Six random thoughts (9/27/2019)

It has been an interesting few days here in Virginia, or here in the US. I will try to go through some of them point by point, more to chronicle what is going on and what is on my mind. Most of it should probably not be new to many of you, but so be it.

1. We are in a drought here in eastern Virginia and we have a heat wave. Temperatures are still around the high 80s (or above 30°C). Normal temperatures should be somewhere in the low 70s (20°C). Our trees are wilting, the leaves are shriveling up and I actually have to water with city water. It seems that the hot, dry weather is not going to break for another week or so.
2. On the other hand, we had 40" or 100 cm of rain in coastal Texas, again.
3. Guess this is all a sign of global warming, the dreaded climate change. We had a huge conference at the U.N., which culminated in a weird standoff between the current occupant of the Whitehouse and the young climate activist Greta Thunberg (watch her speech <here>).
4. The climate week ended with a worldwide strike and we participated! (See the photograph below). I found it very important to join the youth and our Unitarian church members in standing up for the future of the world. I wanted to show my solidarity. As I often write in my blog, I think climate change is the most important issue facing humanity.
5. We are intensively training for a 60 mile bike ride in two weeks. This has raised my metabolism so much that in the past month I lost 5 lbs and it seems I am always hungry. The issue now is going to be adjusting after the bike ride. I would love to keep losing, but winter is supposed to come and that seems to curtail my biking. Climate change seems to impact spring and autumn more than the extremes: summer and winter, or the extreme hot and cold spells.
6. Finally, I have been glued to the news about the news about the possible impeachment of the current occupant of the Whitehouse. It seems that he runs the place like a mafia boss but with less class. What a surprise. It seems to be far worse than what Nixon did.

I tend not to post pictures of my ugly face but here is one of me during the Climate Strike on September 20th, 2019.  It is kind of a shame that the news of the corrupt occupant of the Whitehouse overshadowed all this and the conference on climate change at the U.N.   

Some six random points that I want to make sure that are recorded in my blog and on the Internet for posterity. Not that I expect that the climate conference and the revelations in Washington are not going to be etched in the psyche of this nation, the internet, or even this world.  However, I want to make my small contribution to it, just like me previous post, where I revisited 9/11.