Friday, Everyone!!  Hope you all have a really good day.  We are back in the heat and expect 90s through next week.  We open the doors and window in the morning and close up to put the air on in the afternoon.  We had two back-to-back brown-outs yesterday afternoon and another sometime last night while we slept.  Though the power came back on quickly the cable for our TV and internet was out for about four hours.  Don't know what happened--no wind, no rain.  The news this morning said that all of Illinois and Indiana are now in some level of drought.  They say our area at the southern tip of Lake Michigan has, this year to date, has a deficit of 9 to 12 inches of rain.  And we don't have much chance of catching up any time soon.

I was curious when I read the tease headline--something about exploding hay bales???  Spontaneous combustion apparently.  I didn't know Indianapolis has a sprinkler ban.  I had read that our mayor had urged people to conserve water.  Earlier this very dry season I started experimenting with way of reducing the major summer water use for us--the gardens.  So far our water use has been at or below what we used last year and that was well below what our conserving neighbors have used.

This illustrates one of the problems of living this close to Chicago.  We have heard absolutely nothing on the news (even in the weather segments.)  But we thought we were experiencing more sneezing episodes and Mom had more nasal congestion.

I saw this last night and wondered, yet again, how politically and socially tone deaf our various organizations and businesses can be.  Lauren may be an 'iconic American company' but ordering the uniforms for the U.S. Olympic team made in China??  What were they thinking?  And why the U.S. Olympic Committee didn't think about this is a total mystery.

The morning TV news said that Romney is considering Condoleezza Rice as his choice for VP.  That's nice but, for me, not a deciding factor.  I don't vote for the #2 on the ticket.  I see nothing about Romney to make me vote for him and his choice for VP is immaterial.  In 2008, McCain's choice of Sara Palin merely confirmed my negative opinion of him to begin with.  Even if I had thought well of his VP choice I wouldn't have voted for him.  If the top of the ticket isn't someone I can vote for I am not going to vote for the #2.

Oh, wouldn't Hitler and Stalin (or any of their ilk) have loved to have this technology?  But, I guess we shouldn't worry.  After all we have a democratically elected government which is only looking out for our best interests.  Riiiight!!  And if you believe any part of that, there are a lot of bridges you might like to buy.  I can get them for you real cheap.

This piece on Crooks & Liars struck a chord.  About a year ago Mom had to renew her license.  Here in Indiana, at least then, she had the option of getting the regular license or the 'secure ID' license.  She decided to get the latter since such an ID is increasingly demanded (when you get on a plane, open a bank account, etc.).  It took almost two months, a letter to whichever department deals with birth certificates, a trip to Lake County (IN) to get a certified copy of a divorce decree and a temporary regular license before she managed to get her 'secure ID' license.  And she started six weeks before her old one expired.  I have all my paperwork together so I can get my 'secure ID' license when my current one expires.  I gathered everything when I went on Social Security.