Coronavirus Chronicles – November

The month started off on Sunday, November 1 with a slightly crazy Revolution 4-3 victory over D.C. United and cooking the first pound of my buy-1-get-1-free beef roasts (I’ve got four more pounds hanging out in the freezer). The following week, like a lot of the northeast, Ann Arbor experienced much warmer weather than usual for November, so I went out for walks/hikes multiple times during the week in between dealing with email, my manuscript, and other assorted research. Election Day was Tuesday, November 4, and I followed along with the results throughout the night though the media did not announce their projected overall winner until the weekend, as people were forewarned might happen.

On Saturday, November 7 I baked a batch of molasses cookies that turned out well and Sunday, November 8 after internet church, I picked up my library summer game rewards¹, did a load of laundry, and watched the Revolution finish their regular season by losing 0-2 to the Philadelphia Union. I attended my first Zoom thesis defense on Monday, November 9, which went impressively smoothly. For the first time in a while, I crossed North Campus on Tuesday, November 10 to get to a park and enjoy perhaps the last mild weather day of the year. There were a good number of people out, but at least almost everybody was correctly wearing a mask and distancing, as required by the Wolverine Culture of Care^TM. The week’s #2020 moment is brought to you by the power outage in my apartment right when I was supposed to be meeting virtually with my advisor, leading to me using my phone as a phone for the third time this year (the other two times were getting my appointment reminder call from the dentist and calling my advisor because the internet kept dropping out during our meeting).

Sunset on the river

Throughout the week, I also continued working my way through Star Trek: The Next Generation. According to the internet, seasons 3-5 are peak Star Trek, and midway through season 4 that seems to be proving true. Another square to check off in Coronavirus Bingo – I “attended” a livestreamed wedding on Saturday, November 14. Directly afterwards, I baked a batch of cranberry orange scones. I doubled the amount² of cranberries the recipe called for and used whole milk instead of heavy cream. The dough was initially pretty wet, but it smelled really good. After baking, I can say that the scones also tasted really good. I maybe overbaked them slightly, and I’d reduce the sugar next time, but for what might be the first time ever, I don’t think I overworked the dough when I cut the butter in. This was also the first pants day of the season, as it was only in the 30s when I went grocery shopping in the morning.

Scones

I worked on my manuscript throughout the week of Monday, November 16, and went out a couple times during the week for a quick hike and bike ride. Even though the sun sets about an hour later than it does in New England, it’s still starting to set pretty early, so I may need to reorganize my schedule if I don’t want to invest in night vision goggles. The Revolution had their play-in game against the Montreal Impact on Friday, November 20, and it took a last-minute-of-second-half-stoppage-time goal, but they got the win and moved into the actual bracket.

Four days later, on Tuesday, November 24, the Revolution were back at it with their new BFFs (Best Foes Forever), the Philadelphia Union, also the number 1 seed in the eastern conference. To the surprise of basically everyone, they won. The next day, Wednesday, November 25, I got a late birthday/early Christmas/Thanksgiving present in the form of my paper, at long last, being accepted. In an act of rebellion against a tyrannical government, I refused to live in fear of a silly little virus and celebrated Thanksgiving (Thursday, November 26) in the exact same way as I did last year . . . alone in my apartment. I found a mini ham at the grocery store, made cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes, and heated up some frozen vegetables for single grad student Thanksgiving dinner 2020. I had Thanksgiving leftovers on Friday, November 27 and finished some pretzels and chocolate hummus that I got on sale at the grocery store – would recommend.

Thanksgiving dinner

Over the weekend (Saturday, November 28 and Sunday, November 29), the temperature got up into the high 40s (hello, shorts weather), so I went out for what may be my last bike ride and hike of the year without wearing sixteen layers of clothing. The Revolution took on Orlando on Sunday for their next playoff game . . . and won again, so they’re heading to the Eastern Conference Final. I finished out the month on Monday, November 30 with breakfast for dinner – fried(/steamed) apples, scrambled eggs, and a freezer pancake.

So, it looks like the country survived the election, minus the people who died unnecessarily from the coronavirus. News of vaccine efficacy has been interesting and cause for cautious optimism. Hopefully hospitals can hang in there and Thanksgiving doesn’t push them over the top even before Christmas happens. In-person classes at the university are done for the year, so I’m guessing campus has quieted down, though I haven’t been by to check. I’ll be sticking around in Ann Arbor through the New Year. Still waiting for the first big snowfall. No real plans for Christmas, but maybe I’ll look for a Chinese turkey for the occasion.

¹A t-shirt to wear to all the places I’m not going, a lunchbox for all the lunches I’m not packing, and a travel mug for all the drinks I don’t need to keep hot/cold.

²Microsoft Word wants this to be number, which is technically correct, because cranberries are countable, but I refuse to say it’s really correct, because recipes ask for a quarter or half cup of cranberries, not one hundred and twenty-seven cranberries.