Several posts in the past I noted that I am a news junkie.  However, I also am a junkie who doesn't subscribe or otherwise buy any newspaper at all.  Mom and I stopped getting the Sunday papers (Chicago Tribune for me and Northwest Indiana Times for her) when we became unhappy with the coverage.  It wasn't worth getting out on a Sunday morning and driving to the store and forking over $4 for the two papers, and then having to throw away all that paper afterward.  This little blog from Eric Boehlert at Media Matters illustrates our disenchantment with the mainstream media whether print or broadcast.  Living within 50 miles of Chicago we, of course, got bombarded with the broadcast coverage of Jesse Jackson whispering that he wanted to emasculate Barak Obama.  We saw NO coverage of Senator McCain's comments concerning Social Security.  It seems that Senator McCain not only doesn't know much about economics; he doesn't know much about history either.  Surely such abysmal ignorance is relevant when voters judge the 'qualifications' of candidates to be President.

Going through my usual blogs this morning I noticed that Entitled To Know and AARP both carried updates concerning the votes Tuesday evening overriding President Bush's veto (of late Tuesday afternoon) of the Medicare bill eliminating the 10.6% cut in payments to physicians providing care for Medicare recipients.  The over ride votes passed, if I am reading the figures right, by larger margins that the original legislation.  It may be my imagination but it appears to me that the President and his cronys are increasingly desperate to secure as much increase to his constituents' (read the energy, finance, and insurance sectors) bottom lines as possible before he leaves office.  You know, just in case his pet successor doesn't win the election in November.  By the way, to continue the comments of the last paragraph, the veto override did not make the mainstream media. At least not yet.

Yesterday we finally experienced our second 90 degree day here.  Today and tomorrow are expected to hit at least the mid 90s.  We finally turned on our air conditioner for the today.  We decided that we will put it on about 11 each day and leave it on until between 5 or 6 in the evening.  We never have run it much.  We set the thermostat to 70  in the winter, only because the temperatures away from where ever the sensor is stays about 68-9.  Summer thermostat settings are 78.  We are always amazed by how early and how often our neighbors heat or air conditioning runs.  Each year we figure out how to refine how we use both the air and heat.  As a result our bills have remained the same or, in a couple of years, actually went down.

I had to move my tomato plants around because our little patio is like an oven.  even though most of the pots are light colored they still absorb a lot of heat and the plants looked a bit wilted.  The picture at the top are the plants as of a couple of weeks ago.  They are doing much better than the ones we planted last year.  I think the pots are still too small and next year we are going to put only two plants into a large 30 gallon tub we found.  I had to put foil on one because we converted a clear plastic container to planter and the dark soil in the container absorbs way too much heat.  This is something else we plan to refine over time.

This post reminded me of one of the downsides to working for someone else. Your schedule is always controlled by someone else. I have never found a good carry-in meal. I don't like warm sandwiches and wilted lettuce. The employer may or may not offer a break room with microwave and fridge. More often my employers had vending machines for us. I can't count the number of times I finally got a late break and was so hungry I went for what ever was handy regardless of cost and nutrition. Or finally got off work and was so hungry I stopped at the nearest fast food joint. The cost wasn't the only draw back. I have always gained weight no matter what job I had. The more boring the job, the worse the weight gain.

I ran across this post and debated a bit before I decided to comment. As I read it I asked myself the same question I asked when I read posts about the mining company that wants to exploit a rich vein of gold that happens to be under a mountain that is sacred to the Western Shoshone and pollute the local stream with its waste. Or the mining company that wants to drill test cores for uranium in the Grand Canyon and on public lands adjacent to the Navajo lands in the southwest. Or the mining company that plans to lop the top of a mountain to get at the coal and dump the rubble in the adjacent valley. When do the environmental effects of our 'harvesting' mineral resources outstrip the value of the resources acquired? Unfortunately we have never found a way of valuing the birds, the streams, the land, or the air so a reasonable comparison can be made. And we have a long history of companies harvesting the resources and leaving the mess for others to clean up, maybe.

Mom and I were admiring our tomato plants. I showed her the blossoms coming out--a lot of blossoms. We are so looking forward to tomatoes that will have some flavor. The first ones will be taken green and fried. Yummm!!! Mom remarked in passing that we won't have to worry about salmonella. So right about that!!

This blog entry features a couple of thoughts that have come to me frequently of late. I have used the embroidery features on my sewing machine. I have drooled over the computerized machines and their embroidery capabilities. But, on reflection, I find I have no real desire to use acquire one of those machines or even to use my own machines features very much. I enjoy the hand work. I love the feeling I get when the embroidery turns out as or better than I thought it would. I will leave the machine work to others who enjoy it as much as I enjoy the hand work. I also think it sad that we equate efficiency with machines, speed, and the increased number of things done to the point that mechanization has become an unquestioned good. At the same time all hand work has taken on the aura of drudgery to be avoided.  Most of the jobs I have had provided little in the way of aesthetic satisfaction (and often almost as little in financial joy) so my needlework feed my soul.  Doing it by hand yields, for me, the most pleasure.

According to the weather forecasts we can expect some truly spring-like weather--finally, maybe.  We had nice clear blue skies yesterday and the clouds have cleared away for a nice sunny morning today.  I hope the temperature gets to the 70s again and, if it does, my cats can go out on the patio today.  They have been more insistent on getting out lately.  Thankfully our landlords fenced all of the patios in their units a couple of years ago, so the monsters have gotten used to their little world outside.

Over the last week and a half I got my African violets transplanted.  They are recovering and spreading out nicely.  They are in blooming mode again and are covered in blossoms.  I also got my tomatoes sorted out.  I had planned to start some plants from seed back in February.  But for most of February we had ice, freezing rain, snow and freezing temperatures.  The shed where we keep our limited gardening supplies was inaccessible.  The blasted lock on the door was frozen and we couldn't even get the key in.  Instead, I started some seeds early last month and, when the garden shops put out their plants, we bought a very well grown plant to start us while ours come up.  I just repotted that one and the two strongest of our own.  We are so looking forward to our own vine ripened tomatoes this summer.

 I was at loose ends after finishing the little boy quilt for my nephew and his wife.  They e-mailed the birth announcement a few days ago.  Mother and baby are fine and doing well.  Next project--a wall quilt for my sister for her 50th birthday.  The idea for it is pretty well fixed in my mind and, if I can transfer pictures to cloth, will be a striking and unique piece.  I need to get busy on it if I am to have it done in time.

I want to thank Lynn for stopping by yesterday and commenting.  She made a couple of very good points.  It is difficult even for fairly well off people with sufficient income to make healthy eating choices.  And it is even more difficult if those people want to make healthy and environmentally responsible choices.  We did not buy any tomatoes over the winter.  They were transported a long distance from warmer areas, expensive and, we know from experience that the flavor has been bred out of them.  I suspect much of the nutrition as well.  Nor do we buy out of season fresh fruit.  We hear news stories frequently urging seniors especially to increase the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables in their diet but rarely do the stories mention the cost.  Lynn mentioned the meals provided in the school lunch programs.  I haven't followed this topic very closely.  I do, however, remember when the Reagan administration tried to have catsup classified as a vegetable.  Couple that with the item on our local news last night, or within the last couple of days, asking for increased donation to the local food pantries.  The person interviewed noted that the school year is ending and many children will loose a significant portion of their daily nutrition when they no longer get the free lunch.  Researchers studying how many excess calories the average obese person consumes should take into consideration the choices available to that person and should remember that 'average' can be a very misleading description.

I have followed the stories over the last week centered on Bush's speech in Israel and Obama's response to it.  As Nikki Stern noted we have always talked to our enemies.  Mr. Bush seems to have forgotten the old saying "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."  He has alienated our friends as well as our enemies.  But I found something else on line that I didn't think to book mark and so can't link. Sorry.  During a segment of an interview program where 'experts' discussed the speech and the response, the interviewer took on one of the participants who likened Obama to Chamberlain.  Asked what Chamberlain DID that warranted the comparison he simply replied that he was an 'appeaser.'  When pressed to cite what it was Chamberlain did to merit that description all the fellow could do was fall back on the description of appeaser.  Even when the interviewer mentioned Munich the man couldn't get beyond the description to describe the deed.  

 

That segment illustrates why I so very rarely watch or listen to many talk shows.  They are merely shouting matches where whoever gets in the most words at the loudest volume thinks he has won.  It doesn't matter if his argument makes sense or has any evidence.  That aside this man totally failed to understand the question and failed to answer it.  He had been asked what Chamberlain did not how future generations judged his action.  He could not, apparently, tell the difference.  If he had written this on a history exam I had to grade he would have been given an F.  However, he is in good company in his historical ignorance.  His commander in chief, and his speech writers, knows as little.  Bush cited 'a Senator' who lamented just after Hitler marched into Poland that he could have changed things if he could only have talked to Hitler.  Bush failed to note that the Senator was Senator Borah, a Republican and a staunch isolationist.  He also failed to note, as did Borah at the time, that French and British diplomats, including Chamberlain, had tried to talk to Hitler and those efforts failed to deter Hitler.  For our President, on a selective basis, the words "talk" and "appeasement" have become synonymous--as long as he is talking about Democrats.

I don't watch much of George Carlin but I think this is right on target. Thank you, History Mike.  Makes you wonder what dear Mr. Bush really meant when hoped to privatize Social Security and establish an 'ownership' society.  Just what would the majority of us own??