Hilton Head Island: gannet cam; butterflies; a rare illness

 After seeing the photo of the diving gannet in my last post, Dan sent me links to two PBS shows.  The first, ANIMALS WITH CAMERAS, is fascinating on many levels, including the ingenuity of designing cameras that can be worn by various species.  To me the highlight is of course the gannets, which come in at about the thirty minute mark, but it is all good.  And I have since watched a second episode which is set in Australia.

https://www.wfyi.org/programs/nature/television/oceans--animals-with-cameras

The second is a NOVA episode about butterflies.  I have never given any thought about butterflies, but as one of the scientists in the film observes, “Butterflies and moths have solved problems that we have not.” The evolutionary process by which some of their attributes have developed is as astounding as the universe itself.

https://www.wfyi.org/programs/nova/television/butterfly-blueprints

I thank Dan for the links.

You have not heard from me for a while because I am ill.  Not seriously.  I have only a mild virus. But this is rare.  Legends don’t get colds.  I don’t recall the last time I was ill, and since Carol left after New Year’s, I live in almost complete isolation.  I am around other people for only one half hour a week when I bike to a supermarket and liquor store and I wear N95 masks when I am.  Nevertheless something got from one of you to me.  

Prior to the pandemic I would have just accepted this and let it run its course, but many of my symptoms are the same as COVID.  Runny nose, cough, mild fatigue. I have not run a fever.  So I have taken two at home COVID tests, both of which were negative.  I read that two such tests taken at 24-48 hour intervals are 99% reliable.  However we know that you can’t believe everything you read, unless it is written by me.

Today I coughed, reread Mark Twain’s, LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI, and dozed.  Twain journied down the river as a passenger twenty years after he had been a young river pilot.  He was famous by then and charmingly saw a steamboat on the river named THE MARK TWAIN.  He also just reminded me of the Civil War’s Fort Pillow Massacre, an undoubted war crime for which no one was ever punished.

I do not have enough energy to walk down to GANNET, much less to bike four miles to a supermarket.  Neighbors would take me, but I don’t want to subject them to whatever I have.  I am running out of fresh food.  I am going to have to delve into my hurricane/passage supplies, which will last me probably three months, by which time I better be feeling more energetic.  It will be like being on a passage.  However that won’t be necessary.  I am scheduled to fly back to the Midwest this coming Thursday.