Week 8

Day 50. Monday May 4 2020.

Beach Seaweed this am "Bull Kelp"

Good day walking today.   Walk is becoming my jetty walk.   Walk the to face rock, then up to the south jetty then around.   I ran into Ken and Christine on their bikes over by the rolling pin.    It seems to be ok that we stop and talk there.   Lot's of talk about the city and what they are doing  - or not doing - to reopen.   There are a lot of folk who do not want out of towners in at the moment.    I have lived here 2 1/2 years and still consider myself an out of towner, and so see that attitude as a bit backward.     Still, there are many times when I see people driving too fast, or not waving hello the way everybody does here, and if someone is rude I will often think "Californian" to myself.    I have lived here long enough to adopt the attitude that most people have here of acknowledging  everybody around me with a smile and a hello, and waving to strangers on the street.   It's what people do here.

Got home and rode my dog bike back to the rolling pin to get my coffee and apple pie that I had paid for earlier, but Kaylee had told me the pie was still too hot and to come back later.   Then rode over to Jeff Norris' tailor shop and dropped off my overalls.     He called later this afternoon just to talk and say hello.   It's Bandon.

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Really low case counts today, although everyone is saying that the numbers will quickly rise again once states start opening up again.    We shall see.

BULL KELP

According to the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Bull Kelp are a large, brown algae that grow in "forests" near the shore. These kelp are annuals, completing their life cycle in one season, and can grow up to 20 meters (60 feet) in one year.

They grow in enormous fields just offshore and in areas too deep to be affected by tides, but you can sometimes see their roundish bulb heads bobbing in the ocean. Bull kelp are comprised of a single stalk (called a stipe) which attaches to rock on the ocean bed, while at the top is that large bulb and numerous ribbon-like blades. The bulb is filled with carbon monoxide, which is what causes it to float upright in the ocean.

What causes these things to show up on Oregon coast beaches? Usually storms pull them off their rocky anchor points and they wind up in those big, surreal piles.

Most of the ones you see on the Oregon coast are a few feet long to maybe 20 or 30 feet long, but they can grow up to over 100 feet in length. About half the time, they are piled up in enormous bundles, all wrapped up around each other like something out of an alien sci-fi

Day 51. Tuesday May 5 2020.

I have always been a coffee in the morning guy.    For awhile during my years in London though I fell into the habit of tea all day because, well, that's what you drink over there.    When I came back to the states the tea stuck for awhile, but then I was soon back to coffee and have been ever since.    Lately, some friends have been telling me they are "CHAI TEA" people so I went out and got some and am drinking it now.   Sort of like a Latte, but a tea at the same time. Creamy, it's ok.   I like it, but frankly am struggling with it.    I am trying to acquire the taste so that if I am ever offered it by a friend I can enjoy it.

Michelle was always a green tea drinker, and in our 30 years together I never touched the stuff.    However when I moved here and started doing radio, I started drinking green tea because it is warms up the voice and throat, without giving you the caffeine.   I enjoy it now.   I am hoping I can do the same with Chai Tea.

I found two pieces of petrified wood this morning on the beach.  You never know what the ocean is going to cough up.   Every now and then.

I ran into Ken and Christine and they bought me a coffee and we stood and chatted outside the rolling pin this morning.     I have them and 4 or 5 other people coming over tomorrow for a COVID-19 sort of get together.   I have a big enough deck on the side of the house where we can separate out six feet from each other, and all talk like we used to at the coffee shop.     I will pull out the Keurig coffee maker out to the deck, and I will make fresh blueberry scones for everybody.

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Re the virus, everybody is saying the worst is still to come, but not in the context of a second wave in the fall, but now they are saying its going to get a lot worse this summer.    Most of the states are under too much pressure to open up, and people have to work to survive.    The most likely scenario is that thus things will open up in the next week or so, and the virus will come roaring back.   Everybody knows this, but we are all helpless at this point with the realities that the virus still has a lot of people to kill, but everybody needs to get back to work.

Here we go.

Day 52. Wednesday May 6 2020.

I hosted a Coffee Klatche this morning on the side deck, which is big enough to accomodate the seven people who showed, and still maintain the required physical distancing.    The old coffee group.  Christine and Ken, Russ, Tim, Gene brought John who is an occasional attendee.    Not present was Steve Yates, who made it clear early on in the pandemic that he intended to disappear for awhile, which he has done.    He still rolls up behind me every now and then in his pickup every now and then during one of my walks and we stop and chat for a bit. 

Instead of doing my usual morning walk this morning, I instead prepared fresh scones, cleaned up all around, and getting everything ready for the visitors.  The scones I make was originally a recipe that Michelle found.   They are always well received.     It was a nice sit down.

Malaya also came over to tend to and fix my garden, showing me how to cull the spinach and lettuce leaves from the plants.   Both spinach and lettuce you can eat from while they are still growing.   They pretty much just keep on giving.   Both Ken/Christine and Malaya filled bags up with leaves before they left.

Afterwards Malaya and I walked down to the ocean and looked at the seals, who are currently having babies.   Afterwards I went out for an afternoon walk and made it to sort-of goal of 6 miles for the day.

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Not much news on the virus front, but it remains what everyone talks about to the exclusion of most everything else.    Same with the news.     This is not just a generational event in our civilization, but a once in a century event.   We are living through it, and no one on the planet knows what anything will look like when and if we get to the other side.


Day 53. Thursday May 7 2020.

Nothing but Crabshells and Sand dollars

It's a nice pleasure to take a long walk south along the beach in the early morning when the sun comes up, and it just happens to be low tide as well.   Happens about once every other week.  Twice a month, which of course, tides coinciding with the phases of the moon, makes sense.      One of those rare days was today, and I found 2 full sand dollars and a third that was broken, but broken in a really interesting way, so I kept it.

When Jana and I walked from Santa Clara to San Francisco, we averaged about 12 miles a day, which - she being 13, I made sure that we stopped every two miles or so for a coffee or a soda and a sit down.    About 5 stops a day, and then the hotel.   An hour of walking, an hour in a starbucks or fast food place.   An hour of walking again....It made it pleasurable.     Our feet were still sore every night, but they were always better in the morning.   

This morning I ended up walking over seven miles all in one go.    I am waiting for my feet to feel sore, but they seem fine.    I am toying with the idea of going away in August, either on a walking or a bicycle trip, now that my legs are in pretty good shape.

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They are talking about meat shortages now.   What a messed up country and messed up state the GOP has put us in, all for the sake of big money.    Capitalism, hanging itself with its own rope.    Khrushchev banged his shoe on the table at the UN and predicted it 50 years ago, and now here it is.   Here we are.


Day 54. Friday May 7 2020.

Health care workers watch as New Yorkers cheer them.   Every night at 7pm

Very busy day today.    Got my six miles in walking up to the South Jetty.    It is a "Supermoon" now so the tide was lower than I have ever seen it.   Walked all the way out further than I have ever been.    The south jetty beach has steep incline and I was able to walk out to the flats.

When I neared the Jetty I found a set of car and other keys on a ring in the sand.   Fresh, and recently dropped by the looks of them.   The car key itself looked like a Honda key.       I didn't know what to do.   Surely the person who lost them would retrace their steps, but I couldn't just leave them in the sand.     A guy walking near me suggested burying a stick in the sand and placing them on top of the stick.   Seemed like a decent idea, so I did that.    Then I walked to the parking lot and looked for Honda cars.   One Car.  One pickup.     I sat in the shade of the building and watched the people out on the beach walking.  Dog walkers most of them.     I waited for awhile and eventually a woman walks back to the pickup with two dogs and starts looking through her pockets.   Bingo.    I tell her about the keys and got them for her.     So we ended up talking for a bit.  She was Patti from Port Orford.   Before we parted she said "I know we are supposed to social distance, but can I hug you?"   Well of course.   It was a nice gift.

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I get back home and only had an hour before my interview with Laila (pr Lie-la) Biali, a jazz pianist / vocalist who works out of Toronto.    It was an all time great interview and we hit it off right away and just laughed for over an hour.   After these interviews there is usually 2-3 hours more work of me cleaning them up, removing the umms and ahhs and silences and weird utterances on my part.    I trim them down to a complete hour or 1/2 hour, depending on how it goes.   I intersperse the conversation with some music and call it a show.    In this case the music I will use will be Lailas.      I half fell in love with her.

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After the interview I had to shop so went down to McCays and decided to use my BOA card which I never use.   Buy 5 things.  Get home and my card is gone.  I had left it in the machine.    This is no rare occurrence, and I usually go back to the store and just get my card.   Bandon is a really honest place.    This time however, I go back and NO ONE has my card.     I check BOA online, and I see a transaction at McCays for 120 dollars.  Holy Cow.    Immediately cancel the card as Stolen.   Talk to the manager and he checks the cameras and tells me that a woman used the card, but does not really want to share anything beyond that.   I sort of understand.   He says that McCays will cover the charge, but it was originally my mistake, so we agree that if the bank will not write it off (they usually do, but you never know with banks), then we will split the cost 50/50.   I guess the cashiers do have some responsibility to pay attention when a credit card is left by a customer.

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Had the usual Friday Night KBOG Traffic report with Eric from 5:30-7:30. These shows are fun, and we just talk about local events and take turns playing music that we like.     Then realized I lost my wallet and drove back to KBOG, didn't find it.  Panicked.   Got home and found it between the driver side car seat and the door.    That was enough fun for one day.   Crashed after that.    I am writing this Saturday morning, because I didn't want to miss a day.

     

Day 55. Saturday May 7 2020.

This morning low tide was not until 8:30am and I like to walk low tide along the beach so I got up and made potato soup.     I had celery that threatened to go bad, and carrots.  I pulled out some bacon and an onion and pepper and made soup.   This is my third potato soup and every one has been a winner so far.

I ran into Gene driving by.   He stopped to wave hello, but I was talking to Jana so he drove on.   We are all scheduled to do a coffee klatche at his house next Wed.

Then about 7:30 I headed south along the beach down to haystack rock. then walked up seabird and came home on the 101.   It was a good 7.5 mile walk.

On the way home I ran into Ken and Christine sitting on a bench by the rolling pin.   There was a big biking group hanging outside and they said they only felt safe away from them.

Then Jeff called so I went home and drove down the theatre and talked to him for a bit.   He wants to open up again for movies, so he gave me the layout of the theatre and I told him I would figure out the counts for safe social distancing.

I get home and Steve Yates is in the driveway and wanted to drop off some foam padding.   He has his hands in lots of things, so I usually take what he gives me, and I eventually find a use for it.   He dropped off wood last week.

This is the first day in Bandon this year where it feels like summer.   Everybody is out.  Its the first warm and beautiful day.

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I talked with Jana this afternoon because she had said that once her online semester was over we could do a "visit".   I had some anxiety over that word, but this afternoon she said it meant that she would come up here.    This makes me so happy I can barely contain myself, that she would come up here to see me.

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The virus is still the virus.    People are still talking about "The coming Plague", as if it has not really hit us yet.     I think it is interesting and scary that no one - absolutely no one on this planet at this point - has any idea what the human race will look like just one year from now.   Who would have believed that just 3 months ago.