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.