June 27

 Haven't been up to much besides dealing with dental issues. I still have another appointment to get a couple of teeth pulled and a cavity filled. Although dentistry isn't as brutal as it was when I was a teenager I still don't much like having dental work done. But if I want to keep the rest of my teeth for the rest of my life (however long that might be considering my current age) I need to pay better care of them. In case you wonder, I don't care much for medical exams either. Thankfully I don't have any (known)conditions that requires frequent medical attention.

The news has also been depressing on so many fronts.

On the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade: I was 24 when the decision was made in 1973. It surprised me and made me thoroughly consider what I would do" IF". I won't tell you what my conclusion was because it was my own private decision as it should be for all women. I never became pregnant so I never had to deal the IF. How do I feel now? I think of the scene in the movie Elizabeth where William Cecil tells ladies in waiting to Elizabeth I that they must show him her sheets each morning because he needed to know all her "bodily functions." When the ladies question his order he replies "Her Majesty's body and person are no longer her own. They belong to the state." That is exactly what the new decision does for half of the U.S. population. And I don't for a single moment the assurances of several of the majority justices that the issue will stop with abortion. I read the leaked version and did some quick research to find that the arguments for the decisions concerning contraceptives, same sex relations, and same sex marriage are the same and Clarence Thomas, in his concurrence, suggested re-examining them as well. I noticed Thomas didn't include Loving v Virginia, decided on the same grounds which, legalized interracial marriages (like his own).

On a different front--my gardens are doing well. The pansies in the tower pots are making a really nice show as are all the plants in the fence top pots. It is almost time to start harvesting the herbs I plan to harvest--the basil, sage, mints, and lavender. We had a miserable thunderstorm Saturday night which left many plants a bit tattered and torn but it did give us rain so I didn't have to water anything til tomorrow morning. I harvested the first two tomatoes from patio size tomato. We each got one. The pepper is doing well but nothing is ripe yet.

June 18

 Good morning on what is predicted to be another 90+ day. Several herbs need to be trimmed but I am waiting for the weekend when the temperatures will be in the high 70s or low 80s to do that. I hope I don't have to water today. I will check in a couple of hours when the sun starts to rise and I have more light. The forecast predicts scattered thunderstorms for this morning. Hope they aren't as bad as the Monday night storms when I thought I heard hail and we were under a tornado watch from Monday night through Tuesday night.

Weather certainly has been newsworthy. The weather maps show much of the country in sweltering and dangerous heat. Yellow Stone Park is closed because of floods due to the melting of an unseasonal heavy snow and heavy rains. The southwest is still in a drought described as the worst in 1200 years. Then I read this in the news feeds this morning. The flooding at the Abbott plant producing baby formula will mean an extensive clean up and the baby formula shortage will be around for much longer. I don't know about anyone else but something doesn't smell right about part of the statement from the company spokesman. He said that Abbott's production actually exceeds its output before the recall and other producers have also ramped up production over their 2021 levels. He claimed that the stocks actually exceed demand. But the grocery shelves are still empty (or nearly so) and the statistics indicate 24% are out of stock.

John Michael Greer posted on the Twilight of Empire--the American Empire.

I saw this article by Paul Krugman yesterday but hadn't read it completely. It is almost impossible to think of Utah without the Great Salt Lake but that might be what we will see sooner than later. Think it can't happen? Look up the Aral Sea (mentioned in Krugman's article) which was one the fourth largest lake in the world. Kazakstan has implemented efforts to bring the lake back with some success but it won't be what it once was any time soon.

Here is an interesting article on a "demographic" problem Russia is facing. Since 1993 the population has contracted with a brief couple of years when it actually grew until COVID and the Ukrainian war reversed the process. Russia is one of several countries experiencing an actual population contraction--China and Japan among others. Statista lists here the 20 countries with the highest population growth. All but 2 are African and none are among the "advanced" economies. World Population Review lists the 20 countries with the steepest declines in population (as of 2021) all but 2 (Japan and Cuba) are European. I have seen a lot of articles over the last decade concerning the economic problems declining (or even stagnant) populations much of which involves stagnating or declining economies.

June 15

 We are in the middle of a stretch of hot weather. Yesterday the temperature was about 98. Today and tomorrow are also predicted to reach the mid 90s. We will have, hopefully, a couple of cooler days in the 70s over the weekend. I went out to check on the plants very early--about 6am.  I watered all of them even though some might have done well without the additional water. Yesterday I noticed that some of the seedlings for the squash had barely poked their heads above the surface. Today all the seeds I planted have come up and several are about 3 inches tall. And a couple of the morning glory seeds have sprouted. Things are looking pretty good--for now.

Though COVID is still hanging around it no longer induces quite the same panic it did. I suppose it is the combination of vaccines which seems to be very effective in preventing severe illness (as in hospitalization) and death. As a society we seem to be hell bent on getting back to something similar to pre pandemic "normality." We see fewer people with masks and fewer stories about the virus. I wonder if we are beginning to enter a phase of reminiscing and assessing the effect of the pandemic on us individually and socially. Found this on Tomdispatch this morning. It is the first article describing one person's (and her family's) response to the last two years.

This article by Axios: What's Next indicates that people are not only looking for flexible childcare to go along with more flexible work arrangements. 

June 12-13

 Mid-June already. I finished getting my pots planted over last week. We went over to the Home Depot garden center where I picked up two hydrangeas, two sunpatiens (a hybrid of New Guinea impatiens), a fascia and two more petunias. All of the fence top pots are now planted. I got three nice pots of chives when I cleaned out the 3-tier pot tower at the end of May. They all are almost finished with their first round of flowering. I will dead-head them soon. The tower is all petunias which are blooming and spreading nicely. They are making a fine show already. The two Lewisia I bought on our first trip to Home Depot about a month ago have settled in and are blooming. They are small but very pretty. Also they are drought and heat tolerant, and sun loving. Perfect for the fence top. I put the new petunias and three superbelles (another small but pretty plant). The last plant I put on the fence top is my Greek oregano.

The hydrangeas are, of course, in my largest round pots. I hope they are hardy enough for our winters. The tag on the shelf said they were hardy to -40F but the plant tags say the hardiness "varies." (I just looked up both varieties and the sources say they are hardy for zone 5 so that should be good. I will give them some winter protection for good measure.) The new Asiatic Lillies are almost done with their blooming. The one that survived the winter hasn't bloomed yet and is much shorter than the new ones. I may move them to the areas along the fence that get full sun earliest when I rearrange things during the fall clean up.

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Saw reports over the weekend that ballyhooed an agreement by the bi-partisan committee produced that has been described as the most significant gun legislation "in decades." Cynical me raised an eyebrow and said "because it's the ONLY such legislation in decades, perhaps." Well, cynical me was right. First, the account of the agreement lists the minimum the politicos could do and have a shred of claim to be doing something that is just a sliver above nothing. Second, the agreement is merely a "blueprint" for legislation that hasn't been written yet. How often have we seen such "blueprint" agreements blow up when the ink is on the paper? I am absolutely outraged by the assholes who insist that the mass shootings we experience is the price we MUST pay for our "free society." Obviously, those idiots aren't channeling Franklin Roosevelt whose wartime "four freedoms" don't include guns but does list "freedom from fear." 

June 4-5-6

 It felt good to go to the opening of the city seasonal market. It has been two years since we have shopped there because of the pandemic. I found three pots of flowers that will go on the fence. However, I notice that several plant sellers were not there. I wonder if they are still around. One of the large greenhouse operations closed their satellite site we used to visit. I still have a number of containers to put seeds or transplants into--probably from Home Depot.

Found this article which discusses the notion that globalization as we have known it is dead. Maybe, maybe not. The supply lines feeding into the production of too many goods we depend on are too long and too complicated. The article does note that globalization has happened before giving the example of the "Silk Roads." The process has always been limited by the economic and technological development of the societies involved. Ours is the first truly global economy where few areas are outside the global economy or fail to share to some extent in the technology. But, as the saying goes, what goes has to come down. Progress, however you define it, doesn't always go in one direction.

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Temperatures should reach the mid 80s with sun. Hopefully a good day for gardening. I have the three plants I got at the market yesterday to put in pots and some clean-up. I also have the squash seed to plant.

I have been ambivalent about the push for tech companies to somehow eliminate "misinformation." Like so much else what is misinformation is in the mind of the perceiver. I found this article on Doomberg which puts out the case very well.

David Kaiser also posted on the topic of "misinformation." Several quotes from historical figures came to mind as I read this. Upton Sinclair (I think) said that it is impossible to convince a man of a fact if his paycheck depends on him not believing it. The account Kaiser gives of the history of Exxon, and the connection of fossil fuels use and climate change reveals that people may believe the facts but engage in actions diametrically opposed to those facts. Maya Angelou said that if a person shows who they are believe them the first time. The fossil fuels executives and their bought politicians have shown they value profits above anything else. The same can be said for all our other major industries.

Axios has a good survey of climate change and its effects which are disparate in its geographical and economic class effects. There are several articles in this "deep dive" post. You can get to the others from the link.

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Cool today and we have had rain on and off. During one of the "off" times I got lemon drop summer squash, a variety of spaghetti squash and a new acorn squash variety planted. I did lightly water the pots (very lightly) and hoped the rain would come and it did.

June 1-2-3

Welcome to June and to summer. Summer Solstice is, I think, June 21 though is the astronomical summer start. We have already had some hot days but may have a bit cooler stretch for the rest of the week. We were promised rain last night but the dry patio when we woke says we didn't get it. The clouds spit on us a bit this morning as we did our shopping but  didn't amount to anything much. We filled up the car and were surprised that the price of gas had jumped by $0.40 per gallon overnight. I checked last night and it was $5 but all the stations in town posted $5.39. Our favorite station has a "loyalty" program which takes ten cents a gallon off, which we do appreciate. We have already limited our shopping to once every two weeks and are thinking of going to once every three weeks with trips to a much closer store for any everyday items we might run out of. We certainly won't be doing any traveling this year.

The gardens are doing well and it is a joy to see the colors beginning to pop. I still have the two largest pots and six 5 gallon buckets to get planted. I hope to find interesting plants at the city seasonal market when it opens.

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We have had a couple of busy days. After we finished our grocery shopping and putting most of the haul away yesterday neither of us felt like doing much. We went out for lunch/dinner and then vegetated for the rest of the day. Today we did some cleaning and rearranging in the kitchen, laundry, and then had to make a couple of trips to Best Buy because Mom's mouse died and I needed a new power cord.

Gizmodo posted this today. I just checked out the Drought Monitor and almost the entire western half of the country is in "extreme" or "exceptional" drought. I saw article about barrels with bodies, cars, boats are being uncovered as the water levels in Lake Meade have fallen.

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Another busy day with not much reading done. Once or twice a year we get into a rearranging/cleaning/whatever mood and do extensive housework. Our favorite saying is we "do housework when the spirit moves and, thankfully, it doesn't move often and moves off quickly." I still need to get the dehydrator set up in its summer position in the kitchen. The herbs will soon be ready to harvest. I will get out in the patio gardens today. I have to get the last of the containers cleared of weeds and add the fertilizer and fresh potting mix so they will be ready for transplants or seeds.

The current "outrage" over the latest shootings have, predictively, passed from the empty "thoughts and prayers" phase to the do nothing phase. "Thoughts and prayers" is as meaningless a phrase as "Thank you for your service." They don't demand anything of the people mouthing the phrases. So much of our political activism demands no action other than expressing the virtue-signaling empty words. This post from John Beckett says much of my own ideas. I saw a post on Facebook a few days ago that quoted a protestant minister who highlighted the problem. To paraphrase: the unborn don't demand anything--they don't demand health care, they don't demand food, they don't demand housing, they don't demand education, they don't demand jobs with living wages. The born do demand those things and our political culture doesn't want to do anything to address those needs. "Thoughts and prayers" doesn't provide safety or mental health services. By the way, notice how Mitch McConnell shifted the focus away from the guns to "school safety and mental health" and that Greg Abbott took funds from mental health services to fund his grandstanding on the border when he insisted on the extra (totally needless) inspection of trucks bring cargo into the U.S.