March 22

I can't see how what the weather is like because it is still dark. The prediction is another sunny day and a bit warmer than yesterday. If so I will get the rest of my containers on the patio arranged for the season. I should also get out front and see if I can cut out some more of the clumps of ornamental grass that has plagued us for last few years. They were so overgrown they actually interfered with anyone going in and out from the front door and they attracted all kinds of bugs that found their way inside as we came in. I have some planters for that area.

To continue--we had bright sun until just a bit ago. Right now clouds are moving in and we are supposed to have about four days of rain. We did our major grocery shopping this morning and made a trip over to Michaels so I could get the thread I need to finish a table topper. It features penguins and I wouldn't have enough black and white thread to finish. Hard to do penguins without black and white. We have reduced our grocery trip to twice a month. We will go to our local dairy Thursday or Friday.

23 March

Clouds are building--we do expect rain. Don't mind that since I won't have to water anything. Not planning on any outdoor work today. I didn't do anything after we finished putting everything away we bought yesterday.

Axios headline pretty much said everything: America mourns--again. The story covered what (little) is known about the nation's second mass shooting incident in a week. This is getting way too "normal". I desperately wish it wasn't.

 During the coverage of the Atlanta crime spree a thought came into my head that has often occurred in various horrific stories: the notion of "hate crime" is pretty much a neutered concept. I remember the elation when Georgia (yes, Georgia) adopted an apparently sweeping hate crime law that covered race, gender, religion, ethnicity (and maybe even more) but the discussion of the investigation made clear that it may be toothless. If the investigators don't find some expression of animosity toward Asian Americans or women generally they might not have the evidence to charge a hate crime. Perhaps it would be better to include hateful attitudes as a reason to impose harsher sentences rather than as a stand alone charge. 

Chatter on the news/talk shows have moved on to President Biden's "Build Back Better" infrastructure plans which have a $3TRILLION price tag--at least in the full package. They say it might be passed piecemeal if it is passed at all. What was interesting was the breathlessness which accompanied the story. Joe Scarborough quoted Everett Dirksen's "a billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you are talking about real money. He noted that the phrase needs updating: the billion has become a trillion. But what went through my head was what I have been reading for some years now on what we really need to update our infrastructure. The estimates have ranged from $1 to $3 Trillion for the last several years. The problem is we, as a nation, have kicked this can so far down the road that catching up is a pipe dream.

I went out on the patio since it hasn't started raining yet to look at a couple of the pots that showed some promise of winter survivors. I trimmed back the sage and the two mums all of which are showing some new growth. I noticed some small leaf buds on the two roses and nice green plants of woad and chamomile. The biggest surprise was the lavender. It is showing some new growth also. I didn't completely clear the old stalks of lavender but there is definitely new leaves underneath. It may be time to start clearing all the dead plants out. I left a lot of the growth to act as ground cover to prevent hard rains splattering dirt out of the container.