still hot but changes in progress, annoyed Cat, more cards, and maybe a ray of hope

I’m happy to report my reaction to the second shingles shot was minimal. I woke up about 4 AM the next morning feeling achy and a little chill. Not having chills but I turned the fan down from high to medium, took some ibuprofen and I’m fine today (Saturday) though I do have a red and sore area on my arm in the vicinity of the injection site. The All Knowing Oracle tells me this is a common reaction.

Things are happening that denote the start of the changing season even if our highs are still in the 90s albeit the low 90s. Of course the ‘real feel’ temp is always over 10 degrees hotter. The tallow trees have been dropping leaves for a couple of weeks now, 

I noticed last week that the snow-on-the-prairie was blooming with it’s tiny flowers and white leaves, bloom stalks are emerging from the clumps of pampas grass, 

the beauty berries are purple, foliage all around is looking tired, and it’s dark by 8:30. Yesterday (Sunday) and today, a bit less hot staying in the high 80s but will zoom up high 90s this week before dropping back to low 90s. Still, it’s September and the summer did not seem to drag on. I don’t think we had an actual temp in the triple digits this summer.

Cat always wants out in the morning and back in by noon or earlier and then spends the rest of the day inside. This morning (Saturday) I let her out as usual and as usual when I venture out after breakfast and emerge from the garage she runs up to me from the deck in the front where she spends her outdoor time and I let her in. This morning I didn’t pause waiting for her but went straight to the backyard looking things over when I heard her meow at me from the driveway. Instead of going and letting her in right away I continued my meander around the yard and when I was over by the zinnias she came running towards me and let out this long indignant howl and when I looked at her she ran back to the garage. Hey bitch get your butt over here and let me in.

I’ve done three more cards but I’m starting to get carried away. The azalea took way too long and is too big, well it’s not too big just too big for the purpose of these cards which is why it took so long plus I kept making adjustments to the colors (not to mention I painted the wrong side of the card). The point of these cards is to minimize my time investment, small fairly simple designs, two hours or less. The black eyed susans took a little over an hour so I’ve decided to keep the azalea, send it to one of my friends. I’ve done seven so far. If I do at least two a week I’ll have them all done for the little expanded market day. It’s more likely I’ll only get 15 or 20 done by then.

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There’s been some question the past few days about whether or not Trump had died or was whisked away to the mini hospital in the basement of the White House, if he had had a stroke or heart failure because he had not been seen for about five days. Being the media hog that he is who loves nothing more than to talk about himself to the press and air his grievances while claiming to be the best at everything is highly unusual. Finally a pictured appeared Sunday of Trump leaving the White House for one of his golf clubs, of course since that’s all he does except for when they hand him more EOs to sign or he’s indulging in one of his cabinet ass kissing sessions. Looked pretty bad as he ignored the press. No telling what’s going on and the White House certainly won’t tell us the truth but if he is getting more incapacitated people are starting to speculate on what a JD Vance take over would be like. Some people think it will be worse because Vance is smarter than Trump and I thought so too at one point. Now, though, I’m thinking maybe the whole MAGA movement might unravel quickly. MAGA is a cult of personality, without Trump, there is no cult. Vance may be smarter but he is also unlikeable, has no people skills, no charisma, has basically been side-lined since the election; he may be a willing puppet but I don’t see him inheriting Trump’s following. I think maybe that while Trump’s core refuses to blame Trump for the deteriorating conditions in this country they will have no problem blaming Vance. And with Trump gone, so will be his hold on congressional republicans, at least the more moderate ones, and we might start seeing some push back from them. One would hope anyway. It’s one ray and I think I’ll hold onto that for now.

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A few random photos:  I noticed this spiral of green lacewing eggs,

Another praying mantis, this one on my sister’s Mexican bird of paradise (pride of Barbados),

which is still in full bloom. She has a different variety than mine. Her's comes out later and fuller, blooms earlier than mine and blooms longer. Mine is already done blooming.