The Private Sector

 Yesterday turned out to be very nice. The weather was quite summer-like with the temps sitting in the mid 80s (F).  Much was done.  And then last evening lightening and thunder roared into the area bringing with them torrential downpours.  We got possible and inch of rain.  We need the rain.  While it would be nice if we didn't get it all in a single hour, every drop helps.

Yardwork was done yesterday.  My raised container garden is complete... almost.  I have a few tomato plants still wanting a container.  Not counting them, I have 13 tomato plants.  If they all produce, I'll have sauce for the  winter season.  If I have too many tomatoes, I can always give them away.  Pepper, cucumber, and zucchini plants are also growing nicely. There's also dill, spearmint, and Greek oregano. This just might be a tasty summer.  

My exercise equipment has been idle for almost 3 weeks.  I've got to fix that.

And I do work today.  I'm not really excited.  I have a large carpet installation that would please everybody, but it's a big job and I really don't want to sit down with the customers for an hour or so going over the details.  There is the possibility they may have stopped in at the store and purchased it yesterday.  That would please me.

Here's an updated picture of the oregano I'm growing on my window sill.

And here's a bit of interesting news:  While the Fed said that employment stayed about the same, with over 177,000 jobs being created, the ADP report said that only 62,000 jobs had been created.  So, does this mean that the figures on the Federal Jobs report were fudged?  The two reports don't always correlate, however the variance is usually about 15% when they don't jive with each other.  When the difference between the two is 115,000, well, that's more than 15%, a lot more.  Of course, there have been times when the variance between the two has been hire, but I can't find a single report in which there was a 55% difference.  More importantly, the ADP report indicates that the private sector, the healthcare industry, retail, and service related industries are not hiring.  This is not good news, since a vast majority of Americans work in the private sector.  The recession might already be here.