Thursday--

We have one more day of unseasonably warm weather though the sun the weather people promised has not appeared.  I am puttering around on the patio.  For some reason our patio is wet though we haven't had any rain.  That side of the house simply isn't drying out.  Even so I got the leaves swept up and spread then on one of the containers before covering with newspapers weighted with pieces of wood.

Our government protects us so well!! And, yes, that is sarcasm.

Friday--

We got rain overnight--much needed so I won't complain.  I cleaned up the little greenhouse and shifted some things around.  I brought the sidewalk salt inside so it will be available when needed. We have plenty and we use it sparingly but when we need it we do need it. Our patio can become a very slick skating rink and neither of us wants to fall. I know I swept up leaves yesterday but you can't tell it. The wind has blown down a lot more.

Saturday--

The temperatures, as the weather people promised, has turned colder.  Actually it is seasonally appropriate but we were spoiled by unseasonably warm temperatures for the last week.  I should sweep up the latest batch of leaves, put them on a couple more containers and cover with newspapers for the winter.  I will mix the whole mess of leaves and newspapers into the top of the soil next spring.  I need to find the plastic I have somewhere in the shed so I can tent the hyssop and lemon bee balm.  I hope they will come back next spring but I have seed if they don't.

I haven't had many comments on news because I really don't see much new in the news.  We have turned it off earlier and earlier because a) the stories don't interest us, b) they are repeated to the point of nausea, or c) they aren't really "stories" but just one or two sentence of uninformative verbiage. Has anyone else noticed how little real content is in our news any more? "Breaking" news broke two or more days ago and the report has nothing new to add. The stories focus on the emotional and dramatic not necessarily on accurate information. I am both bored and annoyed with the media.

Found on Business Insider.  The map sees oddly familiar.  It resembles those I have seen for poverty, states that refused to expand Medicaid, high unemployment levels and other such problems. Maybe FAT isn't the only new normal out there.

I heard the announcement that Northrup Grumman had been awarded the contract for the new stealth bomber--which hasn't even been fully developed yet. Reuters covers it in far more depth and I am simply dumfounded. I shouldn't be. I should be inured to the bureaucratic morass that passes for government in Washington. I have said often enough that there are some aspects of life that shouldn't be governed by the profit motive but we should have some level of accountability, some measure of efficacy. And we don't. Of course, what we often have are for profit companies that milk (and bilk) the treasury to fatten their profits.