John Michael Greer has an amusing post on "perfect" diets--and concludes, like we have here, there is no such thing. He has some sharp observations on the "evangelical" personality whether in diet, or religion, or politics or what have you.

I didn't watch the SOTU. Number 45 needn't feel left out--I haven't watch any, ever. I did read a couple of transcripts, one with commentary, which I found unimpressive. As the old saying avers: the devil is in the details. The speech was long on sentiment, generalities, fabrications, and exaggeration but very short on details. Maha's title on her blog says it all: Fake President, Meaningless Speech.

I found this massive idiocy this morning. I am actually at a loss for words. I wonder how people could possibly believe this but then remember Jim Jones and Heaven's Gate. I still wonder.

Andrew Bacevich has an excellent post-mortem of our recent past. There is an inertia to human affairs that resembles the inertia in physics: motion will continue in the original direction until outside forces act to change trajectory and/or velocity. Or to put the matter Biblically: the sins of the fathers pass to future generations. I would amend that to read simply "actions of the fathers" because our actions set up ripples that continue into the future--sometimes a long time into the future.

We have snow today--light but enough to coat the ground and other surfaces. The weather people predict temps in the 20s and low 30s for the next week. Our shopping only took an hour. We just had a few things to replace and veggies to get for the week.

Ronni Bennett has a question on her post today "how old is old?" and an interesting discussion of the issue. The old notion that "you're only as old as you feel" is somewhat idiotic. Somedays I feel like I am in my 50s and others I feel 75 (or older). While we suffered through our colds a month ago I felt like 100 going on death. For the most part I feel like the 68 (69 in April) my birth certificate and driver's license say I am. When did I really have to come to grips with my age? When, at 59, I was interviewed for a type of job I had held all too frequently during my adult life I was told I was "overqualified." Given my background, I was overqualified the last three or four times I held that kind of job so what was the difference? Only my chronological age. There are compensations, however. I have been overweight most of my adult life but now it doesn't bother me. I do try to eat healthy but I eat when I am hungry and I eat what I want. I no longer think about time and money wasters like hair stylings/perms or make up. I have culled my wardrobe to what is comfortable: tee shirts, flannel shirts, jeans, and sweats (depending on the season.) I don't own a dress or skirt and hope never to wear one again. I don't care which female entertainer "of a certain age" has a line of rejuvenating skin treatments, or diet, or exercise program. They make their living in part on their physical appearance. I don't. I don't care which octogenarian is skydiving, or running a marathon, or powerlifting. I couldn't do that when I was 30 and I don't want to do it now. I am fine with that. I will applaud but won'd emulate. How old is old? Depends to whom you listen and I don't listen to many such opinions any more.

The World Economic Forum has just finished up in Davos, Switzerland and this piece, though written before the conference, by Branco Milonovic perfectly describes what has gone on. Although #45 must have been in hog heaven, invited to big boys club instead of being on the outside looking in like the poor kid with his nose smashed against the window of a high class restaurant seeing all the goodies he couldn't get.

Are we underestimating American Imperial collapse? Perhaps.

This is the best answer to the male attitude that women exist only to make sure they are fed. I will excuse my cats' notion that I exist to make sure they are fed and their box is clean. They don't have thumbs and can't read a cook book. Besides they are warm and cuddly and purr. But a man--he can learn to cook or starve for all I care.

When the Taliban controlled Afghanistan they blew up sculptures of Buddha which predated Islam by perhaps 500 years. Purported Christians in Ireland destroyed a statue of Mananan mac Lir an ancient sea god associated with Ireland and other of the small island around Britain. Good red blooded Americans harassed a woman who had a license plate with a reference to Isis which happened to be her daughter's name and the only advice given her: change your daughter's name. Now this. Is it just me, or are people going insane all over?

Looks like Black Friday over here. It was a massive sale on Nutella that drove French consumers into a frenzy. I can't think of a product on the market which would lead me to be involved in anything like this. They aren't starving. They could do without of make do with something else. Can someone tell me why we see scenes like this? The psychology totally eludes me. This article tries to explain but I loved a lot of things as a child but don't go apes***t over them as an adult. I don't know what Macron had to say; my French isn't up to translating.

I love this story. One person's trash becomes several other people's treasure.

George Monbiot posted a good article in the Guardian. I have just started reading Against The Grain by James Scott. Monbiot promises his own notion of a "path forward" next week but I am always skeptical of such plans. By the time we humans notice a problem we are deep in the manure pile. The end of civilization? Depends on how you define civilization. And how far down the organizational and technology slide we go.

We should have temps in the 40s today and the 50s tomorrow. But, of course, the roller coaster continues. I really wish spring, real spring, would hurry up. Winter isn't as much of an annoyance as it used to be when I had to go out in all kinds of crappy weather to a crappy job (for the most part). But it won't ever be my favorite season.

Found this interesting article at Foreign Policy In Focus questioning whether #45 isn't just a racist, misogynist, lying (etc., etc.,) incompetent but actually. . . evil. Feffer makes a good case for answering "yes." Which then leads to the question of what about those who condone his actions? "Handsome is as Handsome does" the old saying goes which is a double edged concept. What if Handsome doesn't do handsomely but ugly instead? Is s/he still handsome. Perhaps, as Soren, the vampire in "Unraveled," says "Monster isn't what you are but what you do." (That is part of the Deadly Curiosities series by Gail Z. Martin for those not acquainted with the work.)

Tom Englehardt has a good post at Tomdispatch this morning and he is absolutely right in all respects. It reflects what we have felt here for some time. Mom used to say that the nightly news programs were the comedy of the day. She laughed while I cried (or cursed). Now I resist putting on the news for any more than it takes to get the weather forecast.

We had a slushy, wet snow yesterday but not more than an inch I think. It won't be around much longer if that warming spell over tomorrow and the two days after comes about. I told mom that our weather is so cockeyed don't know how to dress--layered sweats with turtlenecks one day followed by jeans and flannel shirts the next, heavy coat one day and heavy sweater the next. Twenty years ago I used to change out my closets twice a year moving the heavy clothing into storage boxes and the light clothes out in the spring and the reverse in the fall. I haven't done that for the last 15 or so because I can't be sure when I will need what.

I just found Le Guin's No Time To Spare, a collection of her blog posts, and thoroughly enjoyed it as I have enjoyed the several of her books. Not long ago I also found The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelos which left me sad, angry, and thoughtful--not a bad combination. She has now "walked on" at 88. I prefer that expression which I read in obituaries on some posts at Native Americans' sites. Or as Gandalf said in the (movie) Return of the King: death is just another journey we all must take. I will miss her. HecateDemeter ha a nice tribute today.

Dismal and rainy today so far. But the temps are in the mid 50s and the weather reporter teased that we may get some sun later. The wind and humidity make if feel cooler but it was nice to leave the winter coat at home and wear my heavy sweater out shopping.

I find this fascinating. The "big 4" banks suffered a 20% increase in credit card losses last year compared to the year before. And now they are worried about the ability of the consumer to keep up with their debt burden. That is like noting that the patient has had a 105* temp for the last week and  suddenly being worried he might expire.

I agree with the sentiment that if this isn't illegal it should be. The last recession taught me a couple of things I didn't know. First, money you put in a bank is essentially a loan to the bank. They offer interest but no real collateral in exchange to secure that loan. (And nowadays that interest may be negative so you may actually pay the bank for the loan you are making to them.) If the bank goes under you are an unsecured creditor and are last in line for a payout of whatever assets the bank might still have. And if you trust FDIC check out how underfunded the fund is. Second. Workers are essentially in a similar boat. Theoretically, they exchange their labor for money but in effect they work first and then the money is handed over. That makes workers unsecured creditors until their paychecks arrive and, hopefully, don't bounce. If the company goes under they, like bank depositors, go to the end of the line. Third, pensions are a promise of future payments which is makes the pensioners unsecured creditors if whatever entity promised payment goes bust. Promises, as the old saying goes, are worth their in gold.

Well it is a bit warmer this morning and we expect temps in the 40s today. We noticed the weather predictions have changed and taken out a couple of the warm days to give us colder ones instead. The snow is rapidly melting--about half gone now with big bare spots on the lawns.

Well, our very expensive Washington kindergarten is continuing to play the 'He did it, Mommy, not me!!" game. And I see another administration promise has been thrown on the garbage heap. All the national parks and monuments they promised would remain open....are closed.

Got to wondering about all these continuing resolution in lieu of real budgets and did a quick google search. We have only had six years, four under Bush II and 2 under Obama when we had actual budgets, not CRs, passed. That is damned pathetic.

Peter Turchin often has good insights into our political/economic/social situation. In this post he charts the "intraelite" fragmentation he thinks is driving the dysfunctional government. He says the last period of least polarization among our elites ended about 1980 and before that was the period of the Era of Good Feelings in the 1820s. The implications, if you have any feeling for history, are not good. He writes that he wouldn't be surprised if we aren't entering a period of permanent government shutdown. Given my observation on continuing resolutions above, I can't argue with him.

This article goes in the "Well, Duuuh!" file. I have a major gripe with a bit of the introductory paragraph: being less educated doesn't mean being less smart. Mom got a diet hand out from a previous doctor several years ago which made us laugh so hard we almost cried. First problem--the cost of the constituents. Second problem--the waste. One meal listed "half of an avocado" which is expensive but what about the other half? There was no other meal in the week that called for using the other half. Third problem--sheer boredom. That was the most boring menu I have ever seen. Fourth problem--it simply didn't fit our life. We eat two meals a day with a snack if we are so inclined. The died called for four to six small meals each day. I agree with one of the conclusions: any doctor prescribing any diet for any patient should consider how it would work with the patients schedule and budget.

We have complained for sometime about the valorization of college as a route for young people into a career. For year (decades?) now we have read about people who aren't working in the fields for which they went to college and their degrees weren't in the fine arts or humanities either. Every May and June the local TV news programs trumpet the schools where every student was accepted to college or the exceptionally bright students who were offered gobs of money in financial aid from the schools that accepted them. Patrice Lewis has a post which indicates this might be changing. I hope so. I don't denigrate college or university education for those who truly want it but, like so much else in this society, we and the prospective students are being sold a pig in a poke by hucksters who are only interested in the money they can rake in.

The snow is melting quickly and we have a couple of days in the 40s and a couple in the 50s on the forecast for this coming week.

I wonder about the details of these plans. Qatar and other gulf countries are notorious for the abuse of "guest workers." Thinking also about a report Mom read a couple of days ago about N. Korean workers in Russia whose earnings are (according to the report) remitted to N. Korea, not the worker or his family. Who or what gets the Salvadoran guest worker's money? Are we starting a new "slave trade?"

Sometimes swear words are the only appropriate expression of disgust which conveys the full feeling of utter, total, complete disgust I feel with #45 and his administration. Unfortunately, the old words simply are too banal and common place, and I am not creative enough to come up with new ones. So now our diplomats are to be shills for the armaments industry. Their corporate sales staff and lobbyists were doing well enough to ensure the U.S. was #1 in this category even if we aren't in maternal and infant health, in education, in medical outcomes vs costs, in infrastructure soundness, in (name your own category).

This is an interesting development. Maybe it will put a small spike into the pharma vultures.

We should be entering a warmer period starting today. Sounds good to me. Winter hasn't made me as grumpy as it used to but I am still no fan. I want spring and summer. I want my garden growing. I want to go out in a tee shirt and jeans (or shorts around the house) instead of layers of turtlenecks and sweats with a shawl thrown on top.

Nimue Brown has a good post on the problems of small space living. I can relate to most of it. She downsized from a three bedroom house to a one bedroom apartment which was stuffed to the max. When I joined her in the two bedroom townhouse apartment we now live in we had to merge her stuff with the contents of my two bedroom house. A lot of stuff went out (most to friends and family) and more as time has passed here and out needs changed. It is still a tight fit but not so tight as when we moved in and we have room for a few extras. But it has taken time. And now we might see some discarded piece of furniture and think it would be a nice addition but, in almost the same breath, ask where would we put it.

The Slate discusses a paper being developed by economists that casts a new light on why wages aren't rising for American workers. The authors' answer: we have a shortage of employers. On an intuitive level that makes sense. Over the last few years the number of businesses going out of business has exceeded the number of new startups and the number of new businesses each year has been declining. Those are statistics that used to be frequently featured in economics news but seem to have disappeared of late.

Anyone surprised by this poll? I'm not and I expect those numbers to drop more.

Means testing for disaster aid??? Apparently and it only applies to Puerto Rico. If I lived in Puerto Rico and they had another vote of whether to become a state or a separate nation, I would vote the latter.

Crabby Old Lady (aka, Ronni Bennett) at Time Goes By has a hit a bull's eye with her comments on the internet. I have gotten to the point of uttering a (fairly) mild expletive and goin on to another site. If the story interests me enough I google it and find another site (or two or three) read the material. I have also started culling my subscriptions. Sometime ago I pretty much stopped watching TV. I am beginning to curtail my internet surfing.

I wondered if I would get on Blogger at all today. At first it wouldn't load at all though I went into it several times. Finally, I got on. We have had more and more trouble with sites that didn't want to load or were so slow the process timed out before it finished.

John Feffer has a good piece on Foreign Policy In Focus today. Think about how many of those "shithole" countries we helped create--including the one of which #45 was elected president.

Only 7* this morning but a warm-up should be coming in. We had quite a bit of lake-effect snow but it won't last long with temps supposed to reach mid 30s and low 40s over the next ten days.

Well, the vultures are looking out for the vultures. We have a thoroughly predatory economy.

Still trying to get the craft/sewing section of the sewing/plant/storage room straightened out. I decided I need to simplify so stuff I know I won't use is going out. I had a small stock of eyelash and fake fur yarn I used for several projects over the last decade or so but won't use again. I really hate crocheting with it and don't intend to do any embellishment with it on any future pieces. I also got rid of the strips I cut from plastic bags. I crocheted a couple of items with some but with two new cats and a litter box to clean each day we have a different use for those plastic bags which we also get in far fewer numbers because we are pretty good about remembering to take our reusable canvas bags with us shopping. I am almost finished with another doily and plan to make a couple of pads our cats might like to lay on. They sure like the crocheted place mats we have for the table. A few years ago, when I visited needlework blogs, writers were talking about SEX (Stash Enhancement eXperience) and the, a bit later, SABLE (Stash Acquired Beyond Live Expectancy). I have been at the last stage for some time and Stash Enhancement provides much less bliss nowadays. It is time to use it down and hope to get it as near to 0 as I can before I expire.

As one who has spent far too much time in higher education as a student, graduate student, research assistant teaching assistant, and adjunct teacher I agree totally with this piece.

The US isn't alone in its misery. It is interesting how the author traces all the zombie ideas and policies back to Thatcher while over here we trace them back to Ronnie (the Great) Reagan and they were such pals.

Back in the deepfreeze this morning--only 3*. The weather people predict lake effect snow. Glad we got our shopping in yesterday.

Why so-called public/private partnerships are bad for the taxpayers.

18* with a couple of inches of snow. We should get more snow over the day. We are debating on when we should our grocery shopping. We could put it off until later in the week--after the snow ends and the plows and shovel gangs have had a chance to do their work. However, we are out of a couple of things that are "almost" necessities--sage and milk. We decided to hang loose and see what daylight actually reveals.

Found this piece today which illustrates just how messed up our political system is. One of these days the printing press will run out of paper and ink--or, to be more modern about the metaphor, the computer will choke on all the new blips representing imaginary money.

Most of the news reports about Hawaii's missile warning fiasco have concentrated on either 1) the bureaucratic mess of who is responsible and how to make sure "it never happens again" and 2) dramatic pictures of panic stricken citizens running around like headless chickens. This article goes a bit deeper into both. I have reached several conclusions on the issue. First, look for more information before making decisions. Second, think about what you absolutely need (food, shelter, water, energy) and how you would deal with a situation that made any of them scarce or non-existent. Third, watch out for all the yahoos out there who won't take the time to consider what might happen. I had thought that, if I were ever in the path of a nuclear missile, the last place I would want to be was Hawaii but, honestly, we would have seen the same chaos among clueless civilians anywhere. It is rather ironic that I have read of warnings by the German government, the Polish government, the South Korean government, the Japanese government and probably others I can't name off the top of my head for their citizens to prepare for emergencies, military or otherwise, but there hasn't been a peep from our own.

Well we decided to do our shopping. Daylight revealed a plowed streets and the sidewalks have been cleared courtesy of our landlords and our next door neighbor who decided they weren't quick enough. Streets passable and most drivers cautious.

Cold this morning but it looks like we will have sun. The temperature should get into the mid 20s. Not bad for this time of the year. Can you believe January is half over? Damn!!

"Better life," "better world"??? Thanks, but no thanks. How many things have been sold us on this "pie in the sky" notion and then utterly failed to deliver what was promised? Another thought surfaced while we talked around this issue: how much of these shows are geared more toward finding investing in the companies developing what are obviously prototypes? That bigger fish might be the real target.

Josh Marshall at TPM has a good take on how the reputation of the word "shithole" has been damaged by #45's use of it.

Low teens for temperatures this morning and snow. Thankfully we have no place we need to go and can stay in where it is warm and dry.

The Atlantic has a good article on our political situation and comes to the conclusion we have here--we are stuck in this s***hole situation for the next three years minimum. The best we can hope for is that #45 resigns, refuses to run again, or is defeated by someone who is not a Wall Street Damnocrat.

I seem to remember something like this a year or so ago only then it was Chinese women. Here is an article from CBS three years ago on the same topic, birth tourism, but the focus was on the Chinese connection.

I thought this was cute. The U.S. media has the problem of what euphemism to put in place of #45's s***hole remark. Foreign press have the problem of how to translate the term into what ever the local language is.

The temperature this morning is 30+ degrees less than yesterday at this time. The cold moved in much faster than the weather people predicted. The wind is very blustery and we have a light coating of snow that is being blown all over.

We had to replace lamps yesterday. A couple of weeks ago my light bulb blew out and I replaced it but the new one lost the lowest level right away and died altogether while tripping the circuit breakers on the power strip. Mom's lamp blew out its new bulb also. The lamps were old so we made a quick and frustrating trip to Wal-mart as the most likely source since we already knew Target and Menards didn't have anything we liked because we looked there for lamps to replace a couple of small ones in the bedroom. We thought we found a nice pair packaged as a unit with shades but then took a close look at the bulb requirements. Two problems: the maximum illumination would have been about 150w when we like the 200-250w for reading and needlework and we couldn't find a single three-way bulb that met those lower restrictions. So we traipsed back to the lamp department where we found a nice pair rated for the wattage we liked and could find bulbs for---but it came without a harp or shade. Evidently, lamps are sold by the piece today. We found a couple of nice shades and decided to cannibalize our old lamps for their harps which worked well. I feel nostalgic for the days when you walked into a store, said I want that one, took it home and put in a light bulb and plugged it in.

The new cats are settling in--oh, are they settling in. They are into everything. We had many years with older cats who were more sedate and laid back. We forgot exactly how trying dealing with young cats barely out of kitten stage could be.

I usually am not interested in sports history but I decided try The Perfect Pass by S.C. Gwynne. Delancey Place features it as their selection today. The section they quoted is beautifully written, amusing, and well researched. Lovely combination.

I have seen articles for the last couple of years about drought conditions in parts of Africa. I didn't realize it might be this bad. Several years ago Atlanta was almost in this situation but the rains came and refilled the reservoir.

Our temperature so far this early morning is 34* or 36* depending on which source you cite. The prediction is for rain and around 50*. The January thaw will be short lived--only today and tomorrow. After that we go back in the refrigerator with the deep freeze probable for one day early next week.

Hardly unexpected. After the fires the rains have come, and the mudslides and floods as well. Death toll as of the latest report I found: 13.

Those STEM programs in our schools may be less valuable than their backers hoped. I don't know how many fads in education I have seen pass through from the first panic over our lack of math and science skills in the wake of Sputnik to the current push for STEM. Through all of it we seem to have become less educated. In a way Brin and Page were not wrong in their assumption that only technologists can understand technology--if you restrict the meaning of "understand" to the nuts and bolts of how the technology itself is constructed. They were totally off base when a broad definition of "understand" is used: as in knowing how to effectively communicate that technology both to other technologists and a broader non-technical public and in predicting how that technology would diffuse through and affect society. The article concerned the narrow area of "success" in careers but the lack of people skills is apparent in the wider areas of society and politics.

Anyone else sick and tired of all the election hype which has been ongoing since #45 announced his candidacy 16 months before the 2016 election? Now there is the speculation that Oprah will run for president in 2010 and there is solid behind the speculations beyond a dynamite speech at the Golden Globe awards. Frankly it looks like desperate Damnocrats hoping that a black woman can do what the white woman couldn't: win both the popular vote (which Clinton did) and the Electoral College (which she didn't). It also provides a way to avoid looking at the reasons why so many voters decided they would rather have a con-man plutocrat instead of a Wall Street Democrat.

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Our temperature might have reached the 50* yesterday but with the fog and mist it didn't feel like it. The weather site we check each morning say it is now 56*. But the snow is rapidly melting even from the patio which is totally in the shade until after the spring equinox.

This is funny. Don't people look at the cover (or the picture of the cover if it is an e-book) before completing the purchase? Honestly, I would find the Fire and Fury account of the allied bombing much more interesting than the Fire and Fury account of 45's White House.

Foggy with a fine snow(?) falling. The temperature is supposed to be 27* right now so it is cold enough for snow. We expect rising temperatures for today and through next Sunday when they crash back into the low 20s and teens. I know this winter hasn't been all that long but two weeks of sub-zero temps makes it feel interminable.

I saw a couple of articles I didn't bother reading which were rejoicing over the Christmas sales results and noting that retailers are feeling much better about this year's possibilities. The articles claim that consumers are feeling optimistic and opening their wallets a bit wider. I wonder how many of those consumers are like us who did spend more that we normally would have in late December but neither Christmas nor optimist had anything to do with it. We adopted a couple of young shelter cats and needed all the stuff to go with them like carriers, scratching post, food, litter, litter box, bowls for food and water. We gave all that away when the last of our old cats died (at ripe old ages of 17+).

This article strikes a chord for me. Since I retired about six years ago we have followed some of the ideas of "off-peak" living. We avoid traveling during a rush hour or any time everyone else travels. Christmas travel crunch--not for us. Rush hour--no bother at all. We don't shop at 1am but do shop early. And our shopping is very basic--usually what we need and we don't know who the Joneses are so we have no one to "keep up with." Another interesting piece is a little book titled Un-Jobbing which extolls getting out of the regular job rat race. The author subtitled it "The Adult Liberation Handbook." I spent my entire adult life trying to get into a career that was interesting and stimulating, which provided an income that could sustain me comfortably in a reasonable number of hours, and from which I would not want to escape into retirement. I never found it. I finally landed in retirement by default (basically too "overqualified" for any jobs available) and I have never been happier or more satisfied.

This is not much of a surprise: Pfizer is distributing at least part of its Trump tax "reform" bonanza to--wait for it-- -- its largest shareholders. And cutting some 300 researchers and other employees involved in its Alzheimers and Parkinson's research programs.

We had a nasty mix of precipitation over night. The temperature was just high enough for sleet, freezing rain and snow. Good that we don't have to be out and about until later when some of this might have a chance of melting.

I got the Baker Creek seeds Saturday: black-eyed susan vine, malabar spinach, perpetual spinach, red calendula and a free-bee of an interesting cherry tomato. I have started my seed starting calendar and will soon start my new garden map. The Burpee order should come in two parts with the sunflower seeds sent separately from the bare root strawberries which should come in late April or early May. Right now everything is frozen so all I can do is think about what I will be doing in four months.

We commented on the new meteorological terms we have heard for the first time--like "bombogenesis" and "bomb cyclone". Grist says we should "get used to it." That situation at JFK International Airport is mind boggling. Over the last five years or so I have read about numerous transportation snarls that were unthinkable ten years or more ago. I remember flying out of Denver just before a massive storm hit as a blizzard. The airlines and FAA rerouted planes and curtailed operations west of us but the airline agents put me on an alternative flight when the plane I was supposed to board was delayed and held the connecting flight for fifteen minutes so I and my fellow passengers could catch it. My suitcase was delayed but delivered to my hotel the next day. None of the chaos and callous customer (dis)service of recent years. It is nice to blame a frozen pipe but 1) they had problems even before the pipe burst and 2) whatever their contingency plans were they need to be seriously rethought.

Still cold this morning with the high today only in the low teens but the weather people are predicting a "heatwave" with 30s and even 40s next week. One of my two seed orders shipped Wednesday so it should arrive today or tomorrow. The other should be shipped in two parts because the bare root strawberries won't be shipped until late April or early May.

Found this little piece of satire brightened my morning.

Nimue Brown has another good post criticizing the so-called "work ethic" we have jammed down our throats from the time we are born until we croak from exhaustion, or from a heart attack or stroke from years of exhaustion.

Finally!! got the doilies starched and stretched. I have been telling myself to do that for the last week or so--since I finished the last on. The new one is about 1/3 done. I am already thinking I would like to do an oval next. I will have to look for an appealing pattern.

We had snow most of yesterday but it wasn't the blizzard lake effect snows can be. We should get more this morning. At least we aren't getting that "bomb" cyclone the east coast is experiencing. And the cold is moderating (a bit) and will get to an almost balmy 32* by Sunday--or so the weather people say.

I started a couple of days ago making the starter pots from the cardboard cores of toilet paper and paper towels. I will continue that today. I have quite a nice lot of the tubes to alter and plenty of time to work on them. The biggest problem is convincing the cats to leave them alone as I work.

I finished a new crocheted doily over the last weekend which I need to stretch and starch along with two others we washed. I started another which is building nicely. Again my main problem are the cats who think I should share my toys.

A good start on a series concerning the American healthcare (or, as some call it, "sickcare") industry.

All kinds of weird things with the computer today. One of the cats walked across the keyboard and changed the size of the image on my screen. I couldn't read anything or effectively navigate when the image greatly exceeded the screen boundary. I still have no idea how she did that but it took me a good 45 minutes swearing all the while to figure out a way to return the image to its proper size. Then I tried to log back into my e-mail account and the shift key wouldn't work. Hard to type out an address when the computer won't print @. Well, finally everything is back to normal--for now.

Our (very) early temps are definitely an improvement--+10* instead of -10*. The weather people say by the weekend we should actually get near freezing on Sunday. My cough came back with a vengeance--I think because we did our shopping in the sub zero weather yesterday.

I finally got my seed/plant orders in and I am really glad I didn't get them done before Christmas. My notions of what I will do this year have changed totally. I had a long list of herb seeds I wanted but I won't be gettin any. I plan to buy transplants locally and make a note as the year goes on of interesting items not available here. I thought I would replace the blueberry I lost and try the citrus again but I decided to put both off to next year--maybe. I did double up on the bare root strawberries and ordered seed for the malabar spinach and the perpetual spinach. The only flower seeds I ordered were a calendula, a black-eyed susan vine, and a sunflower. Any other flowers I will buy locally.

That cold I came down with and the time it has taken to get mostly (though not totally) over it have convinced me that I need to simplify what I do in the gardens. Also I found the heat exhausting.

I don't read many predictions for the new year ahead but John Michael Greer's are always a fun read. The one for 2018 is no exception. His prediction for the Damnocrat's chances in the fall elections are interesting given that he predicted, in the spring, the Repthuglican win in 2016 when almost everyone else was absolutely sure Clinton would wipe the floor with #45.

Negative double digits this morning. Depending on the reporting site either -12 or -13. We expect several more days of this brutal cold with some snow--maybe. The holidays are finally over though the season hasn't been as excruciating as past seasons have been. Mainly, I think, because we now watch so little TV. We don't see all the ads demanding we go out and spend ourselves into financial ruin. And we don't see the obligatory holiday greetings "from our family to yours" that have become as obnoxious as the equally obligatory "thank you, for your service" addressed to any person with any connection to the military past or present.

This little article reflects some of my experience and thought. Disconnecting from the TV has been a major accomplishment. It used to be the background noise to our lives which went on as soon as we woke in the morning and didn't go off until we went to bed. Now we switch it on for maybe an hour to an hour and a half depending on how irritating the fluff is. We have noticed that much of the broadcasts are fluff; not in any way meaningful news. We do get most of our news on line but from sites with stories we can actually read instead of watch. It is far easier to get the meat of the issue and ignore the attempts to manipulate our emotions when we read actual words. I have begun editing my list of blogs and news sites because some are honestly no longer interesting. I never did get into the smart phone craze. The only way to not be drowned in that deluge of (mostly) emotion and misinformation is to get out of the damned river.

There is an old adage that you generally find what you are looking for and that seems to be the case for cancer. Increase screening and you increase the incidence--but how many should be aggressively treated? Some are so slow growing that the patient dies of something else before and I have read of others that simply disappeared. And along similar lines is this story on the lack of evidence supporting (and the large amount of evidence against) many popular treatments. But once a treatment becomes popular the pressure in overwhelming to keep it as an option.

Happy 2018 to everyone. I do hope it will be better than 2017 which was a most depressing year in more ways than I care to count.  We spent the moment when 2017 became 2018 as usual--asleep. We don't stay up late any more and drinking to excess no longer seems like fun.

I don't do the resolution thing either. Too often in the past I made resolutions that were too big to accomplish, so at odds with my character, or reflected some notion society at large said I should do that I broke them or forgot them before the middle of January.

However, this is a good time to reflect on the past year to see what worked for you, what you might like to change, and to make some decisions about what actions to take. That cold that left me in a lethargic fog for nearly two weeks and which hasn't yet passed off totally was a good catalyst for making some decisions. I cleaned out the lemon verbena which I will grow as an annual from now on. It gets too leggy though I did manage to keep it in better control this year than other plants in earlier years. It is also too messy as the leaves start to drop. I badly neglected all of the plants but did manage to revive in time to save the hibiscus and its cuttings, and two lavender I started from seed and the lavender cutting I took from the garden plants. I lost the basils and the mints I started from cuttings. However, the plants had developed nice root systems before I neglected them to death. I plan to do more cuttings next season.

Looking at the gardens I decided I won't replace the very large pot that developed a crack in its first season. Instead I will move the stool into that place and put three (maybe?) smaller pots on it with a large one in front. That will be easier to manage I think. I also got rid of the hens 'n' chicks. I really don't like growing them myself and I won't be putting up the spiral hanger where I had then last season. They were one of the very few plants that grew well there but if I don't use the hanger I have no need for the plants.

Last year's garden was the usual mixed bag. The clematis and hibiscus did well. I brought the hibiscus inside, trimmed it and it is doing nicely. I mulched the clematis hoping it will revive in the spring. We'll see. I got a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes but my oxheart tomatoes didn't produce at all. Nor did my peppers which was a major disappointment. The strawberries did well enough to encourage me to double my order in the spring to put in more. Sunflowers disappointed so I will find another variety for this year. All of the herbs did very well. I am still getting my orders ready. Our illnesses put me way behind.