Black Monday

To combat the darkness of the financial news I'm posting a picture from The Villages, a planned community about an hour north of Orlando where Bruce is building not only a Red Lobster, but an Olive Garden as well. When Sarah Palin visited Florida it was right near hear that thousands gathered in the sweltering heat to hear her. Of course, that was before her interviews when people were still cheering....

On Friday I went with Bruce to Vero Beach to check on a parking lot problem. Because he'd driven around 700 miles last week I drove him so he could at least only singletask rather than his usual multi. His Blackberry never seems to quit. This way during the hour and a half drive he could handle his calls and e-mails with me doing the motoring. If you've never been exposed to MINI lingo, that is what they call driving. As well, when you drive a MINI it is understood that you automatically wave at your fellow MINI drivers. The non-compliance of some drivers used to exasperate Jonathan to no end. He thought, where is their sense of unity???

Happily the Seminoles won on Saturday and the Gators lost--a perfect day; it probably won't happen again anytime soon, so I'm reveling in it while I can. Ironically while we were driving to the Villages on Saturday loads of people heading to the Gator game were sharing the highway. I'm sure their drive home was not nearly as cheerful as the drive up to Gainesville.

Rain again just as we were getting home from the market yesterday with the tent getting wet. Fortunately it waited until after we were packed up. The lovely weather from earlier in the week vanished by Sunday with the humidity getting serious in the afternoon. I was delighted when two folks who said they would come by to purchase showed up.

While looking for David's birth certificate late this afternoon I came across lots of memorabilia including the receipt for my original wedding ring. The total cost--$468 which in 1973 felt like a lot of money. I found something I'd written about the birth of the twins describing the experience as thrilling. I wrote that I was so happy to go home from the hospital and see my darling Mattie. Another funny thing was a letter signed-- your loving son, Bill. Sounds sweet huh? Unfortunately there was no date, but in it he apologized for disappointing me academically (that went on for a while I can tell you that!), explaining he would try harder in the new nine weeks. The real reason for the letter was asking me to type his report! He knew I was easily seduced by words. Once he got over his teenage years he was once again a model student thank goodness.

Yet another find found in the twins baby book. Fashions, fads, and crises of the day--patterned hose and skinny jeans, disco dancing to the BeeGees, roller skating, and the unheard of price of gasoline--$1/gallon.

Which leads me to the title..yes it is terrible right now. Will it stay this way forever? Of course not. How long it will last is anybodies guess, but here's hoping recovery starts sooner, rather than later. The bad news for my boys today--Wachovia was sold (Bill), what it means we don't know at this point. Then there is the 777 point plunge in the stock market. David tells me he is pretty well immune at this point. I'm doing my best not to worry about the twins although I have to admit it isn't easy.