COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

As the USA enters its worst phase of this COVID-19 pandemic with a crippled economy and too many in financial desperation with true fears of eviction, it's a good time to Count Your Blessings, a song no doubt being sung in many churches this Sunday morning. Some hopeful signs that good change might be forthcoming:

The vaccines are coming. Two for sure in a week or two, and a third soon thereafter. A lot more in the pipeline (from New York Times this morning):

A bipartisan Senate economic relief package seems likely to be approved by the end of next week.
The worst president in the history of the country will be gone on January 20.

Well, fans of James Buchanan might complain, so read this. Compared to Trump, all Buchanan did was not avert the Civil War.
Two of Trump's most cloying sycophants, Attorney General Bill Barr and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, defied The Donald, regaining a measure of self-respect.
You can add Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey to that list, for he had the nerve to ignore a White House call and certified the 11 electoral college votes for Joe Biden.

If you're a Democrat, the Georgia two Senate runoff odds are continuing to tighten:

The GOP now has -275 odds to finish with over 50 seats and +200 to have exactly 50 seats, which would mean losing both Georgia runoffs on Jan. 5, 2021. That marks significant shortening in a matter of days. On Tuesday, they were -350 and +250, and just last week, those odds were -400 and +275. Two weeks ago they were -600 and +325.

What do those numbers mean? Go to this site for details on how to do the calculation. When you do, you will learn that the 24% probability of two weeks ago has settled at 33% for Democrats to gain control of the Senate. Still less than 50-50, but these odds were taken the day before Trump arrived in Georgia.

Personally, the year has not gone as expected. I had been looking forward to 2020 all my life, as the ultimate year for vision. Yet, I can certainly count my blessings:

Exactly three months ago I reached the age of 80.
I've been well, mentally (continued euphoria) and physically:

Dropped to 153.6 pounds this past week, the lowest in at least a quarter century. I can now enjoy a snack now and then, even a weekly dessert.
Still can walk on a golf course, though I now skip a few holes, as the limited play means that groups walk too fast for me.
Knees about as good as they've been in some time.
I don't remember a year when I missed a cold with coughing. Not one yet.
Finally got value for my ten-year Netflix membership.
Fish and plants doing well.
Not one case of COVID-19 for 15 Craigside residents. I gather, though, living in an assisted living community, we are very high on the priority list for the vaccine.

Major global calamities can make or break you. I was born just before World War II began a few miles from Pearl Harbor. Being of Japanese descent in a war started by Japan omened poorly for my future. Yet, when the dust cleared, the Nisei warriors of the 442/100 helped remove the sociological hurdles that made it all that much easier for people like me to succeed in life. Remember Pearl Harbor? A more emotional version. Tomorrow is the 79th anniversary of that date.

When you reach a certain point in life, comfort and security become all that you really need. This pandemic, 79 years later, was that next monumental convulsion, reinforcing these conditions for me.

My favorite song #22 is Hilo March, probably because my wife came from there. The song was written by Joseph Kapeau Ae'a of the Royal Hawaiian Band around 1880, and, according to Wikipedia, is associated with SpongeBob SquarePants. Appropriately enough, it is the school song of the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

These photos came from a friend:

The first two you recognize, a blade of a large wind energy conversion device, and blood vessels to your hand.

But do you know what these others are?

The last one should be obvious: flowers if you don't pick the artichoke. But the top one is an embryo (a baby at the beginning) on a tip of a needle, and the middle one, a photo from the top of Mount Everest.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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