Mothers Speak about War and Terror: April 2021

Friday, April 30, 2021

SOS India

News blues

“What’s happening in India is an indication that South Africans can’t become complacent and think that we are going to get natural immunity and be protected."
Related news: Recent numbers in South Africa include 1,674 Covid-19 more infections, for a cumulative total of infections since the start of the pandemic at 1,581,210.
Over the past 24-hours, the tally of deaths in Eastern Cape stands at three, Free State one, Gauteng seven , KwaZulu-Natal four, Limpopo 0, Mpumalanga three, North West 0, Northern Cape 0 and Western Cape one.
The total number of deaths in SA stands at 54,350; recoveries at 1,505,620; number of tests conducted to date, 10,654,870.

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Thirty-nine percent of the US adult population has been fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s more than 100 million fully vaccinated Americans. Congrats, America and Americans! Maybe time to share the success and the bounty? The US and other wealthy countries appear hesitatant on this logical conclusion. The BBC’s podcast “How to vaccinate the world.”

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Tracking Covid-19:

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An excellent view of life in and out of the US from the perspective of an American re-pat… (30:50 mins)

The Lincoln Project:

First 100 (0:55 mins)
Florida man (1:35 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Peek into our a-mazing planet and its critters: Starlings over Rome – 10 million of ‘em… But… there’s the poop problem…. (5:00 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

On her flights to South Africa, my daughter had an extensive stopover in Doha, Qatar. (This, to avoid a stopover at Oliver Tambo airport in Johannesburg where her risk of exposure to Covid was, she deemed, greater than it was in Doha.) She reports Doha transited a group of Japanese travelers in the airport outfitted in haz mat suits.
Her return flight to California, again through Doha via Johannesburg, also had a group of travelers outfitted in haz mat suits. Judging by what showed of their faces, she determined the travelers were Indian and surmised they were traveling to India. Smart travelers. If haz mat suits are appropriate anywhere, they’re de rigueur for India:

…reporting 379,257 new cases on Thursday, a new global record and 3,645 deaths, the highest number of Covid-19 deaths the country has reported in a single day…. The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations suggests the death toll could peak at more than 13,000 a day - more than four times the current daily death toll.

Be safe, travelers! (Countries around the world are banning flights coming from India and/or changing travel rules and regulations to become more stringent for Indian travelers everywhere.)
Recover soon, India!

***

Temperatures here in KZN dropped over the last few days and its getting darker and darker…
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 18: sunrise 5:00am; sunset 6:11pm.
March 29: sunrise 6:07am; sunset 5:58pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 18: sunrise 6:19am; sunset 5:36pm.
May 1: sunrise 6:27am; sunset 5:24pm.

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Consequences

Worldwide (Map)
April 29, 2021 – 149,206,600 confirmed infections; 3,146,300 deaths
December 3, 2020 – 64,469,710 confirmed infections; 1,492,100 deaths

US (Map)
April 29, 2021 – 32,229,350 confirmed infections; 574,350 deaths
December 3, 2020 – 13,920,000 confirmed infections; 273,370 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
April 29, 2021 – 1,578,500 confirmed infections; 54,290 deaths
December 3, 2020 – 796,475 confirmed infections; 21,710 deaths

Tracking Covid-19:

News blues

India: “We are facing very bad times, very bad times….” (2:00 mins).

India’s overall rate of infection is lower than the US but the US – crazy politics and all - is, at last, getting a handle on the pandemic. India is not, at least not yet. Scenes in video above give a sense of how bad things can get when a pandemic has the upper hand ….

"I'm afraid this is not the peak," said Dr. Giridhara R. Babu of the Public Health Foundation of India on Monday. "The kind of data that we see, (we are) at least two to three weeks away from the peak."
Others say India may be approaching the peak now, sooner than Babu's estimate -- but with so many ill and so few supplies available, the country will see many more deaths before the second wave subsides.

Moreover, India is the world’s largest vaccine producer and, that it is struggling to overcome its latest COVID-19 surge is everyone’s problem. “Ninety-two developing nations rely on India, home to the Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine maker, for the doses to protect their own populations, a supply now constrained by India’s domestic obligations.”
The people paying attention know that coronavirus is a symptom of an over-stressed planet out of whack. The chamber of horrors in which India finds itself was not caused by any one man, or any single government. It’s a symptom of prevailing worldviews – and “What Happens When Rich People Do Nothing.” (I suggest an edit to this article’s title: “…when rich and/or clueless and/or feckless people do nothing…”

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Meanwhile, over the last week, California has reported an average of 1,901 new cases per day, a 34 percent decrease from two weeks ago….

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By Wednesday, South Africa recorded 849 Covid-19 new cases in 24-hours with a cumulative total of 1,576,320.

Deaths, broken down by province: Eastern Cape five, Free State five, Gauteng three, KwaZulu-Natal one, Limpopo five, Mpumalanga 0, North West 0, Northern Cape two and Western Cape 17, bringing the total number of deaths since the star of the pandemic in the country to 54,186.

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The Lincoln Project’s latest ads remind the public of the recent past:
His Party (3:00 mins)
McCarthy (0:45 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

I am a longtime member on a Restoration Advisory Board that encourages local residents to overview the cleanup of toxic chemicals from the superfund site that is the former Naval Air Station, Alameda. As such, I’ve become aware of the volume of residual chemicals that the US Department of the Navy dumped on the 2,000-plus acres of landfill on the edges of the City of Alameda, California.
My research suggests that dumping toxics, by design or carelessness, has become a feature of “doing business” in our world. Various branches of the US government and business appear to act upon the aphorism “outta sight, outta mind.” Take the sampling up and down the California coast, for a regional example:

Dumping and/or dispersing of toxic substances is a feature of American life. Nevertheless, it’s still shocking to learn that the Environmental Protection Agency, the US department tasked with protecting the environment is so, well, lax.

Starting in 1973, the EPA issued chemical giants permits to discard thousands of drums of industrial chemical waste at the offshore site. The pollutants included chlorinated hydrocarbons, or CHCs, a family of toxic chemicals that can persist in the environment and become concentrated in marine organisms, potentially migrating up the food chain and posing a risk to human health. In the decades since, oil companies have built up a vast network of wells and seafloor pipelines in the same portion of the Gulf. The area’s largest producer is Shell Offshore Inc., a subsidiary of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, which operates three platform rigs and three drillships in what’s known as the Mars-Ursa oil basin. Shell also happens to be one of the companies that received permits from the EPA to dump huge quantities of industrial chemical waste in the Gulf in the 1970s, albeit at a different location.

Read more >>

I’ve written much on this blog about the damage caused by toxics. For postings, see:

I’ve many posts of toxics and the effects on people and planet. Search the blog for terms such as “mothers”, “Vietnam”, “war”, “toxic”, “agent orange”, “RAB”, and similar.
Sometimes I’m tempted to believe we humans have despoiled out planet beyond the possibility of cleanup. But I cannot afford, emotionally, psychologically, sor piritually to hold onto that belief.
We must clean up our only home.
Knowledge is power. It begins with you.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My daughter is on her way back to California. Boo hoo! I already miss her. We enjoyed our two weeks together.
Seventy-two hours before her departure, she complied with her pre-flight Covid test. After that, we mulled how to spend her final days. This, after she’d driven the Chana bakkie to a local recycling plant where we recycled piles of various gauge electrical cable. (Driving is a thrill for her: on the “wrong side of the road,” and “steering wheel on the wrong side of the vehicle,” and “Huh, I’m not used to driving a manual transmission….”
As a passenger, I’m terrified: IMHO, too few thoughtful drivers in this country.)
After mulling a visit to Pietermaritzburg’s botanical gardens, we settled, instead, on driving towards the Drakensberg, to the village of Underberg. (I’d hoped we’d have had enough time together actually to spend a night at one of the many Drakensberg hotels or B&Bs. Alas, we simply ran out of time. Too many trips to scrap yards and recycling centers?)
The restaurant I’d visited once in the past, was hosting a private party so we sought another place. Slim pickings. We drove beyond Underberg to The Olde Duck, sat at an outdoor table under a willow tree, and enjoyed the view of the “’berg” on a perfect fall/autumn day.
We also visited the botanical gardens on the public holiday known as Freedom Day – a day to celebrate and contemplate election day 1994, the first time many – the majority? – of South Africans had the freedom to vote in an election. (That election resulted in Nelson Mandela becoming the first African elected as president in South Africa.)
The day my daughter departed South Africa, an audio message was sent to the community from a local security company reporting a hold up of a vehicle transporting at least 31 prisoners.
The message urged caution and described an incident that had occurred approximately 8 miles away from our town. Apparently, five men holding AK47s had stopped the prisoner transport vehicle, picked out and armed with AK 47s, had attacked a prison vehicle transporting a group of prisoners, and left the remaining prisoners to fend for themselves. Most had taken advantage of the situation and escaped the vehicle and were on the run.
By the time I returned from Shaka International Airport – about six hours after the prison break – six prisoners had turned themselves into police custody. Never a dull moment in KZN!

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Long nights, shorter days here…
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 14: sunrise 5:58am; sunset 6:15pm.
March 29: sunrise 6:07am; sunset 5:58pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 14: sunrise 6:14am; sunset 5:43pm.
April 29: sunrise 6:26am; sunset 5:26pm.

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Vaccine realities

News blues

Dr Fauci on where things are vis-à-vis vaccine, vaccination programs, booster shots. (From an American perspective but globally applicable. 10:55 mins)

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Good to know: COVID vaccines help produce antibodies ― and trigger another immune response that also fights the virus.

Much of the research regarding immunity against COVID-19 (which can be achieved either through vaccination or natural infection) has looked at antibodies. These little fighters go after the coronavirus and prevent it from binding to cells in our body and creating an infection. Some lab studies have found that antibodies don’t do as good of a job fighting variants, which has raised fears that the vaccines might not be able to keep us safe.
But antibodies don’t tell the full story. … The immune system is very complex, and in addition to antibodies, there’s a whole other aspect, known as the cell-mediated immune response, that’s just as important…. This part helps create something called T-cells, which are crucial to preventing infections. The COVID-19 vaccines don’t just generate antibodies; they also prompt your immune system to produce T-cells.
“T-cells are the main line of defense against the virus,” said Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist with UCSF. T-cells can identify many different parts of the coronavirus (some studies say up to 52 parts) and get rid of any cells that are carrying the virus. The cell-mediated immune response can also help our systems produce new antibodies if need be.
Mutations or not, T-cells will still be able to detect the virus and jump into action. …
So, why aren’t we all talking about how awesome T-cells are? They’re really hard to measure… [but] findings are exciting.
For one thing, all of the vaccine clinical trials found that participants produced strong T-cell responses after vaccination…
There’s also evidence that the variants probably aren’t going to have a very meaningful effect on the immunity we get from being fully vaccinated. Two recent studies found the T-cell response was unaffected by variants, and another paper found that while some antibodies diminished against variants, our T-cell response held up just fine.
When it comes to COVID-19, a robust T-cell response is the difference between a mild infection and serious disease, research shows. The cells can’t always prevent an infection, but they may be able to clear it out quickly so you don’t get badly sick.

Healthy planet, anyone?

The helping hand strikes again. Or overkill leads to overkill…
Trying too hard, UK retailer Marks & Spencer’s “do good for the environment” effort backfires. Turns out, releasing 30 million honeybees into the British countryside is not helpful to the environment – more likely, this effort “could damage ecosystems and deprive wild pollinators of valuable food sources.”

[M&S] placed up to 1,000 beehives on 25 farms to produce single-estate honey for customers as part of its five-year Farming with Nature programme. The bees are in cedar beehives, many made in the 1930s, with plenty of nectar nearby….
But the announcement has been met with dismay by some bee experts and conservationists. “Such and [sic] opportunity missed M&S, this is greenwashing or beewashing at its most blatant,” tweeted Gill Perkins, chief executive of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.
Critics say M&S should focus on restoring native habitats instead of releasing millions of honeybees, which are just one of the nearly 270 bee species in the UK, many of which are in sharp decline. “They are actually ending up doing something that may damage the environment,” said Matt Shardlow, head of the conservation charity Buglife.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My daughter and I visited the community’s weekly Karkloof Farmers Market, purchased goods – goat cheese and blue cheese for me, locally crafted shoes for her – then sat outside for a cup of rooibos tea. All visitors to the market wore masks.
After that, breakfast at the Yellow Wood Café. The café, one of my favorite local historic sites, was hand built from local stone and reminds me of my childhood in a similar era building. My mother’s old place, largely hand built in local stone by my grandfather, was torn down to make room for industry.
A screen shot blurb for the Yellow wood Café website:

Wildebeest

With the Howick Falls in the background, we watched a wildebeest leap over a fence to graze with the café’s domestic animals – donkeys, Shetland ponies, sheep, and pigs. Howick Falls in the background.

Howick Falls was once a tourist destination of note. Ditto the Howick Falls Hotel and the various historical buildings nearby and across the road. These days, tourist buses seldom appear, tourists are rare, even tourist-centric craftspeople are thin in the ground. The area, generally, presents an atmosphere of desperation and depression.

An information structure near the foot of the observation platform displays a poster titled “Howick Facts and Figures.”

A closeup of the facts and figures, however, lists a litany of deaths and suicides over the years!

Hmmm....

***

Day by day, dark and darker in the southern hemisphere…
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 16: sunrise 5:59am; sunset 6:13pm.
March 22: sunrise 6:03am; sunset 6:05pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 14: sunrise 6:14am; sunset 5:43pm.
April 22: sunrise 6:22am; sunset 5:32pm.

Friday, April 23, 2021

Mixed bag

News blues

India. A disaster’s unfolding in India with 6 million Covid infections - second only to the United States in a country of nearly 1.4 billion people. The country recorded 332,730 new cases on Friday, marking the highest daily case count globally. The United States is second, having recorded a high of 300,310 cases on January 2.
Additionally, more than a dozen people died when an oxygen-fed fire ripped through a coronavirus ward fire in a hospital intensive care unit and killed 13 COVID-19 patients in the Virar area on the outskirts of Mumbai.
Read the article >>

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South Africa plans to begin issuing Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine to the general public next month after settling a contractual dispute with the U.S. drugmaker.

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Tracking Covid-19:

Healthy planet, anyone?

Joe Biden pledges a drastic reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2030… but no specific targets for agriculture – accounting for 10 percent of all U.S. emissions with discharges mostly stem from fertilizers, livestock and manure.
A Fact Sheet focusing on Biden’s climate pledge…

…notes that agriculture is both a source of greenhouse gases and potentially a key piece of the solution by capturing and storing heat-trapping carbon dioxide in forests and farmland. Environmental advocates … say the White House needs to address both sides of that equation to make a dent in global warming.
“It’s difficult to make concrete pledges in terms of using ag as a carbon sink… you can be more concrete around reducing fertilizer use [and] trying to address emissions around these large-scale hog and dairy operations.”
[Yet the] Biden administration is leaning heavily toward awarding financial bonuses for farmers, ranchers and foresters who retool their operations to suck carbon from the atmosphere. The White House blueprint specifically calls for “incentives” to reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions through new farm practices and technologies.

Read “White House dances around a big contributor to climate change: Agriculture” >>

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President Cyril Ramaphosa told the delegates of US President Joe Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate that emissions in South Africa would begin to fall by 2025, rather than peak and plateau that same year, adding that South Africa had introduced new target ranges that were more ambitious than before.

“Firstly the top of the 2030 range has been reduced by 28% or 174 million metric tonnes, which is a very significant reduction. Second, according to our previous nationally determined contribution, South Africa’s emissions will peak and plateau in 2025 and decline only from 2035. … South Africa’s emissions will begin to decline from 2025, effectively shifting our emissions decline 10 years earlier.”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Like me, my daughter eschews tourist-rich spots and heads to shopping malls only under duress.
A dream daughter, she accompanied me to the local scrap metal recycling yard yesterday and, after taking the Covid test required for air travel on Monday, we plan to visit the local landfill site. She’s a chip off ye olde blocke!
Today, we head to the local farmers market …then back home to display on the lawn near the public road items such as planks. Passers by stop and glean what they want from the collection. Such recycling – home grown and localized – is a perfect way of recycling goods too useful for the landfill yet no quite good enough to sell.

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Getting darker here…
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 18: sunrise 5:00am; sunset 6:11pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 24: sunrise 6:23am; sunset 5:30pm.

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Earth Day

Mission Blue calls for ocean-loving volunteers
to dive into the Great Reef Census

“The world is blue, if you look at it from space that image alone should inspire us to think that we too are sea creatures.” Dr Sylvia Earle, Mission Blue

Mission Blue: Igniting public support for a global network of marine protected areas...

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And... back to Covid… today’s Covid-19 stats compared to six months ago...

Worldwide (Map)
April 22, 2021 – 143,503,705 confirmed infections; 3,056,000 deaths
November 26, 2020 – 60,334,000 confirmed infections; 1,420,500 deaths

US (Map)
April 22, 2021 – 31,862,100 confirmed infections; 569,500 deaths
November 26, 2020 – 12,771,000 confirmed infections; 262,145 deaths

SA (Tracker)
April 22, 2021 – 1,568,500 confirmed infections; 53,900 deaths
November 26, 2020 – 775,510 confirmed infections; 21,2010 deaths

Down memory lane with a post from one year ago - April 23, 2020: Try it; what have you got to lose?

Tracking Covid-19:

News blues

Forty top world leaders gather online for the first big climate confab since 2019. From an American point of view, five key policies and political dynamics to watch:
1. New U.S. emissions target
2. China and the U.S.
3. Brazil
4. Big Money Pledges
5. Intellectual property rights
Read the article >>

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WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a news briefing in Geneva on Monday that, for eight consecutive weeks, Covid-19 infections are rising at an alarming rate and that more than 5.2 million new cases of Covid-19 were recorded last week - the most in a single week since the pandemic began. Tedros warned that the pace of the pandemic is accelerating, even as some countries tout their own improved vaccination programs.

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India: According to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health, India reported 295,041 cases of coronavirus and 2,023 deaths Wednesday, its highest rise in cases and highest death increase recorded in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic.

Healthcare and other essential services across India are close to collapse as a second coronavirus wave that started in mid-March tears through the country with devastating speed.
Graveyards are running out of space, hospitals are turning away patients, and desperate families are pleading for help on social media for beds and medicine.
"The volume is humongous," said Jalil Parkar, a senior pulmonary consultant at the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai, which had to convert its lobby into an additional Covid ward. "It's just like a tsunami."
"Things are out of control," said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy in New Delhi.
"There's no oxygen. A hospital bed is hard to find. It's impossible to get a test. You have to wait over a week. And pretty much every system that could break down in the health care system has broken down….”

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Iraq has just topped 1 million Covid-19 cases for the first time after setting the highest single-day record with 8,696 new cases announced on Wednesday, according to the daily health ministry report.
The ministry also recorded at least 38 Covid-19 related deaths on Wednesday, bringing the country’s total recorded death toll to 15,098.
There are currently 109,447 Covid-19 patients hospitalized across the county, with 517 cases in ICUs.
Iraq started its Covid-19 vaccine rollout on March 27, with 300,000 people having been vaccinated since — less than 1% of the nation’s total population of 40,150,000.
The Iraqi government eased lockdown restrictions last month, saying the country faced serious economic challenges.

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Brazil: The coronavirus has killed an estimated 1,300 babies in Brazil since the beginning of the pandemic, even though there's overwhelming evidence that Covid-19 rarely kills young children.
While data from the Health Ministry suggest that over 800 children under age 9 have died of Covid-19, including about 500 babies, experts say the real death toll is higher because cases are underreported because of a lack of widespread coronavirus testing, according to the BBC, which first reported the story.

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The Lincoln Project:
An Idea Called America (0:55 mins)
Truthless (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A diverse range of mammals once roamed the planet. Since the rise of humans, wild mammal biomass has declined by 85%. Our history with them has been a zero-sum game: we either hunted them or destroyed their habitats with the expansion of agricultural lands.
But, for the first time in human history, we have the opportunity to turn this into a net-sum game: we can produce enough food from a smaller land area, making it possible for them to flourish again. Our World in Data’s Biodiversity research looks at the long-term decline of wild mammals.

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Environmental Documentary "Current Sea" explores the illegal fishing trade (trawling) in Cambodia and the individuals who risk it all to intervene. The film follows the story of ocean activist and Kep Archipelago Hope Spot Champion Paul Ferber, and investigative journalist, Matt Blomberg, in their dangerous efforts to create a marine conservation area and combat the relentless tide of illegal fishing.
Coming soon… meanwhile, watch the promo clip.
The film can be watched in hundreds of countries via Amazon Prime/Amazon, iTunes and Google Play and is subtitled in 8 languages.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

It is wonderful to host my daughter here, albeit for too short a time (she departs on Wednesday next week).
She helps me understand how stressed – and angry – I am these days, and how short is my fuse. (Anger, frustration, and isolation are – I guess – hallmarks of life under Covid for a re-pat (repatriating) with a “troubled” extended family….)

My daughter does not pooh-pooh, under-estimate, or undermine how much I’ve tried to ameliorate the difficulties my mother faces nor under-estimate how much resistance I face. What a treat!
She’s great company and has a good sense of humor.
In my daughter’s company, whole half-hours, even hours, pass when I don’t think of the 1.5 years spent away from my California home, 1.5 years lost income, 1.5 years of not seeing family and friends….
Moreover, my daughter is fascinated by tasks I never thought anyone (besides me) would have to complete. For example, now that that Chana – Chinese designed and built pick-up truck – is repaired, my daughter intends to help me load that vehicle with metal items and drive them to the scrap yard. She’s also looking forward to driving a load of unusable items – aka “junk” - to the local dump, or “landfill” as it is known around here. Landfills a la South Africa are often located in former lovely valleys commandeered to filled to the brim and higher with rubbish. Landfills are frequented by “rag pickers,” self-employed workers who glean what they can from the debris, clean, repair, and sell it. The rag-picking life is tough, but people here are happy to have the work and the opportunity to make a small living at trolling through the castoffs of other, more materially advantaged people.

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We went zip lining in the Karkloof canopy:

A view of the Karkloof from a high platform in the canopy.
(click to enlarge)

The zip line mystery: who will appear through the virgin foliage?
(click to enlarge)

Poster of the different indigenous trees found in the Karkloof canopy.
(click to enlarge and read)

We also saw a solitary Samango monkey. Alas, my Canon camera choose that moment to disobey my finger pressure on the shutter. Alas, I took no photo of the rare primate, but Google to the rescue

Here I am, zip lining onto a platform.

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Getting even darker here…
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 29: sunrise 6:07am; sunset 5:58pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 14: sunrise 6:14am; sunset 5:43pm.
April 22: sunrise 6:22am; sunset 5:32pm.

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Living life

Something new: No news is good news Monday.
Tracking Covid-19, however, remains with us:

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The Lincoln Project:

Hawley Complicit (0:34 mins)
Hawley vs. Himself (0:55 mins)
Rally Recap (1:15 mins)
It Never Ended (3:10 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Plastic bags … always with us.

UK’s ‘bag for a week’ habit is no green alternative – rather, it has created more problems for the environment. Supermarket ‘bags for life’ must cost more to cut plastic use, urge campaigners.

The US is responsible for around 327 billion bags ending up in the sea every year. Single use plastic is responsible for killing over 100,000 marine animals a year. Plastic bags contribute to these deaths by entangling wildlife and being mistaken for food by larger animals such as whales and turtles.

More facts on plastic bags:

More than 1 million plastic bags end up in the trash every minute.
100,000 marine animals are killed by plastic bags.
Up to one trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year – that’s 160,000 a second.
If you linked them end to end they would circle the globe 4,200 times.
Around 10% of those will end up in our oceans.
Less than 1 in 7 plastic bags are recycled.
The US is responsible for around 327 billion bags that end up in the seas.
A plastic bag is used on average for 15 minutes.
It can take anything between 20-1000 years for a plastic bag to break up.

Trying to Recycle That Plastic Bag? The Odds Are Nine to One It’s Not Happening
If you know your recycling, you probably already know that most communities don’t accept plastic bags in their curbside bins. And if you recycle like a pro, you may know that plastic bag recycling is a thing you can do at most local grocery stores or superstores.
But here’s where it gets confusing. Does that mean just the bags from that store? Or can you recycle more? Most drop-off bag collections accept polyethylene film. This includes high-density polyethylene (HDPE or #2 plastic) and low-density polyethylene (#4 plastic or LDPE). It’s great if your bags have markings on them, but since most do not, it’s good to know some general guidelines.
Are South Africa’s shopping bags really being recycled?

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Photo essay: ‘Forests are not renewable’: the felling of Sweden’s ancient trees. Forests cover 70% of the country, but many argue the Swedish model of replacing old-growth forests with monoculture plantations is bad for biodiversity.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The Midlands Meander is:

…a region in beautiful KwaZulu Natal that stretches from just beyond Mooi River in the north, Hilton in the south, Karkloof in the east and the foothills of the Drakensberg in the west.
… An easy one-hour drive from Durban and four and a half hours on the N3 highway from Johannesburg, there is much to explore and do in the Midlands. For all that is on offer, life is lived at a gentler pace, we take time to chat to strangers in the trading store and we grow our own vegetables.

We dropped in on The Midlands Meander site known as the Piggly Wiggly – an outdoorsy combo of restaurants, wine cellar, ice cream parlor, candle shop, live snake show, and small train for kids. Bought a bottle of wine, Shiraz.
Continued on …to Nottingham Road – a village known locally as “Notties”. Takeaway: there’s no there there. Well, there’s more of a there there in Notties than there is in, say, Curry’s Post. Anyone (like me) looking for an actual center of town in Curry’s Post won’t find a center, or even a grandiose post. Rather, there are hundreds of posts… supporting electric fences but no actual Curry’s Post. But I digress.
On our way home, we visited the Mandela Capture Site . My overwhelming feeling was sadness - so many lives wasted – and anger – such hope and expectations for a better life for the majority dashed. Rather than selfless leaders, South Africans got Jacob Zuma.

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Getting darker each day
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 9: sunrise 5:55am; sunset 6:21pm.
March 16: sunrise 5:59am; sunset 6:13pm.
March 22: sunrise 6:03am; sunset 6:05pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 2: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:53pm.
April 8: sunrise 6:12am; sunset 5:46pm.
April 19: sunrise 6:20am; sunset 5:35pm.

Saturday, April 17, 2021

Dead at 38

News blues…

Global Death Toll From COVID-19 Tops 3 Million amid repeated setbacks in the worldwide vaccination campaign and a deepening crisis in places such as Brazil, India and France.

The number of lives lost, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of Kyiv, Ukraine; Caracas, Venezuela; or metropolitan Lisbon, Portugal. It is bigger than Chicago (2.7 million) and equivalent to Philadelphia and Dallas combined.
And the true number is believed to be significantly higher because of possible government concealment and the many cases overlooked in the early stages of the outbreak that began in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019.

On the vaccine front, Albert Bourla, CEO of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, says it’s “likely” those vaccinated with the company’s COVID-19 inoculation will need a third shot sometime within 12 months after getting the initial two doses and will potentially need a new shot every year thereafter. This, because COVID-19 resembles the flu more than it does a virus like polio.

“A likely scenario is that there will be likely a need for a third dose, somewhere between six and 12 months, and then from there, there will be an annual revaccination, but all of that needs to be confirmed,” Bourla said during the event. He added: “There are vaccines like polio where one dose is enough, and there are vaccines like flu that you need every year.”
More than 102 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been distributed in the U.S. thus far, and more than 38 million people have been fully vaccinated.

Read the article >>

***

The Lincoln Project:

Proud Boys (0:52 mins)
100 Days (0:25 mins)
Officer Brian Sicknick (0:25 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Following a visit to Shanghai by US climate envoy John Kerry, former US secretary of state, the US and China have “committed to cooperating” on the pressing issue of climate change.

The statement from Kerry and China’s special envoy for climate change Xie Zhenhua, “The United States and China are committed to cooperating with each other and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis, which must be addressed with the seriousness and urgency that it demands.”
The joint statement listed multiple avenues of cooperation between the US and China, the world’s top two economies that together account for nearly half of the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. It stressed “enhancing their respective actions and cooperating in multilateral processes, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement”.
The nations also agreed to discuss specific “concrete” emission reduction actions including energy storage, carbon capture and hydrogen, and agreed to take action to maximise financing for developing countries to switch to low-carbon energy sources.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Temperatures have plummeted. Local folks are digging out winter wear as a cold spell rolls over the area.
Folks from California, however, find the weather balmy. My daughter basks in what locals call “cold”: “this is a perfect temperature, she says.
Moreover, the local monkey troop that has been conspicuously absent over the last days, appeared yesterday and put on a show for the visitor from California, hooting and hollerin’ and leaping and balancing along the overhead cable.

Thank you for the show, monkeys.

***

The appalling news? The gardener, sick for weeks with no conclusive diagnosis, taken 3 weeks ago by ambulance to hospital where he has, apparently, had multiple episodes of un- and semi-consciousness, died 5:00am yesterday morning.
No information forthcoming on what killed the 38-year-old, previously healthy man.
South Africa’s state-run hospitals? You check in but you don’t check out….

***

My small garden is almost sufficiently protected by hedge that grazing zebra, impala, and warthogs avoid it. Nevertheless, one adult male zebra wandered in then stretched its long neck over assorted potted succulents to gnash through several branches of blue chalk stick succulent before I spotted and discouraged the animal.

Blue chalk stick succulent

Gourmet zebra sampling blue chalk stick succulent.

I’d been warned that, in the winter, wild animals might eat my garden plants – particularly tubers and bulbs. That this zebra went for the blue chalk stick succulent makes me wary of winter…. What else don’t I know about the culinary habits of domesticated zebras? And impala? And Warthogs?

***

Out with the old, in with the new?
Another interested house buyer in the wings, this one an entity representing a home for under-privileged children. They find the house to be perfect for their needs, plus they “prayed to the Lord” to show them a space that includes enough room to create a children’s work shop area, a stream, and enough garden space for children to play. My mom’s house offers all that.
Now I must “pray to the Lord” that He supplies charity of thought to the banker with decision-making-power to grant a bond (mortgage).
Other buyers will view the house over the weekend.
My philosophy these days?
Been there, done that; show me the bond!

***

Getting darker each day
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 14: sunrise 5:58am; sunset 6:15pm.
March 21: sunrise 6:02am; sunset 6:07pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 8: sunrise 6:12am; sunset 5:46pm.
April 18: sunrise 6:19am; sunset 5:36pm.

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Ups and downs

Worldwide (Map)

April 15, 2021 – 138,278,420 confirmed infections; 2,973,058 deaths
November 12, 2020 – 52,070,000 confirmed infections; 1,274,000 deaths

US (Map)
April 15, 2021 – 31,421,361 confirmed infections; 564,402 deaths
November 12, 2020 – 10,258,100 confirmed infections; 239,700 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
April 15, 2021 – 1,560.000 confirmed infections; 53,500 deaths
November 12, 2020 – 740,255 confirmed infections; 19,951 deaths

***

News blues…

Another vaccine setback: Johnson & Johnson:
South Africa suspends rollout of Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine

Over the next few days, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority, the South African Medical Research Council and the Department of Health will decide how to proceed with South Africa’s vaccination roll-out after use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was suspended, pending an investigation into six cases of blood clots reported in the United States. Read the article >>

End the J&J Pause: the J&J vaccine is not a tainted cantaloupe. Our regulators are not fools. But they have a peculiar sense of responsibility that leads them to adopt a fraidy-cat level of caution.
3 Different Futures for the Johnson & Johnson Vaccine. A pause is just that—a pause—in which health officials can reevaluate the data at hand.

Healthy planet, anyone?

“… without pollinators there’s no ecosystem at all…”
Australia’s bushfires were devastating for bee populations. But steady rain and community efforts are seeing the return of the pollinators.
Read the article >>

'No one explained': fracking brings pollution, not wealth, to Navajo land Navajo Nation members received ‘a pittance’ for access to their land. Then came the spills and fires.
Read “No one explained…” >>

***

As South African officials try to convince South Africans that nuclear energy will “save us”, a reality check: no country in the world, even the most organized, knows how to manage the toxic legacy bequeathed by energy once said to be “too cheap to monitor”. Japan is way more organized than South Africa – a country that mismanages it’s coal-based energy production and delivery. Imagine SA with nuke plants. Groan.

Japan will release more than 1 million tonnes of contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear station into the sea, the government said on Tuesday, a move opposed by neighbours including South Korea and its own fishing industry.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Taking the bad with the good: a lesson.
Last week I gleefully reported a successful sale of my mother’s house. This week? Not so much. The buyers changed their minds – and we’re back to square one.
But this week started off with a trip to Shaka International Airport to pick up my daughter.
But this week started off with a trip to Shaka International Airport to pick up my daughter. Since she arrived late in the day, we chose to spend the night in Durban rather than run the gauntlet of death that SA’s N3.
Sunrise was glorious.

***

Days are getting shorter here:
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 16: sunrise 5:59am; sunset 6:13pm.
March 25: sunrise 6:05am; sunset 6:01pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 15: sunrise 6:18am; sunset 5:39pm.

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Vaccine Hesitancy FYI

News blues…

Forget trying to convince Anti-Vaxxers about vaccine efficacy. Rather, focus on 'Hesitant Vaxxers', the group that wants to learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine and its side effects before getting a shot. After all, 'Hesitant Vaxxers' are still open to being convinced.

According to William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University, hesitant vaxxers want to learn more about the benefits of vaccination, while anti-vaxxers have already made up their minds.
“I’ve learned that you’ll never change the opinion of someone who’s truly against vaccination,” Schaffner said. “The more logic and reason you use, the more they dig in their heels.” Those who are hesitant, on the other hand, “just want to understand vaccines better.”

Read more >>

***

April 9, SA had 1,267 new Covid-19 cases recorded in the past 24 hours, and 53 more deaths.
The new infections came from 30,560 tests, at a positivity rate of 4.14%.
April 8: South Africa had secured 51 million doses of vaccines from Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Pfizer BioNTech in the battle against Covid-19.
According to health minister Zweli Mkhize the country was still on track with its vaccination strategy and the second phase will start on May 17.

***

Healthy planet, anyone?

I am not a fan of, nor do I ascribe to, the Bill-Gates-as-Devil-Incarnate conspiracy theory. Bill Gates is an ultrarich guy and, IMHO, displays many of the features of ultrarich guys while also promoting a handful of quasi-progressive ideas and solutions. His climate change ideas are better than those of many ultrarich guys ‘n gals and worse than many truly progressive-though-not-ultrarich guys ‘n gals.
Bill Gates as farmer is, however, a stretch.

… So why did the Land Report dub LINK him “Farmer Bill” this year? The third richest man on the planet doesn’t have a green thumb. Nor does he put in the back-breaking labor humble people do to grow our food and who get far less praise for it. That kind of hard work isn’t what made him rich. Gates’ achievement, according to the report, is that he’s largest private owner of farmland in the US. A 2018 purchase of 14,500 acres of prime eastern Washington farmland – which is traditional Yakama territory – for $171m helped him get that title.
In total, Gates owns approximately 242,000 acres of farmland with assets totaling LINK more than $690m. To put that into perspective, that’s nearly the size of Hong Kong and twice the acreage of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe…. A white man owns more farmland than my entire Native nation!

Read “Bill Gates is the biggest private owner of farmland in the United States. Why?”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I thought the day would never come when serious buyers made a serious offer on the house. I was wrong.
An extended family – grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, and kids – viewed the house yesterday, loved it, stood around and bounced around their ideas for who would live where, and shared their visions with one another. It was a treat seeing a family work closely together on making decisions with far-reaching implications. That done, they said we could expect to hear from them by Monday and they departed the property.
Fewer than 15 minutes later, the head of the family called to make a good offer: 90 percent cash down, 10 percent bank bond/mortgage.
It’s an offer I can take to my mother and expect her to accept.
I’m dazed.
I’m amazed.
I’m thankful. It happened.
We have an offer on the house.
Now I work towards keeping things on track and moving forward, organize around the document transfer as I ensure the domestic worker and the gardener are retrenched according to labor law … and that the dogs get humane care.
It’s all do-able.
What’s the glittering and waving on the horizon? By golly, it’s my family in California and Texas waving to welcome my return.
Imagine! After almost two years cooling my heals under lockdown, I’ll see them again.

***

If all goes according to plan, I’ll “get outta Dodge” – American for “leaving town” – before South African days get too short and nights get too long. It happens quickly.
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 9: sunrise 5:55am; sunset 6:21pm.
March 16: sunrise 5:59am; sunset 6:13pm.
March 25: sunrise 6:05am; sunset 6:01pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 8: sunrise 6:12am; sunset 5:46pm.
April 11: sunrise 6:14am; sunset 5:43pm.

Friday, April 9, 2021

Mercy, mercy me...

News blues…

Setting out to prove there’s a “lack of a scientific basis” and to question the widely held view that there is a clear causal link between simultaneous lockdown-related alcohol bans and the apparent decline in hospital trauma admissions, the South African Liquor Brands Association released results of research it commissioned several months ago.
South African Liquor Brands Association researchers do not believe that the decline of trauma admissions can be causally linked to the different levels of alcohol restrictions. Rather, they argue the theory fails to address alcohol restrictions that coincided with other lockdown restrictions that may also have had an impact on trauma admissions.

Read the article >>
(Editorial comment: Not to be skeptical but… the South African Liquor Brands Association proving alcohol-abuse isn’t to blame?

Hmmm.

Surely, if research is accurate, a different, not-quite-so-self-interested organization should have been commissioned to conduct the research. South Africans, after all, have a less-than-stellar reputation with alcohol. Review results of a population-based survey on alcohol abuse in South Africa.)

***

The Lincoln Project: Another “inside the Beltway” view of Matt Gaetz: Stain (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

“Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east” are lyrics from Marvin Gaye’s 1971 single “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” (3:16 mins). Gaye wasn’t known as an environmental scientist, but he provides a stark and useful environmental analysis, complete with warnings of overcrowding and climate change.

The song doesn’t explicitly mention race, but its place in Gaye’s What’s Going On album portrays a black Vietnam veteran, coming back to his segregated community and envisioning the hell that people endure.

***

A new report from the Environmental Protection Agency finds that people of color are much more likely to live near polluters and breathe polluted air—even as the agency seeks to roll back regulations on pollution.
This builds on the 2016 report “Racial isolation and exposure to airborne particulate matter and ozone in understudied US populations: Environmental justice applications of downscaled numerical model output”

And, for the first time in four years – the lost years of the Trump era - US EPA again has a website providing the public a gateway to information on climate change and climate solutions.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Now that I’ve decided I must return to California to take care of my own life and responsibilities, the pressure is on. So much to do (try to do) to ensure the smooth operation of business while I’m gone. I face new anxieties and, as usual, little to no support from immediate SA family.
One does one’s best….

***

Latest news of the gardener is not good. He remains hospitalized. His wife reports he’s “asleep” most of the time.

***

Days getting shorter and shorter and nightfall earlier:
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 9: sunrise 5:55am; sunset 6:21pm.
March 18: sunrise 5:00am; sunset 6:11pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 2: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:53pm.
April 9: sunrise 6:13am; sunset 5:45pm.

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Time flies...

Silly- but truism: Time flies like the wind/Fruit flies like bananas.

My intention was to post more frequently this end-of-Lockdown-Week 54. Alas, life here has been a task fest, one task after another clamoring for attention. Along with lack of Internet connection at my primary abode, posting, like everything associated with getting online, is problematic.
The pandemic, however, marches on,

Below, today’s numbers of infections and deaths compared to 6 months ago:

Worldwide (Map)

April 8, 2021 – 133,132,000 confirmed infections: 2,888,000 deaths

October 8, 2020 – 36,069,000 confirmed infections; 1,055,000 deaths

US (Map)

April 8, 2021 – 30,923,000 confirmed infections: 559,116 deaths

October 8 – 7,550,000 confirmed infections; 212,000 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)

April 8, 2021 – 1,553,610 confirmed infections: 53,111 deaths

October 8 – 685,155 confirmed infections; 17,250 deaths

***

News blues…

On the vaccine front:
The global scramble to produce enough Covid-19 vaccine for 7 billion people is about to get even tougher, as drugmakers and countries ready a second round of shots to combat the growing threat of virus variants.

SA passes 10-million mark for number of Covid-19 tests done as the country recorded 756 new Covid-19 infections on Wednesday, as well as 79 deaths

***

The Lincoln Project: A bit “inside the Beltway” but... Matt Gaetz (1:03mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Carbon dioxide levels in atmosphere reach record high. Concentrations are 50% above pre-industrial levels despite dip in emissions during Covid pandemic

***

What would a tropical reef look like if it could escape the man-made perils of global heating and overfishing? A new study in the journal Ecology and Evolution suggests it would look like Rowley Shoals, an isolated archipelago of reefs 260km off Australia’s north-west coast.
Read more >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

House still not sold. The one purchaser who made an offer has decided that, since we’ve had no “better” offer than his, he can dictate new terms. We’ve a clause that states if any better offer comes along before he is granted a bond/mortgage, we can accept that offer. He has not yet applied for a bond.
The other realtor tells me he’ll bring a “very, very interested” cash client to view on Saturday.

Hold thumbs!
(The issue is not lack on interested buyers, but that interested buyers cannot get a bond/mortgage. I suspect the above purchaser – the dictator – might not get a bond. I admit that, disappointing as it might be in the long term, I’d be happy enough - on behalf of my mother - if his bond application failed.

I do not like dictators or folks who take financial advantage.

Yes, I know that’s the way of the world. It is not, however, my way.

***

The gardener remains in hospital. To date, I’ve heard no solid diagnosis on his condition. Speculation among neighbors? A stroke. Malnourishment. HIV. You name it, he’s got it.
Meanwhile, with the advent of fall/autumn days with rain and cooler weather, khaki and other weeds spread their prolific seeds thither and yon. After 6 weeks of subpar attention to the garden, I found an affordable garden service. It comes with a story:
“Jane” is a mother and local small businesswoman with a take-away (“to go”) shop. Her husband, after two years of incompetent medical care, succumbed to a spider bite. (Yes! Life in SA’s medical system ain’t a walk in the park.) Jane needs extra income and branch into providing gardening services. With her nephew and a couple of other young males contracting with her, she’s building a clientele.
I found Jane through a neighbor and, yesterday, her two-man team arrived – with their own tools, refreshments, and lunch. Jane’s service fee for two workers for one day is equivalent to the gardener’s weekly costs – using our equipment and petrol, plus the gardener’s breakfast and lunch – and I clear prolific water lilies as he’s “scared of snakes.”
Yesterday’s work was interrupted by rain although Jane’s team theoretically stays until the work is finished. (Ours is a big garden and gardening is never done.)
I’m relieved to have one worrisome item off my long list of worrisome items.

***

South African days getting shorter while nightfall happens earlier:
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 9: sunrise 5:55am; sunset 6:21pm.
March 16: sunrise 5:59am; sunset 6:13pm.
March 22: sunrise 6:03am; sunset 6:05pm.
March 29: sunrise 6:07am; sunset 5:58pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 8: sunrise 6:12am; sunset 5:46pm.