On November 3 we left Miami for Southhampton.  Right behind us,  Hurricane Raphael , was heading straight for Cayman Islands, where we were yesterday.  What a difference a few days can make. On November 5 there was another hurricane, named Donald Trump, who, defying any logic and all odds, got re-elected president of the USA.  My sleep pattern began to change, for I worried about the future of democracy in the U.S.  I was so perplexed at how far off I was towards understanding our nation, that, save for my exposition on the future of the country  the next day, for the rest of the trip pretty much avoided politics in my postings.  Today, I still seem to have lost interest in our future, for all seems lost.  Reminds me of Ray Bradbury's  A Sound of Thunder , where a time traveler returns home to find everything changed.  He would have expected Kamala Harris to prevail over Donald Trump, but the opposite happened because he stepped on a but...

  Our 35-day Norwegian Encore cruise from Seattle to Southampton was both very good and very bad.  The ship, service, food, drinks and entertainment were wonderful.  Probably best ever of any cruise. The bad had to do with me.  Maybe it was the traveling east, or that I'm more of a landlubber.  My body is old, and could not adjust to the constant time changes.  I found in the past that flying east was terrible for me.  So all my global journeys have been in the westward direction.  It's possible that I will in the future avoid anything going east, including on ships.  The worst thing is that I had difficulty sleeping.  Sleep is very important.  Last night, for example, I was in bed for 14 hours and slept only 3 hours, at most.  On land.  I'm worried about the remaining days.  We don't return to Hawaii until December 7, which is 16 days away.  I hope I can ultimately recover at home. With that dire thought, let me...

The Norwegian Encore arrived in Southampton, UK.  The end of 35 days on the ship, which started in Seattle, went through the Panama Canal, then via Miami, all the way to England.  I will tomorrow provide a summary of our cruise. COVID-19 hasn't quite disappeared.   There were  45,737 new cases last week , with Russia #1 and the USA #2.  There were 363 deaths. However, an average of 389,000 die in the world from the  flu  each year.  That's 7481 deaths/week, 20 times higher than COVID-19 last week. Further,  coronary heart disease  kills 9 million.year.  Or 173,000 deaths/week. So COVID deaths are now very minimal. So while this pandemic was declared over a year and a half ago, it is still of some interest to peer into some of the more newsworthy aspects of this illness.  For example,  can a vaccine similar to that used for COVID-19 cure cancer?   For sure, people with pre-conditions who caught COVID-19 had a...

 One quick summary of Donald Trump's hush money trial, then on to the Moxy Matter. Court is closed today so Trump can attend son Baron's graduation in Florida. Continues Monday on the final day of the defense trying to break down Michael Cohen. How many more Republicans will show up in person for the trial on Monday?  Can't imagine Melania will. Prosecutors called 19 witnesses.  Defense...zero, unless they surprise the judge and prosecution. Final arguments, as currently planned, should come on Tuesday. Hate to say this will be a hung jury, but in this day and age, not totally comprehending why so many remain Trump fans. it's difficult to imagine that all 12 jurors  will vote guilty. Hung jury not all that bad for Democrats, for this will just mean this trial will again be held, but when? Our OMGA ( O ur  M onumental  G lobal  A dventure ) circumnavigation was mostly good, but had some down moments. At least two of the cruises had Covid outbreaks, some...