May 8--VE Day

We often watch BBC News and they covered the VE Day observances in the U.K. I noticed also that we haven't observed it much over here.

I wonder myself and have noticed that a good many bloggers and pundits are wondering what lasting effects this pandemic will have. This little item asks if it will teach us to be frugal. Some of us, perhaps. However, I have seen a number of people in the news stories of the protests bemoaning the fact the can't visit their hairdressers, or nail salons. On the other hand, I have brought out my old knitting loom to use up some of my scrap stash (the left overs from earlier projects), my drop spindle (which I have been threatening to learn to use since the late 1980s when I bought it on a whim), and am thinking about making a new bird feeder out of a 2 liter bottle.

The winds are kicking up here and making an already chilly day downright cold. We are suppose to have a freeze tonight before the temperatures go back to near normal. Just in case I moved the spearmint cuttings, roses, and rosemary plants into the shed til tomorrow afternoon. I plan on getting some more seedlings out into the gardens as I get the containers ready. I have a bag of compost to mix with the soil before I set the plants. I have several improvised cloches to give them some protection from any more low temps, or from wind and heavy rain like we had a few days ago.

The job losses over the last three weeks has been breathtaking. However, the labor "market" has been in trouble for several years. We are used to the old economic class divisions: rich, middle, working, and poor. Over the last couple of years several economic/social bloggers proposed a different system: privileged (the 1% and 0.1%), the protected (those whose jobs directly supports the privileged), and those whose jobs and income are increasingly precarious, the "precariate" (low wage, uncertain hours, gig etc.). Robert Reich offers another descriptive ordering that fits the age of the coronavirus. The Remotes whose jobs allows them to work remotely by computer, Zoom or other means. They can live and work with more space, with good health care and benefits. The Unpaid: those laid off, recently fired, gig workers without new gigs. The Essentials whose work puts them in harm's way: medical personnel, food production workers, grocery clerks, police, fire etc. And, finally, the Forgotten: the incarcerated, undocumented, homeless, etc.