earworms, library thing, and the pecan trees are finally convinced

It feels like my brain is obsessed with earworms. If I’m not mentally engaged with something, there it is ready to fill the void. It’s aggravating, it’s maddening at times. I will wake up with one running through my brain. Sometimes I know why I’m repeating a particular lyric, just heard the song that day or the day before or read something that reminds me of it but often one will pop in my head and I’m, what the fuck? I haven’t heard that song in years. It’s really annoying when I'm trying to fall asleep. I have to actively counter it with something like planning a yoga routine asana after asana or repeating a mantra over and over with my breath. I don’t know why but it’s a rare day I don’t have a lyric on repeat.

You might remember that a book I checked out of the library and returned unread and even unopened had a torn end page in the front and they have accused me of damaging the book. I never even opened the cover once, not in the library plucking it off the shelf in a hurry from the author’s name alone, not at home. I gave my side of the story to one of the librarians and she told me not to worry about it and I have checked out several books since. Yesterday I returned a book and went to check out another and they wouldn’t let me. There is a hold on my library card because of the damaged book. The librarian was very apologetic but couldn’t do anything about it. I have to talk to the director who is out of town right now at a conference. I imagine I’m going to have to pay for the book at this point. Pisses me off. Once I get borrowing privileges back I’m going to examine every book carefully before checking it out. 

Issue resolved, the librarian I'm most friendly with called today to let me know that the book had been replaced and the hold had been taken off my card and I'm good to go.

Monday the guy that mows and trims the shop yard and around Pam’s house came and when I went over to pay him, as I usually do before he finishes, I saw a clump of blue eyed grass that had sprung up in front of the house where Joe had not mowed yet. First time I have seen this clump so I’m not sure how long it’s been there and since I didn’t want it to get mowed down I dug it up and put it in a pot temporarily. I’ll get it in the ground next to the clump I dug up years ago out of the easement in front of the house on the corner. It’s in full bloom.

It’s been warm and very humid the last several days, the humidity making it feel warmer than it is and it’s been making me sweat some, a harbinger of the summer to come. Today is another miserably windy day; sustained 16 mph, gusts up to 28 mph. The wind is coming out of the southeast today though instead of the south like our previous very windy days. Despite the wind and the humidity I got some stuff done. I put the biggest plumeria in it’s summer location directly in the ground (it gets dug up in the fall/winter after it goes dormant) 

and sunk the biggest and next biggest pots in their holes in their summer spots. The other three in pots are still on the cement apron in front of the barn. One of those will get moved later. When I came in it wasn’t so hot and humid that my clothes were soaked but my hair was and sweat was dripping off my face. Oh joy.

The only other thing of note is this: the pecan trees coming out.

Winter is officially over. 

billing confusion, baby love, and garden/yard report

Momcat sleeping in the dry birdbath over at Pam’s.

Sunday night a week ago a lightning and thunderstorm passed through, no rain to speak of, my neighbor said 2/10, but the neurotic dog kept me awake most the night. Wednesday I had an appointment with the EP and after that I went to talk to someone in the financial department about a bill they keep sending me for a procedure last July that I have a receipt for showing I had already paid it. More about that further down. I also wanted to pay a bill for the last TEE I had but I wanted to do it in person so I would get a paper receipt. And even that was confusing because at first on the 12th I got a text billing me for $375 (my co-pay for the procedure which increased by $125 this year) and then I got a reminder on the morning of my appointment that I owed $151.11 by the end of the month. The woman in financial that I talked to only found the lesser amount due in the system though she did see and printed out the invoice for the $375. So I paid the $151.11. I guess they’ll figure it out and invoice me for the remainder or not. 

As for the other matter, she could find nothing about it. The hospital switched to a new system just after that July procedure and old stuff is archived which she did not have access to. Friday, I got another bill for the July procedure so I called the number provided and spoke with someone about it who kept insisting I owed this amount. That the receipt I had was for the account ending in 7525 on that date and this was for the account ending in 7526 on that date. I told her I only had one procedure on that date and they have billed me twice for it. 7525 was archived and she would have to go to her supervisor to get access and they would call me back in about two weeks. Well, Marc and I started going through bills and receipts and trying to drag stuff out of our memories because this was about something eight months ago. I had so much done last summer it was hard to remember but finally I figured it out. On that date I did have only one procedure, a TEE pre-op to measure for the Watchman device I got later. I also had the pre-op blood work for the cerebral angiogram that happened four days later. That is the co-pay I paid, account 7525. The 7526 account is the TEE which I did not pay for at the time, they said they would bill me and by the time they did we had forgotten and were going by the date, not the account number. So yeah, I owe the $250. At least it’s not $375.

Wednesday night it rained and rained more Thursday. In all we finally got some much needed rain, about 3 1/2” by my rain gauge. So the days after have been too wet to do anything outside since it's continued to be overcast and humid. So Saturday I got a couple of hours of baby time. Audra brought Harrison over for me spend time with while she went to the laundromat. He’s two months old now and a hefty little man. He was awake most of the time, smiled at me, did all the things babies do, look around and gurgle and grunt and eat and pee and poop and nap and eat again.

Sunday still too wet to do any serious weeding but I got the last tomato plant in the ground and set up the tomato cages, got the nasturtiums in the ground and the green beans,

and planted more beans in starter pots. I’m waiting until the cucumbers and squash seedlings get a little bigger before getting them in the ground but the onions I planted earlier are starting to come up as are the carrots I planted a month ago.

So many things blooming (so many pictures)...more iris,

poppies,

indigofera,

mock dogwood/orange starting up,

all the pink roses (some red ones too),

and on the wild side this lyre leaf sage in my neighbor’s easement,

fleabane,

evening primrose,

in the field behind me indian paintbrush (bluebonnets too),

and the baby blue eyes are in full bloom.

a nation, a culture, a society in distress

I know it seems like I’m turning a blind eye to what’s happening here in the country but I assure you I am not. Just how do you write about the fall of a democracy, the loss of freedoms and rights, the loss of the rule of law, and the loss of the very foundations of this country, that the people voted in this man, a convicted felon and self admitted sexual abuser, who stated over and over that he wanted and would take all authority and it is all happening so quickly. 

People are being disappeared, sent to heinous detention centers, tortured and deported to forced labor prisons in El Salvador, all without due process, without showing any proof these people are threats. Foreign nationals with legal residency are being kidnapped off the street or from their homes, their visas or green cards or residency permits revoked immediately, taken far away where they have no contact with the outside world much less a lawyer because they participated in a protest in support of Palestinians or wrote something critical of Trump and his agenda. The most recent that we know of being Rumeysa Ozturk, a PHD student, who they surrounded in broad daylight on the street and arrested because she wrote an article critical of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza.

Other foreign nationals with legal residence are being arrested in airports as they try to return from a trip abroad and detained in inhumane conditions for weeks before being deported or simply disappearing because of some post on SM critical of what’s happening in our government or event they attended making them national security risks, again all without due process and producing no proof of their accusations. There have been reports of citizens being arrested and detained. If you think you're safe because you were born here, you are mistaken. None of us are safe. Trump’s secret police will start coming for anyone critical of this administration regardless of citizenship status.

Court orders are blatantly ignored, people exercising their first amendment right to protest are labeled terrorists, law firms and lawyers are being targeted for representing people and organizations who legally file suits against the unlawful actions of this administration. Veterans are being thrown aside, people of color and women are being whitewashed out of the public record regardless of their contributions and expertise. All opposition is met with threats and retribution. Our allies can no longer count on us and in fact this country has aligned with other dictators. The man who desperately wants the Nobel Peace Prize is having invasion plans for Panama drawn up to take the Canal while he talks about annexing Greenland and parts of Canada as well. All while his appointees and an unelected billionaire dismantle the government. And their goal is not to just dismantle the government. They want to dismantle our culture and society and replace it with their strict and repressive version as outlined in Project 2025.

The mainstream media, all owned and controlled by billionaires kissing Trump’s ass either do not report on the lawlessness of the Trump administration or sanewash it or just outright lie about it. Trump’s desire to control everything to reflect his world view is now being directed at our universities threatening to illegally withhold federal funds unless they change their policies and teaching departments to suit him which generally means getting rid of Black studies/history and Women studies/history. And unfortunately, instead of standing for the first amendment and academic freedom, Columbia University has bent the knee. Kowtowing to a bully is never a good idea. It doesn’t placate him and only emboldens him to demand more concessions. We are on the way to having only Government approved education, repressing actual history and achievements Trump and the people behind Project 2025 do not approve of. 

Our European allies are drawing away from us, tourism from Canada has almost completely stopped, and European nations are issuing travel warnings against coming here as well they should.

Trump’s cabinet is nothing but unqualified, inexperienced, and inappropriate candidates whose only qualification required was that they will do what Trump tells them to do and apparently being appointed by Trump makes them think they can do that however they want. And now this Cabinet of Sewer Clowns, as Jeff Tiedrich so delicately puts it, has put our national security at risk by discussing classified strike plans on another country on a commercial phone app using their personal phones. The media is going on about this ‘accident’. Make no mistake, this was not an accident. It was a deliberate use of Signal, a communication app that is encrypted coming and going and messages can be set to self delete after a week or three/four weeks. Encrypted for public use and a secure government encrypted server are two completely different things. If they think their conversations on Signal can’t be penetrated by enemies using sophisticated techniques, then they are just as stupid as we think they are. The only ‘accident’ here was adding a reporter to the conversation and I’d qualify that as more of a stupid thoughtless mistake.

There are a few reasons Hegseth used Signal to communicate his war plans to VP Vance, Sec of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Walsh (the idiot who added reporter Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat), Director of National Intelligence Russian agent Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliff, WH Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, WH Deputy Chief of Staff Nazi Stephen Miller, and possibly others. One, they are too lazy and self entitled to get their butts down to a SCIF room and use the secure government server (it’s too hard, it’s too much trouble, it’s too cumbersome, wah wah, whine whine) even though it’s a crime to violate the proper protocols; or two, the government server archives every single word and they would just as soon not have any evidence of their clown fuckery. I’d assume option 2 to be the driving force. Who knows what else they are discussing on Signal they don’t want a permanent record of.

Of course none of them are taking responsibility for putting our national security at risk. All we’re getting, as usual, is gaslighting, denials, lies, blaming the journalist, and arguing over semantics. It wasn’t war plans, it was attack plans. I’m sorry, when you make a military strike on another country, it’s an act of war. Trump denies knowing about it, they claim discussing military strike plans with actual details of where, when, how, and what is not classified material. Heads should be rolling, people should already have been fired but this is the Trump administration after all, where no crime goes punished, where the US Attorney General Pam Bondi suggests there will be no criminal investigation into the Signal episode. Or any other illegal actions by this government which is why she is the US AG.

So this is where we are. Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter of March 27 is a chilling read.

drain field and blooming things

Drain field saga continued. Gunnar said it was a bad idea to use the motorized snake as it could break the pipe so Rocky used our 25’ manual snake. He put the business end into the pipe and pushed it in as far as it would go, all 25’ without meeting any real resistance. He put the other end into his drill and turned it slowly while pulling it out and other than a small amount of really dark thick watery stuff, nothing came out. At that point it was dig another hole at the 25’ mark along the length of that line, cut out a section and run the snake through for another 25’ and then maybe repeat for the last 20’. I’m thinking if the clog is that far down how can that really be the problem since the water was backing up and filling the hole almost immediately. The other option was to continue to dig up that line looking for a break. Both options required more work and expense so I had him just cap that line where he had already cut it 3’ or so from the feeder pipe from the tank instead of further digging and exploration. 

I have 12 field lines and didn’t think capping one was going to make any difference in the grand scheme of things. It’s only the two of us after all. We put the hose back into the access to the third tank and filled it until we could hear the pump engage and…nothing. So far so good. He didn’t fill in the trenches yet so I could keep an eye on it and see if it dries up or continues to get wet. So hopefully the problem is fixed. Now Sunday morning at 7:30 it’s almost completely dry, still a little mucky in a couple of spots. 

Later…At 10:00 there’s a little standing water right at the end cap so maybe it’s not completely sealed though it’s such a small amount it may not be a problem. 

Meanwhile…I wrote a while back that I still had five major things to cut back over at my sister’s house; the morning glory bush, the white orchid tree (which freezes down to the ground every winter and comes back so it’s more like a big thorny shrub), the pink trumpet flower bush, the rangoon creeper, and the banana trees. This after I had already cut back a lot of other stuff over there I had planted before we put the house there for Pam. Anyway, I had already done the morning glory bush and part of the pink trumpet flower bush so Saturday I finished that and started on the rangoon creeper which I finished Sunday along with the white orchid tree so that just leaves the banana trees. I’m trying to get it all done and all my spring garden in before my cataract surgery in May. 

Speaking of my spring garden, yesterday another big branch fell off the pecan tree that was so severely damaged by hurricane Beryl last summer and hit the corner of my patio table that my flats of seedlings are on on the way down. Fortunately my seedlings were unharmed but it bent the crap out of the table leg and it now has to be propped up with a brick and three slabs. Surprisingly, it did not break the glass top.

Garden report: A few carrots have finally sprouted and the zinnias are coming up. I bought one more tomato plant and some onion starts yesterday. I tried onions once before with no luck but I have a better area with more sun now so trying again. Seedlings are coming along but not big enough to put in the ground yet.

Things in bloom: the first amaryllis, 

the white bearded iris,

the fringe flower tree,

the freesia laxa which was not completely taken out by the freezes but not the carpet of flowers it could be,

and the wisteria in full bloom. 

On the wild side: the bluebonnets,

and the baby blue eyes.

bird skull, a letter, and more than you ever wanted to know about septic system drain fields

You might remember that I found a dead white wing dove in the front yard during one of our hard freezes and as I usually do when I find a dead bird I cut it’s head off and stick it in a fire ant mound. It didn’t come out completely clean and white mainly because I took it out too soon but also because it wasn’t the right time of year. It was wet and cold and the ants were deep underground fasting I suppose. I even tried three different ant mounds and thought I had lost it after the second. when I dug it out of the first one it wasn’t much changed so I put it in a mound that got more sun. That was when I thought a critter had gotten it when I dug it out, better but still icky, intending to get it later in the day and didn’t remember until the next morning and couldn’t find it. The day after that I looked again and it was in plain sight so I put it in a third ant mound. When I dug it out of that it was much cleaner but still had stuff in the skull but I feared losing it for good and brought it in. I’ve worked on it two times with little stiff paint brushes, a piece of wire, and some very pointy tweezers after soaking it and I guess it’s as clean as it’s going to get. 

I’ve got it on the shelf and put it between the cardinal and the mockingbird.

We got a letter from the state about our architectural etched and carved glass studio from which we retired at the end of 2017. We continued selling the cast glass at our annual open house with our other glass artist friends but that stopped after 2020 because of covid and the last time we had any opportunity to sell directly to the public was 2021 when we shared a booth with our friends at the Height’s Artisan Market and although I continued to send work to the gallery I was not responsible for sales tax on those sales. So, the letter. The state is revoking our sales tax permit as a result of zero total sales, zero taxable sales, and zero taxable purchases for the last two years. We no longer will have a business from which we must collect and remit sales tax or for which we can be tax exempt for certain purchases. 

Tuesday I went to empty the kitchen scraps container on what I euphemistically call my ‘compost pile’, more aptly a forage pile for the local wildlife; I never dig any compost or dirt out of it because it’s full of ants. Anyway it’s at the very back of the property and on my way there I came upon a wet spot in the big backyard with several small puddles of water where there should not be especially since it hasn't rained for weeks. This does not bode well. Being out in the county as we are we’re on a septic system, one of the older ones. Our system has three tanks buried in the little backyard. The sinks, the showers, and the toilets drain into the first tank which drains into the second tank which drains into the third tank with a line that pumps the water into the drain field. The drain field is a series of perforated pipes every 3' buried under the back half of the property. I don’t know how deep but I’ve never encountered one while digging back there (turns out the lines are 12" deep). You’re not supposed to put anything on top of the drain field, like buildings mostly, because if something goes wrong it has to be dug up but I figured flower beds wouldn’t matter. So, apparently based on the location of this wet spot it’s the line from the third tank to the drain field that has sprung a leak. So now I have to dig around in that area and find the problem. Hopefully it’s something Rocky can deal with.

Wednesday after digging and cutting tree roots I exposed 30” of pipe. Haven’t found any obvious cracks or leaks. I was starting to hit drier dirt on the left but the surface of the ground on the right is still wet for about 20”. Ideally I’d like to be able to watch when the pump goes on and see where the water is coming from but that will just be lucky timing.

Later…I encountered Rocky on the street while I was walking the dog. He’s got a couple of days before starting his next job so he’s coming with his helper Friday morning.

Thursday…I showered in the morning and as I was leaving for SHARE I checked the hole. It was filled with water.

Later…More digging in the afternoon. I’ve now exposed 6’ of pipe with no obvious cracks or leaks.

Friday…Rocky and his two guys showed up and we put a hose in the access port of the third tank until the pump was activated so they could see where the water was coming from. It started seeping out from underground under the drain field pipe in the middle so now they’re digging up that line and bailing out all the water. So far haven’t found the leak yet.

A little later…They found the leak, a hole in the bottom of the field line about 4’ back. So now they’re digging more around that spot to give Rocky room the get in there and cut out the small section and reconnect the line with a collar.

Later still…Well, fuck. Rocky cut out a section of pipe to show me the hole and that was not the leak, that was the first perfectly drilled perforation in that field line which means that there probably isn’t a leak but a clog somewhere in that line. 

Our drain field consists of 12 field lines 70’ long with an 1/8” hole on the bottom of the pipe every 12”. Small roots can grow into those holes and grow until it’s a mass of roots. So now it becomes a much bigger problem of how to find the clog and how far down it is. One of Rocky’s sons is a plumber so he’s going to borrow Gunnar’s motorized snake and see if they can find the clog that way and determine where to dig. So that’s where we are now. Hopefully it’s not too far down the line.