Poem read at recent Bali Poetry Slam

Proud 

World Suicide News

Trump Administration Hardens Its Attack on Climate Science - He's such a naughty boy!

That others follow this Lead

Toward zero waste - Good for Ljubljana - what a name! Capital of Slovenia

World's Rivers got a problem

And so do we - They're full of antibiotics.

Call it a Climate Crisis

From 350.org - We hit a horrifying milestone this past week: the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached 415 parts per million — the highest level ever recorded in human history. But you wouldn’t know we’ve reached the tipping point by watching the news.
Media outlets need to call it like it is: a climate crisis. Sign today to call on networks and newsrooms to give this crisis the coverage it merits.
We’re facing environmental destruction on an unprecedented scale. Yet, our leaders are still dragging their feet, and many people remain unconvinced of what scientists have said is true for decades. It’s real. It’s happening. It’s the largest existential threat we’ve faced yet, and we need mainstream media to start acting like it.

Wave of the future

Washington becomes first US state to legalise human composting - why postpone the inevitable. I can't wait to be the first on my block!

There goes our beach

Climate change: Global sea level rise could be bigger than expected - maybe up to two meters by 2100 - and that's just what they're thinking now. So many factors at play have noticed new estimates of results of climate change, consistently report it's coming on faster and heavier than we thought. Meanwhile, society overall doesn't respond to science. 

Dengue and Us

Katrinka came home yesterday afternoon after four days in a Denpasar hospital for Dengue. Doctor came at 2pm yesterday and said her blood platelet count was going up fast and she should consider herself recovered and can go home. I was surprised. A doctor buddy I've done Vipassana retreats with said she shouldn't leave till the platelet count was back up to the low end of the norm, 150. Katrinka arrived there with a count of 20 and it had gotten as low as nine which is scary because platelets are what clots.

Skimmed

Photo of skimmers who were caught - and they're caught a lot here. Usually read they're from Russia or Eastern Europe.

There were some dubious charges on my card from an ATM in Ubud where we'd spent a few days. That is the ATM I used there but I only was there once and it was date four days after I'd left - post dates are two days late but I didn't recall ever seeing four. One withdrawal for about $70 and the one for $14.

Cool new phrase

Driver mudik used the term "up to date" in a strange way and I found out it's a cool thing young people are saying to mean "trendy." So Katrinka and I started using it with each other as in:

Nice blouse babe - up to date!

d

Tennis and Healing

Played tennis yesterday. Gatot from Java was confused on where we're playing cause he came to pick me up thirty minutes early but we played nearby rather than on the roof at Prime Plaza 20 minutes drives away. I was going to ride with him but he said Bandi dogette would get hair in his car. Bandi doesn't shed much - we never notice any - but I realized that the real reason was said partner is a Muslim. So I walked Bandi to the court. She knows to stay on the side of the court from getting hit by balls when she didn't and she's easy to shoo off if she forgets so she mainly walked around the edges and watched. Afterwards I joined Aussie John and Dutch Herman for some delicious dragon fruit juice (no sugar, no ice, no straw) while they each drank a Bintang (star) beer which is rather popular here. I mentioned how I'd picked up a bit of Trager technique from ex wife #1 Daya body worker and how just rocking Katrinka hands on the side of her bum while she lay face down eased her lower back pain. Elin and I used that effectively too. John said he'd studied shiatsu and Reiki and had used Reiki on others a lot and that it worked quite well but that he stopped because he kept getting what the recipients had. But he said that yesterday he used it on a young girl with a 39 degree (102 F) temperature. He demonstrated, putting his right hand in front of his forehead, sweeping it over the head  keeping it four inches or so away from touching, then swiftly bringing it down on the back side. Did it a for a big and in five minutes he said her temperature was normal. 

World Suicide Gains Ground!

Political will to fight climate change is fading, warns UN chief - what little will there was.

How to treat a cut

I hurt my big toe stupidly rolling our heavy metal front gate up to it - couldn't go over. Katrinka wrapped it in waterproof bandages after I stuck it under the faucet in the tub watching the red swirls. The waterproofing works cause I  have had three showers since then and swam at the beach earlier and the toe's still bandaided fine.  Our friend Sarah is a diving master. She wrote "Diving in Indonesia." We compared feet. One of hers is wrapped in cellophane tape. She got just a tiny cut but she can't walk on the beach barefoot with it or a grain or three of sand gets in and ouch. She's spent a lot of time on remote islands in Indonesia beyond easy reach of pharmacies and clinics, places where when it gets serious you got to get helicoptered out. That's where she got into sellotape as she called it. She used the term generically like Kleenex is used but that's also the brand name of a clear medical tape sold in her native England. She said if she was way out somewhere and got a larger wound, that she knew she had to immediately do what she could to avoid infection which happens easily in the tropics. Wounds don't heal quickly here either.  So she'd painfully scrub the wound with a brush and fill it with super glue. Worked every time she said.

As Usual, bad news - tomorrow, something light

New Report On Loss Of Nature Paints Terrifying Picture For The Future of Humanity - Huff Post

Another article on same - Truth Out

Science and Environment News

Many days my only news is science and environment news which puts all the world news story in perspective. First there's BBC Science and Environment where I learn that UK 'can cut emissions to nearly zero' by 2050 which of course means we all could if we paid attention or cared. Also looked at Nature's emergency: Where we are in five graphics. Then to Guardian's Environment/Climate Change where a recent article stated: Climate change costings that don't count the cost of inaction are worthless. Nature/Climate Change is excellent and more academic as with Asserting the climate benefits of the coal-to-gas shift across temporal and spatial scales.

Rita and Lucia's departure

The day before Rita and Lucia were to leave, Rita had a temperature and headache that had kept her up the night before. You can't fly with a fever, the airports have temperature scanners and Hong Kong where she changed planes we know for sure uses them. Went to a nearby doctor who said she had 38.9 which is 102 Fahrenheit. He wasn't worried about Dengue. He gave her some medicine and two documents to use for getting a cost free change of date for her flight. Our visa agent came by on his motor scooter and was ready to make copies of the letters and her and Lucia's passports to get a visa extension.

Climate change: Where we are in seven charts

Climate change: Where we are in seven charts - from BBC Climate - reminded me that the 2 degrees increase the Paris Climate Accord tries to keep us under is Celsius and close to 4 degrees Fahrenheit. Mainly it's governments that have to make the big changes to slow the increase but the most important thing an individual can do is eat less meat.

Lovelies Rita and granddaughter Lucia have gone home

It was a wonderful 28 day visit. Rita is so simpatica, thoughtful. Lucia is tons of fun, delightfully expressive, and, something her parents can't be as aware of as Katrinka and I, a rather low maintenance baby - not that they aren't all high maintenance. She's so curious and easy to please. Rita got to experience a pretty good mix of what's in our reach here in Bali: good people local and import, great food both local, international, nouvelle Bali, and the home cooking here was her fave. She like us is a pescetarian. Got a nice dose of good beaches and low trash not cold ocean water which Lucia immediately took to. Sand and water are so nifty and involving for little ones. We four joined the full moon Hindu purification rites at a nearby temple which included immersing completely in the mangrove water, next getting it poured over our heads repeatedly by a chanting priest. Hypnotizing Legong dance and the dynamic acapella Kacak monkey chant and fire dance in Ubud. A few days in nearby small island Lembongan. Yoga, massage, monkeys, butterfly garden, temples, ceremonies, processions, markets, rice terrace vistas, zip line, water rafting where she saw a nice big monitor lizard sunbathing, scuba diving, listening to local live music modern and traditional. Motorscooters, cars, cooperative driving with little honking and no anger. Island fabric and art. Dentistry. Other babies and moms. She and Lucia blended right in with it all. May they return soon.

RIP Sally Rasberry

Nice article on Sally in Santa Rosa Press Democrat. First met her through Michael Phillips. Condolences to her husband Michael Eschenbach. Sally wrote a number of books, some with Michael Phillips and one with fellow Sonoma County creative icon Carol Rae named “The Art of Dying: Honoring and Celebrating Life’s Passages.” She told her husband to leave her body alone for a day after she died. Farewell Sally. - Posted in Death and Dying (thanks Elin for alerting me to this)