On Friday and as luck would have it so is the performance at the Hofoper (the Kaiserliche und Königliche Hofoper, otherwise known, in these revolutionary times, as the Wiener Staatsoper) of Strauss's Elektra: that is eight hours or nearly that, which is too much for me in one day. But I shall make the attempt.
The Hofoper is livestreaming performances for the 2020/2021 season free of charge, presumably (I would guess) because of the plague nonsense: there was a subscription scheme for online viewing that, in terms of the performances themselves was an exercise in technical perfection; the billing and administrative apparatus left a good deal wanting, however. Advertised to be a month to month commitment, I finally had to cancel that particular bank card because I couldn't otherwise persuade them to stop taking my money. I expect it was all a series of miscommunications-- the German instructions on the web page seemed always to insist that if I pushed just the right button and entered just the right code.... Still.
Have just had an email notification that people living in the Marcola Valley are being warned-- because of the fires-- to be ready to evacuate at a moment's notice. This is the area east and northeast of Springfield, Eugene's neighbor to the east. I will say that since there is only a very diminished, orange amount of sunlight today it will be a stretch for the temperature to reach even the low 80s, which so far as I personally am concerned more than compensates for the smokiness. Although the ash on my desk, keyboard, laptops, on the surface of my coffee in its glass et cetera might, over a number of days, alter that balance.
There have been sirens blaring on and off for the last half hour: people are driving more erratically that usual? the old folks are having medical events because of the smoke? who knows. There is an app I can put on the mobile that will report to me the reasons for city-wide police and EMT call-outs (in broad categories e.g. crimes in progress, traffic incidents, medical transport etc) and I will admit that I found it, briefly, entertaining ('informative' but, honestly, really a sort of perverse entertainment, I reckon)-- I last had it there whenever the latest major weather event happened... the snows two years ago? perhaps a windstorm with power outages? can't recall.
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Ante Vesperas. The emergency alert this time says it is an 'EXTREME ALERT' and folks in the Mohawk Valley should evacuate immediately. 'Do NOT take time to gather things. GO NOW!' The earlier one referred to the Marcola Valley, which somehow seemed odd, in an odd corner at the back of my mind, and I think that the Mohawk Valley must have been meant: there certainly is a Mohawk River but I don't know of a Marcola River. The little town of Marcola is on the Mohawk River. The Register-Guard article is more careful in its description of the area and features some good photographs.
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