more minutia of my life and the giant might be stirring

I had brought my now potted camellia in for the winter, the one that is infected with whitefly which no insecticidal soap or other stronger organic insecticide has had any effect on. You might remember I rubbed the backs of every leaf vigorously before bringing it in. When we had that warm spell I took it back outside, still looked good. Brought it back in for this recent freezing cold front. I looked at it Monday and it had bloomed white fuzz. Fuck. So yesterday morning I did what I should have done when I brought it in for the winter the first time, I used cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol and went over the back side of every leaf. It cleaned off so much of those back/brown spots so I have high hopes that maybe, just maybe, I’ve got rid of the white fly. I’ll have to keep a close eye on it, check it every day and repeat if necessary.

I spent Sunday out in the yard weeding the front flower bed. It was still overcast and wet but warmed up enough. It’s been colonized in part by fleabane which I left and the goldenrod that showed up last fall though the purple coneflower is not as dense as it has been. Since the roses and yellow bells and lantana have not come out yet I could get in there and get the weeds out and dig up the dewberry that grew unrestrained last summer while I was forced to it on my butt and had already started growing. I dug it all out last fall but the roots go deep and now it’s become one of the perpetual tasks. At one point I looked up across the street to see the feral black cat Ghost directly across from me sitting just behind the fence patiently watching, waiting for me to come over and feed the cats.

Also Sunday the neighborhood roaming peacock was on my street. I was visiting with my friend on the other end when it came strolling up to eat the birdseed that had been kicked to the ground underneath the bird feeder. And then Minnie and I followed it down the street home until it jumped on the fence and over of a neighbor at my end. The last time I saw it, it was molting and looked terrible but Sunday it was very fine looking indeed.

From the Department of Now I’ve Seen Everything - I did my week’s grocery shop yesterday. Our grocery has a sushi bar where they make it fresh every day, even with a time stamp on the label. Tuesday is Sushi Tuesday for lunch and they had a new offering…spam sushi. And no I didn’t buy it.

There’s finally activity over at Montreal’s old house. Last week a guy was doing something to the septic system we surmise. He was seated on the ground doing something about where the pump for the septic is. The contractor showed up Monday and has been here all week so far. I think I misunderstood the situation. When I met Sam and Eileen the day they were at the house I could have sworn Sam said they bought the house. But yesterday, Sam came to the door and asked if he could use our hose to get a couple of gallons of water. They had been working on the bathroom I think and that house is on a well and he said something about priming the pump. Yes, take all you need. I asked him when he thought they would move in and his response made me think they aren’t a couple after all. He said he thought she was going to rent it out to her family. So maybe Sam is just the guy she hired to fix up the house.

Yesterday morning my hair was long enough to twist it up tightly, poke a hair stick through it and hold a tiny little bun getting it off my neck and out of my face. Then I called and made an appointment to get my hair cut today.

I’ve been staying away from the news and SM for the most part. It’s all just too depressing though it is encouraging to see that the people are rising. They are showing up at the town halls and they are pissed and not just democrats. The illegally unnamed and unlabeled private security firm in Idaho where the republican representative had a woman dragged out because she shouted ‘women deserve a voice’ lost their business license. Congress is being flooded with phone calls and letters. There is some dissension in the ranks with a few republican legislators starting to speak out and Trump’s department heads pushing back against what they feel is Musk’s overreach to their authority. The courts are still kicking Trump and Musk in the butt. When Musk posted on X all the billions of so called savings he’s produced the NYT published evidence that the top 5 were patently false claims and the next day he removed those from the list. And a very fine moment when French President Macron interrupted one of Trump’s bald faced lies about Europe’s aid to Ukraine and corrected him to his face twice on the spot during the press conference. Trump is just a fucking embarrassment slouching in his chair with that sour face, disrespectfully waggling his hand while Macron spoke and his retort ‘if you want to believe that’. Trump is so obviously just a shell being controlled by Putin and Musk. 

By all accounts Trump is not running the country, just watching TV, signing what they put in front of of him, and playing golf which he’s done 27% of the 37 days he’s been in office. And if you had any doubts about his raging malignant narcissism and delusions of grandeur and power, as if referring to himself as king didn’t do it, the AI video of Trump Gaza he posted on TS should leave no doubt about his dementia addled brain. And then there's the Gold Card which gets you an automatic green card and guaranteed citizenship for a measly $5M. How much do you want to bet that that money goes into his pocket and not the government coffers, as if someone would actually take him up on it. He's convinced wealthy people will be flocking here in droves, his brain is going ka-ching!