Good morning, everyone. Still wet and on the cool side. I think that when we get some dry time with or without sun) I will work up the covered beds. The tomatoes should be transplanted soon. The peppers have a bit more time before they are big enough. I almost lost one of my four Vietnamese multicolor peppers--it was a bit too cool overnight for the smallest one. Luckily a couple of days and nights inside revived it. I am thinking of keeping the plastic tents up over winter and seeing if a couple of the herbs I want will survive. I remember growing rosemary, oregano, sage, lavender, and a couple of others in raised beds when I lived in Colorado. They acted like perennials--much to the surprise of the people at the nursery where I bought them. I wonder if they will do the same in the containers here.

This MSNBC story rang a bell for me. Again, I wonder if I am simply a canary in the coal mine. About five years ago I yielded to the inevitable and filed for bankruptcy. That was after two years of struggle with spotty employment, reduced income thanks to low pay and cut hours, and banks that refused to work with me. I promised myself at that time I would never have a credit card again. Everything is paid by cash, debit card, or check and I watch the bank account very carefully. I was amazed at how many credit card offers I got after the bankruptcy and was so annoyed by them that I started shredding the applications and sending back to the offering company in their own postage paid envelopes. The one nice thing about the recent downturn is that the number of offers has declined by about 90%.