Something new has been added! I have just created another blog (it's been raining an awful lot and I can't get outside to work). It's called GARDEN DETAILS or WAY MORE THAN YOU WOULD EVER NEED OR WANT TO KNOW ABOUT MY GARDEN. I did this because I want to blog about my garden in detail, but realize that not everyone is into gardening as much as I am. Garden Details will feature pictures, plant lists, plans, projects, observations and all kinds of things that will probably bore anyone who is not a gardener.
Garden at the Edge will continue to be about all the exciting things that happen to Joyce and I here in Cloud Country. zzzzzzzzzzzzz Oh, sorry, I dropped off to sleep for a moment. Anyway, I've created a link and you can check it out if you are wide awake and need to read something that will bore you enough that you can fall asleep.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK
It's funny how easily we can get stirred up by something we hear or read on the internet. The other day I heard that a bill had been introduced in the House that would ban organic farming and could even impact gardeners growing vegetables in their own back yard. The story was that a Connecticut representative, whose husband was a lobbyist for Montsanto had introduced a bill called the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, which would make it impossible for small organic farms to stay in business and would require that everyone use pesticides. I was getting ready to post a blog about this outrage when I decided to find out if the story was true. I went to Fact Check . org and got the true story.
It turns out that the bill would separate the food part of the FDA from the drug portion so that there would be more emphasis on checking food for contamination. Also, the husband of the Congresswoman was a pollster, not a lobbyist, who had conducted a poll for Montsanto as well as Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela. But the hysteria continues on the internet unabated, describing a plot by food nazis to force back yard vegetable growers to stop growing food for themselves or from sharing with their neighbors. Of course, the government is so effective in their enforcement efforts that they have managed to stomp out every pot grower in the country over the past 40 years. You just know they would be very efficient in going after the tomato growers! They might have to let the war on terror go for awhile, however while they focus on this much more important task.
It turns out that the bill would separate the food part of the FDA from the drug portion so that there would be more emphasis on checking food for contamination. Also, the husband of the Congresswoman was a pollster, not a lobbyist, who had conducted a poll for Montsanto as well as Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela. But the hysteria continues on the internet unabated, describing a plot by food nazis to force back yard vegetable growers to stop growing food for themselves or from sharing with their neighbors. Of course, the government is so effective in their enforcement efforts that they have managed to stomp out every pot grower in the country over the past 40 years. You just know they would be very efficient in going after the tomato growers! They might have to let the war on terror go for awhile, however while they focus on this much more important task.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Mao's Revenge
I find few things more annoying than an alarm clock. Ours makes a sound that grates on the nerves like an electronic cat caught under a rocking chair. Some unknown sadist most likely in China designed this as revenge for our exporting McDonalds to them I'm pretty sure.
The other morning I'd gotten up to use the bathroom when I heard the alarm go off. Usually, Joyce switches it off a few seconds after it sounds. But on this morning it went on and on and on. Now I realize that every 5 seconds of that grating yeeeee yeeeee yeeeee feels like an eternity, but I swear this went on for a good five minutes. I thought that Joyce must have gotten up at some ungodly hour to vacuum or rearrange the cupboards or something and forgot to turn the alarm off, but when I came back into the bedroom she was still in bed. I went over to her side of the bed and turned the alarm off and then I nudged her.
"Hey,Joyce, the alarm has been going off."
"I turned it off!"
"No you didn't. I just turned it off."
"Well I was trying to!"
"No you weren't, you were asleep."
"I unplugged it and took the batteries out. I was just getting ready to take it apart!"
"You were getting ready to take it apart?"
"I was looking for an axe!"
My sentiments exactly!
The other morning I'd gotten up to use the bathroom when I heard the alarm go off. Usually, Joyce switches it off a few seconds after it sounds. But on this morning it went on and on and on. Now I realize that every 5 seconds of that grating yeeeee yeeeee yeeeee feels like an eternity, but I swear this went on for a good five minutes. I thought that Joyce must have gotten up at some ungodly hour to vacuum or rearrange the cupboards or something and forgot to turn the alarm off, but when I came back into the bedroom she was still in bed. I went over to her side of the bed and turned the alarm off and then I nudged her.
"Hey,Joyce, the alarm has been going off."
"I turned it off!"
"No you didn't. I just turned it off."
"Well I was trying to!"
"No you weren't, you were asleep."
"I unplugged it and took the batteries out. I was just getting ready to take it apart!"
"You were getting ready to take it apart?"
"I was looking for an axe!"
My sentiments exactly!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK
Generally, I'm a pretty laid back person and lately I've been trying to chill out in order to keep my blood pressure under control. However, this past Tuesday when I opened the mail my blood boiled. Capital One, the credit card we've been using mostly to make online purchases etc sent us notice saying that they had raised their interest rate from 9.9% to 17.9%. What had we done wrong? Had we been late with a payment, or not paid a payment at all? No, we'd never been late and usually pay the balance every month. Had our credit rating dropped? No, it's still excellent. Had we put more than we are allowed on the card? No, the balance was modest.
I had been hearing that many credit card companies were raising rates, but I figured it was on customers who were less credit worthy. How naive of me! Before George Bush left office the Republican Congress, with the help of some key Democrats, including our current Vice President passed a real turd of a bill making it harder to declare chapter 11 bankruptcy. At the same time they lifted the limit that credit card companies could charge up to 30%. Of course, I'm getting kind of long in the tooth, so I can remember when there were usury laws in the United States that prevented them from raising rates beyond 12%. Thirty percent was considered loan sharking and it was illegal. The only people who loaned money at that rate was the Mafia.
The argument for the increase in rates is a real piece of illogic. Some customers are having trouble paying their credit card bills. It's a lot more risky to loan money to them, so we'll raise the rates on our good customers as well as the bad ones. That way those who do the right thing and are prompt about paying their bills can bail out the deadbeats.
How am I going to deal with this? The next time I receive the bill, it will be paid in full and then I'm calling Capital One and telling them to fold the card four ways and put it where the moon don't shine! I don't need them, nor do I need their credit. I'll pay cash thank you and if you don't want to accept my check, then I won't do business with you. I got along fine without their credit card before and I can again. So their attempt to make me their bitch is going to backfire. If everyone with good credit does what I plan to do, then the credit card companies will be stuck with nothing but the insolvent and that would be just what they deserve.
You know what the worst aspect of the whole affair is? Capital One just got 3.5 billion dollars of taxpayer money to help bail them out. So they took the taxpayers money and then they turned around and screwed the taxpayer after they received the bail out. Are you outraged? I know I am.
I had been hearing that many credit card companies were raising rates, but I figured it was on customers who were less credit worthy. How naive of me! Before George Bush left office the Republican Congress, with the help of some key Democrats, including our current Vice President passed a real turd of a bill making it harder to declare chapter 11 bankruptcy. At the same time they lifted the limit that credit card companies could charge up to 30%. Of course, I'm getting kind of long in the tooth, so I can remember when there were usury laws in the United States that prevented them from raising rates beyond 12%. Thirty percent was considered loan sharking and it was illegal. The only people who loaned money at that rate was the Mafia.
The argument for the increase in rates is a real piece of illogic. Some customers are having trouble paying their credit card bills. It's a lot more risky to loan money to them, so we'll raise the rates on our good customers as well as the bad ones. That way those who do the right thing and are prompt about paying their bills can bail out the deadbeats.
How am I going to deal with this? The next time I receive the bill, it will be paid in full and then I'm calling Capital One and telling them to fold the card four ways and put it where the moon don't shine! I don't need them, nor do I need their credit. I'll pay cash thank you and if you don't want to accept my check, then I won't do business with you. I got along fine without their credit card before and I can again. So their attempt to make me their bitch is going to backfire. If everyone with good credit does what I plan to do, then the credit card companies will be stuck with nothing but the insolvent and that would be just what they deserve.
You know what the worst aspect of the whole affair is? Capital One just got 3.5 billion dollars of taxpayer money to help bail them out. So they took the taxpayers money and then they turned around and screwed the taxpayer after they received the bail out. Are you outraged? I know I am.
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