Got the deck stained (Solid acrylic), two coats. Glad that is done. The drive is newly covered with gravel instead of crushed stone. Looks good but I think the load was less than 5 tons. The guy came back with some extra but it is still light. Trimmed the Holly bushes yesterday and am still pooped today. Took five barrels of cuttings, plus heavy branches, to the dump today. Whew!!! We have been using those collapesable canvas ones. They are great, light and storeable.

`Glenn Greenwald has taken Kieth Olberman to task for his agreeing with Obama's vote for the FISA bill. G feels that O should fight against it because it weakens the Constitution. John Dean, on MSNBC opined that the bill still leaves the Telecoms vulnerable to criminal charges and Olberman picked up on that suggesting that O has a secret plan to nab the Telecoms later for illegally complying with Bush's request for information about calls. Apparently Bush can give the Telecoms a blanket pardon that will prevent any future action against them. Ho hum. That's politics. It won't be long, if it is not already in the blogs, that O is sleeping with H.

As the stock market goes down, California burns, the mid-west floods, and folks start coasting down hills to save gas it becomes difficult to watch a "news" program anymore. The best antidote I know of are the Lawrence Welk rerun shows. Sat. and Sun evening on PBS. They provide an hour of pure entertainment. They even recognize they have the reputation for being "corny", but that only make it better. Lawrence left the farm in N. Dakota in 1925. that is the year I was born and started his musical career. Here he is 83 years later still being appreciated.
The next best is a RedSox game.

The new era will be dominated by broadband coverage throughout the country. The post industrial era is the information era and compared to most other countries in the world the leading country in technology, the US, is the lowest percentage covered by broadband.????
Another new era is the energy deficit. As gasoline becomes more costly what many of us have been deploring, the SUV phenomenon, and the intransigence of the administration to do anything about increasing gas mileage requirements for cars and trucks, has in a very short time caused a dramatic turn around in the automobile industry. Even last year this time who would have thought that SUVs would almost be outlawed and truck sales decimated? There is a lot of fuss and feather about oil drilling here and there but all that will take a decade to make an impact. At least McCain has come out with a statement that conservation is not just a personal virtue. It is an imperative. That is a nice smack in the face to Dick Cheney, the energy guru and benefactor of the oil industry. The frantic dash to convert corn to ethanol has been debunked, but only after it has had a disastrous effect on the entire food industry and caused prices to rise inordinately. Another administration screw-up.

David Brooks wrote a paean to Bush for finally getting something right. He lauds Bush for going against all his advisers and ordering the "surge". Saying the surge has made a tremendous difference in Iraq is a stretch. The most that can be said is that the situation there is fluid.
There are many factors at play. Two significant ones are the Sunni change in Anbar, where the Al Queada wore out its welcome through its stupid bloodthirstiness and the Sunnis turned against them, and the tactic of al Sadr to call a truce, for the time being, in Sadr City. The surge occurred in the same period, that's all. Then again, a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.

What has become starkly obvious is that the world situation is not going to change for the better in the near future. The "American way of life", living high off the hog while much of the rest of the world wallows in poverty and we consume 80 percent of the world energy yet are only 25 percent of the population, producing the vast amount of air pollution and not willing to control it, will need a painful revision. If we were to understand the situation we would be willing to do our part to improve things but we are not being told the facts. We are fed the "feel good". formula of " "you are worth it, even if you can't afford it".


` Another six months will be a long wait but at least the past seven years will hopefully begin to mend.

Hello there blog. Don't seem to get to you as often as I'd like. For a retiree life seems awfully busy. Been working in the yard a lot lately. Now that the grass is growing rapidly I question the advisability of putting fertilizer on it. The driveway is bordered by 2x6s and they had sunk into the ground so far the lawn was growing over them. Raising them required a pick and shovel job that is not easy on ones back. After a few session I got them up and reasonably even. There is one however that fell victim of the car tipping it over. That's for another time. the heat last two days is in the 90s. Almost too hot to play golf!!! I'll take a cart instead of walking. That should make it doable.

Had the house power-washed along with the patio. Tremendous difference. Like it had just been painted. In the back some steps from the patio had rotted out. A neighbor had removed a retaining wall built of 6x6x8 timbers and wanted to get rid of them. It was just what I needed for the steps. With a chain saw and a lot of grunting and groaning the steps came out quite good. Cleaning up the patio after the power-washing proved to be difficult. the water from the hose puddled and then left a thick residue that was messy to scrape up. Next is having the trim on the house painted and getting a load of gravel for the drive. I think I'll leave the tree trimming till fall.

O yes!! We have had a nomination race that doesn't seem to go away. Plucky Hillary has apparently lost finally to Obama. Her campaign has been "suspended". Whatever that means.
The focus is now on Obama vs. McCain and the mud is starting to fly in earnest. Both candidates have questionable items in their backgrounds and I'm sure that will be exploited to the extreme as the months pass by. There will be a lot of "That's not fair" being exclaimed, but hey, politics isn't about fairness, it's about winning by what ever means.

In spite of the pundits proclaiming a tight race I feel that the tide of change is in Obama's favor. McCain looks older as the days go by. His much younger second wife seems to hover nearby to catch him if need be. Obama's sketchy background has to be filled in and amplified as well as his program spelled out more fully. His speech before the AIPAC assembly almost nauseated me and I felt he laid it on too thick in his promises to Israel. Unless we can be more supportive of Palestinian needs we are going to remain in deep trouble over there.

Bush, making a non-victory lap through Europe, is almost a laughing stock. He has no clout, no
viability and the Europeans are simply waiting to see who will hopefully improve thing in the world. Anything will be better than the past administration. Back in 2000 I loudly proclaimed
"Anybody but Bush!!!". The country didn't listen to me so they got what they asked for. Sorry.
I told you so.

I'm confused about the privatization of our intelligence agencies. So many ex-governmental officials have gone into the private sector as heads of intelligence gathering agencies I can't tell if that is good for our country or not. Private firms are generally considered more effective than governmental ones. And the conservatives are all for shrinking government but at what cost?
If the job gets done a lot better it may be worth it but an awful lot of guys are getting awful rich in the bargain.

In spite of the terrible state of our economy the has-beens of government are getting rich writing books about their time in the seats of power. Tommy Frank started off the General's series with his blatant defense of his ineptitude. Sanchez followed by debunking the notion that there was unanimity about the Iraq war. Bremer has tried to rationalize his debacle. Colin Powell is still smarting from his being used, but has not gone into print on the subject.


In spit of the heat I'm off to the links. So there.