First a, few news items: Today is Labor Day, a national holiday in the USA and Canada on the first Monday of September. Banks, Post Offices, stock markets and schools are closed. You can still go out to eat and shop. The U.S. war with Iran has escalated. Exchanges of fire. Strait of Hormuz remains mostly closed. No peace talks have been scheduled. Oil prices remain high, as Brent Crude oil hit a recent peak of $98 earlier today. U.S. gasoline prices reached a record-high national average of $4.15/gallon for the Labor Day weekend. The previous high was $3.82/gallong in 2012. The Russo-Ukraine War continues with battles and drone exchanges. It has been 1,656 days since Russian invaded Ukrain on 24February2022. 4,482 days since Russia began occupying Crimeaw on February 20, 2014. While the Trump administration has made efforts to bring those countries together, they have failed. This war will continue if Russia and Ukraine can't agree of land concession...
I was born on 6September1940. Am now on the Silversea Silver Whisper, heading towards three Pacific Ocean hurricanes. Met the captain of this ship last night, Julien Albiel to my right (your left) and hotel director Valentin Trif. He was pleased to hear that we both thought the Silver Whisper was the best cruise ship we have ever been on, all things considered. Even better that the Ritz-Carlton Luminara. Here I am with Captain Tom Roth of that luxury yacht. Read the story of how he personally helped me on Day One of our cruise from Singapore less than a year ago So back to the Silver Whisper, spent some time talking to Captain Albiei, mostly about those three hurricanes. Twelve hours later, or this morning, the situation has further improved regarding our safety. Hurricane Karina is now a tropical storm at 60 MPH and continuing to mover westward, sufficiently north of the Hawaiian Islands. Will become a post-tropical gale as she head...