Friday December 7

Nothing much going on. The weather is much the same though we should get more sun which is always nice.

I finally found my tatting needles. You know the frustration of knowing you have something and you simply can't find it. I found my shuttles sometime ago and put them in a spot where I can get at them. The What-not Room has been reorganized so I can actually be able to find most things. I still haven't tackled the closet. That may remain a project for the new year. I actually started looking for a new set of tatting needles but couldn't find any anywhere locally and most of my usual on-line needlework outlets no longer carried them. Ah, well, that is behind me. Now I can relearn the little tatting I learned once upon a time.

So the social scientists are finally getting on to this phenomenon: households composed of very old parents and their old children. I wonder what notions the not-old-at-all researchers will find to tell us-who-are-old about our own lives.

THIS is supposedly the best advice a former general in charge of our forces in Afghanistan had for our current Secretary of State--and it is pathetic. What we need is a modern Walter Cronkite to tell the American people that this is a lost cause. Unfortunately, in this age of corporate media, we don't have one.

The real mark of time's passage: when there is no one left who remembers living through an event. That time is quickly coming for the WWII generation. And this comes just after the funeral of the last WWII veteran to serve as president: George H.W. Bush--age 95.

I crochet and have since I was a teenager. I found this Interweave article on the history of the art fascinating. I was one who thought it was older than it is.

Thursday December 5

Cold and overcast with a chance of both snow showers and sun over the day. The seed catalogs are coming in and soon I need to make some choices of what to get and where. I have seen some spectacular flowers in those catalogs that have arrived--far more than I have room for. The rosemary cuttings I took about a week ago are still looking good--no wilting or shriveling or other wise giving up the ghost.

Rebecca Gordon on Tomdispatch.com on life at "Trump speed." We stopped viewing and listening to TV news, for the most part, some time ago. We do watch the weather report but most of the rest is fluff or Trump. Neither of which is of much use to us.

John Feffer at Foreign Policy In Focus has a good assessment of #45's performance at the G20. Not good.

This sounds all too familiar.

Wednesday December 5

We have a winter sort-of wonderland. We still have quite a bit of snow from the lake-effect snowfall yesterday and, overnight, some freezing rain and drizzle which makes things slippery. Thankfully we aren't going anywhere, I think. Plans have a habit of changing around here.

No mail today because of the funeral of GHW Bush. We saw most of the arrival ceremony Monday because we couldn't really avoid it--it cancelled the last half of Jeopardy. At one point Mom asked "how long they were going to draw the whole thing out?" She also asked if other deceased presidents had as much pomp involved in their funerals. I think it is a further proof that we have an empire (though, evidently, one on the decline) and empires have emperors. We simply call ours "presidents" and pretend that we have a real choice of who will occupy the throne.

An interesting notion: walking backwards into the future. Our culture seems to devalue the past and we don't really learn from it. Politicians of the 1930s put legislation in place to control banks and the big financial interests which the politicians of the 1990s dismantled which paved the way for the crisis of 2008 from which many have not yet recovered. We have quietly forgotten the Korean conflict and Vietnam--and learned nothing from either. I haven't even heard or read of anyone on the "lessons" of Vietnam for about 20 years now. Obama spent a lot of time exhorting us to not dwell on how we got into the financial mess but to just move forward. We are bogged down in Afghanistan (and Iraq and Syria and parts of Africa) and simply shrug when a military officer tells Congress that we have a stalemate but can't pull out because our (putative) allies can't defend themselves.

This is a long article reviewing The Curse of Bigness by Tim Wu. It makes a number of interesting points to chew on.

I got to this article at the Telegraph by checking a story on a prepper blog. I have read about the Chinese "social credit" system for the last few years so this isn't really a surprise. I just didn't expect it so soon. How long, I wonder, before we see the same here?

Tuesday December 4

We had lake effect snow over night--a couple of inches on top of the slushy mix of last evening. We may get more depending on how the winds off Lake Michigan set up. The city trucks have been out plowing but the teams from our landlord haven't shown up yet.

Found this item a bit earlier this morning. By the time the idiots at the top of the political food chain realize what is going on those at the bottom will have figured out how to adjust. Too many interests higher up are too invested in the status quo to recognize when that status quo is failing.

Ben Fountain writing at tomdispatch has some interesting facts about the 2018 election.

I wonder sometimes what it is about the term "unsustainable" these guys don't understand. Or the word "stalemate." If we are at a stalemate and the situation is unsustainable why are we wasting more money, materiel and lives on it? And the notion that getting out now would leave the "country" unable to defend itself is problematic since the conflict is between different Afghan forces. Who represents the country? And I would question if, what ever side they think is the "country" can't protect itself now, what makes our military think delaying our departure with more losses of our money, our people and our materiel would make it more able to defend itself.

Monday December 3

Not terribly cold right now though we have had bouts of snow which hasn't lasted long. The skies are gray with a few times the sun tried to peek out. We did go out for a bit because Mom wanted some stamps with a Christmas theme for the cards she had ready to mail. I wanted some embroidery thread and some new cross-stitch magazines.

One of my favorite gardening bloggers, Carolee at herbalblessings, noted that November was somewhat colder and wetter than usual where she is and that, as she has gotten older, she doesn't much like gardening in inclement weather. That was something I noted over the summer when the heat forced me to curtail my gardening. Some days I was lucky to get an hour or two of time in the gardens. I don't do late or very early season gardening because the gardens on the patio are too cold and various schemes to provide protection don't really work all that well for containers. They lose heat too easily. Instead I garden vicariously by reading bloggers like Carolee.

I got another reminder of age recently. I tried to start a counted cross-stitch pattern on 14-count aida cloth and totally messed up the counts. Twice!!! I simply couldn't see where I had gone wrong. I think though part of the problem is the fabric itself. I had set squares into an intended quilt top and then washed the whole piece after the piecing. I always do that for a quilted piece before I put the sandwich together to finish. I didn't have problems with earlier motifs I did but this time nothing seemed to work right. I am going to try some of the unwashed aida cloth for another piece and if I have more difficulty I guess I will have to switch to an 11- or 12-count fabric. My mother gave up needlework ten years ago because her eyes gave her fits. I don't want to do that.

Forecasting Intelligence has a good post that as he remarks has gone unreported by the mainstream media and largely ignored by the political classes. So far the demographic data I have seen show Africa as the only major area where fertility rates are still high. Most other areas of the globe have rates barely above replacement or, in some cases, below. The only reason the U.S. population hasn't begun to shrink is immigration, much of which our politicians are busily trying to block.

December 1

Welcome to December. We have rain and a fair amount of it to wash away some of the snow. I got the icy space where our trash tote goes cleared and got the salt from the shed. I hope I don't have to us much of it through the rest of the season.

So George H.W. Bush has died. It was hardly unexpected given his age and how frail he looked at his wife's funeral. That leaves us with four ex-presidents still living.

I simply can't resist linking to this idiocy. I guess the clerk can be excused since New Mexico has only been a state for 106 years. As Mom asked: what about newer states?

November 30

Ah, the last day of November and the stretch run to our season of overindulgence, a.k.a. Christmas.

On the political front I found this Atlantic article this morning which lays out the implications for the current administration of the latest guilty plea from #45's former personal lawyer. Not pretty for what it says about him, his sycophants, and for us as a political society.

One of the Google alerts I have followed for a few years now is one on "heatwaves." As I read the headlines over the last couple of days about brutal heatwaves hitting Australia accompanied by bushfires I had a gut reaction: these heatwaves seem to come earlier in their spring than before just as the heatwaves north of the equator are marching north earlier in the year. Like I say, it is a gut reaction and I don't have any hard evidence that the perception matches reality. It seems to me that no matter what #45 believes (or doesn't believe) climate change is smacking us in the face at every opportunity.

I am glad to see this story. I have never been a great fan of Bruce Rauner but living in Indiana I couldn't vote against him. For any who don't know he is the lame duck governor of Illinois. I think urban agriculture should be encouraged in every way possible.

So #45 is a fraud. What else is new?? As I wrote above, that he is in the White House says nothing good about us.

November 28

It is very cold and we have had snow flurries but nothing much more. Over the next few days the temps should rise into the high 30s and 40s so much of what we have should melt. I hope the ice under the snow goes away. It was difficult getting the trash tote out to the street.

The first seed catalog came yesterday. It has a couple of interesting items I will keep in mind as I plan: a gorgeous sunflower and spectacular nasturtium. I went through my seed box and tossed everything that was either acquired in 2017 or earlier and/or I didn't want to plant this year. Final result: 6 seed packets. Mom laughed when I told her what they were because 2 are for the cats: catnip and cat grass. For the rest one packet each of blackeyed susan vine, calendula, malabar spinach and perpetual spinach. I have never had much luck starting herbs from seed so I will get those from the garden shops and the farm market when it opens. If something catches my eye I might give it a try.

November 29

We had a light covering of new snow overnight but nothing frozen. The temperatures, as I said above, should make short work of getting rid of it and, hopefully, some of the ice. If I can get into the shed, a big if, I will get the salt and help things along.

I found this on Medium this morning. I generally read between 80 and 100 books each year--everything he says is pretty well on the money. I learned a while back to not worry about finishing a book that simply doesn't work for me and not feel guilty about it. I have a number of books I am reading currently and I pull them up (they are on my iPad) every now and then to read another chapter or so. I have old favorites that have stood the test of (my) time well and I go back to them every now and then. I have started books I wanted to revisit but found I couldn't get into them even thou I really liked them once upon a time. I have two main activities: needlework (with several projects in varying stages of getting done) and reading. And I now have the time to indulge both.

Winter seems to have hit with a vengeance. We got several inches of heavy, wet snow yesterday that came after heavy rains from late evening Sunday through most of the night. Last night we had lows going below 20F which froze the slush beneath the surface. We just finished chipping away that mess on the car. We have light snow now but of the light, fluffy kind. Thankfully we have nothing to take us outside until Friday. We didn't have internet service for at least 5 hours yesterday morning. I say "at least" because it was out when we woke at 4am and didn't come on until just after 9am. Also had two brown outs that lasted long enough for us to wonder if we should go for the candles and lanterns. At least the power came back quickly leaving us with the chore of resetting our clocks and the microwave clock. Mom napped while I brought out one of my needlework projects but it brought home, yet again, how dependent we are on the technology. Thankfully our cell phones functioned throughout.

When we visited my brother and his family for Mom's birthday I promised my niece I would try to root some rosemary cuttings for her. She said she wanted to grow rosemary. I don't think they will have time to root before Christmas but sometime over the next two or three months I should have at least one good plant for her.

I love Wolfe Richter's title here: "After wasting $14 billion in share-buybacks GM prepares for carmageddon..." I read that the current of the occupant of the White House isn't amused. The story is still developing since today the plant closing count is at 8. Yesterday it was at five but today's tally includes plants outside North America. The company seems to be betting heavily on the electronic vehicle market and the foreign market given the drop in sales of internal combustion models and in the U.S. According to YAHOO news #45 is so pissed he is talking about cutting all subsidies including those for the electronic vehicles. Good step toward getting rid of the Corporate Welfare system.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving--that commercial holiday that gets smashed between the commercial giants Halloween and Christmas. That comment probably tells you all you need to know about how I celebrate it. But a couple of blogs has me rethinking the attitude.

The first is from Interweave and the second from 5 Acres and a Dream. Neither one involves shopping or stuffing your face till you burst. We should shift the focus to interacting with family and friends and to our own personal accomplishments and what makes us happy. And perhaps we should not make it a "national" holiday that touts a false history dominated by one of our many groups at the expense of others.

We normally don't shop on Black Friday but decided to do so today because we needed a some groceries and thought it would be good to combine errands. I have two new cross-stitch projects that I needed embroidery floss for. Wouldn't you know it--I have seven bobbin boxes of DMC floss and didn't have almost 20 of the colors called for. The trip to Walgreens for a couple of our daily supplements we were nearly out of went smoothly, as in "hardly anyone else in the store." The grocery store was more crowded than usual but we went through in good time. We scratch the trip to the home improvement/hardware store when we didn't see a single empty parking from the street. I have never seen it that crowded. We found a good parking space at Michaels which was also very crowded. I have never seen so many crafters in that store at one time. Usually we are among, perhaps, half a dozen customers. We did make it through in good time but the experience has confirmed our usual practice: no shopping of any kind on Black Friday.

Hello, again. Autumn is still here but it is the blah of late autumn not the bright colorful early autumn. Winter is just around the corner but it is the yuck of just cold enough and just wet enough to make things slippery but not pretty and white. Good thing I can stay in and ignore it.

Infidel753 had a good post and one I agree with heartily. I have wholeheartedly detested politics as it has become (maybe always been) where the candidates/parties/interested groups and individuals engage in scurrilous character assassination and then expect everyone to make nice after. I also detest the notion that "bipartisanship" means one side surrenders its values and goals to the other which makes no compromise whatsoever. And when they don't accuse them of "partisanship." The Repthuglicans are masters of that game.

It has become evident that Christianists aren't the only religious thugs out there. I have seen several reports of disruptive ultra-Orthodox behavior over the last few years. I get really sick of a$$holes who think their religious "purity" trumps decent behavior.

I don't know how many stories I have seen about cutting the use of disposables. This one focuses on coffee cups and our modern penchant for walking (or driving, or...) with a paper or single use cup in hand (the "adult sippy cups"). While the author's advice (just stop, sit, enjoy) is good, as long as we are addicted to "multi-tasking" it won't happen. As he writes we have to change ourselves as well as what we use.

We had a bit more of an adventure than expected. We had all of the fixings for Thanksgiving dinner except for the pumpkin pie and the whipped cream. Mom could fix it but we decided to buy store bought and went to a little bakery that had been refurbished. We found the pie, some dinner rolls and a nice frosted raison bread. So all we had to get was the whipped cream. We went to the closest grocery but it was closed because their computers were down. We drove over to the next closest grocery but it was also closed because their computers were down. That isn't really surprise us because the stores are both owned by the same company though operating under different names. We finally got the whipped cream and (unintended) some French vanilla ice cream at the local Target which has a grocery section and whose computers are working. The episode illustrates my frequent observation that the technology is nice but when it fails you are as screwed to the extent you depend on it and have no backups. These stores are totally dependent on their computers. None of their product has price tags on the individual items. They need their computers for the price. Their inventory is on computer and often orders for them. The computers are programmed to tally the items and figure the tax on the taxable items and then figure what change is due if cash is used or complete the purchase with whatever credit the customer uses. Without the computers they are dead in the water.

Bill McKibben has a good article in the New Yorker. It doesn't have much that is new on the climate front but confirms that the deleterious effects of climate change are happening faster than originally. He makes another point that has been in my mind over the last few years: large numbers of people are going to have to move and we aren't prepared for that migration.

Little waves of snow keep moving through but it doesn't last long or leave much behind. The ground is too warm yet and the air temps don't stay below freezing long enough.

I have said before how disenchanted I am with the commercialized "holiday" season. I dislike Christianists who insist on putting "Christ back in Christmas" and protest people saying "Happy Holidays" when in fact Christ left Christmas when it became a retail extravaganza. They seem to think they are the only group that has an end of the year holiday season which is both rude and self-centered. But most of all I resent the focus on gift giving. Among certain members of our family the focus was on the monetary value of the gifts and whether one person got a more expensive gift than another. I think these people have the right idea. Spend time not money. Spend it with family, with friends, with yourself.

My first reaction to this story was that perhaps more stories from mainstream outlets on the effects of climate change might move the political attitudes toward climate change. My second thought was to remember how many stories I have read of military reports which note that climate change will be  (is??) a serious concern for their operations and readiness. Evidently we haven't hit a critical mass of stories the politicos can take seriously. Yet!

We had the first "measurable" snow fall Tuesday. It didn't last long as most of it on the south facing roofs, the south lawns and the cars melted quickly. Today we are getting the second such and it is more substantial. Looks like an inch so far and the weather reporters say it should continue all day. We seem to be in a pattern of every other day pulses. There is something about fresh snow that brightens up an other wise dreary day.

Found this on Tomdispatch this morning. Englehardt is right on the money about #45 and the Media. I would describe it as a match made in hell--our hell because obviously it is heaven for that narcissist and for the Media that depends on his smothering presence.

Thursday Nov 8

Well, most of the election 2018 is over though several tight races remain to be decided. I am gratified that Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa overwhelmingly dumped their Repthuglican politicians. I did see some interesting items yesterday to which I can't link because I didn't note them down at the time. They have been fermenting in my mind since. First the Republican strongholds that elected #45 remain pretty much intact except for the "Blue Wall" he supposedly toppled--a.k.a the midwest. But following the interactive map and looking at the distributions in the individual states I noticed that the national pattern was replicated within states. The Republican strength is in the rural areas and small towns while the Democrat strength is in the urban and suburban areas. In the 2016 election the Republicans peeled off the disaffected suburban voters and large segments of the the Democratic base in minority and female voters were also disaffected and stayed home. But the policies the Republicans pushed over the last two years haven't helped those disaffected voters (or their rural and small town constituents either.) And they were punished for that. Number 45 pushed new trade deals with Mexico and Canada to replace NAFTA but those delivered very little improvement over the old agreement and nothing he couldn't have gotten if we had gone with the Trans-Pacific Partnership which the Republicans opposed because--you know, OBAMA!!

I have ignored most of the prognostication about where the results of this election will lead because, truth be told, no one really knows. Those few I have read expect, like I do, more of what we have had  a lot of sound and fury and not much done.

Monday Nov 12

Oh, well. The entry above got lost in the shuffle. We got our first measurable snow fall. It didn't stay long and didn't require shoveling. We are getting our first stretch of sustained freezing temperatures. The gardens are pretty well done now. The hardiest of the plants (strawberries, thyme, bee balm, a lonely lavender and a couple of thyme have finally succumbed. We woke to frost on our windows for the last several mornings. We got used to frost on roofs of buildings and cars but it hadn't been quite cold enough to do more that fog the windows till now.

I just finished watching an ad that Iceland banned because Greenpeace was one of the producers and Greenpeace is "too political." Nimue Brown links to it and has an excellent criticism of the ban. So why are advertisements that encourage "business as usual" not as political as those which question "business as usual?"

Monday Nov. 5

Well, it is now the day before the vote. We have scoped out our candidates. Have you?

It was a quiet weekend filled with reorganization and cleaning. The reorganization will continue for a while. I just finished putting all my craft/needlework pattern books in the file cabinets where they will be easier to get to. I may have to shift things a bit and move the top drawer down a bit because it is almost heavy enough to tip the cabinet.

I am letting the remaining plants in the gardens go. When the cold finally kills them they will provide ground cover and I can work their remains into the container soil in the spring. So far the only certain notions I have for the spring include NO tomatoes or peppers. They have a spotty record on my patio because it warms up so slowly and then the heat concentrates because of the cement and white fence. I might try some strain of green beans and I definitely want to try a couple of different cucumbers--kinds that can't be found in our markets. The rosemary plants weathered our week away very well. The small one had started to wilt just a bit but has recovered nicely. The hibiscus plants didn't wilt but they are showing a number of yellow leaves. that might be due to the reduced light. All they had was what came in the window. I usually put on the larger grow light and the room light when we are home. I will check on their progress over the next couple of weeks to see if any permanent affects show up. I need to cut them back but don't what to do it while they are stressed.

Tuesday Nov. 6

The polls haven't opened yet. (Heh, Heh--it is only 4:30am. Our furry alarm clocks haven't "fallen back" yet.) But that is on our agenda first--even before grocery shopping. I have never been happy with voting against the worst evil because I don't consider a "choice" between bad and worse to be a real choice. However, this year I will do my best to retire as many Republicans as possible.

I found this almost first thing this morning. It is good as far as it goes on explaining why so many over-65 are declaring bankruptcy. The author's expend most of their pixels on the rising medical costs which has been covered so frequently that the only difference from one story to another is the case study to illustrate their point. The barely mention at the end the other side, the static or even reduced income from pensions. Or the fact that any pension that is pegged to the official inflation rate is not keeping up with the real inflation we experience because so many of our normal expenses are not included or are underestimated because of various accounting tricks. I will agree with the quote that we, as a society, are becoming quite "uncaring" about the struggles of the elderly and a whole lot of other people in the lower 80% of our society.

It is now 9:40am and we have finished voting and shopping. I was surprised and pleased that the polling place was very busy. I have never seen such a crowd for any election--presidential or other. The interest is very high and I hope it leads to the kind of changes I would like to see. We had a "balanced budget" amendment on the ballot which I voted no on. Before I would agree to such an amendment I want to see some limitations on what the government can spend our money on. High on that list I want a prohibition on tax and other give-aways to corporations. I am tired of seeing these companies promising a huge amount of jobs for a long period of time and then leaving before fulfilling their part of the bargain but not before raking in tax payer money. I don't want to see a situation where legislators have to cut things like education or health care for pie in the sky promises which are never fulfilled. Otherwise I voted a mix of Democrats with a couple of Libertarians but NO Republicans.

On the whole, I am not holding my breath even if a large number of Republicans are "retired." Tom Engelhardt has a good piece this morning which parallels my thoughts on the probable results of the election.

I think this blog is going to be intermittent for a while. As I have said before I am really tired of the politics and after you have called BS on bulls$*ters a few (hundred? thousand?) times knowing that nothing you think or say will change the situation it is time to focus on something else. A friend mentioned a neuroscientist she knows who told her that people tend to get into ruts, can't find their way out and simply fossilize in place (which sounds too much like dementia to my mind). Everyone needs to shake up their patterns and blow the cobwebs out of their minds.

We spent a week traveling and staying in Denver to meet women I met and grew close to 25 years ago at Colorado State University. We have kept (sporadically) in touch in the intervening time. Seeing them all in person was wonderful and the multi-day trip definitely broke our normal routines. We haven't been away from home often in the past almost 20 years. We are planning on more but much shorter trips next summer.

We boarded the cats with our Vet. They opened a new office with much more space. We wound up getting their yearly shots and regular exam at the same time. The girls were not happy campers. The people we talked to said they were a bit stressed out but had settled down and were eating and drinking normally. They were concerned because these kitties who had been together for nearly a year and getting along well were suddenly hissing at each other. However they have settled down nicely and are back to their normal routines. We won't board them again unless there is some kind of emergency that will take us away for more than three nights.

We traveled interstates all the way to Denver and back. We were surprised that the speed limits were usually 70mph and in some cases 75mph. Only in urban areas did the limit drop to 65 or to 55 in some construction zones. Areas along the way I was familiar with through either living there (Columbia, MO) or frequently visiting (Denver) were unrecognizable due to metastatic growth. And if you are thinking cancer that is exactly what I am thinking. Denver had the worst traffic which was bumper to bumper for over an hour between the east side of the city and the west where our hotel was located. One of the friends I was visiting says the city is a mess suffering the effects of 12k new residents a month.

Colorado had the worst roads and I do mean really bad. We passed one sign telling us the road was rough just before hitting a dip and bump that made us glad we habitually wear our seat belts--otherwise we would have slammed our heads on the roof. One of the big questions on their ballot is a choice between two initiatives with differing plans to fix roads. I wonder how bad the lesser roads are given the state of the interstates.

We noticed that wherever we were the same issues came up and the biggest one was taxes. Everyone wants new tax cuts and/or to protect previous cuts but also wants services restored or expanded. Several of the Republican candidates hoping to unseat incumbent Republicans were promising just that but how thy would do that wasn't explained. And several of the Republican candidates, like Rauner in Illinois seem to have a "Jesus Complex". If they aren't elected (or re-elected) they swear the State is doomed to become hell on earth.

I am going to stop here and hopefully continue later.

Tuesday October 9

We had a busy day yesterday grocery shopping and getting the car ready for winter. As a result I didn't get much reading done and no commenting. The clouds left, mostly, and the temperatures got into the mid 80s. Supposed to be a tad cooler but still above expected for mid October. Sunny now with no rain. I finally got out into the gardens and cut the pineapple sage which is now in the new dehydrator. The few strawberries I found are also in there. In a few minutes I will go out and start cleaning out some of the plants that are well past their prime.

Found this and loved it. The Medusa myth as it should have ended.

Friday October 5

We have rain today and cooler temps at least until next Monday. I need to water the 2 hibiscus which are now under lights upstairs and the 2 rosemary down stairs in front of the window. The rest of the garden has been existing without much attention from me. I do need to get out and get some of the clean-up done. The weather reports indicate good chances for rain for the next ten days.

But today I have been trying to figure out what has gone wrong with my computer. Suddenly Google Chrome simply wouldn't work. In the end I moved everything back to Safari which has been a pain. I get used to a certain way of doing things and I really don't like to change.

Saturday October 6

Rain again today. The computer is back to something like normal. I still need to get my bookmarks straightened out because Safari migrated all those I had on Google Chrome and now I have duplicates.

And in a similar vein--our microwave went out just as Mom was starting to fix dinner. We quickly moved all the food back into the fridge and went out to replace it and then ate out. She had to call the hotline of the company making the new microwave to get help to set the damned clock. Oh well--it is up and running and things are back to normal. Or as normal as they ever get here.

Sunday October 7

Rain again and heavy rain overnight last night. Been a nice quiet day to read and do needlework which is what I did. Finished a crocheted pad for the arm rest on Mom's recliner. Over the last month I finished a complete set for both recliners and their headrests. Made progress on a tablecloth and a pair of cross-stitched pillow cases.

Yesterday we had breakfast at my brother's with sister-in-law and niece. Nice to see them all. As a result I didn't get too much done.

One thing I did get done was emptying the dehydrator and grinding the herbs. That dehydrator is going into our What-not room because I have a new one. Yeah, I know I got a new one a couple of months ago. This is the second new dehydrator for the year. The one I started the summer with quit so we pulled out my back up which also quit. Well, the old saying goes "two is one and one is none" so I indulged a bit and got a dehydrator with a thermostat so I can control the heat. Now I am back one and a backup. I will give it a try today with some herbs I can harvest.

I need to get busy putting some of the gardens to bed for the season. Some I will let go so the dead plants can provide a ground cover for the pots to prevent soil from splashing out. My niece mentioned she would love to have a rosemary plant so I will take cuttings from mine and try to get them started. If I succeed I will give her one for Christmas.

Well, I am back. I didn't realize that I haven't posted anything since August 24 and it is now October 1. Damn!! Anyway, welcome to October and the last quarter of 2018.

I am ignoring as much as possible the politics. It is far too annoying and after you have called bullshit on bullshit (and the bullshitters) too many times you begin to feel like a broken record. And it doesn't do any good because the old bullshitters will keep on doing their bullshit--and splattering it all over the rest of us.

Instead I have been concentrating on the gardens, needlework, and reading.

It has been a good year for those pursuits. I finished two crochet blankets for our beds, two embroidered table scarves and one table cloth, some crochet pieces to protect the headrests and arms of our recliners, and several doilies. I have a short stack of the embroidered pieces that need to be hemmed. Since that is a tedious and much disliked task I plan to do that when I need a bit of tedium. I just finished consolidating all my embroidery floss which involved taking skeins off stitch-bows and winding them onto floss bobbins. That turned out to be a bigger chore than I planned. I thought I had four stitch-bow albums and found seven. Each one would hold fifty skeins on their stitch-bows which are flexible plastic pieces just the right length for the skein as it comes from the manufacturer with notches in each end to make sure the thread stayed in place. Why change? Well, I also have eight boxes floss boxes with floss in them--basically 8x12 (approximately, I haven't measured) divided into 2 inch squares. Those hold a lot more floss. But whenever I started a new project I had to hunt through all of those for the right colors. Big pain in the butt and I always wound up buying more when I really didn't need to. Also the stitch-bows had all the inconvenience of the skeins without any real benefit. If you pulled the wrong end you still got tangles and the stitch-bow itself got tangled into the mess. Better to choose one system of storage and stick with it.

I took out the tomato and pepper plants about a month ago. The peppers did give us a nice bunch of peppers to freeze and we used a couple in salads. The tomatoes were a disappointment and what we got we stewed and froze. That made a very nice chunky cream of tomato soup not long ago. I have said before that my little patio is a difficult environment because between the spring and fall equinoxes it becomes an oven as the sun heats up the cement and the white fence reflects light and heat onto the patio. It can be 20F higher on the patio than the official temperature--say 110 vs 90. The other six months it gets progressively colder as the cement loses heat and the area becomes an ice box. The temperature disparity isn't as extreme but it is still there--in the opposite direction. Other plants have done very well. I got almost two pint jars of spearmint, lavender, and peppermint and about a pint of basil, cinnamon basil, pineapple sage and sage. Smaller amounts of chives, oregano, chocolate mint, lemon verbena, and lemon balm. We have had several servings of yogurt with our own strawberries and almost half a pint of dried strawberries for tea.

I will leave this for now and talk about plans for next year next time. Unless I get hold of something more interesting.

Tuesday August 21

Waves of heavy thunderstorms came through last night. I definitely won't have to water the gardens today. And, considering the forecast for scattered storms today, I think working inside will be the order of the day. I am still working on the What-not Room.

Wednesday August 22

Heavy storms again intermittently yesterday. Parts of the gardens look a bit bedraggled but I am going to wait til tomorrow to do anything out there. We plan to take the last of the books to the library. That will clear out that corner on the upstairs landing. I did get a couple of tasks done in the What-not Room and the brought a bit of order to my chair-side table. Too much stuff that I need or don't want too far away when I do want it.

Thursday August 23

Books are gone. It was a nice cool day yesterday and we expect another today. The rains and the cooler temps have encouraged the herbs. I need to harvest some more. The dehydrator will be busy for as long as we have some dry days for garden work.

The future of medicine? Well, what the author describes is what we have been seeing around here.

Stories about the agricultural effects of the heatwave in Europe are coming in faster now. Short version: it isn't good. And this story falls into the OMG-WTF!!! category.

Friday August 24

Though the temps should still be cool we expect possible showers. If it is still dry when we finish breakfast I will harvest more herbs to dry. I have six trays of dry herbs to process and put up.

Well, we have had breakfast and the rain has held off so far. Ground and stored three trays each of lemon verbena and spearmint. Harvested pineapple sage and lavender which is now drying. I have other tasks planned but now it is time for a rest.

Monday August 20

Goodness!! Already two thirds of the way through August. The heat we had earlier has let up a bit--only in the mid 80s for the most part. The humidity makes it feel hotter. I can work outside on dry days a bit longer now. Tomato season is done for us and a disappointing one it has been. Not much in the way of fruit and a lot with very heavy, straw-like cores. I pulled the plants, collected all the ripe tomatoes and Mom stewed them. We had a dish with supper last night and put a quart in the freezer. I am definitely going to give tomatoes a pass next year.

I am ahead on my fall clean-up. The shed is almost cleaned out and straightened up. I think we definitely had mice last year. I found the peanut/corn bird feed in places where I know I never put it. Their cache is gone and I will put the stock into a more secure container.

We are gettin a good rain now. I had hoped we would so I wouldn't have to water anything for a couple of days. We may get more tomorrow morning.

William Astore cross-posted at Naked Capitalism (originally posted at Tomdispatch) has a lot to say about the militarization of sports and none of it good. I think I have said before that hate that obligatory "Thank you for your service" that ends any interview featuring a service member or former service member. It requires no thought, no sacrifice, nothing that truly benefits the service member.

Andrew Kurjata (a writer I haven't encountered before) gives an almost lyrical account of an "apocalyptic" summer in British Columbia.

Yeah--"shit-life syndrome" just about covers it. The subtitle says that cancelling Brexit might save the Brits but the conditions outlined in the article were glaringly evident before the Brexit vote and they are evident on this side of the Atlantic, as the author notes, and we got Trump from the same discontent.

Monday August 13

We had guests today so nothing got done in the gardens. I will absolutely have to water tomorrow morning because it has gotten hot today.

Tuesday August 14

Supposed to be warm again today--another 90F day. I will water everything and then do inside tasks. Tomorrow they say we start a cooler and wetter pattern.

I did get the watering done--just in time since the sage and both rosemary plants were wilting. Otherwise everything looks good. I have a couple of peppers and tomatoes that will be ready in the next couple of days.

Discovered something new this morning: aseptic milk. One of the grocery ads listed it. According to the web it is actually "ultra high temperature" pasteurized milk that is shelf stable for four months without refrigeration after which it is good refrigerated for seven days. Now that I know what it is I will make sure I don't buy any,

Wednesday August 15

The temperature is supposed to moderate a bit--from 90F down to low 80s. And we might get some rain. The reports say scattered thundershowers which may or may not dump anything on us.

The kids are back in school. We saw our usual crowds Monday when we went out to get some snacks for our guests. We went out a bit later yesterday to do grocery shopping and saw the bus had already passed by. My step-niece's children started yesterday. It seems that the school year starts sooner, ends later each year.

Thursday August 16

I don't think we got any rain overnight and didn't get any yesterday. I will water early. Once upon a time the forecast we had for yesterday and today would have meant a very good probability of rain. Nowadays not so much.

Friday August 17

A heavy downpour woke me earlier. It is too dark yet to see if anything was damaged in the gardens.
Found several nice strawberries which are going to go with our ice cream tomorrow night. They will be joined by several more which should ripen by tomorrow morning.

Charles Hugh Smith has the right idea.

The Atlantic has this piece on a variety of corn that is host to nitrogen fixing bacteria which, in essence, self fertilizes. The only problem is the very long maturation time--8 months. The researchers are doing preliminary work on hybridizing that variety with our commercial ones.

Monday August 6

I think I will be lazy today. Yesterday was busy and I feel the effects in every muscle and joint. I finished the embroidery on another scarf and pulled the thread I need for another--and made a list of the colors I need to buy for it. It never fails. In spite of the collection of thread I have amassed over the decades I always find the pattern calls for colors I don't have. I finished the herbs in the dehydrator--meaning I chopped them and put them in their jars on my shelf. I cut others and they are waiting in the dehydrator and will wait until I feel like standing for enough time to finish them. I also decided it was time to get some of our frozen fruit finely chopped for yogurt so I did another long stint of standing while dealing with blueberries, cherries, apples, strawberries, and peaches. That is all in small tightly covered bowls in the freezer.

The weather everywhere is simply insane--case in point. Or this long piece in the New York Times. Naomi Klein posted this one at the Intercept which takes on another New York Times Magazine article.

Tuesday August 7

It will be another lazy day. Yesterday became a bit busier than I intended because we decided to take three boxes of books to the library and while we were out also went to Michaels for the embroidery floss I wanted and to Meijer for some small jelly jars I plan to use next time I need to chop fruit. We don't have any errands left til next week.

I spent a fair bit of time looking for a book of iron-on transfer patterns I knew I had but couldn't put my hand on right away. That always happens when you have reorganized in a major way. I knew I hadn't disposed of the book but where in this new arrangement I put it was a mystery. Thankfully "was" is the operative word. I finally found it. But just in case I found a couple of similar books at Barnes&Noble and ordered on-line.

Another reason to eliminate plastic from our lives--as much as possible.

Wednesday August 8

We have had rain today so no gardening. I did get a look at things and found the Lemon Boy
tomatoes ripening. they will be ready soon. The Ox Heart tomatoes are still green. The red bell peppers aren't ripe yet or showing signs of turning red.

We had to make a quick run out to the grocery store. I found only three cans of cat food on the shelf which wouldn't last us til our normal shopping day next week. Since the Cats must be fed we dis a quick run and got a couple of other items we might have run out of over the weekend.

This is a good piece from US News on climate change. The author focuses on the heatwave that, it seems, is everywhere across the globe this year. Our temperatures have moderated somewhat though the mid-80s can still be uncomfortable. We also have had sporadic rain which is very welcome considering how dry it has been lately. This article provides a snapshot of what is happening in Europe.

I started patio gardening here about 15 years ago. My sister gave Mom a potted tomato plant for Mothers' Day. I tended it and we both enjoyed the tomatoes. One year was so cold over the summer I actually looked at adding a cold tolerant tomato variety to our garden. I didn't because the warmth came back and our usual varieties did well. Until about three years ago I always had an abundance of tomatoes. We couldn't eat them fast enough or give them away fast enough. So I took up canning tomato sauce and whole tomatoes. The harvests have gone down since then and the temperatures have gone up. Last year I canned tomatoes we bought in bulk at our local farm market. We won't can any this year because we don't have either the time or energy. Our own tomatoes are not as prolific as they should be. A heatwave early in the season that gave us a week and a bit in the 90s (with a couple of days almost hitting 100) made sure those blossoms didn't set fruit. The plants recovered slowly and though we do have tomatoes ripening they are few. I don't think I will do tomatoes next year. I think I mentioned before that our patio acts like an oven and concentrates heat. The official temperature may be in the mid to high 80s but on the patio that translates to mid to high 90s.

Thursday August 9

Finished off the chives, spearmint, peppermint, and sage in the dehydrator and loaded said machine with cinnamon basil, tarragon, and more spearmint. Then deadheaded several geraniums and took out the Vernissage tomato. We tried a couple and decided it wasn't worth keeping. The flavor is so-so and it has a very thick skin. The Lemon Boy is starting to ripen but the Ox Heart is still green. Mom insists: no fried green tomatoes this year. The rain we got was nice but the moisture didn't last very long. I plan on watering everything very well tomorrow morning.

Friday August 10

Well, I won't have to water. We got some rain late yesterday and overnight. I plan to finish off the herbs in the dehydrator but won't pick any more til tomorrow--when things will have dried out a bit.

So they have found a word for acquiring more books that you can possibly read. Sometime ago the needlework groups had a term for a similar accumulation of materials: SABLE--Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy. I guess the bibliophile equivalent is BABLE--Books Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy. I have both conditions.

So Repthuglicans propose shifting the money for new Coast Guard icebreakers to that piece of crap proposed wall on the border. We have ONE 42-year-old icebreaker that was reactivated in 2012 after $60million in repairs. Once upon a time we had six. Russia has...40+ according to the last report I saw. It seems to me they ask themselves which is the least useful and needful piece of "infrastructure" (and that is using the term very loosely applied to the wall) and choose to fund it first.

I hope the critics scuttle this plan. Again an unnecessary and wasteful #45-ego stroking exercise. Money that could be used to rebuild bridges, roads, etc., squandered on a redundant military expansion.

Saturday August 11

Should be a nice day to harvest some more herbs and get some clean-up I have been putting off done. I might even get some hemming on pieces I have finished the embroidery on but haven't quite finished entirely. I also have a couple that need a bit of pressing.

I wonder if the costs of lost land and revenue are calculated into the true "cost" of oil drilling. My guess--not on your life. The oil would be far too expensive to market. And the products too expensive for consumers to buy. And you can't eat oil so if enough good farming land is polluted we'll be too dead to buy petroleum products.

I picked two dehydrator trays of spearmint and four of lavender. I took out the purple bell--it simply isn't producing much and not worth the effort to keep it watered. I still have a red bell and a shishito. So far the shishito peppers are smaller than I expected based on past experience but there is a fair quantity of them. The red bell is a new variety for me and is producing a nice quantity of large peppers. Mom is in the process of freezing those and we will put the last of the purple bells in our chef salads for supper. I am taking a bit of a break before heading out to do some more cleaning.

Monday July 30

We keep hearing from the economic/political cheerleaders that the economy is roaring along nicely. Why do I keep reading stories like this one? Which do we need more: infrastructure that moves the economy or #45's Wall?

Ugo Bardi has a good piece on how and why "climate change" may fall off the public radar.

Tuesday July 31

Wednesday August 1

Welcome to August. The year is certainly going by rapidly. We were busy yesterday finishing the shopping we didn't get done Monday. The local store which has carried the yogurt we like didn't have it in stock--for the second week. If we had known that ahead of time we would have stopped at our alternate source yesterday when we visited my brother and sister-in-law. But the unexpected excursion gave us a chance to check out a farm store we have been talking about visiting. They advertise fresh eggs, milk, cheese and other locally produced products. It is a nice little store and we will probably be going back.

Mom keeps saying that politics is the best comedy show going. I would agree with her if the clowns didn't have the power to mess up our lives "bigly." Unfortunately, the top clown is incredibly clueless. Here speaks a man who hasn't had to buy his own groceries himself ever. After we stopped laughing we tried to think of the last time we needed a photo ID to buy food. We bought food at two places yesterday where we either haven't shopped before or rarely shop. Guess what--no ID required. The last time was several years ago when we purchased wine and beer and the cashier didn't know us. It is at least a dozen years since I had to show ID to pay by check. At least the media isn't giving him the same pass on idiocy they did during the election and his early days in office.

Thursday August 2

Making some progress with a couple of needlework projects. Finished the crochet trim on the table scarf I finished a couple of weeks ago. Have almost finished the embroidery on another and the blanket is almost finished. I also have another project pulled out of storage which will be a Christmas table scarf. I am still in the process of sorting and arranging things in the what-not room.

Cut some rosemary and catnip to soak in vodka for a while. Should finish the thyme and cut some more herbs for drying.

Found a nice lot of strawberries. Kept the best for a yogurt snack tonight. The rest are drying along with pineapple sage, spearmint, and lemon verbena.

Good post at Tomdispatch today.

John Beckett has a good post today. I read the article he refers to a couple of weeks ago. A couple of things about the article hit me. One, the sense of entitlement exhibited is mind blowing as though, somehow, money exempts the owner of that money from human made catastrophe. Second, that all that money makes them better than those with less money. If these guys are Christian they have neglected Christ's answer to the rich man who asked what he had to do to be saved. Third, they haven't learned the lesson the brighter members of the prepper community preach: survival requires a community because you can't do everything alone. And, if you are relying on bought loyalty it may not last long if things go really bad.

Friday August 3

Sunny now and all of the rain went south of us. I will have to water everything. I have the dried herbs to finish processing and several I should cut to put in the dehydrator. We found a real nice lavender/spearmint tea that I can make from what I grow adding only the green tea I don't grow. I started the edging on my crochet blanket so that is nearing completion.

Saturday August 4

Yesterday turned into a lazy day. Watered the gardens but didn't harvest anything. Will have to get things done early today because we expect temps in the mid 90s with heat index breaking 100.

Found this post at Gods and Radicals which pretty well sums up the problem with our environmental debates.

Finished the crochet blanket. It is now on my bed. The ottoman in which I keep current crochet projects is pretty empty now. I won't say I will never do another large project but I don't have much incentive to start another one. And I do have one still working--a stash buster Catherine wheel lap blanket.

I got everything watered but it was already heating up so didn't do anything else.

Friday July 27

We might get some showers today. I have lavender, chocolate mint, and oregano to chop for storing. If the predicted rain holds off or doesn't come at all I plan to cut peppermint, sage and lemon balm.

The peppermint and lemon balm filled the dehydrator so the sage was left for another day. So far the rain has bypassed us and I am considering watering.

Saturday July 28

Not much going on today. I watered the gardens early but put off any new harvesting and processing til tomorrow. I cleaned out the storage space in the ottoman and moved a lot of yarn upstairs. I have to find a permanent home for it now. Mom cleaned out the linen closet. We both came here with a large supply of embroidered table scarves, doilies, and pillow cases. Some of it has been put in a box for Goodwill. Some of the rest were washed to see how stained the items were. Most washed nicely and have been put back. Some of the crochet pieces need to be starched and stretched. When we first moved here we were still in the habit of leaving such items to be used for special "good" events. We don't do that any more. They were meant to be used and who better to use them than we who made them. Some will be repurposed and remade to serve new needs.

Sunday July 9

Got the lemon balm and peppermint finished and put thyme in the dehydrator. Gave the cat a bit of a tread and sprayed their scratching post with a bit of the alcohol that had catnip soaking in it. They loved it. Some of the spray also hit their cat beds--which they have ignored for the last several weeks--and they rolled around in them for a while. I will have to do that more often.

Thursday July 25

My energy evaporated too quickly yesterday. We were cleaning up and recharging after our guests on Tuesday. I remember a number of Ronni Bennett's posts at her Time Goes By blog when she noted how exhausting even pleasant social events could become. We had a very good time with our guests but we needed to get things back to normal.

I put off processing the herbs in the dehydrator so I still have that to do. And I need to water everything well today since I put that off also. We'll see what else I get done.

I found this Dr. Bones piece on Gods and Radicals this morning. It is one of those posts where you read along and nod all the way through.

Tom Englehardt has another good post on Tomdispatch. A constellation of failures.

Tuesday July 24

Started out gloomy but the sun has come out nicely. I have a dehydrator full of cinnamon basil with a few scattered strawberries. I will use both for tea over the winter.

We are expecting guests today so I probably won't get much else done.

Wednesday July 25

Well, I was right. I didn't get much done yesterday. Our guests stayed longer than I thought they would.

I hope to finish off the cinnamon basil today and harvest another load for the dehydrator.

This article says a lot of what we have already concluded.

I read stories like this and ask the "What if?" question. Situations in this country also rouse concerns.

Ronni Bennett at Time Goes By has been writing about all facets of aging for a long time now. She is going to depart from her usual policy of not covering politics unless it is connected to her major theme and, intermittently, discuss broader political challenges. Good!! Those issues, sooner or later (usually sooner), come back to bite us no matter our age. Some of us will simply have to live with the fallout longer.

Sunday July 22

Quiet day today. Finished processing the herbs in the dehydrator. I could have collected more but the weather hadn't improved before my ambition disappeared. Instead I did some more sorting and rearranging in the What-not room. I found a lot of bits and pieces (crochet motifs, embroidered patches, cross-stitched squares) that I put aside for later use. I found a nice crib quilt top that I will finish and a quilt top I haven't finished and will take apart rather than finish. That last has some unpleasant emotional connections. I have at least two pieces that only need hemming and a crochet edge put on to finish. So much still needs to be sorted.

Monday July 23

Cloudy right now and should be mostly cloudy all day. But not much chance of rain so I should get another batch of herbs cut and drying. The cinnamon basil is next on the list. I probably wouldn't make a good farmer or market gardener--I prefer to stay inside and dry no matter what needs to  be done outside. I saw some of the black vernissage tomatoes on their way to ripeness. We will get a few ox heart and Lemon Boy tomatoes a bit later. I already harvested a couple of the purple bell peppers and one of the Shishito peppers. The red bell haven't ripened yet.

As someone (I can't remember who) said: the future is here: it just isn't evenly distributed. Take a look at what can only get worse.

Saturday July 21

Our weather forecast calls for scattered thunderstorms. Yesterday's rain didn't come until late so I got the bee balm, lemon verbena and basil cut before it came in. I will see what space I have between rain drops to cut some others and dead head some of the flowers.

We have gotten brief episodes of sun followed by rain. Not enough time to get outside. Besides, by the time the sun came out I was already working to get some order back into the What-not room. I managed to get the table cleared, cut the excess fabric off a table scarf I finished embroidering a month ago, started the crochet edging. That is enough for today.

Friday July 20

I have a dehydrator full of spearmint but I don't know whether I will get any more harvesting done today. The weather predictions say we will have scattered thundershowers. I also transplanted some of the strawberries into a different pot and trimmed the beetle damaged leaves. I have a few more to do. The hibiscus cutting I took last fall from the plant that is blooming now is in a new, slightly larger pot and showing nice new growth. I hope the weather is a bit wrong and we have some dry patches because if we have rain all weekend my gardens will look like mini-jungles.

It is now just after noon and no showers yet. I cut lemon verbena, sweet basil, and bee balm all now in the dehydrator. The spearmint is chopped and in its jar ready for tea. I also put a handful of small, ugly strawberries in the dehydrator. They will also be chopped for tea.

Thursday July 19

We have a nice moderation in the temperatures. I got the catnip out of the dehydrator and will harvest spearmint in a little bit. I think the season for the Japanese beetles is almost over--I only found and stomped on one in the last several days. The really cheery sight is the hibiscus which is blooming now. The first blossom came over the weekend with two more today. Several are developing all over the plant.

This CNN piece doesn't surprise me. I agreed with #45 when he said the war games with S. Korea, which he cancelled as a freebee to Kim Jong Un, were "tremendously expensive." I figured he would simply move the money somewhere else and we (taxpayers) wouldn't get any benefit. I suspected it would go toward his "wall" but then an ego boost is always nice. We should remember that everything revolves around him.

Wednesday July 18

Not much to comment on lately. The gardens have been doing well for the most part. The tomatoes and peppers are having the hardest time with the heat we have had. We did get some rain but not enough to really revive things. I have a bunch of herbs I should cut and dry. They are doing their weedy best to take over the world. I am doing my best to avoid the political circus. It isn't good for the mood or the blood pressure.

I got more herbs dried, ground and in their jars: spearmint, lemon balm, lavender, pineapple sage. Going to pick catnip and spearmint (again) to dry. Thinking of what to do when I have all I need of the dried herbs.

The catnip completely filled my dehydrator and I had enough left over to start a vodka extraction.

Saturday July 14

Supposed to have thunderstorms this afternoon. I wonder if I can hold off watering the gardens and let nature do the work. I may make this a lazy day and not do much of anything.

So another government data base is going bye-bye. I often quibble about some of the guidelines and their applicability but you need the information before you can quibble. I wonder if some entity somewhere will do what Chicago and other cities did when the administration was erasing climate data and download it to keep it accessible.

Friday July 13

Another warm day. Minimal gardening today--watering and deadheading.

Found this report on FEMA's response to post-Maria Puerto Rico. Frankly, it is appalling. And it confirms my own estimation: FEMA has been just about worthless since it was folded into Homeland Security.

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, a critic of the federal government’s response to the storm said in a statement to ABC News ,“The report proves what was evident to all in Puerto Rico."
"FEMA was unprepared and they lacked a sense of urgency, which resulted in neglect, which in turn resulted in the loss of lives," she said. "It is quite troubling that they were not able to adapt their operating procedures to our reality and, from what the report says-they did not even learn from their past mistakes.”

I added the bold type.

I guess this tells us why the federal government is so slow about returning migrant children to their parents. Follow the money.

Jan in SanFran has a post which brings in John Feffer's post of a week or so ago which I enjoyed. She is right that the American empire has passed its pull-by date. They say a fish rots from the head and our empire has been rotting from the top down for some time now. I wonder how long before the smell becomes unbearable.

Infidel753 does say it like it is--unlike #45. I find no attraction in either on--not even in their promised afterlives.

Perhaps it is time to think outside our disposable box. We managed to reduce our single use plastics but too much we need comes in that: juice, milk, yogurt, frozen vegetables etc. Most of our meats come in butcher's paper now (thanks to our little meat market).

A good piece on older workers and changing retirement. Most of the articles I have seen don't deal with the nuances of the situation. Is the older worker physically capable of working past age 60 or 70. I know people, am related to a couple of them, who are not physically able to do the work any more. Changing careers at that age might be a bit problematic. Most of the people featured in the article continued in their previous careers in some capacity. Others I know or know of were essentially pushed out into a retirement they didn't want. The workplace itself may not be very welcoming. I am sure you can think of other questions that need answers.

Wednesday July 11

Robert Reich's right on assessment of #45's vaunted deal making prowess. A lot of hot air and no accomplishments.

Thursday July 12

We are getting back to something like normal. The last three months have been chaotic. Simplifying, or downsizing, or whatever the hell you want to call it is not a simple matter. The new recliners should come tomorrow so the downstairs will be in nearly final shape with a lot more room to move and a lot fewer things. The upstairs is half finished with the bedroom pretty much how we want it: again fewer things and more room to move. The new freezer is doing well and restocked with our most used items. That was a major mess and totally unforeseen.

The gardens?, you ask. Going along nicely. I see several peppers and some tomatoes--none near pickable yet. I have been taking herbs for drying regularly. I saw several flowers I should deadhead.

David Brin has a nice, biting article on our present situation. My own thoughts on the mess: we need an implosion of both political parties. They no longer represent our interests and need to be replaced by political parties that do. They both should go the way of the Whigs and into historical oblivion.

It has been a "hurry up and wait" kind of day. I hurried through my chores (grinding the herbs in the dehydrator and then harvesting more to load into the machine) and now we are waiting for the new freezer. We lost our effort to save what we had and threw most of it out. Damn. And damn Sears. First the Kenmore freezer goes out and is only six years old. Then they can't get a "technician" out her to diagnose the problem (not to fix it) for a week. Then we would have had to make another appointment for god only know when to actually fix the damned thing. Needless to say we won't deal with Sears again. Anyone care to guess why Sears is in trouble? I can sure tell them.

Right now my patio is all moved around to make sure the people who deliver the freezer can get in easily. I really hat to think of what our trash tote will smell like come Wednesday when we have trash pick up. I think (I hope!!) the season for the Japanese beetles is has peaked. I didn't squash nearly as many bugs as I have the past week or so. I hope the the basils and other plants they have munched on recover to thrive for the rest of the season.

The cats gave us a bit of a worry. Normally they eat their dry food well and love their canned food treat which is a minor part of their diet. Lately Candy has rejected her wet food  and, over the last few day neither she nor Leena ate their dry food. I think part of the problem was the heat we had for almost a month. But the other is the indoor cat food formulas. Neither cat will eat it. We won't be buying any more. Any one have similar problems?

Englehardt has an interesting take on the "addictions" problem in the U.S. And, yes, he did talk about plural addictions. We have never had one of the addictions here but avoiding one manifestation of it is difficult.

You might not be too concerned that a thuggish regime (N. Korea) would accuse the U.S. government of being gangsterish. However, this is a bit more concerning--a good bit. All for the benefit of Nestle and other purveyors of baby formula.

Saturday July7

Damn!! Someone turned on the cold. The temperature went down to the high 50s overnight.

I plan on gardening today and I might be doin it in a sweater. I want to trim some of the plants and get the beetle damaged leaves cut off. We had to make a trip to Ace Hardware yesterday and they had the remains of their plants free to anyone who wanted them. I got in just before another customer took their entire flat of chives and snagged two four-packs for myself. I have some places in mind for them where the beetles have been most destructive. I notice that the basil and cinnamon basil I planted near three other pots of chives aren't as badly chewed on so the companion  planting guides seem to be right on the deterrent value of chives for Japanese beetles.

Nice opinion piece in the Daily Beast about the exit of Scott Pruitt. I read his resignation letter and I must say I have rarely seen such a masterful piece of sanctimonious sucking up to the soon-to-be ex-employer composed by the quintessential toady.

Although I complained a bit about the very cool temperatures last night, I am enjoying getting out in the garden without wilting in the heat. I have already drowned or squashed a dozen beetles, trimmed damaged leaves off one tower of strawberries, trimmed one strawberry plant and transplanted it to an empty cell along with three chives in the last three cells of the tower. It is full now which I like. I hate empty spaces. I tied up one of the tomatoes that escaped the cage and the two pepper in spaces too close for a cage. That is just the beginning of my plans for the day.

Found this during my break from the garden. It has a nice sarcastic ring to it but pretty well illustrates the case with any technology. I doubt most people realize the demand for smooth paved streets came not from automobile drivers but bicycle riders. It was hell riding those first bikes on cobblestones or brick. We have often changed both our built environment and our behavior to accommodate our technology.

Friday July 6

Another bit of the household reorganization, rearrangement, and de-cluttering yesterday and today. We both tackled the bedroom yesterday and got it swept, dusted and rearranged. I finished that today with rearranging the books and knickknacks while Mom has a good bit of the bathroom done. I am taking a rest now and will tackle the What-not room later.

Found this item that is interesting. I would like to travel but most of the traditional ways of doing so are too expensive or simply not to our taste. We spent a couple of years taking day trips offered by our local park. They were reasonably priced and toured interesting places but almost half of the time was spent touring the shopping districts. We simply aren't into the shopping. I do remember getting a nice batch of gardening and herb books at the Chicago arboretum. But otherwise the other trips shopping times were a bust.

This sounds about right for the modern society and economy. The lesson is don't depend on any utility, agency, or other entity to provide the service they have accustomed you to depend on.

Thursday July 5

It isn't often that a commentary piece on MarketWatch reflects a lot of my thinking on any issue. I look it over to see what the economic pundits are saying and how out of touch many are with the life I live. This one, however, is an exception.

Another illustration of why our industrial food manufacturing system is not working. Or I should say it isn't a working for those who get sick from it. Because the profits are out of this world and it is making a few people wealthy while employing a lot more and only a few people get sick and/or die from its products most of us are fine with it.

We didn't celebrate the 4th. We stayed home, did our normal things, ate a normal meal, etc. This post has a good distillation of our attitude: why celebrate independence from a geographically distant monarchy only to wind up chained to a socially/fiscally/philosophically distant oligarchy.

Wednesday July 4

I would say Happy Independence Day but I am not at all sure we have much of our lauded independence left thanks to our own government.

We are taking things easy today and tomorrow. No heavy lifting. I did sweep the living/dining room carpet and the new vacuum works wonders. I am starting to reorganize stuff in the What-not room--at least getting things back on the shelves. Later I will do a final reorganization so I, hopefully can find things when I want them. We spent all morning yesterday trying to get someone to come out and repair our freezer. When that failed we went to three different stores before finding a suitable replacement that will arrive on Monday. That was when Sears (it is a Kenmore we bought from then only 6 years ago) could schedule a technician to diagnose (not necessarily fix) the problem. Once upon a time Sears provided good service but waiting six days and spending almost $100 with no guarantee that the problem would be fixed that day watching a freezer full of food melt simply did not meet our definition of good service. That alone should be a good indication of why Sears (as a company) is on the ropes. We got four bags of ice from a local supermarket and that seems to be keeping things cold enough to slow the thawing. We will be extremely careful about the condition of our meat before we cook and eat it. More so than usual. We finally got back home exhausted, irritable, and with aching joints and muscles. We don't normally walk that much at one time.

The Archdruidess has this little graphic on "The Rules of the Witch's Home." I like it. Consider it adopted here.

This is not the America I once knew and loved. And it certainly doesn't make me proud to be an American. But that seems to put me in the majority of those who answered a recent Gallup poll. I am not surprised that Repthuglicans feel differently.

A thought provoking piece from John Michael Greer. I do have a few quibbles. What are the necessary conditions for "equality of opportunity?" That is only one. I have to think about some other items a bit.

July 2

Supposed to be a bit cooler today. I hope I can get some pruning and dead-heading done and check how the peppers and tomatoes are doing. I also have to take care of the Japanese beetles. They have suddenly shown up in droves. Then I still have some books to pack for the local library and I want to get back to rearranging the What-not room. After going full tilt for almost two weeks on major and strenuous reorganizing and culling we needed to recharge a bit.

Sunday July 1

We had a good laugh with this post from the Archdruidess. In case you wondered where our National Nightmare came from.

And another excellent repost from the Archdruidess.

We have been reading and discussing #45's "short list" for the Supreme Court. We take it with a grain of salt on the one hand because he changes his mind more than a woman exercising her prerogative as a woman. Mom commented on the fact that two women were listed but I noted that they might not be any more friendly toward women or other groups at the bottom of the social/economic hierarchy than the men. Echidne evidently found some interesting facts about one of those women,

I have been saying and thinking much of what is in this post for some time. All of our traditional narratives (competition, materialism, individualism) have been driven to the extreme and that is where they break down. Whether the ever worked as well as we have been told (probably not) isn't really the point any more. The point is they aren't working now and haven't been for a good while. But our elites seem to want to double down on the busted system which only benefits them.

Saturday June 30

Oh, goodness!! Last day of the first half of the year. I haven't got the summer wreath fixed up yet and It will be a little while before I do get it put together and up. We are still in the middle of our radical downsizing though a bit more toward the end.

I have already watered the gardens. I have the catnip, lemon verbena and which ever other herb I cut and dried yesterday to grind and put on the shelf. It is a good thing I make a list of which herb is on which tray. I would be in a real world of hurt otherwise. The thyme pot is on the agenda today. I saw several flowers to dead head and a couple of tomatoes need pruning but I will leave that for tomorrow. It is already quite warm and we expect the mid 90s later. Ah, well!! the best laid plans and all that. I took our countertop compost canister out to our compost tub and was floored by the heat building already and the humidity. The thyme cutting and the pruning, etc., will wait for tomorrow.

Friday June 29

A good discussion of why privatization of the VA health care system might not be a good idea and an interesting comparison to the privatized prison system.

I went out very early, before 6:30,  to get the gardens watered. The weather people say we should have high temperatures for the next week. Right now they say the temp here is 89 and going to 95 before the day is over. I either get things done early or not at all. I got lavender, lemon verbena, and catnip harvested and in the dehydrator. The spearmint and peppermint I cut and dried yesterday has been chopped and put in jars on my shelf. We have slowed down on our household reorganizing and cleaning. Mom is especially feeling the strain. Her body is doing what I haven't been able to and convincing her to slow down and take things a bit easier.

Thursday June 28

We will spend most of today taking books to the library (donations), taking stuff to Goodwill (donations), and getting some more book boxes. We got quite a lot done in what I now call the "What Not" room. It started out as a library/office then became an office/sewing-craft room and is now a storage/plant starting-overwintering room. Getting that space organized has been a real jigsaw puzzle trying to fit everything we want to keep into the available spaces. Another conundrum awaiting creative solutions is how to do what we did before but without the convenient places to put things. We kept a large ottoman with storage space inside where I store my crochet work when I am not working on it. I used to simply reach over lift the top and pull out or put in what ever. I can't do that now (it is too far away) and getting up to go over and pull out a different skein of yearn, especially on a piece that requires frequent color changes will be inconvenient. I have various baskets and I can use one to keep several skeins I am working with while I am working. The yarn and WIP (work in progress) can go back into the ottoman when I am done and I can find a convenient place for the basket in between.

And here is a good expression of feelings I have had--often over the past year and on a few occasions over my life. Those usually precede a drastic change of direction though not necessarily a change of location.

Wednesday June 27

The downsizing saga continues. That has consumed most of our energy for the last week or so. The apartment looks a lot bigger now that the oversized sectional is out of here although that comes at a price of comfort. The new recliner set hasn't arrived yet so we sit on the dining room straight back chairs. All of the activity in sorting, packing for donations or for discard, moving things, and so forth has strained aging muscles and joints. I don't think we have ached so much since we moved in here.

I still haven't gotten out to harvest the herbs. I have told Mom that that is first on my list for tomorrow--before the garden becomes a jungle.

I have been reading but not commenting. But this piece at Time Goes By so fits in with my philosophy.

This post on Patheos says almost everything I have thought about the sanctimonious christianist idiots spouting so frequently and loudly today. The only word the author doesn't actually use is "hypocrisy."

Friday June 22

More rain falling now and more expected all day. It has gone beyond the "We need it" to "Please stop already." I won't be doing anything outside but the weather forecast says the weekend will be dry. I see herbs that need to be harvested.

Saturday June 23

We are in the middle of a major reorganization here so our efforts are geared totally to the process of sorting things into what we are going to discard (one way or another) and rearranging what we are going to keep. We have gone through several phases of this since we moved here almost 20 years ago. It was a necessary process because Mom moved here from a very overstuffed one bedroom apartment (as in claustrophobically overstuffed) and I had what I culled from a two-bedroom with enclosed porch house. Since then our lives have changed in significant ways. I am now also retired. We cook from scratch. I have donated almost all of my rather large library to the local library. I had materials for a dissertation I never finished and those are all gone. We had the leftovers from three computer systems for each of us and those are now (or will be shortly) gone.

The gardens are doing nicely with the recent rain and cooler weather. I hope to get back to harvesting herbs tomorrow.

A concentration camp by another name.  By my count these prisons will take in about 170k people. Who else besides immigrants will the powers that be put in there? And we've been here before. Anyone remember Manzanar?