Good Morning, again, everyone. My cat is very unhappy and has been for the last few days. We haven't let him out first thing in the morning because the temps have been below 50 degrees. This morning we only hit 38. He may have a fur coat but we don't. Sometimes the seasonal changes are unsettling--although he would probably say something stronger. Did anyone else see the little blurb on the news citing a new 'scientific' study which concludes that we should do away with our 'daylight savings' regime? This study found, contrary to popular propaganda, it doesn't save energy and it is very hard on the body. I have said that for years but didn't have numbers to back it up.

I have felt dissatisfied for a number of years by the Holiday creep, Lois. The commercialization only adds to my disgruntlement. Before the economic crash began Visa had a commercial which showed a humming store coming to a crashing halt when some benighted soul tried to use cash or a check. The message was that the 'speed' of commerce (and daily life with it) required the speed of Visa. The speed of commerce also requires consumers who are willing (if not actually able) to spend freely. But over the last several years (well before the 'Great Recession) spending has been less and less rewarding (whether spending on myself or others.) But I still like my holidays 'in season' and this nonsense of a 6 month Christmas 'season' or manufactured 'holidays' like Sweetness Day simply annoy me. I really don't even like to make gifts anymore. In a commercial world I am not at all sure a made gift is really appreciated. Has anyone had the feeling that the recipient of a hand-made baby afghan or quilt would have been just as happy, and perhaps happier, with a commercially produced item they could put a dollar figure on? Maybe I am getting cynical but, over the last several years, I have had that feeling often.

I have had a reasonably productive morning. Actually, a productive couple of days. I am irritated because some of that productivity was spent correcting a problem with something I had done before and the problem was not with what I did but what I used to do it. I recently bought some new wicks from Michaels and used them when I poured a few candles. A couple of weeks ago we tried to light one of the candles and the wick barely caught. A second candle also sputtered and almost went out. I checked over the wicks and found that each had a metal piece and not much else left. Then I checked package. Each of the remaining wicks has a shiny metal core and were supposed to be 'coated'; with what over what I have no idea. So, after a bit of research on line, I braided several wicks out of some spare bedspread weight crochet thread, soaked them in wax, and used them for six votive candles. The one we lit this morning burned nicely and I used the others as the cores for some new candles. I had to completely melt out the wax for the older candles which did not make me happy. From now on--I make my own wicks.

Good morning to you all. We woke to calm winds but cloudy skies. We still expect strong gusts but nothing like what we had earlier this week. Of course, with the winds we get the leaves from the surrounding trees. Since I have the compost tub this year I am sweeping them up and putting them to good use. At least as long as I have room in the tub. We are expecting some low temps overnight over the next week. We'll see how much longer the marigolds and mums last. I took some of the marigold seeds to save for next year. I don't know how they will do since they are a hybrid variety. I hope it will be interesting. The overnight lows are getting down far enough that I turned off the water and drained most of the water out of the hose. All these little seasonal chores that remind you winter isn't far off.

The evening news Wednesday night had a brief segment that reflected a trend we have noticed for sometime--all the sneaky ways manufacturers have of raising prices without seeming to have done so. The biggest way is one I have commented on often here--reducing the amount in a package without changing the package noticeably. It is interesting that the news media picked up on this. I figure we can expect even more in the future since commodity prices have gone up spectacularly over the last year.

Did you hear that some of the nations retailers plan to start their 'Black Friday' specials this last Friday of October? That was also on our local news lately. Last year they tried to drum up business by making all Fridays after Thanksgiving 'Black Fridays.' The holiday creep has accellerated. I wonder when they will start the 2011 holiday sales season--January 2?? That way they can eliminate the after-Christmass sales.

Good morning, Everyone. Our weather made the national news. The winds are here along with the wind. They say that the low pressures will be the strongest in some 70 years. We also have, in addition to the high wind warnings, tornado warnings. I quickly go some light weight items into the storage shed this morning. I know I won't do anything outside today and doubt I will tomorrow as the winds are supposed to continue through Wednesday.

I have a link today that should make anyone who reads it angry. I don't think I need to comment.

Weather update: just spent the last half hour downstairs because of the tornado warning that just expired. The sirens went off for, maybe, the 6th or 7th time (barring monthly tests) since we moved in here. But the worst, for now has moved east.

I have written before about our misguided notions about higher education. Here is a link to an Alternet article which very nicely expresses many of my own thoughts on the subject. And, of course, the grand strategy for renewed economic vigor is--more higher education. But where are the jobs for our so supremely educated people? I don't see them now or in the future. Also, think about this little fact--while students here graduate with worthless degrees and a crippling pile of debt employers who could hire them are moving their operations overseas to where other highly educated people are willing and able to work for considerably less. Talk about sending good money down a rat hole.

Good Monday morning to you all. We have had some warmer than normal weather and the near forecast has totally eliminated the possibility of a hard freeze for the next week. We also got some nice, though insufficient rain, over night for the last couple of nights. I managed to wash down half of my patio and rearrange the containers on that side yesterday. That half looks so much neater. Fall (and early spring, as Mom reminded me) is such an untidy season. I also spread the compost on two of the containers before trying to put the lids on them for the winter. I say try because the long sides of the containers have bowed out drawing the short sides in so the lids do not fit at all anymore. I keep them on with bungie cords. Now all I have to do is clean out the other side and turn off the water for the season. I guess everyone had a bad season for tomatoes this year. Talking to the siblings at Mom's birthday party over the weekend I get the impression that nothing much did well for them. My patch of tomatoes and peppers probably did the best. Too hot and dry for much too long.

Several days ago, Rain at Rainy Day Things made some good observations and asked some good questions about the intersection of religion and politics in this country. One of her key questions was 'should a candidate's religious beliefs influence whether you would vote for him/her?' That has been rattling around in my mind for several days now leading me into some very strange paths of thought. Rain makes the astute observation that Republican candidates, especially in the South, have a very hard time getting nominated, much less elected, if they don't hew closely to what Rain calls 'christianist' (as opposed to Christian) positions. This article from the New York Times indicates that demands for orthodoxy doesn't just affect Protestants. I remember the storied 1960 election when John Kennedy had to repeatedly make it clear that he, a Catholic, would not be controlled by the Pope. We have come a very long way backwards over the last several decades. Over the last ten years we have seen Catholic bishops threaten Catholic politicians with excommunication if they voted in any way that could be construed as favorable to abortion rights, reproductive rights, or gay rights. John Kennedy insisted on being an American Catholic. The purists in the Church now insist that their communicants be Catholic American. Unfortunately, we have seen the same hardening of lines among some of the Protestant denominations.

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, I would have told Rain that I never would have considered a candidate's religion when making my choice in the voting booth. Now, I can't say that. Once upon a time, I would have respected the candidate's religious beliefs and been fairly sure that he would have respected mine and would have known where to draw the line. Now, I can't be at all sure of that. I realized that two years ago when Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, was pursuing the Republican nomination. Stories came out about two parole cases that came before him that made me question this matter. Two men, each convicted of heinous crimes, requested parole claiming that during their incarceration they had experienced a religious conversion and reformation. One man's request was refused and he was executed. The other was granted and he was freed with the condition that he leave the state on release. The one that was refused had converted to Buddhism. The one Huckabee granted converted to fundamentalist Protestant Christianity. The one who was freed went on to rape and murder three, I think, women in another state. Mike Huckabee, a born-again-fundamentalist-Protestant-Christian, accepted the 'conversion' of the Christian and freed him while not accepting the conversion of the Buddhist allowing him to be executed. This incident made me doubt that Mike Huckabee could be trusted to administer justice impartially. That means I can no longer trust that candidates respect the religious choices and values of those who don't share those choices and values. In fact I see a contest to demonize anyone outside their own group.

My suspicion of religiously motivated candidates goes even deeper, however. Over the last couple of decades the notions of 'capitalism,' and 'free markets' have acquired a quasi-religious aura. One would almost think that god had delivered them along with the Ten Commandments or that Jesus incorporated them into the Sermon on the Mount. Christian orthodoxy now seems to require an Economic Orthodoxy that seems, to me at least, very much at odds with the origins of Christianity. Now the believer and unbeliever alike are left to their own devices and the mercy of god. Early Christians had a supportive community to care for the sick, the old, the needy. Today's Christianists label that 'communist.' Economic heresy has become synonymous with religious heresy.

To answer Rain's question--once I would not have asked anything about a candidate's religious belief. Now, unfortunately, I have to consider whether that candidate can accord me the respect I deserve as a citizen and voter. I have to ask if a candidate can respect my right to hold different beliefs and whether s/he can respect my beliefs and my right to act on my beliefs. And I have to ask the same questions concerning the quasi-religious beliefs that have flooded our political scene over the last few years. Already my rights to hold a job in some companies has been wiped out because they have a zero tolerance policy on smoking. Though I don't smoke I would always test positive for tobacco contaminants because someone else in my household smokes. Some companies have such a zero tolerance policy with respect to weight? Those companies wouldn't hire me because some insurance companies think I would be a poor health risk even though statistical surveys have shown that weight alone is not a good indicator of how much I would use health services. I feel assaulted on all sides from the High Priests of Capitalism, the High Priests of Health, the High Priests of the Green Church, and the High Priests of the Christianist Churches (Catholic and Protestant). All are intent on forcing their beliefs on me. I don't like it much but I have to consider their 'religious' views when I vote.

Good morning on this crisp but, so far, clear, Friday. I got somewhat side tracked yesterday with clearing out the last of the tomatoes and peppers. Today I want to clean out another container, finish emptying a couple of pots with herbs, and generally getting the patio ready for winter. The temperature this morning was about 36 degrees. I think that is the lowest since, maybe, early April. I had to come inside yesterday to put on a knitted vest because the wind was so cold. One of the weather people said she might have to put the possibility of snow into the forecast next weekend (Halloween, of course.) Everybody on their set groaned.

HuffingtonPost published this article today. Unemployment for 1+ million people will run out just in time for the Holidays and the push will be on to extend them once again. Of course, the argument for that extension is the fragile economy, specifically the absolutely crucial holiday retail season. I guess I am getting a bit jaded by the economic news. One question has been popping up whenever I read about extending unemployment benefits, how much public support Fannie and Freddie might need to stay afloat, the need for Federal stimulus monies for the states to maintain public payrolls and other such stories is--do you want a fast train wreck or a slow one? The issue of whether we will get a train wreck is long past. I think our leaders have opted for the slow train wreck but I am not so sure that was the wisest option. There is a certain wisdom in getting it over and done with.

Carrying on with the unemployment theme, I have been totally irritated with some of the latest coverage of the issue. MSNBC had a headline this morning (and, I think, yesterday) that proclaimed 'For Some, Jobless Benefits Trump A Job.' Yeah, it is nice they fudged a bit by saying 'for some.' But the implication is that a lot of jobless people are out there sitting on their backsides enjoying a life of leisure on what one talking head earlier this week on CNBC called 'our overly generous unemployment compensation.' The comments by the anchors yesterday reinforced that impression when they talked about the unemployed taking benefits 'instead' of looking for work. From my own experience during the one brief time I qualified for benefits, I spent a lot of time looking for work, sending out resumes and applications, preparing for the few interviews that materialized. I wasn't sitting on my ass. I sympathize totally with the one worker who noted that he was worse off for taking a job that paid less than either his former employer or his unemployment benefits because he found he couldn't stomach the job (after his employer insisted he harass an elderly couple who made the mistake of signing for their grandchild's student loan). When he left that job he had to reapply and found himself no longer eligible. I spent a bit longer at my next job and did get a higher wage and more hours than I had in my previous job (the one on which my unemployment was based) but it was a job I couldn't handle even after several attempts to adjust myself to it. The company made sure it looked like I had left entirely voluntarily and successfully challenged my application. In the end I was, like the worker in the story, worse off for having taken that job. But then, if I hadn't taken that job I might have wound up having my benefits cut off anyway since the pay was actually a bit more than I had been receiving before. The way our unemployment in this state is run pressures the unemployed worker to take work and the longer the worker is unemployed the more pressure is applied to make that worker take anything at any wage. I have thought about this since my very unpleasant experience and I have a question: which erodes your job skills more--being out of work or working in a job that doesn't use your skills? I have heard a lot of comment on the first but none on the second.

Rain at Rainy Day Thoughts has a link to that Pew poll from a couple of weeks ago that attempted to examine how religiously literate Americans were. I found it interesting for a couple of reasons. Atheists scored better by a couple of points than any religiously oriented group. Not all that surprising since they more than others would be most likely to need to defend their religious choice. But the averages were all abysmal. None scored more than 20 out of 32 questions correct. For the heck of it, Mom and I went through the questions just to see how hard the poll really was. We both answered all question correctly. We were unsure of only 3--those dealing with a couple of the Supreme Court decisions--but answered those correctly as well. What the poll really underscored was how abysmally ignorant so many Americans are. Rain's assessment is somewhat kinder than mine--it isn't so much a matter of being 'smarter' than Atheists but how interested we are in what inspires us and our fellows spiritually. Unfortunately, I don't think many of us are all that interested.

Good Thursday morning to you all. We have nice sunshine today though we are not supposed to reach the 70 we had yesterday. The weatherperson's prediction of cooler temps over the next week had his co-workers moaning. They aren't ready for the change. I have been delaying cleaning out the remaining plants in my containers. It just looks so bleak out there without something growing. I will leave the mums and marigolds until we get a killing frost. That will keep a bit of color for a bit longer.

I agree with you, Lois. About 25 years ago Target (and K-Mart) dropped their needlework and craft sections. I almost totally stopped shopping there. Why make a separate trip to one of those stores when Wal-mart had everything in one place. And then I did shop at Wal-mart a lot. Over the years we have become equally disenchanted with Wal-mart. We gradually realized that their business model (cheap trumps everything else) simply didn't work for us. All of the big box stores have stopped carrying items we normally bought and the items they carried in place of those items simply did not work as well for us. One stop shopping just doesn't get us what we need so we plan our shopping for maximum efficiency and keep an eye on what is available where and at what price. I noticed an ad on tv last night for the new 'fresh produce' sections at the remodeled 'local' Target. I put the local in quotes because the ad stressed that these were 'your local' Target stores. First, they aren't mine. Second, they are local only in the sense that they are in a given area. I doubt very much that Target's local ties go much deeper. Upshot--we are very selective about what we buy and where we buy it and price alone is never the primary consideration.

Good morning to everyone. We have been busy with come of our fall chores for the last couple of days. The car has had its oil change and the anti-freeze has been checked so it is ready for winter. All of the windows have their plastic coat on now. That went very quickly. When we first started doing that it took us four hours. This year we managed it in only two. We are debating just leaving the plastic up on two of the windows all year. Those windows are so hard to open and close it isn't worth it to fight with them. Anyway, we are almost ready for winter. I plan to take out the beets, tomatoes, and peppers today and tomorrow. I might cover the containers but that might be more trouble than it would be worth. The pressure of the plants and dirt has bowed the sides so the lids don't fit any more. Update on the cuttings I took--the lavender, sage, and basil are doing nicely. Only one of the stevia left. The longer it goes the more hopeful I am that I will get one plant to carry through the winter.

I found this Newsweek article that ties up some various stories I have been reading over the last couple of years. The Sita, Alaska opener didn't surprise me much. At the peak of the extreme drought in the Southeast last year, Georgia and other state governments were making noises about transporting water from the Great Lakes to their neck of the woods. States bordering the Lakes raised quite a howl. The point towards the end concerning the inelasticity of water demand is quite accurate and parallels the discussion we have been having here as our local utility has tried to raise the electric rates. The company claims that the increase will only amount to about 10% and they haven't been allowed a rate increase in the past decade. But consumer groups challenge that charging that the increase may be as much a 30% for the lower income consumer who doesn't qualify for the discounted prices of the bulk user. Do we really want predatory capitalism to rule our water resources?

And we should be asking that question rather urgently if the scenario presented in this MSNBC article is accurate in its predictions If you think that the prediction is merely extreme environmental scare tactics from a lunatic fringe, compare the first map projecting drought conditions between 2030 and 2039 with the last map showing the conditions for the last decade. We catch the news on a South Bend station every Saturday morning, when our normal stations carry fishing shows or infomercials, and they have been reporting dry conditions there that are threatening the corn crop. I have read reports from Kentucky which say that a large proportion of counties there are either 'dry' or in stage 1 and 2 drought. Some local areas have put water use restrictions in place. Some areas west of us got enough rain in the first three weeks of September that they exceeded the yearly average but October has been drier than normal. And our area got very little of that rain. I grew up in the area and I can't remember any time in my childhood when local officials urged people to conserve water as I have several times over the last decade.

As I started reading this article my skepticism meter was pegged at the high end. I read a lot of articles and blogs about economizing and simplifying. I have never been impressed with 'either/or' solutions and my first question at the beginning was 'does this really have to be framed as either I penny pinch or I concentrate on the big things issue?' Well, the author finally got to the notion of a middle path that advocates both but I thought it was a half-hearted, johnny-come-lately inclusion. The article was very unsatisfying in a number of ways. The penny pinching segment totally ignored the fact that, as we have found out here, cheap isn't always our friend. Cheap is no bargain when the quality of the product makes it unusable to any significant extent, makes it break or wear out long before a more expensive item, or requires double or triple the more expensive product to achieve the same end. Just to illustrate--we used to buy the cheapest dish soap available. It was one-third the price of the name brands. But we found that we were using three times as much (or more) to get the job done. That was no bargain and we went back to name brands on sale. Cheap, in this case, is not our friend. We have become much more discriminating in what buy and price is only one of the factors we consider. We haven't let the big things go either. After two years of unemployment (for me) we sold my car for scrap. It required far more maintenance that we could afford and it was the least reliable of the two we had. We held on to it on the expectation that I would need it when I got a new job. Once we recognized that that was a slim if not a when, it wasn't hard to economize. The point I have taken a long time getting to is that people need to realistically look at where their money goes and then decide if they need to make that expenditure and whether a cheaper item is as good for their purposes as a more expensive item. Unfortunately, our society has brainwashed us to the point that we no longer recognize what we need versus what we want and we assume that 'cheap is always our friend.' Most of us would be far more solvent if we break those two habits of thought.

I am back. We did our grocery shopping late this week because of our other chores. We decided to go to Target because our local Target just opened its 'fresh produce section' and expanded grocery. I would say that the reality did not live up to anticipation but we didn't really anticipate much. They did not add on to the store so the only way to expand the grocery section was to limit other areas. They don't have much to draw us in. We go there primarily for cat food--the canned Friskies is the cheapest in the area--and health and beauty--toothpaste etc. The bananas are $.30 cheaper than any others we have seen but they were also the greenest. Overall, few choices and many of the items we wanted just were not there. We think Target is catering to singles and couples who don't cook.