Catching up

Day 783 – Friday, May 6, 2022 - Catching up

Worldwide (Map) 
May 6, 2022 - 516,292,775 confirmed infections; 6,248,083 deaths
May 6, 2021 – 154,775,000 confirmed infections; 3,237,590 deaths
May 7, 2020 - 3,755,379 confirmed infections:; 263,831 deaths

US (Map) 
May 6, 2022 - 81,711,380 confirmed infections; 997,025 deaths
May 6, 2021 - 32,557,300 confirmed infections; 579,300 deaths
May 7, 2020 - 1,228,603 confirmed infections; 73,000 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
May 6, 2022 - 3,818,125 confirmed infections; 100,475 deaths
- May 6, 2021 – 1,588,225 confirmed infections; 54,560 deaths
May 7, 2020 - 7,808 confirmed infections; 153 deaths

Post from 7 May 2020: This is not my beautiful life 
Post from May 2021: Choices 

News blues

For the first time – at least for now - the US is not highest on the list of Covid infections and deaths. According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center , US numbers, at least this week, fall behind those of Germany, South Korea, France, and Italy.
This as the World Health Organization (WHO) released its estimate of global mortality from the Covid-19 pandemic: 14.9 million deaths, from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2021.

That tally is the number of “excess deaths” compared to a baseline of expected deaths in a world without Covid-19 [and] includes not just the people who died from the virus, but also those who passed away in the ensuing chaos as hospitals filled up and workplaces shut down.
It’s a stunning snapshot of the sweeping devastation the Covid-19 pandemic unleashed around the world, showing that the virus wreaked havoc far beyond the infections it caused. The WHO attributed about 5.4 million deaths to the virus itself.
The burden of these deaths was not spread equally. India suffered the highest toll from the pandemic with nearly 4.7 million fatalities, about 10 times the country’s official estimates. India’s per capita excess fatality rate average for 2020-2021 — 171 per 100,000 per year — was roughly in the middle of the pack among countries. The highest per capita rate was in Peru at 437 per 100,000 per year. The US meanwhile saw 820,000 official deaths from Covid-19 by the end of 2021, but the WHO estimated an additional 110,000 fatalities over this time frame, with a per capita rate of 140 per 100,000 per year.

Read more >> 

***

Nevertheless… the omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1 is poised to be the next dominant strain in the U.S. Mutations appear to have helped it replicate better and resist prior immunity.

After a weeks-long plateau, coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are once again rising in the U.S. as a new, highly transmissible omicron subvariant rapidly makes its way toward becoming the next dominant virus strain.
The current seven-day rolling average of cases is back to where it was in February, with an average of 64,000 cases tallied Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s roughly three times what it was toward the end of March.
The seven-day average for hospitalizations is also up by 20%, with the CDC reporting an average of 2,215 admissions over the last seven days ― up from the prior week’s average of 1,845.
Deaths from COVID-19 have stayed near record lows.

Read more >> 

***

On war…

Ukraine – photo essay >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:

JD (1:00 mins)
JD Mandell  (2:00 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - May 2, 2022 (2:15 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

What’s a nurdle, you ask…

A nurdle is a bead of pure plastic. It is the basic building block of almost all plastic products, like some sort of synthetic ore; their creators call them “pre-production plastic pellets” or “resins.” Every year, trillions of nurdles are produced from natural gas or oil, shipped to factories around the world, and then melted and poured into molds that churn out water bottles and sewage pipes and steering wheels and the millions of other plastic products we use every day. You are almost certainly reading this story on a device that is part nurdle.
…
An estimated 200,000 metric tons of nurdles make their way into oceans annually. The beads are extremely light, around 20 milligrams each. That means, under current conditions, approximately 10 trillion nurdles are projected to infiltrate marine ecosystems around the world each year.
Hundreds of fish species — including some eaten by humans — and at least 80 kinds of seabirds eat plastics. Researchers are concerned that animals that eat nurdles risk blocking their digestive tracts and starving to death. Just as concerning is what happens to the beads in the long term: Like most plastics, they do not biodegrade, but they do deteriorate over time, forming the second-largest source of ocean microplastics after tire dust. (A nurdle, being less than 5 millimeters around, is a microplastic from the moment of its creation, something also known as a primary microplastic.)

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Back in California. Back to easy wi fi... unproblematic showering... electricity ... yet, after working hard to comply with advice from various website – print out and sign assorted Covid-related forms for entry into the US, I was astounded to not be asked to produced a single one: no more Covid paperwork required.
Americans, it appears, are so over Covid.
Masks schmarks… Wear one or not. No longer required on planes and in airports … some people wear ‘em, some people do not, personal decision time.
Passing through US Customs was the easiest I remember: zipideedoodah and I was back. Picked up my bag from baggage claim, hopped onto BART and 45 minutes later, hopped into my vehicle and was driven home.
What a long, long journey, from SA to CA. Watched Kenneth Branagh’s movie, Belfast and Robin Wright’s Land aboard the plane, enjoyed and recommend both.
Life is… fast paced….
Time to catch my breath.

***

Chilly and overcast in the SF Bay Area…
Sunrise: 6:06am
Sunset: 8:04pm

 
Chilly and darker sooner in 

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:31am
Sunset: 5:20pm

Here's hopin' ...

News blues

As our crazy world stares into the face of another potential apocalypse of war (Russia, Ukraine, NATO, US), the language of war against a virus prevails, too.
Dr Hans Kluge, director of World Health Organization's (WHO) Europe says the continent could soon enter a "long period of tranquility" in the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr Kluge cited high vaccination rates, the end of winter and the less severe nature of the Omicron variant. "This period of higher protection should be seen as a 'ceasefire' that could bring us enduring peace." It comes as a number of European nations end Covid-19 restrictions. 
Dr Kluge said some 12 million new virus cases were detected across Europe last week - the highest recorded - but officials have not seen a significant spike in those needing critical hospital care.
Here’s hopin’ …

***

The Lincoln Project:
Biden vs. Trump  (1:20 mins)
Trump Army  (0:58 mins)
Respect  (0:57 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

North Carolina’s coastal highway is disappearing – "so I took a road trip to capture it"  >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’ll travel 5823+ miles today. (For enquiring minds: this is equivalent to 9370 kilometers or 5056 nautical miles.) Over the north Atlantic – over the ice and snow, too, I hope.
I plan on one more walk along the beach before I depart on public transportation to the airport. Last night’s photo says it all: 

***

Cold but crisp and clear in the San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:09am
Sunset: 5:36pm

Rainy and cool in KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:31am
Sunset: 6:54pm

Black Friday?

News blues

Omicron. It’s got a name. Until today, the new Covid “variant of concern” was B.1.1.529. Now reborn as Omicron 

"Based on the evidence presented indicative of a detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology, the TAG-VE has advised WHO that this variant should be designated as a VOC, and the WHO has designated B.1.1.529 as a VOC, named Omicron," the statement said.
The variant was first discovered by South African health authorities and has sparked a forceful reaction across the world with a number of countries banning travelers from several southern African countries.

Watch: “’Real alarm’ around the world” as Omicron spreads  (10:29 mins)
Watch: Omicron “500 times more infections than Delta variant”  (13:59 mins)
Is it not time for a concerted, worldwide effort to vaccinate people everywhere? Despite anti-vaxers’ mindset, the vast majority of people around the world want vaccinations but have little access to vaccines. If Americans have enough vaccine to offer 3 doses to anyone who seeks jabs, we must expand effective distribution.

***

The Lincoln Project: Last Week in the Republican Party  (1:44 mins)
Cringe-worthy: Trump junior trumpets Trump senior – and both Trumps appear to think it’s really cool 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Not much going on back at this ranch. I’m in limbo, stuck between worlds – CA and SA – due to timing of Covid booster (I’m due December 20 and, no, cannot get it even one day earlier) and, now, Omicron (assuming I can find a flight there, I cannot afford another round of Lockdown in SA and/or quarantine on either continent).

Be a flake

Remember Donald Trump's February 2020 claim about the coronavirus? That “there were only 15 cases of the coronavirus in the United States” and that those infections “within a couple of days are going to be down to close to zero”?
New York Daily News front cover page reminded him – and the world – of that this week - on the newspaper's front page. 

News blues…

When is the pandemic declared “over”?

The “end of the pandemic” means different things in different contexts. The World Health Organization first declared a “public health emergency of international concern”  on January 30, 2020, holding off on labeling it a “pandemic” until March 11.
The imposition (and rescinding) of these labels is a judgment made by WHO leadership, and one that can reflect murky, tactical considerations. Regardless of what WHO decides (and when), national governments—and individual states within the U.S. — have to make their own determinations about when and how to reopen their schools and loosen their restrictions on businesses.
Read the Biden administration 200-page comprehensive national strategy for “beating COVID-19.” 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Cutting down forests: what are the drivers of deforestation?

Since the turn of the millennium, the world has been losing around 5 million hectares of forest every year. Nearly all of this occurs in the tropics; almost half of all deforestation takes place in Brazil and Indonesia.
Three-quarters is driven by agriculture. Beef production is responsible for 41% of deforestation; palm oil and soybeans account for another 18%; and logging for paper and wood across the tropics, another 13%. These industries are also dominant in a few key countries.
Effective solutions will be focused on these agricultural activities and those countries where most deforestation occurs. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Clearing out the garage of years of rubble, some useful, most not - is one thing and, slowly but surely, I’m getting that done. Today, I plan to visit the scrap yard and try to recoup (minimal) funds for recycling metal.
Clearing out useful household goods is another thing entirely.
Many Americans, certainly San Francisco Bay Area residents, use Craigslist and garage sales to sell / recycle household items. Interested parties respond to Craigslist posts and then they show up to view/purchase/haul items away.
In South Africa? Not so much.
Far too many people respond to ads, offer to pay via EFT – before viewing items – and make firm appointments to pick up. THEN THEY NEVER SHOW UP. One simply never hears from them again. This behavior is routine and, apparently, accepted.
Is it just me or is this bizarre behavior?
It’s not just your average Joe Blow doing this. Business people do it too. Yesterday, for example, three different and disparate parties did this:

• Realtor said she’d bring current interested house buyer early in the morning – 8am – so his girlfriend could see the place.
• Online shopper phoned to say she’d come at 4pm to purchase a TV – offered at a very affordable price (so affordable that more than half a dozen people wanted it. (I opted for the first person who contacted me and make a plan to pick up. This means I still have the TV.)
• Swimming pool guy said he’d come by – “in the morning” – to check the pool filter.

Not one of those people showed up.
Realtor called – at least she did that although 2 hours after she’d been due – to say girlfriend “didn’t want to be late for work,” and that they’d come at 5:30pm. At 1pm, realtor called to say they wouldn’t come at all but would bring around “an offer tomorrow morning,” that the purchaser “didn’t want to lose the opportunity to buy.” Well, we’ll see, today, what happens on that.
Pool guy never showed up, never called. Naturally.
Excited TV purchaser never showed up, never called.
Everyone offers advice on how to circumvent dealing with these sorts of issues, but none of those solutions work either.
Now I have a perspective on why one can get nothing done in this country…. It is not just “incompetent” officials. It’s the culture itself. It’s perfectly acceptable, even expected, to be a flake.

Lockdown disorientation

Ah, the joys of lockdown. Forty-eight, going on 49, weeks.

Somehow, amid the ongoing monotony of lockdown, I lost track of days and dates. Yesterday’s post assumed it was Sunday. But it was Monday… evidenced by the gardener’s appearance to garden. After all, why would he show up to work on Sunday?
Every day, for 334 days (and counting) I’ve posted something about macro and micro aspects of the pandemic that concern this human:

• a beautiful and bountiful planet poorly managed by capitalist thinking (use it all up, suck out the wealth, ensure ROI - return on investment),
• a pandemic that, essentially, is the result of capitalist thinking shrinking and toxifying the wild places and stressing the world’s creatures,
• and the resultant zoonosis.

For 334 days,  I’ve posted about aspects of my small, personal life amid a global crisis.
How much longer can this continue?
(Impressive, indomitable Dr Fauci suggests that “we” - those of us who actually wear masks - might still be wearing them in 2022.)
Famous pirate, Long John Silver, puts things in perspective: “shiver me timbers…”

News blues…

More than half a million Americans – confirmed - dead of coronavirus.

The milestone [and magnitude] based on a tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html , came just over a month after the nation's death toll passed 400,000 and as public health officials train their sights on new, more contagious coronavirus strains that have been reported in almost every state and threaten to tax already stressed local health systems.

***

Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide 

***

Let’s remember how We the People got to the current toll of half a million Covid-19 deaths: 

The big lie propagated by former President Donald Trump, involving the coronavirus pandemic systematically downplayed the severity of Covid-19 and the utility of face masks. It very likely resulted in the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
To understand the genesis of this lie, remember that the coronavirus arrived in an election year. Despite a rancorous initial three years punctuated with an impeachment, the former president's path to reelection was bolstered by one unimpeachable accomplishment: a robust economy. The coronavirus threatened that. The resulting interplay between politics and the pandemic created an irresolvable conflict that influenced the Trump administration's coronavirus response for the remainder of his term. 

***

The Lincoln Project is back – at least temporarily. Let’s enjoy their humor while we still can:
Book your Mexican Getaway Now!  (1:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A slight modification of Benjamin Franklin reported words, “A Republic, if We Can Keep It”: a bountiful planet, if we work at keeping it….

Health means many things to many people. Often it means an absence of illness, but to the World Health Organization (WHO), health does not just mean freedom from illness, but a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. This concept of well-being became translated into the language of biodiversity in a significant way through the work of the Millennium Assessment. 

***

Learn about GLEWS - Global Early Warning System - for health threats and emerging risks at the human–animal–ecosystems interface. The Joint FAO–OIE–WHO project to inform prevention and control measures, through the rapid detection and risk assessment of health threats and events of potential concern at the human-animal-ecosystems interface.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Trying to sell a house during a pandemic is bad. Trying to sell a house during a pandemic in South Africa is worse. Trying to sell a house during a pandemic to South Africans is a nightmare.
I’ve shared many bleak observations about South African tradespeople who make appointments then never show up, never warn that they’ll not show up, and never apologize for either.
Similar thing happens with home buyers. They make appointment to show up at an agreed upon time then, at the last minute, change their minds and make a different appointment time.
If I had nothing else to do but sit around sipping sundowner cocktails, perhaps I’d be more understanding.
Instead, last minute changes of mind based on apparent whim force me to reset my own appointments - and appear to disrespect someone else’s schedule.
It’s madding for someone with control freak tendencies who has lived for decades in the “time is money” US to appear as flaky as other South Africans.
It’s a live and learn world….

Debatable

After watching the recent American political debate, I suggest a bland recipe: plop representatives of two opposing views into one bowl, toss in a bunch of facts, semi-facts, obfuscations (aka lies), modify and reframe dollops of recent historical facts and evidence, add a soupçon of moderation. Mix. Pour. Bake. Walk away from the toxic mix, sit in the warm sun until your troubles drop away, feel the wonder of your life, an important part of all life.
Then, vote!

Worldwide (Map) 
October 8 – 36,069,000 confirmed infections; 1,055,000 deaths
October 1 – 33,881,275 confirmed infections: 1,012,980 deaths 

US (Map)

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

October 1 - 7,233,200 confirmed infections; 206,940 deaths

  

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
October 8 – 685,155 confirmed infections; 17,250 deaths
October 1 – 674,340 confirmed infections: 16,735 deaths 

 
This week sees 19 countries having lower rates of Covid infections than the US White House. As of yesterday, October 7, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) memo, “Thirty-four White House staffers and ‘other contacts’ have been infected with the coronavirus in recent days.”  

News blues…

WHO official says 10 percent of the world may have been infected by Covid-19: 

There are more than 35.5 million confirmed Covid-19 cases globally, according to the widely-used Johns Hopkins University dashboard, but World Health Organization and other experts say that is almost certainly an enormous undercount. Over the summer, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said cases in the US had likely been undercounted by at least 90%.
With a global population of about 7.7 billion people, Ryan's estimate would mean about 770 million have been infected - but most have not been diagnosed or counted.

***

After departing the National Institutes of Health, where he was working on a program to expand national COVID-19 testing capacity, Dr. Rick Bright wrote a blistering op-ed in the Washington Post: “I couldn’t sit idly and watch people die from Trump’s chaotic, politicized pandemic response, so I resigned,”

 “From the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, the administration’s failure to respond with a coordinated strategy only heightened the danger… Nine months into the pandemic, the United States continues to grapple with failed White House leadership.”
Rick Bright said the administration’s “hostility to the truth” has caused tens of thousands of preventable deaths.  

***

For the first time ever in its 208-year history, the New England Journal of Medicine issued an editorial about an election:

Lambasting the Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic [the editorial, signed by all its editors, calls] on Americans to vote President Donald Trump out of office next month. 
November’s election will have life-or-death consequences for people across the country regardless of party alignment, the journal’s editorial board said.
“Reasonable people will certainly disagree about the many political positions taken by candidates,” the journal’s editors wrote. “But truth is neither liberal nor conservative. When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs.”

I repeat, vote!

***

The Lincoln Project: Hospital  (0:55 mins)

Healthy futures, anyone?

The Earth is changing faster than at any point in modern history as a result of human-caused global heating. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

After decades of independence living in a different country, far from my mother and family of origin, it is disorienting to live intimately with another person’s chronic ambivalence. I’m caught between settling my dangerously mood-changing mother into a (formerly thoroughly agreed upon) new life while simultaneously expecting willy nilly changes of direction that upend agreed-upon plans.
Do I simply plow ahead with the original plan – sell the house and furnishings – while waiting for her next handwritten list that completely changes the course of events?
Or do I give up and return to my own life?
If the latter, what happens to my essentially alone, 87-year-old mother?
An enquiring mind wants to know…

Oh, the irony, the irony

Forgive me, Conrad and Coppola for riffing off Heart of Darkness/”Apocalypse Now”….
South Africa’s efforts against the coronavirus pandemic have been noted as “world class.”
United States federal government’s efforts?
Not so much.
The eloquent victims: 671,000-plus confirmed infected and close to 40,000 dead Americans. The United States host more than three percent of the global infected (2,158,250) and more than two percent of the global dead (145,533).
Six months ago, who’da thunk it?
Cosmic irony? Donald J Trump dismissing people from “sh**hole countries” not “like Norway”.

To some, even bad news is good news and no news is bad news. It isn’t news that Jared and Ivanka (Javanka) are clueless and self-centered.
So, what’s news? Not that Trump never learns from his mistakes. Nevertheless, it is mind-boggling that he learned nothing from his first round of impeachment. Legal minds, all greater than mine, plus uber-smart Neal Katyal  point out the Trump’s defunding of WHO is an impeachable offense. (Yesterday’s post discussed WHO in some detail).  Moreover, it’s the same category of offence that impeached him for his withholding funds from Ukraine.

Only 200 more days of Trump’s reign….

Former Republican Party members named on by-line of this Washington Post op-ed created the Lincoln Project to defeat Trump at November’s election. (FYI: George Conway is spouse to Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway.)
In the op-ed, the group states,

Publicly supporting a Democratic nominee for president is a first for all of us. We are in extraordinary time, and we have chosen to put country over party – and former VP Joe Biden is the candidate who we believe will do the same.

Steve Schmidt said on MSNBC last night,

The Republican Party that we all belong to, that we fought for, is dead. It’s a remnant of the past. It’s not coming back. It’s been utterly corrupted by Donald Trump and Trumpism and that is bad for the country… We’re in the middle of the defining event in American Life in our lifetime…. It will take an act of monumental leadership to pull this country back together, to unite it, to heal it, and to lead a recovery that will be difficult to come out of… Joe Biden is the guy to do it.

Note: I’d link to the op-ed, but the Washington Post has a paywall. It’s not Fake News but Natural Selection Due to Capitalism.
PS: I'm not sure  milquetoast Joe Biden is the guy to do it.  Hypersmart Elizabeth Warren could do it, but she's too scary smart - and too female - to too many Americans to be allowed the opportunity.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’m impressed with how President Ramaphosa and his team of experts handle the growing pandemic. They deserve recognition for their “world class” levels of performance.
Perhaps efficient performance a la Ramaphosa et al, will trickle down, too.
South Africa’s state and provincial bureaucracies sorely need trickle down efficiency – and competence. So does my bank….
After four years of online banking and occassional use of the Instant Cash feature, suddenly I couldn’t use it to pay the gardener. Lockdown means the gardener shouldn’t have to depart his township and run the gauntlet of police roadblocks to and from his house to collect his pay. After several failed attempts, I used precious airtime funds to call the bank. I learned that my years of paying bills online hadn't happened, indeed, that I have no online payment rights.
Why? No one knows?
The outcome? The gardener must wait up to seven days for the bank to activate/reactivate my online payment rights. The 25-minute call consumed all my airtime. Since mine is the only phone in the house that works (more on that in an upcoming post), I must run the gauntlet of police roadblocks to purchase more airtime.
Is Kafka reaching for his pen from beyond his grave?

Goodbye Week 3, hello Week 4 of Lockdown.

Transition to the weekend with this photo of a “ladybug” (in US)/ “ladybird” (in SA) feeding on black aphids cultivated by ants on a young lemon tree.




Read Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3

You can't make this stuff up - Part 2

(c) Mike Luckovich

Today was initially scheduled to mark the end lockdown.  We're going another two weeks, until end of April. Then what?

Global confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection beyond two million, 640,000 plus in US alone.
The US economy is in shambles, the global economy is following suit.
But fear not. The poster children for nepotism are on the case as Trump appoints Javanka to Council to Reopen America.

After several hours of giddy optimism about demonstrably good South African leadership on the pandemic (read yesterday’s post), I made the mistake of continuing to track news from around the world.
Congo’s news sobered me up.
Another Ebola outbreak in the eastern city of Beni as cases of Covid-19 erupt around the country. With more than 2,000 deaths from Ebola in the past 18 months, hand washing and social distancing is entrenched among Congolese. As they do their rounds, community health workers educate about coronavirus by word of mouth but fears mount.

Five-plus million Congolese and millions more people around the world depend on support from World Health Organization.  The same WHO that Prez Trump/US is threatening to defund to the tune of US$237 million in assessed fees, plus US$656 million in voluntary contributions. Voluntary contributions are “earmarked for programs including polio eradication, health and nutrition services, vaccine-preventable diseases, tuberculosis, HIV — and preventing and controlling outbreaks.”

WHO works around the world, including South Africa. (What WHO does.)
Makes more sense to me to trim US military budget - Fiscal Year 2019, approximately $693 billion (US$693,058,000,000 or ZAR12,952,333,401,010,91) – and concentrate on life and health instead of oppression and death. But then, I’m anti-war not pro-business and that makes all the difference.

Moreover, the great irony is Trump defunding the WHO is largly designed to deflect scrutiny of his own administration's slow response to the outbreak. That's Trump the Businessman for ya!

Other women, actual leaders with, y'know, actual qualifications and stuff, are doing a disproportionately great job at handling the pandemic. So why aren't there more of them?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Earlier this week, I mentioned an autumn chill in the air. That’s borne out by two photos of … snow dusting the Drakensburg.

Drakensberg from Rosetta (click to enlarge)

Drakensberg from Kamberg (click to enlarge)

California is warming up. Yesterday’s temperature along San Joaquin River, in Sacramento Delta, where I dock my houseboat, was 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.6 C).
Cliff swallows likely are arriving from South America to rest and nest (one couple nests above my boat’s pontoons). Hummingbirds are wondering where I am and why I’m not filling their damned feeders.
I miss it.

Read Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3