Good Monday, Everyone.  We did have rain overnight and it is still sprinkling.  Thankfully no lightning and wind.  I cleaned out five containers and moved my roses to their permanent home.  They seem to be coming back nicely.  I am giving the gardening a rest today and letting everything dry out.  The weather people say we will be lucky to break 70 today.

It looks like the U.S. government is getting back into the buying of meat to help support farmers forced to sell off because of the drought.

I posted a link to a story yesterday that I said hit a bit close to home because it described wells a county away going dry.  This story is surprising only if you haven't been reading about the nearly record low water flow in the Mississippi.  If the river levels are going down you know the water table is also.

About eight years ago I had a major problem with my credit cards--after a period of very marginal jobs (or no job at all) I was so far in the hole I had to file for bankruptcy.  I then decided never to have another credit card and I have stuck with that decision.  Shortly after the nationwide economic meltdown the credit card companies seemed to get religion and became more selective about to whom they sent their wonderful introductory offers and the number I received went from at least 4 a month to (maybe) one every six months.  I noticed that lately the number of offers have increased again.  But this story reinforces my determination not to carry credit cards again.  Interestingly, the part of the story which describes the credit card companies selling the accounts they have already written off to other companies that try to collect struck a chord in my memory.  About two years after my case was concluded I received a call from a collection agency demanding payment of the debt they said I owed.  I asked for particulars and recognized the account they were talking about.  I knew the account was included in the bankruptcy and told the agent so.  He explained that they had just bought a block of debt from the original company and were working through it.  They didn't call again.  But I remarked at the time that the card company was more than a little dishonest in this matter.  They knew very well that the debt had been expunged by the bankruptcy.  Interesting what a dishonest little system we have.

This bit of educational chicanery surprises me not a bit.  If there is any way to nickel-and-dime students to poverty our for-profit schools will find it.