Worldwide, the countries that followed the science and shut down early are, of course, the ones doing best. Every nation with a conservative government (the United States, Great Britain, China) suffered the most new cases and deaths.

On December 31, a further 20 million people in England were placed into Tier 4, the level with the strictest COVID-19 restrictions. All secondary schools in England were closed for an additional two weeks. The United Kingdom reported a record 55,892 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 2,488,780.

A "more contagious" variant of COVID-19 was reported in South Africa, and a case was discovered in France.

The Czech Republic, Portugal, Indonesia, and Japan each reported a record number of new cases since the day before. On the other hand, countries with science-based approaches to handling the pandemic reported just six new cases in Victoria, and New Zealand is reported to be coronavirus-free.

In the United States, as predicted by everyone who isn't an idiot, two weeks after Thanksgiving a spike in cases broke all records. A friend of mine who owns a smoke shop in Arizona said a customer came in who had just lost six family members to the disease…after their Thanksgiving get-together.

While the cynic in me says this is just "God's way of getting rid of the stupid ones", the empath in me is broken-hearted that such stupidity mixed with arrogance can exist, and furious at people who should know better. What's worse, the #Trumpsters have turned it into a political statement and refuse to mask up on that basis. While this is actually a good thing—the more stupid racists who die, means we'll have fewer stupid racists to deal with—it still means that smarter, masked people have to be extra careful to avoid these Typhoid Marys (COVID Donalds?).

And now there's a vaccine, or rather, two. Each uses messenger RNA to teach our immune systems to recognize the COVID-19 virus, without actually exposing us to even a weakened version of the virus. And early studies show both are effective against the new strains of the disease. (That's because they target the spikes rather than the actual, specific virus. That means they should be effective against all coronaviruses, not just COVID-19. (Bird flu, from a few years ago, is also a coronavirus.)

And still Trump and his brainless followers get in the way. In Wisconsin, a pharmacist was arrested after intentionally destroying 500 doses of the vaccine. Police announced that the pharmacist was " admitted conspiracy theorist" who believed the vaccine could harm people by "changing their DNA".

Meanwhile, Trump continues to bleat that he really won the election, despite all evidence to the contrary (and zero supporting evidence). This doesn't change the outcome of the election, of course; and every court in which Trump's minions have filed has rejected the filing, since they come with zero evidence. But he continues to rile up his feeble-minded followers and many are worried that they may start rioting at the inauguration, or even the counting of the Electoral votes.

Unsurprisingly, Florida and Arizona—with their #Trumpster governors and mindless voters—lead the nation in Covid-19 deaths. As of December 29th, Taiwan, using a science-based approach, had just 553 cases and only 7 deaths. Florida, with a similar population (2 million fewer residents) had over 795,000 cases and 16,647 deaths.

Stupid is as stupid does, I guess.

You know that the movie Mad Max was supposed to take place in 2021, right?

On the 20th, Hawaii health officials reported 204 new cases, the most in over three months. We have a Democratic governor but the state lives on tourism. In general, we've kept the numbers down by enforcing masks and requiring incoming tourists to be pre-tested before they even get on the plane.

11 of those cases were on Maui. 93 of the cases were in one prison. (It only takes one Covid Donald to infect an entire facility. (In Belgium, an old folks' home got infected from a visiting Santa Claus who didn't realize he'd been exposed.)

And of course, here as well as in the rest of the country, everyone is concerned what mayhem the Spoiled-Brat-In-Chief will bring about before he's out of the White House and on his way to prison.

Kids On Scooters

By: Paul S Cilwa	Occurred: 12/1/2020		Page Views: 839
Hashtags: #Coronavirus #Maui
Scooters may be more of an urban toy.
Estimated reading time: 1 minute(s) (162 words)

Jenny had picked up a couple of scooters while shopping at Walmart the other day. I'm sure the toddlers saw them and bugged her for them, since they have scooters at home in Arizona. What I don't think occurred to her was that scooters are more suited for an urban (paved) environment.

The Littles Say Goodbye to Koki

By: Paul S Cilwa	Occurred: 12/2/2020		Page Views: 833
Hashtags: #Coronavirus #Maui
On their last day of vacation, we take the kids to Koki.
Estimated reading time: 1 minute(s) (212 words)

On this, the last day of their vacation—and probably the last I'll see of them until Spring, at least—we took the littles to Koki Beach Park, along with big brother Zach and Zach's pal Adrian and their surfboards.

Koki Without Kids

By: Paul S Cilwa	Occurred: 12/10/2020		Page Views: 830
Hashtags: #Coronavirus #Maui
The grandkids are back in Arizona, and Koki is bleak.
Estimated reading time: 1 minute(s) (54 words)

So my daughter and grandkids are gone back to Arizona. We still go to the beach nearly every day, but (for me, at least) it's a little less fun. Still, we have our own babies—dogs Ella and Lilly—so it's not like we have no one to watch have fun in the water.

West Side Overnight

By: Paul S Cilwa	Occurred: 12/12/2020		Page Views: 858
Hashtags: #Coronavirus #Maui
I do a double Doordash.
Estimated reading time: 1 minute(s) (220 words)

With no grandkids to give me something better to do, yesterday I drove to Lahaina to Doordash, spending the night at the beach and returning for more today. But this time I got a few sunrise photos to document the event.

Doggie Daze

By: Paul S Cilwa	Occurred: 12/20/2020		Page Views: 832
Hashtags: #Coronavirus #Maui
It's not beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.
Estimated reading time: 2 minute(s) (399 words)

It's just five days before Chriostmas, and I have to say I'm not really feeling it. To me, Christmas is a secular holiday rather than a religious one; a time of being with family and following old, comfortable rituals. But my family, other than my husband and our dogs, is over a thousand miles away on the United States mainland. And bring a tree into our cabin, besides being impossible due to lack of space, would really be redundant since we have trees surrounding us, just feet away. Plus, my box of Christmas decorations is still in my daughter's Arizona garage. And who would see them, anyway?

But it occurs to me, one reason people love Christmas (and other holidays) is that they provide a welcome break into the humdrum tedium of their daily lives. And Keith's and my lives are anything but tedious. We are, after all, living in paradise. And if we ever forget that, we only have to look at our dogs making the most of every day to be reminded.

A Grand Erection

By: Paul S Cilwa	Occurred: 12/21/2020		Page Views: 834
Hashtags: #Coronavirus #Maui
It's time to put up another temporary building.
Estimated reading time: 1 minute(s) (211 words)

When I arrived here last March, there were four kits for canvas carports. We erected one for our front porch, and another for our "closet". A third was erected but came apart in heavy winds. I was asked to erect the last one, right across from Jenny's cabin.

Inspection

By: Paul S Cilwa	Occurred: 12/24/2020		Page Views: 831
Hashtags: #Coronavirus #Maui
Finding new views of our 28 acres.
Estimated reading time: 1 minute(s) (133 words)

We go to the beach almost every day, to let the dogs swim even when we don't. But some days are a little too cloudy, cool, or rainy for me to be "feeling" the beach. So, as a diversion, I'll take the quad on a tour of the property. The dogs always tag along, so that way they get some exercise too.

A Coronavirus Christmas

By: Paul S Cilwa	Occurred: 12/25/2020		Page Views: 837
Hashtags: #Coronavirus #Maui
I'm dreaming of a green Christmas.
Estimated reading time: 3 minute(s) (534 words)

Everyone has their own Christmas traditions. Whatever traditions I had before I met my ex-husband, Michael, were supplanted by his; because no one ever loved Christmas more than he does. But I did have one tradition of my own: My yearly Christmas letter, which I had been doing since the 1970s.

Wildfire!

By: Paul S Cilwa	Occurred: 12/27/2020		Page Views: 859
Hashtags: #Coronavirus #Maui
Some days, you just can't get here from there.
Estimated reading time: 2 minute(s) (327 words)

So, yesterday, Keith and I decided to go Doordashing together. We have to do that on the other side of the island, since only three areas on Maui support it: Kahului, Kihei, and Lahaina. I almost always choose Lahaina. However, this time we were nearly trapped there.