finishing a couple things

Not the most attractive pose to show off this lovely silk and wool hand-painted Silk Maiden top from the kit that Janette gave me lo these many years ago, but when dealing with a self-timer, you take what you can snap. And I also get to show off my rack, here. It's behind me. That brown x-ie thing. OH, yeah, and the sweater makes my boobs look good, too. It feels wonderful! Perfect for these air-conditioned days. Cool enough for a stroll from the office to the car in 90 degree heat, and still warm enough in the office where they keep the place chilled to the point where your fingers get numb.

Speaking of fingers, back in my youth (just before the advent of the dinosaurs) I took a business machines class, and became rather adept at the ten-key adding machine. I have a task at work that requires me to enter a series of nine digit numbers, and my clever, clever fingers have not forgotten their training. It's a delight to just look at the number on the page, and let my fingers happily dance across the number pad unassisted. I don't touch type, so this digital dextreity is quite magical to me. My fingers know where the 2 is. They can find 549620188 without looking. They are such good, smart fingers.


And here's that rosey scarf again. I tried fringes of pearls, but they just didn't move in a properly fringish fashion. I tried a fringe of other beads, and they were variously tacky, yucky, clunky, and far too artsy. So I just sewed pearls along the edge. I think it's quite nice, don't you? It's better in real life.

Now, for something completely different, I've been thinking about the economy (blame Lucia) and I am reminded of a Peanuts cartoon where Linus says, "Life has its ups and downs." and Lucy replies, "Not mine. I'm going to have nothing but ups. Up, up, up! You hear me?"

I think the powers that be have been taking a rather Lucy view of the economy, and I think it's rather unrealistic. In life and in nature, there are ups, and there are downs. There is a limited ammount of money in circulation. Ok, they can print more, but then it buys less. so let's call it monetary value, ok? Give and take. So, how can the economy be constantly growing? If someone gets a lot of monetary value, someone else has spent it. If CEOs are making mega-millions, someone else is taking it in the shorts. And don't get me started on the obscenity of professional athlete's salaries. But I don't see how the powers that be, the government, the economists, the financial whizzes, can honestly believe that they can prevent the occasonal down-turn. a balancing as it were, of the scales.

And what does that mean to those of us down in the trenches? Well. let's re-assess buying on credit and doing our bit to stimulate the economy. Maybe we could let the poor old over-stimulated economy settle down a bit while we sock a few dollars away for hard times. No one is singing the praises of a simple savings account, In fact we are sometimes scolded for the folly of keeping our money somewhere it draws so little interest. And yet, there's something to be said for a bit of security. If you put $100 into savings, six years later you still have $100. No one else can promise that. Maybe you can't buy as much with it, but that's because the economy is doing its own version of printing more money. Inflation. And half the other solid-gold investments have gone belly up and your $100 would be worth about $45.90 - which dowsn't buy as much as it used to either.

There are people who won't buy anything they don't already have the money for. I stand in awe of them. And, in my doddering old age, I'm leaning in that direction. Why should I pay someone else for the priveledge of using his money when, if I just wait a bit, I can use my own money and not have to pay a fee on it? Time to start saving for the Flock and Fiber Fest in September!

Here endeth the musing.