the weekend and departmental reports

The large clump of fall asters by the driveway is in full bloom

Saturday I cut two more cart loads of rose bush from the pile. Paisleigh helped me. Mikey and Audra and Paisleigh were over at the shop and when she sees me coming she runs toward me arms outstretched…Gramma! I’m Granny to my grandkids but Paisleigh informed everyone that, no, her grandmother, my daughter, was Granny and I was Gramma. Works for me. As I would cut the rose canes down to smaller size Paisleigh would put them in the cart, when she wasn’t trying throttle my poor patient Minnie in a hug that is. I probably have three more cart loads before I get it all transferred to the burn pile.

It rained Saturday night, not much, just enough to get everything wet and has continued to drop just enough water off and on to keep everything wet enough for the dog and cat to look out the open door and go…um, nope. It has put the kibosh on my yard work plans for the day which was more cart loads of rose canes and more weeding of overgrown flower beds. I did get the poppy seeds scattered and watered in and the last of the azaleas mulched with pine needles Saturday afternoon.

I suppose I could spend the day making progress on the book I’m reading which apparently I’ve lost interest in since I haven’t picked it up for almost a week.

As it turned out I did get my two cart loads of rose canes cut and tossed on the burn pile, that’s been my limit, two a day until it’s done, between light showers. Looks like just one more cart load left but now today, Monday, we are still having intermittent light showers and maybe a thunderstorm later. 

The crazy dreams continue with one turning very weird last night. I dreamed Marc and I had gone to doctor appointments, same practice different doctors, and when I was called in I left my phone and book with him. The woman doctor and I were on a friendly basis and we chatted and then decided to go get something to eat. She drove me to this big house kind of isolated with trees all around. It was a big house (not one I’ve visited in my dreams before) kind of rustic inside but comfortable. I asked her whose house it was and she said that she had given it to her kids but now she regretted it. We went in the kitchen and she fixed me a big bowl of chicken soup. I ate mine while she served up a bowl for herself. It was really good, like the best bowl of chicken soup I’d ever eaten. Then these two or three people burst in, her kids maybe, seemingly to rescue me. I couldn’t understand their concern. Did you eat the soup, they asked. Yes, it was good I told them. Did you see her eat any, they asked. No I hadn’t. It wasn’t chicken they said ominously, implying I was in danger. Then I started waking up thinking to myself, let’s have a different dream.

----------

From the Department of What The Fuck Did They Think Was Going To Happen…Trump won the farm country by a wide margin and now those same people are alarmed by Trump’s plans to disrupt the $1.5T food industry with the nomination of Kennedy to head Health and Human Services of which the FDA is a part and who they are calling ‘an absolute danger’ to the American farm industry. Kennedy is notoriously famous for embracing conspiracy theories, is anti industrial food corporations and modern farm practices. They are also suddenly concerned about Trump’s intended tariff driven trade war with China as well they should be since during his first term he basically destroyed American farmers’ markets which left corn and soybeans rotting in the fields or in silos and causing a lot of small farm bankruptcies. Trump was very vocal about his tariffs plan and his intention to appoint Kennedy to head HHS and they voted for him anyway. 

From the Department of How Good Do You Look on TV…(this next bit courtesy of Jeff Tiedrich) from the NY Times an article on how Trump is choosing his picks to head the agencies in his cabinet “Much of the action has taken place under the chandelier in the tearoom at Mar-a-Lago, where Mr. Trump surveys his potential Cabinet nominees on giant video screens. He flicks through shortlists that his transition team, led by the billionaire Howard Lutnick, has drafted over the past months. If Mr. Trump shows an interest in a candidate, the presentation is designed to allow him to immediately watch videos of the potential nominee’s TV appearances — essential for any would-be Trump cabinet official.”  No vetting, no background checks. What could possibly go wrong?

From the Department of Retribution…Trump’s transition team is making a list of the military officers, including generals, involved in the withdrawal from Afghanistan soon after Biden took office, which withdrawal was ordered and set up by Trump after he released 5,000 Taliban fighters and leaders, and is planning to set up a commission to determine if they can be court-marshaled for treason. Trump has called the withdrawal a ’humiliation’, a humiliation that he set up for Biden by withdrawing all but 5,000 American soldiers and releasing 5,000 Taliban whom the Afghanistan forces caved to out of personal fear. More to come from this department I’m sure as Trump has been very vocal about wanting to punish all those who have and do oppose him.

 

ordinary days

Monday afternoon I was to go in for a 3 month follow up ultrasound on my repaired femoral artery. Monday morning the office called and canceled, the tech was home sick. They would try and reschedule, squeeze me in, before my follow up office visit to get the results of the ultrasound on Wednesday morning. I heard nothing. Showed up Wednesday morning, explained to the receptionist what had transpired. She consulted with the tech. He had an appointment coming in soon but figured he could do the legs and schedule the aorta for later. I’m like, uh, aorta? No just the leg, the artery repair. We do both on everyone he says. Turned out it wasn’t just a look at the repair of the femoral artery, he did both legs from hip to feet, told me this would be the easiest test he did all day, that most people who come in have serious leg and circulation problems, and since he still had time, went ahead and did the aorta as well. Final report during the office visit with the doctor…some cholesterol but nothing to worry about, no blockages, repaired femoral artery good, good circulation but decreasing toward my feet which is normal and age related, no need to think about any intervention at this point, come back in six months and we’ll do it all again, and I’m released to do any activity I want. I didn’t tell him I was already doing every activity I wanted.

And then Wednesday evening I led the yoga class. Thursday was SHARE and a food delivery day from the regional food bank in Victoria. It was a small order because they just didn’t have very much on the list and I expect that to get worse as we get into Trump’s term. We got something like 28 turkeys to give out next week that she orders every year for the week before Thanksgiving but I’m not sure if they came from the food bank or elsewhere, and the food bank sent so many big bags of marshmallows that Jan made us all take home a bag whether we wanted them or not.

The past several days have been glorious blue sky days, mild temperatures and low humidity. Even dipped down in the 40s Thursday night. Today, Saturday is warmer and overcast and actually feels kind of like an early spring day. I’ve been working on cutting up the big pile I pruned off the monster rose bush, four mounded up cart loads on the burn pile so far and I don’t think I’ve even got half yet. finally got the back flowerbed weeded yesterday and ready to spread out the poppy seeds a friend gave me since mine have stopped volunteering back. That’s on the agenda for today.

Last night’s full moon rising.

I fixed egg foo yung, sort of a chinese omelet but ladled out and cooked like pancakes with a savory gravy, for dinner last night. 

I’ve made this a couple of times before and it always turned out well but not last night for whatever reason and the gravy never did really thicken enough and somewhere around midnight my intestines rejected it and I spent the next two hours racing to the bathroom. 

And just so I don’t end on that unpleasant note…dog and Cat.

coming to terms

imagige via https://futurefreespeech.org/reason-free-speech-is-under-attack-in-the-u-s-but-its-on-the-ropes-elsewhere/

After several nights in a row of little sleep and my physical day on Sunday I went to bed early, was asleep by nine and didn’t wake up until eight Monday morning. I woke up briefly several times enough to wonder what that fuck that dream was about and then back to sleep. Pretty useless Monday, even took a little nap. I wasn’t just physically tired but spiritually depressed. 

This is kind of long y’all but better to be aware than blindsided.

People who voted for Trump are upset because they are being blocked on social media and are losing friends because of who they voted for, for what they feel is just a difference of opinion. But they just don’t get it. This is not a difference of opinion. This is not about whether or not you think pineapple belongs on pizza. What they did, what they support is a difference in a moral base. When you vote for a man who is an adjudicated rapist and self proclaimed sexual assaulter, a convicted felon, a man who refused to accept his loss last election and tried to take it by force, a man who scoffs at the rule of law and sneers at the constitution, a man who ran on hate and sexism and racism and lies, a man who has told us in no uncertain terms that he wants absolute power like the dictators he admires, you are de facto saying you support all that. Voting for Trump and MAGAt politicians says you don't think women are equal or should have life saving health care or the same opportunities as men, that rape and general law breaking are acceptable, that you think certain groups of people do not deserve equal rights, that law abiding contributing valued members of a family and community should be deported instead of giving them legal status, that separating/stealing children from desperate parents looking for a better life is not despicable, that you prefer a repressive dictator over democracy, that you have no problem with rounding up millions of people and putting them in detention camps, that you have no problem with American troops being used against Americans on American soil to stifle dissent, that you are OK with the DOJ arresting anyone Trump wants because they opposed him. People can agree to disagree over opinions, we cannot over a fundamental difference in morality. So, no, we do not agree to disagree.

It doesn’t really matter what your excuse was for voting for Trump because by voting for Trump you also voted for all that he stands for and intends to do. It is small comfort that you will suffer along with the rest of us.

Sexist and racist attacks have sky rocketed on social media and texts to people’s phones. School districts are issuing warnings to parents about the increased sexism and racist attacks in schools.

Jesse Watters of Fox said that footage of ICE taking people from their homes will be hysterical. So Jesse, is that hysterical like the SS pulling Jews out of their homes and loading them on cattle cars or hysterical like the IDF pulling Palestinians out of their homes and shooting them?

Vivek Ramasmarmy (purposely mis-spelled) says people brought here as infants or very young children by their parents illegally, people who have no memory of their country of origin and no connection to it, who speak only English, who have no other identification other than American and American culture, who are productive tax paying residents with no criminal record, even those who have served or are serving in the armed forces must be deported.

Governor Abbott of Texas requires all hospitals as of November 1 to ask everyone seeking care about their citizenship status. No one is required to answer and you cannot be denied care regardless of your citizenship status. This is just one more avenue to identify people for deportation.

Tuesday the House voted on H.R. 9495 which gives Trump’s Treasury Department the power to label any non-profit organization “a terrorist supporting organization” and strip it of its tax exempt status if Trump thinks it stands in the way of his authoritarian agenda. No oversight or justification needed. Just one more way he plans to stifle dissent.

The WSJ reports that Trump is drafting an executive order to create a board to purge the military of generals deemed unfit for leadership, in other words those who won’t follow Trump’s illegal orders.

Trump picked Pete Hegseth, a Fox News Channel show host of Fox and Friends, for Secretary of Defense, who says women don’t belong in combat roles and is opposed to the equity and inclusion measures in the Armed Forces. To say that the Pentagon is stunned at the pick of this inexperienced man to run the world’s largest and most powerful military is the understatement of the year.

While J. D. Vance is the elected VP it seems he holds the position in name only and Elon Musk is the de facto operating VP. Musk who is on good terms with Vladimir Putin and who has spoken with him numerous times over the last four years is a fixture at Mar A Lago and reportedly sitting in on phone calls Trump is receiving from other heads of state, calls which, by the way, are bypassing the State Department which monitors and records such communications.

Trump has announced a new department, which by law he does not have the power to create, headed by Musk and Ramaswamy, the Department of Government Efficiency “to liberate our economy” whose goal is to “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” You can be sure that ‘wasteful expenditures’ will be everything that helps the common people and protects the planet. This purging of the government into a ‘smaller, more efficient version’, meaning one that will do what Trump says with no push back, is to be completed in two years. How many people are going to lose their jobs in the next two years?

Trump’s other picks for important positions like Mike Huckabee for Ambassador to Israel, an evangelical christian who doesn’t think Palestinians have any right to the West Bank (I hope your protest vote was worth it), Kristi Noem who shot and killed her untrained puppy for Secretary of Homeland Security, Marco Rubio for Secretary of State which seems designed to put his daughter in Law Lara Trump in Rubio’s senate seat, nazi Stephen Miller for deputy chief of staff for policy, Tom Homan of stealing children fame for border czar who is eager to deport millions of people, Elise Stefanik for United Nations ambassador, Lee Zeldin who has zero experience in environmental issues to head the EPA, and Susie Wiles who managed Trump’s campaign as chief of staff. 

What could possibly go wrong?

edit, from bad to worse…republicans control the House and Matt Gaetz who has been under investigation has been selected for Attorney General and Trump is trying to push his selections through without going through the Senate.

 

a birthday with old friends, monster rose bush tamed

Sunday I vowed to myself to stay off social media and focus my attention on happier things or at least things that need attending to. The county lifted the burn ban Thursday so torching the burn pile was on the agenda. Also make more progress on the book I’m reading. Maybe put my sewing machine away even though I could start on the skirt hidden in the fabric I bought for that purpose over a year ago and maybe start a new watercolor. 

Saturday we went to visit our friend Gene who lives in Hockley with his partner Brian. It was Gene’s 77th birthday and they were having a gathering of friends. Gene is my second oldest friend. I met him in the second half of 1977. Sarah was still an infant and I was going around to the few stained glass supply businesses trying to make contacts for if they ever had anyone asking about etched glass. One such business told me to try Gene’s little stained glass studio he had with two other guys so I went there and introduced myself. Gene went out on his own shortly after and we’ve been friends ever since. We did the Renaissance Festival together for about 6 years early in both our careers, we collaborated on projects now and then, put on exhibitions together, started the Houston Glass Artists Association, we supported each other in many ways and became lifelong friends. This picture, taken in 1978 of Marc and I and our baby daughter Sarah and Gene, was taken in Gene’s studio for an article about us in a local little publication as I recall.

You might remember that when Gene and Brian decided to leave Houston he moved the contents of his studio into our shop for storage while he had his house moved, got a well and septic installed, fixed the house up, built the private deck out front, and finally, finished out the interior of the metal building erected for his studio, a process that took about three years. His place in the piney woods is so gorgeous, everything he does is done artistically, even his yard tools behind the studio are hung artfully. The man has an incredible touch, very serene with plantings and fountains scattered about on his acre, a small pond, bird feeders, a garden. He built a sweet little greenhouse for his tropicals and orchids and he did it, does it all himself, with found material and objects. He’s amazing.

So it was a nice gathering seeing friends we haven’t seen since our last open house at Dick and Kathy’s glass blowing studio right before covid. Bill and Larry for whom I did my very first etched glass commission were there, Dick and Kathy who were very involved in the arts and who were instrumental in dragging us our of our cave and into the light of the public, various other artists we have known and associated with over the years like Liz, Lesley, Michael, and Daniel.

And when we left I stuffed the car with 6 huge bags of pine needles, had to lay down the back seats to get them all in, to put around my azaleas instead of the pine bark mulch I’ve had to use.

Sunday I did not read, did not sew, did not start a new painting but I did stay off social media. My grandson Mikey came and got the original heavy plastic formed stairs that came with Pam’s house that we never got rid of after Rocky built the little front porch and steps on the house to use for the travel trailer he and Audra and Paisleigh are living in. While he was here he torched the burn pile for me. Since I had been waiting to heavily prune the monster rose bush over there until we could burn I got my baby chain saw and worked for the next hour and a half. The days of the monster rose bush’s unrestrained growth are over. What is left is about one fifth or one sixth of what was. No before picture of course.

Trees and wild grapevine and virginia creeper had grown up in the solid thatch and had to be cut out. I’m going to keep it pruned and cleared from the ground so that Joe can mow and trim under it. I tried to find a recent picture but to no avail, apparently I didn't keep any of the pictures I took of it this year. This is what it looked like two years ago when I pruned enough of the bottom out so that I could get under there and clear out the trees and virginia creeper and had gotten even bigger. 

Later I spread out three of the bags of pine needles. Still have the other azaleas to do but they can wait until next weekend.

The sky Friday evening.

aftermath and object #2

Now that the shock has worn off and the dread is settling in people are questioning the ‘lost’ nearly 15+ million votes for Harris, the number of voters and the number of votes not adding up. It doesn’t make sense. Democrats and disaffected republicans voted down ticket but not for president? Other people are reporting that they have checked their ballot status to make sure their vote was counted and their names are not on the lists, either mail in or in person. I checked mine and my name showed up. People are also making some decisions for the next two months, big dollar items they were planning to purchase next year they are going to purchase now before the tariff price increases take effect or are put off altogether. They’re expecting fresh produce to become very expensive and some are making plans to start gardens. People are trying to think what they can stock up on now, even clothing. Plans to buy a new car are changing to fixing the cars they have. Hopes to buy a house in the next year or two are vanishing. Others are researching other countries to move to.

I did not sleep well Wednesday night ( or Thursday night for that matter), probably only got a couple of hours total, and then I had to go to SHARE Thursday morning and work with people 98% of whom probably voted for Trump. It's a good thing we were busy because I just couldn't bring myself to hang around with any of them like I do when it's slow knowing that for all their christian values, they still voted for that skunk and have wrought disaster on us all. And I think, hope, they will be truly shocked at the result of their vote and how fast it comes and I will give them no quarter. They got what they voted for. Well we have about 2 months of relative peace and then we must be ready to resist and protect the marginalized.

Alright, enough of that.

My life in 100 objects #2. My sewing machine. 

My mother had a small sewing room that she shared with the chest freezer. When my sister and I were young she made our Easter dresses. I’m sure she sewed other things for us but that’s what I remember specifically and she made things for herself. I remember one evening gown in particular. I taught myself how to sew one summer when I was 9 making clothes for my Barbie doll. By the time I was in junior high and was required to take sewing and home economics in the ninth grade there was little the sewing teacher could teach me and after I did whatever work on my garment, which I think was a skirt with a placket, I helped the other girls thread their machines and their skirts. I loved going to fabric stores with my mother, picking out patterns and especially looking at all the bolts of fabric even though the sizing the manufacturers put in the material at the time made my eyes burn. I had my own sewing machine and dress makers dummy in high school and the first two years of college and made many of my own clothes. I made my prom dress from a swirly purple, blue, and orange voile and my wedding dress when I got married the first time and the robe he wore instead of a suit as the hippies we were. I didn’t sew much during that marriage, couldn’t afford even the material and pattern, and really never sewed for myself again. The next time I set up my sewing machine it was to make my kids’ Halloween costumes. You can see those here.  After that I was far too busy with raising kids and the etched glass studio making a living. I didn’t set up my sewing machine again until I had three granddaughters who wanted to learn how to sew and so for about three or four years of granny camp I taught them to sew and we made shorts, tops, dresses, a quilt until they lost interest. I started sewing for myself again several years ago but just simple gathered skirts that I prefer in the summer to shorts. And yes, I did finally finish remaking my blue skirt this week.

what the actual fuck America

A new dark age is about to befall this country. The people have voted for a repressive, racist, misogynistic regime that is all about vengeance and absolute power. And hate. The senile fascist Donald Trump, the repressive christian nationalist JD Vance, the self inflated billionaire Putin buddy Elon Musk, the nazi Steven Miller, the anti vaxxer and anti public health Robert Kennedy Jr; these are who the people in this country have put in charge. Why? Because even the good people are racist and misogynistic. If Harris had been a white male, she would have won by a landslide. The people of this country would rather have the slime they elected than a woman and a black woman at that who would continue the policies that brought this country back from an economy teetering on the edge of a depression from Trump’s disastrous first term to being the strongest in the world in a record amount of time, that strengthened our standing as a world leader, that created a record amount of jobs, that brought manufacturing back and supported unions, that finally started repairing our crumbling infrastructure, that has produced record highs in the stock market, that instituted measures to benefit the common people instead of the millionaires and billionaires. 

Donald Trump did not get more votes than he did last election. He didn’t win because more people voted for him than last time, in fact he got less votes. He won because the people in this country, the ones who would not vote for him also would not vote for a woman regardless of how qualified she is. I am just sick at how much hate there is in this country toward women and toward everyone who is not a white cisgendered christian male.

Well, America, you got what you wished for, either through action or inaction. You have brought on yourself a world of hurt. You will receive your just desserts and I hope you choke on it. When Musk tanks the economy because he says you have to suffer hardship, when Kennedy destroys the public health of this nation, when your children start dying from preventable disease, when there is no FEMA to come to the aid of your community when it’s destroyed by the next hurricane or tornado or wildfire, when you lose your social security and medicare, when you lose your health insurance, when you lose your job and home and business because a billionaire thinks you need to suffer hardship, when your neighbors get rounded up for deportation and their earned citizenship or legal status revoked, when you are incarcerated for opposing dear leader, when American troops are used against you on American soil, when Trump gives Russia Ukraine and turns a blind eye when Putin invades the next country, when Trump tells Netanyahu finish the genocide in Gaza so his son in law can build resorts on the coast, when your rights are revoked, when repressive religious policies are imposed, when you realize there are no guardrails this time around only loyalists and boot lickers, when all those high prices you have complained about don’t come down but increase instead, when you finally realize that Trump doesn’t give a fuck about you, when the constitution becomes a tattered idea you wouldn’t stand up for, when it is far too late for regrets I want you to remember that you did this.

I am devastated that this country has shown us once again how little it thinks of women, that a senile misogynistic racist, adjudicated rapist and self proclaimed sexual abuser, and convicted felon whose previous administration members have said how dangerous and unfit for office he is, and who is bent on revenge is a better choice than a highly qualified woman who has spent her life in service to protect the American people.

 

new theme, crystals, and why is my subconscious dragging up my mother

I’m going to try a new recurring content in my posts, My Life in 100 Objects, the idea taken from Rosemary Murphy of Share My Garden. She has a separate blog for this but I’m just going to scatter them through my own future posts. So here is #1.

This painting, 47" x 37", by William Anzalone hung in the breakfast room of my childhood home directly across the table from where I sat. It’s what I looked at during breakfast and dinner. I have claimed this painting as my own almost from the time my father first bought it though I don’t remember what age I was. Anzalone would, in the future, have a big impact on my artistic ability. I took Drawing from him in college at the University of Houston during which I learned not only how to draw (as opposed to just sketch or scribble) but how to see the thing I was trying to draw and other rules (who knew there were rules for drawing) like how to render a curved object and perspective among much more. I remember the first class when he told us the hardest thing to draw was a straight line, not because it was so hard but because of our fear of putting pencil to paper. I didn’t get possession of this painting until after my father died and my mother went to live with my brother in the PNW. It currently hangs above my bed. 

Sunday I finally hung all the rest of my crystals that I've been accumulating. They look great. What took me so long! Well, beside the fact that my desk is up against that wall of windows and it’s a tight squeeze to get back there.

I took the screen off the window first which I had been planning to do for some time now so I would have a clearer view of the bird feeder since the screens are old and cast a gray filter. Also I don’t ever open those windows (see above) and they won’t stay up anyway, have to be propped up. I just leaned the screen up against the bank of windows on the outside, hadn’t put it away in the garage yet, and the next morning a little green tree frog and an anole were taking shelter behind it.

The frog was still there when I put the screen away.

Every day when I go out there’s another branch or two or three that has fallen from the oaks and the pecans, ones that were broken during hurricane Beryl but not fallen. I’ve just been piling them up next to the magnolia tree during the burn ban instead of putting them in the truck which pretty much makes the truck unusable for anything else. 

As you can see I also pulled the kidney shaped small pond out of the ground since it was finally light enough with all the water evaporated and the water plants dead. Now I have this big hole to fill. I may set the pond up elsewhere in the future but I won’t sink it in the ground as before.

I had another weird dream Monday morning. I was in the kitchen of my childhood home and it was a mess with dirty dishes and empty food containers strewn over all the counters. I was shocked that no one was cleaning the place up or providing decent food for our old senile mother who I suppose was in her bedroom (where in real life she spent much of her time sleeping her life away). She wandered in and got a box of dry cereal from the cabinet and started just eating handfuls out of the box. When I tried to take it away from her telling her to at least put it in a bowl with milk she grabbed it back and wandered back out of the kitchen. When I walked into the family room and looked out the sliding glass door into the backyard, there were three men digging up bulbs and plants. I opened the door and yelled at them to stop and to leave and then I went back into the kitchen and out the back door to get the license plate number of the car they must have come in but it was a police car and there was no license plate and as I was writing down the name of the police department the men came around from the back and tried to drive away. There was more to the dream before I woke up but the rest of it is murky now.

Today is the day. I am not going to watch any election returns and plan to stay off social media, preferring the shock or awe on Wednesday morning but hoping to greet the day with jubilation.