Inexplicable

Worldwide (Map) 
September 8, 2022 - 606,874,650 confirmed infections; 6,507,900 deaths
September 9, 2021 – 223,101,000 confirmed infections; 4,604,450 deaths
September 10, 2020 – 27,766,325 confirmed infections; 902,470 deaths

US (Map) 
September 8, 2022 - 95.020.850 confirmed infections; 1,049,050 deaths
September 9, 2021 – 40,601,000 confirmed infections; 654,600 deaths
September 10, 2020 – 6,360,000 confirmed infections; 190,820 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
September 8, 2022- 4,012,950 confirmed infections; 102,108 deaths
September 9, 2021 – 2,843,100 confirmed infections; 84,327 deaths
September 10, 2020 – 6,360,000 confirmed infections; 190,820 deaths

Posts from:
September 9, 2021, “Category of critter” 
September 10, 2020, “Cooperation” 

News blues

Annual Covid shot joins ranks of annual shots, such as the annual flu shot. 

Watch >>  (7:14 mins)

Dr Anthony Fauci recently said, "In the absence of a dramatically different variant, we likely are moving towards a path with a vaccination cadence similar to that of the annual influenza vaccine."
Read more >> 

(Mary and I have appointments for our soon-to-be-annual Covid boosters and flu shots on September 26, 10:00am at the conveniently located grocery store pharmacy.)

***

If she hadn’t assumed most of her symptoms were due to long Covid, Nic Petermann’s may have received proper treatment and a diagnosis for cancer much earlier. She says, “When I went to get my pain symptoms checked out, I didn’t mention the flu-like symptoms, because I just thought that was something that I would have to deal with.” 

As with Meso Mary who discovered mesothelioma in her left lung while being x-rayed for hip pain, Peterman’s symptoms, including those that seemed to be long Covid, were due to Stage IV Hodgkin’s lymphoma. 
The point of this story is not to scare readers. Rather, the point is both practical – don’t rationalize physical symptoms – and philosophical - life is often … inexplicable. 

Take precautions to ensure life doesn’t catch you by surprise.

***

On war and the culture war
Putin Says Russia Has Not ‘Lost Anything’ Over War In Ukraine' (1:35 mins) Russian, with English subtitles.

***

The Lincoln Project:
Michelle Obama on democracy (1:55 mins)
Biden v. Trump  (0:24 mins> 

Sucker  (0:58 mins)

Last week in the Republican Party - September 6 , 2022  (2:17 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My bestie, Mary, whom I’m accompanying through the ups and downs of her diagnosis and treatment of pleural epithelial mesothelioma, including pending chemotherapy, is a fighter. I’m so proud of her and her clear-eyed response of what she faces. 

Along with the many facets of life with such a diagnosis, she’s re-exploring music. Currently, she’s re-enamored of Gloria Gaynor’s “I will survive…”  (3:14 mins). Mary’s favorite lines:

“I should have changed that stupid lock
I should have made you leave your key
If I’d know for just one second
You’d be back to bother me…"

That line - "You’d be back to bother me" - refers to the high likelihood Mary's meso will recur. According to medical expereince, 

Mesothelioma recurs for all patients who undergo treatment, even after the most aggressive treatment options successfully put it into remission. This happens because it is nearly impossible to surgically remove or kill every mesothelioma cancer cell. The remaining cancer cells eventually form tumors again.

This is daunting information. Mary and I are absorbing it, albeit with jokes others might find "inappropriate" or "distasteful." (To that, we say, "Hey, whatever floats your houseboat!")
Among the many milestones of this illness, is the knowledge that somehow, sometime, somewhere Mary breathed in asbestos fibers. These fibers toiled away in her lung for decades. Sheer coincidence discovered them there. (Backstory, “Oh, the irony”.) As we diligently explore the past decades for the time a DIY woman might or might not have been exposed, Mary re-explores music, too. It’s fun to listen then chat about the assorted musical eras. We're re-exploring art, too. More on that in a following post. 

***

“Heat dome” is here. Temps in parts of urban California have reached into 3 digits, even beyond 113F (47C).
Our collective future during our summers? 

Breakdowns in electrical supply. Californians currently face “rolling blackouts.” South Africans face “load shedding.” (Meanwhile, Pakistanis face epic flooding with little help in sight.)
Nevertheless, climate change denialism and deniers continue. Know your deniers as …

… they are not all the same. They tend to fit into one of four different categories: the shill, the grifter, the egomaniac and the ideological fool.

Read more >> 
Buckle up, humans! We’re in for a hot (maybe cold), dry or wet (maybe icy) ride… and we are not prepared.

***

Daylight savings times is coming – well, coming on November 6 – so enjoy the last days of summer – and welcome to fall.
SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 6:46am
Sunset: 7:27pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:04am
Sunset: 5:48pm

***

Meet Fiona, aka Fifi. She lives in a local pond. (Those are grass trimmings from the lawn. Somehow gardeners never scoop trimming from ponds even though trimming decompose and upset the delicate balance of water. Fifi hates that!

Meet Finny and Fergy, same pond, same dread of grass trimmings decomposing in their liquid environment. 

A photographer friend recently informed me that he 
frequently uses his iPhone to create gallery-ready art.
This, due to assorted apps created for just this purpose.
I tried an app to "enhance" this photo of brown pelicans.
I'm too cheap to fork out money for apps so I get what I 
don't pay for. Nevertheleoss, a slight improvement though
I'm not gallery ready - yet!

Lemons to the rescue

On war and the culture war

Ah, me. This morning I woke up to a WhatsApp message, decorated by dozens of lemon emojis , sent by a South Africa acquaintance trying to be helpful. Before you read this message, be sure that I am NOT promoting anything said here. These are the same kinds of beliefs held by folks who believe ivermectin or similar prevents or cures Covid, etc. It does not and, to date, no tests show otherwise. WHO advises it "only be used in drug trials."  I share this message as an example of the arrogant and stupid assumptions people make in their desire to "help". It is BS. And, here’s that message – typos and all:

Please share in yr groups
Read x abou the *Lemon Peel* & it pains me to hear about these facts & proves that the drug companies would rather profit on our *Pains & Suffering* than educate us on *Alternative Medicines & Natural Remedies.* Feel sorry for those *Dead & Gone* that couldn't afford or get hold of the *Chemo* or whatever medicines they prescribe and didn't know about these facts, thank goodness for *Social Media*
AMAZING FROZEN LEMONS
Place the washed lemon in the freezer.
Once frozen, get your grater, & shred the whole lemon (no need to peel it) and sprinkle it on your foods!
On vegetables, salad, ice cream, soup, cereals, noodles, spaghetti sauce, rice, sushi, fish dishes, ... the list is endless.
All the foods will get an unexpected wonderful taste!
Most likely, you only think of lemon juice as vitamin C ??
Not anymore!
What's the major advantage of using the whole lemon other than preventing waste & adding new taste to your dishes?
Lemon peels contain as much as 5 to 10 times more vitamins than the lemon juice itself & that's what you've been wasting!
Lemon peels are health rejuvenators in eradicating toxic elements in the body.
The surprising benefits of lemon is the miraculous ability to kill cancer cells! It is 10,000 times stronger than chemotherapy!!
Why do we not know about that?
Because there are laboratories interested in making a synthetic version that will bring them huge profits.
You can now help a friend in need by letting him/her know that lemon juice is beneficial in preventing the disease.
Its taste is pleasant and it does not produce the horrific effects of chemotherapy.

How many people will die while this closely guarded secret is kept, so as not to jeopardize the multimillionaires large corporations?
This plant is a proven remedy against cancers of all types.
It is considered also as an anti microbial spectrum against bacterial infections and fungi, effective against internal parasites and worms, it regulates blood pressure & an antidepressant, combats stress & nervous disorders.
The source of this information is fascinating: it comes from one of the largest drug manufacturers in the world, says that after more than 20 laboratory tests since 1970,the extracts revealed that It destroys the malignant cells in 12 cancers, including colon, breast, prostate, lung & pancreas.
The compounds of this tree showed 10,000 times better effect than the product Adriamycin, a drug normally used chemotherapeutic in the world, slowing the growth of cancer cells.
And what is even more astonishing: this type of therapy with lemon extract only destroys malignant cancer cells and it does not affect healthy cells.
So, give those lemons a good wash, freeze them and grate them. Your whole body will love you for it!!
Request: Pls forward to lots of friends and to all your dear ones at homex and abroad.

Hmmm. I understand my acquaintance means well. Nevertheless, as someone close to someone else about to undergo brutal chemotherapy, this message is … unhelpful.

I responded - perhaps overly harshly - to the sender. I asked him to send my response to the Lemon Lady (origin on the pro-lemon screed) and, naturally, he did not. I gather it is okay to send BS to me but not okay for me to air my response.
The world – people and planet - is a complex place. There are no easy answers. The best We the People can do?
Train ourselves to think in complex layers, rather than single-layer “I got the truth” shortcuts.

Just in case you're thnking I agree with or am promoting this Lemon Theory, NO! No, I am not. It is BS pulled together by a well-meaning but dangerously stupid and gullible person. 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Cry more  (1:57 mins> 

President Biden on the MAGA Republican Party (0:58 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

“Heat dome” is coming… Temps in parts of urban California will reach into 3 digits. Going outside? Pull on your hats and sunscreen….

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 6:42am
Sunset: 7:33pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:10am
Sunset: 5:46pm

Month's beginning

Worldwide (Map) 
September 1, 2022 - 602,190,500 confirmed infections; 6.494,410 deaths
September 9, 2021 – 223,101,000 confirmed infections; 4,604,450 deaths
September 3, 2020 – 26,940,000 confirmed infections; 861,870 deaths

US (Map) 
September 1, 2022 - 94,535,300 confirmed infections; 1,046,267 deaths
September 9, 2021 – 40,601,000 confirmed infections; 654,600 deaths
September 3, 2020 – 6,114,000 confirmed infections; 185,710 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
Sepember 1, 2022 - 4,011,660 confirmed infections; 102,085 deaths
September 9, 2021 – 2,843,100 confirmed infections; 84,327 deaths
September 3, 2020 – 630,596 confirmed infections; 14,390 deaths

Post from September 9, 2021 – “Category of critter” 
September 3, 2020 – “Killing ‘em softly” 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Victory for the planet – and for South Africa’s Wild Coast (see images of this area >> ) South African Judge Mbenenge, penning the ruling to stop Shell Oil’s current exploration for oil and gas off the coast, said:

“Stripped of verbiage, the principal question is whether the grant of an exploration right for oil and gas, which has culminated in the need to conduct a seismic survey along the South East coast of South Africa, is lawful.”
He noted that the Eastern Cape coast is used by those who enjoy watersports and it was “steeped in customary rituals” of communities who subsist by fishing. It is also a haven for marine and bird life.
The seismic survey, the judge said, involved the discharge of pressurised air from airguns to generate sound waves, directed down to the seabed.
He said it was common cause that Impact Africa and Shell had not secured environmental authorisation to undertake the survey in terms of the National Environmental Management Act.

I suspect this battle is not over. Shell will be back, or BP or other, similar company will try the same. (This rulings is not the first against Shell’s attempts, nor Shell's first pushback ) For now, though, the Wild Coast will continue as wild - or wild-ish. It is, after all, well trammeled ground. Not yet by an oil company, though.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

It’s a new month, with new possibilities (some – such as chemotherapy – scary). Mary reports feelings of healing in her chest and her left lung.
That’s great news.
Today, we plan to attend the chemo class offered by the hospital’s oncology department.
Good times!

***

Change of seasons afoot...
SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 6:38am
Sunset: 7:38pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:13am
Sunset: 5:44pm

Month's end

News blues

The U.S. authorized its first update to COVID-19 vaccines, booster doses that target today’s most common omicron strain. Shots could begin within days.
…
Until now, COVID-19 vaccines have targeted the original coronavirus strain, even as wildly different mutants emerged. The new U.S. boosters are combination, or “bivalent,” shots. They contain half that original vaccine recipe and half protection against the newest omicron versions, called BA.4 and BA.5, that are considered the most contagious yet.

Read more >> 

***

Older adults, immunocompromised and the very young are paying the price for the mask-less freedom of many.

While much of US society has breathed a collective sigh of relief at no longer having to wear a mask in public, that freedom has placed people who are immunocompromised at risk, such as medical director of the infectious disease program at University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Dr Jeannina Smith’s patients. Nor are they the only ones. Older adults, the very young and those with long Covid are at greater risk too. So while for many Americans the pandemic increasingly feels over, for others – often the most vulnerable – it rages on.
As Smith puts it, “What troubles me as an infectious disease specialist with an interest in public health is the abandonment of the idea that public health exists to protect the most vulnerable.”

Read more >> 

***

On war and culture war
Highly recommended article, “Is it Fascism? Is it Socialism? Words mean things” >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Tough on crime  (0:57 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - August 30, 2022  (2:20 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Labor Day - September 5 - is summer's official end. 

This year, September will be the hardest month Mary may ever experience as she begins chemotherapy. 

Tomorrow, September 1, she attends a pre-chemo class to learn about the process and what she might expect and experience. I'll attend that class with her.
September 9 she accepts an injection of a large dose of Vitamin B, to boost her system in preparation for her first dose of chemo on September 15. After that, it's anohter dose every three weeks for four doses.
I'll be with her every step of the gruelling way.

***

Preparing for ultra-hot weather here in California.
July last year, I spent 14 days on my boat in the Sacramento Delta in quarantine for Covid after returning from South Africa. (Read post “Launching”) During that time, temperatures reached 111 degrees Fahrenheit.
This week, temperatures around California will reach similar heights.
Luckily, the inner bay, my neck of the woods, will hover around the low 80s. 

Sigh of relief.

Evan as the temperatures soar in California, Kwa Zulu Natal experiences low overnight temperatures, down to freezing in some areas.
The seasons are changing, too.
SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 6:39am
Sunset: 7:39pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:15am
Sunset: 5:44pm

Giving thanks

News blues

Set up to fail? Does the fall booster plan targeting Omicron have a “fatal paradox”? >> 

***

On war and culture war
I’ve made no secret of, nor apologies for, my antipathy towards The Donald (Donald Trump, senior – and, to be honest, DT junior, too). Moreover, I’m heartily sick of the man and his antics – from before, during, and since his so-called presidency. My antipathy toward him has neither increased nor decreased with his inappropriate secreting of highly classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The man is a wily, cunning, greedy, self-centered user.
And, distressingly, he could – likely won’t but could – get another run for another presidential term. What might that look like? Well, the former president and his allies have explained their plans quite clearly >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Intruder (1:37 mins)

The list (1:00 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Info shared as a heads-up and not as a downer…. An underlying contention of this Covid-related blog is: we humans can (likely will) but must not continue business as usual vis-à-vis competently addressing the fragility and complexity of our planet. We know yet we refuse to act on knowledge, that, as we shrink our global wilderness areas and expand “development” and urbanization we endanger all life.
For example, Pakistan and South Asia currently suffer devastating climate change-related flooding, so does US's Mississippi. Meanwhile, California, too, suffers insidious climate change-exacerbated disease. Valley fever, or coccidioidomycosis, can be contracted simply by breathing California’s air .

***

I adore hummingbirds and regularly provide my neighborhood’s hummingbirds sustenance via sugar-water feeders. As anyone knows who provides such food stations, hummingbirds can be aggressive towards other hummingbirds. Why is this, you wonder? For insight, read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Mary reports her lung and chest continue to improve, that she’s modifying her tendency to move quickly by taking it slow, particularly moving from sitting to standing. “Becoming light-headed each time I stand reminds me that slow is beautiful, too.” 

Today, over early morning coffee – she drinks it cold now, something new in the last month – Mary said, “I’m so proud of my body. I’ve tried to take care of it over my lifetime and, yes, mesothelioma might kill me – eventually – in the meantime my body is doing an amazing job of recovering from a drastic and invasive surgery. I thank it for its long years of optimal service.” 

Lovely.
(Reminder, surgeon’s photo of the “gunk” removed from the pleura – lining – of Mary’s left lung.  )

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 6:38am
Sunset: 7:41pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:16am
Sunset: 5:44pm

Cooking with gas

News blues

Let’s hear it for genetics – the kind allow some people resistance from infection, from HIV to coronavirus >> 
Then there’s the opposite news: how quickly other people are infected after exposure to BA.5.
A new study reveals the average time it takes between infection and symptoms for recent COVID variants — and it's pretty fast >> 

***

On culture, not war
Covid-19 lockdown and resultant health cautions shut down South Africa’s iconic and world-renowned Comrades Marathon. After two years with no race – the only other time was during World War II, from 1941 to 1945 - the grueling ultramarathon resumed this year. And, the story of this year’s winner is a winner: South Africa’s Tete Dijana, who works as a security guard, won the men’s leg of the race.
Read the uplifting story >> 
For more on the Comrades Marathon, read post “Something these is doesn’t love a wall” 

The Lincoln Project:
We, the People  (1:37 mins)
Poser  (0:28 mins)
Kansas  (0:40 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Let them eat cake? (Backstory)
As prices rise beyond the ability of many British families to pay – thank you, Brexit! – too many British children don’t have enough to eat.
This due, partly, to the extreme rise in the price of natural gas and electricity.
Russians, meanwhile, at a time when it has sharply cut natural gas deliveries to the European Union, gets rid of its excess natural gas by flaring large volumes into the atmosphere near the Finnish border.
Humans! What to say?

Analysts from Rystad, an energy consultancy based in Norway, described [this action] as an environmental disaster and estimated the amount of gas being burned off into the atmosphere was equivalent to about 0.5% of daily EU needs.
…
Rystad analysts wrote: "Exact flaring volumes levels are hard to quantify but are believed to be at levels of around 4.34 million cubic meters per day. This equates to 1.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) on an annualized basis and is equal to around 0.5% of the EU's gas demand needs."
…
Professor Esa Vakkilainen at the LUT University, Lappeenranta, said Gazprom may have been burning as much as 1,000 euros worth of gas per hour for the past two months, while flaring was damaging the atmosphere.
"So this is also a big environmental problem, especially for the North Pole area where this soot has definitely an effect on global warming," he said.

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Mary, a model for future mesothelioma suffers (yes, unfortunately, right now, people, unbeknownst to them, have this fatally toxic environmental disease) has weaned herself off the oxycodone drug. She was unusually fatigued her first day off the drug, but quickly regrouped. Yesterday she was in the kitchen cooking up an experimental mashed potato crust veggie pie, potato cakes (for aloo tikki and chana masala), and bolognaise sauce for spaghetti. All this to freeze for quickie meals once she begins chemo in just 16 days. (We’re optimistic she’ll want to eat during that time.)
Mary reports feeling “pretty good,” as if she can “feel her chest again – and that “the boxy feeling” in her chest "lessens each day.”
The other good news? Mary emailed her surgeon photos of her healing scars (one about 15 inches long, the other that, post-surgery, accommodated four draining tubes – about 6 inches long) and asked when she might start swimming again. 

She’d asked the same question some time back and he’d said, “in about six weeks.”
At the end of her sixth week, she repeated the question. This time he said, “go for it.”
The new bathing suit she ordered arrived yesterday. Unlike her trim Speedo, this one has shorts and a long-sleeved shirt.
“I want to avoid as much as possible the initial shock of cold to my now-vulnerable system. A wet suit likely wouldn’t give me my desired range of motion for swimming. Not sure how this suit will work out. I’ll probably quickly lose my shorts but it’s worth a try.”
I agree: definitely worth a try.
So far, today is typically foggy. Once the fog burns off, we’ll approach the pool.

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 6:37am
Sunset: 7:42pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:17am
Sunset: 5:43pm

Upstaged

Worldwide (Map) 
August 25,2022 - 598,770,100 confirmed infections; 6,472,475 deaths
August 26, 2021 – 213,854,000 confirmed infections; 4,463,000 deaths
August 27,2020 – 24,206,820 confirmed infections; 826,59 deaths
US (Map) 
August 25,2022 - 93,930,250 confirmed infections; 1,042,470 deaths
August 26, 2021 – 38,222,000 confirmed infections; 632,300 deaths
August 27, 2020 – 5,824,200 confirmed infections; 179,756 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal) 
August 25,2022 - 4,010460 confirmed infections; 102,085 deaths
August 26, 2021 – 2,722,205 confirmed infections; 80,470 deaths
August 27, 2020 – 615,700 confirmed infections; 13,502 deaths
Posts from:
August 26, 2020, “Forever?” 
August 27, 2020, “Relief!” 

News blues

White House COVID coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha's predicted this week that newly updated COVID-19 boosters tailored to target a dominant strain of the virus will be available in the next three weeks… that is, assuming the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention work through their processes for authorization ….
Read more >> 

***

On war and culture war

Six months of war in Ukraine – photos >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Last week in the Republican Party - August 23, 2022  (2:20 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

During yesterday’s video conference with Mary’s oncologist, we learned Mary has been “re-staged.” Staging is the oncological description of how far along is a case of cancer (stage 4 is “final”).
Initially, Mary had been staged at “late stage 1, early stage 2.”
Nice. Right?
It crossed my mind that “late stage 1, early stage 2” was “lucky”, given that Mary’s meso had likely started “decades ago.” “Decades” is the described longevity of mesothelioma before it is discovered in the unlucky victim’s body. (See post “Not a week, a lifetime!” for details and photos of surgical scrapings from Mary’s lungs.) 

My thinking: if the disease is decades old, how come it’s been spreading so inefficiently? Well, some questions, I told myself, have no easy answers. I thanked the gods that Mary was “super lucky”: her lymph nodes showed no sign of metastasizing.
Yesterday’s conversation with the oncologist, however, revealed that “mid-chest” lymph nodes suggested “some involvement”. The surgeon and oncologist – and biopsy – re-staged Mary to Stage 3 A.
Hmmmm.
Bummer.
Given this new prognosis, Mary could, along with chemotherapy, opt for radiation therapy – highly targeted radiation aimed at the lymph.
Mary’s first take? Thanks, but no thanks to radiation therapy: the action is too close to her heart, spine, and lungs.
Based on further detailed information, she’s open to reevaluating this initial decision but for now, nope.
Long story short: Mary will begin chemo – two chemo meds, cisplatin and pemetrexed – when the oncology department can schedule her - perhaps another 3 weeks.
Outpatient treatment requires intravenous infusion – hopefully, no need for a central or PICC line, nor a portacath. Mary has good veins – protruding – so we’re hoping one of them will suffice every three weeks.
She’ll stick around the oncology setting after infusion for a couple of hours to monitor any reaction to treatment. After that, she’ll return home.
This treatment continues for four to six sessions every three weeks.
The list of side effects from this chemo cocktail are not insignificant.
The oncologist reports Mary won’t lose her hair. Dr Internet’s link, above, suggests she will. Time will tell. Hair is the least of Mary’s worries. Far more concerning is the statistic that 2 percent of chemo patients cannot take the treatment and will succumb – that is, die.
No prob. Mary has already worked with an estate lawyer.... 

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 6:34am
Sunset: 7:48pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:22am
Sunset: 5:41pm