June 26

Well the new freezer was delivered yesterday as scheduled. We did have a bit of a hiccup with two odd almost back to back phone calls we thought were wrong numbers. The caller didn't identify herself or where she was calling from and asked for someone with a man's name. We don't have any men living here so Mom said "wrong number." The second call came at the same time the delivery men showed and we found out that the man the callers (1st and 2nd) wanted to know was if he had shown up to deliver the freezer. That got sorted out quickly and they guys hauled the old freezer out an put the new one in its place. It has the same volume (13 cu.ft.) as the old but it is taller, less wide and less deep. It also came with four adjustable shelves and a basket. We kept the basket we had in the replaced freezer which had come from an even older defunct freezer and it is now in the what-not room full of my crochet threat stash. The storage box the thread was in is now empty and ready for the sheets and other yardage I have accumulated to turn into other things. I am a bit of a pack rat and hate to throw anything away that might be useful. We have had a busy day getting everything into the freezer and generally rearranging things. 

The temperature is in the mid 80s today but muggy so I have the air conditioner on. We had rain from last night until just a bit ago when the sun came out but the forecast is for more rain this afternoon and tonight. Then off and on rain for the next week. My poor flowers in the gardens are bedraggled and pummeled.

June 28

It has been a busy weekend getting everything back to some kind of normal after the freezer emergency of last week. It rained almost all day yesterday which, with temps in the mid 80s, made it very muggy. I didn't do more that pick off some faded blossoms and pick the first ripe tomato of the season. I did get out a bit today to try an idea for creating cadges for a couple of plants that need more support. I use some of my trellis supports and the cross pieces to put a triangle structure around the buckets. It seems to be working. I did find one support that I had to throw away. Over time the plastic coating on these supports becomes brittle and cracks. The core is a light steel tube that corrodes easily. The one I threw away had corroded so badly it broke into two pieces.

Axios What's Next had an interesting bit: two thirds of dog owners have said they will quit if their employer won't offer remote work in the future. They and their pets (many of which were brought home during the pandemic induced remote work regime) want to keep the quality time they have achieved.

Watching a piece on the news about the heatwave in the Pacific Northwest. The temperatures are mind blowing. Evidently a couple of places not only hit the highest temperatures ever recorded there but blew past the previous records by 8 or 10 degrees. One hotel reported that all their rooms are booked because they have air conditioning. The Governor of Washington said Spokane has lost its electricity and that the heat and the drought is threatening the cherry crop. Our area is quite a contrast--mid 80s and frequent rain showers which are expected to continue for several more days.

 June 23

It has been a few days but then nothing much has happened. Things here just chug along their normal path--a bit of reading, a bit of needlework, a bit of necessary shopping when we get a list long enough to make the trip worthwhile. Oh, yes--one bit of bother: our freezer cut out yesterday sometime early in the morning. We discovered the problem when we returned from shopping and had to put some items in the freezer and discovered it was quickly defrosting. I moved most of the meat (the most expensive items there) into our small freezer on the refrigerator and mom tried at first to get a repairman but that was proving difficult. The only one she could actually talk to only deals with commercial freezers but was kind enough to give us a number for someone who might be able to help. We remembered we got ours from Best Buy and had a service insurance with them. The woman on the phone was helpful but getting their repairmen were booked and everything would have been much by the time he could fix the freezer or tell us it couldn't be fixed. What we finally did was purchase another from the same manufacturer with the same capacity which will be delivered Friday. We were resigned to losing the vegetables and fruit but--surprisingly the damned thing kicked back to life and started working again. We talked about cancelling the new one but decided that going ahead with the replacement was probably the better option. The old freezer is about 10 years old, the model has been discontinued and we simply can't be sure it won't cut out again. We have no idea why it cut out since there was no power failure or blown fuse and the plug was tight. And we have no idea why it started running again. Damn machines!! But doing without them is almost unthinkable nowadays.

We are in the middle of an unusual cool spell. The temps for the last couple of days have been a bit below normal. We have also had several nights with hard monsoonal type rains. Some of the smaller plants on the patio were a bit beaten down but they have since righted themselves. All the plants seem to like the respite from the heat of only a bit more than a week ago. Watching the heatwave in the west and south and the worsening drought is frightening. The Guardian posted this story with some interesting comments by various climate scientist. One, who is in Utah were the temps reached 107*, described co-workers' computers shutting down from the heat and people leaving work early. One comment this morning about the Pacific Northwest mentioned that many inhabitants don't have air-conditioning not having needed it before. Now the temps will be high enough to be life threatening.

This little piece comes courtesy of Naked Capitalism. Every few months we get a flyer in our mail box for something called "Neighbors". I looked into it when we got the first flyer and decided not to respond and haven't to any since. It touted itself a network of neighbors looking out for each other. I wonder now if it is associated with this push by Amazon to tie into its subscribers' wifi networks to siphon off bandwidth. A long time ago we decided we definitely don't want anything to do with the so-called "Internet of Things". No Siri, no Ring, no connected refrigerator telling us we are low on milk. And as if I needed any encouragement to resist the movement to a more networked existence, there is this piece concerning another idea that seemed like a good idea until abnormal weather strikes. Imagine a place where you accept an offer of a cut in your electric rates if the utility company can tie into your "smart" thermostat and reset your settings when they feel it is necessary--for them not necessarily for you. Oh you don't have to imagine such a place--its called "Texas."

 June 15

Cool this morning--very pleasant. We have had our windows open and the  air conditioner off for the last couple of days. I have a new miniature rose to plant because I found a pretty white one while we were out shopping. That will make, I hope, four: red, pink, yellow, and white. I wrote "I hope" because the yellow and white have to survive their first winter in the gardens. I don't have any open large pots so I will put it in a smaller one until fall when spaces will open up.

For a bit of amusing military history check out this article explaining a custom I didn't know about. Evidently submarines coming back to port after a successful "operational" voyage fly the skull+crossbones.

June 18

It looks like I lost a couple of days here. I get busy on something and forget to check in. We are back to warm temps again--supposed to be around 90F today. And it is muggy. We had rain early this morning--a very heavy monsoonal type of rainfall. Several of my smaller plants were flattened but are trying to get upright again. They changed the forecast so that they expect several days over the next ten to have at least some rain. Since we are  exceptionally dry on the drought monitor we won't complain.

The legislative dance continues on several issues. Joe Manchin came out with his list of what he wants to see in the voting rights bill--finally. And Glory be, Stacey Abrams said it is a good basis for negotiations. But all the Republican sourpusses nixed it immediately even though it contained several ideas they were fervently wanting--they said. I expect something similar to happen with the infrastructure and the police reform bills.

Most of the reasonable opinions of President Biden's trip through meetings with Boris Johnson, Nato, the EU, and Putin are positive. They didn't expect any major development (negative or positive) and none were forthcoming. But the relief of European leaders to be dealing with a normal , human being who had done the necessary prep work astonishing. The only ones who seem to want the swaggering, blustering buffoon with a bad combover back are the Republicans who couldn't find anything positive to say. Why in the hell they seem to think that Biden's quiet demeanor is weak and Former Guy's bellicosity was strength I don't know. Unless Former Guy was dealing with Putin when he was servile.

Well, the ACA dodged another legal challenge this Supreme Court term. As soon as I read the full story I realized that the basic constitutional issue wasn't decided. Instead the court dismissed the case because the litigants had no standing to bring the case. Since the individual mandate had been nullified by Congress some years ago, the states and the attorneys general couldn't claim any injury the court could address. Basically, the court has told the critics (congressional and otherwise) that they need to clean up their own mess because the court isn't going to get their fannies out of the fire.

I watched the Israeli political situation for the last couple of years with a bit of disbelief and a bit of appalled recognition. Their Former Guy tried to pull a page from our Former Guy's playbook insisting that he had been fraudulently done out of the prime minister's position. After four elections in the last two years and intense negotiating over the last few weeks, they finally have a government that doesn't include anyone named Netanyahu. However, he isn't gone and can still do a lot to destabilize an already unstable government. The only thing those various parties all agreed on was getting Bibi out of power. They did that; now let's see how long they can keep the wheels on that buggy.

 June 14--almost half past the month.

I really don't know where the time goes. I think part of our sense of time speeding by involves our sleeping patterns. We go to bed very early, usually by 8pm. That means that by 2 or 3 am we are wake up naturally. We might doze in our recliners for another hour but we start on the new about 4am and by 6 or 7 we turn off the TV having already dealt with e-mail, played a bit, and sworn at the idiots who take up air time speculating about the latest happening. By 9am we have had breakfast, washed the dishes, got the cats settled, and ourselves dressed. I took about half an hour before we turned off the TV to water the gardens. It would be a shame to lose all that nice color just because I was too lazy to water the plants.

Axios What's Next had a piece on "The Great Resignations" this morning. I hope this provides the link. Evidently a fair number of CEOs are finding a lot of their employees either aren't coming back at all or will quit if the businesses insist on returning to full time at the office. The reactions run the table: full time in office, full time remote, a mix and some who have decided to pursue a career change. What ever the "new normal" is it won't be the "old normal."

June 15--damn! six months of this year almost gone!

Second day of respite from the heat but no rain. The news last night said we are way behind on rainfall and the meteorologists didn't see any for a while. You know that the drought in the west is getting serious when our local news (out of Chicago) has a feature on it. We are still listed as abnormally dry but the areas of moderate and severe drought seem to be spreading our way.

We did our regular shopping today--regular in that it was mainly replacing groceries that we were out of or low on. It has become somewhat irregular as to timing. Anyway, the trip to the big box market (not Target or Walmart) we patronize showed that the pandemic is loosening its grip on us. We didn't wear masks because there weren't that many other people. Our rule is that if there is an unexpected crowd we put on our masks. I saw only three customers with masks and two of them were children too young yet to get the shots. None of the employees were masked and those at the check out  were ecstatic to not have to wear them anymore. The only acknowledgement of the pandemic was the request on the intercom that the store didn't require masks for vaccinated customers but requested those who weren't to wear masks.

I Just found this at Crooks&Liars. Although it seems plausible given the history of grift swirling around the Former Guy and his whole family, it seems plausible. But before before getting too disgusted I decided to check it out at Snopes. Evidently it is fake. Other sites are also calling it out. I think it is so sad that the rumor a scam, any scam at all, connected with Former Guy and his minions is so easily believed.

John Beckett has a piece that pushes most of the buttons asking "why do so many of us want to run away?" 

 June 13

Another warm day and they say we won't get any rain for at least another week. I intended to do some weeding today but I have no energy to do much. We weren't out all that long yesterday but we found that as tiring as a heavy shopping day. It was nice to connect with family though most of the people there were people my brother knows and we don't. The nice thing is I can take a rest and not do anything if I don't want to. I got a bit more on my blue and white snowflake table topper and pulled out a round on that crochet table topper that has been so problem some. Thankfully only one round.

I hadn't intended to post today but I found this piece that is depressing and infuriating. I saw a couple of news segments on the new Alzheimer's drug over the last couple of days. One doctor that was interviewed admitted, when asked, that it didn't cure the condition but prolonged the progression--meaning that it would take longer for the symptoms to get severe. There was a sense of celebration since there hasn't been a new treatment for Alzheimer's for nearly 20 years. I don't see that there is much to celebrate about a drug that has the FDA approved it over its scientific advisory board objection's on the basis of "thin" evidence of its efficacy and evidence of severe side effects. In addition the cost is astronomical with most of it borne by Medicare, Medicaid and other agencies--which is to say the taxpayers. Notice the comment on how much those on Medicare will have to pay after Medicare has taken care of its 80%. Clue: it is more than my yearly Medicare payments. And it doesn't include the costs of scans and monitoring necessary to catch the adverse side effects. I think medicine has reverted to the era of the snake oil salesmen of a hundred years ago before the first Pure Food And Drug Act. 

 June 12

It is early yet but light enough to get out and water things. Also pulled a lot of weeds. Everything is doing very well and it looks like my program of watering every other day is working out. The only thing that needs to be watered every day is the chamomile. I poked a stake into it at several places in the pot and that has allowed water to penetrate better. I have been looking up whether I can split the root ball and evidently I can do that either in the fall if it is mild or in the spring. I have had to look up the information of perennials because I have never had any of those survive until this last spring.

Yesterday a blogger I often read announced that her blog has been "defunded." It is a convoluted problem. The company that places the ads on her site has informed her that their "ad partners" have gone with a rating group and based on those ratings have demanded their ads be removed. Neither the blogger nor the people placing the ads (with whom the blogger had been dealing with for several years with no problem) can appeal the decision or challenge the rating. I have seen more of this over the last about five years and I don't like any of it. Basically, some people have decided that they know better that the individuals reading the information what is good for them to read. Screw that. I read what I damned well what I want. There are various fantasies out there I can hardly believe people actually believe. I am astounded that some people equate not wearing a mask during a pandemic is asserting their "freedom." However, I am absolutely against any silencing of such opinion (fantasies, conspiracies). By the way I also can distinguish when people are really being silenced and when they are not--note to Josh Hawley here: your first publisher passing on your book isn't being silenced when you are writing opens for the bloody New York Times and appearing on news talk shows. We need to get out of this pernicious habit.

The changes--visible changes--last week were startling. Mainly in the traffic. We normally go out early to avoid crowds and traffic. We did that before the pandemic (which, incidentally, isn't really over yet). We saw more traffic than we had in the last 15 months. More people in the stores but not enough to make me put on my mask. The store employees are still masking but not the customers. Today we went to a celebration for my grand-nephew who has graduated high school. The traffic on all the highways was heavier than any time since a year ago last March. Many were probably headed for Chicago which fully re-opened yesterday. My brother is planning a trip with our new graduate and has been trying to reserve camping spots. He says many are booked for a good while in the future. People are getting out again.

 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???