It is May the 4. We are still in lockdown, so to speak. Andy has been out three times since the middle of February. Once to the podiatrist and twice with me to Fred Meyers. What excitement. Yawn.

I could write about current events. People are getting restless. The right wingers, the libertarians, the rednecks are complaining that their civil rights are being trampled. If they want to mingle in public they should be able to do so. This is what they are screaming about. And they have at state capitols and various places. When they get the virus I wonder if they will change their minds. In the meantime they shout out vulgar words, wave swastikas, argue for states rights when it is their state that is enforcing social distancing and business closures. They carry guns. They are very, very scary people.

Meanwhile, in a fit of desperation I signed up for a virtual 10K. The Devil Mountain Run. I had never done it while living in the Bay Area because I was always in training for a marathon. Now was my chance. It was fun doing the training. Not nearly as rigorous as training for a marathon but it was good to get into that mindset again. Of course now with MapMyRun and Fitbit my training is much more targeted. I know exactly how much I have run and how long it took and how hard my heart worked. I still use my runner’s watch for the interval timing but it is really just a quaint relic of the marathon days now. Rebecca signed up for it as well. Originally we had planned to run it simultaneously, her in Vancouver and me here in Tigard. We had a couple of weeks to do it. Whenever we wanted. So we chose the original date of the real run. May 3. We decided to run really early. For Rebecca because she can’t run with a mask. It is hard with her asthma. This way she would be running with very few people on a trail that winds around False Bay in Vancouver. She has done it before and knows the distance from the door of her building around the Bay and back is 10K. Perfect. I flirted with a couple of routes. I could start from home and do an out and back. Out would be fast. A lot of downhill. But coming back would be slower and more arduous. I could run in circles around Washington Square Mall. I’ve done it before. It is relatively flat but there are a few sneaky uphills. And going in circles in a mall parking lot is  boring even if it is a huge setting. And I would have to be very alert to the cars that travel through there.  I could do Cook Park. A beautiful place to run but again it would involve doing circles and I wasn’t sure if I would be allowed to park there early in the morning. I ended up deciding to run starting from Portland Running company at Nimbus and Scholls Ferry. The Fanno Creek Trail is just a few steps from there. The trail is pretty, lots of birds and greenery and if it isn’t flooded it would be easy to navigate. I would have to run into downtown Tigard but even before COVID it never is crowded. I figured at 6 in the morning it would be pretty quiet. So it went pretty well. Of course the trail was flooded almost as soon as I set foot on it. So I ended up running back up to the road and running across the road to the other side of the overpass where the trail runs right next to the creek under the roadway. At 6 in the morning there was not a car in sight. Along the way, once I was on the trail, I didn’t see anyone except for a few families of geese and some other birds that I cannot name. I really should learn them. Rebecca had started a half an hour or so before me in Vancouver and had a good run. I managed to dodge the rain and also enjoyed my run. I kept thinking how much easier it is to run when you weight 122 instead of 180. Duh! My time wasn’t spectacular. But it was fine. Perhaps next time I will try to beat this time just to make it a little more interesting.

Other than that we are still socially distancing. Andy spoke to our local Chabad Rabbi the other day. Rabbi Orenstein brought us some challah and gefilte fish and a few other goodies. He left them by the front door, rang the bell and then took many steps back. They had a nice conversation but he was in a hurry to make his final deliveries before the sun set and shabbos began. That is the most outside conversation Andy has had, I think, except for his doctors visit, since the quarantine began.

I realize we aren’t officially in quarantine but it for me it seems close enough that I shall refer to it thusly. Since I do go out from time to time it truly isn’t a quarantine for me but for Andy it pretty much is,

We don’t watch the news. Too depressing and annoying. I do not want to see our evil dictator’s face or hear his incoherent ramblings. It isn’t like we are unaware of the outside world. We stay connected via the internet. If I chose to read about the virus, which I often do, I can read CNN, NYTimes, Chicago Tribune or BBC News and see what they have to say. I do not watch FOX. I do not read anything having to do with FOX. And for a real slice of life there is always Facebook. Ha ha.

That is all for now. Stay safe, stay healthy.

Musings

I wrote this 6 years ago. I remember these things happening but I don’t remember writing this. I didn’t actually finish it but I think I will post it anyway. Who would have guessed that 6 years later, I would be in Oregon, social distancing and at this point, making running the center of my life.

Yesterday two things happened that made me want to post on Facebook right away. But I was out and about and by the time I got to my computer I realized that these needed more than a Facebook post. I was afraid I would sound too trivial if I just threw these things out there and I didn't want to trivialize either situation.
I was walking past our local sports bar. It sits in a forlorn corner of a small shopping center and while I have never been inside I imagine the kinds of people I might see in there. Locals, mainly, who have not gotten a hold of the good life some of us imagine living. They stop in for a beer that lasts all evening, watching the Niners or the Sixers or whoever is playing on the overhead TV. Perhaps they meet their friends there every Wednesday night. I don't know. I just kind of imagine it that way. The outside of the bar is not particularly inviting. I think the outside walls are painted cinderblock and there is a corner by the street that people use to smoke their smokes and as a restroom when everything is closed (I guess).
I had just stepped off the Wharf Center bus and was on my way to the office when I felt a moment of deja vu. As I passed the bar there were two youngish people, a man and woman, leaning against the wall of the bar and they were conversing with a slightly older guy. The woman had something in her hand that could have been a film cannister or something like that. The younger guy had a baggy with weed in it. And I am sure of that. It was a lid! I hadn't seen something like that in forever. Anyway the older guy was shaking his head no so I guess there was no deal and when they noticed me passing by they sort of tried to hide what they were doing. But I am a child of the 60's! I know what I saw. Anyway they didn't have to worry about me. I wasn't going to do or say anything. But it just seemed so weird to see that. Kind of a misplaced event or transaction. Not what I expected to see there. But then again why not?
The second thing I want to talk about was my trip to the library. And this is actually about my return trip, not being at the library. Between Andy's office and Front street, among other things, are a couple of pay parking lots. Except for one they are kind of on the honor system I guess. I haven't ever seen an attendant at them. But the one closest to Front Street has a guy who tries to attract people to that particular lot. He stands next to or in the street and yells at the cars cruising by that this is the place they want to park. And some listen to him. We always say hi to each other. And we introduced ourselves once. He is another kind of down and outer person. Called himself Sergeant Major Kevin Something or other of the U.S. Marine Corps Retired. Served in Viet Nam. The way he said it, standing there in his flip flops and dirty torn tee shirt all I could answer as we shook hands was, Thank you for your service. Not something I would have said so many years ago. But his response shook me. Tears came to his eyes and he said that no one had ever said that to him. He looks older than he is I am sure and dresses very shabbily but he always has a smile. Until yesterday. He wasn't there. There was a new guy. I smiled as I walked by him and he immediately said, "today is my first day at work!" I said great or something like that. Then he rambled on about how he had been on the job for three hours and his feet kind of hurt but he had gotten 25 customers. Then he said, " Man, I have been out of work for so long!" He had such a happy look on his face. I don't know how he gets paid, by the hour or by how many cars he attracts but he was obviously so happy to be employed. I also wonder what happened to his predecessor. I hope he is okay.
And of course I was eager to post about these two encounters but it made me think a lot about Lahaina and what this town is really like. There are people here who are wealthy and there are people here who are practically unemployable and don't really know where their next meal will be coming from. And there are lots of people in the middle. But the thing is, even though we don't appear to have a homeless problem such as we have in SF or Oakland they do seem to exist in Lahaina. I don't think I have ever seen a panhandler on Front Street or any of the side streets. There are so many tourists here  and I am sure they are oblivious to anything except the souvenir stores and historic buildings. They stay at the fancy hotels or condos in Ka'anapali or in Wailea. They come by tender from the the huge cruise ships and they jump onto the Roberts tour busses. They see the Lahaina that they want to see, Maui that the businesses want them to see.