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.