HOW I'M SURVIVING THIS PANDEMIC

MY WORLD IS CHANGING.  THE SHIFT TO A NEW SYSTEM BY GOOGLE IS LIMITING THIS BLOG SITE.  I WILL CONTINUE A WHILE IN THE PRESENT FORM, BUT THIS LOCATION WILL SHORTLY BECOME THE SITE OF MY FUTURE BOOK DRAFTS FOR YOUR COMMENT.  MOSTLY, THOUGH, I WILL JUST TOSS IN INTERESTING STUFF.  THIS WILL CONTINUE AT LEAST UNTIL I REACH #1 OF MY FAVORITE SONGS AROUND THE EVE OF  THE NEW YEAR.

YOU ARE INVITED TO MY NEW BLOG SITE IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE READING WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING FOR MORE THAN A DOZEN YEARS:

     WHY ARE WE HERE?  WHERE WILL WE GO?

From Worldometer:

           DAY USA   WORLD   Brazil      India   South Africa

June      9    1093    4732        1185       246          82

July     19      412    4606          715       675          85

           22     1205    7128       1293     1120        572

Aug      1    1462     6429       1191       765        193

          10       534     4813         593     1013        198
          12     1504     6556       1242       835        130

          30       369     4182         398       960          47
Sept     3     1094     5886          830    1083        174
            6       432     4129          456    1008        110
            9     1208     6222        1136    1168          82
           13      392     3905          389    1140          20
           14      480     4374          454    1054          52
           15    1197     6001        1090    1283        142

           16    1012     6085          967    1139          64

           17      879     5568          857    1174          67

           18      958     5464          826    1221          85

           19      657     5141          708    1149          83

           20      294     3891          330    1135          13  

           21      384     4129          455    1056          39

           22      979     5725          809    1056        126

           23    1112     6328          906    1152          88

           24      942     5872          818    1144          77

           25      895     5819          826    1093          29

Summary:  Looking better for South Africa.

With 16% of the population, those 65 and older account for 80% of all COVID-19 deaths.  I wonder why there is so much difference, but here is a map showing the percentage of all country deaths occurring in assisted living communities:

I live in one of these long-term centers, and I can point to two minor-miracles:

• So far, 15 Craigside has had no coronavirus cases.  No cases, no deaths.  At one time I was maybe a too pronounced critic of life here, but long ago came to a conclusion that, with the available funds and test kits, the administration was doing everything possible they could to protect us.  So I'm now mostly thankful as to how lucky we have been (the pandemic is still around us), for those asymptomatic staff cases of people working here has to be an unknown factor they can do nothing about.  Helps if everyone can get tested at least once/week, but who has that kind of budget, and only the White House, professional sport and college football teams have that luxury.
• Also amazing, in my sheltered life, I don't know even one person who has been so infected.  Several staff members have tested positive, but identities are protected.

Hawaii has had two cluster cases:

• Our prison has had 355 cases of inmates/staff in a facility for 900.
• In Hilo, with only 96 beds, there have been 26 deaths at the Yukio Okutsu Veterans Home.  Avalon Health Care of Utah was fired.

Hawaii has had 127 deaths, or a rate of 90/million, which is far better than the USA at 631/million.  The Eastern seaboard has the worst mortality, with New Jersey #1 at 1826/million, and New York #2.  How does this compare to the World?  Deaths/million:

• World   127
• India   68
• Spain   668
•  Belgium   859
• China   3
• Japan   12
• Singapore   5
• South Korea   8
• Thailand   0.8
• Vietnam   0.4
• Taiwan   0.3

So I'm virtually holding my breath that the current state of safety prevails where I live.  Better yet, this is the first time ever at this stage of the year, I have not yet even caught a cold.  We are still somewhat quarantined, but I do go out once a week to purchase food enhancement items, and next Wednesday will try to walk 18 holes at the Ala Wai Golf Course.

As I don't anymore walk 18 holes two or three time/week, I've had to delete desserts, eat less carbohydrates and avoid most snacks, so this past week rewarded my body for reaching a low for the year at 156 pounds, which puts me in the high end of normal at a Body-Mass Index of 24.4.

Meal #1 was a steak, foie gras, asparagus, shiitake mushroom and sashimi dinner, with hot sake, cold beer and a Stanford red wine:

Then, on my day of shopping I ended by stopping by Tai Pan Dim Sum for some Shanghai Soup Dumplings:

Then last night I added an enhanced poke to my luau meal:

My #95 favorite song is Hotel California by the Eagles.  First released in 1976 and earned a Grammy the following year.  Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #49 in its list of 500 greatest songs of all time.  While the meaning is just life in Los Angeles, and more specifically, The Beverly Hills Hotel, Don Henley, one of those who wrote the lyrics, indicated  that this was about a journey from innocence to experience.  They've played this song more than a thousand times in their tours.  Here is a remix version.

I never thought much of this song until my wife and I took a cruise from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale, and there was a Mexican stop with a tour to Hotel California.  The Eagles sued the hotel for using their name.  Turns out this eleven-room place was originally called Hotel California in 1950.  We had lunch and this old man played the song, for which I donated $1.

However, it was not until the 1990's when I was asked to give a talk at Chiang Mai University that this song became meaningful.  Typically, when traveling through Thailand, the faculty takes you out to a karaoke bar after dinner.  This one was outdoors, and one of the guys sang the song.  Somehow made an impression.  Since then I've been to two Eagles concerts, and Hotel California is always the showstopper.

Want to guess how long you will live?  Click on THIS.  There is a disclaimer, for how can anything truly predict your longevity...but this one said mine will be 97 years.  Very simple and maybe you'll feel better after you try.  

With all the divorces these days, you wonder sometimes if an arranged marriage might actually make more sense today.  Watch this.

There is hope for you, your children and your children's children.  The story of Zy from Malaysia could be transforming.  First, Zy Kyer Lee is extraordinary.  Maybe even more so, his father, Walter, is the father all of us should have.  You must watch THIS.

I'll close with some amazing sounds:

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