Pandemic Times, November 8-14

 Sunday, November 8

COVID just keeps getting worse.  Trinity is moving forward with Sunday School and Worship service.  Our number of participants is small and everyone is following the protocols.  I taught SS and operated a camera during worship.  We honored our veterans today with a pin.  

We had another beautiful warm afternoon.  I cut and bundled sage for drying and shared some with April.  We had a late afternoon visit at the Matzeks and then a little deck time before supper.  We want to enjoy every minute of this great weather.

Abundant Sage

New COVID cases last week nationally:
     Wed (11/5) - 121,800+
     Thurs (11/6) - 126,000+
     Fri (11/7) - 126,000+

TN - 11/7 - reported more than 5000 new cases.

Monday, November 9

Adventure Day - We expected another perfect weather day, so we planned a day trip in the RV to Burgess Falls near Cookeville.  We've been there a couple of times before.  It is just about an hour and a half drive and easy to access. The Falls are spectacular, with a cascade and a series of 3 falls, each one higher than the last, with the last having a 136 ft. drop.  The volume of water, even in the fall, is impressive. The hike along the river is not too a strenuous 3/4 mile to the Big Fall, although there is a challenging set of steps on the way.  On the way back, we took the easy road and added the half-mile loop of the Ridge Trail. So awe walked about 2 miles total.  My new FitBit to replace the broken one has not arrived so I don't have an accurate record.  We took a picnic of home-made pimento cheese and pears. We were back home before 5 pm.

Cascades

First Falls

2nd Falls

Big Falls

Interesting mushrooms

Ridge Trail Overlook

Scenic Overlook, Hwy 70 outside Sparta

Scenic Overlook, "The Rock"

Scenic Overlook, Fall Colors

Scenic Overlook - the View

Numbers:

NYTimes case count has exceeded 10 million - 10,124,700 with 238,246 deaths.

TN case count is 277,516

Loudon County case count is 1858 with 213 active.  The case rate is 35.4 (very high) and the pos rate is 12.4%.  Alarming stats!!

Tuesday, November 10

Another warm fall day started with driving Amanda as usual, or she is driving with my supervision.  I also picked her up just before lunch and brought her to our house for a light lunch and boat ride.  We actually hit a record high of over 80 this afternoon.  The lake was calm and the ride was smooth.  We all enjoyed the warm sun and wind in our faces - and the still colorful fall foliage.

Melton Hill Lake boat ride

Reactor Bend

Using left-overs from yesterdays roasted chicken (Food City, not me), I made Chicken-a-la-King.  It was a rare treat made using a traditional recipe from one of my very old church cookbooks from my Mississippi youth - The Inverness Cookbook. Mother considered it the bible of local southern cuisine.  I served it over split biscuits instead of toast points.  Mother used to press trimmed white bread into a muffin time to make toast cups for serving it.

Chicken-a-la-King over biscuits

Wednesday, November 11  -  Veteran's Day

Generations of men in my family and Bill's served in the military, including Bill in Vietnam and his pacifist, Methodist Pastor father, Jim.  That lineage was broken with our children's generation and the advent of the all-volunteer army.  In almost every respect, that is a good thing.  I do not know of anyone in our family of this generation who is or has been in military service.

I met today at Good Samaritan with the job search committee to decide on our plan and procedure for hiring a new client services manager.  The rain held off until after I got home.  I was glad to not have to go out again.

Nationally, Covid cases hit a new milestone high with more than 140,000 new cases reported.  No telling how many are not reported because the case is mild.  Loudon County also reported a very high count of 47 new cases and the case rate is at 41.2/100,000 with a 13.4% positivity rate.  The state of TN recorded 3344 new cases.  A bad day everywhere!

Thursday, November 12

I woke up to news of another day of record cases.  Yesterday ended with more than 160,000 new cases nationwide.  Almost every state is having new daily records and nationally more than 1,000 deaths every day.

My day started with picking up Amanda at 8 am.  We changed our routine today.  We first went to Bojangles for sausage and biscuits and coffee.  Then she helped me with Santa Helper shopping at WalMart.  We were shopping for some basic clothes for boys age 16-18.  After I took her home I went back to FRC to sort and tag what we had bought plus all the online orders that had arrived.  I worked at that job until 12.45, then went to Bonnie's for lunch.  She treated us to boiled shrimp and I provided homemade pimento cheese and Saltines.  Amanda's afternoon batting practice was cancelled because of overnight rain that muddied the field, so Bill and I had time for a walk later in the afternoon.

TN added 3344 new cases and has a total case count of 296,725. Loudon County added 14 new cases.

Friday, November 13

I hope this Friday 13 proves lucky!  I don't have to go anywhere in the car today, so that is a good start.  I started the day with no specific agenda, but on developed as it usually does.  I spent the morning cutting and preparing some of my herbs for drying.  This was initiated when I went to pick some spearmint to make a stomach tea for Bill. I was surprised to find that the spearmint had been harvested already by some 4-legged creature, probably deer.  They left me just a little bit!  Lemon Thyme and French Thyme were near the mint, so I cut those as well.  After getting all those ready to dry, I decided I might as well cut some common mint to dry as well as the abundant Greek oregano.  I bundled the oregano and mint to hand for drying.

Greek Oregano ready to cut

Greek Oregano bundled for drying

Three of seven sage bundles 

Mints and Thymes

After all that, I went to the garden and cut dill and cilantro.  Both had reseeded from the spring crop.  I also found enough Swiss Chard and kale for a meal.  Alternatively, I might try to fry some kale chips in the air fryer.

Numbers: 

NY Times, US reported 181,194 new cases, a 76% increase over the past two weeks.  There were 1389 deaths, up 34%

Loudon County reported 18 new cases and 2 more deaths.  There are 219 active cases in the county.

Saturday, November 14

This felt like a free day because we had no Saturday football ritual, no game day food to plan and prepare, no watch party with Bonnie and the Brocks.  Instead, I planned a baking day.  Last night when I prepared the levain and fed the starter, I also started a mix for sourdough waffles using the starter discard.  This morning the waffles came together deliciously.  Before sourdough, I could never make crispy light waffles.  

Working with the bread dough consumed the morning.  I cut the hydration from 70% to 65% and the dough worked much better. When it went in the refrigeration to proof in my new banneton baskets, I was ready for lunch and then to go outside for a while.

I helped (mostly watched) Bill with his project to replace the plastic covering on the garden shed with Lexan.  It is much nicer, now.  As we worked I remembered when Dick Green helped us, along with Anna and Jake, to drag this old shed from behind Shalom Farmhouse more than 40 years ago.  It has been our garden shed since.

After a little recuperation, we went for a walk.  At 6, the bread was ready to begin baking.  The recipe makes 3 loaves and I bake one at a time in a very hot oven.  My experiment with reducing the hydration worked out perfectly and I got much better "oven spring."