Hello, All, on laundry Wednesday. Congress critters at (not) work.

Ah, yes--the mundane chores need to be done every once in a while.  Since I don't have any gardening news I will go straight to what is on the 'net.

Fascinating story from Venezuela.  You can't get a ticket on an airline even though the flights leave half empty.  The seats are booked months in advance so that Venezuelans can get a favorable exchange rate on their bolivars for dollars.  A similar advantage comes with using credit cards for foreign purchases.

I loved a comment by a reporter covering Ted Cruz's "filibuster:"  "Your tax dollars a work."  And, yes, it said with a sarcastic inflection.  I have seen another couple of comments on the whole mess on the food stamp issue:  Those congress critters who don't work, shouldn't eat.  And make no mistake--they aren't working.

Oh, my God!! Sanity has struck Wal-mart.  I wonder how long that will last.  And whether it isn't the usual smoke and mirrors.  But I also wonder how far the infection has spread.  We have noticed more empty shelves at the various chain stores we shop at and, if not empty, shelves with only a facing of a couple of items in front of empty space.  That is a big change from my last stint as an inventory counter a decade ago.  Then the shelves were so stuffed you could hardly count the individual pieces on the shelves.