No surprise that Taiwan mounted one of the most successful efforts to contain COVID to date. Transparent, vibrant, and innovative democracies like Taiwan always respond faster and more effectively to pandemics than authoritarian regimes. Secretary Pompeo@SecPompeo Tweets with no apparent irony on the day US cases go over 1.5 million with over 90,000 deaths compared to Taiwan’s 440 cases and 7 deaths.

Sunday, we lived high from the supply chain breakdown.

For lunch, we had takeout Dim Sum from H. L. Peninsula Restaurant in South San Francisco. H. L. Peninsula is a large Dim Sum and banquet restaurant based in China and we ordered the Stir-fried Lobster Noodles on special for $14.99 and it included a full lobster. Our first reaction upon opening the box was shock but then it occurred to us that, in another time, they did a lot of banquet business and lobster dishes were great for celebrating. Now, with zero banquets, they have too many lobsters.

For dinner, we had duck breast curry. A neighbor had posted on a local bulletin board that they had a friend in Sonoma who owned a duck farm that supplied ducks to restaurants and that business had dried up leaving them with a passel of dead ducks they had to get rid of. Michele got two huge duck breasts for six bucks a pound and six legs – and thighs – for about seven bucks a pound.

Our orchids, which spend most of the year outside, have no idea that the world has changed this spring.

Nor does our Aloe Plicatilis which we bought from Grigsby’s Cactus Gardens probably fifteen years ago.