Foggy with a fine snow(?) falling. The temperature is supposed to be 27* right now so it is cold enough for snow. We expect rising temperatures for today and through next Sunday when they crash back into the low 20s and teens. I know this winter hasn't been all that long but two weeks of sub-zero temps makes it feel interminable.

I saw a couple of articles I didn't bother reading which were rejoicing over the Christmas sales results and noting that retailers are feeling much better about this year's possibilities. The articles claim that consumers are feeling optimistic and opening their wallets a bit wider. I wonder how many of those consumers are like us who did spend more that we normally would have in late December but neither Christmas nor optimist had anything to do with it. We adopted a couple of young shelter cats and needed all the stuff to go with them like carriers, scratching post, food, litter, litter box, bowls for food and water. We gave all that away when the last of our old cats died (at ripe old ages of 17+).

This article strikes a chord for me. Since I retired about six years ago we have followed some of the ideas of "off-peak" living. We avoid traveling during a rush hour or any time everyone else travels. Christmas travel crunch--not for us. Rush hour--no bother at all. We don't shop at 1am but do shop early. And our shopping is very basic--usually what we need and we don't know who the Joneses are so we have no one to "keep up with." Another interesting piece is a little book titled Un-Jobbing which extolls getting out of the regular job rat race. The author subtitled it "The Adult Liberation Handbook." I spent my entire adult life trying to get into a career that was interesting and stimulating, which provided an income that could sustain me comfortably in a reasonable number of hours, and from which I would not want to escape into retirement. I never found it. I finally landed in retirement by default (basically too "overqualified" for any jobs available) and I have never been happier or more satisfied.

This is not much of a surprise: Pfizer is distributing at least part of its Trump tax "reform" bonanza to--wait for it-- -- its largest shareholders. And cutting some 300 researchers and other employees involved in its Alzheimers and Parkinson's research programs.

We had a nasty mix of precipitation over night. The temperature was just high enough for sleet, freezing rain and snow. Good that we don't have to be out and about until later when some of this might have a chance of melting.

I got the Baker Creek seeds Saturday: black-eyed susan vine, malabar spinach, perpetual spinach, red calendula and a free-bee of an interesting cherry tomato. I have started my seed starting calendar and will soon start my new garden map. The Burpee order should come in two parts with the sunflower seeds sent separately from the bare root strawberries which should come in late April or early May. Right now everything is frozen so all I can do is think about what I will be doing in four months.

We commented on the new meteorological terms we have heard for the first time--like "bombogenesis" and "bomb cyclone". Grist says we should "get used to it." That situation at JFK International Airport is mind boggling. Over the last five years or so I have read about numerous transportation snarls that were unthinkable ten years or more ago. I remember flying out of Denver just before a massive storm hit as a blizzard. The airlines and FAA rerouted planes and curtailed operations west of us but the airline agents put me on an alternative flight when the plane I was supposed to board was delayed and held the connecting flight for fifteen minutes so I and my fellow passengers could catch it. My suitcase was delayed but delivered to my hotel the next day. None of the chaos and callous customer (dis)service of recent years. It is nice to blame a frozen pipe but 1) they had problems even before the pipe burst and 2) whatever their contingency plans were they need to be seriously rethought.

Still cold this morning with the high today only in the low teens but the weather people are predicting a "heatwave" with 30s and even 40s next week. One of my two seed orders shipped Wednesday so it should arrive today or tomorrow. The other should be shipped in two parts because the bare root strawberries won't be shipped until late April or early May.

Found this little piece of satire brightened my morning.

Nimue Brown has another good post criticizing the so-called "work ethic" we have jammed down our throats from the time we are born until we croak from exhaustion, or from a heart attack or stroke from years of exhaustion.

Finally!! got the doilies starched and stretched. I have been telling myself to do that for the last week or so--since I finished the last on. The new one is about 1/3 done. I am already thinking I would like to do an oval next. I will have to look for an appealing pattern.

We had snow most of yesterday but it wasn't the blizzard lake effect snows can be. We should get more this morning. At least we aren't getting that "bomb" cyclone the east coast is experiencing. And the cold is moderating (a bit) and will get to an almost balmy 32* by Sunday--or so the weather people say.

I started a couple of days ago making the starter pots from the cardboard cores of toilet paper and paper towels. I will continue that today. I have quite a nice lot of the tubes to alter and plenty of time to work on them. The biggest problem is convincing the cats to leave them alone as I work.

I finished a new crocheted doily over the last weekend which I need to stretch and starch along with two others we washed. I started another which is building nicely. Again my main problem are the cats who think I should share my toys.

A good start on a series concerning the American healthcare (or, as some call it, "sickcare") industry.

All kinds of weird things with the computer today. One of the cats walked across the keyboard and changed the size of the image on my screen. I couldn't read anything or effectively navigate when the image greatly exceeded the screen boundary. I still have no idea how she did that but it took me a good 45 minutes swearing all the while to figure out a way to return the image to its proper size. Then I tried to log back into my e-mail account and the shift key wouldn't work. Hard to type out an address when the computer won't print @. Well, finally everything is back to normal--for now.

Our (very) early temps are definitely an improvement--+10* instead of -10*. The weather people say by the weekend we should actually get near freezing on Sunday. My cough came back with a vengeance--I think because we did our shopping in the sub zero weather yesterday.

I finally got my seed/plant orders in and I am really glad I didn't get them done before Christmas. My notions of what I will do this year have changed totally. I had a long list of herb seeds I wanted but I won't be gettin any. I plan to buy transplants locally and make a note as the year goes on of interesting items not available here. I thought I would replace the blueberry I lost and try the citrus again but I decided to put both off to next year--maybe. I did double up on the bare root strawberries and ordered seed for the malabar spinach and the perpetual spinach. The only flower seeds I ordered were a calendula, a black-eyed susan vine, and a sunflower. Any other flowers I will buy locally.

That cold I came down with and the time it has taken to get mostly (though not totally) over it have convinced me that I need to simplify what I do in the gardens. Also I found the heat exhausting.

I don't read many predictions for the new year ahead but John Michael Greer's are always a fun read. The one for 2018 is no exception. His prediction for the Damnocrat's chances in the fall elections are interesting given that he predicted, in the spring, the Repthuglican win in 2016 when almost everyone else was absolutely sure Clinton would wipe the floor with #45.

Negative double digits this morning. Depending on the reporting site either -12 or -13. We expect several more days of this brutal cold with some snow--maybe. The holidays are finally over though the season hasn't been as excruciating as past seasons have been. Mainly, I think, because we now watch so little TV. We don't see all the ads demanding we go out and spend ourselves into financial ruin. And we don't see the obligatory holiday greetings "from our family to yours" that have become as obnoxious as the equally obligatory "thank you, for your service" addressed to any person with any connection to the military past or present.

This little article reflects some of my experience and thought. Disconnecting from the TV has been a major accomplishment. It used to be the background noise to our lives which went on as soon as we woke in the morning and didn't go off until we went to bed. Now we switch it on for maybe an hour to an hour and a half depending on how irritating the fluff is. We have noticed that much of the broadcasts are fluff; not in any way meaningful news. We do get most of our news on line but from sites with stories we can actually read instead of watch. It is far easier to get the meat of the issue and ignore the attempts to manipulate our emotions when we read actual words. I have begun editing my list of blogs and news sites because some are honestly no longer interesting. I never did get into the smart phone craze. The only way to not be drowned in that deluge of (mostly) emotion and misinformation is to get out of the damned river.

There is an old adage that you generally find what you are looking for and that seems to be the case for cancer. Increase screening and you increase the incidence--but how many should be aggressively treated? Some are so slow growing that the patient dies of something else before and I have read of others that simply disappeared. And along similar lines is this story on the lack of evidence supporting (and the large amount of evidence against) many popular treatments. But once a treatment becomes popular the pressure in overwhelming to keep it as an option.

Happy 2018 to everyone. I do hope it will be better than 2017 which was a most depressing year in more ways than I care to count.  We spent the moment when 2017 became 2018 as usual--asleep. We don't stay up late any more and drinking to excess no longer seems like fun.

I don't do the resolution thing either. Too often in the past I made resolutions that were too big to accomplish, so at odds with my character, or reflected some notion society at large said I should do that I broke them or forgot them before the middle of January.

However, this is a good time to reflect on the past year to see what worked for you, what you might like to change, and to make some decisions about what actions to take. That cold that left me in a lethargic fog for nearly two weeks and which hasn't yet passed off totally was a good catalyst for making some decisions. I cleaned out the lemon verbena which I will grow as an annual from now on. It gets too leggy though I did manage to keep it in better control this year than other plants in earlier years. It is also too messy as the leaves start to drop. I badly neglected all of the plants but did manage to revive in time to save the hibiscus and its cuttings, and two lavender I started from seed and the lavender cutting I took from the garden plants. I lost the basils and the mints I started from cuttings. However, the plants had developed nice root systems before I neglected them to death. I plan to do more cuttings next season.

Looking at the gardens I decided I won't replace the very large pot that developed a crack in its first season. Instead I will move the stool into that place and put three (maybe?) smaller pots on it with a large one in front. That will be easier to manage I think. I also got rid of the hens 'n' chicks. I really don't like growing them myself and I won't be putting up the spiral hanger where I had then last season. They were one of the very few plants that grew well there but if I don't use the hanger I have no need for the plants.

Last year's garden was the usual mixed bag. The clematis and hibiscus did well. I brought the hibiscus inside, trimmed it and it is doing nicely. I mulched the clematis hoping it will revive in the spring. We'll see. I got a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes but my oxheart tomatoes didn't produce at all. Nor did my peppers which was a major disappointment. The strawberries did well enough to encourage me to double my order in the spring to put in more. Sunflowers disappointed so I will find another variety for this year. All of the herbs did very well. I am still getting my orders ready. Our illnesses put me way behind.