Holiday Scurrying, and White Dolphins

Hi, y'all:

Haven't visited Blogland in awhile due to getting things together at the last minute for Christmas (as always). I got my mother's gift, which is one of the most important ones, as it has to be shipped to Boston. I try to get something for her every year that replaces all the stuff she lost over the years. This year, I got her three porcelain Dresden figurines, of a Marie Antoinette-like lady sitting upon a chaise, and a fellow who looks a bit like Mozart; he sits at a wee piano and entertains the Marie Antoinette lady with (imaginary) popular tunes of the day. I know Mom will like these--my mother used to have several of these sort of things on her dresser. Someone once chided me a little for sending such schmaltzy gifts to my mother--you know, the lady is in her seventies and if she likes schmaltzy porcelain figurines, she gets them.

The Strega household is in its decorating stages--I have been very tardy this year getting things going, as I was studying with my younger daughter Kat for our Red Cross course we took this semester at Cabrillo. I am proud to say that both of us have certification now in adult, child, and infant CPR, First Aid, and automatic external defibrillator. I am very proud of Kat, for this is her first class and her first step towards her goal of being a paramedic.

I guess one wish I have for Christmas this year is that governments begin to realize how crucial the environmental situation is. I just read yesterday that a rare Chinese white dolphin, which lived in the Yangtze river, was declared extinct just a few days ago. Its demise was due to both noise and environmental pollution in the river. I keep praying that maybe a few are hiding somewhere and are able to find each other. There were plans for a breeding program for this species, but they can't implement it without the dolphins, obviously. This dolphin was known as the goddess of the Yangtze. Now it is probably gone forever.

There are so many terrible things happening around the globe and in this country that perhaps a species of dolphin going the way of the passenger pigeon is a small thing, but it is, to me, a warning. At any rate, instead of preaching, I have included a video of the dolphins so people can see what they looked like. Please let me know if the link does not work.