E-Mail of Interest to Mary
| These are occasional posting
of email messages for Mary, much like I used to print in hard copy for
her.
From: Craig
Lindberg
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2012 6:18 PM
Subject: Re: Beginning of trip report
I keep meaning to call you and mom to set up a visit, but
we're a bit busy right now. Jodie and Tyler are out of school
for the summer, but Tyler got a nasty cold right away and has been a
mess since Friday.
We've also got the Nevada City Classic stuff. I'm
helping with a pre-race party at Ol' Republic Brewery on Saturday,
running the kid's parade, racing in the master's, course marshalling
the pro race, and doing post-race cleanup. There's a lot
of preparation for all that which is keeping me pretty busy.
I broke our above-ground pool last week (long story), and
getting that fixed has me in a bind as well.
Oh, and then there's Jodie's dad's cancer (he's had it for
~2.5 years now) which flared up and put him in the hospital last
weekend. We're trying modify our schedule so Jodie can visit
her dad in Aptos this week. I'm in Mountain View right now,
but when I get back she'll be able to go see her dad.
Things should be a bit less crazy by next week, I hope.
-Craig
CHANGES ARE COMING
Concerning Item 10,
lost jobs overseas is not the problem,
it's a symptom. We simply have to stop
spending beyond our means, at the personal
as well as national level. That's the way
China and others would absorb our
country, through their share of our
national debt. We have to continue
creating jobs at home, not continue
spending at a deficit. And we have to face
up to working at wages more in line with
the rest of the world and stop buying all
that crap we don't need. We would be poor
at lower wages only if we continue to
reward being brain dead.
The other changes
immediately below are inevitable; get
used to it. And get literate in these
modern languages.
Herb
There is nothing
political
about
this
email.
It
simply
points
out
very
probable changes
that
are
in
our
future.
And,
to
me,
some
of
these,
are
indeed
a
big
worry!!
CHANGES
ARE COMING ----
Whether
these
changes are
good or bad
depends in
part on how
we adapt to
them. But,
ready or
not, here
they come
1. The
Post Office. Get
ready to imagine a world
without the post office.
They are so deeply in
financial trouble that
there is probably no way to
sustain it long term.
Email, Fed Ex, and UPS
have just about wiped out
the minimum revenue needed
to keep the post office alive. Most
of your mail every day is
junk mail and bills.
2.
The Check. Britain is
already laying the groundwork to do
away with checks by 2018. It costs the
financial system billions of dollars a
year to process checks. Plastic cards
and online transactions will lead to
the eventual demise of the check. This
plays right into the death of the post
office. If you never paid your bills
by mail and never received them by
mail, the post office would absolutely
go out of business.
3. The
Newspaper. The
younger generation simply doesn't read the
newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a
daily delivered print edition. That may go the
way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for
reading the paper online, get ready to pay for
it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and
e-readers has caused all the newspaper and
magazine publishers to form an alliance. They
have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major
cell phone companies to develop a model for
paid subscription services.
4. The
Book. You
say you will never give up the physical book that
you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages.
I said the same thing about downloading music from
iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly
changed my mind when I discovered that I could get
albums for half the price without ever leaving
home to get the latest music. The same thing will
happen with books. You can browse a bookstore
online and even read a preview chapter before you
buy. And the price is less than half that of a
real book. And think of the convenience! Once you
start flicking your fingers on the screen instead
of the book, you find that you are lost in the
story, can't wait to see what happens next, and
you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of
a book.
5. The
Land Line Telephone. Unless
you have a large family and make a lot of local
calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep
it simply because they've always had it. But you
are paying double charges for that extra service.
All the cell phone companies will let you call
customers using the same cell provider for no
charge against your minutes.
6. Music. This
is one of the saddest parts of the change story.
The music industry is dying a slow death. Not
just because of illegal downloading. It's the
lack of innovative new music being given a
chance to get to the people who would like to
hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem.
The record labels and the radio conglomerates
are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the
music purchased today is "catalog
items," meaning traditional music that the
public is familiar with. Older established
artists. This is also true on the live concert
circuit. To explore this fascinating and
disturbing topic further, check out the book,
"Appetite for Self-Destruction" by
Steve Knopper, and the video documentary,
"Before the Music Dies."
7. Television. Revenues
to the networks are down dramatically. Not just
because of the economy. People are watching TV and
movies streamed from their computers. And they're
playing games and doing lots of other things that
take up the time that used to be spent watching
TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to
lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable
rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about
every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good
riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable
companies to be put out of our misery. Let the
people choose what they want to watch online and
through Netflix.
8. The
"Things" That You Own. Many
of the very possessions that we used to own are
still in our lives, but we may not actually own
them in the future. They may simply reside in
"the cloud." Today your computer has a
hard drive and you store your pictures, music,
movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or
DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be.
But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and
Google are all finishing up their latest
"cloud services." That means that when
you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built
into the operating system. So, Windows, Google,
and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the
Internet. If you click an icon, it will open
something in the Internet cloud. If you save
something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you
may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud
provider.
In
this virtual world, you can access your music
or your books, or your whatever from any
laptop or handheld device. That's the good
news. But, will you actually own any of this
"stuff" or will it all be able to
disappear at any moment in a big
"Poof?" Will most of the things in
our lives be disposable and whimsical? It
makes you want to run to the closet and pull
out that photo album, grab a book from the
shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the
insert.
9.
Privacy. If
there ever was a concept that we can look back
on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's
gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway.
There are cameras on the street, in most of the
buildings, and even built into your computer and
cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7,
"They" know who you are and where you
are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the
Google Street View. If you buy something, your
habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your
ads will change to reflect those habits. And
"They" will try to get you to buy
something else. Again and again.
All
we will have that can't be changed are
Memories.
10. Facts
About The Deindustrialization Of America That
Will Blow Your Mind
The United States is rapidly becoming the very first "post-industrial" nation on the globe. All great economic empires eventually become fat and lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers have left them, but the pace at which America is accomplishing this is absolutely amazing. It was America that was at the forefront of the industrial revolution. It was America that showed the world how to mass produce everything from automobiles to televisions to airplanes. It was the great American manufacturing base that crushed Germany and Japan in World War II. But now we are witnessing the deindustrialization of America .. Tens of thousands of factories have left the United States in the past decade alone. Millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost in the same time period. The United States has become a nation that consumes everything in sight and yet produces increasingly little. Do you know what our biggest export is today? Waste paper. Yes, trash is the number one thing that we ship out to the rest of the world as we voraciously blow our money on whatever the rest of the world wants to sell to us. The United States has become bloated and spoiled and our economy is now just a shadow of what it once was. Once upon a time America could literally out produce the rest of the world combined. Today that is no longer true, but Americans sure do consume more than anyone else in the world. If the de-industrialization of America continues at this current pace, what possible kind of a future are we going to be leaving to our children? Any great nation throughout history has been great at making things. So if the United States continues to allow its manufacturing base to erode at a staggering pace how in the world can the U.S.continue to consider itself to be a great nation? We have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world in an effort to maintain a very high standard of living, but the current state of affairs is not anywhere close to sustainable. Every single month America goes into more debt and every single month America gets poorer. So what happens when the debt bubble pops? The de-industrialization of the United States should be a top concern for every man, woman and child in the country. But sadly, most Americans do not have any idea what is going on around them. For people like that, take this article and print it out and hand it to them. Perhaps what they will read below will shock them badly enough to awaken them from their slumber. The following are 19 facts about the de-industrialization of Americathat will blow your mind.... #1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001. About 75 percent of those factories employed over 500 people when they were still in operation. #2 Dell Inc., one of Americas largest manufacturers of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations in China with an investment of over $100 billion over the next decade. #3 Dell has announced that it will be closing its last large U.S.manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem , North Carolina in November. Approximately 900 jobs will be lost. #4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cell phones were sold worldwide. So how many of them were manufactured inside the United States? Zero. #5 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone. #6 As of the end of July, the U. S. Trade deficit with China has risen 18 percent compared to the same time period a year ago. #7 The United States has lost a total of about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since October 2000. #8 According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies increased an astounding 30 percent to 10.1 million. During that exact same time period, U.S. employment at American multinational corporations declined 8 percent to 21.1 million. #9 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent. #10 Ford Motor Company recently announced the closure of a factory that produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul , Minnesota . Approximately 750 good paying middle class jobs are going to be lost because making Ford Rangers in Minnesota does not fit in with Ford's new "global" manufacturing strategy. #11 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941. #12 In the United States today, consumption accounts for 70 percent of GDP. Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services. #13 The United States has lost a whopping 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000. #14 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use. Today it ranks 15th. #15 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975. #16 Printed circuit boards are used in tens of thousands of different products. Asia now produces 84 percent of them worldwide. #17 The United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from theUnited States . #18 One prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040. #19 The U.S. Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americans in the 51 years that records have been kept. So how many tens of thousands more factories do we need to lose before we do something about it? How many millions more Americans are going to become unemployed before we all admit that we have a very, very serious problem on our hands? How many more trillions of dollars are going to leave the country before we realize that we are losing wealth at a pace that is killing our economy? How many once great manufacturing cities are going to become rotting war zones like Detroit before we understand that we are committing national economic suicide? The de-industrialization of America is a national crisis. It needs to be treated like one. If you disagree with this article, I have a direct challenge for you. If anyone can explain how a de-industrialized America has any kind of viable economic future, please do so. America is in deep, deep trouble folks. It is time to wake up!!
Reply from Dick to my message below: Hello
and thanks for your kind thoughts. I’m
doing my honey’s bidding by doing as close to nothing as I’m
capable of. I realize that the organ was damaged and has the
capability to repair itself to some degree. So, I’m walking for20
minutes early at sunup when it is cooler and then reading, crosswords,
and woodcarving in random order so that I can give my bony ass a
chance to recover also. My
children and The
only thing that I may have to face is a pacemaker installation if my
ticker doesn’t keep a healthy and steady rate ,but for now ,
with limited strain my pulse is pretty steady so we’ll see what the
data looks like when I’m allowed to work up a sweat in another two
weeks or so. Thanks
again and have a good week, dick. From:
Herb Lindberg [mailto: Hi
I'm
not sure if Dick looks at his email so I address this to you. I've
been thinking about Dick and his new stents and wondering how he's
doing. In my case, recovery from the Cath Lab procedure was much
more slowly than I had imagined but all is well now, except for
being weak because I took on too much right after the operation. I
trust Dick will pop back quickly because both of you keep yourselves
in good shape. I'm sure the most difficult part for Dick will be to
"do nothing" for two weeks. It's hard for me to imagine
Dick doing nothing for more than a day or two. He should imagine
that those two weeks will be a period in which he'll be weaker than
he's used to, so let his strength be his guide. Keep
us informed. Heart attacks aren't to be taken lightly -- but not the
end of life by any means. Love
and hugs, --Herb and Mary
UCLA on Alzheimers .SO
INFORMATIVE
Food for Thought
Deer Resistant Flowering Perennials
Hi Tony,
Here are some plants of interest, starting with
the Ajuga you mentioned for the side of the hill facing Bob and
Linda's lot next door west. I cut and pasted these from the Internet
so the links to larger pictures should be valid.
2. Ajuga (Bugleweed)Photo Courtesy of STEPABLES®.
Ground covers don't often get respect and Ajuga basically grows
itself, so it really gets taken for granted. But there are many
really nice newer cultivars of Ajuga that are worth taking a look
at. They come with colorful foliage, so once the spectacular burst
of blue is gone in the spring, you still have great foliage. Many
Ajugas can spread to the point of annoyance, but if you have room
to let them roam, it's a great, deer resistant plant.
3. AstilbeMarie Iannotti
A word of caution: Deer don't particularly like Astilbe, but
groundhogs love it. However aside from groundhogs, Astilbe
have very few problems. They don't need staking or
deadheading. They're fine in sun or partial shade. And there
are varieties that bloom at different times in the season,
to extend your bloom.
4. Campanula (Bellflower)Marie Iannotti
Bellflowers look so delicate with the pastel colored,
bell-shaped blossoms. For the most part, bellflowers
can look after themselves. Many varieties will
self-seed throughout your garden, making them ideal
cottage garden plants. And the deer don't seem nearly
as enchanted with them as gardeners are.
6. Echinacea (Coneflower)Photo Courtesy of Novalis
You'll notice I didn't say purple coneflower.
It's hard to find a garden without purple
coneflowers in it. They're dependable favorites.
But coneflowers have moved way beyond purple
with the introduction of orange, red, burgundy
and russet coneflowers. These new varieties are
also deer resistant. The main drawback to using
them is they are still so expensive to purchase
and they've haven't been fully tested in a wide
range of gardening situations. Still, they are
hard to resist.
8. Nepeta (Catmint)Marie Iannotti
Catmint may call every feline in the
neighborhood to your garden, but it won't
impress the deer. Some varieties can be
weedy and self-seed aggressively, but if
you stick with some of the newer
cultivars, you'll have vivid blue color
most of the season. Shear it back after
the first flowering and wait for it to
burst into bloom again. Just keep the cats
from rolling all over it.
10. Platycodon (Balloon Flower)Marie Iannotti
Balloon Flower is a plant many
people remember from their
childhood. Those expectant puffs
that suddenly pop open into lavender
blue flowers were too tempting to
resist helping along. If you've
outgrown the need to pop balloon
flower buds, you'll be happy to know
that they are perfectly capable of
opening on their own and they are
quite deer resistant, too.
I can see the trick is to choose only the best
purple species and then concentrate our search on other colors (red,
yellow, white, ...)
Here are more colors of deer-resistant
perennial shade
flowers:
...and here are deer-resistant perennial sun
flowers
Herb
CLEVER IDEAS WORTH KNOWING Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store.
(Caution: Be sure that you like this consistency in your scrambled eggs.)
Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsedit.the water ran right thru the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repairman knew what he was talking about!
I've attached a picture of Barbara in costume
during the dress rehearsal for Carousel. Mary, Julie and I will see
the show next Saturday. Julie is driving us down to the Bay Area on
the day of the show. Reviews of have been good. That's a wig, of
course, and it must have a bun in back because Barbara said five
people on Facebook have remarked that she looks like Olive Oyl.
I
have tears in my eyes from laughing so hard at these. Enjoy
They're
Back! Those wonderful Church Bulletins! Thank God for church ladies
with typewriters. These sentences (with all the BLOOPERS) appeared
in church bulletins or were announced in church services:
The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals. -------------------------- The sermon this morning: 'Jesus Walks on the Water.' The sermon tonight: 'Searching for Jesus.' -------------------------- Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands. -------------------------- Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say 'Hell' to someone who doesn't care much about you. -------------------------- Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help. -------------------------- Miss Charlene Mason sang 'I will not pass this way again,' giving obvious pleasure to the congregation. -------------------------- For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs. -------------------------- Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get. -------------------------- Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days. -------------------------- A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.. -------------------------- At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be 'What Is Hell?' Come early and listen to our choir practice. -------------------------- Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones. -------------------------- Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children. -------------------------- Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.. -------------------------- The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility. -------------------------- Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow. -------------------------- The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon. -------------------------- This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin. -------------------------- Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM . All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. Is done. -------------------------- The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the Congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday. -------------------------- Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM . Please use the back door. -------------------------- The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM . The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy. -------------------------- Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance. -------------------------- The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new campaign slogan last Sunday: 'I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours.
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