Book club last night was fun with such a diverse set of opinions about the Alice Hoffman book we read. It wasn’t my favorite, but that’s because I expect someone with Alice’s experience to try harder to make the book extraordinary. It wasn’t. Others were less critical, but everyone agreed I think that they’d read other books on the same theme that were better. Oh well. Next month is Cloud Cuckoo Land. Controversial. On hold for me at the Jupiter library. Will start on it tomorrow.

So can we talk about something other than what’s happening in Ukraine? Yes, I think I’d like that. How about progress decorating the cottage? Gonna need pix for that, and it’s not ready, so maybe tomorrow. The crown molding needs painting, and maybe Colter will have time for that tomorrow. We are supposed to be putting up a 42″ tv somewhere for our transients to entertain themselves with. Another decorating project. All a work in progress. All I have so far is a minimally comfortable and functional room. It needs to be better. Paint was applied, and crown molding, but it needs pictures on the wall and the tv hung. So more work. Additional caulk is needed for the molding, as you can clearly see the cuts between the pieces. Tomorrow. But I had to get that ‘c’ word in somewhere. No, not that one! Caulk!

Saw the president of Finland on the News Hour. He looked jet lagged since he flew over 4k miles to visit with Biden, likely for an hour or so. It’s clear, in spite of his poor English and vague references to his Parliament, that Putin has really scared the Finns. They’re talking about joining NATO. So just as I mentioned before, VTI ‘s actions have resulted in his alleged worst fears coming to pass. By the time this is over, everyone in the free world is going to join NATO. So then it won’t be the North American Treaty Organization. It’ll be the Democracies of the World Treaty Organization DOWTO. Doesn’t exactly fall trippingly off the tongue, does it? But Japan is worried for Taiwan and Korea, so they’ll join, and they’re clearly in the east. Same with South Korea. Maybe there’s a possibility we’re learning from history? But I’ll tell you what, if those damn Russkies keep tryin’ to blow up nuclear power plants, we’re all gonna get fried or develop leukemia together – some sooner than others. What a bunch of dumb bastards. Sure looks like nobody’s in charge of this stampeding bunch of oafs. Their performance to date has been, shall we say less than stellar?

OK, enough on that. Isn’t there something fun to talk about? I don’t go back to work until Sunday, so nothing to report there. HD is slowing increasing my hours so the last week in March I’ll work 29 1/2 hours – you know, the line between part time and full time. I think I made it quite clear that part time was all I desired. But they are so short of help, particularly in stocking at night, that an attempt at more hours was inevitable. My goal for last week, as previously stated, was to be kind and hand out compliments to my co-workers. My goal for next week is to learn the labyrinthine system of where paint base tints are stored. The system makes very little sense, and there are exceptions galore – you know, just like chemistry! So I will peruse the shelves again and hope to be faster at locating base paint. Really ambitious, huh? Hey, when I ain’t fast enough, we lose sales from the pros. Can’t have that. Time is money to them.

That’s all for now – writing group got cancelled for tomorrow so I can go to the grocery store in the morning as the larder is quite bare.