Yesterday morning was that one crucial moment when we were scheduled to test for covid through a Zoom session using a company in New York City.  First, I'm a klutz when it comes to linking with Zoom.  However, I somehow succeeded. He told us what to do....and we both tested negative.  My one major worry about our entire trip is now over. However, life is not so simple.  He had to send me an e-mail informing us of this test, and I needed to respond to see a message indicating I was negative.  Every so often my Hotmail goes weird, and I could not get his message, but instead saw e-mails of seven years ago.  A few frantic attempts until something else occurred, and could read his response and confirm my existence.  We took a photo of our success, which was supposedly sufficient for boarding the ship.  However, I wanted to have a hard copy, so went to the Executive Lounge to do this.  Could not, so I asked for help, and one of the staff members there did it for me.  All of this took ab

President Joe Biden is on Puerto Rico today.  The island has had a history of major hurricane problems, and power from Category 1 Fiona last month is still not fully available.  He next goes to Florida, where parts of the state will just need to be abandoned, while the death toll remains under double digits.  Saturday night  125 people died in Indonesia  after a soccer match. Read this article about how  politics can affect recovery attempts from hurricanes .  Florida politicians particularly seem to be caught in this imbroglio.  Biden smartly said all the right things about Hurricane Ian, but notice how he ( Ian ) only damaged Republican states, skipping around Georgia, which more recently caused problems for Republicans. On to the topic of the day, salt, or sodium chloride.   Our oceans are 3% salt, and if water is removed and spread evenly over our land surface, would form a layer 500 feet thick, about the height of a 40-story office building. The Dead Sea is 34% salt, yet, algae an

                                         From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):          DAY    USA    WORLD     Brazil      India      South Africa June     9    1093     4732         1185        246       82 July    22     1205     7128         1293      1120     572 Aug    12     1504     6556        1242        835     130 Sept     9     1208      6222       1136       1168       82 Oct     21     1225      6849         571        703       85 Nov    25      2304    12025        620        518      118 Dec     30      3880    14748       1224       299      465 Jan      14       4142     15512        1151        189      712                  Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398 Mar     2        1989      9490        1726       110      194 April   6          906     11787         4211       631       37 May    4         853     13667         3025     3786      59   June   1         287    10637         2346      3205       95  July   7