Tuesday February 7, 2017

Blog time 1135 at Panera:

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday I walked to the Y in bright sun and a temperature of 19. Today I walked in rain with the temperature at 34. I prefer bright sun.

As I mentioned yesterday Nancy has a broken bone in her foot. She will have to wear a boot for 30 days. She is just getting the hang of putting the boot on and off.

I think the New Year's resolution folks have finally stopped with their exercise regimen. The Y was not crowded.

The Panera I go to has been open just a little over a year. Their business continues to grow. Today they are having open interviews for cooks, drivers, counter staff, etc. They have a hard time keeping a full complement.

The London papers contained several interesting articles: a respected EU polling company surveyed 10,000 citizens in 10 EU countries on whether they want immigration from Muslim countries curtailed. The average response was 52% in support of the ban. Poland had the highest at 75% and the UK the lowest at 47%. The survey was done before POTUS issued his ban.

France has a big election coming up. The leading candidates are having problems. One candidate is accused of giving his wife a well paying job. She performed little work. The other a married leading candidate is accused of having a gay affair. Politicians are the same everywhere.

I think POTUS should rethink the H-1B program. I think the number should be doubled. We need talented people. This morning the CEO of a paint company was talking about the difficulty getting PHD Chemists. They need this talent.

Greece and it finances are back in the news. Several years ago pressure from the EU made Greece hire a statistician to review their financial reports. The statistician was an American, Andreas Georgiou, and his review indicated that Greece's deficit was larger than reported. His finding showed Greece's financial problems were more serious than reported. His report created an uproar. Folks in power said Georgiou was a pawn for the EU. Greece is under pressure from the EU to get it's financial house in order.

It was still raining when I left Panera. I had a quick lunch and then we all got in the Escape and headed to Sam's Club. Our only purchase was a bucket of Pinconning soft cheese.

I spent about an hour reading back issues of SI. Also did some banking.

Nancy is fixing a pasta/chicken dish for dinner. We will read the GRP and watch CBS before turning in.

All the local news outlets are running stories on Betsy DeVos's narrow confirmation as Education Secretary. Except for the Education community I think most folks in West MI are glad she was confirmed.

Winter returns later tonight. The high tomorrow will be 29.