I’m all for frontline medical leaders and healthcare workers getting this vaccine ASAP, and I totally get medical “celebs” like Dr. Fauci and state officials getting vaccinated publicly by the NIH  to reassure the public that it’s safe and effective.  It’s a momentous occasion.

I just found it humorous to watch them on TV lining up, making their little speech, bravely getting shot up, receiving applause, then forgetting their documents and running back to get them!  Let’s Play Celebrity Vaccine!  Maybe they should tell repubs it’s morphine, so they won’t be so skeptical!   Whatever it takes.

It was nice out today, in the 50s, so I dug up the compost pile and dumped it on the veg garden, and threw manure/compost on the “veg annex”.  Tomorrow it’s supposed to be ~60º (!), so I’ll try out our new electric rototiller.

Here is a pleasant drink I made up with gin, a touch of açaí liqueur, and a lime slice.

And here are some signs of life on this winter day.  I included the one with just green leaves, because there might have been one or two kale plants there, and they somehow multiplied into a solid ground cover, still green in December.  Nature is always surprising me.

The good news is, the days start getting longer after today.  That’s one small ray of light at the end of a black wormhole of unnecessary deaths resulting from heedless, reckless behavior.

Millions of Americans are choosing to ignore the skyrocketing cases and death toll, in order to travel and congregate as usual at this worst possible time.  Hospitals and makeshift morgues are overloaded beyond capacity.  Apparently we don’t want to live or let our loved ones live to see another spring or each other again.

Maybe Nature got tired of being assaulted and ravaged, and went all Darwinian on our ass, letting us go ahead and reduce our own overpopulation of unfit, stupid DNA.  Unfortunately, sometimes it takes something this drastic to get our attention.  If it does.

Sorry to be so morbid, but this is real, not a game.  I too would like to see loved ones before I die, and see people get back to their lives.  I realize some folks don’t have much choice or access to adequate precautions, but those who do need to exercise good judgment and patience, for everyone’s sake.  We’ve done it before in our history of wars, plagues, depressions, and terrorism, and we can do it now.

And now back to some sunrise scenes on this first of winter.

Today’s not-so-trivial trivia: Tennessee now has the severest outbreak rate and highest risk of COVID per capita, and rising, a dubious achievement.  No surprise there, given the lack of concern of leaders and citizens alike with science reality here, but all the more disturbing.  It’s “herd mentality” at its worst.

Right now TN has over 8,000 new cases per day, for a total of over 503,000 so far.  We have 80 new deaths per day, for a total of almost 6,000 so far.  For a less populous state, that’s extremely high.  It means you probably know at least one loved one or friend who is dying or dead by now.  It has to hit close to home and personally before some people take this seriously, when it’s too late.

PLEASE STAY HOME if at all possible, and continue to take all precautions.  Do not get complacent or fatalistic.  When the vaccines become available to your risk tier, for most of us in 2021, get them!  They are authorized, safe, and our best shot [pun intended] at beating this dangerous virus.  Only when the majority of people are vaccinated properly will herd immunity start to kick in, and some normality return.

Sorry about the somber PSA, but this virus is no joke.  Our response does make a difference.

In more whimsical news, here is Misu’s entertaining squirrel-o-vision.  The squirrels just ignore her.

It’s one thing for your average nobody like me to hunker down and go dormant as winter during a pandemic closes in, the only sensible response IMHO, but not appropriate at all for our psychopath-in-chief to sulk and seethe in his bunker like a big baby, while our country is under attack, whether it be cyber, viral, or from economic distress.

As if that were not enough, our legit Pres.-elect Biden has to dodge repub. obstructions at every turn just to proceed with the routine transition of power.  It’s reprehensible.  I hope trump gets slammed with every criminal/civil conviction he deserves, and all his groveling sycophants with him.

Here’s a cold view from the warmer side of my window, and some herbs under grow lights, under which (not shown) is the very sensible Misu sleeping in her window bed.

Happy last day of Chanukah.  It was one bright week in an otherwise bleak year.  Here are last night’s eight lights burning down, a normal erev Shabbat table, and sautéd fresh veggies Italian style.

It’s cold outside, but without the photo appeal of a monster blizzard like the one up north.  Which is fine with me; the novelty of being frozen without power wears off after a few decades of it.  One of the few saner aspects of the south is winter, merely an interlude between summers, when you plan your spring plantings.

Since nobody knows what the hell dreidel game rules are supposed to be, and they never work anyway, I’m always inventing my own.

Here’s my latest: Magic 8-Ball Dreidel.  It took me all of Chanukah to come up with this obvious function of a dreidel.  You ask the Magic Dreidel something, say, a political forecast question, spin, and it uncannily predicts the future!

Here are sample rules:  Gimel=Yes, Nun=No, Shin=Shit happens, and Heh=How the hell should I know?  I say sample, because the rules are constantly changing.  You can make up your own, as one does.  Try it, it works!

Speaking of miracles, the COVID vaccines are science, but the fact that scientists could develop and start distributing some this fast, despite all the obstructions by trump and cronies, seems like a fitting Chanukah miracle, in my humble opinion.

Isolating may have dampened the festive spirit a bit, but couldn’t snuff it out completely.  That’s the beauty of a minor historical holiday like Chanukah–it’s meant to be enjoyed quietly at home, with family if possible, not turned into a commercial feeding frenzy of stampeding zombies.  It’s a simple, uncomplicated commemoration, without all the unrealistic expectations and letdowns.  So it’s sad when it ends, but it’s not the exhausting expensive ordeal we see all around us.

Here are last night’s seven lights, and tonight’s eight.  Happy last lights of Chanukah 2020!

Here are last night’s six lights, and tonight’s seven.  As always, Chanukah flies by too fast, and the quarantine adds to the sense of isolation, but it wasn’t so bad.  I got to briefly zoom with some family, and E gave me like a whole wardrobe!  A few new sweaters and pants seem like one, anyway, since most of my clothes are literally falling apart.  Plus my lucky loaded dreidel didn’t let me down.  Even Misu enjoyed the festivities.

Last night’s candle-lighting was special in that we had a Zoom (remote video) Menorah lighting with Avdi and friend in St. Louis and D. in Mville.  Just another sign of the COVID times, but not half bad–other than my horrible singing of the blessings!  We’re all improvising during these unusual times–Avdi had to locate a Menorah first, and use birthday candles in lieu of Chanukah ones.  My ancient stockpile of the latter is finally running down, so I’ll have to do a search online for next year’s.  D. had her Menorah and potatoes for latkes.  It’s the closest we’ve come to a fun family occasion in a year.

Hopefully now with vaccines for 2021, conditions will start to edge toward “normal”.  Meanwhile, we make do with what we’ve got on hand, another lesson from the pandemic.

Today’s meal was back to Sephardic-style, with couscous, felafel, baked fish (Cajun, close enough), and fresh-from-the-garden steamed baby carrots and kohlrabi.

Here are: last night’s five lights, and tonight’s setup.

Matzah balls, that is.  As threatened, I made my infamous Jewish penicillin (chicken soup) on this chilly, rainy day.  The balls are pretty boring and routine, but what’s special about this soup are the homegrown carrots!  Yesterday I finally dug them up after a year or more, and some of them were monsters!  Perfect for soup.  There was also an alien kohlrabi (?) out there, and some baby leeks and green onions.  (I also added fresh homegrown dill and parsley to the soup.)

Here also are last night’s four lights, and tonight’s setup.

Sephardic, that is.  I’m on a Middle Eastern Chanukah roll.  Today’s dish featured bulgur wheat, basmati rice, shawarma-spiced turkey, and fresh herbs.

But that’s about to change, like the weather.  This may be the last warmish (60s) day for a while, so tomorrow I may revert to chicken matzah ball soup, an Ashkenazi staple.

Here are: last night’s three lights and tonight’s setup (halfway over 🙁 ), a minty bourbon drink, some fresh-picked collards and red mustard greens in a spicy sauce, and my grainy concoction.