It's Still Raining

It started raining right after the expiration of the Severe Thunderstorm Watch on Tuesday night and it's been a soggy Shire since. So soggy that my sitting room clock swelled and stopped. So soggy that your steps make that squishy-ishy sound on the floor. So soggy that there's a Flash Flood Watch in the whole region. I hate when that happens. It's been 2 years almost since Irene, but it's still right there to come to mind in all its Technicolor glory.

There is lotsa growth going on. My African violet and geraniums are all flowering. I think the seedlings popping up out front are the wildflowers Strider planted a few weeks ago. This weekend I'll plant the planter for the front porch. With the flowers come the allergies and wow are allergies big time styley this Spring. I was talking to Muffinpants this morning and he told me of having such a sneezing fit during contract talks with the coop and union that he had to leave. Going outside I've been blinded twice by the flood and can't get thru any day without 3 sneezing fits myself. Right now I can still picture the gray, brown and white of all Winter too vividly to do much more than stare at the small riot of colours just outside my window. The way the sun shining through the clouds in the west dramatizes everything... It's quite stary-meditative.

And this week is proving a challenge. It was Positivity Day, the Oklahoma tornado and the crazy hacking murder in England in 2 days of it. 2 days. That's what life is like. I don't know if it was always like this and just now I'm paying attention or if this is the New World.

So it'll be no surprise to tell you the news isn't so lift-me-up or dance barefoot today.

the UK Parliament's looking to give themselves a nice raise in pay
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/may/19/mps-in-line-pay-rise

I know David Mitchell's written this as satire, but it runs a bit too close to cynicsm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/19/david-mitchell-amazon-tax-artwork

Monsanto may be why the State Legislature didn't finish passing our GMO labeling bill
http://rt.com/usa/monsanto-sue-gmo-vermont-478/

keeping Monsanto out of your garden
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/the-four-steps-required-to-keep-monsanto-out-of-your-garden/

And for fun...
What's your union-made name?
http://www.labor411.org/411-blog/374-what-s-your-union-made-name

And this is my souvenir of time travel. Me, in 2040.