So Sad about the Nixing of Re-usable Bags

How sad for the environment!  Just when I thought one good thing about the pandemic was that Earth was getting a break, I found out that it wasn't just Safeway where the science was week.  There's now a six-county ordinance saying that we can't bring re-usable bags unless we pack them up ourselves outside the store!

I just sent the reporter an e-mail messages.

Dear Shawanika Narayan,

Thank you for your report on the 6-county ban of reusable bags, especially for pointing out that this is an unfortunate blow for the environment.  I'm glad you pointed out that the coronavirus can live on cardboard for up to 24 hours and up to three days on plastic but that its thoght to be passed mainly by respiratory droplets between people in close proximity.

Do you know how long it can live on canvas bags like the reusable kind?  

I'm worried that this ban is going to send a message that will last after the pandemic is over, and people will think that there's something dangerous about reusable bags.

Thank you!

Tina Martin

https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Six-Bay-Area-counties-ban-use-of-reusable-bags-at-15182959.php#

51 of MUNI's 68 Bus Lines Will Shut Down

I feel so sorry for people who are in the "essential" work and need a way to get there other than driving.  (I'm thinking of them and of the environment.)

In today's SF Chronicle it was reported that 51 of MUNI's 68 bus liens will close "as riders, operators stay home."

"Hello humankindness," said the bus I saw on my walk to Grandview Park a few days ago.

San Francisco Homeless to Be Sheltered in the Palace of Fine Arts

The Palace of Fine Arts will begin serving as a homeless shelter as early as at the end of this week, March 10, with 20-25 to come in and planning for a total of 162.

It was on Friday, April 2 that Governor Newsom of California said the state would use its thousands of hotel rooms to shelter people living on the streets.

The California homeless population numbers 150,000.   FEMA has helped California identify 15,000 hotel or motel rooms.

Because public libraries have closed, homeless people can't go there for clean water or to use the bathroom.

Moscone Center is being used to house the people in single room occupancies because they don't have their own bathroom or kitchen.

The Red Car through the Atrium and the Living Room

When I see the red car on 20th Avenue across the park from where I live, I think of "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams.

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

I don't think he was talking about practical things--the way we use a wheelbarrow (when it's not parked beside those white chickens)--but about the beauty of it, glazed with rain water, beside white chickens.

When I look through my kitchen window I first see the plants in my atrium, which include 2 red poinsettias still going strong more than three months after Christmas, and then through the glass of the living room window, I can see the row of housing facing mine, and parked in front of one of the houses is a red car.  It's been there for several years now, and I love it.

A Sing-along that Mutes the Singers

I believe in CARA, California Alliance for Retired Americans, but I can't believe that they mute us for the sing-along!

The first one was on Friday at noon on March 27, when 186 people from all around California and even Canada tuned in to participate and found out that there was a lapse between the lead singer and the rest of us, so 186 of us had to be muted!

Because so many showed up virtually on March 27 (before being muted), CARA leaders decided to have this sing-along every Friday at noon for the month of April.

On April 3, thirty-five people showed up.

Notice the title Sing-A-Long Lyrics   That sounds like incorrect number agreement--a long lyrics?
But we know what they meant.

The lyrics are rousing ones like these to the tune of "God Bless America."

"We love our Medicare! Don't privatize!"  and "God bless pedestirans!  Drivers take care."

A Walk Along the Ocean

A Walk to Queen Wilhelmina's Tulip Garden