Shot in the arm

Pandemic street art in Copenhagen 

Courtesy of street artists everywhere, enjoy the view of street art around the world.

News blues…

Covid-19 vaccination programs:

• South Africa As of this week, the start of South Africa’s program, SA is using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, administered as a single dose.
  The country has received 80,000 doses of this vaccine, which has been shown to be effective against the variant first identified in South Africa.
  President Cyril Ramaphosa says the country has secured nine million doses in total, and more doses are expected. Read more about SA’s vaccination program >> 
• USA CDC’s key things to know about COVID-19 vaccines  and the CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Recommendations 
• Europe Vaccination schedules for individual European countries and specific age groups 
• Africa Vaccination programs in Africa 

Vaccine question: Once I get the vaccine, what precautions do I still need to take?
Sarah Zhang, Atlantic Monthly staff writer responds:

If you and a small group of friends are all fully vaccinated, congrats. You can relax precautions among one another. If you’re with unvaccinated people, though, remember that your risks are smaller, but not zero. Your chance of getting sick is significantly reduced (by about 95 percent), and your risk of infecting others is likely also much lower. (That exact statistic is still unknown, but is probably less than 95 percent.) Your tolerance for these risks might depend on whether the unvaccinated people you’re with are at risk for COVID-19 because of other reasons.
I think there’s another reason to keep wearing masks in public, at least for now. The strangers around you in a grocery store have no way of knowing whether you’re vaccinated. Wearing a mask is also a signal that you take the virus seriously and believe that we’re in this together—because we are. We can all get back to our normal lives when enough people have been vaccinated that the coronavirus no longer poses much of a threat in schools, workplaces, or even a big, crowded party.

Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide 

***

Good news for the US: Merrik Garland at his confirmation hearing US Attorney General. Take a a moment and watch a really decent human being – intelligent, humble, public minded, and cognizant of history – explain what motivates him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mICmR9luUeE
Soon-to-be US Attorney General elect Merrick Garland is the guy Senator Mitch McConnel refused to allow a hearing to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. 

Healthy planet, anyone?

I didn’t realize until day’s end yesterday, that I’d not completed posting to this blog. I’d posted one third of the usual then – likely distracted by the intense wind and thunderstorm – I’d forgotten to complete the posting.
Was that yet another sign that 49 weeks of lockdown causes brain burps?

What can you do to maintain healthy brain and heart during lockdown? Some folks keep chickens or organize chutney tastings, or draw one another. These 56 small, affordable suggestions won’t end lockdown misery, but they might help. 

Below, Atlantic Monthly writers and editors offer their best suggestions for maintaining sanity during lockdown
Alexis C. Madrigal, staff writer, takes a neighborhood plant walk.
I have taken up night walks, wandering the empty streets of Oakland and Berkeley after my kids go to bed. Every once in a while, I find a succulent from a neighbor and snip just a tiny piece. Then, I take it home, stick it in water, and wait for its roots to sprout and grow down. Eventually I plant it in the tiny garden that I've built.
Shan Wang, senior editor, suggests building on your indoor garden.
Grow it; don’t throw it: Plant some kitchen scraps (lemon seeds, lentils, celery stalks, avocado pits) and watch new life happen in days, no extra soil or pots required.

Call someone, says Rebecca J. Rosen, senior editor.
Pick up your phone and call—actually call; don’t text—a friend just to catch up. Any time I have talked to a friend during this pandemic, I have found the conversation restorative, grounding, and gratifying. Plus, you never know when the person on the other end of the line really needs a friend, too.

Emma Green, staff writer, makes pierogies.
One weekend, perhaps seized by the spirit of some ancient Polish ancestor, I found myself irresistibly drawn to the idea of making pierogies. The little dumplings require an astonishing amount of time and patience, at least by my standards, but the process is meditative, and at the end, you have something delicious for the freezer.
Do like Marina Koren, staff writer , and take a fake commute.
If you're working remotely, create a daily commute and take a walk around the block in the morning. Quarantine has blurred so many work-life boundaries that even a pretend journey can feel refreshing.

 
Learn about cicadas, says A.C. Valdez, senior podcast producer.
Maybe you or your kids are fascinated by bugs. If so (and if an overabundance of insects isn’t too biblical-plague-esque for you), now’s a perfect time to study up on them before your spring hikes: The Brood X cicadas are emerging for the first time in 17 years. (Did you know that there are also 13-year broods?)

Kate Cray, assistant editor, and friends host a standing Zoom get-together.
A group of my friends organized a standing nightly Zoom meeting for the month of February as part of a plan to revive a college tradition. This structure has (perhaps ironically) recreated both the consistency and the spontaneity that I’ve been missing socially. The meetings are planned, but it’s always a surprise who will show up. They help to fight against the instinct toward self-isolation by removing any barriers to seeing friends: Someone will be on the call each night.

 
“Change up your hair (but don't give yourself bangs)” – from Karen Ostergren, deputy copy chief
Every day is the same. Every day is overwhelming. You scroll through Instagram, bored, procrastinating, and see the same ad as always, for brightly colored hair dye, until one time you hit Purchase. Why not? It turns the floor of your shower purple; now you’ve got Saturday-night plans. And the next time you see yourself in a mirror, you smile—for once, not everything is the same.
Take on a home-improvement project, as did Amanda Mull, staff writer.
The most satisfying things that I’ve done for myself in the past year have been a series of small home-improvement projects, such as swapping out my kitchen faucet for a model with a higher neck and spray nozzle. DIY projects work on several levels—they give you something new to learn, they require you to put down your phone and focus on the task in front of you, and they provide the satisfaction of solving a problem whose solution you can see and appreciate every day.

And… buy new socks.
This is sad, says Paul Bisceglio, Health, Science, and Technology editor, but even the smallest novelties help. I ordered two pairs the other week just to have something to feel excited about.

Caroline Mimbs Nyce, senior associate editor: Set micro-goals, and track your habits.
I know, I know. This seems like the kind of toothless advice that the worst person you know would offer on LinkedIn. But it works: My habit calendar guided me through a turbulent January, forcing me to take five-minute stretch breaks and get outside once aper day. Crossing my daily tasks off also helped me visualize the passing of time. 

Nora Kelly Lee, senior editor, Politics: Do a clothing-and-other-items-that-can-be-donated purge.
The pandemic is nothing if not clarifying, and one thing it’s helped me realize is that I have too much stuff. Twice this past year, I’ve gone through my belongings—clothing, books, kitchenware, decor—and separated out items for donation. Hopefully, my neighbors will find them as useful or educational or beautiful as I once did.

Volunteer, suggests Katie Martin, associate art director.
Many organizations offer creative ways to serve the community while staying safe. You can organize a contactless food drive, tutor a student over Zoom, or answer a domestic abuse hotline. I consistently find a deep sense of purpose and connection in meeting and helping my neighbors.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Raining again - still. And heavy rainfall, too. If I was a narcissist I’d see it as a direct challenge on my ability not to have my 2.5 year old request to local public works department acknowledged. The blocked culverts I’ve tried to address for almost 1,000 days are still blocked. (Prior to my getting on board, my brother tried for at least a year, too. They ignored him. Now they’re ignoring me.) 

Nor is the local city councilor is responding to my calls anymore. 

Think about it. We pay high “rates” (property tax) each month and the street pot holes only get bigger, deeper and more numerous. Add to that, neighborhood roads and street Stop signs generally not maintained. Culverts are not as common as street signs but blocked culverts create stagnant water that breed mosquitos and other pathogens as well as endanger properties along the flooding stream. Meanwhile, residents’ rates and utilities bills only increase.
Americans get a lot of flack around the world for their litigious instincts. There really is something to be said for residents’ ability to sue…
Whaddya say South Africans? Shall we get onto the litigious band wagon?

***

Resuming an obsession. It’s been months since I’ve felt the need to track the sun’s rising and setting schedule. Alas, dawn is later and later each day down here on the semi-tip of Africa. Time to begin tracking again: 

Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33 pm.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

Worldwide (Map) 

February 25 -  112,534,400 confirmed infections; 2,497,100 deaths

January 21 – 96,830,000 confirmed infections; 2,074,000 deaths
December 17 – 73,557,500 confirmed infections; 1,637,100 deaths

US (Map)
February 25 - 28,335,000 confirmed infections; 505,850 deaths 

January 21 – 24,450,000 confirmed infections; 406,100 deaths
December 17 – 16,724,775 confirmed infections; 303,900 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
February 25 -  1,507,450 confirmed infections; 49,525 deaths

January 21 – 1,370,000 confirmed infections’ 38,900 deaths
December 17 – 873,680 confirmed infections; 23,665 deaths

Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide 

News blues…

Covid-19 can mess with your sleep 

India’s rate of infection and death dropping? Or… 

***

The Lincoln Project (down but not out?) presents The “new” Republican Party  (1:20 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Quirky and cool – creatures of our planet
Magpies 
Amazing animals 
Amazing sea creatures, snakes, and insects 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Yesterday, the gardener and I loaded the “bakkie” with as much scrap metal as we could then I drove it to a local scrap metal yard. The yard I frequented last year went out of business this year and the “new” yard - more established, less “intimate.” The old yard weighed just the merchandise, the team weighed the entire vehicle – twice. I gathered the first load was iron and steel while the second was metal and “other” materials – plastic, wood, etc.
I was paid off – a measly rate but what can a gal do? - I returned home.
Scrap yards do good work (recycling metals) but one wonders how contaminated is the yard itself. And if the business pays health care costs for its workers. Hmmm.

***

February in KZN is “usually” hotter and drier than the early part of summer. Not this year. Rainfall is more copious. This is not good news since, and after 2.5 years of trying to get “someone” to clear the culverts, they are still blocked. 
Before dawn, gale force gusts and heavy rainfall hammered the house. I’m almost frightened to scan the lower garden for fear of flooding. The public / municipal department (that ought to be) responsible for public works continues their abysmal record of public no-works.
I’ll phone the local councilperson – third time - for an update. Alas, I predict he’ll say, “Haven’t they done it yet? I’ll call the person I know….”

***

My mother has two offers to purchase her house. Neither is the desired cash only offer although each offers advantages. Next Tuesday I will review both offers with my mother’s lawyer and decide which is the more advantageous.
I’m “California dreaming”: both buyers are open to negotiating an early move in. An early move in means I/we can move out – and I can return to the US.
Meanwhile, I explore potential liabilities associated with early move-in that could burden my mother.
Is that light I see at the end of the tunnel? Or is it the ominous glow of radioactivity ?

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….

Welcome, day of rest

© Matt Davies-Newsday and Andrews McMeel 

News blues…

Just a matter of time before third wave hits SA – so predicts Prof Salim Abdool Karim: “Based on what we have seen so far with the second wave in SA and third wave in about a dozen countries so far, it is very likely we’ll have a third wave here.”
He suggests there’s more than a 50% chance of a new variant, in which case a third wave would be “substantial. … If we only see minor mutations without significant immune escape, then the third wave may not be as severe. Our levels of naturally induced immunity from the first and second waves will play a part in this.” 

Healthy planet, anyone?

UK-centric and wonderful … see and listen to birds and bird sounds 

South African birds and their songs – challenge yourself….

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I began what feels like a daunting task: contacting the travel agency with whom I traveled here. Their over-riding response to my email queries about applying my unused funds to my return trip?

Thank you for contacting [us].Your business and feedback are very important to us. … expect a response regarding this matter within 48 hours. ! Due to the outbreak COVID-19 we are experiencing an unprecedented volume of calls and requests. This has significantly delayed our response time. Please bear with us as we work to help all of our customers during this global crisis. We thank you for your patience.

My patience is thin. This is the same response I received when I contacted them in May, 2020 due to my Covid-19-cancelled flights … and in June… and in July … and in August…. It’s the exact same message I receive now, 10 months later.
Just the idea of pursuing this agency for information and to put my refund towards my next flight is exhausting. Nevertheless, after more than a year pursuing various KZN bureaucracies, I've developed tenacity....

Weatherings

Yesterday was another stinking hot 31C summer day in KZN – and no rain to cool things down.
Gone are my “salad days” – childhood and youth in South Africa - when I hardly noticed stinking hot 31C summer day as “inclement” weather.
These days, however, the weather forecast is one of my first daily go-to apps. My heart sinks when predictions indicate temperatures in the upper 20s and higher.
I tremble as I learn more about predictions in the future of global weather and climate. 
We, the people, appear particularly unwilling (or unable?) to grapple with issues of climate, climate change, and other ecological changes. We ignore predictions and continue blithely to act as if “nothing” much will really change.

News blues…

Last summer California fought unprecedented fires. This winter, Texas faces unprecedented ice storms and deep freeze. What’s clear to anyone willing to pay attention: few are prepared for the chaos of coming climate crisis.

An analysis of US Department of Energy data published in September found weather-related power outages are up by 67% since 2000. Climate change is expected to continue fueling hotter heatwaves, more bitter winter storms and more ferocious hurricanes in the coming decades. As both California and Texas have discovered in recent years, power plants, generators and electrical lines are not designed to withstand the catastrophes to come. And all the while, the fossil fuels that both states rely on to power these faulty systems are driving the climate crisis, and hastening infrastructural collapse.
“We’re already seeing the effects of climate change,” said Sascha von Meier, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. “There will be more of this and it will get worse.” 

Related but not “officially” recognized by “elected leaders”:
The planet
Prof Sir Robert Watson is one of the UK’s most eminent environmental scientists who led the UN’s scientific organisations for climate and biodiversity, is a former chief scientific adviser at the UK’s environment department, held senior positions at Nasa and the World Bank, and worked for then-president Bill Clinton.
Upon hearing that the British government will not block a new coalmine in Cumbria (“that’s absolutely ridiculous”) Watson said with great irony, “We’re going to lead Cop26 in Glasgow, we really care about climate change…but, by the way, we won’t override the council in Cumbria, and we’ll have a new coalmine.’” He added, “You get these wonderful statements by governments and then they have an action that goes completely against [their statements].” 
Human health
Outbreaks of the H5N8 strain of bird flu has been detected for the first time among seven workers who were infected at a Russian poultry plant. In recent months, the strain has been reported in Russia, Europe, China, the Middle East and north Africa, but only in poultry. 

My advice to fellow humans?
Educate yourself on how to prepare for a future our “elected leaders” are unprepared to acknowledge. And build resilience, in yourself, your children, and your loved ones. We’re gonna need it.

Healthy planet, anyone?

Photo essay: Lockdown in Brighton, UK 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’m dreaming of a … California summer….
Now that I’ve dared entertain the notion of re-entering my own life, caring for my own life tasks and my own personal business, it’s as if a spell cast over me has broken.
For more than one year, I’ve lived in my mother’s house and dealt with issues raised by her life decisions/lack of decision. It’s been a wild ride. (Remember, for example, her “faithful” domestic worker’s son threatening to kill me, shoot me, rape me - this, after he’d served 5 years of a 7-year prison sentence for rape .)
Since I daring to imagine re-entering my own life, dealing with my own taxes (deadline to file taxes in US is April 15), living on and maintaining my houseboat again, even finding short-term income-generating work, the idea of returning to California holds steady in my imagination.
Yes, there are many things to complete before I purchase an airplane ticket, and many considerations - who can I line up to visit and/or communicate with my mother while I’m away? What if she dies while I’m away? -  but do have the right and a responsibility to my own life….

***

I’m hosting potential buyers of “stuff” – water pump, welding kit, pillar drill, and lots and lots of nails, screws, electrical switches. This activity stimulates me to permit myself actually to buy a ticket, get on an airplane, and return to my own life!
Nevertheless, I tremble at how I’ll tell my mother that I’m leaving.
I’m “it” for her day-to-day visits, and her day-to-day life decisions. I’m confident that, once I’ve sold the “household stuff” and begun to implement whatever plan will deal with the house, I can accomplish remotely most of the day-to-day bill paying, etc. Rather, it is my mother’s day-to-day life that gives me pause.
Can I persuade my brother to visit twice a week? His health is such that he cannot drive anymore. He’ll need someone to drive him the 20 to 30-minute each way. I’ll pay for his petrol.
Can I persuade my nephew, my mother’s favorite person in the world, to phone her or leave WhatsApp audio message after I depart when he’s not done so in the last 10 weeks?

One of the less-alluring aspects of my mother’s personality that regularly regurgitates in my life? She selectively weeds out full disclosure and presents to others a picture of how I victimize her.
For example, yesterday, I returned a phone call my mother received from one of her acquaintances. I explained to him that she loves to hear from him but she’s unable – too weak - to respond. I asked, would he continue to call her and be prepared to talk to her yet not expect a response? He was agreeable. Then he asked me why she was still in “that place”?
Apparently, prior to her fall, she’d expressed to him how terrible the Care Center was and how much she hated it, that I’d forced her into it, fired her ultra-faithful domestic worker, taken away her dogs, abandoned her….
Sigh.
I offered an alternative view to her friend and filled in details she’d conveniently forgotten to share - himself living in a care center.
“That does sound like your mother,” he said.

Yes, elderly people feel disempowered by and resentful of their growing frailty. Ditto their dependence on others.
I sympathize. After all, “growing old is not for the squeamish….”
I’m also reconciled, after a lifetime of the same, to my mother undermining my efforts and diminishing who I am.
I’m disappointed. But the upside? I’m a functioning adult. I've learned to weather this kind of emotional betrayal and I can handle disappointment.

She’s trained me well.
Thank you, mother.

A change in the weather

Family in Texas reports its still cold near Houston but things are looking up. They're cold, but not frozen.
In this part of KZN, we're facing a 31C day. Just the thought of it exhausts.

News blues…

SA has recorded 1,500,677 cumulative cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Health minister Zweli Mkhize said in an update on Friday evening that the death toll in the country had climbed to 48,859. 
There were 151 more Covid-19 related deaths reported in the past 24-hour cycle. The deaths according to province were: Eastern Cape (12), Free State (21), Gauteng (43), KwaZulu-Natal (40), Limpopo (one), Mpumalanga (eight), North West (zero), Northern Cape (zero) and Western Cape (26).
The US, meanwhile, approaches half a million dead. The US confirmed infection rate – more than 27 million in a population of 328 million , is almost more than two thirds greater than the next highest toll, India, population 1.3 billion.

The US, meanwhile, approaches half a million dead. The US confirmed infection rate of more than 27 million in a population of 328+ million is almost more than two thirds greater than the next highest toll, India, population 1.36 billion.

***

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel nails Texas Senator Ted Cruz who fled the weather disaster in his state…  (9:00 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

“… in the US, recent research has revealed, that global heating harms Black and Latino children before they are even born, as well as in the first years of their lives.

The analysis of dozens of medical studies found women of color, particularly Black women, and their babies are most likely to suffer low birth weights, pre-term births and stillbirths from climate-driven threats. Hot temperatures can cause strain upon women and their unborn children, while heat can also react with pollutants from cars and power plants to create ozone, a ground-level pollutant that can cause an array of health problems.
“This pollution cause placental inflammation and affects the baby,” said Pacheco. “This can cause impacts in childhood but also bad outcomes when they are adults, such as heart and kidney disease. Even what we would consider limited exposures can affect the development of the baby.”
The climate crisis is shaping the lives of Black children and children of color before they take their first breath, but it doesn’t stop there. Once a Black or Latino child is born, there is a good chance they will live in a neighborhood that gets even hotter than nearby, whiter suburbs. Researchers have found that in US cities including New York, Dallas and Miami, poorer areas with more residents of color can be get up to 20F hotter in summer than wealthier, whiter districts in the same city. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

More and more people I know in the US have been or are in the process of being vaccinated. Hooray!
I’d like to be vaccinated but that’s not the reason I’m beginning to plan my return to California. 

I must return – soon – to take care of many outstanding business and tax-related issues. 

I’m considering travelling early April even as I grapple with how to ensure my mother’s continued well-being and how to manage the house and domestic workers if the house has not sold. And how to manage the sale from a distance when the house finally sells.
My mother was tracking well when I saw her yesterday. Both her eyes open and she continues to try to communicate.
The Care Center has ended the regime of spraying the facility against coronavirus. That’s good news for residents – and visitors – who had to escape the building for the duration.