Day 76 of out captivity: Big bag o’ cheese

Sorry it’s been a few days...I keep hoping others in the house will chime in and do some of these.  There have been things going on:  the kid’s last week of high school classes (complete with pulling an all-nighter to finish one last project), the arrival of Chad’s inexpensive bandsaw, the misbehavior and deconstruction of the espresso machine, the continued 4am yowlfest  saga of Bobber vs the neighbor cat Stripo, and more.  Maybe you will hear more about those later as the stories develop.

For now, the joy of the week was that my long-standing favorite cheese/vegetable/weird-fancy-food market The Milk Pail, which closed up shop about a year ago, has resuscitated itself as a pop-up market in these pandemic times.  You put in an online order on Tuesday for either a small bag, a large bag, or a specialty bag, and the they give you a time slot to pick things up at a tent outside a small warehouse in an obscure industrial pocket of Mountain View on the weekend.  This week’s specialty bag was a festival of cheeses with accompaniments, so that was what I picked.

This afternoon, I drove over at my assigned time with my order number taped to the window, got in line, and picked up the bag of yum.

Whereas I would have picked out a weirder set of cheeses If left to my own devices, what we got promises to be good, and I am happy to see them back in business.  And now I have my source for good vanilla and frozen chocolate croissant dough again!

Day 71 of our captivity: Back yard holiday

Today we pretended to be on vacation.  Given that it was over 90, I decided to make dinner outside.  I had a plethora of high-end ingredients on hand, so we decided to pretend we were vacationing in France.

Fancy organic chicken butterflied and cooked on the grill sandwiched between two cast iron skillets with herbs de Provence—sort of a riff on “chicken cooked under a brick”.  It was beautiful...and yummy.

The rendered chicken fat was then deglazed and distributed between the two pans so I could cook the chard+leeks from the veg box and the lightly floured model mushrooms from the farmer’s market.

I sliced up some leftover olive sourdough, made a green salad, and served it all up with a bottle of rose.  Instant backyard vacation.

Day 70 of our captivity: Car wash

Kid complained that car was dirty.  Mom said “ Ok, you can wash the car”.  I’m sure this is an example of parenting brilliance, empowering kid to solve complaint.

Kid washed car.  Yay kid!  Upon parental inspection, one parent said “Oooooh shiny!”.  Other parent said “But water spots!  It wasn’t lovingly dried off with a chamois.”  First parent cluelessly responded with honest “Who dries off their car in any way other than driving around the block???” reaction.

We have different strategies.  Either way, we are grateful that good kid washed the car.

Day 69 of our captivity: Cracks in the captivity

This morning, we took a small step towards emerging from our isolation.  Nothing major, nothing unwise, nothing unallowed.  But new for us.  And sort of nice.

I woke up early and bugged Chad to take a walk with me.  So far that is pretty much the new normal. Today, however, we walked *to* somewhere.  The espresso machine at home is having emotional problems, having cracked from the strain of so much extra use over the last couple of months, and while we have other ways of making coffee substances at home, I thought it would be nice to walk to downtown and get coffee.

It was lovely and quiet out.  When we got to the coffee shop we found that they had a table set up at the door for online orders only, so I downloaded the app, made an order, and 8 minutes later the fancy coffee magically appeared.  Next time, I will know the drill and make the order a couple of blocks before we get there.  There was a good spot outside in the downtown plaza to sit and sip.

As we drank our coffee, it occurred to me that it was farmers market day, so we wandered down Murphy to see how they were managing that, and to our surprise and delight, it was calm, well-laid out and not at all busy at the early hour that we were there.  The organizers have spread everything out over a much larger area than normal, everyone was masked,  and individual booths have figured out ways to minimize and or eliminate contact.  We bought some berries and fancy mushrooms, and walked back home, savoring the happy discovery.  It may just have to become a new habit!

Day 68 of our captivity: Sign

Kiddo got to swing by the high school this afternoon after finishing the online AP Statistics test to pick up the somewhat unnecessary cap and gown that was ordered last fall.  On getting there, however, there was great joy derived from the surprise that the PTSA was giving out yard signs for all the graduating seniors.  Apparently kid had been harboring secret jealousy of all the kids from other schools whose yard signs we have been seeing while out on bike rides.

Day 66 of our captivity: Big Basin

Chad and I had the chance to get out for a good ride this afternoon:  up, over the ridge through the soggy fog, down the other side, around 236 through Big Basin, back up the absurdly-steep-full-of-bike-eating-potholes China Grade, and back up and over now-sunny highway 9 to home.  Several observations:
1) The weather forecast always underestimates the magnitude of the soggy fog.  Trees make their own rain in the soggy fog.  Your bike shorts can be soaked through in the soggy fog, all while the forecast blithely says 70 degrees and sunny.
2) The road through Big Basin is always amazing, but often full of park traffic.  When the park is closed, all that is left is the amazing — an undulating twisty road weaving  through the giant redwoods.  It is a real pleasure to ride.
3) China Grade is as steep and potholed as I remembered.  I always think “The pavement must not be as bad as I remember”, and then it is.  The woods are still gorgeous though, and we like riding on roads that it feels like time forgot.
4) There are too many cars driving too fast on 9.  More than usual for a normal weekday.  Not that anything is normal at the moment.
5) 60 miles on a bike with 6500 feet of climbing followed by a large burger and a margarita makes for a fine day!

Day 65 of our captivity: Free doughnuts

The kid pointed out that today Krispy Kreme was giving out free doughnuts to graduating seniors who showed up to get them, so we drove over to Mountain Viee early and the kid got in line wearing “Class of 2020” regalia.  After a brief wait, the treats were procured.  I cracked up when we opened the box.

Class of 2200.  Hmmm.  That is going to be a long time...

We fixed it, and then promptly ate a couple.  These things are truly sugar bombs.

Day 64 of our captivity: Slight relaxation in sight

A few more businesses around here will be able to open for curbside pickup starting on Friday.  Not enough to feel normal, but probably enough to make the traffic increase.  I can already hear more cars on the nearby streets.  Alas, it will still be quite some time before schools are opened, much less fun activities like inviting friends over for dinner, using the climbing gym or singing with other people.

Day 63 of our captivity: leftover casserole

Tuna noodle casserole was on the menu tonight.  For any normal person, this is straightforward:  dump tuna, noodles, and cream of mushroom soup in a dish and bake.  However, as you well know, we are not normal.  The complicating factors this time (which are normal for us) were:

1) no canned soup in the house

2) leftovers I wanted to use up

You see where this is going...

I ended up making an enriched white sauce to use up the old separated container of cream that emerged from the back of the fridge, and then mixing in a glop of leftover pesto.  After that, I added two cans of tuna, leftover cabbage+spinach, and a jar of marinated artichoke hearts.  For the starch, rather than cooking pasta I threw in leftover millet that had been cooked in duck stock with onion/carrot/celery, and the topped the whole thing with breadcrumbs made out of a stale heel of sourdough.

Way better than “normal” casserole.  Even the teenager concurred :)

Day 62 of our captivity: Music musings

So those of us who sing choral music have been coming to grips that singing in groups looks to be an activity particularly suited to transmission of viruses, between the deep breathing in and droplets exhaled when enunciating consonants.  I don’t expect to get back to singing together in person until there is a vaccine, which could be some time.  In the meantime,, many people are trying to figure out how to sing together virtually.

At this point, the software tools to do this in real time don’t exist — there are some real technical challenges with latency — but there are many groups doing “virtual choir” projects whereby everyone submits an audio file of them singing one part and then some very patient person spends hours editing them all together.  The first one of these I did was with a loose group of singers who occasionally sing with the Albany Consort.  The music is a new piece composed by an acquaintance of the director; he had been meaning to get some people together to sight read it, and ended up doing it virtually.  Somehow, I was on his email list, so I sent him audio for both the alto and tenor parts.  The result, rough though it is, is found here.

The sharp-eyed among you may notice a picture of me with my hurdy-gurdy in the graphic.  The director pulled that from a screenshot of a video file I sent him for a different project.  Suffice it to say, I’ve also been quite enjoying improvising with my hurdy-gurdy along with some harpsichord backing tracks he has recorded, even though I am a rank beginner on that instrument. I’ll pass along any mixes that he publishes from that as they come, as well as projects from other choral groups that are fomenting.

Even though it is not normal, we can still make a joyful noise, even if it is perhaps more noise than one might otherwise strive for... That is also liberating, as one has plenty of good excuses for things to be a bit rough!

Day 61 of our captivity: Metal

Chad made a brief excursion today to pick up some metal for a welding project.  It came in 20-foot chunks...so he took a bright red Christmas bow to tie on the back!

It was also the first time we had to buy gasoline in two months, and the truck was less than half full back when things shut down.

Day 60 of our captivity: Temporary insanity?

Today, Chad ordered a bandsaw.  I’m trying not to think about where it will be put.  Temporary insanity due to pandemic may be setting in, after two months of being stuck at home...

Day 59 of our captivity: Imaginary Vacation

Chad and I got out for a mountain bike ride of substance this afternoon.  35 miles and a big hill of substance, to be precise.  Granted, some of those miles were on pavement to get to the trails, but it still felt like an adventure.

The weather helped.  We had the unusual-for-us conditions of 70-degree temperatures and off-and-on drizzle, leading to damp air that didn’t feel oppressively hot and humid.  Combined with the still-lush spring flush of vegetation, the damp forest smells, and the pervasive birdsong, the weird weather made us both feel like we might be somewhere more exotic than home as we slogged up the hill.  Maybe New Zealand.  Or, after a whiff of blackberry blossoms, surely the Pacific Northwest.  Definitely not home.

Or maybe we are just yearning for a time when a vacation might be possible...

Day 58 of our captivity: Colorful breakfast

Breakfast was exceptionally colorful this morning.

Day 57 of our captivity: Refi

Our refinance loan is finally done.  Yay!  We locked in a bizarrely low rate back in March, and it took until now to jump through all of the hoops and get the paperwork all signed and sealed. We were able to submit everything electronically, and a notary from the title company showed up last week for the final signing.  I set up the card table in the front courtyard so we could do it outside :)

Also Day 56 of our captivity: Truly enormous cookies

Kiddo made some really big lemon cookies.  Yum!

I will now believe that the moon is a large lemon cookie.

Day 56 of our Captivity: Happy Mother’s Day

We are all appreciated.

Day 54 of our captivity: Cheapskate

It’s becoming a personal challenge to see how many times I can reuse the current cheap-o “single use” cedar grilling plank.  The side you see is the more intact side.

In case you are wondering, the bay-caper-infused planked salmon was accompanied by wild fennel potato salad, prosciutto-wrapped apricots, sautéed broccoli, and artisanal olive bread.  Tomorrow is lazy dinner night.

Day 53 of our captivity: Dodging lizards

Chad and I went on a road ride over lunch today.  It was 87 out.  Instead of dodging bunnies like yesterday, we got to dodge lizards, who seem to have all come out to bask on the pavement  in the summer-like heat.

Day 52 of our captivity: Dodging bunnies

Chad had an all-day telecon today, starting at 8:30 am....East Coast time.  That’s a very painful 5:30 am here.  Ouch.  Technically, I didn’t have to get up, but the reality is that if my sleep is disturbed at that point of the morning, I am just awake.  After rolling around for a bit, I gave up and got up.

That gave me the opportunity to go mountain biking, though, figuring that the parks might not be crowded.  Riding from home, I left the house at sunrise and hit the trails at Fremont Older at 6:45 am.  

It was surprisingly busy at the entrance for that hour.  I clearly was not the only one with the “go early to avoid people” strategy.  Fortunately, once past the initial entrance trail, things were pretty empty, and I got to dodge bunnies in the early morning sunshine (bunnies hide once people start showing up, but the first few people down a given trail in the morning see many, many bunnies darting across the trail, seemingly trying to get runned over).  So I wasn’t too late, though a half hour earlier would have been even better.  I went out an obscure back gate to avoid congestion at the end of the ride, and made it home by 8:30 for breakfast.

Day 50 of our captivity: New mugs

Our big new mugs for morning coffee arrived a few days ago.  Things Could Be Worse.

Day 49 of our captivity: Very small bug

I saw Chad messing around with his lUSB microscope this afternoon and cast about the kitchen for something interesting to look at, settling on a potato that had gone green that we are waiting to sprout enough to plant.  We did get a good look at the burgeoning microsprout, which looks oddly like a molar at this point, and also discovered a very tiny dead bug that one would never have known was there.

For reference, here is the same potato in my hand.  One clearly eats these little tiny bugs *all the time* without knowing it.

Day 48 of our captivity: Anniversary

Everyone is hereby instructed to raise a toast for my parents, who as of today have been married for 50 years.  Wow!  Congratulations are in order :)

Day 47: Self-driving robot

The kid and I were amused to see a cute little food delivery robot trundling around downtown Mountain View when we were out on a bike ride this morning. While it was a pretty jolly sidewalk denizen, the label made me wish I thought it was helping people who are *actually* hungry.  In contrast, we passed a school district food handout earlier in the ride; volunteers there are set up to give food to students who normally qualify for free lunches, but during the pandemic are actually giving out food to anyone who needs it and asks.