Productive

 This morning, I got up and went to the gym. Tim did not go today. He is siding the garage. He had an appointment at 1 to get new tires on the car for my trip to see the kids and my granddaughters. 

So off I went to class. I got there early enough to do my mile before class started. I did my class and came home.

I have been on mighty productive streak lately. I got a pan out and sautéed green, red and yellow peppers along with some red (purple!) onion. I added some venison. Tossed in garlic and Adobe paste, some jalapeño tomato sauce. I cleaned as I went. When the rice cooker beeped, I added the rice. It sure made a pretty dish.

Tim walked in as I put the finishing touches on things. I said, "Want me to make corn bread to go with the rice tonight?"

He looked at me in amazement. "We are going out for supper. We are taking William out for his birthday."

I am so productive, I already have supper made for tomorrow. 

Thursday

 Well. Life is sure a mixed bag, isn't it?

It has been a warm week and the snow is melting off rapidly. 

For Christmas, my daughter-in-law sent me a bag of daffodil bulbs. I set them outside in a snow bank, with the idea to let them winter for a couple months, and then bring them inside to make an early spring for myself. Probably makes everyone in the UK laugh. Seems like you had daffodils within a month of Christmas. They are not something we see until well into March. 

Anyway, the snow melted off enough that I finally saw those bulbs again, so I went to the greenhouse and got four large terracotta pots, scooped some gravel in the bottom, filled them with potting soil, and planted six bulbs in each pot.

It was nice working in the sun. A 50 degree day. Possum wound around my legs, and tolerated some petting. 

I wonder what cats know. Yesterday, my sister messaged me that a cat had been killed on the road. It was pouring rain, but by the time we got there, something had made away with it. The circle of life and all of that. Tim had heard the bald eagle screaming from that direction, but it just as easily could have been a fox or a coyote. Although I did not see him, my guess would be that it was Dusty. He was not around at dinnertime.

So, I petted Possum, and wondered what she knew. Maybe nothing. Maybe I just have a fanciful imagination.

So now we are down to two ferals, from the original 12. Five went to new homes. You can only help a cat (or a person, for that matter) as much as they will allow you to.

Once my planting was done, I set the bag of bulbs against the house foundation. Once the snow melts off, I will plant them along side the northern side of the house.

I invited Possum inside. She politely declined my invitation.

So I cleaned the kitchen. Cleared the counters, oiled the butcher block and cutting boards. scrubbed the tile. Polished the  stainless. Replaced everything slightly rearranged. 

The wind picked up and I opened doors and a couple windows as I worked, vacuuming, tidying, sorting. It felt like spring.

Andrew, the man formerly known as 'Prince' is arrested. I hope he comes to the realization that it is never too late to begin to behave with honor. The best thing he could do for this world is spill it. All of it. Names. Details. Tell the story. 

I think the whole world will feel better once we know. No matter how awful, we can deal with the criminals and move on. 

My niece posted today. She says that anyone who discusses sexuality with a first grader is a pedophile. Three observations. The first: my granddaughters know about their bodies, proper terminology. Age appropriate. Their mother is a nurse. Second observation: it is not part of any first grader's school curriculum. Third observation: trumpers have zero right to call anyone a pedophile.

That's it really. 

Hi Sophie

 Sophie reached out to give me a little nudge from the other side of the world.

Yes I am still here. 

Holding my breath about Minnesota: The surge is supposed to be ending, but...

The Epstein stuff is horrible. 

Bondi's behavior at the congressional hearings is shocking, really. 

Kudos to Senator Ted Lieu:

Khanna and Massie have been heroic. Massie posted this on twitter:

'@RepThomasMassie

I am not suicidal. I eat healthy food. The brakes on my car and truck are in good shape. I practice good trigger discipline and never point a gun at anyone,  including myself. There are no deep pools of water on my farm and I’m a pretty good swimmer.'

It would be interesting to know what prompted this.

Tim and I protested Saturday. The weather was in the 40s, so it was a wonderful change from the earlier weeks of single digit temperatures. There were the ubiquitous middle fingers. There was one 'You all need to get jobs' (which made us all laugh.) The small dicks with big trucks gunned their engines menacingly. But there was a lot of honking and waving and thumbs up. A LOT.

There was one great moment. A little car with roof mounted airhorns has been driving by for the past few weeks blaring his horns. We assumed he was an 'unfriendly'. This week he drove by again, blaring his horns. It was warm enough that his windows were down . His arm shot out to give us a thumbs up and he cheered us on. 

The Peace Marchers made it to Washington DC and were welcomed by Rev Marianne Budde, who has her own history of speaking truth to power. I read about their meeting. This resonated: 'Peace begins where you stand.' 

So it has been a week that feels different, but I am still holding my breath.

Closer to home: 3 deer come in to eat the corn we leave. Enough snow has melted that they can now nibble grass where Tim plowed.

We have a new cat showing up to eat. He comes to the porch at night when the others are gone. He looks like he could be related to our ferals. Has a black and white face, a large black mask covering 1/2 his face, white on the other. I call him 'Phantom'. Like Phantom of the Opera.

Tomorrow I have my first stained glass lesson. I have a batch of 150 year old stained glass from a demo'd church in Pittsburgh. I am looking forward to learning something new.

A warm week is forecast. I will be able to retrieve my daffodil bulbs and plant them for an early spring inside. One pot for me. One pot for my sister and one pot will go with me when I go to my son's house at the end of the month. I am so looking forward to seeing my granddaughter.

My grandson will be turning 15 this week. 

My Christmas cactus is blooming for the second time, a nice surprise

I am posting this without proofreading. It has taken forever to load this post tonight. 

Good night all.

Oh crap! I forgot this. Brian Bilston

This and that.

 When I woke up at 3 am. It was -13°. It may well have gotten colder, but I slept through it, but that was the end of our cold snap, thank goodness. The temperature rose 44 degrees in 12 hours  hitting 31 degrees. It felt positively balmy! Tomorrow it is expected to reach the 40s, the first time in 27 days that the temps have gotten above freezing. 

Superbowl came and went. The Seahawks won, which made Tim happy. The nation survived the Bad Bunny half time show. People were upset though.

Speaking of Epstein,Ghislaine Maxwell refused to answer questions today, citing her Fifth Amendment Rights. She also said she would very much like to answer questions and would do so if trump grants her clemency.  

Maybe it is just me, but if a woman refuses to answer questions because she doesn't want to incriminate herself, the last thing she deserves is clemency. 

The protest was freezing Saturday. Single digits temperatures. As it went on, the wind began to pick up and the cold was even colder. We all agreed it was even colder in Minneapolis and we owed them that.

If you have never seen 'The US and the Holocaust' on PBS, it is worth your time. We took notice of is the methods used to install an authoritarian government quickly. We also noted the simultaneous rise of Christian Nstionalism in the US. The parallels were shocking. We have seen this before. The only difference is that this time the autocratic leader is our own. 

Still here.

This was supposed to have gone at the end of this post, but it did not. So...I guess we will lead with it. After gym, Tim likes to go to Burger King. It seems counter to my own goals, so I walk across the street to the Goodwill. Today I thought to look for a couple extra pair of sweatpants to give myself the luxury of doing laundry once a week instead of twice a week. I found what I needed in fairly short order. As I waited to check out, I saw this. It was ridiculous and unnecessary.

But I just loved it. 

As our Miss Merry would say, "I accidently brought it home."

 It is snowing again. 25°, which isn't awful but it is still below freezing. It has not risen above freezing for over 3 weeks now. This weekend  is supposed to be especially brutal. One night is supposed to be -8°. Once we get through that, though, we will finally get a break. Temperatures in the 30s and even the 40s. 

Hallelujah.

It has been quiet here. Locally, anyway. The shit show rages on in the highest echelons, of course. 

I feel like I am holding my breath. Liam and his father released. DHS wants to take them back in custody and quickly deport them.

Intake of breath.

There were enough votes to force the Republicans to remove the long term funding of DHS. Once this was off the table, the budget was agreed to, which allowed the end of the government shutdown.

Good news.

DHS only has funding until Feb 13th.

To get a yes vote, there are 10 safeguards being requested to rein in ICE.

Democrats outline demands to Republicans to rein in ICE 

 https://share.google/ICIDHNQps972VEs42

Will it hold? Will they cave to pressure? Once again, I am holding my breath.

While there is plenty to cheer: 

Minnesota does not disappoint. Bonnie from Minneapolis sent me a beautiful accounting on events. It needs to be copied an pasted here, but I can't seem to be able to do it. I need to get myself to the library. I have not managed this. Hopefully tomorrow when I go to town to protest.

It is a busy weekend: after the protest, I have to get home to make cinnamon rolls. We have a fundraiser Saturday night. Sunday after gym, we are headed out with those cinnamon rolls to have dinner with friends followed by the Superbowl. 

(As usual, I cannot possibly be less interested in the game.)

This afternoon was spent chopping 3 quarts of bell peppers. Unbelievably they were $1.99 each which made me quite sure we would be doing without. When I saw a basket of past-their-prime peppers at 2 for a dollar. I snapped of 8 of those for the freezer. I slice some for fajitas and stir fries and chop some for regular cooking. 

Milk generally costs $5 a gallon or thereabouts, but since we were in New York state, we stopped and  bought milk.  Their state subsidizes it, to make it affordable for the poor. It is half the price we pay here. I brought 3 gallons and for the first time in a long time, made homemade yogurt. 

Magic

 I woke up just before 3:30 this morning,and made my way out of bed to the bathroom. 

What a beautiful sight out the window! It is -1° out there, very cold, but the full moon shown so brightly that the snow was reflecting that light back, glittering like stars fallen to the ground. The black cloudless sky held tightly to the stars that had not fallen. 

Magical. No other word for it. 

I made my way back to bed, but my mind was all over the place tonight. After an hour, I finally gave up and made my way to the kitchen to brew my morning cup. 

I am curled up on the couch in the dark with my coffee and two biscotti. Two cat silhouettes stand gazing out the sliding glass doors studying the outside as if they can feel the magic too.

These are such awful times. When we find a bit of magic we need to savor it.

Not my photo. A local woman, Sheila Flory, took it. 

Not 'Nothing'

This was fun.

 

Minneapolis is doing it, aren't they? 

By the way, the stories of the two mothers is being recounted unfairly. You can read about both cases. If you are MAGA, you won't though. You'll just parrot what you are fed right along with the rest of the good MAGA crowd.

Bruce wrote a song on January 27th, recorded it on the 28th. It is number 1 in 19 countries.

He is in Minneappolis right now, playing a concert with Tom Morello. 

The White House is trying to downplay this as a big old nothing burger. It doesn't feel like nothing to me.