June 7

We have a nice light rain today which we need. However, I won't be going out to tend the gardens. From the door everything looks very nice. Some plants are rather spectacular. The red rose is the first of the lot to bloom in the pots and it is covered with flowers. The pink isn't far behind. The yellow one is the newest, just transplanted from a decorative and very small vase, and won't do much this year. Its first blossoms which were full when we bought it have faded. The Asiatic lilly is also coming out in a spectacular way.

Anyone remember when climate scientists and activists told us that we should keep the CO2 levels in the atmosphere below 350 parts per million? When I first read that about 20 years ago I looked up when we were last at that level--right around 1985. According to Axios we are well over that now. This year's readings are the highest since reliable records have been kept (about 60+ years) and the highest for around 4 million years. They describe what earth was like then but I will let you follow the link.

We received the new lease in the mail today to review and sign. The only change was the rent has increased $25/month. Since that is the first increase in the 20 years we have been here we aren't complaining. We got everything signed and took it over to the office. It was nice to touch base with time in person for the first time in almost 16 months. It used to be a monthly ritual to take our rent check in and gossip a bit but the pandemic altered that. Nice that another facet of life has shifted closer to what was once normal. Evidently the rental market, for our landlords at lease, is indeed hot. The manager said that they have no vacancies and several units were rented sight unseen. Ever since the Great Recession I have speculated about "refugees" from Chicago coming out this way. Home building hasn't slowed down from what we can see and several neighbors who once lived in Chicago and who moved into units here were marking time until they either found a suitable home for sale or had one built.

I have reading and listening to the news about how slowly workers are returning to jobs that the are opening up far faster than workers are applying for them. There is a lot of speculation about why that is. Mostly the focus is on Republican governors and business leaders criticizing the expanded unemployment allowing lazy people to stay out of the job market. But others, like Charles Hugh Smith, have different explanations.