March 6-10--

Monday--

Good weekend. I spent a good bit of time on a scrap afghan and consolidated all my orphan yarn of the right weight to use in the project. I decided to learn a new stitch, the Catherine Wheel, which is looking quite good so far. I am about one-third finished with the new place mat using some yarn I found on sale. And I made progress on a stamped cross-stitch table scarf that has been languishing for weeks now. Most of the seedlings I started are doing well. I pulled the one sickly tomato plant but I have two more thriving plants. I need to transplant the eggplant and peppers. Those are all very small varieties and will remain inside. Mom noted that she is almost out of basil. This year I have four varieties already started (Thai, sweet, lemon and lime). so we should be good on that after they are big enough to harvest from. I rearranged plants so I have room to start the outside plants in about two weeks.

I was wondering when someone would ask this question: are we facing a water "affordability" problem? The article focuses on urban populations but I have read of problems in rural and small towns as well as aquifers and other sources of water dry up.

Tuesday--

The Rude Pundit had an article that doesn't incorporate his usual lewd level of rudeness. I haven't--yet-- approached his level of hatred for the Tangerine playing at being president. And my feelings of disgust/distain/nausea are more generalized. Trump is where he is thanks to trends in our society and economy that have accumulated over the last forty years, thanks to idiots who wanted to "take back their country" by robbing me of mine. thanks to Americans who live in the "land of the free and home of the brave" but are enslaved by fear and at home with their cowardice, thanks to those who need scapegoats for their own feelings of outraged entitlement.

Wednesday--

Thursday--

Well, if what Mom read this morning is right, the Repthuglicans passed their bastardized replacement for the ACA out of committee last night. Par for the course, they did it in the dead of the night. Let's see if they can get it through the house. Looking up the news I found that the actual measure passed out of the Ways and Means committee involved revoking the mandate that everyone have insurance or pay a penalty. That eliminates the money flow to the insurance industry and the penalties the government relied on to fund other parts of the ACA. Death by a thousand cuts???

Just moved my outside pot tower to its new home. I wanted easier access to all parts of it and it wasn't easy rotating the pots. It is now on the stool where one of our bird feeding plates was. I found two cells of chives thriving and several possible survivors among the strawberries. I didn't do much outside because the temperature is still a bit cool but I was nice to be looking at things outside again. Maybe I will start the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants for the outside gardens.

Friday--

An interesting fall-out from the late election: the Mexican sugar chamber can't find anyone to negotiate with in the U.S. Commerce Department because Trump (or his Secretary of Commerce) hasn't filled the relevant staff positions. The sugar chamber has, as a consequence, cancelled sugar exports to the U.S. Evidently, from this Reuters story, the story is far more convoluted.

I am glad to see someone actually has the guts to call out the Repthuglicans on their heartlessness. They don't have any mercy in them.

Just put the patio sized peppers and eggplants into their individual pots to join the tomatoes which are doing nicely. I also transplanted the rosemary I started from cuttings last fall into a larger pot and put it in the window with the plant I took the cuttings from. I also got all of the basils (Thai, sweet, lemon, lime) into individual pots or into cells of the tiered planter. We'll see if all of them like their new homes.