weeks 30 and 31, campaign BS, yardwork, and a leaky sink

 

The sky this morning looking east.

I should be writing my covid post. I have 5 windows open in my browser and other things have come across my scrolling but there's no real different news so here's an abbreviated version. Dr. Fauci warns that deaths could rise to 400,000 and that he will get a vaccine as soon as the FDA clears one but that a vaccine won't start making a difference until late summer next year at the earliest, the White House was blocking stricter guidelines from the FDA for when a vaccine can be released but the FDA stood firm and says no vaccine until all protocols are met, the CDC drafted a sweeping order last month requiring all personnel and passengers on all public and commercial transportation...buses, trains, planes, subways as well as all airports, stations, and depots...with the support of HHS Secretary Azar and the head of the White House coronavirus task force VP Mike Pence would not even discuss it even though most employees and passengers are in favor of it, the CDC finally agreed that yes covid is airborne transmitted, a new study concluded that most hospitalized patients with covid suffer from neurological symptoms, we still have the most cases and deaths per capita, everyone is getting weary and in danger of being foolish but Dr. Fauci says do not despair, the White House is controlling when Dr. Fauci can speak to the media, we're having a third wave and more people are being infected and more people are dying while Rudy Giuliani is out there claiming no one dies from the virus anymore, the living are hanging on by their fingernails because this administration is over it and Mitch McConnell says we can't afford another stimulus package, we still need to carry on with the new reality, current US statistics as of today 10/19/20, 17:24 GMT: cases – 8,397,993; deaths – 224,884.

Trump is over it, if he survived you will too (of course you won't get the level of care he got but never mind that), going for herd immunity except he doesn't understand what that means. It means that enough people are vaccinated so that the virus's effect on the population is minimal, not that enough people get it and the weak ones die until it has minimal effect on the population. I suppose they both eventually get to the same result but in the latter it's achieved by killing off a significant proportion of the population.

Trump is so far down in the polls that his entire campaign is centered around smearing Biden and his son and anyone else who speaks out against him with ridiculous made up slanders that smack of desperation. His latest charge against Biden is that, if elected, Biden will listen to scientists!!! I didn't realize that was a bad thing.

Friday was chilly and wet. 56˚ when I looked, real feel 46˚. Not my favorite. I had to go to the grocery store as it turns out the grocery list was incomplete when I went earlier in the week but that's about all I did. Saturday though was warm and mostly overcast even a little drizzly off and on but it was perfect for weeding so that's what I did and got the end of one of the long flower beds weeded working under the stalks of the tall cosmos. And I mean tall. They're easily 8' tall if they stand straight up but they don't. They fall over so I had to get a stake and tie some of them up first. 

The love-in-a-mist is already sprouting, some anyway and way early. I had to do a fire ant remedial first. The little bastards want to occupy the edges of my flower beds. Sunday more of the same, got the nut grass out of another flower bed and planted two crinum lily bulbs that have been in a pot for several years. I have no idea what color they are, they were in a box of mixed unlabeled bulbs someone brought to a garden club meeting free for the taking, but they finally got big enough in the pot that I think they might bloom next year so in the ground they went.

Also Saturday Rocky finished getting the sink in the studio room hooked up and all seemed well when he turned on the water but this morning there was a lot of water on the concrete floor so there's a leak somewhere. I've just been over there and two of the connections under the sink before going into the wall are wet and the connection from the water line to the faucet is also wet. We went with the hose that was already attached to the faucet and just attached that to the water pipe but apparently that was a bad decision on our part and I think that's where most of the water on the floor came from. I've got the water to the shop turned off and the lines drained waiting for Rocky to come by this afternoon.

One last thing, my night blooming cereus is trying to give me one more chance as it has put out one last bud.

voting, yard sign wars, and plant deformities

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments on my work. Still waiting on the sink install to get completed so I can get back to making. Rocky showed up at the back door yesterday afternoon bleeding and anxious. One of his daughters-in-law was stranded on the side of the road with her three girls and he needed to go deal with that. Not sure how he cut his finger but I forced some hydrogen peroxide and a bandaid on him before he took off.

I mentioned a while back that our annual open house with fellow glass and craft artists is canceled this year because of the virus and the other art show that goes on one of the same weekends is also not doing an in person show but has decided to go virtual this year. The organizers of the Heights Artisan Market have worked hard to create a website to showcase the work of some of the artists and we were invited to participate. Here's a link to the Heights Artisan Market website and I invite all my readers to check it out and hopefully support some of the artists who have basically lost a whole year's income since all their shows and venues have been canceled through the year.

I went and did my time at SHARE yesterday morning. Not too busy, only had 7 or 8 clients coming to pick up food so I finished up early and then went to vote timing it just right. 

There was one couple ahead of me, I waited maybe 5 minutes, voted straight Democratic except for the 5 or 6 uncontested Republicans for whatever they were running for. I would have skipped them altogether but our new voting machines won't let you do that. You get an error message if you try so I don't care for that but I do like that these new machines produce a paper ballot that has your choices printed on that you then take to another machine that you insert it into. And why do they even put uncontested candidates on the ballot? They're gonna get the job no matter how many people vote or don't vote for them.

Well, I've done all I can do by voting but over in my sister's old neighborhood there a battle of the yard signs going on. First one house set out 3 Biden yard signs, then the Trump supporters across the street put out a Trump yard sign, then the Biden house put up two long narrow banners on either side of their front door, then the Trump house put out an American flag and a Trump flag, then the Biden house put up a huge poster on the side of their house and that's where it sits now. 

Waiting to see if the Trump house escalates. And speaking of battles, Biden looked and sounded very presidential at his Town Hall meeting while Trump looked and sounded like everybody's crazy uncle and Trump got slaughtered in the ratings. So now of course today he's demanding Biden's arrest.

Later my sister and I went to an estate sale in West Columbia, about 40 minutes from here and once in the town but before we reached our destination, one of Google's street view camera cars passed us on the right. I would have tried to get a picture but we were using my device for the GPS.

My confederate rose started blooming this week but the deformity that eventually attacks all my confederate rose bushes has appeared on both and affects the leaves and the buds. On one the flowers open pale pink, are smaller than normal and sparse in petals.

On the other bush they are opening half white and half pink and are so dense they can't really open fully.

I have no idea what it is that is affecting them, takes about 3 - 4 years to show up on a new plant. The leaves get deformed, small and curled and just plain look weird (you can see the healthy normal leaves in the back), 

the buds are not full and oval but skinny and elongated. Usually it just affects the leaves and buds but on one bush one of the stems is all gnarly. 

I have tried for years to find out what is causing this and no one, not amateurs or experts alike, can tell me so if anybody out there knows, fill me in.

one day busy and the next day not

This is what I did Tuesday...slept late til 8:30 (did not do yoga because I slept too late), fixed breakfast, did the weekly grocery store run, took the recycling, fed the cat (yes, she's still eating) and dog their mid-day meal, fixed my lunch, watered one of the flower beds, did 4 days worth of dishes that don't go in the dishwasher, fed the turtle, cleaned the filter to the turtle pond (ick ick ick), cleaned and refilled the hummingbird feeders, read for about 40 minutes, fed the dog and cat dinner, walked the dog, fixed enchiladas for dinner (unfortunately they were only mediocre), 

and tidied up the kitchen after dinner.

This is what I did today...not a damn thing. Went to yoga which I did not have to lead as I did not only last Wednesday but also last Monday as Abby wasn't back yet and walked the dog.

Tomorrow morning is my volunteer time at SHARE and then I'm going to swing by the Annex and see about voting. If there's too many people waiting, I'll try another day.

Rocky's over at the shop finally getting the sink in the new studio room hooked up. Once that's done I can make the final adjustment on the shelving and start getting all the frit and powders put back up. Then I will have no excuse for not getting over there and working.

Some of you might remember that two and a half years ago I was contacted about participating in a new book on pate de verre, the cast glass technique I work in, and of course I said I would love to. So I submitted all the required info and the image to represent my work back before my trip to Portugal in 2018 and then never heard another word. Well, I received an email last week, they finally have a publisher and they have up to the end of this month to change any images if participants want something more current. Since I really haven't done squat for work, the only piece I did of any note last year was the heron box of which I don't have any formal pics of and have done nothing this year so far I'm sticking with my original selection, the Moonflower piece, 

but either I misunderstood or they changed the number of images because now we each get two. So I sent in four possibles and am waiting to hear which one they would prefer for my second image.

the cat, the studio, and fall bloomers

 
I don't know what's going on with Emma. Wednesday was the last day she ate or I saw her drink water or pee besides what food and water I forced down her. And then Thursday and Thursday night she had several episodes, kind of a cough or a gak followed by a sneezing fit, something she has never done before, even woke me up Thursday night and Friday she didn't even want to go outside, just kind of hiding between Marc's desk and the wall. Anyway I called the vet on Friday to see if I could bring her in because...not eating, drinking, peeing (since Wednesday), or pooping (since Monday) but they couldn't see her til next Monday afternoon, three days later. So I dithered a little bit and then called the other vet in town, explained what was going on and they said to bring her in.

This is a much bigger outfit than my regular vet but they were really nice and I nearly swooned when the vet came in...good looking young man, black hair a little longish, gorgeous blue eyes, that was all I could see because of course we were all wearing masks, very attentive. So he examined her, listened to her heart and lungs which he said sounded fine, no way to know what was going on with her other organs without blood work but she didn't have diarrhea and wasn't throwing up which he would expect to see if there was a problem there. We settled on subcutaneous fluids, a B-12 shot, a med to stimulate her appetite, and a pain med. So Saturday, still not eating on her own but Friday night she peed and pooped so those systems seem to be working as long as I can get enough food and water down her. It's worrisome, not just the not eating thing but that he said that when cats suffer a trauma and start to get better, they continue to get better, they don't regress. So I don't know if this is related to the accident or if it's a separate issue altogether since she is an older cat, about 13.

(I wrote the above Saturday afternoon) Later Saturday...did I say I don't know what's going on with this cat? I don't know what's going on with this cat. Tonight, she appeared in the kitchen so I offered her some food, the other flavor in the house, the one she had quit eating and she ate about as much as I had made her eat already today. So she's eaten almost as much today as the whole last 5 days combined. And I saw her drinking out of one of the water bowls a little while ago. So go figure. Now, Sunday she ate more this morning and is currently laying in her favorite spot under the yellow ginger in the little backyard.

Other than that, I haven't done a whole lot. Abby asked me to lead the yoga class Wednesday so she and her husband could celebrate their anniversary so I did. Did my volunteer work at SHARE on Thursday. It was a food truck delivery day so no clients but unloading the truck and storing it all away. I spent the morning filling a freezer with loaves of bread. I've spent 4 or 5 hours working in the new studio room over at the shop, trying to arrange the shelving units, moving all the frit in from the big bay and cleaning those shelving units. I still need to get the sink hooked up. Right now all the jars of frit and powder are either in boxes or on a cart or the table. I don't want to put it all back on the shelves until I'm satisfied with the arrangement of all the shelving and I'm not quite there yet. 

And I made a strawberry crostata last night, easily the best one I think so far.

And since it's fall, even though you can't tell by the temperature since we're back in the low 90s and humid, fall things are blooming like the purple phillipine lily and it's white version,

the tall orange cosmos, 

the heritage rose putting on a new flush, 

the yellow angel trumpet, 

another banana tree sent out a bloom, 

the mist flower, 

the rain tree.

a near miss tragedy and a finished drawing

I damn near killed the cat last Friday.

She likes to lay on the concrete apron in front of the garage where we park the car and the truck, next to the car or right in the big middle of where the car would be when it's parked there. Used to be she would get up and move when we started the car or pulled in to park but for the past several months she has just stubbornly laid there. So when I'm ready to leave I have to pick her up and move her into the garage and when I return I have to stop and move her before I can pull into the space where we park the car. When I left last Friday, I picked her up and moved her and when I returned from my errand, I didn't see her laying on the apron because she was over by the truck laying in the accumulated leaves. I swung the car into the space, felt the front passenger side tire thump over something and heard Emma howl.

OMG, I ran over the cat! I jumped out and she was trying to make it into the garage and I scooped her up, grabbed my phone and called the vet in a panic, grabbed the cat carrier, and took her straight over there. By this time she wasn't crying but you could hear a crackly sound when she breathed. So they x-rayed her and it's a miracle there were no broken bones but it looked like her lungs were bruised and some fluid was developing in them. They gave her a steroid shot to reduce the inflammation and a lasik shot for the fluid build-up and sent her home with the instruction to keep an eye on her and if she starts open mouth panting to call the emergency number. So Friday night was very scary, she was totally lethargic. I usurped the dog bed for her and put it and the litter box next to my bed and when I woke up sometime during the night she was gone and I found her in the closet where she likes to sleep at night.

Saturday morning all lung sounds were gone and when I opened the back door she got up and very unsteadily, limping heavily on one side, went out and laid down where she spent the day 

but she wasn't eating or drinking so I got an old needle-less syringe I use out in the shop Saturday and started forcing water into her mouth four or five times a day. Sunday same, moving a little easier but still not eating or drinking on her own. Monday she didn't seem to be limping and she started drinking water on her own but didn't start eating a little bit until Tuesday morning. She's still not back to her usual demanding vocal self but she is twitching her tail in annoyance now but I'm confident there is no lasting damage. And maybe she's learned her lesson. Probably not. She is a cat after all.

I finished the drawing of the morning glory Sunday.

Still don't know what I'm going to do with these little botanical illustrations, very different from Linda Sue's little book of blank pages she's filling with delightful and insightful watercolors. You'll have to scroll through her posts to see them all. I'm more of an illustrator than a spontaneous artist. I really should practice that more. I should do a watercolor before I forget everything I learned in the class I took. I've got the supplies right here so we'll see.

week 28 and week 29

 
Since I've been avoiding the news and social media for the most part I have damn little to report.

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We now know that the nomination party for Trump's Supreme Court pick was the genesis of this wave of infections throughout Trump's inner circle and if it was just them I'd say they deserve it but the staffers and Secret Service who have also been infected, don't. Hope Hicks was just the first to test positive and - surprise! - Trump lied about when he knew he was positive. He knew for sure on Thursday before he went to that fundraiser and he probably suspected on Wednesday and may even have been feeling the first symptoms on Tuesday which is why he arrived late for the debate and avoided taking a test.

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More fallout from that party...Chris Christie, Sen. Ron Johnson, Trump's personal assistant Nicolas Luna, and now press secretary Kayleigh McEnany have tested positive.

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So Trump was moved to Walter Reed against his wishes because it would make him look weak but the doctors insisted but he made them wait til after the stock market closed on Friday. The doctors there at Walter Reed are pumping him full of everything they can think of, experimental therapies and steroids, and you know it has to be affecting his mental capacity because that's what that stuff does but because he is loathe to give up power to Pence who he despises and also because he does not want to appear weak (like those loser and sucker dead and wounded military personnel), he is ordering his doctors and the White House staff to lie about how ill he really is and is setting up fake photo ops to show he is doing great and working, if signing a blank piece of paper can be called working, and forcing Secret Service agents to sit with him in the bullet proof hermetically sealed car so he can be driven around the block to wave at those pathetic losers doing vigil outside the hospital. So now the agents in the car and maybe even the photographer from the photo ops will have to quarantine for 14 days. And maybe even get sick all because Trump doesn't give a shit about anyone but himself.

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I have only two other items I've bookmarked for this bi-monthly report because for one thing I'm really weary of the whole thing and unless things get really bad as winter moves in this may be my last dedicated post and also because other news items have blown covid related news out of the water, just not seeing much come across my various news feeds.

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The NYT reports that the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly claims an experimental drug lowers levels of the virus and prevents hospitalization. The drug is a monoclonal antibody manufactured from an antibody from a recovered patient and is still undergoing trials and has not yet been vetted by independent scientists and the success of the drug is still anecdotal. Scientists hope that this treatment will be very successful but the monoclonal antibodies are difficult and expensive to manufacture. Of course Trump is getting treated with this experimental drug as well as the standard treatment (anti-viral) remdesivir and (steroid) dexamethasone, the guy who is responsible for the spread of the virus in this country and who has constantly criticized and undermined the health professional protocols to the tune of 210,000 deaths and counting here while everyone else suffers and dies. 

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The Hill reports that the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency conducted a survey of 965 recovered covid-19 patients and found that more than 90% had lingering side effects from the virus, the most common of which was fatigue followed by difficulty in concentrating. During the congressional hearing last week, Dr. Fauci also warned of lingering effects weeks and even months after recovery including inflammation of the heart.

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And that's all I've got other than that it is still out there flaring up here and there with associated responses...opening/closing schools, opening/closing bars and restaurants, people still working from home, Americans still out of work and falling on hard times because the Senate won't take up the relief bills passed in the house, etc. I suppose if I dug around I could come up with more but as I mentioned before, today I'm weary of the whole thing.

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Current US statistics as of today 10/5/20, 20:37 GMT: cases – 7,668,358; deaths – 214,889. My state, (red, so fuck you Trump) Texas, is, still today, #2 after California for the total number of coronavirus cases then Florida, then New York so of the top 4 states with the most infections, two are blue states for a total of 1,273,194 and two are red states for a total of 1,412,553. Let me repeat that, of the top four states, the red states have the most infections. So fuck you Trump and your lying bullshit about how if we didn't count the blue states we'd have so few cases, almost none.

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My (red) county has now jumped up to 1,386 cases and 53 deaths (only 3 more deaths in the last two weeks).

what's been going around, came around

 
Well, the big news is that Hope Hicks tested negative last Wednesday morning, got on a plane with Trump and his closest peeps and developed symptoms during the day and a second test came back positive. Trump knew this and went to a fundraiser in NJ on Thursday anyway, and people have commented that he didn't look well at the event, and Thursday night he and Melania tested positive. Word is those big dollar donors (tickets for the event were up to $250,000) are freaking out that Trump knowingly exposed them. I wonder if they'll still support him with cash.

Apparently the event at the Rose Garden to announce Trump's Supreme Court pick, is the genesis of all these infections as a number of people who attended are also infected...RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Kellyanne Conway, Senator Thom Tillis, Senator Mike Lee, the president of Notre Dame John Jenkins and at least three journalists. Friday night Trump's campaign manager Bill Stephien announced he too was infected.

Now we have learned that eleven staffers at the Cleveland debate are also infected and who knows how many of the Secret Service. And of course Trump's whole family refused to wear masks at that joke of a debate Tuesday even when asked pointedly to do so and in fact purposely arrived late so that they would not have time to be tested as was required (and to which they agreed), letting them in on the 'honor' system (and if that isn't the biggest joke since when have any of them acted with honor about anything) assuming that if they were infected or been exposed that they would say so while Trump, who very possibly already knew he was infected, yelled and spewed spit and molecules at Biden, frustrated because he couldn't get closer. It would not surprise me in the least to learn that he was trying to infect Biden. What a bunch of arrogant pricks. And now, we're supposed to show compassion for Trump getting sick.

So supposedly Trump and Melania are undergoing quarantine and there is so much speculation about whether or not Trump really has it since everything out of his White House is a lie and that perhaps it's a ploy to get out of the next debates but it also means no more rallies in the interim so that's probably not the case though I have read that his rallies this time around are not as well attended and do not have the energy and spark they did in 2016. Also he was scheduled to do two rallies in Michigan this past week but the state is undergoing a surge and at least one of them was canceled beforehand.

The other speculation has been that they are lying about Trump being infected centering on the idea that it's a trick so that Trump can emerge from covid having no symptoms and healthy therefore underscoring his position that the virus is nothing to be concerned about. Another opinion tweeted was that because there is no real news coming out of the White House about Trump's infection is that he's sicker than they want people to know. However, Friday evening the doctors at the White House decided to transfer Trump to Walter Reed Hospital 'out of an abundance of caution' and it's been reported that they have given him an experimental cocktail that hasn't finished going through trials and the success of which is only anecdotal. But the fact is that Trump and his minions are liars and there is no way of knowing what the truth really is.

We do know this though, Trump's White House has not been forthcoming with information. The Biden campaign and I assume the Bidens learned of Hope Hicks' (who attended the debate) infection on the news the next morning and the White House didn't bother to alert Nancy Pelosi of Trump's imminent transfer to Walter Reed. As third in line for succession if something happened to Trump and Pence, you'd think that she would be informed.

The Bidens and Kamala and her husband and Nancy have all tested negative for which we can be grateful and I hope they continue to test negative but quite frankly, I am not sorry Trump and Melania and the rest of Trump's supporters have contracted covid. Everyone of them refused to believe and follow the advice of the medical professionals, spreading misinformation, refusing to wear masks and social distance and Trump is responsible for the deaths of 210,000 Americans. I do feel sorry for the White House staffers who have been exposed by Trump's order 'preference' of no masks in the White House.

Biden, of course, has taken the high road, has only wished Trump and Melania well and a speedy recovery and has pulled all his negative ads against Trump. Of course he did, because that's who Joe is. But Trump's campaign has not reciprocated and in fact are spreading more lies about Biden's response to the news because, well, that's who Trump is.