Wednesday.

Oh, well.  My hope for a clear day yesterday didn't come about.  By the time we finished our errands we had sprinkles and a short time after a heavier rain fell.  We did get some sun late in the afternoon. But it was too wet to do more than collect a ripe tomato.  I was pleased to see that the hummingbirds are still here.  A couple of them visited over yesterday.  One found the cypress vine flowers.  T.he weather should be clear an sunny today; if so, I need to get out an get started on the clearing up and transplanting chores.

This is an idea I like--a lot.  I hope it spreads.

Thursday.

I got my sage transplanted into its own pot.  That took a bit of effort.  It has some very well developed roots.  I hadn't intended to do that but it really had grown too large for the tower.  I don't know if I will get much done outside.  The weather predictions for the day include early showers followed closely by heat.  We'll see what happens when.  I also got the bean tower pulled.  That was a bit of a chore also.  I had woven the vines back and forth through the trellis.  We processed the brussels sprouts we got while shopping Tuesday.  We usually buy frozen but it has become harder to find plain sprouts and we don't really like the spices and sauces the processors put on their products.  We only found two packages of "Asian spiced."  I put that in quotes because I am sure no self-respecting "Asian" would eat that crap.  We won't waste it because it is barely palatable.   However, the produce section of the grocery store had sprouts for $2.99/lb vs. the $2.49 for those 10oz packs.  The "convenience" (which isn't all that convenient) isn't worth the cost.

Ah, some humor from the Contrary Farmer on the issue of mega-farms.

Note:  I (very) few moments ago I stepped out on the patio to get my small watering can, the one I bring inside for the winter, and though the cement was wet, indicating a recent rainfall, I didn't feel a single drop.  By the time I watered the eucalyptus and the sage (both inside now) and sat back down with the computer the rain had escalated to a downpour.  Since I started writing this it has backed off again.  That is why this fall has been a problem for watering the gardens.  What we just got wasn't enough to do much good for most of the plants.  It looks like a lot but it simply isn't all that much.

Talking about rain brings to mind water generally and a story on the news last night.  I forget which major internet/computer/cloud company has awarded its new data center to Las Vegas but my first thought when they mentioned the new jobs was "what about the water for the new center and for the new workers?"  Has anyone thought about that?  Not from what I have been reading.

Reading this my first reaction was "Well, DUH!!!"  Our of curiosity I looked up what percentage of the world's population live in cities now: 54%.  A quick look at what defines a "megacity" indicates a population of 10 million or more and there are about 20 such cities in the world.  I disagree somewhat with the one person quoted when he said we "have no precedent" for such operations.  Think Leningrad, Stalingrad, Moscow for starters.  Then of course there are the cities bombed into oblivion or near oblivion: Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Dresden, London.  The only difference is the number of people.  We have been playing with urban warfare for some time.  Many historians consider the American Civil War to have been a dress rehearsal for WWI and WWII.  Think Atlanta, Vicksburg, and Richmond.

I have found the discussions of the Trans Pacific Partnership, which is being hammered out in as much secrecy as the participants can muster, and its bookend deal on the Atlantic side, also being constructed in secrecy, very disturbing.  This story from Triple Crisis illustrates why they are such bad ideas.  All of these basically trash the whole notion of national sovereignty and cut the legal knees out from under anyone or any group who wants a say in what impacts their own lives.