On September 28 I drove up to Seattle to see my kids (and their kid). It was the longest trip I have taken since pre-Corvid quarantine days. I stayed at the Georgetown Inn and that was also a first since this new way of life has occurred. My last travel was way back in December when I stayed in Florence for a trip to Coos Bay.

The drive up was adequate. The Tacoma road construction continues so we slowed a bit and for a few miles. This construction reminds me of the “Big Dig” in Boston which continued into what seemed to be eternity.

I visited Hannah and Ali for around 90 minutes before I left for my motel. Lucie and Eddie joined me for a beer and some sandwiches in Georgetown.

It was good to be able to visit. I haven't been here since February when Ali was about 12 weeks old. Now at nearly 11 months he is developing a personality. Today he was pretty shy around me but clearly interested. He kept turning his head in order to see me but he did not smile much. He just showed curiosity,

A Pensive Ali at 10 months

Ali has only seen me on his mother's cell phone. While that has been often, an image on a flat screen phone and not as an actual three dimensional character is weak in comparison to a live visit. I wonder if he makes the connection-the image on the phone screen and real life. Things I say to him and the sound of my voice, can he connect them to this real person facing him?

When his mother and her sister were pre-speaking infants I spent an inordinate number of hours wondering about what connections they could make about events occurring around them. They never told me so I still have no idea.

Since I am not trained at subjects like child development, all of my thoughts are conjecture only. That fact never prevented me from continuing this type of wonder. What do babies understand?

Under normal conditions I use public transportation. While riding I enjoy watching infants and how they are dealing with their child care provider who is almost always female. I watch how they are communicating and the babies reaction to things.

This too, is something that at best I can only speculate about. I enjoy it anyway. One of the very few things that I have confidence in suggesting from this perspective while riding on public transportation is that infants like motion. They enjoy seeing what is outside the window as they whiz by.

That evening I spent time with Lucie and her pal Eddie. We took a leisurely walk to Jellyfish Brew Pub. We had a beer outdoors and as it cooled down we went indoors for another. The day was beautiful and warm but the temperature dropped quickly as the sun set.

It was my first experience at a pub since early March. We kept our selves fairly apart but probably not 6 feet. The next morning Eddie woke up with a fever so he went in for a Covid test. I spent the next day fretting that maybe it would be positive which maybe would have me catching the virus and almost assuredly Lucie having it. There was about a 30 hour wait for those results. All of the precautions that I have taken during the last 6 months may have been for naught all for the nearly benign easing on Monday night.

So our plans for Tuesday (9/29) changed. Originally I would visit with Hannah and Ali then in the early afternoon we would meet up with Lucie and have lunch downtown at a Georgian restaurant. Lucie instead hung out with Eddie at home so we got some pretty good Mexican food instead. Since I had an on-line class that night, I stopped visiting around 4 and returned to my motel.

I stayed at the Georgetown Inn which was a little strange. The virus prevented me from staying At Lucie's house about 4 blocks away.

The accommodations were pretty nice though located in the midst of where many homeless people congregate. Due to the pandemic the coffee pot and microwave were removed from the room. I would complain about these absences during normal times. They also did not provide the standard continental breakfast. We also had to request coffee from the front desk.

I didn't sleep well Tuesday night. I was haunted by the possibility that Covid was getting personal. Of all the thoughts that have been crossing my mind since the pandemic began, that getting it myself or any loved ones or their loved ones. I have no excuse for omitting this. I so sometimes find myself ironically naive. As it turned out Eddie tested negative. Not until I added this aspect of my thoughts about this incredible odd year for me and a tragic one for over 200,000 others in the US alone.

Two months later Lucie, who lives in a group home with peers actually got infected. One of the fellow housemates caught it at his job from one of his fellow workers. Fortunately Lucie only lost her sense of smell and suffered no other hardships. She also stopped being contagious after a few weeks so she is no longer bedroom bound.

I did drive back to Vancouver with some peace of mind and determined not to knowingly lapse in caution. I also get to consider the possibility that the disease could actually hit home.

On October 13 was the day that Mars was closer to earth than it has been for about 60,000 years. In 15 years it will be about this close again. On that day you will only have to travel 38.57 million miles to get there so if you did not already have tickets you'll have to pay a higher premium or wait until 2035.

Opposition

On October 26 I headed west to Astoria, one of my favorite places to visit.. I left at a gelid but sun struck 9:00 am and headed west for the coast. My plan was to go to Willapa NWR in Washington and then about 25 miles south to Astoria. That proved to be a disappointment. I had been there before but on that visit it was raining and I only stayed briefly. As it turns out I was at the headquarters for this national reserve. It was not manned in either visit. Well there is another portion of the NWR that I was unaware of at the time and learned of later. I'll have to check that out the next time I am out here.

View of Willapa Bay

I got into my room in Astoria after about 4 hours of a beautiful drive. It was pretty chilly for this late October but of course that meant little to a guy in a car. It was sunny and the drive along the Columbia River (or tributaries) on my left and the Coastal Cascades in front of me, it is an inspiring drive. Often I drove for several miles under a canopy of Douglas Firs which nearly darkened the sky. As often as I make that trip, I am never less than thrilled by the view.

I walked along the Columbia (after settling into my room) in order to see what water birds might be foraging along the shores this late afternoon. I saw nothing curious, there were a few ring bill gulls, some mallards and widgeons which are regularly seen there. The cormorants there are ubiquitous as well great blues.

Cormorants

I wanted some sea food from a place I had been to before but it was shuttered and empty. So I went a couple of blocks away to the swanky Bridgewater Bistro. It was a pretty nice place but normally out of my league. So I got some Willapa oysters to go and enjoyed them in my room.

My room about 5 blocks west of downtown Astoria was terrible. I had next door neighbors who spent the afternoon drinking while their pre-school child ran wild in the parking lot. This would be none of my business except they stood in front of my door to yell things to their child and each other. This went on until about 6:00pm when they were joined by several of their friends to continue the festivities long into the night.

At some point around midnight the partying turned into fighting which was at about the same decibel as the party but included banging on the adjacent wall while a portion of the party continued in front of their unit and mine. Finally the police came and things quieted down but by then it was around 2:00 am. In the morning the couple were still there, apparently readied to relive those glory hours of the previous day.

The room did include a bed and television but no coffee pot (listed in their advertisement), no coffee at the front desk nor even the packaged muffins that other motels offer (continental breakfasts were also offered on their web page). I understand that certain amenities need to be omitted during this pandemic but other motels leave a statement on their web pages indicating what they could not provide during these times.

In the morning I went to the front desk to discuss these problems but they were bewildered that such events as the night before could have occurred on their premises. That there were no apologies about not having coffee in the office. Rather I got shrugged shoulders and weak smiles to accompany the clerk's blaming management for any issues.

Another problem was that they offered no Wi-Fi (despite advertising its free availability). To make matters worse I could get no phone service while inside my room. I could when I was outside in front of room. It didn't kill me to forsake my e-mail for 24 hours but it was still an issue that is rarely dealt with these days.

Comically there was also no toilet paper dispenser. The roll just sat on the back of a toilet like I imagine it would be in a frat house. I checked out a day early forfeiting a days rent. I also contacted HQ with my complaints but they were ignored after they were “looked into”. I never heard back from them.

With the exception of occasional day trips and bird watching ventures, I did no other traveling during the month.

Before I moved here 3 ½ years ago I knew how winter weather would typically present itself here. To actually be here facing it is different. It is warmer here in the winter than any other place I have lived. Of course in Baltimore the coldest day of winter is notably colder than our coldest day. The warmest day is likewise much warmer than the warmest day here. There are more of those warm days too.

Growing up in Michigan, even the warmer parts of it where I lived, were much colder all together than I have found here. What we have in the PNW though, is days on end of gray clouds and rain. The average day in December is nearly identical to the average day in March. That means dark gloomy days with highs around 45 degrees. I should keep track of the days that are relatively sunny. I think of them as occurring less than once a week. That disconsolate miasma (as if there were any other sort of miasma) is even more blighted by the crescendo into the vernal solstice that leaves us on the northern side of the 45^th parallel, in middle of the night darkness at 4:30 pm. It leaves us that way until nearly 8:00 am. Well, apparently I am not keeping my own rules for winter occurred only a few hours ago and this is supposed to by my autumn entry.

It is currently easier to meld one season into another during this pandemic which our more prudent citizens are keeping partially sequestered. Every day is quite like the one before it and the succeeding one. I scan my calendar to see what I have written that might uniquely identify some action I took, first in October so I'll resort to a linear story for at least a little while.

Most everything I accounted for during October was academic. The first was a macro photography course taken using the ubiquitous “zoom” app that most of us have become familiar with. It was five weeks of learning about technological tools with some time spent on composition and technique. Since I like to photograph the act of pollination (it is reminiscent of insect porn) and plants like ferns and moss I thought I would learn something to improve those renderings and I did. The most valuable thing I discovered however, was that macro photography would not become a fascination but rather an adjunct to nature photography. I'm not longer deft enough or curious enough to put myself in the physical position that this type of photography finds they with a camera. It is also expensive and requires bringing more equipment with me than I want to.

Fern photo

I also signed up for some lectures about Mussolini whom I never knew much about (other than that he was the sort of brutish anti-intellectual with a personal agenda and thirst for power). Fortunately we in America are far too thoughtful to allow such an ascendancy to occur here. Apparently too few other potential students signed up and they canceled the class. However...there lots of worthy presentations found on zoom and cost little or nothing to attend. The Oregon State Jewish History Museum put on several and while all were interesting and well done I probably didn't come away the understanding they would have always wished. The first was a family history presented with a few photographs and mainly letters between family members who stayed behind in Nazi occupied Europe while some members wrote from Brooklyn, NY. They were fairly heart wrenching for two reasons. First, if we were to have part of our life scrutinized from written text we might be embarrassed at least since we bare aspects of our lives in private to dear ones and not air them to the public.

The second aspect was even worse because some of what they wrote about from Nazi land was simply horrific. For instance the patriarch was denied his required insulin as were all of his cohort Jews and slowly died from the diabetes that destroyed his body in what I have to imagine was as painful as anything that caused organ failure.

Another was a series of memories recorded from people in Portland's Jewish community in the early days of the city. As an outcast minority with their own preferred diets it was often that they were either purposely neglected or benignly ignored in their community. Despite their status they had good times at dances and picnics among other events. Photographs accompanied many of the recordings.

There was one presentation on “Moral Leadership” which was timely in this current time since there is a critical lack of the same. Part of this history was about the local suffragettes who 100 years ago finally got the right to vote. However it has become clear to me that within that movement there was a fear to complete voting rights for all citizens as it would lessen the strength of the female vote. To that end the utter exclusion of the rights of blacks and native Americans was prevalent and the body of power in the movement pretty much always excluded womenof color from participating. 

To plant a tree for future generations it is up to us to admit to our past. This is a lesson I have learned more clearly than ever during the last few years.

Finally there was a movie length biography of the philanthropist, JuliusRosenwald  He bought a partnership with Sears and Roebuck about 110 years ago, bought out all partners and became one of the richest men in the nation. He also was an erstwhile friend of Booker T. Washington and the benefactor of the many Rosenwald Schools for poor African Americans in the south. What was not portrayed well in the film, was that with that largess came considerable control not unlike some of the plutocrats today that use their financial state to exert considerable control over their recipients. Perhaps I am being guilty of “presentism” here. Standards of year 2020 being applied to activities of the past may be unjust and I should consider Rosenwald as being quite beneficent while a product of his times. Despite my personal notions, this was likewise a very good presentation by the Museum.

I also watched a series of three productions from Nova that dealt with making the sciences more inclusive of all races, ethnicity and gender identification. Each had a panel to present and answer questions. These forums were, like those presented by the Jewish Historical Museum were well done and quite informative.

During the fall I also virtually attended the “Science on Tap” series on “Music and the Aging Brain” presented by by a neuro-scientist and a local musician. I had been wondering about my own musical taste change during the last few years. For much of my adult life I have listened to the jazz music from about 1945-1970 nearly solely. I now find myself almost exclusively listening to classical music. The lecture didn't answer that particular question (though I never raised it) since the focus was elsewhere. At any rate I took notes like I was in college and left satisfied with what I learned.

Since this pandemic has landed me home bound, I have done a lot of these zoom productions and have not the slightest regret and will keep looking for them going forward.

On October 13^th Mars was closer to earth than any time in the last many years and the event was referred to as “The Mars Opposition of 2020”. That is good knowledge to have if any of us ever find themselves in a social situation where this information may come in handy.

Then November came as it is wont to do every autumn. Here in this country every 4 years we have November (since it is annual) and we elect or re-elect a president. The pandemic and the POTUS made this year a more memorable event. It was (and still technically is) the predictable shit show that POTUS lives in. Were it only the orange storm involved it would simply be buffoonery but his armed and bullying minions living in their own alt-world make it otherwise.

Everyone knew long before 2016 what to expect from the man who won the electoral college (via gerrymandering) using the slogan “Make America Great Again” and then did everything to undue American progress. His inane minions of course refer to themselves as “patriots”. So we have 4 years of an endeavor to make America something it never was. Patriots who want to erase the Constitution and democracy all together and nothing is putting anything back in shape. It seems that the definition of patriotism does not mean making this a better place for everyone. Rather it means that we want whatever we want now and will have a tantrum when we have to oblige anyone but ourselves. I have a year old grandson and he temporarily thinks the same way. For him it is a stage of development, one that apparently our current patriots have not moved on from.

Something else is difficult not to notice about our patriots. Typically they are white people who present as tough guys who are guided by their emotions rather than their actual lived experience (as sheltered as that usually is). They have personas not unlike the military and police leaders on popular television shows. They appear as righteous and filled with stoic rigor and yet they whine like elementary school children when they don't get their own way. Mewling about not living free from all restraints even the most meager of them, is not patriotic.

Then of course there are the patriots of the Republican party. I don't mean people with conservative opinions. The Republican party has members who perhaps are conservative but that is not what is represented by the Republican party. What it now stands for is being a party that rules at all costs. It will be interesting once Biden has his inauguration, how far distant some of the current administration will become and all for their own expediency. Marco Rubio, Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell to name a few have all shown that conservative values mean nothing. Personal integrity means nothing. Political authority means everything and their values will waft in any direction that the maintenance of power will take them.

Then of course there are the mass media propagandists who continue to use the presidency like profiteers. They are so nihilistic that it is hard to believe they have any philosophy other than being on public display often and loudly. They probably do not believe what they say any more than Republican politicians do.

The other news of November 2020 is that the virus is running out of control and too many people have delusional ideas about how it works. So not wearing masks or socially distancing is de rigeur. A vaccine is now in the early days of dispersal and there are those who will not get it (the vaccine that is, they are far more apt to get the disease). So we will probably stay in a form of lock down until the number of sick people drops to some metric agreed on by medical people. Hopefully the new administration can make scientific ideas part of their policy making rather than the magical thinking that is as pandemic in the white house as the corona virus is.

I suppose other things have happened during November. On the 25^th I know that Baltimore saw its 300^th murder which has long been the norm rather than the outlier it was when I moved there in 1981.

Thanksgiving came and while I had to do it alone, I still put some tradition into it. I watched the Lions (at 9:00 am Pacific Time) lose and look pitiful. I roasted a turkey (breast), mashed potatoes and made a scratch version of green bean casserole.

Turkey Dinner

Even though December is only 3 weeks old I cannot hardly remember what I have done this month. Some of the zoom experiences I described above actually occurred in December. I look over my calendar and have close to zero entries. I must have spent the month doing the same thing every day which is pretty much exactly what I did.

I've always liked to read but in 2020 I probably trebled my share of books. Many of them were older paperbacks that I picked up at the local library's used book store. As a result of reading so many of them my book shelves are close to barren save for reference books and field guides. Normally I read these books and give them back to the library so they can sell them again. I miss having access to the library more than nearly everything else. It is where I read periodicals rather than subscribing to them. But...as the virus lock down continued, I had to finally subscribe to one of my favorites at the library. It could be worse.

During December the first vaccine became available and a few days ago a second one. The Federal government said they would send supplies of the vaccine (based on population sizes) to every state. As the executive branch is wont to do those promised dosages have not been forthcoming. The head of that branch is far to busy working on his own personal and typically vain, pursuits so continuing to govern during the transition is not in his wheel house. Apparently America has been made great again.

So that is the seasons story here at 185 feet above seal level (as I learned this morning).