A "Normal" Post

Now that I've gotten all the Trek fan-boy geek stuff out of my system, I'll have a somewhat normal post. I got my final grade already in my last class. I passed. The instructor is supposed to send in the final grade tomorrow, then I guess I wait to hear from someone what comes next. I half-expect them to discover some missing class that was overlooked and I'm not really done. I'm sure that isn't going to happen. OK, about half-sure that isn't going to happen.

Anyway, we left the cave very early in the morning today; around 11 am (when we're both unemployed, that is early). We hit the library to stock up on reading material for our upcoming trip, went to the mall to look for the only remaining camera shop (it went out of business sometime in the last few months), to check if our cells will have non-roaming coverage in Hawaii (they do; maybe; Alltel is in the process of being eaten by Verizon, so nothing is sure), for Debbie to pick up some card-making stuff at Michaels (success!!), and to eat lunch at a new Mexican restaurant (great food, but I'm still belching up chicken chimichanga 10 hours later). Then a stop at the bank for some cash to have on our up-coming trip and on the theater for the Best TREK EVAAAAAAAAAAR! But we've already been over that. Then clothes shopping for me (Grrrr; both because I've gotten so fat that it was necessary, and just in general because I've hated clothes shopping since birth), grocery store for some vital supplies (Diet Coke, pepperoni, candy bars), then home back safe in the cave.

Ah the life of a country gent.

People forget that it isn't just UAW jobs lost in the mess created by the wizzards running GM and Chrysler (including those in and outside the government). This is a long way from being over.

Retail sales dropped again in April. That should be about as surprising as the sun rising in the east (except in months that begin with the letter "R"), or that politicians are liars. But the headline is hysterical: "raises worries about the recovery." Recovery? What recovery? Other than an arificial Wall Street bounce created by the trillions of dollars imagined into existence by Washington DC, just what is recovering? Consumers are tapped out. The gravy train is over. Get it through your thick head; this is not a hicup that will go away in a few months.

Well, enough of all that. I'm going to do some reading, then tomorrow I'm going to make a concerted effort to see if I can make some money at a certain internet enterprise. More on that later.