Good Morning, everyone. I haven't had much to say lately so I have simply read and commented on other people's sites. The gardening has shifted into the last phases of getting everything cleaned up and ready for winter and planning for next spring. I haven't been in a mood for needlework for a while so everything is hanging fire in that department.

I found this on one of the Google alerts in my e-mail this morning. Colorado appears ready to lower its minimum wage which is only $.03 (that is 3 cents) below the federal minimum. Thankfully, for Colorado minimum wage workers all the state can shave off, by law, is those 3 cents. The excuse for this proposal is that the cost of living has gone down and so the minimum, which is tied to the cost of living, should also. The same argument applied to not giving Social Security raises next year. I don't know about anyone else but I haven't seen any decrease in my cost of living. Gas prices migrate in a band that is at least $1 more than when I first started feeling pain at the pump about 3 years ago. I haven't seen any price reductions at the grocery store in spite of the stories of supermarkets cutting the prices on 'tens of thousands of items.' Those must be items we simply don't buy. But, hey, we should celebrate!! The Dow closed at just over 1000--a level it first surpassed in 2000 and which it hadn't seen for months. And look at all of those bankers getting mega bonuses. Life must be good--for someone.

We just got back from taking the car over to get a couple of things repaired. While there (we had to wait because we are now down to one car) we read through the three or more newspapers they had. One of the articles stated that the sales of canning supplies has gone up 30% as of mid September. If I remember, that was about how much the sales of seeds went up last spring. Think there might be a connection there?