More bad economic news ...

From CNN Money:

 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The July jobs report is due out Friday, the same day that automakers report their U.S. sales for the month.

It's not a coincidence both are expected to show continued weakness for the U.S. economy.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that employers reduced payrolls by 75,000 jobs during the month. That would be the seventh straight month of job losses. So far this year, 438,000 jobs have been lost [my emphasis].

The unemployment rate is forecast to edge up to a four-year high of 5.6%, up from 5.5% the previous two months and 4.7% a year ago.

Meanwhile, auto sales tracker Edmunds.com is forecasting a 3.3% drop in auto sales compared to a year ago. That would mark the ninth straight month that sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis.

It's not surprising that $4 gas and concerns about their jobs have led consumers to slam the breaks on car purchases.

What might be less obvious, given the attention given to how much the economy has been hurt by problems in the housing and financial markets, is how important a healthy auto industry is to the overall jobs market.

Even after years of job cuts and plant closings by U.S. automakers, the automakers, along with their suppliers and dealership networks, are responsible for nearly 3 million jobs according to government figures for June.

But the auto sector has lost 67,000 jobs since the end of 2007, accounting for more than one in seven jobs lost overall during the current jobs slump.

Most of the layoffs have yet to be implemented. Many will come this fall when plants that normally would be gearing up for production of new trucks will be idled due to lack of demand. ...

 

Being a good listener

Dragon Mood? -- adjusting

Because of job demands, my partner, S, and I are embarking on another stretch of time where we will be living in separate houses; her here in the piney woods, me in the Detroit pied-a-terre. We're not exactly clear on how long this will be; it could be three months, six months or longer.

As we're only one week into the separation, I'm still adjusting. I notice how quiet the pied-a-terre is without her. I miss her presence, her spirit, simply her. I went the entire week without making a pot of coffee (I'm trying caffeinated tea in the morning instead). Being without coffee just wouldn't happen if S were there.

On Friday afternoon, we were reunited early. We went to a newly-opened Mexican restaurant for margaritas and dinner. Sitting out on the patio, S talked and I listened. I mean she talked ... REALLY. It felt like she stored up all her half of the conversations from Monday through Thursday that we had not had and poured them out that Friday evening. And continued pouring Saturday morning. And Saturday afternoon. Endless talk about work. Less but still lots of conversation about the new baby, about extended family, about the yard. She was sharing, she was decompressing, she was downloading. Initially impatient, I finally realized that. And I'm here to be a good listener. A patient listener, a good listener.

He's gotta go

Dragon Mood? -- embarrassed to associate myself with Detroit

Who's gotta go? Why, Kwame Kilpatrick! The mayor of Detroit is under criminal investigation for perjury, obstruction of justice and other serious felony charges. Residents of metro Detroit have become accustomed to one 'Breaking News' story after another about the mayor.

Here's what Nolan Findley of the Detroit News has to say in a Sunday front page editorial:

Enough, already. The escalating disaster that is the Kwame Kilpatrick administration must end now. One more day is one too many.

The Detroit mayor placed what should be the final stamp on his ruinous tenure when he got himself involved in a physical dust-up with a Wayne County Sheriff's detective trying to serve paper on Kilpatrick's favorite city contractor, Bobby Ferguson.

It doesn't matter whether the mayor's belly bumping rises to criminal assault. He had no business interfering with an officer of the law, and his city-paid bodyguards certainly had no justification for screening a county process server.

Kilpatrick acts like a thug, hangs out with convicted thugs like Ferguson and has projected an image of thuggery on the city of Detroit.

Amen to all that! I just fear that Detroit residents don't have the fortitude to throw the thug outta office.

Welcome to the world, Conner

Dragon Mood? -- amazed and happy

Baby Watch has now turned into Baby Announcement: Conner Matthew, born Tuesday, July 22, 2008, around 4:30 p.m. in Lansing. He weighs 6 lbs. 8 oz., is 20-1/2 inches long and already knows how to make smacking sounds with his mouth and insert his index finger, certainly a curious appendage, into his mouth. Mama and Daddy are doing fine, if a bit sleep-deprived. Conner is healthy, beautiful and like all newborn babies, a miracle!

Oh yes, Conner is a magnificent king-of-the-jungle lion, an astrological Leo. The planets turned, the stars twirled and he missed being a Cancer baby by less than 10 hours. His moon is in Pisces and his ascendant is Scorpio! Here is a description of a Scorpio ascendant:

Scorpio Rising gives you a strong physique and tremendous physical stamina. Far more stubborn than you seem on the surface, you assiduously stick to your goals as long as there is a chance they will be achieved. It is difficult to convince you to change your mind once a decision has been made.

Your emotional vulnerability remains concealed unless your natal sun or moon happens to be in Cancer or Pisces. You are are friendly and while you can be rather quiet, you have quite a gregarious personality and don't mind being in the spotlight. It is highly unlikely that you, as a Scorpio rising, have that sinister or mysterious personality which popular literature tends to associate with the sign of Scorpio, but you are a keen observer and a shrewd speculator.

Scorpio is ruled by Pluto, the transformer, and Mars, the warrior. Both planetary influences may be seen in your personality. Ambitious, energetic, you seek activities that are economically rewarding, as well as mentally or physically challenging. The jealousy associated with Mars and Pluto is minimal unless other factors in the chart support such a trait (say Scorpio, Aries or Capricorn Sun). You possess the cleverness and mechanical ability associated with Mars, as well as the innate resourcefulness associated with Pluto.

Attracted to others with strong, magnetic personalities, you are oriented toward gathering resources of all kinds. For example, you consciously or subconsciously tend to establish relationships with strong or powerful people in the belief such contacts may prove useful in some way. You can be quite secretive about personal affairs, a trait that often escapes the attention of most people you meet. You are so accommodating and pleasant that, unless others make serious attempts to probe beneath the surface, your real personality and activities may stay hidden indefinitely.

You have remarkable recuperative powers that allow you to recover from physical, mental or economic adversities that would destroy many others. When properly focused, your energy is formidable and you quietly keep going long after everyone else runs out of steam. A Scorpio Ascendant indicates potential for afflictions to the head and face as well as illnesses affecting the reproductive organs.

Interestingly enough, this Scorpio ascendant could be describing his daddy, Matthew. Oh my, what will happen in his lifetime?

Mamma Mia

Dragon Mood? -- dancing to the music of ABBA

We saw Mamma Mia Saturday night. It was ABBA's music that drew of us, of course, but the movie was filled with tremendous energy, quixotic plot shifts and lots of fun. I would definitely recommend it. And as a woman who appreciates womanly beauty, Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried are simply gorgeous. Beautiful, luscious women!

Greens

Dragon Mood? -- excited at trying new things

Saturday morning, I took myself to the Meridian Township Farmers' Market for fresh veggies. I bought kale, collard greens and Swiss chard, among other things. S and I sauteed garlic, onions and carrots before adding the greens. For my first time cooking as well as eating them, they were GOOD -- a bit mushy perhaps, but GOOD!

The second attempt, the next morning, came out even better: scrambled eggs with slightly steamed greens. Mmmm, yum!

Global, economic, ecological, cataclysmic

Dragon Mood? -- I am growing to LOVE Al Gore!

I read about this on Thursday or Friday and wanted to blog about it then. I hope people read about it, think about it and embrace it. It could make ALL the difference in our lives and the lives of future generations:

Former Vice President Al Gore on Thursday urged the United States to wean the nation from its entire electricity grid to carbon-free energy within 10 years, warning that drastic steps were needed to avoid a global economic and ecological cataclysm. ...

He said the United States and the rest of the world were facing unprecedented problems, including growing demand for electricity, dangerous changes in the climate driven largely by emissions of carbon dioxide and political instability in regions that produce much of the world’s oil.

“When we look at all three of these seemingly intractable challenges at the same time, we can see the common thread running through them, deeply ironic in its simplicity: our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges — the economic, environmental and national security crises,” Mr. Gore said. “We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that has to change.”

His solution was to do away with all carbon-emitting forms of electricity production in the United States within 10 years, replacing them with alternatives like solar, wind and geothermal power, conservation and so-called clean-coal technology in which all carbon emissions from the burning of coal are captured and stored. It is a bold, and some say, unrealistic goal given the tremendous cost and the nation’s fractious politics. ...

Don't let Detroit die ...

Dragon Mood? -- nodding my head in agreement

Good Sunday morning to you all! A misty, rainy, VERY HUMID Sunday morning here! I'm in the weekend house, on S's laptop and I read an editorial from the Detroit News that I think has a lot of merit. It also has a lot of anger. And invective! Take a read:

A city must be awfully hard to kill. How else do you explain that Detroit is still breathing?

Detroit is down with a fatal case of chaos. The structure of government has dissolved, with every public institution in dysfunction and disarray. Last week's shouting match between City Council members and mayoral appointees looked a lot like anarchy.

And it was brought on by public officials who are all about serving themselves, rather than their people.

Kwame Kilpatrick once promised to leave a legacy as the boy wonder who gave Detroit back its dream. Now, his stubborn refusal to step aside despite facing perjury and corruption charges has assured he will be remembered as the man who strangled a city.

In other places, the City Council might be counted on to offer stability when a mayor stumbles. But this is Detroit, and the Detroit City Council on its best day barely rises above inept.

Instead of putting out the fire, the council poured on fuel by getting itself entangled in a federal bribery probe. The council can't very well yank the mayor for corruption when some of its members may be heading to the courthouse with him.

While City Hall is burning, no one seems to notice that the Detroit school board is at war with its newly hired superintendent. The school district has mismanaged its finances so thoroughly that it is just a bounced check or two away from insolvency. ...

Nolan Findley goes on to say that Detroiters need to get angry, rise up and take back their city. Gee, Nolan, here's where you lose me. I think Detroiters are so busy trying to keep their jobs (if they have them), not lose their homes to foreclosure (if they still have a home), keep food on the table (milk for $3.29 a gallon?) and oh yeah, put $4-plus a gallon gas in their aging, gas-guzzling SUVs, do they really have the energy, the fire in their collective bellies to clean up Detroit's messes?

I wonder?

the color of oh-so-kissable LIPS

Dragon Mood? -- a bit schizoid?

Lina and Yosh, my two chicks, my progeny, dearest to my heart, are at the farm in Texas this weekend. ~sigh~ Sadly, I chose not to go, so I'm experiencing these weird here/there feelings about it all. I've called them, hmm, let's see ... uh, five times in the past 24 hours? Yeah, I'm sort of a combination stalker and wistful, empty-nest mother.

SO-o-ooo, what can I do? What's with this photo over here?

This is the front door of the farmhouse. This is the door painted the color of some classy, sexy dame's LIPS. This is the door with a paint color selected by a MALE(!). This is the door that Paul and Aaron sanded, oh so lovingly, propped up against a tree trunk. This is the door I painted, oh so pleasurably, under a tree in the backyard. This is the door with the cool, soaring-swallows screen on it that Aunt Doris bought for her mama and daddy back in the day when money was tight, mama longed for nice things and daddy was too practical to spring for it. This is the door NEXT to the post that brought out the cursing, yelling part of me, all aimed at Aaron (another story that you'll never read here).

Isn't it pretty? Don't you wanna just KISS IT?

just a few shy of infinity

Dragon Mood? -- frustrated!

Ihave so MANY pictures to download off of our digital camera, it's not even funny. Like a zillion? Which as everyone knows is just shy of the cosmic, the unending, the infinite.

Are you familiar with the word, "ginormous?" Ginormous as in gi-gantic and e-normous? Curious word, isn't it? It feels like its been thrown together, a badly-made last-minute Halloween costume, you know, and then you wonder why people look at you oddly?

Well, given how little time (or is it inclination?) I have to spend time downloading digital pix off the camera, if I continue to procrastinate, these pictures will balloon into one ginormous beast of a task! Oh, save me from THAT beast!

[UPDATE]: So, now I have a ginormous number MINUS five (or is it six?) photos to download. This goofy one of me is one I downloaded and sepia-ized. Is that a word?

Twin day

Dragon Mood? -- happy for them and whooped for me

Today is THE DAY, twenty-six years ago, that S gave birth to the twins, the identical peas-in-a-pod twins, Mark and Tim. Mark Wilhelm and Timothy Louis, to be more exact.

And on a far less important and non-personal note, the news is full of headlines today about the Brangelina twins, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marchelina. Wow, what do you think of those names? And I thought Sunday Rose (Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's just-born baby) was an unusual name!

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Mark and Tim!

More about our celebration of their birthdays in a yet-to-be post.

slaying giants, one at a time ...

Dragon Mood? -- proud of us

My partner, S, and I struggle constantly to balance between work and leisure time, between being productive and having time to recharge our batteries. Sometimes, it feels like we are more successful than others.

In the past three weeks, we've accomplished several BIG tasks, akin to knocking several 500-lb. gorillas off of our backs.

First, we FINALLY settled things with our roofing contractor from the remodeling we started eight months ago! He had one dollar figure in mind; we had a lesser one in mind (surprise!). We negotiated and settled on splitting the difference ... hopefully with everyone satisfied and feeling okay about the resolution. With that agreement, we got several pesky, lingering issues resolved and promptly wrote him a check.

During our week of vacation over the Fourth of July, we FINALLY met with a financial planner, something we've been talking about for some time now. Olivia is an energetic and enthusiastic young woman, whose father I know from 30 years ago (hello, Cherry Lane apartments, Rich and Mickey, in labor with Josh at Sparrow!). More recently, S has made some investments through him. Olivia now works in concert with her dad, which gave S and I some added peace of mind. Through Olivia, we are going to consolidate our investments and 401(k)s, making it easier to track them and to make future decisions. We are hoping as are most boomers, that we are not at the edge of a precipice, preparing to watch our retirement savings be washed away in a tide of Wall Street pessimism and nosediving funds. Let's be hopeful.

And, our third giant was cut down just this past week, in the front yard of our pied-a-terre. It was the tree that was split in half by the OTHER falling tree. S cut all its branches off last fall, rendering it the quintessential Halloween tree: completely leafless, stark and scary-looking. While intentions were good, the follow-through was not and our Halloween tree was threatening to close in on its first birthday in such a state. This past week, S and I and our neighbor, Jan, felled the thing, FINALLY! S wedge-cut and sawed and shaved it down as Jan and I gamely pulled on two ends of a rope, trying to steer it away from the house and cars and anything else we didn't want damaged. Thankfully, S notched it and cut it just right. Then while she removed its limbs, Jan and I yanked and pulled and finally rolled all the pieces into one, lumpish-looking pile. Hurray for the three Amazons!

Stay tuned! More giant-slaying to come ...

Happy Fourth

Dragon Mood? -- feeling happy maybe?

H-A-P-P-Y, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY ..................

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY

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HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY