and Andrea, guests included our old friend Helen as well as her daughter and her son, his partner, and one of Helen’s grandchildren. It was fun to catch up with this group and see how everyone is doing. Three different members of this crowd have birthdays in December, hence the need for a celebration. Eve prepared a three-candled birthday cake–which resembled half a bagel– and we all sang Happy Birthday. 

Once that was done, E got right into cookie making. M did a little email, a little Merleau-Ponty, and a little sampling of cookie dough. Dinner comes from the freezer today–leftovers from Thanksgiving.

Monday, December 7    Deaths   1,045 (+12)   New cases  1,331

Early on a Monday morning the Mother of Markets was almost empty. We went there together. We know you’re not supposed to do that. But it’s a big airy place and E is getting tired of the Co-op, with its low ceilings and narrow aisles. We split up to do much of the shopping, so we were in and out fairly quickly. We spent a lot of money, though; there’s nothing cheap about Mother of Markets. The good news today was that our grapefruit shipment arrived from Pittman-Davis in Texas. Otherwise, just the normal stuff, a Zoom class, some puttering around outside, naps in the afternoon, and a long walk after dinner to see the Christmas lights in a nearby neighborhood. 

Tuesday, December 8   Deaths  1,080 (+35)   New cases  1,341

Grapefruit for breakfast. Harika! After that, we had to attack our Turkish homework to prep for tomorrow’s lesson. We had a couple of vocabulary worksheets focusing on more or less common adjectives. Go ahead, ask either of us how to say “soft cotton” or “slow turtle” in Turkish. You could even ask us to say “soft turtle” and “fast cotton” if you wanted to. We could do it. Of course you’d have to ask us to do that pretty soon, because, at our age, we don’t know how long we’re going to remember these words. We also had to prepare short oral presentations. E’s is about a dog; M’s is about a car. This took all morning; it was past noon when we knocked off for lunch. In the afternoon we went for a walk in the forest. The weather was nice, partly cloudy with temps in the high forties.

The Turkish word for forest is orman. The word for in is da and in Turkish it comes after the noun instead of before. So ormanda means in the forest . The word for walk is yürü and and the past tense first person plural verb ending is dük. So yürüdük means we walked. Therefore, We walked in the forest would be Yürüdük ormanda. Except it isn’t. In Turkish the verb and all its endings come at the end of the sentence. Hence: Ormanda yürüdük. All this stuff is really easy once you get used to it. We know this from personal experience, not because we personally are used to it because we’re not, but we have personally listened to Turks speaking Turkish. You should hear them when they get going. None of it bothers them at all. Little kids even…

After our walk M found time to wrap two presents and waste some time online. E found time to continue to support local clothing stores in their time of trouble. This time she didn’t want to go inside the store, which is a bit cramped. She found, however, that they have put much of their inventory onto a website. So she used that to make her selection and to pay. Then she called and made arrangements to go downtown and have the sweater brought out to her rather than shipped.

Watched another episode of The Crown. The Duke of Windsor has died. Charles has fallen for Camilla. Good acting and writing. Nice cars. But it’s a swindle, this mingling of fact and fiction. It’s just another kind of reality TV. 

Wednesday, December 9   Deaths  1,110 (+30)   New cases  1,205

Turkish class. Walk up the hill. Wrap presents. Prepare xmas letter. Random reviews via Zoom. Country Strings via Zoom. The guest on Country Strings was David Alvin. David and Phil Alvin came to some prominence in the 80’s in a band called The Blasters. David’s musical inspiration, then and now, was roots music, especially blues, about which his knowledge seems vast. In the Zoom session from his home in California, Alvin played some of his own songs that featured wonderful acoustic blues guitar. Awesome. American Strings is a local university-sponsored free concert series, and since it is now on Zoom, it is available to all. We don’t know the line-up for 2021, but past guests have included Noel Paul Stookey, Tom Paxton, Sarah Jarosz, Roseanne Cash, Country Joe McDonald, Carlene Carter, and Bill Frisell. The format is half an hour of music talk followed by a half an hour of live performance.

After posting last week’s Pandemic Diary, we have had an outpouring of support for our Christmas tree. We have been urged to be more mindful of its feelings when we report about it and we are taking this advice to heart. However, honesty compels us to report that the tree has developed a drinking problem. The tree’s caregivers have noted an extraordinarily high level of liquid intake. This is not meant as a criticism, merely a matter of concern at this point. The tree’s behavior has been placid and uncomplaining with no sign of wobbling or other instability, at least so far…

Thursday, December 10   Deaths  1,123 (+13)   New cases  1,286

FaceTime tertulia with J and R this morning, then E went right into Zoom Better Bones and Balance while M noodled around on the computer. Dull weather today, thick morning fog giving way to a featureless gray sky. Cold rain showers in the late afternoon. With not a breath of wind, the raindrops fall straight down, thousands of perfectly parallel vectors. 

E’s hair stylist is retiring at the end of the month; they had their last appointment today. E’s hair looks great. But what will she do now?

Friday, December 11   Deaths  1,138 (+15)   New cases  1,610

It’s the 260th day of the pandemic and the Oregon death rate continues to rise steeply. The number of deaths per 100,000 residents has reached 26.5. 

Saturday, December 12   Deaths  1,149 (+11)   New cases  1,440

Lovely day, not too cold, cloudy with periods of sun. E went out to the country again to take dog Pepper for a walk. Around midday, both of us worked outside doing fall chores, including pruning our respective roses. M pruned the ones in the back, a motley assortment inherited from the previous owners. E pruned the miniatures that we brought from our old house. They’re in large pots and are nice enough to go in front of the house.

In the afternoon M ventured out to the liquor store. Business was booming and the store was enforcing a limit of five customers in the store at any one time. At the checkout counter the store was still using a credit card reader that required a signature on a touchscreen. That seemed primitive at a time when other stores have moved to no-touch credit card readers. Ah but wait. As soon as M removed his card and the signing screen popped up, the clerk pulled the reader back, made a quick X on his behalf and wished him a nice day. Very sensible. 

Thus resupplied, we had a lot of fun doing a Zoom happy hour with B and B. For a Zoom background we used a photo from the last time the four of us went snowshoeing. 

Dinner was take-out from Pastinis. We ordered online, which we have done before, but this time the process failed. We received our confirmation email as usual, but when we arrived at the appointed time, the staff at the restaurant had never heard of us. Sigh. We reordered right then and waited in the car. It didn’t take too long, but it is not good to have such problems when one is hungry. As best we can tell, the transaction failed as soon as it was made, but despite the failure, the system (TableUp) sent us a confirmation anyway. TableUp baka desu. TableUp çok aptal. TableUp es estúpido.

Sunday, December 13   Deaths  1,155 (+6)   New cases  1,048

A day of rest. After we read the paper, M did the crossword and finished a mystery novel. E had a Zoom get-together with some old friends. We opened a shipment of new cotton/rayon towels, cabernet for M and raspberry for E. They are made in Turkey of course, because that’s where we became towel snobs. What a treat it was to buy towels there! Bur never mind the history. These new ones are lovely and feel very nice. As for how they perform, we shall see.

We’re trying out the idea of online grocery ordering and curbside pickup at the Co-op. E has submitted her list and the Co-op site tells us that they will call us when our order is ready, promising that this will be either Monday or Tuesday. We’ll pay on the phone and then go pick it up.

But the big news today is that we are having a houseguest. Pepper’s owner is having cataract surgery on Monday and won’t be able to care for him properly for a few days. E will go out and pick him up today just before dark. M will stay home and make spaghetti. 

We continue to hatewatch The Crown. Hopefully, we’ll be done soon.

Monday, November 30    Deaths   912 (+7)   New cases  1,314

Grocery shopping again today. M braved the vastness of Winco at 8:15 in the morning. It was far from empty, but it was even farther from its usual packed condition, which we have not seen lately but clearly remember from days past. Prices are good there, and it’s easy to find Reser’s bean and cheese burritos. Winco also has graham cracker crumbs, condensed milk, chocolate chips, and coconut–four critical Christmas items. Check-out was slow, with only two lanes open, and M was late getting back home. E was impatient, stamping her foot, probably the left one. Immediately as he arrived, she departed for the smaller and somewhat claustrophobic Co-op, where she did her part of the dreaded shopping. At least it was a nice morning to be out and about. Both shoppers reported seeing rainbows during their respective journeys. 

In the middle of the day, M glimpsed the sun and started putting up lights on the house, while E, with all critical items in hand, started work on The Bars. Later on, E delivered a birthday cookie to her friend A and picked up some take-out falafel for dinner. After dinner we sampled the bars. And after bars a little TV, the last two episodes of Bir Başkadır. The series had a nice ending. Basically everybody got in touch with their feelings–well, almost everybody–and felt a lot better. Even the little boy who never spoke started talking. Meryem fainted again, but that’s all right since it was mostly from happiness. 

Tuesday, December 1    Deaths  936 (+24)   New cases  1,223

The Oregon Health Authority reports today that there were 24 COVID deaths on Monday, a new daily record. Today is also the 250th day of the Pandemic Diary and so it is time for another chart. The news is grim. As always, the chart tracks average deaths per day per ten day period. Again the scale of our chart has had to change; the vertical axis now extends to twelve. 

The overall total of 936 COVID deaths brings Oregon’s per 100,000 rate to 21.76. The current rate for the U.S. as a whole is 81.93.

Wednesday, December 2    Deaths   953 (+17)   New cases  1,244

We started the day with Turkish class, always a bracing experience. After that, the main event was that we did some Christmas shopping. Stores are open in downtown Corvallis, but they seemed, from our limited experience, to be mostly empty. We were wondering about E’s favorite store, the place where we often get her present. So E called to see what the situation was there. They talked about how they were sanitizing everything after every customer and even offered her a private after hours appointment. It was also clear that hardly anyone was coming in. Also relevant is that the store is in an historic building with high ceilings and an open loft level. All in all, we decided to take a chance and do a modified version of our usual Christmas time custom. First, E went down to the store at 11:00 in the morning just as they opened. For most of her time there she was the only customer and there was only one person to assist her–which happened to be the owner. E picked out a number of things to try on, focusing on sweaters and eventually narrowing down her choices to half a dozen favorites. She then asked the owner to hold a group of the best items, so that M could come in and make final choices. (In this way E is sure to be pleased on Christmas Day and is generally also semi-surprised because by the time the day comes, she can’t really remember all the ones she tried.) M did his part of the process after lunch. The store was slightly more populated when he got there–two assistants and two other customers–still not much for such a large place.

For dinner, E is making her famous spinach lasanga. M will assist by opening and pouring a modest domestic red. Now that we have finished Bir Başkadır, we are somewhat at a loss for TV. 

Thursday, December 3    Deaths   973 (+20)   New cases   1,151

E was out walking early this morning and found the moon still bright in one direction and the sun just about to rise in the other.

Also in the morning came Zoom tertulia with J and R, a Zoom exercise class for E, and a haircut for M. For some years now, M’s barber has been splitting his time between the cutting business and the home building trades, especially painting. Lately he’s been into painting more and more. In times of pandemic it’s a lot less stressful to go into an empty house to paint it than it is work in close quarters with a parade of people. Good for him, not so good, maybe, for M.

After lunch we went up to the Baskett Slough refuge and walked around a bit. The refuge consists of oak savannah hills above many acres of wetland that provide winter habitat for ducks and geese. 

Friday, December 4    Deaths   1,003 (+30)   New cases  2,176

A busy day today. E spent the morning preparing and packing up Christmas presents for the faraways, then rushed off to the post office to mail them. She came back pleased with herself for having got there before the noon rush and having had to share the place with just one other customer. M, meanwhile, dealt with a failing kitchen light. It was a new LED type fixture, which means, as M discovered early in the process, that there are no bulbs to replace. Instead, the fixture is “integrated” which is to say that when one wears out, you buy a whole new one. Fortunately the replacement that M found was 1) not very expensive, and 2) required a kind of installation process that was not new at all. (Newness is all very nice, but there is only a certain amount that can be tolerated.)

After lunch, E and M should have just rested on their laurels and taken a couple of long naps. But instead, we ventured out to get a Christmas tree. And indeed we did get one. That is, we visited a kindly tree seller, selected a tree, paid $55, stuffed it into the back of the CX-5 and took it home. We placed it in a stand and looked at it. We noticed after a few moments that this was the most fundamentally misshapen tree that either of us had ever seen. The main trunk was in fact curved throughout much of its length, and not curved in any particularly elegant way. There was no possible way to make the top point straight up without somehow making the bottom go sideways. What kind of people could possibly have picked out such a tree? We shudder to think. Somehow we will just have to make this do. We will not, of course, be inviting anyone to our house to view our tree because of the pandemic, so there is that. We just have make sure that we don’t accidentally include it in a Zoom or FaceTime backgrounds.

To distract ourselves, we had to watch two episodes of The Crown. (We’re still in Season 3.)

Saturday, December 5    Deaths   1,027 (+24)  New cases 1,847

The number of COVID deaths in Oregon has been high recently, especially in the last five days. All signs suggest that this trend is likely to continue, at least for a time. As we learned very early on, deaths are the only reliable measure of the seriousness of the situation. Other numbers, including those based on case counts and those based on test positive ratios, may be useful and interesting in some ways, but they are problematic. The total of confirmed and presumptive cases, for example, rises steadily as more and more people are tested. But it is not feasible to establish with any certainty the relationship between that number and the number of people who actually have the disease, either during any one period or at any one moment . And those latter numbers are the ones that would be most interesting and most useful. As always, PD will continue to report daily Oregon death data. We will no longer report total cases as this number is becoming more and more complicated to interpret. We will continue to track the number of new cases reported daily. This number is heavily dependent on the number of tests given, but as long as testing in Oregon remains robust, the number of positives will generally be of interest. 

Sunday, December 6    Deaths   1,033 (+6)   New cases  1,290

Tomorrow is our major grocery shopping day, but this morning we made an early run to Market of Choice, so as to have some fresh salmon for dinner tonight. That was just after we had some croissants that E picked up from Le Patissier on Saturday. Darn good, even when a day old. And speaking of Saturday, that is when M took advantage of the dry weather to take the Porsche out for another spin. Went down Peoria Road a ways, turned east and made a loop back. Interesting route. The way back up passed a little more quickly than the way down. One advantage to driving in this season is that there were no bugs on the windshield when he got home.

Today after lunch we had Turkish coffee. Then E finished making the tree beautiful while M made refrigerator pickles. We keep thinking about the treats we’d like to make for the holidays season, but then we think about the weight we’re gaining. So far we’ve just had the bars; we’re holding off–so far–on the cappuccino truffles and the shortbread. We hardly need more treats when the sweets cupboard is bulging! Burst’s nonpareils, two bars pf Hershey’s dark , Dove dark chocolate hearts, Nestles semi-sweet chips, some leftover Halloween Almond Joys…Jeez.

Monday, November 23    Deaths   826 (+6)   Cases  66,333 (+1,163)

Shopping day. M drifted through Market of Choice and purchased a half turkey. Yes, a ten-pound half turkey, which was a twenty-pound whole turkey not too long ago. But let’s not think about that. Now if we can only find a half-oven to cook it in. E again went to the Co-op and bought whole versions of a veggies, fruits and a cheese or two. She then began her serious daily work and made crust for the blackberry pie that she is making for the Andees. After that she sent out twenty-one email notices telling everyone who they’re supposed to be giving to in the Chambers family gift exchange. She also went on two walks, cooked dinner, and finished the blackberry pie. Meanwhile, M went out to the back yard and pruned apple trees with his new toy, a cordless electric chainsaw on a ten foot pole. It worked fine but left him pretty well tuckered out. Did I mention that E also did a Zoom yoga class today?

Tuesday, November 24     Deaths   847 (+21)   Cases  67,333 (+1000)

We drove up to Vancouver WA today and dropped in on Andrea to deliver birthday presents. It’s  Andy’ b-day today and Andrea’s is coming up soon. We were able be in their living room for a bit because Andrea opened the patio door and the entrance door and there was a stiff breeze. We kept our coats on and had a nice visit. Andrea had made cake balls, which we got to see. Didn’t meet Andy, of course, since he was slaving away working long hours for the post office–which is not necessarily a great place to be at this time of year, especially in this particular year. We chose to go up in the middle of the day looking to avoid traffic problems and that worked out well with smooth sailing both ways. We reviewed our latest Turkish homeowork to pass the time. Not much rain while we were on the road, but in the early evening it rained like crazy (deli gibi yağmur yağdı.) By midnight the storm had passed and before going to bed (yatağa gitmeden önce) M spent a few minutes (biraz zaman geçmirdi) watching wisps of cloud float across the bulging moon.

Also in there somewhere, we found time to watch the last two episodes of Winter Sun. It was a very satisfyihg ending. That which had to be resolved, was resolved. And nothing overly ridiculous was required to make it so. We recommend this Turkish soap to all. 

Wednesday, November 25     Deaths   867 (+20)   Cases  68,503 (+1,170)

Turkish lesson today and then a couple of quick shopping things that we missed on Monday. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day is never a good day to shop, of course, but actually Bi-Mart was relatively empty, and for vegetables, we went to Natural Grocers, which is never crowded. 

The Thanksgiving feasting, for us, has already begun. M made a pie crust and E mixed up a pecan filling and baked it. After dinner (akşam yemeği sonra) we had some. It was good. It was very good. We were encouraged in this early start on the goodies by our friends B and B, who are doing exactly the same, except that the pie that they have already cut into is apple. E has also started the cranberries. Tomorrow, of course, is the real thing.

Thursday, November 26     Deaths   882 (+15)   Cases  70,006 (+1,503)

And so there it was. Şukran Günü* in time of COVID. Turkey cooked, potatoes mashed, gravy stirred, wine poured. And then, at about 1:30, some small portion of it all was eaten, along with stuffing, green beans, cranberries, and a small relish tray just right for two. Despite a minor misstep or two, upon which we will not dwell, all was delicious and all was well. We delayed dessert for a few hours, and finally made a very satisfactory supper of pecan pie–Chambers pieces. Could be worse. Could be much, much worse. 

E moved furniture to create a cozy window table. 

*Şukran Günü means Thanksgiving Day. Şukran (from Arabic) means thanks, gün means day and ü is the compound noun marker. Relatedly, güneş means sun, and in the title Kış Güneşi (Winter Sun) the compound noun marker is the final i. 

Friday, November 27     Deaths   885 (+3)   Cases  70,832 (+826)

Zoom meeting with the Chambers brothers. James has made news by being out in his Corvette and having it get away from him for a moment. Whether it was a spin or just a series of fishtails is not clear. The driver reports that the proximate cause was a slick spot in the road with “old gas” being another significant factor. We’ve not heard before of this connection between lack of control and old gas, but of course we are young yet and there is much we do not know. John is enjoying staying in his new lakeside cottage. Normally the Chambers Camp closes up in October, so he is getting to see a very different scene than in years past. The early winter views are lovely and with most of the humans gone, animals have reoccupied the area. Among other wildlife, he reports seeing groups of loons, as many as twelve together. Lacking a Corvette, he is driving a leased Volvo C60 plug-in hybrid, a somewhat better vehicle for a north woods winter. 

Later on we watched an episode of our new Turkish TV show, which Netflix calls Ethos, but which in Turkish is called Bir Başkadır.  Our Turkish teacher recommended it and it reminds us of something a teacher would recommend, i.e., not shallow, not ridiculous, not completely artificial, and not glossing over crucial social issues. It is also completely lacking in beautiful, expensive cars. So what is the point you might ask? Well, it’s still quite a drama, with lots of people angry and unhappy, often in conflict with those around them, and often unaware of how much their own blindness and self-absorption are actually responsible for their problems. And of course it has some scenes in a hospital, which is a box that all TV dramas must check off sooner or later. Another bright spot is that we recognized two of the actors, having seen them before in other series. One is the actor who was Naz’s husband in Intersection, and another is a woman who  played Efruz in Kış Guneşi. In Bir Başadır, she plays a soap opera actress! And one of the themes of the show is how real people spend time watching facile popular dramas in the midst of their own actual crises. So that’s pretty cool.  Our Turkish dictionary does not translate “bir başkadır” as “ethos.” We need to ask our teacher about that one.

Saturday, November 28    Deaths   896 (+11)   Cases  72,506 (+1,669)

E went out to the country to walk Pepper again today. While she was gone M moved an azalea and did some more pruning of the rearmost apple tree. After lunch Eve called The Inkwell and asked them to pick out four greeting card sized advent calendars for her. The clerk went and got them and gave her a little bit of a description, then took her money. The E got some stamps and address labels ready and found a driver to run her downtown, where she called again and had the cards brought out to the car. We sat in the parking lot for a minute, preparing two of the cards that most needed sending, and then cruised by the post office and dropped them in the slot. Slick. 

On the way home we stopped at a Coffee Culture drive-thru to get a couple of lattes and discovered they were having a one day sale, fifteen per cent off almost everything. We didn’t need everything, but we did in fact need some decaf beans, so we stocked up a little. When we got home, a Zappos box was on our porch with some new slippers for E to try. The package happened to arrive on the day that Tony Hsieh passed away, Hsieh being one of original founders of Zappos. 

Sunday, November 29    Deaths  905 (+9)   Cases  74,120 (+1,614)

A quiet Sunday. E and M got up late and sat around reading the paper, then went for a walk up Garryanna and down Rolling Green. What kind of name for a street is Rolling Green? M thought about putting up Xmas lights in the afternoon. He was waiting for a glimpse of the sun, which his weather app had promised. No sun was glimpsed.

However, we did get a surprise visit from H and T. It was nice to see them both again. We had a socially distanced tour of the yard and then sat for a time on the back patio. Was it cold? Yes. The guests, being intelligent people, were well-prepared and came bundled up in many warm layers. The hosts, being slower to grasp the nature of reality, hadn’t put on enough. We all had some hot tea, though, and some good conversation. From T we heard a little about how it is to be a pediatric clinician in these times. She is doing a certain amount of appointments remotely, and lots of those have been cases of childhood depression. Remote medicine keeps her safe, of course, but it’s basically a sedentary lifestyle. She misses the activity and natural exercise of work in the clinic. 

Also today, we finished our jigsaw puzzle, a painting by Robert Bissel. It should be titled A Couple of Bears Looking at the Sunset during a Butterfly Invasion, but the painter has inexplicably chosen to call it The Golden Hour instead.

After dinner, another episode of Bir Başkadır. It’s good, but kind of a downer. Just two more episodes to go. We fear it may not end happily, but of course we must see it through, just to find out.