Say what?

News blues

COVID-19 in SA:  Fifth wave likely to hit SA in winter  (7:45 mins)

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In the era of “alternative facts”, what data can “thinking people” apply to make sense of what’s happening out there, vis a vis the pandemic? Is it almost over? Or is a fifth wave coming? To mask or not to mask, that is one question.
Read “While awaiting updated CDC guidance, here's the data states are using to lift Covid-19 restrictions”>> 

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The Lincoln Project:
Olympic (0;55 mins)
Trump v Toilets  (0:44 mins)
Vernon Jones  (0:35 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party (Feb 9)  (1:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

There’s a growing trend of climate litigation around the world. Here’s a look at the Australian cases likely to make headlines this year >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Slowing overcoming jet lag and feeling energetic and ready to tackle a mountain of decision-making and a mountain of catch up on house maintenance before putting the property back on the market. From getting it properly evaluated to finding another gardener (former gardener, Elson, we miss you! ) to approaching the municipality – again on clearing the culverts. The latter task is daunting – as I’ve discovered over 5 or 6 years to trying…  Indeed, the culverts shown in that post look almost quaint in comparison to the culverts of today. Photos pending….
Another big hurdle: adjusting to the hot, muggy weather. I wear lightweight dress and I’m still covered in light sweat all day. Ugh!
Once adjusted, I plan to pull out my camera and capture the wonderful birdlife all around.

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KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:38am
Sunset: 6:48pm
San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:02am
Sunset: 5:45pm

Learn to live with it

Worldwide (Map)
February 10, 2022 - 403,000,000 confirmed infections; 5,776,000 deaths
February 11, 2021 – 107,324,00 confirmed infections; 2,354,000 deaths
Total vaccinations to date: 10,118,400,000

US (Map) February 10, 2022 - 77,265,150 confirmed infections; 912,300 deaths
February 11, 2021 – 27,285,150 confirmed infections; 471,450 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) February 10, 2022 - 3,631,644 confirmed infections; 96,502 deaths
February 11, 2021 – 1,482,412 confirmed infections; 47,145 deaths

Optimistic post from a year ago, Looking ahead >> 

News blues

Polls and surveys taken in the US on Covid-19, even as the Omicron variant crested across much of the United States, indicate the public is getting tired of the pandemic and its resolve to combat the coronavirus is wavering if not outright waning.
Read more and see results of surveys >> 
New Jersey’s Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat who has taken a strict approach to pandemic protocols, recently said “We have to learn how to live with Covid as we move from a pandemic to the endemic phase of this virus."
This is the trend in the US now, with blue state governors and state health officials, once vigorously embracing pandemic restrictions, pivot toward loosening restrictions and shifting responsibility to the public.
Read more >> 
Even as the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stands by the agency's mask guidelines, emphasizing that now is not the time to change the recommendations or loosen restrictions aimed at preventing Covid-19  the CDC weighs updating its messaging around transmission and masking.
Meanwhile, South Africa remains on Alert Level 1 – the least restrictive level. A cloth face mask or “homemade item that covers the nose and mouth” is required when in public places. South Africans, like Americans, however, are getting tired of the pandemic and items covering the nose and mouth are no longer much in evidence. Read more >>

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The Lincoln Project:
Pence v Trump  (0:42 mins)
McCarthy v McConnell  (0:48 mins)
Anti-American  (1:10 mins)
And, Randy Rainbow is back: the Tango Vaccine (4:05 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

“Ambitious and concrete commitments”?

Up to 40 world leaders are due to make “ambitious and concrete commitments” towards combating illegal fishing, decarbonising shipping and reducing plastic pollution at what is billed as the first high-level summit dedicated to the ocean.
One Ocean summit, which opens on Wednesday in the French port of Brest, aims to mobilise “unprecedented international political engagement” for a wide range of pressing maritime issues, said its chief organiser, Olivier Poivre d’Arvor.
“It is essential,” Poivre d’Arvor said. “The climate has its Cop process but there is no equivalent for the ocean, at a time when man’s relationship with the marine world has become more and more toxic, and global heating is causing extreme change.”

Read more about the summit >> 

Maybe I’m too cynical, but I wish Poivre d’Arvor had not likened this effort to the “Cop process” … a model for how to get world leaders to draw out and prolong the agony of “do-nothingness” in the face of ongoing climate catastrophe.

Let’s hope the “ambitious and concrete commitments” for preserving the ocean includes attention to climate change causing more frequent marine heatwaves worldwide. 

Why? 

Because corals have adapted to live in a specific temperature range. This means when ocean temperatures are too hot for a prolonged period, corals can bleach and die.
New research  published in the journal PLOS Climate found that the future of tropical ecosystems – thought to harbour more species than any other – is probably worse than anticipated.
Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

(c) Zapiro

Back in the land of Eskom and loadshedding  . Grrr!
Backstory: South Africa’s parastatal power company, Eskom, began scheduling mandatory loadshedding back in April 2008. Loadshedding – power switched off for up to 2.5 hour increments according to neighborhoods across the nation - is “designed” to allow maintenance periods for power generators, as well as to recover coal stockpiles before the winter (when need for electricity usage surges).
Fourteen years later and whaddya get? 

More loadshedding.
Enough already!

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Jet lag’s a bummer!

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Daylight hours are topsy-turvy right now. I hear it is warm and somewhat muggy in the San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:04am
Sunset: 5:43pm

It’s hot, sunny, and muggy in KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:36am
Sunset: 6:50pm

Breathe

The Lincoln Project:
Legitimate Political Discourse 1 (1:50 mins)

Legitimate Political Discourse 2  (2:10 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Second trip to the more urban bank did the trick and I'm now the owner of a reissued bank card. Yay!
I was nervous I’d face the same lack-of-customer-service service on my second try at a bank to obtain a functional debit card. Indeed, my stress level was high: if the second bank refused to reissue my cards, I’d have to use creative financing along the lines of … borrowing … money from friends. Horrors! Being a control freak, I’d figured out a way to do it: using the online banking features to transfer funds from my account to my friend’s account and my friend giving me cash. Workable once; twice? That could get burdensome.

Happy to report a conversation with a teller remarkably different from yesterday's conversation.    
Today's teller, I’m happy to report, hardly blinked at my lack of ID card. No need for me to use any expletives ("American English") to communicate my frustration as I'd done yesterday. 

Today's teller not only issued a debit card, she also issued the bank’s reward card – I’d accumulated significant rewards to apply to certain purchases (when and if I get around to desiring something I’d like to purchase.)
My mood and outlook changed so much for the better after this meeting that I understood how much the situation had affected me. On a choppy/static-y, frustrating call to family and friend in the US this morning I’d expressed feelings of extreme vulnerability in this country. The calls made clear, too, how much I depend on decent wireless connection.
On that topic, I’m happy to report that, yes, indeed, I’m back online. Paid up for this month’s connection and expressed the intention to pay for the next two months' service, too.
Life is way better with connections….
I can breathe again. 

Tomorrow, we return to our regularly scheduled reportage on year three of the Covid era.

Catch 22

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Trip to the local bank to cancel/reissue my financial cards was a bust.
After a 45-minute wait in line, an officious young man assisted me. Alas, he required an official ID card – said he cannot reference my passport ID number. 

Why? That’s new bank policy: only an ID card is acceptable.
Background: Where does one get such a card and why don’t I have one?
One gets an ID card from the most dreaded place in South Africa, if not the world: the Department of Home Affairs.
The Department of Home Affairs and I have a long history that includes five years of struggle to obtain a passport. I even got as far as the department camera people taking passport photos and paying for the document. 

In the end, the document was not issued. 

Instead, I got a dozen reasons for why it was my fault the document was never issued. 

My sixth year, I wised up and applied to the SA Embassy in Los Angeles. I did it through the mail and got my passport in 6 weeks, no hassle, no muss no fuss.
Asking me – or any sane South African – to visit the Department of Home Affairs – the worst of the worst branch is in Pietermaritzburg, the legislative capital of Kwa Zulu Natal – is like suggesting a trip to hell for fun. Ain’t gonna happen.
I’d heard, too, that Standard Bank issued ID cards. Well, there’s one Standard Bank that does – unfortunately, it’s in Durban (a grueling 2-plus hour trip, one way). Or one in Johannesburg (an 8-hour trip, one way). That ain’t gonna happen either. No way I’m driving to Durban more likely be told no ID issued that day due to this, that, or another reason.
To add injury to insult: I’d asked the bank to cancel 2 of 3 cards, the 2 that had been stolen (aka “lost”) and allow me to continue using the one I still carry (due to it being in a different wallet). He agreed.
Alas, I went to the store to use it and discovered he cancelled it, too.
Kafka would revel in this. Where is he when such great story material is at his fingertips?
One more story: after 20 minutes of endlessly blocking whatever ideas I presented to squeeze my money out of my bank account, I said, head in hands, “WTF” – except, I announced the entire set of words – “what the fuck” - aloud.
I offended the teller who told me I’m not allowed to use “a bad word”. 

I explained, “I’m speaking American English.”
Moreover, after he suggested I couldn’t “abuse him” I explained I wasn’t abusing him, but I was abusing the system made up of dead ends geared not to help but to hinder.
Culture. Interesting set of unconscious formulations that, too often, clash.
So. As we say in American English, I’m SOL. (Shit out of luck. I wonder where “shit” falls on the scale of bad words? I notice MS Word warns me that this word might be offensive to readers. If I’ve offended you by using it here, please accept my apologies for being a less-than-ladylike lady.)

(Personal) Disaster

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

During a pandemic – albeit one apparently on the wane – it’s wise to differentiate between a social disaster such as Covid 19 - involving our planet and millions of people - and a personal disaster. The latter is today’s focus.
I’ve acclimated to the reality that baggage handlers at Johannesburg international airport routinely going through travelers’ luggage and surreptitiously gleaning anything marketable. I’ve encountered it in the past and I’ve scrupulously weeded out of my checked luggage electronics, fancy gadgetry, and/or valuables. I’m careful with my carryon luggage – a small backpack and a pull-bag. I keep my wallet with money, cards, and ID separate from my wallet with passports and travel documents. 

All was well. 

Until my wallet was stolen.
I’d just paid for a local SIM card, carefully set my US SIM card in my wallet and zipped it into my backpack. Then I received an message on my cell phone from the domestic airline upon which I’d reserved a seat. 

Short version of that history: I’d actually, reserved two seats: one on a trip at 12:15pm then changed that to 4:15pm after it appeared my international carrier would arrive too late for me to comfortably make the 12:15 trip. I’d reserved and received confirmation I would be on the later flight. Then, this message arrived.

I was confused. Which flight was I on?  
Pushing my large luggage cart I hurried to the domestic carrier to learn my reservation was on the earlier flight. At that point I discovered my wallet was missing from my backpack.
Horrors! 

I was in South Africa, the land of bungled bureaucracy: any action that would require me having to deal with bureaucracy (like aptly named SAPS - SA Police Service) was a nightmare. Moreover, I’d have to reach out to the US bureaucracy to, first, cancel any debit/credit cards, and then also reach out to DMV – Department of Motor Vehicles – to replace my driver’s license – the common ID document in the US. On top of all of this, I was booked on a flight departing the airport in 25 minutes.
I approached two cops and asked for help. Both appeared completely dumbfounded that I’d ask for help. Their response helped me realize my wallet was gone for good. Best swallow my anger and, yes, fear, and get on with my life.
Welcome to South Africa!
I’d hired a driver to transport me to my mother’s house. At the house,  I discovered … the garden is overrun with weeds, the small pool is brewing algae, the culvert blockages continues, and that I have my hands full.
Moreover, not much of a pill popper, I discovered my OTC pills to “alleviate sleeplessness” actually help me sleep only for up to two hours. Better than nothing under conditions of jet lag, but not much better.
I took one, slept for two hours, took another, slept for another two hours, then spent the rest of the night, after 2am, awake reading library book on my cell phone.
Big day today. 

Start off with a trip to the bank to ensure local cards are cancelled, order replacements, then figure out how to deal with any fallout from that. There’s also the weedy garden strewn with debris from a fallen tree, the sludgy pool, the needy dogs, the domestic worker who hasn’t had a holiday in almost a year, and to prep for tomorrow’s meeting with the lawyer handling my mother’s estate. And whose admins have still not supplied with the address of the local office. I’ve been asking for 3 weeks.
I must get wireless connection as my cell phone – despite expensive contract - is useless in the location of this house, situated in a hollow with terrible reception. 

Argh. 

Life goes on.

Plane spotting

News blues

Judging by my current experience, reports of airlines flying half empty appear not exaggerated. Apparently, under threat of losing their “spot” in the airport business hierarchy, airlines must maintain their flights and schedules with airports. Tough and expensive for airlines, but good for “the little guy” travelers. In my case it meant the extra cost of purchasing seats – the downside – but ending up with the entire row to myself. Score!
More below on this Intrepid Traveler.

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The Lincoln Project:
Ted Talk with Maya May  (1:20 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Airports and airplanes are mandatory mask areas: no mask, no travel.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A plethora of paperwork accompanied my trip on public transportation – most practical means of travel - to San Francisco Overseas airport (SFO): proof of negative Covid test results, QR code for Federal Office of Public Health, proof of vaccinations card. It’s enough to drive a gal to drink; accordingly, once through security (yes, shoes must still be removed – thank you Richard Reid)

 I sampled the local version of a classic margarita. 

Overpriced at $16.00/ZAR 248. 

But good to ameliorate travel angst. 

I’d worried that the travel check-in agent might be mistaken about me enjoying the row of seats alone. Thankfully, the plane was less than half occupied with masked travelers so my seat selection, aisle 24C included 24 A and B, too. 

Sleeping for most of a trans-Atlantic flight is a new experience, one I like and hope to repeat soon.

Half empty airplanes turns out to mean half empty airports, too. 

Little known fact: at my pace of walking, it takes 625 steps to cross level 1 of Gate E, Zurich Airport. It being a slow Saturday afternoon and evening, most stores and kiosks shuttered, I walked, and walked, and walked….

 
Spotted a Camel Smoking Lounge. Smoking lounges are not something I’m aware of in the US. Then again, I’m not a smoker so it’s possible smoking lounges are common….

With a six-hour layover, I entertained myself spotting airplanes perhaps common in Europe, but never-before-sighted by me.

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’ …

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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: 

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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