Running on empty

Events around the world, from dire coronavirus realities, including lack of responsible mitigation efforts, to ongoing revelations of Trump & Co corruptions and grift, humans are running on empty. 

News blues…

South African nurses say they are emotionally and physically drained as they battle on the Covid-19 frontline.

Sister Lama Peega, who works at Carletonville district hospital on the West Rand, said, “Some among us fell along the way. We buried them because of Covid-19.”
She said they also faced a challenge of nurses being off from work because they tested positive for Covid-19 and were required to isolate for 14 days. “The burden on those who were at the frontline became even greater. We had to work overtime throughout to cover other wards. I am working at the theatre section [as a midwife]. When I am off, I would be requested to assist in Covid-19 wards….” 

***

A new report examined blood donations in nine states between mid-December and January. Some showed evidence of coronavirus antibodies.

The coronavirus was likely in the U.S. as early as mid-December 2019, roughly a month before the first COVID-19 case was confirmed, according to research published on Monday.
A study of blood samples from 7,389 routine donations to the American Red Cross between Dec. 13, 2019, and Jan. 17, 2020, found evidence of COVID-19 antibodies in 106 specimens, according to researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The donations were made in nine states ― California, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. Donations with antibodies reactive to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, came from all nine. 

Healthy planet, anyone?

A story of cranberries, one of only three fruits native to the US, with blueberries and Concord grapes the other two.
Native people cultivated cranberries up and down the Eastern Seaboard for centuries. Cranberries, grown in bogs primarily in New England and Wisconsin, depend on plenty of water, cold winters, and mild summers. The cranberry

is the result of millions of years of evolution, thousands of years of human consumption, 200 years of intentional cultivation and dedication. But how the viney plants will fare in the future is far from certain. In New England as elsewhere, climate change is shifting many of the conditions under which the plants thrive, from warming winters to changing summers. The changes are making them harder to grow and putting a question mark next to the iconic, beloved crop’s future.
Growers that love their crop and the scientists that help them are working to figure out solutions, and the situation isn’t yet dire. But … “we don’t really have a Plan B….” 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

We continue clearing out and auctioning my mother’s effects from her large house.
One item, a large, heavy, one-piece wet bar presented our moving team with a conundrum: too large to pass through the upstairs passageways. (We concluded it had been built in place, with nary an eye to moving it, ever.) Our team, two auction house movers, our gardener, domestic worker, and me consulted (in Zulu, so I followed via hand gestures)… then, together, we tried, this way and that, to make headway. Alas, no dice. The gardener hatched a plan: lower the bulky piece by rope over the verandah wall, slide it down a long ladder, then lower it onto the truck bed. While in theory, a good plan, I was skeptical: “what can go wrong, will go wrong…” Happily, I was wrong.
After a couple of small adjustments to the plan… this photo essay captures the maneuver.
Creativity + Courage + Willingness + Strength = Success!