Thursday--

Well, here we are at the end of April and 2015 is one-quarter over.  Happy Beltane for all who celebrate that holiday.  Haven't been able to scratch the gardening itch outside much because it has been too cold to plant.  I have seen some robins exploring my patio and containers.  Good--they like bugs and I always have a few they are most welcome to.  Maybe that cardinal I saw last year will return and bring some friends.  I think the robins also like my bird bath.

Watching the news coverage of the Baltimore riots we wondered exactly what shifted a protest into a riot.  I found this this morning which is thought provoking.  Evidently a volatile mixture of angry but peaceful protestors and drunk sports fans combusted into violence.  Question: who is most responsible?  I tend to have a very low tolerance for drunks which should tell you where I come down.  And this story makes no sense at all on several counts: unidentified prisoner who was in the van with Gray but only heard him thrashing around and assumed Gray was trying to hurt himself??  What about earlier reports that Gray was not buckled in and that the ride was an intentionally "rough" one during which the cops had to lift Gray back into a sitting position on the van's bench???  Sounds like cops trying to cover their collective asses.

I really have to ask: do school administrators get a lobotomy or a prude transplant as part of their qualifications for their jobs?  I ask because of this article.  And what about the teachers?  Do the do prude training as part of their certification?  Or is there a thinking switch someone has turned off because what ever they are thinking with it isn't their brains.

Oh, yes--I can always rely on the Contrary Farmer for a thought provoking essay.  When the "Arab Spring" ignited revolutions across North Africa and the Middle East not one mainstream news source noted that Syria had suffered some three years of drought before violence erupted.  Nor do they discuss the economic conditions what have made Egypt a tinderbox.  Nor how often the religious conflicts grow out of economic troubles and then feed into political wars.

So Bernie Sanders is running for president.  He made his announcement yesterday.  I don't think he has the proverbial snowball's chance of getting (nomination or final election.)  All I really hope is that he brings the political debate back to some semblance of reality.

Canada's biggest banks are just a grubbing as ours.  This is unconscionable.

Wednesday--

Sunny right now and a bit warmer than yesterday at this time.  The next warm up comes over the weekend--Weather Gods willing.  I really do need to start getting the containers worked and ready because we are only about two weeks away from average frost free date here.  Sometime next week I hope it is warm enough to get the sunflowers started in the location I plan for them.

On the Baltimore situation, which I don't really want to comment on, Helen at Margaret and Helen encapsulates my feelings pretty much exactly.

Does anyone out there use artisanal soaps--you know the locally-sourced, hand-made kind?  Have you had any problems with them?  I haven't heard of any problems in the various news sources I follow.  So why in hell do we need this?  The only reason I can think of is to provide the government with an new revenue stream in the guise of fees, licenses, and inspections.  It would also make sure that more of us remain trapped in the commercial/industrial matrix we would rather escape.

Tuesday--

Frost on the roofs this morning with temps in the mid 30s.  I got the bird feeder filled and moved.  But that is about all of the garden activity.  We should have warmer and sunnier weather over the weekend.  See what I get done then.  I have some seedlings that still need repotting if the sudden bug that hit me yesterday is gone.

I like seeing innovative ways of solving some of our current problems.  I wonder how this kind of unit might work in some of our drought stricken areas.

I do love it when somebody is bright enough to question old assumptions about our past.  Evidently, female Vikings kicked ass too.  New studies examining the bones in Viking burials to determine gender (rather than assuming a burial with sword was male while those with oval brooches were female) found that nearly half were women.

The Daily  Banter has a good post on the many layers of unfairness evident in Baltimore.  And the superficiality of what passes for news reporting is mind blowing.

Monday--

It is cold today and feeling colder because of the brisk wind that chills brutally.  I went out long enough to rearrange a couple of things so I could move the bird feeder (after I filled it of course.)  I am feeling a bit washed out so I don't know how much I will find worth the energy to comment on.

However, Robert Reich has a piece that I think is right on the money.  In most areas of our lives we do feel powerless.  Sometimes the only power we have is the power to say "No, we don't agree with this."  That is what the voter who no longer votes is saying.  Over the last weekend I had a similar experience.  We got our new MacBooks and part of the package included the tech's services to "migrate" the contents of our old MacBooks onto our new ones.  Mom's went beautifully but mine gave all kinds of problems.  This was Saturday and we left the shop with the new computers and the promise that we could come back Sunday when a more skilled tech would be working and get it done.  Well, we did that and the tech told us that they would need "two or three days and would call us."  I said "NO" much to their surprise.  I got the process done in two hours and took my machine home with me functioning much like my old one--only better.  We have said no to a lot of other things as you know if you have followed this blog.  No to On-Star in spite of the dealer's persistence. No to expanded cable service--again in spite of the company's desperate attempts to "upgrade" us.  No to highly processed supermarket foods in spite of constant advertising during the few times we have the cable TV on.  I think the only way this will change is when enough of us decide that the TINA alternative (There Is No Alternative) is not an alternative, say "NO!" and look for the alternatives they say aren't there.

Ah, yes!! Leave it to Kunstler to lay out a potential nightmare that so many of us are ignoring.  I have been hearing about the push for a "cashless" society and in many ways I am in it now.  My Social Security is automatically deposited and I use the debit card attached to my account--though I try to reserve it for large purchases or to purchase Nook books.  Otherwise I try to use cash.  I am and have been uneasy about the ease with which unknown and unnamed parties can trace what I buy.

Thursday--

Cold still--only in the mid 30s.  We got some dry granular snow yesterday that didn't stick around.

Friday--

Another cold day.  We are back in winter mode for our meals--turkey casserole yesterday and chili today.  A week ago we were looking forward to salads and other summer fare.  I got re-potted the mustard seedlings and plan to do the same for the mizuno today.  I need to start new pots of orach because the ones I started earlier haven't done well.

I wonder how widespread this is going to become.  I have heard, frequently over the last three decades, about the plight of small colleges.  LSU is not a small college.  It is (or was) Louisiana's "flagship" university.  While I have, often, questioned the emphasis our political leaders have placed on higher education (seemingly for all, regardless of qualifications, talent, or inclination) I have never question that public colleges and universities are a public good and service and should be publicly supported.  Evidently a certain faction of our Repthuglican party thinks otherwise.

Saturday--

Chilly but a bit warmer to start--mid 40s rather than the high 20s to low 30s.  We had rain last night.  Don't have much planned for today.  May be content with being lazy.

Sunday--

It wasn't quite a lazy day yesterday.  It was miserable, rainy and cold so we decided to do some shopping.  Mom wanted some blue jeans--has for some time.  So we looked at clothes.  Unfortunately, we didn't find any that fit her.  The inseams were far too long.  I didn't find any in my size.  We have been talking about computer problems for about a year now and finally decided to  check out what was available at our Simply Mac store and Best Buy.  We didn't get to Best Buy because Simply Mac had good deals on MacBooks so we both now have new computers.  Now we have to get used to them and get what we need back on them.

An interesting take on our modern economy which doesn't make things any more but seems well geared to creating assholes.

I have seen a few articles on this issue.  File it under "Downside of Computer Technology."  The problem is one I have contemplated often--the increasing complexity and interconnectedness of nearly everything we own.  Ford (I think) is pitching their cars wi-fi capabilities.  On-Star has been touted as a reason to buy this, that, or the other car.  I forget which car maker it is that talks up its internet connections in its commercials.  The cutest one shows an awed Granny gushing that she can update her blog from her grandson's car and Grandson says in astonished tones "You have a blog???"  We here at Chez Contrary have recognized that the days are long gone when a bobby pin (anybody out there remember those?) was all you might need to get your ancient Volkswagen beetle running again.  Our new-to-us car is On-Star capable but we choose not to spend our money on that.  Our most frequent discussion here on technology is whether we want to spend money on whatever and whether whatever will actually do something valuable for us.  I took us over a year of increasing frustration with our old computers to decide whether and when to replace them.  I just bought some earbuds for my new computer and couldn't find any without a microphone.  My only choice was to get the combined unit and not use the microphone.  That seems to be our only choice now--to get (and pay for) capabilities we don't want and won't use.

Wednesday--

The calendar does say "spring."  I checked.  But the weather says "not yet."  It is cold right now (mid 30s) with frost likely and snow possible.  Yes, I did say snow.  It is already reported in areas not far northwest of us.  Needless to say, no gardening today.

Asthma is one of the serious medical conditions which, like obesity and diabetes, has been increasing in recent decades.  Usually, writers tell us that the "experts" don't really know why such maladies are exploding in our modern age.  This article gives some indication that modern life itself is at the bottom of many of our health problems.

I am not at all surprised by the results of this poll.  It follows my own opinions down the line.  I don't trust either the federal government or the state government.  They are too far away from me and what concerns me most.  I don't matter to them while they are very sensitive to the concerns of businesses who want a free hand in polluting the environment, privatizing public services, lowering taxes that pay for things like infrastructure, education, health (all of which affect me directly.)  I vote but the elected officials don't really serve my interests.  Therefore, I don't trust the state and federal officials (elected or otherwise.)

This is something I hope spreads throughout the modern industrial economy.  I like Akio Toyoda's comment about "big-company disease."  They aren't replacing robots see a definite place for human expertise.

If the conclusions presented in this article are right, our current problem with antibiotic resistance is far more complicated than we thought and probably not amenable to technological solution.

Monday--

Wet today and cool for the whole week.  I have nothing planned in the gardens but have a number of plants to transplant into larger pots.  We still have about three weeks before it is safe to start planting outside.  I might be able to put a few plants out with protection from wind and frosts.

With our Senate and House of Reps getting ready to ram through the "fast track" authority it is amazing how little our mainstream media says about it.  Leave it to the writers at Naked Capitalism to detail the implications of the move "Toward Absolutist Capitalism."  I really hope the other nations  involved in the negotiations balk at the provisions the multi-national corporations have been writing in secrecy.  And I wish I could hope that some of our so-called nationalist law makers would also get up on their hind legs and scream about it.  Given how those companies have bought so many governments and legislators I don't hold out much hope.  What galls me is so many of those idiots bray about the Founding Fathers and the principles enshrined in our constitution only when the NRA perceives a threat to gun rights and Christianizes feel threatened because they are told they can't discriminate against whomever they say their religion doesn't condone.

I have been skeptical of the "sharing" economy from the first and my skepticism has grown.  This tells you why.  It was never really sharing and it provided a way to cheat both traditional workers of their livelihood and the new workers these companies engage.

Tuesday--

Well, it is definitely cooler.  I put the furnace back on as the temperature is about 40F and won't get out of the 50s.  That is supposed to be the pattern for the rest of the week.

Our western wildfire season has started (as you can see on the news so I won't link to anything) and evidently the Siberian fire season is also off to a roaring start also.  You can read an interesting account here.  As I read the piece I was struck by how very similar Russia and the U.S. really are.  Anything that affects the centers of power get far more coverage than anything on the "periphery" (i.e., anything outside the capital and other centers.)  I don't know how the Russian media is on mind-numbing fluff but that is where ours spend most of its time.

Enjoy these pictures--they had us smiling and laughing throughout.

I don't know why I didn't see this coming.   It will definitely ensure a steady stream of customers cash for company sanctioned repair shops.