Help is not on the way

News blues…

MSNBC: Rep. Andy Kim: “1 Out Of Every 1,250 Americans In This Country Has Died Because of COVID" (5:45 mins) 

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With 4 percent of the world’s population, the US has 19 percent of the world’s Covid deaths. Since Thanksgiving, there has been 346,061 new infections and 2,704 deaths. This clip includes an information update with Dr Fauci. 

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An informative overview of Covid – potentially brewing over 5 decades  (11:30 mins)

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South Africa requires Covid certificates for cross-border truck traffic.  (2:20 mins)

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The last several weeks workers with the local village’s Umngeni Municipality have engaged in “popcorn” strikes, spontaneous events that block municipal office entrances. The original focus was a request for an increase in salary. Today, more action:

Protest action at Umngeni Municipality remains unresolved. A Court Interdiction was issued on 2020-11-27 to 6 respondents regarding the protests. The applicant in that court interdict is Ms Thembeka Cibane the Municipal Manager who wanted the Court to force all 6 applicants to instruct those who are protesting to stop their actions.
As a result of the court interdict, there was a public meeting at Mpopomeni Hall to discuss the way forward.
After that meeting, a decision was taken to intensify the protests by blocking all roads leading to Howick. The targeted roads includes R617, Tweedie Rd and all others access roads. Information received also indicates that today’s protest will be joined by people from Zuzokuhle and Mathandubisi areas. Roads blockade are expected to start in the early hours of Monday morning 2020-11-30.

I hope protesters wear masks….

Healthy planet, anyone?

...Scientists are finding that parasites are puppet masters, shaping ecosystems by changing the behaviour of their host species. Research in California  showed parasites were involved in 78% of links in the food chain. Rough estimates suggest there could be 80 million parasites, but only 10% have been identified….
Colin Carlson is a biologist at Georgetown University in the US who has just published a paper in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B arguing for a global parasite project to record parasitic life on Earth. He says we know next to nothing about them. “When we think about plants and herbivores and carnivores, there are parasites operating on every part of that food web – they’re this kind of dark matter. There are these unaccounted for links and forces in the network that we often can’t quantify.”
Carlson believes conservationists underestimate public support and interest in parasites. “People assume that because they’re gross, there’s not going to be any interest,” he says. “And I think, actually, it’s quite the opposite … People like the idea that there’s this entire hidden world within animals that we know nothing about. People love frontiers, right? They love the deep ocean and deep space and there is a frontier inside every animal on Earth.”
The global parasite project could lead to half the world’s parasites being described in the next decade, researchers say. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Cycads  typically grow very slowly and live very long, with some specimens known to be as much as 1,000 years old. Cycads are sometimes mistaken for palms or ferns because of a superficial resemblance, but they are not closely related to either group.
I’ve a special place in my heart for cycads. When I was a child, one had grown, ignored for years, in a bird aviary near my bungalow. Then, an irate cycad-knowledgeable person strongly urged my mother to remove the aviary and “protect that bloody cycad. Don’t you know it could be a thousand years old?”

A couple of youthful cycads try to live long and happy lives in this garden. Alas, caterpillars make that tough.
Last year, I noticed swarms of yellow and black caterpillars on the youthful cycads. Yesterday, I noticed relatives of those swarms had returned. Quick online research indicated these would soon develop into Cycad Moths, a blue-grey butterfly.
Despite their attractive coloring, birds avoid these critters as the diet of cycad makes the caterpillars distasteful.
I scooped dozens of these caterpillars from cycad fronds and tossed them into the pond. The Massacre of the Innocents, each of us victims of do-what-ya-gotta-do.
As a mark of respect, I watched the caterpillars drown and sunk. Sunlight illuminated their bodies on the pond bottom. 

I tell myself they’ll to enrich the ecosystem as compost…. 

unThanksgiving

The Indigenous Peoples Sunrise Ceremony, aka unThanksgiving Day, is a day of recognition little known among majority-immigrant Americans. It is, however, the day many Native Americans regret the arrival of immigrants onto their land, the continent of North America.
Several years ago, a friend and I left home at 3.33am on a rainy morning to ferry to Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay, to celebrate an Indigenous Peoples’ Unthanksgiving.
 I foresee a future when Americans look back at 2020’s Thanksgiving and holiday season as a time for sober reevaluation. 

What were we thinking when we acted rashly and ignored an out-of-control pandemic?

News blues…

As Thanksgiving week draws to an end, more experts are warning the Covid-19 pandemic will likely get much worse in the coming weeks before a possible vaccine begins to offer some relief. 
[Across the US] More than 205,000 new cases were reported Friday - which likely consists of both Thursday and Friday reports in some cases, as at least 20 states did not report Covid-19 numbers on Thanksgiving. As of Saturday evening, more than 138,000 new cases and 1,100 deaths had been reported, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The US has now reported more than 100,000 infections every day for 26 consecutive days. The daily average in the week to Friday was more than 166,000 - almost 2.5 times higher than the summer's peak counts in July.
The number of Covid-19 patients in US hospitals reached record levels on Saturday evening, with 91,635 Americans hospitalized with Covid19, according to the COVID Tracking Project. 

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Overnight numbers of new Covid infections in South Africa, were, again, above 3,000.

Motherwell resident Ntombizanele Majamana, 56, urged [health minister] Mkhize to convince the cabinet to impose strict regulations in Port Elizabeth. “I have lost many relatives to Covid-19,” she said.
 “I wish we could return to the strict lockdown because [then] people adhered to the rules. At the moment people are acting as if Covid-19 is gone, they are attending churches, funerals and traditional ceremonies in numbers.

Healthy planet, anyone?

Reuters photographer Gleb Garanich says: “…the animal world need not only be found in the wild. I was on my way to cover a protest near the Ukrainian parliament and had deliberately left 90 minutes ahead of time as I like to take pictures early in the morning in the city centre”…
This photo essay reminds us that beauty is all around, if we have eyes to see…. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Spotted my fourth snake yesterday, the first green one. It was fast but I registered a fresh shade of green, not more than 14 inches long, and what I’d categorize as a youthful body. Could have been any of a range of “green snakes” … 

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Marketing in South Africa is highly dependent on “passion”. Marketing professionals are “passion about,” feel “passionately,” and employ variants of this word to flog anything, from cannabis oil to shoes, to manufacturing, to pharmaceuticals… 

Recently, an email from a pharmacy declared, “we are passionate about delighting our clients…”  

One wonders what drugs they’re pedaling. 

More of the same

News blues…

Like elsewhere in the world, South Africa’s Covid infections are surging: more than 3,370 new cases in the past 24 hours. Numbers are “concerning,” says Health Minister Zweli Mkhize. 

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Black Friday, indeed: ‘Terrified’ retail workers face brutal Black Friday choice: Risk catching COVID-19 from ‘entitled Karens’ or get fired.

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Whackjobbery is baaaack! The recent surge in whackjobbery (see definition) submerged during the swampy election, but it’s back – and as whacky as ever. Even diehard whackjobs are confusing their ideologies as QAnoners fight the “MAGAverse” and all threaten to boycott, well, something or someone.
It’s funny, in a macabre way - as long as adherents leave their guns home - but it's a challenge to keep the factions straight.
Mike Rothschild, writer and researcher on conspiracy theories working on a book about QAnon, offers a primer:

“At its core, Q mythology is a theory that Trump is the sole savior from a cabal of Satan-worshipping, pedophiliac Washington elites…
It's really hard to put aside that worldview, even for just a couple months, to get behind a conventional election.
When you've been spending years thinking all elections are rigged, the deep state controls everything, nothing you do matters and the only way to stop it is for Donald Trump to win every state, be president for life and destroy his enemies — you're so caught up in believing this radically enormous thing, that you miss the very small thing right in front of you….” 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The shebeen (unlicensed “bush pub”) across the road hosted a party last night. It began at 7pm or so – and continues… (currently 7am next morning). Music, singing, dancing, fighting, yelling… sounds like a hellava party. Our security alarm sounded at 2:44am last night. A check of the property revealed no incursions. 

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Zebra suit… Lockdown across South Africa, instituted mid-March, shut down my swimming routine at the pool in a gated community. Soon as the facility reopened in September, I started swimming again.
This gated community also currently houses my mother in the Care Center. It’s a high-end facility that my mother agreed would suit her needs. Alas, she’s changed her mind. Alas, I lost patience with her constant reversals and complaining – "not enough tea, hard veggies, old people" (she’s 87), etc. etc. Alas, when we selected her room, we agreed overlooking the parking lot was the option that allowed her regular views of wild animals – small groups of zebra, impala, and warthogs – and an intriguing assortment of bird life. This has proven true. So far, she’s not complaining about the view. But I am. Alas, the view includes the only entryway to the swimming pool This means our currently troubled relationship affects my swim routine: I hesitate to enter the pool in full view of my mother while not dropping by for a visit.
Friends to the rescue: one friend suggested that, when I head to the pool, I wear a zebra suit as a disguise!
Friends. I luv ‘em!

Mythical plans

News blues…

SA: My early morning Covid stats app declared more than 3,000 new infections across this country in the past 24 hours.
US: Even with 181,490 new cases on Wednesday, millions of Americans defied official advice not to travel or gather for Thanksgiving on Thursday. This is the third daily rise in a row, and hospitalisations hit 89,959 cases, a record for a 16th day in succession. 

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Conspiracy theories frequently revolve around a coherent plan emanating from a central cabal coordinating lockstep coercion aimed at “taking over the world,” or the city, or the county, or the state, or the whatever….
Rudy Giuliani, Trump's lead lawyer in his “ongoing series of false claims about election fraud, laid out the whole shebang during a, um, sweaty press conference on Thursday” :

"This pattern repeats itself in a number of states, almost exactly the same pattern, which to any experienced investigator, prosecutor, would suggest that there was a plan from a centralized place to execute these various acts of voter fraud specifically focused on big cities and specifically focused on, as you would imagine, big cities controlled by Democrats. And particularly focused on big cities that have a long history of corruption."

The one big, glaring weakness in such theories?
Two or more humans together barely agree on what to eat for dinner, never mind adhere to a “plan from a centralized place.” (Think Soviet Union….) Despite an agreed-upon “platform,” Democrats barely control party apparatchiks – think AOC and “the squad”, Dianne Feinstein – never mind act coherently.
If a coordinated “centralized place” presented a coherent people-and-planet-friendly plan, I’d quickly join it. I’ve participated many so-called “political action” planning sessions and experience proves it is ludicrous to suggest groups of humans are capable of agreement, never mind successful coordination. It just doesn’t happen. We’re genetically incapable of agreeing upon and sticking to a long-term plan. That’s why we’re destroying our beautiful life-sustaining planet.

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The Lincoln Project offers thanks:

While this year presented unique challenges for all of us, we still have so much to give thanks for.
We are thankful for unity — an unprecedented coalition of over 80 million Americans united behind Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to reject Donald Trump.
We are thankful for democracy — despite egregious and seditious attacks, we, the People, remain sovereign and in charge of our Republic.
We are thankful for honesty, integrity, and merit — as the Biden transition kicks into high gear, it is relieving and exciting to witness the restoration of moral, principled, and qualified leadership and expertise to the White House.
Above all, we are thankful for you. Your dedication and support for our mission is truly the only reason we are here.
You fought to protect our democracy.
You restored honor and decency to the White House.
You defeated Donald Trump.
Thank you, for being a watchdog for our country’s institutions, a gatekeeper for our nation’s highest offices, and a dedicated patriot.
Our work is not over—far from it.
We will keep up the fight against Trumpism as long as we have you standing with us.
We hope you have a safe, restful, and joyful Thanksgiving.
From co-founders: Reed Galen, Jennifer Horn, Mike Madrid, Steve Schmidt, Ron Steslow, Rick Wilson

Healthy planet, anyone?

Amazing gift that will keep on giving: New Zealanders Dick and Jillian Jardine, whose family have owned and worked the land for 98 years, have gifted 900 hectares of pristine land by the edge of Lake Wakatipu to the crown, saying it is “the right thing to do”.
The stretch of land at the foot of the Remarkables range will become open to everyone in 2022, after being handed over to the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust for “the benefit and enjoyment of all New Zealanders”. 

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Back in 2018, the US state of Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources built a bridge over Interstate 80 to reduce traffic accidents in Parleys Canyon caused by wandering animals. Last week, the agency released a video of the bridge in use - aiding moose, porcupines, deer and even bears across the busy highway. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
Thirty-six weeks of waiting….
Temperatures are dropping back in California, specifically where my semi-abandoned houseboat is docked. The outboard motor is exposed to the elements. It’ll crack if temps drop below zero – as forecast by weather people. I’ve reached out via text to request fellow mariners cover the motor with an old cloth or bag or towel or…. 

Fourteen thousands miles away and I rely on the “kindness of strangers…”

Lucky bird

“Oh, that’s a lucky, lucky bird….”
Donald J Trump was not referring to his expectation that he’ll avoid a future as jailbird for assorted tax and constitutional crimes. He was congratulating Corn and Cob, the turkeys he pardoned from become meals for Thanksgiving 2020.  (1:50 mins)
As comedian Steven Colbert noted, “An innocent turkey pardoned by a lame duck.” 

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Note, below, the exponential increase in numbers of Covid infections and deaths…
Worldwide (Map) 
November 26 – 60,334,000 confirmed infections; 1,420,500 deaths
October 29 – 44,402,000 confirmed infections; 1,173,270 deaths
September 24 – 31,780,000 confirmed infections; 975,100 deaths

US (Map) 
November 26 – 12,771,000 confirmed infections; 262,145 deaths
October 29 – 8,856,000 confirmed infections; 227,675 deaths
September 24 – 6,935,000 confirmed infections; 201,880 deaths

SA (Tracker)  
November 26 – 775,510 confirmed infections; 21,2010 deaths
October 29 – 719,715 confirmed infections; 19,111 deaths
September 24 – 665,190 confirmed infections; 16,206 deaths 

News blues…

Hunger for Thanksgiving…  (2:20 mins)
Travel for Thanksgiving… 

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More than 3,200 new infections in South Africa in 24 hours. 
Western Cape considers local restrictions to fight resurgent Covid-19 

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What will The Lincoln Project do next? The group made a difference in the recent election as well as presented new ways of understanding Republicanism, what it means to be American, and demonstrated one way to push back against lies and deceit.
Their recent ad: The Lincoln Project Gives Thanks,  (1:43 mins).
Right back at ya, TLP: Thank you!

Healthy planet, anyone?

South African lizards pollinate 'hidden flower' in Drakensberg 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My pall of despondency briefly lifted today when two realtors dropped by to take another look at my mother’s large property so as to revamp the online marketing description. The current description garnered not a single nibble from potential buyers. 

Californian’s hot real estate market ensures most properties receive multiple offers over the asking price and sell quickly. Here, one gets nary a sniff? 
Living in a double holding pattern – pandemic and waiting to sell – is a nightmare.
Additionally, I’ve spent almost a year here – six months more than planned – trying to establish a safer home for my frail mother. 

It's tough, when delivering yet more cooked giblet meals for The Dog, she greets me with a barrage of complaints: “I can’t stay here… I’ll die if I stay here … their vegetables aren’t cooked enough… they don’t give me enough tea … people here are old … I’m moving back to my house: you can live in the top section and I’ll live in the bottom section….” 

She was shocked when I said, “I don’t want to live in the top section. I have my own plans and my own place.” 

She's unfamiliar with someone, anyone - never mind her daughter - disagreeing with her ready-to-implement plan-of-the-day and refusing to fall in line.
Not only did I not fall in line, I suggested she make more of an effort to reach out to others instead of rebuffing efforts others make towards her, and that she stop complaining….
Oh boy!
The fur’s gonna fly!

Moving on

US President-elect Joe Biden is naming his cabinet and the country is moving on…. 

Now to roll out an actual, coherent plan  to address the pandemic across that nation and the world.

News blues…

Lockdown booze ban saved 21 lives a day: Shocking stats reveal how badly SA is impacted by alcohol abuse, with young men bearing the brunt.

A report on unnatural deaths in SA during the second alcohol ban shows the devastating effect that booze has on the country.
Researcher Kai Barron of the Berlin School of Economics, says the data showed “the five-week sales ban reduced the number of unnatural deaths in SA by 21 per day, which is substantial”...

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South Africa’s health ministry confirms 2,493 new cases in the past 24 hours from 20,288 tests — a positivity rate of 12.2%  

The ministry also confirmed 115 new Covid-19 related deaths, taking the national death toll to 21,083. Of the new deaths, 45 were in the Eastern Cape, 20 in the Free State, 19 in Gauteng, 16 in the Western Cape, 10 in KwaZulu-Natal, and five in the Northern Cape.
There have also been 716,444 recorded recoveries, at a recovery rate of 92.8%.
The figures are based on 5,325,631 total tests to date, of which 20,288 fell in the past 24-hour cycle.

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US sets record for Covid-19 hospitalizations amid fall surge 

There are 88,080 people currently hospitalized with Covid-19, setting a record for hospitalizations amid a continuing fall surge, according to the Covid Tracking Project. This is the highest number of Covid-19 hospitalizations the nation has ever experienced since the pandemic hit the US.

Healthy planet, anyone?

Amazing creatures of our amazing planet: each arm of an octopus may have a mind of its own…. 

The common octopus, Octopus vulgaris, … has three hearts, and eight limbs with 200 suckers that can feel, taste and smell its surroundings. Scientists remain divided over whether it has one brain or nine. In mammals, most neurons are in the brain, but with octopuses, two-thirds are in their body and arms, enabling each arm to do complex tasks, such as opening jars to obtain food, apparently independently from the central brain.
After much experimenting with underwater mazes and other contraptions, scientists concluded that octopuses could solve various problems with one limb and then communicate the experience to other arms via the central brain.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I grew up in KwaZulu Natal’s rural Valley of a Thousand Hills, elevation 759m/2490ft. 

Elevation of my current home in the Midlands: 1032m/3386ft. 

That 273m/896ft difference means, among other natural wonders, cooler weather and smaller critters, including smaller snakes. Indeed, overall, there appear to be fewer snakes here than in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, home to large snakes, from non-venomous mole snakes to lethal black- and green mambas as well as rinkhals (spitting cobra), adders (puff and night), rock pythons, etc. During my childhood, I’d find snakes relaxing under or on a bed, in cupboards, on verandahs, on footpaths…. I recall finding a puff adder wrapped around cistern plumbing, three inches from my young, vulnerable spine, as I sat upon the toilet.
Until yesterday, in two years, I’d seen only three small snakes here. I spotted the fourth in the veggie garden while I rearranged potato plants uprooted by invading monkeys. Small, black, and whiplash fast, it burrowed into debris.
Like me, monkeys are terrified of snakes. As I child, I saw Jacko, our pet vervet monkey, faint at the sight of a rubber snake placed under his shelter.
Maybe the small, black snake in the potato plants can help dissuade neighborhood monkeys from regular and destructive incursions into the garden?
It has certainly dissuaded me …

Serving the turkey

© The New York Times 

No overt concession by the Trumpster, but concession is implicit. 

The White House on Monday stopped the blockade on cooperating with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition. 
“President Trump’s government on Monday authorized President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. to begin a formal transition process after Michigan certified Mr. Biden as its winner, a strong sign that the president’s last-ditch bid to overturn the results of the election was coming to an end,” The New York Times reported. “Mr. Trump did not concede, and vowed to persist with efforts to change the vote, which have so far proved fruitless.” 

Irony triumphs. Remember when Trump mocked Carrots the Pardoned Turkey for refusing to concede White House after the last election?  

News blues…

With Trump heading to the exit, fighting the pandemic can begin in earnest.  

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When will South Africans get the Covid vaccine?  (8:14 mins)

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Not directly related to Covid-19, but fascinating: New Genetics Research: Migration made African immunity stronger  (5:22 mins)

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Now This: Right to stand up  (4:49 mins)

As mentioned before, The Lincoln Project was founded by a group of Republican political strategists specifically to defeat Trump and Trumpism. This project, unique in American history, chose humor, satire, and historical references to raise awareness about and to fight back against Trump and his Republican enablers. I am not a Republican, but I’ve shared The Lincoln Project content and ads in my pandemic posts. Along with appreciating the Project’s aim and goals, I’ve enjoyed their work – and learned a lot more about what makes the co-founder tick. The Lincoln Project has (lightly) softened my view about Republicanism. Enjoy the latest salvos:
Remove Republic from Republican  (1:00 mins)
Mourning in the Republican Party  (0:55 mins)

"It's a Republic, if you can keep it…
The framers of our Constitution designed a system of checks and balances with three coequal branches of government, empowered to reign in the most reactionary and radical ebbs and flows of popular opinion, and to secure the fundamental, inalienable rights of all Americans.
The survival of our Republic as it was conceived is dependent on each branch of government remaining disciplined and independent of one another, and remaining loyal only to the Constitution and the American people—not to a party, nor, especially, to one man.
The U.S. Senate, the upper chamber of the legislative branch, was once touted as “the world’s greatest deliberative body.” And throughout our history, there have certainly been times that were true.
But the current Republican Senate majority’s loyalty to the American people and the Constitution has been replaced by absolutist partisanship, a zero-sum, no holds barred political calculus, and allegiance to a party led by a deranged, unhinged, immoral narcissist.
This allegiance to power and partisanship over the needs and interests of the American people, and the illiberal, nativist populism Trump espouses, is Trumpism.
But, while Donald Trump will leave the White House in a matter of weeks, Trumpism has proven to be a persistent, pernicious force that will not so easily be removed.
Donald Trump brought our nation to the precipice of calamity—a cliff we are only beginning to slowly inch back from—and he did so with support, guidance, and counsel from sycophants who encouraged and enabled his worst ideas and instincts.
We must hold accountable those in power who, at the very least, did nothing to prevent Donald Trump’s desecration of our nation's highest office and revered institutions.
We now know the names of those who cannot be counted on to hold truth to power, put country over party, and defend the Republic.
All of them."

Healthy planet, anyone?

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization reports:

Climate-heating gases have reached record levels in the atmosphere despite the global lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
There is estimated to have been a cut in emissions of between 4.2% and 7.5% in 2020 due to the shutdown of travel and other activities. But the WMO said this was a “tiny blip” in the continuous buildup of greenhouse gases in the air caused by human activities, and less than the natural variation seen year to year.

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The underwater farm on an Irish island  (3:17 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The security system is still enabled when neighborhood monkeys arrive in our garden. Yelling through my bedroom window does not discourage them. I wonder if, perhaps, they look forward to the resident crazy lady’s morning greeting?
Hats off to British musician Paul Barton playing the piano to hundreds of hungry monkeys in Thailand .