Hooray, Hooray, The First of May

and you know what that means - my older brother's birthday for one thing. And that it's raining again, and will be tomorrow, just like yesterday and the day before. Glad I got the grass mowed on Sunday and I got some grass seed planted Monday afternoon in between the rain drops.

The Missus and I were gone most of the day Monday in order to meet up with one of her cousins about a two hour drive away. The cousin's wife passed away recently, had a nice lunch with him, in spite of the circumstances, and then went to the cemetery where her ashes will be interred and where several other of my wife's relatives are buried. While I realize everyone dies, the wife and I are at the age when it's becoming a game of who's next. Just need to keep on pushing and pick up the pace on getting rid of superfluous crap - that was a subject that came up while talking with the wife's cousin just before he handed over a couple of keepsakes to my wife. While these have great sentimental value to the wife and it was very kind of him to pass them along, one of these days either her or I will  be in the same situation.. Really need to not just start thinking about that but taking action.

In other news:

Article about how college is an overpriced scam. I'm certainly not opposed to college but if it's going to put you in debt for the next twenty years, you should definitely do a cost/benefit analysis before signing for a student loan. Especially since the feds are in charge of the loan business these days.

I read an article in the WSJ the other day how PG&E is planning on shutting off power to certain areas in California for up to five days when the wind starts blowing hard in order to prevent wildfires. They're currently working out the details to prevent shutting off the power to those requiring electricity for medical issues, etc. According to the article they did a bit of that last year and caught quite a few people unprepared for the result. One helluva business model. When I was in California recently, while only seeing a small percentage of the state, I don't think I need to go back for any reason, unless it's for a midget race in Ventura. I've seen about all of that state I need to.

With all the rain and the dethatching, the yard looks nicer than it has in several years. I bought a lawn sweeper that came yesterday. I'll get that together in the next few days and see about using it when the grass gets high - like it surely will be by the time it dries out enough to mow again. I'm going to try and make this a year to get the shack looking good both inside and out. So far at least I've got a decent start.

Keep your powder dry!