Good Sunday to all.  The heat broke yesterday afternoon.  We watched our patio thermometer top out at about 92 before falling back into the 80s.  We turned off our air conditioner about 8:30 and opened the window upstairs.  A nice rain has fallen this morning.  No thunder or lightening or high winds--just a nice rain.  (Correction: we just got some thunder). I won't water today and for the next five will go back to selective watering.  I may not get anything done today if the rain continues--and I hope it does.  And I hope it goes east to where they really need it.  Kuma just came in soaking wet.  He was outside when the rain started and refuse come in.  I can't blame him.  I hated closing everything up during the heat.

Maha makes some good points about the wind/storm caused power outages that were so prevalent over the last two weeks.  I don't expect anything will be done to change the current situation.  Not when we have a major political party that thinks government shouldn't govern, that the market is rational, and that capitalism will find a workable market solution.  That is all a crock of bull.

Good Saturday, Everyone.  The temperature should only reach the high 90s today.  The rest of the week should stay in the 80s which well feel really good.  The 75 on the patio this morning felt like mid 80s when I watered everything and, again, that is all I have done.  Starting tomorrow I will start taming the herbs again.  They have grown like crazy.  One little butternut squash is just about ready and we will have it early next week.  I am watching the tomatoes and vine peaches very carefully.  And the cucumbers.

I found this article on NPR and the last paragraph is particularly interesting.  The earth is at its farthest distance from the sun for this year.

The morning news had an interesting segment.  The comments came in a discussion of the economic data which the reporters noted has been dismal.  Noting that no President has been re-elected when the unemployment has been over 8% or with a couple of other poor economic statistics which I can't remember now, they tried to explain why Obama and Romney are essentially tied in the polls.  By all historical patterns, Romney should be well ahead.  They cited some polls which indicate that voters may be 'losing faith' that anyone can really do anything to cure our economic malaise.  And we may be getting away from blaming individual politicians for the mess.  If so, maybe we are becoming more realistic in our expectations of our politicians.  And, perhaps, we aren't so ready to believe pie in the sky promises from either candidate. The above cartoon, from MSNBC, says it all.  I told Mom a couple of days ago that anyone or any group who thinks they can control the economy has a serious case of hubris.


This is utterly ridiculous.  To go back 21 years to try to find a tax overpayment and then try to get a refund??  If you or I tried that we would be laughed out of the office.  Seems to me it is a ploy to get out of paying the rest of what the company owes for the bailout that kept its sorry ass in business.  And from its major shareholder at that.

Hello, everyone.  I am already exhausted.  I got everything watered and managed to trim a bit on the roses and harvest a couple of strawberries, a lemon squash and three dragon's tongue beans.  We plan to have chef salads for dinner and will use the strawberries and lemon squash.  The temperature was a bit over 80 but with a brutal humidity.  We expect another triple digit day.  They have extended the heat warning to tomorrow.  We just saw the news report on the damage from a pop-up storm that hit Gary and Merrillville--about 25 miles west of here.  Thankfully, all we got was a bit of cloud cover that temporarily reduced the heat.  I have noticed that the cucumbers and beans are showing a bit of stress.  But the more corn plants are tasseling.

As the heat continues some news outlets have taken note.  I saw a couple of stories yesterday where reporters sounded an alarm over the possible consequences--general food prices increasing by 2-5% and meat prices as much as 10%.  The Department of Agriculture has severely reduced its early, optimistic estimates of corn and soy yields.  I was a bit skeptical because I was reading accounts of some plains farmers sowing corn in fields that were much too dry for the seed to germinate. They had a no-win choice: plant a crop that was likely to fail and collect the crop insurance or not plant and have no income.  And the weather people see no easing of the drought and an intensification in most areas.

Reading this article led me to ask a question that I am sure the powers that be would rather we not ask.  The economy produced a paltry 80K jobs last month.  That by itself was disappointing since most of the supposed experts thought the number would range from 100K to 150K.  But then most experts I read have maintained that we need 150K each month to keep up with the new workers entering the labor market.  That means that last month 70K new workers didn't have jobs waiting (150K-80K=70K).  But the unemployment rate stayed at 8.2.  So how many fell off the statistical radar?

Attaturk at Firedoglake has noticed the silence on the climate change denial side now that we have an ongoing heatwave of historic proportions.

Good hot first Thursday in July, Everyone.  Hope you are staying cool.  Our temperature on the patio hit 102 yesterday and today is predicted to top that.  I had to zip out and bring my sage in--it had dried out even though it was in the 'wet' category by my touch test and moisture meter.  But it had gone bone dry by late afternoon.  I will keep it inside for the next couple days but a thorough watering and the cooler temps inside have revived it.  On the whole I am very happy with the gardens.  They have come through the brutal weather very nicely--better than in past years.  But I think I will be watering each morning, whether I think the containers need it or not, until this heat breaks.  The nice thing about well drained containers is that you can't overwater most plants.

I saw a headline that intrigued me.  I won't link because the headline was for an article in the Wall Street Journal and I couldn't read more than the first couple of paragraphs.  I refuse to subscribe for the few articles I really want to read.  Any way--WikiLeaks has released some 2.4 million e-mails between the Syrian government and various western companies.  What intrigued me since I couldn't read the details?  The volume.  How in the world does one sift through that much information much less put it into some kind of meaningful context?

So the Fukushima disaster was man-made?  I will let you read the article.  I have long been a skeptic of the whole notion of nuclear energy.  The whole history of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and now Fukushima has reinforced my skepticism.

Economic Collapse has another of the 'evil empire of Wal-Mart' articles.  Though the headline promises  I will be shocked, I am not.  I am not surprised at the number of Americans who shop there each week or who spend $4k a year there.  We were once among that group.  We aren't any more.  Why?  Because of our experience on our last trip, which is typical of the very few such trips over the last half-dozen years or so.  We went in partly because we needed some new bras and were curious about the beef they have been advertising.  The beef--pricey, too much packaging (still), and though the label noted it was processed by Tyson it didn't list the country of origin (something we have become very cautious about.)  The other meats also had the same excess packaging with the nitrogen or CO2 gas to make the customer think the meat is fresher than it may be.  Walking back to the apparel area Mom checked the prices for some other items we normally buy--several cents higher than what we pay at our neighborhood supermarket.  Why drive farther and expend the gas for no benefit?  As to the bras--we found plenty in my size (a definite change from earlier years) but only a couple of black ones in Mom's size.  More often than not we come away from Wal-Mart empty handed because don't find what we want or we find what they offer more expensive that it is worth.  We don't mind paying the price for quality but we resent paying dear money for crap.

The continuing effects from the storms that blew through here and areas east all the way to the coast makes one think about what one really needs as a back up.  Some five days later a lot of people are still waiting for their power to be restored.  I remembered that FEMA recommended keeping a three day supply of nonperishable food and water.  But anyone who does that hopes the emergency doesn't last longer.  All too many emergencies over the last few years have lasted a full week or more.

Don't you just love our capitalist system?  The bankers evidently do.  Although one has to ask where capitalism ends and fraud begins.  I wish I felt sure that justice would be dished out on that case and on this one--but I think justice has been thoroughly purchased and, unfortunately, its price is way beyond my means or anyone in the lower .01% of our socioeconomic system.

We have listened to the news readers presenting various statistics from the FBI or the Chicago Police which claimed that various categories of crime were down.  Our skepticism antennae were raised because all of the categories involved crimes in the news with what seemed to us increasing frequency. I wonder if this report sheds any light on this discrepancy.  It would appear that economic and educational statistics aren't the only ones vigorously massaged to create the appearance the powers that be want us to see.

Franklin Roosevelt is supposed to have once said he wanted to be remembered for the enemies he made.  Perhaps we should remember Mitt Romney for his friends.

Happy 4th of July.  They predict another very warm day and we may exceed the 100 we hit yesterday. I have already finished in the gardens.  We decided to put the trash tote on the outside of the fence and redistribute the pots to give a bit more room to move around on the patio.  I discovered a little lemon squash that had hidden from me until I moved the pots.  I have a bunch of herbs that I need to harvest and dry but that will wait for tomorrow at the earliest.

Good sweltering Tuesday to you all.  Our thermometer on the patio registered 100 yesterday though, as  I have mentioned before, our little patio is something of an oven that concentrates heat.  Today we expect much the same with the possibility of afternoon thunderstorms.  We told Sister yesterday that we won't be over for her 4th of July cook-out.  Interesting bit of weather trivia--we have had 19 days of 90+ temperatures.  Normal--5.  And that tis the most for this early in the year.  We need to do our bi-weekly shopping this morning so all I have done in the gardens is water.  I found only four plants needed water: two tomatoes and the lavender and rosemary.  I am very pleased with the results from adding vermiculite to my soil.  It has cut my watering by half to two-thirds.  I found some little cucumbers and a couple of little vine peaches.  All of the tomatoes are showing good fruit.  And those two peppers I thought were never going to develop--well they are flowering.  Go figure!!  The roses are  showing life also.  I thought I had lost them. I had tucked them into a space between two large pots and they responded by dropping most of their foliage and some canes.  I moved their pot onto my potting bench/patio table where they get more sun and air circulation, and then left them alone.  Sometimes the minimalist approach is best.

This is a very sad sign of the times.

I don't know about anyone else, but I think $3billion is much too low a fine for this kind of corporate criminality.  Actually, I am not sure exactly how much GSK is getting hit with and has agreed to.  Undernews cites the figure at $4 billion with another $2 billion possible.  I really should read a bit closer.  The GSK figure is the same while the rest of the money figures come from fines either levied (against Abbott) or pending (against Johnson&Johnson.)

Here is a clear indication that we are reviving 'debt slavery.'  Predatory capitalism at its finest. (And yes that is sarcasm.)

Update: I noticed that a few of my corn plants are tasseling.  I hope to get a few ears.  We just finished our shopping and found that our favorite stand-alone farm market is open again.  Yipee!!!

One of the many really good aspects of the Affordable Care Act.  I really resent these companies soaking it to me because I am a woman.  Just as much as I resent the private company that runs the Indiana Tollroad charging more for those who use cash.  They just raised fares again for the cash customers only while leaving the fares charged various electronic pass customers the same.  That is why we refuse to use the Tollroad any more.  We didn't use it much--3 or 4 times a year--so it wouldn't break us to pay the higher fees.  But the discrimination really pisses us off.

Good Monday, Everyone.  After a very lazy weekend I got out in the gardens this morning.  I don't have to water--thanks to our monsoonal rains on Friday and Sunday.  Between the two I think we got about an inch.  Yesterday afternoon's thunderstorm had more high winds and driving rain.  The wind almost blew my rosemary off the fence and did blow the sheet I had shading the greenhouse off onto one of my tomato plants.  I ran out and grabbed the sheet, the rosemary and the hanging hummingbird feeder just before the rain slammed into us.  Thankfully, no damage here though the news said that areas of Chicago had some severe damage and widespread power outages.  From the weather forecasts we can expect such episodes for the next week--at least.  The say the winds reached 80 o 90 mph.

We just took a nice walk around the neighborhood.  Only a few tree limbs down and one building is missing a section of its eaves.  The city has been repairing, widening and extending the sidewalks along a couple of the main streets here and they are very nice.  The old ones (those we had) were so narrow that only one person could walk comfortably.  Now we can walk two abreast and still have room to pass others (or be passed.)

I found this interesting because I had a good bit of dental work done in our local Aspen Dental office this last spring.  Comparing my experience with the woman in the story is revealing.  I needed a broken, infected tooth removed.  I got the free exam and x-rays as promised.  Then I also was presented with an extensive list of other work that the dentist thought I should also get.  The quoted cost amounted to nearly the same $7+k mentioned in the story and I was also offered the credit card.  I rejected the credit card outright and told the office manager firmly that I don't do credit cards--period.  Then we started dickering over what I really needed and what the costs would be.  By the time we got done the treatments included two crowns, two fillings, one tooth pulled, and a thorough cleaning/descaling for around $3500.  That may sound like a lot but it was a bit under half the original.  Considering my teeth hadn't had any attention for 50 years (thanks to the last brutal treatment I got at age 13) and I got to keep all but the one tooth that was removed--I feel I got a good deal.  We aren't used to questioning doctors and dentists but given the commercialization of medicine and dentistry, which rewards the practitioners for the number of procedures they can talks their customers into, we need to question and then we need to understand the answers.  It is sad that we have to be so vigilant about protecting ourselves but that is the world of predatory capitalism.

There is something disturbing about the headlines like the one for this article.  I can't remember widespread blackouts due to storms when I was a child.  In fact, for most of my adult life, electrical service has been so reliable that we never gave it a thought.  Although our local service has been highly reliable other areas not too far away have not been so lucky.  As a result we think more about what we would do without electricity.  And, every time we see headlines like the one I linked to above, we think about it even more.