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.
