Emergency Action Plan California 2010: Fill & Download for Free

You’ve got it completely backwards!The one who is being judged unfairly is Obama and the one given a pass is Trump.1. Which Epidemic was worst? Let’s use your logic and assign blame based on the number of people killed during recent flu epidemics. In other words, the president with the most influenza deaths gets the most blame. Here is the US death toll for influenza over the past 10 years from the CDCTable 1: Estimated Influenza Disease Burden, by Season -United States, 2010-11 through 2018-19 Influenza Seasons"2009-2010 12,469 <==== H1N1 Swine Flu epidemic2010-2011 37,0002011-2012 12,0002012-2013 43,0002013-2014 38,0002014-2015 51,0002015-2016 23,0002016-2017 38,0002017-2018 61,000 <==== Highest recent flu mortality.2018-2019 34,157CDC - Burden of Influenza 2010–2019CDC 2009 pandemicThere are several things to notice about these numbers.The 2009 flu season had the second LOWEST death toll of any year in the past 10 years.The 2017 flu season had the HIGHEST death toll of any year in the past 10 yearsIf Obama failed in 2009, then Trump failed 5-TIMES WORSE in 2017.The 2009 and 2017 flu seasons came at exactly the same points in their presidencies, so you cannot say they aren’t fair comparisons.Of the two years of the Trump administration that we have data for, both are worse than 2009–2010 flu season under Obama.2. The Current Epidemic is much worse than 2009. According to predictions by disease control experts, the current Corvid-19 pandemic will be much worst than any recent flu season.A. According to a prediction by the American Hospital Association, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic will be:Infections: 96-millionHospitalizations: 4.8 millionICU Admissions: 1.9 millionDeaths: 480,000That would be 40-times the 2009 epidemic under Obama.US hospitals preparing for millions of hospitalizationsB. According to the CDC's predictions, the outcome could be even worse. According to their top modeler, Matthew Biggerstaff, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic will be.Infections: 160 million to 214 millionHospitalizations: 2.4 million to 21 millionDeaths: 200,000 to 1.7 millionIn the worst case, the Coronavirus epidemic could 142 times worse than 2009.CDC’s Worst-Case Coronavirus Model: 214 Million Infected, 1.7 Million Dead3. Presidential Actions. Trump deserves more blame, because his actions have made things worse.A. Immediate Response. Obama responded very quickly to the H1N1 epidemic:Time-line on Obama's response to the H1N1 epidemic:April 15, 2009 - The first infection identified in California.April 25, 2009 - The WHO declares a Public Health Emergency.April 26, 2009 - Obama declares a Public Health Emergency.April 26, 2009 - The CDC began releasing anti-viral drugsApril 30, 2009 - Obama asks congress for $9 billion to fight the epidemicJune 11, 2009 - WHO declared H1N1 a pandemicJune 26, 2009 - Obama signs a bill for $7.7 billion to fight the epidemicJuly 24, 2009 - Obama renews the Public Health EmergencyOct. 1, 2009 - Obama renews the Public Health EmergencyOct. 24, 2009 - Obama declares a National Emergency.Fact-Check-Dot-Org H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic Time-lineObama’s rhetoric reflected the seriousness of the situation. On April 30, 2009, four days after the WHO declared a Public Health Emergency and 15 days after the first American case, Obama held a news conference and called the H1N1 virus a "serious situation," while calling on some schools to close:"First, we are continuing to closely monitor the emergency cases of the H1N1 flu virus throughout the United States. As I said this morning, this is obviously a very serious situation, and every American should know that their entire government is taking the utmost precautions and preparations. Our public health officials have recommended that schools with confirmed or suspected cases of this flu strongly consider temporarily closing."And finally, I've asked every American to take the same steps you would take to prevent any other flu: Keep your hands washed; cover your mouth when you cough; stay home from work if you're sick; and keep your children home from school if they're sick."The President's Remarks on H1N1B. Obama’s Response Worked. Again, the 12,469 deaths was the second lowest in the last 10 years. The average death toll from the seasonal between 1979 and 2001 was 41,400 deaths so Obama’s response pushed the number down to 30% of normal.2009 flu pandemic - WikipediaC. Trump Denials. Trump, on the other hand spent the last two month denying that there was any problem:Trump's Response in the days after the first US case:Day-1 = "we have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It's going to be just fine."Day-3 = "It will all work out well."Day-7 = "We have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment - five. And those people are all recuperating successfully."Day-10 = "We pretty much shut it down coming in from China."Day-19 = "Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away,"Day-28 = "I think the numbers are going to get progressively better as we go along."Day-32 = "[The situation is] very much under control. We had 12, at one point. And now they've gotten very much better. Many of them are fully recovered."Day-35 = "We're going down, not up. We're going very substantially down, not up."Day-36 = "It's going to disappear. One day - it's like a miracle - it will disappear."Day-40 = "We're talking about a much smaller range of deaths than from the flu."Day-43 = "It's very mild."Day-45 = "Anyone who wants a test can get a test."Day-46 = "I'm not concerned at all."Day-49 = "It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away."A Complete List of Trump’s Statements on the CoronavirusC. Dismantled Pandemic Infrastructure. But that’s not the worst part. In response to Ebola epidemic and the Swine Flu outbreak in 2009, the US government spent eight years building the infrastructure, systems, training programs, funding and personnel to handle a global pandemic.When Trump came into office, he systematically eliminated nearly all of the programs.In 2018, he fired government's entire Pandemic Response Team.In 2018, he eliminated all the White House Medical Emergency Management Infrastructure.In 2018, he fired and never replaced Ronald Klain who was in charge of coordinating the US government response to a national infectious disease emergency.In 2018, along with the Republican congress, he cut $15 billion from disease-fighting operational budgets of the CDC, NSC, DHS, and HHS.In 2018, he ordered the National Security Council's entire Global Health Security Unit shut down.In 2018, he ordered the Department of Home Land Security's Epidemic Team to be shut down.He eliminated training programs for local medical personnel.In 2019, he cut $2 billion in Global Disease fighting funds.Trump forced out Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer, a Bush era appointee who had been leading the global health security team at the White House's National Security Council.None of the systems, infrastructure, personnel or funding has been restored. We don't even have enough masks and latex gloves for medical personnel to handle an emergency.Trump Has Sabotaged America’s Coronavirus ResponseTrump says U.S. in 'very good shape' on coronavirus. Health officials aren't so confident.D. Completely Predictable. Even worse, the current situation was easily predictable. In fact, Trump’s own Health and Human Service personnel predicted exactly the kind of situation we are seeing today. In October of 2019 HHS analyzed what would happen if there was a pandemic with a virus that was just as contagious as the 1918 flu and slightly less deadly. They predicted the kind of supply shortages we are seeing today:The current medical countermeasure supply chain and production capacity cannot meet the demands imposed by nations during a global influenza pandemic.Further compounding this challenge, global manufacturing capacity will also be unable to meet domestic demand for medical countermeasures, including personal protective equipment and ancillary supplies (i. e. , syringes ), and it is anticipated that countries will keep their own stockpiled supplies for their own citizens. Domestic supplies of on -hand stock of antiviralmedications , needles , syringes , N95 respirators, ventilators , and other ancillary medical supplies are limited and difficult to restock , because they are often manufactured overseas.https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/6824-2019-10-key-findings-and-after/05bd797500ea55be0724/optimized/full.pdf#page=1===========================Update-1:===========================Some people have pointed out an opinion piece in the Washington Post by Tim Morrison that says that Trump did not get rid of the Pandemic Response Office.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/16/no-white-house-didnt-dissolve-its-pandemic-response-office/Morrison is a Republican lawyer who has spent most of his career as a Republican congressional staffer. In 2018, Morrison was appointed as senior director for countering weapons of mass destruction "arms control and biodefense issues" on the US National Security Council. As an attorney, he wouldn't have any expertise on infectious diseases, pandemics or public health in general.Tim Morrison (presidential advisor) - WikipediaMorrion's defense of Trump seems to be that the positions weren't eliminated, they were just shifted to different departments as a part of a reorganization of the National Security Council. Here's is excerpt from his article:"One such move at the NSC was to create the counterproliferation and biodefense directorate, which was the result of consolidating three directorates into one, given the obvious overlap between arms control and nonproliferation, weapons of mass destruction terrorism, and global health and biodefense."There are several problems with Morrison's explanation:1. First, reorganization is the typical strategy for getting rid of a program. Civil service rules make it hard to fire all the people you want to, so you move people around in hopes they will get tired of it and quit. That's what they did with the BLM, when they moved all the jobs from DC to Grand Junction.The Problem with the BLM Moving to the West2. Morrison himself called his actions, "downgrading" the "characterize as a downgrading of global health security.""The personnel changes, which Morrison and others characterize as a downgrading of global health security, are part of Bolton's previously announced plans to streamline the NSC."https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/05/10/top-white-house-official-in-charge-of-pandemic-response-exits-abruptly/3. Morrison's reorganization got rid of many of the top advisers with expertise in pandemics. For example, Rear Adm. Timothy Zieme, who is charge of global health security was fired on May 10, 2018 and never replaced. Likewise, Tom Bossert, who was in charge of "comprehensive biodefense strategy against pandemics," was force out.https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/05/10/top-white-house-official-in-charge-of-pandemic-response-exits-abruptly/4. The reorganization was meant to shift the staff away from public health and refocus them on bio-terrorism. Bio-terrorism is a military issue that is very different from a global pandemic. Obviously, shifting the focus away from public-health, means we would be less prepared for a public-health emergency.5. The previous head of Global Health Security for the "National Security Council" says the Trump administration "dissolved""I was mystified when the White House dissolved the office, leaving the country less prepared for pandemics like covid-19."She also said that the reorganization made us less prepared for Covid-19:"In a health security crisis, speed is essential. When this new coronavirus emerged, there was no clear White House-led structure to oversee our response, and we lost valuable time."https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/nsc-pandemic-office-trump-closed/2020/03/13/a70de09c-6491-11ea-acca-80c22bbee96f_story.html6 Trump himself, admitted that he was deliberately cutting epidemic preparedness programs at the CDC, NSC and other executive branch agencies:"Some of the people we cut, they haven't been used for many, many years. And if - if we ever need them, we can get them very quickly. And rather than spending the money - and I'm a business person - I don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them. When we need them, we can get them back very quickly."Trump Defended Cuts to Public-Health Agencies, on VideoTrump's own statement underscores the flaws in the administration's policy.Only having experts around when you need them, shows that he doesn't understand the problem. The whole point is that global pandemics are rare and, because they are rare, the normal health care system has no experience with them and doesn't know how to handle them. You have to put teams together years in advance, so they have worked out all the kinks when the time comes. If you wait until there is an epidemic breathing down your neck, you have to solve problems on the fly and won't be able to keep up, which is exactly what we are seeing now.===========================Update-2:===========================Here are some more links giving details on how the Trump administration downsized, shutdown and reorganized the governments pandemic teams. (Thanks Joe Willmore.)'Gross misjudgment': Experts say Trump's decision to disband pandemic team hindered coronavirus responseHere are the disease-fighting jobs Trump did (and didn’t) eliminate

The federal aid being requested by the Democrats in the House are above and beyond Covid-19 issues. They want a significant amount of federal dollars to be fungible in order to prop up the underfunded pension systems promised to public sector labor unions.The unfunded liabilities have been ignored for decades by Democratic Party governors and mayors.The Bottom Line: Illinois’ Public Pension Debt Is A Moral IssueCalifornia's State and Local Liabilities Total $1.5 Trillion | California Policy Center$5.2 Trillion Of Government Pension Debt Threatens To Overwhelm State Budgets, TaxpayersThe Congressional system is currently broken. It’s next to impossible to pass legislation during an election year because most of the House and Senate bills passed don’t have legs enough to pass both houses for reconciliation for presidential signature.Here is why 15 Democratic Party Congressional Representatives voted against Pelosi’s “Heroes Act”.The 14 Democrats who broke with their party on coronavirus relief voteEDITORIAL: Democrats’ HEROES Act an embarrassment of pork, liberal policiesHence, Trump’s executive orders attempting to extend unemployment payments and prevent renter evictions through the use of his “pen and phone” ala Obama.President Trump signed four executive actions Saturday to provide additional jobless aid, suspend the collection of payroll taxes, avoid evictions and assist with student-loan payments. Mr. Trump made the moves as talks in Congress over a broad new coronavirus aid package remained deadlocked and are seen as potentially accelerating talks.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and others said Sunday that Mr. Trump had breached congressional spending authority with the moves, and that his plan wouldn’t provide enough relief. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin defended the legality of the actions and countered that holding up relief for millions of Americans could have consequences.Here is a breakdown of the executive actions.What did President Trump announce on jobless aid?Mr. Trump said Saturday that the administration would roll out a $400 weekly payment, funded 75% by the federal government and 25% by states. It wasn’t clear if the states would go ahead and provide that share, given that many of them are facing budget shortfalls due to the coronavirus-sparked recession.“We’re looking at it right now to see whether we can do this,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said on CNN Sunday. New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo rejected the plan as “just an impossibility,” saying the state’s 25% share would cost it $4 billion that it doesn’t have.A Labor Department spokesman said late Sunday that states are encouraged, but not required, to provide the extra $100 a week per person, meaning recipients could still get the additional $300 even if their state doesn’t provide extra funds.Supplemental payments from the federal government of $600 a week expired recently, but Congress hadn’t agreed on a replacement.Under the executive action, the additional jobless benefits will be paid from the Disaster Relief Fund, the government’s primary source of money to pay for emergency costs. The extra weekly benefits would be available until Dec. 6, about a month after the Nov. 3 election, or until the disaster fund’s balance drops to $25 billion, according to the executive action. To pay for the benefits, the action sets aside $44 billion from the disaster fund, which currently has a balance of about $70 billion.The administration said states could tap the $80 billion in remaining money from an earlier round of state and local aid to help make their 25% portion.The move by Mr. Trump came as negotiators made no progress in bridging the Democrats’ proposal to restart benefits at the $600 rate and Republicans’ desire for a lower rate, of either $200 a week or 70% of previous wages, when combined with state aid. In negotiations with Democratic leaders, Republicans proposed renewing the federal benefits at $400 a week.What did Trump say about evictions?An executive order signed by the president Saturday directs the Treasury and Housing and Urban Development departments to identify funds to provide temporary financial assistance to renters and homeowners who are struggling to meet their monthly rental or mortgage obligations during the pandemic. The order also directs HUD to take action to “promote the ability of renters and homeowners to avoid eviction or foreclosure.”It doesn’t reauthorize the eviction moratorium set in the Cares Act that expired at the end of July. That applied only to properties with government-backed mortgages, covering just one-third of renters. Housing experts say the best way to prevent a wave of evictions—and a domino effect of defaults and foreclosures by landlords—would be for Congress to enact a nationwide eviction moratorium and appropriate money for rental assistance.Regulators could potentially instruct the government-sponsored mortgage corporationsFannie Mae and Freddie Mac to offer landlords forbearance on their monthly mortgage payments if their tenants can’t pay rent, assuming they don’t evict the tenants. But Fannie and Freddie are overseen by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which is independent.The order directs the FHFA to “review all existing authorities and resources that may be used to prevent evictions and foreclosures for renters and homeowners.”Other government housing agencies such as the Federal Housing Administration fall under the president’s umbrella, but they technically can’t spend money that isn’t given to them by Congress.What about the payroll tax?Mr. Trump directed the Treasury Department to defer the 6.2% Social Security tax on wages for employees making less than about $100,000 a year. That suspension would last from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31.If employers stop withholding those taxes, the move would deliver an increase in take-home pay just as Mr. Trump is running for re-election but also create a looming liability in 2021 because the taxes would still be due eventually. Mr. Trump said he would press Congress to turn the deferral into an actual tax cut.The tax code gives the Treasury secretary authority to delay tax filing and collection after presidentially declared disasters. The administration already used this authority to postpone a series of spring tax deadlines until July 15 and used it again Friday to delay some excise-tax collections. It is far from certain that many employers will stop withholding payroll taxes given the potential for future liability.What did the president do about student-loan payments?The Cares Act gave most borrowers with federal student loans a six-month interruption of their monthly payments, interest-free. The law applies to roughly 35 million borrowers whose loans are held by the federal government. It excludes about eight million borrowers whose loans are held by private lenders with a government guarantee, under a federal program that ended in 2010. The payment moratorium is set to expire Sept. 30.Saturday’s executive memorandum from Mr. Trump said the administration would extend the payment moratorium and zero interest until the end of the coronavirus crisis. What’s in Trump’s Executive Actions on Coronavirus Aid—and What’s Not

Thanks for the invitation to answer this question.Those of us who live on a boat and voyage are lucky. Very lucky. While Gordon Lightfoot sings:“I can feel that restless yearning of those geese as off they roamThen trade that for a warm bed and a place I can call home”We cruising sailors can be thankful that we take our warm bed and the place that we call home with us wherever we go! As we follow the geese, the winds, the currents or just whatever catches our fancy, every anchorage, every harbor, and even the open sea is our home.A view to the west while at anchor in the bight of Año Nuevo aboveCanoeing out to our boat at anchorWatching Elephant Seals on shore while we're anchored nearbyI'm not someone with numerous bluewater crossings; my sailing is largely what is referred to as coastwise cruising. My recent sailing is along the west coast of North America, mostly California, a bit in Mexico. Those sailors that you hear about crossing oceans are typically following the trade routes unless they're engaged in a race or they have decided to self-inflict a bit of challenge.Those of us who find ourselves coastwise cruising are just as often fighting headwinds and currents as we might be enjoying the often more leisurely downwind sailing like that found with the trade winds. While the mere idea of extended bluewater sailing is a fearful thing for some landlubbers, many more sailors are much more concerned about the land itself—rounding capes or crossing large bays in which the land mass funnels the wind and waves in interesting, unexpected, and sometimes very dangerous ways.Pointy rocks...one of those capes...Point Conception on a sunny day...and below is a sail by the inside of the Farallone island group.There are many true stories of the cruising sailors who continue sailing westward, following the trade winds and circumnavigating all the way around the globe, simply because they cannot bear the idea of a lengthy beat to windward in the process of getting home. I can laugh a bit about this but my own sailing days have been full of quite short trips. Whilst some passages have been brutal in terms of weather, winds, and seas, none have been unbearably long against any of these conditions. My longest trip aboard without going to shore is a mere three weeks. Have I sailed beyond of sight of land? Sure, it's often safer there—and I often feel more at ease there as well, especially at night. Experienced big winds and seas? Check. Sailed with gale force winds? Yes. Hurricanes? Well, no. Scary anchorages? Yes. Dealt with emergencies? Sure, that's all part of the normal life of those who live aboard and sail—as far as I can tell, at least. Our ability to rise to the occasion and make the best of things is a common trait among sailors.Is it a beautiful and worthwhile endeavor—this ocean sailing? Oh, yes, most definitely. The excitement of slicing through the waves while beating to windward through a late season gale and the exhilaration of downwind sailing unexpectedly barreling down the wave faces at hull speed while offshore make me realize that these are the exciting moments for me to cherish. With countless days at anchor – whether lazy summer days fishing in the sun or keeping the boat warm with the solid fuel Shipmate while standing a late night anchor watch in the warmth and comfort of the cabin during a winter blow, I find this is an amazingly fulfilling lifestyle. I hope that anyone interested in sailing the world's oceans finds a way to make it their own lifestyle--even if just for a single voyage.Putting Up Tell-Tales on a foggy day above, fixing sails in a sunny harbor below:These days, along with my husband and cat, I live aboard and sail a restored pre-WWII classic schooner. OK, the cat doesn't sail, she supervises. In general we three—man, woman, and cat—make up the crew; on occasion we've had another person or two along and that is very nice—someone else to share watches and help out.This sailing life shapes the way I see things in our world. The longer I sail, the more I believe it is a most enriching life. Trips are planned, but when things really go wrong, you have an adventure–you can’t plan an adventure. Things seldom go according to plan at sea. Thus we have adventure after adventure after adventure. Adventures at sea are more real and somehow more fulfilling than I ever imagined they'd be. Thoreau originally said, and Abram Collier wrote further about it: “Men go back to the mountains, as they go back to sailing ships at sea, because in the mountains and on the sea they must face up, as did men of another age, to the challenge of nature. Modern man lives in a highly synthetic kind of existence. He specializes in this and that. Rarely does he test all his powers or find himself whole. But in the hills and on the water the character of a man comes out.”As a little girl, and later even as an adult, I used to be afraid of the dark. On land, what I imagined could be lurking in the dark was always far worse than anything really there. Here, at sea, I realize that night sailing in the inky darkness of a storm is much kinder to the nerves than actually seeing, as we do in the light, the crushing power of turbulent ocean waves around the boat. I also learned on the sea that sailing the open ocean with nothing in sight but the stars twinkling all around is a peaceful treasure each and every time.When dolphins play in the bow wave at night or a whale surprisingly breaches nearby it is easy to understand the imagination that brought us the sea lore of mermaids and sea monsters. One morning, after an all-night sail, during which I'd watched several Risso's Dolphin shrouded in ghostly phosphorescent bubbles swimming under the hull, it was quiet because of flat waters and nonexistent winds. I could hear the growing sound of a wave approaching slowly behind me. It was a strange sound on the calm dark ocean right before sunrise. I became increasingly nervous as it sounded very large as it grew close. I closed the hatch and began frantically searching the horizon with binoculars—looking for the wave.My mind searched for a familiar reason for this sound and I wondered if there had been an earthquake and this was the sound of a tsunami wave nearing? I finally saw it in the distance, white frothiness on top of the black still water, I hoped it was only a few feet high. As it got closer, it seemed less than a meter tall and I realized it wasn't just a water wave, but a wave made by hundreds of dolphins line jumping and swimming in the direction of the same anchorage that I was slowly sailing towards. As they passed me, the boat rocked up and down, the noise carried forward of the boat, the sun came over the land mass and I watched them progress towards shore. I could see that, in an hour, I would arrive there in the protected bay with the dolphins who had passed me. What started as a fearful thing became a beautiful sight. I love the night sailing and I've done the early morning watch so many times that I can say with certainty that no matter the weather, it's a tiring time on a short-handed vessel and when the crack of light begins to show in the east, I'm happy to think that soon I'll have rest. Every day I find that sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset are all beautiful at sea.Sunrise along the California Coast:Sailing gives me a chance to do more than I ever thought I could. Since no one is around to save the day—or even care whether or not it is saved—I find I must do it myself. This opportunity doesn't often come to me in our civilized world but it happens for me all the time at sea. For example, during each of my watches, it is I who must decide to raise or shorten sail, when to tack or when to jibe based upon the conditions at hand. Good sailors say “Set your sails for the wind you have, not what you wish you had nor what you think is coming soon.” This sounds good–and achievable–however it is surprisingly easy to ignore this good advice. In October of 2010, I was at the helm, the wind was howling and blowing like mad, so much so that we’d tied the mainsail down at the 2nd reef, the jib was tied to the bowsprit netting, the foresail secured and only the tiny staysail left unreefed. In the black of the night along a hostile coastline with high winds and nasty seas, I’d acted prudently, yes. Though it was my watch, it is a two person matter to change sail on our vessel. So, we were both up and taking action. My husband returned from the foredeck before he went below for some rest, saying he felt just like a surfer in the curl of a wave—even well-reefed, we were screaming along beyond hull speed at the time, so he was right—we were quite literally surfing. I don't like surfing. Hand steering in the large, steep, and confused seas, with no prior experience in such conditions on this boat or any other, I was totally terrified that I'd make a mistake at the helm. I didn't falter, thank goodness. I suppose I would have made Thoreau proud, I was certainly proving his point.The next morning, as the sun rose over the land and we headed onwards, the winds calmed. The sea state rolled onwards but the wind was no longer there, only a tiny zephyr remained–teasing us. I though, “oh, the winds will return. Surely.” As we rolled uncomfortably side-to-side and only creeping along, the reefed sails not doing much to dampen the roll of the sea, I was reminded of a chapter in Bob Griffith’s book Blue Water where he discussed this very thing: Sail with the wind you have now–not that wind you had a little bit ago nor what you think is coming soon!And that day, like other days, we shook out the reefs and raised more sail to capture the available wind. Not the wind we wanted, nor what we thought was coming–we were working with what we had. The rest of the trip, we worked with what we had–sometimes barely a wisp and sometimes nearly a gale. Putting in reefs and shaking them out–that’s what we sailors do.Everything in life really works the same way. I’ve collected a small cache of quotes to remind me to simply get on with things! “Do not wait for ideal circumstances, nor for the best opportunities; they will never come” said Sister Janet Erskine Stuart, a 19th Century nun and educator. At the start of the year, I placed one of my favorite quotes by sailor Pete Goss at the head of our blog page “If you are going to do something, do it now. Tomorrow is too late.” I've discovered that sailing well prepares us to take needed action in other parts of our lives. The challenges encountered while sailing force quick, decisive action with no regrets, no looking back in judgement but only to learn and then to just a focus on what is coming next and how we'll address it.A cold day of sailing with me outside above and inside letting the autopilot work below.Coming into anchorage during thunderstorms and NOAA reports of waterspouts this day:So, what can I really tell you about my experiences while sailing besides the fact that it's good therapy for procrastinators because sometimes we're scared into making good decisions? Well, there comes a moment, almost every day, when I look around the boat–seeing something about the boat, the waterscape, the weather, the landscape beyond and I think “this moment is the reason we’re here; it is priceless.” Here, as in, voyaging on a sailboat, to be exact on this classic old schooner. Priceless, as in, beyond a value that I can quantify.Today, that moment came when a Western Grebe dived for fish near the stern.Yesterday, that moment came when a seal swam by in the still waters of a quiet anchorage.Last month, that moment came when at dusk, the sun set over the nearby wetlands and the dew began to fall.One day not long ago, I smiled in the moment filled with the smell of seaweed and sight of all the tiny crabs scampering about on a seldom used mooring pickup line.Another day, a misty daybreak with dewdrops sparkling on the wood combings gave us a breathtaking background to our routine of weighing anchor.Recently, on a sail down the California coastline, the winds, waves, and sail combined such that moment after moment unfolded before me with all the reasons in the world to be thankful for this time sailing.Western Grebes AboveAn overcast anchorage above and a few sunny ones below