December 2

Nice and sunny but it won't be warm. Another day where the temperature will probably top out in the mid 30s. Thankfully the high winds are gone. A few green things are hanging on in the gardens: sage, oregano, roses. For almost everything else I am leaving the dead foliage in place to protect the soil from rain spatter. A few things I will look at in the spring to see if it comes back. Now is the time to plan what seeds to get. They will all have to be able to sprout and mature in situ because I won't be starting any inside.

Jeff Valdiva at Medium tries to answer a question that has bedeviled me: why so many voted for #45 in his winning election in 2016 and in his failed re-election bid this year. He might be right that it is a reaction to what has become a fraught society where everyone is viciously judged and found wanting, a reaction to a shaming culture. None of us like being told what to do or think and sometimes it feels as though someone somewhere is trying to micromanage us. And it pisses us off. I didn't vote for #45 because of his repugnant qualities but I do understand the reaction that would drive people to do so. Instead of voting for an asshole we simply ignore the demands that we tow this or that line on whatever.

I was listening to one of the interviews with an epidemiologist who has been featured who was answering a question on how fast the COVID vaccines had been developed compared to earlier vaccines. He said TEN YEARS. In other words, the last nine months of development came after a decade of study of coronaviruses. That makes sense. It has been about 10 years since the SARS MERS epidemics and they were also coronaviruses. The thrust of the interview was how much trust the public can have in a vaccine which has been rolled out so quickly especially with the tendency of the current administration to politicize and push the process.