LOTS OF NOTHING

I'm having one of those days where I just can't think of anything to write about. I take that back. I can think of things to write about but I can't think of anything I care to write about. I've got to give it a try, though. Mostly I'll just try to provide the incoherent rambling as advertised in the header.

It's a new year but nothing's changed. The stock market's up and the economy's down, the smiling faces on the news talking about how everything is getting better while, at least in the construction business, there isn't any work to be found. Well, I take that back, too. Because there is work out there. The problem is that there are so many unemployed or underemployed individuals and contractors out there bidding on it that the prices are too low to make doing the work profitable. Hell, forget profit, the prices are too low to even pay a decent wage. One tiny mistake, and I guarantee there'll be at least one, and suddenly you're paying for the privilege of working.

Oil's creeping up on $100 per barrel and the cost of doing business is rising with it. Not just the cost of doing business but the cost of doing just about anything. Everything we do is fueled by oil. It's either made from oil or transported with oil. So the much ballyhooed tax break that the Republicans fought so very hard for, which will mostly impact the wealthy and not those of us that are worried about making the house payments, will get eaten up in higher costs for energy. Unless you're wealthy; then you'll hardly notice the additional cost but, boy those tax breaks will sure add up.

My wife went to the store yesterday and coffee was up to $14 for a container that cost about $6 six months ago. She found some ON SALE for $7 so she'll buy a couple and put them away. Screw the stock market, the big return is on food and clothing. Hyperinflation is here, at least in the things we have to buy to survive; food, clothes and fuel.

It's time to tap the maple trees and start cooking syrup, trimming the grapes and start building some more planting beds. The seed catalogs have been coming in the mail and we're getting ours ordered for the coming year. I've got to get in my order for the bees we hope to start keeping this year, too.

I've been reading the various predictions for the coming year from the usual prognosticators and their scoring of their own accuracy from the year past. As usual, about 50/50. No one could see the stock market at the level it's at today but then none of them anticipated the American government and the Euro zone basically falling on their swords to protect the interests of a handful of major banks.The overall tone of the predictions seemed about right, though. No one can predict the time or place that most things will happen but most of us can see the general direction they're heading. And the economies of the world are heading towards collapse. Whether they finally drive off the cliff this year or not they've all got the pedal pushed to the floorboards.

Personally, I think that what we'll see in the coming year is the continuation of a slow motion crash into something greater than a depression. We're going to see the world slowly grind to a halt. The only real question I have is how much violence and disorder will accompany this return to sanity and if there is a violent breakdown will a strongman emerge to seize control? I've said a number of times before that I believe we are heading back to life as it was in the time period of around 1870-1890. I think that's where we'll end up but I think it's going to get real ugly before we get there and when we do finally get life back to some sense of simplicity and order we'll be thankful to have it.

I also expect to see an uptick in religion over the next year. For many it'll just be blindly reaching out to something in a time of stress. For some it'll take but for many it won't. This puts a special burden on those of us that believe to be able to give reason for our belief. Not just touchy-feely emotion driven kumbaya reason but real reason, founded on logic and facts. People that are looking for a reason to believe, for salvation, need objective fact, something they can hold onto. Wishing for a life jacket and believing with all your heart that life jackets are real is all well and good but when the ship is sinking it's better to have a real one.

The storms have passed and the sun's back out, the temperatures in the 30's where they should be. Life goes on.

Happy New Year everyone. Keep praying so that you can keep the line open. This year will be full of challenges and it never hurts to get a bit of inside information.

And we're all one day closer to spring!