I must admit I had hoped for dry weather which would have allowed my to finish up some of the still undone summer chores (I still need to finish re-staining the steps to both the front door and door to the mud room). But that wasn't the case.
The wet weather meant BeezleBub didn't have to work at the farm Friday or Saturday evening because the farm's corn maze was closed. It also meant I was going to haul the laundry I washed today over the WP Parent's place to use their clothes drier. (It also meant I was going to watch the New England Patriots game on their 42" HDTV, not a bad deal!) Instead, it meant a trip to the local laundromat to use their big driers because what would have taken 4 hours at the folks took only an hour at the laundromat...plus they had a TV tuned to the game!
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And speaking of cool weather, we had the chimney sweeps here this past week to clean the chimney so we could use the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove when the time comes. The Official Weekend Pundit Gas Furnace is still waiting a repair part, but the folks who service it say it should be in some time next week. (We can still use the furnace as it is but it makes all kinds of noises when it runs, something the furnace repair tech said was nothing to worry about.)The furnace gets used mostly during the beginning and end of the heating season as it's far easier to use it 'take the chill off' than firing up the woodstove to the same thing (and then overheating The Manse). It also comes into use on those nights when it's well below zero and the woodstove can't quite keep up
Now all we need for the woodstove is our three cords of wood to be delivered. (We still have a little over one cord left over from last winter so we're good to go for some time.)
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The self-destruction of California is accelerating. Unfortunately they just might take the rest of us with them as far too often what starts in California spreads to the rest of the nation.I hope that instead California will stand as a object lesson that what has happened in Greece can certainly happen here. The only problem is that too many people have short attention spans.
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And then there's this from California, where some big name companies are pulling the plug on some of their California operations.Both Campbell Soup and Comcast are closing facilities in the Golden State, with Campbell stating they are doing so to “improve supply chain productivity,” meaning it's costing them too much to keep their plant in Sacramento open. Comcast didn't sugar-coat their reason for shutting down three of their northern California call centers, stating “We determined that the high cost of doing business in California makes it difficult to run cost-effective call centers in Northern California.”
California still hasn't realized that if they continue to make it too expensive to do business in California that businesses will leave, taking their jobs with them.
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Glenn Reynolds makes me wonder if the fellow named in his post has been using Atlas Shrugged as a manual rather than a warning.What's scary is that the fellow making the proposition has likely never had to run a business of his own. Not that he would have learned anything. He certainly didn't learn anything in his previous post as the U.S. Register of Copyrights.
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How is it Democrats have come to believe the economy is absolutely awesome when just about everyone else sees it for the dismal thing it is?It must be the same delusion that has driven a lot of these same folks to think increased economic activity that creates good jobs is a bad thing.
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Assistant Village Idiot gives us this warning in regards to the undecided voter: “...the indecision of voters that is more key to politicians are those who are undecided whether they are going to bother to vote, not who they are going to vote for.”Indeed.
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It looks like France has decided to further cripple their economy by “sticking it to the rich” by increasing their income tax rate to 75%.So, I guess you’re not really planning on addressing your two main problems — a hugely bloated national budget with too much public spending, and a stagnant economy with high unemployment — er, at all? You’re just going to tax the hell out of any individual or business audacious enough to be successful at providing a useful product/service, instead of even trying to slim down public expenditures? …I see. Interesting strategy you’ve got there, France.It's apparent they did not learn the lesson taught by their neighbors just across the English Channel.
The UK tried something similar in the 1970's and it made their already struggling economy collapse as wealth and investment capital fled for friendlier climes. Considering France already has an unemployment rate of 10% I would think the last thing they'd want to do is something that is guaranteed to make that rate go higher.
It doesn't help that French labor laws also make it almost impossible to lay off workers when there's a downturn, meaning a lot of employers are reluctant to hire new employees under any circumstances. Instead they make do with the workers they have or outsource work to other countries without such overreaching labor laws.
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This is just about what I expect for small town in northern Maine. Then again, I once lived in small New Hampshire town that could easily match it for such activities.************
I usually will link to some post listed in Cap'n Teach's Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup link roundup. But today's is too good to single out just one so I'm going to link to the whole thing and let you pick your favorite.************
Bogie tells us about a package she got from home that included preserves, a quilt, and some fun stuff for one of her kitties.************
Tom Bowler links to and comments on some of the questionable polling numbers, where aggregate numbers for Obama and Romney don't seem to reflect the breakdowns of the actual voting populace.It also appears the MSM is ignoring the poll results of independent voters who were so crucial to Obama in 2008. So far Romney has the edge with independent voters in both Ohio and Florida, states that Obama barely won in 2008 because of those same independent voters.