Busy Week

My back is a little stiff this morning - from slinging bags of potting soil, I expect.  Did a lot of yard work the past few days.  Mom's yard is now planted.  Up at auntie's, I rehabilitated a major flower bed and still have a little planting to do.  Will look damn nice I do believe...

The weather has been quite nice.  Was in the low 70's yesterday although it clouded over late in the day and then we had a fairly brief but quite intense wind storm.  And I heard the rain on the roof during the night.  It's cloudy this morning but supposed to improve during the course of the day.

I escorted mom to the doctors yesterday morning.  An exam,a blood draw and then we zipped over to the hospital for an x-ray of her lower back.  She's had very bad back pain...I'm guessing it's serious arthritis in her back and that our next stop will be the orthopod.  Don't know what the treatment, if any, might be for arthritis in the back.  Don't think back transplants are included in the orthopods bag-o' tricks.  We'll see.  The doc should call today.

I've got a few birdie pics from hiking on the dike trail; but haven't had the ambition to download them. I have high hopes for a couple of pics of a Yellow-Rumped Warbler dining on bugs caught in a spider's web. Will take some photoshop jiggery-pokery I'm sure. My old computer gets very cranky these days when I do pic stuff.  Just haven't been able to pull the trigger on a new desktop since the one I want will set-me back the cost of a month's vacation.  Still, the day is fast approaching.

In other news, I note that the financial reform bill passed the Senate last night...conference committee to follow.  Good news, I believe, although the bill did not go nearly far enough for my tastes. The bright line between commercial banking activities and the casino gambling of the investment bankers has not been reinstated.  And I would have liked to see the amendment limiting the size of the biggest banks pass. I guess I find the argument that if you're too big to fail - you're just too big - quite compelling.  Although given the herd mentality of our bonehead bankers, I reckon that a flock of mid-sized banks going bust would likely have the same affect as one or two behemoths going under.

I guess at the end of the day I am skeptical of our ability to regulate effectively over the long-haul - we might be able to prevent a recurrence of the LAST meltdown - but dealing with the NEXT collapse is much more tricky.  Financial regulators, like the pentagon, tend to prepare themselves to fight the last war.  And while the Wall Street hucksters have amply demonstrated their lack of wisdom, they have cleverness down real well.

Still, the reform bill is well worth passing.

Dougie and Alison are on their way south  this morning.  They're got a condo in Branson, MO lined-up and also plan a side-trip to Memphis.  Not my cup-o'-tea; but I'm sure they'll play lots of golf and have a good time.  The heartland..
 
Well, think I'll go see if I can persuade the ol' coot to have a bath today - one day earlier than scheduled.  The weather is supposed to be very nice tomorrow and I want to have the decks cleared for outdoor action!

Have a good weekend everybody!