March 27, 2020  "Safer at Home"

     Our Governor Evers has locked us down a little more. He has recommended that all non essential workers stay home, except for trips to the grocery store or to pick up take out, the former ideally only every 2 weeks. Grocery stores are making time in the morning of some days entirely for elderly and those with preexisting conditions who still remain the most vulnerable to this disease in terms of death rates. We now know that young people also get the disease and end up in the hospital with it but they still seem to withstand the deadly effect on the lungs better. Essential workers are healthcare workers, pharmacy and drugstore workers, food supply workers at stores and at restaurants who do take out, first responders, goods transport, gas stations, energy workers, certain manufacturing workers making things necessary for safety, life, and supplies for all things needed in this emergency, home repair, news reporters and radio and TV workers,  mass transit, airlines, cleaners and maintenance as well as waste management and garbage handling, and infrastructure. These businesses vary somewhat from state to state. For example, the production and sale of marijuana is deemed essential in California. Basically each state has decided what they deem essential for the safety of people's lives, and maintenance of their ability to stay safely in their homes.

     New York state and especially New York City and surrounds are the epicenters currently in our country and our country now leads all countries in numbers of cases.  It should be noted that we hold this record, mostly because we are dong more testing than any other country. And yet we still are probably missing the vast majority of the cases.. The actual number of infected is probably a multiplier of 5 or even 10 times this number of confirmed cases. Italy still leads the death toll and it is still mysterious why Italy has such a high death rate. We now have over 137,000 cases in the US and 2400 deaths. Every state has cases. Other highly effected areas are Florida, Louisiana, Washington State, and California. Chicago is also effected heavily. All of these areas are on different time lines toward their peak of cases based on how much they were seeded by travelers early and then how soon they began to close down schools, large events, and businesses.

     Testing has advanced and not only can tests be pretty easily done, there is now a rapid test that gives a result in 15 minutes. My son, who is Chief of General Surgery at a large Midwestern University Health system, was especially anxious for that. He felt that without knowing whether a surgical patient was COVID 19 positive or not would endanger the entire operating room staff. To speed surgery electric cautery is widely used to stop bleeding during surgery, but this creates an aerosol that could be very infectious. On a COVID 19 positive case, perhaps cautery would not be used and this would lengthen the surgical time often dramatically and make for more surgical risk. Also testing now can be done by the patient in their drive through car, utilizing mostly just the anterior nose and throat which would induce less coughing and sneezing. Therefore the collecting healthcare worker doesn't need to wear as much Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), saving it for in hospital and clinic workers.

     The shortage of this PPE has been a problem across the entire country. My son told me that their hospital was reusing N95 masks and using a period of UV light exposure to sterilize the masks inside a plastic bag. Multiple companies, especially garment makers have retooled to make N95 masks. 3M, the largest producer of these masks has hugely increased its output and is teaching other companies how to make them. Various local people here and there are making cloth masks and even stuffing them with feminine hygiene pads or coffee filters and providing them for some protection, not meeting hospital standards, but useful in other sites where there is required exposure to a large number of people. Small distilleries are using wasted amounts in their drinking alcohol production to produce hand sanitizers and are delivering them to local hospitals and other places that are in need. Various large manufacturers are retooling to make more venilators which are always in short supply

     One thing that President Trump and his team have done very well is to involve the private sector in answering the many shortages and needs of the pandemic. Now private labs have stepped up to make rapid testing kits. Already the virus has been RNA sequenced and within 2 months the first group of people have gotten a vaccine for its first trial, totally skipping trial in animals. It also has been found that antimalarials may help treat this disease. Someone noted that countries or areas in Africa and in South America where people are on antimalarials don't seem to have many cases. A study was done in France that is very promising. These drugs are already being used and our government is allowing this as long as these patients are part of a study to get the data as the drugs are used. There is also a new antiviral, called remdesovir, ?sp. Many individual people and small groups of people have started to make masks and sew full body suits that protect our health care workers. Individuals and very small companies even with just s single 3D printer are making face shields. In other words, the movement against this virus and protection against it has been a combination of government management and gathering of the most up to date and wisest knowledge, of the private capitalistic production abilities of our big companies, and the small but just as dedicated efforts of tiny businesses and individual people. This massive effort though not making itself effective just yet on the illness numbers, will in the end defeat the virus. Our form of government and current leadership combined with our capitalistic economy will win in the long run.

     The former paragraph sounds very positive and it is. But there is no doubt that we are taking a big hit both in illness which is overwhelming our healthcare system and has at least temporarily destroyed our economy. It is going to take a long time to come back from this. And my husband and I are no doubt going to be isolated in our home for many months even after others are going back to a more normal life because we are at so high a risk that we cannot take a chance on becoming infected.

     One of the interesting things that has made a lot of news is the run on toilet paper. Why was that the one item that people hoarded and worried so about not having enough? This is still a mystery and will remain so, I guess. Another run on goods was the dramatically increased sale of guns and ammunition. There is certainly more reason behind this buying spree. This pandemic has led the prepper like me and many other people in addition to worrying about the disease and how to protect against getting it and the economic loss the mitigation of the disease has caused, to begin to think about what this combination could cause if it advances much further in society. That fear is that we would have a breakdown in society and great civil unrest. Preppers worry about protecting what they have gathered to weather this pandemic from those who might come to take what they have. Hence people want to buy a gun.

     I am a prepper and I admit it. Some people laugh at this fact about me. If they could see me not worrying about getting to a grocery store now and just digging into my supply of freeze dried food, they would laugh less. But one thing I did not have was a gun. I did join a range club, take two courses on shooting, one for beginning shooters and one for learning about Conceal and Carry. I have shot two different hand guns a few times at the range, but I had never taken the step to buy a gun. I decided this was the time to do that. However, I had waited a little long, Many stores were out of 9 mm handguns. Then I tried to get some ammo and at least two gun stores that I called had none on their shelves. Finally I found a range and gunstore down in Racine, WI and was able to get a gun held for me as well as 2 boxes of 9 mm ammo, though I had only one choice there. The more expensive copper or brass coated shells were sold out. I just had to take metal jacket which I think is nickel. Then I could not take the gun with me that day, because there was a backup at the Department of the government that ok's background checks. I waited in the store a short time but the background check was put on delay. Two days later it had passed and I had to drive back down to Racine to pick up my gun. Soooo...... though I had planned to buy a gun all along, like many others, I was affected by the mass fear and effects of mob mentality and I went out and bought a gun. I didn't buy any toilet paper though so I didn't totally lose rational judgement.

     I am going to do a little research on the drugs that might be useful for COVID 19, and on the vaccines.  In the next report here I will try to give you some up to date info. There is some hope there. It is just gong to take some time to accomplish this.

     Stay safe out there and practice the hygiene and physical distancing from others recommended by all health scientists. But don't practice social distancing. Call your loved ones. Call those you haven't talked to in years. Send emails, texts, and even snail mail cards to raise other spirits. And we will get through this.

March 20, 2020:  The Pandemic

   
Notice the above date. An interesting combination of numbers. Maybe our numerology expert can give us some information on their significance. Well, we are certainly right now as I write this and as you read this experiencing a fantasmagoric event which shall be forever recorded in history. We are experiencing a very frightening pandemic of the Coronavirus Covid 19.

      It started in China in probably December but the Chinese Communist Party hid its presence from the rest of the world. We did not learn of it until the very end of December, 2019. Now there were two previous Coronavirus epidemics that were not so bad. In 2001 to 2002, SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory syndrome, started also in China and did spread around the world but not to any great extent. It seemed to peter out on its own and did not harm economies of the world. Then in 2012 to 2014, MERS, Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, started in Saudi Arabia and might have had something to do with camels. It stayed mostly in that area, though there were two cases in the US in 2014. But fortunately that one also died out. In the beginning, the hope was that this novel Coronavirus would act the same way. However, China was hit very hard especially in the province in which it started. Then we heard of cases spreading in South Korea and elsewhere in southeast Asia. Our President, Donald Trump, made a fairly early decision to shut down the US to Chinese travelers especially from this province but also in general. Our west coast particularly receives large numbers of Chinese nationals daily and the fear was that this would rapidly import the virus to our country. Indeed, Trump faced harsh criticism for doing this so early. He was called racist, xenophobic, and even Nazi, for this decision. However, he went on to make light of the risk to our country. There is no doubt he was trying to reassure and calm the American people, but he was blamed for being slow to mount an all out protective and aggressive war on this disease. The problem was complicated by the fact that for the last 30 years, much of our manufacturing has been moved to China and we depend on them for all sorts of parts, and indeed large percentages of our pharmaceuticals, and even our hygienic protective gear like face masks. Meanwhile, the virus hit Italy dramatically because they had not shut down their borders. We have continued to close our borders, but the virus is here, as it is all over the world. It is a health, economic, and worldwide disaster. At this point in time, none of us know what will happen from here.

Since one week ago today, there have been hourly changes in our status in the US. Currently everything is closed: all sports activities, schools, gym, restaurants and bars, and many many non essential businesses and services. The State of California is on a modified lockdown, with people only going out for food, or health care. Likewise New York City is locked down in the same way. In addition, there are hot spots in New Jersey, Florida, Washington State, and the Los Angeles and San Francisco area. Wisconsin is just starting the climb of cases with our first 3 deaths in the last 2 days and with about a thousand confirmed cases. This disease seems to be at least 3 times as contagious as Influenza, and it especially become lethal for our seniors and those with underlying health problems. Those are the ones who mostly die, but young people can also get sick enough to be hospitalized. Yet many young people get a relatively mild cough and cold but with fever. There is evidence that some almost don't realize they have this disease but shed the virus, a very dangerous situation. 

      Well, to try to avoid what is happening in Italy and Europe, and Iran, as well as China and southeast Asia, our economy is being closed down. The stock market has lost almost a third of its value from 3 weeks ago. And it is expected that there will be many more cases that are beginning to overwhelm our supply of ventilators and our protective health gear for the first responders and health care workers. There is huge debate about how to handle this. I feel that some good things are being done: the private sector is being called in to replace and add to the manufacturing of these health items that are in short supply. Hospital ships and even the possibility of cruise ships being moved to New York, San Francisco, LA, and maybe Miami to provide more hospital rooms. But our health care workers without enough protection are going to get sick themselves and there will be no one to staff these ships. Car companies are saying they can retool to make ventilators, but that will take some time. The Federal Reserve is doing what it can with interest rates, and Congress is slowly passing bills to provide money, to stimulate the economy and help people who are out of work. Tax day has been postponed to July 15. Prisoners who are due for release are being let out of prison because the virus is getting into the prisons. Meanwhile fear of civil unrest has made most gun shops sell out and ammunition is no where to be found. Well, I can't even  begin to log here all the effects of this virus and our government's response to try to save lives.

     Well, I guess I would like to chronicle my reaction to all this. It think it is very typical of the average person over 65 in this country. We began to hear a lot about this about 10 days ago. Still we had no confirmed cases in the Milwaukee area and no evidence that there was community spread. All cases to that time had been tied to either international travel, or to national travel to hotspots in the US. These cases were still being isolated and their contacts were still being traced and self quarantined at home. A week ago Wednesday I drove by the grocery store and the parking lot was full. There was an obvious panic buying spree going on. I joined the panic a little bit though I had stocked up a few days before. The comical portion of this whole event was that people were wheeling cartloads of toilet paper to their cars. We have never discovered what that was. Hand sanitizers, disinfectant wipes, and rubbing alcohol were to next to fly off the shelves.

     That was the first sign to me that we were in big trouble, much worse than just a normal flu season. It was being emphasized so strongly that we oldies were so much more at risk for lethal complications. No one knew entirely why, but statistics seemed to prove this. And Italy being one of the oldest countries in the world, citizen age wise, had death rate running very high, maybe 8 to 10 per cent.

     One night last week, I lay awake thinking about what I would do if one of us got sick. I have somewhat of a special case. My husband is mild to moderately demented  and would not be able to take care of me if I got the disease. I am having trouble explaining to him how we need to keep the outside out of the house and not contaminate surfaces in the house with things that have come from outside. I will say that he is washing his hands more than usual. If he got the disease, first of all he is at high risk for complications and severe disease because he is 83 years old, and has moderate renal failure in addition to the dementia. How would I take care of him without getting the disease myself. I began to run through some things I could do in my mind: use separate bathrooms, separate bedrooms, keep our areas apart, continue to wipe down all surfaces even more than I am now. I would be totally isolated in my efforts with no family in the area and no one to turn to. All of these thoughts kept me from sleeping.

     In addition, coincident with this, perhaps because of me being on my feet more and running more errands to try to get ready for this event, I developed worse left sided back pain with radiation of an
intense ache into my lateral left thigh and upper left calf. Clearly I had a pinched nerve in my back. I went to see my internist who agreed with me and gave me a Medrol dosepack. Great! Now I was on an immunosuppressive dose of prednisolone while a lethal disease is beginning to run rampant. At my Spirit Mind body group a week ago Thursday, I didn't hang around afterwards and on Friday at my water aerobics class I participated well away from others in the water and refused to play Canasta. After all, playing cards for 3 hours passing these cards from person to person without touching our faces, seemed very unhealthy to me. The next day, Saturday, I decided we would self quarantine except for having to go out to get groceries, or gas. I also have had to go out to get a prescription for gabapentin for my back when the Medrol Dosepak gone, my pain began to come back. When I go out for these necessary trips, I wear an N95 mask I have saved since my retirement 11 years ago, and I wear plastic gloves. Of course, being a physician, I understand sterile precautions and so I try to wipe down the inside of the car and door handles, and leave the packages that I can sit in the cold garage for 24 hours so  that any virus particles on the paper bags can disappear. I handle the plastic bags and plastic wrap with care and dispose of it with care and wash my hands all the time. When I come into the house I wipe off  the doorknobs and take off my coat and put that one aside for 2 to 3 day and use a different coat to go outside the house the next time. I immediately wash my hands then.

    When I have to go to the bank, I just drive through. I use some alcohol in my car and cotton balls to wipe down the air tube carrier and to wipe down my ID after if I have to put that in the air tube container. If I use my credit card in a store I wipe it down with alcohol afterwards. It really becomes exceedingly anxiety producing to remember the order in which to do all this. I have no idea if I am exercising over kill for this virus or not, but I know that we just cannot get this bug. I could not handle it emotionally within our little household. Suddenly I know how a pathological germophobe feels.

     Our sons and their families are also going through some sort of hell. My younger son has a 2 year old and his wife is 5 months pregnant and very nervous about all this. They live in California, which is a hot spot. They are practicing all these safe practices as well and my son is reading all about whatever new info comes out. Sometimes this might be a little encouraging but mostly it just adds to the fears. My oldest son is of course Chief of General Surgery at a midwestern University Hospital and is in the thick of things. He predicted last week that all elective surgery would be curtailed to preserve ventilators, hospital beds, and supplies and indeed that has happened.  This will mean a great reduction in income, and he will likely have to go into the trenches to care for the sick.  His wife teaches pharmacy and though the school is closed, she may be called in to deal with pharmaceuticals in the hospital. Their two boys at 13 and 10 are home alone and dealing with that. I worry about all of them.

     No one can predict in any reliable fashion how long this will go on. It is true that our country is behind others in the onset of this spread here. That is because we closed our borders early. But we are having logarithmic increases in the infected and in deaths now. On an optomistic side, most agree with how the President is handling this and government in combination with the private sector are stepping up to help out. All of our experts and our President and Vice President are thinking outside the box to try to think of thousands of ways to help contain the virus and its spread, help the economy, and to help all those who have been sidelined at home and have no income coming in due to that fact. We are seeing thousands of little acts of kindness and ways to help people. Since many churches are closing, one priest held drive through confession in the parking lot. Everything is being done electronically and more and more ideas are coming forth to supply more electronic help. We have a new neighborhood hotline on our phones and people are volunteering to make runs to some of the few drive through restaurants to pick up food  for anyone in the neighborhood to help support those restaurants. Perhaps we can maintain some degree of perspective and also hope that this will be over soon.

     I plan to start posting every day or so describing our life under these circumstances. If nothing else I think it will have historic interest for readers who find my work many years later. That probably will be one little old lady like me who is interested in genealogical work and wants to know what her ancestors' lives were like during this historic time.

     Hello blog readers. I must admit total delinquency in posting to this blog. A year and a half have past since I have been true to my goal here. I have no excuse other than the journey of life itself and its various complexities. But here, at last, is another post.

     I have been reading a book.  I often make this announcement to my friends who gather for coffee after our water aerobics class. One or the other of these friends usually cut me off right there and say, "Well, good for you." or "Isn't a book remarkable?"  Well, this book that I want to tell you about here is a truly remarkable  book.

     This book is more or less the life story of Tal Keinan who is an American Jew who in order to find his identity decides to become an Israeli citizen, as a 19 year old. He becomes an Israeli Air Force pilot and later instructor. After his military service is complete in Israel, he founds a company called Clarity for which he works half a year in Israel and half a year in the US. The book is well written and reads well as his life story. But mixed in with his experiences are very thoughtful analyses of the economics, sociology, religion, current divisions in politics of Israel, and the future challenges to the survival of the State of Israel. 

     I guess I am particularly interested in this topic, because I am an American, formerly a Protestant, now married for 52 years to an Israeli sabra. We have lived our married life completely in the US but at one time we considered going to live back in Israel. But my husband thought it would be difficult for me, not only being a non Jew but also because in the 1970s, life was just not as easy in Israel as it was here. There were not the aids to daily living that we had here in the US. There were no delis, no laundromats, no ease in finding household help. It was just harder to maintain a household. I was going to be a practicing physician and would need all those aids that I could get. So we made the decision to stay in the US. Now from this book I am indeed learning how difficult it would have been to go back and live there. That is not all I am learning. This book is not just for the Jew or even for someone directly connected to Judaism like me. There is a tremendous amount of info to learn on the current stalemate that the State of Israel is in. It's future is very questionable. I am half way through the book but the review says that the author has some ideas for ways out for Israel but the State needs to bring together the various factions and form a unified vision taking into account all the divisive forces. No doubt it will be tricky to accomplish this. But the world needs a unified Israel and this ideal needs to be accomplished. 

     To give you an example of just one of the deep dilemmas that the author considers, he speaks about the Israel Air Force and its missions to respond to and protect innocent Israeli lives when Hezbollah from Lebanon, and Hamas from Gaza are lobbing rockets into Israeli villages to kill civilians there. The Air Force is often called in to carry out very tricky operations to eliminate those bombs or the firing squads. But neither of  these terrorist organizations care about their civilians and they hide their munitions and themselves in private homes, hospitals, schools, etc. This makes it exceedingly difficult to prevent the use of the rockets or to retaliate. Accordingly Israeli forces do sometimes inadvertently kill Palestinian civilians. And then, often the world reacts negatively on Israel, whereas there was not even record of the rockets falling  on Israel that forced Israel to react to protect itself. Here is what Tal Keinan says about some of these opinions and how they hurt in Israel.

     "But they (the Air Force pilots) pay a personal price,  and large segments of the Israeli and world Jewish population fail to acknowledge it, A smaller but growing segment even view their defenders (Air force pilots and soldiers in general) with scorn. This attitude is not sustainable.

     "When mission we flew were condemned in global forums, I found I could accommodate the most unrestrained hypocrisy with equanimity. I did not care much about the misinformed opinions of commentators and institutions that had not been moved to action when Jews were being exterminated (in the Holocaust). We were no longer relying on these people to protect us, and we would not seek their approval when we protected ourselves.

     "It was the Israeli press, and the occasional global opinion piece by a European or an American Jew that upset me.  It was a betrayal when a Jewish writer ignorantly portrayed us as cavalier in the face of Arab civilian casualties as if we were not doing everything in our power to prevent them, as if they did not haunt us personally, as if it had never occurred to us that they harmed Israel. When i read a Jewish writer casually throwing around nonsensical terms like 'disproportionate response' as though this war was a business transaction in which we would readily exchange the life of an Israeli civilian for that of a Palestinian civilian, as though defense by whatever means necessary was a privilege in which only American or Europeans were entitled. I felt undermined by the very people I was serving. "

     This double standard has always been present in world dealings with Israel. This is just one conundrum that the author eruditely considers. I highly recommend this book.

     

Muir Knoll, Madison, WI

     The current issue of On Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin Alumni Magazine has a picture on the back page of what it calls Muir Knoll. I certainly have memories of this hilltop on campus in Madison, but I never knew that it was called Muir Knoll, named after of course, Wisconsin's well known naturalist, John Muir. This spot on the bluff overlooking Lake Mendota is located just North and across the street from Bascom Hall, and just up the winding road from Student Union down on the Lake.



If you still can't place this spot, here is a link to youtube containing various slides of the Knoll during its recent history. It is the last slide that shows the picture I remember as a large part of my future life and it occurred on Muir Knoll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMF3dE5IYhg

     Now do you remember it? The area is just north of Bascom Hall and is really the north extension of the peak of Bascom Hill. Observatory Drive passes by this bump in the hill projecting toward Lake Mendota. The Lakeshore Path leaves this open grassy area and continues east along the shore of Lake Mendota through a woods that appropriately enough is named Muir Woods. Following Observatory Drive in its double back path to the west takes you down to the UW Theatre attached to UW Student Union at a even level with Lake Mendota.

     Muir Knoll has quite a history that I was not aware of. When UW's own John Muir was a student at UW, he had his first botany lesson taught to him by a fellow student by the name of Griswold, who taught Muir to identify a black locust tree growing on the knoll along Observation Drive. Muir knew that its flowers at the time looked like pea blossoms and he couldn't understand how the members of one plant family could include the flimsy vining pea and the majesty of a black locust tree. This lesson had a significant meaning in Muir's life and he long remembered it. This north knob of Bascom Hill was dedicated as Muir Knoll in an elaborate ceremony on the site in 1918 A plaque on the Knoll marks this occasion.

     In the 1920s a group of students with faculty support built a wooden ski jump from the Knoll down toward Lake Mendota and there was participation in competitions for about 10 years on that wooden jump. Later as the wood deteriorated, it was replaced by a strong steel jump, that was used off and on until it was torn down in 1953.

     Also various professors would hold class outdoors in good weather on the Knoll. Best known was the "Folk Lore" meetings held by the director of the Historical Society which led to another name for Muir Knoll -- Storeyteller's Hill. The Folk Lore Meetings even preceded the ski jump era.

     I suspect that Muir Knoll was always a popular love trysting spot. It is told that even the ski jump became part of such lovers' meetings. That is how I remember the Knoll. I met my future husband at the Student Union the summer before I entered Medical School at UW Madison. We spent much of that summer together as often as we could be together outside of both of our jobs -- me as a microbiologist in the Entomology Department and my boyfriend (future husband) was working two jobs, one in the physics lab and the other as the swimming pool keeper at a private dorm on Langdon Street just west of the Union. He had a second floor apartment on State Street. I was at that time living on Orchard Street near Regent with a roommate I brought along from my undergrad years at University of Iowa. I remember one night that fall as my boyfriend and I began to talk about our future, we walked up from the Union to Muir Knoll. At that time there was no stone circle there as there is now. That was created in ??. There was just the stone bench. It was a chilly fall night, but we sat on that bench and talked about what we were going to do with our relationship. Our backgrounds were so different, he from Israel and Jewish, and me nothing at the time, but certainly having been raised a Protestant. What would a marriage between us look like? We agonized over this for a couple months. But I recall that discussion beginning that night on Muir Knoll. And yes, there was a lovers' tryst between us which began at that time.

     Just to let everyone know, that we finally quit agonizing over our relationship. We decided to jump into life together even though my family was very negative. We got married the following summer. And this last June 10, 2017 we celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary. That is why you saw a post about our Anniversary Trip to Yellowstone Park a few posts ago where we also brought our two sons and their families together with us.

     Who would have thought that it all would be starting there on Muir Knoll? Life is certainly an amazing surprise. I think if we are willing to just jump into life and take a risk, at least for me and mine, things work out. There may be rough spots, but my philosophy of life says that "It always works out!"

What drifts by on Lake Michigan

     My husband and I have now lived on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan north of Milwaukee for 19 years. I never tire of the view of this lake. One of the most exciting things to view from our large east facing windows is the weather. The oft remarked cliche: If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes" is certainly personified by what I see as I look out over the Lake.

     Given my longtime interest in birdwatching, it is not surprising that I am constantly on the alert for birds flying along the Lake front, or resting on the lake. Of course, given that our bluff is about 100 feet high, and about 2 acres long, any birds on the surface of the lake are necessarily quite distant. However, if I see something unusual, I will do my best to get a photo. The following series of photos was taken in about 2010. For some reason in May of that year, a small family group of tundra (whistling) swans decided to come to rest just off of the point of land that our lot makes into Lake Michigan. They spent half a day just resting and floating and in general gathering energy to continue their migration north, I assume. I called everyone that I could think of and invited them over to take a look through my spotting scope. Here are a couple photos that I obtained during that time. There is a photo of the bluff as well. This was when I was still trying to slow the erosion on the bluff. I had thrown a whole package of vetch seed over the bluff and this plant had seeded quite well. There are still some patches of these plants notable on the bluff. This seed was used a lot on roadways but it was found that such a monoculture was hard on wild life and also the plant became invasive and difficult to eradicate. It has invaded natural areas from roadsides where it was planted to control erosion. I didn't know this at the time that I threw the seed over the bluff, but even so our bluff was so defoliated at that time I was excepting of any plant growth at all. Other plants have now replaced some of this crown vetch.

Tundra swan family resting for 1/2 day on Lake Michigan.

The purple flowering vine in lower right side of photo is the invasive non Native vetch, called crown vetch

         This year, a large number of white pelicans have been seen at various locations along the Lake Michigan coast, in quite large numbers. I am always amazed at my ability to look up and see something unusual out over the lake. I happened to be weeding my flower beds in June, when I looked up and saw this group of large birds flying north and then they turned and flew back south toward Fox Point, north of Milwaukee. I later had postings on friend's facebook about seeing these birds at various points and parks along the southern Wisconsin Lake Michigan shore. They are magnificent birds especially in a large group like this.

About 500 white pelicans in Manitowoc, WI harbor on June 17, 2017.

Photo by P. T. Wallen, published in Herald Times Reporter of Manitowoc.

     As the years have passed, wild turkeys have become more and more common in many urban areas. The Milwaukee area and our backyard are no exceptions. Here are seen a group of hens grazing their way across our backyard. Sometimes I have noticed that they have a hard time learning from one another how to get over these fences. These birds in these photos seem to have figured it out pretty readily, but I have seen a single left behind hen run up and down along this fence for a couple hours rather than fly over it. I don't know if this is just laziness and difficulty thinking about flying over or if it is ignorance. I guess I have never thought of turkeys as extremely bright birds.
     However, I may be wrong. I have done some research on wild turkeys in Wisconsin. By the 1970s due to hunting, these birds were almost absent from Wisconsin. However, they were re introduced in various natural areas in the central part of the state accomplished with a trade of Missouri turkeys for Wisconsin ruffed grouse. At this date, turkeys are prominent in all 72 Wisconsin counties including urban and suburban Milwaukee County. Apparently our bird feeders, and overgrazing by deer have provided food and the forest edge habitat that the turkeys like. They may be more adaptive than we have ever thought. They have even been seen on the Federal Plaza in downtown Milwaukee. The absence of predators such as coyote where humans are very populous also helps them succeed very well.

     Living here on Lake Michigan, we have been fortunate to have a pair of bald eagles as close neighbors for about 8 years. Now I am told that their nest tree has collapsed but I still occasionally see them on the bluff so they are still nesting in the area. In the photos below, we have one of that year's youngsters sitting on our neighbor's chimney.

You can see that this is an immature bald eagle because of the lack of a white head, and the amount of white on its body.

One Baltimore oriole among many; this one waiting its turn for the jelly feeder.

White crowned sparrows and goldfinches at the feeders and oranges for the orioles in May.

My water feature in the late fall: this year's bluebird family bathing in the water and on top of the icy coating.

In this series of photos, a Cooper's hawk has grabbed a songbird and is cleaning the carcass before taking it back to its youngsters in the nest.

A spotted towhee, on the ground. This bird's famous call: "Drink your tee!"

      A certain times each year, we see huge numbers of dragonflies going up and down along Lake Michigan. They seem to be particularly attracted to Lake Michigan, though they are seen in few numbers inland. They are feeding on flying insects and my theory is that since there is no vegetation on the Lake and therefore less insects, these "hawks" of the insect world congregate at Lake Michigan's edge. This particular species is quite large and beautiful and goes by a common name of the green pond hawk.

Monarchs have become somewhat more rare due to habitat loss; here is one on my Echinacea.

     Of course, no natural history section about Lake Michigan would be complete without the white tailed deer, an animal that is at once lovable (Ah, Bambi.) and also in my mind as a flower gardener, a huge species of "rat", that is prolific and destructive. But what human can look at the bottom two photos and not have a warm hear?

     Milwaukee is lucky to have the Denis Sullivan Great Lake Schooner, a partial copy and hand built in Milwaukee by over a thousand volunteers, and over a million volunteer hours, conceived and designed in 1991 and completed in 2000. Above the water, this Denis Sullivan looks very much like the cargo lake schooner that plied Lake Michigan waters in the 1800s. It has 3 masts, ten sails: 3 main sails, 3 raffees, 3 jibs and a flying jib.  Below water this ship varies from the lake schooner for safety purposes in that it has a much deeper weighted keel allowing 6 foot 4 inches of head room below decks. This type of ship was once commonly used to ply the waters of the Great Lakes. As far as we know this is the only modern lake schooner in use in the world.  The Dennis Sullivan spends summers in Milwaukee, offering day sails, and tours, and participating in various Tall Ships events in port cities up and down Lake Michigan. In winter, it usually sails up the St. Lawrence River and out to sea to winter in either Florida, or the Caribbean, returning every summer to its birth at Discovery World Museum in downtown Milwaukee.

     Beginning on August 13, 2012, Chicago hosted a Navy Week of celebration at Navy Pier commemorating the bicentennial of the War of 1812. Many activities centered on this well known landmark in downtown Chicago. Two US Navy ships, a US Coast Guard ship, as well as two Canadian Navy ships participated in this celebratory week at various times. The Canadian Navy ships were the HMCS Moncton 708 and its sister ship HMCS Summerside 711. These two Canadian ships are in the Kinston class of coastal defense vessels. Built n 1998, the Moncton is a minesweeper type vessel but also has participated in world wide Canadian deployment, several times to the Arctic in Operation Nanook, to participate in naval exercise off Denmark and Norway, to West Africa also to participate with naval exercises with the Liberian Navy, and various other missions around the Canadian eastern coast. The Moncton is 181 feet long, 37 feet wide, and draws 11 feet. I am telling you about this ship, because I looked out at our little segment of the lake one morning and there was this grey large ship anchored off our point. With the binoculars I was able to see the Canadian Maple Leaf flag, and I could see its classification number MM708. This allowed me to identify it. The ship was anchored there for most of the day. At times some seamen were working over the side of the ship on its aft, I thought, perhaps painting. This was in 2012 and I am sure the ship had come from its deployment to Chicago. By evening the ship was gone.

     Of course, any gathering of what is viewed on lake Michigan has to include sunrises, sunsets, the moon rise, clouds and storms.

Fifty Plus Years and Things are the Same Between Us.

     I like to look up people from the past, both ancient long dead relatives for my genealogical collections as well as guys and gals that have been part of my own life. I keep track of my college roommates, not often, but at least once a year. And I have traveled sometimes fair distances to meet up with these friends from the past. One time during my life I got in to big trouble with my husband because I looked up an old boyfriend. Facebook was not available then but we began emailing. He had been pretty interested in me, but the feeling wasn't mutual back in college, and I am afraid that I dumped him rather brutally. But this time in our emailing, I found some interest on my part. We met a couple of times and I enjoyed those outings. My husband knew about our meetings, but then he found some of the emails that this guy had written to me and I got into trouble. Needless to say this fellow and I mutually ended our communications. I read a book once about such renewed past relationships. There is something in the brain circuitry that makes these connections very very dangerous. Both individuals apparently see themselves as their much younger selves. They readily step back into their roles and feelings that existed between them when they were vibrant, active, young people. If these pairs are available, unmarried, and capable, a new relationship can develop, sometimes even more powerful in nature than the original one. Such renewed relationships are the subject of novel and movie. And of course they are the subject of emotional and sad stories when they have a tendency to break up established marriages. I didn't fully comprehend this at the time. I read the book afterward. My husband once told me that he had telephoned a gal that he had known in college. He knew she was married, but he was in her hometown and just wished to talk to her. She had not been his romantic interest, but they had just been friends. She answered the phone but when she found out who was calling, she refused to talk to him, said Good Bye kindly and hung up. She was much wiser than myself and many other people. I have not contacted any other members of the opposite sex that I knew in the past since this experience.

     However, I have contacted several previous girl friends from college and I have looked for many others. I had a roommate for one semester in college, then she left the school. I found her and she and her husband have visited me twice two years in a row at my home as they were traveling in the area, and likewise, I and my husband have visited her when we were traveling in her area of the country. We have thoroughly enjoyed those visits and will possibly do it in the future. I have made contact with a couple other college female friends and found them. We have become Facebook friends. By the way it is much more difficult to find former female friends. Marriage changes names and they tend to drop out of sight.

     About 8 months ago I was successful in finding a college friend whom I had been looking for for some years. I don't know why she didn't appear in search sites before. But all of a sudden, a search site opened up and there was her name, address, and phone number. She had been a medical professional, had retired, but the licensure board still retained her information and this time the search site (a free one, interestingly) found the listing.

     She was taking a friend to a medical appointment in my previous college town nearby. We arranged to meet for lunch in that town. I was familiar with some places to meet and some places to spend time together. I enjoyed meeting this gal so much. We talked and by chance seemed to have similar political viewpoints. She told me all about her interests in retirement, her hobbies, several of them quite creative, her travels, and future plans. I was taken by her same sort of edgy sense of humor, though she has mellowed considerably. Her memory of our friendship and all the times we spent together was somewhat lost but to me she seemed much the same. I also loved to hear the same laughing out loud that she could do in response to our joking and just looking at life with a humorous not too serious viewpoint. This experience again showed me just how important these old connections are to me. So far, I have found that the people I find and establish a connection with, continue to be interested in maintaining the connection. That's why the opening cartoon seems so indelibly true.

Dignity: A Statue Honoring Indigenous Peoples of the American West

         
In my previous post, I included the Rest Stop on I 90 just east of the Missouri River as a deserving stop on the drive west to Yellowstone Park. The large Visitor Center here in addition to the usual such as tourist information, vending machines, clean restrooms, green space, and picnic tables is a museum devoted to the Lewis and Clark Expedition which traveled on the Missouri River through the Chamberlain, SD area on both the out trip and the return. there is a typical campsite that the very military Expedition, requested by the President of the US would have used. there is also a plains Indian tee pee and campsite which represents the indigenous peoples that were in the area. There are also several taxi dermic examples of local animals to give an impression of the natural history of this area. Hanging overhead of these exhibits is a mock up of a large keelboat that would have been the Missouri River transport for the expeditionary forces until the Missouri became to small to handle this large boat. One can climb a small stairway and view the inside of the keelboat. It is true that this is a very small representation of the local Akta Sioux Nation that lived in this area at the time of Lewis and Clark. If one wanted more information the Akta Sioux Museum down the road would provide that better.
  

      But the feature that makes this stop so worthwhile is the stainless steel statue entitled "Dignity" which is a relatively new addition to the Interpretive Center. When I saw this statue, I was almost certain that it represented Sacajawea. But apparently the sculptor intended this indigenous woman to be much more inclusive and to more expansively represent the indigenous women and the entire culture of the Native Americans of the plains.

     A Wikipedia article tells us more about this exquisite statue. This stainless steel 50 foot high statue was designed by South Dakota artist laureate Dale Lamphere, assisted by sculptors Jim Maher, Andy Roitgen and Grant Standard. An automotive paint expert Brook Loobey helped with the colors for the quilt she is holding behind her. Albertson Engineering of Rapid City, SD engineered the statue to withstand the winds that occur on the prairie and especially on this point of high ground. The statue was given to the State of South Dakota in 2014 in honor of the 125th Anniversary of South Dakota statehood by Norm and Eunabel McKie of Rapid City. It was erected in September 2016 at this Rest Area site. Three Native American women from Rapid City were used as models for this statuesque representation. The quilt she holds has a star design with 100 blue diamond shapes that move with the wind and are described by the artist as moving "like an Aspen leaf." As of July 1, 2017, South Dakota residents can purchase auto license plates bearing the likeness of Dignity.  The sculptor plans to put the name of every federally recognized tribe on a stainless steel band around the base of the statue. Lamphere said, "I wanted something that would really honor the indigenous people of the Great Plains and I kept that in mind all the time. I made the work reflect the name that it has of "Dignity," and I think that's the part of what makes it work so well."