Good Thursday to you all.  I cut the tall stalks on the tansy and mums.  I probably shouldn't have cut back the mums but it was the only way to get the stakes and cross pieces out so I could put them away in the shed for the season.  I really hope we get some normal temps and snow soon.  I don't want my outside plants confused.  I would rather they went into their winter sleep and stayed that way until spring.  The weather people predict possible overnight Sunday into Monday which, if it comes, would tie the record for the longest snow free period in a year (280 days).  Let's see if there is anything I want to comment on today.

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Hope you all will have a nice Friday.  We may get some light rain with a possibility (though the weather people are not all that optimistic) for light, transient snow.  I looked up the 'normal' temperatures for my areas and found that the high should be around 35F.  We haven't seen that except as a low since December began and November was warmer that normal.  Two hundred seventy eight days without snow which puts 2012 in second place for the longest period in a year without snow.

Well, this is a hopeful development.  I am very skeptical about the emphasis our political leaders place on college educations.  I have read several articles over the last couple of years concerning the difficulty high tech employers say they have finding 'qualified' employees.  Part of the problem, as a number of commenters have pointed out, is the unwillingness of some of them to pay a good wage for the work.  But another part is, I am sure, the lack of workers with the training needed.  Going back to well coordinated apprenticeship programs might go a long was to solving at least one of those problems.  The other (paying good money for a good job) is another problem.  As this post on The Economic Collapse aptly puts the situation we have gone from "Good Jobs to Bad Jobs to No Jobs.  Obamacare, however, isn't at fault and may not even exacerbate the problem.  The process has been ongoing for the last half century.