Black and White Flowers

These Arctotis (Cape Daisies) are a beautiful variegated orange color called something like 'sugar and spice' and  I was surprised to see that a lot of detail  is highlighted in mono. I like the way the aging petals curl up. The sun disappeared in the middle of the day and had changed to rain by mid day.  I was spared having to hand water all the plants that John hadn't finished irrigating before he broke his ankle. 

Today is International Women's Day. It always used to fall on my birthday and was a school holiday which meant that I was usually taking care of the children whose mothers worked 'outside the home'. Personally, I think every day should be women's day! 

I keep wondering how I will write about quarantine/lockdown/ staying at home if and when it ever ends. Blippers should all use the 'one year ago' function to go back and see what was happening as we were all learning  about  a new virus that had never been seen before, and whose deadly effects were poorly understood.  Dana and Jim had just gone off on a trip to London and Barcelona. There was enough uncertainty as governments grappled with a virus that was still quite far from here. Jim's mother and I had both begged them not to go, but it was my frantic phone call when Europe suddenly closed its borders that brought them out of their vacation bubble and sent them on a mad dash to get home before they were stranded in Spain.

Today the CDC released their guidelines for people who have been vaccinated. I haven't gotten the details yet, but I heard a news person comment that it looked like the government was trying to incentivise people to get vaccinated. I don't know where that news person is sitting but here it is not whether people want to get vaccinated but if they can.  

Just as the counties were beginning to get a handle on the vaccine rollout, the state has now taken over their allocation. They are trying to ensure that 'underserved' areas get their fair share, which is fair enough, but some elderly people who struggled for weeks for an appointment had it canceled at the last minute because the state plan (which is actually Blue Shield, an insurance behemoth) reallocated the vaccine away from the clinic where they were signed up. In John's case they cancelled his appointment for his first shot and now they are rescheduling those who were waiting for their second one...just one of many catch-22 situations created by a too much information and too little vaccine. 

If it weren't for Jim, John would still be waiting....

This is far from the first time people have been 'incentivised' in one way or another to get vaccinated when there is no vaccine. All that does is increase the demand.

The cartoon from yesterday's paper made both of us laugh. We'll laugh even more when John gets his second shot in three weeks.