March 10--one third gone--oh my!

Good gods how time does fly. We have had nice, warmer weather since March came in. As I took the trash tote out to the curb I noticed that my chamomile and woad are green. They may have survived so far. The rose looks good also. The weather forecast is for temperatures in the 40s to 60s for the next ten days and a few bouts of rain. We might have snow one morning but the temp is supposed to be about 31* which means it won't last long. We might be snow free by the end of the month.

I am resisting the urge to get out and dig something. One of the gardeners whose blog I read regularly is doing the same. She remembers last March 10 when she had a lot of early, cool season veggies already planted only to loose the lot to late March snows and an unusual April freeze. I didn't really start planting until the last week of May and into June. It is always an adventure.

This has been a week of rememberance--sometimes comic, sometimes mourning, sometimes analytical. This piece by Wolf Richter posted on Naked Capitalism makes a point I have been thinking: business has changed and the world of business and employment will not go back to the pre-COVID normal afterward. For those of us who can afford the products and services, we will find fewer human contacts and, perhaps, more streamlined, efficient, and satisfying processes. For those who need jobs there will be a few more high-tech but a lot fewer lower tech jobs. Unemployment will remain high and only go down when the government data erases the "discouraged workers" from the statistics. I said the experience for consumers would "perhaps" be more satisfying but I telemedicine might have a hard time selling its services. My mother, as a patient, and her doctor, as a provider, both find the process deeply unsatisfying.

Rebecca Gordon has a piece on work that is worth a read. It is timely considering the argument over the extension of unemployment benefits in the COVID relief bill that is back in the House for its second passage (hopefully). The current fairly low unemployment rate is low only because a lot of people are no longer in the labor market. I have been totally bummed for a long time that so much work doesn't register as work in our economy because, though necessary, it is unpaid. During the last recession Dmitri Orlov wrote that people might not have jobs but they still had to work and things have not changed. I can relate to her opening about her love affair with a floor loom and weaving. I embroider, cross stitch, crochet and have two small hand looms along with four spindles I am slowly learning to work. I find a sense of accomplishment I finish a new piece or an experimental piece works out.