getting prepared and other activities

Here it is Thursday. What the hell have I been doing? I don't remember what I did Monday. Dealt with bureaucracy. I inherited an acre of land in East Texas that we have been paying the taxes on all these years and this year decided to stop. It's a heavily wooded and land locked that we will never ever even see, much less use. So we got a letter in the mail from a company that buys and sells land and offered me nearly $1500 for it. Call if you are interested in selling! So I called, explained how I didn't have a clear title even though it fell to me. Oh, she says, it's land locked so unless I was willing to go to the trouble of getting access to it, they weren't interested. So you think they could have figured that out before they offered me $1500 for it and got me all excited?

Tuesday, a nice very warm and humid day, I decided to make pralines at my sister's house with her 'foolproof' recipe. hahahaha It was a near total failure. Too warm a day, too warm in the house, they never set up so she put them in the refrigerator and finally, hours later, they sort of set but were so fragile that they break every time you touch them. 

Then I got some weeding done in the afternoon. I think. I know I got some weeding done this week but maybe it was Monday afternoon.

Wednesday was a long day. I had my 3 month follow up with the electrophysiologist. I'm still having episodes of afib but they are less intense and far less frequent. I can go weeks without one and then have four or five over a period of a week. Mostly they are short but sometimes it will be off and on all day. He recommended the ablation for the afib. The medication is controlling it but not stopping it. I told him I would rather wait, he again said that was fine that it wasn't life threatening, and he would see me in another 3 months but if it gets worse before then, I'm to come see him. So, end of January, we'll see. It's a longer and more invasive procedure and I'm not resigned to it at this point. From there I went to Costco, then Spec's (the liquor warehouse), then Michael's looking at shadow boxes as a way to present the feathers but there wasn't much selection and the proportions were all wrong and little trinket boxes for the pansies which they didn't have either so then I went to Hobby Lobby and while they had a bigger selection of shadow boxes, once again the proportions were wrong. I did find a frame (on sale) for one of the pieces in one of those expensive stands from last year and a little trinket box. So now I have to go back to get another frame and another trinket box. From there I went to Home Depot which didn't have one of the things I have been looking for without success and I was so disgusted I left and forgot to look  for the second item. When I got home I rearranged the garage and started bringing in the tropical plants, digging up the three plumerias I had planted, because it was supposed to get down in the 30˚s that night and to 29˚ tonight! In October. We never have a freeze this early. My toad lilies are just starting to bloom. By the time I was finished it was 5:15 and too late to make it to yoga.

look close on the left, the bird of paradise is blooming

Today is Thursday and you know what that means...estate sale! This one was put on by a different company that has just started doing it and doesn't have a big following yet. We got there about an hour after it started, perused the garage and the craft/workroom, went into the house and chatted with one of the women helping with the sale and she remarked that she couldn't believe this table and chairs was only $80. 'This table and chairs'...a round solid oak table with lion paw feet, a leaf, and six oak chairs. 

   

I'd been daydreaming about replacing our round dinner table and we needed new chairs since the seat on two of ours have split. I bought it. It was just too good to pass up. I figured if neither of the twins wanted my old table and chairs I could post them on Marketplace and sell them. I texted the twins and their mom and Jade claimed it.

So then Pam and I tried the pralines again and this time they set up nicely. Yay! 

And this afternoon I dug up the small porterweed that came up leaving the bigger one in the ground. Porterweed is not cold hardy and if it freezes it will not come back unlike the angel trumpets which are root hardy. Even so, I covered the remaining porterweed and the pink angel trumpet which has yet to bloom for me and the ponytail palm over at the shop. That's all I'm doing. It's only the one night and probably didn't need to cover the ponytail.

This is all so early. I don't usually bring the plants in til November or even December depending on how warm it's been. Well, they are in for the duration now no matter how many more warm days we have before winter sets in for good.

a good day for being outside

Yesterday I took my first bucket of pecans to the company that buys, sells, and cracks pecans here in town to be cracked. I took handfuls out of three different containers to see what, in general, the crop was like. I had a feeling that they were going to be good this year. Out of five pounds I only discarded 7 nuts that were either dried up or just didn't look that great and only one other that had two black spots. I attribute that to getting better at determining good from bad in the yard. I heft them in my hand and if they feel too light I'll crush them on the spot. Most the time I'm right but sometimes they do fool me and so perfectly good pecans are scattered around the yard for the critters. The shelled nuts look good and full this year. 

So far. Some years a third to half of a crop is lean, shriveled, or full of black spots. I still have 5 1/2 pounds of shelled nuts from last year that I want to get rid of so I plan to make some pralines and Marc has a recipe for spiced nuts he's going to try.

We had two nights in a row in the 40˚s but it's supposed to get up to 80˚ today, blue sky and no wind. I'll be out in the yard all day today getting more weeding done and getting the pansies in. I started a new little bed for them yesterday around the turret over the third septic tank that contains the pump that pumps the water out to the field lines. One of the bird baths sit on top and I've been planning it for years. I'm a little concerned that they won't get enough sun but that's because the trees still have their leaves. I think they'll do fine once the canopy is gone. We'll see anyway.

I need to get the garage rearranged soon too so that I can bring the tropicals in for the winter, something I usually wait til the last minute to do when the cold wind is screaming in advance of a freeze, but not today. The kiln is on, the heron box inside, fingers and toes crossed that the cracks heal with no visible scars and it stays intact and I don't want to move the kiln until this firing is over.

Later...

I picked up another 3+ gallons of pecans this morning. I lost track of how many I picked up yesterday. At least that many, maybe more. 

what I've gathered so far of the big hybrids

and the natives

I added dirt to the new bed for the pansies and got them planted. 

I had four left over so I put them in the large dish pot. Then I weeded another section of the long daylily bed, tossing pecans out into the yard. Every one I find and throw out is one less tree I have to dig up in the spring. Next I'll get the white and blue iris bulbs in that I dug up from behind the buddha last spring and I also need to get the oxblood lily bulbs in that I dug up last fall but first I need to get the rest of the weeding done. I'm mostly done with that, just have one more section of another flower bed to do. I quit a little after 4 PM. Starting about 3 PM the little dog was in my face, aren't you ready to go in yet?

Not yet little dog, not yet.

unprepared and don't particularly care

I am totally unprepared for the open house this year and while I should be feeling anxious about it, I'm not. This time last year, and previous years, I was very busy getting any models in progress finished and molds made and the pieces cast and the cold work done on new work already cast, getting stands made, new cards printed, all the stuff to prepare for the first weekend of December. The last week of November I would be setting up and arranging and tweaking my display. And last year I was all energized during the open house, I had plans for this year, I was going to be diligent and get a lot of new work made, I was going to develop some low cost items...snowflake ornaments, note cards with my drawings on them. I was going to get enough stuff made to set up at another art/craft show run by a fellow artist that is one Saturday only, I would work that show while Marc would be at the open house. Well, the note cards never got made, the snowflake ornaments were disappointing (but only because I didn't have the right glass so I may try those again), I haven't made any new models and the one piece I spent months on was one disaster after another (though I haven't given up on it yet), and come February of this year whatever excitement, energy, plans I had just fizzled right out when I finally went to the doctor about the racing and uneven heartbeat and the next 6 months was all about that and the last month plus has been about getting my teeth repaired. When I worked on anything at all, I played with the modeling glass.

I really want to like this product but I'm having a hard time. Besides being limited by my color palette, I just don't care for the opal glass. I'm used to working with transparents which have so much life due to the light transmission. The only things I'm mostly pleased with is the feathers  (they range in size from 7.5" to 9.25")

except for the blue jay feather of which the gray is not dark enough. And my second try at the lichen was a bust because I forgot to mix my new color combination with an equal amount of white and it came out too dark. 

One more try on that. And the pansies came out well enough 

but I really don't like the yellow color which looks like it has a tinge of gray and the other one, the pink turned out purple, not bad in itself except it wasn't what I was expecting and apparently the pinks need a hotter temperature to mature. 

So yeah, I should be really busy and single minded and I'm not and I don't particularly care.

----------

The above is what I was musing about last night. Yesterday afternoon it was hot and the AC was on. About sunset a front started blowing in and this morning, late morning 11 AM, it was 49˚! I guess we're just not doing fall this year as it seems to swing from summer to winter. That wind blew all night and it's still blowing out there and the yard is littered with even more pecans and I think I'm going to get my book and go take a nap on the couch.

three more days

Sunday – I swept the little patio and rearranged some of the pots and one of the plant stands in the little backyard, picked up 5 piles of trash, set the sprinkler up, pulled some weeds in one part of one flower bed (and got poked in the eye for my trouble), mixed up some dirt and composted peat and repotted several things, got the lobelia and the pony foot in pots, dug up and potted 7 volunteer confederate roses, raked the leaves off the concrete pad in front of the garage and moved them to a low spot in the big backyard, took down the shade cloth, pulled up the last of the zinnias, dug up one of the penstemons and potted it up temporarily because some critter keeps digging under it and tearing up it's roots, picked up pocketfuls of pecans, and got at least 50 fire ant bites on my feet. I had to come in and soak them in cold water at one point.

Then I came in, took my shower, cleaned the kitchen, fed the dog and took her for her (short) walk.

And I am done, toast, tired, might go to bed as soon as I eat dinner.

Monday – a miserable night with thunder and lightning and rain and a berserk dog who kept trying to dig a hole in the bed under the pillows trembling and panting and would not be still. We got 2” of rain so I guess I won't be doing the weeding and pansy planting I had planned. Guess I'll clean off my work tables and desk.

I did get the big work table and the desk cleared

and picked up another 2 1/2 gallons of pecans that the storm blew down.

Tuesday - An hour before leaving for yoga last night I got a text from another yogi that our teacher wouldn't be there and would I be there to help her lead the class. Yes, I told her, and so I ended up leading the class. I don't really mind now that I have my list of asanas to pick from and having done it a handful of times now I'm getting more comfortable doing it.

I don't walk the dog until I get home for now. That will change as the days get shorter and I'll walk her before class but last night we were out at sunset and it was glorious.

And it's a glorious day today so I'll be outside getting my plans for yesterday done today.

One last pic...the dog's opinion of cold weather.

three days

Thursday my sister and I went to an estate sale, it was Thursday, so yeah, which was no great shakes. I did pick up a good putty knife since mine seem to keep getting misplaced but the best thing about it was this ancient pecan tree in the yard. I have never seen a pecan tree this big and it was completely hollow inside.

for scale...

And there were pecans everywhere on the ground and good solid heavy ones. Drives me nuts that no one picks up the pecans in their yard. This isn't the first time we've been to an estate sale at this time of year where the ground was littered. It's free money people, all you have to do is spend a little time picking them up and the pecan wholesalers/retailers will buy them from you. I need to start taking a bucket with me when we go to these things in the fall.

On our way home we stopped at one of the big nurseries there in Richmond since we were driving right past it and I bought three small pots of blue lobelia and one of silver pony foot and then Saturday I went to the feed store and got 4 6-packs of pansies so I guess I'll be busy today.

I wanted to get out there Friday and start the weeding and cleaning up and planting but I was being a good girl and made myself get the powder layer on the five feathers so they could go in the kiln. Work first, then play. So Friday, I cleaned up the pink pansy and then started on the feathers. I got three done Friday and the last two yesterday, one of which I dumped all the powder and started over. I'm having a hard time determining how thick is thick enough and not too thick. The owl (?) feather fer sure is too thick but I opted to just let it be but the red tailed hawk feather I dumped and started over.

before and after pictures...

I got out there for an hour or so Saturday late afternoon and cut back the spent ginger stalks that were laying on the ground and cut the spent bloom heads off the ones that were still upright and started clearing out one of the flower beds, the one where I dug up all the mexican petunias in the spring, pulling up all the mexican petunias that defied me along with the dead zinnias in there and tons of wandering jew, a gift from the yard being flooded last spring. It was hot out there and I was soaked. If I was smart, I'd put off working in the yard til Monday as it's supposed to be 10 degrees cooler but there's so much to be done out there besides getting the pansies and lobelia planted.

Things are starting to perk up a little.  The confederate rose is nearing full bloom and the bird of paradise has put up three bloom stalks this year and this second round of white butterfly ginger has been pretty spectacular.

Well, I'd best get out there before it gets too hot.

same stuff, different day

I laid everything out on the kiln shelf and there was still room enough for another pansy so I made another one yesterday. 

I have no idea what I am going to do with them. The fungus/lichen I have a plan for. I guess we'll see how they come out, maybe I can turn them into some sort of jewelry.

I have nothing of interest to say. Yesterday I did the dishes which had piled up and sanded down the last dry feather base and made the second pansy and picked up pockets full of pecans on my various strolls through the yard and set the sprinkler out to water the azaleas under the pecan tree that lost all those branches earlier. They get a lot more sun now.

Today it's raining. Woke up to a trembling dog who could hear the rumbling of the approaching rain before I could. The thunder has stopped now but the rain continues, the good kind of rain, not torrential, not a sprinkle, but a good medium rain that hangs around and soaks in and does not overwhelm the gutters. That seems to be a rarity these days.

I'm having to limit my social media/news/human input again as it just either makes me sad or pissed off or hopeless or raises my blood pressure or makes my afib kick up even on the medication. No need to reiterate it here as I'm sure everyone is well up on the continuing travesties of this administration. I can't do anything about it except vote and I can't do that til over a year from now. Expressing anything but pro-Trump to our Republican representatives and senators just falls on deaf ears. Even if they agree privately they won't come out against him because they are afraid Trump will turn on them in his vindictive way and of course he will. And that makes me even more hopeless that so many of our elected officials are cowards that refuse to stand up for what's right because, OMG, Trump might give them a demeaning nickname.

Oh, maybe I do have something to relate. You might remember that last May I saw a couple of guys traipsing across the back end of my property and headed across my neighbor's property and to the road at the end of my street where their car was parked. When I went out and asked if I could help them it turned out that they had bought the 12 acre field behind us and they were checking it out though they hadn't decided what they were going to do with it. The only clear access to the field is from business Hwy 59 (also called Richmond Rd.) which borders one end of the field. The other end is bordered by the street that my street ends at and is a complete dense and tangled mess of trash trees, wild grape vines, briars, poison ivy, and who knows what all. This is the area that I call the wild space that ends at my property and it is constantly trying to encroach. One long side of the field is bordered by all the backyards of the houses on my street and the other long side is bordered by the Tee Pee Motel (now defunct again as the owners elected not to fix up the freestanding teepee rooms after the flooding from Harvey) and the attendant trailer park. So a couple of months ago one of my neighbors related that he had been stopped by an asian couple (the two men above were asian and only one spoke english) who were parked at my end of the street as he started out on his evening walk. They had bought the field and wanted to put a trailer (or maybe it was a manufactured home) on it and did he know what it would take and how they could get access to their property. So Gary gave them the rundown...they would have to put in a bridge over the ditch, either the business 59 end or the wild space end which would entail clearing a path, they would need water, a septic system, and electricity. They didn't seem to understand why they couldn't get access through someone's property from our street and they pointed to the drive through my crazy neighbor's empty lot, except for her storage buildings, that gives perfect access to the field as her property and mine are the only two on the street that aren't fenced in the back, well my absent neighbor's property on the end is effectively fenced by the wild space.

All this is leading up to yesterday morning. I looked up to see a familiar white car parked on the street and a man and woman got out and headed across my neighbor's property and mine so I went out and talked to them. I was friendly but I let them know they were crossing over private property. We chatted for a while, only she spoke english. She didn't mention putting a trailer on the field but she did say they wanted to plant a garden, grow vegetables and fruit, that we would be neighbors. Sounds great I said. She wanted to know what it would take to accomplish it, did I think any of my neighbors would sell their property so that they could have access to the field. That's a big no. I don't understand why they are so fixated on getting access from my street or even setting up whatever they plan at my end though I wouldn't want to live at the other end with the constant traffic down business 59. I do understand why they wouldn't want to clear a path through the wild space but the far end of the field just needs a bridge across the ditch. Anyway, I told her they could probably get electricity easily enough off the poles at the trailer park and perhaps they could get city water from the fire hydrant line at the wild space end even though we're in the county, not in the city limits, but that would entail clearing a path. They could dig a well and would need a septic system. Did I know how much that would cost? $7000 - $9000 each. Anyway, they left and I assume headed to city hall or looking for the county offices.

Well, the rain has stopped for now and it has brought in more cool weather having dropped 14 degrees since I got up this morning. Looks like I'll be wearing my long yoga pants for class this evening.

it got cold y'all...for a day anyway

Wow! It really happened! Mid 70˚s and overcast when I got up Friday morning then the wind picked up blowing in cold air and knocking pecans out of the trees. At 12:45 PM and it had already fallen to 57˚, predicting a low of 52˚ that night. I had the door open in the morning but had to close it after a while because it was getting chilly in the house. I picked up over three gallons of just the big ones and didn't even canvas the whole yard. The dog was not impressed. She doesn't like the cold wind but much to my surprise it did not deter her from wanting her evening walk however fast it was.

While it was in the mid-50s yesterday when I got up, it warmed up quickly and turned into a gorgeous day with a clear blue sky and low humidity. I picked up another five plus gallons of pecans throughout the day under various trees and spent several hours over at the shop with the long handled nippers trying to restore a little order around the shop and in the back. A drop in the bucket. I also poured some wax in some of my reproduction molds as long as I was over there. And Marc reinvested the cracked heron box. The heat and pressure from the setting investment ran the crack all the way across the bottom and spawned a new crack off the old one. 

Since I can only see the bottom of the box now I have no idea if the cracks ran all the way down the back side to the top. If it comes out OK, I really hope the heron head inlay still fits as I really don't want to have to do a bunch of grinding again.

I've been doing more playing with the modeling glass but I'm hampered by my lack of color choices. I don't want to invest a lot of money in opaque powders unless I'm going to use them. Glass powder runs from about $18 - $25 for a one pound jar. Five colors could easily put me over $100. I've got the bases for all 5 feathers done so now I'm ready to add the top layer of powder and they'll be ready to fire along with another dozen color samples, and the pansy and lichen though I still have some detail to add to the face of the pansy. 

   

the white is pieces of high fire fiber paper which is supporting the edges while it dries and fires

I probably could have gotten that done if I hadn't spent another hour over at the shop with the long handled nippers and picked up another 3 gallons of pecans.

Minnie waiting patiently while I pick up yet more pecans

a brief respite

It was about 65˚ out there this morning when I got up and the doors are/were open. It was pleasant out there yesterday too. I guess that's saying something when mid 80˚s seems like a respite from the heat. And it's overcast today which helps. We're supposed to stay mostly in the 80s the rest of this week and Saturday they are predicting a high of 69˚! I'll believe it when I feel it. It will be short lived at any rate.

I've been waiting for these few days and so I got out there this morning with the gas trimmer and tackled the way overgrown little backyard and around all the flower beds and the ends of the culvert under the driveway and I almost finished before I ran out of gas.

out of gas

I've also been engaging in my fall activity, the picking up of pecans. The ones that survived the drought of summer are pretty and heavy so I think it will be a good crop.

I collect pecans from three different types of trees, two different natives (two trees), center and right, which I collect to sell and a hybrid (three trees) which I shell for consumption and sell the excess. 

So then I collected under all 5 trees, watered all the pots and set up the sprinkler, rinsed out and refilled the hummingbird feeders, and I've sat at my desk and watched the cardinals, chickadees, and hummingbirds come to the feeders.

I've overcome my feeling of ennui somewhat. I've worked on a couple little thumbnail sketches for possible pieces in my sketchbook, something I haven't opened for almost a year and mostly my sketchbook is in my head but I'm trying to change that though not very hard apparently, and made some more color samples, and a base for a blue jay feather

and mixed some colors together for a another test of the lichen, found the wax reproduction mold for the small round box for a new piece or two which may or may not include small items made with the modeling glass. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with this material, how to make it work for me, besides the feathers which I like. So while I've been busier, I'm not really excited about anything yet. I'm ready to try to salvage the heron box and get done with it, so maybe that can get done with the next spate of pleasant weather. I'm not completely happy with the feet but haven't been able to come up with anything different. Unless, no feet though I like to give my boxes some 'lift'.

A few final small details...it is fall, as mentioned, but we can't count on the temperature to tell us this. Instead I notice that the mississippi kites are gone, the hummingbirds have migrated through, the goldenrod is blooming, the pecans are falling, and the rain trees are blooming.

unmotivated

I am totally unmotivated. Our open house is coming up in two months and I have nothing new so far to show. I vacillate between chastising myself for not putting in at least 2 hours every day on art work and telling myself I'm semi-retired, I can do or not do whatever I want. And apparently what I want is to do nothing. I mean, the stuff is sitting here right next to me while I ignore it.

I did finally get the teacup bird feeder repaired and put back up and put out the bird feeder for the fall/winter (hahahahahahaha) since I've had a big bag of seed sitting in the garage for at least a month, probably longer, but so far neither has had any visitors. (A cardinal and a wren visited since I wrote that.)

Grandgirl Jade was visiting her folks last weekend and came out on Saturday. She wanted to make a flower press and we managed to scrape up everything we needed except for the threaded bolts and wing nuts. I showed her how to use the radial arm saw and the drill press and she did all the work herself and cut several pieces of cardboard and paper to finish it off.

can you believe she's in her third year of college?

The road crew continues to work on the street, putting down and flattening a fourth layer which looked suspiciously like dirt with some of the first/third layer mixed in. They mash it down, roll over it, scrape it, water it down, etc. 

Looks good, nice and smooth, but unless they top it with something hard like asphalt it will washboard in a month. I wonder how much they have raised the level of the road. I'd just as soon any future flood waters not be held on this side of the road.

I finally broke down and bought a little sprinkler instead of spending an hour or more everyday watering by hand. It is still so hot out there and humid and mosquito-y and in 10 0r 15 minutes I'm sweating just walking around and if I stay out there longer then the sweat starts dripping off me. I got out there earlier today with the long handled nippers to cut down the trash trees, mostly raintrees and hackberrys that grow on the edges at the back of the property and the water sprouts off the crepe myrtles in front and by the time I was done the whole front of my tank top was soaked from me wiping my face on it and I was done. It just drains me. It's October, we shouldn't still be having temps in the 90s. My yellow angel trumpet is blooming and the heat today just shriveled the blooms up before they were even fully opened. Everyone keeps saying a cool front is coming through next week, and as I've mentioned before, by that they mean highs in the 80s. But you know what? I'll take it.

here we are finally

That selfish self-centered lying racist admitted sexual predator mob boss of a criminal in the White House is under an impeachment investigation. The House will do its job. It remains to be seen if the Senate will defend the Constitution or protect the criminal in the White House.

Trump, in his profound ignorance of the law and of the contents of the Constitution thought there was nothing wrong with withholding promised aid to help Ukraine stave off Russia as a bargaining chip to get them to dig up/manufacture dirt on Biden and his son in order to discredit his possible political opponent in the upcoming election. Against the law.

Aides knew better. Some were so alarmed they passed the info along to others in the intelligence community, some were so alarmed they moved the recording of the call to a secret server meant for classified national security items so as to remove it from possible discovery. Now we have learned that calls with Putin and Saudi Arabia have also been moved to that secret server. Cover up.

When the whistleblower turned his information over to the proper authority it was deemed a credible and immediate threat but instead of getting it turned over to The House as the law demanded, AG Barr tried to bury it and it was only because the news services got wind of it that they finally released it to the House. Obstruction of justice.

The supposedly rich profoundly ignorant Trump went to the NRA to ask them to fund his impeachment defense. The NRA says sure, be glad to in exchange for making gun reform dead in the water. Against the law.

It has also come out that Trump has AG Barr and Secretary of State Pompeo traveling to other countries and asking their intelligence services to help investigate our intelligence agencies regarding the FBI's investigation into Russian operative interference in the 2016 election and the Trump campaign's connections to those Russian operatives which Trump tried to suppress and eventually resulted in the Mueller investigation which he also wants to discredit even though he thinks it exonerated him (it didn't) because he wants to prove that the Democrats put the FBI up to it to discredit him. Trump has stated publicly that he has no confidence in out intelligence agencies, preferring to believe whatever Russia, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia tell him. Obstruction of justice.

It's a circus. Trump claims his innocence and releases a reconstructed account of the call which basically shores up the whistleblower complaint, the White House accidentally sends Democrats their talking points to counteract the accusation and then asks them to please delete it, staunch supporter Lindsey Graham loudly discusses their secret strategy to combat the impeachment inquiry in public on a plane, Trump implicates his AG Barr and his lawyer Giuliani, Giuliani implicates the State Department, and the special envoy to Ukraine resigned after his name was dragged into it. Trump will throw everyone under the bus in an attempt to stop its forward motion before it gets to him showing no loyalty to those from whom he expects complete loyalty but that hasn't stopped the GOP from staunchly defending him even though they took an oath of office to protect and defend America and the Constitution.

And now there might be a second whistleblower trying to decide whether or not to come forward concerning possible interference from Trump regarding the audit of his taxes.

In the meantime Trump is doing what he does, tweeting constantly about how maligned he is, no other president has ever had this kind of harassment (though I expect our four assassinated presidents would argue that point), how perfect he is, how hateful everyone is, insulting everyone against him, insinuating that the whistleblower (who is now under federal protection from Trump and his followers after two of them offered a $50K bounty for his identity) is a spy and should be dealt with accordingly like in the old days, the Republicans are in attack mode accusing the Democrats of 'dividing the country' and not working to pass bipartisan legislature, and by that they mean whatever it is Trump wants, while the Republican Senate ignores the 200 or so bills passed by the House on everything from gun control to election interference protection.

Never have we had a president who takes the word of dictators and national enemies over our own intelligence agencies, who demeans large groups of American citizens on the world stage and at home, who has nasty nicknames for anyone who opposes him, who refuses to read or listen to advice, who asks other countries to investigate the people in this country responsible for its safety, who thinks he is above the law and acts accordingly, who thinks the presidency is/should be all powerful, who puts the fucking foxes in charge of the hen houses, who claims there will be a civil war if he is impeached or even voted out of office, and then complains that he is not being treated fairly.

Madam Pelosi had withheld against the calls for impeachment because she would rather have had him voted out of office but when faced with the whistleblower document knew her duty. Take note Trump and Republicans, when in an interview she was asked if she thought pursuing the impeachment inquiry would have a negative effect on her and Democrats chances of re-election, she responded, (paraphrased because I can't find the actual quote again) 'it doesn't matter, our duty to protect the constitution is clear'.

This is what a true patriot does.