Oh, my!! July 16 already!!

We have a heavy and steady rain today. I have a pathetic looking pot of dahlias that have been beaten and broken by earlier deluges. When things dry out I will try to create a support system for it. Everything else is doing pretty well. I did get several of the plants (roses, dahlias, bee balm) deadheaded earlier this week and moved a pot of the sun bells to a sunnier location. That pot had been overshadowed by the pepper and the tower with the chives and petunia. They created a little cave that was a bit too dark.

We have been out three days this week between doctor's appointment, oil change for the car and shopping--highly unusual. Several days we had rain but managed to skip between the rain drops and stayed fairly dry. This rain pattern is very unusual--more like April except for the temperatures. It feels like we are veering between April and August--cool and wet vs hot and dry. At least we don't have the triple digits of the west coast or the drenching flooding rains of the east or, worse, Germany and the Low Countries. I think I am going to have to read more of BBC and other outlets. I hadn't heard anything about that til yesterday.

Has anyone looked at the Drought Monitor maps lately? I just did because I got onto a story about more counties in Idaho being declared primary disaster areas. The entire state is in drought with significant parts in severe, exceptional and extreme stages (the most serious designations). Along with that I got into stories from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta Canada which are also in drought and have been for a while. Thanks to the last three weeks we aren't in any drought stage here but a swatch immediately across in Illinois is. The Drought Monitor map for the U.S. shows the entire west in the same condition as Idaho. That doesn't bode well for agricultural products in the near future. Expect more price hikes and spotty supplies.

Evidently parts of the country, mostly deeply Republican, are showing a drastic increase in Covid cases (California being the only exception in that respect) often the Delta variant. Interestingly, 99.5 (according to a couple of news stories) are unvaccinated people. And a larger percentage of the new Covid cases are in younger people and a fair number are children. 

Infidel753 has a good post today on the problem the willfully unvaccinated. I agree with him on the notion of vaccine mandates--they likely won't work. Where it is working to an extent is in the private sector where employers, entertainment (including sports venues), and transportation services have mandated vaccination however even that is spotty because with the exception of the last (planes, trains, and cruise ships) depend on the "honor system." Unfortunately among those who think their "freedom" to not vaccinate, to infect others, and to possibly die is worth the lives of those around them--there is no honor.

This is an interesting story which is at once astounding and unsurprising. The title is somewhat misleading because it implies that the problem with international travel is the vaccine certificates which isn't entirely true. I have read of accounts from travelers who had delays and difficulties because not all countries accept the certificates from other countries. But the other problem is the vaccines. Not every vaccine type is accepted by every country or every airline. It is going to be a long while before things sort themselves out.

The Tokyo Olympics is due to begin in just under two weeks--in spite of a COVID surge, the ban on foreign visitors and athletes families, and a strong opposition from ordinary Japanese generally. This article makes a good case for eliminating the games entirely.