death in America

Three shootings in a week. Thirty three people dead. Thoughts and prayers from Republicans. Demands for gun control and gun safety from Democrats. All guns all the time folks claim more guns in the populace would have prevented it. Except. Except there were 'good guys with guns' at the Walmart who not only did not stop the shooter, they fled, and the police weren't sure who the shooter was because of open carry. Except the shooter in Dayton killed and wounded those people in less than a minute. The police responded in 20 seconds, shot him dead in less than a minute but 9 people were still dead and 26 wounded. No good guy with a gun on the scene could have stopped that. Republicans: it's not guns, it's mental illness. It's not guns, it's video games. It's not guns, it's no prayer in school. It's not white supremacy rhetoric, it's absentee parents. Democrats: It's the GUNS stupid, other nations have mentally ill citizens, play video games, don't pray in school and they do not suffer gun violence. Meanwhile Trump golfs, McConnell issues a statement about how horrified he is but not horrified enough to bring the gun safety bills passed by the House to the floor of the Senate. Wash, rinse, repeat.

And then there is the guy who thinks every public place should have an armed 'discreet' professional security force I thought that's what the police were for like his church has, proud of the fact that he thinks his church is well protected. I can remember an America when we didn't need private security forces, discreet or otherwise, to feel safe in America from Americans.

Just another week in America, the country that loves it's guns more than it's children with a government controlled by Republicans, the party that loves it's NRA money more than protecting Americans, the party that allows the very people they accuse, the mentally ill, to buy whatever guns they want, led by a president that demonizes certain Americans and laughs when his supporters yell 'shoot them'.

We have a chance in November 2020 to put an end to this. If we don't, we may never get another one.

new normals?

It's November 17^th was and I'm sitting here in a tank top and summer shorts, barefoot because it's been in the mid-80s all week, the doors and windows open. I heard and saw a huge flock of geese overhead flying north. Many of the spring weeds have already sprouted like the sow thistle and the clover and the stickyweed and the 10 petal anemone 

but oddly, no dandelions. The bluebonnets are growing, not sprouting, growing

as are the little red lilies that generally don't start to appear until late December. 

The baby blue eyes are sprouting and there's a single clasping leaved coneflower blooming in the mini-wildflower meadow. It's November. We haven't even had winter yet. I mean, it's not unusual to be in t-shirt and shorts or jeans and barefoot in November or even December, but not in the 80s. I have volunteer tomatoes growing lushly and putting on fruit. That's not normal. Yesterday, the 18^th, the high was 84˚ but a front was blowing in all day and the predicted low was a 40 degree plunge to 45˚. That's actually kinda normal.

You might remember way back when this started as a single 4' x 4' bed for strawberries (dismal failure) and has grown over the years into what it looks like now. I planted those three little banana trees April 2016, 

this is what they look like in November 2017...

totally barging their way through the nice neat border I spent days creating, tossing concrete landscape blocks and brick pavers aside as if they were cardboard. Marc says we'll as in me need to move those banana trees. Yeah, no way those banana trees are going to be moved. Easier to change the shape of that bed to accommodate the trees and their expansion.

So, studio is painted but hasn't been inspected for touch ups yet so everything is still covered over and taped off. Waiting on the last door to arrive to be installed, base moulding still needs to go on, and the floor installed. Then put the fan back together and get the light fixtures and the duct grates and my hooks back up. 

I like the color, I do, it's just that everything is the same color and it's all so...white! We're practically snow blind when we go in there so definitely the molding will get another coat of paint to add some color and definition for the windows and doors and, of course, when I get all my stuff in there it will look very different.