9 February

We are in the middle of a two week sub-freezing cold snap. The weather people have said that it is possibly a record for February and highly unusual. We have also had a lot of snow over the last five days--not a record but still a lot. The snow lies 2ft deep on level ground on the north side of our house and 4ft where I have piled the snow I shoveled to make a path to the gate. Luckily we aren't going anywhere this week--not even shopping. We don't have much on our list and nothing that is absolutely necessary.

I haven't had any motivation for the last week. I barely touched any needlework and haven't wanted to read anything. So--I did almost nothing which I can do because I am retired. Over the last couple of days I have gained a bit more motivation and started again the crochet table cloth I had to pull out because of a serious mistake that I couldn't finesse. It took me a couple of weeks to get up the energy to took at the pattern again. I also found an interesting slouchy hat pattern.

10 February

We started watching the opening "arguments" of the impeachment yesterday. Or, rather, we watched the House managers' arguments and only about an hour of the #45 defense team. At that point we put on some of our classic sci-fi discs because we couldn't believe how pitifully horrible the so called defense was. If I had prepared for one of my grad school seminars that badly I would have flunked out. Lawrence Tribe on Chris Hayes' show last night gave said they "sucked." I haven't often agreed with Tribe over the years but in that assessment I totally agree. I still don't expect many of the senators dedicated to #45 to actually convict him. He was absolutely right in 2015 when he said he could shoot someone on 5th Ave and those people would still support him.

One of the reporters/commentators this morning made an interesting suggestion: if you are perplexed by the attitudes and behavior of the Republicans in Congress, take a close look closer to home. The clip that went with the commentary was of a Michigan official who expressed all of the tropes of the MAGA crowd; the election was stolen, there was widespread fraud, and the votes can't be trusted. The polls seem to indicate that about 30% of those who identify as Republican are fervent #45 supporters. He may be out of office but he isn't gone and even if he were convicted and disqualified from future office his influence would live on. No one has a handle on how to deal with that fact.