[Note: the tone varies wildly; longer entries tend to be analytical and sometimes political, short ones tend to be playful and humorous, so feel free to skip whichever doesn’t appeal to you. . . . ]
THURSDAY, MARCH 26
9:13 a.m. — Days, even weeks, are starting to blur together.
But I THINK it was last Thursday or Friday that it was announced that testing in our county (Multnomah) would become more readily available.
But I THINK it was last Thursday or Friday that it was announced that testing in our county (Multnomah) would become more readily available.
The big question — especially since so many positive cases have accumulated in adjacent Washington County in “Silicon Forest” to the west — is whether the relatively low numbers up to now in far denser Multnomah County (downtown Portland, where I live) are more a reflection of lower infection rate, or just insufficient testing?
Has Washington County been looking more dire simply because the earliest cases appeared there, so more tests were conducted?
It’s likely still too early to tell for certain. Nevertheless, yesterday’s total from the Oregon Health Authority (the daily “as of 8 a.m.” updates tend not to turn up until noon-ish) show fewer cases here than in Washington and Marion (state capital and penitentiaries, Salem) and not much more than Linn (Corvallis / Oregon State University) . . . despite a massive jump in tests here over the past few days (almost as many in Multnomah now as all three other counties combined).
In hard figures, fewer than 2.5 percent of Multnomah County tests for Covid-19 have been positive, compared to rates of 11.2 percent in Washington, 9.7 percent in Marion, and 6.4 percent in Linn. (The fact that distant Baker, Columbia, Coos, Crook, Curry, Gilliam, Harney, Jefferson, Lake, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Tillamook, Wallowa, Wasco, and Wheeler counties all have no reported positives is probably due to the fact that no tests have been run in those counties, either.)
We are somewhere near to a tipping point after which we will know whether our self-isolating measures have managed to avert a massive surge in infection here in Oregon (especially in the largest metro areas), or we — in particular, our health-care system — are going to tip into an abyss.
Hang on, folks; try to stay calm and patient.
The other day, the ever-thoughtful and elegant columnist Eugene Robinson confirmed I have made the right choice:
“Day by day, tweet by tweet, unhinged briefing by unhinged briefing, President Trump is making it worse. . . .”
[After a conservative friend commented “There is always the chance you might learn something. I always do,” I could not resist responding:]
What’s to be learned from this man?
How to incur massive amounts of debt in pursuit of your goals? I’m not interested in that.
How to run a business into the ground? I don’t intend ever to do that.
How to bully people into doing what you want? I don’t choose to lead my life that way.
How to change direction instantly and pretend that’s the way you were always headed? That’s not my style.
How to ignore solid advice from experts in their field and declare you know more than all of them? I would never do that.
How to make repeated promised you won’t, can’t, or never intended to keep? I try to avoid that as much as possible.
No, I don’t see there’s anything to be learned from listening to this man, let alone attempting to follow his example.
2:34 p.m. — I’ve started keeping a Journal of the Plague Year, from serious thoughts to jokes that surfaced among my Facebook posts this month, and collected week by week on my blog.
FRIDAY, MARCH 27
9:15 a.m. — This morning my friends are buzzing about the President’s refusal of Governor Cuomo’s request for extra ventilators to be rushed to New York City at this critical juncture of the pandemic.
I commented that the Incumbent’s punishing the city for not voting for him, and using the same gangster tactics his team employed with Ukraine: You’ll get something from me only if you do something for me.
A fellow alum of my southern Oregon high school who’s been a professional musician for most of his life responded with this story:
“I lived in NYC from 1984-2000, and his sociopathy and narcissism were unbelievably evident to those of us who lived in the city; it was front-page news a lot of days. The borough of Manhattan, which includes a LOT of well-heeled voters who would save a lot of money from Trump/Republican tax cuts, voted against him 90% in 2016.
“One story I remember was as the news was coming out that Trump had stiffed 3900 contractors working on that vulgar obscenity, Trump Taj Mahal, was of a long-time family piano dealer who got the contract to provide 7 pianos to the casino for $100,000. The guy personally selected the best 7 Yamaha grands he could find, delivered them, and waited to get paid. Like he did with everyone else, he couldn’t get paid.
“Finally, the Trump Organization’s lawyers sent a ‘final offer’ to settle for 70 cents on the dollar. You know well that’s not how the piano business works. And that was the end of that guy’s family piano business; he eventually had to take the $70k and retired not long after. After making a donation of probably $10,000 to Donald Trump.
“And here’s what Trump had to say about this: ‘Seven years ago, I left Atlantic City before it totally cratered. And I made a lot of money in Atlantic City. And I’m very proud of it.’ ”
11:56 a.m. — Here’s my Journal of the Plague Year, week 2; not a lot of humor in the second week, but I promise to post something lighter in my next blog. . . .
9:46 p.m. — I promised Rick as well as the rest of you that I’d lighten up on my blog. This will have to do: my worst — er, best — original puns from nearly a decade ago.
9:45 a.m. — Happy birthday to ME! [No, this wasn’t shot today. This is from a cousin’s wedding a number of years ago. My brother Ken just emailed it to me.]
[Note: over the course of the day, I received 209 separate birthday greetings on my timeline, according to Facebook metrics, plus maybe a dozen good wishes as comments appended to other threads, and eventually another four belated birthday greetings on March 30 and 31.]
8:36 p.m. — I got a shirt for my birthday. Not clear which of my girls ordered this. . . .
SUNDAY, MARCH 29
10:38 a.m. — Day 18. May have to break out the pickled herring. The wife will not be pleased — hugs may be out for the duration — but I love the stuff and am willing to do what must be done to survive.
12:45 p.m. — A bar of soap does not normally disappear in less than a week.
4:28 p.m. — Glancing at today’s Oregon Health Authority figures, the totals in most of the counties that had already reported cases are climbing steadily but not dramatically upward.
The only startling shift was in Jackson County, which had 8 confirmed cases yesterday, but 19 this morning. [That jump in 11 new cases far outstripped the hikes in several jurisdictions that had had a lot more to begin with, such as Clackamas and Deschutes, which were already in double digits, but picked up only 3 apiece, while Linn added 4.]
That might still reflect improved testing rather than a possible outbreak in southern Oregon this week: Josephine County to the west has 6 cases, Curry on the coast still reporting none, after 37 total tested.) Jackson had processed more than a thousand tests by yesterday, and a total of 1,216 this morning, so that’s a reassuringly massive percentage of negatives, at least.
Still too early to know whether we might be making it over the hump.
MONDAY, MARCH 30
11:54 a.m. — Carole did a virtual Qi Gong workout online with her group from Legacy/Good Sam this morning.
Anecdotal evidence from them has it that street people have attacked citizens downtown — thrown rocks, etc. — in an effort to get themselves arrested and into shelter as well as potential medical care.
I intend to walk into town later for a couple of essential errands — bank deposits and emergency half ’n’ half — so we’ll see.
12:46 p.m. — Day 19. My muscles have gone very soft. Somebody in my book group mentioned English morris dancing in an online discussion the other day, which took me back to my years as a strenuous double-stepper and longsword dancer in Boston.
These shots are from Downtown Crossing in 1983, just outside the long-gone Filene’s Basement, and from Pier 1 of the Charlestown Navy Yard with the USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”) in the background, in 1987, just before I returned to Oregon.
4:39 p.m. — Bank deposit and cream run completed without incident. Here are images of a depleted city between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. today. To be utterly fair, these are not strictly representative photos; in several instances, I waited for just the right moment when traffic fell to its lowest at each location, to take the shot. But it’s also fair to say it wasn’t hard — it did not take very long; no more than 15 seconds to a minute — to capture these scenes on a weekday afternoon in downtown Portland.
While taking my leisurely stroll, I watched a driver roar through a light that was turning red at SW First and Market, and two other turn on red without stopping at SW First and Harrison. I also saw drivers still glancing at their mobile phones while operating a vehicle.
Well, I thought: traffic is so sparse, they’re less likely to hit anyone or get hit themselves. On a brighter note, there were no e-scooters operating anywhere downtown; not on sidewalks, not on the streets, nor in the parks . . . and that was refreshing, for the first time in almost a year.
TUESDAY, MARCH 31
12:41 a.m. — Currently reading:
Madison and Jefferson by Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg
Madison and Jefferson by Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg
The Other Side of the Moon: the life of David Niven by Sheridan Morley
The Lost Beatles Interviews by Geoffrey Giuliano
2:14 p.m. — It’s become so unusual to encounter anyone else in the corridors of our apartment complex, that to arrive simultaneously at opposite sides of a hallway door is quite the shock.
I was carrying Pixie at the time, and it was a good thing I didn’t drop her.
3:02 p.m. — A lot of pounding and rattling from upstairs over the past hour.
Evidently, they’re hosting a martial arts tournament up there.
3:54 p.m. — Today’s county-by-county coronavirus report from the Oregon Health Authority:
Most of the counties that had previous reported cases are creeping slowly but steadily upward. Washington and Marion still showing a steeper curve than Multnomah.
The farthest NE and SE counties in the state, Wallowa and Malheur (remember: where the Bundy family and other white “patriots” occupied a federal wildlife sanctuary two years ago?) are now on the board with 1 case apiece.
Strangest detail: Deschutes is down a case from yesterday.
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