Booster

 Got the Moderna booster yesterday compliments of the Indonesian government as was the case with the two AstraZeneca shots we got. Those were administered with admirable efficiency at the posh Bali Hyatt surrounded by gardens. There may have been 1000 people there at the same time as we were  handled admirably by volunteers from the ranks of hospitality industry unemployed. Yesterday was the opposite. I arrived with Komang, usually our long-distance driver. It was the first day at the venue, a local co-op type bank and outdoor restaurant. Way understaffed. A few hundred people waiting at tables and standing around before 8am for things to get going. A half dozen foreigners. A German artist, jeweler and I got acquainted. Some long tables were set up with a half dozen nurses and needles. All of a sudden numbers were being handed out and a mob descended on the man at the table dispensing them. Komang and I didn't even try. It continued being chaotic and completely unclear how one would get a booster. Komang and I pushed in to ask staff at tables what to do. The answer was go to the other end of the tables. The German artist told me to stand with him right next to the table where blood pressure was being checked. He made sure I was next. After a few large men had squeezed in in front of me I found myself sitting in a chair getting my blood pressure checked. Next chair showing my papers and Peduli Lindungi government Covid app on the iPhone which showed I'd had two AstraZeneca shots and gave my many digit resident number. My papers were      

How Surprising

 COP 26 "fragile win" under threat

Training a Dog

 I was in high school. I hadn't had a dog since I was a kid in our old home. There was a fairly small stray dog I took pity on and started feeding it. It hung around. I asked mother if we could keep it. She said yes but it can't be in the house. I said why not? She said because she didn't want dog hair on the carpets. We spent a good deal of our time in the family room or den and the kitchen and the adjoining breakfast area and the floors there were some sort of attractive composition and linoleum. It was a good size area. I told mother the dog will stay in that area. Since it was open to the dining room, living room, and hallway to the bedrooms, and all that area was carpeted, she doubted what I said was possible. Doubted it with finality. I said it won't go on the carpet. She was adamant that there was no way to keep the dog off the carpets. I said, it will go on the carpet a few steps for a few times but then it won't. After that if it goes on the carpet it can't come in the house. Okay? So she said okay. I let the dog in. It went around the room smelling. I stood in the living room on the carpet. It started to come in. I said No! forcefully and it understood and backed away. It kept trying and I reprimanded it each time. I did it from the carpet side of each of the three interior doorways out of that area. After not too long it understood. Then I called it and when it stepped on the carpet I fiercely scolded it. After a while it learned not to come onto the carpet even if I begged it to. Took about half an hour. 

I don't remember what I called it. I think it was female. We really weren't close. She had mental problems and didn't relate well with people. Just needed a home. Bit me once for no reason I could see. It tried to bite the postman when he was friendly. She was outside a lot. Dogs didn't have to be restrained back then. 

She did come on the carpet a couple of times and was allowed to - during thunderstorms. Went and hid under my bed.

After half a year or so one day I came home and mother told me she had been run over by a large truck. The driver came and told her. He said she ran in front of his truck. He stopped and looked and didn't see her but apparently she was scared and didn't move - right in front of one of his large tires. The city had already cleaned up her remains. I wondered if she committed suicide but that didn't seem very dog like. I found an eyeball in the curb. 

Katrinka's Back Home yeah!

Katrinka got out of quarantine yesterday morning scheduled for 6am but they had to wait for the results of her laat PCR test which were... Negative! Meanwhile Komang, our trusty long distance driver - like in this case thirty minutes away at the airport, showed up early at 7am to take me to a small Sanur hospital which is giving booster shots so I could sign up for one. Some people are going there and getting a shot, getting the proof entered online and in their Indonesian Covid app, in half an hour. I got steered the wrong way by a few people for an hour, was told to come back at noon, came back a little before noon and went into a small office where they found it puzzling someone told me that. We spent forty minutes or so getting the certificate on my app. So weird - it's good enough to get me in anywhere but all of a sudden I learn there's a certificate to activate. So we got all the info filled out and I was told to come back the next day to register. I refused, saying I'd come twice that day and was actually in time to get a shot but just ran into the wrong people. So a woman at a desk immediately to the left of me signed me up and said they'd call for me to come back and get the shot in a few days. They'd run out for that day. Since I'd received two AstraZeneca shots, I would get Moderna. Yeah! That's what I wanted. Those who got two Sinovac shots get an AstraZeneca booster. Kaatrinka's plane arrived at 2:23, twelve minutes early, but she was way late getting out of there because her big bag wasn't there. Garuda had one person on it and assured her they'd find it. We zoomed toward Sanur, so much nicer without the traffic from having a trillion tourists here, and went to a phone stand we use. Had to get her new US bought iPhone with her Indonesian sim card. Oh oh though. Because it's bought in America and not here, she has to buy an Indonesian sim card that lasts three months. After three months her phone will remotely be shut off - not wifi so she can still use it. She has to buy the Indonesian sim card but doesn't have to use it. It's about seven bucks. And she has to get a new one every three months till the end of time. As we were getting a little fruit at the last stop before returning home, I got a call from Garuda. Her bag was accidentally picked up by someone else and would be heading to our home now from Nusa Dua. So we had time to get home before it arrived. All was well.

Ice Sculpture

 Son Kelly sent me this article in the Spokane Review about five tree trimming companies making ice sculputre for a few hours one day - a repeat from an event last year. I think Kelly may have organized it. He's in the top photo.

Baliyuga Taken Hostage for a Day

On Friday Facebook unpublished the new Baliyuga Facebook page and put it under review. We disputed but I gave up hope right away as because I've learned there's no recourse if they make a decision. Or so I thought. For on Saturday they republished it. I gather it's because it's a business page - band pages are business pages - and apparently they pay more attention to them, take them more seriously. For one thing they try constanly to sell promotion for business pages and make zillions that way. I posted on my personal FB page about FB unpublishing the Baliyuga page and got a lot of responses. Many of them told of rediculous experiences with FB blocking, unpublishing, deleting totally innocent pages and posts. But there were a few who urged me not to give up because it was a biz page and I learned there things one can do and there are are actual real live people one can contact about such a problem. So anyway it was a big relief that it came back and it also has turned out to be a good bit of free PR garnering me sympathy like someone who got beat up by a bully. 

Not incidentally, this page, Cuke nonZense, has been made mostly inactive by FB since years ago. Got a message saying it didn't follow community standards. No details. No option to dispute. It's not a biz page. And I can vouch that there was nothing unwholesome ever posted on these hallowed pages.  

So here's the Baliyuga Facebook page

And the Baliyuga page on Defuser Music dot com 

Katrinka's on her way

Katrinka's on her way to the airport now after six weeks in the US. Her ride to the airport from Tiburon to SFO is costing her $100. That's with a private driver and car. Taxis from there are, according to what I see on web, 170 to 210 from Tiburon to SFO airport. We're about that far from the airport time-wise, traffic is slower here, and the set price for taxi is 14 bucks and one can get there probably for half that much with a private driver.

The airline told her to get to the airport four hours in advance due to Covid restrictions. She's flying Qatar to Doha and Doha to Jakarta. 15 hrs 15 min plus 8 hrs 30 min = 23 hours and 45 minutes in the air. Then a week in quarantine as long as no one in her plane tests positive. Then it's 2 weeks in a hotel. Then a few hours to Denpara and we're reunited! On the 20th if all goes well. I''ll be tracking her progress. - DC

Baliyuga Facebook Page

 

Got a Facebook page now for Baliyuga, our band in Bali.

facebook.com/defuserbaliyuga

The ID for the page is DefuserBaliyuga.
Defuser Music dot com is my music site that Baliyuga.com rests in.

Thanks to Gus Awan for creating this page.

Earthships

Washington Post article with pics on these great homes, some of which I remember from Taos days. - dc

Dreams

I was in a dream of son Clay's with a little poodle in my lap and he wondered in the dream why our dog Bandi wasn't there. I asked him if he was aware that we've been keeping a toy poodle for five months and he said,  Really? It's no stretch at all for me to see that as being ESP but in this case I'd say it's more likely he saw the doggie's photo on Instagram and his subconscious stored it. He sees my Instagram posts which are few and both he and I follow very few others - mainly family. Senior son Kelly's mate Daniela is a psychological counselor. She has a client from Portland who was sent to her by a dream that gave her the first name, city, and an image with of her with long black hair. They do have a mutual contact, a shaman who also lives in Spokane through which her client found her. I'd say in that case, as with Clay's dream, likely the subconscious was reminding the conscious of something forgotten. But either way - doesn't matter. To me everything is mysterious and amazing. Some things are just more unusual and harder to explain.