Omaha Pandemic, Friday, September 25, 2020

Another week has flown by. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the iconic heroine, Notorious RBG, human rights champion, Supreme Court Justice, has left us. This loss feels like a hole in the fabric of our world. Thank you, Ruth, for all you have done and trying to stay with us as long as possible.

The passing of RBG set off a round of blatant hypocrisy on the part of the sycophant Republican Party that is vomitous. Trump is now steadily spewing his lies, setting up his followers to doubt the results of the upcoming election, refusing to agree that, should he lose, a peaceful transition of power, the bedrock of our democracy, would occur. We now fear for our country, which we love, which we have served, and into which we have delivered our children and grandchildren. We are outraged at the continuous lying and self dealing. We have been frequent travellers to foreign countries, meeting many people and places we have enjoyed; we now must face the fact that we have lost the respect of so many countries and their citizens. Our international reputation is in tatters, our word on the world stage is worthless, our treaties and alliances, crafted over decades, generations and centuries are in a shambles - all due to one egomaniacal third rate talk show host and real estate developer who built his career on cheating his partners, his venders, his countrymen. Every week, from now until the election we will be urging you to vote, and vote early and securely. This cannot continue.

It was a typically busy week for us. Friday started with Mark’s appointment with the Orthopaedic Surgeon. He is now scheduled for full hip replacement on his left side - October 8.  Look for an exciting report that week!

 Saturday, Mark journeyed to the Extension office to help in the Nebraska State Arboretum plant sale. Due to the pandemic, the sale was held on line and buyers then came to the Extension office to pick up their purchases. Mark’s job, while suitably masked, was to deliver their boxes of purchases to the buyers’ vehicle. A lot of walking for a guy who is staring at a hip replacement. But he is a Master Gardener, not a master genius! Family Zoom meeting was uneventful - no exciting news, but we did take part separately on our phones from Abigail’s house, Deb sitting on the front porch, and Mark sitting on the patio, not because we can’t get along but for muting of the feedback.

We again dined with the Duggan’s at our favourite neighborhood bar patio, Tracks, on Monday.  Tuesday Deb had virtual book club.  The book was Lincoln in the Bardo which she loved but she was in the minority.  Wednesday we dined at the Needelman patio with Ann and Don Hosford. We all remained socially distanced while Howie served us huge steaks from the grill and Lee provided tasty Hasselback potatoes, Deb provided a Greek style salad with Abigail’s homegrown produce, Mark contributed a couple of freshly baked baguettes, Ann provided a loaf of whole grain homemade bread and she brought the ice cream for dessert.  A lovely feast in a beautiful backyard setting with glorious weather.

Thursday Glenda was in Omaha and stopped by Abigail’s house while we were putting finishing touches on our projects. Thursday was also Deb’s drinks night, this time on Deb Duggan’s patio.

Our tomato harvest is coming to an end but Deb got 27 tomatoes on Weds and there are still more ripening.  Tomato sauce and lots of salads are still on our menu as well as fobbing them off on unsuspecting friends! Mask up, stay safe, keep washing your hands, and Vote!

Omaha Pandemic, Friday, September 18, 2020

We will start this week with birthday wishes. Sunday, September 13 was daughter Darcy Alessandra Picken Covert’s 33rd birthday. Our “baby” is now all grown up! Also, Sunday was the 2nd anniversary of Darcy & Maria’s relationship. Today is niece Claire Covert Bybee’s 43rd birthday. Congratulations to all!

The weather this week has been marvellous and almost makes up for the fact that we continue to be in a drought condition here in Omaha. We have been very social, although distanced, this week. We started last Friday with our bi-weekly cocktail Zoom with Tom and Kevin in Tucson. We again solved all the political problems of the day (thoroughly dissecting the most recent failings of the Great Entertainer) and learning of new landscaping plans for their desert home. Saturday, we drove to pick up our Biden/Harris yard signs and spent some quality time in the three lane street crawl cheering as we waited for them to put the signs in our trunk.

We then went to Abigail’s house to move furniture around in the living room in preparation for the next week’s painting project. We capped off the evening by ordering takeout from one of our favorite neighborhood bars - Paddy McGown’s. We picked up a pair of huge club sandwiches and an order of their Ruben Egg Rolls. These are delicious and if you have a chance to order them, we encourage it.  If you are not familiar, they are chopped up corned beef, combined with some cheese and coleslaw, filled in a wonton style wrapper and deep fried!  We then dip them in some Russian dressing!

Sunday was a lazy day at home reading the papers. Darcy and Maria dropped by Sunday evening to celebrate her birthday with some Prosecco on our back deck.  After they left, we finished the evening with the remainder of our club sandwiches and commenced on a binge watch of Doc Marten TV shows, which will probably continue for a few weeks as there are a lot of seasons and binge watching for us is a two hour stretch, with at least one of us dozing off towards the end of the show.

Monday we commenced the painting project at Abigails’s. We are putting a coat on all the living room and hallway walls, then repainting the window trim and baseboards. We will finish it off with the head handyman (Mark) installing quarter round at the baseboards of the hallway and then crown moulding at the ceiling line of all the rooms and hallways.

At 5:00, Deb attended a short cocktail gathering on the patio of Char Thiessen along with the other members of the book club carpool group, Zoe, Beth and Jan.  Oddly, they all drove separately!  Then we met Deb and Tim Duggan for hamburgers and a drink at our favourite Tracks Bar on its patio.  This has become a highlight of our world and we look forward to good food and great conversation.

Tuesday took us back to Abigail’s as the updating project continued and then home for Tuesday Night Drinks group for Deb. They met at our house on our patio, and it stretched from 5:30 until after 8:00 as they again discussed the world but also began digging through the boxes of pictures that Deb is slowly sorting on our dining room table. She has promised to get it cleared off by Thanksgiving, but that could be a monumental task.

Wednesday we were back at Abigail’s, finishing up the painting and acquiring the materials for the carpentry work. Mark brought his chop saw, compressor, nail guns and other assorted tools over and set up shop in the garage. We ran home for a quick shower and clean-up and then back to Abigail’s as the three girls were preparing us a dinner on the patio as a thank you for the work we are putting in. We brought some steaks, which Maria placed in her new sous vide cooker and then finished off with a quick char in the cast iron skillet.

 This was accompanied by Deb’s seared baby potatoes, a caprese salad utilizing some of our tomatoes, and pan fried green beans from Abigail’s producing garden. A very enjoyable meal.

Thursday, Mark was in for an early morning annual physical, wherein his physician pronounced him essentially healthy, although the doctor was chuckling as he checked Mark’s feet. The doctor said that even though they have been friends for over 25 years, he still gets a chuckle at what he terms Mark’s “Fred Flintstone feet!” Mark did get a referral to an orthopaedic guy for review of his continuing arthritic hip. Then over to Abigail’s to work on the crown moulding while Deb took the weekly trips to the grocery stores to restock the larder. Thursday evening was our biweekly dinner with the Needelmans, this time on their patio for wine and Asian carry out. The evenings are becoming cool now; with the pandemic continuing to take its toll, we are beginning to wonder what will become of our socializing when it is too cold to be outside.  Maybe we will bundle up around the fire pit!

It sure seems as if we were very busy this week and now it is Friday and we will head back to Abigail’s to try and finish the project.  Stay safe, keep washing those hands, and, no matter what the wannabe dictator says, wear your masks!

Friday, September 11, 2020

 This has been a week of changing weather in the Omaha area. We started the weekend with a high on Saturday of 101.5ºF to a low on Wednesday of 41.3ºF. It is moderating slightly as the temperatures begin to rise for the weekend. It has also been raining since Monday, so far an accumulation of over 2 inches! This however has done little to change our overall moisture deficit for the year. We are currently in a deep drought status here in the east/central portion of Nebraska and the west/central portion of Iowa. The forecast for the weekend is for temperatures in the low 70’s to low 80’s with sunshine.  That will be glorious.

Two birthdays to report this past week: Adrian Alexander Covert turned 19 on Sunday, September 6; likewise Milo D’Astou passed his 9th birthday on the same day! Congratulations to both. We’re not sure about Adrian, but we are sure that Milo stayed out of trouble as his mom Jessy has him under strict lockdown!

 We enjoy the daily column, The Writer’s Almanac, which is produced by Prairie Home Productions under the direction of Garrison Keillor. It arrives in our in-box each day and includes an opening poem and then some short history pieces covering the day’s birthdays of writers, notables and sometimes events. We would recommend it to all.  Search for it on the GarrisonKeillor.com homepage. It is a free subscription but they do accept donations to defray the costs.

The reason we bring it up is because last Sunday’s article included the note that on September 6, 1620, the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, England to the New World with its 102 passengers. Only about half of the passengers and crew survived that first winter in their new home, but the article stated that today there are over 35 million descendants from the original group.  That got Mark to thinking about his heritage. Mark’s maternal grandmother Jennie Doty Tucker and her brother Mark Doty, for whom Mark was named, were direct descendants of Edward Doty, an indentured servant who arrived on the Mayflower. This Edward Doty gained his independence from servitude and became notorious for engaging in the first recorded duel in the new world. Based upon the number of Dotys around the United States, he evidently found other things to occupy his time as well.

A quick census of our Doty clan revealed that Jennie begot five children (all girls) and Mark Doty never married and had no known children. Jennie died in 1940, but her daughters (all now also deceased) went on to give birth to six children, five of whom survived to adulthood. Those five grandchildren in turn produced eight children of their own, and those eight children have so far produced nine children and adopted three more. Therefore, this one York, Nebraska mother descended from a Doty, currently has 22 direct living descendants! None of the clan carries the Doty name. That may provide a naming opportunity for the future. It is no surprise that the original surviving 50 colonists have produced a current 35 million descendants from 400 years ago!

Activity this week has been moderate, due mostly to the weather. Saturday’s biweekly family zoom call hosted only three, Mark, Ed and Jake, although Jake’s wife Audry did a walk-on for a brief moment as Jake was lounging in his hot tub, sipping an IPA from a local Detroit area brewer. Ed and Meg were in Eugene, Oregon, on a babysitting expedition for Meg’s nephew. Meg could be seen in the background, chasing the toddler around the deck of the swimming pool in the backyard. Ed, although instigating the call, had to bail out early as he had neglected to charge his cellphone prior to the call. Deb had travelled to Abigail’s house and she and her two daughters were sitting out on the new patio, chatting and forgetting that the Zoom was occurring. Jake and Mark did catch up though, and gossiped about all the missing members.

On Monday, Labor Day, Abigail, Darcy, Maria, and Deb and Tim Duggan joined us on our patio for an afternoon drink, hot dogs and cheeseburgers from the grill, and home made potato salad and a Greek tomato and feta cheese salad, all preceded by Deb Duggan’s treat of homemade bruschetta. Darcy Stopped to pick up some ice cream to ala’ mode Deb’s home made cherry pie dessert. The evening ended early and rain threatened though held off until the middle of the night. Not our biggest or busiest Labor Day outing, but it did bring friendship into focus.

 Twice this week, Mark has attended Master Gardener Educational offerings via ZOOM, part of a virtual Lunch & Learn offering (bring your own lunch) which week covered Ticks & Mosquitos, in one session and Diseases of Perennials in another. Exciting stuff y’all!

Books are being consumed, some classics (Hound of The Baskerville) and some Kindle offerings from the Library for Deb. Mark had finished earlier in the week the Pittsburgh Short Stories of Willa Cather, and is now launching into Love in the Time of Cholera  as his next reading assignment. Shopping this week was wrapped up quickly as Deb went by herself and did not have to leave Mark lonely in the parking lot; there were no reported altercations with Trumpites in the parking lot either.

As we noted last week, we took our third COVID test last Thursday and were notified that we were both negative. The news arrived on Labor Day and so it was only three days out of date. Hopefully we have not had any contact with the disease in the ensuing week. Our entertainment this week has centered around the Entertainer-in-Chief and his antics and statements after being outed by Bob Woodward in the latest book Rage that will be published next week. Luckily for us, he wasn’t lying to the public; he was only trying to protect the citizenry from fear. We are feeling Fear and Loathing in our hearts and can hardly wait until our mail-in ballots arrive. We will mark them heavily, sign them correctly and then deliver them to the drop box ourselves. No chance of the USPS losing them, and we won’t, as the Dear Leader illegally suggested, go to the ballot box on November 3 and attempt a second vote.

Please stay safe, mask up, stay 6 feet away from unloved ones, and keep washing those hands.

Omaha Pandemic, Friday, September 4, 2020

We are nearing six months of Pandemic isolation. Frankly, Deb and Mark have been so busy that time appears to be flying. We feel guilty that we are not sitting, locked up in our home, feeling sorry for ourselves and our isolation. This change in national lifestyle has brought some benefits: closer to our dear friends and children, a new blooming of correspondence with far flung family members we haven’t seen for years, and a renewed appreciation of each other. We cook new foods, try new skills, and have an appreciation of our own surrounding nature.

Last Friday we enjoyed another biweekly zoom cocktail hour with our Tucson friends, Tom and Kevin. We made noises about traveling to Arizona again this January, pandemic allowing. Our other Arizona buddies, Dell and Karen have taken to sharing a daily batch of humour with us, cartoons and jokes that they cull from the internet, collect, and then send out on a daily basis. Some are groaners and some are downright hilarious, providing a welcome bit of fun into an otherwise grave time in the U.S. (yes politics!)

Saturday was quiet, some shopping and a trip to Abigail’s to water the garden. We received a phone call Saturday afternoon from, an unexpected source. Darcy’s school days best buddy Nevia Pavletic phoned us to say that she was in town and would like to come visit during the week, bringing along her husband. We set Sunday evening for a meeting time on our patio, and notified Darcy, who planned to join us. Sunday, we resumed our Eggs Benedict habit for brunch and then spent some time on our biweekly home maintenance - vacuum, dust, wash some clothing and floors, general basic maintenance.  Nevia and her husband, Jose´ Garcia arrived with a bottle of wine, a game and great stories to tell.

Nevia, her parents Adrianna and Zyvko (Steve) arrived in Omaha in the early 1990’s, after a stint in Seattle. All are natives of Croatia, and Steve and Adrianna are physicians. Steve was involved in Cancer Research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center while Adrianna was busy taking her medical boards and completing a Residency requirement in order to continue practicing medicine. Nevia and Darcy met the first day in Kindergarten and remained fast friends through Nevia’s high school years.  

The family moved to Bethesda Maryland after Nevia’s freshman year in high school, where her parents became researchers employed at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, where they still work and live. Jose”s parents are diplomats representing Mexico, Jose’s birthplace. He grew up also in Bethesda and they have been married for over five years.

The evening conversation went on to well past 11:00, covering all the changes the girls and their friends have endured, updating each other on friends, reminiscing about past exploits, and catching up on family. It was great for us to hear them chatter, get to know a little bit about Jose´, and see how Nevia has changed (she looks just the same at 33 as she did at 14.) She spent a lot of time at our house over the years and it was great to see her all grownup.

On Monday, we made our first foray to eat out of home, meeting our friends Deb and Tim Duggan at the local pub, Tracks, for  cheeseburgers and fries on their open patio. Food was delicious, social distancing was adequate, and it felt good to be taking a chance, although a fairly safe one. Deb says the vodka dirty martini was the best of the pandemic, Mark’s homemade ones not withstanding.

In an attempt to deal with our surfeit of tomatoes, Deb tried a recipe of roasting the tomatoes, along with a lot of other vegetables in the order, Celery, onions, peppers, garlic, all in the roaster for about two hours. She then picked out all the tomato skins (easily) and we used the immersion blender to create a tasty sauce. We ended up with three large containers for the freezer and a large portion for our evening dinner.
Mark made his first trip back to his Master Gardener group on Wednesday, masking up and walking with them at a social distance as they toured the gardens they tend at the Josie Harper Hospice House. They toured all 14 gardens making notes of successes and failures and suggestions for next year. The day was pleasant and it felt good to be back in the swing of things.

We did have one close scare this week, Deb spent a couple of hours at a friend’s house for coffee on Monday morning. On Wednesday, word came that one of her hostess’s friends may have contracted COVID, hence a calling off of a proposed cocktail hour that evening. We consequently scheduled a third COVID testing for Thursday morning. Thankfully, on Friday morning we learned that the friend was ruled negative - a big sigh of relief for a number of older folks. We expect our test results to be available next Tuesday (Labor Day holiday intervening.) We are feeling fine and expect negative results but are trying to be smart and safe.

At the vegetable garden at Abigail’s we harvested produce from our earlier efforts. In addition to our pickings, there are five watermelons ripening on the vine and more zucchini on the way. Deb tried a new zucchini bread recipe, which turned out to be a truly moist and delicious recipe, this one straight from the Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book.

At the end of the week, we dined again on our favorite take-out, LaCasa Pizza on our patio with our friends the Needelmans.  The week has flown by. The weather is surprisingly moderate, with lows in the low 60’s overnight and highs in the mid 70s in the day. There are to be a few spikes over the long weekend with temps up to 100ºF on Sunday then back to lower 50’s at night and daytime temps in the upper 70’s.

We had an enjoyable week and are looking forward to the Labor Day feast. Potato salad, baked beans, hot dogs and burgers. Not many people to enjoy it but at least a nod to the past. Stay safe, mask up and make plans to mail your ballot in early next month. Go Joe!!