African safari during wartime

I'm spending much too much time scrolling through my Twitter feed worrying about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Jenny Scott has persuaded Mary Lou, Lauren, Mark and me to sign on for a very expensive African safari trip in August. We will start in Cape Town South Africa and proceed to Mount Kilimanjaro Tanzania and on through Kenya to observe the Great Migration first hand. All of this seems a bit surreal. But there it is. 

Another obsessive topic of mine is whether I'm doing enough to make the world a better place. I accept that my power to make a difference is quite limited but I do have knowledge, insight and a good deal of money. I feel a certain amount of guilt about my good fortune of having health, wealth and living in a bubble of safety while much of the world is suffering from various evils. Mostly I think about it without taking action. Mary Lou and I have watched several Nature documentaries about South and East Africa over the past few days as well as one about Big Bend National Park. They remind us of the mystery and magnificence of nature as well as the struggle for survival that all living things experience. Creatures battling and preying upon one another is basic to the natural order.

Blood work (edited from earlier entry)

A day in the life is a long series small acts organized around one's needs and goals. Today, I played Wordle successfully for the 88th consecutive time, then lay back down an meditated until 6am, got out of bed, fixed my ponytail, assembled clothing, took some sips of water, shaved with my electric razor, put my smart phone in its charger, conversed with Mary Lou about her day (she's been ill for several days), did 15 push ups, took a shower, got dressed, went to my car, drove to Baton Rouge Clinic for routine blood work.

and a CT scan of my heart to check for calcium deposits, back to the car, drove to the nearby McDonald's, looked at the drive through line and decided it was too busy, backed up, turned right onto Essen Lane, right onto Perkins, drove down to the McDonald's on the corner of Lee Drive, went through the drive in and drove home listening to Anne Roberts being interviewed on the BBC on Sirius-XM. All of this by 8am.