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.
