Masks required – again

News blues

Reprise! Another round of mask wearing recommended for residents of San Francisco Bay Area counties.

With cases of COVID-19 rising locally and increased circulation of the highly transmissible Delta variant, Bay Area counties… now recommend that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors in public places.
Alameda County’s reported new cases are averaging 110 per day and the daily case rate is now 6.7 per 100,000 and rising.
Businesses are urged to adopt universal masking requirements for customers entering indoor areas of their businesses to provide better protection to their employees and customers. Workplaces must comply with Cal/OSHA requirements and fully vaccinated employees are encouraged to wear masks indoors if their employer has not confirmed the vaccination status of those around them.
Bay Area Health Officers will revisit this recommendation in the coming weeks as they continue to monitor transmission rates, hospitalizations, deaths, and increasing vaccination rates throughout the region.
Fully vaccinated people are well-protected from infections and serious illness due to COVID-19, and vaccinating as many people as possible, as soon as possible, continues to be our best defense against severe COVID-19 infection.

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President Ramaphosa addresses the country post riots and looting  (30:00 mins) that coincides with an alarming rise of the Delta variant across the nation and the continent. 

Healthy planet, anyone?

With the Amazon rainforest now emitting more CO2 than it absorbs, cutting emissions is more urgent than ever, say scientists, with forest producing more than a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

The giant forest had previously been a carbon sink, absorbing the emissions driving the climate crisis, but is now causing its acceleration, researchers said.
Most of the emissions are caused by fires, many deliberately set to clear land for beef and soy production. But even without fires, hotter temperatures and droughts mean the south-eastern Amazon has become a source of CO2, rather than a sink.
Growing trees and plants have taken up about a quarter of all fossil fuel emissions since 1960, with the Amazon playing a major role as the largest tropical forest. Losing the Amazon’s power to capture CO2 is a stark warning that slashing emissions from fossil fuels is more urgent than ever….

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Another heat wave coming up although temperatures over northern California are predicted to be slightly lower. Temps over Canada and the Rockies predicted to break new records.
I remain without assistance to install the small outboard motor on my inflatable. I expected the person I hired to service the motor to help with installation, too. Alas, when it came to installation, his “back was out” and he bailed. I’ve tried to find help around the marina – I intend to pay that person, I’m not looking for a freebie – but, so far, to no avail.
With so much on my mind right now – coming to terms with my mother’s death, and life, and the superficial intersection we shared over many years – the trauma of my country of origin, the trauma (climate change related, political, social) of my adopted country – being able to slip into the inflatable, start up the motor and slowly cruise the river would be a wonderful luxury and a privilege. That I can’t – the motor simply is too heavy for me to manage alone, particularly since the inflatable is already in the water – is a wasted opportunity for peace.
The social and logistical aspects of marina life are … challenging. The environment, however, is a wonderful gift I want fully to appreciate.

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Logistics of my mother’s passing are challenging, too, more so with the breakdown of South Africa’s business and governmental sectors. The funeral service will work to obtain her death certificate from the doctor. The death certificate – the document required to begin the process of wrapping up her estate – must, however, go to the Department of Home Affairs. Having struggled with Home Affairs for more than years to obtain a simple passport (final processed through the SA Embassy in Los Angeles and not in South Africa), I have no expectation that her death will be processed in a timely manner.
My takeaway? South Africans are a patient people with amazing resilience.