Organic Abstract

Not too difficult to find in our garden full of succulents, but I particularly liked this one....Thanks as always to Ingeborg for continuing host  this challenge.

We have handed over a list of renovations we would like to make beginning with the installation of a bathtub for me. David is looking for one that isn't stranded on some container ship in the San Francisco Bay. According to our son Matt, whose business depends on such things, there are 24 container ships out there carrying something like 30,000 containers each. 

I'm feeling depressed/angry about the resurgence of the highly contagious Delta version of the Covid virus. Although it is largely circulating among (and killing) the unvaccinated, vaccinated people who have so called 'breakthrough' cases with few to no symptoms can still be contagious. Hence the renewed mask mandate. I know from my own personal experience with a housecleaner who would rather quit working here than get vaccinated, that we have reached some kind of critical tipping point. 

The governors of three or four states, including Florida and Texas, continue to ban local governments from implementing mask orders even as they plead for emergency medical help in combating the current surge of cases. They claim it is an effort to protect personal choice, but I think it is cynical move in which they're making a political bet on the lives of the people they serve. I hope it backfires on them, but nothing makes  sense anymore.

Freedom isn't free. It comes with a responsibility. In this case, the responsibility to protect others from a deadly virus. I don't think anything is going to work short of a national mandate requiring everyone to get vaccinated. There are a few people who have genuine health reasons why they can't be vaccinated, but if everyone else does it they will be protecting the few who can't as well as themselves. 

Now that I've got that off my chest...sorry, I know everybody is in the same boat. I could also rant on about the role of the pharmaceutical companies, and the fact that this is also a global issue and many countries have little or no vaccine to give, but really, if people won't get vaccinated in this country we should send the extra to a place where people are pleading for it.

Now I'm going to go out and look for something that inspires me. It must be someplace.. I'll start with New Yorker humorist Andy Borowitz:

DE SANTIS LOSING SUPPORT AMONG VOTERS OPPOSED TO DYING
The (Florida) Governor' numbers are plummeting among Floridians who describe themselves as "somewhat", "very" or "strongly opposed" to being dead
-August 10, 2021