Small things

Lots of interesting things going on around town. Last weekend was a big memorabilia auction, with stuff from Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe and others. Most things brought ten times the estimated prices, or more. There was one of Michael’s sparkly gloves, an x-ray of Marilyn’s chest, and enough stuff to keep the auction going for three full days.

Our temps have leveled out to our summer normals, high today will be 107f (41c) with nighttime lows of 80f (27c), and sunshine sunshine sunshine. The water temperature in our pool is up to the 93f that we like, so it is very pleasant to float around in the evening and watch the sun set and the bats come out. I guess we are adapted, as last Friday we went to our local Sonic drive in, just a few blocks from our house, rolled the windows down, and enjoyed the sunset and the carhops skating by. Oh, temp, yes, it was 99f and we were enjoying the cool weather as we ate burgers and ice cream shakes.


Nevada continues to add to its first place standings, we are now number one in unemployment rate in addition to being number one in home foreclosures. And new number show we are number one in high school graduation rate, that is number one in number of dropouts, as it seems that less than 42% of students entering high school end up graduating. The next lowest state was New Mexico, with a rate of 55% - big difference. Part of the reason is probably our transient rate (number of students changing schools) which also is number one in the nation, around 40% of students moving between schools each academic year. Iowa, New Jersey and Wisconsin graduation rates are over 80%. This probably relates to having tourism as our major industry, as most jobs in hotels and casinos do not require much education. A new boutique hotel recently opened, and of the 150 advertised positions none of them specified an education level, being maids, cleaners and manual laborers. It must be hard for a student to be motivated if there are few examples of why an education is important.

Our legislature seems to be following along with the lack of education stuff, recent discussions are leading to a new law requiring repair shops, smog stations and oil change locations to check tire pressure when vehicles come in. I know that having properly inflated tires is important, but how many restrictive laws are required to save us from ourselves? Do they have so much time that they can ignore the huge budget shortfalls, high unemployment and schooling rates that they can talk for hours about tire pressure? Reminds me of congressional sessions investigating drug use in athletes while ignoring all our national problems.

Outside our kitchen window the sage is blooming again. In the background are white and red olianders.