just so you know

some of the republican fucknuttery of the last two weeks or so.

A public school in Florida sent home a permission slip to be signed by a parent to allow their child to listen while a book by an African American author is read aloud in class. Another public school sent home a permission slip for parents to sign that allowed their child to watch the Disney film Tangled. Apparently it has caused DeSantis to have an epiphany about his broad stroke book banning and crusade against Disney that has allowed considerable confusion and strife and little old biddies with sticks up their butts and no children in public school to complain about all sorts of books and things they don’t personally like. He now thinks his law should be changed.

Following Trump’s orders congressional republicans killed the tough bi-partisan border policy and funding bill that they had demanded because Trump wants to campaign on the “border crisis”. Hint: it’s not a crisis if you want to wait a year to do something about it. 

House republicans had their second impeachment vote of Secretary Mayorkas which passed by one vote charging high crimes and misdemeanors without a single shred of evidence of high crimes, misdemeanors, or any impeachable offense all while accusing Biden and democrats of weaponizing the justice system against Trump. 

Anti-abortion activists are ramping up accusations that prenatal tests are inaccurate and the testing industry is corrupt in an effort to ultimately ban genetic testing and ultrasounds that detect deformities and unviability in fetuses. In the interim they want to pass legislation that demands doctors tell their patients who get a devastating diagnosis that no test is 100% accurate and they may be ending a perfectly healthy pregnancy and to send these women to anti-abortion prenatal ‘counselors’ who will lie to them about their pregnancy. They would prefer that pregnant women never know if there is a problem. I guess not enough women are dying from pregnancy and childbirth to suit them in these days of preventive care.

Alabama republican senator Tommy Tuberville, who withheld important military promotions that had a negative effect on the Armed Forces readiness praises Putin and blames the US for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Arizona republicans are pushing a number of bills that will, among other things, make registering to vote and voting more difficult, will allow election vigilantes free reign to harass voters, and will ultimately give county election deniers the ability to throw out election results that don’t favor republicans and declare their candidate the winner.

Trump has posted two articles from Newsweek that he has altered by deleted anything critical of him and anything praising Biden.

Trump has claimed that if elected he will not come to the aid of our NATO allies and will encourage Putin to do whatever he wants.

Tucker Carlson was in Russia, which he claimed is nicer, cleaner, happier than any city in the US and interviewed Putin. When asked later why his didn’t ask Putin about Navalny and assassinations, he replied that “leadership requires killing people”. Let that sink in.

Trump claims he, as president, has total immunity for anything done during his term and then says if re-elected he will indict Biden. So I guess he means only he has total presidential immunity.

Alabama republicans want to be able to jail librarians.

Faced with having to actually govern and address the aid package that Ukraine desperately needs that passed in the Senate and the appropriations bills to fund the government when the stop gaps expire in early March, because Trump wants no aid to Ukraine, being Putin’s lap dog, even though 90% of the funds would be spent here replacing the old munitions we would offload onto Ukraine with new modern ones, Speaker Johnson has recessed the House for two weeks. 

Trump invites Russia to attack NATO countries; Speaker Johnson, whose campaign for his Louisiana seat in the House was financed by Russians, recesses the House at a crucial moment for Ukraine instead of voting on the aid package passed by the Senate; Putin murders Navalny. Coincidence? Not likely.

Since Putin’s support of Trump is not helping Trump in his reelection campaign, he has now decided to support Biden in an effort I suppose to get democrats to drop their support for Biden and switch to Trump?

The Alabama supreme court has declared unimplanted frozen embryos to be human children under state law. What happens now is anyone’s guess. Forced implantation? Outlawing IVF?

Two republican state representatives have introduced a bill in the Tennessee legislature to prevent a retailer with a beer license from selling cold or refrigerated beer.  

my week

It’s raining this morning, still raining I should say as it started sometime last night. It’s a slow steady rain but constant and is bringing in three more nights of cold weather, one in the low 30s so I have to decide if I want to bring the stuff back in that I already moved outside. I was surprised to notice I haven’t posted since Monday when Jade came over with a bag of mending and alterations she wanted done. One of the projects, as she calls them, was to tie die a mustard yellow dress she had bought because while she didn’t care for the color she liked the little sun image in black on the front. So that was the first thing she did while I worked on removing the band at the bottom of a sweatshirt. She sent me this picture Tuesday morning after she unwrapped it and before she washed it.

She went to yoga with me that night and it was the biggest group in years, relatively speaking, 10 participants. All but one of the regulars and semi-regulars showed up plus two new women and Jade. Tuesday we finished up some of the mending/alterations and then she left in the afternoon heading back to Austin. And so since it was my night to cook I fixed one of the HelloFresh meals delivered last Saturday, Marc fixed another Wednesday night. Both were very good but even so still a little too pricey. I’ll fix the last tonight and then it’s back to planning my own meals.

Wednesday was a beautiful day and I managed to get out and start turning the soil and weeding to get ready for planting the spring garden and zinnias but now with this rain it will be a few days before it’s dry enough to do more. And then it was time for lunch, walk the dog, feed the half wild kittens, get ready for yoga and just as I was about to walk out the door Abby called at the last minute asking me if I would lead the class as she was tied up at the bowling alley, of which she is the manager, with some sort of training on the new equipment. So I did that.

Thursday we had a full complement of volunteers plus the elders at SHARE and were steadily busy with about 30 food orders, mostly the larger families. I took a picture of one of the four large bins of home goods we got from the regional food bank last week so you could see what I was talking about.

This is some of the stuff in those bins. Clients only get to choose something from here once a year.

Not much has started blooming yet besides the 10 petal anemone and my little dwarf redbud tree (this is the most it has ever bloomed). 

The one over at the shop is still just bare branches but the maple tree is blooming. I saw an ash tree starting to put out it's spring green yesterday while walking the dog. The chinese fringe flower trees are thinking about blooming producing a few clusters and the first of these little lilies whose name I can never remember that will blanket the yard soon but that’s about it. 

Coming back from feeding the wildlings I was chatting with my neighbor Gary who has recently been adopted by/adopted a big orange male tabby who roams the street. I’ve caught him over behind Pam’s house twice now. Gary’s thinking about getting him fixed so he will not roam so much. We both commented on how many stray cats there are around here lately. there’s always been a couple slinking around but several more now. There’s an orange and white male that a neighbor feeds but he stays outside, Gary’s orange tabby who just showed up in his yard one day, a black short hair that is completely wild, a gray and white male that I think fathered Momcat’s kittens (this is the kitten I call handsome boy),

Momcat of course, a black long hair cat that Gary mentioned which I had not seen until I walked to the back of the yard and Minnie had treed it,

and this big gray male (who also could be who fathered the kittens) hunkered down under the deck. Cat is not pleased.

I have no idea if they are all strays or belong to people in the area. So, yeah, that’s been my week.

more spring work and sorting christmas ornaments

I took care of two tasks Saturday…

I finally cut down the dead banana trees and hauled their carcasses to the edge of the Wild Space and tossed the sections as far as I could. I was surprised to see that last year’s pile had completely disintegrated. Here’s the before picture though I had already cut down the smaller ones on the left

and the after. Tired and sweaty when I was done.

The other thing I did was go through all Pam’s christmas ornaments with Robin taking pictures of groupings and then sent the pictures to the group chat of family members to see if anyone wanted any of it. Ended up with 10 groupings of which here are a few.

And the christmas tree skirt our mother made when we were small children. 

It’s old and has some stains on it and I’m sorry no one wants it. Of course Pam, our brother John, and I are the only ones who probably have any real memory of or association with it. I’m not quite sure what to do with it. I have no use for it, my brother doesn't want it. Our kids have their own stuff and our grandkids are not old enough to have any real desire for legacy stuff. So I guess I’ll take it to SHARE (along with all the ornaments no one wants) and perhaps someone will fall in love with it stains and all. 

Sunday I planted the yellow angel trumpet in the ground in the same place the big pot had been sitting. I intended to do that last spring but waited too late because after our prolonged spring which allowed me to get all the flower beds weeded and tidied and zinnias planted weather jumped straight to late summer. Here it is planted which doesn’t look very impressive as it freezes down to the roots every winter with these arctic blasts we’ve been getting even though I cover it and I’ve cut back all the dead stalks. 

You might remember that last fall it was at least 8’ tall.

I had to dig a big hole fighting and cutting out roots to accommodate the big root ball. This is the pot it was in (21"dia x 17"t)

and even though I dug away about a third of the dirt and roots it was still big enough and heavy enough that I couldn’t lift it but rolled it into the hole. Then I mixed about half and half the nice loose dirt from the pot with the thick clayey dirt from the hole and filled in around it. It had already sprouted some tiny new growth.

Jade is in town for a few days and she’s coming over today for us to do some repair and altering of some of her clothes.

definitely spring and a pissed off cat

Some nest building going on.

Yesterday was my other busy day at SHARE. It was a food delivery day from the regional food bank and we were short four or five regular volunteers, two from the food order filling where I work and then the Elders, who work in the back with us, didn’t show up either. I usually have help restocking while I’m filling baskets and the guys put the baskets back on the rack but yesterday I had to do both those things as well as keep up with the empty baskets. I think we had 28 or 29 food orders yesterday. 

It’s always a surprise what the food bank sends us besides what Jan orders or if we get everything Jan ordered. This week we got an assortment of fresh produce and four of those huge cartons, approximately 4’ x 4’ x 4’, filled with small appliances and general house goods. I don’t know what all was in them as I was so busy I didn’t even think about taking a picture but they were filled to overflowing. Jan thought she was ordering some smaller crates of appliances for $7 each. We got those big ones for the same price. All that stuff eventually goes out on the floor for people to choose from though I’m unsure how often a client can pick something. There are quantity limits and limits on how often a client can avail themselves of everything from food to clothing to small appliances and other home goods to personal hygiene to financial assistance to miscellaneous stuff that gets donated. You can’t show up every week and get a full complement of what we offer. The only thing we cannot refuse is a request for food, however, if someone hasn’t waited the two or three months necessary for the full complement of food we offer then they get what is called the USDA box, a short basic list mandated by the government.

Wednesday when I went to feed the half wild kittens I got out one of the carriers and put a small dish of food in there, fed them all and snatched up the gray tabby while he was distracted by eating, put him in the carrier and closed the door. All seemed fine, he continued to eat until I picked up the carrier. OMG! it was like holding a hurricane in a box. He was thrashing around so forcefully that the carrier was jumping all around while I carried it to the car and then he squalled all the way to the vet and as they were carrying him to the back. When I picked him up Thursday afternoon, squalling all the way home, and let him out he ran up to each of his brothers and rubbed faces. He was glad to be back. Surprisingly enough, he let me pick him up and cuddle him a bit when I fed them today.

There is nothing worth taking a picture of except for this, my little dwarf redbud tree opening some flowers.

And nothing else to write about except politics and republicans who show us at every turn that they don’t have an ounce of integrity between the lot of them. Can’t come up with any evidence of wrongdoing, nothing to indict the president on so instead the republican special prosecutor investigating government documents found in Biden’s old office used his report to smear Biden, painting him as a memory impaired doddering old geezer who couldn’t even remember when his son died. And yet they fully support a man who daily shows us that he is a memory impaired doddering old geezer who constantly confuses one person for another or what happened under which president, who can’t even complete a sentence and garbles words and who is under indictment in three criminal cases. Go figure.

 

a busy day and a mystery

yesterday’s sky

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my busiest days. This was my day yesterday…got up, fed the cat, took my meds, checked my email, did my yoga, read blogs, fixed breakfast, cleaned up after breakfast, took the dog outside while I emptied the kitchen scrap container on the compost pile, picked up some small branches, pulled up a cabbage, took a box to the post office, did the week’s grocery shopping, put away said groceries and then it was time for lunch, after lunch walked the dog who wanted a long walk, fed the kittens, browsed social media, fed the dog, started preparing dinner, sat down for 20 minutes, finished fixing dinner, cleaned up after dinner, took my meds, closed up the garage, let the dog out one more time, cleaned the cat litter box, brushed my teeth, and finally sat down for what remained of the day before I went to bed at 10.

We watched the first two episodes of the streaming show Mr. and Mrs. Smith (don’t remember which service it’s on). It is completely different from the movie of the same title and we’re not really sure if we’re going to watch more of it.

Yesterday when I was out in the yard I found this peculiar thing laying on the ground right in the middle of one of the pathways around the magnolia tree, which is about 8’ from the corner of the attached garage, clean as a whistle and with the filament intact. 

Where the fuck did this come from and how did it even get here? Granted it was very windy Monday but I can’t imagine how the wind could have blown it from wherever to where I found it. I did an image search and it’s a mini light bulb (obviously), 1 3/8” tall, +/- 12v +/- 5w used in automotive, sewing machines, vacuums, etc. I have never seen a lightbulb like this before. Checked both vehicles but nothing missing. I don’t have a light on my vacuum cleaner and the one in my sewing machine is much larger. Ah, the mysteries of the universe.

A friend of my daughter’s sent her a free box from HelloFresh, one of those outfits that send you all the ingredients for a meal and all you have to do is cook it. The free box contains three meals for two people. In order to get your free box you have to register and when you register you have the option of sending a free box (free except for $4.99 shipping charge) to someone else and she sent one to me. So yesterday, I registered and Marc and I selected our three meals due to arrive Saturday. Nowhere on the site while you are signing up for the free box did it say that this service would automatically send another box every week (you are able to pick different meals) for a total of $70 a week unless you went online and canceled (or if it did, I didn’t see it). The follow up welcome email had a little asterisk and at the bottom explained this part of the service. $70 a week for three meals for two people is nearly 75% of my weekly grocery bill so I’ll be canceling after we receive our box. If we’re going to spend that much per meal (and quite a few of the meals had additional charges so the price per meal increased sometimes by a little and sometimes by a lot) we’d rather go to a restaurant where we won’t have to cook it or clean up after it.

There’s been a huge flock of starlings in the neighborhood all week and they are loud. I’m in the house and I can hear them.

This afternoon when I go over to feed the kittens, the little gray tabby is getting scooped up to pet and cuddle and then shoved in the cat carrier and taken to the vet where he will be neutered tomorrow. I’m only going to do one every few weeks to give myself time to re-earn their trust. I think they might be a little wary after this afternoon.

Ten petal anemone are in full bloom

even the occasional pink and purple version.

more rain, more no internet, and, ugh, housework

I finally got access to the mini on Friday morning after being offline for four days. Yay! It rained with thunder and lightning off and on all night Friday night and we woke up Saturday morning to see our internet cable laying the ground completely disconnected from the pole. Boo! A phone call to the appropriate company and by noon we had a new cable. Yay! 

After our latest three days of rain, the ground was finally dry enough on Friday to do some weeding, not sticky clayey wet and not hard as a rock dry. I dug up the failing gardenia which hasn’t bloomed since the first arctic vortex froze it to the ground. It has struggled ever since, freezing to the ground every winter since even though I covered it and this last year the leaves never greened up no matter what I added to the soil. OK then, we’re done. I did not cover it this winter. Its carcass is going on the burn pile. In it’s place I planted four amaryllis bulbs my neighbor Gary shared with me and then as I was weeding in other parts of that flower bed I had to run Cat off twice as she was disturbing those bulbs trying to use the freshly turned and loose soil for a toilet.

Saturday morning the front from the west pushing the storm clouds away

While waiting for the cable guy I decided to do some much needed housework in the living/dining room. Everything was covered with dust, the floor was in desperate need of vacuuming. I got the dining area done when I noticed that my great niece and her husband had arrived over at my sister’s house. I knew they were coming so Vickie could start getting some of the stuff that she wants. She took one of the clocks (among other things, my sister collected clocks), some framed pictures and an assortment of other things including some of the Christmas ornaments, the tree, and the antique Santa but none of the furniture this time around. 

My daughter showed up as well to visit with her cousin and we went through all of Pam’s Christmas ornaments and decorations (and Vickie did not take nearly enough as far as I’m concerned). My sister was crazy. We went through 5 large tubs of stuff, three of which had a dozen or two ornaments floating is a sea of styrofoam peanuts. We filled a 55 gallon trash bag with peanuts. 

After everyone left I went back to my dusting and got the living room area done and vacuumed. It looks so good in there, everything all clean. Yay me (pat on the back).

Today I took more plants out of the house and garage and gave them a good watering, cut back some more dead stuff and hauled it over to the burn pile, cut back some of the dead stuff over at Pam’s house and hauled it to the burn pile, cleaned the big bay window seat in the living room and all the stuff on it, dusted my bedroom and vacuumed the rest of the house, and I am tired!

Now I’m going to go sit on the deck and start shelling the last bucket of pecans I had cracked and enjoy what’s left of this pretty day.

she's back, she as in me

Success! Actually, it was really easy. When the mini was first set up Greg made me create a password to get past the start-up screen for security purposes (as if it isn’t just Marc and I here but OK) and when I would be through for the day I would just put the mini to sleep. Monday, the power flickered off and on and the mini shut down. Alright, no problem, I restarted and typed in the password. Nope, typed it in again and still nope. Tried my Apple ID password and still nope. Nope nope nope. Well, fuck. Got hold of Greg and he walked me through changing my password, restart, type in the new password…nope. So then we tried a number of things all of which were unsuccessful and then the cable went out and I lost internet access and the mini went to sleep until this morning when our schedules aligned again. So restart again, type in the original password again and no, typed it in again and no (the point being to get the response after three wrong tries to change the password) but the third time I decided to type in the new password from Monday expecting it to be rejected as it had been on Monday and, whoa! It worked. Apparently it had to sit on it for a while or who knows, maybe it was because the cable was out and we didn't realize it yet, but I’m back in.

It was actually kind of nice, I didn’t really think about it. Did my yoga routine in the mornings, finally packed up all those glass jewels and clear lenses I promised my friend in Colorado months ago, got some weeding done in the yard, cut back a lot of dead stuff, moved some of the plants out of the house and garage.

Tuesday was my annual check-up…blood sugar 3 points over the high; A1c .2 over the high so edging into pre diabetes which runs in my family but she said it would have to get significantly worse before she would recommend medication; cholesterol about 50 points over the high so not so bad and same as it always is so I’ve always refused medication in the past. Key word, in the past, but now things have changed. My father died of a massive stroke when he was the age I am now, my mother died in her mid 70s from cumulative damage from TIAs, and now my older by three years sister has died of a massive stroke. So what’s that mean for me, I asked. That you are at risk of having a stroke. Even though I take a blood thinner? Yes, even though. She recommended lowering my cholesterol, what did I want to do. I do not want to have a stroke. OK, she says and sent a new prescription in for the med.

Today was Groundhog Day and for the first time in what seems like decades the little critter did not see its shadow and so spring is just around the corner. I believe it. It got up to 73˚ today with a mostly blue sky and I saw my first crane fly today. Fitting I suppose since it's my personal harbinger of spring. Now the wind has picked up and it’s mostly overcast with storm clouds, supposed to rain tomorrow. 

I’d been collecting these photos of the few butterflies I saw this fall just before and after my sister died but there were always other things to blog about so here they are finally, taken in November and December.

monarch

swallowtail

a tattered red admiral

fritillary

hairstreak

And the 10 petal anemone and redbud tree mentioned in my last post.