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 are.' 

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