Well, it is morning.  Good is somewhat debatable since it is raining, sometimes heavily.  I don't mind rain but much prefer that it comes at night--when I am asleep.  We may get severe storms and the weather people mentioned that nasty four letter word--hail.  But I have all my plants under as much protection as I can manage and I don't expect to lose anything.  They are all progressing nicely.  The little sugar snap peas are putting out more blossoms--the first plants to do so.

I got the spring tablecloth finished last night.  Totally pissed off my cats who didn't get the amount of lap time the wanted.  Of course, if I gave them all the lap time the want, I would never get any needlework done.  I will show a picture of the tablecloth when it is washed.  Now to finish the fall pattern tablecloth.  I started that before we moved in here.  The Mom took it over until her eyes gave her too much trouble to continue.  It languished until I cleaned up the sewing area and decided that it really had to be finished.  When it is done all of the large embroidery pieces will be finished and I hope not to do any more.  Large pieces, that is.

Any one else see the stories on the news about the survey that was released revealing how much salt is in restaurant meals?  Astounding to think that you can get three times (or more) of the recommended daily allotment of salt and not even hit a fast food joint.  I am amazed at how much we don't know about the food we eat.  How much calories, how much salt, how much high fructose corn syrup?  And yet we have congresscritters wanting to give businesses the right to penalize workers who are overweight (among other conditions)?  Can we please have a reality check here?

In another case of mental whiplash, I just passed a headline on MSNBC that proclaims that retail sales were down last month for the second month in a row.  That after a brief upswing in February, I think it was.  Wasn't it just last week that some pundits were proclaiming that consumer 'confidence' was up and that was one of the 'green shoots' signaling the end of this downturn?  Yeah, ri-i-i-i-ght!!  And they are actually paying these guys.  (I didn't bother to read the article.  I figure it is just a waste of time.)

However, Robert Reich's post, at TPM Cafe this morning, is a good read and makes a good deal of sense in this new round of Chicken Little-ism over Social Security.  Every so often the usual cabal of (fill in your favorite epithet) whose major goal in life seems to eliminate Social Security comes up with another O-M-G moment hoping that this one will be the one which will convince everyone that we really can't afford all those old codgers anymore.

In another 'blame the victim' moment, at least two local news stations have been carrying the on-going soap opera in Cook County, Illinois, in which the County Board President just vetoed the attempt by the County Commissioners to roll back the 1% sales tax increase put in place last year.  Let me say I am totally disgusted by all parties that have gotten air time so far.  I am extremely skeptical of el presidente who bemoans the cuts to vital health care services that will be 'necessary' (including the closing of one hospital) and the disproportionate impact on lower income groups if the veto is overridden. That at the same time that he has created positions paying six figures and filled them with relatives and supporters.  But I also despise the commissioners who yell about the taxes but do not suggest how the budget short fall should be remedied.  But I reserve my scorn for the news media who led on this with the headline that the woes of the health care system stems from people who can't pay for their health care.  The pictures that went with that lead off was a woman in the middle of chemo.  Cancer treatments are expensive as is most of modern medicine.  But that is where the story leaves.  We had nearly 50 million people without health insurance before this last economic debacle.  That has only increased because of the recent job losses.  We do not have any kind of universal health care system in place.  What are people who don't have insurance or the kind of income that will permit them to pay out of pocket supposed to do when they need medical care?  Die, maybe.  But no one wants to say that or acknowledge that that is the ultimate result of our current arrangement. 

Well, it's now time to play for a little while.  Got three quilt blocks done while reading and writing.  A little reward is a good thing.