December 2

December already. Another year almost gone. We have a sheen of snow on roofs and grass but the pavement seems to be too warm for any to stick. At least, for now anyway, we missed the heavy snows other areas have been getting. The very high winds of a week ago hardly even inconvenienced us. We could, and did, choose not go out and decided not to put out trash tote for pick up. Only one small bag in it and I didn't want to risk having to chase it down as the wind rolled it down the street. Last year we caught the amusing, for us, sight of three or four in a line wheeling down the street propelled by the wind. We didn't put ours out that day either.

In the blogs this morning--David Kaiser had this very cogent and accurate assessment of the comparisons of #45 and Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson. The current occupant of the White House doesn't compare very well in either case. Unfortunately, #45's election also doesn't say much good about where our country is today. A worse indicator, however, was a poll I saw today which indicates that Republicans rated #45 above Lincoln. The only saving grace was that among Americans generally Lincoln is still favored.

William Astore also has a good blog at TomDispatch on our endless wars. Another dismal reflection on where we are today.

Ronni Bennett's post today conjures up some unpleasant memories. A couple of years ago CVS took over Aetna (my mother's insurance company) and the price of her medication more than tripled soon after open enrollment ended. She tried to cancel that insurance which came because of her deceased husband's job but the company insisted that she stay with them until the next enrollment period until she noticed that they could drop her if she didn't pay the premium. Note the company got paid by Medicare to provide the insurance and collected a premium from her as well. She refused to pay and after stringing the matter out for about three months (to continue collecting from Medicare I guess) they finally cancelled the insurance. Her doctor helped her find a low cost provider for that medication. Mom keeps a tab of the insurance premiums she isn't paying, and the co-pay (which she also doesn't have to pay) and has found that those savings more than pays for the doctors' visits (both her medical and her eye doctor) and her lower drug costs. Both her doctors were very happy to accept cash. The biggest criticism of the "Medicare for all" plans has been what would happen to those who are happy with their insurance and want to keep it. The critics pit that group against those who can't get insurance at all. But few are talking about those who pay through the nose for inferior service and have a hard time getting out of it.

Friday, November 29

Well, here it is--Black Friday and no, we have not been and are not going shopping. We haven't indulged in that madness for some years except for once when we ran out of something and forgot what day it was. I saw more post with the caption "Black Friday--Save 100%. Stay home." But, given the stories on the news, ours is a minority opinion.

The weather is now and has been, with brief exceptions, gloomy. It feels colder than the thermometer says it is thanks to the moisture. We have had plenty of rain and a couple of days of high winds. The weather people have pushed back the end of this bleak weather to Tuesday.

We had a nice Thanksgiving with my brother and his family. We managed to not overeat though we had to refuse the pie. As I told one of the guests I was comfortably full but the pie would have left me uncomfortably (and painfully) overfull.

My first seed catalog arrived last week--Totally Tomatoes. Since I have sworn off tomatoes and peppers, which haven't yielded well for the last few years, I doubt I will be buying any of those seeds. I am still of the mind to concentrate on herbs and flowers but am still deciding which ones.

The stevia, lemon grass, and rosemary I brought inside for the winter are doing well so far. The miniature rose has had a hard time, though. When I had it outside the Japanese beetles went for it like it was bug candy. I cleared them all off and brought it inside where it began to come back, until I overwatered it. I think I managed to save it because it is now putting out new leaves. At least until the next crisis. I might add another next year. I can't keep on display in the big window downstairs because the cats also think it tastes good.

I am still ignoring the political news. It is toxic as hell and I am tired of being poisoned by it.

November 11

Happy Veterans' Day

We have snow today. It started about 5am for us and is supposed to continue through out the day. Tomorrow they say will be the coldest day in the season thus far. We, however, are snug and warm with nowhere to go or anything to do--so we won't go anywhere.

Instead it is a day to read and do needlework. Oh, and do several loads of dark clothes.

First up for reading was this piece by Ronni Bennett. I have curtailed my "news" watching because I can't stand more ad nauseam coverage of yet another outrageous action, tweet, or verbal flatulence.

November 8

Quite cold this morning--in the teens. The weather reporter on the morning news said the temps were quite normal----for January. The plants that survived the last cold snap are pretty much gone now. Time to start planning for next season. I just ordered the new Baker Creek catalog. Should be getting several more soon. 'Tis the season.

Speaking of seasons is anyone else bummed out with the Christmas themed commercials that have sprouted like mushrooms? We hadn't even said goodbye to Halloween and the "Black Friday" ads popped up. Are we even having Thanksgiving this year? Can't tell by the ads.

I have become increasingly curmudgeonly (Scrooge like?) about our so-called holidays which our commercialized society has turned into buying orgies. I think Tom Lehrer said it well in this parody of Christmas carol.

Christmas time is here, by golly,

Disapproval would be folly,

Deck the halls with hunks of holly,

Fill the cup and don't say "when."

Kill the turkeys, ducks and chickens,

Mix the punch, drag out the dickens,

Even though the prospect sickens,

Brother, here we go again.

On christmas day you can't get sore,

Your fellow man you must adore,

There's time to rob him all the more

The other three hundred and sixty-four.

Relations, sparing no expense'll

Send some useless old utensil,

Or a matching pen and pencil.

"just the thing I need! how nice!"

It doesn't matter how sincere it

Is, nor how heartfelt the spirit,

Sentiment will not endear it,

What's important is the price.

Hark the herald tribune sings,

Advertising wondrous things.

God rest ye merry, merchants,

May you make the yuletide pay.

Angels we have heard on high

Tell us to go out and buy!

So let the raucous sleigh bells jingle,

Hail our dear old friend kris kringle,

Driving his reindeer across the sky.

Don't stand underneath when they fly by.

Source: LyricFind

We aren't exactly non-participants but we don't use it as an excuse for a buying binge. Especially not for stuff we don't need and (usually) don't want. For Mother's Day and Mom's birthday I usually treat her to a dinner at one of her favorite restaurants. When it comes to other family we opt for modest amounts of cash so they can get what they really want or use it in whatever way they see fit. 

On to other things. This year is the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. David Kaiser has a good take on the event and its aftermath. Morning Joe had Tom Brokaw on for his reminiscences as the only reporter for a major news outlet on the scene. It was a interesting discussion.

November 4

Goodness!! It has been a while since I posted anything. Here it is--day before Election Day. The campaigning has been heavier than usual here. Our mayor of 16 years has opted to not run again though I could bet he would have been re-elected if he had decided otherwise. He has done a good job. The man from his party (Republicans) who is running to succeed him touts his close association with the soon to be former mayor but I am not convinced that is enough reason to vote for him. And I don't see much difference between his platform and the Democrat. However, the challenger is basically running on a "time for change" platform which given the last sentence means not much change. Also he doesn't specify what needs to change (besides the party in office) and what he means by a city government that works for all. Again--not much inducement to vote Democrat. They only strong feeling I have on the matter is that alternating parties is--generally--a good thing. I guess I will wait til I have the ballot in front of me to see how what ever spirit moves me. Given what I have seen of the campaign signs in yards I would place a small bet on the Republican.

The weather has turned decidedly colder of late. It feels like someone (or Someone) flipped a switch taking us from 70s and 80s to 30s and 40s. We had snow on Halloween. Along with hard rain and heavy winds. I think the snow and low high temp on Halloween threatened a record that had been set in the 1880s. The garden is pretty much gone now even though the chives, spearmint, peppermint, dianthus are still hanging on. I have done as much clean up as I intend to do and what plants are left will remain as a protective cover on the soil. The hard rains we have had over the last few years tends to splatter mud all over.

I haven't planned much on the gardens for next year. All I know for sure is that I am striving for one that provides max enjoyment and least work. And which can withstand what has become a brutal summer, partly because we are having more 85+ days and partly because heat tends to concentrate and magnify on the patio where the temperatures can be as much as 20 degrees higher than our official temperatures.

I don't write about politics much and I try to limit my exposure to a lot of what passes for political news nowadays. Some amusing thoughts have passed through my not-quite-fried brain. So many of the talking heads talk about Biden as the candidate votes think will reset our society and politics to something they consider "normal." I think they are living an illusion. Too much has been broken over the last 50 years and the last 3 under #45 are just the tip of the iceberg. Ain't no way we are going back to anything like what we once considered "normal." Finally, this morning on Morning Joe Pete Budiguige (a.k.a., Mayor Pete) said that though in a softer, kinder way. Evidently, according to the pundits, Wall Street is really scared of the prospect of a President Elizabeth Warren. Why escapes me.  After all being elected is no guarantee that she will get her various "plans" enacted. I am glad she is running and that her various criticisms of our current bastardized "capitalist" system are getting more discussion than normal. I still wish Bernie and Joe had decided to sit this one out. Several of the lower tier candidates deserve more than a chance to issue a sound bite. Elizabeth and Pete are the only ones who have been able to get any attention from those two.

I will let this end for now. Just thought I would let the world know I am still here.

September 21

OMG!! It has been a long time since I posted. The days pass so quickly and then meld into each other. Before you realize it a week has passed and then a month. Or more.

It seems that I was just  putting in the gardens (a bit late because of the Spring that might as well not have been) and here I am putting it to bed for the year. As usual the gardens I imagined in the spring are not the ones I ended up with.

Ronni Bennett has an interesting post on time management as you get older.

September 25

Another post that hits home. I have pretty much given up on vegetable gardening also.

October 4

Another OMG moment. I had intended to come back and finish the two previous posts but we got busy with other things. We have had errands and appointments for almost every day since.

The temperatures have turned definitely towards fall. However, I did get out and pulled some weeds in the containers. We had some heavy rains over the last couple of weeks so those weeds have flourished. A couple of the flowers have also done nicely so far. I brought the lemon grass, stevia and all my rosemary pots in for the season. My dehydrator is full of cuttings from those. When I get the dried herbs out and into jars I will take the trays out and scrub them down. The next time I trim the stevia I will try to root them.

Garden clean up is going slowly because the weather has either been high summer hot or monsoonal rainy. One of the gardeners whose blog I read often said some time ago that as she gets older (she is a bit older than I am) gardening in rain and cold is definitely not enjoyable. I concur totally. The link I had on the 25th describes another change in my habits. That writer described his decision to give up on veggies as a "heresy." Five years ago I might have agreed with that description. What has changed is I am five years older with less energy and the temperatures on our patio are not good for veggies. The early season greens bolt and the tomatoes and peppers don't set fruit. I will put in flowers and herbs.

The Ronni Bennett piece ties into this. Though a number of bloggers have noticed that as they have gotten older they have to manage their time more carefully. Ronni simply puts it very clearly and concisely. We, at MaryContrary's house, try to get all our errands and appointments done early in the day when we are most alert and energetic. The same goes for gardening. What I don't get done by 10am probably isn't going to get done until another day (or ever depending on how urgent the task is.

Happy 4th Of July

Well #45 has his ego masturbatory celebration of himself under the masquerade of a salute to the nation. Anyone who has read any of my holiday posts of the past 16 years know that I don't much like any holidays. Most have been co-opted by our commercial overlords to encourage us to blindly consume anything they are selling. And the "holidays" seem to go on forever. Christmas extends from Labor Day to January 31 (including the "return" extravaganzas). Somehow Thanksgiving simply shrank to a mere footnote to Christmas centered on gluttony rather than gratitude. I could go on but I will let you fill in the rest of the list. Once upon a time a holiday was a time for workers to relax with family and friends but now many (most?) have to work. The last 20 years have pretty much nullified any patriotic feelings I had--a process that began with my slow reassessment of our country's actions across the globe which have cause more damage than benefit while showing clearly our collective abandonment of what ever principles (beyond greed and self-aggrandizement) we every claimed.

We did watch half the Democratic debates--the first hour each day. They reinforce my notion that the process is much too drawn out. I would love some way to shrink it to a much more reasonable time frame--perhaps 6 months before Election Day. We had hoped the lesser known candidates would get more time to make their case but that didn't happen. They remain almost as much of a mystery as before. The pundits were amazed that the first night the candidates made few overt references to #45 but each candidate criticized the policies of his administration. The second night was totally different and I have to wonder if those candidates read the commentary of the night before. The moderators were effective in keeping the candidates on time--the second night they totally lost control. Before the debates I firmly believed that we need new ideas and new people--afterwards I believe that more firmly. I wish Sanders and Biden would simply step aside. However, I don't think they are simply "too old." It isn't a "generational" thing--a passing of the torch as  Swalwell put quoted. We need ideas that go beyond the push-button words ("capitalism," "socialism," "free market", etc.). We might watch part of the next debate but I don't expect much.

On a much more pleasant topic: the gardens are finally filling out but we seem to have moved from March to September in terms of weather. I have already harvested lavender twice, lemon balm, spearmint twice, and peppermint. The tomato has finally bloomed but I hope they didn't get too hot to set the fruit. The snake beans have also finally taken off so I hope they will bloom soon. If they match the pictures I saw they will be spectacular. This year has been brutal and it shows in sometimes surprising ways. We have two churches within several blocks that have community garden patches--or perhaps I should say "had." One hasn't any plots planted and the other has only about four out of about 16 planted. About five years ago I looked seriously at renting one of the plots in the nearest garden but decided not to go that route. The temperatures climbed early and high--much too high for me to engage in gardening in a space which had no water supply other than what one could transport.

Monday, June 24

Well, the spring that wasn't quite spring ended over the weekend. The weather people are promising more seasonal weather with warmer temperatures. I will believe it when I see it. We had monsoonal type rain yesterday for a brief period during which we got almost an inch. The gardens, which I finally got completely filled in, survived it nicely.

I harvested quite a bit of spearmint last week--enough to, when dried and chopped, fill three quarters of a pint jar. I used the remains of last year's peppermint and lavender for a herbal tea mix. I also chopped the lemon grass I harvested a couple of weeks ago with the remains of the hibiscus tea and added that mix to some hibiscus/lemongrass mix I got from my favorites morning herbal tea supplier. That gave me about a pint of that mix so I won't have to add it to my list of teas for our next shopping trip.

We have had on-and-off again sun and clouds so far today with more thunderstorms this afternoon. However, I got out to pull some weeds and do a few other small chores in the gardens. A major task though was pruning my large rosemary. I don't know what happened but about a third of it died back. It was the side I had facing the window in the living room and it was constantly brushed by the curtain when the wind blew while the window was open. I checked to see if the pot was well watered and it was so water wasn't the problem. I cut off the dead parts and generally pruned it before giving it a really good watering. All my rosemary plants are outside for the season unless we get a severe, unseasonal cold spell.

My agenda for harvesting, when I get some dry and sunny weather, include lavender, chives, lemon grass, catnip, and lemon balm. That last was a surprise survival from last year's garden.

Coming soon: pictures of my latest projects as soon as I get them off the camera and onto the computer.

Thursday, June 13

Goodness--here we are half through June. My containers are only half filled. In years past I would have had the entire garden planted and be harvesting herbs almost every day. The plant offerings at all my usual sources are dismally uninspiring. However, I can report that the last snake bean transplants have revived and we may get to see those spectacular blossoms. The Black-eyed Susans I started in the garden (after the transplants failed dismally) are also growing as well as the two tomato plants (Black Russian). I found creeping Jenny and purslane--the first is already in a pot while only two of the others have found a home in one of the large pots with the verbena. I added lemon basil to the two sweet basils. The peppermint, spearmint, thyme, sage, lavender, and chives are all doing well.   I have some marigolds that need a home soon if this weather breaks.

I am glad I got out to get some weeds pulled and a couple of plants (stevia and lemon basil) situated because today is beastly. We have had high winds and steady rain since we got up. The forecast says it should break and be merely windy and cloudy for most of the day. We have a couple of errands to do today and so would welcome that.

The morning news commentary concerned #45's interview with George  Stephanopoulos where he said he saw nothing wrong with taking "opo-research" from foreign governments even equating Poland (Nato member and sort-of ally) with North Korea (and the unstated Russia). Nor would he feel compelled to inform the FBI. Nor could he be bothered to get upset at foreign meddling in our elections because (the old six-year-old's excuse) everybody does it.

The commentariat dwelt on the legality (or lack of it), the immorality of it, etc. Me? I had a series of flashbacks and concluded that #45 is very much the apex of moral degeneration in this supposedly Christian nation. First flashback: college organic chem lab where an ambitious male student sabotaged the work of two other (female) students so they wouldn't get higher grades than he did. After all, he wanted to go to Med School and his grades in chemistry, math and physics counted heavily with the admissions offices. Second flashback: the student who wanted me to let her crib from my test because I was getting As. She was upset when I said no and sat as far away from her as possible. Third flashback: a news report on college students cheating--buying term papers, stealing test answers, copying answers on tests, etc.) complete with an on camera interview with students who brazenly admittedly cheating and saying they would be glad to do so again if they "needed" to. Fourth flashback: the numerous cheating scandals at several elite schools including the service academies. There were other flashbacks but I think you get the idea. I remember thinking, after reading a report on cheating by military officers (not cadets) on exams concerning their proficiency with respect to the nuclear weapons they would have had charge of, that their conduct wasn't surprising given the society they came out of. We have a family of grifters in the highest office in the land but they have come out of a society where grifting is increasingly shrugged off. Where, all too often, amorality or even immorality pays handsomely.

May 26, Sunday

Another wet day. Even when we get some sun it is sandwiched between rain showers--sometimes vicious thunderstorms. I took advantage of a sunny morning yesterday to thin and transplant the Russian purple tomatoes and sow the Malabar spinach, sunflower, and a couple of other varieties.

After that I simply vegetated with my iPad and read 100+ pages of McKibben's new book, Falter, and finished re-reading Greer's Weird of Hali: Innsmouth. We both felt lazy and settled for snacking lightly rather than cooking a full meal. I didn't even pick up any of my needlework.

Today has been a different story. I did my usual 2-3 hours of needle work while drinking coffee and grousing about the (s)news. Then I cleaned out the storage space in the ottoman. It can get rather cluttered because I often put thread I think about using and decide not to in there instead of taking it upstairs to the What-Not room. "What Not" because the gods alone know what is not in there. I kept four embroidery pieces and two crochet projects close at hand to pick up in odd moments. Those will do for now--until I get a notion tickling my mind and add something experimental.

I also washed the latest completed doily, and got it stretched on the board and starched. I also did the same with an older doily--one of several we washed and just folded up rather than finish with stretching and starching. I hope to get the rest done two at a time. I plan to post pictures soon.

Thursday, May 23

I looks like we will get a bit of sun today. We had a good bit yesterday but we did grocery shopping which involved replenishing a good bit much of which involved several heavy loads we had to lug from the car inside. Even a light shopping day leaves us tired and not wanting to do much of anything else the rest of the day. Last night we had severe thunderstorms that left everything soggy. Even so I have cleaned out the bird feeders which I will fill once they have dried, and potted the oregano we got with the groceries yesterday.

The prices, however, are unbelievable. Pots that only two or three years ago would have sold for $2-3 were marked at $4. We saw several nice flowering plants but balked at the $8-10 they wanted. I did buy oregano, lemon thyme and creeping Jenny. I put the oregano into a medium sized pot and sank it into the 5-gal bucket so I can, I hope, pull it (pot and all) to bring in over winter. I plan on doing the same with other herbs as well. Next spring I want to try to root cuttings.

My second pot of snake beans appear to be going the way of the first so starting them from seed this year is a bust. The pickling cucumbers and sour gherkins are also. Those I will plant directly in the gardens and hope for some small yield. This has been a miserable spring for gardening.

Monday, May 20

So far May has been more like April used to be--while April was more like March used to be. We had a very brief appearance of sun but the clouds have rolled in again. The weather people say it should be cooler and cloudy today so I will get a couple of things done in the gardens. They think tomorrow will be blustery and wet so we will do our laundry. But, honestly, no one really knows how the systems will set up so we are winging it here.

I found this in a rather circuitous route. The Political Wire picked it up from the author's twitter feed but I went looking for a longer discussion. The knowledge that our number system, the one we are taught before we even enter kindergarten, is called "Arabic numerals" was, I thought. rather common place. Evidently, the term Arabic elicits a knee-jerk reaction. I wonder what the respondents think should take the place of Arabic numerals. Maybe Roman numerals. Or Mayan. I quibble with the last observation that, because more Democrats said no on teaching the "creation theory of Catholic priest George Lemaitre" Democrats are more anti-religion. They admit that Lemaitre isn't well known even though he first propounded what became the "Big Bang theory." I would say that the wording of the question was also incredibly misleading--certainly not as clear as the question concerning Arabic numerals. I had no idea who he was and would be against "creation science" as proposed by our Christian fundamentalists. I don't approve of teaching religion as science.

Update: won't get much done in the garden. Too cold. I did adjust the cover on the last transplanting of snake beans which are looking a bit worse for the chill, the wind and the damp. I may not get much more in before June. I guess I shouldn't be as bummed out as I am. I heard a report over the weekend that farmers in the southern plains and Mississippi valley are a month behind their planting.

Instead I have two new doilies working, a stack of finished ones to starch and stretch and one to wash before stretching and starching, plus four embroidery projects on hoops. I also have a number of books on the iPad I want to finish before I select new items from the list of potentially interesting books I might buy.

Tuesday, May 21

Today looks like yesterday. Wet, windy and chilly. I hope the transplants of snake beans survive. For the first then years I gardened on this patio I got nearly everything in by late May and my hardy plants were in by early May. But for the last five years the weather in April and, especially, in May has been so very chancy. On the opposite end I have been harvesting herbs and other plants into November. I took my hibiscus plants inside in mid November and they continued to bloom into December. I have them outside now and neither are looking all that happy though not as though they were going to expire on me.

May 16

The garden is slowly--very slowly--filling in. The black-eyed Susans and snake beans were done in by a sudden night at 30F. I plan to put in seeds to replace them. I told Mom that five year ago my planters would have been filled already but this year I won't see that until well into June. Just as well I decided to go mostly with flowers and herbs. Yesterday was beautiful and I transplanted the pots of rosemary I started from cuttings. I had intended to give one to my niece but she has serious health problems so I expect I will keep it. I also transplanted the basil and spearmint into the pots for the season. Since it was so nice we decided to go to the local garden/home improvement centers to get the potting soil and soil additives I needed and scan the available plants. Picked up lemongrass and peppermint. I wanted lemongrass last year but thought the only ones I saw overpriced for not terribly attractive plants. My favorite herbal tea is a lemongrass/lavender mix which I hope to be able to mix up myself.

We expect bouts of rain for later today (the clouds are moving in already) and through Sunday. Most of the gardener bloggers I follow have the same complaints: season has been too wet and too cold. One is a little older than I am (70) and feels the way I do: gardening in the rain and cold is no fun, especially at our age.

I have a new doily about half a round from the finish so hopefully I will soon have a picture of it washed, stretched and starched. I haven't taken many pictures of late. I wasn't sure I would be posting any new photos because we had to replace our old lap tops that were all set up for the camera. The new ones needed different connections and I wasn't sure the soft ware would be compatible. Well, Those problems are fixed so new pictures should be up soon.

We change technology reluctantly even when the new product is from a company we have already dealt with. Learning to use the new stuff is always frustrating. And more and more often we find ourselves opting for the lower end technology because we simply don't need all the bells and whistles. We simply don't believe that newer is necessarily better.

Well, I'm back. At least for now. I haven't been totally idle. These are a couple of pieces I finished over the last few months. I also finished a small crochet table cloth, a couple of other embroidered table scarves, and more crochet doilies.

What I haven't done is comment much on the politics. That is much too depressing. Once upon a time we took pride in being a nation of laws not men. Now, that claim is a bitter joke and the rot starts at the top. We also once took pride in being a nation of immigrants which is also a bitter joke. I could go on down the line.

The weather has been strange. Some days it feels like spring has arrived but then winter makes a brutal reappearance. We have had more rain than is normal and it comes as a monsoonal deluge which pounds any transplants you have been unwise enough to put in. I lost my cardinal climbers but the snake beans and black-eyed susans were well protected and are doing fine. The hibiscus are also doing well though one almost expired when we got almost summer temperatures and way too much sun. It has now rebounded in a shadier place. I did get spearmint and lavender planted. Those transplants were well enough developed to withstand the rain. But most of the garden remain to be planted. For about the last five+ years the planting seems to have moved further into May and this year it may not be finished before late June. We'll see. The local outdoor/farm market opens on June 1 and those venders usually have interesting plants for sale.

I am not cultivating my planters as much this year--mostly the top six inches at most. Some of the bigger pots I will only dig where I am going to put the transplant.

This year most of what I started from seeds have done well. I have a pot of Black Russian tomato plants which I will reduce to two when I put them in. I had decided not to plant any tomatoes but these were a freebee. I won't do any peppers either. However, I do have nice pots of Mexican sour gherkins and Parisian pickling cucumbers ready to think and put out. They should be interesting.

I didn't do much planning this year. I find that the garden I wind up with in the fall is never the one I planned or the one I planted. It is an interesting surprise every year.

February 5

It was a very pleasant day yesterday--sun and a balmy 50+. But the interlude is ending. Temperatures are falling and we will be under a winter weather alert for an ice storm due to come in over night. We did our shopping yesterday so we aren't worried about running out of anything. I was surprised, after the snow melted, to see my strawberry plants seem to be green yet. They might yet make it through. One of our stops is a regional big box where we get almost everything (except meat and a few special items) and we took a walk through the seasonal space to see how the gardening section is doing. They had seeds in: a nice selection of Burpee seeds. I plan to visit the local Menards later this month because they have a more extensive section. However, I still plan to use transplants for most of my gardening.

Speaking of shopping this piece at the Organic Prepper caused a bit of discussion--mainly about how much it reflects our own experience here.We have gotten far more picky about what we buy and now expect to visit at least two stores each time we go shopping. For the last half dozen years we have noticed sections of foods shrinking and more frequent episodes when even finding what we want is more difficult. Sometimes whole shelves were empty and we weren't shopping just before a weather event. Usually when a storm is coming we do a quick mental inventory and we find we don't really need to go out and so don't. Yesterday we had to visit five stores to get everything on our list.

This story from the Netherlands is only one of several about mass animal die-offs I have seen from various places around the world.

Andrew Bacevich on living in TrumpWorld.

February 3

The temperature is 41F right now and is expected to rise into the high 40s. After last week's deep freeze it feels downright balmy. The snow seems to be melting quickly.

First on the reading list this morning this piece by David Kaiser who says what I have been thinking for sometime: it is time to end the purity crusade and exercise some common sense. Learn from the past and make changes for the future. Don't obliterate the past because you can't learn from what is invisible.

Having just emerged from hibernation (thanks to the arctic cold snap just leaving our area), I found this an interesting article.

January 30

Our internet and cable services were down for about 6 hours thanks to the cold. Right now it is -15F and that is an improvement of close to -20 early this morning. The windchill is -41. I finished a new doily, explored the technique warping of a little pin loom, read some on three books. Now I will be able to finish my e-mail. This article at ABC gives details. We may have mail delivery here but we won't go outside to retrieve it until Friday at the earliest. I don't think the city trash pick up came by yesterday and we didn't bother putting our trash tote out. We only have one small trash bag in it anyway.

So #45 promised that the tax cut would boost GDP and boost jobs, hugely. Evidently not so much. The results were weak and are fading.

February 1

Well things are somewhat back to normal. The internet is no longer excruciatingly slow or non-existent. It is still cold but at least the temperature was above 0F when we woke this morning. The weather predictions say we should be in the 40s by the Sunday and have 40s and 50s early next week with rain. Mind boggling.

January 29

I think we got a lot more snow than the forecasters predicted: 6+ inches rather than 3. Now we have the cold--and I do mean cold. Brookfield and Lincoln Park zoos in Chicago are closing early today and will remain closed tomorrow because of it. That is a very rare occurrence. We are hibernating.

I found this bit of flabbergasting story. I wonder how many state Republican parties will go along with cancelling primaries and caucuses giving their support to the incumbent. And for the national committee to announce support for him before the primaries/caucuses and before he is nominated? It has become a Bizarro World in American politics. I thought the essence of democracy was the people decide but evidently not in Bizarro America.

I mentioned a couple of times that commenters I read wrote that the notion of the wall was a "3rd century solution" to a 21st century problem. The 21st century migrations do resemble the migrations of the past but we can let that pass for now. A clip of comments by #45 on the wall showed him bleating that the Wall would be nothing like a "medieval" wall. I wonder who told him about that criticism because we have been told often he doesn't read. Too bad the comments haven't, so far, moved him off his position toward something reasonable.

So some idiot politicians, including #45, are proposing that public schools offer "elective" "Bible literacy classes." I don't see why public schools, at taxpayer expense, should duplicate the work of churches and Sunday Schools. As far as #45 and his support goes, this says all that needs to be said.

Monday January 28

Snowy today--they predict between 3 and 5 inches on top of what we already have. The high today should hit the mid 30s but the wind will be brisk so it will feel colder. The next three days will be brutally cold before the temperatures moderate to more normal levels. Good days to hibernate.

This boggled my mind this morning. I tried to imagine what the supermarkets here would look like without the fresh meat, fish, and deli counters. I came up with Aldi and convenience stores neither of which we patronize. I can't imagine the store being open only four days a week either. I wonder if the economy is much worse than anyone at the much higher levels of the ladder want to acknowledge. That is something I have wondered for some time.

Helen at Margaret and Helen is on a good rant. And, yes, it is incredibly difficult to talk about #45 (and politics generally) without swearing a blue streak.

Tom Englehardt has a good guest post by William Astore. Unfortunately, I don't see things changing for the more hopeful any time soon. Too many people in the military and politics locked into a counterproductive mindset, too much money sloshing around, and too many people/companies/industries profit from it.

Saturday January 26

The cold continues and will for the next 10 days at least. The only odd day where the temperature will get near freezing is Monday with is supposed to come with heavy snowfall. We got about half an inch of new snow over last night and have bright sun right now.

Well, the government is back open--for the next three weeks at least. I wouldn't place any bets on what comes after that. One of my friends who was furloughed for 35 days is happy to be going back to work but is not looking forward to the possibility that the whole thing will be repeated in February. She also had a cute graphic that asked what people would miss most about 2918. Seventy percent said "a functioning government." I am not so sure we had a functioning government for any of the time #45 has been in office. She also wondered which furloughed and unpaid workers he talked to because she didn't know any who supported his stand.

Karoli Kuns explains exactly why we are interested in "regime change" in Venezuela: oil. As if we didn't know that already. I am just surprised that Bolton was so honest about it. I surely wish he wouldn't make it sound like a noble venture by trotting out words like "freedom."

We made an impromptu decision to go out to pay our rent and do our grocery shopping a couple of days ahead of plan. It is cold but it is also sunny and the roads seemed pretty well cleared. Unfortunately, the office closed at noon and we were well after that getting there. The supermarket was packed. Another customer, like us planning ahead to heavy snow predicted for Monday, remarked on the crowd as did the cashier who checked us out. Evidently we were not the only ones taking advantage of the sun and clear roads. We won't have to get any groceries for at least 10 days.

A last observation on the last 35 days: Growing up the threat of strikes, unemployment, and such were always in the back of our minds. Dad was a trucker and we knew several men who worked in the steel mills. That pattern continued in my adult years. So many people I knew or was related to were in industries prone to periodic shutdowns. The smart ones saved like mad and paid down any debts while building a stock of food and other necessaries to ride out the bad times which came all too frequently. I found several bloggers who are government employees. Some followed the pattern I described: save heroically, have deep supplies, have no or very low debt. Some followed what some financial writers say is the current pattern: heavy debt, little savings, living paycheck to paycheck. The first group weren't happy with the shutdown and most were highly critical of the Republicans and the President. None supported his damned wall. They, however, will recover fairly quickly. For the second group the effects will be more long lasting because it takes three months to recover from one missed paycheck according to one set of stats I read. We should view all jobs the same way we saw work on trucks and in the steel mills in my younger days as something that can disappear suddenly and people should take steps to ride out the disruptions. Time to put away the soap box.

Good Morning on this bitterly cold January 25th. The Weather Channel puts the temp at 1F with wind chill at -18F. Over the next couple of days the daily highs are not expected to get out of the teens. Thankfully we don't have to go out in it. The next ten days are going to be brutal. This might end any chance my strawberries have of surviving in the gardens. Oh, well, this is a bit of a transition year for me and my gardens. I will be using more transplants from local shops and the farm market (when it opens). And not a lot of planning so almost everything will be a surprise.

I just saw a news snippet of Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce, saying he simply "didn't understand" why federal workers who haven't been paid in a month are lining up at food pantries and why they didn't get loans to cover their bills since the back pay was "federally guaranteed." I found this longer account on Salon. I don't think I have ever seen a bunch of politicians so divorced from everyday reality and so totally clueless about how those lower on the economic pyramid live. I won't link to any of the coverage of #45's daughter-in-law's comments telling her audience how she understands the pain of those not getting paid for working or not able to work because of the shut down but it is only a "little pain" for "the good of the country." I find it amazing how those not experiencing any pain at all can dismiss the pain others feel. We are being governed by psychopaths.

Tuesday January 22

I am still alive, still reading but not saying much because there isn't much to say--especially about the political impasse. My last post was on the 4th of this month and it seems like nothing much has changed except to become more frayed, tattered, and dusty.

The impasse continues. One commentator said of #45's ego stroking wall that it was a "3rd century solution to a 21st century problem." Well, as I remember my history it didn't work in the third century, nor did the Great Wall of China work to keep out the Mongols who, after conquering China in 1279, ruled as the Yuan dynasty till 1368. And the wall didn't keep out the Manchu who ruled as the Qing dynasty from 1636 to 1912. But, further, immigration is a perennial problem not just one for the 21st century. We obviously haven't come up with any new ways of handling it.

I saw a couple of glimmerings of possibilities. One was a bill put forth in the Senate, I think, which would end shutdowns as a weapon because any time a political impasse over budgetary bills occurred in the future all funding would continue under the last budget until the impasse ended. The bill did call for staged reductions in spending the longer the impasse continued. The measure hasn't a snowball's chance in hell. It is too reasonable.

I get totally annoyed with those who say the Democrats should just give the man-baby his wall and then get on with things. Why annoyed? First, #45 is behaving like a 2-bit thug who goes to a shop owner and promises not to break the windows if given a certain sum of money every month. That is called extortion. Second, Mr. Art-Of-The-Deal President is a notoriously untrustworthy "negotiator." He has a history of agreeing to something and then going back on the agreement. Opening the government by giving him his "wall" on the promise of "negotiations" on immigration is a sucker play. And I put the word "negotiator" and "negotiations" in quotation marks because his doesn't negotiate--he bullies. Everyone knows the only way to end bullying is to stand up to the bully. And, third, "getting on with things" will simply mean getting on to the next policy impasse. Lather, rinse, and repeat. I am tired of the repeat.

Another commentator made a more extensive comment on #45 and the country's standing world wide. He is not only an unreliable negotiator at home he is also unreliable in negotiations with foreign leaders. They know they can't rely on him to keep his word and, worse, they can't trust him to keep agreements, even long standing agreements and treaties, negotiated under past administrations. The man-baby is a cheap conman and the whole country is being painted with the same brush.

Meanwhile, here I have made some progress. I finished one crochet table cloth and a doily. I have almost finished a second doily and decided what pattern to follow for a second table cloth. My seed order from Baker Creek arrived with the two types of cucumber seeds and the snake beans, which are a really new item this year for me. I am planning of the bean for the flowers which should be spectacular if all goes well. They sent me some black Russian tomato seeds so I think I will adjust my plans to include them. I had planned to not plant any tomatoes or peppers. My rosemary transplants are doing well including the smallest which finally decided to live. Sometime next month I will see about transplanting them in more permanent pots--if I can open the shed door to find them.

Winter has finally arrived here with temperatures most day more normal for January. We had a stretch of warmer than normal weather which had us wondering if winter was going to ignore us this year. With snow on the ground and temps in the 20s we have no doubt now.

January 2

Bill Schneider at NBC is right on with his commentary on the federal government shutdown: it is amazing how "normal" the tactic has become. And how callous some of us have become to the effects the shutdown has on ordinary Americans. The man-baby in the White House simply dismisses any concern for furloughed workers because either (he claims) they are mostly Democrats (and hence, I guess, not deserving of sympathy) or they (with no evidence) support his actions.

January 3

As a sign of how right Schneider's thoughts are (see above) about the shutdown the fact that the "negotiations" yesterday produced no movement at all is that there has been very little coverage in the media. I put the word in quotes because, with #45, there is no such thing as negotiation. There is simply bluster, threats, bullying, and broken agreements. It is interesting to see how impotent he is when all of his tactics fail to produce his desired result. I won't bother linking because what little coverage there is isn't very informative. As I read this piece at the Political Wire I had to ask, in answer to Pelosi's question of how many times must they say no, since when has the man-baby every understood the word. Certainly never when he was groping a woman he wanted to grope, and never in any of his business "deals."

January 4

Have a good laugh with this one. Nice bit of satire.

Happy New Year!!! 💕

I hope 2019 will be better than 2018 though on some levels I don't expect that hope to be fulfilled. Politically the new year begins much as the last one did. In spite of the election we have a Senate even more Repthuglican Republican than last year. I struck that because I hope that some of the new faces in the Senate will be far less thuggish and far more moderate than those they replaced and far more interested in negotiating. One hopeful sign is that the House is dominated by Democrats. But then we still have that narcissist man-baby in the White House. On a sour note the government is shut down. I have a friend who is a government employee on furlough--for the third time in a year. Man-baby and his enablers seem to be one trick ponies. What pisses me off is they aren't going without paychecks. That is partly a Constitutional issue but Congress should pass a law in the next session which would mandate a freeze of Congressional pay during any future shutdowns. It wouldn't take effect until 2021 but better late than never.

Economically, on our individual levels here, we are on doing OK. For the rest of the economy I am not so sure. I hear a bit about more store closings and more workers out of jobs. The man-baby just signed an executive order rescinding the meager increase federal employees were supposed to get this year pleading the poverty of the federal government. The government is too poor to give workers a minuscule raise but can come up with $5billion for that totally useless bit of (his)ego massage on the southern border??? Excuse me but I almost lost my breakfast writing that.

Internationally, I have to wonder if we have any allies left and, if we do, why man-baby hasn't alienated them yet. Oh, I just remembered: Israel and Saudi Arabia. They haven't been alienated because he gives Netanyahu everything he wants and refused to call out the Saudi government and crown prince on the Khashoggi murder.

It is time to get serious about the gardens. I should get my seed order(s) sent in by next week. I don't intend to buy much. Instead I will be looking at what is available locally in flowers and herbs. Those will be my focus this year. Tomatoes and peppers are out because they simply haven't done well over the last three or four years. We have had more days each year over 90 (or so it seems in my memory) and my space concentrates heat so that the temperature there even on a 85F day will top out above 95. They don't set blossoms well and don't produce well if they don't. The space is too limited to devote any of it to something that doesn't produce either beauty or utility for us.

Last year was a good year for needlework: two crochet blankets, a lap afghan, a couple of sets of embroidered pillow cases, a couple of new table scarves embroidered and with crochet lace, several doilies. This year I have a new scrap buster afghan started, a cross-stitch tablecloth progressing well, a crochet table cloth that needs only one more row of motifs and the edging to be finished. I found my tatting shuttles and needles so I can start relearning what little of tatting I knew and then go from there. The needlework is a nice way to unwind and, unlike the busyness in our nation's capital, I actually have something to show for it.