Sundowners

Whither coronavirus, you ask?

Worldwide (Map)
September 24 – 31,780,000 confirmed infections; 975,100 deaths
September 17 – 29,902,200 confirmed infections; 941,400 deaths

US (Map)  
September 24 – 6,935,000 confirmed infections; 201,880 deaths
September 17– 6,630,100 confirmed infections; 196,831 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
September 24 – 665,190 confirmed infections; 16,206 deaths
September 17 – 653,445 confirmed infections; 15,705 deaths

News blues…

Across South Africa in the last 24 hours, 1,906 people have tested positive for Covid-19. While SA’s infection rates continue to climb, the country is now 9th on the Johns Hopkins worldwide list  of most infected countries. Most recently, Spain surpassed SA’s numbers and rose to 8th place.
Positive news from the Western Cape

The number of active cases of Covid-19 in the Western Cape slipped below 2,500 on Thursday.  At the height of the provincial outbreak at the beginning of July there were more than 17,600 active cases and nearly 1,900 people in hospital. These figures were down to 2,492 and just over 600 on Thursday, meaning active infections in the province are 35.3 per 100,000 people.
The per capita active infection rate in Cape Town — once the epicenter of the national epidemic — is even lower, at 30 per 100,000.

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European countries experience a second wave. Coronavirus world map: which countries have the most Covid cases and deaths? 

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Dr Fauci “klaps” back. (For readers unfamiliar with South African idioms, “klap” is the Afrikaans word for hit back or fight back. It’s also used to describe a strenuous effort, as in, “I’ll klap that job, one way, man!” Translation into American: I’ll make short work of that job.
Watch Dr Fauci klap Congressman Rand Paul who maneuvers- and fails - to get the last word for a photo op. 
Way to go, Dr Fauci!

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Barton Gellman’s recent article in The Atlantic,The Election that could Break America, paints an alarming election scenario 

The [election] contest will be decided with sufficient authority that the losing candidate will be forced to yield. Collectively we will have made our choice—a messy one, no doubt, but clear enough to arm the president-elect with a mandate to govern.
As a nation, we have never failed to clear that bar. But in this election year of plague and recession and catastrophized politics, the mechanisms of decision are at meaningful risk of breaking down. Close students of election law and procedure are warning that conditions are ripe for a constitutional crisis that would leave the nation without an authoritative result. We have no fail-safe against that calamity…[and] blinking red lights.

Time for Americans to engage their inner patriot and demand – and vote for – democracy over authoritarianism. There’s no time like the present.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A conundrum: how to stage for sale one large property, full-of-“stuff” being held to use after the purchase of a small property? With limited help and limited funds to hire help?
And drive up and down to my mom’s new home in the Care Center to accommodate her need to keep her dog healthy? If Jessica, the dog, refuses to eat for a couple of days, I’m asked to purchase appetite stimulating meds for the dog. I order meds. Meanwhile, the dog – inevitably – starts eating again. 

The more things change, the more things stay the same. 

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I thought I’d hired a skilled painter to handle the more complex areas of the house’s façade. Since she lives far from this house, we’d agreed she’d stay overnight until the job was finished. She’d bring her two dogs. Then she thought about it and decided her dogs and my mother’s three dogs that remain here, would fight. She cancelled the job. Then she thought about that – and decided she’d leave her dogs at home and drive here each day.
I’m grateful she’s coming to paint.
I do not understand the … canine fetish … that drives South Africans to prioritize dogs over making a living – or living independent of dogs.

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With the change in weather, ending a lovely spring day next to the garden pond, sipping a “sundowner” (a cocktail in the English colonial tradition), and chatting with monkeys. Well, “chatting” is a stretch of my imagination. I invite monkeys to chat, but none have accepted my invitation – so far.
Hope springs eternal and I’ll keep trying. Already I see signs that the more mature monkeys are tempted: they sit, scratch, stare, sometimes even wander into the garden as I cajole.
Wouldn’t monkeys look great sipping on sundowners?