A small day out

Yesterday morning I got on the bus and went to the Beaverton farmers' market, as I haven't done in over a year.

Bus capacity has been reduced to half, with a checkboard of seats marked off to not sit in. With a few of the top windows open, air circulated nicely while the bus was moving. Stickers asking people to leave them open for ventilation alternate with the older ones stating "Air conditioning works best with windows closed." There are a box or two of disposable masks up at the front of each bus in case anyone needs one, and in some of them paper towel dispensers have been replaced by hand sanitizer dispensers.

At the market, most of the old familiar booths are still there, though some of them have moved around. In particular, Zoe Ann was back with her cheesecakes. The one thing I definitely wanted to get was a celebratory single-serving cheesecake, so I got a Meyer lemon and lime one to eat later in the day. It was, as they all are, excellent.

Berry season hasn't started yet. The main produce available right now is radishes, which I don't know what to do with, and rhubarb, which I've only ever try using for a strawberry and rhubarb pie, and did I mention berry season hasn't started yet?

I then biked over to downtown Beaverton's food cart pod, at which point I realized I had mistimed my trip. I'd way overestimated how long it would take me to get to the market and wander through it, so I arrived at the pod before 10, when hardly anything was going to be open for a while. Rather than just sit around on a chilly morning, I made a note to try this again next week at a later hour.

Anyway, I did accomplish my main goal, which was to get out there and start getting used to being around larger numbers of people without freaking out about it.

The upswing, week 15

The weather has settled down to 60s and 70s F, with occasional rain. We run the heat in the morning for a bit, turn it off, and then wait to see whether we need more heat or air conditioning in the evening.

The daffodils and tulips have wilted at last, and the last of the cherry blossoms are falling. Now I see lilacs and azaleas and a bunch of things I don't recognize when walking around the neighborhood. No roses yet, they don't usually start blooming until late May at the earliest.

Oregon's covid surge continues. Hospitals are looking at numbers of patients approaching what they saw in the winter. And vaccination rates are slowing, like most everywhere else in the country. Indoor dining has been shut down again in 15 counties, including most of the Portland area (though not in my county yet).

4/29 anime column

As usual, posted on time, and I forgot to link it here.