Good morning, Everyone.  A bit frosty this morning but the wind kept the frost away.  Tonight, the weather people tell us, will be colder with a freeze warning.  I plan to do what I did last week--put five gallon vinegar jugs filled with hot water in the greenhouse.  So far everything out on the patio, in the greenhouse or outside, have done very well.  We visited our favorite farm market.  We get our eggs there and we checked out the greenhouses because they have the best selection of herbs.  They didn't have much out yet but I did get some sage and oregano.  I did plant some oregano but haven't had much success with it.  Quite a contrast to last year when the oregano grew like the weed it once was.  The basil hasn't done all that well either.

I decided to transplant my tomatoes into larger containers.  They were getting too lanky and tall for the ones I started them in.  They are all looking happy to be in new pots.  I noticed that the garnet rose lettuce has produced well and my lemon squash, dragon's egg cucumber, and vine peach all emerged.  I still have to start the corn, dragon's tongue beans, and marjoram.  I am rather glad we had this stretch of more normal (or slightly below normal) temperatures.  It reminds us that we still have a bit more than a month till our average last frost date.

We are lucky, Kay.  We have two year-round farm markets.  Our seasonal ones don't open till May and June.  We look forward to it every year.  I agree about the restaurants.  We don't go out to eat often either and we prefer local as well.  Your observation about jobs is exactly what we have noticed for some time.  About 8 years ago I worked for about 18 months as an inventory counter where I started at $9/hour.  A year after I left I saw an ad for the same job at the same company which started off at $8/hour.  We have had wage deflation while the inflation rate has been jiggered to show lower inflation that we ordinary Americans actually experience.  And you are absolutely right--there are fewer good jobs with benefits and a livable wage, and more dead end, low-wage jobs.  If one can find even those jobs.  I saw a blog yesterday where the blogger described the local free job guide for his area: 8 pages with 39 ads for schools drumming up business and some probable scams.  That is exactly what I saw the last time I went to the on-line job boards.  The unemployment numbers have supposedly gone down but I think they did only because a large number of the unemployed fell off the rolls or stopped looking.

Now this is a worrisome development.  But I guess something like this should be expected given how dependent we are on computers and wireless communication.  There are a lot of advantages to technology but the downsides can be a b----.