I’ve Been Wondering About This

The 102nd Fighter Interceptor Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base, part of the Mass. Military Reservation (MMR), which overlaps sections of Bourne, Mashpee, and Sandwich, may be relocated in the next round of military base cutbacks.
According to the story, the combination of the high cost of snow removal this past winter, the generally screwed-up groundwater cleanup effort and the fact that the Base is in Kennedy/Kerryland count for three strikes against the Base.
Also, according to the story, the Mass. congressional delegation is a lot more worried about protecting Hanscom AFB in Bedford than its poor little cousin on the Upper Cape.

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I Still Don’t Get It

Stirling Newberry, who writes for truthout and other online pubs, believes that you need to balance the trade deficit (a result of the cost of foreign oil) with the sale of American assets, not just American goods.
But to avoid passing control of US companies to overseas investors, you have to keep rich Americans happy: “bring(ing) investment in (to the US) means that one must also cut taxes on the wealthy, so that companies remain under the control of Americans, rather than being bought up by foreigners, particularly those from nations that do not have internal economies. This creates a budget deficit.”

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Gardener’s Diary

Did some clean-up of Peter’s front yard yesterday, a little pruning, a little weeding, planted some pretty violas in a nice little container garden they got last year, didn’t have to do much, since most of the annuals came back.
Mulched the front where the new connection to town water went in, watered everything, especially the bushes and the new lawn, which is coming in thanks to faithful tending by the gentleman of the house.
Pulled out or cut back some cat briar in the rock garden. The garden is starting off its fourth year with a fair number of healthy-looking perennials, proving my hypothesis that it takes 3-5 years (unless you’re a millionaire) to establish even a modest garden. We think Emme’s Pot of Gold reseeded, and that pleases her very much. The lungwort has already started to bloom.
Doesn’t sound like a lot, but I was there over 2 hours. I must say, the yard has never looked better, mostly due to the excellent work by the person we hired to do the major cleanup of leaves and other detritus from the winter.
What a great weekend to be outside!
And considering what we started with when we bought the house, I am pretty happy with the progress we’ve made on improving its curbside appeal.

Sundries

There are people who think that yard work is a bore. Boggles the mind, doesn’t it?
Thanks to the perpetually barking mutt next door, I am growing to really hate golden retrievers: Huskies rule.
Peter and I discovered this week that we have a lot more equity in #11 than some of our friends, who have lived here a lot longer.
Makes me feel a little better about waiting “too long” to buy property on Cape Cod, where the average sale price of property last month was $369,662.00. That is, the average sale price of property under a million.

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