Little Whale Cove
Depoe Bay, Oregon
August 2020
Another month has come and gone and not much has changed since last month's update. Our county is in Phase One, which includes:
Limited reopening of personal services like salons and barbers, gyms, and malls, and restaurants and bars open for in-person service until 10pm. Indoor social get-togethers are capped at 10 people with physical distancing. Cultural, civic, and faith gatherings are capped at 50 people with physical distancing for indoors or outdoors.
We haven't dined-in at any restaurants, but we got excellent take-out from one of our favorite places three times this past month.
Gleneden Beach, Oregon
I might have ordered their parmesan panko-crusted and seared fresh halibut with the crab, champagne, corn & tomato risotto all three times. It's so good and each order is enough for three meals. So, basically that's pretty much all I ate in August! :)
Our temperatures rose a little bit, but the average was right round 60 degrees with one day hitting 77. This is typical for the Oregon coast, but I sure would be happy if September temps were just a little bit warmer. I was just thinking that it won't be long before I start digging out my sweaters and flannel shirts and I haven't even worn a sleeveless top once this summer!
I managed to read more books this month than previous months this year, but my overall enjoyment was mixed. Three of the books were very good and three were good, but not great. The last book was a big disappointment, especially after reading so many glowing reviews. I have a few more days before wrapping up my 20 Books of Summer reading challenge and I feel pretty good about those results. I'll share more about that later next week, as well as my selections for the annual R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril) Challenge, which is celebrating its 15th year!
Books Read (click on the title for my review):
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (4/5)
A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler (3/5)
Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes (3/5)
A Better Man by Louise Penny (4/5)
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (4/5)
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson (3/5)
Normal People by Sally Rooney (1/5)
Abandoned:
Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
Men in Black International - Awful! We should have turned it off after the first 10 minutes.
Ugh! We finally gave up on this Winslow Homer puzzle. The grass and mountains were impossible and it was no longer fun to work on.
Outings:
Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
About Grace by Anthony Doerr
Summer at the Garden Cafe by Felicity Hayes-McCoy
First Lines:
He had not managed to scrub off all her blood. (Career of Evil)
An upscale new house in a simple old neighborhood. A girl on a chaise beside a swimming pool, who wants to be left alone. We begin our story here, in the minutes before the small event that will change everything. (A Good Neighborhood)
First Lines:
He had not managed to scrub off all her blood. (Career of Evil)
An upscale new house in a simple old neighborhood. A girl on a chaise beside a swimming pool, who wants to be left alone. We begin our story here, in the minutes before the small event that will change everything. (A Good Neighborhood)
Go now, or you'll never go, Evvie warned herself. (Evvie Drake Starts Over)
"Merde." (A Better Man)
I am born on a Tuesday at University Hospital
Columbus, Ohio,
USA --
a country caught
between Black and White. (Brown Girl Dreaming)
But that afternoon there was an orchestra playing. (Red at the Bone)
Marianne answers the door when Connell rings the bell. (Normal People)
Movies and TV Series:
Wanted - Finished the last season and thoroughly enjoyed the entire series.
Midway - Meh. Waste of time.
Bosch - We finished Season Three and are now into the fourth. Really enjoying this series!
Ozark - We watched the first episode and it didn't pull us in, so we'll wait to come back to it later.
Endeavour - We didn't care for Season Seven nearly as much as the previous seasons. I was not at all happy with all of the hostility between Morse and Thursday.
Now You See Me 2 - Another mediocre sequel. Meh.
New Recipes:
Photo Credit: Mel's Kitchen Cafe
This is such an easy and delicious recipe. I loved the flavor of the meatballs and decided to make a hamburger patty with the same ingredients. It didn't taste like a traditional hamburger, but it was very good!
Puzzlemania:
This one was a lot of fun and only 500 pieces instead of our usual 1000. Great colors, too.
This Google map is indicative of our rather dull month, while we continue to stick close to home. Other than a trip to Salem (eye appointments), we only went down to Newport for groceries, a follow-up visit with Rod's orthopedic doctor and physical therapy. September will be more of the same, but we hope to get out for a camping trip sometime in early October.
Stay well and wear your masks!
I've read 3 of your August books: Normal People (meh) A Good Neighborhood (liked it) and Evie Drake (liked it). Like you I'm giving myself less slack for abandoning books these days.
ReplyDeleteWe are not eating indoors at restaurants or outdoors but, we do take out a few time a week. When I get extremely board, we put on masks and hit a TJ MAXX, B&N maybe once a month.
Diane, I don't normally keep track of the books I've abandoned, but I decided to start since I invest some time in them. I'm also interested if someone can convince me to give them another chance. :)
DeleteI wish we lived closer to a B&N and Target. We really don't have any big store like those. Just our Fred Meyers and Walmart. :( It's a 90 minute drive to the "big cities."
I've liked the Gailbraith books, but I'm behind on that series. Career of Evil was the last one I've read, but I know there are two more. We aren't eating out, but do order in occasionally. I miss the opportunity to get out of the house for a meal, but wouldn't feel comfortable. Love the puzzles!
ReplyDeleteJenclair, I still have Lethal White and Troubled Blood, which I plan to listen to since I enjoy the reader for these mysteries. Nope, still not comfortable eating in restaurants. Probably won't until the vaccine has been around for a while. Wait until you see our next puzzle! It's been a lot of fun.
DeleteAbandoning (books and puzzles) can be so frustrating! But, with so much that I want to read and do, the older I get, the more likely I am to abandon.
ReplyDeleteWe will soon need our sweaters and flannels here as well. However, we have unusually hot, dry weather in August so cooler weather will be welcome.
Have a good weekend!
Gretchen, in some ways, it's liberating to abandon a book and move on to the next. Not so much with a puzzle, especially after investing so much time to only get halfway finished. Our current puzzle has a lot more detail and a variety of colors, so it's much more fun. Take care!
DeleteOh my gosh, that risotto sounds delicious! I think I'd have ordered it every time, too! We have never watched Endeavour before so we didn't have the personality issues you did. My problem with it was that so often I couldn't understand what they were saying - almost resorted to closed captioning.
ReplyDeleteLisa, we had the risotto again! 4 times in 4 weeks! We love that the portion is large enough for two to three meals (especially since it's a bit expensive!). I sure do love fresh halibut. Ah, those British shows and the difficulties of the audio. We have been using closed captioning for YEARS! It has definitely helped with more than just the British shows, that's for sure.
DeleteI love it that you abandon books and puzzles you don't like. I do the same (well, I don't do puzzles, but I definitely abandon books that I don't like). That risotto sounds fabulous! And I would do exactly the same thing, ordering something that I enjoy multiple times. :-)) I need to remember that restaurant for when we get back to the west coast. I can only hope for cooler weather here...summer in Florida is hellacious. And September isn't any better.
ReplyDeleteLaurel, it was a little more difficult to abandon the puzzle than the books. We invested quite a bit of time (almost a full month!) working on the puzzle, but got so discouraged it just wasn't worth it.
DeleteThe risotto is the best I've ever tasted. If you forget the name of the restaurant, just check with me, especially since you'd be nearby. We'd love to meet up with the two of you! Hopefully, it will be safe to do so by the time you return to the west coast. I'm so sorry it's so hot in Florida. We were actually whining about how cold it felt in the house last night...
I am sorry books haven't worked for you as well as you've hoped. I seem to have a lot of trouble reading contemporary fiction lately; I want to tell these people to enjoy their lives because pretty soon they won't be able to leave their homes for months.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how your husband's arm is healing. My friend broke her arm about four years ago, and I was sad to see how slowly it healed. I saw kids at school break their arm in March and heal up for swimming in May. I didn't realize there is such a difference with age.
I'd give up on that puzzle, too. I see to have the best luck with puzzles where there are a lot of different colors.
I hope you are able to get back on the road soon. I hope you have a good week, Les.
You know Deb, I really don't mind giving up on a book. I have so many on my shelves that are waiting to be read and it doesn't really bother me to move on to something better. I feel like I did a pretty good job with my summer reading challenge and now I'm on to the R.I.P. XV challenge, focusing mainly on thrillers and mysteries. So far, so good!
DeleteRod's arm is healing slowly, but he's noticed a bit of improvement this past week. He's had a couple of PT sessions and is pretty faithful about doing his exercises during the week. He's no longer on serious pain meds (phew!) and is sleeping a bit better. I don't know if the slow process is due to his age (late 60s) or the type of bone he broke. His orthopedic doctor said the humerus takes a very long time to heal and Rod's broke in two places.
It was frustrating to give up on a puzzle that we had already spent so much time on. But, we moved on to something more fun and yes, it has a lot of variety in colors and design, which is what I prefer.
Take care, Deb!
What a lovely area you live in. Hopefully you guys will continue to stay in Phase 1 and not see any spikes. I'm concerned about this Labor Day weekend. And, yay for Bosch. We are caught up to date on that series. It's one we really enjoy. Have you heard of the Young Wallander series on Netflix? We just started that this weekend. Not sure yet.
ReplyDeleteIliana, we are so lucky to live here! We've got the ocean and forest right outside our door. We were supposed to move into Phase 2, which would allow more freedom to do things indoors, but our numbers weren't quite ready for that, which is fine with me. I'm also concerned about what's going to follow this holiday weekend. Yes, Bosch is so good! I did hear about Young Wallander and we may watch it. Keep me posted. It almost always takes me 2-3 episodes before I'm hooked on any series. Hope you had a good weekend!
DeleteThat area of the Coast looks beautiful. Do you live right next to the beach? or more inland? It's gorgeous. We liked the whole Bosch series. Very addicting! We plan on a road trip to British Columbia in a couple weeks ... should be nice we hope. We'll stay for a week or so. Enjoy the start of fall!
ReplyDeleteSusan, we really live in a gorgeous area of Oregon. Sadly, we have experienced some forest fires this past week or so and it's going to be sad to see what sort of destruction has occurred in the forests when we drive over to Salem next week. That is, if the highway is open by then. We were all set to evacuate, but thankfully, the winds shifted and the fire did not head further south.
DeleteTo answer your question, yes. We live in a community (Little Whale Cove), which is on the bluff, overlooking the ocean. Our house doesn't have an ocean view, but we can walk down a path and be on the bluff in 2 or 3 minutes.
British Columbia should be lovely. We had hoped to get up to Vancouver Island for a month of RV travel this year, but COVID has changed those plans. Maybe next year. I hope you don't have any problems with smoke from all the fires on the west coast. Take care.
Sounds wonderful there on your bluff. But I know the fires have been scary ... my relatives are all in the West and have been dealing with fires & smoke .... I'm ready for the fire season to end.
DeleteWe too might make a short trip to Van Island next year ... as we are considering retirement options and whereabouts .... we will see ...
Susan, I'm ready for fire season to end, too. It's been an awful year. :(
DeleteOoooh, I can't wait to hear where you might retire. We love Oregon, but someday we might like to move up to Sequim, WA.