Utterly Disgusted

I am so utterly disgusted, I could bite real nails.  I just spent 3 1/2 hours finding and escaping from a housing nightmare.  Never mind the 15 minutes I spent discovering that most everything advertised about it was *koff, koff* wrong.

The 1.36 acres was barely .5, the apparently open lot (from the pictures) was covered by junk trees, etc.  OK, sure the agents (and I won't name names) want to put the best spin on things, but I consider them lower than smiley used car salesmen...

(Disclaimer:  If you are an honorable real estate agent, I honor you for being in the honorable minority.  The rest of you agents can go eat hot coals somewhere).

So I guess I will stay here for another 30 years and fix up the place.  Or do what my Dad did the last 2 times and buy a property then hire a general contractor to put a house on it.  And oh how I wish I had Dad here to ask about THAT process now.  I waited 5 years too long...

You can look at the ground and have a good idea what you are getting.  Lot owners know their property to the sq inch.  And you can look at floorplans and previously-built houses like that and get a good idea what you are getting from a builder.  They know the house to the sq inch.   But when you talk to a real estate agent selling a home for an owner, you DON'T have the slightest idea what you are getting.  To them, feet are yards and yards are miles... 

I've known more honest carnival barkers...

So, if you will excuse me, I have a large bottle of average Zinfandel to drain today...

Disgusted Mark...

Veterans Day

Today, we honor the dead, the physically injured, those who struggle with mental injuries, and all those who served.  But I am not here to honor all.  In all history, there have been some fighters who fought for good things.  I honor them.

But there have been many more who fought for bad things.  I do not honor them.  Most of the bad warriors were just out for gold, religion, territory.  History is replete with their kind and they deserve no honor.

The fewer are the ones who protect.  Those who defend their people from attack, who give their lives so the farmers and wives and children, and the other husbands can live.  And yes, for those women who fought and died too.

I honor today those who fought to DEFEND their people.

Not all soldiers and warriors deserve respect.  Ghengis Khan and his armies did not fight for anything I consider "good".  The same for other invaders.  Most of the time, any attacking army is in the wrong, and I do not honor them.

I honor every peasant who raised a pitchfork in every desperate attempt to save his family from marauders.  I honor every city or farm person who slipped into the night to disrupt invaders.  I honor every member of organized armed units that are dedicated to just fightin others to leave the general population in peace.

Today, I raise my civilian hand in honor and respect for the defenders, the veterans of defending our people, all people everywhere.

I wish I could say it better than just...

Thank You!

The Last Edging Circle, 2

Well, you may recall that I had a ridge leveled in my back yard, the soil moved to raise a part of the front yard and that I was creating some areas bordered with edging so I could plant stuff.  And that I had become royally tired of digging trenches for the edging in the rocky soil.  And because there were some large tree roots I did not want to cut which meant cutting the edging to fit on top of the roots.

So I left the last one half done for a week and did other stuff.  Well, I am happy to report that I finished it today.  No more digging in that soil...

There are 3 edged areas.

The far one has perennial wildflowers mixed in with enough compost to barely cover.  I have no idea what will happen there.  The package of seeds did not specify which plants were, and they grow so slowly that I won't recognize any until they bloom, and there were already some small weeds growing there.  I might end up nurturing 400 sq ft of weeds until next Summer when I see nothing blooming  when I have to replant more carefully.

The middle smaller area is for Lychimartra Firecracker, a lovely bronze foliage plant about 24" high with lots of small yellow flowers.  But it is a bit invasive and needs to be contained by itself.  It has its own 200 sq ft circle so that I can mow around it!

The nearest area, also 400 sq ft will be a combination of daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths for Spring color; with transplants of purple coneflowers, black-eyed-susans, and goldenrod for Summer and Fall color.  Plus I plan to add a few dwarf butterfly bushes.  I may get a package of seeds of plants that attract butterflies and bees to scatter among the plants next Spring. 

This last area will take some work planting.  Tulips and Hyacinths don't last long here because of the voles, so I have to make cages to plant them in.  The daffodils are fine without cages, being toxic.  But the bulbs haven't been delivered yet, and the transplants still have green leaves so I can't move them yet. 

Which means I can start on the new border of the older flowerbed (up against the fence to the left of the above picture).  I originally planted the border with alternating 12" sections of yellow then purple crocuses.  And 4" gaps between sections for annual Summer flowers.  The voles ate most of the crocus bulbs in just a few years, so this time, I am planting them in cages.  I'll still leave a 4" gap between the cages because it is nice to have Summer flowers there too and change them each year (yellow marigolds one year, dusty miller the next, orange zinnias after that, etc).

At least I don't have to install more edging there.  It's already in place!  And the soil there is soft and the border is the width of my spade.  "Piece of cake".  Right?  Yeah, right...

Fortunately, the weather is forecast to stay nice into mid-November, so I may get away with all this before the first hard freeze hits.  But I had better get working of those cages.  Two sizes of cages actually.  8"L x 6"W x 4"H for the crocus bulb border (so I need about 50 of those).  I haven't decided on the size of the cages for the tulip and hyacinth bulbs yet.  I need to sit down and diagram cages what use a 3' wide roll of wire mesh efficiently.

But I have the crocus bulbs now, so they come first.  The tulip cages can wait a few days...  But they will look basically like this...

 


















 12-18" square, 6" high.  It only needs making a wood form to bend the wire mesh over.  Not that that takes no time, but it beats buying cages at $30 each!

A Surprise Letter

I subscribe to The Washington Post newspaper.  Yeah, the print edition.  It also happens to be my local newspaper (living near a nation's capital can have odd twists).  But its easier to turn paper pages while I eat my lunch than mess up my laptop.  And I recycle/compost anyway, so little is wasted.  But I am also always about a month behind, so reading the political, business, and sports news can be hilarious!  I read it mostly for the editorials.

So when I received a letter from The Washington Post, I expected some notice that my subscription was unpaid due to an expired card.  Nope.  It was good news.

The Washington Post has run a humor contest called 'The Style Invitational' each Sunday for 1,150 weeks.   The weekly contests always some some odd theme or another.  Write a limerick one week, caption a silly drawing the next, combine 2 Kentucky Derby racing horse names and come up with a funny name for the offspring, create a motto for a politician, etc.

I've sent in entries a few times, but because I'm behind on the reading, the deadlines are usually past.  But I always read the winning entries because I admire the cleverness.  There are usually a top 4 of winners and a dozen or so Honorable Mentions.  Winners are referred to as "Losers" (it IS a humor column, the top 4 get prizes (like T-shirts saying "'Im a LOSER",  cheap plastic coin banks shaped as outhouses, fake Dracula teeth, etc).

First time winners get one of those cheap pine tree car air fresheners, and even that is a joke.  The air freshener is a "fir stink" (first ink).

 I got my "fir stink" in the envelope!  Hurray, I'm now a recognized LOSER!

The person who manages the contest (The Empress) doesn't have to give out very many "fir-stinks".  The weekly winners ("losers") are usually pretty much the same group of very talented humourists.  A new loser (also called a "first offender") is rare.  Hurray, I'm RARE!  And a "First Offender"!

For the record, the Week 1,142nd contest was to combine any 2 names into a Twitter handle and write a tweet by the hybrid person.  Most just used real people names.  I combined Secretariat (Kentucky Derby race horse winner) with Hillary Clinton for "@SecretariatHRClinton", and the tweet was "So I'm supposed to just keep running to the left?"

I'll leave everyone to figure that out themselves, but will explain if asked...

The winning entry was "@OrangeJulius:  Could be well mov'd.  My friends in the House are sticking knives into me."  That shows the difference between a winning entry and an Honorable Mention!  It succeeds on multiple levels.  I was, as my Aussie friends would say "gobsmacked".  No wonder some of these weekly participants win frequently! 

But I think I may try entering the contest more often.  There are, apparently, anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand participants each week (some contests are trickier to get a grip on than others).

I am outrageously delighted with my "First Ink" and want another shot of INK!

Presidential Candidates, 2

 Angel AbbyGrace asked "Are you remembering the "Russian Reset" with Hill?"

Well, I did have to google "Russian Reset" and it WAS kind of funny.  Something about a mistranslated American word into Russian  on a symbolic fake "reset button gadget" (and noting it had been signed off on as accurate by the Russian embassy).

But I wasn't arguing politics.  I was thinking about the current presidential candidates and who could stand up among world leaders facing someone like Putin.

There are darn few of the current crop that could.   It's awful! Marco Rubio comes across like the intern designated to bring the serious leaders their coffee. Jeb! is a wimp.  Trump would be out-bullied by Putin.  Walker and Kasich would be dismissed as bullying teacher unions (though at least Putin would like THAT!

And I'm not being mean to just Republicans.  Politically, I'm more aligned with Bernie Sanders; I'd love to talk to him all day.  But he is basically a mayor of a small place.  He has no executive or international experience.  O'Malley was a great Governor of a minor State (and for all I know,he could be a very good Chief Executive in calm prosperous times).

It is just that I can't find anyone but Hillary Clinton who could look eye to eye with someone like Putin and not flinch.  She's hard as nails.  And I don't mean fingernails...

To prove the point that I am politically unbiased regarding "strength" of presidents, who would I take today from the past?

Teddy! (Roosevelt, not Kennedy), Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Reagan...  Yeah, some democrats and some republicans.  Like I said, I'm not arguing politics here (yet). 

So if I wanted someone from the current  crop of people desiring to become President,  who would I want?  Well, aside from ME of course...  I would want Hillary Clinton.  She just has the personality to handle the job.  Seriously, you don't WANT some inexperienced and stupid "hey, I might actually get lucky and win" type as President here.

I remember seeing some political cartoon showing some guy being sworn into office and then in the 2nd panel he says to his political advisors, "OK, so what do I do NOW?".   THAT'S SCARY, and that's what I'm afraid most of the candidates WOULD do.

There are too many people who desperately WANT that job, but too few who really seem to have any idea what to DO with it. 

Clinton's politics don't align with mine perfectly.  And yes, she is a politician and bit of a slippery one at that.  But at the top job, experience and talent matter.  Few leaders are "nice" or "clean". 

At the risk of echoing Donald ("I went Wharton, so I'm smart") Trump, I have to say I have a degree in Political Science.  I study this stuff to this day.  We are far past the times when we elected successful Generals because they knew how to manage a whole army.  World affairs are bigger than armies now. 

What a US President needs is the skill to manage international chaos.  The only candidate I see who could do that is Hillary Clinton. 

Presidential Candidates

The Republicans...

Donald Trump - Middle school bully, with brains to match.

Ben Carson - The quiet crazy guy who thinks everyone is either a Nazi or a slaveowner.  I think maybe we are all both.   In his mind..

Ted Cruz - I could be both of those guys above, really.  Let me try harder... 

Marco Rubio - Sure I look like I'm 20, but I can talk that way too.  Oh wait, is that the prob?

Jeb! - Hey, never mind if I don't mention the last name, I'm The Next One.  You all know it, right?  Unless you don't want me to mention I'm a Bush..  Then I'm not.  Dubya says not too, so...

The Democrats...

Hillary! - I'm the ONE right?  I mean we all agreed on that after the last go-around.  The Black GUY first and THEN its my turn...  Um, OUR turn, Right?  It's my turn now?  And you get Bill back for a 3rd and 4th turn...  He's not dead yet.

Bernie Sanders - Look you want an angry guy who is usually right (well leftist if ya know what I mean), you have ME!  Never mind that I probably couldn't manage a candy store, I'm always right. (er, left)  And I yell a lot, so that proves I care.

Martin O'Malley - I talk nice, I'm from Maryland, I'm classical liberal, I'm not Spiro Agnew.  What more do you want?

  ******************

What we are missing here is the person who can meet with Putin and say "I'll punch ya into the middle of next week" convincingly.  And with a plan for that...

Putin would laugh at Trump, remind Jeb! that his whole family are wimps, ask Rubio if he shaves yet, and tell Sanders that he isn't the socialist he imagines he is.

But he wouldn't know what to say to Hillary Rodham Clinton...  She's unflappable, unstoppable, and unbreakable...

The Last Edging Circle

It nearly done.  I did the last digging yesterday.  Almost...  There are 3 tree roots crossing the edging trench.  I don't want to chop them out; the tree needs them.  They ARE slightly below-ground though.  I think I will cut the bottoms of the edging to fit over top of the roots.  But I sure need to have the whole rest of the edging perfectly fitted around the trench before doing any cutting-to-fit.

Seriously, it has to be about as precise as wood-working.

So I went round and round the circle trench to get it as uniformly deep as possible (but not too deep either, so I can lay in this last area of edging.  The edging is heavy (but cuttable) plastic, and I'll get it to all fit in tomorrow.

But I thought this would take 2 weeks and it has been 6 weeks.  *sigh*  Other demands get in the way.  Laundry, grocery-shopping, cooking,  etc...

At least I'm close to done!  But that's not "quite" done.  The center areas is edged, but that is for transplanted Lychimatria Firecracker to.  Lovely plant; very invasive though.  So I have the circle for it that I can mow around all year and keep it from spreading.

The last area is for semi-shady wildflowers, spring bulbs, and some dwarf azaleas.  I have no idea how that will work out, but I don't have to worry about THAT until next Spring.

Meanwhile, the older flowerbed along the fence has been ignored for months.  I needs work.  Mostly, it needs areas that have been taken over by grass killed.  Fortunately, it won't take more than a day (he said optimistically)  to pull the grass tops off and cover the areas with black plastic for the Winter.  I hope they will die.  And least they will be weakened.  And that whole area needs to be rebuilt next year.

There is too much space there with "just a few of this and a couple of that" left in spots after years of gradual die-backs.  Even perennials don't live forever.

I need to collect the surviving ones from various spots together (9 same plants together look better than 3 spots of 3 plants).  Some long-lived perennials (like purple coneflowers and black-eyed-susans) tend to self-seed to places the prefer, and some plants get exposed to more sunlight than they like when other plants die back and need better conditions.

The good news is that I have 15 daylilies saved in pots from the ridge that was removed, I have 30 azalea cuttings that have been rooting for 2 months, the dwarf butterfly bush and the dwarf knock-out rose seem healthy enough for cuttings (I have a well-lit plant light stand),  and I have LOTS of viable seeds of marigolds, zinnias, salvias, forget-me-nots, butterfly weed, herbs etc.

I am slowly changing from multi-yearly troublesome perennials, that bloom briefly, to replaceable annuals that bloom all year long.  The nice thing about annuals is that you can turn the soil early each Spring before planting and expose the germinating weed seeds to be killed with a shallow hoeing.

Some perennials solve all the problems by growing high and thick so that no weeds thrive.  That's why I'm trying to give the Lychmastria their own space.  There are 2 areas of plants where no weeds grow.  The Lychimastria and the Stokesia (Stokes Asters).  I'll divide the Stokesia (guidance says in Spring, which seems odd, but OK).  To set up another 6x6' area.

Projects

Ever feel you are mentally done doing yard projects for the year?  But they're not finished?  I'm tired, but there is more to do.  I did finally get one done.  The far edged area intended for wildflowers...

I needed to loosen the soil, and I couldn't get the rototiller to start.  It has always been an "iffy" engine.  So I tried to rake the soil loose.  Too much gravel.  But it is supposed to rain lightly tonight and tomorrow while staying above 50F and that would be good for germinating the seeds.  So I thought about it...

Well, I had 2 trashbarrels of a half compost, half topsil mix.  What the seeds want is to get thoroughly moistened to trigger germination, some soil to surround them to trigger rooting, some soil below for the roots to penetrate, and some regular moisture after that for the roots to absorb water and minerals to send upwards to stems and leaves. 

So I used my 2 barrels of compost/soil on the area.  It only came a 1/4" deep when spread around, but the soil under there is decent.  So if they root, they will grow.  Wildflowers are exactly that; "wild",  They don't depend on people spreading fertilizer and in fact usually don't want it. 

So I spread the meager compost/soil mix, scatterred the seeds, walked all over the surface (and using a flat rake to also press down), and then watered the area.  Once lightly, waited 10 minutes and did it a gain, and repeated. 

Why water before a light rain?  To settle the soil around the seeds.  There is less chance now of a rain causing the seeds to get washed into uneven pockets.

And I did it later than I should have.  The package instruction say they want 2 weeks before the first hard frost.  Well, we've already had a frost, but that was before I planted the seeds and the forecast is for at least 10 days without another freeze.  So I may get lucky...

I'll know in a week to 10 days...

American Politics

Megen posted "What I don't understand is why politicians don't get it that voters want politicians to act in the best interests of the country in a manner that is consistent with the policy platform of the party that they represent. All this time and money wasted on attempting to score petty points while the big issues float on by is appalling."

I agree. In the US, people want politicians who agree with their most basic desires.  I personally object to such selfish  and biased opinions, but I recognize them as existing.

Personally, I think most voters are idiots.  Too many can't comprehend basic science like climate change and human evolution.  Some might even barely allow for gravity...  LOL!  It's partly religion (the percentage of atheists and agnostics here is ONLY about  15-20%). 

I find my country to be one of the dumbest population of citizens in the industrialized  world.  It drives me crazy sometimes.  On the other hand, as Winston Churchill once said, The Americans will do the right thing eventually.

Our political system is scatterred.  The 3 branches (legislature, judiciary, and executive) are constantly in contention.  Each has balanced powers. 

That doesn't make things easy here.  But it has worked pretty well so far.  It is a GOOD thing that the Legislature can force Executive Branch members to answer questions, that the Executive Branch can bring pressure on the Legislature and that the Judiciary can make decisions about law but not have some army/mob to enforce it. 

May everything stay in balance that way forever...

Now back to the politics of today...

The Congressional Representatives only care about what their own local voters think.  Seriously, what I think here in Maryland is utterly irrelevant  to what they think in other US States.  And that is deliberate.  However insane *I* think other State voters are doen't matter.

Now that isn't to say it was always this way.  When I was younger, there were liberal and conservative Republicans, and liberal and conservative Democrats.  The parties weren't aligned ideologically as they are now.  Democrats and Republicans USED to be able to work together across party lines.  No more...

I better stop, I'm getting angry...

Mark

Politics and Congressional Inquisitions...

I watched a lot of the Congressional Benghazi Inquisition today.  It was extreme and partisan.

I'm pretty much oriented to facts (to the point where if the side I agree with does a bad job being factual and engages in evasion and emotional responses I won't think they did a good job.

Hillary Clinton did a good job today.  After 11 HOURS responding to partisan questions, many of which had no logical connection to the sad events at Benghazi, she did very well.  And let me say that as someone who participated in chess tournaments when younger, I know something about the pain of just sitting for hours at a time.  It is called "sitzfleisch".  German, meaning literally "sitting on the flesh".  It is a requirement for playing long chess games.  I used to have it.  Today, I am a pacer.

But Hillary sat, and listened, and sat, and listened.  Sometimes she could get to give an answer.  Mostly, she had to just sit and listen to Republican speeches, some of which applied to Benghazi but most didn't.

So who won the Republican Benghazi debate?  Hillary.  The lozenge did it...  I'm not joking.  When Hillary finally had to take a lozenge out of her purse after about 8 (9, 10?) hours into the inquisition, she had won.  It meant she had spoken more than even a professional politician could be expected to manage.

And the Republicans hadn't been able to find she had done anything wrong about the sad events in Benghazi in 11 hours of questions...

Good Things

After mentioning the horrible beef short ribs recipe, Tuesday, I should mention that I did cook a lot of good food at the same time.  So its not me.

Cooked 3 chicken thighs, bone in, baked, with my own version on "shake&bake" coating.  Came out wonderfully.  Sauteed 3 hot italian sausages for later use in a sausage stew with roasted green and red bell peppers, cannellini beans, minced carrots and tomatoes.  Marinated some large shrimp in garlic, ginger, and onion for a few hours.  Then coated them in bread crumbs and deep fried them.  Added onion rings to the oil coated in pancake batter after that.  I love my Fry Baby.  Once a month though for the fried stuff.  

And I smoked slabs of Boston Butt pork in my offset cooker.  Came out great.  Most was cut into smaller pieces and frozen, but I made a wonderful pork stew with the bit I kept in the fridge. 

That was dinner.  With steamed asparagus in a cheese sauce, a corn on the cob, and fresh green beans, with a tossed salad with homemade Italian dressing.

I don't eat too plainly, LOL!  So that bad beef rib recipe the other day really annoyed me.  Maybe that why I made sure to eat well today, though.

Tomorrow, I'll have tenderloin steak.  I "fry" it, but with the good cast iron pans, its like broiling.