November 15

   Nice and sunny today. Overnight temperatures in the 30s with daytime highs in the 50s and 60s. I keep looking at the patio wondering when I should cut what back a bit. Yesterday we did our grocery shopping three days early because the dairy we patronize had the turkeys we and some of their other customers ordered a couple of weeks ago. They don't have a lot of storage area so we figured they would rather we came by earlier than later. As we left home we noticed that one of our neighbors had put a small table, a straight-back chair and large flower pot out for pick-up. We decided to grab the pot and the table. We don't need another chair but I had an idea of where to use the table and I am a sucker for good garden pots. It looked like a lot of people are getting rid of furniture but if we can't use it we leave it. And we don't need a lot.

Every time I think the childish ass holes (and that might be a slur on children) in D.C. can't go any lower they somehow find a new escalator down further. I won't post since the behavior was covered ad nauseam last night and this morning. I am struggling not to yawn about the passage of a continuing resolution that is almost the same as the last continuing resolution and cost the last Speaker his gavel. And it sets up two more budget battles in January and February. And Chief Justice John Roberts announced an ethics code which is nothing at all. It merely lists possible violations but it is up to each justice to determine if an action violates the code and if s/he should recuse from a case AND there are NO means to for anyone to lodge an ethics complaint AND there is NO investigative body mandated AND there NO punishments for the offending justice. It is a nothing burger as several commentators have noted.

Found this interesting piece on OK Doomer by way of Naked Capitalism. As I read it though I thought of another problem with changing. We have thought about cutting our use of plastics but trying to do that runs into our culture. Plastics are everywhere. Almost all of the food we get is wrapped in plastic. Over the years I have kept plastic food containers when I could--that is, when I had a space for them and they were still intact. Some of the containers are great for small amounts of left overs for the refrigerator or for meal sized portions of food to be frozen. I don't microwave in plastic any more because we have several small glass containers. But getting totally out of plastics isn't possible. There are other areas where cutting down is the most change we can manage. As for the other factors thee author mentions it reminds me of a character in novel who refers to cats as "furry little Republicans who hate change." Cats and Republicans aren't the only ones who don't like change.

Another interesting link via Naked Capitalism is this Honest Broker take on the movie industry. Mom and I have thought for some time that we have a creativity problem in movies, TV, and (for me) books. Over the last five years we have bought fewer DVD (we stopped going to the movie theater about 15 years ago because the tickets cost more than the pleasure we got out of the films.) We don't follow any TV series and most of the fare on the tube are faux "reality" programs often masked as competitions. I have purchased far fewer books for the last four years or so because I start one and say "Oh, hell, this again!" It is boring.

Erin Brockovich has a good recap of an issue I have been reading about for some time--how America's Ag Industry is poisoning the environment and us while producing our food. Actually, it shouldn't be surprising. Our industrial model of producing everything pushes what once worked and pushes it til it doesn't work any more and actually becomes counterproductive if not dangerous.