Wednesday.

Good day to you all.  I recently found a blogger who posted a couple of pieces on the "blog catacombs."  Infidel753 listed a number of blogs he read consistently but which have disappeared and are missed.  I have linked to his second post on the topic in which he speculates on what may cause a blogger to simply disappear from the blogosphere.  I know that several bloggers I used to read have disappeared.  I know at least two have died and I do miss them.  Another has had serious health problems coupled with family matters that have taken precedence over blogging.  But I wonder how many are in the category Infidel talks most about: political bloggers who are burned out.  I know I have often felt burned out by the politics.  After you have said what you think of the political assholes and their half-assed proposals (or non-proposals) for the hundredth time you get rather tired.  There are far more assholes and half-assed pronouncements than you have energy.

I enjoy needlework and fiber arts.  I have done embroidery, quilting, and crochet for decades with gaps in time when other things have taken my time and energy.  I remember still weaving a belt on an inkle loom when I was in 8th grade.  I didn't get to warp the loom myself--my teacher insisted on doing that.  I had the strap for the next 20 years before it disappeared during one of my moves.  I thought of that as I read this blog.  I once tried backstrap weaving but never finished the project--again because other matters were more urgent.  I never got to the point of showing off anything as beautiful as the pieces pictured.

Sunday.

I was reading this piece and had a contrary question.  We have a power generating sector that wants no regulation, a free pass on the pollution they produce along with the electricity, and the right to profit off those who go to solar or wind power.  We have a populace which doesn't think beyond the flipping of a switch.  But so much of the discussion on this topic puts first blame on the regulations for rising prices.  So what are we supposed to do?  Swallow the mercury and other heavy metals, breath the toxic gasses, and get dumped on by acid rain while unthinkingly flipping that switch?  And what should we expect from the energy companies besides pollution and rising prices?  Is there no middle ground here?
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Monday.

Didn't find much to comment on yesterday.  Still busy with the spring cleaning.  But with the very brisk winds and cool temps haven't done anything outside except look at what is (and, more often, what isn't) sprouting outside.  I am so ready for a bit warmer weather but I half suspect the heat will come all too soon.

I am so glad that I am not the only one totally pissed off by the (s)news industry's obsession with trivia at the expense of real news.  Sam Smith says it well.  It is sad when the only discussion of important issues takes place in fiction.
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Tuesday.

We shifted our shopping to yesterday.  The belt on our vacuum cleaner broke and we had to find new ones so we decided to do all of it at once.  Otherwise not much else going on.

We have been watching the weather news.  The tornado season my be starting late but I think it is making up for lost time.  Thankfully, nothing that severe up here although we have heard the wind actually howling most days for the last week.

Saturday.

More cleaning.  Damn--I remember when I would have cleaned the entire apartment (thoroughly) over a weekend.  Not any more.  We got the living room done with all of the furniture moved to get at the carpet, moved back and then vacuumed.  We plan to do the dining area today.  Our cleaning this time involves a major reorganization--getting rid of things we don't use any more and putting others in a more convenient place.  Our patterns of activity has changed and what we do where but our organization hasn't kept up.

I bet there are a whole lot of oil execs who are apoplectic over this.  I keep thinking of all the BP ads which assure us that fracking is "safe and proven."  I am not a damned mushroom and I hate being fed bullshit.

I linked to the story earlier this past week which proclaimed another dimension of the US decline: Canada's middle class is "wealthier" than our middle class.  The author of this piece says that is old news.  And he points out a fact I have repeatedly made when ever I take apart anything I read: how has the author(s) defined their terms and chosen their data points.  You can fudge a lot if you are judiciously selective.

Friday.  Another busy day of spring cleaning.  That will be on going for some time.  We had rain over night so I don't know if I will get anything done outside.  It may be too wet.  It is dark yet so I can't really see much outside.

I am not surprised by this but I still get angry when I see these stories and when I remember my late ex-husband who died seven months before the only appointment with the VA hospital near him he could get.  He had made the appointment five months before he died.  Explains why I get a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth whenever I hear some politician tell a veteran "Thank you for your service."

This must be a day for medical related posts.  Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism has a long one on the growing commercialization of medicine thanks somewhat to Obamacare which intensified longstanding trends in the health care field.  She covers most of the trend and implication rather well. However, as I was reading this I had a question that isn't covered:  what happens if the patient refuses the doctors advice.  Mom has done it once with an osteoporosis drug.  She had several reasons for refusing to stay on the meds.  She had been having leg pains that were described as a side effect.  She also found the stories about major thigh bone breaks associated with the drugs after prolonged use and she had been on the drugs for several years.  And she noticed that the drugs did not improve her bone density at all.  Tests after she stopped her drug showed no deterioration without the drug.  But what would happen if she did that with her statin (which she is thinking about)?  Would her doctor at some point decide she is an uncooperative patient rather than an informed and engage customer?  What if he decides to drop her and she can't find another?  Do we really want medical care reduced to a commercial transaction?

And for another post on the same theme--Susie Madrak links to a story about doctors refusing to follow new guidelines for when and for whom statins are prescribed.  I questioned the use of guidelines that would double (or more) the number of people on statins some time ago.  Evidently some cardiologists are also.  I wonder if the drug manufacturers had a hand in writing up the guidelines.

Unfortunately, elected despotism may be what we are moving towards.

How many times can a company's facilities fail (in any way) before some government takes action to protect the people?  Oh, I forgot.  That would cut into the sacred profits.

Hope you all have a good Thursday.  Ours is starting out cool and damp.  We had rain overnight and some areas have it now.  More expected later in the evening.

We got the front door windows and the front windows cleaned, the curtains washed and put back up, the venetian blinds scrubbed, and a start on dusting done yesterday.  That pretty much exhausted our energy and left both of us ruefully remembering when we would have thoroughly cleaned the entire apartment in a single day.  We will tackle the rest a bit at a time.  We need to do laundry today so more spring cleaning is put off till tomorrow.

On the garden front--nothing much happening.  I transplanted the pot of lemon thyme into a larger pot.  It badly needed more room.  I need to bring in another pot for the bee balm.  Our average last frost date is around May 15th and I get the feeling that I might not be putting much outside till then.  The first rose is putting out branches and leaves while the second is slowly waking up.  If I get a couple of reasonably warm and dry days I need to get a couple of things done in the gardens before I can move them into their permanent homes.

Now for something in the "cute, but--" file by way of Naked Capitalism.  I agree with Yves--my cats would never have taken the table over my hands petting them continuously.  After all, I had no other reason for existing in their universe.

Our local TV news readers are asking a silly question: who would vandalize the Easter display featuring a humongous poster of Jesus.  (Note: it is an annual display put up by a private group for nine days starting Good Friday.)  My answer: the same kind of assholes who would vandalize mosques and synagogs--as happened a few months ago.

I have seen a couple of other stories about this topic over the last week.  I didn't link to them but it is interesting that older couples are responding to the economy in the same way that the younger cohorts are--moving in with their parents.  As with so many other aspects of life, Mom and I seem to be ahead of the trends.  We moved in together because that way we could both be comfortable.  And it saved my ass through about six years of under- and un-employment before I finally decided to take social security.  Now we are back where we were before that rough stretch--more comfortable than we would be by ourselves.  The old system of rampant individualism isn't working anymore.  It may be time to go back to a more "communal" style where families live close and help each other.  However, if the responses of the family featured is any indication, that won't be happening any time soon.

My initial response to reading this is pretty much unprintable.  The kleptocracy is definitely alive and well.  We no longer have a legal system that applies to rich, middling, and poor alike holding all to the same standards.

Now I wonder why this item didn't make the news.  While the middle and lower income groups in the US have fared badly compared to similar groups in other countries our wealthiest citizens have done well in that comparison.

Accurate assessment.

As I read the Archdruid Report I thought of the old quote from Euripides:  Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad.  I have thought for sometime that the US (collectively) has been of the rails.

This is sweeeeet!!!!!

Good Wednesday to you all.

Most of areas here, including mine, are under a frost advisory.  Our temps haven't fallen that low and I see a slight edging of frost on the rooftops across the way.  No gardening planned but plenty of spring cleaning.  One of our toilets quit working over the weekend and Mom decided to give the maintenance man a list of things that needed fixing.  We are the type that will find a work around, unless there is no work around, until we can call the landlord.  Often enough we forget to call and continue with the alternative, unless it is an urgent matter like the toilet.  So we got the one toilet replaced and the slow leak in the other fixed.  The stove had been giving problems for a while and our last maintenance man has fixed it several times.  This time we got a new one.  Windows we hadn't been able to open for a while, without straining muscles and joints, now slide easily.  Now, however, the cleaning spirit is up.

I wrote a while ago that I have given up on the notion of growing blueberries.  Keeping the soil in the container sufficiently acidic given that the water here is extremely hard and alkaline is a very difficult prospect.  I had thought I might try blackberries but I wanted seedless.  Well, that isn't possible.  As I understand it those varieties that are labeled "seedless" actually have very small seeds.  Oh, well.  Now I have to think about plan "C" which isn't even a nebulous notion at present.

I saw the title and said "WTF??  Why is that important in a comparison of electric and hybrid vehicles?"  I don't give a damn which drivers of which car is younger or richer.  I would rather  know which gets the best mileage, which is the most cost effective, which is the most reliable, etc.

Susie Madrak says some of what I have been thinking about the Ukraine mess.  Several historians have observed that Americans seem to need an enemy and have always found one.

I saw a version of this story on the news last night and this morning.  Some of the talking heads were making a big deal of it.  I guess not being number one hit at some nerve.  Funny.  I don't feel any different.  But then Maha reminds us that the decline of the middle class has been going on for more than thirty years.  

Happy Earth Day!  Lower temps today but should be sunny.  Absolutely beautiful yesterday.  I got all of the strawberries out of the large containers but they aren't yet ready to put in their permanent place.  None of the Quinalt survived the winter and only seven or eight of the Sequoia.  Replacement plants are on the garden shop list along with sage and the basils.

The Ukraine story continues to percolate along.  But it is fascinating to watch the news accounts of Obama and Putin each accusing the other of failing to keep their "dogs" under control.  Each seems to assume that the other has control over the contending parties.  What if neither has all that much control?

Finally--someone expresses sentiments parallel to my own concerning the media's orgasmic spasm over the soon-to-arrive Clinton baby.  I am sure the family are overjoyed but that baby means squat to me.  The Rude Pundit gives the whole matter his usual rude treatment (which it so richly deserves) and notes the sexist nature of the mainstream media treatment.

We did our shopping and dropped into Panera's.  Mom noticed a sign at the register which offered a free bag of their coffee grounds for their gardener patrons in honor of Earth Day.  As the clerk handed me my bag I told him "My roses will love you."  He just smiled.