January 2021: Isolation Month 11

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Viewed: 4/18/2024	Page Views: 820
Topics: #Coronavirus #Maui
It's a new dawn, a new day, a new life.

Worldwide, the countries that followed the science and shut down early continue to be the ones doing best. Every nation with a conservative government (the United States, Great Britain, China) suffered the most new cases and deaths.

Following two weeks of low reporting, likely due to the year-end and holiday period, the overall upward trend seen prior to this period is continuing, with just under 5 million new cases reported in mid-January globally. This brought the cumulative numbers to over 88 million reported cases and over 1.9 million deaths globally since the start of the pandemic.

Several new, more virulent, varieties of COVID-19 were reported popping up in various countries, including the United States.

In the United States, as predicted by everyone who isn't an idiot, two weeks after Christmas a spike in cases broke all records.

The good news is, we now have a President who doesn't seem to be doing his best not to kill as many Americans as possible. And this, despite Trump's failed revolution and the desperate moves of his seditious followers. By the end of January, President Biden had undone most or all of Trump's "executive orders" and demonstrated a reliance on science instead of wishful thinking as the best approach to dealing with this pandemic.

When he took office, Biden discovered that Trump had no plan at all for distributing vaccines or even making sure enough had been purchased. Fortunately, Biden had (as Obama's Vice President) been a part of creating a pandemic response plan that Trump had literally thrown out. So, of all people, he actually had the best shot of re-implementing it quickly.

And still Trump and his brainless followers get in the way. In two different stadiums where mass vaccinations were taking place, those villians literally blocked access for those trying to get the shots.

Unsurprisingly, Florida and Arizona—with their #Trumpster governors and mindless voters—continue to lead the nation in Covid-19 deaths.

Although we had an uptick in cases (and deaths) in the two weeks following Christmas, in general we're still doing pretty well in Hawaii, especially on Maui, considering that we are a tourist destination. (The islands you can't fly to, are the safest, of course.)

A Happy New Year's Day

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Occurred: 1/1/2021	Page Views: 652
Topics: #Coronavirus #Maui
A good start to a new year.

We did not stay up until midnight, last night. Not many in our area did, I don't think, based on the fact that the fireworks we heard were pretty much ended by 10 PM. They were surprisingly loud, considering they were probably six miles away at Hana Bay Beach. And we could even see them when we took the quad a ways upslope. Luckily, our dogs are so used to watching Avengers movies with the subwoofer booming, so fireworks don't bother them at all. They just assume aliens are bombing New York again, and they're okay with that.

Grotto

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Occurred: 1/2/2021	Page Views: 688
Topics: #Coronavirus #Maui
Hidden beauty in rural Maui.

Since we didn't go anywhere yesterday, we were kind of having cabin fever even though we can explore our 28 acres at will) so decided to take a ride on the "back road" past Hana, toward Kipahulu or even farther. Luckily, the two of us taking a rural road trip is perfectly safe with regard to COVID-19. But along the way, in addition to the waterfalls we knew we'd pass, we stumbled upon a little shrine to the Blessed Mother that was so beautiful and perfect that not even my personal trauma from the Catholic Church could spoil it for me.

Septic Tank, Step 1

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Occurred: 1/5/2021	Page Views: 656
Topics: #Coronavirus #Maui #SepticTank
Zach begins to connect a flush toilet to a place into which it can flush.

Zach asked me to give him a hand on his new project. The work part was me pushing one pipe into another after he applied a special glue. The fun part was taking pictures of him doing the actual work.

The End Of An Error

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Occurred: 1/6/2021	Page Views: 659
Topics: #Coronavirus #Maui #Trump #DonaldJ.Trump #JoeBiden
Palpatine Has Been Deposed.

The most horrified I have ever been in my life was four years ago today, when an orange cheato somehow moved into the People's House of the United States, despite receiving 44 million fewer votes than his opponent, the rightful President of the United States of America. And little he did in the intervening four years surprised me, because it's been no secret what a grifter Agolf Twittler is to anyone who knows anyone in New York City, where Trump was such a well-known con-man even other con-men wouldn't have dealings with him. Well, and he managed to bankrupt a casino, for Pete's sake. More to the point, his inaction and misleading statements and outright lies have directly caused at least 400,000 unnecessary deaths due to the novel coronavirus. So, yes, the most relieved I have ever been in my life is today, now that we've finally flushed that orange turd for good.

The Wallet

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Occurred: 1/7/2021	Page Views: 509
Topics: #Coronavirus #Maui
Losing one's wallet is not as much fun as it sounds.

What can I say? I took my wallet out of my back pocket to pay at a drive-through and, because that pocket is, of course, all but inaccessible, instead of returning it, I just placed it on the seat between my legs.

Views

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Occurred: 1/10/2021	Page Views: 682
Topics: #Coronavirus #Maui
On Maui, everywhere one looks, there is beauty. Yes, even in road construction!

Maui is beautiful, and I mean really beautiful, no matter the weather, or even the subject. Here are some particularly striking photos I've taken over the past few weeks that didn't really fall into a specific subject but are too awesome to overlook.

Flowers

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Occurred: 1/13/2021	Page Views: 682
Topics: #Coronavirus #Maui #Flowers
On Maui, everywhere one looks, there are flowers

One of Maui's many appeals is the proliferance of flowers of every type and description, from the very small to enormous blossoms on trees. I don't know the names of any of them (sunflowers and roses are pretty much the only ones I can identify) but that doesn't make them any less exquisite.

Waves

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Occurred: 1/10/2021	Page Views: 676
Topics: #Coronavirus #Maui
Sometimes ocean waves are choppy and random; other times they show a grand organization.

Usually the ocean is just there, you know? Always on the horizon, always is the horizon; I'm embarrassed to say how often I now forget it's there.

Back To Koki

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Occurred: 1/19/2021	Page Views: 663
Topics: #Coronavirus #Maui
And how Ella loves to swim!

We've been getting a lot of rain lately. This is normal for this time of year. But when it looks like it'll keep clear for at least a couple of hours, we usually head for Koki Beach. The dogs know the route and start grinning as soon as they realize where we're going. (And that's despite the fact that Lilly, who is a short-haired dog who gets cold quickly, spands most of the time we're there freely relaxing in the back seat of the car.

Swollen Waterfalls

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Occurred: 1/25/2021	Page Views: 667
Topics: #Coronavirus #Maui
Land of the waters of Kane.

Winter is our rainy season, and we are definitely getting a lot of it. The rain hits the side of the volcano, and the water then pours down to the sea down our many waterfalls. These waterfalls are always running, but the torrent today was the strongest I've yet seen.

Night at Papalaua

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Occurred: 1/27/2021	Page Views: 669
Topics: #Coronavirus #Maui
Car camping at the beach.

I spent the day Doordashing in Lahaina; and, usually when I do that I spend the night at Papalaua Beach Park. Tonight was no exception.

Even More Cows

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Occurred: 1/28/2021	Page Views: 658
Topics: #Coronavirus #Maui
Free-roving bovines.

As long-time readers will know, we host a herd of cows on our property. It's a win-win situation, as the cows help keep the grass managaeable and the guy who owns the cows gets to feed them for free. They are also very peaceful to watch.

Aircrete

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Occurred: 1/31/2021	Page Views: 677
Topics: #Coronavirus #Maui
Technically called 'foam concrete', yeah…we make some.

We've been getting a lot of rain lately. This is the first January I've spent in Hawaii. I knew this was the rainy season, but after a couple decades living in the Arizona desert, I guess I was unprepared for what a "rainy season" actually is. And yet, life goes on and, here on the property, there's much to be done. So we have to wait for breaks in the weather.