First, two comments about our president, Donald Trump.   Remember how I've been telling you that Trump failed in his 6January2021 coup attempt mostly because he had no real control of the Department of Defense? Well, he is acting more swiftly than I thought, for  yesterday he fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General C.Q. Brown , who has been in the military for over 40 years, whose term in this position was supposed to end in September of 2027.   Trump gave no explanation on why. Trump also replaced Admiral Lisa Franchetti, head of the U.S. Navy, as well as the Air Force Chief of Staff and the judge advocates general for the Army, Navy and Air Force.  They ensure enforcement of military justice. Representative Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat, said the firings were "un-American, unpatriotic, and dangerous for our troops and our national security. This is the definition of politicizing our military," he said. President Trump now ha...

We boarded our ship on March 9.  This is now Day 51 on our Seabourn Odyssey cruise.  We left Honolulu on March 5, but lost a day.  Then we gained it back only a few days ago. We are moored off Lahaina.  Tomorrow, Kailua- Kona, with a return to Honolulu on Sunday.  How many of you have been on a cruise for more than 50 days?  In January of 2021 we were signed up for a 111-day around the world cruise, which was cancelled by the company.  I don't think we will ever be doing that in the future.  The worst part is the cost, aggravated by the additional $40,000+ we would need to pay 15 Craigside just to be away. Before the pandemic, I regularly went to movie theaters and ate out at restaurants.  Television was the normal local channels, plus of course we've long had cable, so we had hundreds of choices.  I also subscribed to Netflix and Amazon Prime, and for many years paid their monthly fee, but rarely streamed.   I largely wasted more t...