Pandemic Omaha, Friday, November 27, 2020

 Thanksgiving week is now past. One holiday to both remember and hope to forget. Remember because we, throughout the nation, gathered with loved ones mostly in small groups to count our blessings and our good fortune of health and happiness; try and forget the pandemic that is ravishing our nation and the world, to forget the past four years of our national shame and malaise. 

No birthdays to report this week, at least none that we have on our calendars. There are two mea culpas for last week’s post: first, brother John Covert stopped by to wish Mark a happy birthday, and Deb snapped a photo of the two Covert  brothers in their caps and masks.

Second, Lee Needelman brought a beautiful chocolate cake to Mark when they joined us for pizza on the patio last week, we neglected to include the fact and a photo in the last post. The omissions were the error of the scribe - the editor was in Lincoln for the morning and did not have the chance to review the work, no slight was intended to either.

It has been extremely quiet in Omaha this week. Weather was snowy on Monday, but then melted away by Tuesday. We did some grilling, baking and grocery shopping, but nothing too outrageous. Ed and Meg were to host his kids, Avery and Spenser for Thanksgiving in LA, but second thoughts on flying them across country with no intervening quarantine period resulted in a cancellation of the trip. The kids are to stay in Maryland, celebrating with their mother while Ed and Meg will have to figure a way to consume all the turkey, mashed potatoes and homemade turkey gravy on their own.  Note that the gravy and turkey freeze well and the mashed potatoes can be made into great potato pancakes! 

On Wednesday, after Deb whipped up an apple pie and three pumpkin pies for Thursday’s feast, we journeyed out for another COVID 19 test. We are hoping again for negative. This is our 5th testing. The afternoon was then spent boiling the 16 turkey necks which are the key to Deb’s famous world class gravy and then she spent two hours picking the meat off said necks.  

That takes us into Thursday (feast day) which arrived early and we hit the ditches running. we prepared the oven, Deb prepared the stuffing and dressing, Mark brought the turkey up from the lower refrigerator and we began stuffing the sacrificial avian and tossing it into the furnace. This is the first time in our memory that we have actually cooked a turkey in our oven. Always before, there were so many sides and other things to be cooked that we used a stand-alone Nesco roaster, either outside on a separate table or in the laundry area on top of the washer dryer, as an auxiliary kitchen.  The ancient Nesco bit the dust this summer so, even though a replica had been purchased, we decided to try the more conventional oven and were we glad we did.  Finally, crispy skin and deep brown color.  Really tasty!

Abigail arrived with her additional supplies and commenced on her specialties: mashed potatoes, cheesy cabbage casserole, creamed corn casserole and green beans. Mark brought up his refrigerated dough for the homemade pull-apart rolls and Deb commenced on the gravy. The bird was pulled from the oven around 1:15PM, looking bronzed, buff and ready for his performance.

Then the sides went into the now vacant oven for their turn, and finally the rolls were popped in for the last act. Kate Duggan stopped by with a surprise gift of “Pink Stuff,” a staple at the Picken’s thanksgiving table and always a treat for the grandkids; achingly sweet cherry colored whipped cream with the cherries imbedded. A truly lovely and thoughtful homage to Bev Picken’s huge Thanksgivings of the past.  This Thanksgiving would also have been her 91st birthday.

Darcy and Maria arrived with their two dogs in tow, and we set the table, posed for pictures, and began shoveling in the food. So much food, even though we thought we were consciously moderating the size, if not the number, of the dishes. We rolled away from the table around 4:30 and circled the fire pit for an after meal discussion and a rest around the fire.  We checked in with Jake and Audrey in Michigan, and then with Ed and Meg in LA; those last two were just getting ready to tuck into a beautiful prepared feast, looking at food for 5-8 that was now going to be enjoyed by just two.

Darcy and Maria headed out around 5:00 to see Maria’s mom, and Abigail headed home to feed her dog and take a rest. Leftovers and pie accompanied each departure.

Deb and Mark cleaned up the remains of the day then sat in the living room for a while with a last glass of cheer and then a little TV. Into bed by 10:00, exhausted, but in a good way. Truly a good Thanksgiving, although different from any in memory. Next year, we can all gather together again and reminisce about the T’Day of 2020!

Wash your hands, keep masked up (except when shoveling leftovers into your face,) maintain your social distancing from all and stay safe. The orange one finally stated on Thanksgiving eve that, should the Electoral College actually vote for Joe Biden, he would leave the White House - although the election had been fraudulently stolen from him.  December 14th will be the best gift 2020 gave us this year.  January 20 will be our 2021 gift!

Pandemic Omaha, Friday, November 20, 2020

 It was unseasonably warm in Omaha this past week. Nighttime temperatures in the low to mid 40s and daytime temps reaching into the upper 60s and low 70s. we even hit a record 73ºF on Thursday. The rain two weeks ago brought our drought standing up to moderate, a better level heading into winter. We continue to water our lawn and gardens, trying to set them up for success for next season. Soon though we will be rolling the hoses up and setting them in for the winter months. Excellent weather to sit on the front porch and enjoy a dirty martini.

Some birthdays to report this week: our friend Deb Duggan celebrated a milestone on Tuesday. As Tuesday Drinks Night Zoom went on as scheduled, Deb Covert baked a cake and Mark was tasked with delivering it during the Zoom call. The girls then sang the standard Birthday song. The traditions that this pandemic has forced from a hug inducing get together to forced electronic cheeriness can induce some depression!

Another birthday milestone was that Mark celebrated the conclusion of his 73rd year and the plunge into his 74th on Wednesday. He continues to hobble along with the hip repair getting stronger everyday, as long as he doesn’t try anything stupid, as is his wont.

We celebrated Mark’s day by having a dinner with Abigail, Darcy and Maria at Abigail’s house. Although there has been some valid criticism regarding discussion on this site of mundane meals such as Hot Dogs or grilled cheese sandwiches, this birthday dinner was a special request of the celebrant; grilled thick hamburgers, Deb’s world famous potato salad, and a resurrection of Deb’s Mom’s baked bean recipe. A dessert of homemade chocolate swirl cake made for a great evening. The girls produced a pair of homemade fruitcake; they amassed all the ingredients and baked up two huge loaves, an effort truly appreciated. One was partially consumed and one was carried home, going into the freezer to be trotted out at some future time and occasion for all to enjoy!

Our weekly Family Zoom on Saturday was well attended with Claire, Jessy, John, Lynn, Abigail, Ed & Meg and Jake & Audry in attendance. We covered the impending Thanksgiving plans that normally would have included most of us getting together, which, this year will be small home gatherings with the standard menu but held throughout the land in our individual places.  Maybe a Zoom meet with the various turkey carcass remains on display?

We enjoyed the company of our friends Lee and Howie Needelman around our patio fire pit on Thursday, utilizing a different source for pizza - Tasty Pizza, a small local restaurant where we ordered in six of their 8” pies: Marguerita, Bacon Gouda, Pepperoni, Meatball, Supreme, and Mushroom. All were delicious; the Bacon Gouda and the Supreme were clear favorites.

Friday, November 20, is a sad day around our home, marking this year the 6th anniversary of the loss of Glenda and Jeff’s son Tony; a young man full of promise, intelligence and talent. Deb, as she does most years, traveled to Lincoln to lay some flowers on the grave and reminisce with Glenda. Tony’s life is a memory that we will treasure and hold in our hearts.

As all readers will know, there as been no concession this week from the great orange presence - only a failure of over twenty lawsuits he and his troupe have instigated to try and overcome the election results. In the meantime, his administration’s refusal to allow GSA to begin the transition to the Biden administration means that we as a nation fall further into potential harm and definite diminishment of our standing in the world as a shining example of democracy. How can one person bring an entire nation to such a low point? The coronavirus has now taken the lives of over 250,000 Americans; the great leader does not acknowledge this but only rants about how his rightful win has been stolen. The Statue of Liberty must be weeping torrents, just as the rest of the nation is standing tearfully by, trying to understand why  this is happening. The only answer is a septuagenarian spoiled child not getting his way. 

Thank you all for your votes. Now we must continue to vigilantly push together to get to that day in January when we can celebrate; not only the end of our suffering, but it is also Abigail’s birthday - another reason to celebrate. Keep washing your hands, mask up, stay distanced as best you can, think of all your friends and relatives this coming holiday, and give thanks for what can again become a proud nation.

Pandemic Omaha, Friday, November 13, 2020

 Last Friday evening election results were looking better. We enjoyed our bi-weekly Zoom cocktail hours with Kevin Rose and Tom Nielsen, they in Tucson and we in Omaha. We try to rub in a bit about Omaha contributing a blue dot in a sea of red versus Tucson, which seemed to have gone totally red. Arizona however seemed to pull itself out as a purple state and backed Joe and Kamala, as well as sending Mark Kelley to Washington to grab the U.S. Senate seat from the republican appointee, Martha McSally. We lamented the number of our fellow citizens who still saw fit to vote for the orange presence, and wondered what would happen next. As usual, the session went long and more alcohol than necessary was probably consumed.

Happy Birthday this week to neighbor Maya Khanna, who celebrated her 42nd on Monday, November 9th. Her husband Mike Cortese and her 8 year old triplet daughters Camilla, Matilda, and Marietta (Milla, Tillie and Etta) helped with the muted celebration.

Saturday morning, the race was called and President-Elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr. was declared the winner by all the news services. Then only word from the White House was that the Tweeter-in Chief claimed to have won the election with “legal” votes and it appeared he wasn’t planning on leaving anytime soon. No concession speech from him this day. Saturday we ran a lot of errands, going to Menards, grocery stores, and working in the yard to try and clean up in advance of encroaching winter. By the time we were done, the leaves were mulched and cleaned, most of the trees were bare and things were looking good, except dry. We started watering and moving the hoses around although we had already drained them, but no yet put them away for the winter. As the weather was still nice, we opted for an easy dinner of hot dogs on the gas grill. Quick and easy and also very scrumptious. We are big fans of Wimmer’s Natural Casing Wieners, either regular or coarse ground. this evening it was regular, covered in mustard, with a side salad. Not totally healthy, but it could have been worse. 

Sunday broke with temperatures still moderate but wind gusts of up to 50 mph blasting through the area. All of a sudden our clean yards were again covered in leaves and thoughts of cleaning them up in the gale force winds were ludicrous. We read the papers, rejoiced in more information regarding our incoming president and cleaned around the house. After our regular Eggs Benedict, Darcy and Maria stopped over to help us put our bed back together. Prior to Mark’s surgery, we had removed the box springs, letting the mattress rest on the slatted bed frame in order to bring the height of the bed down from 29 inches to about 18 inches, making for a much easer in and out for the gimp. We felt it was time to put the box springs back in place and get the rest of the rooms back to normal. Although we were able to remove the box springs ourselves prior to surgery, there was no way the two of us were going to be able to restore; hence the helping hands, who made quick work of the rehab. Deb uncovered a couple of her perfect tomatoes that were ripening individually wrapped in the basement, so we had pasta with Klamath olives and tomatoes for dinner, accompanied by wine but no bread as the baker is falling down on his job. Still no concession speech or even acknowledgment from the orange gremlin this day.

Monday was a busy day for Deb as she had two medical appointments this day. She met with her orthopedic guy and received a cortisone injection in her “old” knee. He didn’t think she was ready for more replacement surgery on that side. Besides, given the pandemic situation, hospital rooms in the area are limited with regard to elective surgery. Six weeks ago, hospitals were restricted to a maximum of six surgeries per department per day. Now they are limited to one surgery per department per day in order to assure that there are plenty of beds available for COVID 19 patients and emergencies such as heart attack es or accidental injuries. In the afternoon, she traveled to her ophthalmologist for her annual check-up. All is good and her prescription has barely changed. The temperature reached a high today of 48ºF in the early afternoon and then proceeded to start dropping and spitting rain. By the end of the day, the temperature had dropped to 33ºF and it was spitting rain and mixed snow. We sat on the fron porch for a bit, enjoying our evening cocktail but soon were forced in. Deb prepared grilled cheese sandwiches, we watched the PBS Newshour for any updates and then enjoyed John Oliver and SNL from the weekend. No concession speech this day but a flurry of rejected lawsuits as the Orange Oneness flails about trying to convince the world that he won the election and was defrauded, although there is no evidence to support all these claims.

Tuesday was another rainy morning. Temperatures hovered at 33ºF all day with rain. Between Monday and Tuesday, the rain total was 2.6 inches, well needed moisture, even though we are still down at least 10 inches for the year. The weather is to mellow somewhat the next few days; we will then make a final hose drain, put them away, and see about removing the leaves that now totally cover our yard area. Deb has been working constantly to clear the photos collected over generations from the dining room table and finally succeeded on Tuesday - therefore, all relatives need to be on the lookout for a huge “data dump” coming their way in the near future. You have been warned. Mark was prowling in the pantry and discovered a few small, single serving cans of baked beans that he had stockpiled since last year’s trip to England, always ordering the ‘Full English” or Full Irish Breakfast.” So today, a fried egg, toast and baked beans were on the luncheon menu. Deb opted for straight peanut butter and potatoe chip sandwiches for her gourmet lunch. Due to weather constraints, Tuesday Drinks Night is a Zoom affair this week, with only one regular unable to attend. Dinner of Turkey Pasta Goulash is on the menu, again a family favorite. No concession speech this day. 

Happy Veteran’s Day to all our veteran family and friends. In our immediate family that includes Mark, Ed, Jake, and Sabrina (still on active duty.) Sabrina’s grandma, Cholly, is also a veteran as are our close family friends Tim Duggan, Ted James, and George Sennentz.  November 11 is also a “birthday day” of sorts in our family as it is the 46th birthday of Leonard DiCaprio - a VIP!! We enjoyed a quiet day, reading, resting, eating leftover goulash for lunch and then Hot Dogs and reheated goulash for dinner. We watched the first episodes of “Watchmen;” not sure if we can recommend it as we are not sure what the hell was going on!  We will try a few more episodes until we get the feel of it.  Violent in episode one. We also started in on the new Hugh Laurie show on PBS but are not able to binge so we will begin following to see how it goes. Reading wise it is The River of Doubt by Candice Millard, and We Germans by Alexander Starritt. Deb finished this one quickly and enjoyed it. Mark is still slogging through River of Doubt, pun intended. No concession speech this day.

Thursday arrived cold but sunny. Deb completed a lot of running around, both to grocery stores, but also to Costco, Michaels and a number of other stops as shopping season starts up. Turkey and potatoes were procured for the upcoming feast for a party of 3-5; easily the smallest crowd of our married life. Even our first Thanksgiving would have included four of us at either Deb’s parents house or Mark’s parents house. How time has changed and how the pandemic has rearranged our life. No concession speech this day.

As the week winds down and we reflect on how the election will and will not change our lives, we lament the emotion we had invested in this exercise. Still no concession speech and we are beginning to doubt there ever will be one. This is probably to be expected from a person whose entire identity is wrapped up in his need to be the center of everything; one who was raised never to lose; one who calls veterans losers! Well, now that the vote is over, unless you are in Georgia, please mask up, keep your distance, and wash those ands.

 

Pandemic Omaha, Friday, November 6, 2020

Friday started as a mild day and we got some minor shopping in.

We then joined Howie and Lee Needelman on the dining patio of The Market Basket restaurant as the sun was setting. Although the establishment had patio heaters out, the one by our table was not very effective, more for show than for heat. The food was good, a couple of burgers for the guys, a salmon and wilted lettuce salad for Deb and Lee enjoyed the Chicken Picatta; we all enjoyed a cup of their excellent potato soup. As the wine was half priced, we shared a couple bottles of a Grayson Cellars California Pinot Noir, with enough left over to take a partial bottle home. The only down side was that Deb left her credit card behind, discovering that it was missing Sunday afternoon. She wasn’t able to retrieve it until Monday afternoon. 

Birthday celebrations this week include nephew William Picken’s 25th birthday on Wednesday, November 4, and neighbor Tom Babb’s 52nd birthday on Thursday, November 5.

Saturday, Halloween, brought us to the Zoom device for our bi-weekly family conference. Only Ed & Meg plus Jake and Audry joined us, but it was an enjoyable visit, hearing about Meg’s visit to her mother in Florida and catching up on Audry’s dad’s battle with health issues. Ed and Meg are getting their boxes unpacked and sorting out their new apartment - time now for the hanging discussions ( art, not each other) continuous relocating of furniture until each is settled in its proper location in relation to each other and each purpose.

For Halloween, we in Omaha were treated to a warm and mild evening.

All our neighbors sat on their porches or in their drives, watching over their bushels of candy and commenting on the goblins on parade. We had a record high number of 24 customers. Our previous high was 17; our next door neighbors, Tom & Beth Babb, who have lived here 24 years, noted that this is the highest total they’d ever experienced. Everyone was socially distanced, properly masked and not too greedy. This year seemed to be the year for the very young. No greedy middle schoolers or scary teens nosing around. They were all probably at a superspreader event passing around the COVID!

Sunday again was a lovely weather day. Earlier in the week, we had finally bit the bullet and given up the paper edition of the local daily, The Omaha World Herald. We held out as long as we could, loath to give up our morning ritual of sitting on the front porch, drinking our coffee, listening to NPR and reading the newspaper, occasionally lifting our heads to talk to neighbors walking their dogs, or nodding to those headed off to work. However, when the automatic billing hit the credit card for a whopping $195.00 for the next three months, we called a halt. The electronic edition is only $52.00 per quarter so we are now fully paid through mid 2021 and learning how to navigate the electronic edition. Printing out the crossword and jumble puzzles have been our only challenge so far. We are not true Luddites, but this passing of a tradition is particularly mournful. At the risk of sounding old and crotchety, we were reminiscing about our early married days when we received both a morning and evening paper delivered to our door. They each had different  comic pages, puzzles, and an update of the news of the day. Of course now it is all electronic and the news changes by the minute. Too much!

Sunday  afternoon, we traveled to Abigail’s to review progress on the deck.

The contractors were nearly finished. Luckily we arrived in time to make a few strategic changes as to placement of a staircase and movement of a few rail posts. All is complete except the top rail, and for Mark to complete the horizontal pipe railings in the spring. this is a truly marvelous addition to the home, now with a place to cook a hamburger, sit in the sun and drink a cup of coffee or knit in nature. We see many years of enjoyment from this addition.

Sunday evening we finished the binge-watching of the mini-series “The Queen’s Gambit.” We heartily recommend this short series as a very enjoyable presentation with new faces in some of the leads and a story well told.  Another recommendation was the movie “Enola Holmes” an ongoing story of Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister; the lead in this tale is carried by Milly Bobby Brown, the child star of “Stranger Things.” Based upon the way the “Enola Holmes” show ends, we expect there will be future installments. 

Monday we did some shopping and then joined Deb and Tim Duggan at our local bar and grill, Tracks, for a hamburger and glass of wine on their dining patio. Again a glorious evening that ended early. We came home and spent another hour on our front porch, listening to the night and musing on the outcome of the next day’s election.

Tuesday, Election Day, was uneventful as we had early on mailed our ballots in to avoid any potential COVID problems at our polling site. Marsha Gallagher and Ted James stopped by over the noon hour and we spent a friendly hour socially distanced and masked up on our front porch, catching up on their doings and exchanging a couple of books we were enjoying. As this was Drinks Night Tuesday, Deb and her buddies congregated on our back patio around the fire pit, lit a fire, and mused upon the state of the world and the impending outcome.  We retired early, eschewing the opportunity to get caught in the breathless score keeping going on on all the media outlets.

We found out soon enough on Wednesday morning that it was not smooth sailing. All day we avoided as much of the back and forth as we could. Wednesday evening we hosted the Needelmans and the Hosford’s around our fire pit, enjoying LaCasa pizza, a wilted spinach salad from Ann’s kitchen and a praline cheesecake from Lee’s kitchen.

Sunset is now occurring shortly after 5:00PM and, with the Indian Summer weather, it is perfect for a small fire in the fire pit, or a glass of wine under the patio heater.

Thursday was spent with Mark journeying to Hospice House to help with loading the canna rhizomes into a truck bound for a north central Nebraska farm cellar to spend the winter. Deb continues on her massive project of clearing and filing thousands of photos and documents we have been accumulating over the years. The project continues. Roast beef hash with poached eggs nestled on top for dinner as we caught up with Judy Woodruff and the PBS Newshour - our only source of national news other than the morning NPR habit.

  

As of early Friday morning, Biden is only 6 votes away from an electoral vote win. We are thankful that Omaha has become a sole “blue dot” in a sea of red. Our 2nd district is handing one vote to Biden - the other four go to the orange one but we are proud of our ability to be a sane spot in this mass of MAGA world stupidity. We will be headed out next week for another round of COVID testing, trying hard to maintain our health as the pandemic surges around us. Stay well, stay distanced, mask up, wash your hands and have hope that the madness will end someday.