Monday--

Hope you had a good holiday weekend. Ours was pleasant: dinner with brother and his family. We don't do much for any holiday. I will say I haven't been as grumpy this season--perhaps because we don't watch much TV any more so we don't see much of the endless Christmas commercials. In that vein, I would have much more sympathy for Catholicism if all I had to go by was Pope Francis. As it is he is a (sometimes) bright spot in an otherwise bleak religion. For me, anyway. Sorry all you Catholics.

The post-mortems on the election continue and the same on Obama's Presidency are starting. James Kunstler has a good one at Clusterfuck Nation.

Tuesday--

Temps have returned to something near normal for late December--high 20s this morning. That is after a near 50 yesterday. After several days of warm weather, and one of persistent and at times heavy rain, a large part of the snow we received early in the month is gone. My spinach is sprouting upstairs but nothing from the lettuce yet.

Wednesday--

We have seen this trend over the last couple of years with Mom's doctors. Originally she paid the co-pay at the end of her appointment. About two years ago they started collecting when she registered for her appointment. We haven't had any emergency visits lately so what who would collect and when is a question I can't answer.

I have read several articles on this development. We got rather used to seeing disturbances at the malls on Black Friday though this year was surprisingly quiet at that time. Then the post-Christmas chaos came. I can only wonder what in the hell has happened to people?

Thursday--

This is wrong!! And it is why I am glad the larger, multinational versions of such "trade" agreements (TTP and TTIP) failed. I wish the Tanzanian government had told the G8 to take their "development" funds and go elsewhere. The environment loses, the farmers lose. The only winners: Monsanto et. al.

John Michael Greer has his annual assessment of his predictions at the end of last year and his predictions for the coming year. His are among the more realistic prognostications though some might not like how many "we just don't know"s are included. But in fact on so many issues we don't know either the trajectory or the speed of potential changes. As has been said before: buckle up; its going to be a bumpy ride.