Sunny, dry and warm--but not too warm. We have been able to turn off the air conditioner and open the windows for most of the last week--those days when we didn't have rain which weren't many. Most of the plants are looking a bit ragged now especially the early blooming ones. They are still blooming but sparsely and I think suffering a bit from being pot bound. I think is is about time to start taking some of them out. I think the Meyer lemon didn't like that long spate of very wet weather we had. Its leaves aren't just getting spreading yellow spots but falling off. I am already thinking about what I will do next year.
This post from The Atheist Revolution expresses my thoughts on Liz Cheney quite well. I don't at all agree with most of her policy or her philosophy over all but I do respect her courage and willingness to stand by her convictions. There is a line from a country song the title of which I can't remember which says "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." The current Republicans are demonstrating the truth of that. They don't stand for anything and they fall for all of The Former Guy's shit--even if the shit of today contradicts the shit of yesterday.
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Another day like yesterday. I should have watered some things but didn't. We did our grocery shopping today and we don't do much else after a shopping trip we don't want to do more than lounge. We filled the gas tank thankful that the price had fallen below $4/gal. But I noticed on the news this morning that the Saudis threatened that OPEC+ will cut production if the price of oil falls. I also noticed that the price of oil is again over $90/barrel.
I have read several articles on the phenomenon of the "quiet quit." I'll let you do your own google search. I will just make a coupe of observations. I see two diametrically opposed opinions expressed. Either the "quiet quitters" are lazy, entitled millennials or gen-zs who want the world given them; or, the "quiet quitters" simply want boundaries which protect family time and workers' mental health. I grew up in a society which encouraged people to give more than "officially" asked in the job description, to sacrifice relationships with friends and family for the job/career and lionized those who 'worked through' exhaustion, depression, and physical or mental collapse. It never worked for me. I find myself now in my old age with a small (barely sufficient) Social Security income, unemployable (considered too old, to overqualified, or without pertinent experience), and with few close friends and family. Frankly, I am cheering for the quiet quitters.
Naked Capitalism posted this article on the energy situation for U.K. consumers which is severe and promises to become worse in the next year. Brits are basically trying to mount a payment strike. That will be interesting. The problems in China's real estate markets where some buyers are doing something akin to what happened during the housing crash here a little over a decade ago: sending the banks the keys and saying we won't pay. I guess Biden will finally make a decision on forgiving (perhaps) $10k of student loans for those borrowers making less than $120k. I'm not holding my breath because that level of forgiveness wouldn't do me much good--it would disappear in interest within in a year. This was another feature of our social/economic system I wish I had gotten wise to much earlier--like before I ever took out the loans. But I was told it was "good debt" which I could easily handle after I got the "good" job commensurate with my education. No debt is really good, the good job never appeared and the labor market has been changing drastic over most of my adult life and the jobs I hoped to qualify for either disappeared or were drastically reduced both with respect to both numbers of jobs and pay.
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