First Flowers Here’s a couple of pictures of the first flowers to bloom in our garden. The first ones to come up, the crocuses are already spent and gone of course, but they were pretty while they lasted.



And here are the daffodils that are up so far. These are in the front garden right next to the steps to the porch. All of these flowers were planted by the previous owner of the house, who lived and died here.





There are a few others in the back garden/dog yard, but only one has bloomed so far. I expect the tulips should be blooming soon as well.

I really need to get out in the garden soon and start digging out the grass to make it look nicer. And before the hot hot weather hits us. Its already over 70F/21C today and yesterday I think it got up to 75! Its just the beginning of March for heaven’s sake!

Poor James is up in Michigan this week where its cold and snowy.

Today tho I’m going to go into Hickory to see Brokeback Mountain. James didn’t particularly want to see it, so while he’s gone I might as well go right? Of course he’ll regret it later when I make him watch it on DVD when its out. ;-)

The other day I got another new associate signed up! Congratulations to Becky Croghan, and the best of every success for her new Watkins business! :-) I hopefully should also have a couple of others soon, who have been quite inquisitive in the past month or so and are saving their money for the start-up kit. Its quite a lot less to get started with Watkins than a lot of other MLM companies, but still, if you’ve been out of work for a while, or have been living on minimum wage for a while, even small amounts of cash seem like boat loads, I can totally relate!

In local news this week, 3 more plants are closing their doors, 2 in Valdese, and one in Newton, putting more workers out on the street and in the unemployment lines. This is just crazy. They’re all citing “can’t compete with foreign production”. So many plants in this area have closed in the past 5 years it is rather frightening. This area of North Carolina used to be practically owned by the furniture industry, and the textile and hosiery industries. Not any more. Once company alone, in the year 2000 had 2600 employees, by the time they lay off these others with the recent closings, will have only 400 employees left! Some will find jobs within the company at other plants, possibly further away from home.

Some pundits say the US economy and jobless rate is improving…not around here it ain’t…its just getting worse. :-(

Now the area is run by retail and retail food. They’re about the only jobs around here in Burke, Catawba and Caldwell counties. Sure, there are a few office jobs here and there, but for every one job, there are several hundred applicants. That goes also for the few industrial jobs that remain. The only thing left is retail and fast food. Mostly at or just slightly above, minimum wage. Around here that’s $5.15 an hour, not much to live on, that’s for sure. Most people have 2 or more jobs just to make ends meet, and even still at the end of the month decisions have to be made as to which bills to pay and which can go another month before service is cut off. James and I are in much the same boat as most people around here, though hopefully we will benefit greatly by moving to Wisconsin. We shall see.

My credit card bill next month is gonna choke me I’m sure! James’ trip to Michigan and the registration fee for his franchiser training all got put on my card because his credit limit is not as high as mine. Hopefully we can get it paid off fairly quickly, because I really do want to go to Scotland in May, and quite a lot of that trip will also have to go on plastic! *sigh*

Tomorrow is payday, I wonder how much my paycheque (check) will be for only one week part time? Probably not much eh? But every bit helps, even if all I can do with my pay is buy the groceries. Its somethin’.

I hope James remembers to stop at Tim Horton’s on his way home tomorrow night. I could really use some donuts! ;-)  ¶ 2:01 PM