Recovery

Life is good and getting better. I haven't lost my job (although I've threatened to fire myself), the cabinets in our canning kitchen are full, the freezer is packed, our wells give us good water (so far as we know; maybe we should test it), and our family and friends seem to be well or on the road to recovery. My garden continues to feed our table in late November. What could be finer?

Good stuff is on its way. The Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf. An LED light bulb that burns less than 10 watts while generating the brightness of a 60-watt incandescent. Electrodes our brains can use to tweet on Twitter. More efficient batteries. Levitating mice. Pork grown in petri dishes without methane emissions or slaughtered pig brains. Vertical high-rise hydroponic gardens.

Buy that stock. The recession is almost over. the Dow Jones Industrial Average is rebounding, back on its way to 20,000.
Virginia says, "Don't continue reading. Be happy."

My gut tells me I've just explained why the stock market is up -- the big O, Optimism, or maybe just hope (some folks call it "the wave" effect). We're happy to sweep our doubts under the Chinese carpet.

Something fishy is going on. I've got to carp about it. Every month we find comfort in reports that unemployment is rising more slowly (cheers!). Proposals to reform the banking and financial industry are shriveling on the vine. People we don't know are cashing lottery-sized bonus checks from companies our tax dollars rescued only one year ago. Meanwhile, our "safe" investments earn minuscule interest rates. Office buildings sit empty. The same "for sale" signs have decorated yards for years and new ones keep sprouting.

Aw, forget it. Let's party. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.