LOCAL PAPER NEWS

There's an item in my local paper today about the Ebola virus patient. The doctor caught it while doing missionary work in Liberia and was flown into Atlanta where he's recovering at Emory University Hospital.

Heck, he didn't need to go all the way to Liberia to get sick.

In this same paper was an item about a CDC scientist who accidentally mixed a deadly form of bird flu virus in with a tamer strain and then kept quiet about it. The supposedly tamer stuff was sent to other labs where unsuspecting employees played with it for several months before discovering what they were messing with.

And right on the tail of that scary item followed another about the trial in a deadly contamination of a Georgia peanut plant.  The owners allegedly covered up lab tests and knowingly shipped tainted products, knowing they tested positive for salmonella.

Woo hoo! Why go off to foreign countries to risk your life? Stay here at home and see what happens!

TREE LIMB DOWN

I opened the blinds the other morning and looked out. A lovely English lady in our neighborhood usually walks early in the morning and was passing by. But she had stopped, staring at something in our yard.

A tree limb had fallen. No rhyme or reason. It just fell. Yes, it had drizzled a bit during the night but this seemed an excessive reaction.

My guy gets out with his lopper before he brings out his electric chain saw (his big saw has been with a relative since our move). A neighbor across the street sees and comes over with his big chain saw and cuts it up. He even gives us a phone number for someone who'll haul it away. So by lunchtime, we were back to normal. Except for the gaping hole in the tree.

When the leaves come off this autumn, guess it'll get taken down. Now we have to decide what to plant in its place so we can have some shade in the evenings.

I was later told Bradford pears often split like this.

I knew I never liked that sucker for a reason. Besides the awful smell, I mean.

ISLAND TO BE INUNDATED

Big headline on yesterday's local paper -- "Study says Ga. coast vulnerable to flooding" -- scared me to death. Yes, I know a hurricane will one day hit and cover the island, but I feel we should have plenty of time to get us and the cats out. However, the article was about global warming.

It seems that with the seas rising (I guess from the arctic and antarctic ice melting), we are in extreme danger of being flooded. By 2100, the model predicts the oceans will rise 3.1 feet. The article gives lots of percentages for different scenarios (hurricanes among them) but the main thing I get is that, by the end of the century, we may be in trouble. I am horrified.

Down at the pier this morning, we sat in rocking chairs at the Casino and looked out at the rain on the ocean. And I'm thinking, could this be the one? Could this be the storm? How much water will it take?

I'm quite upset. Now, besides killer bees and alligators and the sun fading, I have to worry about rising waters. My nerves won't take much more.

My one consolation is that not that many years ago, everyone was predicting another ice age and warning temperatures were going down, down, down. Maybe in another couple of decades, scientists will come up with something else I can worry about.

NEW USE FOR CAT POOP

A blog about forensics led me to this interesting article.

 http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/16065/20140716/parasite-discovered-cat-poop-combat-cancer.htm

What is says basically is that there's a parasite in cats' intestines that stimulates the body response in a person similar to the one that fights cancer! Normally the cancer shuts down the immune response, but this parasite (which can be found in cat poop) might actually jump start a stronger defense! (They're testing the resulting drug now, ironically, in mouse models.)

I'm impressed.

And all this time, I thought my cats were full of hot air when they proclaimed themselves superior beings. Guess I'll have to apologize. And treat their litter with more respect.

And speaking of litter:  Here's Roz giving me the evil eye because her box isn't clean.

COMPANY

If any of you have been wondering where I've been the last few weeks, I've been crazy!

Yep. We've had three different sets of company from the beginning of July. The last ones left this week and the house is so quiet, I can hear all its creaks and groans.

It may have been a little hectic at times, but it's always so nice to see people we love that it doesn't matter. And once they're gone, we really miss them.

Anyway, that's where I've been.

Some pix from our walks around the island with our visitors. Here are a couple of ducks who wandered away from their pond and out to the sidewalk:

And here is the new playground at Mallery Park just before it opened. They also cleaned up the older playground beside it and left it so kids can enjoy both. Our county does such good work on things like this!

VISITORS

We've had visitors for several days, including the Fourth of July, and hope to have more in the next week or two. Since we've been busy with them, we've just now got around to getting more food for Mr. Piggy.

Yep, Mr. Piggy. The squirrel who tried to take over the bird feeder.

Our new feeder seems to be keeping him out though. The cardinals and some others are back to eating at it, but I don't think they like the landing posts as much as the tray on the old one. I had to take these pix through glass so they aren't too sharp, but here's the female cardinal at the new one.

Mr. Piggy tried eating from it, but it slides down and covers the feed holes when he puts any weight on it. He was quite frustrated.

So we're leaving the old one up for him. He can eat and strew seeds to his heart's content.

FIREWORKS

We went down to the pier in the Village for their fireworks display. It was wonderful, as usual, with the fireworks exploding directly overhead. This year they added music to the display, and I couldn't believe how much it enhanced the spectacular! Here are a few pix my guy took:

Hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth!