what normal life is supposed to be and fuck you, your thoughts and prayers, and your fucking guns

I've decided that the two holes in the yard were vole holes even though I don't see the trails that are supposed to accompany them that pictures show. I know we have had voles before because our cat before Cat would kill them every spring. So Monday I poked an 18” long stick in the one in the big backyard and never hit resistance. I couldn't get the stick very deep in the one in the little backyard because I needed something more flexible so I used an old measuring tape. Still only got about 6 or 8 inches in but I did fish out a big fat toad who was taking refuge in it. Then I used the hose nozzle on 'jet' and never did fill up either hole with water and nothing came running out so I filled both of them with as much dirt as I could pound in.

The other thing I did before I came in hot and sweaty was to finish filling the tub with dirt and planting my velvet okra plants.

As a portent that the Houston sprawl is heading all the way out to us the HEB here in Wharton has been undergoing a massive upgrade and rearrangement for the past few months. Every Tuesday when I do the weekly shop everything is moved from where it was the previous week, it's like a scavenger hunt to find stuff. And I swear last Tuesday they must have had every employee they have there moving products from one spot to another. But there's a lot of craziness too, like the dog and cat food being in 3 different locations, wherever they had space I guess. They're supposed to be done by June, maybe or July but the big surprise which I learned from one of the volunteers at SHARE last Thursday is that we are getting a fresh tortilla machine and a hot and cold sushi bar. A sushi bar...in Wharton? Wow. Whoda thought that would ever happen. But apparently this town is growing despite the original families' attempts to keep that from happening. An incredible amount of new home and apartment building is going on here getting ready for the influx of commuters they expect to inhabit them. We moved out here to get away from the city, away from big city crappy attitudes, taxes, and traffic and while I'm thrilled we're getting a sushi bar, I'm not so thrilled about the apparent reason.

These are my tomato plants. Two heritage and two hybrids, from the left...beefsteak, old german, big boy, black krim.

The close up of the flowers and developing fruit is the beefsteak. Except for last year when no one's tomatoes did well because it got so hot so fast and so dry and I had planted my four in pots instead of the ground and got nothing, this is the first time for beefsteak. I've tried heritage tomatoes before, though I don't remember which ones, but I've never had any luck with them only getting one or two fruits if that and determined that this would be my last try at heritage plants if they didn't produce. Well, the old german has grown taller than me and so far both it and the black krim have some developing fruit but not a lot. The other two don't have a lot either considering how big the plants are.

old german

Another dark overcast day out there today, could possibly rain all day though it isn't now. Well, the thunder has started so I guess the rain won't be far behind. I may not make it to the grocery store today after all (I did). Now it's gotten darker and the wind has picked up. Some rain. And while it is still overcast the storm has passed. Not so much rain but it did cool things down a little.

----------

I'm going to have to start ignoring the news and social media again just for my own mental health and stress levels. Because now that the dust has settled on the latest mass shooting at a mall in Allen, TX that resulted in 8 innocent dead, three of them children; a 3 year old and two sisters 8 and 11 and at least one person with her face shot off; now that thoughts and prayers have been delivered by those who refuse to admit it's the guns, the press wonders what could possibly have been his motive. Are you fucking kidding me? It's the same fucking motive every fucking time, right wing hate and violence. These people want to kill, they want a fucking civil war and no, this is not mental illness, it's what they have been groomed for by the very people who only send useless thoughts and prayers because they want this to happen.

Jeff Tiedrich lays it out clearly. 

Which has led to this.

Our governor said afterwards that he WILL NOT impose any restrictions on guns of any sort in our state after allowing open carry with no license or training even though every fucking time republicans make it easier to buy, own, and open carry, the deaths and violence increases. The republican representative, Keith Self, for the 3rd congressional district in which it took place actually said that the only reason libs want to restrict guns is because they don't believe in god, don't have faith in god's plan for us all. Are you fucking kidding me? God's plan is to have your face shot off, to have children so mangled that parents' need to give DNA samples to know which body is their child's, to be shot down like a rabid dog for ringing a doorbell? You know what republicans think is the proper response to school shootings? Teach third graders, some of whom can't even tie their own shoes, how to field dress wounds. Jesus Fucking Christ.

This country is fucked up.