Clouds

I'm sure everybody has lain on on their backs at one time or other looking up at the clouds. Sometimes just lying and looking up was enough. Other times, especially if one was with a companion, we would look for recognizable shapes made by the clouds. John called my attention to this cloud, suggesting that it would be worth interrupting my perusal of the newspaper to go to the window and look at it. It was literally the only cloud in the sky and immediately suggested angels to me...the kind Moises calls angels left when birds run into the window. Just as well I didn't have to lie on my back to see it....

I offered to go to the market with John this morning as we were out of absolutely everything and I didn't feel like coming up with a list which he requires and I don't. It worked out well, other than the fact that we spent an astonishing amount of money. That was probably because I'm less disciplined without a list than he is with one. But he doesn't read labels and often comes home with some gluten free or whole wheat version of something we get all the time.By the time we brought all that food home and put it all away it was midday and hot(90F). But like mad dogs and Englishmen we found ourselves trudging up and down the street. I don't think we accomplished either brisk or 45 minutes, but we made the effort. We'll have to switch gears to summertime temperatures and do our outdoor activities in the morning when it is cool.

Brief notes :
Taco (Trump Always Chickens Out) Tariffs. A phrase coined to describe his habit of declaring high tariffs and then lowering them either after countries like Vietnam sign lucrative deals for Trump hotels and golf courses, or because the countries they are levied against fight back, levy reciprocal tariffs and refuse to play ball.

'Big Beautiful BIll'. Trump's budget bill which guts the safety nets for the poor, environmental tax credits and many other federal programs and gives tax breaks  to the super rich, adding $5 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. (He promised to balance the budget back in March)

'Big Budget Bomb'  I've been a policy journalist for more than 20 years. I've covered more bills than I can count. I cannot remember a more cruel or irresponsible piece of domestic legislation that has been seriously proposed. If the Republicans' Big Budget Bomb goes off, we are all in the blast radius.
--Ezra Klein, New York Times

On a brighter note I highly recommend a short Netflix documentary called 'The Quilters'. You don't have to be a quilter or even particularly interested in quilting to appreciate the message in this wonderful film.