molds, rain, treason

Monday was the first day in I don't know how long that I didn't have to go over to the studio and work. Marc was over there painting de-bubblizer on the waxes which helps prevent bubbles from sticking to the surface when the investment mix is poured around them. Yesterday we didn't go over there as I would be gone in the morning doing the weekly grocery shop and then the surprise J6 hearing started at noon here and by the time it was over it was really too late in the day to go start on anything. But he was over there yesterday making molds. It's nice to have a second person handy (me) to apply some dry plaster to stop a leak in case the mold material finds a way out of the containment surrounding the model and also to use a straw to blow the investment into small spaces that might still be harboring bubbles as he pours.

So I'm sort of at loose ends here after weeks and weeks of heading over to the the studio for my minimum 2 hours a day. That will start again soon enough as soon as he has molds made but in the meantime I need to be on call for when he's ready for me. In fact, this afternoon, I'll need to do the water volume measure to determine the weight of glass needed to fill the molds he's steaming out this morning while I'm at SHARE before they start to dry out.

The weather prevaricators had been predicting rain for several days this week and so just as it was time for me to start getting ready for yoga class on Monday thunder started rolling and gale force winds started whipping the trees around and blowing over the plumerias whose pots weren't sunk in the ground. I could see the rain across the cotton field and then the rain got to us blowing nearly sideways. It's hard to tell how much rain we got since it wasn't coming straight down but my sister's rain gauge registered 2”. No more rain since but at least we got a little relief.

So, surprise J6 hearing Tuesday. I missed the first 20 minutes or so, came in as they were listing the weapons that had either been confiscated or had knowledge of. Of course we knew his supporters were armed with various things during the riot but when Trump complained that the secure area for his followers during the speech wasn't filling up, his secret service detail informed him that people were armed and weapons were being confiscated as they passed through the metal detectors and so many did not want to go through and have their weapons taken. Trump's response was to demand that his armed supporters be let through. “I don't fucking care that they have weapons,” Trump responded, “they're not here to hurt me. Get rid of the mags and let my people in, they can march to the Capitol from here.” So Trump and his inner circle knew about the quantity of people with weapons before his speech and in his speech Trump exhorted them to go to the Capital and fight, fight, fight. He intended to go with them but his secret service detail took him back to the White House. When Trump learned the attackers were chanting 'hang Mike Pence' he refused to do anything to stop the attack saying Pence 'deserves it'. As the fighting got worse and the Capitol was breached he again refused to do anything to try and stop it, even though his inner circle advisors, family members, and congress members were urging him to call them off, because he “didn't think they were doing anything wrong”. It wasn't until hours later that he recorded a message for them to go home, saying we love you. So many people knew things were going to get violent even days in advance, and yet not a single person had the decency to go public with what they knew to try to stop him from inciting an attempted takeover of the government.

The other rather shocking bit of information was the video of Trump's former national security advisor Mike Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, taking the 5^th when asked if he believed the violence was justified and moral and when asked if he believed in the peaceful transfer of power. That's some heavy shit right there, a retired Army general refusing to say he did believe in the peaceful transfer of power.

I keep waiting for a little breather to do a totally frivolous post on flowers and critters but the shit just keeps hitting the fan. But here's one picture. The rangoon creeper likes the heat.