June 10

Another hot day. I got out on the patio as soon as I got dressed and before fixing breakfast so I could water the containers and deadhead a few of the plants that needed it. I hope to do the same tomorrow and get the trellises set up and the tomato staked properly. The temperature was at 80*F when I went out and already at 85 when I finished less than half an hour later. Ten years ago that wouldn't have bothered me; now--it does.

Politico Nightly has a nice piece to which I won't link. The theme is, as the author says in the first sentence, "if 2020 was 'it was worse than we thought', 2021 is the year of 'so far, so good'. " And yes I will agree that things are better but I keep a lookout for the possibility that things can get worse again.

June 11

Just like yesterday except I got out on the patio before I changed out of my sleep-tee and robe. With a 6-ft fence and given my sleep wear covers well it doesn't matter. I wanted to get the tomato better supported and staked and a couple of other tall plants caged before it got too warm. After breakfast and changing into shorts and tee I went back out to prune the tall tomato a bit and to poke some holes in the soil of the chamomile container. It drains way too fast so I suspect it is root bound. Very possible since it was planted last year and survived the winter. I am not sure what I will do with it. It is already nearly 90* on the patio so I am done for the day. By the way that isn't the "official" temperature since that hot-box of a patio can range from 15 to 20+ more than the air in the shade or outside the patio.

Well, here we are six months away from the Former Guy's administration and we have another scandal from the Former Guy--setting the FBI on the Democrat members of the House Intelligence Committee, their staffs, their families. In the name of finding, punishing and sealing off "leaks" the FBI scooped up phone records and other electronic communications indiscriminately. Why am I not surprised???

June 8

 Nice day. I was about to say sunny but it has become a bit cloudy. Not rain cloudy but still the sun is definitely filtered. The gardens appreciated the slightly lower temperatures and rain of yesterday.  Everything that should be blooming is and the others have nice lush foliage.

Two interesting tech stories over the last day, one good and the other not. The good is that the FBI and other government agencies managed to trace and retrieve most of the ransom paid for the Colonial Pipeline hack. No details, of course, because the government wants to be able to do it again next time. The bad is another outage of unknown cause that crashed one of the major cloud servicing companies. It is one I have never heard of but the report said it is one of the large ones. The crash took down web sites running on that site across the globe including the U.K. government, BBC, parts of Amazon for starters. Another indication of how fragile our systems are. I read a number of prepper and homesteader blogs and they have a saying that fits: two is one and one is none. If you have two of anything (or any system or procedure) and one breaks the other is available. Unfortunately, too many companies, organizations, and governments only have one tech system and no backup.

File this story under "What??? Again???" Brazil has declared a Water Emergency Alert because of their drought. Most of their energy grid runs off hydropower and, guess what, hydro doesn't work without water. This is the second time within a very few years I have read about. The last if my memory serves had people desperately trying to find water where ever they could. The main reservoir had almost dried up. I guess we can expect our morning coffee and anything made from soybeans to get more expensive.

Note on the cloud server that went down this morning--it was a glitch not an attack. That is according to this article on CityA.M. I still think backups are a good idea.

 June 7

We have a nice light rain today which we need. However, I won't be going out to tend the gardens. From the door everything looks very nice. Some plants are rather spectacular. The red rose is the first of the lot to bloom in the pots and it is covered with flowers. The pink isn't far behind. The yellow one is the newest, just transplanted from a decorative and very small vase, and won't do much this year. Its first blossoms which were full when we bought it have faded. The Asiatic lilly is also coming out in a spectacular way.

Anyone remember when climate scientists and activists told us that we should keep the CO2 levels in the atmosphere below 350 parts per million? When I first read that about 20 years ago I looked up when we were last at that level--right around 1985. According to Axios we are well over that now. This year's readings are the highest since reliable records have been kept (about 60+ years) and the highest for around 4 million years. They describe what earth was like then but I will let you follow the link.

We received the new lease in the mail today to review and sign. The only change was the rent has increased $25/month. Since that is the first increase in the 20 years we have been here we aren't complaining. We got everything signed and took it over to the office. It was nice to touch base with time in person for the first time in almost 16 months. It used to be a monthly ritual to take our rent check in and gossip a bit but the pandemic altered that. Nice that another facet of life has shifted closer to what was once normal. Evidently the rental market, for our landlords at lease, is indeed hot. The manager said that they have no vacancies and several units were rented sight unseen. Ever since the Great Recession I have speculated about "refugees" from Chicago coming out this way. Home building hasn't slowed down from what we can see and several neighbors who once lived in Chicago and who moved into units here were marking time until they either found a suitable home for sale or had one built.

I have reading and listening to the news about how slowly workers are returning to jobs that the are opening up far faster than workers are applying for them. There is a lot of speculation about why that is. Mostly the focus is on Republican governors and business leaders criticizing the expanded unemployment allowing lazy people to stay out of the job market. But others, like Charles Hugh Smith, have different explanations. 

 June 6

Shaping up to be another sunny and hot day. It is early yet so we'll have to see what happens once the sun is fully up. I have a couple of chores to do in the gardens before it gets too warm out there: deadheading, setting up some cages for the chamomile and the valerian, and getting the tomatoes staked properly before they become a tangled mess. And watering, of course--that is a daily task when the temperatures get as high as they have been.

Started off this morning with David Kaiser's History Unfolding blog. He is spot on as far as our political situation is concerned. The evenly split legislature is only a reflection of our society at large. After all a ten million (approx.) vote difference between loosing and winning in a potential voting population of about 200 million isn't a great margin. It reminds me of the scene in Elizabeth where the lords urge her to marry to solve their political problems and she replies "But whom, my lords. Some say France and some say Spain and some can't abide foreigners at all. I don't know how to please you--unless I should marry one of each." As it is she didn't marry at all and I suspect we won't get the transformative agenda Biden and so many on that side of the argument would like because we won't "be wedded" to either and taking "one of each" isn't at all palatable or compatible.

We just turned off the news--very early for us since we usually have it on until about 9am. But the first story was #45's appearance at that South Carolina GOP conference. I refuse to watch or listen to much to do with him. I am afraid the poison he and his sycophants have injected into our political blood stream won't be cured any time soon. I have a stack of DVDs featuring more sympathetic monsters. (the ants of Them! and the graboids and ass-blasters of Tremors 6)

 June 3

Another nice sunny and, so far, dry day though the temperature is going up. I watered the gardens before we had breakfast and went out shopping. Glad I did. I would have been wilting. Bad enough walking out to bring in the trash tote after the truck came by. Earlier this morning, as we were coming back to unload from the first half of our trips, I saw a nice set of plastic drawers on wheels. I know those cost between $40 and $60 in the stores and on line. I snagged it. I can always find a place for it and storage has always been at a premium here.

None of the stores we visited today require masks any more. One had a sign which specified that vaccinated patrons didn't need to mask and it wasn't the drug store. The clerk at there did specify when we asked about  their policy. She was a bit touchy ("That's PRIVATE" she said) when Mom  asked if she was vaccinated but lightened up a bit when Mom assured her she was just curious because we were and we were aware that a fair number of people weren't and weren't intending to get the shot(s).

June 5

I got very busy yesterday and forgot to come back here. Got the last plants into their containers and watered, and processed two more bunches of asparagus for freezing before breakfast. I finally got the tablecloth back to where it was when I found that mistake and took out three more rounds than I needed to. It only took about six hours of crocheting time. The temps hit low 90s yesterday and is supposed to do the same today and tomorrow. Though hot I don't think it was a record here unlike the recent temps in the west.

I mentioned the drought in the west a couple of blogs ago. Here is another which indicates how serious the situation really is. The author considers climate change mythical but the drought is not and nor are its foreseeable consequences. I am in the "Climate change--maybe" camp but I don't think it matters much. I read a lot of history and know of several instances of devastating "dry" periods which influenced the course of history. In the 12th century BC an abnormally dry period coincided with the collapse of several civilizations in the near east and eastern Mediterranean. The Anasazi were done in by a drought that last 500years. The rise of the Roman Republic/Empire came during the "Roman Climate Optimum" when the Mediterranean experienced good rainfall and moderate temperatures while the collapse of the Western Roman Empire came when that period ended and rainfall was scant and the temperatures higher. The modern questions over the reality of "climate change" is basically one of whether it is anthropogenic or not. And it doesn't matter a good goddam either way. Dealing with it is going to be a bitch.

 June 2

Nice today with a bit of overcast but a good bit of sun. I hope it stays dry. Of the to-do list I have finished the first: vacuuming the downstairs--at least the high traffic areas. We don't often do the areas that require moving heavy pieces of furniture and the area under out recliners are totally out of the question--way too heavy. I am taking a bit of a break before getting the seven plants I got yesterday into their pots/buckets. After that---we'll see. I always start out the day thinking of what I would like to do but sometimes I just ignore it and do something (or nothing) else.

Well--the second item on the list is done. All the plants are in their containers. I re-read  the tags to find out how hardy the plants are. I had already checked to make sure they could take the sun and the heat on the patio. Pleasantly surprised to find that four are hardy to -30*. I plan to protect them for the winter and hope to see them come up again next spring. Having perennials reduces my work and at my age and general state of not-so-fit is definitely a plus.

Crooks&Liars has a good one this morning explaining the phenomenon of Marjorie Taylor Green. You don't have to follow the link if you don't want to. I will give you the punch line--she "is what happens when the ventriloquist dies and the dummy keeps talking." Amen!!!!

John Michael Greer has a good post today which echoes thoughts that have been rattling around in my head but expressed more comprehensively and more elegantly than I have. Almost all of the previously trusted institutions on which our society is built seem to be crumbling before our eyes. Whether it is our political institutions, our schools, our science, our economy or our churches--none command our trust and without that we have little incentive to believe what we are told or to follow obey the rules we get from them. These are trends that have been growing for at least the last 50 years and are now like a boil ready to burst.

 May 31

Good morning on this last day of May. We are still in a cool period just not as cold as the last couple of days have been. One weather reporter said it felt more like March than late May. However, everything in the gardens made it through. I hope the few spaces I have left will be filled by the end of the week.

June 1

I intended to get back to this but didn't make it. After I accidentally pulled out three rounds on the table cloth from hell (the one I actually had to frog and start over) intending to only take out one because I made a mistake that couldn't be finessed. The one row was bad enough negating about an hour and a half of work. Three rounds meant losing some 6+ hours. Oh well, I regained a round this morning.

We visited the city market on its opening day today. Normally we wouldn't go there until Saturday because that is when most of the venders will be there. Tuesday usually has fewer sellers. I was on the hunt for some plants to fill in my containers and found three there. The early truck gardeners weren't in yet--maybe on Saturday if we decide to go again this week. We might wait until the second Saturday. The whole thing is open air and no one wore masks so we didn't either. We are vaccinated anyway.

I still needed plants so we went out to the local Home Depot. Over the last few years they have had the best selection in the best condition. I saw only two or three masks though most of us maintained our distance. Again, it was open air so I didn't put my mask on. I did find four plants. Only two more to get. Maybe I will find them tomorrow when we do our regular shopping.

The news this morning had a poll asking respondents how likely they would  do certain things like fly in an airplane (not very many positive responses) or eat out in a restaurant (almost 80% positive). The only activity we used to do regularly was eating out but we probably won't do that but not because of COVID fears or precautions. Even before the pandemic hit we found that we simply couldn't get around a full restaurant meal. Trying would simply leave us painfully stuffed which took much of the enjoyment away. We had been taking half of the meals home for the next day but that gets more than a bit old.

A number of the bloggers I read faithfully have mentioned over the last few months that the pandemic has made them carefully reconsider their lives and whether they really wanted to go back to them post-pandemic. This piece by Belle Chesler pretty much lays out the problems. I have been listening to the news coverage of the "negotiations" between the Biden Administration and Republicans over infrastructure which is snagged primarily on their insistence that the term means roads, bridges and other physical structures plus broadband (maybe). I put the quotes around negotiations because it seems to me that the Party of No is living up to its appellation and starting/staying at no is not negotiating. If the Republicans really want to get the economy growing again they are going to have to get women (who have been hardest hit but the pandemic recession and form the majority of the unemployed) back into the workforce which means dealing with the "care economy"--that is child and elder care. That is the last shred of the household economy that existed two centuries ago. After taking all of the woman's economically productive functions and women themselves out of the home we still saddle them almost solely with the burdens of caring for the young and the old without the help they once had when the home was an economically productive unit. It would not be surprising if many refused to go back to an untenable situation and told society to "take this job and shove it." If what I am reading is any indication a large number of men might do the same.

Another interesting article on the post-pandemic labor shortage. Actually that should be "shortages" because it appears to be more widespread and have different wrinkles depending on where the story comes from.

Although this story concerns Mongolia and northern China, I wonder if something similar is on our horizon. It reminds me too much of stories from the Dust Bowl.