What to do with ourselves?

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An interesting editorial over at Investors Business Daily:  Despite Growth, Still Not Enough Jobs

Unfortunately, at the end, the editorial bashes the president without offering solutions, which is tiresome. The other party has no answers either.  (I am not affiliated with either party.)

I think the country is undergoing a fundamental shift in what it can provide in terms of jobs. Many jobs have gone overseas, never to return. The population continues to grow as well. Almost nothing is made in the USA anymore, and I keep trying to figure out what’s going to fill that void in terms of jobs.  It’s a huge void.

Many readers may not know that in the 1940’s and 1950’s, we made everything.  In the 1970’s much of our manufacturing moved over to Japan.  Now it’s China.

My career is directly linked to manufacturing and it’s going away. Even the engineering is farmed out overseas as evidenced from various engineering forums I’m on where native English speakers are a minority. That pretty much leaves the service industry, healthcare and construction as the only fields where jobs can still be had.

Those are the fields that support a country that does nothing.

Four Planet Dance

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None of my friends (ok, I’ll concede there might be one) are up before sunrise.  And although I’m usually up early, I’m often not outside until it warms up.

In any case, there are four planets hanging out on the eastern horizon through the month of May:  Venus, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars.

More info: Sky and Telescope

It starts with soup and ends with tooth extraction

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I am recovering this weekend from some dental work that occurred on Thursday.  In a nutshell, it started a couple of months ago with gently biting down on something hard in some soup I was eating.  Then…

  • A week or two later, the molar is sensitive to pressure and cold.
  • Saw dentist “A” who couldn’t find anything specific wrong, but concluded it must be a crack.
  • Dentist “A” puts in a filling to help stabilize the tooth if it is a crack.
  • Over the next few weeks, pain gets better then worse.
  • Saw dentist “B” for a second opinion.  She came to the same conclusion and sent me to a specialist.
  • Saw specialist dentist “C” who said I needed a root canal, regardless of whether it is cracked.  All x-rays look normal.
  • I declined root canal since nobody could specifically say what was causing the pain.
  • At 2:00 am on Thursday, I begged for a root canal.  I had to endure until working hours.
  • After many phone calls, found dentist “D” who had an opening in the schedule for a root canal.
  • It was “take your kid to work day” at dentist “D”.  So I had an audience of kids watching my root canal.
  • Dentist “D” stops half way through and says that it’s not worth continuing.  The tooth is cracked down the back root, below the gum-line.  Recommends seeing dentist “E” immediately, who is an oral surgeon.
  • Dentist “E” pulls out tooth.

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I just want the pain to stop.