I did not do a single thing I had planned to do on Sunday. Well, I did get my four little potato pieces planted but that's all. Instead I emptied the overflowing truck bed of all the downed limbs, branches, and sticks that had accumulated and fetched the tall ladder from the shop and cleared the gutter screens and cleaned out the gutter across the entire front of the house and continued moving the sprinkler around. I'll do what I had planned tomorrow, I told myself.
Sunday night a cold front blew in and Monday was overcast, cold, and still windy and we all know what that means...Ellen was sitting on the couch with a book.
I don't think I'm going to get any poppies or rocket larkspur this year. It's been so dry and I've been getting fewer and fewer the last couple of years and I'm not seeing any little sprouts of either. Time to reseed only it has to be done in November and I never remember. And also no shows are the woodland violets; plenty of plants, no blooms.
Marc left early yesterday morning for his next x-ray and on the way home he stopped at Whataburger for breakfast tacos. They gave him his change which included a dollar in nickels.
Just saw a red shouldered hawk fly by being chased by a much smaller bird. Couldn't tell from this distance but I'd bet it's a mockingbird.
Some of what's blooming...
a close-up of the english dogwood, the thornless odorless variety, what I have been calling mock dogwood
and an actual dogwood. This little tree was here when we bought the place and never bloomed until a big limb fell off the pecan tree that shaded it and opened the canopy a little. This is the most flowers it has ever given us and they are always tiny, the biggest one maybe an inch and a quarter across.
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I've been otherwise occupied for weeks and have not been following the clown show or writing about the ridiculous revenge grievance investigations by the far right cabal of insurrectionists that haven't exposed any wrongdoing by Biden's administration, instead highlighting that republicans are just butt hurt about losing the last election. Here's one little example of how things are going in the 'weaponization' hearings...
Last Thursday when republican Jim Jordan claimed these hearings are about the first amendment, (that Twitter suppressed conservative viewpoints at the request of Biden's administration [Biden was neither a member of congress nor was he president during the time period they are investigating]), democrat Dan Goldman calmly challenged him about republican book banning and that Trump had his ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, jailed to prevent him from publishing his book critical of Trump. Jorden lost it repeatedly shouting at Goldman to yield his time which Goldman refused to do. So far the only thing they've proven is that Trump did what they accuse Biden of doing.
Also from the weaponization of government dep't, DeSantis removed a duly elected prosecutor, a democrat, because he signed a pledge not to prosecute those who seek or provide abortions.
Biden has released his budget proposal asking for republicans to show him theirs so they can negotiate but of course, they don't have one. They don't have one because they can't agree on anything amongst themselves, neither the budget nor the cuts they're demanding in return for raising the debt ceiling, something they did for Trump 3 times, hey, no prob, dude, and more importantly, don't have the foggiest idea of how to govern. So as usual, all we've heard from them are their recycled lies, complaints, and current culture war boogeyman. According to Ted Cruz, Biden's budget proposal is “completely WOKE!”. Gasp! It contains the words equity, climate, and environmental justice. He even counted how many times those words appear.
Lauren Boebert, who wants to cut funding to schools that teach comprehensive sex ed and submitted a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, announced that her 17 year old son got his 15 year old girlfriend pregnant and she's bragging about being a 36 year old grandmother. She also said she and her husband are raising their four boys “to be men before liberals teach them to be women”. I guess being a man means knocking up your teenage girlfriend. Gotta love those republican family values.
Last Sunday Republican representative James Comer blamed the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on being 'woke', “they were one of the most woke banks” he said on Fox, instead of, you know, Trump who slashed banking regulations put in place after the meltdown in 2008. I was curious though how he thinks being aware of social and judicial injustice causes a bank to fail. Turns out I was enlightened by journalist Andy Kessler who writes for the Wall Street Journal...“SVB notes that besides 91% of their board being independent and 45% women, they also have ‘1 Black,’ ‘1 LGBTQ+’ and ‘2 Veterans.’ I’m not saying 12 white men would have avoided this mess, but the company may have been distracted by diversity demands.” Seriously Andy? That's exactly what you're saying.
Ummm, if one reads the details SVB failed because of a run on the bank that was started by Peter Thiel, didn't have a damn thing to do with being "woke" whatever the hell that means to a Pubtard. Diversity didn't have a damn thing to do with the failure.
ReplyDeleteno, of course it didn't unless that 'diversity' is a lack of same. SVB, instead of diversifying its investments, engaged in risky investment practices, depending on low interest gov't bonds predicting the Fed would not raise interest rates and then the Fed raised interest rates. SVB had to sell its bonds at a loss to cover client withdrawals which probably caused Thiel to advise companies to withdraw funds starting a snowball rolling down hill. but republicans trying to cover their collective ass for getting rid of regulations intended to prevent this very thing prefer to blame it on their current favorite culture war boogeyman...woke. it's all they've got.
DeleteThe guy running the bank was the lobbyist who urged Trump to push the deregulation that led to the failure. He's fired. He fa'd and fo'd!
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, your flowers continue to be lovely! I can only dream yet of our dog woods coming out at the edge of the trees.
All of the dogwoods in this entire area (including Tallahassee) are dead or dying and I don't think they know why. But they can't stop it. It is the saddest thing.
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't think that most people even know what "woke" is supposed to mean. All they know is that it's bad, bad, bad, and to blame for everything that goes wrong. DeSantis has made it his boogeyman and here we are.
In the face of all this freakin' insanity in Washington, the lies, BS, obfuscation, and simple idiotic incompetence... the flowers of spring still bloom. It's the only hopeful thing we've got these days.
ReplyDeleteI stay hidden on the mountain most of the time, just visiting medical facilities and shuddering everytime I see Trump banners. I find it amusing that people around here continue to add Pence to their signs for Trump 2024. After having a conversation with some of the locals, I find myself muttering "idiot" as I walk away! The dogwoods here are plentiful and in full bloom. So lovely. I have one at the edge of our property down the ravine ..... I want them along the driveway, but have yet to convince my driver to stop and let me dig up some tiny trees in ditches.
ReplyDeleteIt's so funny how obsessed Republicans are with "wokeness," whatever that means. I think basically anything they don't like is "woke." Thanks for that second look at the mock dogwood -- our Philadelphus is definitely the one with scent, though if it has thorns I haven't noticed them. Is there a scented one without thorns? I need to do more research on this, obviously. :)
ReplyDeleteI did not think to look for a "woke" retirement community, probably difficult in Ohio. Two of my table mates spend a lot of time away from me discussing unwoke local politics. At the dinner table I employ "the stare" and "must we?" and "Please!" Sad, because I wouldn't mind discussing politics myself. I can also jump in with my point, and shut them down, too, but then they say nothing for the rest of the meal. Not comfortable. Opposing opinions are never discussed.
ReplyDeleteWoke, drag queens, critical race theory, face-lifts on history in schools - ah those Republicans - gotta focus on what's important. Of course they have intellectuals like Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor-Green (to explain the constitution), Lauren Boebert (sex education and what constitutes manhood), George Santos (truth, honesty and the American way)......and on it goes. And they claim to understand bank failure?
ReplyDeleteEven my dad (normally a pretty openminded sort) has jumped on the drag queen business. "Young children shouldn't be exposed to such things." We had a fight about it, at the end of which he called me his "liberal head" & now that's my new favorite description of myself. Ha!
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why some people are so horrified, disgusted, or repulsed by drag. It's just a form of performance art. So what if the performers are gay or trans. Male actors have been dressing up as women forever. If you're gay it's gross, if you're straight it's acceptable?
DeleteI had no idea that dogwood of any sort would grow around us. I always have thought of it as pure east Texas. Yours is beautiful. When NASA began using their two new supercomputers for every sort of fascinating project, they named them Cactus and Dogwood, to reflect their locations. I think Cactus is in Arizona, but I can't remember where Dogwood is. I'll have to look that up again.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to be "woke". Would a person rather be "asleep" or "in the dark" when it comes to what is going on? I'm surprised the Republicans don't realize how silly and ridiculous they make themselves look. But I am more amazed by the people that believe them and support them. It's crazy, Ellen!
ReplyDeleteIn a "comedy" segment on our local radio this morning, we listened to a Rep member of US congress blaming the "woke" policies of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the Ohio train crash, causing the train company to waste valuable time and resources instead of proper maintenance. I actually googled this to make sure it was real. It is.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, envy you your garden, still freezing nights here.
It's going to be a long two years. These people gotta go.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is Boebert's oaf of a husband knocked up the 15-year-old.
ReplyDelete