Home alone

News blues

Plummeting Covid-19 case counts across the United States are leading to lifted mask mandates and more conversations about steps toward normalcy — but more people are dying of the coronavirus now than during most points of the pandemic.
Read more >> 

The pandemic is following a very predictable and depressing pattern. As with diseases such as malaria and HIV, rich countries are “moving on” from COVID while poor ones continue to get ravaged.
Read more >> 

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War!:
Not focused on Covid-19 … but meet Fiona Hill, my hero since I watched her uncompromising and forthright testimony during Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial. (Video clip from that time >>)
Fast forward to March 3, and Fiona Hill and Stephen Colbert chat about her dinner with Vladimir Putin, Russians protesting Putin’s current war, and the invasion and demolition of Ukraine and Ukrainians >>  (9:28 mins) 

Nuclear weapons:
For more than 30 years, one very good friend has engaged the reality of nuclear weapons and nuclear power: that they’re no good for people or planet. This friendship makes me sensitive to the topic – and very fearful of Putin’s putsch into Ukraine. These days, ridding our planet of nukes – weaponry and power generation – should be in the forefront of all humans’ minds.
The consequences of nuclear war would be devastating. Much more should – and can – be done to reduce the risk that humanity will ever face such a war. 

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The Lincoln Project: Biden's Response to Tyranny  (1:35 mins)
Vote Vets:
Party of Putin  (1:10 mins)
Lt. Col. (Ret.) Alexander Vindman Articulates What Must Happen Now That Russia Invaded Ukraine  (1:29 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Scientists have doubted whether the process of evolution can create “prudent predators” able to avoid extinguishing their own prey – and therefore themselves.
But “wild life” predators must avoid overexploiting their prey if they are to survive. They cannot evolve to become so aggressive that they eat all their prey and then go extinct themselves?
Why – and how – have they “done” this?
Read “Animals have evolved to avoid overexploiting their resources – can humans do the same?” >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Last night was my first night, ever, alone – well, with three dogs – in my late mother’s house. (After a year of barely any time off, our domestic worker took the weekend off to attend a traditional Zulu wedding. This includes a cow meeting its demise and its peeled and dripping skin drying out over a fence while the edible parts are consumed with gusto).
Locking up the house last night was an adventure. I discovered where are the “weaknesses” … noticed which locks are tenuous, which exterior lights need attention….
Unlocking this morning was an adventure, too. Under the watchful eyes of hungry dogs, I managed this laborious task then doled out breakfast.
For the next 3 days, I’ve arranged my weekend to ensure the appearance of constant human presence in the house. This, to discourage unexpected incursions. (That thuglet who threatened my life still haunts the neighborhood, albeit mostly sleeping in local bushes as he sleeps off drunken episodes. I keep an eye out for him and opt to prevent incursions from the gen pop, too.) 

This weekend will be replete with painting walls, gardening, hedge clipping….
A year ago, I perseverated over purchasing a mechanical hedge clipper to trim the many hedges around my apartment. While this fecund vegetation affords privacy - one of the reasons I chose that apartment - one afternoon manually clipping presents reality: I can’t do this regularly. Reluctant but practical, I put aside ambitions of designing and cutting shapes - waves? Animals? People? - and contemplated the glory of mechanical clippers.
Alas, the selection of such tools around here is narrow: most clippers are too big and powerful for me - or too small and not powerful enough.
A friend swore by her small, battery-operated clipper, but I wasn’t enamored of the manufacturer and avoided that brand.
Hedge clippers were the last thing on my mind after I departed the country last year and attended to the demands of Covid-19.
A year later, those privacy-presenting hedges tower over my apartment garden. They desperately need clipping. I haven’t the appetite manually to clip them. Moreover, the many hedges in my late-mother’s garden need clipping too.
Rekindling interest in the perfect mechanical hedge clippers, I comparison-shopped in three local stores, saw little that enticed, returned home to the reality of overgrown hedges, and grappled with my dilemma.
I returned to one store, listened again to Vision, the salesperson, and focused on one brand. All the men with whom I consulted about mechanical clippers steered me away from purchasing a battery-operated set: “battery-run tools are limited”. Nevertheless, I purchased a battery-operated Stihl brand tool that perfectly suits me.
How did I settle on it?
The petrol (“gas”) fuel clipper offers a rope pull. After months struggling to start my small gadabout-boat motor with a rope pull, I swore never again tug anything with rope pull.
For my late mother’s large garden, the electrically powered versioin requires a very long extension cord (cost about R1000,00/US$65). And it would lie in/near water while I clipped. No way I’m risking electrocution if water intruded into the electrical system.
The set I purchased has a battery designed to run for up to two hours. Since I work 30-to-45-minute sessions, it should work. It’s lightweight enough for that duration session, too.
Back home, I charged the battery, inserted it, and clipped.
The device is 95% perfect for my size and strength. The 5% that’s imperfect? It struggles to cut long, sword-shaped, densely packed leaves. I’m a soupçon disappointed, but perfection is rare in a single garden tool. (After all, it’s the hunt for perfection that sends gardeners back to garden stores and allows tool manufacturers to generate profits.)
I’m chuffed with my almost-perfect mechanical hedge clippers.
What fun!

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Eight days to the beginning of California's daylight saving time regime.
It’s drizzling in the San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:34am
Sunset: 6:06pm

It’s drizzling in KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:53am
Sunset: 6:27pm