Good morning, everyone. Yesterday was a very nice day. We had sun and it was dry. Today is supposed to be the same and the week forecast is for more of the same. I worked with a couple of the containers yesterday. The soil is nice and workable. I left the first lettuce and the marigolds out overnight under the plastic tents. They are fine so the next transplants will be left out also. The Teddy Bear sunflowers, melons, and cucumbers are up. I am still waiting for the beans. I want to get the tomatoes in their final place over this weekend--after I get the last two tents up. Everything is looking good so far.

That tornado storm has now moved into second place on the list of deadliest outbreaks in U.S. history. Latest numbers range from 332 to 337 depending on which report you get. I had thought that it couldn't possibly reach the first ranked tornado outbreak (700+ deaths) until I read that more than 400 people are still missing--in Tuscaloosa alone.

This article from Market Watch surprised me. I have noticed that under the boosterism of most of the economic media there are undertones of unease and pessimism--but not often and not so outspoken.

Good morning to you all. We have sun early this morning for the first time in a long time. And the weather is supposed to be sunnier and drier over the next week. I was a bit worried about my tomato and pepper seedlings because the temperatures over night were forecast to range from the high to the low 30s. But they are all under the plastic tents and they look good so far. I think I will finally get to work the soil in the containers today and over the weekend. I have a number of seedlings that need to be transplanted.

I stopped by the local Menards yesterday just to see what they had. Not much of interest yet. Not surprising considering how cold this spring has been. I expect they will be fully stocked in about two weeks when the gardening season really takes off here. By then I will be in the market for plants to fill out what either hasn't thrived or that I didn't start myself.

Anyone who has read more than a few of my musings over the last couple of years knows I have become a confirmed skeptic on the value of most, maybe 99%, of higher education. Stories like this one confirms my evaluation of the whole scam that is not only college and university education but the way we finance it. I found that story by way of this one and the author makes several excellent points. I love his assessment that a well trained cat can pass most college courses today.

In a spring that has been marked by really weird weather following by an equally weird winter producing yet another 50+ inch snow season, here is a capper.

Good Thursday morning, everyone. We may get some sun today. The weather report last night said that we have had only 8 days without rain this month. Amazing. As much as I have complained about the weather this month I am very thankful that we don't live south of here. I have lived much nearer some of the areas that have been so hard hit. My grandparents once lived about 40 or so miles from Cairo, Illinois, which is now being evacuated because of flooding. I see some weak sun trying to break through the clouds.

Several days ago I noted reports of metal thefts. This story takes it to a new low.

I absolutely love stories that take apart the statistics upon which so much of the economic news is based. This one examines five government stats you can't trust. It is so nice to find out that your gut feeling that the books are being cooked is right on target.

Good morning, everyone. Still wet and on the cool side. I think that when we get some dry time with or without sun) I will work up the covered beds. The tomatoes should be transplanted soon. The peppers have a bit more time before they are big enough. I almost lost one of my four Vietnamese multicolor peppers--it was a bit too cool overnight for the smallest one. Luckily a couple of days and nights inside revived it. I am thinking of keeping the plastic tents up over winter and seeing if a couple of the herbs I want will survive. I remember growing rosemary, oregano, sage, lavender, and a couple of others in raised beds when I lived in Colorado. They acted like perennials--much to the surprise of the people at the nursery where I bought them. I wonder if they will do the same in the containers here.

This MSNBC story rang a bell for me. Again, I wonder if I am simply a canary in the coal mine. About five years ago I yielded to the inevitable and filed for bankruptcy. That was after two years of struggle with spotty employment, reduced income thanks to low pay and cut hours, and banks that refused to work with me. I promised myself at that time I would never have a credit card again. Everything is paid by cash, debit card, or check and I watch the bank account very carefully. I was amazed at how many credit card offers I got after the bankruptcy and was so annoyed by them that I started shredding the applications and sending back to the offering company in their own postage paid envelopes. The one nice thing about the recent downturn is that the number of offers has declined by about 90%.

Good morning on another rainy day. This weather is so frustrating. I wonder if we are on schedule for a record--most days in a row with rain? The weather people said it has now been nine days in sequence. I can't get the soil in the containers worked till it is dry enough for me to get out there. And I have seedlings that should be put in their proper spots. And I have a cat who is very unhappy that I can't make the rain stop so he can go outside.

Thank you for the birthday wishes, Lois and Kay. We don't whoop it up on any occasion any more. We simply acknowledge the day and go on. In spite of having all of our plans discombobulated it was a pleasant day.

We were supposed to go to Mom's doctor's appointment, go out to breakfast, pay our rent, and do our weekly grocery shopping. But we got in the car and---silence, no go, nothing. Thankfully, the battery simply died--suddenly and without warning. Mom had planned to replace it next week anyway when she was going to take the car in for its oil change and general spring maintenance. She has roadside assistance and they sent out a very nice fellow who jumped the battery so we simply moved up the work and added a new battery to the list. But she needs to make a new medical appointment and our breakfast out will be postponed to that date. I really hate it when the machinery we depend on fails us.

The sun peaked out and fooled me into putting the seedling trays out. Fortunately, I put them in the mini-greenhouse. Otherwise the short deluge would have clobbered them. Oh, well.

Happy Easter, all. We had rain overnight but it is supposed to dry out and get up to about 60 with a few patches of sun. We hit 70 on our little patio yesterday and I decided to leave the peppers and tomatoes out under the plastic. I just checked up on them and they seem quite happy. I pulled out the seeds to decide on which plants to start (or restart) next. I will do that a bit later. I have a bunch of seedlings that need to be transplanted. I had hoped that they would go straight into the large containers but the weather isn't cooperating.

The news has been carrying the gas price story almost daily. But it all sounds so much like the last spike a couple of years ago. And I doubt that anything will or can be done at the governmental level. The only thing that would bring prices down will be what so many of the economic talking heads have called 'demand destruction,' people simply stop buying as much. We will get a look at the prices tomorrow when we go out for Mom's yearly physical.

I finished transplanting the marigolds and the petite rouge lettuce a bit ago. After a break I will get some more seedlings started. Enjoy your Easter, everyone.

Good morning, Everyone. Still cool and wet here. We keep hoping for sun and dry but nature isn't cooperating.

The news has made a great deal of President Obama's new task force to investigate the rising gas and oil prices. He made all of the expected comments condemning 'speculators' taking 'unfair' advantage of consumers. All of the news stories cite the same causes for the rapid rise: unrest in the major oil producing areas and rising demand from developing countries (especially China and India.) This CNBC story (found on Chris Martenson's Blog) brings in another probable culprit that has been totally ignored to date--the weakening dollar. I think it is interesting that some experts are predicting $6.00/gal gas before the end of the summer. Are they preparing the public for bad news? And there is this story from Zero Hedge which cannot be good news for our oil/gas prices.

Most of us were probably cynical and skeptical about the Iraq war and this story from the Independent indicates we were probably right to be so. If the concern was really weapons of mass destruction why were the US and UK governments giving away rights to Iraqi oil? This leads me to conclude that the whole operation was 'home invasion' on a massive scale.