Tested - again

News blues

News free day! 

Take a break. 

Stare at your bellybutton... and chuckle at The Lincoln Project: The GOP isn't interested  (1:00 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

If you’re in a fragile state of mind today, skip this article. 

If you have the fortitude…

Global heating is causing such a drastic change to the world’s oceans that it risks a mass extinction event of marine species that rivals anything that’s happened in the Earth’s history over tens of millions of years, new research has warned. Accelerating climate change is causing a “profound” impact upon ocean ecosystems that is “driving extinction risk higher and marine biological richness lower than has been seen in Earth’s history for the past tens of millions of years”.

Read “Global heating risks most cataclysmic extinction of marine life in 250m years” >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Had yet another Covid test today, my second test at the same pop-up facility located outside a local hospital. I displayed my vaccination card with my long list of vaccination details. I’m eligible for the second booster on return to California, too. 

The list is a statement on inequality: I’ve had 3, soon 4, Covid vaccinations. Too many people around the world (who seek vaccinations) await their first jab.

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Immediately after being robbed upon 4 February arrival at Oliver Tambo Airport, I alerted my CA credit union about the loss and requested they replace my credit/debit cards. Done. (Local Standard Bank was less hospitable and I had to drive half an hour to another branch for one measly debit card and an interaction not tinged with suspicion.) I was unable to replace my stolen California phone SIM card with my years old California phone number, my CA driver’s license (acts like SA ID card), or my public transportation debit card, along with library cards and sorted other cards. All must be and will be replaced upon return. 

Upon arrival in CA, my immediate needs include US dollars to pay for public transportation (my dollars were stolen). I NEVER ask anyone to pick me up at SFO, a thirty-minute drive from home under best traffic conditions, but at least 2 hours under “normal” conditions of 6pm Bay Area traffic. I need a alert the person to pick me up at the train station nearest my home (no public phones anywhere anymore). All this with a brain foggy after a 32-hour, southern to northern hemisphere economy class trip.
No phone. No cash. One large bag, one small bag, and one smaller backpack (that, since being robbed, I’ve learned to wear as a front pack).
Oh, joy!

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International Workers’ Day tomorrow, 1 May… also observed 2 May. 

Irony? A unneeded holiday for South Africa's official unemployed - up to 36 percent of the working-age population.

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Results of having a long Q-tip poked down my throat and up my nose, seeking coronavirus?
Negative.
Yay!