2010 Predictions

I've never done predictions before so we'll see how my first crystal ball performs. Here we go:

1. The cost of living will increase--food and fuel will cost more, taxes and fees will go up as services go down, and the cost of healthcare and insurance will increase. (Good luck to those struggling to make ends meet in 2009...)

2. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will drag on (with another 500 deaths and innumerable lost limbs) with nothing really accomplished in the long term.

3. The unemployment rate will come down some to 8-9%; hardest hit will be the older worker who was laid off in 2009 and has little chance to be re-hired.

4. The world will keep on turning: People will love and hate, babies will be born, seasons will come and go, and there will be laughter and tears.

Do you have any predictions?

After Christmas

Whee!! Today is the beginning of my 5 days off!! I love my job, I really do but it really makes me appreciate being home!! It is a cold, gray day outside and I am luxuriating in the knowledge that I get to stay in my cozy, warm home. I have some baking potatoes and a piece of good sharp cheddar cheese so we will be having baked potatoes with cheese and some fried ham bits left from the Christmas ham for dinner. I may even have some apple turnovers in the freezer for dessert. A veritable feast for a winter day.


I am beginning to put the Christmas decorations away; each day I put a few things back in their boxes; I have a lot of Christmas decorations that have accumulated over the years. In recent years, I haven't put all of it out but this year JMM brought home a tree (a live one that he will plant); TSMdecorated it and then she set up my Fontanini manger scene. All I did was the put candles in the windows and the angels over the fireplace.



Quilting will be my pleasant occupation this afternoon. Probably a cat will join me; they seem to think that it is my job to quilt and their job to hold the quilt in place by laying on it. Besides it is a very convenient location for being petted and told how beautiful they are. Fortunately, they are older cats past the time when they loved snagging the quilting thread with their paws as I tried to pull the thread through. Quiet music, maybe David Nevue, and quilting with cats--doesn't get much better.

Thought for the Day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXKzr6RDsZg

Flight 253-- An analogy for the future

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/us/27plane.html?_r=1&ref=us

By now we've all read about the passengers and crew on the Northwest Airlines flight who took charge of their own survival by subduing a terrorist who was trying to set fire to explosives shortly before landing in Detroit. I think that this is analogous to what we all must do to survive and live in the coming turbulent economic times. We must take charge of our own lives. Too many people are waiting for something--for a government rescue or program, for the jobs to come back, to get an inheritance, to win the lottery. Folks, it's not going to happen. Governments at all levels--local, state, and federal--are going to be taking more and providing less, not the other way around. The jobs that have disappeared are not coming back especially if those jobs were making or doing something that can be made or done more cheaply elsewhere. As for the inheritance or lottery, well, don't hold your breath.

We must be responsible for making our own future. How? If you've read this blog before, there's nothing new:
1. Manage your finances--make a budget, live on less than you earn, pay off all debt, save for the inevitable rainy day.
2. Do everything possible to maintain your own health--stop smoking, stop eating junk, turn the television off and go for a walk.
3. Learn how to do someithing--cooking, sewing, quilting, gardening--no one is born knowing how to do any of this--so learn how.

Whether we realize it or not, we are all on our own personal Flight 253 and we must take charge of our own lives.

Recession

I think the Great Recession will come to be thought of as the Great Divide. The people who were economically able to survive the recession will come out on one side and those who did not will come out on the other side. And I don't think that there will be much chance for those who went under to pull themselves to the survivors side. There's just so much damage that has occurred--houses and equity gone, savings and retirement accounts gone, jobs that paid well and had benefits/health insurance gone, marriages and relationships damaged, and health ruined. There will be recovery for some but IMHO most of those damaged by the Great Recession will have a devil of a time climbing back out.

'Berry for a Merry Christmas

JMM and I bought Blackberries for each other for Christmas. Our old cells were just one step above rotary dials. I took my old cell to the T-Mobile store to have the SIM card changed and thus activate the new BB. There were two young men working there, one Asian and one Indian, and once again I thought how blessed we are to live in a time and place where people from all over the world come to work and raise their families and help little old ladies learn how to use a Blackberry. Amazing. Me and my Getting Started booklet are going to become fast friends over the next few days.

Love is shoveling shit

My sweet DH spent the morning shoveling cow manure to be composted for my roses. One of the good things about having a cow pasture just an acre away is the lovely manure to compost for the roses. How does he love me?--let me count the shovelfuls...

Speaking of roses, I've decided to add 2 new roses next year:

http://www.growquest.com/rose%20section/floribunda%20fragrant_wave.htm

http://www.growquest.com/hybrid%20t%20st_patrick.htm

I am part of the problem (tee hee)

I read the other day that part of the reason credit is so tight is that banks are undercapitalized. They are required to have a certain amount of reserve capital for the amount of money they can loan out. They are undercaptialized because their assets have taken a huge hit from the decline in housing prices and from people like me who are paying their houses off early. Yea!! I think it is about time people shed off their shackles to the banks and live free!!