Yesterday at the park there was a four foot rat snake in an oak tree, and two guys, dressed all in black, were taking photos of him.  They called me over as Mikio and I were passing and I identified the snake, with some certainty, as a rat snake.  It was an interesting event, and I wondered why both of these young men were dressed in black shirts, black slacks, black shoes.  They were quite friendly and I was picking up a good, positive vibe.  Other strangers wandered by briefly and made attempts to identify the snake.  I stayed for a while as I didn't want anyone to come along and tease, bother, or possibly kill this non-poisonous snake that is good to have around.  Eventually he climbed higher into the tree and disappeared and I felt it was okay to leave.  One of the guys was a seminarian at a local catholic church, St. Martin de Porres, and he encouraged me to attend mass.  The other guy was a visiting friend.  During these days of self-imposed sheltering at home, it was nice to have face to face encounters with other folks, even though I wore a mask the whole time.  They did not. 

Prior to this pandemic, I found myself being rushed to St. David's hospital were I stayed for 3 days awaiting a diagnosis.  Blood was taken every four hours around the clock, heart tests were performed, various specialists were called in.  My red and white blood cell count was very low as was my hemoglobin.  I was given a blood transfusion that didn't seem to help much.  I was so weak I could hardly walk across the room without my heart pounding and becoming breathless.  It took a while, but it was eventually determined that I had bleeding duodenal ulcers.  The good news is that such ulcers are easy to treat and the cause of the ulcers was NSAIDS which I had been taking routinely for pain in my knee.  I didn't realize how dangerous such over the counter medications were.  Now I know.  Beware of NSAIDS, especially on an empty stomach, no matter what medical advice you are given.