March 3, 4, 5

 Busy morning already. It was a shopping day and I had a fairly long list. But that is done and most of the items are inside and put away. I only have a bag of bird seed, 4 gallons of water, a gallon of white vinegar, and a case of canned cat food to bring in. I will do that later if my back will stop hurting or tomorrow if not. The weather forecast says that some nasty weather is coming with a possible mix of all forms of precipitation.

04************************************************

We have solid rain today. The temperatures are still in the 40s and are expected to stay above freezing so the grass should start greening. The trees are starting to show leaf buds. I still have some items from yesterday's shopping to bring in but I am not in any hurry because none of them will be hurt where they are.

Trump is going to give a speech to a joint session of Congress. I plan to ignore it. The news tomorrow will have the high (low?) lights and I will get the gist then without having to spend time listening to his whining and bellicosity.

05************************************************

Another rainy day but it let up enough for me to get the items I had left in the car into the house. That was enough heavy lifting. I am now taking a break. I put a couple of rows on another lap/baby blanket just started. I get bored and I grab some of what is in my stash and start another project. The other crochet project still on the hook is almost finished I have a few more rows and the edging. I haven't started a doily project again. I tried a couple of "vintage" patterns but haven't figured out the author's crochet dialect yet. I still have the two embroidery pieces on hoops. Right now my get up and go waved bye-bye a while ago.

I was thinking of changing my mind and watching Trump's address with my finger hovering over the mute button but at one point the commentators observed that Vance and Johnson had bent their microphones down as Vance told Johnson he didn't see how anyone could stand up and deliver a 90-minute speech. It was already 8:30 so I turned the boob tube off and continued reading. As it turned out the speech lasted 100 minutes and, from the accounts I saw this morning, it met my expectations, whining and bellicosity with a dash of grandiose claims of "accomplishments."

I was mildly amused by an episode of news reader cluelessness yesterday. I think it was on CNBC and immediately after the segment I switched the channel. The female talking head wondered why the tariffs were causing such a furor because, of course, we would have time before they really hit. My first thought was she obviously didn't realize how perishable fruits and vegetables are or that we get a large part of our summer favorites from Mexico. Our supermarkets have to be resupplied at least a couple of times a week. Before the end of THIS week we will be feeling the increasing prices. I thought that just before their economist expert mention these facts of our life to her. My allergy to stupidity is getting worse.

Joyce Vance has, evidently, had a higher tolerance for BS than I and watched some of THE SPEECH. Here are the two things she took away from it.

So Trump proposes a "Crypto Strategic Reserve" for government "investment." Another lame brained notion from the stable genius who tanked a couple of casinos, whose Trump themed products (steaks, water, vodka, etc.) failed, whose Trump University was adjudicated a fraud for which he paid a hefty fine. I have a standard rule when I, infrequently, play games on Facebook: I never pay real money for digital goods. The idea of exchanging cash (which is a bit more substantial than blips in the ether) for digital (which is simply blips in the ether. A few of the bloggers I read rail against "fiat" currency (which is really backed only by our belief in the "full faith and credit of the U.S. government" since we went off the gold standard long ago). They usually talk about keeping some kind of silver and/or gold. My problem: "hard" currency is only valuable IF you can exchange it for something you can wear, eat, or use. My problem with the notion of digital currencies is not the it is entirely ephemeral but how easily it can disappear. I have read of several instances over the last few years of gangs, some associated with adversarial states, breaking into banking systems and disappearing the contents, both crypto and fiat. It is very hard to trace the thefts and much of the funds haven't been recovered. Establishing a "Crypto Strategic Reserve" strikes me as NOT strategic, possibly corrupt (how much will be in $Trump family "coins," and how much will be in the "currencies" whose founders have paid him in some way. Check out this article on POPULATION INFORMATION.

CROOKS & LIARS has an excellent cartoon showing our leaders since 1980.