Good morning on this already sweltering Friday. The weather people say we will get a bit of relief today--it will only be in the low 90s with heat indices about 100 instead of high 90s that feel like 110. I got everything watered while we were drinking our morning coffee and then got some spent plants pulled, others tied up to the trellises, trimmed yellowing leaves and fertilized half of the small plants on the fence. But, though it is only 7:45 am, I am about done. The only task left is trimming the spearmint and getting it in the dehydrator. We found some purple and green peppers on the Vietnamese Multicolor plants and a cucumber that is very near ready. That last was hiding way in the back. But the acorn squash are not doing much. I found only 3 fruits and two of those were shriveling. I plan to remove them so the ground cherry will get more water and light.

Glad you stopped by, Leigh. I found your blog a little while ago and stop by regularly. I think if Marx were alive today he would amend his famous assessment of religion (as the opium of the people) to include politics. And if our Founding Fathers were alive they would be leading a new revolution. The only reason I pay attention to politics is I want to know what the self-righteous bast**rds want to do to me. And I am absolutely sure it will be done to me and not for me. Which is why Mary is so contrary, and cranky, and bitchy. And that is also why I spend so much time with gardening and needlework.

This story from HuffingtonPost doesn't surprise me at all. Push has been coming to shove for a long while now. At least the Chicago authorities are trying to get people to check in on their more vulnerable neighbors. We are dreading our next electric bill but we can't cut the thermometer back any further. As it is we keep it at 80 and use fans to help circulate the air upstairs where the temperature is 5+ degrees higher than downstairs. And in an hour or two, when the heats starts radiating through the window upstairs, I will close the drapes. We are always looking for ways to deal with the heat (or the cold in the winter) with as little energy expenditure as possible.

So Wall Street is laying off again. Wasn't it only about six to eight months ago that the financial firms were hiring again and celebrating their substantial earnings? I find it interesting that the low level minions are getting the axe which is the opposite of what other industries have done. Those companies layer off the more expensive, older and mid-level managers first.

The Onion has a nice piece of satire on the debt 'negations.' Unfortunately, the comedy is much too close to the truth.

I hear you on the politics in Washington, Lois. My major effort is to figure out how to mitigate the effects on us at our lowly level of the economy.