October 3

 Good morning on this sunny day. We expect mild temps in the mid 70s and no rain. I am debating when I should unhook the garden hose for the season. Average first frost here is about October 15 and a good freeze could come before the end of the month. However, I have seen seasons where we didn't get a hard freeze until January. I should cut back some of the petunias and take down the sunflowers. Both are pretty well done for the year. It is time to consider what to plant next year.

Erin Brockovich has a long post today on the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. She covers some concerns that the news (even the Weather Channel) coverage doesn't mention much at all: the pollution the comes from industrial site being flooded. Considering the scope of the devastation recovery will be a very long term project. Some of those areas and people will never recover.

Stray thought: I watched a part of a "conversation" last night that included a couple of committed Trump supporters. One had broken with Trump after Jan. 6 but has now returned because, in his opinion, the Biden Administration's policies were so damaging to the country he was "forced" to pivot back to Trump. He remarked that once the Republican Party regained power they could return the focus to policy. That struck me as odd because they seem to be ditching their principles which support their policies in the pursuit of power. Without the principles the policies are ephemeral and I doubt they can regain the principles after they have gained power. That pundit is like the man who sells his soul to the devil expecting the bill will never come due.

October 1

Welcome to October.  Only three months left in this year and only one and a few days before the election. We had errands to run this morning so I am only now getting to my reading. The Vice Presidential debate goes on tonight. I don't know whether we will watch. 

Right now the news is covering the Iranian missile attack on Israel which isn't really surprising after the leader of their ally in Lebanon, Hezbollah, was killed during Israeli bombing over the last few days. And Israel is sending ground troops into southern Lebanon. I don't expect this to end any time soon no matter how you define "end." 

First news this morning involved the longshoremen's strike at the ports on the East Coast and Gulf. Most of the stories seem to balance the workers' demands against the consumers of the goods being shipped into the ports. The increasing use of automatic against the kids Christmas gifs. One of the reports said the employer's offers included a really big pay bump over the six years the proposed agreement would run. But I rather sympathize with the workers because what good does that increased pay do you when automation takes the job away. Another story claimed that the shipping companies made a huge profit during the pandemic but little of that windfall fell to the workers. We'll see what happens.

This piece by Meaghan Ward on Medium is interesting. Some teenagers are refusing to go to school. And, according to the author, refusing to "participate in life. I have heard of similar situations in Japan and China. It was bad enough in China that the government tried to wage a propaganda campaign against the trend. The really interesting comments came at the end of the article. Asked what the kids will do if they don't go to school, what work will they be able to get, one mother said she thought her daughter has watched how hard she work and how little she got for the work--and has decided she wants none of it. When I was young, more years ago than I care to think, I was assured hard work would let me get ahead in life. Working hard in school would lead to a good job which would pay for a good life. By the 1990s or so, I summed up where that philosophy had gotten me: working my self to death to barely survive. By the time I retired thirteen years ago I modified that: working my self to death to not survive at all. I wasn't surprised when a lot of workers took early retirements (when they could) during the recession of 2007-9. I wasn't surprised when those who could did the same during the pandemic or jumped at arrangements for working from home. They decided to step off the treadmill.