Same old same old.

So… Republicans are arguing that « the American people » should have a say in naming the new Supreme Court justice and that therefore, President Obama should wait for a new president to nominate a successor.

But, it’s the job of the president to nominate SC justices.

And as for the people having a voice, they won’t have any more of a voice with the new president. The people do not elect Supreme Court justices. The people elect the president (albeit indirectly) and they elect Congress: the President nominates the justice, Congress confirms the nomination. The next batch of elected heads will be no less elected than the current batch. Obama was elected by a majority of votes. It is the will of the people that he is president, and it is his duty to nominate this justice.

No reason for that not to happen.

Both parties have at different times tried to change the way SCOTUS members are chosen, always with the goal of either making it easier to install a favorable judge, or to block nominations from the other party. Partisan politics as usual. And yet, it does remain the president's duty to nominate - and only the president's, as the disingenuous Mr McConnell himself insisted on in 2005. 

So stop it with the hysterics and the hyperbole and get on with governing. Yes, yes, there is governing to do. I think politicians tend to forget that.

Oh, my

I was going to blog, and then played bridge instead. And then I was thinking of blogging but had so much work to do. And then again I was going to blog, but then couldn't decide - post the keys to World Peace, or a cute cat photo?

The world today just seems too absurd to get any kind of angle on. D Trump may be awful, but wtf is with so many people seriously wanting to elect him or one of the other far-right characters to the highest office in the country? No, the USA is not for Christians only. No, the USA is not for white people only. No, it will not make the country strong to respond to enemies by trying to blast them off the planet (remember when the Shrub tried that? Did it make anything better?).

Dang, Sienne stopped her latest ball-of-fur pose, and has taken on a normal, not extra-cute, attitude toward the catfoodbowl.

And what is up with the comedy in Oregon? Why are we putting up with that? Alright, I guess a cracking response would give them more importance than they deserve. Better to treat them like confused children. But it's true that a group of blacks pulling such a stunt would result in immediate arrests, all resistors being shot. Or more likely shot first, arrested later...

Quick, the camera! Natalie is watching a bird out the window!

In fact, the gun situation is insane. The more violence there is, the more people are, incredibly, led to believe that they, too, need their very own lethal weapon. And of course they should be able to buy one like buying a candy bar. Just adds to the havoc. More Americans are being shot by toddlers than by terrorists.

Oh, look, a cat on my knitting.

So I don't know what there is to say.

We had a very nice audit of the lab last week. I do hope that people will start now to calm down and not get their knickers all in a twist next time. There will always be a next audit, and all we have to do to be ready for it is to keep up on doing things pretty much right all along. 

That is to say, the genetics arm of the lab just has to keep on with the good work. For our next audit, the pathology arm will also be audited, and that is a whole nother story. 

Natalie, redux

She's back!
Disappeared back in April.
Replaced.
Replacements gone.
Sienne getting quite fat, getting the entire packet of good stuff catfood she used to have to share.
Then last Friday, there she was.
I wasn't even home for it. JP was over to feed Sienne while I was away for the weekend, so I didn't see her until Sunday.
But it's true: Natalie is back.
She's not saying where she was all that time, and she's willing to go out at night and when I leave for work in the morning. She's made a cozy nest on the disused rugs I have in the cellar. Sienne is not very welcoming at all. I hope she'll get over that, after all, she's known Natalie all her life.
So every evening it's a question.
How many cats tonight?

Here we are: summer is Over.

All the leaves are off the apricot and the apples and the cherry at the back of the yard, though some of the other trees are hanging on to their color for a while longer. Lots of red from the cherries this year, and the weather has been good for a colorful leafshow.

They say it’s time to trim when the sap falls, so I was out there last weekend cutting a lot of the branches that reach straight up tall where you can’t pick any fruit. There will still be plenty for the birds, don’t worry about that. Now I have a pile of branches to cut up for bbq wood. Before I have too much fun with that, I need to remember to reserve a couple of slim, forked branches for holding up tomatos next year.

The garden is pretty much wrapped up. Some salad and herbs remain, and potatos. I love harvesting potatos; it’s like a treasure hunt for gold nuggets in the earth. But then I have more potatos in the kitchen than we eat in a month, and it’s better to leave them in the ground. I’ve tried keeping them in a cool, dark place, and they are ok in the fridge but my fridge is not very big and there are all those tomatos in there already. I tried the basement, but it’s not cool enough down there and they end up with sprouts 2 feet long and no potato left in the potato skin. So now they stay in the ground as much as I can resist digging them up.  In September, all the plants had withered away & you knew the spuds were ready. Since then it’s been cold at night sometimes, but not that cold and a dozen or so potato plants have come back up as if it were spring already.

The tomatos should move out of the fridge this weekend, if all goes well. About 2 weeks ago I harvested all the green ones and pulled the plants out. It was threatening frost, so it was time. They’ve been getting ripe in the kitchen, each red one going into the fridge. Sunday is tomato canning day, and anybody still green will miss the boat. I have stores of sauce already, and these will be tomato chunks for chili over the winter.

Cournon to Dallet

On Sunday, Mariette & I started late on our little stroll. Meant to walk from Cournon to Pont du Chateaux, about 15km along the Allier river. Easy peasy. But with the late start and the constant stops to admire a leaf, a tree, a cloud & etc, we only got as far as Dallet before calling our ride and hightailing it back home for the semifinal All Blacks vs Springboks.

Before.

After.

Kinda getting into the rock piling thing.

Bonus discovery: the very best swingset yet encountered in France!